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As if the apostle had said, There is a rest promised to us believers, as well as the typical rest, Canaan, was promised to the Israelites.
Learn thence, That the state of believers, under the gospel, is a state of blessed rest. There is a spiritual rest in heaven. This spiritual rest consists in peace with God, in satisfaction and acquiescence to God, and in means of communion with God.
Learn, 2. That it is faith alone which is the only way and means of entering into this blessed state of rest: We who have believed do enter into rest; as unbelief cuts off from, so faith gives an entrance into, the rest of God.
It follows, "-As I have sworn in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest:"
Observe, Here is a threatening confirmed by the oath of God, that they who believe not should never enter into his rest, and a promise that such as do believe shall certainly enter.
Learn thence, That there is a mutual in-being of promises and threatenings in the covenant, which must be considered together, and cannot be separated each from other. Where there is a promise expressed, there a threatening is tacitly understood; and where there is a threatening expressed, be it never so severe yet there is a gracious promise included: nay, sometimes God gives out a threatening for no other end, but that men may lay hold upon the promise. Thus the threatening, that Nineveh should perish, was given out mercifully, that that Nineveh might not be destroyed.
It follows, "-Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."
That is, Almighty God, when he had perfected and finished the work of creation in six days, rested on the seventh day from his labour; showing us by his own example, that work and labour must precede our rest: after God had finished the glorious work of creation, he returns as it were into his own eternal rest, and directs to seek rest himself; and by his own example teaches us, that our days of labour must go before our day of rest.