CHAP. X. The Saint's Rest is not to be expected on Earth (2)

[301]   Jeremiah l, 6.

§ 12. (2.) You contradict the end of God in giving these enjoyments. He gave them to help thee to him, and dost thou take up with them in his stead? He gave them to be refreshments in thy journey, and wouldst thou dwell in thy inn, and go no further? It may be said of all our comforts and ordinances, as it is said of the Israelites, The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them, to search out a resting place for them.[302] So do all God's mercies here. They are not that rest; as John professed he was not the Christ; but they are voices crying in this wilderness, to bid us prepare, for the kingdom of God, our true rest is at hand. Therefore, to rest here, were to turn all mercies contrary to their own ends, and to our own advantages, and to destroy ourselves with that which should help us.

[302]   Numbers x, 33.

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

§ 14. (4.) Should God suffer you to take up your rest here, it is one of the greatest curses that could befal you. It were better never to have a day of ease in the world; for then weariness might make you seek after the true rest. But if you are suffered to sit down and rest here, a restless wretch you will be through all eternity. To have their portion in this life, is the lot of the most miserable, perishing sinners. Doth it become Christians then to expect so much here? Our rest is our heaven; and where we take our rest, there we make our heaven. And wouldst thou have but such a heaven as this?

§ 15. (5.) It is seeking rest where it is not to be found. Your labor will be lost, and, if you proceed, your soul's eternal rest too. Our rest is only in the full obtaining of our ultimate end. But that is not to be expected in this life; neither is rest therefore to be expected here. Is God to be enjoyed in the best church here, as he is in heaven? How little of God the saints enjoy under the best means, let their own complainings testify. Poor comforters are the best ordinances, without God. Should a traveller take up his rest in the way? No, because his home is his journey's end. When you have all that creatures and means can afford, have you that which you believed, prayed, suffered for? I think you dare not say so. We are like little children strayed from home, and God is now fetching us home, and we are ready to turn into any house, stay and play with every thing in our way, and sit down on every green bank, and much ado there is to get us home. We are also in the midst of our labors and dangers; and is there any resting here? What painful work doth lie upon our hands? Look to our brethren, to our souls, and to God; and what a deal of work, in respect to each of these, doth lie before us? And can we rest in the midst of all our labors? Indeed we may rest on earth, as the ark is said to have rested in the midst of Jordan; a short and small rest. Or as Abraham desired the Angels to turn in, and rest themselves in his tent, where they would have been loth to have taken up their dwelling. Should Israel have fixed their 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 assuaged? Should the mariner choose his dwelling on the sea, and settle his rest in the midst of rocks, and sands, and raging tempests? Should a soldier rest in the thickest of his enemies? And are not Christians such travellers, such mariners, such soldiers? Have you not fears within, and troubles without? Are we not in continual dangers? We cannot eat, drink, sleep, labor, pray, hear, converse, but in the midst of snares; and shall we sit down and rest here? O Christian, follow thy work, look to thy dangers, and hold on to the end, win the field, and come off the ground, before thou think of a settled rest. Whenever thou talkest of rest on earth, it is like Peter on the mount, thou knowest not what thou sayest. If, instead of telling the converted thief, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise, Christ had said, he should rest there on the cross; would he not have taken it for a derision? Methinks it should be ill resting in the midst of sickness and pains, persecutions and distresses. But if nothing else will convince us, yet sure the remainders of sin, which do so easily beset us, should quickly satisfy a believer, that here is not his rest. I say therefore to every one that thinketh of rest on earth, Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest, because it is polluted.[303] These things cannot in their nature be a true Christian's rest. They are too poor, to make us rich; too low, to raise us to happiness; too empty, to fill our souls; and of too short continuance to be our eternal content. If prosperity, or whatsoever we here desire, be too base to make gods of, they are too base to be our rest. The soul's rest must be sufficient to afford it perpetual satisfaction. But the content which creatures afford, waxes old, and, abates after a short enjoyment. If God should rain down Angel's food, we should soon loathe the manna. If novelty support not, our delights on earth grow dull. All creatures are to us, as the flowers to the bee; there is but little honey on any one, and therefore there must be a superficial taste, and so to the next. The more the creature is known, the less it satisfieth. Those only are taken with it, who see no further than its outward beauty, without discerning its inward vanity. When we thoroughly know the condition of other men, and have discovered the evil as well as the good, and the defects as well as the perfections, we then cease our admiration.

[303]   Micah ii, 10

§ 16. (6.) To have creatures and means without God, is an aggravation of our misery. If God should say, "Take my creatures, my word, my servants, my ordinances, but not myself;" would you take this for happiness? If you had the word of God, and not the word, which is God; or the bread of the Lord, and not the Lord, which is the true bread; or could cry with the Jews, The temple of the Lord, and had not the Lord of the temple; this were a poor happiness. Was Capernaum the more happy or the more 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.

§ 17. (7.) To confirm all this, let us consult our own and others's experience. Millions have made trial, but did any ever find a sufficient rest for his soul on earth? Delights I deny not but they have found, 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, without Naboth's vineyard: and did that satisfy him when he obtained it? Were you like Noah's dove, to look through the earth for a resting place, you would return confessing, that you could find none. Go ask honor, is there rest here? You may as well rest on the top of tempestuous mountains, or in Ætna's flames. Ask riches, is there rest here? Even such as is in a bed of thorns. If you inquire for rest of worldly pleasure; it is such as the fish hath in swallowing the bait, when the pleasure is sweetest, death is nearest. Go to learning, and even to Divine ordinances, and inquire whether there your souls may rest? You might indeed receive from these 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. How well might all these answer us, as Jacob did Rachel, Am I in God's stead, that you come to me for soul-rest? Not all the states of men in the world; neither court nor country, towns nor cities, shops nor fields, treasuries, libraries, solitude, society, studies, nor pulpits, can afford any such thing as this rest. If you could inquire of the dead of all generations, or of the living through all dominions, they would all tell you, "Here is no rest." Or if other men's experiences move you not, take a view of your own. Can you remember the state that did fully satisfy you, or if you could, will it prove lasting? I believe we may all say of our earthly rest, as Paul of our hope, If it were in this life only, we are of all men most miserable.

§ 18. 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 us 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 honor, 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 to be here. If he embitter all these to us, how restless are we till our condition be sweetened, that we may sit down again, and rest where we were? If he proceed in the cure, and take the creature quite away, then how do we labor, and cry, and pray, that God would restore it, that we may make it our rest again? And while we are deprived of our former idol, yet rather than come to God, we delight ourselves in the hope of recovering it, and make that very hope our rest; or search about from creature to creature, to find out something to supply the room; yea, if we can find no supply, yet we will rather settle in this misery, and make a rest of a wretched being, than leave all and come to God. O the cursed averseness of our souls from 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 that speak of him, and those gifts which flow from him, than we will come entirely over to himself. Christian, marvel not that I speak so much of resting in these; beware lest it prove thy own case. I suppose thou art so far convinced of the vanity of riches, honor, and pleasure, that thou canst more easily disclaim these, and it is well if it be so; but the means of grace thou lookest on with less suspicion, and thinkest thou canst not delight in them too much, especially seeing most of the world despise them, or delight in them too little. I know they must be loved and valued, and he that delighteth in any worldly thing more than in them, is not a Christian. But when we are content with ordinances without God, and had rather be at a sermon than in heaven, and a member of the church here, than of the perfect church above, this is a sad mistake. So far let thy soul take comfort in ordinances, as God doth accompany them; remembering, this is not heaven, but the first fruits. While we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord; 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 as loth to be our rest, as we 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 satisfactions, and pray God to pardon them much more. And above all the plagues on this side hell, see that you watch and pray against settling any where short of heaven, or reposing your souls on any thing below God.