his saints. Never expect thy flesh should truly expound the meaning of the rod. It will call love, hatred; and say, God is destroying, when he is saving. It is the suffering party, and therefore not fit to be the judge."--Could we once believe God, and judge of his dealings by his word, and by their usefulness to our souls, and reference to our rest, and could we stop our ears against all the clamours of the flesh, then we should have a truer judgment of our afflictions.

§ 8. (6) Once more consider, God seldom gives his people so sweet a foretaste of their future rest, as in their deep afflictions. He keeps his most precious cordials for the time of our greatest faintings and dangers. He gives them when he knows they are needed, and will be valued; and when he is sure to be thanked for them, and his people rejoiced by them. Especially when our sufferings are more directly for his cause, then he seldom fails to sweeten the bitter cup. The martyrs have possessed the highest joys. When did Christ preach such comforts to his disciples, as when their hearts were sorrowful at his departure? When did he appear among them, and say, Peace be unto you, but when they were shut up for fear of the Jews? When did Stephen see heaven opened, but when he was giving up his life for the testimony of Jesus? Is not that our best state wherein we have most of God? Why else do we desire to come to heaven? If we look for a heaven of fleshly delights, we shall find ourselves mistaken. Conclude then, that affliction is not so bad a state for a saint in his way to rest. Are we wiser than God? Doth he not know what is good for us as well as we? or is he not as careful of our good as we are of our own? Woe to us, if he were not much more so; and if he did not love us better, than we love either him or ourselves!

§ 9. (7) Say not, "I could bear any other affliction but this." If God had afflicted thee where thou canst bear it, thy idol would neither have been dis

covered nor removed. Neither say, "If God

would deliver me out of it, I could be content to bear it." Is it nothing that he hath promised, it shall work for thy good? Is it not enough that thou art sure to be delivered at death? Nor let it be said, "If my affliction did not disable me from my duty, I could bear it." It doth not disable thee for that duty which tendeth to thy own personal benefit, but is the greatest quickening help thou canst expect. As for thy duty to others, it is not thy duty when God disables thee. Perhaps thou wilt say, "The godly are my afflictions; if it were ungodly men, I could easily bear it." Whoever is the instrument, the affliction is from God, and the deserving cause thyself; and is it not better to look more to God than thyself? Didst thou not know that the best men are still sinful in part? Do not plead, "If I had but that consolation, which you say God reserveth for suffering times, I should suffer more contentedly; but I do not perceive any such thing." The more you suffer for righteousness' sake, the more of this blessing you may expect; and the more you suffer

for

your own evil doing, the longer it will be before that sweetness comes. Are not the comforts you desire neglected or resisted? Have your afflictions wrought kindly with you, and fitted you for comfort? It is not mere suffering that prepares you for comfort, but the success and fruit of suffering upon your hearts..

§ 10. (II.) To show the unreasonableness of resting in present enjoyments, consider,-it is idolizing them; it contradicts God's end in giving them;it is the way to have them refused, withdrawn, or imbittered; to be suffered to take up our rest here, is the greatest curse; it is seeking rest where it is not to be found; the creatures, without God, would aggravate our misery; and to confirm all this, we may consult our own experience, and that

of others.

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§ 11. (1) It is gross idolatry to make any creature, or means, our rest. To be the rest of the soul, is God's own prerogative. As it is apparent idolatry to place our rest in riches, or honours; so it is but a more refined idolatry to take up our rest in excellent means of grace. How ill must our dear Lord take it, when we give him cause to complain, as he did of our fellow idolaters, My people have been lost sheep, they have forgotten their resting place.(z) And to say, My people can find rest in any thing, rather than in me. They can delight in one another, but not in me. They can rejoice in my creatures and ordinances, but not in me. Yea, in their very labours and duties they seek for rest, but not in me. They had rather be any-where, than be with me. Are these their gods? Have these redeemed them? Will these be better to them than I have been, or than I would be?" If yourselves have a wife, a husband, a son, that had rather be any-where than in your company, and be never so merry as when furthest from you, would you not take it ill? So must our God needs do.

§ 12. (2) You contradict the end of God in giving these enjoyments. He gave them to help thee to him; and dost thou take up with them in his stead? He gave them to be refreshments in thy journey; and wouldest thou dwell in thy inn, and go no further? It may be said of all our comforts and ordinances, as it is said of the Israelites, The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them, to search out a resting-place for them.(a) So do all God's mercies here. They are not that rest; as John professed 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 contrary to their own ends, and to our own advantages, and to destroy ourselves with that which should help us.

§ 13. (3) It is the way to cause God, either to deny the mercies we ask, or to take from us those we enjoy, or at least embitter them to us. God is nowhere so jealous as here. If you had a servant whom your wife loved better than yourself, would you not take it ill of such a wife, and rid your house of such a servant; 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 jealousy unsettle you. If he love you, no wonder if he take that from you, with which he sees you are destroying yourselves. It hath long been my 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 have just overcome it; and began to look on their condition with content, and rest in it; they are then usually near to death or ruin. When a man is once at this language, Soul, take thy ease; the next news usually is, Thou fool, this night, or this month, or this year, thy soul shall be required; and then whose shall these things be? What house is there, where this fool dwelleth not? Let you and I consider, whether it be not our own case. Many a servant of God hath been destroyed from the earth, by being over-valued, and over-loved. I am persuaded, our discontents and murmuring are not so provoking to God, nor so destructive to the sinner, as our too sweet enjoying, and resting in, a pleasing state. If God hath crossed you in wife, children, goods, friends, either by taking them away, or the comfort of them; try whether this 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 jealousy of God against it. Whether you be friends to God or enemies, you can never expect that God should suffer you quietly to enjoy your idols.

§ 14. (4) Should God suffer you to take up your rest here, it is one of the greatest curses that could

befall you. It were better never to have a day of ease in the world; for then weariness might make you seek after the true rest. But if you are suffered to sit down and rest here, a restless wretch you will be through all eternity. To have their portion in this life, is the lot of the most miserable perishing sinners. 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 wouldest thou have but such a heaven as this?

§ 15. (5) It is seeking rest where it is not to be found. Your labour will be lost, and, if you proceed, your soul's eternal rest too. Our rest is only in the full obtaining of our ultimate end. But that is not to be expected in this life; neither is rest therefore to be expected here. Is God to be enjoyed in the best church here, as he is in heaven? How little of God the saints enjoy under the best means, let their own complainings testify. Poor comforters are the best ordinances, without God. Should a traveller take up his rest in the way? No, because his home is his jour ney's end. When you have all that creatures and means can afford, have you that which you believed, prayed, suffered for? I think you dare not say so. We 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. We are also in the midst of our labours and dangers; and is there any resting here? What painful work doth lie upon our hands! Look to our brethren, to our souls, and 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 labours? Indeed we may rest on earth, as the ark is said to have rested in the midst of Jordan; a short and small rest. Or as Abraham desired the angels to turn in, and rest themselves in his tent, where they would have been loth to have taken up their dwelling