24 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. III.
Obs. VI. Every thing in the commands of God, relating unto the manner of their giving out and communicating unto us, is to be re- tained in our minds and considered as present unto us,
The psalmist, “after so long a season,” as the apostle speaks, calls the people to hear the voice of God, as it sounded on mount Sinai at the giving of the law. Not only the law itself, and the authority of God therein, but the manner also of its delivery, by the great and terrible voice of God, is to be regarded, as if God did still continue so to speak unto us. So also is it in respect of the gospel. In the first revelation of it God spake immediately “7m the Son;” and a reverence of that speaking of God in Christ, of his voice in and by him, are we continually to maintain in our hearts. So in the dis- pensation of the gospel he continues yet to speak from heaven, Heb. xii. 25. It is his voice and word unto us no less than it was when in his own person he spake on the earth, And God being thus, both in his commands and the manner of his giving them out, rendered present unto us by faith, we shall receive a great incitation unto obedience thereby.
Obs. VII. Consideration and choice are a stable and permanent foundation of obedience.
The command of God is here proposed unto the people, to their understanding to consider it, to their wills to choose and embrace it: “If ye will hear his voice.” ‘Consider all things, all concerns of this matter; whose command it is, in what manner given, what is the matter of it, and what are its ends, and what is our own con- cernment in all this. Men that are engaged into some course of obedience or profession as it were by chance, or by their minds being merely pre-occupated with education or custom, will leave it by chance or a powerful diversion at any time. ‘Those who are only compelled unto it by some pungent, galling convictions, so that they yield obedience not because they like it or choose it, but because they dare not do otherwise, do assuredly lose all respect unto it as their convictions do by any means wear off or decay.
A deliberate choice of the ways of God, upon a due consideration of all their concernments, is that which unchangeably fixeth the soul unto obedience. For the strongest obligations that are unto it ought to be in our own wills. And it is the most eminent effect of the grace of Christ, to make his people willing in the day of his power; nor is any other obedience acceptable with God, Rom. xii. 1.
2. The apostle carries on and enforceth his exhortation unto obe- dience, in the words of the psalmist, by a caution against or pro- hibition of the contrary, or that which would utterly prevent it, as having done so formerly in others: “ Harden not your hearts.” To clear his intention herein, we must inquire,—(1.) What is intended by “heart;’ and, (2.) What by the “ hardening” of it.
VER. 7-11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 25
(1.) The heart in the Scripture, spoken of in reference unto moral obedience, doth not constantly denote any one especial faculty of the soul; but sometimes one, sometimes another, is intended and express- ed thereby. What is peculiarly designed, the subject-matter treated of and the adjuncts of the word will discover. Thus, sometimes the heart is said to be “wise,” “understanding,” to “devise,” to be “ filled with counsel;” and, on the other side, to be “ignorant,” “ dark,” “foolish,” and the like;—in all which places it is evident that the mind, the rd nyemouxoy, the guiding, conducting, reasoning faculty is intended. Sometimes it is said to be “ soft,” “tender,” “ humble,” “melting ;” and, on the other side, “ hard,” “stubborn,” “ obstinate,” and the like;—wherein principal regard is had to the will and affections. The word, therefore, is that whereby the principle of all our moral actions, and the respective influence of all the faculties of our souls into them, are expressed.
(2.) By the sense of the object is the meaning of the act pro- hibited to be regulated: “ Harden not.” The expression is meta- phorical, and it signifies the unfitness and resistency of any thing to receive a due impression from that which is applied unto it; as wax when it is hard will not receive an impression from the seal that is set unto it, nor mortar from the trowel. The application that is made in the matter of obedience unto the souls of men is by the Spirit of God, in his commands, promises, and threatenings; that is, his voice, the whole revelation of his mind and will. And when a due impression is not made hereby on the soul, to work it to an answerableness in its principles and operations thereunto, men are said to resist the Spirit, Acts vii. 51; that is, to disappoint the end of those means which he makes use of in his application to them. By what ways or means soever this is done, men are thereby said to harden their hearts, Prejudices, false principles, ignorance, darkness and deceit in the mind, obstinacy and stubbornness in the will, corruption and cleay- ing unto earthly and sensual objects in the affections, all concur in this evil. Hence in the application of this example, verse 13, the apostle exhorts the Hebrews to take heed that they be not “ har- dened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Now, deceit firstly and prin- cipally respects the mind, and therein consists the beginning and entrance into the sin of hardening the heart. A brief consideration of the condition of the people in the wilderness upon whom this evil is charged, will give much light into the nature of the sin that here comes under prohibition. What were the dealings of God with them is generally known, and we have elsewhere declared. As he gave them instruction from heaven, in the revelation and delivery of the law, and intrusted them with the singular benefit of the erection of his worship amongst them, so he afforded them all sorts of mercies, protections, deliverances, provision, and guidance; as also made them sensible