d. 1704
Hughes was one of the men who finished Matthew Poole’s English Annotations on the Holy Bible. Poole died after completing Isa. 58.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations on the Holy Bible
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance”
Heb. 6:4-6
Verse 5
‘And the powers of the world to come’; thus some of them were affected with the powerful doctrines of the gospel, concerning the final judgment, as their natural conscience was wrought on by the Spirit in the word, that they feel it as it were begun in them, the sparks of the wrath of God having set their consciences in a light flame for their sins, as in a Felix, Acts 24:25. As on the other hand, being acquainted by the Spirit in the word, of Christ’s being a Redeemer, to save them from the wrath to come, and to instate them into happiness, beyond what is attainable on earth; self-love doth externally close with the revelation and apply it to itself, as Balaam did, Numbers 23:10. All these five instances are the workings of the Holy Spirit on corrupt nature for its improvement, and in their falling from these supernatural operations, they do sin in tanto against the Holy Ghost.
“Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”
‘And hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace’; injuring, wronging, despising, greatly grieving, not a creature, but God the Spirit, the quickening Spirit of dead sinners, who fits them for union to God, and in order to it, unites him to Christ and his God, animates it; who graciously communicated to these apostates the knowledge natural and supernatural which they had and abused, Hebrews 6:5, by the desertion of the assemblies, where he manifested his gifts and graces. They reject Him with them, and treat his gifts and motions as if they were the delusions and impostures of an evil spirit; and this willfully done out of malice to Christ, and abhorrence of his church and religion. A sin like the devil’s, for them to forsake God loving, Christ redeeming, his blood justifying, his Spirit renewing, and so willfully refuse to be saved, and expose themselves to the severest punishment God can inflict on such sinners, and they do deserve.
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