Hebrews to Revelation · Part 1

[339] Heb. iii. 6, 7, 8. to chap. iv. 11. “Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. , as the says, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,” &c. The apostle here supposes that when the psalmist here says, ”To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;” it is as much as if he had said,” Although that was a long time ago, and though their day was long since past, yet hear his voice, and do not harden your hearts now in this your day, and see that you never harden your hearts while your day lasts; for if ye do not harden your hearts, there is a rest of God, that you may enter into as well as they; but if you continue to harden your hearts, your day in a little time will be past as well as theirs.” The former part of this sense, viz. that by the expression, ”To-day,” the psalmist means, In this day that you now have so long after their day is past, is evident by chapter iv. 7. and the latter part of it, viz. that he means. Take heed that your heart be at no time hardened during your day, is evident, because in that8th verse. the words are brought in as a motive to . It is still more evident by the manner of the apostle’s bringing in the words in the l1th and 12th, as also in the 14th and 15th verses., and by the apostle’s paraphrase of the words, or gloss he puts upon them there, while it is called To-day, verse 13. and while it is said Today, ver. 15. which is the same thing as during the continuance of the day.

From the psalmist exhorting us to hear God’s voice today, so long a time after the carcasses of the children of Israel fell in the wilderness, and so they failed of entering into God’s rest, and so long a time after others that believed entered into that temporal rest that Joshua brought them into; the apostle would argue that there remains still another rest for the people of God, to be entered into, as God spake concerning the children of Israel in the wilderness, as if there was a rest of God still to be entered into, though there had been a rest of God many ages before that, viz. that rest, or sabbatism of God, which God enjoyed on the seventh day of the creation, resting from the works of creation, which had been distinguished as God’s rest, or his sabbatism; but yet there then remained another rest of God to those that believed, viz. Christ’s rest in Canaan after the Egyptian bondage, and his of his people out of Egypt, as is implied in his swearing in his wrath that those that did not believe should not enter into rest. So there still remains another rest also besides God’s rest from that , as is implied in the psalmist, when speaking so long after of the unbelievers in the wilderness failing of entering into that rest, he still exhorts and says, “To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as they did;” implying that it will not be in vain for us even now to hearken, but we shall enter into God’s rest still if we hearken, even that rest that Christ entered into in heaven, after his great bondage here on earth, and his finishing the work of . By which may be understood the force of the apostle’s reasoning in ver. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10,11. of the next chapter.

[142] Heb. v. 9. “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” By obeying, here, is not meant believing, but obedience to the law and commands of God, as it is understood in the foregoing verse.

[74] Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. “For it is impossible for those that were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift,’’ &c. What is meant by those things here mentioned, may be gathered from the foregoing verses. The apostle exhorts us, when we have begun in Christianity, to go on, and make progress to higher attainments, and not to have all to begin again; that whenever we had laid the foundation, we should go on and build the superstructure, and not to keep always laying the foundation, or have occasion to lay it the second time, which foundation, or beginning, or first setting out in Christianity, consists in these things, in from dead works, and in faith towards God; which foundation was laid when they first turned from their erroneous and wicked ways, and embraced Christianity, and believed the gospel. And nextly, in the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, because when they first entered upon a profession of the gospel, they were baptized, and had hands laid on them, that they might receive the . By the doctrine of baptisms and laying on of hands, the apostle means those plain instructions that were given them, to prepare them for baptism, and laying on hands; and lastly, as to the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, the doctrine of the resurrection and the future state, or world to come, were the first principles of religion, that they first began with.

Now, by those who were once enlightened, the apostle means those that were once indoctrinated in Christianity, and brought so far to understand and believe it, as to make them forsake their former errors and vicious courses in their unbelief, as is evidently understood, chap. x. 32. Tasting of the heavenly gifts, and being made partakers of the , are the same, and mean their receiving the , as they did by the laying on of hands; and lastly, in tasting of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, though it is probable those were everywhere made partakers of the gift of the , by the laying on of hands, that were true ; yet I believe that when it was not accompanied with gracious exercises, it was always accompanied with great common illuminations and affections. It is not probable that they should have the dwelling in them with respect to his miraculous influences, and not feel any thing of the power of it in their souls. When the was given them, they felt his influence, not only outwardly, but inwardly; not only in their understandings, but affections. I believe never any had the , with respect to his extraordinary operations, (see Numb. xxiii. 10. xxiv. 5, 6. 1 Sam. x. 6.) more than Balaam and Saul. They were men, but yet they felt his influence in this way. Thus they tasted of the good word of God, and the power of the world to come. They tasted of the good word of God as the stony-ground hearers, who with joy receive the word, and as the Galatians did who thought it such a blessedness to hear the word of God, and would have plucked out their eyes, and given them to the apostle. They experienced in themselves the power of the world to come, that is, of the invisible world; see Ephes i. 21. and Heb. ii. 5. and felt the powers of the invisible agent of that world upon their minds. It is certain none exercised miraculous gifts without extraordinary influence of the Spirit of God to convince the judgment. 1 Cor. xiii. 2. “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not , I am nothing;” and doubtless there was commonly an answerable or proportional effect on the affections, as there was on the judgment. As that faith there mentioned is there distinguished from true or , and therefore differed in kind from saving faith, so do these things here mentioned from saving .

[299] Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. If any think that the apostle here used expressions too high to denote any gifts of the Spirit common to good and bad men, though miraculous gifts, I answer, that the drift of the apostle, and his argument in those words, led him to set forth the greatness of the privilege that such persons had received, that he might the better show the exceeding aggravations of their apostacy, what the apostle says might be the more easily believed, viz. that it was impossible to renew them again to . For it is certain that he intends the aggravatedness of their crime, as a reason of it, because he himself gives it as a reason of it, ver. 6. in those words, “Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

[107] Heb. xi. 1. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen:” that is, it is their being evident. This verse is as much as if he had said, Faith is the being present of things that are to come, and the being clearly seen of things that are not seen. The substance of things hoped for, might have been translated the subsistence, that is, their now subsisting.

[227] Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. “For it is impossible,” &c. Those that the apostle here has respect to, must be such as were guilty of the unpardonable sin. The falling away that he speaks of is an apostacy from Christianity. It could not be otherwise but that those who in those days had been Christians, and then openly renounced Christianity, must openly reproach that spirit that Christians were then so generally endued with in his miraculous gifts, which was so notorious, and was so great a thing, and the principal thing in them that drew the eyes of the world upon them, and was the greatest seal that God gave them to evidence in the sight of the world that they were his people, and which was the argument that was principally effectual for the gaining others to them. When they openly renounced Christianity, that they once had appeared to embrace, their renunciation contained a great and open reproach, for it was an avowed casting away and rejecting a thing that has been received, as having found it naught and vile. He that admits and receives another in the capacity of a wife, or husband, or lord, or other relation, and then afterwards on trial rejects them and turns them out of doors, casts a vastly greater reproach on them than those that never received them: much more those that received any one for their God. So these apostates here spoken of, in renouncing Christianity, did openly cast the greatest reproach on Christianity; and therefore the apostle says,ver. 6. they put him to an open shame. And indeed an open, declared renunciation of Christianity after it had been embraced, is itself an open reproaching, and blaspheming of it in words; and they that apostatized and openly renounced Christianity in those days, and the church being in those circumstances that have already been mentioned, must openly renounce and reproach that Spirit that the Christians were endued with, and confirmed by; for that Spirit was the principal and most obvious thing in that Christianity that they renounced and reproached. And especially must it be so, when those openly renounced Christianity that had themselves been endued with the , as those here spoken of had been. In renouncing Christianity, they must renounce the Spirit, that great seal of Christianity that they had had. And those that had such experience of the evidences of the truth of Christianity that those had, as has been explained, No. 165. must do it against light and the of their own consciences, and so what they did amounts to the sin against the . And those that apostatized from Christianity under these circumstances, would naturally be abundant in their reproaches of the religion they had renounced, and the Spirit that confirmed it, that they might themselves, and that they might not appear inconsistent with themselves in the eye of the world. The same apostates are evidently spoken of in chap. x. 25., &c. where the apostle speaks of their forsaking the assemblies of Christians, and sinning wilfully after they had received the knowledge of the truth, and treading under-foot the Son of God, and renouncing the blood of the , wherewith they had been , and doing despite to the Spirit of .

[501] Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. Concerning those who were once enlightened, &c. It is an argument, that those here spoken of are such as were never , that they are compared to the thorny ground, which, however it may seem to receive the seed and to nourish it, so that it may spring up, and appear flourishing awhile, yet never brings forth any good fruit, but the fruit finally produced always is briers and thorns, because the ground is thorny, full of seeds and roots of thorns, which were never purged out to prepare the ground for the good seed; so that whatsoever showers descend upon it, how benign soever they are, yet they only go to nourish the thorns, and make them grow the faster, ver. 8. which representation certainly implies that the ground is nought, it was never so changed as to prepare it to bring forth good fruit. It is a good rule in our endeavours to understand the mind of the Spirit of God, to compare spiritual things with spiritual, and to interpret scripture by scripture. Now it is manifest that Christ represents the thorny ground as different from the good ground. The ground itself is naught, and not fitted so to receive and nourish the seed, as to bring good fruit to perfection; and they that are represented by the thorny ground are, in Christ’s explanation of the parable, distinguished from those that have good and honest hearts. The fault of the way-side, of the stony ground, and of the thorny ground, was, in each, the nature of the ground; and the good fruit in the good ground is ascribed to the better nature of the ground; and therefore, they that are here represented as ground, which, though often receiving refreshing benign showers, always brings forth briers and thorns, are ground that never has been purged, and changed, and made good, but is inveterately evil, and therefore fit for nothing but to be burnt. It is not impossible that thorny ground may be brought to bring forth good fruit, but then it must be changed, the very roots of the thorns must be killed or rooted up. If this is not done, let good seed be sown in it, and good and kindly showers of rain descend upon it never so often, it will bring forth briers and thorns. This killing or rooting up of the lusts of the heart, compared to thorns, is done by a work of , or circumcising the heart, as is represented, Jer. iv. 4, 5. “Break up your fallow ground, sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, lest my fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it.” There the end of the ground that bears briers and thorns, is represented as being to be burned, as here in the 6th chapter of Hebrews. This is the end of those whose hearts do as it were bring forth briers and thorns, and that because their hearts were never circumcised, i. e. never .

In Luke viii. 18. when Christ had ended the parable of the sower, he concludes, Take heed how you hear; (i. e. that you in hearing the word are not like the way-side, or the stony or thorny ground, on which the good seed fell;) for says Christ, “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have;” referring still to the parable, and the taking away, or the withering and perishing, of the seed from the evil sorts of ground; implying that such have no true spiritual life, no real goodness, and that the seeming good they have, they shall lose.

[284] Heb. vi. 19. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” That which is here called hope, is the same with the of faith, but only with respect to one kind of its exercises, viz. those that respect God’s promises, or our own future promised good. It is no other than trust in God, (or rather faith in God,) through Christ, for salvation. This agrees with the context, beginning with the 12th verse, and with the description given of hope in the words themselves; for it is faith in Christ that is the stability of the soul, faith is that by which we are built on that strong rock, so that we cannot be overthrown, and the same is the anchor by which we are held fast, and cannot be driven to and fro of winds and storms, and shipwrecked and lost. That which is here called hope is the very same that is elsewhere called faith; and saving and faith is often in the New Testament called by the name of hope; as in Rom. viii. 24, 25. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” How are we saved by hope, but as we are saved or by faith? It further appears that by hope here is meant faith, by the following words, “But hope that is seen is not hope,” &c. compared with the words of the same apostle, Heb. xi. 1. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen;” and by the next verse., But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it,” compared with the 12th verse of the context in this 6th of Hebrews., “That ye be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” And it may be further confirmed by comparing this last place with the foregoing verse,. And we desire every one of you to show the same diligence to the full of hope to the end;” and also comparing both with the 19th verse,. the text we are upon. That faith with the apostle sometimes signifies the same with hope, is manifest from his description of it in the 1st verse of 11th of Heb. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for;” and Gal. v. 5. “We through the Spirit wait for the hope of , through faith;” and Colos. i. 23. “If ye continue in faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel:” continuing grounded and settled in faith, and unmoved in the hope of the gospel, are expressions evidently used as exegetical one of another; and Heb. iii. 6. ”If we hold fast our confidence, and rejoicing of hope firm unto the end:” our confidence and our hope seem to be synonymous; so, Rom. iv. 18. “Who against hope believed in hope.” 1 Tim. i. 1. “Jesus Christ which is our hope.” So the apostle Peter seems to use the term hope. 1 Peter i. 21. “Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.” So chap. iii. 15. “Be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in you with and fear;” that is, to give a reason, or declare the grounds, of your faith. So hope seems to be used for faith by the apostle John. 1 John iii. 3. “Every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

Hope, in the New Testament, is often spoken of as a great Christian and virtue, and one of the main things that distinguishes a true Christian, which would be difficult to understand or account for, if by hope is meant no more than what we commonly understand by the word, viz. his thinking well of his own state, or hoping well of his future state. That is not hard to do; it is what nature is prone to; but by hope they doubtless meant something more, viz. an embracing the promises of God and fiducial relying on them through Christ for salvation. This is the great Christian that the apostle speaks of in the 13th chap. of 1 Cor. where he speaks of faith, hope, ; and by faith there, and also where it is distinguished from hope, is meant faith in a larger sense, viz. acquiescing in the truth in whatever he testifies or reveals, without any special regard to our own concern and future interest in what he reveals. Hope is our acquiescing and relying on God’s truth and sufficiency as to what concerns our own future happiness.

[310] Heb. viii. 1. “We have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” This is often taken notice of in this epistle, as chap. i. 3. x. 12. xii. 2. This high priest, when he enters into the holy of holies with his own blood, does not only appear there standing before the throne, or , as the high priests of old were wont to do when they entered into the holy of holies once a year with the blood of others, but sits down on the throne in the holy of holies, on the right hand of God; which shows the exceeding dignity of the priest, his nearness and dearness to God, and the absolute sufficiency of the sacrifice that he had offered, the blood of which he entered in there with, and the dignity and honourableness of the manner of his there; which was not merely by , as one in humble posture before the throne, but by representing his will to the Father, as one sitting in glory with him on the throne, as John xvii. 24. “Father, I will that they that thou hast given me, be with me,” &c. His thus being admitted and invited of God to sit with him on the throne, denotes God’s full, and perfect, and great satisfaction, and well-pleasedness in, and rest on, this high priest when he had offered his sacrifice, and entered into the holy of holies with the blood of it to obtain of God that for which he shed his blood. God immediately receives him, and accepts him and his plea, and says to him, “Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” And it is a note of Christ’s perfect of the Father’s acceptance of him as priest, and his rest in him, as having virtually obtained what he for, having all things put into his hands, being made head over all things to the church, that he does not merely stand before the throne , hoping, and waiting, as the legal high priests did, but sits down in perfect rest, as being satisfied in his full acceptance and virtual possession of all he seeks. He sits on the throne as a royal priest, as a priest on the throne agreeably to the prophecy in Zech. vi. 13.: being made to reign to accomplish the ends of the priesthood, according to his own will; for God has given all power in heaven and on earth, that Christ may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him.

[312] Heb. ix. 28. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto those that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” The first time that Christ appeared, he in one sense did not appear without sin; for he bare the sins of many, he appeared in that form, in those circumstances, and with those labours and sufferings, that were tokens of sin, or guilt, that lay upon him; but then he perfectly freed himself from this sin, he perfectly abolished this guilt, by those sufferings he underwent, as the apostle is here arguing in the preceding part of the chapter; and therefore when he appears the second time, it shall be without sin, without any of those tokens of guilt which he had in his state of humiliation. He shall be exceedingly far from them, the state in which he will appear will be immensely different from the state of one under the tokens and fruits of guilt and wrath, for he will appear in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels, as the Supreme Head and Judge of the universe, with ineffable and inconceivable glory and magnificence. Had not Christ perfectly satisfied for the sins of men, and so done away all his guilt, he could not have appeared a second time without sin, but must always have remained under the tokens of God’s curse for sin. But at the day of judgment he will appear infinitely far from that. The glory he will appear in at the day of judgment, will be the greatest and brightest evidence of all, of his having fully satisfied for sin. His resurrection is a glorious evidence of it, and therefore is called his . His ascension into heaven, and sitting on the right hand of God, is a still brighter evidence, as it is a higher degree of his exaltation; but the glory that he will appear in at the day of judgment, will be the brightest evidence of all, as herein appears the glory of his exaltation in its highest degree of all, and is the highest reward which the Father bestows on him for it, and so is the highest token of his acceptance of it as sufficient and perfect. Beside the glory of the special affair of that day which Christ shall bear, then will be the beginning of the consummate glory and reward of both Christ and his church, to last throughout eternity. And not only the glory that Christ will then appear in, but the nature of the business that he will come upon, will show him perfectly to have done away all the sins of his , of which he will be the judge, and will save those that have believed in him. God would not have committed this affair to one that had undertaken for them, unless he had satisfied for them.

He will appear without sin to salvation. The first time he appeared, it was with sin to procure salvation; the second he will appear to bestow salvation, which will in the event show that salvation is fully procured.

[288] Heb. x. 1. “The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things.” Here a shadow is distinguished from images, or pictures, as having a more imperfect representation of the things represented by it. The types of the Old Testament are compared to this kind of representation of things, not only here, but chap. viii. 5. and Colos. ii. 17. which fitly resemble them on several accounts. The shadow of a thing is an exceedingly imperfect representation of it, and yet has such a resemblance, that it has a most evident relation to the thing of which it is the shadow. Again, shadows are a kind of dark resemblances. Though there be a resemblance, yet the image is accompanied with darkness, or hiding of the light: the light is beyond the substance, so that it is hid. So was it with the types of the Old Testament; they were obscure and dark; the light was beyond the substance. The light that was plainly to reveal gospel things came after Christ, the substance of all the ancient types. The shadow was accompanied with darkness and obscurity; gospel things were then hid under a veil.

[230] Heb. x. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. That the sin against the is here intended, is confirmed from the place in the Old Testament that seems to be referred to in the 28th and 29th verses.; for the place that seems especially to be referred to is that in Numb. xv. 30, 31., &c.; where God having been speaking of the sins of ignorance, that should be for with sacrifice, tells what sins should not be for with sacrifice in these words, “But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people; because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment; that soul shall be utterly cut off:” and then in the words next following, there is an instance given of such a man so sinning presumptuously, viz. the -breaker, that gathered sticks on the , and how no sacrifice was accepted for him, but he perished without mercy by all the congregation’s stoning him with stones. See margin of the Hebrew Bible. That the apostle here refers to this passage, seems evident by these things. The apostle is here speaking of a sin, for which there remains no more sacrifice, and in that in Numbers shows what sins were not to be for by legal sacrifice. He speaks here of him that despised Moses’s law, which agrees with those words in that place in Numbers, ”Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken the commandment:” the reason given in that place why no sacrifice was to be accepted for him, so here the reason given why no more sacrifice remains, is that he sins wilfully. In that place another reason why he should perish without accepting a sacrifice was, that he reproached the Lord; so here the reason given why there remained no sacrifice for this was, that he had insolently and maliciously reproached the Spirit of , for so the words in the original signify which are translated hath done despite to the Spirit of . (Vide Van Maestricht, p. 363. col. 1.) Another reason there given is, that he had despised the word of the Lord; a reason here given is, that he had trampled on the Son of God, who is the Word of God. The man gathering sticks perished by the hand of all the congregation; the whole congregation were commanded to stone him with stones, to bear testimony that none had mercy on him, agreeably to God’s direction in such a case, Deut. xiii. 8, 9, 10. “Neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare him, but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people, and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die.” Thus the -breaker perished without mercy. And he died under the hand of two or three witnesses, as the apostle concluded from the law in such a case.