Chapter XIII
The highest degree to which a temporary believer can possibly attain, described
by the apostle Paul, Heb. vi., which yet falls short of that saving icork, wrought in a sincere believer, there spoken of by him.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall
fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to them
selves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame, For the earth, which drinketh in the rain which cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but
that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing ; whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God
is not unrighteous, to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do
minister. HEB. VI. 4-10.
The apostle sets before these Hebrews the most dreadful things about a
temporary work and condition that is to be found in the whole Scriptures, and yet in the occasion he took for it, he doth it with the greatest advantage for the comfort of the weakest sound Christian, and with the greatest tender ness that possibly so great a matter could be uttered in. The advantage he takes for it appears in this, that whereas one of the greatest objections that many sound believers have against themselves, that they are but
temporaries, ariseth from manifold defects, and (some of which are but accidental to a Christian s state) the deadness of their hearts, the lowness of their graces, the want of growth, rebellion of lusts, and the like, for there are a thousand such might be instanced. They judged such like things, especially when of a long continuance, to argue them hypocrites ; which doubts of theirs they were the more strengthened in when withal they com
pared the soaring heights, the high enlightenings, the vehement and forward
affections, tastes of things in the other world, which concerns men s salva
tions, that they had observed to have been in some that had utterly fallen
away. Alas, thought they, when I compare what deadness is in my heart, what little or no proficiency my soul hath made in things heavenly for so
long a time ; and, on the other hand, what wonderful enlightenings, quick ness of affections, such as have fallen away have shot up into, I cannot but
conclude that I much rather shall fall away too ; for, alas, I am far short of them in these things
! The apostle therefore, intending to discourse this
great point in this epistle, takes this strange advantage for it, and such a one as shall prevent the discouragement of the lowest saint. The course he takes is this.
1. He presents the worst and lowest case of a sound Christian that well can be supposed, and tells those Hebrews plainly that it was many of their
320 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK 1.
cases, chap, v., ver. 12, 13, For when for the time ye ought to have ben
teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first princr.:-3
of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and ot
of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the wordof
righteousness, for he is a babe. He instanceth indeed only in pointof
defect in, and want of growth in knowledge ; but that must be proportin-
ably supposed to have been accompanied with answerable flatness ad
deadness of holy affections, and colder exercise of grace. It is certai, if
they did not grow in knowledge in so many years, they had not growi in
: Grow in knowledge (says the apostle) and in grace. And i is
grace
as certain, that if they had not grown in grace, there must have bee a
decay in grace and the exercises of it, and thereupon a worldly, fleshly fraie and an overgrowing of many lusts would rise instead thereof. WhereV at
last they grew nigh unto a curse from God, and were even at the -rcy
pit s brink, to have been given up by God to final hardness, &c. et
knowledge is that thing which even hypocrites use to grow up into rare
than in any other endowment. In gifts of knowledge, and the exerse
thereof, they are eminent. These are an excellency which corrupt naire
affects, and seeks after above all other, that therefore such as were ne
Christians should not have sought to grow up in this ; what a strange ting and case was this ! And the ground thereof must needs be, because i;y had not had a great valuation of things heavenly, which if they had id,
they would have sought to grow accordingly in the knowledge of them.
Now take their case as to knowledge, as the apostle here sets it ot. it was very deplorable, ver. 12.
(1.) They seem to have lost of that spiritual capacity to take in spirual
things which they once had, and to have fallen from much of that spirual favour and quickness of understanding in the fear of the Lord which ley once had. This that word, You are become such, &c., seems to impo:.
(2.) They are represented like men old, or men in a consumption, stomachs cannot digest strong meats (as they had wont), and are th
glad to live on milk, and the weakest sort of food. You are become s:h
(says the apostle) as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. "Wich
the opposition, ver. 14, shews and explains ; But strong meat belor:th
to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have leir
senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
(3.) That word, ly reason of use, implies that they had not exercised leir
graces, whereby their knowledge might have been put in use, an so
enlarged thereby.
2. Having thus set them forth at the lowest, he describes the hipest and quickest sort of workings, and operations and advances in mattes of
religion, made by some that yet fall away
: chap. vi. ver. 4, 5, For is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted i ie
heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have ti.ed
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they sail
fall away, to renew them again to repentance.
3. And yet, thirdly, he concludes, That he hoped better things, and thigs
that accompanied salvation, or that have salvation hi them: vc 9,
1 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things lat
accompany salvation, though we thus speak ; s^ofAtva, r?jg ffurrjoias, ac-.-cd-
ing to that saying He that truly believes hath eternal life. Of
concerning whom he had afore spoken the worst things that coul be
spoken, he yet hopes, nay, is persuaded that such better things, or sr.ng
ClIP. XIII.] IN OUR SALVATION. 321
gnus, yet remained in them, than all those enlightenings specified had
bet in those other, as having been but such as never had true salvation
in tern, but had all the while been short of it, and not in the event only. AL the ground of his persuasion was,
..) That they had wrought in them at first a sound and sincere love to
Gc. his name, and his saints, which they had by deeds and labour therein
givi many real testimonies of.
{.) And to this end he bids them call to remembrance, &c. : chap. x.
32-^5, Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were
illninated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions ; partly, whilst ye were ma^ a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions ; and partly, whilst
ye ?came companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of B in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in -mrselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
Ca, not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of rewd. It went, it seems, very low with them at present, when, to persu&3 himself and them of their grace, he is fain to have recourse unto
thirs so far back.
(.) He elsewhere minds them also, that though they had never yet been
cahi. to martyrdom, nor resisted unto blood, chap. xii. 4, yet they had connued to fight against sin, and with much contest and hazard to keep tht.selves from the evils of the times, all which are a-fighting against siDvO keep a good conscience ; as also they had maintained and kept up a ciflict against sin in their own hearts.
( ) And those things they had continued (though in some low measure) to i for a long time from the first works upon them ; and even there and
the. ver. 12, whilst he blames them for their non-proficiency, yet those WOK, That when for the time ye might have been teachers, &c., argues the. to have been a long time converted ; then again, chap. x. ver. 32, he
bid.to call to remembrance the former days, &c., when first converted ; whii had been long since past.
is. That in the conflicts and disquisition your spirits may have whether
you;clves be temporary believers or no, consider that there are many thin* accidental to the state of grace, which you are not absolutely to connde of your estates by.
(J) Not by a great decay of what affections, and perhaps some principles of r.ctness you had at first, now much decayed and lessened. If these he vote to had these as fresh in them when he wrote as at the first, he won not have remitted them to their experiments in former times, Call
to raembrance, says he, &c. nor would he have comforted them with
this that God is not forgetful, &c., of what had been so long past, if
fres-r and better fruits, and more lively evidences, had of latter years been four in them.
( i Nor are you to judge of yourselves by a comparison of appearance
ma<. of yourselves, with some you have known or read of in the word to hav. gone so and so far, whom you verily think, as to your own view, whil, you compare yourselves with them, that they have fallen short.
Ala< if these, among these Hebrews, should have compared their low
presit actings, enlightenings, workings of heart, &c., with those other in the opearance of them (as verses 4 and 5 he hath set them out), where wou. these poor ungrown Christians have appeared ? As it is an uncer tain ile to judge a man s good, by comparing himself with others that are won. so and so, fetching his comfort thence, so it is as uncertain a one
v<~ vi. x
822 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK VI.
to judge of myself and of my Christian estate, by comparing it with others whom I have thought better than myself, to have gone farther, who yet have proved apostates. For what do I know what was the frame of their
hearts towards God, and the principles of their profession ? Thou dost
not know the whole of the state and condition of such men, what it was.
Bring then thy heart to God, and view all that hath been between him and
thce, either of his love drawn forth to thee, or thine to him. Consider whether thy heart in some degree yet cleaves to God, and continues to
pursue after him. So shalt thou have comfort from the Lord, who is not
forgetful of any of these things. Cast not thy confidence away in such a
case. If you let that go, you let all go ; hold fast the beginning of thy confidence to the end. Thus the apostle exhorts in this epistle again and
* But Christ as a Son over his own house ; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the
again, chap. x. 35 : chap. iii. 6,
hope firm unto the end. This is what, above all else, the apostle exhorts
unto, vcr. 14. Some of these poor Hebrew Christians, that were sound-
hearted, who had not fallen oft and departed from Christ, as others had
done, yet could not but have great doubts and disputes within themselves, whether they were not temporary believers, and that their latter end might be like unto theirs. For such a declining and ungrowing a condition could
not but have been accompanied with such temptations, in a heart in any measure considerative or attentive to its own salvation. Yet you see the
course the apostle takes with them.
[1. He puts them not upon the dispute of this, which was a controversy and suit they could never have brought to an end, and which nothing but
faith ends.
Nor [2.] doth he seek to work in them such a work of humbling or ap
prehension of their being in their natural condition, as useth to be at first ; wherein converts do cast away all that had been wrought hitherto as un
sound, as if that were a necessary foundation in such unto a new saving work. He doth not direct them to make utterly a new beginning, as to
their own apprehensions. But the case stands thus : that whereas sound
believers use to have emptyings of themselves upon discovery of their wants and corruptions, which causeth them to apprehend, for the present, their
conditions to be unrcgenerate, after which the Holy Ghost comes and takes
the advantage out of themselves unto renewed acts of faith ; so these,
having the convictions of their former unsoundness laid open to them by the Holy Ghost, are thereupon gently led into true and saving acts of faith,
regenerating of them. And look, as afore this work, these temporaries had
a work so like true grace as it was very hard to distinguish it from the true,
BO this very new saving work in them is hardly distinguishable from that re newed work on true believers upon and after such tentations.
[3.] He exhorts them to remember what had been wrought in them, and how God had drawn and won their hearts unto him, and accordingly that
they should hold fast the beginning of their confidence to the end, and they would find themselves partakers of Christ. It is unto the way of renewing
their faith he directs them ; for faith would only end it, and renew that
often, says he: chap. iv. 11, Let us labour to enter into that rest, lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief. The word is, let us study
that point, and to enter into rest is to believe, as the opposition, and like
wise ver. 3, shew : For we which have believed do enter into rest.
If any one object to me, Would you have me to recall my first work, and
trust in that ? Suppose it were indeed not a saving work (as in many that
CHAP. XIII.l IN OUR SALVATION. 323
are after made sound it is not), would you have me renew my confidence thereon ?
Am. No ; that is not my meaning, nor Paul s. For if the work were never so good and sound, your confidence must not be upon that, much less when it may be a false one ; but this I say, renew the same acts of
faith, and trust on the same God and Christ thou dcaledst withal at first. Have recourse to them afresh, reiterate again and again thy faith on them
immediately, as thou didst at first. In the original it is the subsistence of your confidence, hold God and Christ afore thee as subsistent by faith to thee in thy treaties with them ; and if God continues to carry on thy heart thus to pursue after him, Christ cannot but save thee. For if thou continuest to cast thyself upon him, and still in all such disceptations about thy estate pliest him, and puttest thy salvation into his hands, Christ will
not, cannot, depart from thee whilst he continues thy heart to trust him. He cannot but work savingly in the end on such a soul, if he hath not done
it already. Remember then whence you are fallen, and do your first works and repent: Heb. vi. 11, And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end. If you have slackened (as you have done), yet revive that diligence again, and you will find your first confidence will come in again, if true, with advantage and
increase, even with full assurance of hope unto the end ; or if there was not a true faith at first, then a better will come in the room of it.
Only [4.J he severely cautions and admonisheth them to take heed lest there be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the
< But exhort one another daily, says he, while it is called to-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, chap. iii. 12, 13; and ver. 15, While it is said, To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, &c. He exhorts them to take heed of
living God:
indulging their lusts: Heb. xii. 15-17, Looking diligently lest any man
fail of the grace of God ; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled ; lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, ho was rejected : for ho found no place of repentance, though he sought it
carefully with tears. He exhorts them to take heed of leaving off ordi nances : Heb. x. 25, Not forsaking the assembling
; of ourselves, as the manner of some is ; but exhorting one another : and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. And many such most earnest exhortations he makes, not only in relation to their neglect of particular duties, but in relation to their eternal estates and conditions.
324 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK VII.