"he had concerning them, that they would persevere; and proposes to them the great encouragement they had in the way of their duty."* Mr. Thomas Moore saith, "And now in his supposition he set forth before them the heinousness of the sin and danger of such departing and falling away: comparing such transgressions and transgressors, to briers and thorns, whose end is to be burned, he mollifies the harshness of his sentence in respect of them, and saith, We are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak; which plainly shews the better things to be better than thorns and briers, which tended to damnation: and it shews also that his speech in the warning was directed to them; else they needed not to be mollified with, Though we thus speak. Surely none would fancy the apostle to warn the Hebrews, by speaking at such a rate as this! There

*Henry on the place?

is a rock of stability, on which whoever once believeth"-" can no more fall off-and you are upon that rock, &c. Hold fast therefore your confidence; take heed lest any of you fall through an evil heart of unbelief: and give us leave to fear lest any of you come short; for there is an unstable rock, on which, not you, but some others are built. And they that are built on that rock of instability, if they abide they perish; if they fall, they can no more rise."* "By these words," say the Dutch Annotators, "the apostle mollifies the former threatning, and declares in that which follows, why he sets before them the grievous punishment of apostates, namely, not that he held them to be such, but to warn them, and to exhort them to hold fast to the doctrine of the gospel, and to God's promises."t Father Quesnel's remark is, "Ill does that person understand the art of gain

*Moore's works, page 613. † See Datch Annotations on the place.

ing upon the minds of men, who is always full of reproaches and invectives. If we find them dejected by the dread of damnation, and by our upbraiding them with their impenitency, we must raise their spirits by marks of our ESTEEM and HоPE.

same.

From all that hath been said, we learn, 1. That they are not different persons who are spoken of in this, and the preceding verses, but one and the 2. That all that is intended in this verse is, to soften the seeming severity of the former remarks, lest the Hebrews, instead of being stirred up to godly jealousy, by what was said, should abandon themselves to despair. Now of this interpretation I observe two things, 1. It preserves, (yea, and is absolutely necessary to preserve) the connexion and coherence of the place. And, 2. That on this account it is, that the most learned and candid among the calvinian writers are constrained to insert it.

**Quesnel's New Testament on the place.

9. The next proof that falling away was the evil intended by the apostle, we have in verse 11. of this chapter. "And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end." On this passage, I observe, That perseverance to the end was that which the apostle had still in view therefore the evil he supposed them to be in danger of was that of APOSTASY, or of nor persevering to the end. And it is very observable, with what prudence the apostle proceeds in labouring to prevent the apostasy of these Hebrews. From the 4th to the 8th verse, he uses an argument of great terror, to alarm their fears. Then, lest this should terrify them too much, in the 9th and 10th verses, he lifts them up by declaring that he was persuaded better things of them. "FOR GOD is not unrighteous, says he, to forget your works and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And now again,"

says a learned author, lest they should be too confident of themselves-and flatter themselves with an infallible hope of salvation, he shews them their wants, that being thus reduced to a temper, that they might not despair of salvation, nor presume of it." And that they might not thus presume, We desire, said the apostle, that every one of you may shew the same diligence that you have formerly shewn, and still are shewing, unto the full assurance of hope unto the end: that is, according to Dr. Doddridge," in order to ESTABLISH the full assurance of your hope even unto the end of your Christian course For, according to Father Quesnel, "It is not so much good works, as PERSEVERANCE in them, which assures our hope. tThese words unto the end, may be applied, first, unto the diligence which the apostle recommends; and then the meaning is, that he desired the Quesnel's New

* See Family Expositor.

Test. on the place.... ·