Yea more why are we not consumed with an eternal consumption Why are the best of us all not in Hell Why are we not stated in an eternity of woe and misery Why are we not now roaring and sweltering under the Wrath of God Why are we not Companions with Devils and damned Spirits in everlasting burnings Is it because our sins are few and small and have not deserved it No surely Why then is it Because our God is unchangeable unchangeable in Being Counsel Covenant and Love Oh! my Beloved if we seriously consider what we are and how we have carryed it what our sins and provocations have been and how high they rise against the blessed God and the like we may well wonder we are out of Hell that we have a being any where on this side the Pit of Perdition nor can we resolve it into any other cause but God's Unchangeableness Let me therefore entreat you to consider things a little that you may give glory where 't is due 1. Consider what you are I mean as to your nature and the depravedness of it You are a meer lump and mass of sin Enemyes yea enmity it self against God and Christ Rom. 8.7 your heart is a meer Sink a Fountain an Abysse of sin and wickedness against God The heart is deceiful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it None but God can look to the bottom of that sin wickedness and deceit that is in your heart Jer. 17.9 O the aboundings of sin that are found in the best of us Oh the pride the passion the earthliness the sensuality the uncleanness the unbelief the hypocrisie the atheisme the disregard of God the aversion from all good that dwells works wars and oftentimes prevails and predominates in the hearts of the best Saints while here O the risings of sin and oh the aboundings of iniquity that are found among us 2. Consider what you have done and how you have carried it God-ward If you seriously consider things you will find I fear that you have done and to this day do little else but sin against the Lord You have despised his Goodness abused his Love violated his Laws trampled upon his Authority grieved his Spirit wounded his Son darkned his Glory and oftentimes struck even at his very Crown and Being yea and this has been your manner from your youth as God charged them of old Jer. 22.21 there is not that day nor scarcely that hour wherein you have not and do not sin against God often have you made him serve with your sins and wearied him with your iniquities as those Isa 43.24 Your lives have been lives of sin for the most part against God 3. Consider what black and horrid aggravations your fins are cloathed with Are not your sins my Beloved of a scarlet dye and crimson tincture Are they not heightened with many black and crying aggravations have they not at least many of them been committed against much love much light much mercy many motions of the Spirit many checks of Conscience many bonds and obligations to Duty many signal and eminent appearances of God to you and for you many tastes many sealings of his Love and the like what shall I say such every way are our sins yea the sins of the best of us all that we cannot possibly look to the further end of them Who can understand his Errors sayes holy David Psal 19.12 David was an holy Man a Man after God's own Heart and yet he cryes out Who can understand his Errors His sins were beyond search or understanding and if his were so what are ours Truly my Beloved our sins in the number nature and aggravations of them are beyond our reach and well may we all with him cry out Who can understand his Errors 4. Consider what an infinite evil and demerit there is in every sin even the least sin As you are guilty of so much sin and your sins clothed many of them with so many and such crying aggravations so you must know that there is evil enough in the least sin to damn you eternally should God render the desert thereof to you The wages of sm is death sayes the Apostle Rom. 6.23 Mark he speaks of sin indefinitely every sin the least sin and sayes he the wages that which is due to it is death Every sin is an offence against God 't is infinitely contrary to his Purity and Holiness his Will and Glory his Life and Being 't is universally contrary to him and so must needs have an inconceiveable evil and demerit in it Every offence sayes a learned Man against the chief good Omnis offencio summi boni meruit summam poenam eternam creaturae destructionem Ursin even the eternal destruction of the Creature O Sirs we little think the evil there is in a vain thought an idle word an unholy irregular action we little think the evil the least sin carries in it 5. Consider how much God hates sin sin is even infinitely odious and abominable to him God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity to wit without loathing and detestation Hab. 1.13 and he is once and again in Scripture represented as a God hating sin sin indeed is infinitely odious in his sight Now let us weigh these things and lay them together and then we shall see that it can be nothing else that keeps us from destruction but God's Unchangeableness to which therefore we should give the glory 'T is the Grace and Love of God that first brings us into a condition of Life and Salvation and 't is the Unchangeableness of God that keeps us there Truly when some of us reflect a little upon our selves and consider what we are and have been in our Spirits and carriages God-ward how much we have provoked him what frequent forfeitures we have made and do make of our Lives Souls and all we see infinite cause to wonder that we are alive that the flames of divine Wrath had not long since kindled upon us and the revenges of divine Justice broken out against us and blessed be God that we are out of Hell O that such a proud such a stubborn such a stiff-necked people as we are should yet live that persons of so many and high provocations against God as thou Reader and I are guilty of should yet have a being out of Hell This is solely from the unchangeableness of God And my Beloved we do not rightly consider the matter if we do not see and acknowledge it to be so O blessed be God for his unchangeableness had not God been unchangeable where had I now been I had now been shut up in the infernal Pit I had now been a companion with Devils and damned Spirits I had now been separated from God for ever and how miserable then had I been O my Soul adore the Unchangeable One and bless him for his unchangeable Counsel his unchangeable Covenant his unchangeable Love CHAP. VII Several grounds
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
that 't is an Unchangeable Love a Love that never fades never varies True his Love may be and sometimes is vailed and clouded but though it be vailed yet 't is not varied though it be sometimes clouded yet 't is never changed Love under a Vail or Cloud is Love The Sun may be under a Cloud yea there may be an eclipse upon it for a time which may keep it out of our view and deprive us of the comfortable influences and shinings of it for a season but yet even then the Sun is in being and after a while it will shine again and that as sweetly brightly and comfortably as ever So there may be a Vail a Cloud an eclipse as it were upon God's Love such as may deprive us for a time of the comfortable views shinings and influences of it but yet even then 't is Love and sweet Love too and after a while it will shine and shew it self again 'T is a sweet Word which you have Psal 30.5 His anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a right but joy comes in the morning in his favour is life Vitam momento opponit benevolentia qua suos complectitur Deus durat per emnem vitam Deus favorem suum prorogat in longum tempus Mol. Life here as a judicious Interpreter observes is opposed to a moment mentioned in the beginning of the verse and so the sense is that that Love wherewith God loves his People lasts throughout all life it lives and lasts for ever 't is a durable abiding love So Isa 54.8 In a little wrath I bid my face from thee for a moment sayes God to his Church but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee Thus I say though God's Love to his People may be vailed yet 't is never varyed 't is a constant Love and Oh how sweet does this speak his Love to be and how happy are they that are interested in it Oh to be beloved by an Unchangeable God with an Unchangeable Love this is sweet indeed The Creatures Love has little worth or sweetness in it and that not only because of its weakness and emptiness but also because of its changeableness Alas the Creature loves to day and hates to morrow Oh but now God's Love is another manner of Love a Love that has fulness and firmness sufficiency and immutability both in it and accordingly must needs be infinitely sweet and desirable Well therefore might David admiringly cry out as he did Psal 36.7 How excellent or how precious is thy loving-kindness O Lord and as in Psal 63.3 Thy loving-kindness is better than life 'T is before all lives one dram of it is to be preferred before many Worlds of Creature-injoyments God's Love it is all good all comfort all happiness in its fountain-fulness and purity it is an eternal never-failing spring of sweetness an unvariable fountain of delight in it there is Grace all Grace Peace all Peace Joy all Joy Satisfaction all Satisfaction Rest and Solace all Rest and Solace O Soul look upon the love of thy God to thee look upon it and in it thou wilt see unsearchable Riches unmeasurable Fulness unfathomable Depths and which crowns all eternal Unchangeableness and Oh how happy wilt thou therein see thy self With what full consolation of Spirit mayest thou sit down and say God loves me and he loves me unchangeably Friends change outward comforts change I my self change but God's Love to me changes not I am for ever upon his heart nor can either Men or Devils sins or sorrows cast me out of it True he sometimes afflicts me but yet he loves me he sometimes frowns upon me but yet he loves me he sometimes seems to slay me he breaks me with breach upon breach but yet he loves me he confines me to a sick Chamber he layes me upon a sick Bed he seems to resolve to lay me in the Dust but yet he loves me yea all this is in love I break with him and depart from him I am sinning against him every day and hour but yet he loves me he loves me notwithstanding all his Love cannot be broken off from me and after a while I shall bathe in the Fountain thereof for ever Oh sweet who would not long for this Love He loves me unchangeably and he will therefore cleanse me purifie me pardon me make me perfectly holy He loves me and he will love me till he has lodged me in his own Presence and Bosom above and there he will love me for ever 2. From God's Unchangeabless we conclude and infer the infinite bitterness of his Wrath and the extream misery of all such as fall under the weight thereof God's Love is not more sweet than his Wrath is bitter his Love is not more desirable than his Wrath is formidable and that because he is an Unchangeable God and oh how miserable must they be that do fall under this Wrath. In Isa 10.6 we read of the People of God's Wrath there are some then that are properly the People of God's Wrath they are Children of Wrath Heirs of Wrath and Wrath yea God's Wrath will be their portion for ever such are all finally impenitent and unbelieving Ones all who live and die in their impenitency and unbelief and oh how extreamly miserable must they be God's Wrath is a great Wrath a fierce Wrath a sore Wrath a powerful Wrath an irresistible Wrath a burning consuming and devouring Wrath So the Scripture speaks of it all which speaks the exceeding bitterness and terribleness of it and the extream misery of such as fall under it but that which adds even infinitely to all is this that 't is eternal and unchangeable Wrath Wrath that abides for ever Hence 't is set forth in Scripture by unquenchable fire Mat. 3.12 God's Wrath is called Fire because of its exceeding heat and fierceness being of a consuming and devouring nature and 't is called unquenchable Fire because 't is durable and unchangeable it being what admits of no more change or period than his Love does and to fall under this unquenchable fire under the revelation of this eternal unchangeable Wrath oh how sad how miserable must this be Solomon tells us that the Wrath of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon Prov. 19.12 and what then and how terrible is the Wrath of God to whose Wrath the wrath of all the Kings on the Earth is as nothing We are afraid sometimes of Man's Wrath yea so afraid of it as to suffer our selves to be driven from our duty by it But my Beloved what is the Wrath of a Man to the Wrath God What is the Wrath of a changeable Man to the Wrath of an Unchangeable God let me say to each Soul of you as God by the Prophet to them Isa 51 12.13 Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die a changeable Creature and forgettest the Lord thy Maker 'T
will I make my refuge and being thus at Rest in God his heart is prepared 'T is in a ready posture for duty and service O 't is the restlesness and discomposure of our hearts that unfits and indisposes us for our Work and Duty When the Israelites were filled with anguish of Spirit they could not hear Moses Exod. 6.9 and when Jonah his Spirit was off its Rest though he were an eminent Prophet of God he could not pray but very peevishly and unbecomingly Jon. 4.2.3 A restless Spirit is unfit for the ordinary duties of Christianity But now take a Soul that is indeed at Rest in God and he is fit not only for the general Dutys of Christianity such as Prayer Hearing or the like but even for whatever Work or Duty God shall call him out unto though never so difficult or never so mean Such an one may in his place and station say as I Remember one brings in David speaking to God Lord saies he if thou wilt make me a Shepherd to keep Sheep or if thou wilt make me a King to govern thy People behold mine heart is prepared I am in a ready posture for the one or the other Oh what a sweet frame is this God may also call us to what Condition he pleases to a Condition of Fullness or of Want of Prosperity or Affliction and the like now whatever Condition he calls to the Soul that is at Rest in him is ready for it Does God call him to sufferings to take up and bear the Cross He is ready for this Call of God for he can rejoyce yea glory in the Cross Rom. 5.3 He can sing in a Prison as Paul and Sylas did Act. 16.25 Does God call him to Fulness He knows how to abound Does God call him to Wants He knows how to be abased as Paul did Phil. 4 12. Does God call him to Mourning he is ready for it for he and indeed he alone knows how to weep as if he wept not Does God call him to rejoycing He is ready for it for he and he alone can rejoyce as if he rejoyced not which is the fittest posture and carriage for each condition 1 Cor. 7.30 In a word he is fit to live and fit to die and let me tell you that is a great Word yet a true one he is fit to die ready in a good measure for another World 'T is a great thing to die and 't is a great attainment to be ready to die and that that Soul is that is at Rest in God I scarce know a more desirable frame and posture to die in than this of being at Rest in God Now if it be a frame of Soul which thus renders a man ready for every Call of God to him surely it must then be an excellent frame 3. To live at Rest in God is a safe frame and posture of Soul a frame and posture of Soul that secures a man against danger and therefore an excellent frame There is no Soul in the World so secure from danger as he that is at Rest in God such an one is set aloft as you have it Prov. 18.10 The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous flee thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat exaltare in tuto collocare Gejer. and are safe or as the word is are set aloft set aloft above the reach of danger They flee to the Name to the Nature to the Attributes of God they retire there and Rest there and are secured against danger This is what guards and fences the Soul and that against his grand enemy the Devil 'T is a great and sweet Scripture that Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall guard or garrison your Hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus it shall fence and fortifie you against temptation and indeed no Soul so fenced and fortified against temptation as he that lives at Rest in God Those temptations which wound others and lead them captive into sin cannot fasten upon him A true Rest in God is a kind of life-guard to the Soul and no guard like it in the World it keeps temptation from entering in and it keeps corruption from breaking out 'T is a sweet exposition which one gives of that place * Pax Dei i. e. illa tranquillitas animi fidelibus a Deo conceditur quasi militari praefidio custodiet ipsorum corda adversus Satanae Mundi tentationes mentes ipsorum stabiles in Christo conservet Dix in loc the Peace of God shall keep your Hearts and Minds that is saies he that Rest and Tranquillity of Soul which the faithful have in God shall preserve their hearts as with a military guard and power against the temptations of Satan and the World and it shall keep their minds stable in Christ And to the same purpose also Calvin upon the place The Peace of God saith he shall keep you lest by wicked thoughts or desires you should revolt from God O my Beloved there is scarce any thing gives the Devil and his Temptations greater advantage against us than a disturbed restless discomposed Spirit So much is evident from Eph. 4.26 27. Be ye angry and sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place unto the Devil Where is clearly intimated that by an unquiet disturbed Spirit we give place unto the Devil and their is scarce any thing on the other hand that so fences and fortifies the Soul against Satan and his Temptations as an holy Rest of Soul in God The Saints in Heaven are out of all danger either of sin or temptation and why so Truly for this reason among others because there they are perfectly at Rest in God they find that perfect solace and satisfaction in God that they cannot possibly admit of sin nor have they the least tendency to turn aside to any thing else What shall I say A Soul that is off his Rest is off his Watch and being off his Watch he is in the mouth of danger whereas 't is quite otherwise with a Soul at Rest in God 4. To live at Rest in God is a very comfortable frame and posture of Soul a frame and posture of Soul which is attended with much Spiritual Comfort and Communion with God which also speaks the excellency of it A Soul living at Rest in God has usually the fullest Comforts and the sweetest Communion with God of any on this side Heaven The truth is the thing it self carrys unexpressible sweetness in it besides God's delight to manifest himself to those that live in the exercise of it God you know was in the still voice and there the Prophet found Him Deus ubique presens est sed non in vento se patefeeit Mart. He was not in the great and strong Wind He was not in the Earth-quake He was not in the Fire But he was in the still Voice 1 King