things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calUng of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded*." Mark, I pray you : it is to those who are perfect, that he gives this advice. What advice, then, must be given to those who are so far from perfection as we are ? Will it become us to stand still ? I charge you, brethren, to indulge no listless habits, no self- complacent thoughts. Take this holy Apostle for your ex- ample: " Let your conversation be in heaven, whither your Lord and Saviour is gone before";" and rest not till you are changed into his image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit ot your God'^.]
t Phil. iii. 12—15. " Phil. iii. 17, 20. ^ 2 Cor. iii. 18.
Heb. vi. 4 — 6. It is impossible for those who tvere once en- lightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and luere made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall aiv ay , to reneiv them again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
IT is of great importance, in interpreting the Scriptures, to lay aside human systems, and to at- tend carefully to the connexion of any passage with the context ; because a just view of the general scope of the passage will throw the best light upon any particular expressions contained in it. The words before us are confessedly difficult to be under- stood : but, if we adopt the mode of interpretation now proposed, we shall not err very materially in our explanation of their import. The Apostle has been reproving tlie Hebrews for the little progress which they had made in the divine life, considering the length of time since they were first initiated into the knowledge of the Gospel. He complains that, on account of their inability to comprehend him, he scarcely knows how to open to them the deeper mys- teries of our religion^; which however he must do,
a Heb. V. 11—14.