16 NATURE OF [Chap. 1. in point of practice, contrary to it. Who ever sought for that which he knew not he had lost ? " They that be whole need not a physician, but they that be .sick." 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 ne- cessary part of our Christian wisdom, to keep our subordi nation to God, and dependance on him. " We are not suf- ficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." " Without me," says Christ, " ye can do nothing. " It is next supposed, that they who seek this rest have an inward principle of spiritual life. God does not move men like stones, but he endows them with life, not to enable them to move without him, but in subordination to himself, the first mover. And further, this rest supposes such an actual tendency of soul toward it, as is regular and "constant, earnest and laborious. He that hides his talent 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;" and we must strive, if we will enter ; for " many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able ;"which implies, "that the king- dom of heaven suffereth violence." Nor will it bring us to the end of the saints, if we begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. He only "that endureth to the end shall be saved." And never did a soul obtain rest with God, whose desire was not set upon him above all things else in the world. " Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." The remainder of our old nature will much weaken and interrupt these desires, but never overcome them. And, considering the opposition to our desires, from the contrary principles in our nature, and from the weakness of our graces, together with our continued dis- tance from the end, our tendency to that end must be la- borious, and with all our might. All these things are pre- supposed, in order to a Christian's obtaining an interest in heavenly rest. Nowwe have ascended these steps into the outward court, may we look within the veil ? May we show what this rest contains, as well as what it presupposes ? Alas how little know I of that glory ! The glimpse which Paul had, contained what could not, or must not, be uttered.
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