THE SAINTS' REST (Chap. 10. " thou knowest not what thou sagest." If, instead of tell- ing the converted thief, " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise," Christ had said he should rest there upon the cross, would he not have taken it for a derision ? Methinks it would be ill resting in the midst of sickness and pains, persecutions and distresses. But if nothing else will con- vince 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 thin))eth of rest on earth, " Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest, because it is polluted." These things cannot, in their na- ture, 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 a continuance to be our eternal content. Ifprosperity, and 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 sa- tisfaction. But the content which creatures afford, waxes old, and abates after a short enjoyment. If God should rain down angels' 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 su- perficial 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 farther than its outward beauty, without dis- cerning 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 perfec- tions, we then cease our admiration. 6. To have creatures and means without God, is an ag- gravation 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
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