Heb. xii. 15 — 17. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trou- ble you, and thereby many be defiled ; lest there be any for- nicator, or j)rofane person, as Esau, xoho for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected : for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully loith tears.
UNSEARCHABLE are the riches of the Gospel, and freely imparted to all who seek them by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet they quite mistake the
nature of the Gospel, who imagine it to be incon- sistent with solemn warnings. It offers every thing freely ; but it does not dispense with the exertion of human efforts : it promises every thing fully ; but not in oUch a way as to supersede the need of care" and watchfulness on our part. In fact, it abounds with warnings and exhortations, to which we must take the utmost heed ; and by attending to which we are to secure the blessings which it holds out to us. Nothing can be conceived more consolatory than all the foregoing declarations, that sufferings of what- ever kind, and especially those inflicted on us for righteousness' sake, are permitted by our heavenly Father for our good, and shall be overruled by him for the advancement of our best interests. At the same time we are warned, that " without holiness, radical and universal holiness, no man shall see the Lord :" and we are cautioned to " look diligently," lest, by coming short of the requirements of the Gospel, we fail to attain a possession of its blessings.
The caution here given us is two-fold : I. Not to come short of the Gospel in embracing it —
By "the grace of God" I understand "the Gospel of the grace of God," or that " grace of God which bringeth salvation." And by "failing of the grace of God," I understand, a falling short of it : the first part of our text being exactly parallel with that expression in the fourth chapter of this epistle, " Let us fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it^" Now we may come short of the Gospel,
1. By not submitting to its humiliating doctrines —
[The Gospel views all men as in a lost and perishing con- dition. Its provisions are made for all mankind without ex- ception. It knows nothing of persons so good as not to need salvation, or of persons so bad as to be beyond the reach of the salvation which it provides. It requires all to view themselves as " wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; and counsels them to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for cye- salvc that they may see ; for gold that they may be enriched ;
» Hcb, iv. 1. uareprjKii'iu.