Heb. X. 26 — 31. If we sin wilfully/ after that we have received the knoivledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses law died without mercy under tioo or three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he he thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ? For we know him that hath said. Vengeance belong eth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again. The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
WE cannot be too strongly on our guard against attaching ourselves to human systems in religion. The partisans of human systems take a partial view of the Scriptures, leaning invariably to those pas- sages which appear to sanction their favourite dogmas, and excluding all mention of those which have a con- trary aspect. They all take it for granted, that the things which they know not how to reconcile, are contrary to, and inconsistent with, each other. But as in a machine wheels may move in opposite direc- tions, and yet so harmonize as to subserve one com- mon end, so, in the word of God, truths, which have an opposite aspect, may be perfectly reconcileable to each other, and equally conducive to the accomplish- ment of the Divine purposes. The Apostle Paul insisted, as strongly as any one could do, on the doctrines of grace, shewing that all was ordered by God according to the counsel of his own will : yet no Apostle spoke more strongly than he on the dan- ger of apostasy ; or taught more forcibly the neces- sity of continual watchfulness on our part in order to the attainment of those blessings which God had from all eternity prepared for us. It is on this subject that he is speaking in the passage before us ; wherein he cautions the Hebrew converts against apostasy.