mh_parser/vol_split/58 - Hebrews/Chapter 12.xml

<div2 id="Heb.xiii" n="xiii" next="Heb.xiv" prev="Heb.xii" progress="80.45%" title="Chapter XII">
<h2 id="Heb.xiii-p0.1">H E B R E W S.</h2>
<h3 id="Heb.xiii-p0.2">CHAP. XII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Heb.xiii-p1">The apostle, in this chapter, applies what he has
collected in the chapter foregoing, and makes use of it as a great
motive to patience and perseverance in the Christian faith and
state, pressing home the argument, I. From a greater example than
he had yet mentioned, and that is Christ himself, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.1-Heb.12.3" parsed="|Heb|12|1|12|3" passage="Heb 12:1-3">ver. 1-3</scripRef>. II. From the gentle and
gracious nature of the afflictions they endured in their Christian
course, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.4-Heb.12.17" parsed="|Heb|12|4|12|17" passage="Heb 12:4-17">ver. 4-17</scripRef>. III.
From the communion and conformity between the state of the
gospel-church on earth and the triumphant church in heaven,
<scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.18-Heb.12.29" parsed="|Heb|12|18|12|29" passage="Heb 12:18-29">ver. 18, to the
end</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Heb.xiii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12" parsed="|Heb|12|0|0|0" passage="Heb 12" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Heb.xiii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.1-Heb.12.3" parsed="|Heb|12|1|12|3" passage="Heb 12:1-3" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Heb.12.1-Heb.12.3">
<h4 id="Heb.xiii-p1.6">Christ the Great Exemplar. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Heb.xiii-p1.7">a.
d.</span> 62.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Heb.xiii-p2">1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily beset <i>us,</i> and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us,   2 Looking unto
Jesus the author and finisher of <i>our</i> faith; who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.   3 For
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p3">Here observe what is the great duty which
the apostle urges upon the Hebrews, and which he so much desires
they would comply with, and that is, to <i>lay aside every weight,
and the sin that did so easily beset them, and run with patience
the race set before them.</i> The duty consists of two parts, the
one preparatory, the other perfective.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p4">I. Preparatory: <i>Lay aside every weight,
and the sin,</i> &amp;c. 1. <i>Every weight,</i> that is, all
inordinate affection and concern for the body, and the present life
and world. Inordinate care for the present life, or fondness for
it, is a dead weight upon the soul, that pulls it down when it
should ascend upwards, and pulls it back when it should press
forward; it makes duty and difficulties harder and heavier than
they would be. 2. <i>The sin that doth so easily beset us;</i> the
sin that has the greatest advantage against us, by the
circumstances we are in, our constitution, our company. This may
mean either the damning sin of unbelief or rather the darling sin
of the Jews, an over-fondness for their own dispensation. <i>Let us
lay aside</i> all external and internal hindrances.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p5">II. Perfective: <i>Run with patience the
race that is set before us.</i> The apostle speaks in the gymnastic
style, taken from the Olympic and other exercises.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p6">1. Christians have a race to run, a race of
service and a race of sufferings, a course of active and passive
obedience.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p7">2. This race is set before them; it is
marked out unto them, both by the word of God and the examples of
the faithful servants of God, that cloud of witnesses with which
they are compassed about. It is set out by proper limits and
directions; the mark they run to, and the prize they run for, are
set before them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p8">3. This race must be run with patience and
perseverance. There will be need of patience to encounter the
difficulties that lie in our way, of perseverance to resist all
temptations to desist or turn aside. Faith and patience are the
conquering graces, and therefore must be always cultivated and kept
in lively exercise.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p9">4. Christians have a greater example to
animate and encourage them in their Christian course than any or
all who have been mentioned before, and that is the Lord Jesus
Christ: <i>Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.2" parsed="|Heb|12|2|0|0" passage="Heb 12:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>.
Here observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p10">(1.) What our Lord Jesus is to his people:
he is <i>the author and finisher of</i> their <i>faith</i>—the
beginning, perfecter, and rewarder of it. [1.] He is the author of
their faith; not only the object, but the author. He is the great
leader and precedent of our faith, <i>he trusted in God;</i> he is
the purchaser of the Spirit of faith, the publisher of the rule of
faith, the efficient cause of the grace of faith, and in all
respects the author of our faith. [2.] He is <i>the finisher of our
faith;</i> he is the fulfiller and the fulfilling of all
scripture-promises and prophecies; he is the perfecter of the canon
of scripture; he is the finisher of grace, and of the work of faith
with power in the souls of his people; and he is the judge and the
rewarder of their faith; he determines who they are that reach the
mark, and from him, and in him, they have the prize.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p11">(2.) What trials Christ met with in his
race and course. [1.] He <i>endured the contradiction of sinners
against himself</i> (<scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.3" parsed="|Heb|12|3|0|0" passage="Heb 12:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>); he bore the opposition that they made to him, both
in their words and behaviour. They were continually contradicting
him, and crossing in upon his great designs; and though he could
easily have both confuted and confounded them, and sometimes gave
them a specimen of his power, yet he endured their evil manners
with great patience. Their contradictions were levelled against
Christ himself, against his person as God-man, against his
authority, against his preaching, and yet he endured all. [2.] He
<i>endured the cross</i>—all those sufferings that he met with in
the world; for he took up his cross betimes, and was at length
nailed to it, and endured a painful, ignominious, and accursed
death, in which he was numbered with the transgressors, the vilest
malefactors; yet all this he endured with invincible patience and
resolution. [3.] He <i>despised the shame.</i> All the reproaches
that were cast upon him, both in his life and at his death, he
despised; he was infinitely above them; he knew his own innocency
and excellency, and despised the ignorance and malice of his
despisers.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p12">(3.) What it was that supported the human
soul of Christ under these unparalleled sufferings; and that was
<i>the joy that was set before him.</i> He had something in view
under all his sufferings, which was pleasant to him; he rejoiced to
see that by his sufferings he should make satisfaction to the
injured justice of God and give security to his honour and
government, that he should make peace between God and man, that he
should seal the covenant of grace and be the Mediator of it, that
he should open a way of salvation to the chief of sinners, and that
he should effectually save all those whom the Father had given him,
and himself be the first-born among many brethren. This was the joy
that was set before him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p13">(4.) The reward of his suffering: he <i>has
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.</i> Christ, as
Mediator, is exalted to a station of the highest honour, of the
greatest power and influence; he is at the right hand of the
Father. Nothing passes between heaven and earth but by him; he does
all that is done; <i>he ever lives to make intercession for</i> his
people.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p14">(5.) What is our duty with respect to this
Jesus. We must, [1.] Look unto him; that is, we must set him
continually before us as our example, and our great encouragement;
we must look to him for direction, for assistance, and for
acceptance, in all our sufferings. [2.] We must consider him,
meditate much upon him, and reason with ourselves from his case to
our own. We must <i>analogize,</i> as the word is; compare Christ's
sufferings and ours; and we shall find that as his sufferings far
exceeded ours, in the nature and measure of them, so his patience
far excels ours, and is a perfect pattern for us to imitate.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p15">(6.) The advantage we shall reap by thus
doing: it will be a means to prevent our weariness and fainting
(<scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.3" parsed="|Heb|12|3|0|0" passage="Heb 12:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>): <i>Lest you
be weary and faint in your minds.</i> Observe, [1.] There is a
proneness in the best to grow weary and to faint under their trials
and afflictions, especially when they prove heavy and of long
continuance: this proceeds from the imperfections of grace and the
remains of corruption. [2.] The best way to prevent this is to look
unto Jesus, and to consider him. Faith and meditation will fetch in
fresh supplies of strength, comfort, and courage; for he has
assured them, if <i>they suffer with him, they shall also reign
with him:</i> and this hope will be their helmet.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Heb.xiii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.4-Heb.12.17" parsed="|Heb|12|4|12|17" passage="Heb 12:4-17" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Heb.12.4-Heb.12.17">
<h4 id="Heb.xiii-p15.3">The Benefit of Afflictions; The Use of
Afflictions; Cautions against Apostasy. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Heb.xiii-p15.4">a.
d.</span> 62.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Heb.xiii-p16">4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving
against sin.   5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which
speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
  6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth.   7 If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not?   8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof
all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.   9
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected
<i>us,</i> and we gave <i>them</i> reverence: shall we not much
rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
  10 For they verily for a few days chastened <i>us</i> after
their own pleasure; but he for <i>our</i> profit, that <i>we</i>
might be partakers of his holiness.   11 Now no chastening for
the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto
them which are exercised thereby.   12 Wherefore lift up the
hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;   13 And make
straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out
of the way; but let it rather be healed.   14 Follow peace
with all <i>men,</i> and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord:   15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the
grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble
<i>you,</i> and thereby many be defiled;   16 Lest there
<i>be</i> any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one
morsel of meat sold his birthright.   17 For ye know how that
afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was
rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it
carefully with tears.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p17">Here the apostle presses the exhortation to
patience and perseverance by an argument taken from the gentle
measure and gracious nature of those sufferings which the believing
Hebrews endured in their Christian course.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p18">I. From the gentle and moderate degree and
measure of their sufferings: <i>You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.4" parsed="|Heb|12|4|0|0" passage="Heb 12:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p19">1. He owns that they had suffered much,
they had been striving to an agony against sin. Here, (1.) The
cause of the conflict was sin, and to be engaged against sin is to
fight in a good cause, for sin is the worst enemy both to God and
man. Our spiritual warfare is both honourable and necessary; for we
are only defending ourselves against that which would destroy us,
if it should get the victory over us; we fight for ourselves, for
our lives, and therefore ought to be patient and resolute. (2.)
Every Christian is enlisted under Christ's banner, to strive
against sin, against sinful doctrines, sinful practices, and sinful
habits and customs, both in himself and in others.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p20">2. He puts them in mind that they might
have suffered more, that they had not suffered as much as others;
for they had <i>not yet resisted unto blood,</i> they had not been
called to martyrdom as yet, though they knew not how soon they
might be. Learn here, (1.) Our Lord Jesus, <i>the captain of our
salvation,</i> does not call his people out to the hardest trials
at first, but wisely trains them up by less sufferings to be
prepared for greater. He will not put new wine into weak vessels,
he is <i>the gentle shepherd,</i> who will not overdrive <i>the
young ones of the flock.</i> (2.) It becomes Christians to take
notice of the gentleness of Christ in accommodating their trial to
their strength. They should not magnify their afflictions, but
should take notice of the mercy that is mixed with them, and should
pity those who are called to the fiery trials to <i>resist to
blood;</i> not to shed the blood of their enemies, but to seal
their testimony with their own blood. (3.) Christians should be
ashamed to faint under less trials, when they see others bear up
under greater, and do not know how soon they may meet with greater
themselves. If we have run with the footmen and they have wearied
us, how shall we contend with horses? If we be wearied in a land of
peace, what shall we do in the swellings of Jordan? <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.12.5" parsed="|Jer|12|5|0|0" passage="Jer 12:5">Jer. xii. 5</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p21">II. He argues from the peculiar and
gracious nature of those sufferings that befall the people of God.
Though their enemies and persecutors may be the instruments of
inflicting such sufferings on them, yet they are divine
chastisements; their heavenly Father has his hand in all, and his
wise end to serve by all; of this he has given them due notice, and
they should not forget it, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.5" parsed="|Heb|12|5|0|0" passage="Heb 12:5"><i>v.</i>
5</scripRef>. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p22">1. Those afflictions which may be truly
persecution as far as men are concerned in them are fatherly
rebukes and chastisements as far as God is concerned in them.
Persecution for religion is sometimes a correction and rebuke for
the sins of professors of religion. Men persecute them because they
are religious; God chastises them because they are not more so: men
persecute them because they will not give up their profession; God
chastises them because they have not lived up to their
profession.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p23">2. God has directed his people how they
ought to behave themselves under all their afflictions; they must
avoid the extremes that many run into. (1.) They must not despise
the chastening of the Lord; they must not make light of
afflictions, and be stupid and insensible under them, for they are
the hand and rod of God, and his rebukes for sin. Those who make
light of affliction make light of God and make light of sin. (2.)
They must not faint when they are rebuked; they must not despond
and sink under their trial, nor fret and repine, but bear up with
faith and patience. (3.) If they run into either of these extremes,
it is a sign they have forgotten their heavenly Father's advice and
exhortation, which he has given them in true and tender
affection.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p24">3. Afflictions, rightly endured, though
they may be the fruits of God's displeasure, are yet proofs of his
paternal love to his people and care for them (<scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p24.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.6-Heb.12.7" parsed="|Heb|12|6|12|7" passage="Heb 12:6,7"><i>v.</i> 6, 7</scripRef>): <i>Whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.</i> Observe,
(1.) The best of God's children need chastisement. They have their
faults and follies, which need to be corrected. (2.) Though God may
let others alone in their sins, he will correct sin in his own
children; they are of his family, and shall not escape his rebukes
when they want them. (3.) In this he acts as becomes a father, and
treats them like children; no wise and good father will wink at
faults in his own children as he would in others; his relation and
his affections oblige him to take more notice of the faults of his
own children than those of others. (4.) To be suffered to go on in
sin without a rebuke is a sad sign of alienation from God; such are
bastards, not sons. They may call him Father, because born in the
pale of the church; but they are the spurious offspring of another
father, not of God, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p24.2" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.7-Heb.12.8" parsed="|Heb|12|7|12|8" passage="Heb 12:7,8"><i>v.</i> 7,
8</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p25">4. Those that are impatient under the
discipline of their heavenly Father behave worse towards him than
they would do towards earthly parents, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p25.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.9-Heb.12.10" parsed="|Heb|12|9|12|10" passage="Heb 12:9,10"><i>v.</i> 9, 10</scripRef>. Here, (1.) The apostle
commends a dutiful and submissive behaviour in children towards
their earthly parents <i>We gave them reverence,</i> even when they
corrected us. It is the duty of children to give the reverence of
obedience to the just commands of their parents, and the reverence
of submission to their correction when they have been disobedient.
Parents have not only authority, but a charge from God, to give
their children correction when it is due, and he has commanded
children to take such correction well: to be stubborn and
discontented under due correction is a double fault; for the
correction supposes there has been a fault already committed
against the parent's commanding power, and superadds a further
fault against his chastening power. Hence, (2.) He recommends
humble and submissive behavior towards our heavenly Father, when
under his correction; and this he does by an argument from the less
to the greater. [1.] Our earthly fathers are but <i>the fathers of
our flesh,</i> but God is <i>the Father of our spirits.</i> Our
fathers on earth were instrumental in the production of our bodies,
which are but flesh, a mean, mortal, vile thing, formed out of the
dust of the earth, as the bodies of the beasts are; and yet as they
are curiously wrought, and made parts of our persons, a proper
tabernacle for the soul to dwell in and an organ for it to act by,
we owe reverence and affection to those who were instrumental in
their procreation; but then we must own much more to him who is the
Father of our spirits. Our souls are not of a material substance,
not of the most refined sort; they are not <i>ex traduce—by
traduction;</i> to affirm it is bad philosophy, and worse divinity:
they are the immediate offspring of God, who, after he had formed
the body of man out of the earth, breathed into him a vital spirit,
and so he became a living soul. [2.] Our earthly parents
<i>chastened us for their own pleasure.</i> Sometimes they did it
to gratify their passion rather than to reform our manners. This is
a weakness the fathers of our flesh are subject to, and this they
should carefully watch against; for hereby they dishonour that
parental authority which God has put upon them and very much hinder
the efficacy of their chastisements. But the Father of our spirits
never grieves willingly, nor afflicts the children of men, much
less his own children. It is always <i>for our profit;</i> and the
advantage he intends us thereby is no less than our being partakers
of his holiness; it is to correct and cure those sinful disorders
which make us unlike to God, and to improve and to increase those
graces which are the image of God in us, that we may be and act
more like our heavenly Father. God loves his children so that he
would have them to be as like himself as can be, and for this end
he chastises them when they need it. [3.] The fathers of our flesh
corrected us for <i>a few days,</i> in our state of childhood, when
minors; and, though we were in that weak and peevish state, we owed
them reverence, and when we came to maturity we loved and honoured
them the more for it. Our whole life here is a state of childhood,
minority, and imperfection, and therefore we must submit to the
discipline of such a state; when we come to a state of perfection
we shall be fully reconciled to all the measures of God's
discipline over us now. [4.] God's correction is no condemnation.
His children may at first fear lest affliction should come upon
that dreadful errand, and we cry, <i>Do not condemn me,</i> but
<i>show me wherefore thou contendest with me,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p25.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.10.2" parsed="|Job|10|2|0|0" passage="Job 10:2">Job x. 2</scripRef>. But this is so far from
being the design of God to his own people that he therefore
chastens them now <i>that they may not be condemned with the
world,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p25.3" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.11.32" parsed="|1Cor|11|32|0|0" passage="1Co 11:32">1 Cor. xi. 32</scripRef>.
He does it to prevent the death and destruction of their souls,
that they may live to God, and be like God, and for ever with
him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p26">5. The children of God, under their
afflictions, ought not to judge of his dealings with them by
present sense, but by reason, and faith, and experience: <i>No
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous;
nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of
righteousness,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p26.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.11" parsed="|Heb|12|11|0|0" passage="Heb 12:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>. Here observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p27">(1.) The judgment of sense in this
case—Afflictions are not grateful to the sense, but grievous; the
flesh will feel them, and be grieved by them, and groan under
them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p28">(2.) The judgment of faith, which corrects
that of sense, and declares that a sanctified affliction produces
the fruits of righteousness; these fruits are peaceable, and tend
to the quieting and comforting of the soul. Affliction produces
peace, by producing more righteousness; for the fruit of
righteousness is peace. And if the pain of the body contribute thus
to the peace of the mind, and short present affliction produce
blessed fruits of a long continuance, they have no reason to fret
or faint under it; but their great concern is that the chastening
they are under may be endured by them with patience, and improved
to a greater degree of holiness. [1.] That their affliction may be
endured with patience, which is the main drift of the apostle's
discourse on this subject; and he again returns to exhort them that
for the reason before mentioned they should <i>lift up the hands
that hang down and the feeble knees,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p28.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.12" parsed="|Heb|12|12|0|0" passage="Heb 12:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>. A burden of affliction is apt
to make the Christian's hands hang down, and his knees grow feeble,
to dispirit him and discourage him; but this he must strive
against, and that for two reasons:—<i>First,</i> That he may the
better run his spiritual race and course. Faith, and patience, and
holy courage and resolution, will make him walk more steadily, keep
a straighter path, prevent wavering and wandering. <i>Secondly,</i>
That he may encourage and not dispirit others that are in the same
way with him. There are many that are in the way to heaven who yet
walk but weakly and lamely in it. Such are apt to discourage one
another, and hinder one another; but it is their duty to take
courage, and act by faith, and so help one another forward in the
way to heaven. [2.] That their affliction may be improved to a
greater degree of holiness. Since this is God's design, it ought to
be the design and concern of his children, that with renewed
strength and patience they may <i>follow peace with all men, and
holiness,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p28.2" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.14" parsed="|Heb|12|14|0|0" passage="Heb 12:14"><i>v.</i>
14</scripRef>. If the children of God grow impatient under
affliction, they will neither walk so quietly and peaceably towards
men, nor so piously towards God, as they should do; but faith and
patience will enable them to follow peace and holiness too, as a
man follows his calling, constantly, diligently, and with pleasure.
Observe, <i>First,</i> It is the duty of Christians, even when in a
suffering state, <i>to follow peace with all men,</i> yea, even
with those who may be instrumental in their sufferings. This is a
hard lesson, and a high attainment, but it is what Christ has
called his people to. Sufferings are apt to sour the spirit and
sharpen the passions; but the children of God must follow peace
with all men. <i>Secondly,</i> Peace and holiness are connected
together; there can be no true peace without holiness. There may be
prudence and discreet forbearance, and a show of friendship and
good-will to all; but this true Christian peaceableness is never
found separate from holiness. We must not, under pretence of living
peaceably with all men, leave the ways of holiness, but cultivate
peace in a way of holiness. <i>Thirdly, Without holiness no man
shall see the Lord.</i> The vision of God our Saviour in heaven is
reserved as the reward of holiness, and the stress of our salvation
is laid upon our holiness, though a placid peaceable disposition
contributes much to our meetness for heaven.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p29">6. Where afflictions and sufferings for the
sake of Christ are not considered by men as the chastisement of
their heavenly Father, and improved as such, they will be a
dangerous snare and temptation to apostasy, which every Christian
should most carefully watch against (<scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p29.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.15-Heb.12.16" parsed="|Heb|12|15|12|16" passage="Heb 12:15,16"><i>v.</i> 15, 16</scripRef>): <i>Looking diligently
lest any man fail of the grace of God,</i> &amp;c.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p30">(1.) Here the apostle enters a serious
caveat against apostasy, and backs it with an awful example.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p31">[1.] He enters a serious caveat against
apostasy, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p31.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.15" parsed="|Heb|12|15|0|0" passage="Heb 12:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>.
Here you may observe, <i>First,</i> The nature of apostasy: it is
<i>failing of the grace of God;</i> it is to become bankrupts in
religion, for want of a good foundation, and suitable care and
diligence; it is <i>failing of the grace of God,</i> coming short
of a principle of true grace in the soul, notwithstanding the means
of grace and a profession of religion, and so coming short of the
love and favour of God here and hereafter. <i>Secondly,</i> The
consequences of apostasy: where persons fail of having the true
grace of God, a root of bitterness will spring up, corruption will
prevail and break forth. A <i>root of bitterness,</i> a bitter
root, producing bitter fruits to themselves and others. It produces
to themselves corrupt principles, which lead to apostasy and are
greatly strengthened and radicated by apostasy—damnable errors (to
the corrupting of the doctrine and worship of the Christian church)
and corrupt practices. Apostates generally grow worse and worse,
and fall into the grossest wickedness, which usually ends either in
downright atheism or in despair. It also produces bitter fruits to
others, to the churches to which these men belonged; by their
corrupt principles and practices many are troubled, the peace of
the church is broken, the peace of men's minds is disturbed, and
<i>many are defiled,</i> tainted with those bad principles, and
drawn into defiling practices; so that the churches suffer both in
their purity and peace. But the apostates themselves will be the
greatest sufferers at last.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p32">[2.] The apostle backs the caution with an
awful example, and that is, that of Esau, who though born within
the pale of the church, and having the birthright as the eldest
son, and so entitled to the privilege of being prophet, priest, and
king, in his family, was so profane as to despise these sacred
privileges, and to sell his birthright for a morsel of meat. Where
observe, <i>First,</i> Esau's sin. He profanely despised and sold
the birthright, and all the advantages attending it. So do
apostates, who to avoid persecution, and enjoy sensual ease and
pleasure, though they bore the character of the children of God,
and had a visible right to the blessing and inheritance, give up
all pretensions thereto. <i>Secondly,</i> Esau's punishment, which
was suitable to his sin. His conscience was convinced of his sin
and folly, when it was too late: <i>He would afterwards have
inherited the blessing,</i> &amp;c. His punishment lay in two
things: 1. He was condemned by his own conscience; he now saw that
the blessing he had made so light of was worth the having, worth
the seeking, though with much carefulness and many tears. 2. He was
rejected of God: <i>He found no place of repentance</i> in God or
in his father; the blessing was given to another, even to him to
whom he sold it for a mess of pottage. Esau, in his great
wickedness, had made the bargain, and God in his righteous
judgment, ratified and confirmed it, and would not suffer Isaac to
reverse it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p33">(2.) We may hence learn, [1.] That apostasy
from Christ is the fruit of preferring the gratification of the
flesh to the blessing of God and the heavenly inheritance. [2.]
Sinners will not always have such mean thoughts of the divine
blessing and inheritance as now they have. The time is coming when
they will think no pains too great, no cares no tears too much, to
obtain the lost blessing. [3.] When the day of grace is over (as
sometimes it may be in this life), they will find no place for
repentance: they cannot repent aright of their sin; and God will
not repent of the sentence he has passed upon them for their sin.
And therefore, as the design of all, Christians should never give
up their title, and hope of their Father's blessing and
inheritance, and expose themselves to his irrevocable wrath and
curse, by deserting their holy religion, to avoid suffering, which,
though this may be persecution as far as wicked men are concerned
in it, is only a rod of correction and chastisement in the hand of
their heavenly Father, to bring them near to himself in conformity
and communion. This is the force of the apostle's arguing from the
nature of the sufferings of the people of God even when they suffer
for righteousness' sake; and the reasoning is very strong.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Heb.xiii-p33.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.18-Heb.12.29" parsed="|Heb|12|18|12|29" passage="Heb 12:18-29" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Heb.12.18-Heb.12.29">
<h4 id="Heb.xiii-p33.2">Nature of the Christian
Economy. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Heb.xiii-p33.3">a.
d.</span> 62.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Heb.xiii-p34">18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might
be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and
darkness, and tempest,   19 And the sound of a trumpet, and
the voice of words; which <i>voice</i> they that heard intreated
that the word should not be spoken to them any more:   20 (For
they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a
beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through
with a dart:   21 And so terrible was the sight, <i>that</i>
Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)   22 But ye are
come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,  
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are
written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits
of just men made perfect,   24 And to Jesus the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than <i>that of</i> Abel.   25 See that ye
refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more <i>shall not</i> we
<i>escape,</i> if we turn away from him that <i>speaketh</i> from
heaven:   26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath
promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but
also heaven.   27 And this <i>word,</i> Yet once more,
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may
remain.   28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be
moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear:   29 For our God <i>is</i> a
consuming fire.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p35">Here the apostle goes on to engage the
professing Hebrews to perseverance in their Christian course and
conflict, and not to relapse again into Judaism. This he does by
showing them how much the state of the gospel church differs from
that of the Jewish church, and how much it resembles the state of
the church in heaven, and on both accounts demands and deserves our
diligence, patience, and perseverance in Christianity.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p36">I. He shows how much the gospel church
differs from the Jewish church, and how much it excels. And here we
have a very particular description of the state of the church under
the Mosaic dispensation, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p36.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.18-Heb.12.21" parsed="|Heb|12|18|12|21" passage="Heb 12:18-21"><i>v.</i>
18-21</scripRef>. 1. It was a gross sensible state. Mount Sinai, on
which that church-state was constituted, was a <i>mount that might
be touched</i> (<scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p36.2" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.18" parsed="|Heb|12|18|0|0" passage="Heb 12:18"><i>v.</i>
18</scripRef>), a gross palpable place; so was the dispensation. It
was very much external and earthly, and so more heavy. The state of
the gospel church on mount Zion is more spiritual, rational, and
easy. 2. It was a dark dispensation. Upon that mount there were
blackness and darkness, and that church-state was covered with dark
shadows and types: the gospel state is much more clear and bright.
3. It was a dreadful and terrible dispensation; the Jews could not
bear the terror of it. The thunder and the lightning, the trumpet
sounding, the voice of God himself speaking to them, struck them
with such dread that they <i>entreated that the word might not be
so spoken to them any more,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p36.3" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.19" parsed="|Heb|12|19|0|0" passage="Heb 12:19"><i>v.</i> 19</scripRef>. Yea, Moses himself said, <i>I
exceedingly fear and quake.</i> The best of men on earth are not
able to converse immediately with God and his holy angels. The
gospel state is mild, and kind, and condescending, suited to our
weak frame. 4. It was a limited dispensation; all might not
approach to that mount, but only Moses and Aaron. Under the gospel
we have all access with boldness to God. 5. It was a very dangerous
dispensation. The mount burned with fire, and whatever man or beast
touched the mount must <i>be stoned, or thrust through with a
dart,</i> <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p36.4" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.20" parsed="|Heb|12|20|0|0" passage="Heb 12:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>. It
is true, it will be always dangerous for presumptuous and brutish
sinners to draw nigh to God; but it is not immediate and certain
death, as here it was. This was the state of the Jewish church,
fitted to awe a stubborn and hard-hearted people, to set forth the
strict and tremendous justice of God, to wean the people of God
from that dispensation, and induce them more readily to embrace the
sweet and gentle economy of the gospel church, and adhere to
it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p37">II. He shows how much the gospel church
represents the church triumphant in heaven, what communication
there is between the one and the other. The gospel church is called
<i>mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is free,</i> in
opposition to mount Sinai, which tendeth to bondage, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p37.1" osisRef="Bible:Gal.4.24" parsed="|Gal|4|24|0|0" passage="Ga 4:24">Gal. iv. 24</scripRef>. This was the hill on
which God set his king the Messiah. Now, in coming to mount Zion,
believers come into heavenly places, and into a heavenly
society.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p38">1. Into heavenly places. (1.) <i>Unto the
city of the living God.</i> God has taken up his gracious residence
in the gospel church, which on that account is an emblem of heaven.
There his people may find him ruling, guiding, sanctifying, and
comforting them; there he speaks to them by the gospel ministry;
there they speak to him by prayer, and he hears them; there he
trains them up for heaven, and gives them the earnest of their
inheritance. (2.) To <i>the heavenly Jerusalem</i> as born and bred
there, as free denizens there. Here believers have clearer views of
heaven, plainer evidences for heaven, and a greater meetness and
more heavenly temper of soul.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p39">2. To a heavenly society. (1.) <i>To an
innumerable company of angels,</i> who are of the same family with
the saints, under the same head, and in a great measure employed in
the same work, ministering to believers for their good, keeping
them in all their ways, and pitching their tents about them. These
for number are innumerable, and for order and union are a company,
and a glorious one. And those who by faith are joined to the gospel
church are joined to the angels, and shall at length be like them,
and equal with them. (2.) <i>To the general assembly and church of
the first-born, that are written in heaven,</i> that is, to the
universal church, however dispersed. By faith we come to them, have
communion with them in the same head, by the same Spirit, and in
the same blessed hope, and walk in the same way of holiness,
grappling with the same spiritual enemies, and hasting to the same
rest, victory, and glorious triumph. Here will be the general
assembly of the first-born, the saints of former and earlier times,
who saw the promises of the gospel state, but received them not, as
well as those who first received them under the gospel, and were
regenerated thereby, and so were the first-born, and the
first-fruits of the gospel church; and thereby, as the first-born,
advanced to greater honours and privileges than the rest of the
world. Indeed all the children of God are heirs, and every one has
the privileges of the first-born. The names of these are written in
heaven, in the records of the church here: they have a name in
God's house, are written among the living in Jerusalem; they have a
good repute for their faith and fidelity, and are enrolled in the
Lamb's book of life, as citizens are enrolled in the livery-books.
(3.) <i>To God the Judge of all,</i> that great God who will judge
both Jew and Gentile according to the law they are under: believers
come to him now by faith, make supplication to their Judge, and
receive a sentence of absolution in the gospel, and in the court of
their consciences now, by which they know they shall be justified
hereafter. (4.) <i>To the spirits of just men made perfect;</i> to
the best sort of men, the righteous, who are more excellent than
their neighbours; to the best part of just men, their spirits, and
to these in their best state, made perfect. Believers have union
with departed saints in one and the same head and Spirit, and a
title to the same inheritance, of which those on earth are heirs,
those in heaven possessors. (5.) <i>To Jesus the Mediator of the
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better
things than that of Abel.</i> This is none of the least of many
encouragements there are to perseverance in the gospel state, since
it is a state of communion with Christ the Mediator of the new
covenant, and of communication of his blood, that speaketh better
things than the blood of Abel. [1.] The gospel covenant is the new
covenant, distinct from the covenant of works; and it is now under
a new dispensation, distinct from that of the Old Testament. [2.]
Christ is the Mediator of this new covenant; he is the middle
person that goes between both parties, God and man, to bring them
together in this covenant, to keep them together notwithstanding
the sins of the people and God's displeasure against them for sin,
to offer up our prayers to God, and to bring down the favours of
God to us, to plead with God for us and to plead with us for God,
and at length to bring God and his people together in heaven, and
to be a Mediator of fruition between them for ever, they beholding
and enjoying God in Christ and God beholding and blessing them in
Christ. [3.] This covenant is ratified by the blood of Christ
sprinkled upon our consciences, as the blood of the sacrifice was
sprinkled upon the altar and the sacrifice. This blood of Christ
pacifies God and purifies the consciences of men. [4.] This is
speaking blood, and it speaks better things than that of Abel.
<i>First,</i> It speaks to God in behalf of sinners; it pleads not
for vengeance, as the blood of Abel did on him who shed it, but for
mercy. <i>Secondly,</i> To sinners, in the name of God. It speaks
pardon to their sins, peace to their souls; and bespeaks their
strictest obedience and highest love and thankfulness.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p40">III. The apostle, having thus enlarged upon
the argument to perseverance taken from the heavenly nature of the
gospel church state, closes the chapter by improving the argument
in a manner suitable to the weight of it (<scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p40.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.25" parsed="|Heb|12|25|0|0" passage="Heb 12:25"><i>v.</i> 25</scripRef>, &amp;c.): <i>See then that you
refuse not him that speaketh</i>—that speaketh by his blood; and
not only speaketh after another manner than the blood of Abel spoke
from the ground, but than God spoke by the angels, and by Moses
spoke on mount Sinai; then he spoke on earth, now he speaks from
heaven. Here observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p41">1. When God speaks to men in the most
excellent manner he justly expects from them the most strict
attention and regard. Now it is in the gospel that God speaks to
men in the most excellent manner. For, (1.) He now speaks from a
higher and more glorious seat and throne, not from mount Sinai,
which was on this earth, but from heaven. (2.) He speaks now more
immediately by his inspired word and by his Spirit, which are his
witnesses. He speaks not now any new thing to men, but by his
Spirit speaks the same word home to the conscience. (3.) He speaks
now more powerfully and effectually. Then indeed his voice shook
the earth, but now, by introducing the gospel state, he hath shaken
not only the earth, but the heavens,—not only shaken the hills and
mountains, or the spirits of men, or the civil state of the land of
Canaan, to make room for his people,—not only shaken the world, as
he then did, but he hath shaken the church, that is, the Jewish
nation, and shaken them in their church-state, which was in
Old-Testament times a heaven upon earth; this their heavenly
spiritual state he hath now shaken. It is by the gospel from heaven
that God shook to pieces the civil and ecclesiastical state of the
Jewish nation, and introduced a new state of the church, that
cannot be removed, shall never be changed for any other on earth,
but shall remain till it be made perfect in heaven.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Heb.xiii-p42">2. When God speaks to men in the most
excellent manner, the guilt of those who refuse him is the greater,
and their punishment will be more unavoidable and intolerable;
there is no escaping, no bearing it, <scripRef id="Heb.xiii-p42.1" osisRef="Bible:Heb.12.25" parsed="|Heb|12|25|0|0" passage="Heb 12:25"><i>v.</i> 25</scripRef>. The different manner of God's
dealing with men under the gospel, in a way of grace, assures us
that he will deal with the despisers of the gospel after a
different manner than he does with other men, in a way of judgment.
The glory of the gospel, which should greatly recommend it to our
regard, appears in these three things:—(1.) It was by the sound
of the gospel trumpet that the former dispensation and state of the
church of God were shaken and removed; and shall we despise that
voice of God that pulled down a church and state of so long
standing and of God's own building? (2.) It was by the sound of the
gospel trumpet that a new kingdom was erected for God in the world,
which can never be so shaken as to be removed. This was a change
made once for all; no other change shall take place <i>till time
shall be no more.</i> We have now <i>received a kingdom that cannot
be moved,</i> shall never be removed, never give way to any new
dispensation. The canon of scripture is now perfected, <i>the
Spirit of prophecy has ceased,</i> the mystery of God is finished,
he has put his last hand to it. The gospel church may be made more
large, more prosperous more purified from contracted pollution, but
it shall never be altered for another dispensation; those who
perish under the gospel perish without remedy. And hence the
apostle justly concludes, [1.] How necessary it is for us to obtain
<i>grace from God, to serve him acceptably:</i> if we be not
accepted of God under this dispensation, we shall never be accepted
at all; and we lose all our labour in religion if we be not
accepted of God. [2.] We cannot worship God acceptably, unless we
worship him with <i>godly reverence and fear.</i> As faith, so holy
fear, is necessary to acceptable worship. [3.] It is only the grace
of God that enables us to worship God in a right manner: nature
cannot come up to it; it can produce neither that precious faith
nor that holy fear that is necessary to acceptable worship. [4.]
God is the same just and righteous God under the gospel that he
appeared to be under the law. Though he be our God in Christ, and
now deals with us in a more kind and gracious way, yet he is in
himself a consuming fire; that is, a God of strict justice, who
will avenge himself on all the despisers of his grace, and upon all
apostates. Under the gospel, the justice of God is displayed in a
more awful manner, though not in so sensible a manner as under the
law; for here we behold divine justice seizing upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, and making him a propitiatory sacrifice, his soul and body
an offering for sin, which is a display of justice far beyond what
was seen and heard on mount Sinai when the law was given.</p>
</div></div2>