faction. But the Content which Creatures afford wax old, and abate after a fhort Enjoyment. If God fhould rain down Angel's Food, we fhould foon leath the Manna. If Novelty fupport not, our Delights on Earth grow dull. All Creatures are to us, as the Flowers to the Bee; there is but little Honey on any one, and therefore there muft be a fuperficial Tafte, and fo to the next.- -The more the Creature is known, the lefs it fatisfieth. Those only are taken with it, who fee no further than its outward Beauty, without difcerning its inward Vanity. When we thoroughly know the Condition of other Men, and have difcovered the Evil as well as the Good, and the Defects as well as the Perfections, we then cease our Admiration.

$16. (6) To have Creatures and Means without God, is an Aggravation of our Mifery. If God fhould fay, "Take my Creatures, my Word, my Servants, y

Ordinances, but not myfelf;" would you take this ' for Happiness? If you had the Word of God, and not the Word, which is God; or 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 miferable, for feeing the mighty Works which they had feen, and hearing the Words of Christ which they did bear? Surely that, which aggravates our Sin and Mifery, cannot be our Reft.

§ 17. (7) To confirm all this, let us confult our own and others Experience. Millions have made Trial, but did any ever find a fufficient Reft for his Soul on Earth? Delights I deny not but they have found, but Reft and Satisfaction they never found. And fhall we think to find that which never Man could find before us? Ahab's Kingdom is nothing to him,

without

without Naboth's Vineyard; and did that fatisfy_him when he obtained it? Were you, like Noah's Dove, to look through the Earth for a refting Place, you would return confeffing, that you can find none. Go, afk Honour, is there Reft here? You may as well reft on the Top of tempeftuous Mountains, or in Etna's Flames. Afk Riches, is there Reft here? Even fuch as is in a Bed of Thorns. If you enquire for Reft of worldly Pleafure; it is fuch as the Fifh hath in fwallowing the Bait; when the Pleafure is fweeteft, Death is neareft. Go to Learning, and even to divine Ordinances, and enquire whether there your Souls may reft? You might indeed receive from thefe an Olive-Branch of Hope, as they are Means to your Reft, and have Relation to Eternity; but in Regard of any Satisfaction in themselves, you would remain as reftlefs as ever. How well might all these anfwer us, as Jacob did Rachel, Am I in God's fead, that you come to me for Sou!-Reft? Not all the States of Men in the World; neither Court nor Country, Towns or Cities, Shops or Fields, Treafuties, Libraries, Solitude, Society, Studies, or Pulpits, can afford any fuch Thing as this Reit. If you could enquire of the Dead of all Generations, or of the Living through all Dominions, they would all tell you, "Here is no Reft."Or if other Men's Experiences move you not, take a View of your own. Can you remember the State that did fully fatisfy you? or if you could, will it prove lafting? I believe we may all fay of our carthly Reft, as Paul of our Hope, If it were in this Life only, we are of all Men mot miferable.

$18. IF then either Scripture, or Reafon, or the Experience of ourfelves, and all the World, will fatisfy us, we may fee there is no reting here. And yet how guilty are the Generality of us of this Sin?

How many Halts and Stops do we make, before we will make the Lord our Reft? How muft God even drive us, and fire us out of every Condition, left we fhould fit down and reft there? If He give us Profperity, Riches, or Honour, we do in our Hearts dance before them, as the Ifraelites before their Calf, and fay, These are thy Gods, and conclude, it is good to be here. If He imbitter all these to us, how reftlefs are we till our Condition be fweetened, that we may fit down again, and reft where we were? If He proceed in the Cure, and take the Creature quite away, then how do we labour, and cry, and pray, that God would reftore it, that we may make it our Reft again? And while we are deprived of our former Idol, yet rather than come to God, we delight ourselves in the Hope of recovering it, and make that very Hope cur Reft; or fearch about from Creature to Creature, to find out fomething to fupply the Room; yea, if we can find no Supply, yet we will rather fettle in this Mifery, and make a Reft of a wretched Being, than leave all and come to God. O the curfed Averfenefs of our Souls from God! If any Place in Hell were tolerable, the Soul would rather take up its Reft there, than come to God. Yea, when He is bringing us. over to Him, and hath convinced us of the Worth of His Ways and Service, the laft Deceit of all is here, we will rather fettle upon thofe Ways that lead to Him, and thofe Ordinances that speak of Him, and thofe Gifts which flow from Him, than we will come entirely over to Himfelf Chriftian, marvel not that I fpeak fo much of refting in thefe; beware left it prove thy own Cafe. I fuppofe thou art fo far convinced of the Vanity of Riches, Honour, and Pleafure, that thou canft more.eafily difclaim thefe, and it is well if it be fo; but the Means of Grace thou lockeft on with lefs Sufpicion, and thinkeft thou cant

not

not delight in them too much, efpecially seeing moft of the World defpife them, or delight in them too little. I know they must be loved and valued, and he that delighteth in any worldly Thing more than in them, is not a Chriftian. But when we are content with Ordinances without God, and had rather be at a Sermon than in Heaven, and a Member of the Church here, than of the perfect Church above, this is a fad Miftake. So far let thy Soul take Comfort in Ordinances, as God doth accompany them; remembering, this is not Heaven, but the FirstFruits. While we are prefent in the Body, we are abfent from the Lord; and while we are abfent from Him, we are abfent from our Reft. If God were as willing to be abfent from us, as we from Him, and as loth to be our Reft, as we to reft in Him, we fhould be left to an eternal reftlefs Separation. In a Word, as you are fenfible of the Sinfulness of your earthly Difcontents, fo be you alfo of your irregular Satisfactions, and pray God to pardon them much

more.

And above all the Plagues on this Side Hell, fee that you watch and pray against fettling any where Short of Heaven, or repofing your Souls on any Thing below God.

$ 19. (III) The next Thing to be confidered is, our unreasonable Unwillingness to die that we may poffefs the Saint's Reft. We linger, like Lot in Sodom, till the Lord, being merciful unto us, doth pluck us away against our Wills. I confess that Death of itself is not defirable; but the Soul's Reft with God is, to which Death is the common Paffage. Because we are apt to make light of this Sin, let me fet before you its Nature and Remedy in a Variety of Confiderations. As for Inftance.—It has in it much Infidelity. If we did but verily believe, that the Promife of this Glory is the Word of God, and that God

doth

doth truly mean as He speaks, and is fully refolved to make it good; if we did verily believe, that there is indeed fuch Bleffedness prepared for Believers; furely we fhould be as impatient of living, as we are now fearful of dying, and should think every Day à Year till our laft Day fhould come. Is it poffible that we can truly believe, that Death will remove us from Mifery to fuch Glory, and yet be loth to die? If the Doubts of our own Interest in that Glory make us fear, yet a true Belief of the Certainty and Excellency of this Reft would make us reftlefs till our Title to it be cleared. Though there is much Faith and Christianity in our Mouths, yet there is much Infidelity and Paganifm in our Hearts, which is the chief Caufe that we are fo loth to die.It is also much owing to the Coldness of our Love. If we love our Friend, we love his Company, his Prefence is comfortable, his Abfence is painful; when he comes to us, we entertain him with Gladnefs; when he dies, we mourn, and usually over-mourn. To be feparated from a faithful Friend, is like the rending a Member from our Body. And would not our Defires after God be fuch, if we really loved Him? Nay, fhould it not be much more than fuch, as He is above all Friends most lovely? May the Lord teach us to look closely to our Hearts, and take Heed of Self-Deceit in this Point! Whatever we pretend, if we love either Father, Mother, Hufband, Wife, Child, Friend, Wealth, or Life itself more than Chrift, we are yet none of his fincere Difciples. When it comes to the Trial, the Queftion will not be, who hath preached moft, or heard moft, or talked moft; but, who hath loved most? Chrift will not take Sermons, Prayers, Faftings, no, nor the giving our Goods, nor the burning our Bodies, inftead of Love. And do we love him, and yet care not how long we are from him? Was it

fuch