TO BE EXPECTED ON EARTH. 177 we enjoy convenient houses, goods, lands, and re- venues ; or the necessary means God bath appointed for our spiritual good; we seek rest in these enjoy- ments. Whether we are in an afflicted or prospe- rous state, it is apparent we exceedingly make the creature our rest. Do we not desire' creature-enjoy- ments more violently, when we want them, than we desire God himself? Do we not delight more in the possession of them, than in the enjoyment of God? And if we lose them, Both it not trouble us more than our loss of God ? Is it not enough that they are refreshing helps in our way to heaven, but they must also be made our heaven itself? Christian read- er, 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. In order to this, I most earnestly beseech thee to consider, the': reasonableness of present afflic- tions, and the unreasonableness of resting in present enjoyments; as also of our unwillingness to die, that we,may possess eternal rest. § 2. (I.) To shew the reasonableness of present afflictions, consider, they are the way to rest ;--- they keep us from mistaking our rest, and from losing our way to it ;they quicken our pace towards it ;they chiefly incommode our flesh; -and under them God's people have often the sweetest foretastes of their rest. § 3. (1.) Consider, that labour and trouble are the common way to rest, both in the course of nature and grace. Can there possibly be rest without weariness ? Do you not travel and toil first, and rest after? The day for labour is first, and then follows the night for rest. Why should we desire the course of grace to be perverted, any more than the course of nature ? It is an established decree, " that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. "(w) And that " if we suffer, we shall also reign with Christ. "(x) (w) Acts xiv, 22, (x) 2 Tim. ii. 12,
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