which, as unto its original cause, is the fruit of the good pleasure and sovereign grace of God, whose pleasure it is to give us the kingdom; and as unto its procuring cause is the sole purchase of the blood of Christ, who obtained for us eternal redemption; and which is, on both accounts, a free gift of God, for 'the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God through Christ is life eternal,' (so as it can be no way merited nor procured by ourselves, by virtue of any proportion by the rules of justice between what we do or suffer, and what is promised,) is yet constantly promised to suffering believers, under the name of a recompence and reward. For it doth not become the greatness and goodness of God to call his own people unto sufferings for his name, and unto his glory and therein to the loss of their lives many times, with all enjoyments here below, and not propose unto them, nor provide for them, that which shall be infinitely better than all that they so undergo; see Heb. vi. 11, and the exposition of that place, Rev. ii. iii. Wherefore it is added.

5. That this confidence, exe, 'hath' this recompence of reward; that is, it gives a right and title unto the future reward of glory it hath it in the promise and constitution of God: whoever abides in its exercise, shall be no loser in the issue. They are as sure in divine promises, as in our own possession. And although they are yet future, faith gives them a present subsistence in the soul, as unto their power and efficacy.

Obs. I. In the times of suffering. and in the approaches of them, it is the duty of believers to look on the glory of heaven, under the notion of a refreshing, all-sufficient reward.

VER. 36. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

The apostle, in these words, confirms the necessity of the exhortation he had insisted on. He had pressed them unto nothing but what was needful for them. For whereas there were two things proposed unto them; one in the way of duty, namely, that they should do the will of God; the other in the way of reward, or what they should receive upon their so doing; things were so ordered in the sovereign pleasure and will of God, that they could believe neither of them, not only without the duty which he exhorted them unto, but without a continuance therein. And indeed, this exhortation, not to cast away their confidence, that is, to abide in it, and to improve it against all difficulties and dangers, doth include in it that patience which he affirms that they stand in need of. Wherefore, there are three things in the words. 1. The confirmation of the preceding exhortation by this reason, that they had need of patience. 2. The time and season wherein that patience was so needful as unto them, and that was, whilst they were doing the will of God. 3. The end whereunto it was necessary, which is the receiving of the promise.

1. The rational enforcement is introduced by the redditive yap, This is that which you must apply your minds to, or you cannot attain your end.

2. That which he asserts in this reason is, that they had need of

patience. He doth not charge them with want of patience, but declares the necessity of it, as unto its continual exercise. Υπομονη, is a bearing of evils with quietness and complacency of mind, without raging, fretting, despondency, or inclination to compliance with undue ways of deliverance. In patience possess your souls. Пappnoia, or 'confidence,' will engage men into troubles and difficulties in a way of duty; but if patience take not up the work, and carry it on, confidence will flag and fail. See ch. vi. 11, 12, and our exposition thereon. Patience is the perfecting grace of suffering Christians, James i. 4, 5; and that which all tribulations do excite in the first place unto its proper actings, whereon the exercise of other graces doth depend, Rom. v. 4, 5.

3. This, saith the apostle, 'you have need of.' He speaks not absolutely of the grace itself, as though they had it not, but of its continual exercise in the condition wherein they were, or whereinto they were entering. Men, for the most part, desire such a state, wherein they may have as little need and use of this grace as possible. For it supposeth things hard and difficult, about which alone it is conversant. But this is seldom the estate of the professors of the gospel. For besides the troubles and afflictions which are common unto, and almost inseparable from this life, they are for the most part continually exposed unto all sorts of troubles and miseries, on the account of their profession. He that will be the disciple of Christ, must take up his cross. The necessity here intimated of patience, is grounded on these two suppositions. 1. That those who profess the gospel in sincerity, shall ordinarily meet with trials, tribulations, and sufferings upon the account of that profession. This the Scripture, and the experience of all ages, doth abundantly testify; and in particular, it was the condition of these Hebrews as it was of all the primitive churches. 2. That without the constant exercise of patience, none can pass through these tribulations unto the glory of God, and their own advantage, as unto the great end of the obtaining the promise of eternal life. For without it, men will either faint and give way to temptations, that shall turn them aside from their profession, or will misbehave themselves under their sufferings, unto the dishonour of God, and the ruin of their own souls. Patience is not a mere endurance of trouble, but it is indeed the due exercise of all graces under sufferings; nor can any grace be acted in that condition where patience is wanting. The exercise of faith, love, and delight in God, the resignation of ourselves to his sovereign will and pleasure, the valuation of things eternal, above all things of this present life, whereby the soul is kept quiet and composed, free from distractions, fortified against temptations, resolved for perseverance to the end: this is patience. It is, therefore, indispensably necessary unto this condition. Obs. II. He that would abide faithful in difficult seasons, must fortify his soul with an unconquerable patience.-1. Then pray for it. 2. Give it its due exercise in the approaches of troubles, that it be not pressed and overwhelmed by thoughts contrary unto it. 3. Take care to keep faith vigorous and active; it will grow on no other root but that of faith. 4. Especially exercise faith unto a view of eternal things, which will engage the aid of hope, and administer the food that

patience lives upon. Wherefore, in this case, 5. Remember, 1st. That the want of it lays the soul open unto the power and efficacy of all sorts of temptations, for this is the only armour of proof against the assaults of Satan and the world in a suffering season. 2dly. It is that alone which will assuage the pain of sufferings, ease the burden of them, rebate their edge, and make them easy to be borne. All other things will fall before the sharpness of them, or give relief that shall end in ruin. 3dly. It is this alone whereby God is glorified in our sufferings, and honour given to Jesus Christ in the gospel.

4. The next thing in the words is the season of the necessity of the continuance of the exercise of this grace and obedience, until iva To θέλημα του Θεου ποιησαντες, ' we have done the will of God. There is no dismission from the discharge of this duty, until we have done the whole will of God. The will of God is twofold. The will of God is twofold. 1. The will of his purpose and good pleasure, the eternal act of his counsel, which is accompanied with infinite wisdom concerning all things that shall come to pass. 2. The will of his command, presenting unto us our duty, or what it is that he requireth of us. Respect may be, and I judge, is had unto the will of God in both these senses in this place. For, 1. A respect is had unto the will of God, disposing the state of the church, and all believers therein, into troubles, sufferings, and temptations, 1 Pet. iii. 17. He could, if it had seemed good unto him, have placed the church in such a condition in the world, as that it should have been freed from all outward troubles and distresses. But it is his will that it should be otherwise, and it is for the ends of his own glory, as also the good of the church in that state wherein they are to continue in this world. This, therefore, is that which we are to acquiesce in, as unto all the sufferings we may be exposed to in this world. It is the will of God that it should be so. And he seldom leaves us destitute without a prospect into those holy reasons and ends of it, for which it is necessary that it should be so. But whereas this principally respects sufferings, it will be said, How can we do this will of God, when nothing is required of us, but outwardly to endure what we do undergo? I

answer,

1st. Though sufferings be principally intended in this place, yet they are not so only. The whole state and condition of our lives in this world depends on this will of God, the time of our doing and suffering, of living and dying, with all our circumstances, are resolved into his will concerning them. And it is weariness of the effects of this will of God, that is in the most the cause of their departure from their profession. Wherefore, this sense is not to be excluded. See Acts xiii. 36. But,

2dly. The will of God is that whereby our whole duty is presented unto us as unto our faith, obedience, and worship. As our Lord Christ came to do the will of him that sent him, according to the commandment he received of him. The whole of our duty is resolved into the will of God, that is, the will of his command; and so to do the will of God in this sense, is to abide constant in all the duties of faith and obedience, worship, and profession, which he requireth of us. And there is no release in this matter whilst we are in this world. Where

fore, says the apostle, you have need of patience during the whole course of obedience presented unto you, as that without which you cannot pass through it, so as thereon to inherit the promises.

5. What is meant here by rny Eaууɛλav, 'the promise,' is evident from the context. All the promises of grace and mercy in the covenant which they had already received. God had not only given them the promises of all these things, but he had given them the good things themselves that were promised, as to the degrees and measures of their enjoyment in this world; and as unto the promise of eternal life and glory, they had received that also, and did mix it with faith. But the thing promised itself, they had not received. This different notion of the promises, the apostle declares, ch. xi. as we shall see, God willing. Obs. III. The glory of heaven is an abundant recompence for all we shall undergo in our way towards it.

Obs. IV. Believers ought to sustain themselves in their sufferings with the promise of future glory.

Obs. V. The future blessedness is given unto us by the promise, and is therefore free and undeserved.

Obs. VI. The consideration of eternal life, as the free effect of the grace of God and Christ, and as proposed in a gracious promise, is a thousand times more full of spiritual refreshment unto a believer, than if he should conceive of it, or look upon it merely as a reward proposed unto our own doings or merits.

VER. 37-39.-Ετι γαρ μικρον όσον όσον, ὁ ερχομενος ήξει, και ου χρονιει. Ο δε δικαιος εκ πίστεως ζησεται και εαν ὑποστεῖληται, ουκ ευδοκει ἡ ψυχη μου εν αυτῳ. Ημεις δε ουκ εσμεν ὑποστολης εις απωλειαν, αλλα πιστεως εις περιποίησιν ψυχης.

VER. 37-39.-For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition: but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

The substance of the apostolical exhortation, as hath been often observed, is the constancy of the Hebrews in their profession against persecutions and temptations. Unto this end he commends unto them the necessary use of confidence and patience, as those which would carry them through their difficulties, and support them under them. But those graces are not the root whereon constancy and perseverance do grow; they are all branches of it. They do not give strength unto the soul to do and suffer according to the mind of God, but they are the way whereby it doth exercise its strength, which it hath from another grace. It is faith from whence alone all these things do spring. This, the apostle knowing, he reserves the declaration of its nature, efficacy, and power, unto the close of this argument. And such an enarration of the nature and efficacy of it he intends, as will certainly effect the great work of carrying them through their difficulties, even all that they may be called unto, because it hath done the same in all true believers,

from the foundation of the world. Wherefore, as is usual with him in these verses, he makes a transition unto the consideration of faith itself, whereinto he resolves the whole exhortation unto constancy in profession.

And there are three things in these three verses. 1. A proposal of the object of faith, which is the coming of Christ, with the circumstances of it, ver. 37. 2. The necessity and efficacy of faith on that proposal, with the certain ruin of them that are strangers unto it; confirmed by prophetical testimony, ver. 38. 3. The judgment of the apostle concerning these Hebrews, as unto their faith, and the sincerity of it; from whence he proceeds to declare its nature and confirm its efficacy, ver. 39.

VER. 37.-For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

It might arise in the minds of these Hebrews, weakening and discouraging them from a compliance with this exhortation of the apostle, that it was a long time that they were to be exposed unto and exercised with these troubles, so as that they might justly fear that they should be worn out by them. And indeed there is nothing doth more press upon and try the minds of men in their sufferings, than that they can see no issue out of them. For we are all naturally inclined to desire some rest and peace, if it may stand with the will of God whilst we are in this world. To encourage them against the influence of this temptation, the apostle accommodates a testimony out of the prophet Habakkuk, which leads him directly unto the consideration of the power and efficacy of faith, which he had designed, Hab. ii. 3, 4, 'For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.' He speaks of a vision, that is, a prophetical vision of good things, which God would effect in due time. And there is the same reason in general of all the promises of God. Wherefore, what is spoken of one, namely, of the deliverance of the people, may be accommodated unto another, namely, the coming of Christ, whereby that deliverance is to be wrought. There is in the prophet a supposition that it seems to be delayed, and the accomplishment of it to be retarded; though it tarry,' saith he, that is, seem to you so to do. For believers are apt to think long under their sufferings, of the seeming delays of the accomplishment of God's promises, and to long for the time of it; as wicked men and scoffers harden themselves in their sins and impieties on the same account, with respect to God's threatenings, 2 Pet. iii. 1-4. But, saith he, 'it will not tarry;' that is, although it seem to you so to do, and you are dejected thereon about it; yet there is an appointed time for it, and that in itself no long time, beyond which it shall not be deferred one moment, Isa. lx. 22; 2 Pet. iii. This whole sense the apostle compriseth in this verse, though he do not peculiarly render the words of the prophet.