SERMON VIII.

ON COMING SHORT OF THE HEAVENLY

REST.

HEBREWS IV. 1.

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

THE word of God is the storehouse of heavenly wisdom, and whoever desires to be " thoroughly furnished" therefrom, so as to be "complete in all the will of God," must give heed to that word, and to every part of the same. He must have due respect to the doctrines, as well as to the precepts; and to the precepts, as well as to the doctrines of the gospel to its threatenings and admonitions, not less than to its promises and encouragements. It is a great part of Christian wisdom to receive in a becoming manner, and with

us.

suitable affections and dispositions of mind, the messages of God to our souls, in whatever way he is pleased to speak to Let us then, my brethren, bring to the sacred Scriptures hearts prepared to receive their impress, and to be cast into the very mould of the various solemn truths and holy precepts they contain.

Our present subject is of an admonitory kind, intended to excite within us. holy fear and godly jealousy. "Let us fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." I shall endeavour, first, to explain the meaning of the text, and secondly, to enforce the Apostle's exhortation.

I. THE EXPLANATION OF THE TEXT.

This will comprise the following particulars; the promise here mentioned, the nature of the rest, and what we are to understand by coming short.

1. The first thing to be noticed is "the promise left us of entering into rest." This is the self-same promise made to Abraham under the Old Testament dispensation not however that it refers to

any particular form of words; for the covenant or promise made repeatedly to Abraham has been renewed to the servants of Jehovah, from time to time, through successive ages of the church. Hence the self-same promise, delivered to our forefathers under the law, is renewed to us their posterity under the gospel. For that of which the Apostle speaks is not a new promise, one peculiar to the gospel, and under the New Testament published for the first time; but "a promise which is left us," a treasure indeed bestowed upon the church by God, yet bequeathed to us as a sacred legacy from our forefathers, in the earliest ages, and transmitted to us through successive generations. The Apostle distinctly refers to a promise made to the Israelites of entering into the land of Canaan, that land which they were taught to regard as "the rest and the inheritance" about to be given them of God. "I will establish my covenant between me and thee," said the Lord to Abraham," and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed

after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession." Such was the tenour of God's promise to his church under that dispensation which has passed away; and such is the tenour of the promise which we are warranted to believe belongs to the spiritual seed of Abraham, even genuine believers in Jesus, under the present dispensation which will never pass away, but continue till the end of time. This promise is, therefore, in the strictest propriety of language, a perpetual promise, an everlasting covenant. For it is common to both dispensations, and has ultimate respect to blessings and privileges essentially spiritual in their nature, and eternal in their duration.*

2. The rest therefore to which the text has respect, denotes nothing less than a heavenly and everlasting inheritance; for an earthly Canaan could not be everlastingly possessed, nor is it easy to conceive with what propriety a promise relating to a limited possession only of the Holy * See Notę, page 197.

Land, could be correctly styled an everlasting covenant. Yet although the rest promised to the church in the wilderness is manifestly the same which remains to the people of God in every age, the form of the promise has materially varied. The blessings secured to the church by the covenant engagements of Jehovah are the same; but they have been revealed, not only at sundry times and in divers manners, but with different degrees of clearness and fulness. Compare the pro

mise made to Adam, with the several divine communications with which Abraham was favoured, and these again with the promises and predictions interspersed through the writings of Isaiah, Daniel, and the minor prophets; and you perceive the light of heaven, faint in its earliest beams, shining upon a benighted world with a clearness, and a glory which increases more and more as the day of Christ advances. Thus the gospel was preached to Adam, to Abraham, and to the Israelites in the wilderness: but its glory shone with a fainter light than now; for the discoveries then made of God's purposes of