The Saints Everlasting Rest, Treatise 4 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I. USE. VI. Reproving our Expectations of Rest on Earth.
SECT. I.§. 1.
DOth this Rest remain? How great then is our sin and folly, to seek and expect it here? Where shall we finde the Christian that deserves not this Reproof? Surely we may all cry guilty to this accusation. We know not how to enjoy convenient Houses, Goods, Lands and Revenues; but we seek Rest in these enjoyments. We seldom, I fear, have such sweet and heart contenting thoughts of God, and Glory, as we have of our earthly delights. How much Rest do the voluptuous seek, in Buildings Walks, Apparel, Ease, Recreations, Sleep, pleasing Meats and Drinks, merry Company, Health and Strength, and long Life? Nay, we can scarce enjoy the necessary Means that God hath appointed for our Spiritual good, but we are seeking Rest in them. Do we want Minister, Godly Society, or the like helps? O, think we, if it were but thus and thus with us, we were well. *These must be delighted in; but as means onelyonly to help us to God, not as a happiness to content us without God.Do we enjoy them? O, how we settle upon them, and bless our selves in them, as the rich fool in his wealth? Our Books, our Preachers, Sermons, Friends, Abilities for Duty? do not our hearts hug them, and quiet themselves in them, even more then in God? Indeed, in words we disclaim it, and God hath usually the preheminence in our tongues, and professions; but its too apparent, that its otherwise in our hearts, by these Discoveries. First, Do we not desire these more violently, when we want them, then we do the Lord himself? Do we not cry out more sensibly, O, my Friend, my Goods, my Health! then, O my God! Do we not miss Ministry, and Means more passionately, then we miss our God? Do we not bestir our selves more to obtain and enjoy these, then we do to recover our communion with God? Secondly, Do we not delight more in the Possession of these, then we do in the fruition of God himself? Nay, be not those mercies and duties, most pleasant to us, wherein we stand at greatest distance from God? We can read, and study, and confer, preach and hear, day after day, without much weariness, because in these we have to do with Instruments and Creatures; but in secret Prayer, and conversing with God immediately, where no Creature interposeth; how dull? how heartless and weary are we? Thirdly, And if we lose Creatures or Means, doth it not trouble us more then our loss of God? If we lose but a friend, or health, &c. all the Town will hear of it; but we can miss our God, and scarce bemoan our misery. Thus its apparent, we exceedingly make the Creature our Rest. Is it not enough, that they are sweet delights, and refreshing helps in our way to Heaven; but they must also be made our Heaven it self? Christian Reader, I would as willingly make thee sensible of this sin, as of any sin in the world, if I could tell how to do it: For the Lords greatest quarrel with us, is in this point. Therefore I most earnestly beseech thee, to press upon thine own Conscience, these following Considerations.
§. 2.SECT. II.
1. IT is gross Idolatry to make any Creature or Means, our Rest. To …ettle the Soul upon it, and say, Now I am well, upon the bare enjoyment of the Creature; what is this, but to make it our god? Certainly, to be the Souls Rest, is Gods own Prerogative. And as it is palpable Idolatry to place our Rest in Riches and Honors; so it is but a more spiritual and refined Idolatry, to take up our Rest in excellent Means, in the Churches prosperity, and in its Reformation. When we would have all that out of God, which is to be had onelyonly in God; what is this but to turn away from him to the Creature, and in our hearts to deny him? when we fetch more of our comfort, and delight from the thoughts of prosperity, and those mercies which here we have at a distance from God, then from the fore-thoughts of our everlasting Blessedness in him. Nay, when the thoughts of that day, when we must come to God, is our greatest trouble, and we would do any thing in the world to escape it; but our enjoyment of Creatures, though absent from him, is the very thing our souls desire. When we had rather talk of him, then come to enjoy him; and had rather go many miles to hear a powerful Sermon of Christ and Heaven, then to enter and possess it. O, what vile Idolatry is this? when we dispute against Epicures, Academicks, and all Pagans, how earnestly do we contend; That God is the chief Good, and the fruition of him our chief Happiness? what clear Arguments do we bring to evince it? but do we beleeve our selves? or are we Christians in judgment, and Pagans in affection? or do we give our senses leave to be the chusers of our Happiness, while Reason and Faith stand by? O Christians, how ill must our dear Lord needs take it, when we give him cause to complain, as sometime he did of our fellow Idolaters. Jer. 50.6. That we have been lost sheep, and have forgotten our Resting place. When we give him cause to say, Why my people can finde rest in any thing, rather then in me! They can finde delight in one another, but none in me; they can rejoyce in my Creatures and Ordinances, but not in me: yea, in their very labors and duty, they seek for rest, and not in me; they had rather be any where, then be with me: Are these their gods? have these delivered, and redeemed them? will these be better to them, then I have been, or then I would be? If your selves have but a wife, a husband, a son, that had rather be any where, then in your company, and is never so merry, as when furthest from you, would you not take it ill your selves? Why so must our God needs do. For what do we but lay these things in one end of the balance, and God in the other, and foolishly in our choice, prefer them before him?1 Sam. 1.8. As Elkanah said to Hannah, Am not I better to thee, then ten sons? So when we are longing after Creatures, we may hear God say, Am not I better then all the Creatures to thee?
§. 3.SECT. III.
I mean the end of Precept, not of his Purpose.2. COnsider how thou contradictest the end of God, in giving these things. He gave them to help thee to him, and dost thou take up with them in his stead? He gave them that they might be comfortable refreshments in thy journey; and wouldst thou now dwell in thy Inn, and go no further? Thou dost not onelyonly contradict God herein, but losest that benefit which thou mightest receive by them, yea, and makest them thy great hurt and hinderance. Surely, it may be said of all our Comforts and all Ordinances, and the blessedst enjoyments in the Church on Earth, as God said to the Israelites of his Ark, Numb. 10.33. The Ark of the Covenant went before them, to search out for them a Resting place. So do all Gods mercies here. They are not that Rest (as John professeth he was not the Christ) but they are voices crying in this Wilderness, to bid us prepare; for the Kingdom of God, our true Rest, is at hand. Therefore to Rest here, were to turn all Mercies clean contrary to their own ends, and our own advantages, and to destroy our selves with that which should help us.
§. 4.SECT. IV.
3. COnsider whether it be not the most probable way to cause God; either, first, to deny these Mercies which we desire; or secondly, to take from us those which we do enjoy; or thirdly, to imbitter them at least, or curse them to us. Certainly, God is no where so jealous as here: If you had a servant, whom your own wife loved better then she did your self, would you not both take it ill of such a wife, and rid your house of such a servant? You will not suffer your childe to use a knife, till he have wit to do it without hurting him. Why so, if the Lord see you begin to settle in the world, and say, Here I will rest; no wonder if he soon in his jealously unsettle you. If he love you, no wonder if he take that from you, wherewith he sees you about to destroy your selves. It hath been my long observation of many, That when they have attempted great works, and have just finished them, or have aimed at great things in the world, and have just obtained them, or have lived in much trouble and unsettlement, and have just overcome them, and begin with some content to look upon their condition, and rest in it; they are usually neer to death or ruine. You know the story of the fool in the Gospel: When a man is once at this language, Soul take thy ease, or rest; the next news usually is, Thou fool, this night, or this monethmonth, or this yeer, shall they require thy soul, and then whose shall these things be? O, what house is there, where this fool dwelleth not? Dear Christian friends, you to whom I have especially relation, Let you and I consider, whether this be not our own case. Have not I after such an unsettled life, and after almost five yeers living in the weary condition of war, and the unpleasing life of a Souldier, and after so many yeers groaning under the Churches unreformedness, and the great fears that lay upon us, and after so many longings, and prayers for these days: Have I not thought of them with too much content? and been ready to say, Soul take thy rest? Have not I comforted my self more, in the fore-thoughts of enjoying these, then of coming to Heaven, and enjoying God? What wonder then, if God cut me off, when I am just sitting down in this supposed Rest? and hath not the like been your condition? Many of you have been Souldiers, driven from house and home, endured a life of trouble and blood, been deprived of Ministry and Means, longing to see the Churches setling: Did you not reckon up all the Comforts you should have at your return? and glad your hearts with such thoughts, more then with the thoughts of your coming to Heaven? Why what wonder if God now somewhat cross you, and turn some of your joy into sadness? Many a servant of God hath been destroyed from the Earth, by being overvalued and overloved. I pray God you may take warning for the time to come, that you rob not your selves of all your mercies. I am perswaded, our discontents, and murmurings with an unpleasing condition, and our covetous desires after more, are not so provoking to God, nor so destructive to the sinner, as our too sweet enjoying, and Rest of Spirit in a pleasing State. If God have crossed any of you, in Wife, Children, Goods, Friends, &c. either by taking them from you, or the comfort of them, or the benefit and blessing, Try whether this above all other, be not the cause; for wheresoever your desires stop, and you say, Now I am well; that condition you make your god, and engage the jealousie of God against it. Whether you be friends to God, or enemies, you can never expect that God should wink at such Idolatrie, or suffer you quietlie to enjoy your Idols.
§. 5.SECT. V.
4. COnsider, if God should suffer thee thus to take up thy Rest here, it were one of the forest plagues, and greatest curses that could possibly befall thee: It were better for thee, if thou never hadst a day of ease, or content in the world; for then weariness might make thee seek after the true Rest: But if he should suffer thee to sit down and rest here, where were thy rest when this deceives thee? A restless wretch thou wouldst be through all eternitie.Psal. 17.14. Luke 16.25. To have their portion in this life, and their good things on the Earth, is the lot of the most miserable perishing sinners. And doth it become Christians then to expect so much here? Our Rest is our Heaven; and where we take our Rest, there we make our Heaven: And wouldst thou have but such a Heaven as this? Certainly, as Sauls Messengers found but Michols man of Straw, when they expected David: So wilt thou finde but … Rest of Straw, of Wind, of Vanitie, when thou most needest Rest. It will be but as a handful of water to a man that's drowning, which will help to destroy, but not to save him. But that is the next.
§. 6.SECT. VI.
5. COnsider, thou seekest Rest where it is not to be found; and so wilt lose all thy labor; and (if thou proceed) thy souls eternal Rest too. I think I shall easily evince this, by these clear demonstrations following.
First, Our Rest is onelyonly in the full obtaining of our ultimate end: But that is not to be expected in this life; therefore, neither is rest to be here expected. Is God to be enjoyed in the best Reformed Church, in the purest and powerfullest Ordinances here, as he is in Heaven? I know you will all confess, he is not: How little of God (not onelyonly the multitude of the blinde world, but sometimes) the Saints themselves do enjoy, even under the most excellent Means; let their own frequent complainings testifie. And how poor comforters are the best Ordinances and Enjoyments, without God, the truly Spiritual Christian knows. Will a stone rest in the Air in the midst of its fall, before it comes to the Earth? No, because its center is its end. Should a Traveller take up his rest in the way? No, because his home is his journeys end. VVhen you have all that Creatures and Means can afford, have you that you sought for? Have you that you beleeved, pray, suffer for? I think you dare not say so. VVhy then do we once dream of resting here? VVe are like little Children strayed from home; and God is now fetching us home; and we are ready to turn into any house, stay, and play with every thing in our way, and sit down on every green bank; and much ado there is to get us home.
Secondly, As we have not yet obtained our end, so are we in the midst of labors and dangers; and is there any resting here? VVhat painful work doth lie upon our hands? Look to our Brethren, to godly, to ungodly, to the Church, to our souls, to God; and what a deal of work in respect of each of these, doth lie before us? and can we rest in the midst of all our labors? Indeed, we may take some refreshing, and ease our selves sometimes in our troubles; if you will call that Rest: But thats not the setling Rest we now are speaking of; we may rest on Earth, as the Ark is said to have rested in the midst of Jordan, Josh. 3.13. A short and small Rest, no question; or as the Angels of Heaven are desired to turn in, and rest them on Earth, Gen. 18.4. They would have been loath to have taken up their *Quum transierit tempus pugnae, & venerit pax illa quae praecellit omnem intellectum, (quantumcunque enim cogitaverit de pace illa, minus eam capit animus in ista corporis gravedine constitutus) cum venerit inquam illa pax & patria, jam domus erit Deo, qui in pugna tabernaculum. Non procedemus ad pugnandum, sed permanebimus ad loudandum. Quid enim decitur de illa domo? Beati qui habitant in domo tua, Domine, in secula seculorum laudabunt te. In tabernaculo adhuc gemimus; in domo landabimus. Quare? Quia gemitus est peregninantium, laudatio jam in patria & in domo commorantium. Qui in illam intrant ut inhabitent, ipsi sunt qui intrant ut inhabitentur. In domum tuam intra ut inhabites: In domum Dei ut inhabiter is. Est enim melior Domus: qui cum te caeperit inhabitare, beatum te facit. Nam si tu ab illo non habitaris, miseres. August. in Psal 26. & 31.dwelling there. Should Israel have setled his Rest in the VVilderness, among Serpents, and enemies, and weariness, and famine? Should Noah have made the Ark his home, and have been loth to come forth when the waters were faln? Should the Marriner chuse his dwelling on the Sea? and settle his rest in the midst of Rocks and Sands, and raging Tempests? though he may adventure through all these, for a Commodity of worth; yet I think he takes it not for his rest. Should a Souldier rest in the midst of fight? when he is in the very thickest of his enemies? and the instruments of death compass him about? I think he cares not how soon the battle is over: And though he may adventure upon war for the obtaining of peace, yet I hope he is not so mad, as to take that instead of Peace. And are not Christians such Travellers, such Marriners, such Souldiers? Have we not fears within, and troubles without? are we not in the thickest of continual dangers? we cannot eat, drink, sleep, labor, pray, hear, confer, &c. but in the midst of snares and perils? and shall we sit down and rest here? O Christian, follow thy work, look to thy dangers, hold on to the end, win the field, and come off the ground, before thou think of a setling rest. I read indeed that Peter on the mount, when he had seen a glimpse of Glory, said, Its good for us to be here. But sure when he was on the Sea, in the midst of waves, he doth not then say, Its good to be here▪ No, then he hath other language, Save Master, we perish. And even his desires to rest on the Mount, are noted in Scripture to come from hence, He knew not what he said: It was on Earth, though with Christ in his transfiguration. And I dare say the like of thee, when ever thou talkest of resting on Earth, Thou knowst not what thou sayest. I read that Christ when he was on the Cross, comforted the converted thief with this, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise: But if he had onelyonly comforted him with telling him, That he should rest there on that Cross, would he not have taken it for a derision? Me thinks it should be ill resting in the midst of sicknesses and pains, persecution and distresses: One would think it should be no contentful dwelling for Lambs among Wolves. The wicked have some slender pretence for their sin in this kinde; they are among their friends, in the midst of their portion, enjoying all the Happiness that they are like to enjoy: But is it so with the godly? Surely, the world is at best, but a stepmother to them; nay, an open enemy. But if nothing else would convince us; yet sure the remainders of sin which doth so easily beset us, should quickly satisfie a beleever, That here is not his rest. What, a Christian, and Rest in a state of sinning? it cannot be: Or do they hope for a perfect freedom here? that's impossible. I say therefore to every one that thinketh of rest on Earth, as Micah, chapter 2. verse 10. Arise ye, depart, this is not your Rest▪ because it is polluted.
Thirdly, The nature of all these things may convince you, That they cannot be a Christians true rest. They are too poor to make us such; and too low to raise us to happiness; and too empty to fill our souls; and too base to make us blessed; and of too short continuance, to be our eternal contents. They cannot subsist themselves, without support from Heaven; how then can they give subsistence to our souls? Sure if prosperity, or whatsoever we can here desire, be too base to make us gods of, then are they too base to be our rest.
Fourthly, That which is the Souls true rest, must be sufficient to afford it perpetual satisfaction: But all things below do delight us onelyonly with fresh variety. The content which any Creature affordeth, doth wax old and abate after a short enjoyment: We pine away for them, as Amnon for his sister; and when we have satisfied our desire, we are weary of them, and loath them. If God should rain down Angels food, after a while our souls would loath that dry Manna. The most dainty fare, the most costly clothing would not please us, were we tied to them alone. The most sumptuous house, the softest bed, were we confined to them, would be but a prison. One recreation pleaseth not long; we must have supply of new, or our delights will languish, nay, our delight in our society and friendship, especially if carnal, is strongest while fresh. And in the Ordinances of God themselves, (so far as we delight in them for themselves and not for God) if novelty support not, our delight grows dull. If we hear still the same Minister; or if in Preaching and Praying, he use oft the same expressions; or if he Preach oft the same Sermon? how dull grows our devotion, though the matter be never so good, and at first did never so highly please us? If we read the most excellent and pleasing Books, the third or fourth reading is usually more heartless, then the first or second▪ Nay, in our general way of Christianity, our first godly acquaintance, our first Preachers, our first Books, our first Duties, have too commonly our strongest affections. All Creatures are to us, as the flowers to the Bee. There is but little of that matter which affords them honey on any flower; and therefore they must have supply of fresh variety, and take of each a superficial taste, and so to the next yea, some having gone through variety of States, and …asted of the pleasures of their own Countrey, do travel for fresh variety abroad; and when they come home, they usually betake themselves to some solitary corner, and sit down, and cry with Salomon, Vanity and Vexation ▪ And with David, I have seen an end of all perfection: Psal. 119.And can this be a place of Rest for the soul?
Fifthly, Those that know the creature least, do affect it most; the more its known▪ the less …t satisfieth: Those onelyonly are taken with it, who can see no further then its outward beauty, not beholding its inward vanity; Its like a comely Picture, if you stand too neer it, it appears less beautiful; we are prone to over-admire the persons of men, places of Honor, and other mens happy condition, but it is onelyonly while we do but half know them▪ stay but a while till we know them throughly, and have discovered the evil as well as the good, and the defects, as well as the perfections, and then do we cease our admiration.
§. 7.SECT. VII.
6. TO have creatures and means without God, who is their end, is so far from being our happiness, that its an aggravation of our misery▪ even as to have food without strength▪ and starve in the midst of plenty, and as Pharoahs Kine, to devour all, and be fear still▪ What the better were you, if you had the best Minister on Earth▪ the best Society, the purest Church, and therewithall the most plentiful Estate, but nothing of God? If God should say, Take my Creatures, my VVord, my Servants, my Ordinances, but not my Self; would you take this for a happiness? If you had the Word of God, and not the VVord which is God▪ Or *Panem Domini, non panem Dominum, ut August.the Bread of the Lord, and not the Lord, which is the true Bread? or could cry with the Jews, The Temple of the Lord, and had not the Lord of the Temple? This were a poor happiness. Was Capernaum the more happy, or the more miserable, for seeing the mighty works which they had seen, and hearing the words of Christ which they did hear?Matth. 11.21, 22, 23. Surely, that which aggravates our sin and misery, cannot be our Rest.
7. If all this be nothing, do but consult with Experience, both other mens and your own, too many thousands and millions have made trial, but did ever one of these finde a sufficient Rest for his soul on this earth? Delights I deny not but they have found, and imperfect temporary content, but Rest and Satisfaction they never found: And shall we think to finde that which never man could finde before us? Ahabs Kingdom is nothing to him, except he had also Naboaths Vineyard; and did that satisfie him, think you, when he obtained it? If we had conquered to our selves the whole world, we should perhaps do as Alexander is Fabled to have done, Sit down and weep because there is never another world to Conquer. If I should send you forth as Noahs Dove, to go through the earth, to look for a Resting place, you would return with a confession, that you can finde none: Go ask Honor, Is there Rest here? Why, you may as well rest on the top of the tempestuous Mountains, or in Etnaes flames, or on the Pinnacle of the Temple. If you ask Riches, Is there Rest here? Even such as is in a bed of Thorns; or were it a bed of Down, yet must you arise in the morning, and leave it to the next Guest that shal succeed you: Or if you enquire of worldly Pleasure and ease, can they give you any tidings of true Rest? Even such as the fish or bird hath in the Net, or in swallowing down the deceitful bait; when the pleasure is at the sweetest, death is the nearest: It is just such a content and happiness, as the exhilarating vapors of the winde do give to a man that is drunk; it causeth a merry and cheerful heart, it makes him forget his wants and miseries, and conceive himself the happiest man in the world, till his sick vomitings have freed him of his disease, or sleep have asswaged and subdued those vapors which deluded his fantasie, and perverted his Understanding, and then he awakes a more unhappy man then ever he was before. Such is the Rest and Happiness that all worldly pleasures doth afford. As the Phantasie may be delighted in a pleasant dream, when all the senses are captivated by sleep; so may the flesh or sensitive appetite, when the reasonable soul is captivated by security, but when the morning comes, the delusion vanisheth; and where is the pleasure and happiness then? Or if you should go to Learning, to purest, plentifullest, powerfullest Ordinances, or compass sea and land to finde out the perfectest Church, and holiest Saints, and enquire whether there your soul may rest: You might haply receive from these indeed an Olive-branch of Hope, as they are means to your Rest, and have relation to eternity; but in regard of any satisfaction in themselves, you would remain as restless as ever before. O how well might all these answer many of us,Gen. 30.2. with that indignation, as Jacob did Rachel, Am I instead of God? Or as the King of Israel said of the Messengers of the King of Assyria, 2 Kings 5.7.when he required him to restore Naaman to health, Am I God, to kill, and to make alive, that this man sends to me to recover a man of his Leprosy? So may the highest perfections on earth say, Are we God, or in stead of God, that this man comes to us to give a soul Rest? Go take a view of all estates of men in the world, and see whether any of them have found this Rest. Go to the Husbandman, and demand of him, behold his circular endless labours, his continual care and toyl, and weariness, and you will easily see, that there is no Rest; Go to the Tradesman, and you shall finde the like: If I should send you lower, you would judg your labor lost: Or go to the conscionable painful Minister, and there you will yet more easily be satisfied, for though his spending, killing, endless labors are exceeding sweet, yet is it not because they are his Rest, but in reference to his peoples, and his own eternal Rest, at which he aims, and to which they may conduce. If you should ascend to Magistracy, and enquire at the Throne, you would finde ther's no condition so restless, and your hearts would even pitty poor Princes and Kings. Doubtless, neither Court, nor Countrey, Towns, or Cities, Shops, or Fields, Treasuries, Libraries, Soli…a…iness, Society, Studies, or Pulpits can afford any such thing as this Rest: If you could enquire of the dead of all Generations; or if you could ask the living through all Dominions, they would all tell you, here's no Rest; and all Mankinde may say, All our days are sorrow, and our labor is grief, and our hearts take not rest, Eccles. 2.23. Go to Genevah, go to New England, finde out the Church which you think most hapyy, and we may say of it, as lamenting Jeremy of the Church of the Jews, Lam. 1.3. She dwelleth among the Heathen, she findeth no rest, all her Persecutors overtake her. The holiest Prophet, the blessedst Apostle would say▪ as one of the most blessed did, 2 Cor. 7.5. Our flesh had no rest, without were fightings, within were fears: If neither Christ nor his Apostles, to whom was given the earth and the fulness thereof, had rest here, why should we expect it?
Or if other mens experiences move you not, do but take a view of your own: Can you remember the estate than did fully satisfie you? Or if you could, will it prove a lasting state? For my own part, I have run through seve…al places and states of life, and though I never had the necessities which might occasion discontent, yet did I never finde a setlement for my soul; and I believe we may all say of our Rest,1 Cor. 15.19. as Paul of our Hopes, If it were in this life onelyonly, we were of all men most miserable. Or if you will not credit your past experience, you may try in your present or future wants: when Conscience is wounded, God offended, your bodies weakned, your friends afflicted, see if these can yield you Rest. If then either Scripture, or Reason, or the Experience of your selves and all the world will satisfie us, we may see there is no resting here. And yet how guilty are the generality of Professors of this sin! How many halts and stops do we make, before we will make the Lord our Rest! How must God even drive us, and fire us out of every condition, lest we should sit down and Rest there! If he give us Prosperity, Riches, or Honor, we do in our hearts dance before them, as the Israelites before their Calf, and say, These are thy Gods, and conclude it is good being here. If he imbitter all these to us by Crosses, how do we strive to have the Cross removed, and the bitterness taken away, and are restless till our condition be sweetned to us, that we may sit down again, and rest where we were? If the Lord, seeing our perversness, shall now proceed in the cure, and take the creature quite away, then how do we labor, and care, and cry, and pray, that God would restore it, that if it may be, we may make it our Rest again? And while we are deprived of its actual enjoyment, and have not our former Idoll to delight in, yet rather then come to God, we delight our selves in our hopes of recovering our former state, and as long as there is the least likelihood of obtaining it, we make those very hopes our Rest: if the poor by laboring all their dayes, have but hopes of a fuller estate when they are old (though a hundred to one they dye before they have obtained i…, or certainly at least immediatly after) yet do they labor with patience, and rest themselves on these Expectations. Or if God do take away both present injoyments, and all hopes of ever recovering them, how do we search about, from creature to creature, to finde out something to supply the room, and to settle upon in stead thereof? Yea, if we can finde no supply, but are sure we shall live in poverty, in sickness, in disgrace, while we are on earth, yet will we rather settle in this misery, and make a Rest of a wretched Being, then we will leave all and come to God. A man would think, that a multitude of poor people, who beg their bread, or can scarce with their hardest labor have sustenance for their lives, should easily be driven from Resting here, and willingly look to heaven for Rest; and the sick who have not a day of ease, nor any hope of recovery le…t them: But O the cursed aversness of these souls from God▪ We will rather account our misery our happiness, yea that which we daily groan under as intolerable, then we will take up our happiness in God. If any place in hell were tolerable, the soul would rather take up its Rest there, then come to God. Yea when he is bringing us over to him, and hath convinced us of the worth of his wayes and service, *I know the means of grace must be loved and valued, and the usual enjoyment of God is in the use of them, and he that delighteth in any worldly thing more then in them, is not a true Christian: But when we are content with duty in stead of God, and had rather be at a Sermon then in Heaven, and a member of a Church here, then of that perfect Church, and rejoyce in ordinances but as they are part of our earthly prosperity; this is a sad mistakethe last deceit of all is here; we will rather settle upon those wayes that lead to him, and those ordinances which speak of him, and those gifts which flow from him, then we will come clean over to himself. Christian, marvel not that I speak so much of Resting in these: Beware least it should prove thy own case; I suppose thou art so far convinced of the vanity of Riches, and Honor, and carnal pleasure, that thou canst more easily disclaim these (and its well if it be so) but for thy more spiritual mercies in thy way of profession, thou lookest on these with less suspicion, and thinkest they are so neer to God, that thou canst not delight in them too much, especially seeing most of the world despise them▪ or delight in them too little. But do not the encrease of these mercies dull thy longings after heaven? If all were according to thy desire in the Church, wouldst thou not sit down and say, I am well; Soul, take thy Rest, and think it a judgment to be removed to heaven? Surely if thy delight in these excel not thy delight in God, or if thou wouldst gladly leave the most happy condition on earth, to be with God, then art thou a rare man, a Christian indeed. Many a one of us were more willing to go to heaven in the former dayes of persecution, when we had no hopes of seeing the Church reformed, and the Kingdom delivered: But now we are in hopes to have all things almost as we desire, the case is altered, and we begin to look at heaven as strangely and sadly, as if it would be to our loss to be removed to it. Is this the right use of Reformation? Or is this the way to have it continued or perfected? should our deliverances draw our hearts from God? O, how much better were it, in every trouble▪ to fetch our chief arguments of comfort, from the place where our chiefest Rest remains; and when others comfort the poor with hopes of wealth, or the sick with hopes of health and life, let us comfort our selves with the hopes of heaven. So far rejoyce in the creature, as it comes from God, or leads to him, or brings thee some report of his love; So far let thy soul take comfort in ordinances, as God doth accompany them with quickning or comfort, or gives in himself unto thy soul by them. Still remembring, when thou hast even what thou dost desire, yet this is not Heaven; yet these are but the first fruits. Is it not enough that God alloweth us all the comforts of travellers, and accordingly to rejoyce in all his mercies, but we must set up our staff, as if we were at home? While we are present in the body,2 Cor. 5.6, 7, 8, 9. we are absent from the Lord; and while we absent from him, we are absent from our Rest. If God were as willing to be absent from us, as we from him, and if he were as loth to be our Rest, as we are loth to Rest in him, we should be left to an Eternal Restless seperation. In a word, as you are sensible of the sinfulness of your earthly discontents, so be you also of your irregular contents, and pray God to pardon them much more. And above all the plagues and judgments of God on this side hell, see that you watch and pray against this [Of settling any where short of Heaven, or reposing your souls to Rest on any thing below God.] Or else, when the bough which you tread on breaks, and the things which you Rest upon deceive you, you will perceive your labor all lost, and your sweetest contents to be preparatives to your w…, and your highest hopes will make you ashamed. Try, if you can perswade Satan to lea…e tempting, and the world to cease both troubling and seducing, and sin to cease inhabiting and acting, if you can bring the Glory of God from above, or remove the Court from Heaven to earth, and secure the continuance of this through Eternity▪ then settle your selves below, and say, Soul take thy rest here: But till then admit not such a thought.