3. Whereunto, in the wisdom and grace of God, do these things tend, if managed aright in us and by us? There is nothing that the Scripture doth more abound in, than in giving us assurance that all the evils which we do or may undergo upon the account of Christ and his gospel, shall work effectually towards our unspeak- able spiritual advantage. See Rom. v. 1-5.
4, For whom or whose sake do we or are we to undergo the troubles mentioned? A man of honesty and good nature will en- dure much for a parent, a child, a friend; yea, the apostle tells us, that “for a good man some would even dare to die,” Rom, v. But who is it whom we are to suffer for? Is it not He who is infinitely more than all these in himself and to us? Consider his own excel- lency, consider his love to us, consider the effects of the one and the fruits of the other, whereof we are and hope to be made partakers,
VER. 12, 13.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 385
and it will be granted that he is worthy of our all, and ten thousand times more if it were in our power. Besides, he calls us not to any thing but what he went before us in; and he went before us in many things wherein he calls not us to follow him, for he underwent them that we might escape them. He died that we might live; and was made a curse that the blessing might come upon us. Let us not then be so foolish, so unthankful, so brutish, as to think any trouble too great or too long to be undergone for him. This our apostle at large expresseth, Phil. iii. 7-10.
5. What is the end of these trials and troubles which we are so ready to faint and despond under? Eternal rest and glory do attend them. See 2 Thess. i. 7; 2 Cor, iv. 17; Rev. vii. 18, 14.
These and the like considerations, being pleaded in the mind and soul, may be a means to preserve them from fainting under troubles that do or may befall men on the account of the profession of the gospel, which are apt to dispose them unto backslidings.
There are sundry means that may be improved to prevent the entrances of the decays insisted on; amongst all which none is so proper as that here mentioned by our apostle, and which is comprised in our next proposition. For,—
Obs. IX. A due and holy consideration at all times of the all- seeing eye of Jesus Christ is a great preservation against backslid- ings or declensions in profession.
This is the end for which the mention of it is here introduced by the apostle. It was not in his way, nor was any part of his design, to treat absolutely about the omniscience of Christ; nothing could be more foreign to his present discourse. But he speaks of it on purpose, as an effectual means to awe and preserve their souls from the evil that he dehorted them from and warned them of. And the consideration of it is so on many accounts; for,—
1. If we retain this in remembrance, that all the most secret beginnings of spiritual declensions in us are continually under his eye, it will influence us unto watchful care and diligence. Some, with Sardis, are ready to please themselves whilst they keep up such a profession as others with whom they walk do approve of, or can- not blame. Others, with Laodicea, think all is well whilst they ap- prove themselves, and have no troublesome accusations rising up against their peace in their own consciences, when, it may be, their consciences themselves are debauched, bribed, or secure. For lesser things, which neither others observe to their disreputation, nor them- selves are affected with to their disquiet, many men regard them not. And hereby are they insensibly betrayed into apostasy, whilst one neglect follows another, and one evil is added to another, until a breach be made upon them “great like the sea, that cannot be healed.” Herein, then, lies a great preservative against this ruining
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386 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
danger. Let the soul consider constantly that the eye of Christ, with whom principally, and upon the matter solely in these things, he hath to do, and to whom an account of all must be one day given, is upon him; and it cannot but keep him jealous over him- self, lest there should any defiling root of bitterness spring up in him. To him ought we in all things to approve ourselves; and this we cannot do without a continual jealousy and constant watchfulness over our hearts, that nothing be found there that may displease him: and whatever is there, it is all “naked and open unto him.” And,—
2. The Lord Christ doth not behold or look on the evils that are or may be in the hearts of professors as one unconcerned in them, by a mere intuition of them; but as one that is deeply con- cerned in them, and as it were troubled at them: for by these things is his good Spirit grieved and vexed, and great reproach is cast upon his name. When the miscarriages of professors break out so far as that the world takes notice of them, it rejoiceth in them, and triumpheth over that truth and those ways which by them are professed. And when other believers or professors observe them, they are grieved and deeply afflicted in their minds. And who knows not that even the consideration of these things is of great use to prevail with sincere professors unto watchfulness over their ways and walkings; namely, lest the name of God should be evil spoken of by reason of them, or the spirits of the servants of Christ be grieved by them. How often doth David declare that he would take heed to his ways, because of his enemies or observers, those that watched for his halting, and would improve their observation of it to the dishonour of his profession! And, on the other side, he prays that none which feared God might be ashamed on his account, or troubled at his failings. And therefore did he labour in all things to preserve his integrity, and keep himself from sin. Nor have they any respect unto the glory of God who have not the same sense and affections in such cases. Now, if these things are, or ought to be, of such weight with us, as to what comes under the cognizance of men, that is open and naked unto men, according to their capacity of dis- cerning, what ought our thoughts to be of all things of the same nature that fall fully and solely under the cognizance of Christ, considering his concernment in them, and how he is affected with them? And so it is with respect unto the first, most secret, and im- perceptible spiritual decays that may befall us; yea, he lays most weight on the things that are known to himself alone, and would have all the churches know and consider that he “searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins” of men. Neither can we have in any thing greater evidence given unto our sincerity, than when we have an especial watchful regard unto those things which lie under the eye of Christ alone, wherein we have to do with him only. This