ness, all hopes, comforts, and relief at once; but it shall not at once utterly consume their being. This is that which this fire shall eter- nally prey upon, and never utterly consume, But if we make the application of it unto the temporal destruction that came upon them, the similitude holds throughout, for it utterly consumed them, and devoured them, and all that belonged unto them in this world: they were devoured by it.
Obs. XIV. The dread and terror of God’s final judgments against
the enemies of the gospel is in itself inconceivable, and only sha-—
dowed out by things of the greatest dread and terror in the world. Whence it is so, I shall now declare.
VERSES 28, 29.
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Ver. 28, 29.—He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ?
The apostle confirms what he had spoken of the sore and certain destruction of apostates from the gospel, by an argument “& compa- ratis,” and “& minori ad majus;” that is, by the consideration of the two states of the church, which he had all along compared and
expressed, ‘Wherefore, to convince the Hebrews not only of the —
certainty and severity of the judgment declared, but also of the
equity and righteousness of it, he proposeth unto them the consi-
deration of God’s constitution of punishment under the old testa-
VER. 28, 29. | EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 539 |
ment with respect unto the law of Moses, which they could. not deny to be just and equal.
In verse 28 he lays down the matter of fact as it was stated under the law; wherein there are three things: 1. The sin where- unto that of apostasy from the gospel is compared, “ He that de- spised Moses’ law.” 2. The punishment of that sin according to the law; he that was guilty of it “died without mercy.” 3, The way whereby according unto the law his sin was to be charged on him; it was “under two or three witnesses.”
First, Unto the first, two things did concur:—
1. It was such a sin as by the law was capital; as murder, adul- tery, incest, idolatry, blasphemy, and some others, Concerning them it was provided in the law that those who were guilty of them should be put to death. God alone, by virtue of his sovereignty, could dispense with the execution of this sentence of the law, as he did in the case of David, 2 Sam. xii. 13; but as unto the people, they were prohibited on any account to dispense with it, or forbear the execution of it, Num. xxxv. 31.
2. It was required that he did it “presumptuously,” or with an high hand, Exod. xxi. 14; Num. xv. 80, 31; Deut. xvii. 12,
He that was thus guilty of sin, in sinning is said to “ despise Moses’ law;” ddereiy, to “abolish” it, to render it useless, —that is, in himself; by contempt of the authority of it, or the authority of God in it. And it is called a contempt and abolishing of the law, as the word signifies,—
1. Because of God’s indulgence unto them therein. For although the general sentence of the law was a curse, wherein death was con- tained, against every transgression thereof, Deut. xxvii., yet God had ordained and appointed, that for all their sins of ignorance, infirmity, or surprisals by temptations, an atonement should be made by sacri- fice; whereon the guilty were freed as unto the terms of the cove- nant, and restored to a right unto all the promises of it. Wherein they would not abide in those terms and conditions of the covenant, but transgress the bounds annexed to them, it was a contempt of the whole law, with the wisdom, goodness, and authority of God therein.
2. They rejected all the promises of it which were given exclu- sively unto such sins; nor was there any way appointed of God for their recovery unto an interest in them. Hereby they made them- selves lawless persons, contemning the threatenings and despising the promises of the law; which God would not bear in any of them, Deut. xxix. 18-21.
Obs. I. It is the contempt of God and his authority in his law that is the gall and poison of sin—This may be said in some measure of all voluntary sins; and the more there is of it in any sin, the
*"AMbernous.
540 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. X.
greater is their guilt and the higher is their aggravation who have contracted it. But there is a degree hereof which God will not bear with; namely, when this presumptuous contempt hath such an in- fluence into any sin, as that no ignorance, no infirmity, no special temptation can be pleaded, unto the extenuation of it. “I obtamed mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief,” 1 Tim. i. 13. And sundry things are required hereunto: 1. That it be known unto the sinner, both in point of right and fact, to be such a sin as where-— unto the penalty of death without dispensation was annexed. 2. That therefore the sense of God in the law be suggested unto the soul in and by the ordinary means of it. 3. That the ‘resolution of continuing in it, and the perpetration of it, doth prevail against all convictions and fear of punishment. 4. That motives unto the con- trary, with reluctancies of conscience, be stifled or overcome. These things rendered a sinner “ presumptuous,” or caused him to “sin with an high hand,” under the law; whereunto the apostle adds in the next verse the peculiar aggravations of sin against the gospel. This it is to despise the law of Moses, as it is explained, Num. xv. 30, 31.