First principles.
I. NOTICE THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THE TEACHING WHICH THESE BELIEVERS HAD ENJOYED. The foundations had been laid in those essential truths which embraced" faith toward God," whose constant presence, glorious character, and matchless love in Christ Jesus shone upon their souls, and displaced the chili and darkness of unbelief. This led to the rejection of "dead works," which were works that had no life of God in them. Then followed the doctrine of baptisms; and they were taught the difference between proselyte baptism, the baptism of John, and that which was administered in "the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." The "laying on of hands" was the solemn consecration of the candidate to God; and in the apostolic times was the ceremony connected with the gift of the Holy Ghost and the communication of supernatural powers (Acts 8:17). "The resurrection of the dead" was declared with explicitness, and the solemn event of the final judgment enforced, in which our Lord would review the life and determine the future condition of mankind. These truths involved many others which were needful to complete the course, and doubtless embraced the atonement of our Lord, the work of the Holy Spirit, personal and social means of grace, which consist of prayer, worship, and the celebration of the Lord's Supper. From such a foundation there should arise the stable fabric of a noble life.
II. THE EXHORTATION TO ADVANCE DEPENDENT UPON THE DIVINE PERMISSION, The inspired writer places himself among other believers, and associates his purpose and hope to advance with them in the career of that spiritual improvement which shall be crowned with final success. He avows that opportunity and disposition depend upon God alone. It might be that some to whom he wrote had gone so far back and had relapsed into such conditions of neglect and apostasy that he could not positively affirm that they would be awakened to a nobler life and an ardent pursuit of salvation. The bodily life of himself and others was totally dependent upon the will of God, and even at the longest it was as a vapor, that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away. Since there are signs in the Epistle that Jewish Christians had "no continuing city," and the predicted overthrow and destruction of Jerusalem might come suddenly, and the opportunities of teaching and worship might be rudely and finally ended, it behooved him to refer to the permission of God that he and ethers might press on to completer knowledge, larger faith, and nobler service.—B.