But we are yet further to inquire into the nature of the several rests here discoursed of by the apostle, with their relation one to an- other, and the especial concernments of that rest which he exhorts them to enter into, wherein the principal difficulties of the place do lie. And some light into the whole may be given in the ensuing propositions :—
1. Lhe rest of God is the foundation ‘and principal cause of our rest. So it is still called God’s rest: “If they shall enter into my rest.” It is, on some account or other, God’s rest before it is ours,
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2. God’s rest is not spoken of absolutely with respect unto him- self only, but with reference to the rest that ensued thereon for the church'to rest with him in. Hence it follows that the rests here mentioned are as it were double,—namely, the rest of God, and the rest that ensued thereon for us to enter into, For instance, at the finishing of the works of creation, which is first proposed, “ God ceased from his work, and rested;’ this was his own rest. He “rested on the seventh day.” But that was not all; he “blessed it” for the rest of man, a rest for us ensuing on his rest: that is, an ex- pressive representation of it, and a figure or means of our enter- ing into, or being taken into a participation of the rest of God; for the sum of all that is proposed unto us, is an entrance into the rest of God.
3. The apostle proposeth the threefold state of the church of God unto consideration :—(1.) The state of it under the law of nature or creation ; (2.) The state of it under the law of institutions and carnal ordinances; (3.) That now introducing wnder the gospel. To each of these he assigns a distinct rest of God, a rest of the church enter- ing into God’s rest, and a day of rest as a means and pledge thereof. And withal he manifests that the former two were ordered to be previous representations of the latter, though not equally nor on the same account.
(1.) He considers the church and the state of it under the law of nature, before the entrance of sin. And herein he shows, first, that there was a rest of God; for “the works,” saith he, “ were finished from the foundation of the world, and God did rest from all his works,” verses 3, 4. This was God’s own rest, and was the foun- dation of the church’s rest. For, [1.] It was the duty of man hereon to enter into the rest of God,—that is, to make God his rest, here in faith and obedience, and hereafter in immediate fruition; for which end also he was made. [2] A day of rest, namely, the seventh day, was blessed and sanctified, for the present means of entering into that rest of God, in the performance of his worship, and a pledge of the eternal fulness and continuance thereof, verses 3, 4. So that in this state of the church there were three things considerable :—[1.] God’s rest; [2.] Men’s entering into God’s rest by faith and obedience; [3.] A day of rest, or a remembrance of the one and a pledge of the other. And in all this there was a type of our rest under the gospel (for which end it is mentioned), wherein he who is God did cease from his work, and therein lay the foun- dation of the rest that ensued, as we shall see.
(2.) He considers the church under the law of institutions. And herein he representeth the rest of Canaan, wherein also the three distinct rests before mentioned do occur. [1.] There was in it a rest of God. This gives denomination to the whole, for he still calls it
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“my rest;” for God wrought about it works great and mighty, and ceased from them only when they were finished. And this work of his answered in its greatness unto the work of creation, whereunto it is compared by himself, Isa. li. 15, 16, “ I am the Lorp thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared; The Lorn of hosts is his name, And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.” The “ dividing of the sea, whose waves roared,” is put by a synecdoche for the whole work of God preparing a way for the church-state of the people in the land of Canaan, the whole being expressed in one signal instance: and this he compares unto the works of creation, in “ planting the heavens, and laying the founda- tions of the earth;” for although those words are but a metaphorical expression of the church and political state of the people, yet there is an evident allusion in them unto the original creation of all things. This was the work of God, upon the finishing whereof he entered into his rest; for after the erection of his worship in the land of Canaan, he said of it, “This is my rest, and here will I dwell.” [2.] God being thus entered into his rest, in like manner as formerly, two things ensued thereon:—1s¢. That the people are invited and encouraged to enter into his rest. And this their entrance into rest was their coming by faith and obedience into a participation of his worship, wherein he rested; which though some came short of by unbelief, yet others entered into under the conduct of Joshua. 2dly. Both these God expressed by appointing a day of rest; for he did so, both that it might be a token, sign, and pledge of his own rest in his instituted worship, and be a means, in the solemn observation of that worship, to further their entrance into the rest of God. These were the ends of God’s instituting a day of rest among his people, whereby it became a peculiar sign or token that he was their God, and that they were his people. It is true, this day was the same in order of the days with that before observed from the foundation of the world, namely, the seventh day from the foundation of the crea- tion; but yet it was now re-established, upon new considerations and unto new ends and purposes. The time of the change and altera- tion of the day itself was not yet come; for this work was but pre- paratory for a greater. And so, whereas both these rests, that of old, from the foundation of the world, and this newly instituted in the land of Canaan, were designed to represent the rest of the gos- pel, it was meet they should agree in the common pledge and token of them. Besides, the covenant whereunto the seventh day was originally annexed was not yet abolished, nor yet to be abolished; and so that day was not yet to be changed. Hence the seventh day came to fall under a double consideration :—(Ist.) As it was such a