Think not, then, of confining religion to cloisters, nor yet to churches; but carry your faith with you, yea, carry it in your hearts, wherever you go. In your closets, at your domestic altars, and here in the house of God, let it animate your devotions, as it did those of Abel, and gain them acceptance through the blood of Christ. In your daily conduct, let it lead you to walk with God, like Enoch, in the way of his commandments. In your intercourse with society, may it preserve you, as it did Noah, from the contagious example of thoughtless unbelief! In your trials, may it brace your minds, as it braced that of Abraham, to resolute self-denial and implicit reliance on the divine mercy! In temptations, may it defend you, as it did Moses, from the smiles, and raise you above the frowns, of the world! In a word, live by faith, such faith as St. Paul describes and exemplifies in this Epistle; and will find it, under all circumstances, an unfailing principle of righteousness; as it is indeed the only principle from which genuine righteousness can ever spring. He is just with God, who lives by faith in his revealed will; and those who either neglect this faith, or who "draw back" from it, do so to their own perdition. O miserable end of unbelief! how unlike that blissful rest, and those crowns of glory, for which you have been this day exhorted to strive perseveringly in the race that is set before you by the Author and Finisher of your faith!

you

LECTURE XI.

Hebrews xi. 17-40; xii. 1-3.

NOTES.

(P. 200.) Reasonings of Abraham.]—λoyiráμevoc. ver. 19. So that the patriarchs did reason upon, and not confine themselves to the mere letter of, the truths revealed to them.

(P. 203.) Recompence of reward, ver. 26.]—μo@aπodoσíav: see also ch. x. 35. Those, who object to the doctrine of rewards, should consider the force of the expressions used in Scripture: μológ, which is the usual term, means "hire" or wages;" μolañoС. payment of hire. Even humility may take a wrong direction.

66

(P. 203.) The Invisible King.]-ròv ȧópaтov sc. Baoiλéa, ver. 27.

(P. 204.) "Obtained" mysterious "promises." ver. 33.]—It may also be meant that they obtained what was promised: which sense is likewise given in the Lecture.

(P. 205.) A better resurrection, ver. 35.]-Some divines seem to contend that the Jews, whether they did or not, ought not to have believed in a future resurrection to everlasting life. But it appears they did so believe, and are here commended for acting from such a faith.

(P. 206.) Mockings and scourgings, &c. &c. ver. 36—38.]— It was common, we are told (2 Chron. xxxvi. 16.) with the Jews to "mock" the messengers of God; old Eleazar (mentioned 2 Mac. vi.) was "scourged;" Micaiah and Jeremiah were "imprisoned;" Naboth and Zechariah (2 Chron. xxiv. 21.) were "stoned;" Isaiah is said to have been " sawn asunder;" Joseph was tempted," as were, in a different way, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; in the reign of Ahab, the prophets

of God were "slain with the sword," (1 Kings xix. 10.); and among destitute, hard-faring "wanderers," such as the Apostle speaks of, we find especially conspicuous the prophet Elijah.Surely such men did not live for this world only? Then were they, with one or two exceptions, of all men most to be pitied. (1 Cor. xv. 19.) But in truth" this world was not worthy of them :" they lived above it; their country was a better, that is, a heavenly."

(P. 207.) Let us also.]—kaì ǹμɛïs, ver. 1.

66

(P. 207.) A glorious crowd of spectators,]—vépos, which I have afterwards applied also in its literal signification of a "cloud," illumined from above.

(P. 207.) Sin with its various folds, &c.]-I understand τὴν εὐπεριστ. ἁμαρτίαν of sin generally, compared to a folding robe, or an entangling net.

(P. 208.) Guide and Perfecter.]—ȧpxnyós, ver. 2: see Acts iii. 15. "The Prince of life," ȧpxnyòs tñs Zwñs, the Author of it; or, Our Guide to it; (see also Heb. ii. 10. ;) as Joshua was to the Israelites into the Land of Promise.-Christ began the faith in Abel's sacrifice, and finished it in his own.

(P. 208.) Endured the cross.]—" A cross;" even a death by crucifixion.-Bishop Middleton.

LECTURE XII.

FURTHER REASONS FOR CONSTANCY IN THE FAITH.

HEB. xii. 4-29.

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.

ver. 5.

FROM the tenth chapter of this Epistle (ver. 32, 33.) it appears that the Hebrew Christians had in former days, on their conversion to the faith, "endured," for the sake of it, “a great fight of afflictions," partly in being made themselves “a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions," and partly in becoming the "companions of those that were so used." St. Paul himself had most probably experienced their sympathy when in bonds at Cæsarea1; and, for the sake of that "better and enduring substance in heaven" which he preached to them through Christ, they "took joyfully the spoiling of their goods" by their unbelieving countrymen. But great as were these afflictions of their "former days," they were not all that they might be called upon to endure. They had not yet, as many other Christians had," resisted unto blood" in their struggle with the wickedness of the world; and instead

1 Ch. x. 34. comp. with Acts xxiv. 23.

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto chil

dren, My son, despise not thou the chastening

of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chas

teneth, and scourgeth

every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth

with you as with sons : for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. ver. 4-8.

of being prepared for this common trial, as it was then, of a Christian's faith, they seem to have relaxed from their former spirit of endurance, to have been ready to faint, and to have grown weary of the contest. They had forgotten, what even as Jews they should have remembered, it being the language of the Old Testament as well as of the New, that afflictions are to the children of God consequences of their heavenly Father's love, a part of that salutary discipline, to which the Almighty in his wisdom sees fit to subject" every son whom he receiveth," in order to convince us not only of our sins and follies, which in the hours of ease and prosperity we are too apt to make light of, but also of the vanity of the world, and the value of things invisible. Without this discipline of affliction, our faith, it should seem, would remain for ever defective; the evidence or conviction "of the unseen things" which belong to our everlasting peace, could hardly, if at all, be wrought within our souls. We must look, then, upon our afflictions as a necessary discipline for immortality; as proofs not so much, it may be, of the displeasure of God, as of his love;-the dealings, in short, of a father with his children. So strong is the Apostle's language, that he seems to speak of it as a fearful thing never to receive the chastisement of affliction;-a kind of intimation that we are not of God's family. Far then, from "despis