Notes: Sect. 3. — God in Christ the only true rest for the soul.
Notes: Sect. 3. — God in Christ the only true rest for the soul.
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“Do enter into rest,” or that rest, namely: “his rest.” He means, that we even now enter into that rest by faith. Compare verse 10.
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This is one of the most solemn gospel offers to be found in all the New Testament; and our author seems here to point at what I conceive to be the true and genuine sense of it. The words “labour and heavy laden,” do not restrict the invitation and offer to those who are sensible of their sins, and longing to be rid of them — though indeed none but such will really accept — but they denote the restlessness of the sinful soul of man; a qualification (if it is so-called) to be found in all that are apart from Christ, whether they have, or have not, any notable law work on their consciences.
I say notable, to distinguish it from that which is common to all men, even to heathens, Rom. 11.15. Our father Adam led his whole family away out of their rest in God; and so he left them with a conscience full of guilt, and a heart full of unsatisfied desires. Hence his children soon find themselves like the horse-leech, having “two daughters, crying. Give, give;” namely, a restless conscience, and a restless heart; and to each of these the poor soul must say, as Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you?” so the blinded soul falls, labouring for rest to them. And it labours in the barren region of the fiery law for a rest to the conscience, and in the empty creation, for a rest to the heart: but, after all, the conscience is still heavy-laden with guilt, whether it has any lively feeling of it or not; and the heart is still under a load of unsatisfied desires; so neither the one nor the other can find rest indeed. This is the natural case of all men. And to souls thus labouring, and laden, Jesus Christ calls here, that they may “come to him, and he will give them rest;” namely, a rest for their consciences, under the covert of his blood; and a rest for their hearts, in the enjoyment of God through him.
This is most agreeable to the Scripture phraseology in Eccl. 10.15, “The labour of the foolish wearies every one of them, because he does not know how to go to the city,” — Hab. 2.13, “The people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity.” — Isa. 4.2, “Why do you spend your labour for what does not satisfy?”‘ See page 143, note. The prophet laments over a people more insensible than the ox or the ass, saying, “Ah, sinful nation! a people laden with iniquity,” Isa. 1.3, 4. And the apostle speaks of “silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” 2Tim. 3.6, 7.
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Namely, in respect to the guilt of eternal wrath. See page 104, note.
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A large cask or barrel .
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Namely, to be any part of the fountain of it for the time to come: as the rivers return to the sea from which they came, making a part of the store for their own fresh supply; no, it is the Lord alone that gives and maintains it, as our author afterwards expresses it.
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For we are never free from these in this life. And true repentance, and gospel-mourning for sin, are so consistent with it, that they flow from it, according to the measure of it. Psalm 65.3, “Iniquities prevail against me; as for our transgressions, you shall purge them away.” — Zech. 12.10, “They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn.”
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That is, the evidence, that they (namely: the peace and joy of believers) are still in being (in reram natura) and not quite extinct.
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Namely, the pure and spotless human nature of Christ.
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Your soul’s.
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A love of thanksgiving, bearing thankfulness in its nature.
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Or constrained by the force of that love.
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That is, of God himself in Christ.