Obs. I. That every circumstance of the Scripture is instructive.
The apostle having before urged the authority of the psalm, and the example recorded in it unto his purpose, here he again resumes the words before insisted on, and from sundry cir- cumstances of them, with the matter contained in them, further argues, reasons, and carrieth on his exhortation. For he considers, —1l. Who they were that sinned and provoked God; wherein he observes that it was “some” of them, and not absolutely all who came out of Egypt: which how useful it was unto his purpose we shall afterwards declare. 2. What became of them who so sinned. “ Their carcasses,” saith he, “fell in the wilderness;” which cireum- stance doth not a little set forth the indignation of God against their sin, and his severity against their persons. 3. He presseth in parti- cular the consideration of the oath of God, and manifests its exact accomplishment, that none who shall fall under the same condition may ever expect or hope for an escape. Lastly, From the consider- ation of the whole, he collects what was evidently the direct and especial sin that procured so great a destruction, and peremptorily excluded that people out of that rest of God, namely, their “ unbe-
VER. 15-19. ] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 165
lief.” These are the rapadreadueva that the apostle gathers up in these verses, which, belonging unto the subject he insisted on, fell not before orderly under his consideration.
Obs. II. God hath filled the Scripture with truth.
Whence one said well, “ Adoro plenitudinem Scripturarum,”— “T reverence the fulness of the Scriptures.” Ps. cxxxviii. 2, “ He hath magnified his word above all his name;’ or made it more instructive than any other way or means whereby he hath revealed himself. For not only doth the whole Scripture contain the whole counsel of God, concerning his own glory and worship, our faith, obedience, and salvation, but also every parcel of it hath in it such a depth of truth as cannot by us be perfectly searched into. Ps. exix. 18, “ Open thou mine eyes,” saith the psalmist, “ that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” There are wonderful things in the word, if God be pleased to give us light to see it. It is like a cabinet of jewels, that when you pull out one box or drawer and search into it, you find it full; pull out another, it is full; and when you think you have pulled out all, yet still there are some secret recesses in the cabinet, so that if you search further you will find more. Our apostle seems to have drawn out all the boxes of this cabinet, but making a second search into the words, he finds all these things treasured up, which he had not before intimated nor touched upon. It was said by some of old, that the “ Scripture hath fords where a lamb may wade, and depths where an elephant may swim.” And it is true in respect of the perspicuity of some places, and the difficulty of others. But the truth is also, that God hath in his grace and wisdom so ordered its concernments, that,—1. What from the nature of the things themselves, which are suited unto the vari- ous states, conditions, and apprehensions of the minds of men; 2. What from the manner of their expression, on which a character of divine wisdom is impressed ; 3. What from the authority of God putting itself forth in the whole and every particular; 4, What from its being not only “ propositio veritatis,” but “ vehiculum gra- tie ;” many, most, yea, all the particular places of it and passages _ in it, are such as through which a lamb may wade safely, and an elephant swim without danger of striking against the bottom. Let any lamb of Christ come, in that order, with that reverence unto the reading or hearing the word of God (the Scripture itself I mean) which is required, and he will find no place so dark or difficult but that it will yield him that refreshment which is suited unto him and safe for him, and something of God he will obtain; for either he will find his graces excited, or his mind enlightened, or his conscience peculiarly brought into a reverence of God. And let the wisest, the most learned and experienced person, that seems like an elephant in spiritual skill and strength amongst the flock, come to the plainest
166 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IIL.
place, to search out the mind and will of God in it, if he be humble as well as learned,—which if he be not he is not wise,—he will scarce boast that he hath been at the bottom of it, and hath perfectly com- prehended all thatvis in it, seeing whatever we know, “ we know but in part.” And they may all of them, elephants and lambs, meet at the same passages of this river that makes glad the city of God, these waters of rest and quietness, Ps. xxiii. 2, where the lambs may wade safely, and the elephants swim together. The poorest of the flock, in the right use of means, may take enough for themselves, even suitable direction and refreshment, from those very places of Scripture whose depths the learnedest guides of the church are not able to sound or fathom. Not only in several places, but im the same place, text, or testimony of Scripture, there is food meet for the several ages of Christians, whether babes and children or strong men; with light and direction for all sorts of believers, according to the degrees of their own inward light and grace, It is ike manna, which, “though men gathered variously according to their strength and appetite, yet every one had that proportion which suited his own eating. When a learned man, and one mighty in the Serip- tures, undertakes the consideration of a place of Scripture, and finds, it may be, in the issue, that with all his skill and industry, with all his helps and advantages, though attended in the use of them with fervent prayer and holy meditation, he is not able to search it out unto perfection, let him not suppose that such a place will be of no advantage unto them who are not sharers in his advantages, but rather are mean and unlearned; for they may obtain a useful por- tion for themselves where he cannot take down all. If any one look on this river of God like behemoth on Jordan, “trusting that he can draw it up into his mouth,” or take up the whole sense of God in it, he of all others seems to know nothing of its worth and ex- cellency. And this ariseth, as was observed, principally from the things themselves treated of in the Scripture. For, divine and spi- ritual truths having God not only as their immediate fountain and spring, but also as their proper and adequate object, there is still somewhat in them that cannot be searched out unto perfection, As he said, “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” Job xi. 7, "W mpaA“y Nyon —“find him out to a perfect comprehension,” or “toa consum- mation of knowledge,” that it should be perfect. This neither the nature of God nor our condition will admit of. We do at best but “follow after,” that we may in our measure “apprehend that for which we also are apprehended of Christ Jesus,” Phil. iii, 12. And these things are so tempered by divine wisdom unto the: faith and light of believers, and therein unto the uses of their consolation and obedience, that something hereof is plainly exhibited to every spi-