Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Ver. 1. We should let them slip] Or, run out, παραρρυωμεν, as water runs through a cracked vessel. The word mingled with faith in the heart, asActs 16:14, must be carefully kept, and it will safely keep us, Proverbs 6:20,22. Some render it, Nequando procter fluamus, lest we pass by the things we have heard, as a river swiftly passeth by the side of a city, as the fashion of this world passeth away, as a picture drawn upon the ice soon vanisheth, &c. The Arabic rendereth it, "lest we fall," the Syriac, "lest we perish." They must needs fall and never rise again, perish without remedy, that reject the remedy, that hate to be healed, that spurn at the grace of the gospel, which is post naufragium tabula, the power of God to salvation. This is as if a condemned prisoner should reject a pardon.