it was a public and solemn acknowledgment of his hope in Christ. It was a declaration that he considered himself as one with Christ-as having died with Him, been buried with Him, been raised with Him,-and of his expectation of a personal resurrection and ascension entirely on the ground of what He did and suffered, "the Just One in the room of the unjust." That this was the import of a person's submitting to baptism, seems plain from the words of the Apostle: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection : knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.' The substance, then, of the Apostle's exhortation seems to be,— 'Having in your baptism made a solemn acknowledgment of your hope of eternal life through Christ Jesus, hold fast the hope which you have acknowledged, in opposition equally to the threats of persecutors and the sophistical reasonings of false teachers.'

He adds a very powerfully persuasive motive in the words which follow: "For He is faithful who has promised." God, to give the "heirs of salvation" "strong consolation," has confirmed by an oath that declaration in reference to the everlasting priesthood of Jesus Christ, on which all their hope depends; and He cannot lie-He cannot deny Himself. He can as soon cease to exist as cease to be faithful to His promise. "He is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of man, that He should repent." And He has proved His faithfulness in accomplishing the promise with regard to our great High Priest. He has brought Him-according to His promise, that “He would not leave His soul in the separate state, nor suffer His Holy One to see corruption,"-He has "brought Him from 1 Rom. vi. 3-6; Gal. iii. 27-29.

the dead;" and He will in due time fulfil all the promises which He has made to His people, bringing them again from the dead, and giving them that "kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world." A consideration of the faithfulness of the Promiser is the principal means of strengthening faith in the promise.

Vers. 24, 25. "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love, and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." For the purpose of mutually confirming each other in the hope of the Gospel, the Apostle exhorts the Hebrew Christians to "consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works." Christians are not merely to be concerned about their improvement and safety as individuals, but as members of one body they are to seek to promote each other's best interests. They are to "consider each other." They are to attend to each other's wants, infirmities, temptations, and dangers, and to administer suitable assistance, advice, caution, admonition, and consolation. In this way they are to stir up each other "to love." The word "provoke" is ordinarily used in a bad sense, but here it is just equivalent to 'excite.' They are to act the part which is calculated to call forth in one another's bosoms the workings of that peculiar affection which all Christians have to each other. By doing offices of Christian kindness, they are to excite Christian love in return. They are required to excite each other "to good works;" i.e., I apprehend, to the "labour of love." They are to "do good to all as they have opportunity," and "especially to those of the household of faith."

1

Such a course was calculated at once to confirm their own faith and that of their brethren. The faith of the truth, and that holy love which it produces, act and react on each other. Accordingly, the Apostle exhorts the Hebrew Christians to be regular in attending on the stated meetings for instruction and worship: "Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together." It is by means of the public assemblies or churches

1 Heb. vi. 10.

2 ἐπισυναγωγήν,—perhaps in contradistinction to συναγωγὴν, the name for the ordinary Jewish religious assemblies, as if the . superseded the σ.

of the saints that the visible profession of Christ's name is kept up in the world; and the exercises in which Christians there engage-reading, preaching the word, prayer, the Lord's Supper-are all well calculated to strengthen their faith and hope. "Some"1 of the Hebrew Christians had become negligent in attending to this duty. The Apostle calls on his readers, instead of imitating the conduct of these persons, to "exhort one another." His meaning may be, to exhort one another to attend on these assemblies; or, generally, as chap. iii. 12, 13, to exhort one another to be "stedfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

He adds a powerful motive: "And so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." "The day" here referred to seems plainly the day of the destruction of the Jewish State and Church. That day had been foretold by many of the prophets, and with peculiar minuteness by our Lord Himself: "And He said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said He unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake." He assures His followers that in that awful destruction they should be preserved. But this security was only to be expected in attending to His cautions, and persevering in faith, and hope, and holiness: "Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them." "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." These events were now very near; and 1 καθὼς ἔθος τισὶν, by meiosis for πολλοῖς.

3 Luke xxi. 8, 34; Matt. xxiv. 13.

2 Luke xxi. 8-12.

the harbingers of their coming were well fitted to quicken to holy diligence the Hebrew Christians, that they might escape the coming desolation. But the Apostle, to impress on their minds still more strongly the infinite importance of perseverance in the faith and profession of the Gospel, lays before them a peculiarly impressive view of the complete and "everlasting destruction" which awaits the final apostate in a future state.

Vers. 26, 27. "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries."1

The first point which here requires our attention is the description of the persons of whom the Apostle is speaking. That description consists of two parts. They are such as “have received the knowledge of the truth;" and such as, "after having received the knowledge of the truth, sin."

They are such as "have received the knowledge of the truth." By the truth, we are, without doubt, to understand Christianity, which is not only truth as opposed to falsehood and error, but—what we apprehend, probably, was chiefly in the Apostle's view-is truth, or reality, as contrasted with the shadows of the Mosaic economy. The truth, the reality, of which the shadow was given by Moses in the law, "came by Jesus Christ." The Gospel makes known to us the real High Priest, the real sacrifice, the real holy place. To "receive the knowledge of this truth," is not only to be furnished with the means of obtaining a knowledge of Christian truth, but actually to apprehend its meaning and evidence in some good measure, so as to make a credible profession of believing it. To "receive the knowledge of the truth," seems just the same thing as the "being enlightened," which is spoken of in the 6th chapter.

Now, it is taken for granted that persons who "have received the knowledge of the truth" may sin. The persons who are here described are persons who, "after they have received

1 Vers. 26-31. These are awfully impressive words. As a learned interpreter (Carpzov) remarks, in language suggested by a noble passage of Jerome "Non loquentem, sed tonitrua detonantem Periclea audimus Paulum, et tremimus. Horrenda expectatio judicii, irarum sævities, æterna mortis calamitas, infelix in viventis Dei manus lapsus (verba quot, tot fulmina), manent hos, qui veri cognitionem assecuti, data opera peccant."

the knowledge of the truth, sin." The word sin here is plainly used in a somewhat peculiar sense. It is descriptive not of sin generally, but of a particular kind of sin,-apostasy from the faith and profession of the truth, once known and professed. "The angels that sinned" are the apostate angels. The apostasy described is not so much an act of apostasy as a state of apostasy. It is not, 'If we have sinned, if we have apostatized ;' but, 'If we sin, if we apostatize, if we continue in apostasy.'

They are described as not only habitually sinning, or as continuing in a state of apostasy, but as doing this wilfully; i.e., obstinately, determinedly, in opposition to all attempts to reclaim them. The contrast implied in the use of the word "wilfully" does not seem so much between sins committed in ignorance and sins committed knowingly, as between a temporary abandonment of the faith and profession of the Gospel, under the influence of fear, or some similar motive, and a determined, persevering, final apostasy. The character here described, then, is that of a man who has at one time obtained such a knowledge of the meaning and evidence of the Gospel as to induce him to make an open profession of Christianity, but who has as openly abandoned its profession, and lives in a state of determined apostasy.

With regard to such a person, the Apostle declares that "there remains no more sacrifice for sins." The persons immediately referred to were Jews. When they became Christians, they gave up the legal sacrifices for sin; but then, in the one sacrifice of Christ they found what infinitely more than supplied the deficiency. But, renouncing the sacrifice of Christ, what are they to do? There is no salvation without pardon—no pardon without a sacrifice for sin. In apostatizing from the faith of Christ, they have renounced all dependence on His sacrifice: and there is no other. They may return to the legal sacrifices, but these "never could take away sin;" and now that the substance is come, of which they were but the shadow, they are no longer useful even for the subsidiary purpose they once served. Jesus is the High Priest promised in the ancient oracle. It is vain to look for another; and it is equally in vain to look for His appearing a second time to offer sacrifice. To the apostate, then, "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins."