REPOSE, or Rest. This was enjoin’d the Israelites on the Sabbath Day, for the Glory of God, in that he rested after the six Days of Creation. See SABBATH.
Deut. iii. 20.Repose also signifies a calm, fix’d, and secure Habitation. You shall go before your Brethren, until the Lord shall give Rest to your Brethren, as well as to you, in the Land which they are going to make a Conquest Deut. xii. 9.of. And again ; For ye are not as yet come to the Rest, and to the Inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you. You are not as yet settled in that Land which you are to possess. And Naomi says to Ruth, My Ruth iii. 1.Daughter, shall I not seek Rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? I shall endeavour to procure you a Settlement. And David speaking of the Ark of the Covenant, which till his time had no fix’d Place of Settlement Psal. cxxxii. 8.; Arise, O Lord, into thy Rest, Thou and the Ark of thy Strength. And Ecclesiasticus ; O Ecclus. xxxvi. 15.be merciful unto Jerusalem, thy holy City, the Place of thy Rest.
In a moral and spiritual Sense, Requies stands for the fix’d and permanent State of Repose of the Blessed in Heaven for all Eternity.
St. Paul makes an Application of what is said of the Settlement of the Israelites in the Land of Promise, to that Repose the Saints are to enjoy in Heaven. Quibus juravi in ira meâ si introibunt in requiem meam. I swore to Psal. xciv. 11.them in my Wrath, that they should not enter into my Rest, or into the Land of Canaan. Therefore, says St. Paul, as they could not enter therein by reason of their Heb. iii. 17. 18, 19. iv. 1, 2, 3.Unbelief, let us be afraid of following their Steps. For we cannot enter but by Faith, and by a strict Observance of his Ordinances.