the Son of God; and to all is this royal High-Priest, this Sacerdotal Prince of righteousness and peace, the author of everlasting salvation, if only you believe and obey him; trusting in him as your atoning intercessor with God, and serving him truly, both in soul and body, as one who hath both a sovereign right to demand your obedience and sovereign power to reward it.

LECTURE IV.

Heb. v. 1-10.

NOTES.

(P. 72.) The reasons for which.]—τãs yάp. ver. 1.

(P. 72.) For, or on behalf of.]—vπέр. ver. 1.

(P. 73.) Making all reasonable and moderate allowance.]— μετριοπαθεῖν. ver. 2.

(P. 73.) Those who, in their ignorance, were out of the way.]τοῖς ἀγνοοῦσι καὶ πλανωμένοις. ver. 2 : both epithets descriptive of the same persons.

(P. 75.) Thou art my Son, &c. ver. 5.]—Relates principally to the resurrection of our Lord, and thence to his priesthood, consequent thereupon.

(P. 76.) Was heard in that he feared, ver. 7.]-i. e. was heard so as to be delivered from his fear or apprehension (ảïò τῆς εὐλαβείας). This is, probably, the correct interpretation; but, as there is a doubt on the point, the marginal translation is also embodied in the exposition.

(P. 78.) Of far higher rank.]—Tážis.

LECTURE V.

WARNING AGAINST SPIRITUAL DULNESS, AND WANT OF PROFICIENCY.

HEB. V. 11-14. vi.

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. vi. 1.

In our last discourse, we spoke of the order of Melchisedec as typical of the everlasting priesthood of our Lord. Of Melchisedec St. Paul

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. v. 11.

had much to say, and that, he observes, difficult of interpretation; at least, to persons who had from neglect become "dull of hearing" in spiritual matters, incapable of entering with interest, or even with understanding, into any but the most elementary truths of the Christian faith.-Such, it appears, were the Hebrew Christians, when the Apostle wrote to them: and so serious a symptom did he consider this spiritual dulness of comprehension, that he interrupts the regular course of his subject, and defers for awhile what he has to say of Melchisedec, expressly for the purpose of warning the Hebrews of the dangerous state into

which they had fallen, and rousing them to a continual proficiency in Christian faith; that so their hope of blessedness might become more and more fully assured unto the end.

Whether amongst ourselves, brethren, there is, generally speaking, a greater interest or intelligence in religious subjects, than prevailed among the primitive Christians of Palestine-whether we are more advanced in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I know not; but I fear we should be flattering ourselves, and that perhaps considerably, in taking the affirmative for granted. It is possible that we may be more "dull of hearing" even than they were: and if this possibility exists, it cannot but be profitable to us to attend to the remarkable warning which the Apostle addressed to them.

The Christians of Palestine were among the earliest converts to the Gospel. Theirs was, in fact, the first Christian

For when, for the time, ye ought to be teachers. v.12.

Church, being none other than that which began to be formed on the fiftieth day from the resurrection of our Lord, when the Holy Ghost was shed upon the Apostles in the miraculous gift of tongues, and when, upon St. Peter's preaching, there "were added to them, that same day, about three thousand souls'." The Church thus established2, and which increased, for a while at least, "daily"," had existed, when St. Paul addressed to it his inspired Epistle, about thirty years. During this space, had the time been well employed, the Church in Palestine should have become the most forward in the faith; it

1 Acts ii. 41.

2 See the Introduction.

3 Acts ii. 47.

should have been, as it were, a school to which Christians from other countries might have resorted, as to a spiritual Athens, for instruction in the more difficult and loftier parts of that truly divine philosophy, which took its first rise there, and which issued from Mount Sion in various directions throughout the world.

-ye have need that one

teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have

need of milk, and not of

strong meat. v. 12.

But though, "for the time," the Hebrew Christians ought to have been teachers of others, they had, on the contrary, become dull of hearing themselves; they had lost, it should seem, amidst the temptations to which they were exposed, part of their original relish for the Gospel, and part too of that elementary knowledge of Christianity with which they had at first set out. "They had need," as the Apostle says, "that some one should teach them again" the very rudiments of the Christian revelation, the elements with which they began, "the first principles of the oracles of God." They had returned, as it were, into a state of spiritual childhood, and had become like persons who require to be sustained with the simplest diet, having need of milk and not of strong meat.

For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.

Such a symptom, among those who had been so long disciples of Christ, was certainly an alarming one. It implied a want of practical experience in that truth, the peculiar characteristic of which is, that it is "the word of righteousness," calculated to make those better who really receive it, and which cannot be rightly discerned, except by such as submit obediently to its sanctifying1 influ1 "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John xvii. 17.

v. 13.