[2.] Faith in its acting towards and on the promise is also said to receive it. By it we receive the word; that is, it takes it into the soul and incorporates it with itself, There is more herein than a mere assent to the truth of what is proposed and apprehended. And sometimes we are said by it to receive the word itself, and sometimes to receive the things themselves which are the subject- matter of it. So are we in the. first way said to “ receive with meek- ness the ingrafted word,” James i. 21; to “receive the promises,” Heb. xi. 18; “having received the word,” 1 Thess. i. 6, ii. 18. In the latter way to “receive Christ” himself, John i. 12, and “the atone- ment” made by him, Rom. v. 11; which are the principal subjects of the gospel. And herein lies the life of faith; so that it is the pro- per description of an unbeliever, that “he doth not receive the things of the Spirit of God,” 1 Cor. iu. 14. And unbelief is the not re- ceiving of Christ, John i. 11. There may be a tender made of a thing which is not received. A man may think well of that which
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 249
is tendered unto him, and yet not receive it. But what a man doth receive duly and for himself, it becomes properly his own. This work of faith, then, in receiving the word of promise, with Christ and the atonement made by him therein, consists in its giving unto them a real admittance into the soul, to abide there as in their proper place; which is the mixture here intended by the apostle. [3.] Hence and hereon the word becomes an ingrafted word, James i. 21, “ Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” The exhortation is unto reality and growth in believing. To this end the word is proposed, as that which is to be brought into the soul. And to that purpose room is to be made for it, by the casting out of such things as are apt to possess the mind and leave no admittance for the word. Now the furupla and mepicccia, xaxiag, “filth” and “superfluity of evil,” here in- tended, are those corrupt, carnal lusts which by nature possess the minds of men, and render them “ enmity against God,” Rom. viii. 7. These are so fixed in the mind, so incorporated with it, that from them it is denominated “fleshly” and “carnal.” And they are to be put away, cast out, separated from the mind, uprooted and re- jected, that the word may be brought in and received. And how is that to be received? Asa word that is to be guguros, “ implanted” or “ingrafted” into the mind. Now, we all know that by ingrafting there comes an incorporation, a mixture of the natures of the stock and graft into one common principle of fruit-bearing. So is the word received by faith, that being mixed with itself, both of them become one common principle of our obedience. And on this ac- count doth our Saviour compare the word of the gospel unto seed, Matt. xiii. Now seed brings forth no fruit or increase unless falling into the earth, it incorporate with the fructifying virtue thereof. And with respect hereunto it is said that God writes his law in our hearts, Jer. xxxi. 33. As our apostle expounds it, 2 Cor. ii. 3: “The word of the gospel is by the Spirit of the living God written, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart.” So is it ingrafted, when it is as really, by the help of faith, communicated unto and implanted on the heart, as written words are in their en- gravement on tables of stone. _ [4] The effect of this ingrafting of the word, which belongs also to this spiritual incorporation, is the casting of the soul into the mould, type, image, or figure of the doctrine of it, as our apostle expresseth it, Rom. vi. 17: “ Ye have obeyed from the heart sig ay wapedidnre rbrov d:dax7s,”’— that form of doctrine that ye have been delivered up unto,” that ye have been cast into, This is that transformation of mind which we are exhorted to look after in the renovation that it receives by believing, Rom. xii, 2. As the scion,
250 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
being grafted or inoculated into the stock, turns and changes the natural juice of the stock into another kind of fructifying nutriment than it had before, so the word being by its mixture with faith in- grafted into the soul, it changeth the natural operation of it to the production of spiritual effects, which before it had no virtue for. And it transforms also the whole mind, according to the allusion, Rom. vi. 17, into a new shape, as wax is changed by the impression of a seal into the likeness of it.
[5.] The expression of faith by eating and drinking, which is frequent in Scripture, as before intimated, gives further light into the spiritual incorporation that we inquire after. Thus the word is said to be “ food,” “strong meat,” and “ milk,” suited to the re- spective ages and constitutions of believers. And the Lord Christ, the principal subject of the word of the gospel, says of himself, that he is “the bread that came down from heaven,” that “his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed.” Faith is the eating of this food, this milk, this meat, this flesh. Now in eating, when food is prepared, it is received, and by a due digestion turned into the very substance of the body of him that eats. Supplies proceed from thence unto the flesh, blood, and spirits of the eater, according as the principles of nature require and direct. So also must it be in this matter spiritually. This the Capernaites not understanding of old, but taking the words of our Saviour in a carnal manner, thinking he would have them eat his flesh with their teeth, and pour his blood down their throats, were offended at him, and perished in their unbelief, John vi. 52,59. But he lets his disciples know that the whole mistake lay in the carnal imagination of those wretches. He understood no more but the spiritual union of himself unto the souls of believers by faith,—which is no less real and sure than the union that is between the body and the meat it receives when duly digested, verse 56; that “the flesh,” in the carnal sense, was of no use or profit, but that his words were “ spirit and life,” verse 63. From an ignorance also of this spiritual incor- poration of Christ in the promise and faith is it that the church of Rome hath feigned their monstrous carnal eating with their teeth of the flesh or body of Christ, though he had foretold them that it should profit them nothing. Wherefore, the word being prepared as spiritual food for the soul, faith receives it, and by a spiritual eating and digestion of it, turns it into an increase and strengthen- ing of the vital principles of spiritual obedience. And then doth the word profit them that hear it.