FourTHLY, It is added in the description, that they had tasted narby @eod pywe, “the good word of God.” And we must inquire,—
HEB. VI. 4.6 EXPLAINED. 27
1. What is meant by the “ word of God;” 2. How it is said to be “good;” and, 3. In what sense they “taste” of it. 1. ‘Pua is properly “ verbum dictum,” a word spoken; and al- though it be sometimes used in another sense by our apostle, and by him alone,—Heb. i. 3, xi. 3, where it denotes the effectual active _ power of God,—yet both the signification of the word and its prin- _ cipal use elsewhere denote words spoken, and, when applied unto God, his word as preached and declared. See Rom. x. 17; John vi 68. The word of God,—that is, the word of the gospel as preached, —is that which they thus tasted of. But it may be said, that they enjoyed the word of God in their state of Judaism. They did so as to the written word, for “unto them were committed the oracles of God,” Rom. iii. 2; but it is the word of God as preaclfed in the dis- pensation of the gospel that is eminently thus called, and concerning which such excellent things are spoken, Rom. i. 16; Acts xx. 32; James i. 21.
2. This word is said to be xaAév, “ good,” desirable, amiable, as _ the word here used signifieth. Wherein it is so we shall see im- _ mediately. But whereas the word of God preached under the dis- pensation of the gospel may be considered two ways,—(1.) In general, as to the whole system of truths contained therein; and, (2.) In especial, for the declaration made of the accomplishment of the promise in sending Jesus Christ for the redemption of the church,—it is here especially intended in this latter sense. This is emphatically called pia Kupiov, 1 Pet. i. 25. So the promise of God in particular is called his “good word:” Jer. xxix. 10, “After seventy years be accomplished I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you;” as he calls it the “ good thing that he had promised,” chap. xxxiii. 14. The gospel is the “ good tidings” of peace and sal- vation by Jesus Christ, Isa. li. 7.
3. Hereof they are said to “taste,” as they were before of the heavenly gift. The apostle, as it were, studiously keeps himself to - this expression, on purpose to manifest that he intendeth not those who by faith do really receive, feed, and live on Jesus Christ as tendered in the word of the gospel, John vi. 35, 49-51, 54-56. It isas if he had said, “I speak not of those who have received and digested the spiritual food of their souls, and turned it into spiritual nourishment, but of such as have so far tasted of it as that they ought to have desired it as sincere milk, to have grown thereby; but they had received such an experiment of its divine truth and power as that it had various effects upon them.” And for the farther ex- plication of these words, and therein of the description of the state
of these supposed apostates, we may consider the ensuing observations, which declare the sense of the words, or what is contained in them.
28 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
I. There ts a goodness and eacellency in the word of God able to attract and affect the minds of men who yet never arrive at sincere obedience unto tt. —
Il. There is an especial goodness in the word of the promise concerning Jesus Christ and the declaration of tts accomplish- ment, |
For the first of these propositions, we may inquire what is that goodness, and wherein it doth consist; as also, how apostatizing back- sliders may taste thereof: which things tend to the explanation of the words, and what is designed by the apostle in them.
1. (1.) This goodness and excellency of the word of God consists in its spiritual, heavenly truth. All truth is beautiful and desirable; the perfection®of the minds of men consists in the reception of it and conformity unto it; and although “true” be one consideration of any thing, and “good” another, yet they are inseparable properties of the same subject. Whatever is true is also good. So are these things put together by the apostle, Phil. iv. 8. And as truth is good in itself, so is it in its effects on the minds of men; it gives them peace, satisfaction, and contentment. Darkness, errors, falsehood, are evils in themselves, and fill the minds of men with vanity, uncertainty, superstition, dread, and bondage. It is truth that makes the soul free in any kind, John vii. 32. Now, the word of God is the only pure, unmixed, and solid truth: “Thy word is truth,’ John xvii. 17. In most other things, as to the best evidence attainable, men-wander in the wilderness of endless conjectures. The truth of the word of God alone is stable, firm, infallible; which gives rest to the soul. As God is a “God of truth,’ Deut. xxxi. 4, the “only true God,” John xvii. 3, so he is, and he alone is, essentially truth, and the eter- nal spring of it unto all other things. Hereof is this word the only revelation. How excellent, how desirable, therefore, must it needs be! and what a goodness, to be preferred above all other things, must it be accompanied withal! As it is infallible truth, giving light to the eyes and rest to the soul, it is the “ good word of God.”