Obs. III. Again, there is a present excellency in and a present reward attending gospel faith and obedience.
They are an entrance into the rest of Christ, or they give us a present interest therein. They are not only a present means of entering into future eternal rest with God, but they give us a present participation of the rest of Christ; which wherein it doth consist hath been before declared.
Thirdly, The latter part of this verse yet remaineth to be explained and applied.. Therein unto the precedent exhortation a motive is sub- joined: “ Lest any fall after the same example of unbelief.” These words, as was in part before intimated, do express either the sin to be avoided, or the punishment whereby we should be deterred from it.
The word, “ to fall,” is ambiguous, and may be applied to either sense; for men may fall into sin, and they may fall into the punish- ment due to their sin, when that word is used in a moral sense. Matt. xv. 14, “The blind lead the blind, dwpérepor cig Béduvov ae- cotvras,’ — both shall fall into the ditch,’ of sin or trouble. See Rom. xi. 22, James v. 12. For the prime use of the word is in things natural, and is only metaphorically translated to express things moral. And iréderyua is most commonly “a teaching example.” So brodeixvuus is “ to teach,” or “ to instruct” by showing: Matt. iii. 7,
VER. 11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 345
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“O generation of vipers, rig tatdeFev tui,’—“who hath warned” (taught, instructed) “you.” Thence iréderyza is “ documentum.” Taira troddiymara toros +G TloAvddwwn div de? erynerndjvas-— These are instructions for Polydamnes, about the things that are to be provided for.” But it is also often used as wapddsryua, “an exemplary punishment;” as‘Yrddeywa ri wAgder roa adrév-—* Making him an example to the multitude;” that is,in his punishment. And so among the Latins, “exemplum” is often put absolutely for “ punish- ment,” and that of the highest nature. Now, if tréderywa in this place be taken merely for a “ document” or “ instruction,” which is undoubtedly the most proper and usual signification of the word, then the sense may be, ‘ Lest any of you should fall into that un- belief whereof, and of its pernicious consequents, you have an in- structive example in them that went before, proposed on purpose unto you, that you might be stirred up to avoid it.’ If it be taken for rupéderywax, as sometimes it is, and so include in its signification “an exemplary punishment,” then the meaning of the word is, ‘Lest any of you, through your unbelief, fall into that punishment, which hath been made exemplary in the ruin of those other unbelievers who went before you.’ And this I take to be the meaning of the words: ‘You have the gospel, and the rest of Christ therein, preached and proposed unto you. Some of you have already taken upon you the profession of it, as the people did of old at mount Sinai, when they said, “ All that the Lorp our God shall command, that we will do.” Your condition is now like unto theirs, and was repre- sented therein. Consider, therefore, how things fell out with them, and what was the event of their sin and God’s dealing with them. They believed not, they made not good their engagement, they persisted not in their profession, but were disobedient and stubborn ; and God destroyed them. They “fell in the wilderness,” and perished, not entering into God’s rest, as hath been declared. If now you, or any amongst you, shall be found guilty of their sin, or the like answering unto it, do not think or hope that you shall avoid the like punishment. An example of God’s severity is set before you in their destruction. If you would not fall into it, or fall under it, labour by faith and obedience to enter into the rest of Christ.’ And this I take to be the true sense and importance of the words, answer- ing in their coherence and relation unto them that go before ; for these words, “ Let us labour to enter into that rest,” are no more but, ‘Let us sincerely believe and obey; wherein we shall find, through Jesus Christ, rest to our souls.’ Hereunto this clause of the verse is a motive: “ Lest any of you fall in the same example of unbelief.” Now, if their sense should be, ‘ Lest any of you, after their example, should fall into unbelief; then that of the whole must be, ‘ Let us labour to believe, that we fall not into unbelief,—which is a
346 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
mere battology, and remote from our divine author. Hence ob- serve,—
Obs. IV. Precedent judgments on others are monitory ordinances unto us,
They are so in general in all things that fall out in the providence of God in that kind, whereof we may judge by a certain rule. This is the use that we are to make of God’s judgments, without a censo- rious reflection on them in particular who fall under them; as our Saviour teacheth us in the instances of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, and those men on whom the tower in Siloam fell. But there are many things peculiar in the examples of this kind given us in the Scripture; for,—l. We have an infallible rule therein to judge both of the sins of men and the respect that the judgments of God had unto them; besides, 2. They are designed instances of the love and care of God towards us, as our apostle declares, 1 Cor. x. 11. God suffered their sins to fall out, and recorded his own judgments against them in his word, on purpose for our instruction; so that as he declared his severity in them towards others, he makes known by them his love and care towards us. This gives them the nature of ordinances, which all proceed from love. To this end, and with a sense hereof, are we to undertake the consideration of them. So are they exceedingly instructive; to which purpose we have treated somewhat on the third chapter, whither we refer the reader. Again,—