\\INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 3\\

The apostle having discoursed, in the preceding chapters, concerning
the dignity of Christ's person, and his wondrous grace in the
assumption of human nature, and suffering in the room and stead of his
people, exhorts the Hebrews in this to a serious consideration of him,
attention to him, and faith in him, and constancy in it; the arguments
he uses to engage them to these things are taken from the grace and
benefit they themselves were partakers of through him, from the office
in which he was, and his faithfulness to his Father in the discharge of
it, \\#Heb 3:1,2\\ which is illustrated in the case of Moses, who was
faithful in the house of God, and whom Christ excelled, and therefore
was worthy of more honour; partly, because he is the builder of the
house; and partly, because he is a Son in it, when Moses was only a
servant; which house is Christ's own, and consists of true and
steadfast believers in him, \\#Heb 3:2-6\\, wherefore the exhortation
to regard him is renewed, enforced, and expressed in the words of the
Holy Ghost, \\#Heb 3:7-11\\ which are taken out of \\#Ps 95:7-11\\ and
applied to the present case: hence the apostle cautions against
unbelief, as being a great evil in itself, and bad in its consequence,
causing persons to depart from the living God, \\#Heb 3:12\\, in order
to prevent which he advises to a daily exhortation of each other to
their duty, that so they might not be hardened in sin through the
deceitfulness of it, \\#Heb 3:13\\ and the rather it became them to be
concerned to hold fast their faith in Christ to the end, since this is
the grand evidence of being a partaker of him, \\#Heb 3:14\\. And then
the exhortation in the above passage of Scripture is recited,
\\#Heb 3:15\\ to show, that though not all the persons spoken of, yet
some did provoke the Lord by their unbelief, and unbecoming carriage,
\\#Heb 3:16\\ wherefore, by the example of punishment being inflicted on
such, of which instances are given in the forefathers of these people,
such as their carcasses falling in the wilderness, and their not
entering into the land of Canaan, which they could not, because God
swore they should not, being grieved and provoked by them, and because
of their unbelief, they are dissuaded from the same evils, lest they
should be punished in like manner, \\#Heb 3:17-19\\.