Hebrews 12

Hebrews 12:1

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 us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Wherefore, since we are compassed about with such innumerable examples of holy men, who have so fully testified the virtue and power of faith, let us, as those that run a race, cast away every thing that may clog and burden us in our passage; and particularly all our sinful corruption, which is both the heaviest and closest weight that lies upon the soul; and let us stir up ourselves to run, with patience and courageous resolution, the race that is set before us.

Hebrews 12:4

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Ye have, indeed, suffered many things for the Name of Christ; ye have been stripped of your goods, and afflicted in your bodies: but yet ye have not, which ye must not refuse if ye be called unto it, suffered death, for the defence of the truth, and opposition to wickedness and error.

Hebrews 12:8

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

If ye be utterly exempted from whatsoever chastisements, whereof all the true sons of God are partakers, this shall argue unto you, that ye are not the true and natural but the base and supposititious sons of God.

Hebrews 12:11

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.

As it is in these human corrections, those chastisements, which were grievous unto our childhood, are afterwards allowed of us as profitable unto us; so it is in these afflictions from the hand of God: none of them are, for the time, pleasing; but grievous and irksome; yet, afterwards, we find them to be exceeding beneficial; working a happy and sweet peace in the heart, after all the unquiet broils and tumults of temptation; and a blessed increase of all grace and sanctification, in the soul of him, that is therewith exercised.

Hebrews 12:12

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

Wherefore, comfort yourselves with these things; and rouse up your fainting courage, to the cheerful enduring of all afflictions;

Hebrews 12:13

And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed;

And go on evenly and steadily in this course of Christianity, which ye have entered into; lest coming once to halt betwixt truth and error, God and the world, ye be, at the last, utterly perverted; but be careful rather, upon the first sense of your doubts or complaints, to receive full satisfaction and due encouragement:

Hebrews 12:15

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.

Looking diligently, not only to yourselves, but to each other also; carefully stirring up each other, lest any man languish in and come short of that grace of God which he either had or might have had; lest any erroneous or apostating spirit rise up among you, and trouble your peace, and draw away or at least infect many.

Hebrews 12:17

For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

For though he did at last earnestly and with tears repent him of his bargain; yet he found no such benefit of that his late repentance, as thereby to recover that which he yielded to forego: neither could those tears of his move his father Isaac, to repent of that benediction, which he had justly given to Jacob.

Hebrews 12:18

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest.

I would have you to know and seriously consider, that, under the Gospel, there is required a greater care of your holy carriage, than there was under the Law, by how much the means thereof are more gracious and effectual: This different condition may be well expressed to you, by two Mounts, the one of Sinai, the other of Sion; ye are not then come to that earthly and material mount of Sinai, which might be touched and felt; and that burned, in a delivery of the Law, and was compassed about with blackness, and darkness, and tempest. XII. 22, 23, 24. 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, 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, And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. But ye are come to the spiritual mount Sion; even to the Holy Church of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; where ye shall be in the society of innumerable angels; Where ye shall be joined to the universal company of those saints of God, that are and have been most eminent in grace here on earth, and are most conspicuous for glory above; where ye shall enjoy the presence of God, the righteous and glorious Judge, Governor of all; and of the glorified spirits of just and holy men, which are now happy in the blessed vision of God; Where ye shall enjoy the presence of our dear Saviour, Jesus Christ, who is the Mediator of the New Testament, whose blood, being shed for the redemption of mankind, calls out unto God, not for revenge as Abel’s, but for a full remission of sin and reconciliation of man unto God.

Hebrews 12:25

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

See then that ye refuse not that Christ, which speaketh unto you, in his heavenly Gospel: For if they escaped not, who refused to hearken to the Law, which God by angels delivered to man here upon earth; how much less shall we escape, if we despise the Gospel, which is delivered unto us from heaven!

Hebrews 12:27

And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the remoring of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

And this word, Once more, signifieth, that one main alteration, that shall be made by God, in the bringing in of his Gospel; that all those things, which are subject to change and corruption, shall be removed, as those that are made and ordained to mutation, that the Everlasting Kingdom of Christ may be perpetually established.

Hebrews 12:28

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Wherefore, we, having our part in the Spiritual and Everlasting Kingdom of Christ, which cannot be moved, let us labour for that true grace of his Spirit, which may enable us to serve God acceptably, in all holy awe and reverence of his Divine Majesty:

Hebrews 12:29

For our God is a consuming fire.

For, God, as he is most gracious and merciful to those that fear and serve him, so he is a most terrible avenger of all wickedness and disobedience, and will be sure to punish it with unspeakable torments.