any man who finally apostatizes is sanctified by the blood of Christ in any sense, except that the legal obstacles in the way of human salvation generally were removed by the atonement He made; and though I have no doubt that by His bloodshedding our Lord was separated, set apart, sanctified, consecrated, and fitted for the performance of the functions of an interceding High Priest, I cannot distinctly apprehend the bearing which such a statement has on the Apostle's object, which is obviously to place in a strong light the aggravations of the sin of the apostate. I apprehend the word is used impersonally, and that its true meaning is, by which there is sanctification.' It is just equivalent to the sanctifying blood of the covenant.' The word "sanctify," as I have had occasion fully to show in the course of this exposition, is used in a somewhat peculiar sense in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It signifies, when used in reference to men, to do what is necessary and sufficient to secure them, who are viewed as unclean, favourable access to the holy Divinity. When the blood of Jesus Christ, by which the New Covenant is ratified, is called sanctifying blood, the meaning is, that that blood shed expiates sin-renders it just and honourable in God to pardon sin, and save the sinner; and that this blood sprinkled (i.e., in plain words, the truth about this blood understood and believed), "purges the conscience from dead works," removes the jealousies of guilt, and enables us to serve God with a true heart. This is the peculiar excellence of the blood of Christ. It, and it alone, thus sanctifies.1

Now the apostate accounts this "blood of the covenant, by which," and by which alone, "there is sanctification, an unholy thing" i.e., a common thing, not a sacred thing, and not only an unconsecrated thing, but a polluted thing. The apostate, instead of accounting the blood of Christ, by which the New Covenant is ratified, possessed of sanctifying virtue, looks upon it as a common, vile, polluted thing,—the blood not only of a mere man, but the blood of an impostor, who richly deserved the punishment he met with,-blood which not merely had no tendency to sanctify, but blood which polluted and rendered doubly hateful to God all who were foolish enough to place their

1 It was with great satisfaction I found Professor Moses Stuart had come to the same conclusion as to the meaning of this phrase, translating -" the blood of the covenant, by which expiation has been made."

hopes of expiation and pardon on its having been shed in their room, and for their salvation.

The apostate is still further described as "doing despite to the Spirit of grace." "The Spirit of grace" is a Hebraism for 'the gracious, the kind, the benignant Spirit.' It has been supposed that this phrase is borrowed from Zech. xii. 10. But "the spirit of grace" there being joined with "the spirit of supplication," seems descriptive, not of the Holy Spirit personally, but of the temper He forms—' a grateful, prayerful temper.' By "the gracious Spirit," I understand that divine Person who, along with the Father and the Son, exists in the unity of the Godhead; and He is termed " the Spirit of grace," or "the gracious Spirit," to bring before our minds the benignant object of all His operations in the scheme of mercy. This benignant Spirit the apostate is represented as "doing despite to,"-as treating with indignity and insult. That Holy Spirit dwelt in "the man Christ Jesus." By that Holy Spirit numerous and most striking attestations were given to the truth of His doctrine. "God bare witness by gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will." When a man in the primitive age apostatized, he necessarily joined with the scribes and Pharisees in ascribing to diabolical agency what had been effected by the influence of the Holy Ghost; than which, certainly, a greater indignity, or more atrocious insult, could not be offered to that divine Person. There can be little doubt that the person described here belongs to the class described in the 6th chapter, who are said to have been "made partakers of the Holy Ghost;" i.e., to have been themselves in the possession of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, as well as the subjects of His common operations. And certainly for such persons to ascribe the benignant operations of the Holy Ghost on themselves to infernal agency, was the most outrageous and malicious indignity of which human nature is capable.

Such, then, is the crime of the apostate. He treats with the greatest conceivable indignity two divine Persons-the Son and the Spirit of God; he "tramples under foot" Him whom angels adore; he counts polluted and polluting that which is the sole source of sanctification; he repays benignity with insult-the benignity of a divine Person with the most despiteful insult. His punishment, then, must be inconceivably severe, and absolutely certain.

This sentiment is stated by the Apostle far more energetically in the heart-appalling question that follows, than it could have been by any direct assertion: "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be counted worthy? If he that despised," etc. In one point of view the despiser of the law and the apostate from the Gospel seem to stand on a level. They both wilfully renounce a sufficiently accredited divine revelation; but the aggravations attending the apostate's crime are numerous and great. "The despiser of Moses' law" despised indeed a holy man-a divine messenger; but the apostate despises the Son and Spirit of God, and acts towards them in a far more malicious and insulting manner than the contemner of Moses' law did towards that legislator. If the one deserved death, does not the other deserve damnation-destruction, "everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power?" And if the punishment of "the despiser of Moses' law" was absolutely certain, can the punishment of the contemner and despiser of God's Son and Spirit be in any degree doubtful? The justice of God requires that the punishment of the apostate be awfully severe, and indubitably certain.

In the two verses which follow we have a further illustration of the awful severity and the absolute certainty of the punishment of the apostate, from the circumstance, that the declaration that a God of infinite power will punish them is made by a God of infinite veracity. Ver. 30. "For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people." The quotations are made from the prophetic song of Moses,"To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left," and refer to the punishments which God would inflict on the wicked Israelites at their latter end. The meaning of the words is plainly,—'I Myself will punish them, and the punishment shall bear the impress of My omnipotence.' The appositeness of the second quotation may not at first 1 Deut. xxxii. 35, 36.

sight appear so plainly. It may seem a promise rather than a threatening. It is indeed a promise, and not a threatening; and I apprehend, that both in the place where it originally occurs and in the passage before us, it is brought forward for the purpose of comforting the minds of those who continued. stedfast in their attachment to their God,-assuring them that while He punished rebels and apostates, He would watch over their interests, and protect them from dangers which threatened to overwhelm them. In the prophetic writings generally, the punishment of the enemies of God and the deliverance of His people are closely connected. The same event is very often vengeance to the former and deliverance to the latter. This was the case with the fearful events which were impending over the impenitent and apostate Jews, and to which, in the whole of this passage, I think it highly probable that the Apostle has an immediate reference. The words admit, however, of another interpretation. The word judge is not unfrequently used as equivalent to 'punish,' or 'take vengeance:' Gen. xv. 14; 2 Chron. xx. 12; Ezek. vii. 3. In this case it is equivalent to- Beware of supposing that the relation you think you stand in to God will protect you. "Judgment will begin at the house of God." "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you for your iniquities." Whoever escapes, you shall not escape:' Matt. xi. 21-25; Luke xii. 47, 48.

The words, "We know HIM that hath said," are just a very emphatic manner of saying, 'We know His power to destroy; and we know also that "His word is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword." We know that "He is not that He should lie; nor the son of man, that He should repent hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" '

a man,

The same sentiment, as to the omnipotence of God to punish, "It is a fearful

is very strikingly repeated in the 31st verse. thing to fall into the hands of the living God." "Who knows the power of His wrath? of His wrath? According to His fear, so is His wrath." The scriptural description of the final punishment of the enemies of God is enough to make the ears of every one

1 iμxcosìv tis ràs xeìpus is a Hebraistic mode of expression,-. In classic Greek it would be—i. ò TÀS Xɛipas. Zãytos, powerful, everliving.'

that heareth it to tingle. Well may we say, with our Lord,"Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do: but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him." Such is the doom, the certain doom, of the man who lives and dies an apostate. Let none despair. It is not the act of apostasy, it is the state of apostasy, that is certainly damnable. Let all beware of being "high-minded." "Let them fear, lest a promise being left them, any man should seem to come short of it." Let them guard against every approach to apostasy. The grand preservative from apostasy is to grow in "the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;" and to "add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly-kindness, and charity." It is in doing these things that we are assured that we shall "never fall," and that "so an entrance shall be ministered to us abundantly into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

To apprehend distinctly the meaning, to feel fully the force, of the exhortations contained in the paragraph which follows, it is necessary that the circumstances of those to whom they were originally addressed should be before the view of the mind.

This Epistle was written a few years before the final destruction of the Jewish civil and ecclesiastical polity by the Romans. This was a season of peculiar trial to the Christians in Judea. Christianity was now no longer a new thing. Its doctrines, though they had lost nothing of their truth and importance, no longer were possessed of the charm of novelty; and their miraculous attestations, though to a reflecting person equally satisfactory as ever, were from their very commonness less fitted than at first to arrest attention, and make a strong impression on the mind. The long-continued hardships to which the believing Hebrews were exposed from their unbelieving countrymen, were clearly fitted to shake the stability of their faith, and to damp the ardour of their zeal. Jesus Christ had plainly intimated to them, that ere that generation had passed away He would appear in a remarkable manner, for the punishment of His enemies, and the deliverance of His faithful followers. The greater part of that generation had passed away, 1 Luke xii. 4, 5.

2 2 Pet. i. 5-7.