CONTENTS
Paul is here speaking of Visions and Revelations, with which the Lord favored him. He speaks of his Infirmities.
(1) It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
As everything relating to those supernatural manifestations Paul was favored with, and which God the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to have recorded, for the comfort of the Church, becomes highly interesting; I would here more particularly beg the Reader's attention. All the visions and revelations which have been made to the Church, in the several periods of it have been uniformly intended to bring the Church, into some acquaintance with the Person, and eternal glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, as God-man mediator. As Christ in his Person, that is God and man in one is the first in all Jehovah's designs, and in Him, and through Him, and by Him, all revelations of Jehovah, in his threefold character of Persons are made, or capable of being made towards the Lord's intelligent creation; so, the ultimate end and design is, to centre all the glory of Jehovah; that is capable of being made visible to his creation, in the Person of the God-man Christ Jesus, that at the last day, all God's creatures may behold in Him the final issue of all Jehovah's decrees, in all the purposes of revelation, Ephesians 1:10. Hence all those occasional glories which have been shewn the Church, during the different periods of the Church, both under the Old Testament dispensation and the New, have been with the express design to bring the Church into an acquaintance with her Lord's Person and glory, as God-man mediator. And for this end, and to this purpose, the several servants of the Lord, as so many representatives of his Church, have been favored with these glorious manifestations, such as Paul is here about to speak of, and such as we read of others, both in the Old and New Testaments, Exodus 3; 1 John 3:9) hath a renewed nature, the Scriptures nowhere speak of mere professors, amidst all the high elevations of nature, as being born again. The stony ground hearers receive the word with great joy, but no fruit followed, because they had no root. And when those flashes of joy subsided, they soon died away. Hence the Prophet speaks, There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days, for the child (regenerated) shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner, being an hundred years old (yet unregenerated) shall be accursed, Isaiah 65:20
Such, then, according to my view of this blessed Scripture, appears to be the doctrine contained in it. The Holy Ghost is writing to the Church, considered in a state of regeneration; not unsimilar to the same purport as when writing to the Corinthians; babes in Christ, but yet too much occupied in worldly things, and of consequence, making slow progress in spiritual attainments, 1 Corinthians 3:1-2. He tells them, in opening his Epistle, in confirmation of their new birth, and justification in Christ, that Christ had by himself purged their sins; and that they were heirs of salvation, Hebrews 1:14; Hebrews 1:14, that Christ had not taken the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, on their account; and that, having himself suffered, being tempted; he knew how to succor them that were tempted, Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 2:18, that they were partakers of Christ, as a rich blessing not to be lost, and therefore were to hold fast their confidence of hope firm to the end, Hebrews 3:14. And that having such an High Priest as the Son of God, passed into the heavens, they were to come boldly to the throne of grace, and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, Hebrews 4:14-16. These, and the like things, they had been assured of in the preceding Chapter s; and in this the Lord tells them, that now they ought to go on to perfection, because they might, according to the time they had been in grace, have been teachers; which is a plain proof that they had not only been taught of God, and consequently regenerated; but that they had been a long time in a state of conversion. So that as the Holy Ghost, by the Apostle, in the close of this account blessedly saith, when he called them also beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, (than of those Apostates), and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak: that is though we thus speak of your slow progress in the divine life. And the Lord adds that God's faithfulness and love are engaged to them, for they had ministered and still did minister to the saints of God, as saints of God. An account of which we have, Hebrews 10:32 to end, and which is spoken as the effect of their early days conversion. I beg the Reader to turn to that Chapter, in proof. So that upon the whole, however low the waters of the sanctuary then ran to their view, for their comfort, yet they were in grace, and the Lord considered them as such, and charged them to be no longer slothful, but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
And now, my brother, in summing up the whole, I commend you to the grace of God, wherein (if in regeneration) you stand, that you may rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Painful and humbling ask is to a child of God, to feel such continual deadness of soul, such coldness of affection, the little growth in grace, yea, as it sometimes appears to you, rather growing imperfections, and under which you groan continually; nevertheless, these all differ from professing hypocrites. Such never groan, for they never felt the plague of their own heart, neither entered in by the door into the sheepfold, John 10:1. And, therefore, when at any time you behold such meteors in the professing Church, and see the blaze of their supposed gifts and talents, either as preachers or hearers, and then are tempted to draw conclusions unfavorable to yourself, from your long knowledge of the Lord, and your short comings; call to remembrance what God the Holy Ghost hath here taught, and wait and see the end of those men. Oh! how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearful end! But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; he is their strength in time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him, Psalms 37:39-40.