Hebrews 3

It behooved him to be like to his brothers, that he might be a faithful High Priest. Moses was faithful as a servant, Christ as a Son (Hebrews 3:5); he does not forget any cause he has to plead, nor does he use any deceit in pleading. An ordinary attorney may either leave out so…

The venom of hypocrisy is in danger of breaking forth into the plague-sore of scandal. Thirdly, Beware of a vile heart of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12). Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God.

2. To worship God by an image, is both absurd and unlawful. 1. It is absurd and irrational; for first, the workman is better than the work (Hebrews 3:3). He who builds the house, has more honor than the house; if the workman be better than the work, and none bows to the workman,…

So prayer cannot see God's face, unless it bring its brother faith with it. What is said of Israel, They could not enter in because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:19), is as true of prayer, it cannot enter into Heaven because of unbelief. This makes prayer often suffer shipwreck, becaus…

Faith in itself considered, is but manus mendica, the beggar's hand: but as this hand receives the rich alms of Christ's merits, so it is precious, and does challenge a superiority over the rest of the graces. Use 1. First Branch. Of all sins beware of the rock of unbelief (Hebr…

Response 1. For want of a supernatural principle of grace: That branch must needs die which has no root to grow upon: That which moves from a principle of life lasts; as the beating of the pulse; but that which moves only from an artificial spring; when the spring is down the mo…

2. Take heed of unbelief. Unbelief kept Israel out of Canaan; (Hebrews 3:19) So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief; and it keeps many out of heaven. Unbelief is an enemy to salvation, it is a damning sin, it whispers thus, to what purpose is all this pains for th…

2. More particularly, we pray to be delivered, First, from the evil of our own heart; it is called an evil heart (Hebrews 3:12). Secondly, from the evil of Satan; he is called, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], the Evil One (Matthew 13:19).

Fifthly, if faith be a substance of things hoped for, much more is it a substance to the believer: if it give those things a being which are out of him, much more does it give a permanent being unto the believer himself, strengthening him to stand and continue in all assaults. S…

1. There is consanguinity; he is brother to Christ (Hebrews 3:11). Christ partakes of his flesh, and he partakes of Christ's Spirit.

It were good to fear while you have the Word, lest you miss the fruit of it. Compare to this purpose Hebrews 3, at the close, with Hebrews 4:1, and we will find this commended to us, So we see, says the Apostle, that they could not enter in because of unbelief, let us therefore…

As is implied in the word (Hebrews 4:1), where the Apostle, having spoken of many of the Israelites and their unbelief in the former chapter, says in the beginning of this: Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should seem to co…

This is a plain, and yet a most useful truth: For use of it. Behold here, and wonder at the way of grace, that not only gives a Mediator, but such a Mediator, who (as it is Hebrews 3) is faithful over the house of God: This is the very life of our consolation, that we have an ab…

The great ground that makes God expostulate with the hearers of the Gospel, and that makes them come under the complaint, (John 5:40) "You will not come to me that you may have life," and (Matthew 23:37) "How often would I have gathered you, and you would not;" and for substance…

2 The Scripture holds forth to our faith the power of God to graft in the Jews again in Christ (Romans 11:23), to make a weak believer stand (Romans 14:4), to keep the saints from falling, and to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy (Jude 1:…

Indeed, to do these, brings in to himself more comfort and glory, than it procures to them. And therefore the Apostle in the beginning of the following chapter, (namely, Hebrews 3) says, that Christ is engaged to faithfulness in the execution of his office, not as a mere servant…

If any man see his brother sin a sin, he must observe him, else he cannot see him (Galatians 2:14). When I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel, etc. he observed them and discerned their course, he turned not his eyes from beholding it, but he…

Though God has many sons by creation and adoption, yet Christ is his Son in a peculiar and proper way; by eternal generation, and communication of the same essence, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that Son, that beloved Son, so a Son as none else is the Son of God, properly so called.…

They that love God and delight in him, cannot be long out of his company, they will seek all occasions to meet with God; as Jonathan and David, whose souls were knit to each other. So for dependance and trust, it keeps up service, for they that will not trust God, cannot be long…

2. The matter of the words show his fitness for this office, for here you have. 1. His dignity; not a servant, but a Son (Hebrews 3:5-6). Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, but Christ as a son over his own house. Now the old prophecies foretold the union of…

That we may constantly persevere in the profession of the true faith, both in life and death, first we must receive the Gospel simply for itself, because it is the Gospel of Christ, and not for any other byrespect. Secondly, we must be mortified, and renewed in the spirit of our…

And mark how preaching, and baptizing are joined together: and things which God has joined, no man may separate. Again, he that must perform any part of the public ministry, must have a calling (Romans 10:14; Hebrews 3:5), but mere private persons have no calling to this busines…

For this is the time which God has appointed for these duties: this is the day of grace, and therefore the onely fit time. Heb 3:7. Psal 32:6.

We are therefore to be circumspect and careful, lest we be supplanted. The Apostle admonishes us to take heed lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13), and, that we walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise (Ephesians 5:15), that we walk with a rig…

Now, as Christ is speaking, not about perfection, but about resemblance, and must therefore mean, that nothing is more suitable for a disciple than to be formed after the example of his master, the latter meaning appeared to me to be more appropriate. 25. If they have called the…

And the Apostle seems to speak of an evil heart, that departs from the living God, and a hard heart, as the same thing. Hebrews 3:8. Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, etc.

For the which Cause, I also suffer these Things: Nevertheless, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed; and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that Day. Hebrews 3:6. Whose House are we, if we hold fast the Confidence, a…

And in the Scripture, the deceit of the Mind is commonly laid down as the Principle of all Sin what-ever, 1 Tim. 2. 14. Heb. 3. 12, 13. 2 Cor. 11. 3. Sect. 62 And this is a brief Delineation of the state of the Mind of Man while unregenerate, with respect to Spiritual Things.

On the whole, it appears that the perseverance of faith is necessary, even to the congruity of justification, and that not the less, because a sinner is justified, and perseverance promised on the first act of faith, but God in that justification has respect not only to the past…

It was called the provocation, when the people of Israel made such distrusting complaints (Psalm 95:8), Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness. And that the provocation lay in their unbelief, the Apostle is express, Hebrews 3, whe…

Wherefore, that either You may obtain Advantage by it, or that the way of the Lord may be prepared for the Glorifying of himself upon you, I shall leave this word before all them that hear, or read it, as the testimony which God requires to be given unto his grace. There are ter…

Thirdly, if the light of nature may bee turned into darkenesse, then may the illumination of the Gospel be put out & turned into darkenes; for the knowledge of the Gospel is not naturall, and therefore not so deeply imprinted in the understanding, upon the bare knowledge of it.…

And therefore (Galatians 3:19), it is said that the law was given by the hand of a mediator. And Moses is commended for being faithful in all God's house, as a servant (Hebrews 3:5), as one who received commands from the great Lord and Master of it, and delivered them to his fel…

Ah Christian, I appeal to your own experience, how many a woeful instance have you had of the heart's deceitfulness? It is apt to deceive, and as easy to be deceived, and self-deceit is the most dangerous: the heart, since the fall, is naturally of a various, subtle, and fickle…

But we all know, that the New-Testament House of God is his Church. Heb. 3:3. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in as much as he who builded the House, hath more honor than the House.

Is that a sect which instead of preferring a man to honor, or raising him an estate, lays him open to disgrace and poverty, renders him obnoxious to fines and forfeitures, banishments and imprisonments, racks and tortures, flames and gibbets, which were the common lot of the pri…

For many weighty reasons this work can bear no delays. First, the offers of Grace are made to the present time, Hebrews 3:15. Wbile it's said today, harden not your heart. There may be a few more days of God's patience, but that is unknown to you.

They, and they only, have right and title to gospel administrations and the privileges of the family of God as held out in his church according to his mind. The church is the house of God, 1 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 3:6. Herein he keeps and maintains his whole family, ordering them…

1. Confidence in Christ. Christ being our head, so mighty, so wise, so tender, every way so sufficient a head as he is, we should highly dishonor him, if we should not wholly and only repose ourselves upon him for every good thing, and against every evil (Hebrews 3:6). 2. Subjec…

(2.) Consider the danger of it, which is manifold: 1. Of being hardened by its deceitfulness: this the Apostle solemnly charges on the Hebrews (Hebrews 3:12-13): Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God: but exho…

The Spirit and new nature given to contend against indwelling sin (Galatians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4, 5; Romans 7:23). The fearful issue of the neglect of mortification (Revelation 3:2; Hebrews 3:13). The first general principle of the whole discourse hence confirmed.

Is not this to cut, and square God's thoughts to ours, and examine his sovereign purposes, by the low principles of human wisdom, how much more learned, than all such knowledge; is the Apostle's ignorance, when he cries out, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and know…

Thirdly, we had need to pray earnestly, Lord keep us from evil, because we are in danger of that other enemy, the flesh. There is not only an evil without us, as the Devil, and the world, but an evil within us: an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God (Hebrews…

It is not the duty only of ministers, but also of private Christians, keeping within the bounds of their station, and the measures of their knowledge, to teach and to instruct one another. The Scriptures are full for this (Colossians 3:6; Colossians 1:5, 11; Hebrews 3:13; Jude 1…

So men are [reconstructed: debasing] by degrees, and fall off from God, and their savor of the ways of God. Fourthly, Often review your first grounds, and compare them with your after-experiences, and what fresh tastes you had then of the love of God to your souls (Hebrews 3:14)…

And (Luke 12:20) when the rich man said to his soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years, take your ease, eat, drink and be merry: God said to him, You fool, this night shall your soul be required of you, then whose shall those things be which you have provided? (He…

The Devil contradicted that which God delivered with his own mouth; his no prevails above God's yes, ("You shall not surely die") that was what let in the first sin. And ever since it is very natural to us (Hebrews 3:12), ("Take heed lest there be an evil heart of unbelief in yo…

Man fell from God by distrust, by having a jealousy of him, and still the evil heart of unbelief does lead us off from God. Hebrews 3:12: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But the more we believe him, the…

He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believes not shall be damned. Where not only belief is required, but open profession, for that end serves baptism; which is a badge and bond, a badge to distinguish the worshipers of Christ from others, and a bond to b…

A man that is climbing up a tree, or ascending a ladder, if after he has gotten up many steps, he let go his hold, and falls down, he does not only lose the benefit of his former pains, but gets a bruised body, and broken bones, and is less able to climb up than he was before. 4…