234 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
faith in the use of them, they were led unto a participation of the benefits of the promise of the gospel.
From what hath been spoken it appears how the gospel was preached unto the fathers in the wilderness, or how they were evan- gelized. It is not a typical gospel, as some speak, that the apostle intends, nor yet a mere institution of types; but the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it was in the substance of it proposed unto them in the promise; the entering into the land of Canaan being the especial instance wherein their faith was to be tried.
3. We may inquire how the gospel is said to be “ preached unto us,” which is the thing that is directly asserted. And, (1.) By ws, in the first place, the Hebrews of that time were principally in- tended. But this, by due analogy, may in the application and use of it be extended unto all others who hear the word. (2.) The apostle had before declared that the gospel, in the full, free, open, and clear dispensation of it, had been preached unto them, and confirmed with signs and wonders amongst them; so that no doubt can be made of the gospel’s being preached unto them. And with respect unto this sense and interpretation of the words were the cautions given, at the entrance, about the terms of comparison which seem to be in them. Notwithstanding this, I do at least doubt whether that were the preaching intended by the apostle. The same declaration of it to them of old, and these present Hebrews, their posterity, seems rather to be intended. The words, “ For unto us was the gospel preached, even as unto them,” seem to be of this importance, that we are no less concerned in the declaration of the gospel made to them, and the promise proposed unto them, than they were. Otherwise the apostle would have rather said, ‘The gospel was preached to them, even as to us;’ seeing of its preaching unto the present Hebrews there could be no doubt or question: and as we have now often de- clared, he is pressing upon these Hebrews the example of their pro- genitors. Therein he minds them that they had a promise given unto them of entering into the rest of God, which because of unbe- lief they came short of, and perished under his displeasure. Now, whereas they might reply, ‘What is that unto us, wherein are we con- cerned in it, can we reject that promise which doth not belong unto us? the apostle seems in these words to obviate or remove that objec- tion. To this purpose he lets them know, that even wnto us,—that is, to themselves,—to all the posterity of Abraham in all generations, the gospel was preached in the promise of entering into the rest of God, and may no less be sinned against at any time by unbelief than it was by them unto whom it was at first granted. This sense the words, as was said, seem to require, “To us was the gospel preached, even as unto them ;” that is, wherein and when it was preached unto them, therein and then it was preached unto us also. But it may be
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 235
said, that these Hebrews could not be concerned in the promise of entering into the land of Canaan, whereof they had been now pos- sessed for so many generations. I answer, They could not do so, in- deed, had no more been intended in that promise but merely the possession of that land; but I have showed before that the cove- nant-rest of God in Christ was in that promise. Again, it might concern them as much as it did those in the time of David, who were exhorted and pressed, as he manifests out of the psalm, to close with that promise, and to enter into the rest of God, when they were in a most full and quiet enjoyment of the whole land. And if it be said that the promise might belong unto those in the days of David, because that worship of God which had respect unto the land of Canaan was in all its vigour, but now, as unto these Hebrews, that whole worship was vanishing and ready to expire, I answer, That whatever alterations in outward ordinances and institutions of worship God was pleased to make at any time, the promise of the gospel was still one and the same; and therein “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” Heb, xiii. 8. This, then, I take to be the sense of the words, namely, that as the first preach- ing of the gospel unto their forefathers belonged in the privilege of it unto these Hebrews, by virtue of the covenant of God with them, so the obligation to faith and obedience thereon was no less on them than on those to whom it was first preached. And the present dis- pensation of the gospel was but the carrying on of the same revela- tion of the mind and will of God towards them. And we may now take some observations from the words.
Obs. I. It is a signal privilege to have the gospel preached unto us, to be “ evangelized.” _ As such it is here proposed by the apostle, and it is made a foun- dation of inferring a necessity of all sorts of duties. This the prophet emphatically expresseth, Isa. ix. 1, 2, “ Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and after- ward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in dark- ness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” The connec- tion of this prophetical discourse is judged by many obscure and difficult; but the general design of it, as applied by the evangelist, Matt. iv. 15, 16, is not so, For reckoning the various afflictions and distresses that God at several times brought upon the Galilean parts of the land, which lay exposed in the first place to the incursion of their enemies, and whose people were first carried away into capti- vity, whereby outward darkness and sorrow came upon them, he subjoins that consideration which, though future, and for many ages