rience of affliction. So Christ, though he is now exalted, yet, as he still remembers what temptations and sufferings he endured in this world, so he knows the heart of a tempted sufferer, and is well acquainted with all the afflictions and trials of his brethren. He knows what aids are necessary to their overcoming temptations, and is affectionately disposed from sympathy, and in all respects fully able and ready to succour them.

CHAP. III.

CONTENTS AND SCOPE.

OUR author having fully proved that Christ is greatly superior to angels, by whose ministry the law was spoken to the Israelites; and having also assigned sufficient reasons for his being made a little while less than they; he recommends him to the attentive consideration of the Hebrews, as the apostle and high priest of the Christian religion, ver. 1.

Considering him as the apostle or founder of our religion, he compares him with Moses, that eminent prophet and ministerial founder of the Jewish religion. The Hebrews had justly a very high opinion of Moses, their great prophet and lawgiver; but as they did not clearly perceive the design of the Mosaic economy, which was to prefigure and give testimony to the gospel revelation in which it was to terminate, they were still strongly attached to it as of perpetual obligation. This, with the discouragements they met with from the opposition of their unbelieving countrymen, tended to keep their minds in a wavering state with regard to the Christian faith, so that they were in danger of reverting from Christ to Moses. Nothing, therefore, could better suit the apostle's design of establishing the Hebrews in the Christian profession, than to compare together the respective founders of the old and new dispensations, viz., Moses and Christ. He observes, that both Christ and Moses were faithful to God in the discharge of their office, ver. 2, but that Christ

was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as the founder and ruler of the house or church, hath more honour than the house, or any eminent servant in it, such as Moses was, ver. 3. For he that hath formed the church, and ordered all things relating to it, is God, ver. 4. That Moses indeed was faithful in all things relating to God's house, the Jewish church, but it was as a servant, and in a typical economy, designed for a testimony of the things which were afterwards to be revealed, ver. 5. But that Christ was faithful as a Son over his house, the gospel church, of whose house we who believe are members, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, if we retain the boldness of the profession, and the glorying of the hope, firm unto the end of our lives, ver. 6.

He then proceeds to caution the Hebrews against apostacy from the faith of the gospel, by reminding them of the awful punishment inflicted upon their ancestors in the wilderness, who, on account of their unbelief and rebellion against God, were excluded from the rest in the land of Canaan; intimating that, if they should apostatize from Christ, they would be excluded from a more glorious rest in the heavenly country, of which the former was only a type, ver. 7, to the end.

PARAPHRASE.

CHAP. III. 1. Wherefore, holy brethren of Christ, and partakers with all the children of God, of the heavenly calling, consider attentively the dignity and authority of the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, namely, Christ Jesus;

2. Who was faithful in the execution of his office, to him that appointed him to be the great Prophet and Founder of

the gospel church, even as Moses was faithful to God in settling all the concerns of his house, the church of Israel.

3. But this Apostle of our profession was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in relation to the church, in as much as the builder or former of the house had more honour than it, or any of its parts.

4. For every house is built and set in order by some one; but he who hath built and ordered all things, and particularly what relates to his house or church, is God.

5. And Moses indeed was faithful to God in all the concerns of his house; but it was as a servant in a figurative economy, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken by Christ and his apostles.

6. But Christ was faithful in a far superior relation and character, namely, as a Son over his house, the gospel church; of whose house we are, if we retain the boldness of an open profession of the faith, and the glorying of the hope, firm unto the end of our lives.

7. Wherefore, since Christ is that great apostle and prophet to whom Moses refers us, and whom we are commanded to hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto us, under pain of being destroyed from among the people (Deut. xviii. 17-20, Acts iii. 22, 23), I would say to you, as saith the Holy Spirit, by David, to the Jews of his time (Psal xcv. 7, &c.), "To-day, when ye shall hear his voice,

8. "harden not your hearts, as in the bitter provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness;

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

10. "Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in 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, therefore, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in apostatizing from the living God, either by secret infidelity, or an open renunciation of the gospel.

13. But to prevent this, exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day, the season for hearing God's voice by his Son, lest any of you should be hardened in unbelief, through the deceitfulness of sin.

14. For we are made partakers of the benefits of Christ, if indeed we retain the beginning of the confidence which we had in him when first enlightened, firm unto the end.

15. Therefore, I say, exhort one another to stedfastness, while it is said, to you as well as to your ancestors of old, "To-day, when ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as they did in the bitter provocation, especially at Kadesh," Num. xiv.

16. For some of them, when they heard the command of God to enter into Canaan, bitterly provoked him by their unbelief and rebellion; yet not all of them who came out of Egypt by Moses.

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

18. And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest in the land of Canaan, but to them who believed not?

19. So we see that they could not enter in to the promised land because of their unbelief of God's promise, and of his power to put them in possession of it.