Psal 42.11 which may be further opened afterwards as ever therefore you would live purely and entirely at Rest in God get your interest in him as your God and Father cleared up to you first chuse him for your God and Portion and do it every day never Rest till you can say Lord whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee my Heart and my Flesh fail but God is the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever Psal 73.25 26. Then Pray hard for the sealings and witness of the Spirit beg the Lord with Austin to say unto thy Soul I am thy Salvation 4. Would you indeed live at Rest in God Then meditate and contemplate him much dwell much in the view of his glorious Excellencies and Perfections Deep and frequent meditation of God and his Excellencies does marvelously endear God unto Souls and withal brings them into an acquaintance with those satisfying delights that are to be found in him and so to a Rest in him My Soul saies David shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches Psal 63.5 6. In vers 3. he is even ravished with the sense and incomes of God's Love to him Thy loving-kindness is better than Life my lips shall praise thee and here he speaks of Satisfaction the sweetest Satisfaction and all that which came in a way of holy meditation and again my meditation of thee shall be sweet Psal 104.34 Holy meditation of God produces many sweet experiences of God in the Soul experiences of his Grace of his Love of his Sweetness of the Blessedness of Communion with him and the like and these experiences issue in the Soul's Rest in him eveâ—y new experience of God draws the heart further into God and makes it center more in him every taste every sight of God every new emamanation of his Glory before the Soul of which in the holy meditation of God the Saints have not a few weans and works the heart off from carnal sensible things and makes him to cleave more closly and entirely to God gathering in about him as his All. O be much in the meditation of God 't is not enough for us to know him and to know him in Christ no nor to know him as ours as our God in Covenant but we must study him we must meditate what a God he is and single him out now under one and then under another Notion or Consideration to meditate upon begging God to help us in our meditetions of him The most know and enjoy little of God because they meditate him so little they are little in holy meditation 5. Would you indeed be at Rest in God Then improve all your experiences of the Creatures vanity for the carrying of your Souls more into God as your Rest and Centre Holy David did so and 't is indeed a great piece of a Christians skill Psal 39.7 And now Lord saies he what wait I for my hope is in thee If you veiw either the foregoing or following part of the Psalm you will find that David was under great experiences of the Creatures vanity he saw the vanity of worldly Injoyments they are all but a vain shew he saw his own vanity he saw the vanity of others he found every one and every thing nothing but vanity and what is the issue What use does he make of it this he gathers in more to God as his only Rest and Happiness now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee q.d. Now I have done with the Creatures I see what they are and what all persons and things are and I have done with all thou thy self only O Lord art my Rest my Happiness my All. Thus when at any time you meet with fresh experiences of the Creatures vanity improve them for the carrying of your Souls more into God as your Rest You scarce live that day wherein you do not meet with new experiences of the Creatures vanity this is lost and that is imbittered to you now you meet with disappointments and then with sorrows wounds and snares and that where it may be you expected your chief Comfort and Satisfaction now in all such cases what should we do retire the more into God as our Rest and Happiness say with the Psalmist Now Lord what wait I for My hope is in thee I have done with the streams I 'le cleave only to thee the Fountain the Creatures ever serve me thus they leave me under sorrows snares and disappointments thou Lord shalt be all in all to me thou art my only Rest for ever 6. Would you indeed live at Rest in God Then pray for much spirituality of Heart much suitedness of Spirit to God and Christ The more Spiritual you are the more are you suited to the blessed God and the more you are suited to God the more fully and genuinly will your Souls Rest in him I suppose you to have a new heart for I speak unto you as to Saints the old heart to be sure will never Rest in God the old heart is wholly avetse from God and at enmity with him it hates him 't is wholly carnal sensual and unclean and delights only in things suitable to it self Let all therefore that would Rest in God first get a new heart such as God promises in his Covenant Ezek. 36.26 and having gotten a new heart pray for much spirituality of heart and affection Alas alas we are carnal as Paul charged his Corinthians and being carnal we lean to and hanker after carnal things and till we get more spirituality we shall not Rest so fully in God as we should therefore pray unto God hard for more of this pray for more of his Spirit to act and influence you and not only so but to change you more and more into the Divine Life and Image To conclude all Live at Rest all that even you can in God here but withal look and long and hasten to that Rest which remaines for Saints with God in the other World True Rest in God here is sweet but we shall never be fully and perfectly happy till we enter that future Rest that indeed carryes a compleat happinss in it O to be wholly swallowed up in the Divine Will the Divine Life the Divine Fulness the Ocean of Divine Love to have every faculty and every affection perfectly suited to God and filled with God this cannot but be perfect Rest and Happiness especially considering what an enlargement there will be of all the Faculties and how much of God they will then take in But till we reach this Rest we cannot have any compleat Rest therefore breath and suspire after the future Rest keep your eye much there and let your eye affect your heart look and love love and long long and hasten to that sweet that holy that heavenly that inviolable that unchangeable and eternal Rest which remains for Saints in God and with God in the other World crying out both in your Spirits and lives Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen FINIS The Author hath two other Treatises VIZ. The Best Match or The Soul 's espoulal to Christ Opened and Improved The great Concern Or A serious Warning to a timely and thorough Preparation for Death With Helps and Directions in order thereunto Being the last that ever he preached There is now published an Eccellent Treatise Intituled The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ Or Discourses wherein is shewed How the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God are glorified in that Great and Blessed Work By William Bates D. D.
hoped for But why is it called Hope For this among other Reasons because 't is the great Object of the Saints Hopes 't is what they hope and look and long for And as they hope to so assuredly they shall live at Rest in God and with God for ever 't is what remains to them and they shall in due time attain unto it Hence 't is said to be laid up for them in Heaven in that prequoted place Col. 1.5 which as Calvin also observes notes the certainty of it and of their injoying of it 't is what they cannot miss of Quum dieit spem nobis repositam esse in Caelo significat perinde certos debere esse fideles de promissione aeternae foelicitatis c. Calv. when the Apostle speaks of an Hope laid up in Heaven for us he signifies to us that the Saints ought therefore to Rest sure and certain of the Promise of eternal Life as if they had a treasure already bid and laid up in a most safe place Now do the Saints hope to and accordingly shall they live at Rest in God and with God for ever and should they not be at Rest in God here Surely this is a mighty Obligation upon them to be alwaies at Rest in him Thus you have seen some of those Obligations the Saints lie under to live at Rest in God which though but some of them yet are sufficient to evince the truth of our Position namely that they should alwaies be at Rest in him CHAP. IV. The Truth asserted further evidenced from the excellency of this frame of Soul the worth and excellency whereof is discovered in several particulars AS the Saints are under many great and weighty Obligations to be alwaies at Rest in God so to be alwaies at Rest in God is a choice and an excellent frame and posture of Soul for the Saints to live in 't is indeed the best and most becoming frame of Soul they can possibly be found in this World which may give further evidence to our Assertion Now I shall shew you a little of the worth and excellency of this frame and posture of Soul in a few Sripture-Propositions about it 1. To be at Rest in God is a very gracious frame and posture of Soul a frame and posture of Soul which carries much of the life and power of Grace and Godliness in it and O what an excellent frame and posture must this then be the more of the life and power of Grace and Godliness any frame or posture of Soul carries in it the more excellent it is now there is no frame or posture of Soul that I know of which carryes-more of the life and power of Grace and Godliness in it than this of being at Rest in God does Herein indeed does the main if not the whole of the life and power of Grace and Godliness consist for pray what is Grace and Godliness and wherein doth it consist but in an holy subjection to and acquiescence in the Blesed God To bow and submit to God as our Lord and to chuse and acquiesce in God as our Happiness this is Grace this is Godliness both which I take to be comprehended in Psal 6.2 where David puts his Soul in mind that he had both given up himself to God and also chosen him for his Happiness saying O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my Ruler my Happiness This my Beloved is Grace or Godliness and the more of this there is found in us the more gracious we are and what is this but to be at Rest in God as we have opened it A restless and unquiet Spirit argues much of the power of fin and shews that Grace has gotten but little if any dominion in the Soul and therefore 't is made both the Character and the Judgement of wicked men that they cannot Rest The wicked saith the prophet are like the troubled Sea when it cannot Rest whose Waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace to the wicked Isa 57.20 21. 'T is meant of their own inward unquietness anrestlessness of Spirit Calvin hereby understands perpetuas animae exagitationes atque perturbationes perpetual tossings and perturbations of mind and he speaks I remember thus This Similitude of a Sea Elegans est ista maris similitudo aptissima ad explicandam inquietudinem impiorum nam in seipso turbaturmare tametsi a vento non impellitur c. eodem modo impii turbantur intestino malo quod in ipsorum animis defixum est is an elegant Similitude and most apt to set forth the inquietude of wicked men for saies he the Sea is troubled in it self though it be not driven by Winds nor tossed with Storms and Tempests but it s own Waves fight own with another and break one another in like manner wicked men are troubled with intestine evil which is fixt and rooted in their own minds Thus a restless unquiet Spirit argues much of the power of sin in the Soul and shews that Grace has gotten but little if any Dominion there So on the other hand a Spirit at Rest in God must carry much of the life and power of Grace and Godliness in it This indeed is a great part of the Kingdom of God for the Kingdom of God the Apostle tells us consists not in Meats and Drinks but in Righteousness in Peace and in the Joys of the holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 In Peace that is as a learned Man expounds it in an holy Rest and quiet of Soul in God 2. To be at Rest in God is a ready frame and posture of Soul a frame and posture of Soul which renders a man ready and prepared for every Call of God to him and must not that be an excellent frame God my Beloved may call us to what he pleases to what services he pleases and to what conditions he pleases he may call us to what services he pleases besides the general duties of Christianity which are incumbent upon all he may call us to what special work and services he pleases he may call us to do and he may call us to suffer and 't is a blessed thing to be fitted and prepared for the Call of God and who more so than he that lives at Rest in him Alas to such an one no Work no Duty no Service is unseasonable such an one is fit to Pray and fit to Praise fit to Hear and fit to Meditate fit to search his own Heart and fit to enquire into the Counsels of God he is fit to do and fit to suffer the Will of God My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed or as you have it the margin of some of your Bibles my heart is prepared O God my heart is prepared Psal 57.7 If you look back upon the first verse you will find his Soul sweetly at Rest in God For saies he O God my Soul trusteth in thee in the shadow of thy wings
despise and contemn it but God has other thoughts and other values of it he highly esteems and honours it he looks on it as one of the choicest Ornaments as one of the highest excellencies of any Soul Now certainly that is best which God values and honours most As that which honours God most so that which God most honours must have most of true worth and excellency in it A restless unquiet Spirit on the one hand or a Spirit at Rest in the Creature on the other hand is what God abhors and despises but a Spirit at Rest in himself he highly values 8. To live at Rest in God is a heavenly Frame and Posture of Soul a frame and posture of Soul which carries much of Heaven in it 't is indeed in a great measure the Life of Heaven here on Earth and what then more excellent than this Pray my Beloved what is Heaven and the Life of Heaven the Life which the Saints and Angels live in Heaven Heaven is a state of Rest Heb. 4.9 and what is that Rest True there is an external Rest there is a Rest from Labour and Trouble from Conflict and Temptation but the main of it is the inward Rest of the Soul that Rest and Complacency which the Soul injoys in God and shall injoy in him and with him for ever there the Soul is filled with God he is perfectly swallowed up in the Divine Will being thorowly conformed thereunto and he has the perfect Vision and Frnition of the Divine Glory and Fulness seeing him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 And in both these he is filled with even an infinite content and satisfaction of Heart this is the True Rest of Heaven and what is the Life which the Saints and Angels live there 'T is a Life of Perfect Rest and Solace in God such Rest and Solace in God as that they never think of going out to any thing else whatever God is all in all to them 1 Cor. 15.28 Thus to be at Rest in God is an heavenly frame and posture of Soul and O what an excellent frame must this be Well then lay all these eight Things together and you shall find an incomparable Worth and Excellency in it which is a further evidence of the Saints Duty and Interest to live therein CHAP. V. The Truth particularly improved The Saints called upon to live thus at Rest in God Arguments urged to induce them so to do WHat it is for the Soul to be at Rest in God what Obligations the Saints are under to live at Rest in him the excellency of this frame and posture of Spirit you have seen laid open before you Now what shall we say to these things O that all who profess themselves to be Saints or would be accounted so would give all diligence always to live thus at Rest in God Possibly some of us are quite off our Centre our Souls are full of stormes and tempests tossings and tumblings they are not only cast down but also disquieted within us as holy David's sometimes was Psal 42.11 Others of us perhaps are at Rest but 't is a sinful Rest at Rest in the Creature and not in God at Rest in carnal sensible things we are of those who are at ease in Zion yea perhaps we are even singing that mad Requiem to our Souls that that fool sometimes did Luk. 12.19 Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry thou hast Goods laid up for thee for many years But now this truth and the things declared about it do call upon the one and the other of us to return to God as our Rest and to centre purely and entirely in him alone This Truth calls off the one from all those unquiet Motions and Agitations that are within us from all our tossings and tumblings to an holy Calm and Quiet of heart in God and it calls off the other from all our false Rests and Reposes to an holy Rest and Repose in God and Oh that both the one and the other would hear and obey this Call taking up our Rest in God alone O my Beloved are you under such obligations to live at Rest in God as you are and yet will you not live at Rest in him On the other hand Is the frame and posture of Soul so excellent and will you neglect it and not study to be found alwayes therein Let me recapitulate a little particularly Has God freely made over himself in all his Fulness and Riches in his Covenant to you as your Rest and Portion for ever and yet will you not live at Rest in him Have you chosen God and voucht him for your God and Portion and yet will you not live at Rest in him Is God so much as you have heard at Rest in you and yet will you not live at Rest in him Shall you and do you hope to live at Rest in God and with God for ever in Heaven and yet will you not live at Rest in him here O me thinks these things should constrain you On the other hand should not the excellency of the frame alure you would you live forth much of the life and power of Grace then live at Rest in God Would you be ready for every call of God to you whether to do or to suffer to live or to die then live at Rest in God Would you be fenced and fortified against Temptation then live at Rest in God Would you injoy much Spiritual Comfort and Communion with God then live at Rest in God Would you be like God Would you resemble God and grow up into his Life and Blessedness then live at Rest in God Would you honour God you have greatly dishonoured him Would you now honour him then live at Rest in him Would you live in Heaven and begin the Life of Heaven here on Earth then live at Rest in God O why should we think of any other Rest but God or why should we live in any other posture of Soul but this of a Rest in him is there any so sweet so amiable so becoming as this Oh let us labour as near as possible alwayes to be found in this posture Blessed be God that we may Rest in him Two things we should bless God for one is that there is a Rest remaining for us in the other World whether we find Rest here or no yet there is a Rest to come a blessed Rest Heb. 4.9 The other is that there is a Rest in God for us and that we may enter into and live in that Rest even here when there is no Rest to be had in this Worlds Injoyments no Rest in or from the Creature yet then there is a Rest to be had in God and from God We that have believed do enter into Rest Heb. 4.3 there is a Rest in God in the Will the Presence the Love the Fulness of God which we do or may enter into even here in this World and blessed be God for this Rest
general proof of the unchangeableness of God THe Creatures yea the best of Creatures in themselves are subject to change but God is every way and in all respects unchangeable God himself expresly here you see asserts his own unchangeableness I am the Lord I change not and 't is frequently asserted also elsewhere Jam. 1.17 Every good and perfect Gift sayes the Apostle cometh down from Above from the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness or shadow of change God is here called the Father of Lights He is sometimes called Light it self 1 John 1.5 God is Light Quo Majestas Sanctitas Perfectio et Beatitudo ejus notatur Glass Rhet. Sac. By which as a learned Man observes is noted to us the Majesty Holiness and perfect Blessedness of God and here he is called the Father of Lights To note that all Light all Glory all Holiness and Blessedness is originally in him and that whatever of these Creatures do partake of does come from him as its proper Spring and Fountain Now with this Father of Lights there is sayes the Apostle no variableness no mutation the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an Astronomical term taken from the Heavenly Bodies which suffer many Declinations and Revolutious the Heavenly Lights have their Vicisitude and Eclipsis their Decreases and Increases but with God the Father of Lights there is no such thing he alwayes shines with a like Brightness Lustre and Glory with whom is no variableness nor shaddow of turning that is he is without the least shew or resemblance of change nothing that looks like a change is found in him God is a Son which doth not Set and Rise that can never be Overcast or Eclipsed So also Psal 102.24 25 26 27. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my days thy years are throughout all Generations Of old hast thou laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands They all perish but thou shalt endure all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same At tu idem es id est nihil est firmum et perpetuum nisi tu nullis enim alterationibus et mutationibus es obnoxius Mol. and thy years shall have no end Pray observe the Heavens are the purest part of the Creation yet they the Psalmist tells us shall wax old and be changed but sayes he to God thou art the same and thy years shall have no end thou changest not but what thou wert thou art and wilt be so for ever The Heavens and so all the Creatures do not only wax old and change but observe they change and wax old like a Garment Cloth by degrees will rot and be eaten out by Moths but a Garment or Vesture is worn and wasted every day every day brings changes upon the Creatures more or less but God changes not he remains the same for ever from everlasting to everlasting he is God as you have it Psal 90.2 that is he is unchangeably one and the same infinitely Holy and Blessed One. Deus est immutabilis mutans omnia nunquam novus nunquam vetus Aug. God sayes one of the Ancients who changes all things who works all the changes are in the world is himself unchangeable never new never old Thus you see that God is unchangeable Now if you ask me what this unchangeableness of God is I answer that 't is that Attribute of God whereby he is free from all corruption and alteration is alwayes like himself so as that he can neither cease to be what he is nor begin to be what he is not and hereby he is infinitely distinguished from all the Creatures in Perfection and Glory they are all subject to corruption and alteration at least in their own nature they are so if not in their condition they may cease to be what they are and may begin to be what they are not they may lose what they had and may attain somewhat which before they had not even the very Angels themselves are in themselves thus mutable As may be more fully hereafter shewn But now with God their is no such thing he is free from all possibility of corruption or alteration he is alwayes the same nor can he cease to be what he is or begin to be what he is not But that God is unchangeable and also what his unchangeableness is will further appear by what next falls under consideration CHAP. III. Which shews wherein in a peculiar manner God is unchangeable HAving thus given you a general proof of God's Unchangeableness our next Work shall be to consider wherein he is unchangeable by which we shall be both further enlightened and confirmed in this Truth and withall brought I hope into an acquaintance with the Life Power and sweetness of it at least in some measure God then is unchangeable especially in six things all which do carry unexpressible Sweetness as well as Glory in them and should be great encouragements to our Faith and Comfort He is unchangeable 1. In his Being and Essence 2. In his Blessedness and Glory 3. In his Council and Decree 4. In his Kingdom and Rule 5. In his Covenant and Promise 6. In his Love and Grace to his People 1. God is unchangeable in his Being and Essence Deus ut in Essentia sua consideratur est actus purus a quo omnia sunt in quem omnia redeunt Scharp What the Being or Essence of God is is not easy for us to conceive or apprehend the Learned tell us that the Essence or Being of God is that one meer and pure Act whereby God is God or thus that God in respect of his Essence is one most pure and meer Act from which all things are and to which all things return that is which is the first Cause and the last End of all things but whatever the Essence or Being of God is yet to be sure he is therein unchangeable he cannot be changed into another Essence or Being nor can that which he hath or rather is be corrupted or decay so much is held forth in my very Text. God therein stiling himself Jehovah Which Name or Title of his notes as the truth and absoluteness so the sameness and unchangeableness of his Being Thus Calvin and others note upon the place and therefore do make that I change not to be but an Exegesis or somewhat added by way of explication of this Title Jehovah which here God gives himself I am Jehovah I change not q. d. I am an absolute independent unchangeable Being in my self and one that gives Being to all the Creatures and thus the Learned in the Hebrew Tongue do all expound this glorious Name of God they tell us that this glorious Name of his notes both his Being and the unchangeableness of his Being and when God as in my Text
our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Holiness Does God reveal himself to be a gracious God a God of Grace and Love This calls upon us to choose him for our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Love Doth he reveal himself to be a faithful God a God that keepeth Covenant and Mercy This calls upon us to choose him for our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Faithfulness so here Does God reveal himself to be an Unchangeable God This calls upon us to chuse him for our God and Portion and to get an interest in his Unchangeableness taking up the rest and happiness of our Souls in him and accordingly O that we would look and live above changeable Creatures taking up our rest and happiness in this unchangeable God which to do is even infinitely our safest and sweetest course for pray consider who or what will you chuse for your Portion and wherein will you place the rest and happiness of your Souls if not in the Unchangeable God Sure I am you have but God or the Creature to make choice of Now what is the Creature to God What is the changeable Creature to the unchangeable God Alas the one is infinitely short of the other God indeed is every way and in all respects a most desirable Good He is an original Good a full Good a suitable Good a satisfying Good an unmixed Good an all-sufficient Good and which crowns all an Unchangeable Good a Good that never fades never failes He is the Living God and stedfast for ever Dan. 6.26 The Creatures are all changeable and perishing An Heathen could say Inter peritura vivimus Sen. We live among perishing things And 't was a great saying of one of the Aucients We have nothing Nulla res longa mortalium est omnisâ—â—â— faelicitas saeculi dum tenetur amittitur here sayes he of any long continuance and all the felicity of this world is gone while we hold it and lost even while we injoy it Such and so great is the changeableness and uncertainty of all these things But God as you have heard and all that Good that is in him is alwayes and for ever the same which speaks him to be infinitely sweet and desirable and so infinitely worthy to be imbraced by us for our God and Portion This indeed crowns and perfects all that good that is in God Look as the changeableness of the Creatures lowers and allays that good and sweetness that is in them so the Unchangeableness of God does infinitely raise and commend that good and excellency that is in him Had the Creatures ten thousand times more good and excellency in them than they have yet this one consideration that they are changeable were enough to damp all and quash all though the Creatures had never so much sweetness and goodness in them and though I had never so full free and ample injoyment of them though the streames ran never so pleasantly on each hand of me yet this one thought that all this is fading and changeable and will last but for a season were enough to allay my joy and even imbitter all to me So on the other hand though God be such an infinite Ocean of Goodness Sweetness and Blessedness as he is yet that which crowns all is his Unchangeableness in all and without this 't is not the whole of God could make us happy Now shall the consideration hereof induce you to chuse him for your God and Portion and take up your rest and happiness in him for ever Possibly you have never yet chosen God to be your God and Portion nor have you taken up the rest and happiness of your Souls in him you have chosen the Creatures you have chosen this World you have chosen carnal sensual things and in these have you placed your rest and happiness but as for God he has hitherto been far from your Reins you have centred in changeable Creatures and forgotten the Unchangeable God But will you now change your Choice and take up a new Rest Oh now let an Unchangeable God not changeable Creatures be your God and Portion your Rest and Happiness O that the language of your Souls to God might now be that of the Psalmist Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Lord thou and thou alone shall be my God my Rest my Portion my Happiness and my All for ever Indeed I had chosen the Creatures for my Portion and Happiness but now I renounce that choice I 'le have no more to do with changeable Creatures the World was my happiness and I sat down with it so foolish was I and ignorant but now I have done with the World this flitting fading dying World and thou Lord alone shall be my All for ever Oh that you would indeed thus chuse the Unchangeable God and take up your rest and happiness in him this day And you that have chosen him and taken up your happiness in him make a new choice of him and take up your rest more purely and entirely in him say over this Unchangeable One This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 Oh labour to get more above the Creatures and live more in God and upon God The more purely and entirely you take up your rest in God the sweeter will he be to you and the more satisfaction will your souls find in him Now to quicken you thus to chuse God and live upon him and his Unchangeableness 1. Consider what a changeable World we live in we live in a changeable World in a World that rings changes every day many changes and great changes the truth is This World is a very changeable world and 't is not long e're it will be changed once for all the day is coming when all these things shall be dissolved the Heavens shall pass away with a noise the Earth shall melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3.10.11 and in the mean time the world is not without its changes and how great changes we may live to see who knows such changes seem to be coming upon the world as that nothing but an Unchangeable God will be able to bear us up under them In Luk. 21.25 26. we read of distress of Nations which shall be upon the Earth with perplexity mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things that shall come to pass upon the Earth The sum of which amounts to this that there shall be such changes such rendings such shakings such terrible convulsions and concussions wrought in the Nations of the World such desolations shall be made and such terrible storms of wrath and vengeance shall fall upon the World as that men shall be even exanimated and driven to their wits end they shall fall under a deliquium Animi a swooning of Spirit they shall breath out their very Souls or they shall be
formerly and that is enough Yea do God's dispensations change towards thee he did smile now he frowns he did lift up now he casts down the light of his Countenance did shine brightly upon thee now 't is veild clouded Well however thy God himself changes not his Heart his Counsel his Covenant his Love are still the same towards thee that ever they were howbeit the dispensation be changed Oh this one word God is Mine and he is Unchangeable has infinite sweetness in it and it speakes me to be infinitely and unchangeably happy Oh you that are the People of God labour to see and rejoice in this happiness of yours Which that you may the better do let me add onely two short Words to this and I will shut up the whole Discourse 1. Consider that as your God is unchangeable so you are unchangeably interested in him This Unchangeable God is unchangeably your God what though God be unchangeable may some poor Soul say what will that avail me my interest in him I fear will change and fail there will shortly be an end of that No Soul the Unchangeable God being indeed thine he is thine for ever so the Church This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 O Soul thou through infinite free and rich Grace hast a Covenant-interest in and relation to the Unchangeable God and this Interest and Relation of thine is a firm lasting and Unchangeable Interest and Relation Nothing that either Men Devils or Lusts can do can possibly break or null it and so he tells us Psal 89.30 31 32. of which we have spoken before I shall here onely add a saying or two of Austin The chief good saies he which is God Summum bonum nec invitis confertur nec invitis aufertur is neither given to such as are unwilling to have him nor taken away from such as are unwilling to part with him and elsewhere Te nemo umittit nisi qui dimittit qui te demittit quo it aut quo fugit nisi a te placito ad te natum Aug. Conf. lib. 4. Cap. 9. No man does or can lose thee O God saies he unless he that is willing to lose thee and go without thee and he that willingly parts with thee whither does he go Whither does he flee but from thee smiling to thee frowning from thee a reconciled Father to thee an angry Judge O Soul as long as thou art willing to have God thine so long he shall be thine yea more thine interest in him depends not upon thy willingness of it but upon his Unchangeable Love and Covenant and his Love and Covenant both must change e're thine interest in him can fade and change 2. Consider as your God is Unchangeable so after a while you shall unchangeably enjoy him and be with him your Vision and Fruition of him shall be Unchangeable Beatitudo electione inchoatur adeptione impletur Our happiness saies Austin is begun here in Election but 't is perfected hereafter in Fruition You that have chosen the Unchangeable God you shall after a few dayes injoy the God whom you have chosen your happiness is great in your chusing of him but how much more great will it be in your injoying of him Psal 73.24 25. Thou shalt guide me by thy Counsels and afterwards receive me unto glory whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee q.d. I have chosen and I do again chuse thee for my God and Portion and some injoyment I have of thee here and more I shall have hereafter in Heaven I shall e're long be taken to injoy thee in thy Glory fully immediately and for ever for thou art mine and I have made a solemn choice of thee O Saints the Unchangeable God is yours and some communion you have with him here in the waies of his Grace which is sweet and happy but after you have injoyed him in the waies of his Grace a while here you shall be taken to the Unchangeable injoyment of him in his Glory Above which will be infinitely more sweet and happy your injoyment of him here is low and remote as well as changeable and unconstant but your injoyment of him Above will be full close and Unchangeable here you have now and then a gracious visit from him he visits you in this Duty and that Ordinance in this Mercy and in that Affliction but Oh how short many times are those visits of his Alas he is gone again in a moment but after a while you shall injoy him in his Glory and there you shall not have a short visit now and then onely but his constant presence for ever We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 Oh blessed Souls there he will unchangeably delight in you unchangeably shine upon you unchangeably communicate himself in his Grace and Glory to you Oh how sweet and blessed will this be Well for a close of all Saints the Unchangeable God is unchangeably your God and howbeit your visions of him be yet but dark and your communion with him but low yet wait a while and the day will break and all your shadows shall flee away you shall change your ebbing Waters for a full Tyde your Glimmerings and Dawnings for a noon-day your imperfect beginnings for a full and perfect consummation of communion with him Howbeit there be now a Veil upon his Face that you cannot behold him yet wait awhile and the Veil shall be taken away and you shall behold his Face his Glory for ever and that so as to be fully changed into the Image thereof and eternally solaced and satisfied therein suitable to that word Psal 17.15 with which I 'le close all As for me I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Amen The True Rest OR The Soul's Rest in GOD. Opened and improved from PSAL. 116.7 Return unto thy Rest O my Soul CHAP. I. An Introduction to the Words What that Rest is which David calls upon his Soul to return unto The sum of the words and of our intendment from them laid down in one general Position IT is the great happiness of the Saints that howbeit they meet with many sore troubles and afflictions here in this World yea though they meet with little else but trouble and affliction here yet there is a Rest to come for them a sweet Rest a blessed Rest a glorious Rest a Rest not lyable to either decay or disturbance for ever So the Apostle tells us Heb 4.9 There remaineth a Rest to the People of God Nor is this all their happiness for not only does there remain a Rest for them hereafter but there is also a Rest a sweet Rest a blessed Rest which they do or may attain unto here a Rest even in the midst of all those troubles which here they are exposed unto and blessed be God for this Rest