I. Use 6.—Reproving our expectations of rest on earth
employed in. I did it first only for myself, but am loth to conceal the means that I have found so consolatory. If thou be one that wilt not be persuaded to a course so laborious, but wilt only go on in thy task of common formal duties, thou mayest let it alone, and so be destitute of delights, except such as the world and thy forms can afford thee; but then, do not, for shame, complain for want of comfort, when thou dost wilfully reject it: and be not such a hypocrite as to pray for it, while thou dost refuse to labour for it. If thou say thy comfort is all in Christ, I must tell thee it is a Christ remembered and loved, and not a Christ forgotten or only talked of, that will solidly comfort. Though the directory for contemplation was only intended for this part, yet I have now premised two other uses.
The heart must be taken off from resting on earth before it will be fit to converse above. The first part of saving religion, is the taking God only for our end and rest.
CHAP. I USE. VI.—Reproving our Expectations of Rest on Earth SECT. I. Doth this rest remain? How great, then, is our sin and folly to seek and expect it here? Where shall we find the Christian that deserves not this reproof? Surely, we may all cry 'Guilty!' to this accusation. We know not how to enjoy convenient, houses, goods, lands, and revenues, but we seek rest in these enjoyments. We seldom, I fear, have such sweet and heart-contenting thoughts of God and glory, as we have of our earthly delights. How much rest do the voluptuous seek, in buildings, walks, apparel, ease, recreation, sleep, pleasing meats and drinks, merry company, health and strength, and long life! Nay, we can scarce enjoy the necessary means which God hath appointed for our spiritual good, but we are seeking rest in them. Do we want ministers, godly society, or the like helps?
Oh! think we, if it were but thus and thus with us, we were well. Do
we enjoy them? Oh! how we settle upon them, and bless ourselves in them, as the rich fool in his wealth? Our books, our preachers, sermons, friends, abilities for duty, do not our hearts hug them, and quiet themselves in them, even more than in God? Indeed, in words we disclaim it, and God hath usually the pre-eminence in our tongues and professions; but it is too apparent that it is otherwise in our hearts, by these discoveries: First, Do we not desire these more violently, when we want them, than we do the Lord himself? Do we not cry out more sensibly, 'O my friend, my goods, my health,' than
'O my God!' Do we not miss ministry and means more passionately than we miss our God? Do we not bestir ourselves more to obtain and enjoy these than we do to recover our communion with God?
Secondly, Do we not delight more in the possession of these than we do in the fruition of God himself? Nay, be not those mercies and duties most pleasant to us, wherein we stand at greatest distance from God? We can read, and study, and confer, preach, and hear, day after day, without much weariness, because in these we have to do with instruments and creatures; but in secret prayer and conversing with God immediately, where no creature interposeth, how dull, how heartless and weary are we! Thirdly, And if we lose creatures or means, doth it not trouble us more than our loss of God? If we lose but a friend, or health, &c., all the town will hear of it; but we can miss our God, and scarce bemoan our misery. Thus it is apparent, we exceedingly make the creature our rest. Is it not enough that they are sweet delights, and refreshing helps in our way to heaven, but they must also be made our heaven itself? Christian reader, I would as willingly make thee sensible of this sin as of any sin in the world, if I could tell how to do it; for the Lord's greatest quarrel with us is in this point. Therefore I most earnestly beseech thee to press upon thine own conscience these following considerations.
Sect. II. 1. It is gross idolatry to make any creature or means our rest.
To settle the soul upon it, and say, 'Now I am well,' upon the bare enjoyment of the creature. What is this but to make it our God?
Certainly, to be the soul's rest, is God's own prerogative. And as it is palpable idolatry to place our rest in riches and honours; so it is but a
more spiritual and refined idolatry to take up our rest in excellent means, in the church's prosperity, and in its reformation. When we would have all that out of God which is to be had only in God, what is this but to turn away from him to the creature, and in our hearts to deny him? When we fetch more of our comfort and delight from the thoughts of prosperity, and those mercies which here we have at a distance from, than from the fore-thoughts of our everlasting blessedness, in him: nay, when the thought of that day when we must come to God is our greatest trouble, and we would do any thing in the world to escape it; but the enjoyment of creatures, though absent from him, is the very thing our souls desire: when we had rather talk of him than come to enjoy him; and had rather go many miles to hear a powerful sermon of Christ and heaven, than to enter and possess it; Oh! what vile idolatry is this! When we dispute against epicures, academics, and all pagans, how earnestly do we contend that God is the chief good, and the fruition of him our chief happiness! What clear arguments do we bring to evince it! But do we believe ourselves; or are we Christians in judgment, and pagans in affection? Or do we give our senses leave to be the choosers of our happiness, while reason and faith stand by? O Christians! how ill must our dear Lord needs take it, when we give him cause to complain, as sometimes he did of our fellow-idolaters, (Jer. 50:6,) that we have been lost sheep, and have forgotten our resting-place!
When we give him cause to say, 'Why, my people can find rest in any thing rather than in me! They can find delight in one another, but none in me; they can rejoice in my creatures and ordinances, but not in me; yea, in their very labours and duty they seek for rest, and not in me; they had rather be any where than be with me. Are these their gods? Have these delivered and redeemed them? Will these be better to them than I have been, or than I would be? If yourselves have but a wife, a husband, a son, that had rather be any where than in your company, and is never so merry as when farthest from you, would you not take it ill yourselves?' Why so must our God needs do: for what do we but lay these things in one end of the balance and God in the other, and foolishly, in our choice, prefer them before him? As Elkanah said to Hannah, "Am not I better to thee than ten sons?" (1
Sam. 1:8.) So when we are longing after creatures, we may hear God say, 'Am not I better than all the creatures to thee?'
2. Consider, How thou contradictest the end of God in giving these things. He gave them to help thee to him, and dost thou take up with them in his stead? He gave them that they might be comfortable refreshments in thy journey, and wouldst thou now dwell in thy inn, and go no further? Thou dost not only contradict God herein, but losest that benefit which thou mightest receive by them, yea, and makest them thy great hurt and hinderance. Surely, it may be said of all our comforts and all ordinances, and the blessedest enjoyments in the church on earth, as God said to the Israelites of his ark, "The ark of the covenant went before them, to search out for them a resting place." (Numb. 10:33.) So do all God's mercies here. They are not that rest, (as John professeth he was not the Christ,) but they are voices crying in this wilderness, to bid us prepare, for the kingdom of God, our true rest, is at hand. Therefore, to rest here, were to turn all mercies clean contrary to their own ends, and our own advantages, and to destroy ourselves with that which should help us.
Sect. IV. 3. Consider, Whether it be not the most probable way, to cause God, either First, To deny those mercies which we desire; or,
Secondly, To take from us these which we enjoy; or, Thirdly, To embitter them at least, or curse them to us? Certainly, God is no where so jealous as here. If you had a servant whom your own wife loved better than she did yourself, would you not both take it ill of such a wife, and rid your house of such a servant? You will not suffer your child to use a knife till he have wit to do it without hurting him.
Why so, if the Lord see you begin to settle in the world, and say, 'Here I will rest,' no wonder if he soon in his jealousy unsettle you. If he love you, no wonder if he take that from you wherewith he sees you are about to destroy yourselves. It hath been my long observation of many, that when they have attempted great works, and have just finished them, or have aimed at great things in the world, and have just obtained them; or have lived in much trouble and unsettlement, and have just overcome them, and begin with
some content to look upon their condition, and rest in it, they are usually near to death or ruin. You know the story of the fool in the Gospel. When a man is once at this language, Soul, take thy ease or rest; the next news usually is, Thou fool, this night, or this month, or this year, shall they require thy soul, and then whose shall these things be? Oh, what house is there where this fool dwelleth not! Dear
Christian friends, you to whom I have especially relation, let you and I consider whether this be not our own case. Have not I, after such an unsettled life, and after four years' living in the weary condition and the unpleasing state of war, and after so many years' groaning under the church's unreformedness, and the great fears that lay upon us, and after so many longings, and prayers for these days: have I not thought of them with too much content? And been ready to say,
'Soul, take thy rest?' Have not I comforted myself more in the forethoughts of enjoying these, than of coming to heaven and enjoying God? What wonder, then, if God cut me off, when I am just sitting down in this supposed rest? And hath not the like been your condition? Many of you have been soldiers, driven from house to home, endured a life of trouble and blood, been deprived of ministry and means, longing to see the church's settling. Did you not reckon up all the comforts you should have at your return; and glad your hearts with such thoughts more than with the thoughts of your coming to heaven? Why, what wonder if God now somewhat cross you, and turn some of your joy into sadness? Many a servant of God hath been destroyed from the earth by being overvalued and overloved. I pray God you may take warning for the time to come, that you rob not yourselves of all your mercies. I am persuaded our discontents, and murmurings with our unpleasing condition, and our covetous desires after more, are not so provoking to God, nor so destructive to the sinner, as our too sweet enjoying, and rest of spirit in a pleasing state. If God have crossed any of you in wife, children, goods, friends, &c., either by taking them from you, or the comfort of them, or the benefit and blessing, try whether this above all other be not the cause. For where-soever your desires stop, and you say, 'Now
I am well,' that condition you make your God, and engage the jealousy of God against it. Whether you be friends to God or enemies,
you can never expect that God should wink at such idolatry, or suffer you quietly to enjoy your idols.
Sect. V. 4. Consider, If God should suffer thee thus to take up thy rest here, it were one of the surest plagues and greatest curses that could possibly befall thee. It were better for thee, if thou never hadst a day of ease or content in the world, for then weariness might make thee seek after the true rest. (Psalm 17:14; Luke 16:25.) But if he should suffer thee to sit down and rest here, where were thy rest when this deceives thee? A restless wretch thou wouldst be through all eternity.
To have their portion in this life, and their good things on the earth, is the lot of the most miserable, perishing sinners. And doth it become Christians, then, to expect so much here? Our rest is our heaven, and where we take our rest, there we make our heaven. And wouldst thou have but such a heaven as this? Certainly, as Saul's messengers found but Michal's man of straw when they expected
David, so wilt thou find but a rest of straw, of wind, of vanity, when thou most needest rest. It will be but a handful of waters to a man that is drowning, which will help to destroy, but not to save him. But that is the next.
Sect. VI. 5. Consider, Thou seekest rest where it is not to be found, and so wilt lose all thy labour, and, if thou proceed, thy soul's eternal rest, too. I think I shall easily evince this by these clear demonstrations following:
First, Our rest is only in the full obtaining of our ultimate end, but that is not to be expected in this life, therefore, neither is rest to be here expected. Is God to be enjoyed in the best reformed church, in the purest and most powerful ordinances here, as he is in heaven? I know you will all confess he is not. How little of God, not only the multitude of the blind world, but sometimes the saints themselves do enjoy, even under the most excellent means, let their own frequent complainings testify. And how poor comforters are the best ordinances and enjoyments, without God, the truly spiritual
Christian knows! Will a stone rest in the air in the midst of its fall,
before it comes to the earth? No, because its centre is its end. Should a traveller take up his rest in the way? No, because his home is his journey's end. When you have all that creatures and means can afford, have you that you sought for? Have you that you believe, pray, suffer for? I think you dare not say so. Why, then, do we once dream of resting here? We are like little children strayed from home, and God is now fetching us home; and we are ready to turn into any house, stay and play with every thing in our way, and sit down on every green bank, and much ado there is to get us home.
Secondly, As we have not yet obtained our end, so are we in the midst of labours and dangers, and is there any resting here? What painful work doth lie upon our hands! Look to our brethren, to godly, to ungodly, to the church, to our souls, to God, and what a deal of work in respect of each of these doth lie before us! And can we rest in the midst of all our labours? Indeed, we may take some refreshing, and ease ourselves sometimes in our troubles, if you will call that rest, but that is not the settling rest we now are speaking of; we may rest on earth, as the ark is said to have rested in the midst of Jordan.
(Josh. 3:13.) A short and small rest, no question; or as the angels of heaven are desired to turn in, and rest them on earth. (Gen. 18:4.)
They would have been loth to have taken up their dwelling there.
Should Israel have settled his rest in the wilderness among serpents, and enemies, and weariness, and famine? Should Noah have made the ark his home, and have been loth to come forth when the waters were fallen? Should the mariner choose his dwelling on the sea, and settle his rest in the midst of rocks, and sands, and raging tempests?
Though he may adventure through all these for a commodity of worth, yet I think he takes it not for his rest. Should a soldier rest in the midst of fight, when he is in the very thickest of his enemies, and the instruments of death compass him about? I think he cares not how soon the battle is over. And though he may adventure upon war for the obtaining of peace, yet I hope he is not so mad as to take that instead of peace. And are not Christians such travellers, such mariners, such soldiers? Have you not fears within, and troubles without? Are we not in the thickest of continual dangers? We cannot
eat, drink, sleep, labour, pray, hear, confer, &c., but in the midst of snares and perils, and shall we sit down and rest here? Oh, Christian, follow thy work, look to thy danger, hold on to the end; win the field and come off the ground, before thou think of a settling rest. I read indeed that Peter on the mount, when he had seen a glimpse of glory, said, "It is good for us to be here." But surely, when he was on the sea, in the midst of the waves, he doth not then say, "It is good to be here." No, then he hath other language, "Save, Master, we perish."
And even his desires to rest on the mount, are noted in Scripture to come from hence, He knew not what he said: it was on earth, though with Christ in his transfiguration. And I dare say the like of thee, whenever thou talkest of resting on earth, Thou knowest not what thou sayest. I read that Christ, when he was on the cross, comforted the converted thief with this, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." But if he had only comforted him with telling him that he should rest there on that cross, would he not have taken it for a derision? Methinks it should be ill resting in the midst of sicknesses and pains, persecution and distresses. One would think it should be no contentful dwelling for lambs among wolves. The wicked have some slender pretence for their sin in this kind; they are among their friends, in the midst of their portion, enjoying all the happiness that they are likely to enjoy. But is it so with the godly? Surely, the world is at best but a stepmother to them; nay, an open enemy. But if nothing else would convince us, yet surely the remainders of sin which doth so easily beset us, would quickly satisfy a believer that here is not his rest. What, a Christian! and rest in a state of sinning!
It cannot be; or do they hope for a perfect freedom here? That is impossible. I say, therefore, to every one that thinketh of rest on earth, as Micah, "Arise ye, depart; this is not your rest, because it is polluted." (Chap. 2. v.10.) Thirdly, The nature of all these things may convince you, that they cannot be a Christian's true rest. They are too poor to make us rich, and too low to raise us to happiness; and too empty to fill our souls; and too base to make us blessed: and of too short continuance to be our eternal contents. They cannot subsist themselves without
support from heaven; how, then, can they give subsistence to our souls? Surely, if prosperity, or whatsoever we here can desire, be too base to make us gods of, then are they too base to be our rests.
Fourthly, That which is the soul's true rest, must be sufficient to afford it perpetual satisfaction; but all things below do delight us only with fresh variety. The content which any creature affordeth, doth wax old and abate after a short enjoyment. We pine away for them, as Amnon for his sister; and when we have satisfied our desire, we are weary of them and loathe them. If God should rain down angels' food, after awhile our souls would loathe that dry manna. The most dainty fare, the most costly clothing would not please us, were we tied to them alone. The most sumptuous house, the softest bed, were we confined to them, would be but a prison. One recreation pleaseth not long, we must have supply of new, or our delights will languish. Nay, our delight in our society and friendship, especially if carnal, is strongest while fresh: and in the ordinances of God themselves, so far as we delight in them for themselves, and not for God, if novelty support not our delight, grows dull. If we hear still the same minister, or if in preaching and praying, he use oft the same expressions, or if he preach oft the same sermon, how dull grows our devotion, though the matter be never so good, and at first did never so highly please us! If we read the most excellent and pleasing books, the third or fourth reading is usually more heartless than the first or second; nay, in our general way of Christianity, our first godly acquaintance, our first preachers, our first books, our first duties, have too commonly our strongest affections. All creatures are to us, as the flowers to the bee; there is but little of that matter which affords them honey on any flower, and therefore they must have supply of fresh variety, and take of each a superficial taste, and so to the next; yea, some having gone through variety of states, and tasted of the pleasures of their own country, do travel for fresh variety abroad, and when they come home, they usually betake themselves to some solitary corner, and sit down, and cry with Solomon, 'Vanity and vexation!' And with David, 'I have seen an end of all perfection:' and can this be a place of rest for the soul?
Fifthly, Those that know the creature least, do affect it most; the more it is known, the less it satisfieth: those only are taken with it, who can see no farther than its outward beauty, not beholding its outward vanity; it is like a comely picture, if you stand too near it, it appears less beautiful; we are prone to over-admire the persons of men, places of honour, and other men's happy condition; but it is only while we do but half know them: stay but a while till we know them thoroughly, and have discovered the evil as well as the good, and the defects as well as the perfections, and we then do cease our admiration.
Sect. VII. 6. To have creatures and means without God, who is their end, is so far from being our happiness, that it is an aggravation of our misery, even as to have food without strength, and starve in the midst of plenty, and as Pharaoh's kine, to devour all, and lean still.
What the better were you if you had the best minister on earth, the best society, the purest church; and therewithal the most plentiful estate, but nothing of God? If God should say, Take my creatures, my word, my servants, my ordinances, but not myself, would you take this for a happiness? If you had the word of God, and not the Word which is God? Or the bread of the Lord, and not the Lord, which is the true bread? Or could cry with the Jews, "The temple of the Lord," and had not the Lord of the temple? this were a poor happiness.
Was Capernaum the more happy, or the more miserable, for seeing the mighty works which they had seen, and hearing the words of Christ which they did hear? Surely, that which aggravates our sin and misery cannot be our rest.
7. If all this be nothing, do but consult with experience, both other men's and your own, too many thousands and millions have made trial, but did ever one of these find a sufficient rest for his soul on this earth? Delights I deny not but they have found, and imperfect temporary content, but rest and satisfaction they never found: and shall we think to find that which never man could find before us?
Ahab's kingdom is nothing to him, except he had also Naboth's
vineyard, and did that satisfy him, think you, when he obtained it? If we had conquered to ourselves the whole world, we should perhaps do as Alexander is fabled to have done, sit down and weep because there is never another world to conquer. If I should send you forth as Noah's dove, to go through the earth, to look for a resting-place, you would return with a confession, that you can find none: go ask honour, Is there rest here? Why you may as well rest on the top of the tempestuous mountains, or in Ætna's flames, or on the pinnacle of the temple. If you ask riches, Is there rest here? Even such as is in a bed of thorns; or were it a bed of down, yet you must arise in the morning, and leave it to the next guest that shall succeed you; or if you inquire of worldly pleasure and ease, can they give you any tidings of true rest? Even such as the fish or bird hath in the net, or in swallowing down the deceitful bait; when the pleasure is at the sweetest, death is the nearest: it is just such a content and happiness, as the exhilarating vapours of the wine do give to a man that is drunk: it causeth a merry and cheerful heart, it makes him forget his wants and miseries, and conceive himself the happiest man in the world, till his sick vomitings have freed him of his disease, or sleep hath assuaged and subdued those vapours which deluded his phantasy, and perverted his understanding, and then he awakes a more unhappy man than ever he was before. Such is the rest and happiness that all worldly pleasures do afford. As the phantasy may be delighted in a pleasant dream, when all the senses are captivated by sleep; so may the flesh of sensitive appetite, when the reasonable soul is captivated by security: but when the morning comes, the delusion vanisheth, and where is the pleasure and happiness then?
Or if you should go to learning, to purest, plentifulest, powerfulest ordinances, or compass sea and land to find out the perfectest church, and holiest saints, and inquire whether there your soul may rest: you might happily receive from these indeed an olive-branch of hope, as they are means to your rest, and have relation to eternity; but in regard of any satisfaction in themselves, you would remain as restless as ever before. Oh how well might these answer many of us, with that indignation, as Jacob did Rachel, "Am I instead of God?"
Or as the king of Israel said to the messengers of the king of Assyria,
when he required him to restore Naaman to health, "Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends to me to recover a man of his leprosy?" So may the highest perfection on earth say, 'Are we God, or instead of God, that this man comes to us to give a soul rest?' Go take a view of all estates of men in the world, and see whether any of them have found this rest. Go to the husbandman, and demand of him, behold his circular endless labours, his continual care and toil and weariness, and you will easily see, that there is no rest: go to the tradesman, and you shall find the like: if I should send you lower, you would judge your labour lost; or go to the conscionable painful minister, and there you will yet more easily be satisfied; for though his spending, killing, endless labours are exceeding sweet, yet it is not because they are his rest, but in reference to his people's, and his own eternal rest, at which he aims, and to which they may conduce: if you should ascend to magistracy, and inquire at the throne, you would find there is no condition so restless, and your hearts would even pity poor princes and kings. Doubtless neither court nor country, towns or cities, shops or fields, treasuries, libraries, solitariness, society, studies, or pulpits, can afford any such thing as this rest. If you could inquire of the dead of all generations, or if you could ask the living through all dominions, they would all tell you,
'Here is no rest;' and all mankind may say, "All our days are sorrow, and our labour is grief, and our hearts take not rest." (Eccles. 2:23.)
Go to Geneva, go to New England, find out the church which you think most happy, and we may say of it, as lamenting Jeremy of the church of the Jews, "She dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest, all her persecutors overtake her." (Lam. 1:3.) The holiest prophet, the blessedest apostle would say, as one of the most blessed did, "Our flesh had no rest, without were fightings, within were fears." (2 Cor. 7:5.) If neither Christ nor his apostles, to whom was given the earth and the fulness thereof, had no rest here, why should we expect it?
Or if other men's experiences move you not, do but take a view of your own: can you remember the estate that did fully satisfy you? Or if you could, will it prove a lasting state? For my own part, I have run
through several places and states of life, and though I never had the necessities which might occasion discontent, yet did I never find a settlement for my soul; and I believe we may all say of our rest, as Paul of our hopes, "If it were in this life only, we were of all men most miserable." (1 Cor. 15:19.) Or if you will not credit your past experience, you may try in your present or future wants: when conscience is wounded, God offended, your bodies weakened, your friends afflicted, see if these can yield you rest. If then either
Scripture, or reason, or the experience of ourselves, and all the world, will satisfy us, we may see there is no resting here. And yet how guilty are the generality of professors of this sin! How many halts and stops do we make, before we will make the Lord our rest!
How must God even drive us, and fire us out of every condition, lest we should sit down and rest there! If he give us prosperity, riches, or honour, we do in our hearts dance before them, as the Israelites before their calf, and say, 'These are thy gods,' and conclude it is good being here. If he imbitter all these to us by crosses, how do we strive to have the cross removed, and the bitterness taken away, and are restless till our condition be sweetened to us, that we may sit down again and rest where we were! If the Lord, seeing our perverseness, shall now proceed in the cure, and take the creature quite away, then how do we labour, and care, and cry, and pray, that God would restore it, that if it may be, we may make it our rest again!
And while we are deprived of its actual enjoyment, and have not our former idol to delight in, yet rather than come to God, we delight ourselves in our hopes of recovering our former state; and as long as there is the least likelihood of obtaining it, we make those very hopes our rest: if the poor by labouring all their days, have but hopes of a fuller estate when they are old (though a hundred to one they die before they have obtained it, or certainly at least immediately after), yet do they labour with patience, and rest themselves on these expectations. Or if God doth take away both present enjoyments, and all hopes of ever recovering them, how do we search about, from creature to creature, to find out something to supply the room, and to settle upon, instead thereof? Yea, if we can find no supply, but are sure we shall live in poverty, in sickness, in disgrace, while we are on
earth, yet will we rather settle in this misery, and make a rest of a wretched being, than we will leave all and come to God. A man would think, that a multitude of poor people, who beg their bread, or can scarce with their hardest labour have sustenance for their lives, should easily be driven from resting here, and willingly look to heaven for rest; and the sick who have not a day of ease, nor any hope of recovery left them. But oh the cursed averseness of these souls From God! We will rather account our misery our happiness; yea, that which we daily groan under as intolerable, than we will take up our happiness in God. If any place in hell were tolerable, the soul would rather take up its rest there, than come to God. Yea, when he is bringing us over to him, and hath convinced us of the worth of his ways and service, the last deceit of all is here, we will rather settle upon those ways that lead to him, and those ordinances which speak of him, and those gifts which flow from him, than we will come clean over to himself. Christian, marvel not that I speak so much of resting in these; beware lest it should prove thy own case: I suppose thou art so far convinced of the vanity of riches, and honour, and carnal pleasure, that thou canst more easily disclaim these, and it is well if it be so; but for thy more spiritual mercies in thy way of profession, thou lookest on these with less suspicion, and thinkest they are so near to God, that thou canst not delight in them too much, especially seeing most of the world despise them, or delight in them too little.
But doth not the increase of those mercies dull thy longings after heaven? If all were according to thy desire in the church, wouldest thou not sit down and say, I am well, Soul, take thy rest; and think it a judgment to be removed to heaven? Surely if thy delight in these excel not thy delight in God, or if thou wouldest gladly leave the most happy condition on earth, to be with God, then art thou a rare man, a Christian indeed. I know the means of grace must be loved and valued, and the usual enjoyment of God is in the use of them; and he that delighteth in any worldly thing more than in them, is not a true
Christian: but when we are content with duty instead of God, and had rather be at a sermon than in heaven; and a member of a church here, than of that perfect church, and rejoice in ordinances, but as they are part of our earthly prosperity; this is a sad mistake. Many
were more willing to go to heaven in the former days of persecution, when they had no hopes of seeing the church reformed, or delivered: but now men are in hopes to have all things almost as they desire, the case is altered; and they begin to look at heaven as strangely and sadly, as if it would be a loss to be removed to it. Is this the right use of reformation? Or is this the way to have it continued or perfected?
Should our deliverances draw our hearts from God? Oh, how much better were it, in every trouble, to fetch our chief arguments of comfort, from the place where our chiefest rest remains! And when others comfort the poor with hopes of wealth, or the sick with hopes of health and life, let us comfort ourselves with the hopes of heaven.
So far rejoice in the creature, as it comes from God, or leads to him, or brings thee some report of his love: so far let thy soul take comfort in ordinances, as God doth accompany them with quickening, or comfort, or gives himself unto thy soul by them: still remembering, when thou hast even what thou dost desire, yet this is not heaven; yet these are but the first-fruits. Is it not enough that God alloweth us all the comfort of travellers, and accordingly to rejoice in all his mercies, but we must set up our staff as if we were at home? "While we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord;" (2 Cor. 5:6–9;) and while we are absent from him, we are absent from our rest. If God were as willing to be absent from us as we from him, and if he were as loth to be our rest as we are loth to rest in him, we should be left to an eternal restless separation. In a word, as you are sensible of the sinfulness of your earthly discontents, so be you also of your irregular contents, and pray God to pardon them much more. And above all the plagues and judgments of God on this side hell, see that you watch and pray against this (of settling any where short of heaven, or reposing your souls to rest on any thing below God). Or else, when the bough which you tread on breaks, and the things which you rest upon deceive you, you will perceive your labour all lost, and your sweetest contents to be preparatives to your woe, and your highest hopes will make you ashamed. Try, if you can persuade
Satan to leave tempting, and the world to cease both troubling and seducing, and sin to cease inhabiting and acting; if you can bring the glory of God from above, or remove the court from heaven to earth,