556 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. V.
must be cast away.’ No; but “all naughtiness” in the mind is asa superfluous humour in the body, which corrupts and destroys it. It is the corrupting, depraving power and efficacy of prevailing lusts in the mind which is intended; and this is to be “laid apart,” if we intend to receive riv tuguroy Adyoy, “ the ingrafted (implanted) word ;” that is, the word of the gospel, which was not designed of God to be “ written in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of our hearts,” 2 Cor, iii. 83. Hence is that great promise of taking away the heart of stone, figured by the tables of stone wherein the law was written, and giving a heart of flesh, wherein the word of the gospel should be written and ingrafted. See this text further interpreted, 1 Pet. ii. 1,2. He, therefore, that comes with his mind filled and prepossessed with noisome lusts, as they are all, will be dull and slothful in hear- ing, seeing his heart will be sure to wander after its idols. For men’s minds, filled with their lusts, are like Ezekiel’s chambers of imagery, which were full of all manner of representations, “pourtrayed upon the wall ;’—-which way soever they turned their eyes they had idolatrous objects to entertain them, chap. vill. 10, 12. Such pictures do the corrupt imaginations of sensual, earthly persons fill their minds withal, that every thought has an object ready for its entertainment, effectually diverting the soul from the entertainment of the ingrafted word. Without this we may receive it as a notional word, as a truth in our understandings, but we cannot receive it as an implanted word in our hearts to save our souls.
[2.] Cares and businesses of the world having prepossessed the mind, produce in it the same indisposition in hearing. God himself giveth this reason why a professing people profited not by the dis- pensation of the word, namely, because “ their hearts went after their covetousness,” Ezek. xxxiii. 31. The prophet preached, and the people sat diligently before him as his hearers; but their minds being pre- possessed with the love of the world, the word was unto them as wind, and of no use. Partly it was kept out by the exercise of their minds about other things; and what was received was quickly choked,— which is the proper effect of the cares of the world, Matt. xiii. 22.
2. In the act or duty of hearing itself, there are sundry things re- quired of them who would not incur the guilt of the crime reproved; as,—
(1.) A due reverence of the word for its own sake. Spiritual re- verence is our humble, religious respect of any thing upon the account of its authority and holiness. So is it due unto every thing that God hath put his name upon, and to nothing else. Whereas, therefore, God hath “ magnified his word above all his name,” Ps. exxxviii. 2, or every other ordinance whereby he reveals himself unto us, it is thereunto due in an especial manner. So is this duty expressed in the instance of the Thessalonians, 1 Epist. i. 13: “When ye received ©
VER. 11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 557
the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but (as it is in truth) the word of God, which effec- tually worketh in you that believe.” The apostle commendeth their receiving of the word when preached unto them, from the manner of their attention unto it, with that respect and reverence which was due unto its relation to God; which also had a great in- fluence unto its efficacy on them. ‘Ye have received Adyov d&xo%s rep’ qui rod @cod,—“ verbum auditus;” YOW7II, “the word of hearing.” Because preaching and hearing were the constant way that God had appointed for the communication and receiving of the gospel, the word itself was so denominated. To despise them, therefore, is for- mally to despise the gospel. And this word they are said to receive wap nuwav, “of us;” that is, as instruments of its promulgation and declaration. On this account he sometimes calls it “ our word,” and “our gospel ;’—‘that word and gospel of God which we have preached ;’ as it is added, @¢03, “ of God;” not concerning God, but whereof God is the author, and which he hath appointed to be so preached and dispensed in his own name, 2 Cor. v. 18,19. This, therefore, they attended unto, “not as the word of men,” but, according to the truth, “as the word of God.” The opposition may be either to the original of the word, or unto the dispensation of it. If unto the original, then the sense is, ‘ Not as unto a word that was devised or invented by men;’ as Peter declares that in the preaching of the gospel “they did not follow cunningly-devised fables,” 2 Pet. i 16. Yet this seems not here to be intended, though it may be included. But the opposition is unto the administrators or preachers of it; as if he had said, ‘In your attention to the word, you did not consider it merely as dispensed by us, but ascended in your minds to Him whose word originally it is, by whom it was appointed, and in whose name it was preached unto you.’ And this gives us the just nature of that reverence which is required of us in hearing, namely, a humble respect unto the authority and holiness of the word, impressed upon it by Him whose word it is.