self was pleased to impart it. This he did to his disciples when he first appeared to them after his resurrection. "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." John 20: 22. The Spirit was imparted copiously and wonderfully to the apostles, and other believers who were assembled with one accord, in one place, on the day of Pentecost. Again, Peter, as recorded in the 15th chapter of Acts, addressing the council of apostles and elders at Jerusalem, says: "Ye know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us, that the Gentiles, by my mouth, should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." By this it appears that when God gave the Holy Ghost to persons, it was an evidence that they were accepted by him, and approved as his children. The apostles and other divinely inspired teachers were invested by the Spirit of God with the power of performing miracles to prove that God had sent them, and that the doctrines which they preached were the truth of God. How then does it consist with reason to suppose that false teachers and other ungodly men possessed the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost in the same manner? What would be the effect but to render nugatory one of the strongest evidences they had to show that they were divinely commissioned, and thus to bring the Christian religion into universal discredit?

4. They had tasted of the good word of God. By the word of God we must understand, either the revelation of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, which those Hebrews had always possessed, or the gospel of God, which had then recently been preached to them. It is not material which explanation we adopt, since those who had a cordial relish for the one, must have had the same relish for the other also. In fact, both may have been intended. The word of God is said to be xaλóv, good, that is, desirable, or amiable. This they had ascertained by experiment; they had tasted of the word of God and found it good and excellent. Their experience corresponded with that of the Psalmist, who said: "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth;" 66 more to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold." To those who love God, who delight in his law, the word of God is sweet; they peruse it, hear it, medi

tate upon it, with great delight. Sooner would they resign all earthly possessions than be deprived of a blessing so highly esteemed. But to those who have no delight in God and the way of life which he has provided, his word appears void of interest, if not contradictory and absurd. The fact, then, that these persons had learned by experience the sweetness and excellency of the divine word, is a proof that their hearts had been changed, and that they were true believers in Jesus.

5. They had likewise tasted of the powers of the world to come,-dvvάuas te μéλhorros aiovos. Upon this clause Owen remarks, that "by the world to come our Apostle intends the days of the Messiah, that being the usual name of it in the church. at that time, as the new world which God had promised to create." Several other highly respectable expositors have expressed a similar opinion. Indeed, it seems to be very generally taken for granted, that in the days of the apostles the Christian dispensation was commonly denominated the world to come. But the proof, so far as we have been able to ascertain, is yet to be furnished. It is indeed said that the Hebrews, before the coming of the Messiah, were accustomed to speak of their own dispensation as is this age, and of the reign of the Messiah as is the age to come. And in some copies of the Septuagint, the phrase in Isaiah 9: 6, 7, which our translators have rendered Eternal Father,—is πατὴρ τοῦ μέλλοντος alovos, Father of the coming age; by which it is supposed the Christian dispensation was designated. But what if this dispensation, in the days of the prophets, while it was really future, was occasionally spoken of as the age to come? Does that prove that after it had come it continued to be spoken of in the very same terms? If the Christian dispensation, in the time of Christ and his apostles, was familiarly denominated the world to come, why are there no decided examples of it in their discourses and writings? We frequently meet with this phrase in the New Testament, but where in the sense above ascribed to it? "Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, οὔτε ἐν τούτῳ αἰῶνι, οὔτε ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι, neither in this world nor in that to come." Matt. 12: 32. What our Saviour meant by this world is evident from his words in the next chapter, v. 40: "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity,

and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." And that by "the world to come" he meant the eternal state, the world of retribution, clearly appears by the parallel passage in Mark 3: 28: "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." In the following passage, Christ speaks of these two states or worlds by way of contrast, and in terms which cannot easily be misunderstood. "The children of this world marry and are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage." Luke 20: 34, 35. In like manner, Paul, speaking of the exaltation of Christ, says that God "set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that also which is to come." How absurd it would be to interpret this last expression in such way as to limit the dominion of Christ to his reign on earth, when every impartial reader must see that it was designed to give us the largest and grandest idea of his exaltation! The phrase "world to come" is used in the New Testament generally, and I believe universally, in the same sense in which Christian writers and speakers commonly employ it now, to express the future state, the world of spirits. And so it ought to be understood in our text. If then we understand this phrase, "the world to come," to mean the eternal state into which souls enter after death, what is meant by tasting of its powers? The term dúvaus, in the singular, expresses ability, strength, or force. It is spoken of the essential power, the true nature and efficacy, the reality of any thing. The Apostle, Phil. 3: 10, expresses a strong desire that he might know Christ and the power of his resurrection; or, in other words, that this fact might have its due influence on his mind and conduct. In its plural form, the term is sometimes used to signify those who are invested with power, and sometimes for the mighty deeds performed by them, especially by the workers of miracles. The sun, moon and stars are repeatedly called the powers of the heavens, inasmuch as they are not only monuments of divine power, but have a mighty influence on the earth and its inhabitants. Of Christ it is said (1 Peter 3: 22): "He is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." Here

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the term powers, being used to express more than either of those preceding it, seems to include all things which have power. And so in our text, by "the powers of the world to come," we may understand whatever in that world is powerful, either in reality or by influence.

To taste of these powers, is to have a view of eternal things, and feel the impressions and emotions which such a view is suited to produce on the mind and heart of man. It is to know by the test of experience the power and efficacy of the revelation which God has given to man, respecting invisible and eternal things in the world of spirits. Having the eyes of their understanding enlightened, they had looked beyond this present state, and felt that the soul of man is immortal; had contemplated the judgment seat of Christ, and felt that they must appear before it, to give an account of all their moral actions; they had surveyed the state of lost souls, and shuddered in view of their unutterable agonies; they had seen the glory of God as it is in the face of Jesus Christ, and having found him precious, and having been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, they must have had affecting apprehensions of the joys of the heavenly world, and felt, as the Apostle expresses it in this same epistle, that they had " come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel." Of these divine realities they had not merely been informed, but were convinced by what they themselves had experienced. Having that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, they had felt the power of these things on their hearts and conduct; and so had tasted of the powers of the world to come.

Most of those who understand the gospel dispensation by "the world to come," suppose that by tasting of the powers of that world is meant that they were endowed by the Spirit of God with miraculous powers;-a sentiment much more naturally implied in the preceding clause, in which they are expressly said to have been " made partakers of the Holy Ghost."

6. These persons had once been renewed unto repentance. Though this is not directly affirmed, it is plainly implied;

since it is said to be impossible, "if they shall fall away, to renew them again (nálev) unto repentance." When our Saviour says: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst again," do not his words imply a previous thirsting? And when the Apostle says to the Philippians: "Again I say rejoice," does it not import that he had so said before? So when he speaks of these being renewed" again unto repentance," it is manifest that they are supposed to have already repented. Some, feeling the force of this argument, but being unwilling to admit that the persons spoken of were true Christians, have said that their former repentance could not have been of the right kind, that it must have been merely a worldly sorrow. To this it may be replied, that the original word for repentance (uerάvolav) is one which nowhere else is used in this sense, but is the distinguishing term to denote that repentance which the gospel requires. It is the same word which is used in the first verse of this chapter, where the Apostle speaks of " the foundation of repentance from dead works." Besides, if nothing but a worldly sorrow were meant, wherein would consist the difficulty of bringing them to the exercise of it again? All men, even the most infidel and hardened, will doubtless exercise such sorrow sooner or later. It must then have been true, godly sorrow, evangelical repentance which those of whom the Apostle was speaking had exercised.

This interpretation given to these passages is perfectly agreeable to the context, and indeed necessary to preserve the unity and strength of the discourse. Those whom the Apostle was addressing were "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." His object in this chapter is to persuade them not to rest in their present attainments, but to press forward in the divine life. "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God." "And this will we do if God permit." Then occur the words of our text, by way of assigning a reason why they should endeavor thus to go on: "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." Now if the persons described in the text are those whom the Apostle was exhorting to perseverance, what is said in reference to their apostasy is directly to his purpose, and certainly presents one of the most awakening and forcible considerations