VER. 7-11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, 73
sion of the greatness, goodness, and faithfulness of God, than they were? And what is a more effectual motive unto obedience than such apprehensions? The neglect of them, therefore, carries along with it a great aggravation of sin. To tempt God, to murmur against him, as though he could not or would not provide for them, or make good his word unto them, whilst they saw, as it were, every day, those great and marvellous works which had such an impres- sion of his glorious image upon them, it made way for their irre- coverable destruction.
(3.) The third aggravation of the sin of this people is taken from the time of their continuance in it, under the use of the means to the contrary before insisted on,—it was “forty years.” The patience of God was extended towards them, and his works were wrought before them, not for a week, or a month, or a year, but for forty years together! And this increaseth the greatness and strangeness of this dispensation, both on the part of God, and theirs also;—on the part of God, that he should bear with their manners so long, when they had so often deserved to be destroyed as one man, and which he had threatened often to do; and on their part, that so long a course of patience, accompanied with so many works of power and mercy/@l of them for their instruction, most of them unto their present benefit and advantage, should have no effect upon them to prevent their continuance in their sin unto their ruin.
And these are the aggravations of their sin, which the psalmist collects from the circumstances of it, and which the apostle repeats for our warning and instruction; and this we shall draw out in the ensuing observations.
Obs. XIX. No place, no retiredness, no solitary wilderness, will secure men from sin or suffering, provocation or punishment.
These persons were in a wilderness, where they had many motives and encouragements unto obedience, and no means of seduction and outward temptation from others, yet there they sinned and there they suffered. They sinned in the wilderness, and their carcasses fell in the wilderness; they filled that desert with sins and graves, And the reason hereof is, because no place as such can of itself ex- clude the principles and causes either of sin or punishment. Men have the principle of their sins in themselves, in their own hearts, which they cannot leave behind them, or yet get off by shifting of places, or changing their stations. And the justice of God, which is the principal cause of punishment, is no less in the wilderness than in the most populous cities; the wilderness is no wilderness to him,— he can find his paths in all its intricacies. The Israelites came hither on necessity, and so they found it with them; and in after ages some have done so by choice,—they have retired into wilder- nesses for the furtherance of their obedience and devotion. In this
74 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [cHAP. IIT.
very wilderness, on the top of Sinai, there is at this day a monastery of persons professing themselves to be religious, and they live there to increase religion in them. I once for some days conversed with their chief (they call him Archimandrite) here in England. For aught I could perceive, he might have learned as much elsewhere. And, indeed, what hath been the issue of that undertaking in gene- ral? For the most part, unto their old lusts men added new super- stitions, until they made themselves an abomination unto the Lord, and utterly useless in the world, yea, burdensome unto human society. Such persons are like the men of Succoth whom Gideon taught with “the thorns and briers of the wilderness,” Judges viil. 16. They learned nothing by it but the sharpness of the thorns and the greatness of their own folly. No more did they at best learn any thing from their wilderness retirements, but the sharpness of the place, which was a part of the punishment of their sin, and no means sanctified for the furtherance of their obedience. These two things, then, are evident :—
[1.] That the principle of men’s unbelief and disobedience is in themselves, and in their own hearts, which leaves them not upon any change of their outward condition.
[2.] That no outward state of things, whether voluntarily chosen by ourselves, or we be brought into it by the providence of God, will either cure or conquer, or can restrain the inward principles of sin and unbelief. I remember old Jerome somewhere complains, that when he was in his horrid cave at Bethlehem, his mind was frequently among the delicacies of Rome. And this will teach us,—
1st. In every outward condition to look principally to owr own hearts. We may expect great advantages from various conditions, but shall indeed meet with none of them, unless we fix and water the root of them in ourselves. One thinks he could serve God better in prosperity, if freed from the perplexities of poverty, sickness, or persecution; others, that they should serve him better if called unto afflictions and trials. Some think it would be better with them if retired and solitary; others, if they had more society and company. But the only way, indeed, to serve God better, is to abide in our station or condition, and therein to get better hearts. It is Solo- mon’s advice, 3 ao) TIDvIN~P2N , Prov.i iv. 23, “Above or before every watch or keeping, keep thy heart,” It is good to keep the tongue, and it is good to ‘keep the feet, and it is good to keep the way, as he further declares in that place, but saith he, “Above all keepings, keep thy heart.” And he adds a great reason for his caution: “For,” saith he, “ out of it are the issues of life.’ Life and death, in the means and causes of them, do come out of the heart. So our Saviour instructs us that in our hearts lie our treasures; what they are, that are we, and nothing else. Thence are all our actions drawn