Hebrews 3 commentary

Christ is to be considered as the Apostle of our profession, the Messenger sent by God to men, the great Revealer of that faith which we profess to hold, and of that hope which we profess to have. As Christ, the Messiah, anointed for the office both of Apostle and High Priest. As Jesus, our Saviour, our Healer, the great Physician of souls. Consider him thus. Consider what he is in himself, what he is to us, and what he will be to us hereafter and for ever. Close and serious thoughts of Christ bring us to know more of him. The Jews had a high opinion of the faithfulness of Moses, yet his faithfulness was but a type of Christ's. Christ was the Master of this house, of his church, his people, as well as their Maker. Moses was a faithful servant; Christ, as the eternal Son of God, is rightful Owner and Sovereign Ruler of the Church. There must not only be setting out well in the ways of Christ, but stedfastness and perseverance therein to the end. Every meditation on his person and his salvation, will suggest more wisdom, new motives to love, confidence, and obedience.

Days of temptation are often days of provocation. But to provoke God, when he is letting us see that we entirely depend and live upon him, is a provocation indeed. The hardening of the heart is the spring of all other sins. The sins of others, especially of our relations, should be warnings to us. All sin, especially sin committed by God's professing, privileged people, not only provokes God, but it grieves him. God is loth to destroy any in, or for their sin; he waits long to be gracious to them. But sin, long persisted in, will make God's wrath discover itself in destroying the impenitent; there is no resting under the wrath of God. “Take heed:” all who would get safe to heaven must look about them; if once we allow ourselves to distrust God, we may soon desert him. Let those that think they stand, take heed lest they fall. Since to-morrow is not ours, we must make the best improvement of this day. And there are none, even the strongest of the flock, who do not need help of other Christians. Neither are there any so low and despised, but the care of their standing in the faith, and of their safety, belongs to all. Sin has so many ways and colours, that we need more eyes than ours own. Sin appears fair, but is vile; it appears pleasant, but is destructive; it promises much, but performs nothing. The deceitfulness of sin hardens the soul; one sin allowed makes way for another; and every act of sin confirms the habit. Let every one beware of sin.

The saints' privilege is, they are made partakers of Christ, that is, of the Spirit, the nature, graces, righteousness, and life of Christ; they are interested in all Christ is, in all he has done, or will do. The same spirit with which Christians set out in the ways of God, they should maintain unto the end. Perseverance in faith is the best evidence of the sincerity of our faith. Hearing the word often is a means of salvation, yet, if not hearkened to, it will expose more to the Divine wrath. The happiness of being partakers of Christ and his complete salvation, and the fear of God's wrath and eternal misery, should stir us up to persevere in the life of obedient faith. Let us beware of trusting to outward privileges or professions, and pray to be numbered with the true believers who enter heaven, when all others fail because of unbelief. As our obedience follows according to the power of our faith, so our sins and want of care are according to the prevailing of unbelief in us.

1. Wherefore, holy brethren, etc. He concludes the preceding doctrine with a necessary exhortation, that the Jews should attentively consider what sort of being and how great Christ is. As he had before, by naming him a teacher and a priest, briefly compared him with Moses and Aaron, so he now includes both clauses; for he adorns him with two titles, as he sustains a twofold character in the Church of God. Moses was a prophet and a teacher, and Aaron was a priest; but the two offices belong to Christ. If then we seek rightly to know him, we must inquire what sort of being he is; yea, he must be clothed with his own power, lest we lay hold on an empty shadow and not on him. He calls them “holy brethren.” Stuart takes holy as meaning “consecrated, devoted, i.e. to Christ, set apart as Christians.” The people of Israel were called holy in the same sense, not because they were spiritually holy, but because they were set apart and adopted as God’s people. The word saints, at the commencement of Paul’s Epistles, means the same thing. — Ed.

First, the word consider, is important, for it intimates that singular attention is required, as he cannot be disregarded with impunity, and that at the same time the true knowledge of Christ is sufficient to dissipate the darkness of all errors. And to encourage them the more to pursue this study, he reminds them of their calling; as though he had said, “God favored you with no common grace when He called you into his kingdom; The word heavenly, may also mean a call from heaven. See chapter 12:25. It is no doubt both, it is a call to the enjoyment of heavenly things, as well as a call that comes from heaven. — Ed. it now remains that you have your eyes fixed on Christ as your leader in the way.” This is the only place in which Christ is called an Apostle, the design no doubt was to institute a comparison between him and Moses, who is often said to have been sent by God, as Christ is said to have been sent by the Father: they might both therefore be rightly called Apostles, i.e., messengers sent by God. And then he adds, high priest, that he might afterwards make a comparison between him and Aaron.

He had before exalted Christ as a teacher above all the prophets, including no doubt Moses among the rest; but here refers to Moses as the leader of the people, as one sent especially by God to conduct them from Egypt through the wilderness to the land of Canaan. But as our call is from heaven and to heaven, Christ is sent as a messenger to lead us to the heavenly country. We hence see that in this connection the “heavenly calling” is to be taken most suitably as a call to heaven. — Ed. For the calling of the godly cannot be otherwise confirmed than by a thorough surrender of themselves to Christ. We ought not therefore to regard this as said only to the Jews, but that it is a general truth addressed to all who desire to come into the kingdom of God; they ought sedulously to attend to Christ, for he is the sole instructor of our faith, and has confirmed it by the sacrifice of himself; for confession, or profession, is to be taken here for faith, as thought he had said, that the faith we profess is vain and of no avail, unless Christ be its object. The simpler meaning of this phrase is to view it as sort of Hebraism, when a noun is put for an adjective or a participle; and it is so rendered by Schleusner and Stuart, “professed by us,” or, “whom we profess.” See similar instances in chapter 10:23, and in 2 Corinthians 9:13. — Ed.

2. Who was, or is faithful, etc. This is a commendation of the apostleship of Christ, in order that the faithful may securely acquiesce in him; and he commends it on two grounds, because the Father has set him to be over us as our teacher, and because Christ himself has faithfully performed the office committed to him. These two things are always necessary to secure authority to a doctrine; for God alone ought to be attended to, as the whole Scripture testifies; hence Christ declares, that the doctrine which he delivered was not his own, but the Father’s, (John 7:16;) and in another place he says, “He who received me, receiveth him who has sent me.” (Luke 9:48.) For we say of Christ, that as he is clothed with our flesh, he is the Father’s minister to execute his commands. To the calling of God is added the faithful and upright performance of duty on the part of Christ; and this is required in true ministers, in order that they may obtain credence in the Church. Since these two things are found in Christ, doubtless he cannot be disregarded without despising God in him.

As also Moses, etc. Omitting for a while the priesthood, he speaks here of his apostleship. For as there are two parts in God’s covenant, the promulgation of the truth, and so to speak, its real confirmation, the full perfection of the covenant would not appear in Christ, were not both parts found in him. Hence the writer of the epistle, after having mentioned both, roused attention by a brief exhortation. But he now enters on a longer discussion, and begins with the office of a teacher: he therefore now compares Christ only with Moses. The words, in all his house, may be applied to Moses; but I prefer to apply them to Christ, as he may be said to be faithful to his Father in ruling his whole house. It hence follows, that none belong to the Church of God except those who acknowledge Christ. This testimony as to Moses is found in Numbers 12:7. God says there “in all mine house;” we ought therefore to consider “his” here as referring to God or to Christ, and not to Moses.

“For this man,” οὖτος; it is better to render it here he, as it is sometimes rendered, and is so rendered in this place by Doddridge, Macknight and Stuart. The connection is with “consider,” in the first verse; “for,” a reason is given for the exhortation; “for he,” i.e., the apostle and high priest before mentioned, etc. — Ed.

3. For this man (or, he) was counted worthy, etc. Lest he might appear to make Moses equal to Christ, he reminds us of his superior excellency; and this he proves by two arguments, ­Moses so ruled the Church, that he was still a part and member of it; but Christ being the builder, is superior to the whole building, — Moses while ruling others, was ruled also himself, as he was a servant; but Christ being a Son possesses supreme power.

It is a frequent and well­known metaphor used in Scripture to call the Church the house of God. (1 Timothy 3:15.) And as it is composed of the faithful, each of them is called a living stone. (1 Peter 2:5.) They are also sometimes called the vessels with which the house is furnished. (2 Timothy 2:20.) There is then no one so eminent that he is not a member, and included in the universal body. God being the builder, alone is to be set above his own work; but God dwells in Christ, so that whatever is said of God is applicable to him.

If any one objects and says that Christ is also a part of the building because he is the foundation, because he is our brother, because he has a union with us and then that he is not the master­builder because he himself was formed by God: in reply to these things we say that our faith is so founded on him that he still rules over us that he is in such a way our brother that he is yet our Lord, that he was so formed by God as man that he nevertheless by his Spirit revives and restores all things as the eternal God. The Scripture employs us various metaphors to set forth Christ s grace towards us; but there is no one which derogates from his honor mentioned here by the Apostle; for what is stated here is that all ought to be brought down to their own state because they ought to be in subjection to the head and that Christ alone is exempt from this submission, because he is the head.

If it be again objected and said that Moses was no less a master­builder than Paul who gloried in this title: to this I reply that this name is applied to prophets and teachers but not with strict correctness; for they are only the instruments and indeed dead instruments, except the Lord from heaven gives efficacy to what they do; and then they so labor in building the Church, that they themselves form a part of the structure; but the case is wholly different as to Christ, for he ever builds up the Church by the power of his own Spirit. Besides, he stands far above the rest, for he is in such a way the true temple of God, that he is at the same time the God who inhabits it.

4. He that built, etc. Though these words may be extended to the creation of the whole world, yet I confine them to the present subject. We are then to understand that nothing is done in the Church which ought not to he ascribed to Gods power; for he alone has founded it by his own hand, (Psalm 87:5;) and Paul says of Christ that he is the head, from whom the whole body, joined together and connected by every subservient juncture, makes an increase according to what is done proportionally by every member. (Ephesians 4:16.) Hence he often declares that the success of his ministry was God’s work. In a word, if we take a right view of things, it will appear that how much soever God may use the labors of men in building his Church, yet he himself performs everything — the instrument derogates nothing from the workman. See Appendix L

5. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, etc. The second difference is, that to Moses was committed a doctrine to which he, in common with others, was to submit; but Christ, though he put on the form of a servant, is yet Master and Lord, to whom all ought to be subject; for, as we found in chap. 1:2, he is constituted heir of all things.

For a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, or which were afterwards to be said or declared. I explain this simply in this way, — that Moses, while a herald of that doctrine which was to be published for a time to the ancient people, did at the same time render a testimony to the Gospel, the publication of which was not as yet to be made; for it is doubtless evident, that the end and completion of the Law is that perfection of wisdom contained in the Gospel. This exposition seems to comport with the future tense of the participle. The meaning indeed is, that Moses faithfully delivered to the people what the Lord had committed to him, but that limits were prescribed to him which it was not lawful for him to pass. God formerly spoke at different times and in various ways by the prophets, but he deferred to the fullness of time the complete revelation of the Gospel.

6. Whose house are we, etc. As Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, after having prefaced that he was appointed to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, adds, for the sake of gaining credit among them, that they were of that number; so now the author of this epistle exhorts the Jews who had already made a profession of Christ to persevere in the faith, that they might be deemed as being in Gods household. He had said before that God’s house was subject to the authority of Christ. Suitably to this declaration is added the admonition that they would then have a place in God’s family when they obeyed Christ. But as they had already embraced the gospel, he mentions their condition if they persevered in the faith. For the word hope I take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith. He mentions confidence and rejoicing, or glorying, in order to express more fully the power of faith. It is better for “hope” here to be retained in its proper meaning; for in verse 12 the defect of it is traced to unbelief. Were the words “confidence” and “rejoicing” rendered adjectivally, the meaning would be more evident, — “If we hold firm our confident and joyful hope to the end.” So we may render a similar form of expression in verse 13, “through deceitful sin,” as “newness of life” in Romans 6:4, means “new life.” The most common practice is to render the genitive in such instances as an adjective, but this is not always the case.

Hope is “confident” or assured, while it rests on the word of God, and is “joyful” while it anticipates the glory and happiness of the heavenly kingdom.

But Beza and Doddridge take words apart, “freedom of profession and boasting of hope,” or according to Beza, “the hope of which we boast.” Macknight renders them “the boldness and the glorifying of the hope.” The secondary meaning of the word παρρησία is confidence, and of καύχημα, joy or rejoicing, and the most suitable here, as it comports better with holding fast, or firm. — Ed. And we hence conclude that those who assent to the Gospel doubtfully and like those who vacillate, do not truly and really believe; for faith cannot be without a settled peace of mind, from which proceeds the bold confidence of rejoicing. And so these two things, confidence and rejoicing, are ever the effects of faith, as we stated in explaining Romans the 5th chapter, and Ephesians the 3rd chapter

But to these things the whole teaching of the Papists is opposed; and this very fact, were there nothing else, sufficiently proves that they pull down the Church of God rather than build it. For the certainty by which alone we are made, as the Apostle teaches us, holy temples to God, they not only darken by their glosses, but also condemn as presumption. Besides, what firmness of confidence can there be when men know not what they ought to believe? And yet that monstrous thing, implicit faith, which they have invented, is nothing else than a license to entertain errors. This passage reminds us that we are always to make progress even unto death; for our whole life is as it were a race.

Hebrews Chapter 3:7-13

7. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

7. Quare (sicut dicit Spiritus Sanctus, Hodie si vocem ejus audieritis,

8. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

8. Ne obduretis corda vestra, sicut in exacerbatione, in die tentationis in deserto;

9. When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

9. Ubi tentaverunt me patres vestri, probaverunt me, et viderunt opera mea

10. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

10. Quadraginta annis: quamobrem infensus fui generationi illi, et dixi, semper errant corde; ipsi vero non cognoverunt vias meas;

11. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

11. Sicut juravi in ira mea, Si ingressuri sint in requiem meam.)

12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

12. Videte fratres, ne quando sit in ullo vestrum cor pravum incredulitatis (vel, pravum et incredulum,) deficiendo a Deo vivente:

13. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

13. Sed exhortamini vos ipsos quotidie, quandiu vocatur dies hodiernus; nequis ex vobis induretur deceptione peccati.

He proceeds in his exhortation, that they were to obey Christ speaking to them; and that he might add more weight to it, he confirms it by the testimony of David; for since they were to be sharply goaded, it was better, for the sake of avoiding offense, to bring forward another person. Had he simply reproached them for the unbelief of the fathers, they would have less favorably attended to him; but when he brought forward David, it was less offensive. Now, the import of the whole is, — As God from the beginning would his voice obeyed, and could not endure perverseness without punishing it severely, so at this day he will not lightly punish our stubbornness, unless we become teachable. But the discourse is suspended until we come to the words, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be at any time in any of you,” etc. That the passage, then, may flow better, it would be proper to include the rest in a parenthesis. There is the same parenthesis in our version; but Beza, Doddridge, Macknight, and Stuart, do not use it, but connect “therefore” or wherefore with “harden not,” which seems more suitable. — Ed. Let us now consider the words in order.

7. As the Holy Ghost saith, etc. This availed much more to touch their hearts than if he had quoted David by name. And it is useful for us to familiarize ourselves with such expressions, so that we may remember that the words adduced from the books of the prophets are those of God and not of men.

But as this sentence, Today, if ye will hear his voice, is a part of a former verse, some have not unsuitably rendered it thus, “Would to God you would this day hear his voice.” It is indeed certain that when David called the Jews God’s people, he immediately drew this conclusion, that the voice of God ought to have been heard by them; for as to those whom he there invited to sing praises to God and to celebrate his goodness, he reminded them at the same time that obedience was the chief worship which he required, and that it was better than all sacrifices. The chief thing, then, was to obey the word of God.

8. Then follows, Harden not your hearts By which words is intimated that our rebellion against God flows from no other fountain than willful wickedness, by which we obstruct the entrance of his grace, We have indeed by nature a heart of stone, and there is in all an innate hardness from the womb, which God alone can mollify and amend. That we, however, reject the voice of God, it happens through a spontaneous obstinacy, not through an external impulse, a fact of which every one is a witness to himself. Rightly, then, does the Spirit accuse all the unbelieving that they resist God, and that they are the teachers and authors of their own perverseness, so that they can throw the blame on none else. It is hence, however, absurdly concluded that we have, on the other hand, a free power to form the heart for God’s service; nay rather, it must ever be the case with men, that they harden their heart until another be given them from heaven; for as we are bent towards wickedness, we shall never cease to resist God until we shall be tamed and subdued by his hand.

As in the provocation, etc. It was for two reasons necessary for them to be reminded of the disobedience of their fathers; for as they were foolishly inflated on account of the glory of their race, they often imitated the vices of their fathers as though they were virtues, and defended themselves by their examples; and further, when they heard that their fathers were so disobedient to God, they were thus more fully taught that this admonition was not superfluous. As both these reasons existed even in the Apostle’s time, he readily accommodated to his own purpose what had been formerly said by David, in order that those whom he addressed might not imitate their fathers too much.

And hence may be learnt a general truth, that we are not to defer too much to the authority of the fathers lest it should draw us away from God; for if any fathers have ever been worthy of honor, no doubt the Jews possessed that preeminence; and yet David distinctly commanded their children to beware of being like them.

And I have no doubt but that he referred to the history recorded in Exodus 17: for David uses here the two names which Moses relates were given to a certain place, מרבה Meribah, which means strife or provocation, and מסה Massah, which means temptation. They tempted God by denying that he was in the midst of them, because they were distressed for want of water; and they also provoked him by contending with Moses. Though indeed they gave many examples of unbelief, yet David selected this in an especial manner, because it was more memorable then any other, and also, because in order of time it followed for the most part the rest, as it evidently appears from the fourth book of Moses, where from chap. 10 to 20 a series of many temptations is described; but this narrative is given in the twentieth chapter. This circumstance increased not a little the atrocity of their wickedness; for they had often experienced the power of God, and yet they perversely contended with him, and renounced all confidence in him: how great was their ingratitude! He then mentioned one particular instance instead of many.

9. Tempted, etc. This word is to be taken in a bad sense; it means to provoke in a proud and insulting manner, which we express in French by saying, defier comme en depitant For though God had often brought them help, yet they forgot all, and scornfully asked, where was his power. Proved, etc. This clause is to be thus explained, “When yet they had proved me and seen my works”. For it enhanced the guilt of their impiety, that having been taught by so many evidences of divine power, they had made so bad a progress. For it was a marvelous supineness and stupidity to esteem God’s power as nothing, which had been so fully proved. See Appendix M.

Forty years. These are connected by David with what follows. But we know that the Apostles in quoting passages attend more to the general meaning than to the words. And no doubt God complained that the people had been vexatious to him for forty years, because so many benefits had availed nothing for the purpose of teaching them; for though God did good continually to them who were wholly unworthy, they yet never ceased to rise up against him. Hence arose his continual indignation, as though he had said “Not once or for a short time have they provoked me, but by their incessant wickedness for forty years.” Generation means race, or men of one age.

10. And I said, etc. This was God’s sentence, by which he declared that they were destitute of a sound mind, and he adds the reason, For they have not known my ways. In short, he regarded them as past hope, for they were without sense and reason. And here he assumed the character of man, who at length after long trials declares that he has discovered obstinate madness, for he says that they always went astray, and no hope of repentance appeared.

11. So I sware, etc. It was the punishment of their madness, that they were deprived of the rest promised them. Moreover, the Lord calls the land, where they might have had their dwelling, his rest. For they had been sojourners in Egypt and wanderers in the wilderness; but the land of Canaan was to be, according to the promise, their perpetual inheritance; and it was in reference to this promise that God called it his rest: for nowhere can we have a settled dwelling, except where we are fixed by his hand. But their right to a sure possession was founded on what God said to Abraham,

“To thy seed will I give this land.” (Genesis 12:7.)

By God swearing, If they shall enter, etc., the atrocity of their evil conduct is made more evident and is more forcibly set forth, for it is an evidence of wrath greatly inflamed. “If they shall enter,” is in the form of an oath, in which something is to be understood, as an imprecation, or some such thing, when men speak; but when God speaks, it is the same as though he said, “Let me not be deemed true,”, or, “Let me not be hereafter believed, if such a thing shall not be so.” However, this defective mode of speaking recommends fear and reverence to us, so that we may not rashly swear, as many do, who are often in the habit of pouring forth dreadful curses.

But as to the present passage, we ought not to think that they were then for the first time denied entrance into the land by God’s oath, when they tempted him in Rephidim; for they had long before been excluded, even from the time they had refused to march forward at the report of the spies. God then does not here ascribe their expulsion from the land to this instance of tempting him as to the first cause; but he intimates that by no chastisement could they have been restored to a sound mind, but that they continually added new offenses: and thus he shows that they fully deserved to be thus severely punished, for they never ceased to increase more and more his wrath by various sins, as though he had said, “This is the generation to which I denied the possession of the promised land, for during whole forty years afterwards it betrayed its obstinate madness by innumerable sins.”

12. Take heed, (or See,) brethren, lest there be at any time in any of you a wicked heart of unbelief, etc. I have preferred to retain literally what the Apostle states, rather than to give a paraphrase as to the wicked or depraved heart of unbelief, by which he intimates that unbelief would be connected with depravity or wickedness, if after having received the knowledge of Christ they departed from his faith. For he addressed them who had been imbued with the elements of Christianity; hence he immediately added, By departing; for the sin of defection is accompanied with perfidy. The word connected with “heart” is ἐν τῶ, which properly means diseased and hence corrupted, depraved, wicked. Depraved or wicked would perhaps be the best rendering of it here. “Unbelief” is a genitive used for an adjective or a participle, — “a wicked unbelieving heart.” It is unbelieving owing to its wickedness or depravity. Grotius says, that there are two kinds of unbelief, — The first the rejection of the truth when first offered, — and the second the renouncing of it after having once professed it. The latter is the more heinous sin.

“The departing,” etc.; ἐν τῶ is rendered “by” by Macknight: it is considered by Grotius to be for εἰς τὸ, which word makes the meaning more evident, “so as to depart,” etc. — Ed.

13. He also pointed out the remedy, so that they might not fall into this wickedness, and that was, to exhort one another. For as by nature we are inclined to evil, we have need of various helps to retain us in the fear of God. Unless our faith be now and then raised up, it will lie prostrate; unless it be warmed, it will be frozen; unless it be roused, it will grow torpid. He would have us then to stimulate one another by mutual exhortations, so that Satan may not creep into our hearts, and by his fallacies draw us away from God. And this is a way of speaking that ought to be especially observed; for we fall not immediately by the first assault into this madness of striving against God; but Satan by degrees accosts us artfully by indirect means, until he holds us ensnared in his delusions. Then indeed being blinded, we break forth into open rebellion. “Deceitfulness of sin” is rendered by Stuart “sinful delusion.” It ought rather to be “deceitful (or seductive) sin” as “deceitfulness of riches” in Matthew 13:22, means “deceitful riches.” The “sin” was evidently that of apostasy: and it was deceitful, because there was a present prospect of relief from troubles and persecutions. The power of any sin to deceive and seduce, consists in some present gratification or interest. See note on verse 6. — Ed.

We must then meet this danger in due time, and it is one that is nigh us all, for nothing is more possible than to be deceived; and from this deception comes at length hardness of heart. We hence see how necessary it is for us to be roused by the incessant goads of exhortations. Nor does the Apostle give only a general precept, that all should take heed to themselves, but he should have them also to be solicitous for the salvation of every member, so that they should not suffer any of those who had been once called to perish through their neglect, and he who feels it his duty so to watch over the salvation of the whole flock as to neglect no one sheep, performs in this case the office of a good shepherd.

While it is called today. He now applies what David said more particularly to his own subjects; for he reminds us that the word today, mentioned in the Psalm, ought not to be confined to the age of David, but that it comprehends every time in which God may address us. As often, then, and as long as he opened his sacred mouth to teach us, let this sentence come to our minds, “Today, if ye will hear his voice”. In the same way Paul teaches us that when the Gospel is preached to us, it is the accepted time in which God hears us, and the Day of salvation in which he helps us. (2 Corinthians 6:2.)

Now, of this opportunity we ought to avail ourselves; for if through our sloth we suffer it to pass by, we shall hereafter in vain deplore its loss. So Christ says,

“Walk while ye have the light; come shortly shall the night.” (John 12:35.)

The particle while, then, or as long as, intimates that, The seasonable time will not continue always, if we be too slothful to follow when the Lord calls us. God knocks at our door; unless we open to him he will no doubt in his turn close against us the gate of his kingdom. In a word, too late will be their groans who despise the grace offered to them today. As, then, we know not whether God will extend his calling to tomorrow, let us not delay. Today he calls us; let us immediately respond to him, for there is no faith except where there is such a readiness to obey.

Hebrews Chapter 3:14-19

14. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;

14. Participes enim facti sumus Christi, siquidem initium fiduciae (vel, subsistentiae) ad finem usque firmum tenuerimus;

15. While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

15. In hoc quod dicitur, Hodie si vocem ejus audieritis, ne obduretis corda vestra sicut in exacerbatione.

16. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

16. Quidam enim quum audissent, exacerbarunt; at non omnes qui egressi fuerant ex AEgypto per Mosen.

17. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

17. Quibus autem infensus fuit quadraginta annis? an non iis qui peccaverant, quorum membra ceciderunt in deserto?

18. And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

18. Quibus autem juravit, non ingressuros in requiem suam nisi incredulis (aut, inobedientibus)?

19. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

19. Et videmus non potuisse ingredi propter infidelitatem.

14. For we are made partakers, etc. He commends them for having begun well; but lest, under the pretext of the grace which they had obtained, they should indulge themselves in carnal security, he says that there was need of perseverance; for many having only tasted the Gospel, do not think of any progress as though they had reached the summit. Thus it is that they not only stop in the middle of their race, yea, nigh the starting­posts, but turn another way. Plausible indeed is this objection, “What can we wish more after having found Christ?” But if he is possessed by faith, we must persevere in it, so that he may be our perpetual possession. Christ then has given himself to be enjoyed by us on this condition, that by the same faith by which we have been admitted into a participation of him, we are to preserve so great a blessing even to death. What is implied here is that we may professedly be partakers of Christ: that is of his blessings as a Savior, and yet be not really so: the proof of the reality is perseverance. — Ed.

Hence he says beginning, intimating that their faith was only begun. As hypostasis sometimes means confidence, it may be so taken here; yet the term substance, as some have rendered it, I do not dislike, though I explain it in a way somewhat different. They think that faith is thus called, because the whole of what man may have without it is nothing but vanity; but I so regard it, because we recumb on it alone, as there is no other support on which we can rely. And suitable to this view is the word steadfast or firm; for we shall be firmly fixed and beyond the danger of vacillating, provided faith be our foundation. The sum of the whole then is, that faith whose beginnings only appear in us, is to make constant and steady progress to the end. Here is another instance of the genitive being the main subject, “the beginning of our confidence,” i.e., our first confidence, which the Apostle calls “first faith” in 1 Timothy 5:12. Macknight renders it “the begun confidence.” — Ed.

15. While it is said, etc. He intimates that the reason for making progress never ceases as long as we live, because God calls us daily. For since faith responds to the preaching of the Gospel, as preaching continues through the whole course of our life, so we ought to continue growing in faith. The phrase, then, while it is said, is the same as though he had said, “Since God never makes an end of speaking, it is not enough for us readily to receive his doctrine, except we exhibit the same teachableness and obedience tomorrow and every following day.” Most connect this verse with the preceding, as in our version, and as Doddridge thus “forasmuch as it is said;” and Macknight thus “as ye may know by the saying.” So does Beza; and Calvin seems to do the same; but some connect it with the 13th and others with the 14th verse. Modern authors, such as Stuart and Blooomfield, regard it as the commencement of a paragraph, and connect it with what follows. Stuart’s version is —

15. With regard to the saying, “today while ye hear his voice, harden 16. Not your hearts as in the provocation;” who now were they that when they heard did provoke? Nay, did not all who came out of Egypt under Moses? Etc.

Bloomfield approves of this version, only he considers the quotation is confined to the words, “Today, while ye hear his voice,” and regards what follows, “harden not,” etc., as said by the writer: See Appendix N. — Ed.

16 For some, when they had heard, etc. David spoke of the fathers as though that whole generation were unbelieving; but it appears that some who truly feared God mingled with the wicked. The apostle mentions this to modify what had been more severely said by David, in order that we may know that the word is preached to all for this end, that all may obey it with one consent, and that the whole people were justly condemned for unbelief, when the body was torn and mutilated by the defection of the greatest part.

But by saying that some provoked, while yet they were by far the greatest part, this object was not only to avoid giving offense, but also to encourage the Jews to imitate those who believed; as though he had said, “As God forbids you to follow the unbelief of the fathers, so he sets before you other fathers whose faith is to be your example”. Thus is mitigated what otherwise might have appeared too hard; that is, had they been commanded wholly to dissent from their fathers. To come out by Moses, means by the hand of Moses, for he was the minister of their deliverance. But there is an implied comparison between the benefit which God had bestowed on them by Moses, and the participation of Christ previously mentioned.

17. But with whom was he grieved, or angry, etc. He means that God had never been angry with his people except for just causes, as Paul also reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10:5, 6. Therefore as many chastisements of God as we read were inflicted on the ancient people, so many grievous sins shall we find which provoked God’s vengeance. At the same time we must come to this conclusion, that unbelief was the chief of all their evils; for though he mentions this the last, he yet means that it was the primary cause of their curse; and no doubt from the time they once became unbelievers, they never ceased to add one sin to another, and thus they brought on themselves new scourges continually. Hence those very persons who through unbelief rejected the possession of the land offered to them, pursued their own obstinacy, now lusting, then murmuring, now committing adultery, then polluting themselves with heathen superstitions, so that their depravity became more fully manifested.

The unbelief, then, which they showed from the beginning, prevented them from enjoying the kindness of God; for the contempt of his word ever led them to sin. And as at first they deserved through their unbelief that God should deprive them of the promised rest, so whatever sin they committed afterwards flowed from the same fountain.

It may be further asked, whether Moses, and Aaron, and those like them, were included in this number? To this I answer, that the Apostle speaks of the whole community rather than of individuals. It is certain that there were many godly men who were either not entangled in the general impiety or soon repented. Moses’ faith was once shaken and only once, and that for a moment. The Apostle’s words, therefore, contain a statement of the whole instead of a part, a mode of speaking frequently employed when a multitude or body of people are spoken of.

CHAPTER 4

Hebrews Chapter 4:1-2

1. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

1. Timeamus ergo ne derelicta promissione introeundi in requiem ejus videatur quispiam nostrum esse frustratus.

2. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it

2. Nobis enim annuntiata est promissio quemadmodum et illis; at illis nihil profuit sermo auditus, quia non fuit cum fide conjunctus in iis qui audierant.

CHAPTER 3

He 3:1-19. The Son of God Greater than Moses, Wherefore Unbelief towards Him Will Incur a Heavier Punishment than Befell Unbelieving Israel in the Wilderness.

As Moses especially was the prophet by whom "God in times past spake to the fathers," being the mediator of the law, Paul deems it necessary now to show that, great as was Moses, the Son of God is greater. Ebrard in Alford remarks, The angel of the covenant came in the name of God before Israel; Moses in the name of Israel before God; whereas the high priest came both in the name of God (bearing the name Jehovah on his forehead) before Israel, and in the name of Israel (bearing the names of the twelve tribes on his breast) before God (Ex 28:9-29, 36, 38). Now Christ is above the angels, according to the first and second chapters because (1) as Son of God He is higher; and (2) because manhood, though originally lower than angels, is in Him exalted above them to the lordship of "the world to come," inasmuch as He is at once Messenger of God to men, and also atoning Priest-Representative of men before God (He 2:17, 18). Parallel with this line of argument as to His superiority to angels (He 1:4) runs that which here follows as to His superiority to Moses (He 3:3): (1) because as Son over the house; He is above the servant in the house (He 3:5, 6), just as the angels were shown to be but ministering (serving) spirits (He 1:14), whereas He is the Son (He 3:7, 8); (2) because the bringing of Israel into the promised rest, which was not finished by Moses, is accomplished by Him (He 4:1-11), through His being not merely a leader and lawgiver as Moses, but also a propitiatory High Priest (He 4:14; 5:10).

1. Wherefore--Greek, "Whence," that is, seeing we have such a sympathizing Helper you ought to "consider attentively," "contemplate"; fix your eyes and mind on Him with a view to profiting by the contemplation (He 12:2). The Greek word is often used by Luke, Paul's companion (Lu 12:24, 27).

brethren--in Christ, the common bond of union.

partakers--"of the Holy Ghost."

heavenly calling--coming to us from heaven, and leading us to heaven whence it comes. Php 3:14, "the high calling"; Greek "the calling above," that is, heavenly.

the Apostle and High Priest of our profession--There is but one Greek article to both nouns, "Him who is at once Apostle and High Priest"--Apostle, as Ambassador (a higher designation than "angel"-messenger) sent by the Father (Joh 20:21), pleading the cause of God with us; High Priest, as pleading our cause with God. Both His Apostleship and High Priesthood are comprehended in the one title, Mediator [Bengel]. Though the title "Apostle" is nowhere else applied to Christ, it is appropriate here in addressing Hebrews, who used the term of the delegates sent by the high priest to collect the temple tribute from Jews resident in foreign countries, even as Christ was Delegate of the Father to this world far off from Him (Mt 21:37). Hence as what applies to Him, applies also to His people, the Twelve are designated His apostles, even as He is the Father's (Joh 20:21). It was desirable to avoid designating Him here "angel," in order to distinguish His nature from that of angels mentioned before, though he is "the Angel of the Covenant." The "legate of the Church" (Sheliach Tsibbur) offered up the prayers in the synagogue in the name of all, and for all. So Jesus, "the Apostle of our profession," is delegated to intercede for the Church before the Father. The words "of our profession," mark that it is not of the legal ritual, but of our Christian faith, that He is the High Priest. Paul compares Him as an Apostle to Moses; as High Priest to Aaron. He alone holds both offices combined, and in a more eminent degree than either, which those two brothers held apart.

profession--"confession," corresponds to God having spoken to us by His Son, sent as Apostle and High Priest. What God proclaims we confess.

2. He first notes the feature of resemblance between Moses and Christ, in order to conciliate the Hebrew Christians whom He addressed, and who still entertained a very high opinion of Moses; he afterwards brings forward Christ's superiority to Moses.

Who was faithful--The Greek implies also that He still is faithful, namely, as our mediating High Priest, faithful to the trust God has assigned Him (He 2:17). So Moses in God's house (Nu 12:7).

appointed him--"made Him" High Priest; to be supplied from the preceding context. Greek, "made"; so in He 5:5; 1Sa 12:6, Margin; Ac 2:36; so the Greek fathers. Not as Alford, with Ambrose and the Latins, "created Him," that is, as man, in His incarnation. The likeness of Moses to Messiah was foretold by Moses himself (De 18:15). Other prophets only explained Moses, who was in this respect superior to them; but Christ was like Moses, yet superior.

3. For--assigning the reason why they should "consider" attentively "Christ" (He 3:1), highly as they regard Moses who resembled Him in faithfulness (He 3:2).

was--Greek, "has been."

counted worthy of more glory--by God, when He exalted Him to His own right hand. The Hebrew Christians admitted the fact (He 1:13).

builded the house--Greek, "inasmuch as He hath more honor than the house, who prepared it," or "established it" [Alford]. The Greek verb is used purposely instead of "builded," in order to mark that the building meant is not a literal, but a spiritual house: the Church both of the Old Testament and New Testament; and that the building of such a house includes all the preparations of providence and grace needed to furnish it with "living stones" and fitting "servants." Thus, as Christ the Founder and Establisher (in Old Testament as well as the New Testament) is greater than the house so established, including the servants, He is greater also than Moses, who was but a "servant." Moses, as a servant, is a portion of the house, and less than the house; Christ, as the Instrumental Creator of all things, must be God, and so greater than the house of which Moses was but a part. Glory is the result of honor.

4. Someone must be the establisher of every house; Moses was not the establisher of the house, but a portion of it (but He who established all things, and therefore the spiritual house in question, is God). Christ, as being instrumentally the Establisher of all things, must be the Establisher of the house, and so greater than Moses.

5. faithful in all his house--that is in all God's house (He 3:4).

servant--not here the Greek for "slave," but "a ministering attendant"; marking the high office of Moses towards God, though inferior to Christ, a kind of steward.

for a testimony of, &c.--in order that he might in his typical institutions give "testimony" to Israel "of the things" of the Gospel "which were to be spoken afterwards" by Christ (He 8:5; 9:8, 23; 10:1).

6. But Christ--was and is faithful (He 3:2).

as a son over his own house--rather, "over His (God's, He 3:4) house"; and therefore, as the inference from His being one with God, over His own house. So He 10:21, "having an High Priest over the house of God." Christ enters His Father's house as the Master [OVER it], but Moses as a servant [IN it, He 3:2, 5] [Chrysostom]. An ambassador in the absence of the king is very distinguished--in the presence of the king he falls back into the multitude [Bengel].

whose house are we--Paul and his Hebrew readers. One old manuscript, with Vulgate and Lucifer, reads, "which house"; but the weightiest manuscripts support English Version reading.

the rejoicing--rather, "the matter of rejoicing."

of the hope--"of our hope." Since all our good things lie in hopes, we ought so to hold fast our hopes as already to rejoice, as though our hopes were realized [Chrysostom].

firm unto the end--omitted in Lucifer and Ambrose, and in one oldest manuscript, but supported by most oldest manuscripts.

7-11. Exhortation from Psa 95:7-11, not through unbelief to lose participation in the spiritual house. Seeing that we are the house of God if we hold fast our confidence ... (He 3:6). Jesus is "faithful," be not ye unfaithful (He 3:2, 12). The sentence beginning with "wherefore," interrupted by the parenthesis confirming the argument from Psa 95:7-11, is completed at He 3:12, "Take heed," &c.

Holy Ghost saith--by the inspired Psalmist; so that the words of the latter are the words of God Himself.

To-day--at length; in David's day, as contrasted with the days of Moses in the wilderness, and the whole time since then, during which they had been rebellious against God's voice; as for instance, in the wilderness (He 3:8). The Psalm, each fresh time when used in public worship, by "to-day," will mean the particular day when it was, or is, used.

hear--obediently.

his voice--of grace.

12. Take heed--to be joined with "wherefore," He 3:7.

lest there be--Greek (indicative), "lest there shall be"; lest there be, as I fear there is; implying that it is not merely a possible contingency, but that there is ground for thinking it will be so.

in any--"in any one of you." Not merely ought all in general be on their guard, but they ought to be so concerned for the safety of each one member, as not to suffer any one to perish through their negligence [Calvin].

heart--The heart is not to be trusted. Compare He 3:10, "They do always err in their heart."

unbelief--faithlessness. Christ is faithful; therefore, saith Paul to the Hebrews, we ought not to be faithless as our fathers were under Moses.

departing--apostatizing. The opposite of "come unto" Him (He 4:16). God punishes such apostates in kind. He departs from them--the worst of woes.

the living God--real: the distinctive characteristic of the God of Israel, not like the lifeless gods of the heathen; therefore One whose threats are awful realities. To apostatize from Christ is to apostatize from the living God (He 2:3).

13. one another--Greek, "yourselves"; let each exhort himself and his neighbor.

daily--Greek, "on each day," or "day by day."

while it is called To-day--while the "to-day" lasts (the day of grace, Lu 4:21, before the coming of the day of glory and judgment at Christ's coming, He 10:25, 37). To-morrow is the day when idle men work, and fools repent. To-morrow is Satan's to-day; he cares not what good resolutions you form, if only you fix them for to-morrow.

lest ... of you--The "you" is emphatic, as distinguished from "your fathers" (He 3:9). "That from among you no one (so the Greek order is in some of the oldest manuscripts) be hardened" (He 3:8).

deceitfulness--causing you to "err in your heart."

sin--unbelief.

14. For, &c.--enforcing the warning, He 3:12.

partakers of Christ--(Compare He 3:1, 6). So "partakers of the Holy Ghost" (He 6:4).

hold--Greek, "hold fast."

the beginning of our confidence--that is, the confidence (literally, substantial, solid confidence) of faith which we have begun (He 6:11; 12:2). A Christian so long as he is not made perfect, considers himself as a beginner [Bengel].

unto the end--unto the coming of Christ (He 12:2).

15. While it is said--connected with He 3:13, "exhort one another ... while it is said, To-day": He 3:14, "for we are made partakers," &c., being a parenthesis. "It entirely depends on yourselves that the invitation of the ninety-fifth Psalm be not a mere invitation, but also an actual enjoyment." Alford translates, "Since (that is, 'for') it is said," &c., regarding He 3:15 as a proof that we must "hold ... confidence ... unto the end," in order to be "partakers of Christ."

16. For some--rather interrogatively, "For WHO was it that, when they had heard (referring to 'if ye will hear,' He 3:15), did provoke (God)?" The "For" implies, Ye need to take heed against unbelief: for, was it not because of unbelief that all our fathers were excluded (Eze 2:3)? "Some," and "not all," would be a faint way of putting his argument, when his object is to show the universality of the evil. Not merely some, but all the Israelites, for the solitary exceptions, Joshua and Caleb, are hardly to be taken into account in so general a statement. So He 3:17, 18, are interrogative: (1) the beginning of the provocation, soon after the departure from Egypt, is marked in He 3:16; (2) the forty years of it in the wilderness, He 3:17; (3) the denial of entrance into the land of rest, He 3:18. Compare Note, see on 1Co 10:5, "with the majority of them God was displeased."

howbeit--"Nay (why need I put the question?), was it not all that came out of Egypt?" (Ex 17:1, 2).

by Moses--by the instrumentality of Moses as their leader.

17. But--Translate, "Moreover," as it is not in contrast to He 3:16, but carrying out the same thought.

corpses--literally, "limbs," implying that their bodies fell limb from limb.

18. to them that believed not--rather as Greek, "to them that disobeyed." Practical unbelief (De 1:26).

19. they could not enter--though desiring it.

Holy brethren - Persons consecrated to God, as the word literally implies, and called, in consequence, to be holy in heart, holy in life, and useful in the world. The Israelites are often called a holy people, saints, etc., because consecrated to God, and because they were bound by their profession to be holy; and yet these appellations are given to them in numberless instances where they were very unholy. The not attending to this circumstance, and the not discerning between actual positive holiness, and the call to it, as the consecration of the persons, has led many commentators and preachers into destructive mistakes. Antinomianism has had its origin here: and as it was found that many persons were called saints, who, in many respects, were miserable sinners, hence it has been inferred that they were called saints in reference to a holiness which they had in another; and hence the Antinomian imputation of Christ's righteousness to unholy believers, whose hearts were abominable before God, and whose lives were a scandal to the Gospel. Let, therefore, a due distinction be made between persons by their profession holy, i.e. consecrated to God; and persons who are faithful to that profession, and are both inwardly and outwardly holy. They are not all Israel who are of Israel: a man, by a literal circumcision, may be a Jew outwardly; but the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit makes a man a Jew inwardly. A man may be a Christian in profession, and not such in heart; and those who pretend that, although they are unholy in themselves, they are reputed holy in Christ, because his righteousness is imputed to them, most awfully deceive their own souls.

Dr. Owen has spoken well on the necessity of personal holiness against the Antinomians of his day. "If a man be not made holy he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. It is this that makes them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; as without it they are not meet for their duty, so are they not capable of their reward. Yea, heaven itself, in the true light and notion of it, is undesirable to an unsanctified person. Such a one neither can nor would enjoy God if he might. In a word, there is no one thing required of the sons of God that an unsanctified person can do, and no one thing promised unto them that he can enjoy. "There is surely then a woful mistake in the world. If Christ sanctify all whom he saves, many will appear to have been mistaken in their expectations at another day. It is grown amongst us almost an abhorrency to all flesh to say, the Church of God is to be holy. What! though God has promised that it should be so; that Christ has undertaken to make it so? What! if it be required to be so? What! if all the duties of it be rejected of God, if it be not so? It is all one, if men be baptized, whether they will or not, and outwardly profess the name of Christ, though not one of them be truly sanctified, yet they are, it is said, the Church of Christ. Why then let them be so; but what are they the better for it? Are their persons or their services therefore accepted with God? Are they related or united to Christ? Are they under his conduct unto glory? Are they meet for the inheritance of the saints in light? Not at all: not all nor any of these things do they obtain thereby. What is it then that they get by the furious contest which they make for the reputation of this privilege? Only this: that, satisfying their minds by it, resting if not priding themselves in it, they obtain many advantages to stifle all convictions of their condition, and so perish unavoidably. A sad success, and for ever to be bewailed! Yet is there nothing at all at this day more contended for in this world than that Christ might be thought to be a captain of salvation to them, unto whom he is not a sanctifier; that he may have an unholy Church, a dead body. These things tend neither to the glory of Christ, nor to the good of the souls of men. Let none then deceive themselves; sanctification is a qualification indispensably necessary to them who will be under the conduct of the Lord Christ unto salvation; he leads none to heaven but whom he sanctifies on earth. The holy God will not receive unholy persons. This living head will not admit of dead members, nor bring men into possession of a glory which they neither love nor like."

Heavenly calling - The Israelites had an earthly calling; they were called out of Egypt to go into the promised land: Christians have a heavenly calling; they are invited to leave the bondage of sin, and go to the kingdom of God. These were made partakers of this calling; they had already embraced the Gospel, and were brought into a state of salvation.

Apostle and High Priest of our profession - Among the Jews the high priest was considered to be also the apostle of God; and it is in conformity to this notion that the apostle speaks. And he exhorts the Hebrews to consider Jesus Christ to be both their High Priest and Apostle; and to expect these offices to be henceforth fulfilled by him, and by him alone. This was the fullest intimation that the Mosaic economy was at an end, and the priesthood changed. By της ὁμολογιας ἡμων, our profession, or that confession of ours, the apostle undoubtedly means the Christian religion. Jesus was the Apostle of the Father, and has given to mankind the new covenant; and we are to consider the whole system of Christianity as coming immediately from him. Every system of religion must have a priest and a prophet; the one to declare the will of God, the other to minister in holy things. Moses was the apostle under the old testament, and Aaron the priest. When Moses was removed, the prophets succeeded him; and the sons of Aaron were the priests after the death of their father. This system is now annulled; and Jesus is the Prophet who declares the Father's will, and he is the Priest who ministers in the things pertaining to God, see Heb 2:17; as he makes atonement for the sins of the people, and is the Mediator between God and man.

Who was faithful to him - In Num 12:7, God gives this testimony to Moses: My servant Moses - is faithful in all my house; and to this testimony the apostle alludes. House not only means the place where a family dwells, but also the family itself. The whole congregation of Israel was the house or family of God, and God is represented as dwelling among them; and Moses was his steward, and was faithful in the discharge of his office; strictly enforcing the Divine rights; zealously maintaining God's honor; carefully delivering the mind and will of God to the people; proclaiming his promises, and denouncing his judgments, with the most inflexible integrity, though often at the risk of his life. Jesus Christ has his house - the whole great family of mankind, for all of whom he offered his sacrificial blood to God; and the Christian Church, which is especially his own household, is composed of his own children and servants, among and in whom he lives and constantly resides. He has been faithful to the trust reposed in him as the apostle of God; he has faithfully proclaimed the will of the Most High; vindicated the Divine honor against the corrupters of God's worship; testified against them at the continual hazard of his life; and, at last, not only died as a victim to cancel sin, but also as a martyr to his faithfulness. Christ's faithfulness, says Leigh, consists in this: "That he has as fully revealed unto us the doctrine of the Gospel, as Moses did that of the law; and that he hath faithfully performed and fulfilled all the types of himself and all the things signified by Moses' ceremonies, as Moses hath faithfully and distinctly set them down."

But there is a sense given to the word נאמן neeman, Num 12:7, which we translate faithful, by several of the Jewish writers, which is well worthy of note: it signifies, say they, "one to whom secrets are confided, with the utmost confidence of their being safely and conscientiously kept." The secret of God was with Moses, but all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were in Christ. Life and immortality were comparatively secrets till Christ revealed and illustrated them, and even the Divine nature was but little known, and especially the Divine philanthropy, till Jesus Christ came; and it was Jesus alone who declared that God whom no man had ever seen. Moses received the secrets of God, and faithfully taught them to the people; Jesus revealed the whole will of God to mankind. Moses was thus faithful to a small part of mankind, viz. the Jewish people; but in this sense Jesus was faithful to all mankind: for he was the light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel.

For this man was counted - As Jesus Christ, in the character of apostle and high priest, is here intended, the word apostle, or this person or personage, should have been supplied, if any, instead of man. Indeed, the pronoun οὑτος should have been translated this person, and this would have referred immediately to Jesus Christ, Heb 3:1.

More glory than Moses - We have already seen that the apostle's design is to prove that Jesus Christ is higher than the angels, higher than Moses, and higher than Aaron. That he is higher than the angels has been already proved; that he is higher than Moses he is now proving.

He who hath builded the house - There can be no doubt that a man who builds a house for his own accommodation is more honorable than the house itself; but the house here intended is the Church of God. This Church, here called a house or family, is built by Christ; he is the Head, Governor, Soul and Life of it; he must therefore be greater than Moses, who was only a member and officer in that Church, who never put a stone in this spiritual building but was even himself put in it by the great Architect. Moses was in this house, and faithful in this house; but the house was the house of God, and builded and governed by Christ.

For every house is builded by some man - The literal sense is plain enough: "Every structure plainly implies an, architect, and an end for which it was formed. The architect may be employed by him for whose use the house is intended; but the efficient cause of the erection is that which is here to he regarded." The word house, here, is still taken in a metaphorical sense as above, it signifies family or Church. Now the general meaning of the words, taken in this sense, is: "Every family has an author, and a head or governor. Man may found families, civil and religious communities, and be the head of these; but God alone is the Head, Author, and Governor, of all the families of the earth; he is the Governor of the universe. But the apostle has a more restricted meaning in the words τα παντα, all these things; and as he has been treating of the Jewish and Christian Churches, so he appears to have them in view here. Who could found the Jewish and Christian Church but God? Who could support, govern, influence, and defend them, but himself? Communities or societies, whether religious or civil, may be founded by man; but God alone can build his own Church. Now as all these things could be builded only by God, so he must be God who has built all these things. But as Jesus is the Founder of the Church, and the Head of it, the word God seems here to be applied to him; and several eminent scholars and critics bring this very text as a proof of the supreme Deity of Christ: and the apostle's argument seems to require this; for, as he is proving that Christ is preferred before Moses because he built this house, which Moses could not do, where he to be understood as intimating that this house was built by another, viz. the Father, his whole argument would fall to the ground; and for all this, Moses might be equal, yea, superior to Christ. On this ground Dr. Owen properly concludes: "This then is that which the apostle intends to declare; namely, the ground and reason whence it is that the house was or could be, in that glorious manner, built by Christ, even because he is God, and so able to effect it; and by this effect of his power, he is manifested so to be."

As a servant - The fidelity of Moses was the fidelity of a servant; he was not the framer of that Church or house; he was employed, under God, to arrange and order it: he was steward to the Builder and Owner.

For a testimony of those things - Every ordinance under the law was typical; every thing bore a testimony to the things which were to be spoken after; i.e. to Jesus Christ, his suffering, death, and the glory which should follow; and to his Gospel in all its parts. The faithfulness of Moses consisted in his scrupulous attention to every ordinance of God; his framing every thing according to the pattern showed him by the Lord; and his referring all to that Christ of whom he spoke as the prophet who should come after him, and should be raised up from among themselves; whom they should attentively hear and obey, on pain of being cut off from being the people of the Lord. Hence our Lord told the Jews, Joh 5:46 : If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me; "namely;" says Dr. Macknight, "in the figures, but especially in the prophecies, of the law, where the Gospel dispensation, the coming of its Author, and his character as Messiah, are all described with a precision which adds the greatest lustre of evidence to Jesus and to his Gospel."

But Christ as a Son over his own house - Moses was faithful as a servant In the house; Jesus was faithful, as the first-born Son, Over the house of which he is the Heir and Governor. Here, then, is the conclusion of the argument in reference to Christ's superiority over Moses. Moses did not found the house or family, Christ did; Moses was but in the house, or one of the family, Christ was over the house as its Ruler; Moses was but servant in the house, Christ was the Son and Heir; Moses was in the house of another, Christ in his own house.

It is well known to every learned reader that the pronoun αυτου, without an aspirate, signifies his simply; and that with the aspirate, αὑτου, it signifies his own: the word being in this form a contraction, not uncommon, of ἑαυτου. If we read αυτου without the aspirate, then his must refer to God, Heb 3:4.

But Christ as a Son over his (that is, God's) house: if we read αὑτου, with the aspirate, as some editions do, then what is spoken refers to Christ; and the words above convey the same sense as those words, Act 20:28 : Feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Some editions read the word thus; and it is evident that the edition which our translators used had the word αὑτου, his own, and not αυτου, his. The Spanish and London Polyglots have the same reading. From the most ancient MSS. we can get no help to determine which is to be preferred, as they are generally written without accents. The two first editions of the Greek Testament, that of Complutum, 1514, and that of Erasmus, 1516, have αυτου, his; and they are followed by most other editions: but the celebrated edition of Robert Stephens, 1550, has αὑτου, his own. The reading is certainly important; but it belongs to one of those difficulties in criticism which, if the context or collateral evidence do not satisfactorily solve it, must remain in doubt; and every reader is at liberty to adopt which reading he thinks best.

Whose house are we - We Christians are his Church and family; he is our Father, Governor, and Head.

If we hold fast the confidence - We are now his Church, and shall continue to be such, and be acknowledged by him If we maintain our Christian profession, την παρῥησιαν, that liberty of access to God, which we now have, and the rejoicing of the hope, i.e. of eternal life, which we shall receive at the resurrection of the dead. The word παρῥησια, which is here translated confidence, and which signifies freedom of speech, liberty of access, etc., seems to be used here to distinguish an important Christian privilege. Under the old testament no man was permitted to approach to God: even the very mountain on which God published his laws must not be touched by man nor beast; and only the high priest was permitted to enter the holy of holies, and that only once a year, on the great day of atonement; and even then he must have the blood of the victim to propitiate the Divine justice. Under the Christian dispensation the way to the holiest is now laid open; and we have παρῥησιαν, liberty of access, even to the holiest, by the blood of Jesus. Having such access unto God, by such a Mediator, we may obtain all that grace which is necessary to fit us for eternal glory; and, having the witness of his Spirit in our heart, we have a well grounded hope of endless felicity, and exult in the enjoyment of that hope. But If we retain not the grace, we shall not inherit the glory.

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today - These words are quoted from Psa 95:7; and as they were written by David, and attributed here to the Holy Ghost, it proves that David wrote, by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit. As these words were originally a warning to the Israelites not to provoke God, lest they should be excluded from that rest which he had promised them, the apostle uses them here to persuade the Christians in Palestine to hold fast their religious privileges, and, the grace they had received, lest they should come short of that state of future glory which Christ had prepared for them. The words strongly imply, as indeed does the whole epistle, the possibility of falling from the grace of God, and perishing everlastingly; and without this supposition these words, and all such like, which make more than two-thirds of the whole of Divine revelation, would have neither sense nor meaning. Why should God entreat man to receive his mercy, if he have rendered this impossible? Why should he exhort a believer to persevere, if it be impossible for him to fall away? What contemptible quibbling have men used to maintain a false and dangerous tenet against the whole tenor of the word of God! Angels fell - Adam fell - Solomon fell - and multitudes of believers have fallen, and, for aught we know, rose no more; and yet we are told that we cannot finally lose the benefits of our conversion! Satan preached this doctrine to our first parents; they believed him, sinned, and fell; and brought a whole world to ruin!

Harden not your hearts - Which ye will infallibly do, if ye will not hear his voice.

Provocation - Παραπικρασμος· From παρα, signifying intensity, and πικραινω, to make bitter; the exasperation, or bitter provocation. "The Israelites provoked God first in the wilderness of Sin, (Pelusium), when they murmured for want of bread, and had the manna given them, Exo 16:4. From the wilderness of Sin they journeyed to Rephidim, where they provoked God a second time for want of water, and insolently saying, Is the Lord God among us or not? Exo 17:2-9, on which account the place was called Massah and Meribah. See 1Cor 10:4 (note), note 1. From Rephidim they went into the wilderness of Sinai, where they received the law, in the beginning of the third year from their coming out of Egypt. Here they provoked God again, by making the golden calf, Exo 32:10. After the law was given they were commanded to go directly to Canaan, and take possession of the promised land, Deu 1:6, Deu 1:7 : God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vales, and in the south, and by the seaside, to the land if the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, and unto the great river, the river Euphrates. The Israelites, having received this order, departed from Horeb, and went forward three days' journey, Num 10:33, till they came to Taberah, Num 11:3, where they provoked God the fourth time, by murmuring for want of flesh to eat; and for that sin were smitten with a very great plague, Num 11:33; this place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted. From Kibroth-hattaavah they went to Hazeroth, Num 11:35, and from thence into the wilderness of Paran, Num 12:16, to a place called Kadesh, Num 13:26. Their journey from Horeb to Kadesh is thus described by Moses, Deu 1:19-21 : And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and, we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee; go up and possess it. But the people proposed to Moses to send spies, to bring them an account of the land, and of its inhabitants, Deu 1:22. These after forty days returned to Kadesh; and, except Caleb and Joshua, they all agreed in bringing an evil report of the land, Num 13:25-32; whereby the people were so discouraged that they refused to go up, and proposed to make a captain, and return into Egypt, Num 14:4. Wherefore, having thus shown an absolute disbelief of God's promises, and an utter distrust of his power, he sware that not one of that generation should enter Canaan, except Caleb and Joshua, but should all die in the wilderness, Num 14:20; Deu 1:34, Deu 1:35; and ordered them to turn, and get into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea. In that wilderness the Israelites, as Moses informs us, sojourned thirty-eight years, Deu 2:14 : And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zereb, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them. Wherefore, although the Israelites provoked God to wrath in the wilderness, from the day they came out of the land of Egypt until their arrival in Canaan, as Moses told them, Deu 9:7, their greatest provocation, the provocation in which they showed the greatest degree of evil disposition, undoubtedly was their refusing to go into Canaan from Kadesh. It was therefore very properly termed the bitter provocation and the day of temptation, by way of eminence; and justly brought on them the oath of God, excluding them from his rest in Canaan. To distinguish this from the provocation at Rephidim, it is called Meribah-Kadesh," Deu 32:51. See Dr. Macknight.

When your fathers tempted me - It would be better to translate οὑ where than when, as the Vulgate has done in its ubi; and this translation has been followed by Wiclif, Coverdale, Tindal, and our first translators in general. In my old MS. Bible the 7th, 8th, and 9th verses stand thus: -

Wherefore as the Holy Gost seith, to-day gif yhe han herde his voyce: nye yhe herden ghour hertis as in wrath-thinge, after the day of temptacioun in desert. Where ghoure fadris temptiden me: provyden and saiden my werkis. Wherefore fourtye yeere I was offendid or wrothe to this generatoun.

In behalf of this translation, Dr. Macknight very properly argues: "The word When implies that, at the time of the bitter provocation, the Israelites had seen God's works forty years; contrary to the history, which shows that the bitter provocation happened, in the beginning of the third year after the Exodus: whereas the translation where, as well as the matter of fact, represents God as saying, by David, that the Israelites tempted God in the wilderness during forty years, notwithstanding all that time they had seen God's miracles."

Wherefore I was grieved - God represents himself as the Father of this great Jewish family, for whose comfort and support he had made every necessary provision, and to whom he had given every proof of tenderness and fatherly affection; and because, they disobeyed him, and walked ill that way in which they could not but be miserable, therefore he represents himself as grieved and exceedingly displeased with them.

They do alway err in their hearts - Their affections are set on earthly things, and they do not acknowledge my ways to be right - holy, just, and good. They are radically evil; and they are evil, continually. They have every proof, of my power and goodness, and lay nothing to heart. They might have been saved, but they would not. God was grieved on this account. Now, can we suppose that it would have grieved him if, by a decree of his own, he had rendered their salvation impossible?

So I sware in my wrath - God's grief at their continued disobedience became wrath at their final impenitence, and therefore he excluded them from the promised rest.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you - Take warning by those disobedient Israelites; they were brought out of the house of bondage, and had the fullest promise of a land of prosperity and rest. By their disobedience they came short of it, and fell in the wilderness. Ye have been brought from the bondage of sin, and have a most gracious promise of an everlasting inheritance among the saints in light; through unbelief and disobedience they lost their rest, through the same ye may lose yours. An evil heart of unbelief will head away from the living God. What was possible in their case, is possible in yours. The apostle shows here five degrees of apostasy:

1. Consenting to sin, being deceived by its solicitations.

2. Hardness of heart, through giving way to sin.

3. Unbelief in consequence of this hardness which leads them to call even the truth of the Gospel in question.

4. This unbelief causing them to speak evil of the Gospel, and the provision God has made for the salvation of their souls.

5. Apostasy itself, or falling off from the living God; and thus extinguishing all the light that was in them, and finally grieving the Spirit of God, so that he takes his flight, and leaves them to a seared conscience and reprobate mind.

See Leigh. He who begins to give the least way to sin is in danger of final apostasy; the best remedy against this is to get the evil heart removed, as one murderer in the house is more to be dreaded than ten without.

But exhort one another daily - This supposes a state of chose Church fellowship, without which they could not have had access to each other.

While it is called to-day - Use time while you have: it, for by and by there will be no more present time; all will be future; all will be eternity. Daily signifies time continued. To-day, all present time. Your fathers said: Let us make ourselves a captain, and return back unto Egypt, Num 14:4. Thus they exhorted each other to depart from the living God. Be ye warned by their example; let not that unbelieving heart be in you that was in them; exhort each other daily to cleave to the living God; lest, if ye, do not, ye, like them, may be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

For we are made partakers of Christ - Having believed in Christ as the promised Messiah, and embraced the whole Christian system, they were consequently made partakers of all its benefits in this life, and entitled to the fulfillment of all its exceeding great and precious promises relative to the glories of the eternal world. The former they actually possessed, the latter they could have only in case of their perseverance; therefore the apostle says, If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, i.e. of our life. For our participation of glory depends on our continuing steadfast in the faith, to the end of our Christian race.

The word ὑποστασις, which we here translate confidence, from ὑπο, under, and ἱστημι, to place or stand, signifies properly a basis or foundation; that on which something else is builded, and by which it is supported. Their faith in Christ Jesus was this hypostasis or foundation; on that all their peace, comfort, and salvation were builded. If this were not held fast to the end, Christ, in his saving influences, could not be held fast; and no Christ, no heaven. He who has Christ in him, has the well-founded hope of glory; and he who is found in the great day with Christ in his heart, will have an abundant entrance into eternal glory.

While it is said, To-day - You may see the necessity of perseverance from the saying, "Today, if ye will hear his voice," therefore harden not your hearts - do not neglect so great a salvation; hold fast what ye have obtained, and let no man take your crown. See on Heb 3:7-9 (note) and Heb 3:12 (note).

For some, when they had heard, did provoke - There is a various reading here, which consists merely in the different placing of an accent, and yet gives the whole passage a different turn: - τινες, from τις, who, if read with the accent on the epsilon, τινὲς, is the plural indefinite, and signifies some, as in our translation; if read with the accent on the iota, τίνες, it has an interrogative meaning; and, according to this, the whole clause, τίνες γαρ ακουσαντες παρεπικραναν; But who were those hearers who did bitterly provoke? αλλ' ου παντες οἱ εξελθοντες εξ Αιγυπτου δια Μωσεως; Were they not all they who came out of the land of Egypt by Moses? Or, the whole clause may be read with one interrogation: But who were those hearers that did bitterly provoke, but all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? This mode of reading is followed by some editions, and by Chrysostom and Theodoret, and by several learned moderns. It is more likely that this is the true reading, as all that follows to the end of the 18th verse is a series of interrogations.

Should it be said that all did not provoke, for Joshua and Caleb are expressly excepted; I answer, that the term all may be with great propriety used, when out of many hundreds of thousands only two persons were found who continued faithful. To these also we may add the priests and the whole tribe of Levi, who, it is very likely, did not provoke; for, as Dr. Macknight very properly remarks, they were not of the number of those who were to fight their way into Canaan, being entirely devoted to the service of the sanctuary. See Num 1:3, Num 1:45, and Num 1:49. And therefore what remained of them after forty years, no doubt, entered Canaan; for it appears from Num 34:17, and Jos 24:33, that Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was one of those who did take possession of Canaan. Should it be still said our version appears to be most proper, because all did not provoke; it may be answered, that the common reading, τινὲς, some, is too contracted in its meaning to comprehend the hundreds of thousands who did rebel.

But with whom was he grieved forty years? - I believe it was Surenhusius who first observed that "the apostle, in using the term forty years, elegantly alludes to the space of time which had elapsed since the ascension of our Lord till the time in which this epistle was written, which was about forty years." But this does not exactly agree with what appears to be the exact date of this epistle. However, God had now been a long time provoked by that race rejecting the manifested Messiah, as he was by the conduct of their forefathers in the wilderness; and as that provocation was punished by a very signal judgment, so they might expect this to be punished also. The analogy was perfect in the crimes, and it might reasonably be expected to be so in the punishment. And was not the destruction of Jerusalem a proof of the heinous nature of their crimes, and of the justice of God's outpoured wrath?

Whose carcasses fell - Ὡν τα κωλα επεσεν· Whose members fell; for τα κωλα properly signifies the members of the body, and here may be an allusion to the scattered, bleached bones of this people, that were a long time apparent in the wilderness, continuing there as a proof of their crimes, and of the judgments of God.

To whom sware he - God never acts by any kind of caprice; whenever he pours out his judgments, there are the most positive reasons to vindicate his conduct.

Those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness were they who had sinned. And those who did not enter into his rest were those who believed not. God is represented here as swearing that they should not enter in, in order to show the determinate nature of his purpose, the reason on which it was founded, and the height of the aggravation which occasioned it.

So we see that they could not enter in - It was no decree of God that prevented them, it was no want of necessary strength to enable them, it was through no deficiency of Divine counsel to instruct them; all these they had in abundance: but they chose to sin, and would not believe. Unbelief produced disobedience, and disobedience produced hardness of heart and blindness of mind; and all these drew down the judgments of God, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

1. This whole chapter, as the epistle in general, reads a most awful lesson against backsliders, triflers, and loiterers in the way of salvation. Every believer in Christ is in danger of apostasy, while any remains of the evil heart of unbelief are found in him. God has promised to purify the heart; and the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. It is therefore the highest wisdom of genuine Christians to look to God for the complete purification of their souls; this they cannot have too soon, and for this they cannot be too much in earnest.

2. No man should defer his salvation to any future time. If God speaks to-day, it is to-day that he should be heard and obeyed. To defer reconciliation to God to any future period, is the most reprehensible and destructive presumption. It supposes that God will indulge us in our sensual propensities, and cause his mercy to tarry for us till we have consummated our iniquitous purposes. It shows that we prefer, at least for the present, the devil to Christ, sin to holiness, and earth to heaven. And can we suppose that God will be thus mocked? Can we suppose that it can at all consistent with his mercy to extend forgiveness to such abominable provocation? What a man sows that shall he reap. If he sows to the flesh, he shall of the flesh reap corruption. Reader, it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

3. Unbelief has generally been considered the most damning of all sins. I wish those who make this assertion would condescend to explain themselves. What is this unbelief that damns and ruins mankind? Their not permitting their minds to be persuaded of the truths which God speaks. Απιστια, from α, negative, and πιστις, faith, signifies faithless or to be without faith. And this is an effect from another cause. In Heb 4:11, these very people are said to have fallen through unbelief; but there the word is απειθεια, from α, negative, and πειθω, to persuade. They heard the Divine instructions, they saw God's stupendous miracles; but they would not suffer themselves to be persuaded, that he who said and did such things would perform those other things which he had either threatened or promised: hence they had no faith, because they were unpersuaded; and their unbelief was the effect of their unpersuaded or unpersuadable mind. And their minds were not persuaded of God's truth, because they had ears open only to the dictates of the flesh; see on Heb 4:2 (note). Here then is the damning sin, the not inferring, from what God has said and done, that he will do those other things which he has either threatened or promised. And how few are there who are not committing this sin daily! Reader, dost thou in this state dream of heaven? Awake out of sleep!

4. Where there are so many snares and dangers it is impossible to be too watchful and circumspect. Satan, as a roaring lion, as a subtle serpent, or in the guise of an angel of light, is momentarily going about seeking whom he may deceive, blind, and devour; and, when it is considered that the human heart, till entirely renewed, is on his side, it is a miracle of mercy that any soul escapes perdition: no man is safe any longer than he maintains the spirit of watchfulness and prayer; and to maintain such a spirit, he has need of all the means of grace. He who neglects any of them which the mercy of God has placed in his power, tempts the devil to tempt him. As a preventive of backsliding and apostasy, the apostle recommends mutual exhortation. No Christian should live for himself alone; he should consider his fellow Christian as a member of the same body, and feel for him accordingly, and have, succor, and protect him. When this is carefully attended to in religious society, Satan finds it very difficult to make an inroad on the Church; but when coldness, distance, and a want of brotherly love take place, Satan can attack each singly, and, by successive victories over individuals, soon make an easy conquest of the whole.

The heavenly calling - God calls from heaven, and to heaven, by the gospel. Consider the Apostle - The messenger of God, who pleads the cause of God with us. And High Priest - Who pleads our cause with God. Both are contained in the one word Mediator. He compares Christ, as an Apostle, with Moses; as a Priest, with Aaron. Both these offices, which Moses and Aaron severally bore, he bears together, and far more eminently. Of our profession - The religion we profess.

His house - The church of Israel, then the peculiar family of God. Num 12:7.

He that hath builded it hath more glory than the house - Than the family itself, or any member of it.

Now Christ, he that built not only this house, but all things, is God - And so infinitely greater than Moses or any creature.

And Moses verily - Another proof of the pre - eminence of Christ above Moses. Was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of the things which were afterwards to be spoken - That is, which was a full confirmation of the things which he afterward spake concerning Christ.

But Christ was faithful as a Son; whose house we are, while we hold fast, and shall be unto the end, if we hold fast our confidence in God, and glorying in his promises; our faith and hope.

Wherefore - Seeing he is faithful, be not ye unfaithful. Psa 95:7, &c.

As in the provocation - When Israel provoked me by their strife and murmurings. In the day of temptation - When at the same time they tempted me, by distrusting my power and goodness. Exod 17:7.

Where your fathers - That hard - hearted and stiff - necked generation. So little cause had their descendants to glory in them. Tempted me - Whether I could and would help them. Proved me - Put my patience to the proof, even while they saw my glorious works both of judgment and mercy, and that for forty years.

Wherefore - To speak after the manner of men. I was grieved - Displeased, offended with that generation, and said, They always err in their hearts - They are led astray by their stubborn will and vile affections. And - For this reason, because wickedness has blinded their understanding. They have not known my ways - By which I would have led them like a flock. Into my rest - In the promised land.

Take heed, lest there be in any of you - As there was in them. An evil heart of unbelief - Unbelief is the parent of all evil, and the very essence of unbelief lies in departing from God, as the living God - The fountain of all our life, holiness, happiness.

But, to prevent it, exhort one another, while it is called To - day - This to - day will not last for ever. The day of life will end soon, and perhaps the day of grace yet sooner.

For we are made partakers of Christ - And we shall still partake of him and all his benefits, if we hold fast our faith unto the end. If - But not else; and a supposition made by the Holy Ghost is equal to the, strongest assertion. Both the sentiment and the manner of expression are the same as Heb 3:6.

Were they not all that came out of Egypt - An awful consideration! The whole elect people of God (a very few excepted) provoked God presently after their great deliverance, continued to grieve his Spirit for forty years, and perished in their sin!

So we see they could not enter in - Though afterward they desired it.

1 WHerefore holy brethren , partakers of the heavenly calling , consider the apostle and high-priest of our profession Christ Jesus .

Several Uses the Holy Ghost makes from ver. 1. of this chapter to the end of chap. 4. Of the Gospel Doctrine of God the Son incarnate, set by the Father in Office, to deal for Sinners towards God as their Great Prophet; the Counsel he giveth, is comprehended in the six first Verses of this Chapter; and as directing these Hebrews to their Duty, so further explaining and confirming his Office to them, by comparing of him with Moses, and setting him as above Angels, so above him, and to be so valued, esteemed and preferred by these Hebrews: Seeing this great Gospel-Prophet was for a little while made lower than the Angels in his Humanity, and it was infinitely beneficial to us upon the account of what he suffered in it in our stead, and purchased by it for our Good; Therefore should those who are partakers of it, being related in the Flesh to him as Hebrews, descending with them from Abraham, consider, but much more as Christians, Believing and Adopted in him to be God's Children, and sanctified by his Spirit, 1 Pet. 1.1, 2, 3, 4. and 2 Pet. 1.1.

And made thus a Christian Fraternity by the heavenly calling of them out of the World by the Gospel; when by his Spirit he enlightened their Minds, and renewed their Wills, and made them obedient to it, so as for the temper of their Souls they are made holy, and for their Condition happy; the work of God's Power and Mercy eminently appearing in it: God therein preventing Man, so as he influenceth him to hear him from Heaven, walk worthy of Heaven, and at last to rest in Heaven for ever.

[non-Latin text not transcribed] imports not a bare single act of the Mind to think on, or understand, but a repeated one to think again and again, expressed by that Periphrasis of laying it to heart, pressing on their Spirits the due effort of Faith and Obedience arising out of this Observation, Isai. 52.15. Of God's Messenger, his own Son sent from Heaven to be Incarnate, with Authority to execute in his Humane Nature his Prophetical, as all his Offices, and with Authority to send forth his Apostles to do their part, Iohn 20.21. which is no more than is intimated in that Title, the Messenger of the Covenant, Isaiah 42.19. and Mal. 3.1. That was to propose it to, and confirm it with them. This was he by whom Moses desired God's Message might be sent to them, Exod. 4.13. and whom he foretold should bring it, Deut. 18.15. Acts 3.22, 23.

The Son is the great Gospel-High-Priest to deal in all matters with God for them, chap. 2.17. The Offices divided among other persons in the Old-Testament-Church were all united in his Person, he doth transcend them all, being a High-Priest peculiar to the Called and Sanctified Ones of God, of which all preceeding were faint resemblances and types; He, the most excellent Minister of the Christian Faith and Religion professed by them; being Anointed unto all these Offices in the Flesh by the Father with the Holy Ghost, chap. 1.9. and being Iesus a Saviour, our Emmanuel, God on our side, saving his People from their Sins, and re-uniting them to God, Mat. 1.21, 23. Iohn 17.21, 22, 23.

Marginal references: Phil. 3.14.; Rom. 15.8. chap. 4.14. and 6.20. and 8.1. and 9.11.

2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him , as also Moses was faithful in all his house .

The Spirit inforceth the Duty counselled on them from the Fidelity of that grand Gospel-Minister in his Offices; exemplified in a Parallel with Moses whom he did exceed. He did most exactly perform all he was intrusted with, according to the intention and end of his Commission. He did most faithfully reveal God, Iohn 1.18. and his whole saving Will to whom God sent him, Iohn 3.31, to 34. and 5.34. and 8.28, 38. As his great Prophet, Acts 3.22. He as faithfully discharged the Office of his Priesthood in sacrificing himself to atone God for Sinners, and as faithfully interceeds for all with him unto this day, and will do so for ever, with all truth and Fidelity discharging his Trust, chap. 7.24, to 28. and 9, 11, 12, 14, 24, 26. He was faithful in fulfilling all his Types, and in changing and finishing all the Ceremonial Constitutions, and filling them up with Gospel ones, according to God's Will revealed to him about it. He was true to his Father who appointed and constituted him to these Offices, and solemnly invested him in them. [non-Latin text not transcribed] here not signifying the making of a Creature, but the making of an Officer, the Person existing before; He puts him into this special Charge and Office by anointing him for it, Acts 2.36.

Moses was the Jewish Mediator, and brought them the Law Moral, Judicial and Ceremonial from God; as he was highly esteemed by them, so God testifieth of his Fidelity. Christ was not only like to him in Fidelity, but as to both the truth and degree of it exceeding him. Moses kept to his Pattern shewn him in the Mount, and Christ fulfilled intirely his Fathers Will. Iohn 5.30. and 6.38. and is preferr'd to him. Moses was so in the whole Church of Israel, set out by this Metaphor of a House; but Christ in all God's House and Family both in Heaven and in Earth, not the least thing that concerned the Family, but Christ fulfilled; not the meanest person in it, but he careth for, and saveth it.

Marginal references: Gr. made. 1 Sam. 12.6.; Num. 12.7.

3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses , inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house .

The Spirit proves to the Hebrews, that the Gospel-Prophet was not only like to, but more excellent than their greatest Prophet, and who had familiarity with God beyond others, as God testifieth, Numb. 12.6, 7, 8. This he proves by an undeniable supposition that God is better than Man; such is Christ; which he demonstrates by a Work of God, His making the Church and all things. If he made the Church, then he is better than the whole Church, and worthy of more Honour than Moses who is but a Member of it. For this Man is not in the Original: This Gospel-Prophet, who was God as well as Man, the Apostle and High Priest of Christians, was esteemed and accounted by God the Father the best Judge of worth, and who appointed him to his Offices: He treated him more honourably than Moses, as he deserved it, having real Excellency and Worth in himself. He was God's Son, Moses his Servant; he lay in God's Bosom, saw his Face, was his Fellow, Zech. 13.7. Iohn 1.14.18. Moses only heard his Voice, and saw his Back-parts, Exod. 33.19, 20, 23. and 34.5, 6, 7. Moses's Face only shined, but Christ's Person was intirely glorious, ver. 29, 30. 2 Cor. 3.7. compare Matth. 17.2, to 6. 2 Pet. 1.17.

He is the cause Principal, Efficient and Architect of this Building, not a Stone is laid in it without him. By this Metaphor of House to which it relateth, is meant God's Spiritual Building and Temple, 1 Cor. 3.10, 16, 17. Stiled God's Houshold or Family, Ephes. 2.19, to 22. In sum, God's Church, built by and on Christ, of which Moses was but one living Stone or Member, 1 Pet. 2.4, to 8. Therefore this Builder ought to be esteemed and honoured above the Church, or Moses a Member of it.

Marginal references: Zech. 6.12. Mat. 16.18.

4 For every house is builded by some man , but he that build all things is God .

The excellency of this Builder is evinced by his Nature and preference beyond his Building, as any Man is beyond his; for every Earthly Artificial Building, a material House built for Habitation, though it may Metaphorically and Analogically be understood of a Common-Wealth, or Political one, which is contrived, framed, and raised by some Man; yet an effect can't produce it self, nor a House raise it self; both must have a Cause, both the House wherein Moses was faithful, and Christ's House.

But he who built his Church in all Ages, whether the Israelitish or Christian, and all things about it, of which we speak, and all things else, Matth. 16.18. Iohn 1.1, 3. Col. 1.20. He is God essentially; and Christ doing God's work and building all things, is not by Name only, but by Nature, God. The whole World is his Workmanship, but the Church is the most rare, curious, and excellent Piece of it. Christ is not part of the House, as Moses is, but the Builder of it; He is the Creator and Builder▪ both of the Church and Him, and so infinitely above him.

Marginal references: Eph. 2.10.

5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a Servant , for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after .

The Gospel-Minister, doth not only excel Moses as much as a Builder doth his Work; but as a Son doth a Servant, proved in this, and ver. 6. Your great Legal Prophet, in whom many of you Hebrews trust, Iohn 5.54. did truly and fully reveal and do what God charged him, in ministring his Will to his Church, Exod. 40.16, to 34. He did not diminish from, nor add the least to God's Charge, [non-Latin text not transcribed], Numb. 12.7. As a Minister, Moses was a faithful as any God had, not a Slave or a Drudge, but a free, willing, ingenuous Servant. most intirely and obsequiously addicting himself in that honourable Place and Office of great Trust, to which God called him; a Stewardly-Servant, a Prophet and a Prince, inspecting and ordering all according to God's Will, in all Christ's House and Family, his Church, he is but a Servant.

His faithfulness was evident in his bearing true Witness to the Church, of all God made known to him, that they might not be uncertain of the Truth; even all that Truth, which was more fully and clearly to be spoken by the Prophets after him, and by Christ and his Apostles; but which the Spirit shall speak to them further concerning Christ and his Church in this Epistle, Iohn 5.46. In which is insinuated, that Christ was the Truth himself witnessed to by Moses, who was a Witness of an inferior degree, though in his Work faithful, and conformed unto Christ.

6 But Christ as a Son over his own house , whose house are we , if we hold fast the confidence , and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end .

The anointed Gospel-Prophet by God the Father, chap. 1. ver. 9. who was eminently faithful and true to his Trust, who is Heir and Lord of all, and therefore by the Law of Nature and Nations is above the best Servant, Gal. 4.1. Who is the Head and Lord over his own Church, which he purchased by his own Blood, Acts, 20.28. and built for himself; Moses was in it but a Servant, fulfilling his Master's Will and Pleasure, and ordering all in it agreeable to it.

The Hebrews personal Priviledge, as well as the Prophets excellency, perswading and obliging them to know by consideration what is represented to them, and to influence their hearts to a perseverance under his Teaching and Government in their Christian course, because they are Parts of his House, and Members of his Church; a particular House and Body, and Church to him, and Members of the Catholick one. A Temple wherein God doth inhabit and dwell by his Spirit, 1 Cor. 3.16, 17. compare Ephes. 2.21. and 3.17. 1 Tim. 3.15. A House he will glorify and perfect with his own Presence, and which he will fill with transcendently more Glory than he did the literal Temple, Exod. 40.34, 35. 2 Chron. 7.1, 2. Isa. 6.1, 5. compare Haggai 2.6. But how compleatly shall it be filled with his Glory in Heaven, Phil. 3.21. How should such a glorious state influence them to a sincere perseverance in his Religion.

A tenacious holding, as with both Hands, with our utmost Strength against all Insinuations and Temptations of all Adversaries whatsoever, which would either intice or force them from it. [non-Latin text not transcribed] is an ingenuous, bold, and confident profession of our Hope before all the World, without doubting, wavering, or fearful shaking about what is the true object of it, let the Persecutions or Sufferings for it be what they will. Hope here is a firm expectation of Salvation in Eternal Glory by Jesus Christ. It necessarily includes in it Faith, for we cannot hope for that we do not believe; And Faith representing to the Soul from the Gospel, Christ purchasing, and the Father in him covenanting and promising to give it to us if we truly believe in, and sincerely obey him, so as we may on the surest and best grounds look out for it, and expect it, ver. 14. chap. 6.11. Acts 26.6, 7. compare Col. 1.5.23. Titus 2.13. 1 Pet. 1.3.

This Hope keeps up the Soul in a joyous and glorious Condition under all threatning Evil; it makes Christians glory in Tribulation, Rom. 5.2, 3. and 12.12. Rejoicing in want of sensible good, 2 Cor. 6.10. compare 1 Pet. 5.10. Both this confidence and glorying of Hope must be retained firm to the end. Persevere they must in the exercise of them with stability and constancy, till they reach the Salvation of their Souls, Col. 1.23. 1 Pet. 1.5, to 10. which Christians are not to trust to their own power to compass, but on the continued assistance of God in the use of those means that he hath appointed thereunto, who will never be wanting to such who do so rely on him, and constantly seek it from him, 1 Cor. 1.8, 9.

Marginal references: 1 Cor. 6.19. 1 Cor. 6.16.; Mat. 24.13.

7 Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith , To day if ye will hear his voice .

The Spirit inforceth his Counsel for these Hebrews improvement of his Doctrine about the Gospel-Prophet, by alledging a sad example of their Fathers refusing to hear and obey him, from ver. 7, to 11. The Allegation might be best placed in Parenthesis, and the introductive Illative Particle Wherefore, may refer to ver. 12. Take heed, Brethren. As the Spirit, the Holy One, that third relation in the Trinity, whose Essence is Holiness, is the Author of what the Psalmist doth write, and is here quoted by him, Psal. 95.7▪ to 12. So that the Example registred is true and infallible, and should suitably affect them, reading it.

Every present Time, wherein the great Builder and Lord of God's Church speaketh to them; God would not have a hearer of his Prophet to procrastinate a day, but to be exercising all those internal Acts, which this word of sense Hear doth comprehend, such as reacheth the Heart as well as the Ear, if you will attend, intend, believe, love and obey; a hearing better than all external Sacrifices, 1 Sam. 15.22. The Angel of the Covenant speaking his Mind and Will to them by Moses and the Prophets, which was for the matter of it Faith in God's Covenant, made with them in and through Christ, Psal. 95.7. compare Exod. 23.20, 21, 22, 23.

Marginal references: Ver. 15.

8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation , in the day of temptation in the wilderness :

To help in the former Duty the Spirit subjoins this negative Counsel, that is stiled hard, which will not yield to any Impression: Make not your Heart a Stone, so as not to understand, believe, or obey God's Voice to it, Deut. 15.7. and 1 Sam. 6.6. For God requires them to be his Fleshy Tables, to write his Will on, 2 Cor. 3.3. The hardening of this part is the hardening of the whole person, and when hardned by themselves, is provoking God's judicial hardning of them to their Destruction.

[non-Latin text not transcribed]. In the bitter contention, comprehending in it both Work, Season and Place. Called Meribah, Numb. 20.13, 14. Names of Places and Persons by Words of the same signification, though not of the same sound.

In the day of Massah, when Israel in the Wilderness did murmur, and strive against, and vexed God (after he had divided the Sea for them) for their want of Water, Exod. 17.2, 7. Deut. 6.16. and 33.8. That bitter Contest of unbelief after the sight of so many Miracles when they cried out, Is the Lord among us? Psal. 95.8. It may also refer to the whole Forty Years time of their Murmuring and Tempting him in the Wilderness.

9 When your Fathers tempted me , proved me , and saw my works forty years .

In the time and place formentioned, the Fathers from whom you derive your Being and Corruption, yet glory in them and their Traditions, whose state is aggravated from your Line of successive Rebellion, Acts 7.51, 52, 53. They have embittered my Spirit by their unbelief: For upon the want of Water, they questioned his Power, Wisdom, Truth and Providence to the denial of all, and sometimes multiplied it, Numb. 16, &c.

A discontented quarrel with, and scrutiny of Christ the Redeemer, that if he would not serve their Lust, they would deny him, and apostatize from him, and return to Egypt, notwithstanding their having sufficient proof of him, yet they would contend with him, 1 Cor. 10.9.

All the Redeemers Miracles, which he wrought for them in Egypt, and the Wilderness, they saw them plainly and presently on their tempting him; Miracles of Mercy and of Punishments, by Fire, by the Earth opening, by Fiery Serpents, by the Sword, by consuming 600000 of them; all which were Evidences sufficient to convince any of the Wickedness of mistrusting him. Deut. 29.2, 3, 4. This hardning of their Hearts yet continued Forty Years, till all but two of them, Ioshua and Cale[illegible: 1 letter], were consumed: God by their Sin was so grieved with them after such experience of his Power for so long a time. See Exod. 32.10. Numb. 14.22.

10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation , and said, They do alway err in their hearts , and they have not known my ways .

Because they thus tempted and proved him by hardning their hearts in unbelief▪ Forty Years, God the Redeemer, Isaiah 63.16. 1 Cor. 10.9. was grieved, is attributed to him improperly, who is not subject to Passions, but as Men grown impatient with grievous and oppressive Burdens; so He expresseth his dislike, disdain of them, and resolution to bear no longer, as Amos 2.13. They split on him, as a Ship on a sharp point of a Rock, so as God hath loss, offence and trouble by it; and all of them did so carry it to Him the whole Age of them but Caleb and Ioshua, Psal. 95.10.

They follow Deceit and Lying in their Doctrine and Worship with all their Heart, so that it is diffused through their Persons, and that seat of Truth is made depth of Error, to the stupifying of their Hearts even to very madness, and this was their state all their time.

Notwithstanding God's Works were among them and his Word, yet they would not know his Mind, so as to approve, love, and walk in God's ways. His Law, Doctrine, revealed Truth and Commands were all cast behind their Back, Ezek. 23.35.

11 So I sware in my wrath : They shall not enter into my rest .

Such was their Provocations and Temptations of their Redeemer, that he determined their Punishment; the certainty of which he fixt by an irreversible Oath, which is the highest confirmation of Vengeance when it cometh from Wrath; as of his Promise when it issueth from Grace, Numb. 14.27, 28, to 36. Psal. 95.11. compar'd chap. 6.17, 18. And the Spring of it here is Wrath, inraged by their Murmurings and Unbelief.

The Punishment is exprest in an expostulatory form, which is vehemently asserting the negative of the Question; They shall never enter into my Rest. If they enter in, then I am neither True nor God. The Rest literal was the Land of Canaan, Deut. 12.9. in the Truth of that Type, Heaven. It is the Redeemer who speaks this, whose Rest it is by way of Efficiency, Purchase, and Donation; he gives entrance into it, and shuts out of it, Matth. 7.21, 22, 23. This is a shutting them out of all Peace, into Eternal Sorrow, Anguish, Distress and Trouble, and every other Evil contrary unto this Rest.

Marginal references: Gr. If they shall enter.

12 Take heed Brethren , lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God .

Here the Spirit applieth the former dreadful example of Sin and Judgment to the Hebrews, to forewarn them how they sinned as these did, lest they partake of the like Vengeance, and so enters his Caution against Unbelief. [non-Latin text not transcribed] signifies not an act of Sight, but of the Mind, Circumspection, Watchfulness, and Heed, taking exactest caution of the Evil forbidden, chap. 12.15, 25. 1 Cor. 8.9. Brethren they were to Paul in the Flesh, and more so as True Believers in Christ, he cautions them particularly, one by one, lest any Root of Bitterness should be amongst them, chap. 12.15.

The Heart is the first, and proper, and chiefest subject wherein all Sin riseth, and from thence issueth into Words and Works, Matth. 15.18, 19. compare Iames 1.14, 15. This comprehendeth the Mind, Will and Affections, the whole inward Man; and this Heart in every Man is naturally and habitually Evil, continually forging and framing of it, Gen. 6.5. compare Ierem. 17.9. Almighty Grace only can change this Heart, yet it works by Counsel, and makes the Soul willing to use the means appointed to effect it. VNBELIEF, though but in it self, is but a denial to assent to, or rely on the Will of God revealed to it, yet is the Spring and Fountain of all other Sin, the teeming Womb from whence all issueth, as, Uncleanness, Idolatry, Unrighteousness, Superstition, &c. It was the hardening Sin of their fore-fathers, they would not Believe, and then did Murmur and Rebel: It is the root of Apostacy; Men breaking their Covenant with God in Christ, do then desert him: Against this Persidious, Impious, perverted Temper doth he caution them to watch, that neither for measure nor season they ever do admit or allow it; that there be not at all in the least degree, or at any time such a base, malignant quality in their Hearts, Rom. 11.20, 21.

Turning away, standing off, and separating the Heart, it implies in it a real, total, final defection; actual and formal Apostacy from him whom they had owned and received, and is actual Rebellion against their lawful Soveraign, by turning either Jews or Heathens, and renouncing the Christian Religion and its Author, who is the Living God, not only formally as opposed to dead Idols, but efficiently the Author and Fountain of all sorts of Life, but especially of Spiritual and Eternal Life, Iohn 5.19, 20, 21, 25, 26. which Living God is our Lord Jesus Christ, ver. 7. whose Voice they were to hear, who was tempted by their Unbelief in the Wilderness, 1 Cor. 10.9. who gave the Law to them at Sinai, chap. 12.26. So that to apostatize from him and his Religion, is to apostatize from God, and to renounce Eternal Life, and to subject themselves to Eternal Punishments, which he ever liveth to inflict on them; Unless they took heed to avoid this Unbelief, it was impossible for them to persevere in Christianity, when threatned with Persecutions, and the loss of Peace, Liberty, Safety, Estates, Honours, Relations, and Life it self for it.

13 But exhort one another daily, whilst it is called, To day , lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin .

The means to avoid the former Evil, is, to Exhort, which as a private Duty, is an earnest, frequent calling on, stirring up, or perswading, incouraging to perseverance in the Christian Religion, and to put away all Heart-Evil, especially Unbelief, which traineth to Apostacy; to which are subservient God's Precepts, Promises, Threatnings suitably applied by them: And this is not only privately, but especially publickly, by the regular Ministration of the Word and Ordinances to the whole Society of Christians, as they are personally obliged to it, being Members one of another, 1 Cor. 12.25, 27. And this they are to do instantly, for no Man is sure what may be on the Morrow, he being but a Days-Man, living, and supplied, as working by the day; sufficient to the day is the Duty as well as the Evil in it, Matth. 6.11, 34. Whilst then the day of Grace and Repentance lasts, in which God calls and intreats, and will hear and help, the opportune time of exhorting, the very instant wherein God expecteth it, ver. 7. Psal. 95.7. And every one as thus to look to another, must begin with himself, lest any miscarry; Charity, especially as to this, should begin in every Christian at home.

Lest themselves or others, refuse the Gospel rendred, or reject and apostatize from it after professing it, so as to become not only obstinate, but rebellious by Unbelief, and an habitual hardned Heart; so as the sinful, natural habit of our Soul, Iames 1.12.15. So horrible vile in it self, that were it not masked, Nature would abhor it, might be drawn forth by the false Colours, as the Devil blinds Sin with, to delude the Understanding, and to catch and insnare the malignant Will, that it swallows it more and more, to the hardning of the Heart; That Divine Promises, Threatnings, nor Admonitions can make any impression; it being unmoved under the application of all these, disregards the Christian Faith, and hath its issue in a total Apostacy, Ier. 17.9. Ephes. 4.22. 1 Tim. 1.19.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ , if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end .

For, shews this to be a rational motive, urging home the former Counsel, unto which the following Condition doth agree; for we Believing Christians and Brethren are made [non-Latin text not transcribed], Partners with the Primitive Proprietor supposed in it, even Christ, who hath of his own the fulness of God, Life, Grace, Glory, and all good; in all which fulness of his we share, by virtue of our Union with him, Iohn 1.16. Ephes. 1.22, 23. Col. 1.19. and 2.9, 10. And he by his Spirit will free us from the deceitfulness of Sin, and hardning by it.

If by a Spiritual tenaciousness, and firm fixing in our hearts, we hold [non-Latin text not transcribed], either the principal or fundamental Truth, as the word signifieth in Sciences; or, the entrance or beginning of our Course, as used in things, so as the first step in Christianity is stiled a beginning of Grace.

[non-Latin text not transcribed], in personal relations is, a real subsistence, as of the Son in the Trinity, chap. 1.3. In things, the Basis and Foundation upholding others, and this in Christianity is Christ principally, who bears up his Church, Eph. 2.20, 21, 22. And Faith the Instrument, whereby we receive Christ, is so called, chap. 11.1. That which renders present and subsisting what is hoped for to the Soul; so that here it imports the retaining firm that Principle of Truth, upon which Christians are bottomed and supported to Life, that is, Christ himself, and the true Doctrine of him; as also, that we must firmly stand in the first beginnings of Faith, and encrease in them, so as they may be firmly fixed in our Hearts, and our Hearts on them, so as never to be removed as long as we live; our retaining firmly of this, makes us partners in Christ; both instrumentally helping in it, and evidentially; It being the infallible consequence of true Grace, holding us to this Communion with Christ. How ought these Conditions to quicken the activity of Believers.

15 Whilst it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation .

This is another circumstance of the Example of the Iews applied to them: That since now Christ is speaking to you, as he did to your fore-Fathers then; the same Voice concerneth you both, so, as not to morrow, or when you will, but To day, if you will believe what God speaketh to you by him, and hath recorded in his Word concerning his being the Messiah, and render not your selves deaf to God's Voice, or obdurate through Unbelief, as your fore-Fathers did, when their Unbelief and hardness of Heart imbitter'd God's Spirit against them, because acting in it against their solemn Vows and Engagements to him, so as to Apostatize from him.

Marginal references: Ver. 7.

16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke : howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses .

This is a rational enforcement of the former Duty pressed, it being as possible for them to provoke Christ as others, they should look to it, and not harden their hearts; for the greater some, the most of the Congregation of Israel imbittered God's Spirit by their Unbelief and hardness of Heart; though Christ spake to them from Heaven, as never was before done, and daily by Moses they were hearing Counsels by which they might live, yet provoked they him, and would not believe.

This rightly interprets the Psalmist, and sets a better example of their Fathers for them to follow: Let Caleb and Ioshua, Believers, and Obedient to God, be your Patterns to imitate; He aggravates the Disobedience of the one, and the Obedience of the other. They all had equally a clear Exemption and Deliverance from the place of Bondage, and that by Moses, by whom God wrought such Miracles as might command Faith from any; yet these some, by murmuring and striving with the Redeemer, provoked him: how great is their Sin? How suitable and pleasing the Obedience of the others to him?

17 But with whom was he grieved forty years ? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness s?

By these Questions, the Spirit makes a more lively representation of these unbelieving provokers of God, that his Reason may have the more force with them; Do ye observe with whom God was grieved? the form puts them on more exact notice for their caution: God suffers not by Passion, but these redeemed out of Egypt carried it contrary to him, and crost his Will, that which usually grieveth us. Concerning the Word, see ver. 10. It is used by the Septuagint, Deut. 7.26. to express that detestation and abhorrence which Israel was to shew against Idols, that they should be a grief to their Soul not to be indured: Idols are called Grievances; he was displeased and grieved with their Covenant-breaking with him Forty Years together. These Sinners by their Unbelief, Murmuring, Idolatry, Rebellion against his Officers and Ordinances, and their other Lusts, so imbitter'd his Spirit, that he by various Judgments destroyed and turned them into the Grave and Hell together, 1 Cor. 10.5, to 11. Moses and others of God's own cannot be numbred among these Sinners, for their Sins were pardoned, and Persons accepted; and though they came short of the literal, had a much more abundant entrance administred to them into the Heavenly Canaan.

Marginal references: Num. 14.22, 29, &c. [illegible: 1 letter] 26.65. [illegible: 1 word] 5.

18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest , but to them that believed not ?

To prevent these Hebrews falling, the Spirit repeats the direful Oath of God to Apostates in the Wilderness. The form of which was opened, ver. 11. compare Numb. 14.30. The matter sworn was, that they should be so far from possessing, that they should not as much as enter into the Land of Promise, Canaan, which was God's Property, as the whole Earth is; he promised it to them, could only dispossess their Enemies, did give it in Possession to their Seed, and made it a Type of Heaven, and of his Rest there; he swore this in his severe vindictive Justice, so as his Sentence was irreversible: which Oath stands good against all total and final Apostates from him, who have thereby forfeited any Title to God's Eternal Rest.

Those who were unbelieving under all God's Miracles of Mercies and Judgments, which they saw, and so became obstinately disobedient to God's Commands, and broke his Covenant, chap. 8.9. Ier. 31.32. and apostatized from him, and so perished in their gain-saying.

Marginal references: Deut. 1.34, [illegible: 2 letters].

19 So we see they could not enter in, because of unbelief .

The execution of the matter sworn was felt by these Hebrews, which should make them and all that read it, to dread both their Sin and Punishment, which the Gospel would as justly inflict on them, if Unbelievers. It is to be seen in God's written Record of it, and the experienced downfall of such, that God's Oath had shut the Door as to their entrance there, and his Judgments consumed them in the Wilderness; because of their denial of resting on God's Word, and the impious practices that issued from it, in their rejecting Promises, rebelling against Precepts, and murmuring against Providence. God is no respecter of Persons; if we sin so against his Son and Gospel, how much sorer Punishment will overtake us? chap. 10.27, 29.

Attention Due to Christ. (a. d. 62.)

1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; 2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. 3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. 4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. 5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

In these verses we have the application of the doctrine laid down in the close of the last chapter concerning the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And observe,

I. In how fervent and affectionate a manner the apostle exhorts Christians to have this high priest much in their thoughts, and to make him the object of their close and serious consideration; and surely no one in earth or heaven deserves our consideration more than he. That this exhortation might be made the more effectual, observe,

1. The honourable compellation used towards those to whom he wrote: Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. (1.) Brethren, not only my brethren, but the brethren of Christ, and in him brethren to all the saints. All the people of God are brethren, and should love and live like brethren. (2.) Holy brethren; holy not only in profession and title, but in principle and practice, in heart and life. This has been turned by some into scorn: "These," say they, "are the holy brethren;" but it is dangerous jesting with such edge-tools; be not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. Let those that are thus despised and scorned labour to be holy brethren indeed, and approve themselves so to God; and they need not be ashamed of the title nor dread the scoffs of the profane. The day is coming when those that make this a term of reproach would count it their greatest honour and happiness to be taken into this sacred brotherhood. (3.) Partakers of the heavenly calling—partakers of the means of grace, and of the Spirit of grace, that came from heaven, and by which Christians are effectually called out of darkness into marvelous light, that calling which brings down heaven into the souls of men, raises them up to a heavenly temper and conversation, and prepares them to live for ever with God in heaven.

2. The titles he gives to Christ, whom he would have them consider, (1.) As the apostle of our profession, the prime-minister of the gospel church, a messenger and a principal messenger sent of God to men, upon the most important errand, the great revealer of that faith which we profess to hold and of that hope which we profess to have. (2.) Not only the apostle, but the high priest too, of our profession, the chief officer of the Old Testament as well as the New, the head of the church in every state, and under each dispensation, upon whose satisfaction and intercession we profess to depend for pardon of sin, and acceptance with God. (3.) As Christ, the Messiah, anointed and every way qualified for the office both of apostle and high priest. (4.) As Jesus, our Saviour, our healer, the great physician of souls, typified by the brazen serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness, that those who were stung by the fiery serpents might look to him, and be saved.

II. We have the duty we owe to him who bears all these high and honourable titles, and that is to consider him as thus characterized. Consider what he is in himself, what he is to us, and what he will be to us hereafter and for ever; consider him, fix your thoughts upon him with the greatest attention, and act towards him accordingly; look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Here observe, 1. Many that profess faith in Christ have not a due consideration for him; he is not so much thought of as he deserves to be, and desires to be, by those that expect salvation from him. 2. Close and serious consideration of Christ would be of great advantage to us to increase our acquaintance with him, and to engage our love and our obedience to him, and reliance on him. 3. Even those that are holy brethren, and partakers of the heavenly calling, have need to stir up one another to think more of Christ than they do, to have him more in their minds; the best of his people think too seldom and too slightly of him. 4. We must consider Christ as he is described to us in the scriptures, and form our apprehensions of him thence, not from any vain conceptions and fancies of our own.

III. We have several arguments drawn up to enforce this duty of considering Christ the apostle and high priest of our profession.

1. The first is taken from his fidelity, v. 2. He was faithful to him that appointed him, as Moses was in all his house. (1.) Christ is an appointed Mediator; God the Father has sent and sealed him to that office, and therefore his mediation is acceptable to the Father. (2.) He is faithful to that appointment, punctually observing all the rules and orders of his mediation, and fully executing the trust reposed in him by his Father and by his people. (3.) That he is as faithful to him that appointed him as Moses was in all his house. Moses was faithful in the discharge of his office to the Jewish church in the Old Testament, and so is Christ under the New; this was a proper argument to urge upon the Jews, who had so high an opinion of the faithfulness of Moses, and yet his faithfulness was but typical of Christ's.

2. Another argument is taken from the superior glory and excellence of Christ above Moses (v. 3-6); therefore they were more obliged to consider Christ. (1.) Christ was a maker of the house, Moses but a member in it. By the house we are to understand the church of God, the people of God incorporated together under Christ their maker and head, and under subordinate officers, according to his law, observing his institutions. Christ is the maker of this house of the church in all ages: Moses was a minister in the house, he was instrumental under Christ in governing and edifying the house, but Christ is the maker of all things; for he is God, and no one less than God could build the church, either lay the foundation or carry on the superstructure. No less power was requisite to make the church than to make the world; the world was made out of nothing, the church made out of materials altogether unfit for such a building. Christ, who is God, drew the ground-plan of the church, provided the materials, and by almighty power disposed them to receive the form; he has compacted and united this his house, has settled the orders of it, and crowned all with his own presence, which is the true glory of this house of God. (2.) Christ was the master of this house, as well as the maker, v. 5, 6. This house is styled his house, as the Son of God. Moses was only a faithful servant, for a testimony of those things that were afterwards to be revealed. Christ, as the eternal Son of God, is the rightful owner and sovereign ruler of the church. Moses was only a typical governor, for a testimony of all those things relating to the church which would be more clearly, completely, and comfortably revealed in the gospel by the Spirit of Christ; and therefore Christ is worthy of more glory than Moses, and of greater regard and consideration. This argument the apostle concludes, [1.] With a comfortable accommodation of it to himself and all true believers (v. 6). Whose house we are: each of us personally, as we are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and Christ dwells in us by faith; all of us jointly, as we are united by the bonds of graces, truths, ordinances, gospel discipline, and devotions. [2.] With a characteristic description of those persons who constitute this house: "If we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope, firmly to the end; that is, if we maintain a bold and open profession of the truths of the gospel, upon which our hopes of grace and glory are built, and live upon and up to those hopes, so as to have a holy rejoicing in them, which shall abide firm to the end, notwithstanding all that we may meet with in so doing." So that you see there must not only be a setting out well in the ways of Christ, but a stedfastness and perseverance therein unto the end. We have here a direction what those must do who would partake of the dignity and privileges of the household of Christ. First, They must take the truths of the gospel into their heads and hearts. Secondly, They must build their hopes of happiness upon those truths. Thirdly, They must make an open profession of those truths. Fourthly, They must live so up to them as to keep their evidences clear, that they may rejoice in hope, and then they must in all persevere to the end. In a word, they must walk closely, consistently, courageously, and constantly, in the faith and practice of the gospel, that their Master, when he comes, may own and approve them.

Cautions against Apostasy. (a. d. 62.)

7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Here the apostle proceeds in pressing upon them serious counsels and cautions to the close of the chapter; and he recites a passage out of Ps. xc. 7, &c., where observe,

I. What he counsels them to do—to give a speedy and present attention to the call of Christ. "Hear his voice, assent to, approve of, and consider, what God in Christ speaks unto you; apply it to yourselves with suitable affections and endeavours, and set about it this very day, for to-morrow it may be too late."

II. What he cautions them against—hardening their hearts, turning the deaf ear to the calls and counsels of Christ: "When he tells you of the evil of sin, the excellency of holiness, the necessity of receiving him by faith as your Saviour, do not shut your ear and heart against such a voice as this." Observe, The hardening of our hearts is the spring of all our other sins.

III. Whose example he warns them by—that of the Israelites their fathers in the wilderness: As in the provocation and day of temptation; this refers to that remarkable passage at Massah Meribah, Exod. xvii. 2-7. Observe,

1. Days of temptation are often days of provocation.

2. To provoke God, when he is trying us, and letting us see that we entirely depend and live immediately upon him, is a provocation with a witness.

3. The sins of others, especially our relations, should be a warning to us. Our fathers' sins and punishments should be remembered by us, to deter us from following their evil examples. Now as to the sin of the fathers of the Jews, here reflected upon, observe,

(1.) The state in which these fathers were, when they thus sinned: they were in the wilderness, brought out of Egypt, but not got into Canaan, the thoughts whereof should have restrained them from sin.

(2.) The sin they were guilty of: they tempted and provoked God; they distrusted God, murmured against Moses, and would not attend to the voice of God.

(3.) The aggravations of their sin: they sinned in the wilderness, where they had a more immediate dependence upon God: they sinned when God was trying them; they sinned when they saw his works—works of wonder wrought for their deliverance out of Egypt, and their support and supply in the wilderness from day to day. They continued thus to sin against God for forty years. These were heinous aggravations.

(4.) The source and spring of such aggravated sins, which were, [1.] They erred in their hearts; and these heart-errors produced many other errors in their lips and lives. [2.] They did not know God's ways, though he had walked before them. They did not know his ways; neither those ways of his providence in which he had walked towards them, nor those ways of his precept in which they ought to have walked towards God; they did not observe either his providences or his ordinances in a right manner.

(5.) The just and great resentment God had at their sins, and yet the great patience he exercised towards them (v. 10): Wherefore I was grieved with that generation. Note, [1.] All sin, especially sin committed by God's professing privileged people, does not only anger and affront God, but it grieves him. [2.] God is loth to destroy his people in or for their sin, he waits long to be gracious to them. [3.] God keeps an exact account of the time that people go on in sinning against him, and in grieving him by their sins; but at length, if they by their sins continue to grieve the Spirit of God, their sins shall be made grievous to their own spirits, either in a way of judgment or mercy.

(6.) The irreversible doom passed upon them at last for their sins. God swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest, the rest either of an earthly or of a heavenly Canaan. Observe, [1.] Sin, long continued in, will kindle the divine wrath, and make it flame out against sinners. [2.] God's wrath will discover itself in its righteous resolution to destroy the impenitent; he will swear in his wrath, not rashly, but righteously, and his wrath will make their condition a restless condition; there is no resting under the wrath of God.

IV. What use the apostle makes of their awful example, v. 12, 13, &c. He gives the Hebrews a proper caution, and enforces it with an affectionate compellation.

1. He gives the Hebrews a proper caution; the word is, Take heed, blepete—look to it. "Look about you; be upon your guard against enemies both within and without; be circumspect. You see what kept many of your forefathers out of Canaan, and made their carcasses fall in the wilderness; take heed lest you fall into the same sin and snare and dreadful sentence. For you see Christ is head of the church, a much greater person than Moses, and your contempt of him must be a greater sin than their contempt of Moses; and so you are in danger of falling under a severer sentence than they." Observe, The ruin of others should be a warning to us to take heed of the rock they split upon. Israel's fall should for ever be a warning to all who come after them; for all these things happened to them for ensamples (1 Cor. x. 11), and should be remembered by us. Take heed; all who would get safely to heaven must look about them.

2. He enforces the admonition with an affectionate compellation: "Brethren, not only in the flesh, but in the Lord; brethren whom I love, and for whose welfare I labour and long." And here he enlarges upon the matter of the admonition: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Here observe, (1.) A heart of unbelief is an evil heart. Unbelief is a great sin, it vitiates the heart of man. (2.) An evil heart of unbelief is at the bottom of all our sinful departures from God; it is a leading step to apostasy; if once we allow ourselves to distrust God, we may soon desert him. (3.) Christian brethren have need to be cautioned against apostasy. Let those that think they stand take heed lest they fall.

3. He subjoins good counsel to the caution, and advises them to that which would be a remedy against this evil heart of unbelief—that they should exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, v. 13. Observe, (1.) We should be doing all the good we can to one another while we are together, which will be but a short and uncertain time. (2.) Since to-morrow is none of ours, we must make the best improvement of to-day. (3.) If Christians do not exhort one another daily, they will be in danger of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Note, [1.] There is a great deal of deceitfulness in sin; it appears fair, but is filthy; it appears pleasant, but is pernicious; it promises much, but performs nothing. [2.] The deceitfulness of sin is of a hardening nature to the soul; one sin allowed prepares for another; every act of sin confirms the habit; sinning against conscience is the way to sear the conscience; and therefore it should be the great concern of every one to exhort himself and others to beware of sin.

4. He comforts those who not only set out well, but hold on well, and hold out to the end (v. 14): We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end. Here observe, (1.) The saints' privilege: they are made partakers of Christ, that is, of the Spirit, nature, graces, righteousness, and life of Christ; they are interested in all that is Christ's, in all that he is, in all that he has done, or can do. (2.) The condition on which they hold that privilege, namely, their perseverance in the bold and open profession and practice of Christ and Christianity unto the end. Not but they shall persevere, being kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation, but to be pressed thus to it is one means by which Christ helps his people to persevere. This tends to make them watchful and diligent, and so keeps them from apostasy. Here observe, [1.] The same spirit with which Christians set out in the ways of God they should maintain and evidence to the end. Those who begin seriously, and with lively affections and holy resolutions and humble reliance, should go on in the same spirit. But, [2.] There are a great many who in the beginning of their profession show a great deal of courage and confidence, but do not hold them fast to the end. [3.] Perseverance in faith is the best evidence of the sincerity of our faith.

5. The apostle resumes what he had quoted before from Ps. xc. 7, &c., and he applies it closely to those of that generation, v. 15, 16, &c. While it is said, To-day if you will hear, &c.; as if he should say, "What was recited before from that scripture belonged not only to former ages, but to you now, and to all who shall come after you; that you take heed you fall not into the same sins, lest you fall under the same condemnation." The apostle tells them that though some who had heard the voice of God did provoke him, yet all did not so. Observe, (1.) Though the majority of hearers provoked God by unbelief, yet some there were who believed the report. (2.) Though the hearing of the word be the ordinary means of salvation, yet, if it be not hearkened to, it will expose men more to the anger of God. (3.) God will have a remnant that shall be obedient to his voice, and he will take care of such and make mention of them with honour. (4.) If these should fall in a common calamity, yet they shall partake of eternal salvation, while disobedient hearers perish for ever.

6. The apostle puts some queries upon what had been before mentioned, and gives proper answers to them (v. 17-19): But with whom was he grieved forty years? With those that sinned. And to whom did he swear? &c. Whence observe, (1.) God is grieved only with those of his people who sin against him, and continue in sin. (2.) God is grieved and provoked most by sins publicly committed by the generality of a nation; when sin becomes epidemic, it is most provoking. (3.) Though God grieves long, and bears long, when pressed with the weight of general and prevailing wickedness, yet he will at length ease himself of public offenders by public judgments. (4.) Unbelief (with rebellion which is the consequent of it) is the great damning sin of the world, especially of those who have a revelation of the mind and will of God. This sin shuts up the heart of God, and shuts up the gate of heaven, against them; it lays them under the wrath and curse of God, and leaves them there; so that in truth and justice to himself he is obliged to cast them off for ever.

CHAP. III. Verſe 1. Holy brethren]

HOly, becauſe partakers of a calling that is heavenly. 1. Ratione fontis, Phil. 314, 15.2. Ratione finis, to the fruition of heavenly priviledges in Chriſt.

Verſe 2. As alſo Moſes was faithfull] And yet how unworthily handled by the authour of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, that ſlie Antinomian, in divers paſſages of his book, as might eaſily be inſtanced.

Verſe 3. Worthy of more glory then Moſes] In whom theſe Hebrews truſted,Spec. Europ. Job. 5.45. And the Jews at this day hold, That the law of nature ſhall bring to heaven thoſe that obſerve it, but the Hebrews (unto whom the law of Moſes was peculiarly given) by keeping it ſhall have a prerogative of glory. Poor ſeduced ſouls!

Verſe 4. He that built all things] Moſes and all.

Is God] That is Chriſt, whom he had proved to be God by many arguments, Chap. 1. Meſſias therefore is to be preferred before Moſes.

Verſe 5. [non-Latin text not transcribed] ex verbo [non-Latin text not transcribed] As a ſervant] Famulus ingenuus, a ſervant of the better fort, a man of worſhip, as the word ſeemeth to import: though it be honour enough to be Chriſts ſervant, of the meaneſt in his family.

Verſe 6. If we hold fast] See here a juſt deſcription of the inviſible Church of Chriſt.

Verſe 7. Wherefore as the holy Ghost] It is well obſerved by Calvin, Hier. Epiſt ad Algeſiam. Joh Ae[illegible: 2 letters]ran, apud ſo, Manl. loc com. that the words after Wherefore, to verſ. 12. ſhould be encloſed with a parentheſis, and then the ſenſe is clear. If Hierome and Egranus had obſerved ſo much in this and other places, they would not ſo ſharply have cenſured St Paul for his obſcurities and incongruities, and lame ſenſes and ſentences.

Verſe 8. Harden not your hearts] Some hearts are ſo hard, that neither Miniſtery, nor miſery, nor miracle, nor mercy can poſſibly mollifie them. Such an heart is in ſome reſpects worſe then hell. And if God broke Davids bones for his adultery, and the Angels backs for their pride, the Lord, if ever he ſave any, will break his heart too.

Verſe 9. Tempted me] God muſt be truſted, but not tempted, as he is, when men, 1. Queſtion and awake his power; 2. Limit the holy one of Iſrael, and preſume to preſcribe to him, ſet him a time, &c. 3. Neglect the uſe of means, and ſerve not his providence.

Verſe 10. I Was grieved] The Hebrew text hath it, I was nauſeated, and ready to rid my ſtomack at them, to ſpew them out of my mouth.

They do alway erre] They muſt needs erre, that know not Gods waies. Yet cannot they wander ſo wide, as to miſſe of hell.

Verſe 11. They ſhall not enter] This the Apoſtle propounds to the unbelievers of his time, that they may beware, Alterius perditio tua ſit eautio. Seeſt thou another ſuffer ſhipwrack? Look well to thy tackling.

Verſe 12. In departing from] [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Infidelity is the mother of apoſtacy; as in Cranmer: but worſe in John Dudley Duke of Northumberland in Queen Maries daies, who being brought to the ſcaffold on Tower-hill, and having promiſe of life, if he would recant his profeſſion, daſtard like forſook his maſter, and exhorted the people to the Romiſh religion. Speeds Chron. Which his death-Sermon afterwards came forth in print by authority.

Verſe 13. But exhort one another] A ſpeciall preſervative from apoſtacy. See my Common-place of Admonition, and my Treatiſe on Mal. 3.17.

Leſt any of you be hardened] Continuance in ſin hardeneth the heart, and gradually indiſpoſeth it to the work of repentance. Qui non eſt bodiè, &c. There is a deceitfulneſſe in ſin, a lie in vanity, Jon. 2.8.

Verſe 14, For we are made par takers] Chriſts conſorts, coheyrs with him, Rom. 8.17. This we are in preſent, if we perſevere to the end.

The beginning of our confidence] Gr. Of our ſubſiſtence, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. or ſubstance, that is, of our faith, Heb. 11.1. whereby we ſubſiſt, and become ſons of God, as Ambroſe expounds it.

Verſe 15. Whiles it is ſaid] ſo. To you now, as it was ſaid to them of old, verſ. 7. We muſt ſee our own names written on every precept, promiſe, example, &c. Hoſ. 12.4. There God ſpake with us.

To day if ye Will hear, &c.] The negligent ſpirit cries, Cr[illegible: 1 letter] Domino, To morrow Lord. In crastinum ſeria. But who can tell what a great-bellied-day may bring forth? Either ſpace or grace may be denied. God may leave men under his Ordinances, as rocks in the midſt of rivers, as blinde at noonday.

Verſe 16. Howbeit not all] Yet all fell in the wilderneſſe, ſave Joſhua and Caleb. Good men are oft wrapt up in a common calamity. The righteous periſheth, Iſa. 57.1. ſo the world thinketh: But whether they live, they live unto the Lord, or Whether they die, they die unto the Lord, &c. The good corn is cut down together with the tares, but to another, and to a better purpoſe.Rom. 14.8.

Verſe 17. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. whoſe carcaſes fell] Gr. Whoſe members, joints, limbs. Cadavera à cadendo. O that we could make that uſe of their diſaſter, that Waldus the French Merchant (father and founder of the Waldenſes) did of that ſad ſight that befell him, For walking in the ſtreets, and ſeeing one fall ſuddenly dead, he went home and repented of his Popiſh errours and profane courſes.

Verſe 18. To them that believe not] Or, That will not be perſwaded, uncounſellable perſons, that acquieſce not in wholſome advice.

Verſe 19. Becauſe of unbelief] A bloudy ſin, Job. 3.19. No ſin will gripe ſo in hell as this. The devil will keep holyday there, in reſpect of unbelievers.

Wherefore. That is, since Christ sustains such a character as has been stated in the previous chapter; since he is so able to succour those who need assistance; since he assumed our nature that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, his character ought to be attentively considered, and we ought to endeavour fully to understand it.

Holy brethren. The name brethren is often given to Christians to denote that they are of one family. It is possible, also, that the apostle may have used the word here in a double sense--denoting that they were his brethren as Christians, and as Jews. The word holy is applied to them to denote that they were set apart to God, or that they were sanctified. The Jews were often called a "holy people," as being consecrated to God; and Christians are holy, not only as consecrated to God, but as sanctified.

Partakers of the heavenly calling. On the meaning of the word calling, Eph 4:1. The "heavenly calling" denotes the calling which was given to them from heaven, or which was of a heavenly nature. It pertained to heaven, not to earth; it came from heaven, not from earth; it was a calling to the reward and happiness of heaven, and not to the pleasures and honours of the world.

Consider. Attentively ponder all that is said of the Messiah. Think of his rank; his dignity; his holiness; his sufferings; his death; his resurrection, ascension, intercession. Think of him, that you may see the claims to a holy life; that you may learn to bear trials; that you may be kept from apostasy. The character and work of the Son of God are worthy of the profound and prayerful consideration of every man; and especially every Christian should reflect much on him. Of the friend that we love we think much; but what friend have we like the Lord Jesus?

The Apostle. The word apostle is nowhere else applied to the Lord Jesus. The word means one who is sent--and in this sense it might be applied to the Redeemer as one sent by God, or as by way of eminence THE one sent by him. But the connexion seems to demand that there should be some allusion here to one who sustained a similar rank among the Jews; and it is probable that the allusion is to Moses, as having been the great apostle of God to the Jewish people, and that Paul here means to say, that the Lord Jesus, under the new dispensation, filled the place of Moses and of the high priest under the old, and that the office of "apostle" and "high priest," instead of being now separated, as it was between Moses and Aaron under the old dispensation, was now blended in the Messiah. The name apostle is not indeed given to Moses directly in the Old Testament, but the verb from which the Hebrew word for apostle is derived is frequently given him. Thus, in Ex 3:10, it is said, "Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh." And in Heb 3:13, "The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you." So also in Heb 3:14,15, of the same chapter. From the word there used-- to send, the word denoting apostle --is derived; and it is not improbable that Moses would be regarded as being, by way of eminence, THE one sent by God. Further, the Jews applied the word --apostle, to the minister of the synagogue; to him who presided over its affairs, and who had the general charge of the services there; and in this sense it might be applied by way of eminence to Moses, as being the general director and controller of the religious affairs of the nation, and as sent for that purpose. The object of Paul is to show that the Lord Jesus, in the Christian system--as the great apostle sent from God--sustained a rank and office similar to this, but superior in dignity and authority.

And High Priest. One great object of this epistle is, to compare the Lord Jesus with the high priest of the Jews, and to show that he was in all respects superior. This was important, because the office of high priest was that which eminently distinguished the Jewish religion, and because the Christian religion proposed to abolish that. It became necessary, therefore, to show that all that was dignified and valuable in that office was to be found in the Christian system. This was done by showing that in the Lord Jesus was found all the characteristics of a high priest, and that all the functions which had been performed in the Jewish ritual were performed by him, and that all which had been prefigured by the Jewish high priest was fulfilled in him. The apostle here merely alludes to him, or names him as the high priest, and then postpones the consideration of his character, in that respect, till after he had compared him with Moses.

Of our profession. Of our religion; of that religion which we profess. The apostle and high priest whom we confessed as ours when we embraced the Christian religion.

(a) "High Priest" Heb 4:14

Who was faithful. Heb 2:17. He performed with fidelity all the functions entrusted to him.

To him that appointed him. Marg. Made. The word made, however, is used in the sense of constituted or appointed. The meaning is, that he was faithful to God. Perhaps Paul urges on them the necessity of considering his fidelity in order to keep them from the danger of apostasy. A leading object of this epistle was to preserve those whom he addressed from apostatizing from God, amidst the temptations and trials to which they were exposed. In doing this, what could be a more powerful argument than to direct their attention to the unwavering constancy and fidelity of the Lord Jesus? The importance of such a virtue in the Saviour is manifest. It is seen everywhere; and all the great interests of the world depend on it. A husband should maintain inviolate fidelity towards a wife, and a wife towards her husband; a child should be faithful to a parent, a clerk and apprentice to his employer, a lawyer to his client, a physician to his patient, an ambassador to the government that commissions him. No matter what may be the temptations in the way; in all these, and in all other relations, there should be inviolate fidelity. The welfare of the world depended on the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus. Had he failed in that, all would have been lost. His fidelity was worthy of the more attentive consideration, from the numerous temptations which beset his path, and the attempts which were made to turn him aside from his devotedness to God. Amidst all the temptations of the adversary, and all the trials through which he passed, he never for a moment swerved from fidelity to the great trust which had been committed to his hands. What better example to preserve them, from the temptations to apostasy, could the apostle propose to the Christians whom he addressed? What, in these temptations and trials, could be more appropriate than for them to "consider" the example of the great Apostle and High Priest of their profession? What more proper for us now, in the trials and temptations of our lives, than to keep that great and glorious example continually before our eyes?

As also Moses was faithful, Fidelity to God was remarkable in Moses. In all the provocations and rebellions of the Jews, he was firm and unwavering. This is affirmed of him in Nu 12:7, to which place the apostle here alludes:--"My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all his house." The word house, as applied to Moses, is used probably in the sense of family, as it often is, and refers to the family over which he presided--that is, the Jewish nation. The whole Jewish people were a household, or the family of God, and Moses was appointed to preside over it, and was faithful in the functions of his office there.

(b) "Moses" Nu 12:7

For this man. The Lord Jesus. The word "man" is understood, but there can be no doubt that he is referred to.

Was counted worthy. Was more worthy; or is more worthy. The word here used does not refer to anything that had been said of him, or to any estimate which had been made of him. It means simply that he was worthy of more honour than Moses. How he was so Paul proceeds to show.

Of more glory δοξης. Honour, dignity, regard. He really had a higher rank, and was worthy of more respect. This was saying much for the Messiah; and that it was proper to say this Paul proceeds to show. He did not attempt in any way to undervalue Moses and his institutions. He gave him all the honour which the Jews were themselves disposed to render him. He admitted that he had been eminently faithful in the station where God had placed him; and he then proceeds to show that the Lord Jesus was entitled to honour superior to that, and that hence the Christian religion had more to attach its friends to it than the Jewish had.

Inasmuch as he who hath builded the house. The idea here is, either that he who is the maker of a house--the architect-- is worthy of more respect than the house itself; or that he who is the founder of a family is worthy of more honour than the family of which he is the founder. It seems to me that the former is the meaning--for the latter is not always true. The founder of a family may be really deserving of much less respect than some of his descendants. But it is always true that the architect is worthy of more respect than the house which he makes. He exhibits intellect and skill. The house, however splendid, has neither. The plan of the house was drawn by him; its beauty, its proportions, its ornaments, are what he made them, and but for him they would not have existed, Michael Angelo was worthy of more honour than "St. Peter's" at Rome; and Sir Christopher Wren worthy of more than St. Paul's at London. Galileo is more worthy of praise than the telescope, and Fulton more than a steam-engine. All the evidence of skill and adaptedness that there is in the invention had its origin in the inventor; all the beauty of the statue or the temple had its origin in the mind of him that designed it, an author is worthy of more honour than a book; and he that forms a work of art is worthy of more respect than the work itself. This is the idea here. Paul assumes that all things owed their origin to the Son of God, Heb 1:2,8,10. He was the Author of the universe; the Source of all wise and well-founded systems; the Originator of the Jewish dispensation, over which Moses presided. Whatever beauty or excellence there might have been, therefore, in that system, was to be traced to him; and whatever ability even Moses displayed was imparted by him. Christ is really the head of the family over which Moses presided, and has claims, therefore, to higher honour as such.

(c) "builded" Zech 6:12,13

For every house is builded by some man. The words in this verse are plain, and the sentiment in it clear. The only difficulty is in seeing the connexion, and in understanding how it is intended to bear on what precedes, or on what follows. It is clear that every house must have a builder, and equally clear that God is the Creator of all things. But what is the meaning of this passage in this connexion? What is its bearing on the argument? If the verse was entirely omitted, and the fifth verse read in connexion with the third, there would be apparently nothing wanting to complete the sense of the writer, or to finish the comparison which he had commenced. Various ways have been adopted to explain the difficulty. Perhaps the following observations may remove it, and express the true sense.

(1.) Every family must have a founder; every dispensation an author; every house a builder. There must be some one, therefore, over all dispensations --the old and the new--the Jewish and the Christian.

(2.) Paul assumes that the Lord Jesus was Divine. He had demonstrated this in Heb 1; and he argues as if this were so, without now stopping to prove it, or even to affirm it expressly.

(3.) God must be over all things. He is Creator of all; and he must therefore be over all. As the Lord Jesus, therefore, is Divine, he must be over the Jewish dispensation as well as the Christian--or he must, as God, have been at the head of that--or over his own family or household.

(4.) As such, he must have a glory and honour which could not belong to Moses. He, in his Divine character, was the Author of both the Jewish and the Christian dispensations; and he must, therefore, have a rank far superior to that of Moses--which was the point which the apostle designed to illustrate. The meaning of the whole may be thus expressed:-- "The Lord Jesus is worthy of more honour than Moses, He is so, as the maker of a house deserves more honour than the house. He is Divine. In the beginning he laid the foundation of the earth, and was the agent in the creation of all things, Heb 1:2,10. He presides, therefore, over everything; and was over the Jewish and Christian dispensations--for there must have been some one over them, or the author of them, as really as it must be true that every house is built by some person. Being, therefore, over all things, and at the head of all dispensations, he MUST be more exalted than Moses." This seems to me to be the argument--- an argument which is based on the supposition that he is at the head of all things, and that he was the agent in the creation of all worlds. This view will make all consistent. The Lord Jesus will be seen to have a claim to a far higher honour than Moses, and Moses will be seen to have derived his honour, as a servant of the Mediator, in the economy which he had appointed.

Moses was faithful--as a servant. Not as the head of the dispensation; not as having originated it; but as in the employ and under the direction of its great Founder and Author--the Messiah. As such a servant he deserves all the honour for fidelity which has ever been claimed for him, but it cannot be the honour which is due to him who is at the head of the family or house. Paul assumed that Moses was a servant, and argued on that supposition, without attempting to prove it, because it was so often affirmed in the Old Testament, and must have been conceded by all the Jews. In numerous instances he is spoken of as "THE servant of the Lord." See Josh 1:1,2, 9:24 1Chr 6:49; 2Chr 24:9, Neh 10:29, Dan 9:11, Ex 14:31, 1Kgs 8:56, Ps 105:26. As this point was undisputed, it was only necessary to show that the Messiah was superior to a servant, in order to make the argument clear.

For a testimony. To bear witness to those truths which were to be revealed; that is, he was the instrument of the Divine communications to the people, or the medium by which God made his will known. He did not originate the truths himself; but he was the mere medium by which God made known his truth to his people--a servant whom he employed to make his will known. The word "after" here is not necessary in order to a just translation of this passage, and obscures the sense. It does not mean that he was a witness of those truths which were to be spoken subsequently to his time, under another dispensation; nor those truths which the apostle proposed to consider in another part of the epistle, as Doddridge supposes; but it means merely that Moses stood forth as a public witness of the truths which God designed to reveal, or which were to be spoken. God did not speak to his people directly, and face to face, but he spoke through Moses, as an organ or medium. The sense is, Moses was a mere servant of God to communicate his will to man.

(a) "Moses, verily" Nu 12:7 (b) "servant" Josh 1:2 (c) "of those things" De 18:15-19

But Christ as a son over his own house. He is not a servant. To the whole household or family of God he sustains the same relation which a son and heir in a family does to the household. That relation is far different from that of a servant. Moses was the latter; Christ was the former. To God he sustained the relation of a Son, and recognised him as his Father, and sought in all things to do his will; but over the whole family of God--the entire Church of all dispensations--he was like a son over the affairs of a family. Compared with the condition of a servant, Christ is as much superior to Moses as a son and heir is to the condition of a servant. A servant owns nothing; is heir to nothing; has no authority, and no right to control anything, and is himself wholly at the will of another. A son is the heir of all; has a prospective right to all; and is looked up to by all with respect. But the idea here is not merely that Christ is a son; it is that as a son he is placed over the whole arrangements of the household, and is one to whom all is entrusted as if it were his own.

Whose house we are. Of whose family we are a part, or to which we belong. That is, we belong to the family over which Christ is placed, and not to that which was subject to Moses.

If we hold fast. A leading object of this epistle is to guard those to whom it was addressed against the danger of apostasy. Hence this is introduced on all suitable occasions; and the apostle here says, that the only evidence which they could have that they belonged to the family of Christ, would be that they held fast the confidence which they had unto the end. If they did not do that, it would demonstrate that they never belonged to his family, for evidence of having belonged to his household was to be furnished only by perseverance to the end.

The confidence. The word here used originally means, the liberty of speaking boldly and without restraint; then it means boldness, or confidence in general.

And the rejoicing. The word here used means, properly, glorying, boasting, and then rejoicing. These words are used here in an adverbial signification, and the meaning is, that the Christian has a confident and a rejoicing hope. It is

(1.) confident--bold--firm. It is not like the timid hope of the pagan, and the dreams and conjectures of the philosopher; it is not that which gives way at every breath of opposition; it is bold, firm, and manly. It is

(2.) rejoicing--triumphant, exulting. Why should not the hope of heaven fill with joy? Why should not he exult who has the prospect of everlasting happiness?

Unto the end. To the end of life. Our religion, our hope, our confidence in God, must be persevered in to the end of life, if we would have evidence that we are his children. If hope is cherished for a while, and then abandoned; if men profess religion, and then fall away--no matter what were their raptures and triumphs--it proves that they never had any real piety. No evidence can be strong enough to prove that a man is a Christian, unless it leads him to persevere to the end of life.

(d) "son" Ps 2:7,12 (e) "house" 1Pet 2:15 (f) "if we hold fast" Mt 10:22, Heb 10:38,39

Wherefore. In view of the fact that the Author of the Christian dispensation has a rank far superior to that of Moses. Because Christ has claims on us far greater than those which Moses had, let us hearken to his voice, and dread his displeasure.

As the Holy Ghost saith. In Ps 95:7-11. This is full proof that, in the estimation of the author of this epistle, the writer of this Psalm was inspired. The Holy Ghost speaks through the word which he has revealed. The apostle quotes this passage, and applies it to those whom he addressed, because the admonition was as pertinent and important under the Christian dispensation as it was under the Jewish. The danger of hardening the heart by neglecting to hear his voice was as great, and the consequences would be as fearful and alarming.--We should regard the solemn warnings in the Old Testament against sin, and against the danger of apostasy, as addressed by the Holy Ghost to us. They are as applicable to us as they were to those to whom they were at first addressed; and we need all the influence of such appeals, to keep us from apostasy, as much as they did.

Today. Now; at present. At the very time when the command is addressed to you. It is not to be put off till tomorrow. All God's commands relate to the present--to this day--to the passing moment. He gives us no commands about the future, he does not require us to repent; and to turn to him to-morrow, or ten years hence. The reasons are obvious.

(1.) Duty pertains to the present. It is our duty to turn from sin, and to love him now.

(2.) We know not that we shall live to another day. A command, therefore, could not extend to that time, unless it were accompanied with a revelation that we should live till then--and such a revelation God does not choose to give. Every one, therefore, should feel that whatever commands God addresses to him are addressed to him now. Whatever guilt he incurs by neglecting those commands is incurred now. For the present neglect and disobedience each one is to answer--and each one must give account to God for what he does TODAY.

If ye will hear. In case you are willing to hearken to God, listen now, and do not defer it to a future period.--There is much in a willingness to hear the voice of God. A willingness to learn is usually the precursor of great attainments in knowledge. A willingness to reform is usually the precursor of reformation. Get a man willing to break off his habits of profaneness or intemperance, and usually all the rest is easy. The great difficulty in the mind of a sinner is in his will. He is unwilling to hear the voice of God; unwilling that he should reign over him; unwilling now to attend to religion. While this unwillingness lasts he will make no efforts, and he sees, or creates, a thousand difficulties in the way of his becoming a Christian. But when that unwillingness is overcome, and he is disposed to engage in the work of religion, difficulties vanish, and the work of salvation becomes easy.

His voice. The voice of God speaking to us

(1.) in his written word;

(2.) in the preached gospel;

(3.) in our own consciences;

(4.) in the events of his Providence;

(5.) in the admonitions of our relatives and friends. Whatever conveys to us the truth of God, or is adapted to impress that on us, may be regarded as his voice speaking to us. He thus speaks to us every day in some of these ways; and every day, therefore, he may entreat us not to harden our hearts.

(g) "Today" Ps 95:7

Harden not your hearts. Do not render the heart insensible to the Divine voice and admonition. A hard heart is that where the conscience is seared and insensible; where truth makes no impression; where no religious effect is produced by afflictions; where preaching is listened to without interest; and where the mind is unaffected by the appeals of friends. The idea here is, that a refusal to listen to the voice of God is connected with a hardening of the heart. It is in two ways.

(1.) The very refusal to do this tends to harden it. And

(2.) in order to resist the appeals of God, men must resort to the means of voluntarily hardening the heart. This they do by setting themselves against the truth; by the excuses which they offer for not becoming Christians; by plunging into sin in order to avoid serious impressions; and by direct resistance of the Holy Ghost. No inconsiderable part of the efforts of sinners consists in endeavouring to produce insensibility in their minds to the truth and the appeals of God.

As in the provocation. Literally, in the embittering-- Then it means that which embitters or provokes the mind--as disobedience. Here it refers to what they did to embitter the mind of God against them; that is, to the course of conduct which was adopted to provoke him to wrath.

In the day of temptation. In the time of temptation--the word day being used here, as it is often, to denote an indefinite period, or time in general. The word temptation here refers to the various provocations by which they tried the patience of God. They rebelled against him; they did that which put the Divine patience and forbearance to a trial. It does not mean that they tempted God to do evil, but that his long-suffering was tried by their sins.

In the wilderness. The desert through which they passed. The word wilderness, in the Scriptures, commonly means a desert. Mt 3:1. "One provocation was in demanding bread at Sin; a second for want of water at Massah or Meribah; a third time at Sinai with the golden calf; a fourth time at Taberah for want of flesh; a fifth time at Kadesh, when they refused to go up into Canaan, and the oath came that they should die in the wilderness. A like refusal may prevent us from entering into rest."--Dr. J. P. Wilson, MS. Notes.

Proved me. "As if they would have made an experiment how much it was possible for me to bear." Doddridge. The meaning is, they put my patience to a thorough trial.

And saw my works. That is, my miracles, or my interpositions in their behalf. They saw the wonders at the Red Sea, the descent on Mount Sinai, the supply of manna, etc.; and yet, while seeing those works, they rebelled. Even while sinners look on the doings of God, and are surrounded by the proofs of his power and goodness, they rebel, and provoke him to anger. Men sin when God is filling their houses with plenty; when he opens his hand daily to supply their wants; when they behold the manifestations of his goodness on the sea and on the land; and even in the midst of all the blessings of redemption they provoke him to wrath.

Forty years. The whole time during which they were passing from Egypt to the promised land. This may mean, either that they saw his works forty years, or that they tempted him forty years. The sense is not materially affected, whichever interpretation is preferred.

Wherefore I was grieved. On the word grieved, Eph 4:30. The word here means that he was offended with, or that he was indignant at them.

They do alway err in their heart. Their long trial of forty years had been sufficient to show that it was a characteristic of the people that they were disposed to wander from God. Forty years are enough to show what the character is. They had seen his works; they had been called to obey him; they had received his law; and yet their conduct, during that time, had shown that they were not disposed to obey him. So of an individual. A man who has lived in sin forty years; who during all that time has rebelled against God, and disregarded all his appeals; who has lived for himself, and not for his Maker, has shown what his character is. Longer time is unnecessary; and if God should then cut him down, and consign him to hell, he could not be blamed for doing it. A man who during forty years will live in sin, and resist all the appeals of God, shows what is in his heart; and no injustice is done if then he is summoned before God, and he swears that he shall not enter into his rest.

And they have not known my ways. They have been rebellious. They have not been acquainted with the true God; or they have not approved my doings. The word know is often used, in the Scriptures, in the sense of approving, or loving. Mt 7:23.

So I sware in my wrath. God is often represented in the Scriptures as swearing--and usually as swearing by himself, or by his own existence. Of course this is figurative, and denotes a strong affirmation, or a settled and determined purpose. An oath with us implies the strongest affirmation, or the expression of the most settled and determined purpose of mind. The meaning here is, that so refractory and perverse had they showed themselves, that he solemnly resolved that they should never enter into the land of Canaan.

They shall not enter into my rest. Marg. As in the original, if they shall enter. That is, they shall not enter. The word if has this negative meaning in Hebrew, and this meaning is transferred to the Greek word if. Comp. 1Sam 3:17, 2Sam 3:35, 2Kgs 6:31. It is called "my rest" here; meaning that it was such rest as God had provided, or such as he enjoyed. The particular rest referred to here was that of the land of Canaan, but which was undoubtedly regarded as emblematic of the "rest" in heaven. Into that rest God solemnly said they should never enter. They had been rebellious. All the means of reclaiming them had failed. God had warned and entreated them; he had caused his mercies to pass before them, and had visited them with judgments in vain; and he now declares, that for all their rebellion they should be excluded from the promised land. God speaks here in the manner of men. Men are affected with feelings of indignation in such circumstances, and God makes use of such language as expresses such feelings. But we are to understand it in a manner consistent with his character, and we are not to suppose that he is affected with the same emotions which agitate the bosoms of men. The meaning is, that he formed and expressed a deliberate and solemn purpose, that they should never enter into the promised land. Whether this rest refers here to heaven, and whether the meaning is that God would exclude them from that blessed world, will be more appropriately considered in the next chapter. The particular idea is, that they were to be excluded from the promised land, and that they should fall in the wilderness. No one can doubt, also, that their conduct had been such as to show that the great body of them were unfit to enter into heaven.

(1) "They shall not enter" "if they shall enter"

Take heed, brethren. In view of the conduct of the rebellious Jews, and of their fearful doom, be on your guard lest you also be found to have had the same feelings of rebellion and unbelief. See to it, that under the new dispensation, and in the enjoyment of the privileges of the gospel, you be not found to manifest such feelings as shall exclude you from the heavenly world. The principle has been settled by their unbelief, that they who oppose God will be excluded from his rest. That may be shown under all dispensations, and in all circumstances; and there is not less danger of it under the gospel, than there was when the fathers were conducted to the promised land. You are travelling through a wilderness--the barren wilderness of this world. You are exposed to trials and temptations. You meet with many a deadly and mighty foe. You have hearts prone to apostasy and sin. You are seeking a land of promise--a land of rest. You are surrounded by the wonders of almighty power, and by the proofs of infinite beneficence. Disobedience and rebellion in you will as certainly exclude you from heaven, as their rebellion did them from the promised land; and as their great sin was unbelief, be on your guard lest you manifest the same.

An evil heart of unbelief. An evil, unbelieving heart. The word unbelief is used to qualify the word heart by a Hebraism--a mode of speech that is common in the New Testament. An unbelieving heart was the cause of their apostasy, and what worked their ruin will produce ours. The root of their evil was a want of confidence in God--and this is what is meant here by a heart of unbelief. The great difficulty on earth everywhere is a want of confidence in God and this has produced all the ills that man has ever suffered. It led to the first apostasy; and it has led to every other apostasy, and will continue to produce the same effects to the end of the world. The apostle says that this heart of unbelief is "evil." Men often feel that it is a matter of little consequence whether they have faith or not, provided their conduct is right; and hence they do not see or admit the propriety of what is said about the consequences of unbelief in the Scriptures. But what do they say about a want of confidence between a husband and wife? Are there no evils in that? What husband can sleep with quietness on his pillow, if he has no confidence in the virtue of his wife? What child can have peace who has no confidence in a parent? How can there be prosperity in a community, where there is no confidence in a bank or an insurance office, or where one merchant has no confidence in another; where a neighbour has no confidence in his neighbour; where the sick have no confidence in a physician; and where, in general, all confidence is broken up between man and man? If I wished to produce the deepest distress in any community, and had the power, I would produce the same want of confidence between man and man which there is now between man and his Maker. I would thus take away sleep from the pillow of every husband and wife, every parent and child; and make every man wretched, with the feeling that all the property which he had was insecure. Among men, nothing is seen to be productive of greater evil than a want of confidence or faith; and why should not the same evil exist in the Divine administration? And if want of confidence produces such results between man and man, why should it not produce similar, or greater miseries, where it occurs in relation to God? There is not an evil that man endures which might not be alleviated or removed by confidence in God; and hence one great object of the Christian religion is, to restore to man his lost confidence in the God that made him.

In departing from the living God. Manifested in departing from him; or leading to a departure from him. The idea is, that such a heart of unbelief would be connected with apostasy from God. All apostasy first exists in the heart, and then is manifested in the life. They who indulge in unbelief in any form, or in regard to any subject, should remember that this is the great source of all alienation from God, and that if indulged it will lead to complete apostasy. They who wish to live a life of piety should keep the heart right, he that lives "by the faith of the Son of God" is safe; and none is safe but he.

(a) "evil heart" Mk 7:21,23 (b) "departing" Jer 2:13

But exhort one another daily. This is addressed to the members of the churches; and it follows, therefore,

(1.) that it is their duty to exhort their brethren; and

(2.) that it is their duty to do it daily; that is, constantly. See Heb 10:24, 1Thes 4:18, 5:11; Rom 12:8. While this is the special duty of the ministers of the gospel, 1Timm 6:2, 2Ti 4:2; Tit 2:6,15, it is also the duty of all the members of the churches --and a most important, but much neglected duty. This does not refer to public exhortation, which more appropriately pertains to the ministers of the gospel, but to that private watch and care which the individual members of the church should have over one another. But in what cases is such exhortation proper? What rules should regulate it ? I answer, It may be regarded as a duty, or is to be performed in such cases as the following:--

(1.) Intimate friends in the church should exhort and counsel one another; should admonish each other of their faults; and should aid one another in the divine life.

(2.) Parents should do the same thing to their children. They are placed particularly under their watch and care. A pastor cannot often see the members of his flock in private; and a parent may greatly aid him in his work by watching over the members of their families who are connected with the church.

(3.) Sabbath school teachers may aid much in this duty. They are to be assistants to parents and to pastors. They often have under their care youthful members of the churches. They have an opportunity of knowing their state of mind, their temptations, and their dangers, better than the pastor can have. It should be theirs, therefore, to exhort them to a holy life.

(4.) The aged should exhort the young. Every aged Christian may thus do much for the promotion of religion. His experience is the property of the church; and he is bound so to employ it, as to be useful in aiding the feeble, reclaiming the wandering, recovering the backslider, and directing the inquiring. There is a vast amount of spiritual capital of this kind in the church that is unemployed, and that might be made eminently useful in helping others to heaven.

(5.) Church members should exhort one another. There may not be the intimacy of personal friendship among all the members of a large church, but still the connexion between them should be regarded as sufficiently tender and confidential to make it proper for any one to admonish a brother who goes astray. They belong to the same communion. They sit down at the same Supper of the Lord. They express their assent to the same articles of faith. They are regarded by the community as united. Each member sustains a portion of the honour and the responsibility of the whole; and each member should feel that he has a right, and that it is his duty, to admonish a brother if he goes astray. Yet this duty is greatly neglected. In what church is it performed! How often do church-members see a fellow-member go astray, without any exhortation or admonition! How often do they hear reports of the inconsistent lives of other members, and perhaps contribute to the circulation of these reports themselves, without any pains taken to inquire whether they are true! How often do the poor fear the rich members of the church, or the rich despise the poor, and see each other live in sin, without any attempt to entreat or save them! I would not have the courtesies of life violated. I would not have any assume a dogmatical or dictatorial air. I would have no one step out of his proper sphere of life. But the principle which I would lay down is, that the fact of church-membership should inspire such confidence, as to make it proper for one member to exhort another whom he sees going astray. Belonging to the same family; having the same interest in religion; and all suffering when one suffers, why should they not be allowed tenderly and kindly to exhort one another to a holy life?

While it is called To-day. While life lasts; or while you may be permitted to use the language, "To-day hear the voice of God." The idea is, that the exhortation is not to be intermitted. It is to be our daily business to admonish and exhort one another. Christians are liable every day to go astray; every day they need aid in the divine life; and they who are fellow;heirs with them of salvation should be ever ready to counsel and advise them.

Lest any of you be hardened. Heb 3:8. It is possible for Christians to become, in a sense, hardened. Their minds become less sensitive than they were to the claims of duty, and their consciences become less tender. Hence the propriety of mutual exhortation, that they may always have the right feeling, and may always listen to the commands of God.

The deceitfulness of sin. Eph 4:22. Sin is always deceitful. It promises more than it performs. It assures us of pleasure which it never imparts. It leads us on beyond what was supposed when we began to indulge in it. The man who commits sin is always under a delusion; and sin, if he indulges it, will lead him on from one step to another, until the heart becomes entirely hardened. Sin puts on plausible appearances and pretences; it assumes the name of virtue; it offers excuses and palliations, until the victim is snared; and then, spell-bound, he is hurried on to every excess. If sin was always seen in its true aspect when man is tempted to commit it, it would be so hateful that he would flee from it with the utmost abhorrence. What young man would become a drunkard, if he saw, when he began, exactly the career which he would run? What young man, now vigorous and healthful, and with fair prospects of usefulness and happiness, would ever touch the intoxicating bowl, if he saw what he would be when he became a sot? What man would ever enter the room of the gambler, if he saw just where indulgence would soon lead him, and if, at the commencement he saw exactly the woe and despair which would inevitably ensue? Who would become a voluptuary and a sensualist, if he saw exactly the close of such a career? Sin deceives, deludes, blinds. Men do not, or will not, see the fearful results of indulgence. They are deluded by the hope of happiness or of gain; they are drawn along by the fascinations and allurements of pleasure, until the heart becomes hard and the conscience seared--and then they give way without remorse. From such a course the apostle would have Christians guarded by kind and affectionate exhortation. Each one should feel that he has an interest in keeping his brother from such a doom; and each Christian, thus in danger should be willing to listen to the kind exhortation of a Christian brother.

(c) "exhort" Heb 10:24

For we are made partakers of Christ. We are spiritually united to the Saviour. We become one with him. We partake of his Spirit and allotments. The sacred writers are accustomed to describe the Christian as being closely united to the Saviour, and as being one with him. Jn 15:1, seq., Jn 17:21; Jn 17:23; Eph 5:30; 1Cor 12:27. The idea is, that we participate in all that pertains to him. It is a union of feeling and affection; a union of principle and of congeniality; a union of dependence as well as love; a union where nothing is to be imparted by us, but everything gained; and a union, therefore, on the part of the Redeemer of great condescension. It is the union of the branch to the vine, where the branch is supported and nourished by the vine, and not the union of the ivy and the oak, where the ivy has its own roots, and merely clings around the oak and climbs up upon it. What else can be said so honourable of man as that he is "a partaker of Christ;" that he shares his feelings here, and that he is to share his honours in a brighter world? Compared with this, what is it to participate with the rich and the gay in their pleasures; what would it be to share in the honours of conquerors and kings?

If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast. Heb 3:6. If we continue to maintain the same confidence which we had in the beginning, or which we showed at the commencement of our Christian life. At first, they had been firm in the Christian hope. They evinced true and strong attachment to the Redeemer. They were ardent and devoted to his cause. If they continued to maintain that to the end, that is, the end of life; if, in the midst of all temptations and trials they adhered inflexibly to the cause of the Savior, they would show that they were true Christians, and would partake of the blessedness of the heavenly world with the Redeemer. The idea is, that it is only perseverance in the ways of religion that constitutes certain evidence of piety. Where piety is manifested through life, or where there is an untiring devotion to the cause of God, there the evidence is clear and undoubted. But where there is at first great ardour, zeal, and confidence, which soon dies away, then it is clear that they never had any real attachment to him and his cause. It may be remarked here, that the "beginning of the confidence" of those who are deceived, and who know nothing about religion at heart, is often as bold as where there is true piety. The hypocrite makes up in ardour what he lacks in sincerity; and he who is really deceived, is usually deceived under the influence of some strong and vivid emotion, which he mistakes for true religion. Often the sincere convert is calm, though decided, and sometimes is even timorous and doubting; while the self-deceiver is noisy in profession, and clamorous in his zeal, and much disposed to blame the lukewarmness of others. Evidence of piety, therefore, should not be built on that early zeal; nor should it be concluded, that because there is ardour, there is of necessity genuine religion. Ardour is valuable, and true religion is ardent; but there is other ardour than that which the gospel inspires. The evidence of genuine piety is to be found in that which will bear us up under trials, and endure amidst persecution and opposition. The doctrine here is, that it is necessary to persevere if we would have the evidence of true piety. This doctrine is taught everywhere in the Scriptures. Persevere in what? I answer, not

(1.) merely in a profession of religion. A man may do that, and have no piety.

(2.) Not in zeal for party or sect. The Pharisees had that to the end of their lives.

(3.) Not in mere honesty, and correctness of external deportment. A man may do that in the church, as well as out of it, and yet have no religion. But we should persevere

(1) in the love of God and of Christ--in conscious, ardent, steady attachment to Him to whom our lives are professedly devoted.

(2) In the secret duties of religion: in that watchfulness over the heart; that communion with God; that careful study of the Bible; that guardianship over the temper; and in that habitual intercourse with God in secret prayer which is appropriate to a Christian, and which marks the Christian character.

(3) In the performance of the public duties of religion: in leading a Christian life, as distinguished from a life of worldliness and vanity--a life of mere morality and honesty--a life such as thousands lead who are out of the church. There is something which distinguishes a Christian from one who is not a Christian; a religious from an irreligious man. There is something in religion; something which serves to characterize a Christian; and unless that something is manifested, there can be no evidence of true piety. The Christian is to be distinguished in temper, feeling, deportment, aims, plans, from the men of this World; and unless those characteristics are shown in the life and deportment, there can be no well-founded evidence of religion. Learn,

(1.) that it is not mere feeling that furnishes evidence of religion.

(2.) That it is not mere excitement that constitutes religion.

(3.) That it is not mere ardour.

(4.) That it is not mere zeal. All these may be temporary. Religion is something that lasts through life. It goes with a man everywhere. It is with him in trial. It forms his plans; regulates his temper; suggests his words; prompts to his actions. It lives with him in all his external changes, and goes with him through the dark valley of death, and accompanies him up to the bar of God, and is with him for ever.

(a) "if we hold" Heb 3:6

While it is said, To-day, etc. That is, persevere as long as life lasts, or as long as it can be said "To-day;" and by persevering in this manner you will have evidence that you are the friends of the Redeemer. This is a quotation from Ps 95:7. Paul means, undoubtedly, to make use of this language himself as a direct exhortation to the Christians to whom he was writing. He entreats them, therefore, as long as it could be said "To-day," or as long as life lasted, to take care lest they should harden their hearts, as had been done in the temptation in the wilderness.

(b) "Today" Heb 3:7

For some. Some of the Hebrews who came out of Egypt. The truth was, that a large proportion of them rebelled against God, and provoked him to indignation. It is somewhat remarkable, that though all the Hebrews seem to have joined in the provocation-- except a very small number--Paul should have used language which would seem to imply that the number which rebelled was comparatively small. Another version, therefore, has been given to this passage by some of the most eminent critics, consisting merely in a change in the punctuation, by which a different view is given of the whole sentence. According to this it would be a question, and would mean, "But who were they who when they had heard did provoke? Were they not all, indeed, who came out of Egypt under Moses? And with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?" This version was adopted by Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others of the Fathers; and is adopted by Rosenmuller, Clarke, Stuart, Pyle, and some others. In favour of it, it may be alleged

(1.) that the Greek win bear it--all the change required being in the punctuation;

(2.) that it avoids the difficulty which exists in one other interpretation, of supposing the apostle to imply that but few of them rebelled, when the truth was that it was nearly all;

(3.) it thus accords with the remainder of the exhortation which consists in a series of questions; and

(4.) it agrees with the scope and design of the whole. The object was not to state that it was not all who came out of Egypt that rebelled, or that the number was small; but that the great body of them rebelled, and fell in the wilderness, and that Christians should be admonished by their example. These reasons seem to be so strong as to make it probable that this is the true construction; and the sense then will be, "For who were they that having heard did provoke? Were they not all who came out of Egypt under Moses?"

When they had heard. Had heard God speaking to them, and giving them his commands.

Did provoke.Provoked him to anger; or their conduct was such as was fitted to produce indignation. Heb 3:8.

Howbeit. αλλα. But. This particle "in a series of questions, and standing at the head of a question, means, but, further. It serves to connect, and give intensity to the interrogation." Stuart. Paul means to ask, with emphasis, whether the great mass of those who came out of Egypt did not apostatize at the same time he means to intimate that there is no security that they who have witnessed remarkable manifestations of the greatness of God, and who have partaken of extraordinary mercies, will not apostatize and perish. As the Hebrews, who heard God speak from Mount Sinai, revolted and perished, so it is possible that they who witness the mercies of God in redemption may be in danger of abusing all those mercies, and of perishing. By the example, therefore, of the disobedient Israelites, he would admonish professed Christians of their danger.

Not all, etc. According to the interpretation proposed above, "Were they not all who came out of Egypt?" Or, "Did not all who came out of Egypt?" The word all here is not to be taken in the strict sense. It is often used to denote the great body; a large proportion; or vast multitudes. Thus it is used in Mt 3:5: "Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan." So in Jn 3:26: "The same baptizeth, and all men come to him," So Php 2:21: "For all seek their own." 2Cor 3:2: "Ye are our epistle, known and read of all men." In fact, there were two exceptions--and but two--of the adults who came out of Egypt-- Caleb and Joshua, Nu 14:30. All the others murmured against the Lord, and were prohibited from entering the promised land. Of the great multitudes who came out of Egypt, and who murmured, the exception was so small that the apostle had no scruple in saying in general that they were all rebellious.

(a) "For some" Nu 14:2, etc.

But with whom was he grieved forty years? With whom was he angry? Heb 3:10.

Was it not with them that had sinned? That had sinned in various ways --by rebellion, murmuring, in belief. As God was angry with them for their sins, we have the same reason to apprehend that he will be angry with us if we sin; and we should, therefore, be on our guard against that unbelief which would lead us to depart from him, Heb 3:12.

Whose carcases fell, Nu 14:29. That is, they all died, and were left on the sands of the desert. The whole generation was strewed along in the way to Canaan. All of those who had seen the wonders that God had done in the land of Ham---who had been rescued in so remarkable a manner from oppression--were thus cut down, and died in the deserts through which they were passing, Nu 26:64,65. Such an example of the effects of revolt against God, and of unbelief, was well fitted to admonish Christians in the time of the apostle, and is fitted to admonish us now, of the danger of the sin of unbelief. We are not to suppose that all of those who thus died were excluded from heaven. Moses and Aaron were among the number of those who were not permitted to enter the promised land, but of their piety there can be no doubt. Beyond all question, also, there were many others of that generation who were truly pious. But, at different times, they seem all to have partaken of the prevalent feelings of discontent, and were all involved in the sweeping condemnation that they should die in the wilderness.

(b) "carcases" Nu 26:64,65, Jude 1:5

And to whom sware he. Heb 3:11.

But to them that believed not. That did not confide in God. De 1:32: "Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God." In consequence of this want of faith, God solemnly sware unto them that they should not enter into the promised land. De 1:34,35: "And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb," etc. The distinct reason, therefore, assigned by --Moses, why they did not enter the promised land, was a want of faith; and this accords directly with the design of the apostle here. He is exhorting those whom he addresses to beware of an evil heart of unbelief, Heb 3:12. He says that it was such a heart that excluded the Hebrews from the promised land. The same thing, says he, must exclude you from heaven--the promised home of the believer; and if that firm confidence in God and his promises which he requires is wanting, you will be excluded from the world of eternal rest.

(c) "sware" De 1:34,35

So we see, etc. We see, from the direct testimony of the Old Testament, that unbelief was the reason why they were excluded from the promised land. Let us learn, in view of the reasoning and exhortations here--

(1.) The evil of unbelief. It excluded that whole generation, consisting of many hundred thousand souls, from the land of promise--the land to which they had looked with ardent hopes, and with warm desires. It will exclude countless millions from heaven. A want of confidence in God is the great source of evil in this world, and will be the cause of wretchedness to all eternity of unnumbered hosts. But surely that was not a small or unimportant thing which strewed the desert with the bones of that whole generation whom God had, in so remarkable a manner, rescued from Egyptian servitude. And that cannot be a small matter which wile cause multitudes to sink down to infinite wretchedness and despair.

(2.) Let us, who are professed Christians, be cautious against indulging unbelief in our hearts. Our difficulties all begin there. We lose confidence in God. We doubt his promises, his oaths, his threatenings. In dark and trying times we begin to have doubts about the wisdom of his dealings, and about his goodness. Unbelief once admitted into the heart is the beginning of many woes. When a man loses confidence in God, he is on a shoreless ocean that is full of whirlpools, and rocks, and quicksands, and where it is impossible to find a secure anchorage. There is nothing to which he may moor his driven bark; and he will never find safety or peace till he comes back to God.

(3.) Let us live a life of faith. Let us so live that we may say with Paul, "The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." So living, we shall have peace. The mind will be at rest. Storms and tempests may blow, but we shall be secure. Others may be troubled in the vicissitudes of life, but our minds will be at peace.

(4.) Let us live expecting the future "rest" that remains for us. Let us keep our eye fixed upon it. To us there is a rest promised, as there was to the Hebrews whom God had delivered from the land of oppression; and we may by faith attain to that, "rest," as they might have reached the land of Canaan.

(5.) Let us persevere to the end. He that draws back must be lost. He that does not endure to the end of life, in the ways of religion, can never have been a Christian. There is nothing which will furnish certain evidence of religion, unless our piety is such as to lead us to persevere till death. The man who enters on the professed Christian life expecting to fall away, or who can look upon the possibility of falling away without concern, has never known anything of the nature of true religion, he cannot be a Christian. He may have had raptures and visions; he may be a loud professor, and a noisy and zealous partisan, but he has no evidence that he has ever known anything about religion. That religion which is not connected with a firm and determined purpose, by the grace of God, to persevere to the end of life, is no true religion; and a man who expects to fall away and go back again to the world, or who can look at such an idea without alarm, should regard it as a settled matter that he has no true knowledge of God.

(6.) No man should delay the work of salvation to a future time. To-day is the accepted time; to-day the only time of which we have any security. God speaks to-day, and to-day his voice should be heard. No man on any subject should defer till to-morrow what ought to be done to-clay. He who defers religion till a future time neglects his own best interest; violates most solemn obligations; and endangers his immortal soul. What security can any one have that he will live to see another day? What evidence has he that he will be any more disposed to attend to his salvation then than he is now? What evidence can he have that he will not provoke God by this course, and bring condemnation on his soul? Of all delusions, that is the most wonderful by which dying men are led to defer attention to the concerns of the soul to a future period of life. Nowhere has Satan such advantage as in keeping this delusion before the mind; and if in respect to anything the voice of warning and alarm should be lifted loud and long, it is in reference to this. Oh, why will not men be wise to-day? Why will they not embrace the offer of salvation now? Why will they not at once make sure of eternal happiness? And why, amidst the changes and trials of this life, will they not so secure the everlasting inheritance as to feel that that is safe--that there is one thing at least that cannot be shaken and disturbed by commercial embarrassment and distress; one thing secure, though friends and kindred are torn away from them; one thing safe when their own health fads, and they lie down on the bed where they will bid adieu to all earthly comforts, and from which they will never rise.

(d) "so we see" Heb 4:6

These words are an exhortation to the believing Hebrews, to consider and ponder in their hearts the high dignity and excellency of Christ, as the great prophet and apostle of his church; and in them,

Observe 1. The title given to the Hebrews, unto whom the exhortation is directed; he styles them.

1. Holy brethren, so they were all by external profession, and many of them, no doubt, by internal sanctification.

Learn hence, That all the professors of the gospel are obliged to be holy, and such as are real professors of it, are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and made truly and really holy.

2. Partakers of the heavenly calling; that is of that calling from heaven which makes you heirs of heaven implying, that the only way to attain the saving knowledge of Christ in the gospel, is by means of an effectual heavenly calling.

Observe, 2. The duty exhorted to, and that is diligent consideration. Consider Christ Jesus; that is, rationally attend unto, and with great intention of mind ponder upon, the undertaking of the Son of God: for if you consider him in his person and offices, you will firmly adhere to him and his most holy and excellent religion, without entanglements unto Judaism.

Learn thence, That the spiritual and deep mysteries of the gospel, especially those which concern the person and offices of our Lord Jesus Christ, do require our deep and diligent, our most attentive and serious consideration.

Observe, 3. The title given to Jesus Christ, the object of this consideration: he is styled the Apostle and High-priest of our profession; that is, the first and chief apostle sent of God to be the prime preacher of the gospel, the first legate sent from heaven, and the great High-priest that mediates between God and man.

Here note, That the function of an apostle and high-priest were the greatest functions that ever God instituted in his church; none greater than an high-priest under the law, none greater than an apostle under the gospel, both of them never conjoined in one man but here.

Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ is all in all unto his church, the king, priest, prophet, and apostle of it, all in one: Consider the Apostle an High-priest of our profession, &c.

Because the Jews had generally too high an opinion of Moses, our apostle here enters upon a comparison between Christ and Moses, thus, "As Moses was faithful, so was Christ in declaring the will, the whole will, of God unto his church. Was Moses universally faithful, faithful in all his house; so did the faithfulness of Christ extend itself to all the church. Did Moses do everything according to the institution and appointment of God; so was Christ faithful to him that appointed him, doing all that in and for the church which God had commanded him, and nothing else."

Learn hence, That the worship of God in his household and family, the church, is, for the substance of it, no less perfectly and completely ordered and ordained by our Lord Jesus Christ, now under the gospel, than it was by Moses of old under the law; I say, as to the substance of it, not as to every particular circumstance.

As, for example, the manner of celebrating the passover in every minute circumstance of it is set down by Moses, how it must be killed, and how eaten; but Christ has not set down by Moses, how it must be killed, and how eaten; but Christ has not set down so for the sacrament.

A general command we have to do this in remembrance of him; but neither the time when, nor place where, nor gesture in which, is particularly and expressly mentioned. The gospel, which teaches us a more spiritual way of serving God, is not so particular in the circumstantials of worship as the law was; and yet Christ was faithful to him that appointed him, as Moses was faithful in all his house.

Our apostle having, in comparison between Christ and Moses, and showed in general wherein thay were alike and did agree; he proceeds now to evince the preference of Christ, and to show in sundry signal instances his exaltation above Moses; This man, meaning the Messiah, was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, &c.

As if he had said, "Christ is as much more honourable than Moses, as the maker and master of the house is more honourable than the house: he that buildeth the house hath more honour than the house; but Christ built the house, and Moses was only the house, or a part of it. "Therefore Christ ought to have more honour than Moses: for all families or houses are founded by some man; but he that built the church, is the same that made all things, namely, God"

Another proposition proving the same conclusion, we have in the next versed: thus, "He that is a son over his own house, is of more honour than a servant in the house of another. But Christ is a son over his own house; Moses was only a servant in the house of another; therefore more honour is due to Christ than is payable to Moses."

Learn hence, 1. That the church is God's house, a building of God, a sacred building, his special temple, the place of his constant and fixed residence.

Learn, 2. That the build of the church is so great and glorious a work, as that it could not be effected by any but him who was truly and really God: such is the wisdom of its contrivance, that none but God could build it, and such omnipotent power was required in the building of it, that we may admire its excellency, but cannot comprehend it.

Learn, 3. That Christ, the builder of this church, the house of God, is worthy of all glory and honour, upon the account of that his building: he had indeed an essential glory from all eternity, the same with that of God the Father, which was clouded for a season by his taking upon himself the form of a servant: but there is a farther honour and glory, which he received in his exaltation as head of the church, and as Lord and heir of the whole creation, which renders him the object of religious adoration.

Learn, 4. That although every one that is employed as an instrument in building the house of God, and is faithful in his work and trust, is with Moses worthy of great honour; yet the honour of all such instruments put together, is inferior and subordinate to the glory and honour of Jesus Christ, the chief builder of the church.

The apostle having thus confirmed his argument, returns (according to his usual manner) to make application of it unto the Hebrews, and improves it for enforcement of his exhortation unto constancy and perseverance. Whose house are we: that is, believers who worship him according to the gospel are so, upon this condition, that we hold fast our confidence; that is, the confident profession of our Christian faith, and the joy and glorying in our hopes of the promised blessedness, unto the end.

Learn hence, That as it is an eminent privilege requires an answerable duty: because we are the house of God, it becomes us to hold fast our confidence unto the end.

Learn, 2. That as at all times, so especially in a time of trial and persecution, constancy in our Christian profession is, and will be a good evidence, both to ourselves and others, that we are living stones in the house of God: His house are we, if we hold fast our confidence unto the end.

The apostle having proved our Lord Jesus Christ to be the great Prophet and Teacher of his church, doth in these words draw an inference from the foregoing conclusion: namely, that seeing Christ is the chief apostle and prophet of his church, seeing he was a teacher sent of God to instruct the world in the practice of their reasonable duty, that therefore it is our obliged duty to hearken to Christ's voice, and that now to comply with his call, and that presently: Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, "Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

Observe here, 1. The person spoken of, and that is Christ; his voice; that is, the voice of Christ our great apostle, speaking in his gospel.

Observe, 2. A duty required of us in reference to his person, and that is, to hear and obey Christ's voice.

Observe, 3. The circumstance of time, and the special season when this duty of hearing Christ's voice is to be performed, and that is presently; "Today if you will hear his voice."

Observe, 4. A cautionary direction given to all those that sit under the dispensation of the gospel, and hear Christ's voice speaking to them therein; namely, to take heed that they harden not their hearts.

Learn hence, 1. That the voice which speaks unto us in and by the gospel, is Christ's voice.

2. That it is the great duty of all those that sit under the preaching of the gospel, to hear and obey Christ's voice.

Learn, 3. That it is not only their duty to hear Christ's voice, and answer his call in the gospel, but to do it now, to do it presently, and without delay; Today if you will hear his voice.

Learn, 4. That it is the duty and ought to be the special care, of all those that sit under the dispensation of the gospel, and that hear Christ's voice speaking to them therein, to take heed that they harden not their hearts.

Observe lastly, From our apostle's drawing an instance out of the Old Testament, namely, that of the Jews in the wilderness, to instruct the Hebrews to make use of the present season for hearing the voice of Christ under the New Testament; we learn, That Old Testament examples are New Testament instructions. The examples of our fore-fathers are of use and concernment to us, and ought to be the objects of our deepest consideration: Your fathers tempted me, and I was grieved with that generation.

The apostle having propounded the example of the Israelites, in the foregoing verses, to the consideration of the Hebrews, here he advises them to take care that they do not imitate the old Israelites in their unbelief, which will endanger our revolt from God now, as it did theirs then: Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.

Where note, The nature of sin in general, and of unbelief in particular, declared; it is a departure from God, from the living God; the root of all apostacy is cursed infidelity: Unbelief sets all the corrupt lusts and affections of the heart at liberty to act according to their own preverse nature and inclination; for it makes the soul negligent, careless, and slothful in opposing sin.

Note farther, That there is need of great care and heedfulness, of circumspection and watchfulness, lest at any time, of by any means, there should be found in us an evil heart of unbelief, to occasion our backsliding from Christ, and the profession of our faith in him; Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing, &c.

These words afford us a special remedy against the forementioned evil of apostasy, and that is mutual exhortation to constancy of religion: Exhort one another, ministers the people, and the people their ministers, and themselves mutually.

Learn hence, That sedulous and mutual exhortation is a special means to preserve Christians from the sin and danger of apostasy from Christ, and his holy religion; Exhort one another daily.

Observe next, How this duty is amplified by the properties of it, it must be frequent. Exhort one another daily; and seasonably, whilst it is called Today we know not; the day of life is uncertain, and so is the day of the gospel; a summer's day for clearness, a winter's day for shortness; our working day is a wasting day.

Observe, lastly, The great peril and danger which attend the neglecters and neglecting of this duty, Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Learn hence, That sin is very full of deceit, or exceedingly deceitful. That the deceit which is in sin, and inseparable from it, tends exceedingly to the hardening of the sinner. There are three eminent evils in sin' pollution, by which it defiles; baseness, by which it dishonours; deceitfulness, by which it deludes us with a false expectation of what it is never able to perform.

That is, hereby we shall declare ourselves to be made partakers of Christ and his saving benefit, if we persevere in the faith of the gospel, of which we have begun to make a profession of Christianity, either through fear or flattery, were never made partakers of Christ, nor savingly united to him: No better evidence of our interest in Christ, than what perseverance gives.

The intention of our apostle in these and the following verses, is to confirm his preceding exhortation, to hearken unto the voice of Christ, speaking in and by the gospel; and this he does by propounding the example of the Israelites, who came forth by propounding the example of the Israelites, who came forth out of Egypt under the conduct of Moses, and heard the voice of God in the wilderness; howbeit all did not provoke, but only some.

Note here, 1. How the apostle again repeateth over the words of the Psalmist, which he had mentioned before, v. 7, 8. Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

From whence we may learn, that the repetition, yea, frequent repetition of matters of moment, is very useful and necessary: We can never hear that too often, which we can never learn too well.

Note farther, The privilege which the Israelites of old enjoyed in the wilderness, and which we now enjoy under the gospel: Both theirs and ours is this, To hear the voice of God. This is a very great privilege, but privileges are as men use them; in themselves they are very valuable, but unto us they are no more than as they are prized and improved by us. Many, yea, most of them to whom Christ himself preached, finally perished; they got nothing by hearing his doctrine, through their unbelief, but an aggravation of their sins, and hastening of their ruin.

Christ himself, in his whole ministry, was a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel. Let not his ministers then be discouraged at the smallness of their own success, knowing that they shall be a sweet savour unto God, as well in them that perish, as in them that are saved.

Note lastly, That although many, very many in the wildernss that heard the voice of God, provoked him, yet not all, ver. 16. Some when they heard, did provoke, howbeit, not all that came out of Egypt.

Learn hence, That in the most general and visible apostasy of the church, God evermore reserves a remnant to himself to bear witness for himself by their faith and obedience; They provoked, howbeit, not all. God always has, and ever will reserve a remnant of faithful and undefiled souls unto himself, to maintain and keep up his own kingdom in the world, and to have a revenue of special glory from them, and by them, so long as the world continues.

Observe here, The party grieved, God; the parties grieving, the people of Israel: The time of both, forty years; the occasion of this grief, sin in general, unbelief in particular, hardness of heart, and final apostasy; the punishment of their sin, their carcases fell in the wilderness.

Learn 1. That sin is the proper object of God's displeasure, the only thing he is displeased with for itself, and with the sinner for sin's sake.

Learn, 2. That public sins, or the sins of societies, are great, very great provocations unto God: It was not for their personal and private sins that God was thus provoked, but for their confederacy in sinning.

Learn, 3. From their exemplary punishment, their carcases fell in the wilderness; that God sometimes makes men who have been wickedly exemplary in sin, to be righteously exemplary in punishment.

The rest here spoken of is the land of Canaan, so called, because God promised it to Abraham, to plant and settle his posterity in it; and because it typified heaven that eternal rest which God has promised for his saints; into this rest the rebellious and unbelieving Israelites must not enter.

God swore the contrary, he swore by himself, he swore in his wrath, he swore to make his sentence irrevocable and immutable.

Lord! thine oath stands as a bar against the Israelites of old, and cuts of all hope of future entrance into thy eternal rest which they have eternally forfeited! To whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

Learn hence, 1. That unbelief is the immediate root and cause of all provoking sins. Did men believe the happiness of Heaven, they would not neglect it; did they believe the torments of Hell, they would avoid them.

Learn, 2. That the oath of God is engaged against all unbelief, and no unbeliever shall enter into the rest of God, ver. 19. We see they could not enter in because of unbelief.