this world, before the birthright privileges of the church, is that which at this day threatens the present ruin of religion. What is it that makes so many forsake their profession in a time of trial or persecution? It is because they will not be hungry for the gospel; they will have their morsels, which they prefer before the truth and privileges thereof. What makes the profession of religion in some nations to totter at this day? Is it not because of the morsels of outward peace, with, it may be, dignities and preferments that lie on the other side, and some present hunger, or supposed want of earthly things, that they may fall into? Let men pretend what they please, it is from a spirit of profaneness that they forsake the privileges and assemblies of the church for any outward advantage; and what will be their success, we shall see in the

next verse.

VER. 17.-For ye know how that afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, though he sought it carefully with tears.

First. The efficacy of the example proposed, consists in the due consideration of the consequence of the sin exemplified. Such was the sin of Esau, which you ought to watch against in yourselves and others; for ye know what ensued thereon. This the particle, yap, for,' declares to be the reason of the following account of it.

Secondly. The way is expressed whereby they understood this consequent of Esau's sin; iore, 'ye know,' they knew it from the Scripture where it is recorded. He supposeth them acquainted with the Scriptures, and what is contained in them, in like manner as he says of Timothy, 2 Tim. iii. 15, and as it is the duty of all Christians to be. Besides, there is a peculiar force of persuasion and conviction, when we argue from men's own knowledge and concessions. You know this yourselves; you know it full well from the Scripture, and therefore let it be of great weight and consideration with you.

Thirdly. The general force of the exhortation, from the consideration of the event of Esau's profaneness, is taken from the surprisal that befel him, when he found what his sin had brought him unto. For he is represented as a man under great amazement, as if he had little thought to fall into such a condition. And thus at one time or another it will befal all profane persons, who have refused the mercy and privileges of the gospel; they shall at one time or other fall under dreadful surprisals, in life, or at death, or at the last day. Then shall they see the horror of those crimes, which before they made nothing of. Wherefore the Hebrews are here warned, and all professors of the gospel with them, that they decline not from their profession, lest they fall into the like surprisals, when it is too late to seek for deliverance out of them.

Fourthly. What he did upon this surprisal, with the effects of it, is declared. And

1. The time wherein he did it is noted; it was μETETTELTα, 'afterwards.' This afterwards was not less perhaps than forty or fifty years. For he sold his birthright when he was young; now, when he designed the

recovery of the blessing, Isaac was old, namely, about a hundred and forty years old, Gen. xxvii. 2. So long did he live in his sin, without any sense of it or repentance for it. Things went prosperously with him in the world, and he had no regard in the least of what he had done, nor of what would be the end of it. But falling now into a new distress, it fills him with perplexity; and so it is with all secure sinners. Whilst things go prosperously with them, they can continue without remorse; but at one time or other, their iniquity will find them out, Gen. xlii. 21, 22.

2. What he designed; and that was θελων κληρονόμησαι την ευλογιαν, to inherit the blessing;' he would have inherited the blessing. He esteemed himself the presumptive heir of the patriarchal blessing, and knew not that he had virtually renounced it, and meritoriously lost it, by selling his birthright. So the apostle here distinguisheth between the birthright and the blessing. He sold his birthright, but would have inherited the blessing; esteemed it to belong unto him by right of inheritance, when he had himself destroyed that right. So he distinguished himself, he took away my birthright, and behold now he hath taken away my blessing,' Gen. xxvii. 36. He had, no doubt, an apprehension that there were many excellent things contained in it; especially, a flourishing state and condition in this world; in a multiplication of posterity, and power over enemies, which were express in the promise made unto Abraham, Gen. xxii. 17. This made him put his claim for the blessing, without the least sense of the spiritual privileges of it; for he was a profane person. And herein he was a type of the unbelieving Jews at that time; for they adhered to the outward things of the blessing, the carcase of it, unto the rejection of him who was the whole life, soul, and power of it. And it is not unusual for men earnestly to desire the outward privileges of the church, who value not the inward grace and power of them; but they are profane persons.

3. The event of this attempt was, that he was rejected.' He was reprobated. So translators generally; not that his eternal reprobation is hereby intended. But this open, solemn rejection of him from the covenant of God, and the blessings thereof, was an evidence of his being reprobated of God; whence he is proposed as the type of reprobates, Rom. ix. 11, 12. But the refusal of his father, to give him the patriarchal blessing, is that which is here intended.

4. There is his behaviour under this rejection, and the event thereof. He sought it diligently with tears, but he found no place of repentance. For that which the apostle intends fell out after his rejection, when his father had declared to him that his blessing was gone for ever, Gen. xxvii. 33-38. It is all one whether we refer avrny, in the close of the verse, unto the remote antecedent, the blessing,' or unto the next, which is repentance.' For that which he sought for in repentance, namely, the repentance of his father, or the change of his mind, was the blessing also. For it is now generally agreed by all, that there is nothing in the words which should in the least intimate, that he sought of God the grace of repentance, nor is there any thing in the record that looks that way. And I shall rather interpret this word with Beza

of the blessing, than of the repentance of Isaac; because his cry in the story was immediately and directly for the blessing.

5. The manner how he sought the blessing, is, that he did it kame μετα δακρύων εκζητησας, ' diligently with tears. So the apostle expresseth the record, Gen. xxvii. 38, 'And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father; and Esau lifted up his voice and wept;' as those also of ver. 34. No man, considering the intense affections that were between them, can express that conflict of nature which was on this occasion between Isaac and Esau. But in the one, grace and submission unto the will of God overcame all natural reluctancy; in the other, resolution for farther sin offered itself for relief: he said in his heart that he would slay his brother, ver. 41. So it is in all like cases. Things that are most terrible and convulsive to nature, in them that believe are brought into order in due time by grace and resignation unto the will of God; and on the other hand, sin with its deceitful contrivances, will not cease to offer its reliefs unto unbelievers in distress, until all hopes are cut off and vanished for ever.

But because there is an appearance of somewhat more than ordinary severity, in the peremptory denial of a divine blessing unto one who so earnestly sought and cried for it, the manner of his seeking it must be considered. And,

1st. He did it when it was too late.' For he had not only forfeited his right unto it long before, and lived in impenitency under that forfeiture, but the sacred investiture of another in that blessing was solemnly past, which could not be recalled. So speaks Isaac even under his surprisal; 'I have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed,' Gen. xxvii. 33.

Whatever men may pretend, whatever presumptuous sinners may flatter themselves withal, there is a limited time of the dispensation of grace, beyond which men shall not be admitted unto a participation of it, nor shall ever use the right ways of attaining it. And this they may do well to consider, who spend their lives in continual procrastination of their conversion to God. They may live, yet their time may be past, and a caveat entered against them, that they shall never enter into God's rest; see ch. iii. 11-15, with the exposition.

2dly. He sought it not at all in a due manner. Outward vehemency in expressions and tears, may be influenced by such considerations, as not to be an evidence of inward sincerity. He sought it not of God, but only of him that was the minister of it. And according to the law of God's institution, the ministers of gospel blessings may be limited from a communication of them; but there is no law or bounds put unto the infinite treasures of divine goodness, if application be made thereunto in a due manner. But he sought the end without the means; he would have the blessing, but he used not the means for the attaining of it; namely, faith and repentance. For notwithstanding all his sorrow and trouble upon his disappointment, he entertained no thought about any repentance in himself: for he immediately fell into a resolution to follow Cain in his rejection, and to kill his brother. Yet herein lies the great folly that the generality of men are betrayed into, through the de

ceitfulness of sin; namely, that they would have the end, the blessing of mercy and glory, without the use of the means, in faith, repentance, and obedience. But it is in vain to endeavour or desire a separation of those things which God, by an immutable constitution, hath conjoined and put together.

Lastly. The reason of this event is expressed, μετανοιας γαρ τοπον OUX EVOE, he found no place for repentance.' That is, notwithstanding his pretended right, his claim of it, his earnestness with tears about it; notwithstanding the inexpressible affection of Isaac unto him, and his trembling surprisal at an apprehension that he had missed the blessing; yet Isaac did not, could not, might not change his mind, or repent him of what he had done in conferring the blessing on Jacob, which God approved of. This sad event had the profaneness of Esau. And we may observe,

Obs. I. This example of Esau cuts off all hopes from outward privileges, where there is an inward profaneness of heart. He had as much to plead for the blessing, and as fair a probability for the attaining it, as ever any profane hypocrite can have in this world. And,

Obs. II. Profane apostates have a limited season only, wherein the recovery of the blessing is possible. For although there is no intimation here of a man's seeking of repentance from God in a due manner, and being rejected, which is contrary to the nature of God, who is a rewarder of all that diligently seek him; yet there is an indication of severity in leaving men in an irrecoverable condition, even in this life, who are guilty of such provocations.

Obs. III, The severity of God in dealing with apostates, is a blessed ordinance for the preservation of them that believe, and the edification of the whole church, Rom. xi. 22.

Obs. IV. Sin may be the occasion of great sorrow, where there is no sorrow for sin, as it was with Esau. Men may rue that in the consequents, which yet they like well enough in the causes.

Obs. V. No man knows whereunto a deliberate sin may lead him, nor what will be the event of it. Esau little thought, when he sold his birthright, that he had utterly forfeited the eternal blessing.

Obs. VI. Profaneness and despising spiritual privileges is a sin that God, at one time or other, will testify his severity against; yea this, on many accounts, is the proper object of God's severity: it shall not be spared in the eldest son, and most dearly beloved of an Isaac.

Obs. VII. Steadfastness in faith, with submission unto the will of God, will establish the soul in those duties, which are most irksome unto flesh and blood. Nothing could prevail with Isaac to change his mind, when he knew what was the will of God.

VER. 18-29,-THE discourse from hence to the end of the chapter is of great weight, and accompanied with sundry difficulties, of which expositors do scarcely so much as take notice. Hence many different interpretations are given concerning the design of the apostle, and the principal things intended in the words. And because in the whole it gives the best rule and guidance for its own interpretation, in all the particulars of it, I shall premise those general considerations, which

will direct us in its exposition, taken from the scope of the words and nature of the argument in hand. As,

1. The whole epistle, as we have often observed, is, as to the kind of writing, parænetical. The design of the apostle in it, is to persuade and prevail with the Hebrews to constancy and perseverance in the profession of the gospel. For herein they seem at this time to have been greatly shaken. To this end he considers the means and causes of such backslidings as he warned them against. And these may be referred to four heads. 1. An evil heart of unbelief, or the sin that doth easily beset them. 2. An opinion of the excellency and necessity of Mosaical worship and the old church-state, 3. Afflictions and persecutions for the gospel. 4. Prevalent lusts and sins, such as profaneness, fornication, and the like; all which we have spoken to in their respective places. Hereunto he adds a prescription of that universal obedience, and those especial duties of holiness, which their profession required, and which were necessary to the preservation of it.

2. The main argument which he insists on in general to this end, and wherein the didactical part of the Epistle doth consist, is the excellency, glory, and advantage of that gospel-state whereunto they were called. This he proves from the person and office of its author, his priesthood, and sacrifice, with the spiritual worship and privileges belonging thereunto. All these he compareth with things of the same name and place under the law, demonstrating the excellency of the one above the other, and that especially on this account, that all the ordinances and institutions of the law, were nothing but prefigurations of what was for to come.

3. Having insisted particularly and distinctly on all these things, and brought his special arguments from them to an issue, he makes, in the discourse before us, a recapitulation of the whole. For he makes a brief scheme of the two states that he had compared, balanceth them one against the other, and thereby demonstrates the force of his argument and exhortation from thence, to constancy and perseverance in the faith of the gospel. It is not, therefore, a new argument that here he proceeds to; it is not an especial confirmation of his dehortation from profaneness, by the example of Esau, that he doth design. But as, ch. viii. 1, he gives us the Kepaλatov, 'the head,' or sum of the things which he had discoursed concerning the priesthood of Christ; so here we have an avakɛpadaiwσiç, or 'recapitulation' of what he had proved concerning the two states of the law and the gospel.

4. This summary way of arguing he had before touched on in his passage, as ch. ii. 2, 3, iii. 2-5, &c., iv. 1. And he had more distinctly handled the antithesis in it on a like occasion, Gal. iv. 21-28. But here he makes use of it as a close to his whole disputation, adding nothing to it but a prescription of particular duties.

5. It must be observed, that the great honour and privilege of the Judaical church-state, whereon all particular advantages did depend, was their coming to and station in mount Sinai at the giving of the law. There were they taken into covenant with God, to be his peculiar people above all the world; there were they formed into a national church; there had they all the privileges of divine worship committed to them.