Hereunto is added a limitation of the season of this duty as to its continuance: “Axypis of +d ofuepoy xare?ras,— “Whilst it , Aeon is called To-day ;” that is, ‘Be sedulous in the discharge crpspov xuati- of this duty whilst the season of it doth continue. The ™ occasion of this expression is taken from what was before discoursed of. There was a day proposed unto the people of old, a season that was called D1), or ofuepov, “to-day.” And two things are included in it;—1. An opportunity as to advantage; 2. A limitation of that opportunity as to duration or continuance. 1. A day of opportunity is intended. The word in the psalm, 013, had, as was judged on good ground, respect unto some solemn feast wherein the people assembled themselves to celebrate the worship of God; it may be the feast of tabernacles, which was a great representation of the dwelling of the Lord Christ amongst us, Johni. 14, This was a season which they were to improve whilst they did enjoy it. But it was typical only. The apostle now declares to these Hebrews that the great day, the great season, of old shadowed out unto their fore- fathers, was now really and actually come upon them. It was justly called “To-day” with them whilst they enjoyed the gospel.
136 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP, IIT.
2. There is a limitation of this day of opportunity included in the words, “Whilst it is called To-day ;”—‘ whilst the time wherein you live is such a season as to be called a day, that is, a day of grace ;— whilst that season was continued unto them which was prefigured in the day before mentioned. The apostle saw that the day or season of these Hebrews was almost ready to expire. It continued but a few years after the writing of this epistle. This he secretly minds them of, and withal exhorts them to improve their present advan- tages, and that especially in and unto the discharge of the great duty of mutual exhortation; that so they might prevent among them the great evil of departing from the living God, and that which tends thereunto, in the hardening of their hearts through the deceitfulness of sin. For herein lies the enforcement of the exhortation unto the duty insisted on, namely, from the pernicious consequent of its ne- glect; wherein first occurs,—
The persons concerned: Tis 2& iuév, “Any of you,” “any among you;”—‘any one that is of your society, that is engaged in the same profession with you, and partaker of the same privileges;’ ‘any of you believing Hebrews.’ And herein the apostle extends his direction unto mutual watchfulness and exhort- ation unto all, even the meanest of the church.
Secondly, The spring or cause of the evil that is to be feared in the neglect intimated, and that is sin: ‘Apapria, NNO ,—a general name for all or any sin. Our apostle constantly useth it to express original sin, the sin of our nature, the root on which all other sins do grow. And this is the sin here in- tended; the sin that by nature dwelleth in us, that is present with us when we would do good, to hinder us, and is continually work- ing to put forth its venomous nature in actual sins or transgressions. This he calls elsewhere a “root of bitterness,’ which springs up unto defilement, chap. xii. 15.
Thirdly, There isthe way or means whereby this sin worketh to produce the effect expressed, and that is by deceit: *Ararn ris dwuprias, Vulg. Lat., “fallacia peccati;” and the Rhemists thence, “the fallacy of sin,’—somewhat improperly, considering the ordinary use of that word, being taken only for a caption or deceit in words. But yet there is a fallacy in every sin; it imposeth paralogisms or false arguings on the mind, to seduce it. ’Ararn is “deceit,” and signifies both the faculty of deceiving, the ar- tifice used in deceiving, and actual deceit, or deceiving itself. The derivation of the word gives some light unto the nature of the thing itself. ’Arardéw is from & privative, and réros, as Kustathius and the Etymologist agree. Idros is “via trita,” “a beaten way,” “a path.” So that draréw is to “ draw any one out of the right way,” the proper beaten path. And it is well rendered by “seduco,” that is, “seorsum
Ths 22 opeawy.
“Auuprins.
"Arden,
VER. 12-14.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 137
duco,” “to lead aside,” “to seduce.” But it is of a larger sense, or “by any ways or means to deceive.” And éréry principally denotes an innate faculty of deceiving rather than deceit itself. “Agrdrn roid wrovrov, Matt. xiii. 22, “the deceitfulness of riches;” and arérn ris addixiag, 2 Thess. ii. 10, “the deceitfulness of unrighteousness;” is that aptitude that is in riches and unrighteousness, considering the state and condition of men in this world, and their temptations, to deceive them with vain hopes, and to seduce them into crooked paths. Once it is put for sin itself: Eph. iv. 22, Kar& rag émiduuias ris ardérns,— According to the lusts of deceit:” that is, of sin, which is deceitful; unless it may be rendered by the adjective, drarnrots, or drarhrous, as it is done by ours, “deceiving” (or “deceitful ”) “lusts.” See 2 Pet. ii. 13. Here, as it is joined with “sin,” as an adjunct of it, it denotes not its acting primarily, but that habitual deceit that is in indwelling sin, whereby it seduceth men and draweth them off from God.