Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6:10

Addressing himself to sincere believers, the apostle with a view of the goodness of God, and his fiercest engagements into which he hath condescended performance of which is farther sealed by the earth into heaven as our forerunner. Heb. VI. 10, 1

HEBREWS VI. 10.

I JUST now mentioned my hopes of your complete salvation; and I have reason to entertain such hopes, as well knowing the benevolent and pious dispositions which many of you have expressed. For God [is] not unrighteous, or unmindful of his gracious promises, so as to forget your diligent work and labour in his service, animated by a principle of unfeigned love, which you have manifested, not only to your brethren, but to his name also, in having ministered, and in still ministering, as his providence gives you opportunity, to the necessities of the saints. And we heartily wish that this temper were as universal as it is commendable where it prevails; so that every one of you, into whose hands this epistle may come, might shew the same diligence, and exert the same studious care, in order to establish the full assurance of your hope, even unto the end of your Christian course; by which hope you must still be supported, while in this world: That so on the whole you may not be sluggish and indolent, but imitators of those, who, through the exercise of faith and long suffering, do now reap the blessed fruit of these graces, and inherit the promises which God hath made to support and cherish them in the hearts of his people through every age.

And a glorious confirmation you will find these promises to be, when you come to com-

a Through faith and long suffering inherit the promises. Mr. Peirce explains this of the Gentiles who were converted to Christianity. If it be intended as a hint to stir up the Jews to emulation, as he supposes, it is indeed a very obscure one; for comparatively it is a low sense, in which Christians in this imperfect state can be said to inherit the promises. Rather think

it refers to all good men, who were departed out of our world, whether in former or latter days, and under whatever dispensation they died. Taking it in this view, it will be (as several have observed) an argument against the soul’s continuing in a state of sleep during the intermediate period between death and the resurrection.

e could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.

• pare one spiritual object with another, and are better skilled in the method of interpreting the sacred oracles, on principles which I am going to lay down. For I may in the first place lead you to observe, that when God made the great and comprehensive promise to Abraham, (Gen. xii. 2, 3, and xvii. 1—6,) on which so much of our hope as Christians doth also depend, the promise that he would be a God to him, and that all nations should be blessed in his seed; seeing he had no greater [a person] to swear by, he swore by himself, even by the honours of his own sacred and Divine name; Saying, by an audible voice from heaven when he repeated the promise, while Abraham stood with Isaac before that altar on which with humble submission to the Divine appointment he had just before laid him, (Gen. xxii. 16, 17,) “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that blessing I will assuredly bless thee, and multiplying I will assuredly multiply thee;ᵇ I will bless and multiply thee remarkably, so as to make thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.” And thus having waited long in humble faith and patience, he obtained in due time the accomplishment of the promise, first in the birth of Isaac, and then, after a much longer attendance, the consummation of a better hope. And we whose circumstances so happily resemble his in this respect, may well follow the example of his faith, when we survey the foundation of it. For men truly swear by a [being] greater than themselves, to whom they ascribe that knowledge and power, which is supposed to render him the object of their veneration and worship; and an oath, when thus taken for confirmation [is] to

ᵇ Multiplying, I will multiply thee.] That part of the promise to Abraham which immediately follows the clause here quoted, in Gen. xxii 17, most certainly relates to the Gentiles; and therefore had the apostle intended ver. 12, of this chapter in the sense in which Mr. Peirce ex-

plains it, of the Gentiles converted to Christianity, I cannot think he would have stopped short at multiplying, I will multiply thee, and omitted what follows, of making his seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the sea shore, and, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

VOL. 6.

Re ections on God’s fidelity to his promise

them an end of all farther strife and contention. On which account, the blessed God, in humble condescension to our infirmities, being willing in the most abundant manner to manifest to the heirs of the promise, the immutability of his counsel, and his determinate resolution of bestowing upon them the blessings he engaged, interposed with the solemnity of an oath. That by two immutable things, in each of which [it is] impossible for God to lie, even his word and his oath, we might have strong consolation, even we who in humble obedience to the gracious designs of his gospel, have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope laid before us, the noble prize which that gospel proposes as the great object of our ambition and pursuit; I speak of eternal life, the hope of which through the Divine goodness we have, and I trust we shall resolutely retain it, as an anchor of the soul, both secure and steadfast, and as entering into the place within the vail, the holy of holies, where God dwells, and where we hope to dwell for ever with him. This anchor will indeed be sufficient to enable us to outride all the storms of temptation, being fixed in that glorious, though invisible world, whither Jesus as the Forerunner is entered for us, to take possession of glory in our name, and prepare all things necessary for our admittance into it: even he, [who is] made an High Priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedec; as we are going more largely to show.

IMPROVEMENT.

With what amazing condescension doth God, by his apostles, speak of those works and labours of love, which the persons who have performed them with the greatest simplicity of heart, know to be most undeserving of his regard! How kindly hath he made himself a debtor to us, or rather to his own promise and oath, so that it would indeed be unrighteous in him to fail those expectations which nothing in ourselves could possibly raise! Let us then be animated to the greatest diligence, by a full assurance of hope. There are those who inherit the promises, of which we are the heirs, and they have passed to that glorious inheritance by the exercise of faith and patience. Let us chide our sluggish souls into a more resolute imitation of them. And when they are ready to sink into indolence again, let us again

The apostle having mentioned Melchizedec,

awaken them by viewing those promises, and the fidelity of that God who hath made them, and who hath added, by a condescension that can never be sufficiently acknowledged and adored, the sanction of his oath to that of his word. Behold the strong consolation which he hath given. And given to whom? To those who fly for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. Thither let us fly for our lives; fly, as if we heard the footsteps of the avenger of blood just behind us, and our lives depended upon the speed of the present moment. Happy the souls that have found this refuge! Whose faith and hope like a strong and steady anchor, hath entered into heaven, hath fixed on that blessed Redeemer who lives and reigns there, who appears as an Intercessor for his people, and intercedes with such efficacy and success, that he is also to be regarded as their Forerunner, as gone to prepare a place for them. Let us constantly retain that view of him; and while we continue exposed to all the labours and sorrows of mortality, let us seek our safety and our comfort by fixing our regards upon him, waiting continually the aids of his grace, till he shall see fit to call us to fill the place he hath provided, and receive the inheritance he hath secured for us.