Expositors generally grant that it is the rest of glory which is here intended. This is the ultimate rest which is promised unto believers under the gospel. So they who are in glory are said to “rest from their labours,” Rev. xiv. 13, and to have “ rest,” 2 Thess. i. 7,—the rest of believers in heaven, after they have passed through their course of trials, sufferings, faith, and obedience, in this world. This rest they take it for granted that the apostle insists on throughout this chapter, and they make a supposition thereof the ground of their exposition of the several parts of it, regulating the whole thereby. But I must take the liberty to dissent from this supposition, and that upon the reasons following :—
First, The “rest” here proposed is peculiar to the gospel and the times thereof, and contradistinct unto that which was proposed unto the people under the economy of Moses; for whereas it is said that the people in the wilderness failed and came short of entering into rest, the rest promised unto them, the apostle proves from the psalmist that there is another rest, contradistinct unto that, pro- posed under the gospel. And this cannot be the eternal rest of glory, because those under the old testament had the promise there- of no less than we have under the gospel; for with respect there- unto doth our apostle in the next verse affirm that “the gospel was preached unto them, as it is unto us,’—no less truly, though less clearly and evidently. And this rest multitudes of them entered into. For they were both “justified by faith,” Rom. iv. 3, 7, 8, and had the “adoption of children,” Rom. ix. 4; and when they died they entered into eternal rest with God. They did, I say, enter into the rest of God; that is, at their death they went unto a place of refresh- ment under the favour of God: for whatever may be thought of any circumstances of their condition,—as that their souls were only in “loco refrigerii,” in a place of refreshment, and not of the enjoy-
216 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
ment of the immediate presence of God,—yet it cannot be denied but that they entered into peace, and rested, Isa. lvii. 2. This, there- fore, cannot be that other rest which is provided under the gospel, in opposition to that. proposed under the law, or to the people in the wilderness.
Secondly, The apostle plainly carrieth on in his whole discourse an antithesis consisting of many parts. The principal subject of it is the two people,—that in the wilderness, and those Hebrews to whom the gospel was now preached. Concerning them he manageth his opposition as to the promises made unto them, the things pro- mised, and the means or persons whereby they were to be made partakers of them, namely, Moses and Joshua on the one hand, and Jesus Christ on the other. Look, then, what was the rest of God which they of old entered not into, and that which is now proposed must bear its part in the antithesis against it, and hold proportion with it. Now that rest, as we have proved, whereinto they entered not, was the quiet, settled state of God’s solemn worship in the land of Canaan, or a peaceable church-state for the worship of God in the land and place chosen out for that purpose.
Now, it is not the rest of heaven that, in this antithesis ane the law and the gospel, is opposed hereunto, but the rest that be- lievers have in Christ, with that church-state and worship which by him, as the great prophet of the church, in answer unto Moses, was erected, and into the possession whereof he powerfully leads them, as did Joshua the people of old into the rest of Canaan.
Thirdly, The apostle plainly affirms this to be his intention, for, verse 8, he saith, “ For we which have believed do enter into rest.” It is such a rest, it is that rest which true believers do enter into in this world; and this is the rest which we have by Christ in the grace and worship of the gospel, and no other. And thus the rest which was proposed of old for the people to enter into, which some obtained, and others came short of by unbelief, was a rest in this world, wherein the effects of their faith and unbelief were visible; and therefore so also must that be wherewith it is compared. And this consideration we shall strengthen from sundry other passages in the context, as we go through with them in our way.
Fourthly, Christ and the gospel were promised of old to the people as a means and state of rest; and in answer unto those pro- mises they are here actually proposed unto their enjoyment. See Isa. xi. 1-10, xxviii. 12; Ps. lxxii 7, 8, etc.; Isa. ix. 6, 7, mL) 2ede Gen. v. 29; Matt. xi. 28; Isa. Ixvi; Luke i. 70-75. This was the principal notion which the church had from the foundation of the world concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, or the state of the gospel, namely, that it was a state of spiritual rest and deliverance from every thing that was grievous or burdensome unto the souls
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 217