36 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATE. 



The heavenly rest not referred to. The two tj-pcs. 



the apostle had been treating ) and as for the word ' re- 

 maineth/ this does not denote the futurity of it, hut the 

 apostle's inference or consequence from what he had said; and 

 the sense is, it remains, therefore, and is a certain fact, a clear 

 consequence from what has been observed, that there is an- 

 other rest distinct from God's rest on the seventh day, and 

 from the rest in the land of Canaan ; which were both typical 

 ones of the present rest the saints now enjoy/' (Comment. iii 

 loco.) 



The view which would refer this sabbatism to the rest be- 

 yond the grave finds no support from the context. The 

 whole subject of this dissertation is the Levitical symbolism 

 of the gospel; without the slightest reference to a /uture 

 life. ^' Unbelief '' — the great stumbling-block of the Hebrews 

 — is characterized as the chief obstacle to their enjoyment of 

 the promised repose ; which (it would appear) is complete in 

 proportion to faith. '^ 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/^ '^ Let us labor therefore to enter into 

 that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbe- 

 lief/' (v. 11.) " For we which have believed, do enter into 

 rest ;" — evidently not in a future sense. " Come unto me all 

 ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

 [Matt. xi. 28.) 



The two different rests referred to above (in verses 4 and 

 8) appear to have prefigured — each its peculiar antitype ; and 

 while the spiritualizing Jews regarded Canaan (to possess 

 which they passed the Jordan — Josh. i. 11) as emblematic of 

 the heavenly repose after death (Job iii. 17 ', Rev. xiv. 13), 

 they looked upon the more transient Sabbath day as a shadow 

 of the temporal repose of their nation under their Messiah's 

 empire.* Hence, the early and wide-spread sentiment of a 



* "The Jews," says Burnet, "have a remarkable prophecy, which 

 expresseth both the whole and the parts of the world's duration. The 



