mere lost labor. Hearts pure and undefiled, minds serene and heavenly, so far as by the grace of God we can attain them, are required to this work; and it ought to be one great motive to an endeavor after them, that we may be more able to discern the mind of God in his word.

(5.) Sedulity and constancy in this duty are great helps to a profitable discharge of it. When men read the word but seldom, so that the things of it are not familiar to them, they will be continually at a loss what they are about. Besides, there is not any thing in our walking before God that is more acceptable unto him; for this expresseth somewhat of that reverence which we ought to have of the greatness and holiness of Him with whom we have to do. The Jews' frontispiece to their great bible is that saying of Jacob upon the vision he had at Bethel, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." So ought we to look upon the word with an holy awe and reverence of the presence of God in it..

(6.) In our search after truth our minds are greatly to be influenced and guided by the analogy of faith; "he that prophesieth" that is, interpreteth scripture, must do it, (Κατα την αναλογίαν της πισίεως,) Rom. xii, 6, "According (say we) to the proportion of faith," or things to be believed. There is a harmony, an unanswerableness, a proportion, in the whole system of faith: particular places are so to be interpreted, as that they do not break and disturb their order; for all the scripture is from the same spring of divine inspiration, and is in all things perfectly consistent with itself; and the things of greatest importance are delivered in it plainly, clearly, and frequently. To these the sense of every particular place is to be reduced; none is to

be assigned to it, none to be pretended from it, that clashes with any of the truths elsewhere clearly and fully confirmed. For men to come to a place of scripture, it may be dark and obscure in itself, and through I know not what pretences draw a sense from it, which is inconsistent with other doctrines of faith elsewhere plainly revealed, is openly to corrupt the word of God. Want of a due attention to this rule is that which produced the most pestilent heresies in the church.

(7.) A due consideration of the nature of the discourse wherein any words are used, tends much to give light into their sense and import, whether historical, prophetical, &c. Now these things are duly to be weighed by them who intend to dig deep in this mine of sacred truth; but particular directions in reference to them are too many here to be insisted on.

(8.) The proper grammatical sense of the words themselves is duly to be inquired into; and this principally respects them who are able to pursue this search after truth in the original languages. Others also may have much help by comparing parallel places, even in translations, whence the proper sense or usual acceptation of any words may be learned.

$6. What hath been now spoken may serve, as for the reproof of some, so for the direction of others. Whence is it that some receive so little benefit by their studying the scriptures, at least in their pretending so to do? Alas! their manifold miscarriages are manifest to all; without diligence, without humility, without watching unto prayer, they go in the confidence of their own strength and abilities to search and expound it; which is to attempt the opening of brazen doors, without a key.

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For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day.

$1-3 (L.) The interpretation of the words. $4. (II.) Observations. 1. There is no true rest for the souls of men but only in Jesus Christ by the gospel. $5. Improved. §6. 2. The gospel church state is a state of spiritual rest in Christ. §7. 3. It is a great privilege to have a day of rest.

§1. (I.) In this verse the apostle gives a farther confirmation to his argument, by a particular applica tion of it to the special matter in hand; and withal preventeth an objection, that might probably be raised against one part of his discourse. "For if Jesus had given them rest, &c." (natetavcev) caused them to rest. The apostle even in this chapter useth this word both in a neutral and active signification, ver. 4. God rested; here "caused them to rest," or "given them rest." The word properly, and usually in other authors, signifies (finem imponere, cessare facere) to put an end, or to make to cease; as rest puts an end to labor. So the word is used, ver. 10, "Hath ceased from his works."—(Iɛ085) Jesus; that is, Joshua; and by so calling him, the apostle also declares what was the true Hebrew name of Jesus Christ; the Greek names being alike, so were the Hebrew ones. Now as persons on great occasions had their names, as to their significations, wholly changed; for instance, when in the Old Testament Jacob was called Israel, and Solomon, Jedediah; and in the New Testament Simon was called Peter, and Saul was called Paul; and as divers had double names occasionally given them, as Esther and Hadussa, Daniel and Belteshazzar: so God was pleased sometimes to change one letter in a name, not without a mystical signification; as the

name of Abram was changed into Abraham; and that of Sarai into Sarah, Gen. xvii, 5-15; and here the name of Hosea is changed into Jehoshua, by the addition of one of the letters of the name of God increasing the signification; which name was given him as he was a type of Christ, or the typical Savior of the people. It is plain, that the reason of the name is taken from its signification of saving; he shall save, or, be the savior; and all the attempts that some have made to derive it from other words, are vain and frivolous; so also are theirs who would deduce the Greek name (I8685) Jesus, from (iáw, iácw) to heal; for (I8586) Jesus, is of no signification at all in the Greek tongue, it being only their manner of pronouncing (y) Jeshua, which is a Savior; and which was given to the Lord Christ because of the work he had to do; and to this Jesus, the son of Nun, his type, for the same reason.

§2. "He would not have spoken concerning another day." The apostle having described the rest he speaks of by the special day of rest that was in the several states of the church peculiarly to be observed, now (by a synechdoche) he expresseth the whole rest itself, and all the concernments of it, by the name of a day. "He could not have spoken;" that is, either God absolutely, or the Holy Ghost, whose immediate work the inspiration of the psalmist was, whose words these are-"After these things;" the things which befel the people in the wilderness, and what they afterwards attained under the conduct of Joshua. The objection laid down, by way of anticipation, is plain in the words, "Although the people which came out of Egypt entered not into the promised rest of God, by reason of unbelief and disobedience, as you have proved; yet the next generation, under the conduct of Joshua, entered and enjoyed it; therefore, what ground have you to

propose another rest to us?" This is the force of the objection; and the reason of his denial is, that five hundred years after, God, by David, proposeth another rest, or, another day of rest, and invites the people to an entrance, after they were so long fully possessed of all that Joshua conducted them into. And whereas there was no new rest for the people to enter into in the days of David, and the psalm, wherein these words are recorded, is acknowledged to be prophetical of the days of the Messiah, it unavoidably follows, that there is yet a rest, and a day of rest remaining for the people of God, as ver. 9.

§3. This interpretation of the words perfectly satisfieth the argument in hand; but I yet judge there is more in them than a mere answer to the objections mentioned, though expositors look no farther, viz. That the apostle also designs to teach the Hebrews that all these things, which were spoken about the rest of God in the land of Canaan and Mosaical institutions, had not the reality or substance of the things themselves in them, Heb. x, 1; so that absolutely neither did God rest, nor were the people to look for rest in them: they had no other end or use, but to teach them to look out after, and to prepare for that rest which was promised of old; so that Joshua did not give them real rest, but only that which was a typical instruction for a season. And therefore in David the same matter is still carried on, and direction is still given to look out after the future rest.

$4. (II.) Obs. 1. There is no true rest for the souls of men, but only in Jesus Christ by the gospel. Notwithstanding all that was done for the Israelites by Joshua, yet he gave them not rest, he brought them not into the full and complete rest of God; "having provided some better things for us, that they without