this Rest of Faith for justification St. Paul shews in the next words that they rather confirm and ratifie the pardon than question or lessen it through that experience of Gods wise and faithful love in making all things work together for good to those that love him above all Who shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ shall Tribulation or Distress Persecution or Nakedness Famin or Sword in all these we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us If weak Christians coming to Christ with faithful desires and resolutions to weare his Yoke and bear his Burthen meekly and humbly find not this Rest of justification with such a degree of Peace and Joy as St. Paul expresseth 't is not because Christ giveth them not what he promiseth but because he giveth it them gradually according as they are able and fit by their Faith to receive it for he saith to every Soul now as to them in St. Matt. 9.24 Be it unto you according to your Faith if your Faith be strong and lively both in believing my promise and merit and in undertaking that Yoke of his Yoke though they find not as yet that Rest and Peace which their Souls desire pray and stay for Blessed is he that stayeth and waiteth with humble Prayer Gods leisure since he hath promised who cannot fail that he will not break the bruised Reed but give in time the Garment of joy for the Spirit of heaviness and Isai 57.15 16. I will dwell with the contrite humble Spirit to revive it for I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wrath lest the Spirit should fail before me and the Souls which I have made Thus you have seen the first Rest which true believers enter into even here in this life the Rest of Pardon and Justification upon their Repentance and Faith in Christ The second is a Rest from the Tyrannous reign of sin by those Motives of Hope and Fear Love and Gratitude which faith propoundeth from Christs Gospel and the Spirit of grace holiness and comfort which faith procureth by earnest Prayer Now this is so necessarily joyned with the other the Rest of Pardon that 't is its ordinary standing evidence and the means to obtain it more and more For we may not come to Christ for Pardon to give us the Rest of justification from sins guilt and condemning power by his Blood unless we so value that pardon and its price as sincerely to hate and be heartily willing to forsake that sin which the wisdom and holy justice of God could not or would not remit or forgive but at such a price as his own eternal infinite Sons humiliation to and in that humane nature which had offended We must feel as well the burthen of sins loathsom filth and hateful disorder as well as that of its guilt and punishment before we are those weary and laden those poor and humble ones in Spirit who have a Title to rely on Christ for Rest from both but to those who so come unto him our gracous Lord never denies what he invites to Rest from the slavish service of sin as well as from its intolerable guilt and condemnation His blood and spirit are never sever'd where-ever the one is actually imputed to justification the other is always imparted also to sanctification and therefore St. Paul joyns them together 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washt but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And Rom. 8.2.9 The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of sin and death But if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is as yet none of his though he may be his by repentance and faith And indeed this Rest from sins dominion you will easily see to be a necessary and great part of the Souls happiness in this life if you will but consider the burthensome drudgery that wicked Men lie under until they obtain it and enter into it by such a faith in Christ Jesus as works by obedience For every person living in any course of impiety unrighteousness intemperance is a self-accusing self-condemning divided creature a terror and shame unto himself He cannot choose but wish and desire eternal Rest yet is customarily drawn by his lusts and passions to do that which certainly leads to eternal anxiety and tribulation His reason invites him to that good which is Spiritual immortal infinite and therefore a satisfactory Rest to his Soul to the only God who made him at first and who alone can make him happy But his lust and passions draw him away to that which is earthly sensual devilish Not only finite and fading and so disappointing him but filthy and base and so distracting and vexing his Soul with foul disorder and guilty shame His Spirits and conscience often tells him that he ought to maintain an humble holy communion with God by Faith and Hope and Love Prayers and Praises that so he may be prepared to see him in that immediate clear revelation of his glory but his lusts and passions so burthen and oppress him that he cannot lift up his heart to God nor draw near his holy presence with any delight but studies to shun him and live without the remembrance of his goodness and mercies that he may forget his power and justice To behold the Creator in the Creature and love the giver in his gifts to contemplate his power wisdom and goodness shining in his word and works to be thankfull for his past benefits rejoycing in his present favour and panting after his blessed presence to all eternity to fit himself for that presence by purifying himself as he is pure by being righteous holy and merciful as he is to govern himself and those that are under him in such order as God prescribes this is the Rest as well as the Labour of rational Souls in this life a pleasure and honour as well as a taske But sin is such a burthenous Tyrant and oppressor that it makes the sinner imploy his reason made to serve know love and enjoy God It makes him imploy this reason in the drudgery of covetousness in the brutishness of lusts and sensuality in the devillishness of malice envy revenge pride and ambition His reason was given to study God and his Will to please and delight in him here that he may for ever see and enjoy him with mutual complacency to help others to do so by word and deed and who is there that hath not quite unchristian'd and unman'd himself but in sober retirement thinks this a work that hath pleasure in it and Rest as well as Labour But sin is such a wearisom Tyrant and oppressor that it makes the reasonable immortal Soul that heavenly breath that Image of God a sneaking Pandor to his lusts a drudging purveyor to his belly and appetite a fawning
of Rebels the riotous assemblies of gluttons and drunkards they must be ready and forward to go to the place where Gods honour dwelleth where his word and Sacraments are dispensed to the house where the Widow and Fatherless inhabit If the wicked perverse sinful foot be cut off and the holy charitable foot be left thee to carry thee to thy duty towards God and Man what hast thou lost but the disconsolate walk of a wilderness amongst briers and thorns and serpents the path of dismal darkness and death and error where no Rest is to be found For that of truth light and life and eternal happiness Last of all we must be sure to keep the heart for God that of all the rest he chiefly expects without which the putting out of the Eye the cutting off the hand and setting a watch over our Tongue and offering up our dearest and only Isaac in obedience to Christs Command will be thought but an Hypocritical mockery of God who knows the heart and cannot be mocked My Son give me thy heart Prov. 20.26 That he asks and that he will have and surely no Son will withhold that from his Father The heart is the Throne of the great King where he sits and rules the whole Man this is the most holy place of the Temple where the Spirit of truth and holiness inhabits and therefore he that gives him not this gives him nothing that he will accept or that will make for our everlasting Rest If the heart be first presented the rest will and must follow a wise and holy Tongue a diligent and liberal hand a watchful and attentive Ear a wary foot obedient sober chast flesh will not stay behind but will all conduce to the carrying us on in peace to this desired Rest Every part and member of the body looks to be at Rest and in perfect happiness in Heaven and therefore every part must look to praise and glorify him on Earth 't is not enough that the Tongue be holy and chast if the hand be covetous nor that the Ear be diligent and attentive at holy duties if the Tongue speak not and the hand act not according to what the Ear heard Every member must do its office the head was made to know God the heart to love him the Tongue to praise him the feet to follow him wherefore withhold no part from him remember he made the whole Man and redeemed the whole if any thing be withheld no Rest no happiness to be expected 't is in our choice whilst we are here what we will do and which we will chuse whether to take part with Satan whose work it is to destroy us or come when Christ calls us to him who will assuredly save us one of these we must do there 's no neutrality between both either we must be the Members of Christ the Children of God and Heirs of Heaven or else we must be the Children of Satan and Heirs of intolerable endless condemnation Remember the dreadful misery of their choice who take hell for their portion and remember that a short delight here unrepented will cost a lasting sorrow hereafter Shall the Son of God become the Son of Man to present us unto God his Father to give us eternal Rest and shall we refuse and flee from our own happiness and become profoundly miserable in despight of all his mercy and tender care over us If Christ say Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you Rest Shall we stop our Ears at this gracious call of Christ and continue in wilful sins What do we else then but knowingly prefer the whispers of Satan before the loud cries and calls of Christ We chuse hell and death and the company of infernal Spirits before Heaven and life and the Society of Saints and Angels If we refuse to come now when Christ calls us at the last day he will refuse to receive us If we appear with hearts filled with iniquity and hands full of blood with feet that walked in the counsel of the ungodly and stood in the way of sinners he will not know us for his Children having lost his Image in which we were made he will say unto us Depart from me ye cursed I know ye not But if we carry with us the resemblance of our Maker that Image and likeness of him which he once stamped upon us if we can present him with a wise and pure heart if we can lift up unto him holy hands if we can see him with chaste Eyes and if our feet have walked in his Commandements and trod his Courts if our feet have stood in thy Gates O Jerusalem then shall the Gates of Heaven open unto us then our Heavenly Father will take us for his obedient Sons such as heard his voice and such as shall hear it again when he will say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the begining of the World for I was hungry and ye fed me in Prison and ye visited me c. All the Sons of God from the first born to the last are all heirs to a Kingdom all his invitations are to a Crown his Sons are inheritors of those joys which fade not away and of that Rest which never shall have end Whereas the sinful Person 's immoderate desires of the things of this World are but his torment till he be satisfied and then his satisfaction is his torment because there 's no Rest nor quiet in it and proves so much less than his expectation Thus is the restless sinner always sick one while of too much another while of too little now of loving then of loathing now of want then of satiety for he never ceaseth to want till he cease to desire and Man is always desiring either the presence of somthing he cannot have or the absence of somthing he cannot remove or else the continuance of somthing he cannot keep Hence the sinner appears to be as the Prophet Esaiah speaks Isa 57.20 Like the troubled Sea when it cannot Rest whose waters cast up mire and durt The Winds within him and the Waves and Tide without him give him no Rest and when his delights are at the highest floud they do bring him the sad news of an approaching ebb Ask but the unclean Adulterer and let him tell you what Rest and Peace he finds in his vice compare but his short pleasure with the tormenting fire of his lusts joyn'd with the worm of his guilty conscience Have but patience to look upon him in his nasty diseases and rotten bones his wasted flesh as well as estate for that is often the event always the hazard and he will have little to boast of but will find himself really to endure more misery in the way to eternal death than many a holy chast Christian finds to eternal life Ask the Glutton or the Drunkard whose highest thoughts are for the cloying not satisfying
it shew this eternal Rest to be very desirable but the contrariety shews that this Rest hath so much of difficulty in it that all that lay claim to it cannot justifie their claim And though they cry with the Mathematician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found and I have found it yet they are so much to seek that their confidence without evidence hath brought many to put it to the question Whether there be any such Rest to be found We must not be so foolish or so slothful as those Scepticks who question or deride the possibility of searching and finding out this eternal Rest but with humility and diligence humbly apply our selves to those Rules which are given us for its discovery Some there are that lay claim to no other nor higher felicity than that which either natural Philosophy or civil Policy can help them to And these though they have gone far discovered and publisht many truths pleasant and profitable for the World yet their aims are too low to give the soul of Man satisfaction or acquiescense here The light and rules they walk by too weak and too uncertain to reach those very aims which themselves own much more must they needs fall short of Mans great eternal end this endless Rest The pursuit whereof is our wisdom here the attaining whereof is our happiness hereafter There are in the World Men and those not a few who seek after wealth and honour and great power and weary themselves day and night to attain their ambitious desires and think themselves still in the way towards this eternal Rest But our Saviour's appearing in the World as he did in much humility demonstrates unto us the contrary The innocency righteousness charity and holiness of his life were so conspicuous that the Scribes and Pharisees nay the Devil himself could not find any true accusation against him and he that betrayed him went and hanged himself because he had betrayed so innocent so good and holy a Person Because he came not to gratifie the wordly and carnal expectations of the Jews with any outward pomp or splendor suitable to their desires they vilify his Person revile his doctrine persecute his followers contrive his ruine Yet what was a temporal advancement or deliverance to an eternal redemption from sin death and hell to an eternal advancement above all enemies to those honours and joys at Gods right hand And how contrary had it been to the design of his incarnation which was to satisfie for Mankind's former Pride and Ambition intemperate voluptuousness insatiable covetousness To exemplify as well as teach them the grace of piety and contentedness with the meanest condition here below by setting their hearts on things above How contrary had it been to such a purpose for our Lord to have appeared in the plenty of wealth or the splendor or pomp of worldly honour in the power of Armies to conquer Nations by Sword or Force all which would have but enraged the sinful distempers of Mans Soul which he came to cure He had given the Jews abundant evidence both at his birth and throughout his life yea at his very death that 't was not weakness or any necessity that made him appear in such mean condition but his voluntary choice and love to Mankind to draw them off from the love of this World to that of God and a better life For surely he that could command a Star to attend him at his birth and an Heavenly Host to sing an Anthem of Glory to God at his Nativity might more easily had it pleased him been born in another place than a Stable with other manner of attendants than a poor Virgin and a Carpenter He that could feed five Thousand with a few Loaves and Fishes might have maintained as numerous an Army as he pleased He that could cure the Blind and Lame and Deaf at a word heal all manner of Diseases command the Waters and the Wind raise the Dead cast out Devils might quickly have had an invincible force of Men and Angels to quell the Romans and other Nations He that could strike his apprehender to the ground at the beck of his will make the Sun withdraw his light at Noon day and full Moon the Earth tremble the Rocks rend the Graves open at his death could easily have saved himself from death but then he should have by his Example renowned that love of worldly riches pleasures and honours which by his Doctrine of humility self denial and contempt of the World he sought to mortify and disgrace High and lofty thoughts do much hinder our progress towards our eternal Rest and hide from us the true knowledge of our selves whose first Element is but dust Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Dust is our native soyl and last home to which we must by a firm decree repair ere long By soring aloft after worldly honours we do but make our wearisom way the longer and more crooked our fall more grievous especially if suddain and our final account after death more heavy Aspiring ambition overthrew the Tempter Lucifer himself What Spirit is it then think we which moves such young and tender Plants as scarce thrive under the walls of Gods house such Vines as hardly bear fruits in the warm and well fenced vale I mean the retirements and vacations of a low and private condition to affect the cold and open Mountains exposed to blasts of noysom winds Is it their glory to be above others of their own rank and education This might be purchased with less danger to themselves and more good to Church and State if they sought to overtop them more by their own proper height or true growth in all graces and good works than by meer advantage of ground For when every Valley shall be exalted and every Mountain made low that is when all worldly differences of States shall be laid aside as at the last day they will be the fruit which hath grown in the vale of humility and contentedness will appear both higher and better far than the ordinary off-spring of the Mountains or highest places of preferment Were Men so wise in heart as to consider that the lower their place or condition is so it be not exposed to flouds of violence the apter it is to suck in the dew of Heaven and bring forth fruit in its season There are in the way to this eternal Rest great variety of Travellers furnisht with various and different abilities whose faces differ not more than their minds and manners and these though they run contrary ways yet all pretend they are in pursuit of the same end and are upon their march to this eternal Rest even then when their backs are turned upon it The bloudy restless Traytor would be thought to be in search after this eternal Rest and Life though he seek for it in the paths of death and works like the Mole under ground and thinks that no Man shall see him
in God and takes him for his Rest and exceeding great reward waiting on him as his all-sufficient shield with resignation for life or death Contented to live but willing to die and to be with Christ he is the only fixt Star in this lower firmament His feet stand fast be the pavement never so slippery In the term of Mans life there is a vicissitude of good and evil a mixture of labour and rest joy and sorrow there is a seed-time and an harvest a sowing in tears and reaping in joy He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him But we may not expect Summer in the Winter season an harbour in the main Ocean our portion before we are of Age a reaping in joy 'till we have sown in tears The Traveller cannot think to find home in his Inn nor Heaven upon Earth The Children of Israel had the Wilderness and the Red-Sea to pass through before they could arrive at the Land of Canaan the place of their Rest They were all labourers that were sent into the Vineyard and could not expect their Peny 'till the day and their work was done let us therefore pray the Lord of the Harvest that our Labour and Travel may happily be turned at last into ease and Rest that when the six days of our life are at an end we may cease from our works as God did from his and enjoy with him an everlasting Sabboth of eternal Rest And the rather is this Rest hereafter to be laboured for now because whilst we are here upon Earth we have nothing pure and unmixt our very joys are mingled with sorrow and Solomon tells us even in laughter the heart is sad Expences here wait upon honour care of Education goes along with the blessing of Children and our most comfortable hopes are mixt with perplexing fears But when we come to Rest in the holy City that City which is above we shall have a perpetual day without night light without the Sun Our hunger shall be satisfied without food No need of Clothing there to cover our shame for shame and sin shall cease together then all sad doubtings what shall be our condition and state hereafter shall vanish away and we shall agree together with one heart and mind to sing Halelujahs and perpetual Prayers to God in the highest There will be no dissenters there no seperatists to break or interrupt that harmonious everlasting concord What wise Man then will set his heart upon the World when all things in it are but for so short an abode so unstable and so unsatisfactory and not rather on that abiding City above where the joys and pleasures are durable and eternal Christians of all others ought to remember what St. Paul saith Heb. 13.14 Here we have no abiding City but we seek one to come Our very profession exposeth us to all affliction and obliges us to live as strangers and pilgrims upon Earth What is Canaan or Jerusalem below to that above whereof the other was but a Type Things that are seen and perceptible by any bodily Eye are temporal transitory subject to changes every day and sure to be abolisht at length they will be taken from us or we from them when death comes which may come every day and therefore not worthy to be looked upon by such an immortal Soul or Spirit as constitutes Man which being made for eternity cannot be satisfied with ought that is temporal how long soever it may abide much less when 't is sure to continue no longer as to us than this uncertain short life and therefore in respect of our own and the Worlds end we may be truly said to have no abiding City here and are therefore the more carefully to seek and expect our eternal Rest and habitation from above While the World continues and we in it we have no continuing City here because neither habitation nor goods health nor wealth honours nor pleasures or any contentment is or can he assured us for our lives How many Villages Towns and Cities have Fires and Earthquakes and Wars destroyed How many Kingdoms and Common-wealths have civil disorders and foreign invasions overthrown Or rather what one in any Nation have they not The Histories or Records of all Ages all places besides the infallible Oracles of God which we have in our hands will give us a full induction and proof of this truth This Island wherein we live hath given us not only many Historical but experimental sensible proofs that from the King to the meanest Subject we have no continuing City here nor setled Rest and true happiness But besides these publick revolutions vicissitudes and changes every Family every private Person lies continually exposed to casualities to variety of sickness invading their health variety of molestations from those above them from those below them from those about them and also from their own follies lusts and passions from within them in so much that whatsoever Men fix their hearts upon in this World to take their greatest contentment in they cannot be sure on reasonable grounds that it shall continue with them one year longer The felicity and satisfactory happiness of this City above in which this eternal Rest is to be found ought to be valued so much the more because St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 2.9 That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entered into the heart of Man to conceive the fulness of those good things which God hath prepared for those that love him A grateful and pleasant taste of these good things God affords the Souls of the faithful here in this life how transcendently then unutterable and unconceivable will be the full fruition of all that which the Gospel reveals to us but as in a glass when enjoy'd to the height in the highest Heavens through all eternity when we shall see God as he is with everlasting overflowing satisfaction to all the faculties of the Soul The Eye of Mart hath seen here admirable things in Art and Nature the Ear hath heard and the Tongue hath tasted delicious things and Mans heart can conceive much more than Art or Nature could ever present our senses with The very pleasure of natural knowledge in the judgment of Persons exercised therein exceeds whatsoever sensuality vain glory or covetousness pursues or enjoys and yet the knowledge and love of God in Christ incomparably surpass St. Paul tells us whatsoever the heart of the natural Man advanced to the height can conceive as pleasant or delightful to it How much more doth this City to come and its endless unconceivable pleasures where this everlasting Rest is to be had exceed even our expressions and conceptions when they are at the highest If God hath provided such good things for Mankind here below in this World which was not made for the place of our happiness but only to give us a transitory glimpse of his