Matthew Poole and continuators on Hebrews 11:40

40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect g.

The causes of their not receiving the Promise, are summed up in this Verse; the efficient of it is God's Providence unto Believers before and after the incarnation of the Messiah; God having from Eternity foreknowledg of those who would believe in God the Son incarnate, Rom. 8.29. predestinated them to be called to the Faith in Him, and provided better for New-Testament-Believers than for the Old ones, that what they had of Christ in Types and Vails, these should have in Truth; what these had in Promise, they should have in Sight and Possession; what these had in Hope, as to his first coming, they should have it past, and it as an earnest of his second Coming; what they had by measure of his Spirit and Grace, these should have in fulness. Luke 10.23, 24. Iohn 1.14, 16. and 7.39. 2 Cor. 3.8. Ephes. 3.8, 9, 10, 11. Titus 2.13. 1 Pet. 1.12.

The final cause of this Gracious Providence was, that the former and later Believers might be compleated together, they shall not reach that perfect state of Grace and Glory by a reunion of their Bodies and Souls until the general Resurrection, when they shall not prevent us, nor we them; but as soon as the Trumpet alarms the Dead to rise, in the same moment, and twinkling of an Eye shall the Living be changed, and all be caught up together in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Air, and so shall be ever with the Lord, 1 Thess. 4.15, to 18. The ground of which Perfection of all Believers in all Ages being in the last time, is from his choosing them all to be but one body of Christ, and him their Head; so as one Member cannot be perfected but in the perfection of the whole, Matth. 8.11. Ephes. 4.4. In which perfection of it, God is resolved to be all in all; not in one, or in some, but when Christ hath subdued all his Enemies, and gathered all his Members, then shall his Body and Kingdom be perfected, and God be all in all, 1 Cor. 15.28.

Marginal references: Or, foreseen.