An Exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews Part 2 Practical General Exhortation to Perseverance and Warning Against Apostasy Chapter 10, Verses 19-29 The preceding part of this epistle has been chiefly occupied with stating, proving, and illustrating some of the grand peculiarities of the Christian doctrine. and the remaining part of it is entirely devoted to an injunction and enforcement of those duties which naturally resolve from the foregoing statements. The paragraph verses 19 to 23 obviously consists of two parts, a statement of principles which are taken for granted as having been fully proved, and an injunction of duties grounded on the admission of these principles. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he is consecrated for through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, in heaven an eye-priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for is faithful the promised. Verses 24 and 25. And let us consider one another to provoke, to love, and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner as some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you 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, to love and good works. Christians are not merely to be concerned about their improvement and safety as individuals. But as members of one body, dare to seek to promote each other's best interests. Dare to consider each other. Dare to attend to each other's wants, infirmities, temptations, and dangers. And to administer suitable assistance, advice, caution, admonition, and consolation. In this way, dare to stir up each other. To love, the word provoke is ordinarily used in the bad sense, but here it is just equivalent to excite. They are to act a 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 labor of love. They are to do good to all as they have opportunity, and especially to those of the household of faith. Such a course was calculated 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 unestated meetings for instruction and worship, not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together. It is by means of the public assemblies or churches 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 of the Hebrew Christians have 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, it's chapter 3, 12 and 13, to exhort one another to be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. He adds a powerful motive, and so much the more as he sees 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 draws near. Go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified, for the things must first come to pass. But the end is not by and by. Then said he to them, Nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes shall be in a number of 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 the prisons, bearing brought before kings and rulers for my namesake. He assures his followers that in that awful destruction they should be preserved. But the security was only to be expected in attending to his cautions, in persevering in faith and hope and holiness. Take heed, that you be not deceived. For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ. And the time draws near. Go ye not therefore after them. Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that they come upon you unawares. But, he that shall enter to the end, the same shall be saved. These events were now very near, and the harbingers of their coming were well fitted to quicken to holy diligence the Hebrew Christians that they might escape to come in 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 peculiar, impressive view of the complete, never-lasting destruction, which awaits a final apostate and a future state. Verses 26 and 27. 4. If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, There remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fire indignation. We shall devour the adversaries. 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. Dears such as have received the knowledge of the truth, and such as, after having received the knowledge of the truth, sin. Dears 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 apostles view, is truth or reality is contrasted with the shadows of the mosaic economy to truth. The reality of which the shadow was given by Moses and the law came by Jesus Christ. The gospel makes known to us a real high priest, the real sacrifice, the real holy place. Receive the knowledge of this truth. It's not only to be furnished with a means of obtaining the 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, seemed just the same thing as a being enlightened, which is spoken of in the sixth 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 the knowledge of the truth, sin. The word sinner is plainly used in a somewhat peculiar sense. It is not descriptive 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, Deere described as not only habitually sinning, or as continuing in a state of apostasy, but as doing this willfully, obstinately, determinedly in opposition to all attempts to reclaim them. The contrast implied in the use of the word willfully 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 one sacrifice of Christ, they found with infinitely more than supplied the deficiency. But, renouncing the sacrifice of Christ. What are they to do? There is no salvation without pardon, and no pardon without a sacrifice for sin. In apostatizing from the faith of Christ, they have renounced all dependence on a sacrifice. If there is no other, they may return to the legal sacrifices, but these never could take away sin. And now that the substances 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 remains no more sacrifice for sins. The apostle's assertion is not. If a person apostatizes, there is no hope of his obtaining pardon through the one sacrifice of Christ. But it is, if a person perseveres in apostasy, putting away from him the one sacrifice of Christ, there is not, there cannot be for him any other sacrifice for sin. The apostate must perish, not because a sacrifice of Christ is not of efficacy enough to expiate even his guilt, but because continuing his apostasy he will have nothing to do with that sacrifice, which is the only available sacrifice for sin, instead of another sacrifice for sin remaining for the apostate. So that, though he give up Christ, he may yet be saved. There remains for him nothing but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. The word judgment here, as in many other places, is equivalent to punishment, to which the sinner is doomed or adjudged. James 2 verse 13, 2 Peter 2 verse 4, when it is said that there remains for the apostate a fearful looking for of this punishment. The meaning does not seem to be that every apostate is haunted by a dreadful anticipation of coming destruction. For, though this has been the case with some apostates, it is by no means characteristic of all apostates. The meaning is, the apostate has nothing to expect but a fearful punishment. He has no reason to hope for expiation and pardon, but he does have reason to fear condemnation and punishment. The epithet certain here does not denote either an assured expectation or the certainty of the punishment. It is used in the same way as in the expression a certain man, a certain place, a certain occurrence. It is intended to suggest the idea that the punishment to be expected by the apostate is a punishment of undefined, undefinable magnitude. something that is inexpressible, inconceivable. We cannot exactly say what it is. We can only say that a certain awful punishment awaits him, the nature and limits of which cannot be fully understood by any created being. As a sinner, he is exposed to the wrath of God. He obstinately refuses to avail himself of the only covert from this fearful storm, and therefore he must meet it in all of its terrors. It must break on his unsheltered head, and who knows the power of his anger? The extent of infinite power must be measured. The depths of infinite wisdom must be fathomed, or that awful question can be resolved. We can only say, according to his fear, so is his wrath. The most dreadful conception comes infinitely short of the more dreadful reality. We can only say of it, it is a certain fearful punishment, which the apostate has to expect. This punishment is further described as fiery indignation, to remain for the apostate indignation or wrath, even the wrath of God. God is angry with him for all of his sins, and especially for the sin of apostasy, and his wrath of God abides on him. He is exposed to the fearful effects of God's moral disapprobation and judicial displeasure, and having renounced the sacrifice of Christ, he has nothing to save him from these. The displeasure of God is termed fiery indignation. their indignation of fire, to represent in a striking manner its resistless, tormenting, destroying efficacy, and will prove its power in devouring the adversaries. The adversaries here are, I apprehend, primarily the unbelieving Jews. The Apostle does not say here as he does elsewhere, those that believe not, those that obey not the gospel of Christ. But the adversaries, the appellation is peculiarly descriptive. The unbelieving Jews were actuated by a principle of the most hostile opposition to Christ and Christianity, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God. And a contrary to all men, the fiery indignation of God is to devour these adversaries. and along with them the apostates from the faith of Christ. It is not improbable to hear, as in the passage just quoted from the epistle to the Sethelonians, that there is a reference to the awful judgments which were about to befall the unbelieving Jews, and in which the apostates were to have their full share. But the ultimate reference seems to be the great day of wrath and revelation of the judgment of God. when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Such was the punishment which awaited the apostate of the primitive age. immaterially the same as the punishment which awaits the apostate of every succeeding age. In the verses which follow, we have at once an illustration of the certainty and severity of the doom which awaits the apostate, and a vindication of the justice of that doom. Verses 28 and 29. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witness, Of how much sore punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has done despite to the Spirit of grace? The general sentiment, obviously, is If their punishment shall exceed in severity that of the despiser of Moses' law as much as their crime exceeds his in heinousness, and strict justice requires and secures this, then it will be severe indeed. Let us proceed now to examine these dreadful words somewhat more minutely. The person with whom the apostate is compared is the despiser of Moses' law, and every violation of a law there is implied. contempt of the law and the lawgiver. But the despisers of Moses' law is plainly not every violator of that law, since for many of its violations there were expiatory sacrifices. The despiser, a person who annuls Moses' law, is a person who acts by the law of Moses apart which the apostate does by the gospel of Christ, who renounces its authority, who determinedly and obstinately refuses to comply with its requisitions. I cannot help thinking that the apostle is probably a peculiar reference to the person who, having violated the law of Moses, refuses to have recourse to the appointed expiations. But whatever there may be in this, the despisers of Moses' law is a person who treats Moses as if he were an imposter. and refuses, obstinately refuses, to submit to his law is of divine authority. Now, such a person under the Mosaic economy, whether a native Jew or a sojourner in the Holy Land, was doomed to death. He died without mercy under two or three witnesses, i.e., when the crime was satisfactorily proved, he was capitally punished. and it was particularly enjoined that in such cases no pardon nor commutation of punishment should be allowed. The highest punishment man can inflict on man was in such cases uniformly to be inflicted. The best illustration of this statement of the apostle is to be found in the law to which it refers. If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, which is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth. You shall not consent to him, nor hearken to him, neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him, but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. If there be found among you within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, man or woman, Did Ezran waken us in the sight of the Lord your God, and transgress in his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the sun or moon or any of the hosts of heaven, which I have not commanded? And it be told you, and you have heard of it, and inquired diligently, and behold it be true, and the thing is certain, that such abomination as ran in Israel, You shall bring forth that man or that woman which has committed that wicked thing unto your gates, even that man or that woman, and shall stone them with stones till they die. At the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death, but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people so you shall put the evil away from among you. The justice of this law would be very readily admitted by those to whom the apostle refers. It must be evident to every person who acknowledges the divine location of Moses. These, then, are the principles which lie at the foundation of the apostle's argument, that the despisers of Moses' law was doomed to certain death, and that it was just that he should be thus doomed. He now goes on to describe the conduct of the apostate in such language as to make it plain that he is far more deeply criminal than the despiser of the law of Moses. and thus to prepare the way for the conclusion to which he wishes to bring his readers, that he shall most certainly be far more severely punished. The apostate is one who has trodden underfoot the Son of God. The general idea is he is treated with the greatest conceivable contempt of personage of the highest conceivable dignity. The despisers of Moses' law trample underfoot Moses as a divine messenger. the servant of God, but the apostate tramples underfoot Jesus, who is a divine person, the Son of God. Trampling underfoot the Son of God may be considered as referring generally to the dishonor done to Jesus Christ by apostasy. It is a declaration that he is an imposter, a declaration that his gospel is a cunningly devised fable. but I cannot help thinking that there is a peculiar reference to the dishonor done to Christ Jesus. It's a great sacrifice for sin by the apostate. The sacrifice he offered was himself, now the apostate, and declaring that in his estimation Jesus Christ had offered no sacrifice for sin. As it were, it tramples on that sacred body. By the offering of which, once for all, Christ Jesus made expiation for the sins of His people, instead of treating His sacrifice as it ought to be treated. It's something of ineffable value, inconceivable efficacy. He treads it underfoot. It's vile and valueless. He accounts the blood of the covenant in which it was sanctified, an unholy thing. The blood of the covenant is obviously the blood of Christ, and it receives this name because by the shedding of this blood a new covenant was ratified, as the old covenant was by the shedding of the blood of animal sacrifices. Interpreters have differed as to the reference of the clause. by which it was sanctified, some referring it to Christ and others to the apostate. Those who refer it to Christ explain it in this way. By his own blood, Jesus Christ was consecrated to his office as an intercessory priest. Those who refer it to the apostate consider the apostle as stating that in some sense or other, He had been sanctified by the blood of Christ. I cannot say that I am satisfied with either of these modes of interpretation. I do not think the scripture warrants us to say that any man who finally apostatizes is sanctified by the blood of Christ in any sense, except that the legal obstacles in the way of human salvation generally were removed by the atonement he made. and though I have no doubt that by his bloodshedding our Lord was separated, set apart, sanctified, consecrated, and fitted for the performance of the functions of an interceding High Priest. I cannot distinctly apprehend the bearing which such a statement has on the Apostle's object, which is obviously to place in a strong light the aggravations of the sin of the apostate. I apprehend the word is used impersonally and that its true meaning is, by which there is sanctification. It is just a covalent to the sanctifying blood of the Covenant. The word sanctify as I have had occasion fully to show. In the course of this exposition is used in a somewhat peculiar sense in the epistle to the Hebrews. It signifies when used in reference to men, to do what is necessary and sufficient to secure them, who are viewed as unclean, favorable access to the Holy Divinity, when the blood of Jesus Christ by which a new covenant is ratified is called sanctifying blood. The meaning is that that bloodshed expiates sin, renders it just and honorable in God to pardon sin and save the sinner, and that this blood sprinkled, i.e., in plain words, the truth about this blood understood and believed, purges the conscience from dead works, removes the jealousies of guilt, and enables us to serve God with a true heart. is a peculiar excellence of the blood of Christ. It and it alone thus sanctifies. Now the apostate accounts as blood of the covenant by which and by which alone there is sanctification, an unholy thing, a common thing, not a sacred thing, and not only an unconsecrated thing but a polluted thing. The apostate, instead of accounting the blood of Christ, by which the new covenant is ratified, possessed of sanctifying virtue, looks upon it as a common, vile, polluted thing. The blood not only of a mere man, but the blood of an imposter who originally deserved the punishment he met with. Blood which not merely had no tendency to sanctify, but blood which polluted and rendered doubly hateful to God all who were foolish enough to place their hopes of expiation and pardon on as having been shed in the room, and for their salvation. The apostate is still further described as doing despite to the Spirit of Grace. The Spirit of Grace is a Hebraism for the gracious, the kind, the benign spirit. It has been supposed that this phrase is borrowed from Zechariah 12.10. But the Spirit of Grace, there being joined with the Spirit of Supplication, seems descriptive not of the Holy Spirit personally, but of the temper He forms, a grateful, prayerful temper. But the Gracious Spirit understands that a divine person who along with the Father and the Son exists in the unity of the Godhead, and He is termed the Spirit of Grace or the Gracious Spirit. to bring before a mind so benign an object of all of his operations in the scheme of mercy. This benign spirit the apostate is represented as doing despite, too, his trading with indignity and insult. The Holy Spirit dwelt in the man Christ Jesus. By that Holy Spirit numerous and most striking attestations were given to the truth of his doctrine. God bear witness by gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will. When a man in a primitive age apostatized, he necessarily joined with the scribes and Pharisees in ascribing to diabolical agency what has been effected by the influence of the Holy Ghost, in which certainly a greater indignity or more atrocious insult could not be offered to that divine person. There can be little doubt that the person described here belongs to the class described in the sixth chapter, who were said to have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost. In other words, to have been themselves in the possession of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, as well as the subjects of its common operations. And certainly, for such persons to ascribe the benign and operations of the Holy Ghost on themselves to infernal agency, was the most outrageous and malicious indignity of which human nature is capable. Such then is the crime of the apostate. He treats with the greatest conceivable indignity two divine persons, the Son and the Spirit of God. He tramples underfoot him whom angels adore. He counts polluted and polluting that which is the sole source of sanctification. He repays benignity with insult. the benignity of a divine person with the most despiteful insult. His punishment then must be inconceivably severe and absolutely certain. This sentiment is stated by the apostle far more energetically in the heart-appalling question that follows than it could have been by any direct assertion. Of how much sore punishment suppose you? Shall he be counted worthy if he that despised and so on. In one point of view, the despiser of the law and the apostate from the gospel seem to stand on a level. They both willfully renounce a sufficiently accredited divine revelation. But the aggravations attending the apostate's crime are numerous and great. The despiser of Moses' law despised indeed a holy man, a divine messenger, but the apostate despises the Son and Spirit of God and acts towards them in a far more malicious and insulting manner than the contemner of Moses' law did towards that legislator. if the one deserved death, does not the other deserve damnation, destruction, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power? And if the punishment of the despiser of Moses' law was absolutely certain, can the punishment of the contemporary despiser of God, Son, and Spirit be in any degree doubtful? The justice of God requires that the punishment of the apostate be awfully severe and undutifully certain. In the two verses which follow we have a further illustration of the awful severity and the absolute certainty of the punishment of the apostate from the circumstance that the declaration that a God of infinite mercy will punish them is made by a God of infinite veracity. Hebrews 10 verse 30. For we know him that has said, Vengeance belongs to me. I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. The quotations are made from the prophetic song of Moses. To me belongs vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time. For the day of their calamity is at hand. And the things shall come upon them, make haste. For the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants when he sees that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left. And refer to the punishments which God would inflict on the wicked Israelites at their latter end. Demeaning of the words as plainly, I myself will punish them. and a punishment shall bear the impress of my omnipotence. The oppositeness of the second quotation may not at first sight appear so plainly. It may seem a promise rather than a threatening. And it is indeed a promise and not a threatening. And I apprehend that both in a place where it originally occurs, And in the passage before us, it is brought forward for the purpose of comforting the minds of those who continue steadfast in their attachment to their God, assuring them that while he punished rebels and apostates, he would watch over their interests and protect them from dangers which threatened to overwhelm them. In the prophetic writings generally, the punishment of the enemies of God and the deliverance of his people are closely connected. The same event is very often vengeance to the former and deliverance to the latter. This was the case with the fearful events which were impending over the impenitent and apostate Jews, and to which in the whole of this passage I think it highly probable that the apostle has an immediate reference. The words admit, however, of another interpretation. The word judge is not infrequently used as equivalent to punish or to take vengeance. Genesis 15, verse 14. 2 Chronicles 20, verse 12. Ezekiel 7, verse 3. In this case, it is equivalent to, but we're supposing that the relation you think you stand in to God will protect you. Judgment will begin at the house of God. You only have I known, of all the families of the earth. Therefore will I punish you for your iniquities. Whoever escapes, you shall not escape. Matthew 11, 21 to 25. Luke 12, 47 and 48. The words, we know him, dead is said, are just a very emphatic manner of saying. We know his power to destroy. And we know also that his word is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. We thought that he is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Has he said, and shall he not do it? Or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good? The same sentiment as to the omnipotence of God to punish is very strikingly repeated in the 31st verse. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Who knows the power of His wrath? According to His fear, so is His wrath. The scriptural description of the final punishment of the enemies of God is enough to make the ears of everyone that hears it to tingle. Well, may we say with our Lord, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him, which after it hath killed, has power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Such is the doom, thus certain doom, of the man who lives and dies an apostate. Let none despair. It is not the act of apostasy, It is the state of apostasy that is certainly damnable. Let all beware of being high-minded. Let them fear, lest a promise being left them, any man should seem to come short of it. Let them guard against every approach to apostasy. The grand preservative from apostasy is to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. and to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity. It is in doing these things that we are assured that we shall never fall. and that so an entrance shall be ministered to us abundantly into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To apprehend distinctly the meaning, to feel fully the force of the exhortations contained in the paragraph which follows, it is necessary that the circumstances of those to whom they were originally addressed should be before the view of the mind. This epistle was written a few years before the final destruction of the Jewish civil and ecclesiastical polity by the Romans. This is a season of peculiar trial to the Christians and Judea. Christianity was now no longer a new thing. Its doctrines, though they had lost nothing of their truth and importance, no longer were possessed of the charm of novelty, in their miraculous attestations. to a reflecting person equally satisfactory as ever. were from their very commonness less fitted in at first to arrest attention and make a strong impression on the mind. The long-continued hardships to which I believe in Hebrews were exposed from their unbelieving countrymen were clearly fitted to shake the stability of their faith and to damp the ardor of their zeal. Jesus Christ had plainly intimated to them that erred that generation had passed away, he would appear in a remarkable manner for the punishment of his enemies and the deliverance of his faithful followers. The greater part of that generation had passed away, and Jesus had not yet come according to his promise. Discoffers were asking with sarcastic scorn, where is the promise of his coming? and hope deferred with sickening the hearts of those who were looking for him. The perilous time spoken of by our Lord had arrived. Multitudes of pretenders to messiahship had made their appearance and had deceived many. Many of the followers of Jesus were offended. Many apostatized and hated and betrayed their brethren. Iniquity abounded in the love of many who did not cast off the Christian name, waxed cold. In these circumstances it was peculiarly necessary that the disciples of Christ should be fortified against the temptations to apostasy, an urge to perseverance in the faith and profession of the gospel. This is the grand object of this epistle, and every part of it is plainly intended and calculated to gain this object. The whole of the doctrinal part of the epistle is occupied in showing the preeminent excellency of Christianity by displaying the matchless glory of Christ. And a greater portion of the practical part of the epistle is employed in stating and enforcing the exhortation to remain steadfast and unmovable in their attachment to their Lord, in their belief of the doctrines. in the observance of the ordinances and the practice of the duties of their most holy faith. In a preceding context, the Apostle is most impressively urged on the minds that the peculiar advantages to which their new faith has raised them is to favorable and delightful intercourse with God, and the fearful consequences of apostasy is irresistible arguments to hold fast their profession. And in the passage which lies before us for interpretation, in order to gain the same end, he calls on them to recollect their past experience in reference to Christianity, to reflect on all they had suffered for it, and on which it had done for them under their sufferings, and appose and ponder before, by apostasy, to render useless all the labors and sorrows they had endured. and blasted all the fair hopes which they had once so fondly cherished, and which it enabled them to bear, not only patiently but joyfully all the trials to which they had been exposed, verses 32 to 34, the call to remembrance of former days, in which after you were illuminated you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing-stock, both by the reproaches and afflictions, and partially whilst you became companions of them that were so used, for you had compassion to me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. The period to which the Apostle wishes to recall their minds is that which immediately followed their illumination, or in other words, their obtaining the knowledge of the truth. The state of ignorance and error in which they were previously figuratively represented as a state of darkness, and when by the statement of Christian truth and its evidence they were delivered from ignorance and error, Jairus said to have been enlightened. At their being enlightened, they had to endure a great fight of afflictions. It is not improbable that the apostle refers to the severe and general persecution which followed the death of Stephen, and with which, as he had taken a very active part in it himself, he was intimately acquainted, and to that which took place not long afterwards by Herod, when he slew James, The brother of John was the sword. The variety and severity of the trials to which at that period Jewish believers were exposed are very strikingly expressed in the phrase, great fight of afflictions. It is not improbable that in using the word endure, the apostle meant to convey the idea not only that they had been exposed to these varied and severe trials, but that they had worthily sustained them. They had endured the fight. They had persevered till the conflict was finished, and they'd come off conquerors. That is plainly the meaning of the word when the Apostle James says, Behold, we count them happy who endure. In these afflictions they had been involved both personally and by their sympathy with their suffering brethren. They endured a great fight of afflictions, partly when they were made a gazing stock. made public spectacles as malefactors who in the theaters were often made in the presence of the assembled people to fight with each other or with wild beasts. This is literally the case of some of the Christians, though I do not know that any of the Hebrew Christians were thus treated. The idea is set up as objects of the malignant and scornful notice of the public. This they were by their approaches which were cast on them. These reproaches were of two kinds. False charges were brought against them, and their faith and hope were ridiculed. To character and conduct as Christians held up to scorn. By affliction is distinguished from reproaches. We are to understand sufferings in persons such as torturers of various kinds. and as many of the Hebrew Christians had been made gazing stalks by personally undergoing their trials, so also had they become so by avowing themselves the companions of those who were so used. Genuine Christians feel towards one another as brethren, and when they see their Christian brethren suffering for the cause of Christ, they naturally do not directly attach themselves to take part with their suffering brethren, and thus come in for a share of the public scorn which is poured on them. The apostle particularly notices one instance in which they became companions of those who were thus used. For you had compassion of me and my bonds. Supposing these words to be the genuine reading, they seem to refer to the kind attention shown to Paul by some of the Hebrew Christians. when in bonds at Jerusalem and Caesarea. But according to the best critics, the true reading is, for you had compassion on those who were bound, or on the prisoners. Those among the Hebrew Christians who were not themselves imprisoned became companions with them by sympathizing with them, owning them as their brethren, and doing everything which lay in their power to alleviate their sufferings. The apostle, having noticed the sufferings to which they had been exposed, in their reputation and persons, and by sympathy with their suffering brethren, now calls to their mind the sufferings they had sustained in their property and the manner in which they had borne them. They were spoiled of their goods. They were unjustly deprived of their property. And when they were so, instead of repining or thinking of retaining their property, By giving up their religion, they took the spoiling of their goods joyfully. They were as it were glad that they had this means of showing their attachment to Christ and His cause. They counted themselves honored in being called on to make such a sacrifice.