A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…

2. Respect may be had herein to the future and final Reward of the Faith, Love, and Works of Believers. For this also belongs unto Gods Covenant. And it is so of Grace, as that the Righteousness of God wherein it is due unto us, can be no other but that of his Faithfulness in his Promises. For neither we nor our works are capable of an Eternal Reward by the way of merit, i. e. that the Reward should be reckoned unto us not of Grace but of Debt, Rom. 4. 4. And that which utterly overthrows such an Apprehension is, that God himself is our Eternal Reward, Gen. 15. 1. And I leave it unto others to consider how they can deserve that Reward. Whether of these senses he will embrace, the Reader is left to determine for himself. The former seems to me more suited to the design of the Apostle, and scope of the place. For he is satisfying these Hebrews that he made another Judgement of them, than of those Apostates whose condition he had before described. And this he doth on two Grounds. First, That they were actually made Partakers of sincere saving Grace, and therein things that accompany Salvation; and then that God in his Faithfulness would preserve and secure that Grace in them against all Oppositions unto the End. Following this sense of the words we may learn that

Our Perseverance in Faith and Obedience though it require our Duty and Constancy therein, yet it depends not on them absolutely, but on the Righteousness of God in his ¹Promises. Or if we had rather embrace the other sense of the words, then are we sufficiently instructed, That

1. 1Obser. 4.