(2.) This world alone is the time and place wherein you are to look and seek for mercy. Cries will do nothing at the last day, not ob- tain the least drop of water to cool the tongue in its torment. Some men, doubtless, have secret reserves that things will not go at the last day as by others they are made to believe. They hope to meet with better quarter than is talked of,—that God will not be inex- orable, as is pretended. Were not these their inward thoughts, it were not possible they should so neglect the season of grace as they do. But, alas, how will they be deceived! God indeed is gracious, merciful, and full of compassion ; but this world is the time wherein he will exercise them. They will be for ever shut up towards un- believers at the last day. This is the acceptable time, this is the
VER. 2-4.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 291
day of salvation. If this be despised, if this be neglected, expect no more to hear of mercy unto eternity.
III. Every concernment of the law and gospel, both as to their nature and promulgation, is to be weighed and considered by be- lievers, to beget in their hearts a right and due valuation of them. To this end are they here so distinctly proposed; as of the law, that it was “spoken by angels;” and of the gospel, that it is “ great salva- tion,” the word “spoken by the Lord,” and confirmed with signs and miracles: all which the apostle would have us to weigh and distinctly consider. Our interest lies in them, and our good is intended by them. And to stir up our attention unto them, we may observe,—
1. That God doth nothing in vain, nor speaks any thing in vain, especially in the things of his law and gospel, wherein the great concernments of his own glory and the souls of men are en- wrapped. And therefore our Saviour lets us know that there is a worth in the least apex and iota of the word, and that it must have its accomplishment, An end it hath, and that end shall be fulfilled. The Jews have a foolish curiosity in reckoning all the letters of the Scripture, and casting up how often every one doth occur. But yet this curiosity of theirs, vain and needless as it is, will condemn our negligence, if we omit a diligent inquiry into all the things and cir- cumstances of it that are of real importance. God hath a holy and wise end in all that he doth. As nothing can be added unto his word or work, so nothing can be taken from it; it is every way perfect. And this in general is enough to quicken us unto a dili- gent search into all the circumstances and adjuncts both of law and gospel, and of the way and manner whereby he was pleased to com- ‘municate them unto us.
2. There is in all the concernments of the law and gospel a mixture of divine wisdom and grace. From this fountain they all proceed, and the living waters of it run through them all. The times, the seasons, the authors, the instruments, the manner of their delivery, were all ordered by the “manifold wisdom of God;” which especially appears in the dispensation of the gospel, Eph. i. 9, 10. The apostle placeth not the wisdom of God only in the mystery of the gospel, but also in the season of its promulgation. “It was hid,” saith he, “in God,” verse 9,—that is, in the “ purpose” of God, verse 11,—“ from ages and from generations, but now is made ma- nifest,’” Col. i. 26. And herein doth the manifold wisdom of God appear. Were we able to look into the depth of any circumstance that concerns the institutions of God, we should see it full of wisdom and grace; and the neglect of a due consideration thereof hath God sometimes severely revenged, Ley. x. 1, 2.
3. There is in them all a gracious condescension unto our weak. ness. God knows that we stand in need of an especial mark to
292 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. II.
be set on every one of them. Such is our weakness, our slow- ness to believe, that we have need that the word should be unto us “Jine upon line, and precept upon precept; here a little, and there a little.’ As God told Moses, Exod. iv. 8, that if the children of Israel would not believe on the first sign they would on the second, so it is with us; one consideration of the law or the gospel often- times proves ineffectual, when another overpowers the heart unto obedience. And therefore hath God thus graciously condescended unto our weakness in proposing unto us the several considerations mentioned of his law and gospel, that by some of them we may be laid hold upon and bowed unto his mind and willin them. Accordingly,—
4. They have had their various influences and suecesses on the souls of men. Some have been wrought upon by one consi~ deration, some by another. In some the holiness of the law, in others the manner of its administration, has been effectual. Some have fixed their hearts principally on the grace of the gospel; some on the person of its author. And the same persons, at several times, have had help and assistance from these several considerations of the one and the other. So that in these things God doth nothing in vain. Nothing is in vain towards believers. Infinite wisdom is in all, and infinite glory will arise out of all.