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ling to accept of Chrift for their Saviour and their King, and to be saved by him in his Way, and upon his moft reafonable Terms, they might have been faved. God freely offered them Life, and they would not accept it. The Pleafures of the Flesh feemed more defirable to them than the Glory of the Saints. Satan hered them the one, and God offered them the other, and they had free Liberty to chufe which they would, and they chofe the Pleasures of Sin for a Seafon, before the everlasting Reft with Chrift. And is it not a righteous Thing, that they should be denied that, which they would not accept? When God preft them fo earneftly, and perfuaded them fo importunately, to come in, and yet they would not, where should they be but among the Dogs without? Tho' Man be fo wicked, that he will not yield till the mighty Power of Grace prevail with him, yet ftill we may truly fay, that he may be faved, if he will, on God's Terms. His Inability, being Moral, and lying in wilfull Wickedness, is no more Excufe to him, than it is to an Adulterer, that he cannot love his own Wife, or to a malicious Perfon, that he cannot but hate his own Brother: Is he not fo much the worse, and deferving of fo much the forer Punishment? Sinners shall lay all the Blame on their own Wills in Hell for ever. Hell is a rational Torment by Confcience, according to the Nature of the rational Subject. If Sinners could but then fay, it was long of God, and not of us, it would quiet their Confciences, and ease their Torments, and make Hell to them to be no Hell. But to remember their Wilfu'nefs, will feed the Fire, and caufe the Worm of Confcience never to die (x).

$15. It is the Will of God, that this Reft should yet remain for his People, and not be enjoyed till they come

(x) Mark ix. 44.

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to another World. Who should dispose of the Greatures, but he that made them? You may as well afk, why have we not Spring and Harvest without Winter? or, why is the Earth below, and the Hea vens above, as, why we have not Reft on Earth? All Things must come to their Perfection by Deg ees, The ftronge Man must first be a Child. The greates Scholar must first begin in his Alphabet The tallest Oak was once an Acorn. This Life is our Infancy; and would we be perfect in the Womb, or born at full Sta ure?If our Reft was here, moft of God's Providences must be useless. Should God lose the Glory of his Church's miraculous Deliverances, and the Fall of his Enemies, that Men may have their Happiness he e? If we were all happy, innocent,. and perfect, what Ufe were there for the glorious Works of our Sanctification, Juftification, and future Salvation?If we wanted nothing, we fhould not depend on God fo clofely, nor call upon him fo earnestly. How little fhould he hear from us, if we had what we would have? God would never have had fuch Songs of Praise from Mofes at the Red Sea and in the Wildernefs, from Deborah and Hannah, from David and Hezekiah, if they had been the Chufers of their own Condition. Have not thy own highest Praises to God, Reader, been occafioned by thy Dangers or Miferies? The greatest Glory and Praife God has through the World, is for Redemption, Reconciliation, and Salvation by Chrift; and was not Man's Mifery the Occafion of that?-And where God lofes the Opportunity of exercifing his Mercies, Man muft needs lofe the Happiness of enjoying them. Where God lofes his Praife, Man will certainly lofe his Comforts. Oh the sweet Comforts the Saints have had in Return to their Prayers! How fhould we know what a tender-hearted Father we

have, if we had not, as the Prodigal, been denied the Hufks of earthly Pleasure and Profit? We should never have felt Chrift's tender Heart, if we had not felt ourselves weary and heavy laden, hungry and thirfly, poor and contrite. It is a Delight to a Soldier, or Traveller, to look back on his Escapes when they are over: And for a Saint in Heaven to look back on his Sins and Sorrows upon Earth, his Fears and Tears, his Enemies and Dangers, his Wants and Calamities, muft make his Joy more joyful. Therefore the Blefed, in praifing the Lamb, mention his redeeming them out of every Nation, and Kindred, and Tongue; and fo out of their Mifery, and Wants, and Sins, and making them Kings and Priests to God. But if they had had nothing but Content and Reft on Earth, what Room would there have been for thefe Rejoicings hereafter?

$16. BESIDES, we are not capable of Reft upon Earth. Can a Soul that is fo weak in Grace, fo prone to Sin, to nearly joined to fuch a Neighbour as this Flefh, have full Content and Reft in fuch a Cafe? What is Soul-Reft, but our Freedom from Sin, and In perfections, and Enemies? And can the Soul have Reft that is peftered with all these, and that continually? Why do Chriftians fo oft cry out,in the Language of Paul, O wretched Man that I am, who fhall deliver me (y)? What makes them press towards the Mark, and run that they may obtain, and firive to enter in, if they are capable of Reft in their prefent Condition? And our Bodies are incapable, as well as our Souls. They are not now thofe Sun-like Bodies which they fhall be, when this corruptible hath fut on Incorruption, and this mortal put on Immortality. They are our Prifons, and our Burthens; fo full of Infirmities and Defects, that we are fain to fpend

(y) Rom. vii. 24.

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most of our Time in repairing them, and fupplying their continual Wants. Is it poffible that an immortal Soul fhould have Reft in fuch a diftempered, noifome Habitation? Surely these fickly, weary, loathfome Bodies must be refined, before they can be capable of enjoying Reft. The Objects we here enjoy are infufficient to afford us Reft. Alas! what is there in all the World to give us Reft? They that have most of it, have the greatest Burthen. They that fet moft by it, and rejoice most in it, do all cry out at laft of its Vanity and Vexation. Men promise themselves a Heaven upon Earth; but when they come to enjoy it, it flies from them. He that has any Regard to the Works of the Lord, may eafily fee, that the very End of them is to take down our Idols, to make us weary of the World, and feek our Reft in him. Where does he crofs us moft, but where we promise Ourselves most Content? If you have a Child you dote upon, it be comes your Sorrow. If you have a Friend you truft in, and judge unchangeable, he becomes your Scourge. Is this a Place or State of Reft?-And as the Objects we here enjoy are infufficient for our Reft, fo God, who is fufficient, is here little enjoyed. It is not here that he hath prepared the Prefence-Chamber of his Glory. He hath drawn the Curtain between us and him: We are far from him as Creatures, and farther as frail Mortals, and fartheft as Sinners. We hear now and then a Word of Comfort from him, and receive his Love-Tokens, to keep up our Hearts and Hopes; but this is not our full Enjoyment. And can any Soul, that hath made God his Portion, as every one hath that fhall be faved by him, find Reft in fo vaft a Dif tance from him, and fo feldom and finall Enjoyment of him?-Nor are we now capable of Reft, as there is a Worthiness must go before it. Chrift will give the

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Crown to none but the Worthy. And are we fit for the Crown, before we have overcome? Or for the Prize, before we have run the Race? Or to receive our Penny, before we have workt in the Vineyard; Or to be Rulers of Ten Cities, before we have impro ved our Ten Talents? Or to enter into the Joy of our Lord, before we have well done, as good and faithful Servants? God will not alter the Courfe of Juftice, to give you Reft before you have laboured for the Crown of Glory, till you have overcome There's Reafon enough why our Reft fhould remain till the Life o come. Take Heed then Chriftian Reader, how theu dareft to contrive and care for a Reft on Earth; or to murmur at God for thy Trouble, and Toil, and Wants in the Flesh. Doth thy Poverty weary thee? Thy Sickness? Thy bitter Enemies and unkind Friends? It fhould be fo here. Do the Abominations of the Times, the Sins of Profeffors, the Hardening of the wicked, all weary thee? It must be fo while thou art abfent from thy Reft. Do thy Sins, and thy naughty, distempered Heart weary thee? Be thus wearied inore and more. But under all this Weariness, art thou willing to go to God thy Reft? And to have thy Warfare accomplished? And thy Race and Labour ended? If not, complain more of thy own Heart, and get it more weary, till Ref feem more defirable.

S17. I have but one. Thing more to add, for the Clofe of this Chapter, that the Souls of Believers do enjoy inconceiveable Bleffedness and Glory, even while they remain jeparated from their Bodies.-What can be more plain than thofe Words of Paul? We are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at Home or rather fojourning in the Body, we are abfent from the Lord (Fir we walk by Faith, not by Sight). We are confident, I fay, and willing rather to be abfent from the Body, and to be pre

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