Matthew Poole and continuators on Hebrews 12:5

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh to you as to children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

[non-Latin text not transcribed], whether rendred interrogatively, have ye forgotten? or positively, ye have forgotten, either way it carrieth a check upon their forgetfulness, of what was of the greatest importance for them to remember in the time of Persecutions, and implieth a direction of them to their Duty, that they ought to remember the Counsel or Command given by God to them, how to interpret these Persecutions for Christ and the Gospel, and how to improve them; and so introduceth a further help to their running of the Race of God with Patience.

[non-Latin text not transcribed] notes properly Consolation, and is here a consolatory Exhortation to the management of a Duty which would be highly such to them, and a Dehortation from an Evil which would greatly prejudice them; when it is said, to speak, it is a Metonymy of the Effect for the Efficient; the Lord in the Exhortation speaking this to them.

These Words were written by Solomon, from God unto his Children in that time; and God speaks no less by him to these Hebrews, who were his Children now, as to all others who are such, or should be such Children to him. And whereas it is spoken singularly, My son, it is to every Child of God in Christ Jesus, and so collectively includeth all of them.

The Dehortation is written in Prov. 3.11. that not one of these Children should care little for, or set light by, denying all regardlesness, senslesness of, and incorrigibleness under such smart Correction as a Parent gives to a Child, either by himself, or by any other to whose care it is committed; but this Chastening is from the Lord, the most gracious and tender Father, who can do them no Evil, and will profit and benefit them by it. As they come from their Persecutors for the sake of Christ, they are Injuries, but as ordered by God their Father, they are so many favours to them, preventing Sin, preserving in Duty, and preparing them for Blessedness.

No[illegible: 1 letter] to nauseate his Rebukes, or to faint under them; neither to let our Faith or Hope in our Father fail, nor to sink in our Love to him, his Way, or Truth, or Religion; nor to be weary, and give over our Course, because of Persecutions, but continuing faithful to him to the end, v. 14, 15. Matth. 10.22. Luke 22.28, 29.

Marginal references: Job. 5.17. Prov. 3.11.