Sermon V. The shaking and translating of heaven and earth
“And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” — Heb. xii. 27.
The main design of the apostle in this scripture to the Hebrews, is to prevail, with his countrymen, who had undertaken the profession of the gospel, to abide constant and faithful therein, without any apostasy unto, or mixture with Judaism, which God and themselves had forsaken; — fully manifesting, that in such backsliders the soul of the Lord hath no pleasure, chap. x. 38, —
A task, which whoso undertaketh in any age, shall find exceeding weighty and difficult, — even to persuade professors to hold out and continue in the glory of their profession unto the end, that with patience doing the will of God they “might receive the promise;”1 — especially if there be “lions in the way,”2 if opposition or persecution do attend them in their professed subjection to the Lord Jesus. Of all that deformity and dissimilitude to the divine nature which is come upon us by the fall, there is no one part more eminent, or rather no one defect more evident, than inconstancy and unstableness of mind in embracing that which is spiritually good. Man being turned from his unchangeable rest3 seeks to quiet and satiate his soul with restless movings towards changeable things.
Now, he who worketh all our works for us and in us, Isa. xxvi. 12, worketh them also by us;4 and, therefore, that which he will give, he persuades us to have, that at once his bounty and our duty may receive a manifestation in the same thing. Of this nature is perseverance in the faith of Christ; — which, as by him it is promised, and therefore is a grace; so to us it is prescribed, and thereby is a duty. “Petamus ut det, quod ut habeamus jubet,” Augustine; — “Let us ask him to bestow what he requires us to enjoy.” Yea, “De Domine, quod jubes, et jube vis;” — “Give what thou commandest, and command what thou pleasest.”
As a duty it is by the apostle here considered; and therefore pressed on them who by nature were capable, and by grace enabled, for the performance thereof. Pathetical exhortations, then, unto perseverance in the profession of the gospel, bottomed on prevalent scriptural arguments and holy reasonings, are the sum of this epistle.
The arguments the apostle handleth unto the end proposed are of two sorts:— First, Principal; Secondly, Deductive, or emergencies from the first.
First, His principal arguments are drawn from two chief fountains:— 1. The author; and, 2. The nature and end of the gospel.
1. The author of the gospel is either, —
(1.) Principal and immediate, which is God the Father, who having at sundry times and in divers manners formerly spoken by the prophets, herein speaketh by his Son, chap. i. 1.
(2.) Concurrent and immediate, Jesus Christ, this great salvation, being begun to be spoken to us by the Lord, chap. ii. 3. This latter he chiefly considereth, as in and by whom the gospel is differenced from all other dispensations of the mind of God. Concerning him to the end intended he proposeth, —[1.] His person; [2.] His employment.
[1.] For his person, that thence he may argue to the thing aimed at, he holdeth out, —
1st. The infinite glory of his Deity; being “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” chap. i. 3.
2dly. The infinite condescension of his love, in assuming humanity; for, “because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same,” chap. ii. 14.
And from the consideration of both these, he presseth the main exhortation which he hath in hand, as you may see, chap. ii. 1, 2, iii. 12, 13, etc.
[2.] The employment of Christ he describeth in his offices, which he handleth, —
1st. Positively, and very briefly, chapters i., ii., iii.
2dly. Comparatively, insisting chiefly on his priesthood, — exalting it in sundry weighty particulars above that of Aaron, which yet was the glory of the Jewish worship; and this at large, chapters vi., vii., viii., ix., x. And this being variously advanced and asserted, he layeth as the main foundation, upon which he placeth the weight and stress of the main end pursued, as in the whole epistle is everywhere obvious.