claring his newly conceived opinion; and that he frequently use this phrase the glory of God! O then, these men are, by-andby, of another opinion! supposing to themselves that God has made known some further truth to them; for, by reason of the blindness of their understanding, they are not able to reach any supernatural truth, although they do, by literal learning, and clerk-like cunning dive ever so deep into the Scriptures; and therefore they are ready to entertain any form of religious exercises, as shall be suggested unto them.

And are there not a third sort, much like to these men, that are excessive and mutable in the performance of religious exercises? Surely St. Paul perceived that this was the very God of some men in his time, and therefore he willeth Timothy to instruct others, that "bodily exercise profiteth little," or, as some read it, "nothing at all;" and doth oppose thereunto "godliness" as being another thing than "bodily exercise," and says that it "is profitable," &c.

And do not you think that there are some men at this day that know none other good than bodily exercise, and can hardly distinguish betwixt it and godliness? Now these bodily exercises are mutable and variable, according to their conceits and opinions; for all sects have their several services, as they call them, yet all bodily, and for the most part, only bodily; the which they perform to establish a rest to their souls, because they want rest in God. And hence it is that their peace and rest is up and down, according to their working better or worse. So many chapters must be read, and so many sermons must be heard, and so many times they must pray in one day; and so many days in the week, or in the year they must fast, &c. or else their souls can have no rest. But mistake me not, I pray, in imagining that I speak against the doing of these things, for I do them all myself, but against resting in the doing of them, the which I desire not to do.

And thus you see that men's blind understanding doth not only present unto the sensual appetite sensual objects, but also to the rational appetite rational objects; so that man's poor soul is not only kept from rest in God by means of sensuality, but also by means of formality. If Satan cannot keep us from rest in God by feeding our senses with our mother Eve's apple, then he attempts to do it by blinding our eyes, and so hindering us from seeing the paths of the gospel. If he cannot keep us in Egypt by the flesh-pots of sensuality, then will he make us wander in the wilderness of religious and rational formality: so that if he cannot hinder us more grossly, then he attempts to do it more closely.

Nom. But, sir, I am persuaded that there be many men that are VOL. VII.

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so religiously exercised, and do perform such duties as you have mentioned, and yet rest not in them but in God.

Evan. Questionless there be some Christians that look upon such exercises as means ordained of God both to beget and increase faith, and all other graces of his Spirit, in the hearts of his people; and therefore, to the intent that their faith, and love, and other graces, may increase, they are careful to wait upon God, in taking all convenient opportunities to exercise themselves therein, and yet have their soul's rest in God, and not in such exercises.

But, alas! I fear the number of such men are very few, in comparison of them that do otherwise. For do not the most part of men that are religiously exercised, rather conceive, that as they have offended and displeased God by their former disobedience, so they must pacify and appease him by their future obedience? And therefore they are careful to exercise themselves in this way of duty, and that way of worship, and all to that end; yea, and they conceiving that they have corrupted, and defiled, and polluted themselves, by their falling into sin, they must also purge, cleanse, and purify themselves, by rising out of sin, and walking in new obedience: g and so all the good they do, and all the evil they eschew, is to pacify God, and appease their own consciences. And if they seek rest to their souls this way, why, it is the way of the covenant, of works, where they shall never be able to reach God; nay, it is the way to come to God out of Christ, where they shall never be able to come near him, he being a consuming fire."

Nom. But, sir, I pray you, would you not have our senses to be any longer exercised about any of their objects? would you have us no longer to take comfort in the good things of this life?

Evan. I pray you, do not mistake me; I do not speak as though I would have you stoically to refuse the lawful use of any of the Lord's good creatures, which he shall be pleased to afford you, neither do I prohibit you from all comfort therein; but this is it which I do desire, namely, that you would endeavour to attain to such a peace, rest and content in God, as he is in Christ; that the violent cry of the heart may be restrained, and that your appetites may not be so forcible, nor so unruly as they are naturally, but that the unruliness thereof may be brought unto a very comely decorum and order: so that your sensual appetites may, with much

9 Neglecting to wash, by faith, in the blood of Christ, the "Fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness," Zech. xiii. 1. "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 17. "How much more shall the blood of Christpurge your conscience from dead works?" Heb. ix. 14.

faith," Acts xv. 9.

Purifying their hearts by

be

more easiness and contentedness, be denied the objects of their desires, yea, and contented (if occasion be) with that which is most repugnant to them, as with hunger, cold, nakedness, yea, and with death itself. For such is the wonderful working of the heart's quiet and rest in God, that although a man's senses be still exercised in and upon their proper objects, yet may it be truly said, that such a man's life is not sensual. For indeed his heart taketh little contentment in any such exercises, it being for the most part exercised in a more transcendent communion with God, as he is in Christ. So that indeed the man that has this peace and rest in God may truly said to "use this world as though he used it not," in that he receives any cordial contentment from any sensual exercise whatsoever, and that because his heart is withdrawn from them. Which withdrawing of the heart is not unaptly pointed at, in the speech of the spouse, (Cant. v. 2,) "I sleep," says she, "but my heart waketh." Even so may it be said, that such a man is sleeping, looking, hearing, tasting, smelling, eating, drinking, feasting, &c., but his heart is withdrawn from the creature, and rejoicing in God his Saviour, and his soul is magnifying his Lord; so that, in the midst of all his sensual delights, his heart secretly says, Ay, but my happiness is not here.

Nom. But, sir, I pray you, why do you call rational and religious exercises a wilderness?

Evan. For two reasons; first, Because that as the children of Israel, when they were got out of Egypt, did yet wander many years in the wilderness before they came into the land of Canaan ; even so do many men wander long in rational and religious exercises, after they had left a sensual life, before they come to rest in God, whereof the land of Canaan was a type. h

Secondly, Because, as in a wilderness men often lose themselves, and can find no way out, but supposing, after long travel, that they are nearer the place whither they would go, are in truth farther off; even so fareth it with many, yea, with all such as walk in the way of reason; i they lose themselves in the woods and bushes of their works and doings; so that the longer they travel, the farther they are from God, and true rest in him.

Nom. But, sir, you know that the Lord hath endowed us with rea

h Such a wanderer our author himself had been, for a dozen of years, See his Preface, page 161, and compare that heavy word, Eccl. x. 15, The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city."

i Namely, of reason, as the judge and rule in religion. The Holy Scripture is the rule, and the Spirit of God therein speaking is the judge; it is the business of our reason to discern what they teach, and to submit thereto, without reserve.

sonable souls; would you not then have us to make use of our reason?

Evan. I pray you, do not mistake me: I do not contemn nor despise the use of reason; only I would not have you to establish it toj the chief good; but I would have you to keep it under; so that, if with Hagar, it attempt to bear rule, and lord it over your faith, then would I have you, in the wisdom of God, like Sarah, to cast it out from having dominion. In few words, I would have you more strong in desire than curious in speculation, and to long more to feel communion with God, than to be able to dispute of the genus or species of any question, either human or divine; and press hard to know God by powerful experience. And though your knowledge be great, and your obedience surpassing many, yet would I have you to be truly nullified, annihilated, and made nothing, and become fools in all fleshly wisdom; and glory in nothing, but only in the Lord. And I would have you, with the eye of faith, sweetly to behold all things extracted out of one thing; and in one to see all. I In a word, I would have in you a most profound silence, contemning all curious questions and discourses; and to ponder much in your heart, but prat little with your tongue. "Be swift to hear," but "slow to speak," and "slow to wrath," as the apostle James advises you, (James i. 19); and by this means will your reason be subdued, and become one with your faith, for then is reason one with faith, when it is subjugated unto faith; and then will reason keep its true lists and limits, and you will become ten times more reasonable than you were before. So that I hope you now see that the heart's farewell from the sensual and rational life is not to be considered absolutely, but respectively; it does not consist in a going out of either, but in a right use of both.

§ 3. Nom. Then, sir, it seems to me, that God in Christ, apprehended by faith, is the only true rest for man's soul.

Evan. There is the true rest indeed; there is the rest which David invites his soul unto, when he says, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee," Psalm cxvi. 7, "For we which have believed," says the author to the Hebrews, "have entered into his rest," m Heb. iv. 3. And "Come unto me," says Christ, "all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I j That is, for, or to be.

k 2 Cor. xii. 11, "Though I be nothing." "1 Cor. iii. 18, "Let him become a fool, that he may be wise." Chap. i. 31, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

/ According to that saying of our Lord, Matth. xix. 17, "There is none good but one, that is God."

m" Do enter into rest," or that rest, viz. "his rest." He means, that we even now enter into that rest by faith. Compare verse 10.

will give you rest,"n Matth. xi. 28. And truly, my neighbours and friends, believe it, we shall never find a heart's happiness, and true soul's rest, until we find it here. For howsoever a man may think, if he had this man's wit and that man's wealth, this man's honour and that man's pleasure, this wife, or that husband, such children, and such servants, his heart would be satisfied, and his soul would be contented; yet which of us hath not, by our own experience, found the contrary? For, not long after that we have obtained the thing we did so much desire, and wherein we promised ourselves so much happiness, rest, and content, we have found nothing but vanity and emptiness in it. Let a man but deal plainly with his own heart, and he shall find, that, notwithstanding he hath many things, yet there is ever one thing wanting: for indeed man's soul cannot be satisfied with any creature, no, not with a world of creatures. And the reason is, because the desires of man's soul are infinite, according to that infinite goodness which it once lost in

n This is one of the most solemn gospel-offers to be found in all the New Testament; and our author seems here to point at what I conceive to be the true and genuine sense of it. The words "labour and heavy laden," do not restrict the invitation and offer to such as are insensible of their sins, and longing to be rid of them, though indeed none but such will really accept; but they denote the restlessness of the sinful soul of man; a qualification (if it is so called) to be found in all that are out of Christ, whether they have, or have not, any notable law work on their consciences.

I say notable, to distinguish it from that which is common to all men, even to heathens, Rom. xi. 15. Our father Adam led his whole family away out of their rest in God; and so left them with a conscience full of guilt, and a heart full of unsatisfied desires. Hence his children soon find themselves like the horse-leech, having "two daughters, crying, Give, give;" namely, a restless conscience, and a restless heart; and to each of these the poor soul must needs say, as Naomi said to Ruth, "My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee?" so the blinded soul falls a labouring for rest to them. And it labours in the barren region of the fiery law for a rest to the conscience, and in the empty creation, for a rest to the heart: but, after all, the conscience is still heavy laden with guilt, whether it has any lively feeling thereof, or not; and the heart is still under a load of unsatisfied desires; so neither the one nor the other can find rest indeed. This is the natural case of all men. And to souls thus labouring, and laden, Jesus Christ here calls, that they may come to him, and he will give them rest;" namely, a rest for their consciences, under the covert of his blood; and a rest to their hearts, in the enjoyment of God through him.

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This is most agreeable to the Scripture phraseology, Eccl. x. 15, "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knows not how to go to the city." Heb. ii. 13, "The people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity." Isa. lv. 2, "Wherefore do ye spend your labour for that which satisfieth not?" See page 278, note f. The prophet laments over a people more insensible than the ox or the ass, saying, “Ah, sinful nation! a people laden with iniquity," Isa. i. 3, 4. And the apostle speaks of "silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the know ledge of the truth," 2 Tim. iii. 6, 7.