VER. 7-11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 57
on them, who are called to deal with others in the name of God. And,—
[1.] Let them take heed that they neither do, nor act, nor speak any thing but what they have sufficient warrant from him for. It is a dangerous thing to entitle God or his name unto our own ima- ginations. God will not set his seal of approbation, he will not own a concernment in our lie, though we should think that it tends to his glory, Rom. iii. 7. Neither will he own what is done against us as done against himself, unless we stand in his counsels, and be found in the ways of his will. There is no object of a more sad considera- tion, than to see some men persecuting others for their errors. They that persecute,—suppose them in the right as to the matter in differ- ence between them and those whom they do oppress,—yet do cer- tainly act against God in what they pretend to act for him; tor they usurp his authority over the souls and consciences of men. And they that are persecuted do sacrifice their concernments to the dark- ness of their own minds. God may concern himself in general to own their integrity towards himself, even in their mistakes; but in the particular wherein they suffer he will not own them. Whether, therefore, we are to do or to suffer any thing for God, it is of great concernment unto us to look well to our call or warrant. And then, [2.] When men are secured by the word and Spirit of God that their message is not their own, but his that sent them,—that they seek not their own glory, but his,—they may have hence all desirable grounds of encouragement, supportment, and consolation, in all the straits and temptations they meet withal in this world. They can be no more utterly prevailed against (that is, their testimony cannot) than can God himself. So he speaks to Jeremiah: “I will make thee a fenced brazen wall; they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lorn,’ Jer. xv. 20. And in what they suffer God is so far concerned, as to account all that is done against them to be done against himself. Christ is hungry with them, and thirsty with them, and in prison with them, Matt. xxv. 35-40. Again,—
Obs. XVI. Unbelief manifesting itself in a time of trial is a most provoking sin.
This, as we have showed, was the sin of the people in their pro- vocation of God. And it is a great sin,—the great sin, the spring of all sins at all times; but it hath many aggravations attending of it in a time of trial. And this compriseth the first sense of the limi- tation of time in that word, “This day,” betore intimated, namely, an especial time and season wherein the guilt of this sin may be eminently contracted. For I speak not of unbelief in general with respect unto the covenant and the promises thereof, but of unbelief
58 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. III.
as working in a distrust of God with respect unto the dispensations of his providence. It is a disbelieving of God as to any concern- ment of our own when we have a sufficient warrant to believe and put our trust in him, when it is our duty so to do. And two things we may make a brief inquiry mto:—
[1.] What is required that men may be in such a condition as wherein they may-contract the guilt of this sin? And hereunto three things do belong:—
lst. That in general they be fownd in the way of God. God’s promises of his presence, and of his protection unto men, are con- fined unto his own ways, which alone are theirs, or ought so to be: “ He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways,” Ps. xci. 11;—that is, the ways that he hath appointed thee to walkin. The benefit of which promise the devil vainly attempted to deprive our Saviour of, by seducing him to ways that were not his, ways that God had not appointed. Men in ways of their own,—that is, in the crooked paths of sin,—are not obliged to trust in God for mercy and protection in them, So to do, or to pretend so to do, is to entitle God to their lusts. For men to say they trust in God in the pursuit of their covetousness, injustice, oppression, sensuality, or in ways wherein these things have a prevailing mixture, or to pray for the protecting, the blessing presence of God in them, is a high provocation. Every difficulty, every opposition that such men meet. withal is raised by God to turn them out of their way. And to expect their removal by him, or strength and assistance against them, is to desire the greatest evil unto their own souls that in this world they are obnoxious unto. The Israelites here blamed were in the way of God, and no opposition ought to have discouraged them therein.
2dly. That in particular they have a warrantable call to engage into that way wherein they are. A way may be good and lawful in itself, but not lawful to a man that enters upon it without a sufficient call to engage in it. And this deprives men also of the grounds of expectation of God’s presence, so as to that particular way wherein they cannot contract the guilt of this sin; though com- monly it is distrust of God that casts men into such ways. It was the way and work of God that the Israelites should destroy the Amorites and possess their land; but when they would in a heat, without a sufficient warrant, go up into the hill and fight with them, Moses says unto them, “Go not up, for the Lorp is not among you;