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Muɛoua is to imitate; that is, lively to express an example proposed unto us. And it is the word used by the apostle unto that end which we translate to follow,' 2 Thess. iii. 7, 9, as μunne is constantly for the person performing of that duty which we render a follower,' 1 Cor. iv. 16, xi. 1; Eph. v. 1; 1 Thess. i. 6, ii. 14: Heb. vi. 12. So the word is applied unto painting, when one picture is exactly drawn by another, so as in all things to represent it. Hence one wrote under his excellent piece, μωμήσεται τις μαλλον η μιμησεται, 'It is easier to envy it than to imitate it,' or do the like. So poets and players are said, puodai, to imitate the persons whom they represent; and the more accurately they do it, the more exact are they esteemed in their arts. I mention it only to show that there is more intimated in this word than to follow,' in the usual sense, seems to express. It is such a following as wherein we are fully conformed unto, and do lively express, that which we are said to follow. So a scholar may be said to follow his master, when having attained all his arts and sciences, he acts them in the same manner as his master did. So are we to follow the faith of these guides.

Their faith may be considered two ways: 1. Objectively for the faith which they taught, believed, and professed, or the truth which they did believe. 2. Subjectively for the grace of faith in them whereby they believed that truth. And it is here taken in the latter sense. For their faith in the other sense is not to be imitated, but professed. Nor doth the apostle by their faith, intend only the grace of faith in them, but its whole exercise in all that they did and suffered. Their faith was that which purified their hearts, and made them fruitful in their lives. Especially it was that whereby they glorified God in all that they did and suffered for the name of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, saith the apostle, remember them, and in so doing, remember their faith, with what it enabled them to do and suffer for the gospel; their faith in its principle, and all the blessed effects of it. In the principle, this faith is the same, as to the nature of it, in all true believers, whether they are rulers, or under rule, 2 Pet. i. 1. But it differs in its fruits and effects: in these they were eminent. And therefore are the Hebrews here enjoined to secure it in its principles, and to express it in its exercise, even as they did.

Herein are we to imitate and follow them. No mere man, not the best of men, is to be our pattern or example absolutely, or in all things. This honour is due unto Christ alone. But they may be so, we ought to make them so, with respect unto those graces and duties wherein they were eminent. So the apostle proposeth himself as an example to believers, Eph. v. 1; Philip. iii. 17; 1 Thess. i. 6, but with this limitation, as he followed Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 1. And,

Obs. IV. A due consideration of the truth of those who have been before us, especially of such who were constant in sufferings; above all, of those who were constant unto death, as the holy martyrs in former and latter ages, is an effectual means to stir us up unto the same exercise of faith when we are called unto it. And if the imitation of former ages had kept itself within these bounds, they had been preserved from those excesses, whereby at length all the memory of them was corrupted and polluted.

Thirdly. The last thing in the words, is the motive that the apostle gives unto this duty of following their faith: which ariseth from the considering αναθεωρουντες την εκβασιν της αναστροφης, the end of their conversation,' or what, through their faith, they came or were brought unto. They have,' saith he, 'finished their course in this world.' What was their conversation, what was the end of it, and how it was to be considered, and wherein the so doing was a motive to follow their faith, lies before us in these words.

1. Avaorpoon is the word constantly used in the New Testament, to express the way or course of men's walking and converse in the world, with respect unto moral duties, and the whole of the obedience which God requires of them, which we usually call their conversation. And it is used concerning that which is bad and to be disallowed, as well as that which is good and approved. But usually when it is used in the first sense, it hath some discriminating epithet joined with it; as evil, vain or former, Gal. i. 13; Eph. iv. 22; 1 Pet. i. 18. In a good sense we have it, 1 Tim. iv. 12; James iii. 13; 1 Pet. i. 15, iii. 2, 16. This is that which God enjoins in the covenant, Walk before me, and be thou upright;' our conversation is our walk before God in all duties of obedience.

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2. This conversation of theirs had now received its exßariç. The word is but once more used, and then we render it an escape;' ovv TI TELAσμY KAι Tηy εкßaσiv, 1 Cor. x. 13, 'Together with the temptation, an escape,' or a way to escape. It is not therefore merely an end that is intended; nor doth the word signify a common end, issue, or event of things, but an end accompanied with a deliverance from, and so a conquest over, such difficulties and dangers as men were before exposed unto. These persons, in the whole course of their conversation, were exercised with difficuties, dangers, and sufferings, all attempting to stop them in their way, or to turn them out of it. But what did it all amount to, what was the issue of their conflict? was a blessed deliverance from all troubles, and conquest over them. And it is not so much their conversation, as this end of it, which the apostle here calls them unto the consideration of; which yet cannot be done without a right consideration of the conversation itself. Consider what it came to. Their faith failed not, their hope did not perish, they were not disappointed, but had a blessed end of their walk and

course.

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3. This they are advised to consider, avalewpovvTES. The word is but once more used in the New Testament, where the apostle applies it to express the consideration which he took of the devotion, or of the altars of the Athenians, Acts xvii. 23. He looked diligently on them again and again, with a reiterated inspection, to read and take notice of their inscriptions, which required a curious and careful consideration. Such is here spoken of, not consisting in some slight transient thoughts, with which we usually pass over such things, but a repeated, reiterated contemplation of the matter, with its causes and circumstances.

4. And in the last place, by their so doing, they would be stirred up to follow their faith: it was a motive to them so to do. For their

faith it was which carried them through all their difficulties and all their temptations, and gave them a blessed issue out of them all. See James v. 10, 11.

VER. 8.—Ιησους Χριστος χθες και σημερον ὁ αυτος, και εις τους

αιώνας.

Vul. Iesus Christus heri et hodie, ipse et in seculum, 'Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day,' (where it placeth the comma,) and he (is) the same for ever.' So Beza; Jesus Christ yesterday, and to-day, and he is the same for ever.' Others better, Iesus Christus heri et hodie, idem etiam est in secula. So the Syr. bybm, is the same, and for ever.'

VER. 8.-Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

Two things are to be considered in these words: first, the occasion of them; and then their sense and meaning. And as unto the occasion of their use in this place, some think that they refer to what went before in confirmation of it; some unto what follows after as a direction in it; and some observe their usefulness unto both these ends. But this will be the more clearly discovered when the sense of them is determined. For to me they appear as a glorious light which the apostle sets up to guide our minds in the consideration of his whole discourse, that we may see whence it all proceeds and whereunto it tends. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginner and finisher of our faith, as we shall see.

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There are various interpretations of the words; especially of xos Kaι σŋμɛрov, 'yesterday and to-day.' By to-day all understand the present time, or the time during the dispensation of the gospel. By yesterday, Eniedinus says, that a short time before is intended. That which was of late, namely since the birth of Christ, at most; which was not long before. He is followed by Slichtingius and all the Socinians, than which there cannot be a more absurd sense given of the words. For when we say of any one that he is of yesterday, x0EÇ KAL Tрony, it is spoken of him in contempt. We are of yesterday, and know nothing,' Job viii. 9. But the design of the apostle is to utter that which tends to the honour of Christ, and not unto his diminution. And the Scripture expressions of him unto this purpose, are constantly of another nature. He was in the beginning, he was with God, and he was God; God possessed me in the beginning of his ways;' whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. The same Holy Spirit doth not say of him he was of yesterday; a new God whom their fathers knew not. Nor is such an intimation of any use unto the purpose of the apostle.

Grotius, and he that follows him, would have yesterday, to denote the time wherein the rulers before mentioned did live, as to-day is the present time of these Hebrews. But this sense also is jejune, and nothing to the mind of the apostle, invented only for an evasion from the testimony supposed to be here given unto the eternity of the person

of Christ; which I wonder the other did not observe, who follows not Grotius in such things.

'Yesterday,' say some, is used here not only for all time that is past, but unto the spring of it in eternity; as 'to-day' signifies the whole course of time to the end of the world; and, for ever,' that everlasting state that doth ensue. Neither is this unconsonant unto what the Scripture affirms of Christ in other places. See the exposition of ch. i. 10-12.

By yesterday,' some understand the time of the Old Testament; that dispensation of God and his grace that was now ceased, and become like the day that is past. And a day it was, Heb. iii. And it was now as yesterday. And so 'to-day' denotes the times of the gospel. Neither is there any thing in this interpretation that is uncompliant with the analogy of faith.

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But clearly to comprehend the mind of the Holy Ghost herein, sundry things are to be observed. As, 1. That it is the person of Jesus Christ that is spoken of. Nor is this whole name of Inoovs XOLOTоç, 'Jesus Christ,' ever used unto any other purpose but to signify his person. It is false therefore, that it is here taken metonymically for his doctrine, or the gospel; nor is such a sense any way to the purpose of the apostle. 2. Where the person of Christ is intended, there his divine nature is always included; for Christ is God and man in one person. 3. The apostle speaks not of the person of Christ absolutely, but with respect unto his office, and his discharge of it; or he declares who and what he was therein. 4. It is from his divine person, that in the discharge of his office he was ó avros, 'the same.' So it is said of him, ou de ó avroç et, ch. i. 12, But thou art the same; that is, eternal, immutable, indeficient. See the Exposition of that place. 5. Being so in himself, he is so in his office from first to last; that although divers alterations were made in the institutions of divine worship, and there were many degrees and parts of divine revelation, yet in and through them all, Jesus Christ was still the same. Wherefore, 6. There is no need to affix a determinate distinct sense as unto the notation of time, unto each word, as yesterday, to-day, and for ever; the apostle designing, by a kind of proverbial speech, wherein respect is had unto all seasons, to denote the eternity and immutability of Christ in them all. To the same purpose he is said to be ὁ ων, και ὁ ην, και ὁ ερχομενος, Rev. i. 4, ' He who is, and who was, and who is to come.' 7. This then is the sense of these words: Jesus Christ, in every state of the church, in every condition of believers, is the same unto them, being always the same in his divine person, and will be so unto the consummation of all things; he is, he ever was, all and in all unto the church. He is the same, the author, object, and finisher of faith; the preserver and rewarder of them that believe, and that equally in all generations.

Our last inquiry is concerning the connexion of these words with the other parts of the apostle's discourse, and what is the use of the interposition of this assertion in this place. And it is agreed that it may have respect either unto what goes before or to what follows after,

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or unto both. And this we may comply with; though, as I observed before, there is a great appearance that it stands absolute by itself, as, directing believers on all occasions of duty such as he insists on whither they should retreat and repair in their minds for direction, relief, and supportment, namely, unto Jesus Christ, who is always the same for these ends. Whatever difficulties they may meet withal in the duties of their evangelical profession, let them but remember who it is that is concerned in them, and with them, and it will give them both strength and encouragement.

But the words have a seasonable respect to what goeth before, and what follows after them. In the preceding verse, (for we have no reason to look higher in this series of duties independent one on another,) the Hebrews are enjoined to persevere in the faith of their first apostolical teachers, and to have the same faith in themselves as they had. Now whereas they had by their faith a blessed and victorious end of their whole conversation, they might consider, that Jesus Christ, who is always the same in himself, would likewise be the same to them, to give them the like blessed end of their faith and obedience. As he was when they believed in him, so he is now unto them; because he is in himself always the same, and for ever. No greater encouragement could be given them unto diligence in this duty; you shall find Christ unto you what he was unto them. As to that part of his discourse which follows, it is a dehortation from strange doctrines and the observance of Judaical ceremonies. And unto both parts of it, this declaration of the nature and office of Christ is subservient. For here a rule is fixed as unto trial of all doctrines, namely the acknowledgment of Christ in his person and office, which in the like case is given us by the apostle John, 1 John iv. 2, 3. be laid whatever complies with the revelation genuine; what doth not, is various and strange. part of the dehortation, To what end, saith the apostle, should men trouble themselves with the distinction of meats, and the like Mosaic observances; whereas, in the time wherein they were enjoined, they were in themselves of no advantage, though for a season they had their especial ends? For it was Christ alone that even then was all unto the church as to its acceptance with God. And so I hope we have restored these words to their sense and use.

And we may observe, That,

Let this foundation hereof, is true and And as to the other

Obs. I. The due consideration of Jesus Christ, especially in his eternity, immutability, and indeficiency in his power, as he is always the same, is the great encouragement of believers in their whole profession of the faith, and in all the difficulties they may meet withal upon the

account thereof.

Obs. II. As no changes formerly made in the institution of divine worship altered any thing in the faith of the church with the respect unto Christ, for he was, and is still the same; so no necessitudes we may meet withal in our profession, by oppression or persecution, ought in the least to shake us, for Christ is still the same to protect, relieve, and deliver us.

Obs. III. He that can in the way of his duty on all occasions re

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