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View him with regard to his conscience-and you will find that he has rest. He is freed from the torment of fear, and the horrors of guilt. A crucified Saviour" has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. He bore our sins in his "own body on the tree. He gave himself for us an of"fering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling "savor." An apprehension of this "healeth the bro"ken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." In proportion as we realize all this by faith, the burden too heavy for us to bear, loosens and falls off: and" being "justified by faith, we have peace with God, through "our Lord Jesus Christ."

View him with regard to his passions and appetites -and you will find he has rest. While pride, and envy, and malice, and avarice, and sensual affections reigned within, often striving with each other, and always fighting against the convictions of judgment, the man's breast was nothing but a scene of tumult; he was like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest; whose “waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace, saith "my God, unto the wicked." But sanctifying grace has delivered him from the bondage of corruption, and from the tyranny of adverse and raging lusts: it has subdued his tempers, and regulated his desires; it has restored order and self-government-and these have restored peace.

View him once more with regard to his condition and circumstances-and you will find that he has rest. He is freed from those anxieties and disquietudes which devour others, who make the world their portion, and have no confidence in God.-But the world is not his portion; he has not laid up his treasure on earth; his inheritance" is incorruptible and undefiled, "and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for him." He is therefore nobly superior to events; nothing that occurs can materially affect him; he is therefore easy and composed. Besides he has a confidence in God which wonderfully calms the mind, with regard to

present occurrences. He knows that the God who loves him, reigns over all; that all his dispensations are righteous, and wise, and kind; that he will not forsake him, but make all things, however contrary in their appearance and tendency, to work together for his good. Hence he feels a holy indifference, a blessed resignation to the will of providence, and committing all his concerns to his Heavenly Father, he learns in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content: according to the language of the prophet, and the apostle, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is แ stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Be "careful for nothing: but in every thing by prayer "and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests "be made known unto God. And the peace of God "which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts "and minds through Christ Jesus.

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But excellent as his present condition is, compared with his former state, it is nothing compared with his future. With all his advantages here, a voice perpetually cries in his ears," arise ye, and depart for this "is not your rest.' However favorable the voyage, they are now on the boisterous, treacherous ocean; they are looking out for their native shore; and by and by they will enter the harbor. "Then they are glad "because they are quiet; so he bringeth them unte "their desired haven." At death we are told the righteous and the merciful enter into rest. And this rest is pure, undisturbed, and everlasting.

They shall rest from their labors. Though all activity, they shall be incapable of fatigue, and languor, for their powers will be fully equal to their work. Repentance shall be hid from their eyes. Their praying days will be all over. It shall never more be said to them, be patient in tribulation; or fight the good fight of 6. faith" Without were fightings, and within were fears. But they are for ever ended. Darkness no longer struggles with light; or faith with unbelief. "The flesh no longer lusteth against the spirit, or the

"spirit against the flesh." They are delivered from all the temptations which were so often ensnaring or distressing them here. "There the wicked cease from "troubling; and there the weary are at rest. And "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor "crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the "former things are passed away." And nothing remains of all their trials, but a grateful remembrance of the hand that sustained them under all their difficulties, and delivered them from all their grief.

The apostle therefore, to express heaven, often uses the word rest. And it is observable, that he employs two allusions to enable us to conceive of it the more clearly; the one taken from Canaan-in which the Jews rested after the toils of the wilderness: and the other from the sabbath-on which christians rest after the perplexities of the week.

Ah! ye glorified saints, you can tell us what this blessed rest is. You have traversed the wildernesswhere you" wandered in a solitary way; where you "found no city to dwell in: where hungry and thirsty, "your souls fainted in you"--but you have left the desert; you have passed the river Jordan; and have entered the land flowing with milk and honey-you are come unto the rest which the Lord your God "giveth you."

Your week days, your worldly days are now over, and you have begun your sabbatli. Here you loved the sabbath-but here the sabbath was soon gone, and the things of the world soon deprived you of the fine feelings it produced. You sometimes passed silent sabbaths, and mourned the loss of sanctuary privileges. You always spent imperfect ones; you could not do the things that you would: and soon grew weary in the service of God, though not of it. But now your

strength is perfectly renewed: you are "for ever with "the Lord; you serve him day and night in his tem"ple; and shall go no more out-you have the keep"ing of sabbath which remains for the people of God!"

VOL. II.

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Such is the blessing-let us consider, II. The state of mind in which we should regard it-let us there fore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. But what is this fear?

It is not the fear of the sluggard dismayed by difficulties, and crying, there is a lion in the way, I shall "be slain in the streets." Such a man will be sure to come short. The fearful-are to have " their part in "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which "is the second death."

Nor is it the fear of the unbeliever who suspects that the promise shall not be accomplished: for there is not the least ground for such an apprehension: because, "faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it." This fear prevailed in the Jews, and excluded them from the land of Canaan. They thought God had underta ken more than he could go through with: they asked, "can he furnish a table in the wilderness ?" they said," "the people are too strong for us :" and thus despairing, they murmured to return. Let us guard against this fear, and be fully persuaded that what God has promised, he is able to perform; and that, difficult, or even impossible as it may appear in our eyes to bring a guilty, depraved, helpless sinner to glory-if he has undertaken it, he will perfect that which concerneth us.

But the fear here enjoined is a fear of caution; of vigilance; of scrutiny; a fear which lead us to examine ourselves; and allows us in this awful concern to be satisfied with nothing less than evidence: a fear that induces us to question-and therefore to inquire whether we are the subjects of divine grace; whether we are the heirs of promise; whether we have a title to heaven, and are in a fair way to obtain this blessedness.

Now the thought of missing this rest is surely enough to awaken in you this peculiar concern-especially when you consider two things; the possibility of your coming short; and the consequence of your coming short. First to excite in you this fear, remember the

possibility of your coming short. And here let me mention a fact which should make you tremble; it is this-out of six hundred thousand Israelites, who came out of Egypt to possess the land of Canaan, TWO ONLY entered. But what is this to us? You shall hear how the apostle applies.it. "Moreover, brethren, I would "not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers "were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; " and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in "the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and "did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank "of that spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was "not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the "wilderness. Now these things were our examples" -adds the apostie. They are emblems and warnings to us. We here behold persons-under a dispensation of peculiar privileges; considered as the people of God; delivered from their enemies by the most wonderful displays of divine power; clothed in garments unimpared by wearing, or by time; and whose meat and drink were not only miraculous, but sacramental-and after all this, we see them perishing under the wrath of heaven. Wherefore, says the apostle again-let him that thinketh he standeth high in the divine favor, and is perfectly secure, take heed lest he fall. Let him not depend on external privileges; on gifts; on being baptized in his infancy; on his partaking of the memorials of the Saviour's death-or a thousand other things, which are no certain proofs of salvation. Persons may go far, but not far enough; they may be convinced, but not converted; like Saul, they may have another heart, and not a new one. And indeed nothing is more common than delusions of this kind. O! how many are there, who say, "I am rich, and increased with goods, " and have need of nothing, and know not that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and na"ked." ! how many are there who entertain confident hopes of heaven, that will never see it? They are