For the validity of the apostle s proof in this place depends upon the certainty of the logical maxim before mentioned, the consideration of which removes the whole difficulty. And to deny this liberty of deducing consequences, or one thing from another, according to the just rules of ratiocination, is quite to take away the use of the Scripture, and to banish reason from those things wherein it ought to be principally employed. A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. The apostle s design in this epistle was to exhibit the immeasurable superiority of Christianity over Judaism, and exhort Hebrew believers to cleave steadfastly unto Christ, the true light and substance, and not to return to the shadows and symbols of a system which had then served its purpose.
Immediate inferences are as valid as express words.
What the Scripture doth import therefore by good consequence should be received as if it were expressed. Those who are familiar with the writings of Augustine and Calvin will have observed how frequently they drew the inference that whatever be freely bestowed by God is something of which fallen man, considered in himself, is destitute. It is an obvious deduction of reason, and a sure canon of exegesis, which is of simple and universal application, that everything which is graciously supplied in and by Christ is wanting in our natural condition. Thus, every verse which speaks of eternal life as a Divine gift, or which makes promise of it to those who believe, necessarily presupposes that we are without it, and therefore spiritually dead. There is much confusion of mind and not a little wrong thinking on the part of the saints concerning the place and extent which reason may and should have in connection with the Scriptures.