not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 25. Not forsaking our assembly. [6] Saint John Chrysostom understands the assemblies of Christians, where they met to celebrate the divine mysteries. Others expound it of not leaving the faith and communion of the Catholic Church by turning apostates: this is confirmed by the following words: for if we sin wilfully, … there is now left no sacrifice for sins. The Novatian heretics understood no pardon for sins after baptism. Saint John Chrysostom and others understood no second baptism, wherewith to be cleansed in the same manner as before; but the most probable interpretation, and most agreeable to the text and doctrine of Saint Paul, seems to be, that now remained no sacrifice for sins, that is no other sacrifice but that of Christ, which the apostate renouncing, by quitting and abandoning his faith, thereby cuts himself off from the very groundwork and foundation of salvation, as long as he continues in his apostacy. So that nothing remains for him but a dreadful expectation [7] of God’s just and severe judgments. Witham.