I6 TIIE NATURE OF. step. That they are distant from his end. This is the woeful 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 hall.; till, by conviction, he first brings them to a stand, and then by conversion, turns their hearts and lives sincerely 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 knowledge of this distance, is also supposed. They that never yet knew they were without God, and in the way to hell, did never yet know the way to heaven. Can a man find he bath 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 they are in point of title, distant from it, and in point of practice con- trary to it. Whoever sought for that which he knew not he had lost ? "They that be whole need not a phy- sian, but they that are sick.(b) 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 part of our Christian. wisdom, to keep our subordination 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. "(c) Without me, says Christ, ye can do nothing.(d) It is next sup- posed, that they who seek this rest, have an inward principle ofspiritual life. God does not not move menlike stones, but he endows them with life, not to enable them to move without hirn, but in subordination to himself, the first mover. And, farther, this rest supposes such an actual tendency of soul towards it, as is regular and constant, earnest and laborious. He that hides his talents shall receive the wages of a slothful servant. Christ is the door the only way to this rest. " But strait is the gate and narrow is the way ; "(e) and we (b) Matt. ix. 12. (e) 2 Cor. iii. '5. (d) John xv. 5. (e) Matt. vii. 13.
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