Having taken a prospect into the whole design of this place, I shall now return to the consideration of those particular passages and testimonies by which the whole of what we have observed from the context is cleared and established. And first we must view again the preface, or entrance into the discourse, as it is expressed in the close of the third verse :—
“ Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
In these words the apostle begins his answer unto such objections as his former assertion, concerning the entrance of believers into God’s rest now under the gospel, seems to be liable unto. And therein he clears it by a further exposition of the testimony produced out of the psalmist unto that purpose, compared with other places of Scripture wherein mention is made of the rest of God in like manner. Now, all rest supposeth work and labour. The first no- tion of it is a cessation from labour, with the trouble or weariness
278 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP, lV.
thereof. Wherefore every rest of God must have some work of God preceding it. That labour and rest are not properly ascribed unto God is evident. They include that lassitude or weariness upon pains in labour, that ease and quiet upon a cessation from labour, whereof the divine nature is not capable. But the effect of God’s power in the operation of outward works, and an end of temporary operations, with the satisfaction of his wisdom in them, are the things that are intended in God’s working and resting. Here the first is mentioned, ra Zpya, “the works;” 1¥YD, “the work,”—that is, of God. So he calls the effect of his creating power, his “ work,” yea, “the work of his hands” and “fingers,” Ps. viii. 3, 6; in allusion to the way and manner whereby we effect our works. And the works here in- tended are expressed summarily, Gen. ii. 1, “ The heavens and the earth, and all the host of them;” that is, the whole creation, dis- tributed into its various kinds, with reference unto the season or dis- tinct days of their production, as Gen. i.
Of these works it is said they were “finished.” “The works were finished ;” that is, so effected and perfected as that God would work no more in the same kind. The continuation of things made be- longs unto God’s effective providence; from the making more things, kinds of things, new things, “in rerum natura,” God now ceased. So are the words usually interpreted, namely, that God now so fin- ished and perfected all kinds of things, as that he would never more create any new kind, race, or species of them, but only continue and increase those now made, by an ordinary work upon them and con- currence with them in his providence. It may be this is so; it may be no instance can be given of any absolutely new kind of creature made by God since the finishing of his work at the foundation of the world: but it cannot be proved from these words; for no more is expressed or intended in them, but that, at the end of the sixth day, God finished and put an end unto that whole work of creating heaven and earth, and all the host of them, which he then designed, made, and blessed. These works, therefore, the works of the first creation, were finished, completed, perfected; and this,—
“From the foundation of the world.” The words are a peri- phrasis of those six original days wherein time and all things mea- sured by it and extant with it had their beginning. It is sometimes absolutely called “the beginning,” Gen. i. 1, John i. 1; that is, when a beginning was given unto all creatures by Him who is without be- ginning. And both these expressions are put together, Heb. i. 10, nar’ &pyds. So the apostle renders 5°25, Ps. cii. 25, “In the be- ginning thou hast laid the foundation.” By “the foundation,” then, is not intended absolutely the first beginning or foundation of the work, as we call that the foundation of a house or building which is first laid, and on which the fabric is raised. But the word
VER. 3.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 279
is to be taken év xAcre, for the whole building itself; or formally for the building, which extends itself to the whole equally, and not materially to any part of it, first or last. For it is said that from this laying of the foundation “the works were finished.” Kara€or2 zéo0v 18 the erecting of the whole building of the creation on the stable foundation of the power of God put forth therein,
This is the first thing that the apostle fixeth as a foundation unto his ensuing discourse, namely, that in the first erection of the church in the state of nature, or under the law of creation, the be- ginning of it was in the work of God, which he first finished, and then entered into his rest; as he proves in the next verse. But we may here rest, and interpose some doctrinal observations; as first,—
Obs. IV. God hath showed us in his own example that work and labour is to precede our rest.
The first appearance of God to any of his rational creatures was working, or upon his works. Had any of them been awakened out of their nothing, and no representation of God been made unto them but of his essence and being in his own eternal rest and self-satis- faction, they could have had no such apprehensions of him as might prepare them for that subjection and obedience which he required of them. But now, in the very first instant of their existence, they found God gloriously displaying the properties of his nature, his wisdom, goodness, and power, in the works of his hands. This in- structed them into faith, fear, and subjection of soul. When the angels were first created, those creatures of light, they found God as it were laying the foundations of the heavens and earth; whereon all those “sons of God shouted for joy,’ Job xxxviil. 7. They rejoiced in the manifestation that was made of the power and wisdom of God in the works which they beheld. Hence it is justly supposed that they were made on the first day, when only the foundations of this glorious fabric were laid, Gen. i. 2; wherein they were able to dis- cern the impressions of his wisdom and power. Man was not created until more express representations were made of them in all other creatures, suited unto his institution. After God had done that which might satisfy them and men, in the contemplation of his works, he enters into his rest, returns as it were into his own eternal rest, and directs them to seek rest in himself.