them all. And this might have been justly enough said; for all true believers under the former economy did, immediately on death, obtain blessings which had been promised them, and which far more than compensated for all their toils and sorrows. And further, such a statement would have well comported with the Apostle's object, which was to support and animate the Hebrew Christians amid their trials. But the statement contained in the text, as we have seen, is equally true, that these excellent men, notwithstanding their faith, were not immediately, were not soon, put in possession of the great blessing; and it was at least equally fitted to prevent the Christian Hebrews from becoming faint in their minds because not fully invested immediately with the blessings of the Christian salvation, and to induce them to persevere in doing and suffering the will of God, though the promised blessing seemed long in being conferred on them. What a delight to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Isaiah, and Paul, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God! What. a comfort to think, when parted by more than sea and land from a dear Christian friend, we are not parted for ever: we will meet again-meet again to be made perfect, to be made perfect together-perfected together with brethren-glorified together with our Lord! 6 Some have supposed that the intended practical application of the Apostle's remark may be thus brought out: These ancient believers persevered in their attachment to Jehovah and His cause in life and in death, though the great object of their faith and hope was not bestowed on them. How much stronger the obligation, how much greater the encouragement, to persevere in the case of the Hebrew Christians, and of all Christians in all ages, who have received the promise, to whom the promised Deliverer has come! How comparatively easy to continue to believe in a well-established, past fact, in comparison with continuing to believe in a future event, in itself very improbable, and for which there was no ground of expectation but the divine promise! How much more, then, are your circumstances calculated to facilitate perseverance than theirs!' There is undoubted force in this reasoning, but we do not think that it is the argument suggested by the Apostle's train of thought. It is obvious that he represents the enjoyment of the promised blessing as future-not yet realized even in the case of the Christian Hebrews. "Ye have need of patience," says he, chap. x. 36, "that after ye have done the will of God, ye may obtain the promise." It is as if he had said in the words before us, 'Let not the fact, that the great object of your expectation is yet future—something which you do not yet enjoy-something that you are never to enjoy in the present state-something that will not be realized till the mystery of God is finished, at the consummation of all things,-let not this prevent you from persevering. All those elders who, by living and dying in faith, obtained a good report-so noble a memorial, and are now entered, though but entered, on the possession of the promised inheritance, all these, during their whole mortal life, many of them for ages after their death, did not obtain what is by way of eminence called "the promise." Nay, none of them even yet are in full possession of it. You have no cause to complain that you are to be here, or saved in hope, not in fruition-that you are to live in faith, die in faith-believing, not seeing or possessing.' That this is the practical bearing of the words, will, I trust, become more apparent as we proceed to the illustration of the second part of our text, contained in the 40th verse, which is certainly one of the most difficult in the whole Epistle. having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." "God II. There can be no doubt that the pronoun "us," here, refers to Christians-to those who live under the new economy. For them "God has provided some better thing." The question naturally occurs, Better than what? And the answer ordinarily returned is, 'Better than anything which the saints under the former economies received.' They received many good things, of which you have a catalogue in the beginning of the third and ninth chapters of the Epistle to the Romans; but they received not the promise, i.e., the promised blessing, by way of eminence. We have received it. The Messiah is come, and we are blessed with heavenly and spiritual blessings in Him. "Blessed," says our Lord, "are the eyes which see the things ye see: for verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things which ye hear, and have not heard them!" "The mystery which was kept to men. secret from former ages and generations has been unveiled." The great propitiation has been offered to God, and "set forth" The way into the holiest of all has been made manifest. The influence of the Holy Spirit has been more copiously shed forth, and more efficaciously exerted. Life and immortality have been placed in a clear, full light by the Gospel. A rational, spiritual, easy system of worship, has taken the place of the carnal, complicated, and burdensome ordinances of the law. The Church has passed from a state of minority, subjected to tutors and governors, a state of pupilage, into a state of mature sonship. Now all this is truth, important truth, delightful truth, influential truth; but still I cannot but doubt if it be the truth here stated. The promise here spoken of does not seem to be the promise of the Messiah-the promise that the Messiah should come; still less the promise of those blessings of His reign which are to be enjoyed in this world; but "the promise of eternal inheritance," a promise, the full accomplishment of which the saints under the new economy do not obtain in the present state, any more than their elder brethren under the former economies -a promise, the full accomplishment of which they are not to obtain till after they have done the will of God, as the Apostle states, chap. x. 36. These better things, which God has provided for us, or foreseen concerning us, are to be enjoyed, not here below, but when we and our elder brethren are made perfect together above. It is this being "made perfect" that is the sum of the better things. The answer, then, which we feel constrained to give to the question, What is the reference of the word "better" in the clause before us?—with what are the things provided by God for His New Testament people, and not for them only, but all His people equally, compared?-is this: The comparison is not between what the saints under the old economy enjoyed, and those which saints under the new economy enjoy on earth; but between what the saints under the new economy enjoy on earth, and what they are ultimately to enjoy in heaven. He marks, not what is the difference between the two classes of believers; he refers to something in which they do not differ, but agree. God has provided for us something better than anything we can attain to in the present state, just as He prepared for them something better than anything they could attain to in the present state. The ultimate object of their faith and hope lay beyond death and the grave, and so does ours. The good things provided for us by God are thus described by the inspired writers: "We know that when the earthly house of our tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. When we are absent from the body, we shall be present with the Lord. We know that them who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him. When He who is our life shall appear, shall be manifested, we also shall appear, shall be manifested, with Him in glory. When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, seeing Him as He is. Seeing His face in righteousness, we shall be satisfied with His likeness. We look for the Saviour from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change these vile bodies, and fashion them like unto His own glorious body. For this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption; and then shall be brought to pass that which is written, Death is swal lowed up in victory. And so shall we be for ever with the Lord. We shall dwell for ever in the presence of God and the Lamb. We shall serve them day and night in the celestial temple; and we shall go no more out for ever." These are the things which God hath provided for us; and surely these are infinitely better than anything, however good, we can attain to here below. But it may be said, These things are not provided exclusively for us Christians; they are laid up for all that love God, who ever lived, whether under the patriarchal, the Mosaic, or the Christian dispensation. We very readily admit this, but do not think that there is anything in the Apostle's words to lead us to conclude that the good, the better things he is speaking of, are the exclusive possession of Christians. For, indeed, if his words are carefully weighed, it will appear, as I have already hinted, that he is pointing out, not a contrast, but a resemblance, in the circumstances of Old Testament and New Testament believers. Old Testament believers did not obtain the promise in the present state, and neither do New Testament believers; for God has provided for them better things, in the better world, than any bestowed on them in this world. We, as well as our elder brethren, must live believing, and die believing; we must die in faith, as well as live by faith. It now only remains that we turn our attention to the concluding clause of the sentence, "That they without us should not be made perfect." Some interpreters connect these words with the first clause, considering the second as a parenthesis; thus: "All these, having obtained a good report by faith, received not the promise, that they might not without us be perfected." We consider them as equally connected with both clauses. Their meaning may, I apprehend, be brought out more distinctly by a very slight change, which the original warrants, if it do not require. "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they not without us"-i.e., that both they and we -"might be made perfect ;"-made perfect simultaneously, not one after another, no one preventing or getting before the other (1 Thess. iv.), at once. God has so arranged matters that the complete accomplishment of the promise, both to the Old Testament and to the New Testament believers, shall take place together at the same time. They shall be made perfect, but not without us. We and they shall obtain perfection together. The Old Testament saints died without receiving the promised blessing; yet their faith was by no means of no avail. In due season they shall be perfected—the promise, in its full extent, will be performed to them. And as God has provided for us, too, better things than any that are enjoyed by us here below, when they are perfected, we shall be perfected along with them. "To be made perfect," is the same thing as to receive the promise--for the promise is a promise of perfect, holy happiness,or to obtain the better things that God hath provided for us; for this is better, far better, than anything enjoyed here below. ""Tis heaven below to taste His love, To know His power and grace; This exactly corresponds with the representations in other parts of Scripture. The whole, whether they lived under the old or new dispensation, of the saved are together, either through a resurrection, or a miraculous, instantaneous change, to obtain the perfected glorified body, and are together to be put in possession of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. There is to be a gathering together of all the saved at |