[2.] The next thing in the words is that especial evil which the apostle cautions the Hebrews against, as that which a heart made evil by the prevalency of unbelief would tend unto, and which is like ts ensue if not prevented in the causes of it; and that is, “ departing from the living God:” ’Ev r@ droorjvas dx @od Caivros.
"Ey rq: that is, say some, ¢/¢ ré,—the sense whereof would be, “so that you should depart.” But é +@ is more significant and no less proper in this language. And the article thus varied with the infinitive mood denotes a continued act,— “that it should be departing ;”—“ that the evil heart should work and operate in a course of departing from God.”
"Ey @ amoorjvar. “Adiorngusis a word éx ray wow, of an indifferent signification in itself, and is used to express any kind of departure, physical or moral, from a person or thing, a place or a principle. Sometimes it is expressive of a duty: 2 Tim. ii. 19, “ Whosoever nameth the name of Christ, aroorgrw dad ddr nies, —“let him depart from iniquity.” So also 1 Tim. vi. 5. Some- times it denotes the highest sin: 1 Tim. iv. 1, “The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter season droorjoora: rite rig wiorews,” —‘some shall depart from the faith.’ And the departure here prophesied of is signally termed 4 drocracia, “the departure,” or “apostasy,” 2 Thess. ii. 3. So that the word is to be expounded from the subject-matter treated of, and the especial object of it. And it is a word in its moral sense oftener used by our apostle than by all the other sacred writers besides. Once in the gospel it is used abso-
Ey ra,
-Amorrnvas.
VER. 12-14.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 127
lutely for a sinful falling away, Luke viii. 13: “They believe for a season, xul &y xaip® meipacuod &pioravras, —“in the time of persecu- tion they fall away,” they turn apostates. And from this word are the common names of apostates and apostasy taken; that is, the great sin of forsaking or departing from the profession of the gospel. “In discedendo,” say interpreters; Beza, “in desciscendo,” properly. It is, in an evil sense, a revolting, a treacherous defection from truth and duty. It answers unto "3D, which is used in an indifferent sense, to depart from any thing, good or evil, and sometimes is applied unto a perverse departure from God; as Hos. vii. 14. And in this especial sense it expresseth 12D, which is to be perverse, stubborn, and contumacious in turning away from God, or that which is good and right in any kind, so as to include a rebellion in it, as the departure here intended doth; that is, to revolt.
The object of this departure is by our apostle in this place parti- cularly expressed, dx) cod C&vro¢,— from the living God.” It is plain that it is apostasy from the profession of the gospel which is intended ; and we must inquire into the reasons why the apostle doth thus peculiarly express it, by a departure from the living God. I shall propose those which to me seem most natural :—
1st. It may be that these Hebrews thought nothing less than that their departure from the profession of the gospel was a departure from the living God. Probably they ;;, rather pretended and pleaded that they were returning to him; for they did not fall off unto idols or idolatry, but returned to observe, as they thought, the institutions of the living God, and for a relinquishment whereof the blaspheming and persecuting part of them traduced our apostle himself as an apostate, Acts xxi. 28. To obyiate this apprehension in them, and that they might not thereby countenance themselves in their defection, which men are apt to do with various pretences, the apostle lets them know that after the revelation of Christ and profession of him, there is no de- parture from him and his institutions but that men do withal depart from the living God. So John positively declares on the one hand and the other, 2 Epist. 9, “ Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” Ina recession from the gospel or doctrine of Christ, God himself is for- saken. He that hath not the Son, he hath not the Father; as, on the other side, continuance in the doctrine of the gospel secureth us an interest not in the Son only, but in the Father also. He, then, that rejects Christ in the gospel, let him pretend what he will of adhering unto one God, he hath forsaken the living God, and cleaves unto an idol of his own heart; for neither is the Father without the Son, nor is he a God unto us but in and by him.
"Awd Ozov 70S.
128 AN EXPOSITION OF THE __ [OHAP, TIL.
2Qdly. It may be he would mind them of the person and na- ture of him from whom he would prevent their departure, namely, that however in respect of his office, and as he was incarnate, he was our mediator, our apostle, and high priest, yet in his own divine person he was one with his Father and the blessed Spirit, she living God.