Hebrews 6:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

That by two immutable things,— "Namely, a promise and an oath, in each of which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, even we who in humble obedience to the gracious designs of his gospel, have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope laid before us, the noble prize which that gospel proposes as the great object of our ambition and pursuit." Dr. Heylin observes, that the word παρακλησιν, rendered consolation, signifies incitement, and he observes, that the words in the next clause are figurative, yet clear, and highly instructive to those whom they concern; namely, they who have renounced the world, and its vain interests, and place all their happiness in being totally conformed to the will of God. The hope that this will one day be accomplished in them, is the refuge to which they necessarily fly: for withouthope the mind can have no rest; and these persons having withdrawn their hopes from secular interests, the hope of salvation (that is, conformity to the divine will,) is their only refuge. A firm adherence to this hope keeps them steadfast in the boisterous sea of temptations wherewith they are agitated; for so the metaphor is continued in the next verse: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, &c.