First, That the express words here used do assign a present en- trance into rest unto them that do believe, or have believed: Ejsep- 36420,—“ We do enter in.” It may be said, and it is confessed that the present tense doth sometimes express that which is instantly future; as some think it may be proved from Luke xxii. 20, “ This cup is the new testament in my blood, rd itp imay exyuvomevov,”— “which is shed for you.” Soalsois the same word used, Matt. xxvi. 28. The Vulgar Latin renders the word in each place “ effundetur,” “shall be shed” (or “ poured out”) “ for you,” with respect unto the death of Christ, which was shortly to ensue. I will not deny, as was said, but that the present tense is sometimes put for the future, when the thing intended is immediately to ensue; but yet it is not proved from this place. For our Saviour speaks of the virtue of his blood, and not of the time of shedding it. It was unto them, im the par- ticipation of that ordinance, as if it had been then shed, as to the virtue and efficacy of it. But zpyeras seems to be put for zAsioeras, John iv. 21, “1s come,” for “shall come” speedily; and 6 épyduevog is sometimes “he that is to come.” But whenever there is such an enallage of tenses, the instant accomplishment of the thing supposed
VER. 3.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 257
future is intended; which cannot be said with respect unto eternal rest in heaven. So this change is not to be supposed or allowed, but where the nature of the thing spoken of doth necessarily require it. This tense is not to be imposed on the places where the proper signi- fication of a word so timed is natural and genuine, as it is in this place. It is here, then, plainly affirmed that believers do here, in this world, enter into rest in their gospel-state.
Secondly, The apostle is not primarily in this place exhorting sincere believers unto perseverance, that so at last they may be saved, or enter into eternal rest; but professors, and all to whom the word did come, that they would be sincere and sound in be- lieving. He considers them in the same state with the people in the wilderness when the promise was proposed unto them. Their faith then in it, when they were tried, would have given them an immediate entrance into the land of Canaan. Together with the promise, there was a rest to be instantly enjoyed on their believing. Accordingly, considering the Hebrews in the like condition, he ex- horts them to close with the promise, whereby they may enter into the rest that it proposed unto them. And unto perseverance he exhorts them, as an evidence of that faith which will give them an assured entrance into this rest of God; as chap. ii. 14, “ We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.”
Thirdly, The rest here intended is that whereof the land of Ca- naan was a type. But there were no types of heaven absolutely as a future state of glory. But both the land and all the institutions to be observed in it were types of Christ, with the rest and worship of believers in and by him. They were “shadows of things to come, the body whereof was Christ,” Col. i. 17. The whole substance of what was intended in them and represented by them was in Christ mystical, and that in this world, before his giving up the kingdom unto the Father at the end, that God may be all in all. Our apostle, indeed, declares that the most holy place in the tabernacle and temple did represent and figure out heaven itself, or the “holy place not made with hands;” as we shall see at large afterwards, Heb. ix. 6-12. But there heaven is not considered as the place of eternal rest and glory to them that die in the Lord, but as the place wherein the gospel-worship of believers is celebrated and accepted, under the conduct and ministration of our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ; which office ceaseth when his saints are brought into glory. The rest, therefore, here intended being that which was typed out and represented by the land of Canaan, is not the rest of heaven, but of that gospel-state whereinto we are admitted by Jesus Christ. Hereof, and not of heaven itself, was the whole Mosaical economy typical, as shall elsewhere be at large demonstrated.
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258 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
This, therefore, is the sense and importance of the apostle’s asser- tion in this verse, ‘ We who have believed in Jesus Christ, through the gospel, have thereby an admittance and entrance given unto us into that blessed state of rest in the worship of God which of old was promised, Luke i. 69-73. It remains only that we inquire into the nature of this rest, what it is and wherein it doth consist. Now this we have done also already on the first verse; but the whole matter may be further explained, especially with respect unto the principal consideration of it, And thisis, on what account this gos- pel-state is called God’s rest, for so it is in this verse, “If they shall enter into my rest.”