And herein the design of God was to set us an example of that course which, “according to the counsel of his will,” he intended by his command to guide us unto; namely, that a course of work and labour might precede our full enjoyment of rest, This he plainly declares in the fourth commandment, where the reason he gives why we ought, in a returning course, to attend unto six days of la- bour before we sanctify a day of rest, is, because he wrought himself six days, and then entered into his rest, Exod. xx. 8-11. The com-
280 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [ CHAP. IV.
mand instructs us in, and gives us the force and use of the example he sets us. Thus he dealt with Adam; he set him to work so soon as he was made: “ He took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it,” Gen. ii, 15. And this he was to do antecedently unto the day of rest which was given him; for it was upon the sixth day, yea, before the creation of the woman, that he was designed unto and put into his employment, and the rest was not sanctified for him until the day following. And this day of rest was given unto him as a pledge of eternal rest with God. So both the whole course of his obedience and his final rest after it were represented by his days of work and rest.
But here now there is an alteration under the gospel. The day of rest under the law, as a pledge of final rest with God, was the last day of the seven, the seventh day; but under the gospel it is the first day of the seven. Then the week of labour went before, now it follows after. And the reason hereof seems to be taken from the different state of the church. For of old, under the covenant of works, men were absolutely to labour and work, without any alter- ation or improvement of their condition, before they entered into rest. They should have had only a continuance of their state wherein they first set out, but no rest until they had wrought for it. The six days of labour went before, and the day of rest, the seventh day, followed them. But now it is otherwise. The first thing that belongs unto our present state is an entering into rest initially; for we enter in by faith. And then our working doth en- sue; that is, “ the obedience of faith.” Rest is given us to set us on work; and our works are such as, for the manner of their perform- ance, are consistent with a state of rest. Hence our day of rest goes before our days of labour: it is now the first of the week, of the seven, which before was the last. And those who contend now for the observation of the seventh day do endeavour to bring us again under the covenant of works, that we should do all our work before we enter into any rest at all. But it will be objected, that this is contrary to our observation before laid down, namely, that, after the example of God, we must work before we enter into rest; for now it is said that we enter into rest antecedently unto our works of obedience.
Ans. 1. The rest intended in the proposition is absolute, com- plete, and perfect,—the rest which is to be enjoyed with God for ever. Now, antecedent unto the enjoyment hereof all our works performed in a state of initial rest must be wrought. 2. There are works also which must precede our entering into this initial or gos- pel test, though they belong not to our state, and so go before that sabbatical rest which precedes our course of working. Neither are these works such as are absolutely sinful in themselves and their own nature; which sort of works must be necessarily excluded from
VER. 4.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 281
this whole discourse. Thus, our Saviour calling sinners unto him, with this encouragement, that in him they should find rest and enter into it, as hath been declared, he calls them that “labour and are heavy laden,” Matt. xi. 28, 29. It is required that men labour under a sense of their sins, that they be burdened by them and made weary, before they enter into this initial rest. So that in every condition, both from the example of God and the nature of the thing itself, work and labour is to precede rest. And although we are now here in a state of rest, in comparison of what went be- fore, yet this also is a state of working and labour with respect unto that fulness of everlasting rest which shall ensue thereon. This is the condition, that, from the example and command of God himself, all are to accept of. Our works and labours are to precede our rest. And whereas the divine nature is no way capable of lassitude, weariness, sense of pain or trouble in operation, it is otherwise with us,—all these things are in us attended with trouble, weariness, and manifold perplexities. We are not only to do, but to suffer also. This way is marked out for us, let us pursue it patiently, that we may an- swer the example, and be like unto our heavenly Father. Again,—