A commentary vpon the Epistles of Saint Paul to Philemon, and to the Hebrewes together with a compendious explication of the second and third Epistles of Saint Iohn. By VVilliam Iones of East Bergholt in Suffolke, Dr. in Divinity, and sometimes one of the fellowes of the foundation of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge.

VERSE 3.

WEE would seeke wayes of escaping, any hole or crany to escape by, but we shall find none: he makes them Iudges. I appeale to your owne selves, Iudge you.

He doth not say, if we contemne, secretly or openly,* 1.1 but if we neglect. The carelesse neglect of the Gospell shall pull damnation on us.

He doth not say, so great a word, as before: but, so great salva∣tion. A glorious and comfortable title, which cannot be ascribed to the law: that killeth, it doth not save.* 1.2 Saint Paul calls the law a killing letter, the ministration of death and of condemnation: but the Gospell sayes. It is the word of salvation, Act. 13.26. The power of GOD to salvation, Rom. 1.16. So that, they which con∣temne it, contemne their owne salvation.

So great as can not be expressed by the tongue of men and An∣gels: wrought by so great a Saviour, Tit. 2.13. So great as eye hath not seene, eare heard, neither entred into the heart of man to conceive: not a saving of us from, our enemies in this world: but of soule and body from the Devill, death and damnation in the world to come. Great also in eternitie and durance: for it shall never have end.

The greatnes of this salvation is amplified three kind of wayes.

• 1. By the first Preacher and divulger of it.
• 2. By those worthy instruments that succeeded him.
• 3. By the miracles wherewith it was graced.

That which wee heare is salvation; a matter of great weight and singular importance:* 1.3 therefore let us not neglect it. If a man lye in a deepe pit ready to be drowned, and one come to him offe∣ring him his hand to pull him out, will he not listen to him? The preaching of the word is Gods hand, to pull us out of the pit of hell, and shall wee neglect it? If a man tell thee of a Lord-ship which thou mayest have for a little money, wilt thou not give him the hea∣ring? We bring you tidings, not of an earthly Lordship, but of an everlasting kingdome, which you may have without Gold and without Silver, only reaching out the hand of faith to apprehend it, and shall we turne away our eares, and not regard it? How shall wee escape, if wee neglect so great salvation? When men are at a play, they will be attentive: and the preaching of the word, where∣by we may be saved in the life to come, is had in small estimation. What a lamentable thing is this? This must needs pull the wrath of GOD on us. Wee count it a small matter to neglect the Word of GOD: yet they that doe it shall hardly escape the vengeance of GOD: how shall they escape, sayes the Apostle? Certainly with great difficultie: therefore let us be diligent hearers of it.

The threatnings of Angels, if despised were severely punished: and shall not the threatnings of the Sonne of GOD in the mini∣strie of the Word? The Preachers in the name of CHRIST thunder out GODS judgements, against swearing, profanations, &c. A number heare them, and are no more moved than the stones in the wall: but GOD will meet with such, they shall hardly es∣cape, GOD will one way or other make them feele the smart of his heavy hand: there is no way of escaping for them. Therefore let us with reverence tremble at the word.

Which at the first began. Having taken a beginning to be prea∣ched by the LORD, which brought it first out of the bosome of his Father, he did not introduce it into this world by stealth, secret∣ly, as heresies and phantasies are wont to be, but openly: Christ al∣wayes taught in the Synagogues, and in the Temple.

The Lord. That is, the LORD IESUS, the LORD of hea∣ven and earth.

The LORD often so called: not by Angels, as the Law: but by the LORD, the naturall SON of GOD: not by mortall men, as Plato, Aristotle, &c. In this respect the Gospell should be most welcome to us.

The LORD IESUS Himselfe was the Preacher of the Gos∣pell:* 1.4 he went up and downe through Citties and Townes preach∣ing the Gospell.

The first Sermon hee made was in Nazareth, where hee was brought up: from thence he went up to Ierusalem, &c. CHRIST was a Preacher, and shall we thinke basely of Preachers? Was it not an high office, which the Sonne of GOD will take on him? CHRIST would not be a King, be refused that: then what wret∣ches are they that will rayle on Preachers, gibe and jest at them;

make songs of them? Reverence the Preachers, seeing CHRIST Himselfe was a Preacher.

And was confirmed unto us, &c.

Some expound it thus: and after them that heard it of Christ: it was confirmed to me, that is, after it was preached by CHRIST, and the first Apostles that heard him on the earth, it was confirmed to me also as a later Apostle, yet one that heard and saw CHRIST from heaven: rather, Paul in modesty and humilitie puts himselfe in the number of the common Saints and Christians,* 1.5 to whom the Gospell was confirmed by the miracles of the Apostles, or by the Apostles that heard Christ.

Or, he doth not speake here of his doctrine, as if he received that from the Apostles: but that hee was confirmed in the truth of the Gospell by the miracles of the Apostles, which was no dispa∣ragement to him.

This is the strongest argument: to perswade some, that this is none of Pauls Epistle. Saint Paul is wont to stand stiffely on the re∣putation of his Apostle-ship: hee had his doctrine not from men, but God: he was not inferiour to the chiefest Apostles: whereas the Author of this Epistle was one of the Apostles Schollers; he had the doctrine of the Gospell not at the first hand, but at the second.

This may be answered diverse kinde of wayes.

1. Both these may well bee applyed to Saint Paul: the LORD IESUS first preached the Gospell to him from heaven, when he called him, and he was confirmed in it by Ananias.

2 It may be a rhetoricall 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, frequent in divine and pro∣phane writings: when as the speaker assumes that to himselfe, which is proper to the hearers, and by a Synecdoche includes himselfe in their number: as the Penman of this Epistle sayes, how shall wee escape, if we neglect so great salvation? yet he was none of them that neglected this salvation, Heb. 10.26. Yet he did not commit that wilfull and horrible sin against the Holy Ghost. Paul, 1 Thes. 4.17. sayes, We that are alive; yet he was not alive at Christ's second comming: so though he say, which was confirmed to us, yet he speakes in the name of the Hebrews, not of his owne: as 1 Pet. 1.12. where S. Peter seemes to exempt himselfe out of the number of the Apostles, yet he was one.

3 S. Paul by conference with the Apostles, that heard Christ preach when he was on the earth, might without any disparage∣ment to him be the more confirmed in the truth of the Gospell.

4 He doth not say he was confirmed, but the Doctrine was; and that clause 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, imports not the persons, but the time.

Was confirmed to us: that is, to our time, by those that heard him, some of them being still alive even in our time: the Law and the Prophets were to Iohn, that is, to Iohn's time. The Gospell in England hath beene continued to us, that is, to our time: not by me alone which am a secondary Apostle borne out of time; but by the first Apostles of all: those after Christ preached to you Hebrews.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ier. 48.10.
• * 1.2

  2 Cor. 3.
• * 1.3

  Ephes. 1.13. Act. 13.26. Rom. 1.16.
• * 1.4

  Luk. 8.1.
• * 1.5

  1 Cor. 15.8 9.