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HICHABP BAXTMB
BOSTOX
1 b 2 B.
THE
SAINTS' ' EVERIiASTING REST.
BY THE
REV. RICHARD BAXTER.
ABRIDGED BY
BENJAMIN FAWCETT, A. M.
STBBEOTTFED AT THE BOSTON TYPE AND STEBEOTTFE 70VN0BT.
BOSTON :
PUBLISHED BY LINCOLN AND EDMANDS,
No. 59 Washington Street.
ADVERTISEMENT.
Vh.^. universal approbation, witli which Baxter's Saints' Rest is received among all denominations of Christians, and the solici- lude expressed by many persons to be furnished with a neat and ])ortable edition, have induced the publishers to stereotype the work, with the hope of promoting a very extended circulation of so invcJuable a treatise. Some confusion was apparent in the heads of chapters and sections of former editions, which is here removed, by rendering them simple and plain j and a few obso- lete expressirms are omitted or varied. The size and price of the present edition will enable benevolent persons to gratify their wislies in procurmg the work for gratuitous circtilation, and thus effectually advance the interests of real religion.
Boston^ Auguatj I8S6.
EXTRACTS
FROM AN
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,
By THOMAS ERSKINE, Esq.
ADVOCATE.
We do not arrogate to ourselves so much as to suppose, t}iat our commendation can add any thing to the authority of such a name as that of Richard Baxter. He be- longed to a class of men, whose characters and genius, now universally venerated, seem to have been most pe- culiarly adapted, by Divine Providence, to the circum- stances of their age and country. We do not speak only of those who partook in Baxter's views of ecclesiastical polity ; but of those who, under any name, maintained the cause of truth and liberty, during the eventful period of the seventeenth century. They were made of the same firm stuff with the Wickliffs, and the Luthers, and the Knoxes, and the Cranmers, and the Latimers, of a former age. They formed a distinguished division of the same glorious army of reformation ; they encounter- ed similar obstacles, and they were directed, and support- ed, and animated, by the same spirit. They were the tru« and enlightened crusaders, who, with all the zeal and courage which conducted their chivalrous ancestors to the earthly Jerusalem, fought their way to the heavenly city ; and rescuing, by their sufferings and by their la- bours, the key of knowledge from the unworthy hands in which it had long lain rusted and misused, generously
4 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
left it as a rich inheritance to all coming generations. They speak with the solemn dignity of martyrs. They seem to feel the importance of their theme, and the per- petual presence of Him who is the great subject of it. There are only two things which they seem to consider as realities — the favour of God and the enmity of God ; and only two parties in the universe to choose between — the party of God and the party of his adversaries. Hence that heroic and noble tone, which marks their lives and their writings. They had chosen their side, and they knew that it was worthy of all they could do or suffer for it.
The agitated state of surrounding circumstances gave them continual proof of the instability of all things tern poral ; and inculcated on them the necessity of seeking a happiness which might be independent of external things. They thus practically learned the vanity and nothingness of life, except in its relation to eternity ; and they declared to their fellow-creatures the mysteries of the kingdom of God, with the tone of men who knew that the lightest word which they spoke outweighed, in the balance of reason as well as of the sanctuary, the value of all earth's plans, and politics, and interests. They were upon high and firm ground. They stood in the midst of that tempestuous ocean, secure on the Rock of Ages ; and as they uttered to those around them their invitations, or remonstrances, or consolations, they thought not of the tastes, but of the necessities of men — they thought only of the difference between being lost and being saved, and they cried aloud, and spared not.
There is no doubt a great variety of thought, and feeling, and expression, to be met with in the theological writers of that class ; but deep and solemn seriousness is the common character of them all. They seem to have felt much. Religion was not allowed to remain as an unused theory in their heads ; they were forced to live on it as their food, and to have recourse to it as their only strength and comfort. Hence their thoughts are never given as abstract views ; they are always deeply im- pregnated with sentiment. Their style reminds us of the light which streams through the stained and storied win- dows of an ancient cathedral. It is not light merely, but light modified by the rich hues, and the quaint forms, and the various incidents, of the pictured medium through which it passes. So these venerable wortliies do not
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 5-
give us merely ideas, but ideas coloured by the deep affections of their own hearts ; they do not merely give us truth, but truth in its historical application to the va- rious struggles, and difficulties, and dejections, of their strangely chequered lives. This gives a great interest to their writings. They are real men, and not books, that we are conversing with. And the peace, and the strength, and the hope, which they describe, are not the fictions of fancy, but the positive and substantial effects of the knowledge of God on their own minds. They are thus not merely waymarks to direct our journeyings ; they seem themselves pilgrims travelling on the same road, and encouraging us to keep pace wuth them. In their books, they seem thus still to journey, still to combat ; but, O ! let us think of the bright reality ! — their contests are past, their labours arc over ; they have fought the good fight, and they are now at rest, made perfect in Christ Jesus. They are joined to that cloud of witnesses, of whom the world was not worthy ; and their names are inscribed in the rolls of heaven ; yet not for their own glory, but for the glory of him who washed them from their sins in his own blood, and whose strength was made perfect in their weakness.
These were the great men of England, and to them, under God, is England indebted for much of that which is valuable in her public institutions, and in the character of her people. They were, indeed, a noble army; they were born from above to be the combatants for truth , they were placed in the gap, and they held their ground, or fell at their posts.
In this army Richard Baxter was a standard-bearer. He laboured much, as well in preaching as in writing ; and with an abundant blessing on both. He had all the high mental qualities of his class in perfection. His mind is inexhaustible, and vigorous, and vivacious, to an extraordinary degree. He seizes irresistibly on the at- tention, and carries it along with him ; and we assuredly do not know any author who can be compared with him, for the power with which he brings his reader directly face to face with death, and judgment, and eternity ; and compels him to look upon them, and converse with them. He is himself most deeply serious, and the holy solemnity of his own soul seems to envelope the reader, as with the air of a temple.
6 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
The Saints' Everlasting Rest was written on a bed of sickness. It contains those thoughts and feehngs, which occupied, and fortified, and animated the author, as he stood on the brink of eternity. The examples of heaven- ly meditation which he gives really breathe of heaven ; and the importance of such meditation, as a duty, and as a mean of spiritual growth, is admirably set forth, and most powerfully enforced. And is it not a most pernicious mad- ness and stupidity to neglect this duty .'' Is it not strange tiiat such prospects should excite so little interest? Is it not strange that the uncertainty of the duration of life, and tixe certainty of its sorrows, do not compel men to seek refuge in that inheritance which is incorruptible, unde- filed, and which fadeth not away .'' Is it not strange that the offers of friendship, and intimate relationship, which God is continually holding out to us, should be slighted, even in competition with the society of those, whom we cannot but despise and reprobate .' Is it not strange that we should, day after day, allow ourselves to be duped by the same false promises of happiness, which have disap- pointed us, just as often as they have been trusted .'' O ! let us be persuaded, that there is no rest in created things. No : there is no rest, except in Him who made us. Who is the man that can say he has found rest elsewhere .'' No man says it. May God open our hearts, as well as our understandings, to see the truth ; that we may practi- cally know the insufficiency, and hollowness, and insecu- rity of all earthly hopes ; and that we may be led, in sim- plicity and earnestness, to seek, and so to find, our rest in Himself.
T. E.
Edinburgh, February, 1824.
CONTENTS.
Page.
Lilroduclory Essay, 3
(!k)inpiler's Preface, 9
CHAPTER I.
The Introduction to the Work, with some account of the Na- ture of the Saints' Rest, 17
CHAPTER n. The great Preparatives to the Saints' Rest, 35
CHAPTER m.
The Excellencies of the Saints' Rest, 45'
CHAPTER IV.
The Character of the Persons for whom this Rest is ae- signed, ^'-
CHAPTER V.
The great Misery of those who lose the Saints' Rest, ... 81
CHAPTER VI.
Tlie Misery of those, who, besides losing the Saints' Rest, lose the Enjoyments of Time, and suffer the Torments of Hell, 9&
CHAPTER Vn.
The Necessity of diligently seeking the Saints' Rest, . . .111
CHAPTER VIII. How to discern our Title to the Saints' Rest, 132
CHAPTER IX. The Duty of the People of God to excite others to seek this
Rest,
154
8 CONTENTS.
Page. CHAPTER X.
The Saints' Rest is not to be expected on Earth/ .... 176
CHAPTER XI.
The Importance of leading a heavenly Life upon Earth, . . 197
CHAPTER XII.
Directions how to lead a heavenly Life upon Earth, . . . 219
CHAPTER Xm.
The Nature of heavenly Contemplation; with the Time, Place, and Temper, fittest for it, 240
CHAPTER XIV.
What use heavenly Contemplation makes of Consideration, Affections, Soliloquy, and Prayer, 255
CHAPTER XV.
Heavenly Contemplation assisted by sensible Objects, and guarded against a treacherous Heart, 273
CHAPTER XVI.
Heavenly Contemplation exemplified, and the whole Work concluded 292
THE
COMPILER'S PREFACE.
Mr. Richard Baxter, the author of the Saints' Rest, so well known to the world by this, and many other ex- cellent and useful writings, was a learned, laborious, and eminently holy divine of the last age. He was born near Shrewsbury in 1615, and died at London in 1691.
His ministry, in an unsettled state, was for many years employed with great and extensive success, both in Lon- don and in several parts of the country ; but he was no where fixed so long, or with such entire satisfaction fo himself, and apparent advantage to others, as at Kidder- minster. His abode there was indeed interrupted, partly by his bad health, but chiefly by the calamities of a civil war, yet in the whole it amounted to sixteen years ; nor was it by any means the result of his own choice, or that of the inhabitants of Kidderminster, that he never settled there again, after his going from thence in 1660. Before his coming thither, the place was overrun with igno- rance and profaneness ; but, by the divine blessing on his wise and faithful cultivation, the fruits of righteous- ness sprung up in rich abundance. He at first found but a single instance or two of daily family prayer in a whole street ; and, at his going away, but one family or two could be found in some streets that continued to neglect it. And on Lord's-days, instead of the open profanation to wliich they had been so long accustomed, a person, in passing through the town, in the intervals of public wor- ship, might overhear hundreds of families engaged in singing psalms, reading the Scriptures and other good books, or such sermons as they had wrote down, while they heard them from the pulpit. His care of the souls committed to his charge, and the success of his labours among them, were truly remarkable ; for the number of his stated communicants rose to six hundred, of whom he himself declared, there were not twelve concerning whose sincere piety he had not reason to entertain good
10 compiler's preface.
hopes. Blessed be God, the religious spirit, which was thus happily introduced, is yet to be traced in the town and neighbourhood in some degree : (O that it were in a greater I) and in proportion as that spirit remains, the name of Mr. Baxter continues in the most honourable and affectionate remembrance.
As a writer, he has the approbation of some of his greatest contemporaries, who best knew him, and were under no temptations to be partial in his favour. Dr Barrow said, " His practical writings were never mended, and his controversial ones seldom confuted." With a view to his casuistical writings, the honourable Robert Boyle declared, " He was the fittest man of the age for a casuist, because he feared no man's displeasure, nor hoped for any man's preferment." Bishop Wilkins ob- served of him, *' that he had cultivated every subject he had liandled ; that if he had lived in the primitive times, he would have been one of the fathers of the church ; and that it was enough for one age to produce such a
{)erson as Mr. Baxter." Archbishop Usher had such ligh thoughts of him, that by his earnest importunity he put him upon writing several of his practical discourses, particularly that celebrated piece, his Call to the Uncon- verted. Dr. Manton, as he fi-eely expressed it, " thought Mr. Baxter came nearer the apostolical writings than any man in the ago." And it is both as a preacher and a writer, that Dr. Bates considers him, when, in his funeral sermon for him, he says, " In his sermons there was a rare union of arguments and motives, to convince the mind, and gain the heart. All the fountains of reason and persuasion were open to his discerning eye. There was no resisting the force of his discourses, without de- nying reason and divine revelation. He had a marvel- lous facility and copiousness in speaking. There was a noble negligence in his style, for his great mind could not stoop to the affected eloquence of words ; he despised flashy oratory ; but his expressions were clear and pow- erful ; so convincing the understanding, so entering into the soul, so engaging the affections, that those were as deaf as adders who were not charmed by .so wise a charmer. He was animated with the Holy Spirit, and breathed celestial fire, to inspire heat and life into dead sinners, and to melt the obdurate in their frozen tombs. His books, for their number, (which it seems was more than one hundred and twenty,) and variety of matter in
compiler's preface. 11
them, make a library. They contain a treasure of con- troversial, casuistical, and practical divinity. His boolca of practical divinity have been effectual for more nume- rous conversions of sinners to God, than any printed in our time ; and, while the church remains on earth, will be of continual efficacy to recover lost souls. There is a vigorous pulse in them, that keeps the reader awake and attentive." To tliese testimonies may not improper- ly be added that of the editors of his practical works in four folio volumes ; in the preface to which they say, *• Perhaps there are no writings among us that have more of a true Christian spirit, a greater mixture of judgment and affection, or a greater tendency to revive pure and undefiled religion ; that have been more esteemed abroad, or more blessed at home, for the awakening the secure, instructing the ignorant, confirming the wavering, com- forting the dejected, recovering the profane, or improving such as are truly serious, than the practical works of this author." Such were the apprehensions of eminent per- sons, who were well acquainted with Mr. Baxter and his writings. It is therefore the less remarkable that Mr. Addison, from an accidental and a very imperfect ac- quaintance, but with his usual pleasantness and candour, should mention the following incident ; " I once met with a page of Mr. Baxter. Upon the perusal of it, I conceived so good an idea of the author's piety, that I bought the whole book."
Whatever other causes might concur, it must chiefly be ascribed to Mr. Baxter's distinguishing reputation as a preacher and a writer, that, presently after the restora- tion, he was appointed one of the chaplains in ordinary to King Charles II. and preached once before him in that capacity ; as also that he had an offer made him by the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, of the bishopric of Hereford, which, in a respectful letter to his lordship, he saw proper to decline.
The Saints' Rest is deservedly esteemed one of the most valuable parts of his practical works. He wrote it when he was far from home, without any book to con- sult but his Bible, and in such an ill state of health, as to be in continual expectation of death for many months , and, therefore, merely for his own use, he fixed his thoughts on this heavenly subject, " which, says he, hath more benefited me than all the studies of my life." At this time he could be little more than thirty years old.
12 compiler's preface.
He afterwards preached over the subject in his weekly lecture at Kidderminster, and in 1G56 he published it ; and indeed it appears to have been the first that ever he published of all his practical writings. Of this book Dr. Bates says, " It was written by him when languishing in the suspense of life and death, but has the signatures of his holy and vigorous mind. To allure our desires, he unveils the sanctuary above, and discovers the glories and joys of the blessed in the Divine Presence, by a light so strong and lively, that all the glittering vanities of this world vanish in that comparison, and a sincere be- liever will despise them, as one of mature age does the toys and baubles of children. To excite our fear, he re- moves the screen, and makes the everlasting fire of hell so visible, and represents the tormenting passions of the damned in those dreadful colours, that, if duly considered, would check and control the unbridled, licentious appe- tites of the most sensual wretches."
Heavenly rest is a subject in its own nature so univer- sally important and interesting, and at the same time so truly engaging and delightful, as sufficiently accounts for the great acceptance which this book has met with : and partly, also, for the uncommon blessing which has attend- ed Mr. Baxter's manner of treating the subject, both from the pulpit and the press. For where are the operations of divine graco more reasonably to be expected, or where have they, in fact, been more frequently discerned, than in concurrence with the best adapted means .'' And should it appear, that persons of distinguishing judgment and piety have expressly ascribed their first religious im- pressions to the hearing or reading the important senti- ments contained in this book ; or, after a long series of years, have found it both the counterpart and the im- provement of their own divine life ; will not this be thought a considerable recommendation of the book itself.
Among the instances of persons that dated their true conversion from hearing the sermons on the Saints' Rest, when Mr. Baxter first preached them, was the Rev. Mr. Thomas Doolittle, M. A. who was a native of Kidder- minster, and at that time a scholar, about seventeen years old ; whom Mr. Baxter himself afterwards sent to rembroke Hall, in Cambridge, where he took his degree. Before his going to the university, he was upon trial as an attorney's clerk, and under that character, being
compiler's preface. 13
ordered by his master to write something on a Lord's day, he obeyed with great reluctance, and the next day returned home, with an earnest desire that he might not apply himself to any thing, as the employment of life, but serving Christ in the ministry of the gospel. His praise is yet in the churches, for his pious and useful labours, as a minister, a tutor, and a writer.
In the life of the Rev. Mr. John Janeway, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, who died in 1G57, we are told, that his conversion was, in a great measure, occa- sioned by his reading several parts of the Saints' Rest. And, in a letter which he afterwards wrote to a near rela- tive, speaking with a more immediate reference to that part of the book which treats of heavenly contemplation, he says, " There is a duty, which, if it were exercised, would dispel all cause of melancholy ; I mean, heavenly meditation, and contemplation of the things which true Christian religion tends to. If we did but walk closely with God one hour in a day in this duty, O what influ- ence would it have upon the whole day besides, and, duly performed, upon the whole life ! This duty, with its use- fulness, manner, and directions, I knew in some measure before, but had it more pressed upon me by Mr. Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, a book that can scarce be over- valued, for which I have cause for ever to bless God." This excellent young minister's life is worth reading, were it only to see how delightfully he was engaged in heavenly contemplation, according to the directions in the Saints' Rest.
It was the example of heavenly contemplation, at the close of this book, which the Rev. Mr. Joseph Alleine, of Taunton, so frequently quoted in conversation, wdth this solemn introduction, " Most divinely says that man of God, holy Mr. Baxter."
Dr. Bates, in his dedication of his funeral sermon for Mr. Baxter to Sir Henry Ashurst, Bart, tells that re- ligious gentleman, and most distinguished friend and executor of JMr. Baxter, " He was most worthy of your highest esteem and love; for the first impressions of heaven upon your soul were in reading his invaluable book of the Saints' Everlasting Rest."
In the life of the Rev. Mr. Matthew Henry, we have tlie following character given us of Robert Warburton, Esq. of Grange, the son of the eminently religious Judge Warburton, and the father of Mr. Matthew Henry's
14 compiler's preface.
second wife. " He was a gentleman that greatly affected retirement and privacy, especially in the latter part of his life ; the Bible, and Mr. Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, used to lie daily before him on the table in his par- lour ; he spent the greatest part of his time in reading and prayer."
In the life of that honourable and most religious knight, Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, Ave are told, that '• he was constant in secret prayer and reading the Scriptures ; afterwards he read other choice authors : but not long before his death he took a singular delight to read Mr. Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, and preparations thereunto ; which was esteemed a gracious event of Di- vine Providence, sending it as a guide to bring him more speedily and directly to that rest."
Besides persons of eminence, to whom this book has been precious and profitable, we have an instance, in the Rev. Mr. James Janeway's Token for Children, of a little boy, whose piety was so discovered and promoted by reading it, as the most delightful book to him, next the Bible, that the thoughts of everlasting rest seemed, even while he continued in health, to swallow up all other tlioughts ; and he lived in a constant preparation for it, and looked more like one that was ripe for glory, than an inhabitant of this lower world. And when he w^s in the sickness of which he died, before he was twelve years old, he said, '' I pray, let me have Mr. Baxter's book, that I may read a little more of eternity, before I go into it."
Nor is it less observable, that Mr. Baxter himself, taking notice, in a paper found in his study after his death, what numbers of persons were converted by read- ing his Call to the Unconverted, accounts of which lie had received by letter every week, expressly adds, " This little book, the Call to the Unconverted, God hath blessed with unexpected success, beyond all that I have written, except the Saints' Rest." With an evident reference to this book, and even during the life of the author, the pious Mr. Flavell affectionately says, " Me. Baxter is almost in heaven : living in the daily views and cheerful expectation of the saints' everlasting rest with God ; and is left for a little while among us, as a great example of the life of faith.'" And Mr. Baxter himself says, in his preface to his Treatise of Self-Denial, " I must say, that, of all the books which I have written, I peruse none so often for the use of my own soul in its
compiler's preface, 15
daily work, as my Life of Faith, tliis of Self-Denial, and the last part of the Saints' Rest." On the whole, it ig not without good reason tliat Dr. Calamy remarks con- cerning it, " This is a book, for which multitudes will have cause to bless God for ever."
This excellent and useful book now appears in tho form of an abridgment ; and, tlierefore, it is presumed, will be the more likely, under the divine blessing, to diffuse its salutary influence among those that would otherwise have wanted opportunity or inclination to read over the larger volume. In reducing it to this smaller size, I have been very desirous to do justice to the author, and at the same time promote the pleasure and profit of the serious reader. And, I hope, these ends are, in some measure, answered ; chiefly by dropping things of a di- gressive, controversial, or metaphysical nature ; together with prefaces, dedications, and various allusions to some peculiar circumstances of the last age ; and particularly, by throwing several chapters into one, that the number of them may better correspond with the size of the volume ; and sometimes by altering the form, but not the sense, of a period, for the sake of brevity; and when an obsolete phrase occurred, changing it for one more common and intelligible. I should never have thought of attempting this work, if it had not been suggested and urged by others ; and by some very respectable names, of whose learning, judgment, and piety, I forbear to avail myself However defective this performance may appear, the labour of it (if it may be called a labour) has been, I bless God, one of the most delightful labours of my life.
Certainly the thoughts of everlasting rest may be as delightful to souls in the present day, as they have ever been to those of past generations. I am sure such thoughts are as absolutely necessary now ; nor are temp- tations to neglect them either fewer, or weaker, now than formerly. The worth of everlasting rest is not felt, because it is not considered ; it is forgotten, because a thousand trifles are preferred before it. But were the divine reasonings of this book duly attended to, (and O that the Spirit and grace of a Redeemer may make them so !) then an age of vanity would become serious ; minds enervated by sensuality would soon resume the strength of reason, and display the excellence of Christianity ; the delusive names of pleasure would be blotted out by the
16 compiler's preface.
glorious reality of heavenly joy upon earth ; every sta- tion and relation in life would be filled up with the pro- priety and dignity of serious religion , every member of society would then effectually contribute to ^he beauty and happiness of the whole ; and every soul would be ready for life or death, for one world or another, in a well- grounded and cheerful persuasion of having secured a title to that rest which remaineth to the people of God.
B. F.
Kidderminster 1 Dec. 2Bth, 1758.
THE
SAINTS' EVERLASTING REST.
Hebrews iv. 9. there remajneth therefore a rest to the people of god.
CHAPTER I.
The Introduction to the Work, with some Account of the JVature of the Saints^ Rest.
The important design of the apostle in the text, to which the author ear- nestly bespeaks the attention of the reader. Tlie saints' rest defined, with a general plan of the work. What this rest presupposes. The author's humble sense of his inability fully to show Avhat this rest contains. It contains, 2. A ceasing from means of grace ; 2. A perfect freedom from all evils ; 3. The highest degree of the saints' personal perfection, both in body and soul ; 4. The nearest enjoyment of God the chief good ; 5. A sweet and constant action of all the powers of soul and body in this enjoyment of God ; as, for instance, bodily senses, knowledge, memory, love, joy, together with a mutual love and joy.
It was not only our interef-t in God, and ac- tual enjoyment of him, which was lost in Adam's fall, but all spiritual knowledge of him, and true disposition towards such a fehcity. When the Son of God comes with recovering grace, and discoveries of a spiritual and eternal happiness and glory, he finds not faith in man to believe it. As the poor man, that would not beheve any one had such a sum as a hundred pounds, it was so far above what him- self possessed, so men will hardly now believe there is such a happiness as once they had, much less as Christ hath now procured. When God would give the Israelites his Sabbaths of rest, in a laud of rest, 2
18 NATURE OF
he had more ado to make tliem beheve it, than to overcome theh* enemies, and procm-e it for them. And when tliey had it, only as a small intimation and earnest of an incomparably more glorious rest through Christ, they yet believe no more than they possess, but say, with the glutton at the feast, Sure there is no other heaven but this ! or, if they ex- pect more by the Messiah, it is only the increase of their earthly fehcity. The apostle bestows most of this Epistle against this distemper, and clearly and largely proves, that the end of all ceremonies and shadows is to direct them to Jesus Christ the substance; and that the rest of Sabbaths, and Ca- naan, should teach them to look for a further rest, which indeed is their happiness. My text is his con- clusion after divers arguments ; a conclusion, which contains the ground of all the believer's comfort, the end of all his duty and sufferings, the hfe and sim^i of all gospel promises and Christian privileges. What more welcome to men, under personal afflic- tions, tiring duties, successions of sufferings, than rest ? It is not our comfort only, but our stabihty. Our liveliness in all duties, olu* enduring tribula- tion, our honouring of God, the vigour of our love, thankfulness, and all our graces ; yea, the very being of our religion and Christianity depend on the be- hoving, serious thoughts of our rest. And now, reader, whatever thou art, young or old, rich or poor, I entreat thee, and charge thee, in the name of thy Lord, Avho will shortly call thee to a reckoning, and judge thee to thy everlasting, michangeable state, that thou give not these things the reading only, and so dismiss them with a bare approbation ; but that thou set upon this work, and take God in Christ for thy only rest, and fix thy heart upon him above alL May the living God, who is the portion and rest of his saints, make these our carnal minds so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly, that loving him, and dehghting in him, may be the work of our lives ; and that neither I that write, nor you that read, this book, Inay ever be turned from this path of life ;
THE saints' rest. 19
lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, we should come short of it, through our own unbe- lief or negligence.
The saints' rest is the most happy state of a Christian ; or, it is the perfect, endless enjoyment of God by the perfected saints, according to the meas- ure of their capacity, to which their souls arrive at death, and both soul and body most fully after the resurrection and final judgment. According to this definition of the saints' rest, a larger account of its nature will be given in this chapter ; of its prepara- tives. Chap. II. ; its excellencies, Chap. III. ; and. Chap. IV., the persons for whom it is designed. Further to illustrate the subject, some description will be given, Chap. V., of their misery who lose this rest ; and. Chap. VI., who also lose the enjoy- ments of time, and suffer the torments of hell. Next will be showed, Chap. VII., the necessity of dihgently seeking this rest ; Chap. VIII., how our title to it may be discerned ; Chap. IX., that they who discern their title to it should help those that cannot ; and, Chap. X., that this rest is not to be expected on earth. It will then be proper to con- sider. Chap. XL, the importance of a heavenly life upon earth ; Chap. XII., how to live a heavenly hfe upon earth ; Chap. XIII., the nature of heavenly contemplation, Avith the time, place and temper fit- test for it ; Chap. XIV., what use heavenly contem- plation makes of consideration, affections, soliloquy, and prayer ; and likewise, Chap. XV., how heavenly contemplation may be assisted by sensible objects, and guarded against a treacherous heart. Heavenly contemplation will be exemphfied. Chap. XVI., and tlie whole work concluded.
There are some things necessarily presupposed in the nature of this rest ; as, for instance, that mortal men are the persons seeking it. For angels and glorified spirits have it already, and the devils and damned are past ho])e. — That they choose God only for their end and happiness. He that takes any thing else for his happiness, is out of the way
20 NATURE OF
the first step. — That they are distant from this end. This is the woful case of all mankind since the fall. When Christ comes with regenerating grace, he finds no man sitting still, but all posting to eternal ruin, and making haste towards hell ; till, by con- viction, he first brings them to a stand, and then, by conversion, turns their hearts and lives smcerely to himself. This end, and its excellency, is supposed to be known, and seriously intended. An unknown good moves not to desire or endeavour. And not only a distance from this rest, but the true knowl- edge of this distance, is also supposed. They that never yet knew tliey were without God, and in the way to hell, did never yet know the way to heaven. Can a man find he hath lost his God, and his soul, and not cry, I am undone ? The reason why so few obtain this rest, is, they will not be convinced, that tlicy are, in point of title, distant from it ; and, in point of practice, contrary to it. Who ever sought for that, which he knew not he had lost ? " They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." — The influence of a superior moving cause is also supposed ; else we shall all stand still, and not move toward our rest. If God move us not, we cannot move. It is a most necessary ])art of our Christian wisdom, to keep our subordi- nation to God, and dependence on him. " We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." " With- out me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing." — It is next supposed, that they who seek this rest have an inward principle of s])iritual life. God does not move men like stones, but ho endows them with life, not to enable them to move without him, but in subordination to himself, the first mover. And further, this rest su])poscs such an actual tendency of soul towards it, as is regular and constant, earnest and laborious. He that hides his talent shall re- ceive the "wages of a slothful servant. Christ is the door, the only way to this rest. " But strait \s the gate, and narrow is the way ;" and we must
THE saints' rest. 21
Strive, if we will enter ; for " many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able ;" which implies, " that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence." Nor will it bring us to the end of the saints, if we begin hi the spirit and end in the flesh. He only " that endureth to the end shall be saved." And never did a soul obtain rest with God, whose desire was not set upon Iiim above all things else in the world. " Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." The remainder of our old nature will much weaken and interrupt these desires, but never over- come them. And, considermg the opposition to our desires, from the contrary principles in our nature, and from the weakness of our graces, together with our continued distance from the end, our tendency to that end must be laborious, and with all our might. — All these things are presupposed, in order to a Christian's obtaining an interest in heavenly rest.
Now we have ascended these steps into the outward courts may we look within the vail ? May we show what this rest contains, as well as what it presupposes ? Alas ! how little know I of that glory ! The glimpse which Paul had contained what could not, or must not, be uttered. Had he spoken the things of heaven in the language of heaven, and none understood tliat language, what the better.? The Lord reyeal to me what I may reveal to you ! The Lord open some light, and show both you and me our inheritance ! Not as to Balaam only, whose eyes were opened to see the goodliness of Jacob's tents, and Israel's tabernacles, where he had no portion, and from whence must come his own destruction ! not as to Moses, who had only a discovery instead of possession, and saw the land which he never entered ! but as the pearl was revealed to the merchant in the Gospel, who rested not till he had sold all he had, and bought it ! and as heaven was opened to blessed Stephen, which he was shortly to enter, and the glory showed him which should be his own possession ! — The
22 NATURE OP
things contained in heavenly rest are such as these ; — a ceasing from means of grace ; — a perfect freedom from all evils ; — the highest degree of the saints' per- sonal perfection, both of body and soul ; — the nearest enjoyment of God the chief good ; — and a sw^eet and constant action of all the powers of body and soul in this enjoyment of God.
1. One thing contained in heavenly rest is, the ceasing from means of grace. When we have ob- tained the haven, we have done sailing. When the workman receives his wages, it is implied he has done his work. When we are at our journey's end, we have done with the way. Whether prophe- cies, they shall fail ; whether tongues, they shall cease ; whether knowledge, it also, so far as it had the nature of means, shall vanish away. There shall be no more prayer, because no more necessity, but the full enjoyment of what we prayed for : nei- ther shall we need to fast and weep, and watch any more, being out of the reach of sin and temptations. Preaching is done ; the ministry of man ceaseth ; sacraments become useless ; the labourers are called in, because the harvest is gathered, the tares burned, and the work finished ; the unregenerate past hope, and the saints past fear, for ever.
2. There is in heavenly rest a perfect freedom from all evils — all the evils that accompanied us through our course, and which necessarily follow our ab- sence from the chief good : besides our freedom irom those eternal flames, and restless miseries, wliich the neglecters of Christ and grace must rem- edilessly endure ; a woful inheritance, which, both by birth and actual merit, was due to us as well as to them ! In heaven there is nothing that defileth or is unclean. All that remains without. And doubtless there is not such a thing as grief and sor- row known there : nor is there such a thing as a pale face, a languid body, feeble joints, unable infancy, decrepit age, peccant humours, painful or pining sickness, griping fears, consuming cares, nor what- soever deserves the name of evij. We did weep
THE saints' rest. 23
and lament when the world did rejoice ; but our sorrow is turned to joy, and our joy shall no man take from us.
3. Another ingredient of this rest is, the highest degree of the saints'' personal perfection, both of body and sold. Were the glory ever so great, and them- selves not made capable of it, by a personal perfec- tion suitable thereto, it would be little to them. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have eiUered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." For the eye of tlesh is not capable of seeing them, nor this ear of hearmg them, nor this heart of under- standing them : but there the eye, and ear, and heart are made capable; else how do they enjoy them? The more perfect the sight is, the more dehghtful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical the ear, the more pleasant the melody. The more perfect the soul, the more joj^ous those joys, and the more glo- rious to us is that glory.
4. The principal part of this rest is our nearest enjoyment of God, the chief good. And here, reader, wonder not if I be at a loss ! and if my apprehen- sions receive but little of that which is in my ex- pressions. If it did not appear to the beloved dis- ciple what we shall be, but only, in general, " that when Christ shall appear we shall be hke him," no wonder if I know httle. When I know so little of God, I cannot much know what it is to enjoy him. If I know so little of spirits, how little of the Father of spirits, or the state of my own soul, when ad- vanced to the enjoyment of him ? I stand and look upon a heap of ants, and see them all with one view ; they know not me, my being, nature, or thoughts, though I am their fellow-creature; how httle, then, must we know of the great Creator, though he with one view clearly beholds us all ? A glimpse the saints behold as in a glass, which makes us capable of some poor, dark apprehen- sions of what we shall behold in glory. If I should
24 NATURE OP
tell a worldling what the hohness and spiritual joys of the saints on earth are, he cannot know ; for grace cannot be clearly known without grace ; how much less could he conceive it, should I tell him of this glory ? But to the saints I may be somewhat more encouraged to speak ; for grace gives them a dark knowledge and slight taste of glory. If men and angels should study to speak the blessedness of that state in one word, what could they say beyond this, that it is the nearest enjoyment of God? O the full joys offered to a believer in that one sentence of Christ, " Father, I will that tliose whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me !" Every word is full of life and joy. If the queen of Sheba had cause to say of Solomon's glory, " Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom;" then, surely, they that stand continually before God, and see his glory, and the glory of the Lamb, are more than happy. To them will Christ give to eat of the tree of life, and to eat of the hidden manna: yea, he will make them pillars in the temple of God, and they shall go no more out ; and he will write upon them the name of his God, and the name of the city of his God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from his God, and he will write upon them his new name ; yea, more, if more may be, he will grant them to sit with him in his throne. " These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb : there- fore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water ; and God shall wipe aAvay all tears from their eyes." O bUnd, deceived world ! Can you show us such a glory? This is the city of our God, where the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
THE saints' rest. 25
with them, and they shall be his people, and Goil himself shall be with them, and be their God. The glory of God shall hghten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And there shall be no more curse ; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be iji it ; and his servants shall sen^e him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. These sayings are faithful and true, and the things which must shortly be done. And now we say, as Mephibosheth, Let the world take all, forasmucli as our Lord ^^"ill come in peace. Rejoice therefore in the Lord, O ye righteous, and say with his ser- vant David, " The Lord is the portion of mine inher- itance : the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage. I have set the Lord always before me ; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore m}' heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul m hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path oi" life ; in thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are ])Ieasures for evermore." What presumption would it have been, once, to have tliought or spoken of such a thing, if God had not spoken it before us ! I durst not have thought of the saints' preferment in this hfe, as Scripture sets it forth, had it not been the express truth of God. How indecent to talk of being sons of God — speaking to him — having fellowship with him — dwelling in him and he in us, if this had not been God's own language ! How much less durst we have once thought of shining forth as the sun — of being jomt heu's with Christ — of judging the world — of sitting on Christ's throne — of being one in him and the Father, if we had not all this from the mouth, and under the hand of God ! But hath he said, and shall he not do it ? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ? Yes, as the Lord God is true, thus shall it be done to the man whom Christ delighteth to honour. Be of good cheer, Christian, 3
26 NATURE OF
the time is near, when God and thou shalt be near, and as near as thou canst well desire. Thou shalt dwell in his family. Is that enough ? It is better to be a door-keeper in the house of God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Thou shalt ever stand before him, about his throne, in the room with him, in his presence-chamber. Wouldst thou yet be nearer ? Thou shalt be his child, and he thy Father ; thou shalt be an heir of his kingdom ; yea, more, the spouse of his Son. And what more canst thou desire ? Thou shalt be a member of the body of his Scyi ; he shall be thy head ; thou shalt be one with him, who is one with the Father, as he himself hath desired for thee of his Father, " that they all may be one, as thou, Father^ art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ; and the glory Avhich thou gavest me T have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made per- fect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."
5. We must add, that this rest contains a sweet and constant action of all the powers of the soul and body in this enjoyment of God. It is not the rest of a stone, which ceaseth from all motion when it attains the centre. This body shall be so changed, that it shall no more be flesh and blood, which cannot in- iierit the kingdom of God ; but a spiritual body. We sow not that body that shall be, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. If grace makes a Christian differ so much from what he was, as to say, I am not the man I was ; how much more \vill glory make us differ ! As much as a body spiritual, above the sun in glory, exceeds these frail, noisome, diseased lumps of flesh, so far shall our senses exceed those we now possess. Doubtless, as God advanceth our senses, and enlargeth our capacity, so will he ad- vance the happiness of those senses, and fill up with himself all that capacity. Certainly the body
THE saints' rest. 27
should not be raised up and continued, if it sliould not share in the glory. As it hath shared in the obedience and suiferiiigs, so shall it also ui the blessedness. As Christ bought the whole man, so shall the whole partake of the everlasting benefits of the purchase. O blessed emj)loynient of a glori- fied body ! to stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, and to sound forth for ever, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power. Worthy is the Lamb, that was slain, to re- ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing ; for thou hast redeemed us to God, by thy blood, out of every kmdred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests. Alle- luia ; salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God. Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." O Christians ! this is the blessed rest ; a rest, as it were, without rest ; for " they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." And if the body shall be thus employed, O how shall the soul be taken up ? As its powers and capacities are greatest, so its actions are strong- est, and its enjoyments sweetest. As the bodily senses have their proper actions, whereby they re- ceive and enjoy their objects, so does the soul in its own actions enjoy its own objects, by knowing, re- membering, lovmg, and dehghtful joying. This is the soul's enjoyment. By these eyes it sees, and by these arms it embraces.
Knowledge.^ of itself, is very desirable. As far as the rational soul exceeds the sensitive, so far the dehghts of a philosopher, in discovering the secrets of nature, and knowing the mystery of sciences, ex- ceed the delights of the glutton, the drunkard, the unclean, and of all voluptuous sensualists whatso- ever. So excellent is all truth. What, then, is their delight who know the God of truth ! How noble a faculty of the soul is the understanding ! It can compass the earth ; it can measure the sun, moon,
28 NATURE OF
Stars, and heaven ; it can foreknow each eclipse to* a minute, many years before. But this is the top of all its excellency, that it can know God, who is infinite, who made all these, a httle here, and mor©> much more, hereafter. O the wisdom and goodness of our blessed Lord ! He hath created the under- standing with a natural bias and inclination to truth, as its object ; and to the prime truth, as its prime object. Christian, when, after long gazing heaven- ward, thou hast got a ghmpse of Christ, dost thou not sometimes seem to have been with Paul in the thu'd heaven, whether in the body or out, and to have seen what is unutterable ? Art thou not, with Peter, ready to say, " Master, it is good to be here ?" " O that I might dwell in this mount ! O that I might ever see what I now see !" Didst thou never look so long upon the Sun of Righteousness, till thine eyes were dazzled with his astonishing glory ? And did not the splendour of it make all things below seem black and dark to thee ? Especially in the day of suffering for Christ, when he usually appears most manifestly to his people, didst thou never see one walking in the midst of the fiery furnace with thee, like the Son of God? Believe me, Christians, yea, believe God; you that have known most of God in Christ here, it is ae nothing to what you shall know : it scarce, in com- parison of that, deserves to be called knowledge. For as these bodies, so that knowledge must cease, that a more perfect may succeed. Knowledge shall vanish away. For we know in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became a man I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. Marvel not therefore. Christian, how it can be fife eternal to know God and Jesus Christ* To enjoy God and Christ is eternal Ufe ; and the
THE saints' rest. 29
soul's enjoying is in knowing. They that savour only of earth, and consult with flesh, think it a poor happiness to know God. But we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness; and we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may knoAV liiiii that is true ; and we are in him that is ti'ue, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
The memory will not be idle, or useless, in this blessed work. From that height the saint can look behind him, and before him. And to compare past with present tilings must needs raise in the blessed soul an inconceivable esteem and sense of its con- dition. To stand on that mount, whence we can see the Wilderness and Canaan both at once ; to stand in heaven, and look back on earth, and weigh them together in the balance of a comparing sense and judgment, how nuist it needs transport the soul, and make it cry out, " Is this the purchase that cost so dear as the ])lood of Christ ? No wonder. O blessed price ! and thrice blessed love, that in- vented, and condescended ! Is tliis the end of be- lieving ? Is this the end of the Spirit's workings ? Have the gales of grace blown me into such a har- bour? Is it hither that Christ hath allured my soul ? O blessed way, and thrice blessed end ! Is this the glory which the Scriptures spoke of, and ministers preached of so much ? I see the gospel is indeed good tidings, even tidings of peace and good tilings, tidings of great joy to all nations ! Is my mourning, my fasting, my sad humblings, my heavy walking, come to this ? Is my praying, watching, fearing to offend, come to this ? Are all my afilic- tions, Satan's temptations, the world's scorns and jeers, come to this ? O vile nature, that resisted so much, and so long, such a blessing ! Unworthy soul, is this the place thou earnest so unwillingly to ? Was duty wearisome ? Was the world too good to lose ? Didst thou stick at leaving all, denying all, and suffering any thing for this ? Wast thou loath
30 NATURE OF
to die, to come to this ? O false heart, thou hadst ahnost betrayed me to eternal flames, and lost me this glory ! Art thou not now ashamed, my soul, tliat ever thou didst question that love which brought thee hither ? that thou wast jealous of the faith- fulness of thy Lord ? that thou suspectedst his love, when thou shouldst only have suspected thyself? that ever thou didst quench a motion of his Spirit ? and that thou shouldst misinterpret those provi- dences, and repine at those ways, which have such an end ? Now thou art sufficiently convinced, that thy blessed Redeemer was saving thee, as well when he crossed thy desires, as when he granted them ; when he broke thy heart, as when he bound it up. No thanks to thee, unworthy self, for this received crown ; but to Jehovah, and the Lamb, be glory for ever."
But, O ! the full, the near, the sweet enjoyment, is that of love. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Now the poor soul complains, " O that I could love Christ more !" then, thou canst not choose but love him. Now thou knowest httle of his amiable- ness, and therefore lovest little : then, thine eyes will affect tliy heart, and the continual viewing of that perfect beauty will keep thee in continual transports of love. Christians, doth it not now stir up your love, to remember all the experiences of his love ? Doth not kindness melt you, and the sunshine of divine goodness warm your frozen hearts ? What will it do then, when you shall live in love, and have all in him, who is all ? Surely love is both work and wages. What a high favour, that God will give us leave to love liim ? that he will be em- braced by those, who have embraced lust and sin before liim ! But, more than this, he returned love for love ; nay, a thousand times more. Christian, thou wilt be then brim-full of love ; yet, love as much as thou canst, thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved. Were the arms of the Son of God open upon tlie cross, and an open passage made to
THE saints' rest. 31
his heart by the spear, and will not his anns and heart be open to thee in glory ? Did he begin to love before thou lovedst, and will not he continue now ? Did he love thee, an enemy ? thee, a sin- ner? thee, who even loathedst thyself; and own thee, when thou didst disclaim thyself? And will he not now immeasurably love thee, a son ? thee, a perfect saint ? thee, who returnedst some love for love ? He that in love wept over the old Jeru- salem when near its ruin, with what love will he re- joice over the new Jerusalem in her glory ? Chris- tian, believe this, and think on it : thou shalt l>e eternally embraced in the arms of that love, which was from everlasting, and w ill extend to everlasting ; of that love which brought the Son of God's love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, fi'om the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory : that love, -which w^as weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scoiu'ged, buffeted, spit u])on, crucified, pierced ; which did fast, pray, teach, heal, weep, sweat, bleed, die ; that love will eternally embrace thee. When perfect created love, and most perfect uncreated love, meet together, it will not be like Joseph and his brethren, who lay upon one another's necks weep- ing ; it will be loving and rejoicing, not loving and sorrowing. Yet it will make Satan's court ring with the news, that Joseph's brethren are come, that the saints are arrived safe at the bosom of Christ, out of the reach of hell for ever. Nor is there any sucli love as David's and Jonathan's, breathing out its last into sad lamentations for a forced separation. Know this, believer, to thy everlasting comfort, if those arms have once em.braced thee, neither sin, nor hell, can get thee thence for ever. Thou hadst not to deal with an inconstant creature, but with him with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. His love to thee will not be as thine was on earth to him, seldom, and cold, up and down. He that would not cease nor abate his love, for all thine enmity, unkind neglects, and churlish resist- ances, can he cease to love thee, when he hath
32 NATURE OF
made thee truly lovely ? He that keepeth thee so constant in thy love to hun, that thou canst chal- lenge tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, naked- ness, peril, or sword, to separate thy love from Christ, how much more will himself be constant ? Indeed, thou mayest be persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principahties, nor powers, nor , things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to sepa- rate us from the love of God which is in Christ Je- sus our Lord. And now, are we not left in tlie apos- tle's admiration ? What shall we say to these things? infinite love must needs be a mystery to a finite ca- j)acity. No wonder angels desire to look into this mystery. And if it be the study of saints here, to know the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of the love of Christ, which passeth knowl- edge ; the saints' everlasting rest must consist in the enjoyment of God by love.
Nor hath Jo?/ the least share in this fruition. It is that which all the former lead to, and conclude in ; even the inconceivable complacency which the blessed feel in their seeing, knowing, loving, and being beloved of God. This is the white stone which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. Surely this is the joy which a stranger doth not inter- meddle with. All Christ's ways of mercy tend to and end in the saints' joys. He wept, sorrow^ed, suffered, that they might rejoice ; he sendeth the Spirit to be their comforter ; he multiplies promises ; he discovers their future happiness, that their joy may be full. He opens to them the fountain of liv- ing waters, that they may tliirst no more, and that it may spring up in them to everlasting life. He chastens them that he may give them rest. He makes it their duty to rejoice in him ahvays, and again commands them to rejoice. He never brings them into so low a condition, wherein he does not leave them more cause of joy than sorrow. And liatli the Lord such a care of our comfort he <3 ? O, what will that joy be, where the soul, being perfectly
THE saints' rest. 33
prepared for joy, and joy prepared by Christ for the soul, it shall be our work, our business, eternally to rejoice ! It seems the saints' joy shall be greater tlian the danmed's torment ; for their torment is the torment of creatures, prepared for the devfl and liis angels ; but our joy is the joy of our Lord. The same glory which the Father gave the Son, the Son hath given them, to sit with him in his throne, even as he is set down with his Father in his throne^ Thou, poor soul, who prayest for joy, waitest for joy, complainest for want of joy, longest for J03' ; thou then shalt have full joy, as much as thou canst hold, and more than ever thou thoughtest on, or tliy heart desired. In the mean time, walk carefully ; watch constantly, and then ^ct God measure out to thee thy times and degrees of joy. It may be he keeps them until thou hast more need. Thou hadst better lose thy comfort than thy safety. If thou, shouldst die full of fears and sorrows, it will be but a moment, and they are all gone, and concluded in joy inconceivable. As the joy of the hypocrite, so tlie fears of the upright are but tor a moment. " God's anger endureth but a moment ; in his favour is life ; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." O blessed morning ! Poor, humble, drooping soul, how would it fill thee with joy now, if a voice from heaven should tell thee of the love of God, the pardon of thy sins, and assure thee of thy part in these joys ! What, then, will thy joy be, when thy actual possession shall convince thee of tliy title, and thou shalt be in heaven before thou art well aware ? •
And it is not tliy joy only ; it is a mutual joy, as well as a nuitual love. Is there joy in heaven at thy conversion, and will there be none at thy glori- fication ? Will not the angels welcome thee thither, and congratulate thy safe arrival ? — Yea, it is the joy of Jesus Christ ; for now he hath the end of his undertaking, labour, suffering, dying, when we have our joys ; when he is glorified in his saints, and achnired in all them that believe ; when he sees
34 NATURE OF
of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. This is Christ's harvest, when he shall reap the fruit of his labours ; and it will not repent him concerning his sufferings, but he will rejoice over his purchased in- heritance, and his people will rejoice in hmi. — Yea, the Father himself puts on joy, too, in our joy. As we grieve his Spirit, and weaiy him with our iniqui- ties, so he is rejoiced m our good. O how quickly does he now spy a returning prodigal, even afar off! How does he run and meet him ! And with what compassion does he fall on his neck, and kiss him, and put on him the best robe, and a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and Mils the fatted calf to eat and be merry. This is indeed a happy meeting ; but nothmg to the embracing and joy of that last and great meeting. Yea, more ; as God doth mutually love and joy, so he makes this his rest, as it is our rest. What an eternal Sabbatism, when the work of redemption, sanctification, pres- ervation, glorification, is all finished, and perfected for ever ! " The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; he will save, he wiU rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over tliee with singing." Well may we then rejoice in our God with joy, and rest in our love, and joy in him with singing.
Alas ! my fearful heart scarce dares proceed. Methinks I hear the Almighty's voice saying to me, " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words with- out knowledge ?" But pardon thy servant, O Lord. I have not pried into unrevealed things. I bewail that my apprehensions are so dull, my thoughts so mean, my affections so stupid, and my expressions so low, and unbeseeming such a glory. I have only heard by the hearing of the ear : O, let thy servant see thee, and possess these joys ; and then shall I have more suitable conceptions, and shall give thee fuller glory ; I shall abhor my present self, and dis- claim and renounce all these imi)erfections. " I have uttered that I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." Yet " I beheved, and
THE -EtAtSTS* REST. 35
therefca*e have i spoken.'" What, Lordy eaiast tfeou •expect £;om dust hut levity? or ironi con-uption !but defilement ? ThotLjh the weaieness and irrsve- Teii«e be tiie fi-uit of iny own corruption,, yet the •fire is fi-om thine altar, and the work of thy Gom- manding, I looked ?aot mto thy ark^ nor put forth my hand unto it, without thee. Wash away these •stains ako in the blood of the Lamb. Imperfect^ "Or none, must he thy service here. O take thy Son's .•excuse, " the spirit is v/illing. but the flesh is weakJ^
CHAPTER II.
The great Preparatives f-o the Stdrdi^' Rest
There are four things which principally prepare the way to enter intc it ; particularly, 1. The glorious appearing of Clirist ; 2. The gene- ral resurrection ; 3. Tlie last judgraeBt J and, 4. The saints' corona- tion.
The passage of paradise is not now so blocked lip, as when tlie law and curse reigned. Wherefore finding, beloved Christians, a new and living way -consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say. the flesh of CTirist, by which we may with boldness enter uito the holiest, I shall draw near with fuller assurance ; and, finding the flanimg swox-d removed, shall look again into tlie paradise of our God. Anti Ijecause I know that this is no forbidden fruit, and withal that it is good for food, and pleasant to the spiritual eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one truly wise and happy ; I shall, through the assistance of the Spirit, take and eat thereof myself, and give to you according to my power, that you may eat. The porch of this temple is exceeding glorious, and die gate of it is called BeautifuL Here are four things as the four corners of this porch. Here is *the most glorious coming tmd appearance of the ^on of God ; — that great work of Jesus Christ in raising onr bodies from the dust, nnd uniting thona
36 THE PREPARATIVES TO
again to the soul ; — the pubhc and solemn process at then- judgment, where they shall first themselves be acquitted and justified, and then w^ith Christ judge the world ; — together with their solenm coro- nation, and receiving the kingdom.
1. The most glorious coming and appearance of the Son of God may well be reckoned in his people's glory. For their sake he came into the world, suffered, died, rose, ascended; and for their sake it is that he will return. To this end will Christ come again to receive his people unto himself, that where he is, there they may be also. The bride- gi'oom's departure was not upon divorce. He did not leave us with a purpose to return no more. He hath left pledges enough to assure us to the con- trary. We have his word, his many promises, his sacraments, which show forth his death till he come ; and his Spirit, to direct, sanctify and com- fort till he return. We have frequent tokens of love from him, to show us he forgets not his promise, nor us. We daily behold the forerunners of his coming, foretold by himself. We see the fig-tree putteth forth leaves, and therefore know that, sum- mer is nigh. Though the riotous world say, My Lord delayeth his coming ; yet let thfp saints lifl up their heads, for their redemption draweth nigh. Alas ! fellow-Christians, what should we do if our Lord should not return ? What a case are we here left in ! What ! leave us in the midst of wolves, and among lions, a generation of >apers, and here forget us ? Did he buy us so dear, and then leave us sinning, suffering, groaning, dying daily, and will he come no more to us ? It cannot be. This is hke our unkind dealing with Christ, who, when we feel ourselves warm in the world, care not for coming to him : but this is not hke Christ's dealing with us. He that would come to suffer will surely come to triumph. He that would come to purchase will surely come to possess. Where else were all our hopes ? What were become of our faith, our prayers, ■our tears and our waiting ? What were all the
THE saints' rest. 37
patience of the saints worth to them ? Were we not left of all men the most miserable ? Chris- tians, hath Christ made us forsake all the world, and be forsaken of all the world ? to hate all, and be hated of all ? and all this for him, that we might have him instead of all ? And will he, think you, after all this, forget us, and forsake us him- self? Far be such a thought from our hearts! But why staid he not with his people while he was here ? Why ? Was not the work on earth done ? Must he not take possession of glory in our behalf? Must he not intercede with the Father, plead his sufferings, be filled with the Spirit to send forth, re- ceive authority, and subdue his enemies ? Our abode here is short. If he had staid on earth, what would it have been to enjoy hmi for a few days, and then die ? He hath more in heaven to dwell among ; even the spirits of many generations. He will have us live by faith, and not by sight.
O, fellow-Christians, what a day will that be, when we, who have been kept prisoners by sin, by sinners, by the grave, shall be brought out by the Lord himself! It will not be such a coming as his first was, in poverty and contempt, to be spit upon, and buffeted, and crucified again. He will not come, O careless world ! to be shghted and neglected by you any more. Yet that coming wanted not its glory. If the heavenly host, for the celebration of his nativity, must praise God ; with what shoutings will angels and saints at that day proclaim glory to God, peace and good- will towards men ! If a star must lead men from remote parts of the world to come to worship a child in a manger ; how will the glory of his next appearing constrain all the world to acknowledge his sovereignty ! If, riding on an ass, he enter Jerusalem with hosannas ; with Avhat peace and glory will he come toward the New Je- rusalem ! If, when he was in the form of a servant^ tliey cry out, " What manner of man is this, that ev^en the winds and the sea obey him ?" what will they Bay, when they shall see him coming in his
ZS THE PREPAHA-JrVES TO
glory, and the heavens an^ Hhe earth oDey Mm? " Then shall all the ti'ibes of the earth mourns" To* think and speak of that day with horror doth well beseem the impenilent sinner, but ill the believing: saint. Shall tlie wicked behold him, and ciy-, "" Yonder is he whose blood we neglected, whose grace we resisted, whose counsel we refused, whose' government we cast off!" and shall not the saintSj. with inconceivable gladness, cry, "^ Yonder is he whose blood redeemed us, whose Spirit cleansed us., whose law did govern us ; in whom we trusted,, and lie hath not deceived our trust ; for whom we long waited, and now we see we have not waited in vam ! O cursed corruption ! that would have had us turn to the world, and present things, and say, Why should we wait for the Lord any longer ? Now we- see. Blessed are all they that wait for hhn." And now, Christians, should we not put up that petition heartily, " Thy kingdom come ? The Spirit and the bride say, Come : and let him that heareth," and readeth, "say. Come." Our Lord himself says,. "' Surely I come quickly. Amen : even so, come Lord Jesus."
2. Another thing that leads to paradise is, that great work of Jesus Christ, in raising our bodies from the dust, and uniting them again unto the soul. A wonderful effect of infinite power and love ! Yea^ wonderful indeed, says Unbelief, if it be true. What ! shall all these scattered bones and dust become a man ? — Let me with reverence plead for God, for that power whereby I hope to arise. What beareth the massy body of the earth ? What limits the vast ocean of the waters ? Whence is that constant ebb- ing and flowing of the tides ? How many times bigger than all the earth is the sun, that glorious body of light ? Is it not as easy to raise the dead as to make heaven and earth, and all of nothing ? — Look not on the dead bones, and dust, and difficulty, but at the promise. Contentedly commit these car- casses to a prison, that shall not long contain them. Let us lie down in peace, and take our rest ; it will
THE saints' rest. 39
not be an everlasting night, nor endless sleep. If unclothing be the thing thou fearest, it is that thou mayest have better clothing. If to be turned out of doors be the thing thou fearest, remember that, when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolv- ed, thou hast a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Lay down cheerfully this lunij) of corruption ; thou shalt un- doubtedly receive it again in incorruption. Lay down freely this terrestrial, this natural body ; thou shalt receive it again a celestial, a spiritual body. Though thou lay it down with great dishonour, thou shalt receive it in glory. Though thou art separated from it through weakness, it shall be raised again in mighty power ; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. " The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then they who are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." Triumph now, O Christian, in these promises ; thou shalt shortly triumph in their performance. This is the day which the Lord will make ; we shall rejoice and be glad in it. The grave, that could not keep our Lord, cannot keep us. He arose for us, and by the same power will cause us to arise. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also, who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. Let us never look at the grave, but let us see the resurrection beyond it. Yea, let us be stead- fast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know our labour is not in vain in the Lord.
3. Part of this prologue to the saints' rest is the public and solemn process at their judgment,, where they shall first themselves be acquitted and justified, antl then witli Christ judge the world. Young and old, of all estates and nations, that ever were from the creation to that day, must here come, and re- ceive then* doom. O terrible, O joyful day ! Ter-
40 THE PREPARATIVES TO
rible to those that have forgotten the coming of tlieir Lord ! joyful to the samts, whose waiting and hope was to see this day ! Then shall the world behold the goodness and severity of God ; on them who perish, severity ; but to his chosen, goodness. Every one must give an account of his stewardship. Every talent of time, health, wit, mercies, afflictions, means, warnings, must be reckoned for. The sins of youth, those which they had forgotten, and their secret sins, shall all be laid open before angels and men. They shall see the Lord Jesus, whom they neglected, whose word they disobeyed, whose minis- ters they abused, whose servants they hated, now sitting to judge them. Their own consciences shall cry out against them, and call to their remembrance all their misdoings. Which way will the wretched sinner look*? Who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart ? Now the world cannot help him ; his old companions cannot ; the saints neither can nor will. Only the Lord Jesus can ; but there is the misery — he will not. Time was, sinner, when Christ would, and you would not ; now, fain would you, and he will not. All in vain, to cry to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne ; for thou hast the Lord of mountains and rocks for thine enemy, whose voice they will obey, and not thine. I charge thee, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing, and his kingdom, that thou set thyself seriously to ponder on these things.
But why tremblest thou, O humble, gracious soul ? He that would not lose one Noah in a common deluge, nor overlook one Lot in Sodom ; nay, that could do nothing till he went forth ; will he forget thee at that day ? The Lord knoweth how to de- liver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. He knoweth how to make the same day the greatest terror to his foes, and yet the greatest joy to his people. There is no condemnation to them that
THE saints' rest. 41
are in Christ Jesus, wlio walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? Shall the law ? The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from the law of sin and death. Or shall con- science ? The Spirit itself beareth witness with their spirit, that they are the children of God. " It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth ?" If our judge condemn us not, who shall? lie that said to the adidterous woman, Hath no man con- demned thee ? Neither do I ; will say to us, more faithfully than Peter to him, Though all men deny thee, or condemn thee, I will not. Having confess- ed me before men, tliee " will I also confess before my Father Avho is in heaven."
What inexpressible joy, that our dear Lord, who loveth our soids, and whom our souls love, shall be our Judge ! Will a man fear to be judged by his dearest friend ? or a wife by her own husband ? Christian, did Christ come down and suffer, and weep, and bleed, and die for thee, and will he now condenm thee ? Was he judged, condemned and executed in thy stead, and now will he condemn thee himself? Hath he done most of the work already, in redeeming, regenerating, sanctifying and preserving thee, and will he now undo all again ? Well, then, let the terror of that day be never so great, surely our Lord can mean no ill to us in all. Let it make tl^c devils tremble, and the wicked tremble, but it shall make us leap for joy. It must needs affect us deeply with tlic sense of our mercy and happiness, to see the most of the world tremble with terror, while we triumph with joy ; to hear them doomed to everlasting flames, when we are
{)roclaimed heirs of the kingdom ; to see our neigh- )ours, that lived in the same towns, came to the same congregation, dwelt in the same houses, and were esteemed more honourable in the world than our- selves, now by the Searcher of hearts eternally sep- arated. This, with the great magnificence and dreadfulness of the day, the apostle pathetically ex- 4
42 THE PREPARATIVES TO
presses ; " It is a righteous thing with God to rec- ompense tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gos- pel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be ad- mired in all them that believe in that day."
Yet more : we shall be so lar from the dread of that judgment, that ourselves shallbecome the judges. Christ will take his people, as it were, mto commis- sion with himself, and they shall sit and approve his righteous judgment. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world ? Nay, "know ye not that we shall judge angels ?" Were it not for the word of Christ that speaks it, this advancement would seem incredible, and the language arrogant. Even Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied this, saying, " Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their un- godly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Thus shall the saints be honoured, and the upright shall have dominion in the morning. O that tlie careless world " were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end !" that they would be now of the same mind as they will be, when they shall see the heavens pass aAvay with a great noise, and tlie elements melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein, burnt up ! when all shall be in fire about their ears, and all eartlily glory consumed. For the heavens and the eartli, which are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly meiL " Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy
THE saints' rest. 43
conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ?"
4. The last preparative to the saints' rest is iJieir solemn coronation and receiving the kingdom. For, as Christ, their Head, is anointed both King and Priest, so under him are his people made unto God both kings and priests, to reign, and to offer praises for ever. The crown of righteousness, which was laid up for them, shall by the Lord, the righteous Judge, be given them at that day. They have been faithful unto death, and therefore he will give them a crown of life. And according to the improve- ment of their talents here, so shall their rule and dignity be enlarged. They are not dignified with empty titles, but real dominion. Christ will grant them to sit with him on his throne, and will give them power over the nations, even as he received of his Father ; and he " will give them the morning star." The Lord himself will give them possession with these applauding expressions ; " Well done, good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
And with this solenni and blessed proclamation shall he enthrone them ; " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from tlie foundation of the world." Every word is full of hfe and joy. Come — this is the holding forth of the golden sceptre, to warrant our approach mito tliis glory. Come now as near as you will ; fear not the Bethshemitc's judgment ; for the enmity is utterly abolislied. This is not such a Come as we were wont to hear, " Come take up your cross and follow me." Though that was sweet, yet this much more. Ye blessed — Blessed indeed, Avhcn that mouth shall so pronounce us ! For though the world hath accounted us accursed, and Ave have been ready to account ourselves so ; yet certainly those that he blesseth are blessed ; and those whom he
44 THE PREPARATIVES TO
curseth, only, are cursed, and liis blessing cannot be reversed. Of my Father — Blessed in the Father's love, as well as the Son's, for they are one. The Father hath testified his love in their election, dona- tion to Christ, sending of Christ, and acceptmg his ransom, as the Son hath also testified his. Inherit — No longer bondmen, nor servants only, nor chil- dren under age, who differ not in possession, but only in title, from servants : but now we are heirs of the kingdom, and joint heirs with Christ. The kingdom — ^No less than the kingdom ! Indeed, to be King of kings, and Lord of lords, is our Lord's own proper title : but to be kings, and reign with him, is ours. The enjoyment of this kingdom is as the light of the sun ; each has the whole, and the rest never the less. Prepared for you — God is the Alpha, as well as the Omega, of our blessedness. Eternal love hath laid the foundation. He prepared fjie kingdom for us, and then prepared us for the kingdom. This is the preparation of his counsel and decree ; for the execution whereof Christ was yet to make a further preparation. For you — ^Not for beUevers only in general, who, without individu al persons, are nobody ; but for you personally. Froifi the foundation of the world — Not only from the -promisG after Adam's fall, but from eternity.
Thus we havti seen the Christian safely landed in paradise, and conveyed honourably to his rest. Now fet us a little further, in the next chapter, view those mansions, consider their privileges, and see whether there be any glory like unto this glory.
THE saints' rest. 45
CHAPTER III.
The Excellencies of the Saints^ Rest.
1. It is the purchased possession ; 2. A free gift ; 3. Peculiar to saints ; 4. An association with saints and angels ; 5. It derives its joys im- mediately from God himself. 6. It will be seasonable ; 7. Suitable ; 8. Perfect, without sin and suffering 5 9. And everlasting.
Let us draw a little nearer, and see what further excellencies this rest afFordeth. The Lord hide us in the clefts of the rock, and cover us with the hands of indulgent grace, while we approach to take this view ! This rest is excellent for being — a purchased possession ; — a free gift ; — peculiar to saints ; — an association with saints and angels ; — yet deriving its joys innnediately from God ;^-and because it will be a seasonable, — suitable, — perfect, — and eternal rest.
1. It is a most singular honour of the samts' rest, to be called the purchased possession ; That is, the fruit of the blood of the Son of God ; yea, the chief fruit, the end and perfection of all the fruits and efficacy of that blood. Greater love than this, there is not, to lay down the life of the lover. And to have this our Redeemer ever before our eyes, and the liveliest sense and freshest remembrance of that dying, bleeding love still upon our souls ! How will it fill our souls with perpetual joy, to tliink, that in the streams of this blood we have swam through the violence of the world, the snares of Satan, the seduccments of flesh, the curse of the law, the wrath of an offended God, the accusations of a guilty con- science, and the vexing doubts and fears of an im- believjiig heart, and are arrived safe at the presence of God ! Now, he cries to us, Is it " nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow !" and we scarce regard the mournful voice, nor scarce turn aside to view the wounds. But then our perfected souls will feel,
46 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
and flame in love for love. With what astonishing apprehensions will redeemed samts everlastingly behold their blessed Redeemer ! the purchaser, and the price, together with the possession ! Neither will the view of his wounds of love renew our wounds of sorrow. He, whose first words after his resurrection were to a great sinner, " Woman, why weepest thou ?" knows how to raise love and joy, without any cloud of sorrow, or storm of tears. If any thing we enjoy was purchased with the life of our dearest friend, how highly should we value it ? If a dying friend deliver us but a token of his love, how carefully do we preserve it ! and still remem- ber him when we behold it, as if his own name were written on it ! And will not, then, the death and blood of our Lord everlastingly sweeten our possessed glory ? As we write down the price our goods cost us ; so on our righteousness and gloiy write down the price, the precious blood of Christ. His sufferings were to satisfy the justice that required blood, and to bear what was due to sinners, and so to restore them to the life they lost, and the happi- ness they fell from. The work of Christ's redemp- tion so well pleased the Father, that he gave him power to advance his chosen, and give them the glory which was given to himself, and all this "ac- cording to his good pleasure, and the counsel of his own will."
2. Another pearl in the saints' diadem is, that it is a free gift. These two, purchased and free, are the chains of gold which make uj) the wreaths for the tops of the i)il]ars in the temple of God. It was dear to Christ, but free to us. When Christ was to buy, silver and gold were nothing worth ; prayers and tears could not suffice, nor any thing below hi& blood ; but our buying is receiving ; we have it freely, without money and without price. A thanlv- ful acceptance of a free acquittance is no paying of the debt. Here is all free ; if the Father freely give the Son, and the Son freely i)ay the debt ; and if God fi-eely accepts that way of payment, when he
THE saints' rest. 47
might have required it of the principal ; and if both Father and Son freely offer us the i)urchased life on our cordial acceptance, and if they freely send the Spirit to enable us to accept ; what is here, then, that is not free ? O the everlasting admiration that must needs surprise the saints to think of this freeness ! " What did the Lord see in me, that he should judge me meet for such a state? That I, who was but a poor, diseased, despised wretch, should be clad in the brightness of this glory ! That I, a creeping worm, should be advanced to this high dignity! That I, who Avas but lately groaning, weeping, dying, should now be as full of joy as my heart can hold ! yea, should be taken from the grave, where I was decaying, and from the dust and darkness, where I seemed forgotten, and be here set before his throne ! That I should be taken, with Mordecai, from captivity, and be set next unto the king ; and, with Daniel, from the den, to be made ruler of princes and provinces! Who can fathom unmeasurable love?" If worthiness wei*e our condition for admittance, we might sit down and weep, with St. John, Because no man was found worthy. But the Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy, and hath prevailed ; and by that title we must hold the iidieritance. We shall offer there the offering that David refused, even praise for that which cost us nothing. Here our commis- sion runs, Freely ye have received, freely give ; but Christ has dearly bought, yet freely gives.
If it were only for nothing, and without our merit, the wonder were great ; but it is moreover against our merit, and against our long endeavouring our own rum. What an astonishing thought it will be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and receivings ! between the state we should have been in, and the state we are in ! to look down upon hell, and see the vast difference that grace hath made between us and them! to see the inheritance there, which we were born to, so different from that which we are adopted to ! What
48 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
pangs of love will it cause within us to think, " Yon der was the place that sin would have brought me to, but this is it that Christ hath brought me to ! Yonder death was the wages of my sin, but this eternal hfe is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord! WJio made me to differ? Had I not now been in those flames, if I had had my own way, and been let alone to my own will ? Should I not have lingered in Sodom, till the flames had seized on me, if God had not in mercy brought me out ?" Doubtless this will be our everlasting admiration, that so rich a crown should fit the head of so vile a sinner ! that such high advancement, and such long unfruitfulness and unkindness, can be the state of the same person ! and that such vile rebellions can conclude in such most precious joys ! But no thanks to us, nor to any of our duties and labours, much less to our neglects and laziness : we know to whom the praise is due, and must be given for ever. Indeed, to this very end it was, that infinite wisdom cast the whole design of man's salvation into this mould of purchase and freeness, that the love and joj'^ of man might be perfected, and the honour of grace most highly advanced; that the thought of merit might neither cloud the one nor obstruct the other; and that on these two hinges the gate of heaven might turn. So, then, let deserved be written on the door of hell, but on the door of heaven and life, the free gift.
3. This rest is peculiar to saints, belongs to no other of all the sons of men. If all Egypt had been light, the Israelites would not have had the less ; but to enjoy that light alone, while their neighbours lived in thick darkness, must make them more sensible of their privilege. Distinguishing mercy affects more than any mercy. If Pharaoh had passed as safely as Israel, the Red Sea would have been less remembered. If the rest of the world had not been drowned, and the rest of Sodom and Gomorrah not burned, the saving of Noah had been no wonder, nor Lot's deliverance so much talked oil
THE SATNTS RE<5T. 49
When one is enliglitened, and another left in dark- ness ; one relbnned, and another by his lust enslav- ed ; it makes the saints cry out, " Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself ujito us, and not unto thi) world ?" When the prophet is sent to one widow only of all that were in Israel, and to cleanse one Naaman of all the lepers, the mercy is more ob- servable. That will surely be a day of passionate sense on both sides, when there shall be two in one bed, and two in the field, the one taken, and the other left. The saints shall look down u])on the burning lake, and in the sense of their own hapi)iness, and in the approbation of God's just proceedings, they shall rejoice and sing, " Thou art righteous, O Lord, who wast, art, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus."
4. But though this rest ])e peculiar to the saints, yet it is common to all the saints ; for it is an associa- tion of blessed spirits, both saints and angels ; a corporation of perlected saints, whereof Christ is the head ; the communion of saints completed. As we have been together in the labour, duty, danger, and distress ; so shall we he in the great recom- pense and deliverance. As we have been scorned and despised ; so shall we be owned and honoured together. We, who have gone through the day of sadness, shall enjoy together thai day of gladness. Those, who have been witii us in persecution and ])rison, shall be with us also in that palace of con- solation. How oft have our groans made, as it were, one sound ! our tears one stream ! and our desires one prayer ! But now all our praises shall make up one melody ; all our churches, one church ; and all ourselves, one body ; for we shall be all one in Christ, even as he and the Father are one. It is true, we must be careful, not to look for that in the saints which is alone in Christ. But if the fore- thought of sitting down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacol), in the kingdom of heaven, may be our lawful joy; how much more the real sight and actual possession ! It cannot choose but be com- 5
50 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
fortable to think of that day when we shall johi with Moses in his song, with David in his psalms of praise, and with all the redeemed in the song of the Lamb for ever ; when we shall see Enoch walking with God ; Noah enjoying the end of his singularity; Joseph of his integrity ; Job of his patience ; Heze- kiah of his uprightness ; and all the saints the end of their faith. Not only our old acquaintance, but all the saints, of all ages, whose faces in the flesh we never saw, we shall there both know and comforta- bly enjoy. Yea, angels, as well as saints, will be our blessed acquaintance. Those, who now are willing- ly our ministering spirits, will willingly then be our companions in joy. They, who had such joy in heaven for our conversion, will gladly rejoice with us in our glorification. Then we shall truly say, as David, I am a companion of all them that fear thee ; when " we are come unto 31ount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels ; to the gen- eral assembly, and church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." It is a singular excellence of heavenly rest, that "we are fellow- citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." 5. As another property of our rest, loe shall derive its joys immediately from God. Now we have noth- ing at all immediately, but at the second or third hand, or how many, who knows ? From the earth, from man, from sun and moon, from the ministration of angels, and from the Spirit, and Christ. Though in the hand of angels, the stream savours not of the imperfection of sinners, yet it does of the im- perfection of creatures; and as it comes from man, it savours of both. How quick and piercing is the word in itself! Yet many times it never en- ters, being managed by a feeble arm. What weight and worth is there in every passage of the blessed Gospel! Enough, one would think, to enter and pierce the dullest soul, and wholly possess its thoughts
THE saints' rest. 51
and affections ; and yet how oft does it fall as water upon a stone ! The things of God, which we handle, are divine ; hut our manner of handling is humaru There is little we touch, but we leave the print of our fingers behind. If God speaks the word him- self, it will be a piercing, melting word indeed. The Christian now knows by experience, that his most immediate joys are his sweetest joys ; which have least of man, and are most directly from the Spirit. Christians, who are much in secret prayer and contemplation, ane men of greatest life and joy ; because they have all more immediately from God himself Not that we should cast off hearing, read- ing, and conference, or neglect any ordinance of God ; but to hve above them, while we use them, is tlie way of a Christian. There is joy in these re- mote receivings ; but the fulness of joy is m God's hmnediate presence. We shall then have light without a candle, and perpetual day without tlie sun ; for " the city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it ; for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof; there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither hght of the sun ; and they shall reign for ever and ever." We shall then have enlightened understandings without Scripture, and be governed without a written law ; for the Lord will perfect his law in our hearts, and we shall be all perfectly taught of God. We shall have joy, which we drew not from the promises, nor fetched home by faith or hope. We shall have communion without sacra- ments, without this fruit of the vine, when Christ shall drink it new with us in his Father's kingdom, and refresh us with the comforting wine of immedi- ate enjoyment. To have necessities, but no supply, is the case of them in hell. To have necessity sup- plied by means of the creatures, is the case of us on earth. To have necessity supplied immediately from God, is the case of the saints in heaven. To have no necessity at all, is the prerogative of God himself.
52 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
6. A further excellence of this rest is, that it will be seasonable. He that expects the fruit of his vine- yard at the season, and makes his people "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season," will also give them the crown in his season. He that will have a word of joy spoken in season, to him that is weary, will surely cause the time of joy to appear in the fittest season. They wlio are not weary in well doing shall, if they faint not, reap in due season. If God givetli rain even to his enemies, both the former and the latter in his season, and reserveth the ap- pointed weeks of harvest, and covenants that there shall be day and night in their season ; then surely the glorious harvest of the saints shall not miss its season. Doubtless he that would not stay a day longer than his promise, but brought Israel out of Egypt on the self-same day, when the four hundred and thirty years were expired ; neither will he fail of one day or hour of the fittest season for his peo- ple's glory. When we have had in this world a long night of darkness, will not the day-breaking, and the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, be then seasonable ? When we have passed a long and te- dious journey, through no small dangers, is not home then seasonable ? When we have had a long and perilous war, and received many a wound, would not a peace with victory be seasonable ? Men live in a continual weariness ; especially^ the saints, who are most weary of that which the world cannot feel. Some weary of a blind mind ; some of a hard heart ; some of their daily doubts and fears; some of the want of spiritual joys; and some of the sense of God's wrath. And when a poor Christian hath desired and prayed, and waited for deliverance many years, is it not then seasonable ? We grudge that we do not find a Canaan in the wilderness ; or the songs of Sion in a strange land ; that we have not a harbour in the main ocean, nor our rest in the heat of the day, nor heaven before
THE saints' rest. 53
we leave the earth ; and would not all this be very unseasonable ?
7. As this rest will be seasonable, so it will be suitable. Tlie new nature of the saints doth suit their spirits to this rest. Indeeil, tlieir holiness is nothin*,^ else but a sj)ark taken from this element, and by the Spirit of Christ kindled in their hearts ; the flame whereof; mindlul of its own divine origin- al, ever tends to the ])lace from whence it comes. Temporal crowns and kingdoms could not make a rest for saints. As they were not redeemed with so low a price, neither are they endued with so low a nature. As God will have from them a spiritual worship, suited to his own spiritual being, he will provide them a spiritual rest, suitable to their spir- itual nature. The knowledge of God and his Christ, a delightful complacency in that mutual love, an everlastiug rejoicing in the enjoyment of our God, with a perpetual singing of his high praises ; this is a heaven ibr a saint. Then we shall live in our own element. We are now as the fish in a vessel of water, only so nmcli as will keep them alive ; but what is that to the ocean ? We have a little air let into us, to afford us breathing ; but what is that to the sweet and fresh gales upon Mount Sion ? We have a beam of the sun to lighten our darkness, and a warm ray to keep us from freezing ; but then we shall live in its light, and be revived by its heat for ever. — As the natures of saints are, such are their desires ; and it is the desires of our renewed nature which this rest is suited to. Whilst our de- sires remain corrupted and misguided, it is a far greater mercy to deny them, yea, to destroy them, than to satisfy them ; but those which are spiritual are of his own planting, and he will surely water them, and give the increase. He quickened our hunger and thirst for righteousness, that he might make us happy in a full satisfaction. Christian, this is a rest after thy own heart ; it contains all that thy heart can wish ; that which thou longest, prayest, labourest for, there thou shalt find it all
54 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
Thou hadst rather have God in Christ, than all tlie world ; there thou shalt have him. What wouldst tliou not give for assurance of his love ! There thou siialt have assurance without suspicion. Desire what thou canst, and ask what thou wilt, as a Chris- tian, and it shall be given thee, not only to half of tlie kingdom, but to the enjoyment both of kingdom and King. This is a life of desire and prayer, but tliat is a life of satisfaction and enjoyment. — This rest is very suitable to the saints' necessities, also, as well as to their natures and desires. It contains whatsoever they truly wanted ; not supplying them with gross-created comforts, which, like Saul's ar- mour on David, are more burden than benefit. It was Christ and perfect holiness which they most needed, and with these shall they be supphed.
8. Still more, this rest will be absolutely perfect. We shall then have joy without sorrow, and rest without Aveariness. There is no mixture of corrup- tion with our graces, nor of suffering with our com- fort. There are none of those waves in that harbour, which now so toss us up and down. To-day we are well, to-morrow sick ; to-day in esteem, to-morrow in disgrace ; to-day we have friends, to-morrow none ; nay, we have wine and vinegar in the same cup. If revelations raise us to the third heaven, the messenger of Satan must presently buffet us, and the thorn in the flesh fetch us down. But there is none of this inconstancy in heaven. If perfect love casteth out fear, then perfect joy must needs cast out sorrow, and perfect happiness exclude all the relicks of misery. We shall there rest from all tlie evil of sin and of suffering.
Heaven excludes nothing more directly than sin, whether of nature or of conversation. " There shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth, nei- ther whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie." What need Christ at all to have died, if heav- en could have contained imperfect souls ? " For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." His blood
THE saints' rest. 65
and Spirit have not done all this, to leave us after all defiled. "What communion hath hght with darkness ? and what concord hath Christ with Be- lial ?" Christian, if thou be once in heaven, thou Shalt sin no more. Is not this glad news to thee, who hast prayed, and watched against it so long ? I know, if it were offered to thy choice, thou wouldst rather choose to be freed from sin, than have all the world. Thou shalt have thy desire. — That hard heart, those vile thoughts, which accompanied thee to every duty, shall then be left behind for ever. — Thy understanding shall never more be troubled with darkness. All dark Scriptures shall be made plain ; all seeming contradictions reconciled. The poorest Christian is presently there a more perfect divine than any here. O that happy day, when error shall vanish for ever ! when our understand- ing shall be filled with God himself, whose light will leave no darkness in us ! His face shall be the Scripture, where we shall read the truth. Many a godly man hath here, m his mistaken zeal, been a means to deceive and pervert his brethren, and, when he sees his own error, cannot again tell how to undeceive them. But there we shall conspire in one truth, as being one in him who is the truth. — We shall also rest from all the sm of our will, affec- tion and conversation. We shall no more retain tliis rebelling principle, which is still drawing us from God ; no more be oppressed with the power of our corruptions, nor vexed with their presence : no pride, passion, slothfulness, insensibility, shall en- ter with us ; no strangeness to God, and the things of God ; no coldness of affections, nor imperfection in our love ; no uneven walking, nor grieving of the Spirit ; no scandalous action, nor unholy conver- sation; we shall rest from all these for ever. Then shall our will correspond to the divine will, as face an- swers face in a glass, and from which, as our law and rule, we shall never swerve. " For he that is en- tered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his."
56 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
Our sufferings were but the consequences of our sinning, and in heaven they both shall cease togeth- er. We shall rest from all our doubts of God's love. It shall no more be said, that " Doubts are hke the thistle, a bad weed, but growing in good ground.'* They shall now be weeded out, and trouble the gra- cious soul no more. We shall hear that kind of language no more, " What shall I do to know my ^tate ? How shall I know that God is my Father ? that my heart is upright ? that my conversion is true ? that faith is sincere ? I am afraid my sins are 'unpardoned ; that all I do is hypocrisy ; that God will reject me ; that he does not hear my prayers." All this is there turned into praise. We shall rest from all sense of God's displeasure. Hell shall not be mixed with heaven. At times the gracious soul remembered God, and was troubled ; complained, and was overwhelmed, and refused to be comforted ; divine wrath lay hard upon him, and God afflicted him with all his waves. But that blessed day shall convince us, that, though God hid his face from us for a moment, yet with everlasting kindness will he have mercy on us. We shall rest from all the temp- tations of Satan. What a grief is it to a Christian, though he yield not to the temptation, yet to be so- licited to deny his Lord ! What a torment to have such horrid motions made to his soul ! such blas- phemous ideas presented to his imagination ! some- times cruel thoughts of God, undervaluing thoughts of Christ, unbelieving thoughts of Scripture, or injurious thoughts of Providence ! to be tempt- ed sometimes to turn to present things, to play with the baits of sin, and venture on the delights of flesh, and sometimes to atheism itself! especially, when we know the treachery of our own hearts, ready, as tinder, to take fire, as soon as one of those sparks shall fall upon them ! Satan hath power here to tempt us in the wilderness, but he entereth not the holy city ; he may set us on a pinnacle of the temple in the earthly Jerusalem, but the New Jerusalem he may not approach ; he may take us
THE saints' rest. 57
up into an exceeding high mountain, but the Mount Sion lie cannot ascend ; and il" lie could, all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, would be a desi)ised bait to a soul possessed of the kingdom of our Lord. No, it is in vain for Satan to offer a temptation more. All our temptations from the world and the flesh shall also cease. O the hourly- dangers that we here walk in ! Every sense, and menibei*, is a snare ; every creature, every mercy, and every duty, is a snare to us. We can scarce open our eyes, but we are in danger of envying tliose above us, or despising those below us ; of coveting the honours and riches of some, or behold- ing the rags and beggary of others with pride and un- mercifulness. If we see beauty, it is a bait to lust ; if deformity, to loathing and disdain. How soon do slanderous reports, vain jests, wanton speeches, creep into the heart ! How constant and strong a watch does our appetite require ! Have we come- hness and beauty ? What fuel for pride ! Are we deformed ? What an occasion of repining ! Have we strength of reason, and gifts of learning ? O how prone to be puffed up, hunt after applause, and despise our brethren ! Are we unlearned ? How apt then to des})ise what we have not ! Are w^e in places of authority ? How strong is the temptation to abuse our trust, make our will our law, and cut out all the enjoyments of others by the rules and model of our own interest and policy ! Are we in- feriors ? How prone to grudge at others' pre-emi- nence, and bring their actions to the bar of our judgment ! Are we rich, and not too much exalted ? Are we jwor, and not discontented ? Are we not lazy in our duties, or make a Christ of them ? Not that God hath made all these things our snares ; but through our own corruption they become so to us. Ourselves are the greatest snare to ourselves. This is our comfort, our rest will free us from all these. As Satan hath no entrance there, so neither any thing to serve his malice ! but all things there shall join with us in the high praises of their great
58 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
Deliverer. As we rest from the temptations, we shall likewise from the abuses and persecutions of the world. The prayers of the souls under the altar will then be answered, and God will avenge their blood on them that dwell on the earth. This is the time for crowning with thorns ; that, for crowning wdth glory. Now, "all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ;" then, they that suf- fered with him shall be glorified with him. Now, we must be hated of all men for Christ's name's sake ; then, Christ will be admired in his saints tliat were thus hated. We are here made a specta- cle unto the world, and to angels, and to men : as tiie filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things, men separate us from their company, and reproach us, and cast out our names as evil ; liut we shall then be as much gazed at for our gloiy, and tliey will be shut out of the church of the saints, and separated from us, whether they will or noL We can scarce pray in our families, or sing praises to God, but our voice is a vexation to them : how must it torment them, then, to see us praising and rejoicing, while they are howlmg and lamenting ! You, brethren, who can now attempt no work of God without losing the love of the world, consider, you shall have none in heaven but will further your work, and join heart and voice with you in your everlasting joy and praise. Till then, possess ye your souls in patience. Bind all reproaches as a crown to your heads. Esteem them greater riches than the world's treasures. " It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to you, who are troubled, rest with Christ." We shall then rest from all our sad divisions, and unchristian quarrels with one another. How lov- ingly do thousands live together in heaven, who lived at variance upon earth ! There is no conten- tion, because none of this pride, ignorance, or other corruption. There is no plotting to strengthen our party, nor deep designing against our brethren. If there be sorrow or shame in heaven, we shall then
THE saints' rest. 39
be both sorry and ashamed to remember all this carriage on earth ; as Joseph's brethren were to bo- hold him, when they remembered their former un- kmd usage. Is it not enough that all the world is against us, but we must also be against one anoth- er ? O happy days of persecution, which drove us together in love, whom the sunshine of liberty and prosperity crumbles into dust by our contentions ! O happy day of the saints' rest in glory, when, as there is one God, one Christ, one Spirit, so we shall have one heart, one church, one employment for ever!
We shall then rest from our participation of our brethren's sufferings. The church on earth is a mere hospital ! Some groaning under a dark under- standing, some under an insensible heart, some languishing under unfruitful weakness, and some bleeding for miscarriages and wilfulness, some cry- ing out of their poverty, some groaning under pains and infirmities, and some bewailing a whole cata- logue of calamities. But a far greater grief it is, to see our dearest and most intimate friends turned aside from the truth of Christ, continuing their neglect of Christ and their souls, and nothing will awaken them out of their security : to look on an ungodly father or mother, brother or sister, wife or husband, child or friend, and think how certainly they shall be in hell for ever, if they die in their present unregenerate state ; to think of the gospel departing, the glory taken from our Israel, poor souls left willingly dark and destitute, and blowing out die light that should guide them to salvation ! Our day of rest will free us from all this, and the days of mourning shall be ended ; then thy people, O Lord, shall be all righteous ; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of thy planting, the work of thy hands, that thou mayest be glorified. Then we shall rest from all our own personal sufferings. This may seem a small thing to those that live in ease and prosperity ; but to the daily afflicted soul it makes the thoughts of heaven delightful. O the
60 THE EXCELLENCIES OF
dying life we now live ! as full of sufferings as of days and hours ! Our Redeemer leaves this measure of misery upon us, to make us know for what we are beholden, to mind us of what we should else forget, to be serviceable to his wise and gracious designs, and advantageous to our full and final recovery. Grief enters at every sense, seizes every part and power of flesh and spirit. What noble part is there, that suffereth its pain or ruin alone ? But sin and flesh, dust and pain, will all be left be- hind together. O the blessed tranquillity of that region, where there is nothing but sweet, continued peace! O healthful place, where none are sick ! O fortunate land, where all are kings ! O holy assem- bly, where all are priests ! How free a state, where none are servants, but to their supreme Monarch ! The poor man shall no more be tired with his la- bours : no more hunger or thirst, cold or nakedness : no pinching frosts or scorching heats. Our faces shall no more be pale or sad : no more breaches in friendship, nor parting of friends asunder: no more trouble accompanying our relations, nor voice of lamentation heard in our dwelhngs : God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. O my soul, bear with the infirmities of thine earthly tabernacle ; it will be thus but a little while ; the sound of thy Redeemer's feet is even at the door. — We shall also rest from all the toils of duties. The conscientious magistrate, parent, and minister, cries out, "O the burden that lieth upon me !" Every relation, state, age, hath variety of duties ; so that every conscien- tious Christian cries out, "O the burden! O my weakness, that makes it burdensome !" But our remaining rest will ease us of the burdens. Once more we shall rest from all these troublesome afflic- tions, which necessarily accompany our absence from God. The trouble that is mixed in our desires and hopes, our longings and waitings, shall then cease. We shall no more look into our cabinet, and miss our treasure ; into our hearts, and miss our Christ ; no more seek him from ordinance to ordinance ;
THE saints' rest. 61
but all be concluded in a most blessed and full en- joyment.
9. The last jewel of our crown is, that it will bo an everlasting rest. Without this all were compara- tively notliing. The very thought of leaving it would inibitter all our joys. It would be a hell in heaven, to think of once losing heaven ; as it would be a kind of heaven to the dannied, had they but hopes of once escaping. Mortality is the disgrace of all sublunary delights. How it sjjoils our pleas- ure to see it dying in our hands ! But, O blessed eternity ! where our lives are perplexed with no such thoughts, nor our joys interrupted with any such fears! where "we shall be pillars in the temple of God, and go no more out." While we were ser- vants, we held by lease, and that but lor the term of a transitory life ; " but the son abideth in the house for ever." " O my soul, let go thy dreams of present ])leasures, and loose thy hold of earth and flesh. Study frequently, study thoroughly, this one word — Eternity. W hat ! Live, and never die ! Re- joice, and ever rejoice !" O happy souls in hell, should you but escape after milUons of ages! O miserable saints in heaven, should you be dispos- sessed, after the age of a million of worlds ! This word, everlasting, contains the perfection of their torment, and our glory. O tliat the sinner would study this word ; methinks it woidd startle him out of his dead sleep ! O that the gracious soul would study it ; methinks it would revive him in his deep- est agony ! "And must I, Lord, tluis live for ever ? Then will I also love for ever. Must my joys be immortal ? and shall not my thanks be also im- mortal ? Surely, if I shall never lose my glory, I will never cease thy praises. If thou wilt both per- fect and perpetuate me and my glory, as I sliall be thine, and not my own, so shall my glory be thy glory. And as thy gloiy was thy ultimate end in my glory, so shall it also be my end, when thou hast crowned me with that glory which hath no eufL 'Unto the King eternal, inunortal, invisible, the
62 TUE EXCELLENCIES OP
only wise God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever.' "
Thus I have endeavoured to show you a glimpse of approaching glory. But how short are my ex- pressions of its excellency ! Reader, if thou be an humble, sincere believer, and waitest with longing and labouring for this rest, thou wilt shortly see and feel the truth of all this. Thou wilt then have so high an apprehension of this blessed state, as will make thee pity the ignorance and distance of mor- tals, and will tell thee, all that is here said falls short of the whole truth a thousand-fold. In the mean time, let this much kindle thy desires, and quicken tliy endeavours. Up, and be doing ; run, and strive, and fight, and hold on : for thou hast a certain, glo- rious prize before thee. God will not mock thee ; do not mock thyself, nor betray thy soul by delaying, and all is thine own. What kind of men, dost thou think, would Christians be in their hves and duties, if they had still this glory fresh in their thoughts ? What frame would their spirits be in, if their thoughts of heaven were lively and beheving ? Would their hearts be so heavy? their counte- nances be so sad ? or would they have need to take up their comforts from below ? Would they be so loath to suffer ; so afraid to die ; or would they not think every day a year till they enjoy it ? May the Lord heal our carnal hearts, lest we enter not into this rest, because of unbelief.
THE saints' rest. , 63
CHAPTER IV.
The Character of the Persons for whom this Rest is designed.
The people of God, who shall enjoy this rest, are, 1. Chosen from eter- uity ; 2. Given to Christ ; 3. Born again ; 4. Deeply convinced of tho evil of sin, their misery by sin, the vanity of the creature, and the all-sufficiency of Christ. 5. Their will is proportionably chang- ed. 6. They engage in covenant with Christ. 7. They persevere ill- their engagements. The reader invited to examine himself by tho characteristics of God's people Further testimony from Scripture that this rest shall be enjoyed by tlie people of God : also that none but they shall enjoy it ; and that it remains for them, and is not to be enjoyed till they come to another world. The chapter concludes with showing, that their souls shall enjoy this rest M'hile separated from their bodies.
While I was in the mount, describing the excel- lencies of the saints' rest, I felt it was good bemg tliere, and therefore tarried the longer; and was there not an extreme disproportion between my conceptions and the subject, much longer had I been. Can a prospect of that happy land be tedi- ous ? Having read of such a high and unspeakable glory, a stranger would wonder for what rare crea- tures this mighty preparation should be made, and expect some illustrious sun should break forth : but, behold ! only a shell-full of dust, animated with an invisible rational soul, and that rectified with as un- seen a restoring power of grace ; and this is the crea- ture that must possess such glory ! You would think it must needs be some deserving piece, or one that brings a valuable price : but, behold ! one that hath nothing ; and can deserve nothing ; yea, that de- serves the contrary, and would, if he might, proceetl in that deserving : but, being apprehended by love, he is brought to him that is All ; and most affection- ately receiving him, and resting on him, he doth, in and through him^ receive all this ! More particular- ly, the persons, for whom this rest is designed, are -T-chosen of God from eternity ^ — given to Christ, as
64 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
their Redeemer ; — ^born again ; — deeply convinced of the evil and misery of a sinful state, the vanity of the creature, and the all-sufficiency of Christ ; — their will is renewed ; — they engage themselves to Christ in covenant ; — and they persevere in their engage- ments to the end.
1. The persons for whom this rest is designed, ^yhom the text calls " the people of God," are " cho- sen of God before the foundation of the ivorld, that they should be holy and without blame before him in love." That they are but a small part of mankind, is too apparent in Scripture and experience. They are the little flock, to whom " it is their Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom." Fewer they are than the world imagines ; yet not so few as some drooping spirits think, who are suspicious that God is unwilling to be their God, when they know them- selves willing to be his people.
2. These persons are give7i of God to his Son, to be by him redeemed from their lost state, and ad- vanced to this glory. God hath given all things to his Son. " God hath given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal lite to as many as the Father hath given him." The Father hath given him all who repent and believe. The difl'erence is clearly expressed by the apostle ; " he hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the chiu'ch." And though Christ is, in some sense, a ransom for all, yet not in that special manner, as for his people.
3. One great qualification of these persons is, that they are born again. To be the people of God with- out regeneration, is as impossible as to be the chil- dren of men without generation. Seeing we are born God's enemies, we must be new-l)orn his sons, or else remain enemies still. The greatest reforma- tion of life, tluit can be attained to without this new life wrought in the soul, may procure our further de- lusion, but never our salvation. * ,
4. This new life in the people of God discovers itself by conviction, or a deep sense of divine things.
WHO SHALL EXJOY REST. 65
They are convinced of the evil of sin. The sinner is made to know and feel, tliat the sin, which was his dehglit, is a more loathsome thing than a toad or serpent, and a greater evil than i)Iague or famine ; being a breach of the righteous law of the most higii God, dishonourable to him, and destructive to the simier. Now the sinner no more hears the reproof of sin, as words of course ; but the mention of his sin speaks to his very lieart, and yet he is contented you should show him the worst. He was wont to marvel, what made men keep up such a stir against sin ; what harm it was for a man to take a little for- bidden pleasure ; he saw no such heinousness in it, that Christ must needs die for it, and a Christlesa world be eternally tormented in hell. Now the case is altered : God hath opened his eyes to see the in expressible vileness in sin.
They are convinced of their own misery by rea- .TO?^ of sin. They who before read the threats oi God's law, as men do the story of foreign wurs, now find it their own story, and perceive they read their own doom, as if they found their OAvn names writ- ten in the curse, or heard the law say, as Nathan, " Thou art the man." The wrath of God seemed to liim before but as a storm to a man in a dry house, or as the pains of the sick to the healthful stander-by ; but now he finds the disease is his own, and feels himself a condemned man, that he is dead and damned in point of law, and that nothing was wanting but mere execution to make him absolutely and irrecoverably miserable. This is a work of the Spirit, wrought in some measure in all the regener- ate. How sliould he come to Christ for pardon, that did not first find himself guilty, and condem- ned? or for life, that never found himself spiritu- ally dead ? " The whole need not a physician, but tliey that are sick." The discovery of the remedy, as soon as the misery, must needs prevent a great part of the trouble. And perhaps the joyful appre- hensions of mercy may make the sense of misery soQjier forgotten. 6
66 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
They are also convinced of the creature's vanity and insufficiency. Every man is naturally an idola- ter. Our hearts turned from God in our first fall ; and, ever since, the creature hath been our god. This is the grand sin of nature. Every unregener- ate man ascribes to the creature divine prerogatives, and allows it the highest room in his soul ; or, if he is convinced of misery, he flies to it as his saviour. Indeed, God and his Christ shall be called Lord and Saviour ; but the real expectation is from the crea- ture, and the work of God is laid upon it. Pleasure, profit, and honoisr, are the natural man's trinity ; and his carnal self is these in unity. It was our first sin to aspire to be as gods ; and it is the greatest sin that is propagated in our nature from generation to gen- eration. When God should guide us, we guide our- selves ; when he should be our Sovereign, we rule ourselves : the laws which he gave us we find fault with, and would correct ; and, if we had the making of them, we would have made them otherwise : when he should take care of us, (and must, or we perish,) we will take care for ourselves : when we should depend on him in daily receivings, we had rather have our portion in our own hands : when we should submit to his providence, we usually quar- rel at it, and think we coidd make a better disposal than God hath made. When we should study and love, trust and honour God, we study and love, trust and honour our carnal selves. Instead of God, we would have all men's eyes and dependence on us, and all men's thanks returned to us, and would glad- ly be the only men on earth extolled and admired by all. Thus we are naturally our own idols. But down falls this Dagon, when God does once renew the soul. It is the chief design of that great work to bring the heart back to God himself. lie convin- ceth the sinner, that the creature can neither be his God, to make him happy, nor his Christ, to recover him from his misery, and restore him to God, who is his happiness. God does this, not only by his word, but by providence also. This is the reason
WHO SHALL ENJOY REST. 67
why affliction so frequently concurs iji the work of conversion. Arguments, which speak to the c[iiick, will force a hearing, when the most powerful words are slighted. If a sinner made his credit his god, and God shall cast him into the lowest disgrace; or bring him, who idolized his riches, into a condition wherein they cannot help him, or cause them to take wing, and fly away ; what a help is here to this work of conviction ! If a man made pleasure his god, whatsoever a roving eye, a curious ear, a gree- dy a])])etite, or a lustful heart, could desire, and God should take these from him, or turn them into gall or wormwood, what a help is here to conviction ! When God shall cast a man into languishing sick- ness, and inflict wounds on his heart, and stir up against him his own conscience, and then, as it were, say to him, "Try if your credit, riches, or pleasures, can helj) you. Can they heal your wounded con- science ? Can they now support your tottering tab- ernacle ? Can they keep your departing soul in your body ? or save you from mine everlasting wrath ? or redeem your soul from eternal flames ? Cry aloud to them, and see now whether these will be to you instead of God and Christ." O how this works now with the sinner! Sense acknowledges the truth, and even the flesh is convinced of the creature's vanity, and our very deceiver is undeceived.
The people of God are likewise convinced of the absolute necessity^ the full sufficiency^ and perfect excel- lency of Jesus Christ: as a man in famine is convin- ced of the necessity of food ; or a man that had heard or read his sentence of condenniation, of the abso- lute necessity of ])ardon ; or a man that lies in prison for debt is convinced of his need of a surety to dis- charge it. Now the sinner feels an unsupportable burden upon him, and sees there is none but Christ can take it off": he perceives the law proclaims him a rebel, and none but Christ can make his peace : he is as a man pursued by a lion, that must ])erish if he finds not a present sanctuary : he is now brought to tliis dilenmia ; either he must have Christ, to^ustify
68 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
him, or be eternally condemned ; have Christ to save him, or burn in hell for ever ; have Christ to bring him to God, or be shut out of his ])resenee everlast- ingly ! And no wonder if he cry as the martyr, "None but Christ! none but Christ!" Not gold, but bread, will satisfy the hungry; nor any thing but pardon will comfort the condemned.
Ail things are counted but dun^ now, that he may win Christ; and what was gain, lie counts loss for Christ. As the sinner sees his misery, and the ina- bility of himself and all things to relieve him, so he perceives there is no saving mercy out of Chrislt. He sees, though the creature cannot, and himself cannot, yet Christ can. Though the fig-leaves of our own unrighteous righteousness are too short to cover our nakedness, yet the righteousness of Christ is large enough: ours is disproportionate to the jus- tice of the law, but Christ's extends to every tittle. If he intercede, there is no denial ; such is the dig- nity of his person, and the value of his merits, that the Father grants all he desires. Before, the sinner knew Christ's excellency as a blind man knows the light of the sun ; but now, as one that beholds its glory.
5. After this deep conviction, the ivill discovers also its change. As for instance — The sin, which the un- derstanding pronounces evil, the will turns from with abhorrence. Not that the sensitive appetite is chang- ed, or any way made to abhor its object : but when it would prevail against reason, and carry us to sin against God, instead of Scripture being the rule, and reason the master, and sense the servant, this disor- der and evil the will abhors. — The misery, also, which sin hath procured, is not only discerned, but bewail- ed. It is impossible that the soul should now look, either on its trespass against God, or yet on its own self-procured calamity, without some contrition. He that truly discerns that he hath killed Christ, and killed himself, will surely in some measure be prick- ed to the heart. If he cannot weep, he can heartily groan ; and liis heart feels what his understanding
WHO SHALL ENJOY REST. 69
sees. The creature is renounced as vanity, and turned out of the heart with disdain. Not that it is undervalued, or the use of it disclaimed ; but its idol- atrous abuse, and its unjust usurpation. Can Christ be the way, where the creature is the end ? Can we seek to Christ to reconcile us to God, while in our hearts we prefer the creature before him ? In tlie soul of every unregenerate man, the creature is both God and Christ. As turning from the creature to God, and not by Christ, is no true turning ; so be- lieving in Christ, while the creature hath our hearts, is no true believing. Our aversion from sin, renoun- cing our idols, and our right receiving Christ, is all but one work, which God ever perfects where he begins. At the same time, the will cleaves to God the Father, and to Christ. Having been convinced tliat nothing else can be his happiness, the sinner now finds it is in God. Convinced also, that Christ alone is able and willing to make peace for him, he most affectionately accepts of Christ for Saviour and Lord. Paul's preaching was " repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." And life eternal consists, first in " knowing the only true God ; and then Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent." To take the Lord for our God is the natural part of the covenant ; the supernatural part is, to take Christ lor our Redeemer. The former is first necessary, and implied in the latter. To accept Christ without affection and love, is not justifying faith : nor does love follow as a fruit, but immediately concurs ; for faith is the receiving of Christ with the whole soul. " He that loveth father or mother more than Christ, is not worthy of him," nor is justified by him. Faith accepts him for Saviour and Lord : for m both rela- tions will he be received, or not at all. Faith not only acknowledges his sufferings, and accepts of pardon and glory, but acknowledges his sovereign- ty, and submits to his government and way of salva- tion.
6. As an essential part of the character of God's people, they now enter into a cordial covenant unih
70 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
Christ. The sinner was never strictly, nor comfort- ably, in covenant with Christ till now. He is sure, by the free offers, that Christ consents ; and now he cordially consents himself; and so the agreement is fully made. — With this covenant Christ delivers up hmiself in all comfortable relations to the sinner ; and the sinner delivers up himself to be saved, and ruled by Christ. Now the soul resolutely concludes, " I have been blindly led by flesh and lust, by the world and the devil, too long, almost to my utter destruction ; I will now be wholly at the disposal of my Lord, who hath bought me with his blood, and will bring me to his glory."
7. I add, that the people of God persevere in this covenant to the end. Though the believer may be tempted, yet he never disclaims his Lord, renounces his allegiance, nor repents of his covenant ; nor can he properly be said to break that covenant, while that faith continues which is the condition of it. In- deed, those that have verbally covenanted, and not cordially, may " tread under foot the blood of the cov- enant, as an unholy thing, wherewith they were sanc- tified," by separation from those without the church ; but the elect cannot be so deceived. Though this perseverance be certain to true believers, yet it is made a condition of their salvation ; yea, of their con- tinued life and fruitfulness, and of the continuance of their justification, though not of their first justifi- cation itself But eternally blessed be that hand of love, which hath drawn the free promise, and sub- scribed and sealed to that which ascertains us, both of the grace which is the condition, and the kingdom which on that condition is offered !
Such are the essentials of this people of God. Not a full portraiture of them in all their excellen- cies, nor all the notes whereby they may be discern- ed. I beseech thee, reader, as thou hast the hope of a Christian, or the reason of a man, judge thyself, as one that must shortly be judged by a righteous God, and faithfully answer these questions. I will not inquire whether yoji remember the time or the
WHO SHALL ENJOY REST. 71
order of these workings of the Spirit ; there may be much uncertaimy and mistake in that. If you are sure they are wrought in you, the matter is not so great, though you knoAv not when or how you came by them. But carefully examine and inquire, Hast thou been thorougldy convinced of a prevailing depravation through thy whole soul ? and a prevail- ing wickedness through thy whole life ? and how vile sin is ? and that, by the covenant thou hast transgressed, tlie least sin deserves eternal death ? Dost thou consent to the law, that it is true and righteous, and perceive thyself sentenced to this death by it ? Hast thou seen the utter insufficiency of every creature, eitlier to be itself thy happiness, or the means of removing this thy misery ? Hast thou been convinced, that thy happiness is only in God, as the end ; and in Christ, as the way to him ; and that thou must be brought to God through Christ, or perish eternaUy ? Hast thou seen an ab- solute necessity of thy enjoying Christ, and the full sufficiency in him, to do for thee whatsoever thy case requires ? Hast thou discovered the excellency of this pearl to be worth thy " selling all to buy it ?" Have thy convictions been like those of a man that thirsts ; and not merely a change in opinion, pro- duced by reading or education ? Have both thy sin and misery been the abhorrence and burden of thy soul ? If thou couldst not weep, yet couldst thou heartily groan under the insupportable weight of both ? Hast thou renounced all thy own righteous- ness ? Hast thou turned thy idols out of thy heart, so that the creature hath no more the sovereignty, but is now a servant to God and Cln-ist ? Dost thou accept of Christ as thy only Saviour, and expect thy justification, recovery, and glory, from him alone ? Are his laws the most powerful commanders of thy life and soul ? Do they ordinarily prevail against the commands of the flesh, and against the greatest mterest of thy credit, profit, pleasure, or life ? Has Christ the highest room in thy heart and aflTections, so that, though thou canst not love liun as thou
72 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
wouidst, yet nothing else is loved so much ? Hast tliou to tJiis end made a hearty covenant with him, and delivered up thyself to him ? Is it thy utmost care and watchful endeavour, that thou mayst be found faithful in this covenant; and though thou fall into sin, yet wouidst not renounce thy bargain, nor change thy Lord, nor give up thyself to any other government, for all the world ? If this be tru- ly the case, thou art one of the people of God in my text ; and as sure as the promise of God js true, this blessed rest remains for thee. Only see thou " abide in Christ," and " endure to the end ;" for " if any man draw back, his soul shall have no pleasure in him." But if no such work be found within thee ; whatever thy deceived heart may think, or how strong soever thy false hopes may be ; thou wilt find to thy cost, except thorough conversion jire- vent it, that the rest of the saints belongs not to thee, " O that thou wert wise, that thou wouidst under- stand this, that thou wouidst consider thy latter end !" that yet, w^iile thy soul is in thy body, and " a price in thy hand," and opportunity and hope before thee, thine ears may be open, and thy heart yield to the persuasions of God, that so thou might- est rest among his people, and enjoy " the inherit- ance of the saints in light !"
That this rest shall be enjoyed by the people of God, is a truth which the Scriptm-e, if its testimony be further needed, clearly asserts in a variety of ways; as, for instance, that they are " foreordained to it, and it for them. God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city." They are styled " vessels of mercy, afore prepared unto glory." " In Christ they have obtained an in- heritance, being predestinated according to the pur- pose of him who worketh all things after the coun- sel of his own will." And " whom he did predesti- nate, them he also glorified." Who can bereave his people of that rest which is designed for them by God's eternal purpose ? Scripture tells us, they are " redeemed to tliis rest. By the blood of Jesua
WHO SHALL ENJOT REST. 73
we have boldness to enter into the holiest ;" whether that entrance means by faith and prayer here, or by full possession hereafter. Therefore the saints in heaven sing a new song unto him who lias " re- deemed them to God by liis blood, out of every kin- dred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and made them kings and priests unto God." Either Christ, then, must lose his blood and sufferings, and never " see of the travail of hi^ soul," or else " there re- maineth a rest to the people of God." In Scripture this rest is promised to them. As the firmament with stars, so are the sacred pages bespangled with these divine engagements. Christ says, " Fear not, httle flock, for it is your Father's good pleasm-e to give you the kingdom." " I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me ; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my king- dom." All the means of grace, the operations of the Spirit upon the soul, and gracious actings of the saints, every command to repent and beheve, to fast and pray, to knock and seek, to strive and labour, to run and fight, prove that there remains a rest for the people of God. The spirit would never kindle in us such strong desires after heaven, such love to Jesus Christ, if we should not receive what we de- sire and love. He that " guides our feet into the way of peace" will undoubtedly bring us to the end of peace. How nearly are the means and end con- joined ! " The kingdom of heaven suffereth vio- lence, and the violent take it by force." They that " follow Christ in the regeneration shall sit upon thrones of gloiy." Scripture assures us, that the saints have the " beginnings, foretastes, earnests, and seals" of this rest here. " The kingdom of God is within them." " Though they have not seen Christ, yet, loving him, and believing in him, they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory ; re- ceiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls." They " rejoice in hope of the glory of God." And does God " seal them with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of their in- 7
74 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
heritance," and will he deny the full possession ? The Scripture also mentions, by name, those who have entered into this rest ; as Enoch, Abraham, Lazarus, the thief that was crucified with Christ, &.C. And if there be a rest for these, surely there is a rest for all believers. But it is vain to heap up Scripture-proofs, seeing it is the very end of Scrip- ture, to be a guide to lead us to this blessed state, and to be the charter and grant by which we hold all our title to it.
Scripture not only proves that this rest remains for the people of God, but also that it remains for none but them, so that the rest of the world shall have 110 part in it. " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. No whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inher- itance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. They all shall be damned, who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighte- ousness. The Lord Jesus shall come, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be punished with everlasting de- struction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." Had the ungodly returned before their life was expired, and been heartily will- ing to accept of Christ for their Saviour and their King, and to be saved by him in his way, and upon His most reasonable terms, they might have been saved. God freely offered them life, and they would not accept it. The pleasures of the flesh seemed more desirable to them than the glory of the saints. Satan offered them the one, and God offered them the other ; and they had free liberty to choose wliich they would, and they chose " the pleasures of sin for a season," before tlie everlasting rest with Christ* And is it not a righteous thing that tliey should be
WHO SHALL ENJOY REST. 75
denied that which they would not accept ? When God pressed tliem so earnestly, and persuaded them so importunately, to come in, and yet they would not, where should they be but among the dogs with- out ? Though man be so wicked, that he will not yield till the mighty power of grace prevail with Mm, yet still we may truly say, that he may be saved, if he will, on God's terms. His inability be- ing moral, and lying in wilful wickedness, is no more excuse to him, than it is to an adulterer that he can- not love his own wife, or to a malicious person that he cannot but hate his own brother : is he not so much the worse, and deserving of so much the sorer punishment ? Sinners shall lay all the blame on their own wills in hell for ever. Hell is a rational torment by conscience, according to the nature of the rational subject. If sinners could but then say. It was long of God, and not of us, it would quiet tlieir consciences, and ease their torments, and make hell to them to be no hell. But to remember theii wilfulness, will feed the fire, and cause the worm of conscience " never to die."
It is the will of God that this rest should yet re- main for his people, and not be enjoyed till they come to another world. Who should dispose of the crea- tures, but he that made them ? You may as well ask, why have we not spring and harvest, without winter ? or, why is the earth below, and the heavens above ? as, why we have not rest on earth ? All tbings must come to their perfection by degrees. The strongest man must first be a child. The great- est scholar must first begin with the alphabet. The tallest oak was once an acorn. This life is our in- fancy ; and would we be perfect in the womb, or born at full stature ? — If our rest was here, most of God's providences must be useless. Should God lose the glory of his church's miraculous dehver- ances, and the fall of his enemies, that men may have their happiness here ? If we were all happy, innocent, and perfect, what use was there for the glorious works of our sanctification, justification, and
"76 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
future salvation ? — If we wanted nothing, we should not depend on God so closely, nor call upon him so earnestly. How little should he hear from us, if we had what we would have ! God would never have had such songs of praise from Moses at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness from Deborah and Han- nah, from David and Hezekiah, if they had been the choosers of their condition. Have not thy own highest praises to God, reader, been occasioned by thy dangers or miseries ? The greatest glory and praise God has through the world, is for redemption, reconciliation, and salvation by Christ ; and was not man's misery the occasion of that ? — And where God loses the opportunity of exercising his mercies, man must needs lose the happiness of enjoying them. Where God loses his praise, man will cer- tainly lose his comforts. O the sweet comforts the saints have had m return to their prayers ! How should we know what a tender-hearted Father we have, if we had not, as the prodigal, been denied the husks of earthly pleasure and })rofit ? We should never have felt Christ's tender heart, if we had not felt ourselves " weary and heavy laden, hungry and thirsty, poor and contrite." It is a delight to a sol- dier, 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, must make his joy more joyful. There- fore the blessed, in praising the Lamb, mentioned his " redeeming them out of every nation, and kin- dred, and tongue ;" and so, out of their misery, and wants, and sins, " and making tliem kings and priests to God." But if they had had nothing but content and rest on earth, what room would there have been for these rejoicings hereafter?
Besides, ive are not capable of rest upon earth, — Can a soul that is so weak in grace, so prone to sin, so nearly joined to such a neighbour as this flesh, have full content and rest in such a case ? Wliat is soul-rest, but our freedom from sin, and imper-
WHO SHALL ENJOY REST. I*^
fections, and enemies? And can the soul have rest, that is molested with all these, and that continually ? Why do Christians so often cry out, in the language of Paul, " O wretched man that I am ! who shall dehver me ?" What makes them " press towards the mark, and run that they may obtain, and strive to enter in," if they are capable of rest in their pres- ent condition ? — And our bodies are incapable as well as our souls. They are not now those sunlike bodies which they shall be, v/hen this " corruptible hath put on incorruption, and this mortal hath put on immortality." They are our prisons and our burdens ; so full of infirmities and defects, that we are fain to spend most of our time in repairing them,, and supplying their continual wants. Is it possible that an immortal soul should have rest in such a dis- tempered habitation ? Surely these sickly, weary, loathsome bodies, must be refined, before they can be capable of enjoying rest. The objects we here enjoy are insufficient to afford us rest. Alas ! what is there in all the world to give us rest ? They that have most of it have the greatest burden. They tliat set most by it, and rejoice most in it, do all cry out at last 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 easily see, that the very end of them is to take down our idols, to make us weary of the world, and seek our rest in him. Where does he cross us most, but where we promise ourselves most content 1 If you have a child you dote upon, it becomes your sorrow. If you have a friend you trust in, and judge un- changeable, he becomes your scourge. Is this a place or state of rest ? And as the objects we here enjoy are insuflScient for our rest, so God, who is sufficient, is here little enjoyed. It is not here that he hath prepared the presence-chamber of his glory. He hath drawn the curtain between us and him. We are far from him as creatures, and farther as jfrail mortals, and farthest as sinners. We hear now
78 THE CHARACTER OF THOSE
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 shall be saved by him, find rest in so vast a distance from him, and so seldom and small en- joyment of him ?
Nor are we now capable of rest, as there is a worthiness must go before it. Christ Avill give the ci-own to none but the worthy. And are we fit for tlie crown, before we have overcome ? or for the prize, before we have run the race ? or to receive our penny, before we have wrought in the vine- yard ? or to be rulers of ten cities before we have im})roved 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 course of justice, to give you rest before you have laboured, nor the crown of glory till you have overcome. There is reason enough why our rest should remain till the life to come. Take heed, then. Christian reader, how thou darest to contrive and care for a rest 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 should be so here. Do the abominations of the times, the sins of professors, the hardening of the wicked, all weary thee ? It must be so while thou art absent from thy rest. Do thy sins, and thy naughty, distempered heart weary thee ? Be thus wearied more and more. But, under all this weariness, art thou willing to go to God thy rest ? 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 rest seem more desirable.
I have but one thing more to add, for the close of this chapter, — that the souls of believers do en- joy inconceivable blessedness and glory, even loMle iJiey remain separated from their bodies. What can be more plain than those words of Paul, — " We are
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always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home," or rutlier sojourning, " in the body, we are absent from the Lord ; for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." — Or those, " I am in a strait betwixt two, liaving a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." — If Paul had not expected to enjoy Christ till the resurrection, why should lie be in a strait, or desire to depart ? Nay, should he not have been loath to depart upon the very same grounds ? For while he w^as in the flesh, he enjoy- ed something of Christ.T— Plain enough is that of Christ to the thief, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." — In the parable of Dives and Lazarus, it seems unlikely Christ would so evidently intimate and suppose the soul's happiness or misery presently after death, if there were no such matter. Our Lord's argument for the resurrection supposes, thatj " God being not the God of the dead, but of the living," therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were then living in soul. — If the "blessedness of the dead that die in the Lord" were only in resting in the grave, then a beast or a stone were as blessed ; nay, it were evidently a curse, and not a blessing. For was not life a great mercy ? Was it not a greater mercy to serve God and to do good ; to enjoy all the comforts of life, the fellowship of saints, the comfort of ordinances, and much of Christ in all, than to lie rotting in the grave ? Therefore some further bless-r edness is there promised. — How else is it said,, " We are come to the spirits of just men made per- fect ?" Sm-ely, at the resurrection, the body will be made perfect as well as the spirit. The Scrip- tures tell us, that Enoch and Elias are taken up already. And shall we think they possess that glo-. ry alone ? — Did not Peter, James, and John, see Moses also with Christ on the mount ? yet the Scripture saith, Moses died. And is it hkely that Christ deluded their senses, in showing them Moses, if he should not partake of that glory till the resur-
80 WHO SHALL ENJOY
rection ? — ^And is not that of Stephen as plain as we can desire ? " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Surely, if the Lord receive it, it is neither asleep, nor dead, nor annihilated ; but it is w^here he is, and beholds his glory. — That of the wise man is of the same im- port : " The spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Why are we said to " have eternal life ;" and that to " know God is life eternal ;" and that a be- liever " on the Son hath everlasting life ?" Or how is " the kingdom of God within us ?" If there be as great an interruption of our life as till the resur- rection, this is no eternal life, nor everlasting king- dom.— " The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah" are spoken of as " suffering the vengeance of eternal lire !" And if the wicked already suffer eternal fire, then, no doubt but the godly enjoy eternal blessed- ness.— When John saw his glorious revelations, he is said to be " in the Spirit," and to be " carried away in the Spirit." And when Paul was " caught up to the third heaven," he knew not " whether in the body or out of the body." This implies, that spirits are capable of these glorious things, without the help of their bodies. — The same is imphed, when John says, " I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God." — When Christ says, " Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul," does it not plainly imply, that when wicked men have killed our bodies, that is, have separated the souls from them, yet the souls are still ahve ? The soul of Christ was alive when his body was dead, and therefore so shall be ours too. This appears by his words to the thief, " To- day shalt thou be with me in Paradise ;" and also by his voice on the cross, " Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit." If the spirits of those that " were disobedient in the days of Noah were in prison," that is, in a living and suffering state ; then, certainly, the separate spirits of the just are in an ^opposite condition of happiness. Therefore, faith- ful souls will no sooner leave their prisons of flesh, but angels shall be their convoy ; Christ, with all
THE saints' rest. 81
die perfected spirits of the just, will be their com- panions ; heaven will be their residence, and God tlieir happiness. When such die, they may boldly and believingly say, as Stephen, "Lord Jesus, re- ceive my spirit ;" and commend it, as Clirist did, into a Father's hands.
CHAPTER V.
T^e great Misery of those who lose the Saints^ Rest.
I. The loss of heaven includes, 1. The personal perfection of the saints ; 2. God himself ; 3. All delightful aftV'ctions towards God ; 4. The blessed society of angels and gloritied .spirits. II. The aggravations of the loss of Jieaveii ; 1. The understanding of the ungodly will then be cleared ; 2. Also enlarged. 3. Their con- sciences will make a true and close application. 4. Their affections will be more lively. 5. Their memories will be large and strong.
If thou, reader, art a stranger to Christ, and to tlie holy nature and life of his people, who are be- fore described, and shalt live and die in this condi- tion, let me tell thee, thou shalt never partake of the joys of heaven, nor have the least taste of the saints' eternal rest. I may say, as Ehud to Eglon, " I have a message to thee from God ;" that, as the word of God is true, thou shalt never see the face of God with comfort. This sentence I am com- manded to pass upon thee ; take it as thou wilt, and escape it if thou canst. I know thy humble and hearty subjection to Christ would procure thy escape ; he would then acknowledge thee for one of his people, and give thee a portion in the inheritance of his chosen. If this might be the happy success of my message, I should be so far from repining, like Jonah, that the threatenings of God are not executed upon thee, that I should bless the day that ever God made me so happy a messenger. But if ihou end thy days in thy unregenerate state, as sure as the heavens are over thy head, and the earth under thy feet, thou shalt be shut out of the rest of
82 THE MISERY OP LOSING
the saints, and receive thy portion in everlasting fire. I expect thou wilt turn upon me, and say, When did God show you the Book of Life, or tell you who they are that shall he saved, and who shut out ? I answer, I do not name thee, nor any other ; I only conclude it of the unregcnerate in general, and of thee, if thou be such a one. Nor do I go about to determine who shall repent, and who shall not ; much less, that thou shalt never repent. I had rather show thee what hopes thou hast before thee, if thou wilt not sit still, and lose them. I would far rather persuade thee to hearken in time, before the door be shut against thee, than tell thee tliere is no hope of thy repenting and returning. But, if the foregoing description of the people of God does not agree with the state of thy soul, is it tiien a hard question, whether thou shalt ever be saved ? Need I ascend up into heaven to know, tliat " without holiness no man shall see the Lord ;" or, that only " the pure in heart shall see God ;" or, that " except a man be bom again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ?" Need I go up to heav- en, to inquire that of Christ, which he came down to earth to tell us ; and sent his Spirit in his apostles to tell us ; and which he and they have left upon record to all the world ? And though I know not the secrets of thy heart, and therefore cannot tell thee by name, whetlier it be thy state or not ; yet, if thou art but willing and diligent, thou mayst know thyself, whether thou art an heir of heaven or not. It is the main thing I desire, that, if thou art yet miserable, thou mayst discern and escape it. But how canst thou escape, if thou neglect Christ and salvation ? It is as impossible as for the devils themselves to be saved ; nay, God has more plainly and frequently spoken it in Scripture of such sin- ners as thou art, than he has of the devils. Me- tliinks a sight of thy case would strike thee with amazement and horror. When Belshazzar "saw tlie fingers of a man's hand that wrote upon the wall, his countenance was changed, and his thoughts
THE saints' rest. 83
troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." What trembling, then, should seize on thee, who hast the hand of God himself against thee, not m a sentence or two, but in the very scope of the Scrip- tures, threatening the loss of an everlasting kingdom ! Because I would fain have tliee lay it to heart, I will show thee, first, the nature of thy loss of heav- en ; secondli)^ its aggravations.
First. In their loss of heaven, the ungodly lose — the saints' personal perfection, — God himself, — all delightful affections towards God, — and the blesse^l society of angels and saints.
1. The glorious personal perfection J which the saints enjoy in heaven, is the great loss of the ungodly. They lose that shining lustre of the body surpassing tlie i)rightness of the sun at noonday. Though the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual than they were upon earth, yet that will only make them capable of the more exquisite torments. They would be glad, then, if every member were a dead member, that it might not feel the punishment in- flicted on it ; and if the whole body were a rot- ten carcass, or might lie down again in the dust. Much more do they want that moral perfection which the blessed partake of; those holy disposi- tions of mind ; that cheerful readiness to do the will of God ; that perfect rectitude of all their actions : instead of these, they have that perverseness of will, that loathing of good, that love to evil, that violence of passion, which they had on earth. It is true, their understandings will be much cleared by the ceasing of former temptation, and experiencing the falsehood of former delusions ; but they have the same dispositions still, and fain would they commit tlie same sins, if they could : they want but oppor- tunity. There will be a greater difference between tliese wretches and the glorified Christians, than tliere is betwixt a toad and the sun in the firmament, " The rich man's purple and fine linen, and sumptuous
84 THE MISERY OF LOSING
fare," did not so exalt him above " Lazarus wliile at his gate full of sores."
2. They shall have no comfortahle relation to God, nor communion with him. " As they did not Uke to retain God in their knowledge," but said unto him, " Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways ;" so God will abhor to retain them m his household. He will never achnit them to the in- heritance of his saints, nor endm^e them to stand in Iiis presence, but " will profess mito them, I never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." They are ready now to lay as confident claim to Christ and heaven, as if they were sincere beheving saints. The swearer, the drunkard, the whoremon- ger, the worldling, can say. Is not God our Father as well as yours ? But when Christ separates his followers from his foes, and his faithful friends from his deceived flatterers, where, then, will be their presumptuous claim ? Then they shall find, that God is not their Father, because they would not be his people. As they woidd not consent that God by his Spirit should dwell in them, so the tabernacle of wickedness shall have no fellowship with him, nor the wicked inhabit the city of God. Only they that walked with God here shall live and be happy with him in heaven. Little does the world know what a loss that soul hath who loses God ! What a dun- geon would the earth be, if it had lost the smi ! what a loathsome carrion the body, if it had lost the soul ! Yet all these are nothing to the loss of God. As the enjoyment of God is the heaven of tlie saints, so the loss of God is the hell of the un- godly ; and as the enjoying of God is the enjoying of all, so the loss of God is the loss of all.
3. They also lose «// delightful affections towards God ; that transporting know ledge ; those delight- ful views of his glorious face ; the inconceivable pleasure of loving him ; the apprehensions of his infi- nite love to us ; the constant joys of his saints, and the rivers of consolation with which he satisfies them*
THE saints' rest. 85
— Is it nothing to lose all this ? The employnient of a king, in ruling a kingdom, does not so far exceed that of the vilest slave, as this heavenly employment exceeds that of an eartldy king. God suits men's employments to their natures. Your hearts, sin- ners, were never set upon God in your hves, never warmed with his love, never longed after the' enjoy- ment of hun ; you had no dehght in speaking or hearing of him ; you had rather iiave continued on earth, if you had known how, than to be interested in the glorious praises of God. Is it meet, then, that you should be members of the celestial choir? 4. They shall be de})rived of the blessed society of angels and glorified saints. Instead of being com- panions of those liappy spirits, and numbered with those triumphant kings, they must be members of the corporation of hell, where they shall have com- panions of a far different nature and quality. Scorn- ing and abusing the saints, hating them, and re- joicing in their calamities, was not the way to obtain their blessedness. Now you are shut out of that company, from which you lirst shut out yourselves ; and are separated from them, with whom you would not be jomed. You could not endure them in your houses, nor towns, nor scarce in the kingdom. You took them, as Aliab did Elijah, for the "troublers of the land ;" and, as the apostles were taken^ for " men that turned the world upside down." If any thing fell out amiss, you thought all was owing to them. When they were dead or banished, you were glad they were gone, and thought the country well rid of them. They molested you by faithfully re- proving your sins. Their holy conversation trou- bled your consciences, to see them so far excel you. It was a vexation to you to hear them pray or sing praises in their families. And is it any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter ? The day is near when they will trouble you no more. Betwixt them and you will be a great gulf fixed. Even in this life, while the saints were " mocked, destitute, afilicted, tormented," and while they had their per-
86 THE MISERY OF LOSING
sonal imperfections, yet, in the judgment of the Holy Ghost, they were such " of whom the world was not worthy." Much more unworthy will the world be of their fellowship in glory.
Secondly. I know many will be ready to think they could spare these things in this world well enough, and why may they not be without them in the world to come ? Therefore, to show them that this loss of heaven will then be most tormenting, let them now consider — their understandings will be cleared to know their loss, — and have more enlarged appre- hensions concerning it ; — their consciences will make a closer application of it to themselves ; — tlieir af- fections will no longer be stupified, — nor their mem- ories'be treacherous.
1. The understanding of the ungodly will then be cleared, to know the tvorth of that which they have lost. Now they lament not their loss of God, because they never knew his excellence ; nor the loss of that holy employment and society, for they were never sensible what they were worth. A man that has lost a jewel, and took it but for a common stone, is never troubled at his loss ; but when he comes to know what he lost, then he laments it. Though the understanding of the damned will not be sanc- tified, yet they will be cleared from a multitude of errors. They now think that their honours, estates,
f)leasures, health, and life, are better worth their abour, than the things of another world ; but when these things have lett them in misery, when they experience the things which before they did but read and hear of, they will be of another mind. They would not believe that water would drown, till they were in the sea ; nor the fire burn, till they were cast into it ; but when they feel, they will ea- sily believe. All that error of mind which made them set light by God, and abhor his worship, and vilify his people, will then be confuted and removed by experience. Their knowledge shall be increased, that their sorrows may be increased. Poor souls! they would be comparatively happyj-if their under-
THE SAINTS' REST. 87
Standings were wholly taken from them, if they had no more knowledge than idiots, or brute beasts ; or if they knew no more in hell, than they did upon earth, their loss would less trouble them. How happy would they then think themselves, if they did not know there is such a place as heaven ! Now, when their knowledge would help to prevent their misery, they will not know, or will not read or study that they may know ; therefore, when their knowl- edge will but feed their consuming fire, they shall know whether they will or not. They are now in a dead sleep, and dream they are the happiest men in the world ; but when death awakes them, how will their judgments be changed in a moment ! and they that would not see shall then see, and be ashamed.
2. As their understanding will be cleared, so it will be more enlarged, and made more capacious to conceive the worth of that glory which they have lost. The strength of their apprehensions, as well as the truth of them, will then be increased. What deep apprehensions of the wrath of God, the mad- ness of sinning, the misery of sinners, have those souls that now endure this misery, in comparison with those on earth, that do but hear of it. What sensibility of the worth of life has the condemned man that is going to be executed, compared with what he was wont to have in the time of his pros- perity ! Much more will the actual loss of eternal blessedness make the damned exceedingly appre- hensive of the greatness of their loss ; and as a large vessel will hold more water than a shell, so will their more enlarged understandings contain more matter to feed their torment, than their shallow ca^ pacity can now do.
3. Their consciences also will make a truer and closer apphcation of this doctrine to themselves, which will exceedingly tend to increase their tor- ment. It will then be no hard matter to them tx> say, " This is my loss ! and this is my everlasting, remediless misery!" The want of this self-appUca-
88 THE MISERY OF LOSING
tion is the main cause why they are so httle troubled now. They are hardly brought to beheve that there is such a state of misery ; but more hardly to be- lieve that it is like to be their own. This makes so many sermons lost to them, and all threatenings and warnings in vain. Let a minister of Christ show them their misery ever so plainly and faithfully, they will not be persuaded they are so miserable. Let him tell them of the glory they must lose, and the sufferings they must feel, and they think he means not them, but some notorious sinners. It is one of the hardest things in the world, to bring a wicked man to know that he is wicked or to make him see himself in a state of wrath and condemnation. Though they may easily find, by their strangeness to the new-birth, and their enmity to holiness, that they never were partakers of them ; yet they as verily expect to see God, and be saved, as if they were the most sanctified persons in the world. How seldom do men cry out, after the plainest discovery of their state, I am the man ! or acknowledge, that, if they die in their present condition, they are un- done for ever ! But when they suddenly find them- selves in the land of darkness, feel themselves in scorching liames, and see they are shut out of the presence of God for ever ; then the application of God's anger to themselves will be the easiest mat- ter in the Avorld ; they will then roar out these forced confessions, " O my misery ! O my folly ! O my in- conceivable, irrecoverable loss !"
4. Then will their affections likewise be more lively, and no longer stupified. A hard heart now makes heaven and hell seem but trifles. We have showed them everlasting glory and misery, and they are as men asleep; our words are as stones cast against a wall, which fly back in our faces. We talk of terrible things, but it is to dead men ; we search the wounds, but they never feel us : we speak to rocks rather than to men ; the earth will as soon tremble as they. But when these dead souls are revived, what passionate sensibihty ! what working
THE saints' rest. 89
affections ! Avhat pangs of hon*or ! what deptli of sorrow will there then be ! How violently will they fly in their own faces ! How will they rage agahist their former madness ! The lamentations of the most affectionate wife for the loss of her husband, or of the tenderest mother for the loss of her chil- di'en, will be nothing to theirs for the loss of heaven. O the self-accusing and self-tormenting fury of those forlorn creatures ! How will they even tear their own hearts, and be God's executioners upon them- selves ! As themselves were the only meritorious cause of their sufferings, so themselves will be the chief executioners. Even Satan, as he was not so great a cause of their sinning as themselves, he will not be so great an instrument of their torment. How happy would they think themselves then, if they were turned into rocks, or any thing that had neither passion nor sense ! How happy, if they could then feel as lightly as they were wont to hear ! if they could sleep out the time of execution, as they did the time of the sermons that warned them of it ! But their stupidity is gone : it will not be.
5. Their memones wilt moreover be as large and strong as their understanding and affections. Could they but lose the use of their memory, their loss of heaven, being forgot, would little trouble them. Though they would account annihilation a singular mercy, they cannot lay aside any part of their be- ing. Understanding, conscijence, affections, memo- ry, must all live to torment them, which should have helped to their happiness. As by these they should have fed upon the love of God, and drawn forth perpetually the joys of his presence, so by these must tliey feed upon his wrath, and draw forth con- tinually the pains of his absence. Now they have no leisure to consider, nor any room in their memo- ries for tlie things of another hfe ; but then they shall have nothing else to do : their memories shall nave no other employment. God would have had the doctrine of their eternal state " written on the posts of their doors, on their hands and hearts :" he 8
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would have had them mind it, " and mention it when they lay down and rose up, when they sat in their houses, and when they walked by the way ;" and seeing they rejected this counsel of the Lord, therefore it shall be written always before them in the place of their thraldom, that, Avhich way soever they look, they may still behold it. It will torment them to think of the greatness of the glory they have lost. If it had been what they could have spared, or a loss to be repaired with any thing else, it had been a smaller matter. If it had been health, or wealth, or friends, or life, it had been nothing. But, O ! to lose that exceeding eternal weight of glory ! — It will also torment them to think of the possibility they once had of obtaining it. Then they will remember, " Time was, when I was as fair for the kingdom as others. I was set upon the stage of the world ; if I had played my part wisely and faithfully, I might now have had possession of the inheritance. I, who am now tormented with these damned fiends, might have been among yon- der blessed saints. The Lord did set before me life and death ; and having chosen death, I deserve to suffer it. The prize was held out before me ; if I had run well, I might have obtained it ; if I had sti-iven, I might have had the victory ; if I had fought vahantly, I had been crowned." — It will yet more torment them to remember, that their obtain- ing the crown was not only possible, but very prob- able. It will wound them to think, " I had once the gales of the Spirit ready to have assisted me. I was proposing to be another man, to have cleaved to Christ, and forsake the world. I was almost re^ solved to have been wholly for God. I was once even turning from my base, seducing lusts. I had cast off my old companions, and was associating with the godly. Yet I turned back, lost my hold, and broke my promises. I was almost persuaded to be a real Christian, yet I conquered those persuasions. What workings were in my heart, when a faithful minister pressed home the truth ! O how fair was
THE saints' rest. 91
I once for heaven ! I almost had it, and yet I have lost it. Had I followed on to seek the Lord, I had now been blessed among the saints."
It will exceedingly torment them to remember their lost opportunities. " How many weeks, and months, and years, did I lose, which if I had im- proved, I might now have been happy ! Wretch tliat I was ! could I find no time to study the work, for which I had all my time ! no time, among all my labours, to labour for eternity ! Had I time to eat, and drink, and sleep, and none to save my soul ? Had I time for mirth and vain discourse, and none for prayer ? Could I take tune to secure the world, and none to try my title to heaven ? O precious time ! I had once enough, and now I must have no more. I had once so nmch, I knew not what to do with it ; and now it is gone, and cannot be re- called. O that I had but one of those years to live over again ! how speedily would I repent ! how earnestly w^ould 1 pray ! how dihgently would I hear ! how closely would I examine my state ! how strictly would I live ! but it is now too late, alas ! too late."
It will add to their calamity to remember how of- ten they ivere persuaded to return. " Fain would the minister have had me escape these torments. With what love and compassion did he beseech me ! and yet I did but make a jest of it. How oft did he con- vince me ! and yet I stifled all these convictions. How did he open to me my vei-y heart ! and yet I was loath to know the worst of myself. O how glad would he have been, if he could have seen me cor- dially turn to Christ ! My godly friends admonished me : they told me what would become of my wil- fulness and neghgence at last ; but I neither be- lieved nor regarded them. How long did God him- self condescend to entreat me ! How did the Spirit strive w^ith my heart, as if he was loath to take a denial ! How did Christ stand knoclving, one Sab- bath after another, and crying to me, ' Open, sinner, open thy heart to thy Saviour, and I will come in,
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and sup with thee, and thou with me ! Wliy dost thou delay ? How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge Avithin thee ? Wilt thou not be pardoned, and sanctified, and made happy ? When shall it once be ?' " O how the recollection of such divine plead- ings will passionately transport the damned with self-indignation ! " Must I tire out the patience of Clirist ? Must I make the God of heaven follow me in vain, till I had wearied him with crying to me, Repent ! return ! O how justly is that patience now turned into fury, which falls upon me with irresisti- ble violence ! When the Lord cried to me, ' Wilt thou not be made clean ? When shall it once be ?' my heart, or at least my practice, answered, Never. And now, when I cry. How long shall it be till I am freed from this torment ? how justly do I receive the same answer. Never, never."
It will also be most cutting to remember on what easy terms they might have escajjed their misery. This work was not to remove mountains, nor conquer kingdoms, nor fulfil the law to the smallest tittle, nor satisfy justice for all their transgressions. " The yoke was easy, and the burden light," which Christ would have laid upon them. It was but to repent, and cordially accept him for their Saviour ; to re- nounce all other happiness, and take the Lord for their sujireme good ; to renounce the world and the flesh, and submit to his meek and gracious govern- ment ; and to forsake the ways of their own de- vising, and walk in his holy, delightfid way. " Ah," thinks the poor tormented wretch, " how justly do I suflfer all this, who would not be at so small pains to avoid it ! Where was my understanding, when I neglected that gracious offer ; when I called ' the Lord a hard master,' and thought his pleasant ser- vice a bondage, and the service of the devil and the flesh the only freedom ? Was I not a thousand times worse than mad, when I censured the holy way of God as needless preciseness ; when I thought the laws of Christ too strict, and all too much that I did for the life to come ? What would all suffer-
THE saints' rest. 93-
ings for Christ and well-doing have been, compared with these sufferings that I must undergo for ever ! Would not the heaven, which I have lost, have rec- • ompensed all my losses ? And should not all my ! sufferings have been there forgotten ? What if j Christ had bid me to do some great matter ; wheth- t er to hve in continual fears and sorrows, or to suffer death a hundred times over : should I not have done it ? How much more, when he only said, ' BeUeve and be saved. Seek my face, and thy soul shall Uve. Take up thy cross, and follow me, and I will give thee everlasting hfe.' O gracious offer ! O easy terms ! O cursed wretch, that would not be persuaded to accept them !"
This also will be a most tormenting consideration, to remember ivhat they sold their eternal welfare for. When they compare the value of the pleasures of sin with the value of " the recompense of reward," how will the vast disproportion astonish them ! To think of the low delights of the flesh, or the ap- plauding breath of mortals, or the possessing heaps of gold, and then to think of everlasting glory. " This is all I had for my soul, my God, my hopes of blessedness !" It cannot possibly be expressed how these thoughts will tear his very heart. Then will he exclaim against his folly : " O miserable wretch ! Did I set my soul to sale for so base a price ? Did I part with my God for a little dirt f and dross ; and sell my Saviour, as Judas, for a lit- \ tie silver ? I had but a dream of delight, for my \ hopes of heaven ; and, now I am awakened, it is all \ vanished. My morsels are now turned to gall, and ! my cups to wonnwood. When the)'' were past my ■ taste, the pleasure perished. And is this all that I j have had for the inestimable treasure ! What a mad ] exchange did I make ! What if I had gained all | the world, and lost my soul ! But, alas ! how small > a part of the world was it, for which I gave up ray f part in glory !" O that sinners would think of this, 1 when they are swimming in the delights of the flesh, ' and studying how to be rich and honourable in tlie
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world ! when they are desperately venturing upon known transgression, and sinning against the checks of conscience !
It will add yet more to their torment, when they consider that they most wilfully procured their own de- struction. Had they been forced to sin, it would much abate the rage of their consciences ; or if they were punished for another man's transgressions ; or any other had been the chief author of their ruin. But to think it was tlie choice of their own will, and that none in the world could have forced them to sin against their wills ; this will be a cutting thought. " Had I not enemies enough in the world," thinks this miserable creature, " but I jnust be an enemy to myself? God would never give the devil, nor the world, so much power over me, as to force me to commit tlie least transgression. They coidd but en- tice , it was myself that yielded, and did the evil. And must I lay hands upon my own soul ; and im- brue my hands in my own blood ? Never had I so great an enemy as myself. Never did God offer any good to my soul, but I resisted him. He hath heap- ed mercy upon me, and renewed one deliverance after another, to draw my heart to him ; yea, he hath gently chastised me, and made me groan un- der the fruit of my disobedience ; and though I promised largely in my affliction, yet never was I heartily willing to serve him." Thus Avill it gnaw the hearts of these sinners, to remember that they were the cause of their own undoing ; and that they wilfully and obstinately persisted in their rebellion, and were mere volunteers in the service of the devil.
The wound in their consciences will be yet deep- er, when they shall not only remember it was their own doing, l3ut that they ivere at so much cost and pains for their oivn damnation. What great under- takings did they engage in to effect their ruin ; to resist the Spirit of God ; to overcome the power of mercies, judgments, and even the word of God ; to «ubdue the power of reason, and silence conscience.
THE saints' rest. 95
All this they undertook and performed. Though they walked in continual danger of the wrath of God, and knew he could lay them in the dust, and cast them into hell in a moment ; yet would they run upon all this. O the labour it costs sinners to be damned ! Sobriety, with health and ease, they might have had at a cheaper rate ; yet they will rather have gluttony and drunkenness, with pover- ty, shame, and sickness. Contentment they might have, with ease and dehglit ; yet they will rather have covetousness and ambition, though it costs them cares and fears, labour of body, and distraction of mind. Though their anger be self-torment, and revenge and envy consume their spirits ; though uncleanness destroy their bodies, estates, and good names ; yet will they do and suffer all this, rather than suffer their souls to be saved. With what rage will they lament their folly, and say, " Was damna- tion worth all my cost and pains ? Might I not have been damned on free cost, but I must purchase it so dearly ! I thought I could have been saved without so much ado, and could I not have been de- stroyed without so much ado ? Must I so labori- ously work out my own damnation, when God com- manded me to " work out my own salvation ? If I had done as much for heaven as I did for hell, I had surely had it. I cried out of the tedious way of godliness, and the painful course of self-denial ; and yet I could be at a great deal more pains for Satan and for death. Had I loved Christ as strongly as I did my pleasures, and profits, and honours, and tliought on him as often, and sought him as painful- ly, O how happy had I now been ! How justly do I suffer the flames of hell, for buying them so dear, rather than have heaven, when it was purchased to my hands !"
O that God would persuade thee, reader, to take up these thoughts now, for preventing the incon- ceivable calamity of taking them up in hell as thy own tormentor ! Say not that they are only una- ginary. Read what Dives thought, being in tor-
96 THE MISERY OF LOSING
ments. As the joys of heaven are chiefly enjoyed by the rational soul in its rational actings, so must the pains of hell be suffered. As they will be men still, so will they feel and act as men.
CHAPTER VI.
The Misei'y of those, who, besides losing the Saints^ Rest, lose the Enjoyments of Time, and suffer the Torments of Hell.
I. The enjoyments of time which the damned lose • 1. Their presumptu- ous belief of their interest in God and Christ ; 2. All their hopes : 3. All their peace of conscience ; 4. All their carnal mirth j 5. All their sensual delights. II. The torments of the damned are ex- ceeding great. 1. The principal Author of them is God himself. 2. Tlie pliice or state of torment. 3. These torments are the effects of divine vengeance. 4. God will take pleasure in executing them. 5. Satan and smners themselves will be God's executioners. 6. These torments will !)e universal ; 7. without any mitigation ; 8. and eter- nal. The obstinate sinner convinced of his folly in venturing on these torments ; and entreated to fly for safety to Christ.
As " godliness hath a promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come ;" and if we " seek first tlie kingdom of God and his righteousness," then §,11 meaner "things shall be added unto us;" so also are the ungodly threatened with the loss both of spiritual and temporal blessings ; and because they sought not first God's kingdom and righteous- ness, therefore shall they lose both it and that which they did seek, and there " shall be taken from them that little which they have." If they could but have kept tlieir present enjoyments, they would not have much cared for the loss of heaven. If they had " lost and forsaken all for Christ," they would have found all again in him ; for he would have been all in all to them. But now they have forsook Christ for other things, they shall lose Christ, and that also for which they forsook him, even the enjoyments of time, besides suffering the torments of hell.
THE saints' rest. 97
First. They sliall lose the enjoyments of time ; particularly, their presumptuous belief of their in- terest in the favour of God, and the merits of Christ ; — all their hopes ; — all their false peace of con- science ; — -all their carnal mhth ; — and all their sensual delights.
1. They shall lose their presumptuous belief of their interest in the favour of God, and the ments of Christ This false belief now supi)orts their spirits, and de- fends them from the terrors that Avould- otherwise seize upon them. But what will ease their trouble, when they can believe no longer, nor rejoice any longer ? If a man be near to the greatest mischief, and yet strongly conceit that he is in safety, he may be as cheerful as if all were well. If there were no more to make a man happy, but to l^elieve that he is so, or shall be so, happiness would be far more coimnon than it is like to be. As true faith is tlie leading grace in tlie regenerate, so is false faith tlie leading vice in the unregenerate. Why do such