for the benefit of those who could digest strong meat, and make a due improvement of the truths he should set before them*". But, in the meantime, he warns them, that the neglecting to advance in religion is the surest road to apostasy ; and that apostasy, after such attainments as they had made, would in all hu- man probability issue in their eternal ruin". Then, illustrating that point by an apt simile"^, he proceeds to exhort them to put away sloth, and with all dili- gence to follow those who through faith and patience were now inheriting their promised reward ^ Hence it appears, that the attainments mentioned in the text are such as were found in persons recently con- verted and of doubtful character; especially because they are contrasted with other attainments which accompany and manifest a state of salvation *^.
In our further illustration of the text, we shall shew,
I. How far men may go in religion, and yet apos- tatize from it —
Confining ourselves to the words before us, we observe, that unstable persons may possess many enviable gifts —
[Their minds may be " enlightened" with the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus s. There is not any thing which the most eminent saint can know, but it may be known by a hypocrite : the difference between them is not in the matter known, but in the manner of knowing it; the one assenting to it with his head ; and the other feeling it in his heart.
Their affections may he moved by hearing and reading " the word of God," and by considering the mysteries of the Chris- tian dispensation, or the realities of " the invisible world '\" Their hope, fear, joy, and sorrow may be called forth succes- sively in a very powerful manner, according as they apprehend themselves to be interested in the promises^ of the Gospel, or obnoxious to its threatenings'.
•» Heb. vi. 1 — 3. <= ver. 4 — 6. ^ ver. 7, 8.
e ver. 11, 12. f ver. 9, 10.
g Compare Numb. xxiv. 3, 4. v^^itli Heb. x. 26.
^ " The world to come" may be taken in either of these senses. See Heb. ii. 5.
i Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. Matt. xiii. 20, 21. John v. 3.5. Mark vi. 20. Acts xxiv. 25.