The Apostle's assertion is not, If a person apostatize, there is no hope of his obtaining pardon through the one sacrifice of Christ; but it is, "If a person persevere in apostasy, putting away from him the one sacrifice of Christ, there is not, there cannot be, for him any other sacrifice for sin.' The apostate must perish, not because the sacrifice of Christ is not of efficacy enough to expiate even his guilt, but because, continuing in his apostasy, he will have nothing to do with that sacrifice which is the only available sacrifice for sin.

Instead of another sacrifice for sin remaining for the apostate, so that, though he give up Christ, he may yet be saved, there remains for him nothing "but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." The word "judgment" here, as in many other places, is equivalent to 'punishment,' to which the sinner is doomed or adjudged: James ii. 13; 2 Pet. ii. 4. When it is said that "there remains" for the apostate "a fearful looking for" of this punishment, the meaning does not seem to be that every apostate is haunted by a dreadful anticipation of coming destruction; for, though this has been the case with some apostates, it is by no means characteristic of all apostates: the meaning is, the apostate has nothing to expect but a fearful punishment.1 He has no reason to hope for expiation and pardon, but he has reason to fear condemnation and punishment.

The epithet certain here, does not denote either an assured expectation, or the certainty of the punishment. It is used in the same way as in the expressions, a certain man,' 'a certain place,' 'a certain occurrence.' It is intended to suggest the idea that the punishment to be expected by the apostate is a punishment of undefined, undefinable magnitude-something that is inexpressible, inconceivable. We cannot exactly say what it is; we can only say that a certain awful punishment awaits him, the nature and limits of which cannot be fully understood by any created being. As a sinner, he is exposed to the wrath of God. He obstinately refuses to avail himself of the only "covert from this" fearful "storm," and therefore he must meet it in all its terrors. It must break on his unsheltered head. And "who knows the power of His anger?" The extent of infinite power must be measured, the depths of infinite wisdom must be 1 Equivalent to ἐκδοχὴ κρίσεως φοβεράς.

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fathomed, ere that awful question can be resolved. We can only say, "According to His fear, so is His wrath." The most dreadful conception comes infinitely short of the more dreadful reality. We can only say of it, 'It is a certain fearful punishment which the apostate has to expect.'

This punishment is further described as " fiery indignation." There remains for the apostate, indignation or wrath, even the wrath of God. God is angry with him for all his sins, and especially for the sin of apostasy; and this "wrath of God abideth on him." He is exposed to the fearful effects of God's moral disapprobation and judicial displeasure; and having renounced the sacrifice of Christ, he has nothing to save him from these. The displeasure of God is termed " fiery indignation," or "indignation of fire,' to represent in a striking manner its resistless, tormenting, destroying efficacy.

It will prove its power in "devouring the adversaries." "The adversaries" here, are, I apprehend, primarily the unbelieving Jews. The Apostle does not say here, as he does elsewhere, "those that believe not,"-" those who obey not the Gospel of Christ;" but, "the adversaries." The appellation is peculiarly descriptive. The unbelieving Jews were actuated by a principle of the most hostile opposition to Christ and Christianity: "Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men." The "fiery indignation" of God is to "devour" these adversaries, and along with them the apostates from the faith of Christ.

It is not improbable that here, as in the passage just quoted from the Epistle to the Thessalonians, there is a reference to the awful judgments which were about to befall the unbelieving Jews, and in which the apostates were to have their full share; but the ultimate reference seems to be to the great "day of wrath and revelation of the judgment of God," when "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," who "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." Such was the punishment which awaited the apostate of the primitive age, and mate

1 1 Thess. ii, 15.

rially the same is the punishment which awaits the apostate of every succeeding age.

In the verses which follow we have at once an illustration of the certainty and severity of the doom which awaits the apostate, and a vindication of the justice of that doom. Vers. 28, 29. "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"

The general sentiment obviously is 'If their punishment shall exceed in severity that of the despiser of Moses' law as much as their crime exceeds his in heinousness-and strict justice requires and secures this, then it will be severe indeed.' Let us proceed now to examine these dreadful words somewhat more minutely.

The person with whom the apostate is compared, is "the despiser1 of Moses' law." In every violation of a law there is an implied contempt of the law and the lawgiver. But "the despiser of Moses' law" is plainly not every violator of that law; since for many of its violations there were expiatory sacrifices. "The despiser," or annuller, " of Moses' law," is the person who acts by the law of Moses the part which the apostate does by the Gospel of Christ, who renounces its authority, who determinedly and obstinately refuses to comply with its requisitions. I cannot help thinking that the Apostle has probably a peculiar reference to the person who, having violated the law of Moses, refuses to have recourse to the appointed expiations. But whatever there may be in this, "the despiser of Moses' law" is the person who treats Moses as if he were an impostor, and refuses, obstinately refuses, to submit to his law as of divine. authority.

Now, such a person under the Mosaic economy, whether a native Jew or a sojourner in the Holy Land, was doomed to death. He "died without mercy under2 two or three witnesses;" i.e., when the crime was satisfactorily proved, he was capitally 1 αθετήσας.

2 ini,-expressive of the condition on which their condemnation and punishment depend; the Heb. by: Deut. xvii. 6, xix. 15.

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punished; and it was particularly enjoined, that in such cases no pardon nor commutation of punishment should be allowed. The highest punishment man can inflict on man was in such cases uniformly to be inflicted. The best illustration of this statement of the Apostle is to be found in the law to which he refers. "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people."-" If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing His covenant, and hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel; then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people: so thou shalt put the evil away from among you." The justice of this law would be very readily admitted by those to whom the Apostle refers, and must be evident to every person who acknowledges the divine legation of Moses. These, then, are the principles which lie at the foundation of the Apostle's argument, that "the despiser of Moses' law" was doomed to certain death, and that it was just that he should be thus doomed.

1 Deut. xiii. 6-9, xvii. 2–7.

He now goes on to describe the conduct of the apostate in such language as to make it plain that he is far more deeply criminal than" the despiser of the law of Moses," and thus to prepare the way for the conclusion to which he wishes to bring his readers, that he shall most certainly be far more severely punished. The apostate is one who has "trodden under foot the Son of God." The general idea is—' He has treated with the greatest conceivable contempt a personage of the highest conceivable dignity.' "The despiser of Moses' law" trampled under foot Moses as a divine messenger-the servant of God; but the apostate" tramples under foot" Jesus, who is a divine Person"the Son of God." "Trampling under foot the Son of God" may be considered as referring generally to the dishonour done to Jesus Christ by apostasy. It is a declaration that He is an impostor, a declaration that His Gospel is "a cunningly devised fable." But I cannot help thinking that there is a peculiar reference to the dishonour done to Christ Jesus as the great sacrifice for sin by the apostate. The sacrifice He offered was Himself. Now the apostate, in declaring that in his estimation Jesus Christ had offered no sacrifice for sin, as it were tramples on that sacred body, by the offering of which "once for all" Christ Jesus made expiation for the sins of His people. Instead of treating His sacrifice as it ought to be treated-as something of ineffable value, inconceivable efficacy—he treads it under foot as vile and valueless.

He "accounts the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing." "The blood of the covenant" is obviously the blood of Christ; and it receives this name, because by the shedding of this blood the New Covenant was ratified, as the Old Covenant was by the shedding of the blood of animal sacrifices.

Interpreters have differed as to the reference of the clause, "by which he was sanctified,"-some referring it to Christ, and others to the apostate. Those who refer it to Christ explain it in this way," By His own blood Jesus Christ was consecrated to His office as an intercessory Priest.' Those who refer it to the apostate consider the Apostle as stating, that in some sense or other he had been sanctified by the blood of Christ. I cannot say that I am satisfied with either of these modes of interpretation. I do not think that Scripture warrants us to say that