THE Christian Temper OR The Quiet State of Mind that God's Servants Labour for Set forth in a Sermon at the Funeral of Mrs. Ursula Collins By D. B. Ah my dear angry Lord Since thou dost Love yet Strike Cast down but Help afford Sure I will do the Like I will Complain and Praise Bewail but yet Approve And all my sour-sweet days I will Lament and Love. Herbert Tho' I am quite forgot Let me not Love thee if I Love thee not Idem LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside and Robert Gibbs at the Golden Ball in Chancery-Lane 1688. TO Mr. Joseph Collins SIR I Have complyed with your Desire and your Neighbours as far and as soon as I have been able You have the Sermon desired for substance Tho' not in every particular as it was delivered A difference I think ought to be between Preaching and Writing Or if not my Memory served me not to give it you otherwise You better know my Employments than to accuse me of slowness I wish I were as free from the blame of too much Haste with it Such as it is you will accept it I know at my hand 'T is followed with my Prayer that it may not be Useless to Your self and to others as Craving for it The Print of Sermons in the Heart and Life is that which must make them Useful or Harmless it self It s Argument is of the most seasonable for us all And more especially for You. So heavenly a Yoke-fellow cannot be quietly parted with without a need of Faith's being strengthned by some such word Your own feelings I presume do so certify you better than any Lines of mine can do O Sir industriously Imitate that Piety which you justly Praise And take into your Heart the Truths you Longed to have in your eye So shall it not repent you of asking nor me of granting them unto you I commend you to divine grace and tuition as Yours in much Love unfeigned D. Burgess To my Friends of troubled Spirits in the Countrey YOU are Many Altho' it be every one's word I am Alone and I am Like no body My Ministrations unto you by Speech are at an end That I served you no better when I was with you is a sorrow that I shall go in unto my Grave Notwithstanding all your good Opinions Thanks c. But I am not able by so frequent Letters as you desire to Gratifie you and Relieve my self My Hands are full my Eyes are weak and my actuative Graces be not proportionately Strong Proportionately to my Work in my present Place I mean. For this cause I would that this Sermon may pass for an Epistle unto each of you And that every one of you may read it as supposing it written peculiarly for himself As also the other small Scripts wherewith I have cared to have it joined Ministerial services are not effectual or the contrary according unto Ministers intentions But if they were you would fare as well as any in the use of mine For tho' I Love my present Congregation as my own Soul I do unfeignedly Love your selves as them More I cannot and less I do not I do my self suspect it and by others I believe it will be determined that that affection of mine hath out-run my Judgment in treating you thus in this corner But I have bid my self follow his ironical counsel who lately said to me Go on with thy useful Indiscretions Bishop Hall's words are a wind that I think to have blown me good Divine goodness saith he Loves the Strength and passes over the Infirmities of good Affections It pardons the Errors of our Fervency rather than the Indifferencies of our Lukewarmness If by any innocent means I may be Useful unto others be the Praise of being Discreet Indeed I have commended in this Sermon three Books which may make needless this Sermon it self And any Additament I mean Mr. Burroughs of Content Mr. Richard Alleine of Heart-work and Dr. Bates of Resignation Works that praise their great Authors enrich their serious Readers shame and condemn their Neglecters But I so well know the Gust and Appetite and Digestion of your Spirits that I shall set before you the following Memorandums And not retract my request of your conning my plain Sermon Against the Invasions of your Unquietness against it's Abode in you and it's Prevalence over you remember ye M. 1. He must turn his Eye inward that would judge right of any thing outward Self-ignorance is the great hindrance of Self-denial The want of Self-denial is the great cause of all Contending with God and Distracting our selves Could I but deny my Self my own Wisdom and my own Will I should never know a Restless hour more To do this my way is to be looking often into my self To sit and consider What am I I was first Nothing Then Dust Then a Body Then a Body and Soul and that Holy and Happy Then a Body and Soul Corrupted and Cursed Then Sanctified thro' my Redeemer's Blood and by his Spirit Imperfectly Sanctified Of my self I never was am or can be but Nothing or Worse Evil the worst I do deserve Good the least I cannot deserve c. Now am I such a Thing Can I deserve nothing Why then I will quietly bear any thing For I see I am a thing that wrong cannot be done to by God. The truth is till we conclude God cannot wrong us we shall surmise in every trouble of ours that He doth wrong us And till we well Understand our selves we shall never believe but that we are things to which God owes somewhat And must do us a great deal of wrong if He make not good payment too M. 2. He that would be carryed without falling must bridle his Horse before he Mounts In all our ways we are carried by our Thoughts They are the Horses whereon we travel As they go Orderly or Disorderly so we ride prosperously in Grace and Peace or fall shamefully from both But so it is with them that restrain'd and bridled by the Word of God they go orderly and well If they are let to have their heads and have not the governing bridle put on them they are sure to go as ill No Sin or Grace no Sorrow or Comfort stirs but in and by these Thoughts Now if before we ascended to make judgment of any Event befalling us we took the course aforesaid we should lose a thousand Plagues by the year in our Spirits and find as many Comforts by it Sinful and sorrowful Ways can never be left till like Thoughts be left Isa 55.7 Ungoverned topping Thoughts undo Mankind 1 King. 18.28 Why halt you 'twixt two domineering Thoughts so the Hebrew Unless my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unruly high and head-strong Thoughts be cast down by Gods Word as 2 Cor. 10.5 I shall consume my self with vexing at his work in the World. Thoughts do rend me when
to the right Owner I Love the Lord not I Love his Deliverances saith the good man q. d. 'T is unto the Giver my affections are drawn by best gifts Nor would I count any of them good if they tended not to make my Esteem and Love of Him better Return of Prayer is another kind of thing than the Gold of Ophir But all my Love is too little for Him that makes it And rather than any of it should be stole from Him I would chuse to have any Desire of mine denied by Him. 'T is Him that I studiously Love in all things for all things and above all things L. 3. The Mercy of one Day engageth us to Duty all our Days It engaged the Psalmist as the second verse most expresly saith Because He hath enclined at this time his Ear unto me therefore will I Call upon Him or Pay all Duty to Him as long as I live q. d. The Deliverance that God hath now wrought for me hath sensibly brought Fire Fuel and Bellows to the Love of God in me And for present the coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame But this gives me not content I look forward and I take care for to morrow My heart is green Wood and Fire in green Wood doth as easily Die as it doth difficulty come to Live. Above measure I think my self engaged to consult for the continuance of that Zeal which is easier Lost than first Got. And easier Kept than Regain'd Lost I know it will be if the divinely appointed means be not used to preserve it The which means are all Duties And unto the Use of them all my days I am as much obliged as the very first day of my Salvation I dream not that God's end in it is to make me Bless Reverence Trust and Serve Him the more for less than all my time The benefit of the Salvation it self extends plainly thro' it all And thro' it all as in duty bound I engage my self to that universal Obedience whereof Prayer is the so eminent Pillar The World shall see there is a Thankfulness that abides unto the Giver even to the last breath of the Receiver L. 4. Death and Hell do often Fright but they never Hurt a good Soul. The Psalmist says verse the third that the fears of death to wit Bodily and Spiritual found him and he found trouble and sorrow great store in them He says not that they mischieved him It were easie to shew that they both did him good He hath elsewhere told us 'T was good beneficial for him that he was Afflicted viz. in Body and Spirit And here it self he doth with sufficient plainness speak the same For in the next verse these are his words Then called I on the Name of the Lord as if he had said In that my Affliction I sought God early That Hell upon Earth drave me to Heaven Mine Eyes had been less toward God if he had not set the Image of death upon my Eye-lids So many and so fervent Prayers had not been put up from my Soul and for my Soul if the dread of Death and Hell had not come into my Soul. Memorable is that passage of worthy Mr. Shepheard I have oft wondred If Christ hath born all our miseries and suffered death for us why then should we feel any miseries or see death any more And I could never satisfie my own heart by many answers given better than by this viz. That if the Lord should abolish the very being of our miseries they should indeed then do us no hurt but neither could they then do us any good Now the Lord Jesus hath made such Peace for us that our Enemies shall not only not hurt us but they shall be forced to do us much good Wants make us pray the more Sorrows do humble us more Temptations make us exercise graces more Desertions make us long for Heaven more 'T is now part of our portion to have not only Paul and Apollos and World but to have Death it self to do us good L. 5. The troubles of our Souls are the Souls of our Troubles David's do so appear By the heaps of words that he pileth up to express them they appear so Death-sorrows Hell-pains Troubles and Sorrows that found him and got hold of him Oh what a deal of Water can the Sea contain more than a Thimble or a Cockle-shell And what an a like deal of good and evil is the Soul capable of more than the Body And how much more to be pitied is the Soul that is betwixt Hope and Fear of God's Love than the Body that is between the Axe and the Block Let the Reader that would see more of this see the unparallellable Mr. Ro. Bolton upon Prov. 18.14 L. 6. In the Fire and Water there 's nothing like holy Prayer David was in them both with the witness and in them as the best course he could take he prays Then called I on the Name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my Soul q.d. When I was beat off my Legs I fell upon my Knees I knew the heavenly Father used to strike his Children no lower Yea and to strike them for no purpose so much as to bring them on their Praying Knees Unmixed Praise is his delight in Heaven but upon Earth 't is Praise with Prayer he delights in And which he makes the in-let of all his Mercies and our true Consolations They quite mistake their way to welfare who when they are distressed sit still in lazy Complaints Or go busie themselves in Complotments hoping by their own and by borrowed Wisdom and Power to remove the Mountains that lay on their hearts Idleness and carnal Activity sink us deeper into sorrows they never take us out But Prayer honours God and God honours Prayer No want is so great but He can supply it and there 's no Soul that Prays in Faith but may be sure He will supply it Is his Power only Infinite no his Goodness that makes Promises and his Truth that keeps them be fully as Infinite as that Power it self is What therefore is comparable to Prayer 'T is with it and not without it that Faith subdues worlds of evils obtains Promises muzzles Lions quenches Fire scapes the edge of Swords of weak makes strong Nothing can kill a Believer but that which can stop the breath of his Prayer L. 7. God's gracious righteous and merciful Acts do teach us his gracious righteous and merciful Nature They taught our Psalmist He comes from declaring the former to conclude the latter He had said what God had Done and verse the fifth he says what God is Namely Gracious that is Kind without any Force or Necessity and without any Merit or Motive from without his own heart Righteous that is Just or Faithful Merciful that is forward to help creatures Lying in misery Be it observed 't is the Nature of God from whence alone in many cases we
can draw any Hope or Peace 'T is from thence alone as the first Fountain that in all cases we do or can draw it 'T is for the Exaltation and Praise of his Nature that he worketh all his works and that he calleth us to consider all his works 'T is the reproach of his Nature that Satan above all things aimeth and acts for as that which upholds the Kingdom of Sin in the World. Wherefore miserable are they who cannot set seal unto this Doctrine And who do not Learn what God Is from what He Does Their Religion is vain Pageantry who while they cry up his Works do not enamouredly see in them the glory of Him the worker L. 8. God is a Believer's own God. So the Psalmist calls him OUR GOD. To be sure God is at his own Disposal He can give Himself to whom He pleaseth to be Theirs in Marriage Covenant for ever And 't is as certain He hath so given Himself and all that He Hath unto sincere Believers Who accordingly give themselves and all that they Have unto Him. Of both I speak largely elsewhere L. 9. The most Shiftless Saints have God their Saviour The Lord preserves the Simple saith verse the sixth Men of least Policy are saved by Him who is Only Wise They are Preserved one or other or all ways viz. From evils and In them and out of them L. 10. Sanctified hearts remember their Wants and their Helps Davids did so I was brought Low and He helped me Indeed sin takes away the heart Corrupts the mind Memory and Will. And lets not him be a Man that will not be a Saint Grace on the contrary raises the Mind perfects the Memory rectifies the Will. And make that he who will be a Saint must be very like an Angel. That is Humble and Grateful Humble in ones self Grateful unto God. Assoon shall Cherubims cease to remember that once they were Nothings and God raised them out of Nothing as an Holy Soul shall forget his great Depressions and his Gods Exaltations of him out of them The Text we are now arrived to And in it you see do ye not these Particulars to wit 1. The Preucher David's Conscience 2. The Auditory David's whole man. 3. The Sermon an Exhortation to holy Quietness pressed by Gods motive Kindness Many Doctrines here meet us and chiefly these D. 1. Good men give themselves good Lectures Davids have their Chaplains in their breasts And Preach unto themselves Their own Reins do instruct them And indeed all men's words and God's too be unprofitable unto us till they become the words of our Consciences unto us He is an ill man whose Conscience is a dumb Dog. D. 2. The best of men do not keep perfectly still in severe storms David himself did not This charge Return to thy Rest plainly speaks his Removal from it And a sinful Unquietness it self We have heard indeed of Job's Patience in his Affliction and so have we heard of his Impatience too In that very grace wherein a good man is most Perfect in that it self he is far from being Legally Perfect Our gracious God doth not and Men should not let one act or a few un-allowed acts denominate us In no man save Him who was God and Man had ever Diligence or Patience its Perfect work In the foresaid sense Perfect We may not call our selves Hypocrites for that which God doth not so call us Perfection is coveted by every one that is sincere but 't is not by any one in this Life attained Sin came into us when our Souls came into our Bodies and 't will never go quite out of us till our Souls go quite out of them Happy is he that has no sin Reigning or Raging Till you are in Abraham's bosom you shall have sin Assaulting and Afflicting you And that in Adversity and Prosperity too But the Truth I chuse to insist on is that which follows D. 3. Rest in God is the state of Mind that 's Laboured for by the Children of God. 'T is that you see whereto David laboriously called and instructed his Soul. And the record of it can be thought design'd for nothing so much as to provoke us to go and do likewise That thus we may the better do the Proposition shall be briefly Explain'd and Proved in these four Considerations C. 1. Rest is the Health Or the pleasant Feeling of a Soul United unto and Enjoying of its supreme good Two things it importeth Life and Peace Rest is not Death nor is it Rage Where there is no Life there 's none of the Spiritual Rest we speak of Nor any other but what a Stock or Stone possesses Where there is no Peace it need not be said what a distance there is from Rest Raging Life stands farther from Rest than Dead Peace it self A Flint stone is nearer to it than a Furious malecontented man. Soul-rest is a lively Peace and Peaceful Life And here think distinctly 1. No Creature is or can be its own happy-making good 2. All Living ones do crave such good from without themselves 3. God is all good Creatures have nothing but what He puts and holds in 'em no virtue to benefit one another 4. Before the best Union unto God we cannot have the best good from Him By the best Union understand nearest Relation That of Adopted Sons and Covenanted Servants By the best good understand that which is Spiritual and Eternal 5. When we have the best good bestown upon us by God we are not at Rest in our selves presently We are not well till what is Bestown on us be also Enjoyed by us 6. Enjoyment is made up of five Ingredients to wit Use Knowledge Pleasure Content Security We then Enjoy what God Is unto us and what He also Doth for us when we Use it for the just ends of it When we duly reflect and Discern our selves to be in the Possession and best use of those best things When we take Pleasure and make glad our hearts in the Discovery thereof When we Content and satisfie our selves with that Pleasure saying 'T is Enough yea 't is All we would not nay we cannot have it better with us than Grace hath made it When likewise we have and consider us to have strong Security for Holding what we Have 7. Rest is the State and Temper of a Soul thus enjoying God through Jesus Christ It 's such a Soul's satisfiedness and that in a double reference to all that God has yet done and all that God shall ever do A Soul in the Rest which our Text intends thus speaketh Lord I must speak as I find Thou hast hitherto done all things well I must needs approve yea and applaud all I am sure Thou thy self canst not mend it for there has been in it no fault I shall never forgive my self my trespasses in the hard thoughts I have had of any thing by Thee done If I remember them in Heaven I shall there Blush to all
Eternity for them Lord for the future I project to be wiser I do now let fall all Contest with Thee about future Events in this World. I put a Blank in thy hand write Lord thy Pleasure Write the Kind and Quality of the things that shall befal me Write the Measure and Quantity of them Write the Term and Continuance of them too Order my Lot while I sojourn on Earth even how Thou pleasest Thy Will shall be my Will. If ever I contradict the former I shall the latter too Thou canst not do what ought to Offend me or what ought not to Please me Nor can I any way do my self hurt but by unjust surmising that what Thou dost is not good I command my self having Peace with Thee above to maintain Quietness for ever within And not admit any thing from without to make a tumult in the Region of my Heart No but to behave my self as may shew that I do account Thee a sufficient Shield from evil and Store of good And this by walking on the waves if Thou callest without sinking By entring the Fiery Furnace if Thou wilt have me without Desponding By trusting in Thee even when Thou appearest to slay me C. 2. There 's no Perfect Rest behither Abraham 's bosom It is a Truth denied by none tho' considered duly by few a state of Adoption is a state of Rest Upon thy first Repentance and Faith thou art made a Child of God John 1.12 Being his Child thou hast a Child's portion And to be sure the Children of his house are free Free from the condemning Wrath of God the Law-giver and Judge free from the Power of Satan the Jayler and Executioner free from all the Dominion of Sin that is a worse Enemy than Satan himself free from all things that totally exclude Rest I and have all things that do constitute and make the foresaid Rest Who doubts it they have some Knowledge of God some Use of his holy Name and his Peerless Excellencies Some Pleasure therein and some Content therewith And some Confidence too of the unmoveableness of their good estate These latter they have sometimes and in some measures and much more the former But yet tho' now we are the Children of God it doth not in this World perfectly appear No our very Life is Hid and so is our Rest in great part Infinite Wisdom sees good to make a difference of degrees between Grace and Glory And to make the state of Glory one of all Rest and the state of Grace one of but some Rest The state of Glory one of Rest absolutely and the state of Grace one of Rest but comparatively I say but comparatively In comparison of the Wilderness Canaan was a Rest but compared unto Heaven what was it True it flowed with Milk and Hony but it had also Thorns and Briars Compared to the state of Sin the state of Grace is Heaven upon Earth but compare it to Heaven above and then 't is dicere ausim but a Hell upon Earth Such an Hell that St. Austin's words are known to be true Some good men have need of Patience to Live as much as others have need of Patience to Die. There want not Reasons for God's so ordering things And our Divines have not been sparing in their accounts of them I forbear it here praying only that it be observ'd Disturbing Trouble shall as soon get up to Heaven as Undisturbed Rest come down to us in this World. Christ our Head had never any sinful Sorrow indeed but neither had He before his Exaltation any sorrowless Comfort here below We imperfectly sanctified creatures have neither any Sorrow that is altogether sinless or any Comfort that is altogether sorrowless One of the Thieves on the Cross did Blaspheme Mark 15.31 Our murmuring Flesh and Corruption tho' crucified doth break out And raises in every state unquiet and unruly Thoughts The World's Objects also deceive us with their Emptiness and vex us with their Falseness Satan likewise by Injections of his hath more than a few ways to Disturb us In a word there are four things whereto we are here liable which make perfect Peace here impossible I mean Bodily Diseases Mental Errors Divine Desertions and Satanical Temptations By means hereof the troublesom Thoughts in our minds are made as numberless as the wandring Atoms in the Air. And 't is an imperfect Patience wherein our souls are in our best days possessed A quiet and calm Spirit is in God's sight a Jewel for Excellency in our sight 't is a Jewel for Rarity Nor is it any where found but abundance of flaws are found in it Where is Wealth without Care Where is Pleasure without Weariness Where is Honour or Praise without Hazard Who has Friends without any Guile in them Who has Relations and no Crosses in them Who hath found out that Age that is without it's Infirmities I will ask but once more and pass on Who hath grace without adherent Corruption Hope without Fear and Comforts without Eclipses C. 3. There is more perfect Rest attainable than what is yet by any of us attained The best souls do often lose of that which they had But never do they gain all that they may have If any have so done they are black Swans rare Instances Generally all sober Christians will grant they Need more than they have Nor will they dare to say that their Diligence in time past could not have gain'd more Or that their holy Industry from this time will not gain more All sincere Converts do enter into Rest They pass Jordan they set their feet on Canaan Nor is it God's will that they should keep by the Rivers side He gives them Eyes and Feet Understanding and strength And commands them to use both for getting further up into the Pleasant Land. Every Believer upon his first Union unto Christ makes God name his strong tower He runs into it and he Rests in it But how Into the outer parts he runs and in but small part comparatively he Rests Now God saith not Hitherto shalt thou come and no step further But contrarily He calls to come farther in into the Chambers of purer Peace and Rest Isa 26.20 I and to advance toward the fulness of Joy 1 John 1.4 Let it be observed The Rest in God we speak of is a Grace Grace is a Growing thing 'T is but a Seed of it that the Holy Ghost infuseth in our first Conversion But like the grain of Mustard Seed it grows He that Infuseth it doth Increase it He brings it unto it's just measure and Size in every Convert He Keeps it Growing until the very Harvest Nor is ever Grace at a full stand till it be ripened into Glory 'T is often told you and I hope you know the Holy Spirits work is to set us working All that He works for us and in us 〈◊〉 works by us Consequently we â—ay by no means imagine but that we have room to Mend
till we come to Heaven And have an increase to make in this and every grace The greatest Charity must take it for Phrenzie if any man should say to this purpose Long hath been my Conflict and I have obtain'd some Conquest over the enemies of my Souls Rest I cannot expect nor will I therefore endeavour after more My work shall be to keep not enlarge my victory My will is melted into the will of God as much as I ever look to have it Inwardly I Fret as little outwardly I Murmur as little as I am ever like to do It were vain to pray the Holy Spirit to make my own Spirit less Tumultuous and confused than ' t is To hold it any higher than He does already from sinking Discouragements or distracting Cares In all that comes on me my Mind is as satisfied as ever it will be that 't is God's doing and that 't is Just and Good. My Will also is as obsequious yielding and submissive as it can be made The tenor and temper of my Soul is as like Heaven as it will ever be upon earth c. No gracious Heart can have such a Mouth As long as 't is it self and free from Lunacy it cannot Nay but it will speak clean contrarily C. 4. The Children of God do upon many and mighty Motives seek to attain all Rest in God that is attainable They think not less than All to be enough for their present state And they have Reasons enough for that their Thought Some of them and not the Least shall be proposed God's Servants consider the following particulars 1. There is a Necessity of Precept God commands that Degrees of Rest unattained be laboriously sought As well as that the Degrees attained be watchfully kept He requires not the Principle of any grace without the Practice nor Perseverance in any without Proficience As expresly we are bid to Grow as to stand in grace Now where the word of God's Command is there is Power In a gracious Soul there is such a powerful impression made as there is in a Subject's heart by his Kings commandment or in a Child 's by his Father's 2. There is a Necessity of means Of means unto our chief end yea our whole one Our Ultimate one which is God's Honour our Near one which is Our own Good our Intermediate one which is our Neighbour's Good. Rest in God is an undispensably requisite Means unto all three And our Degrees in them can be but according as our Degrees of Rest are For the Being and Life the Beauty and the Strength of all Duty unto God consisteth much in this Rest Is God my God do I Hallow his Name or do I Look like Christ's disciple Till I Lye down at his foot submit to his Will content me with his Pleasure Excepting against nothing that He does No but when a Soul doth this it acts not a Single grace but all graces together It acts them not meanly neither but illustriously and amiably With huge strength and demonstrations strongest of Truth and Goodness As for our own Good it stands in Receiving from God what thro' Christ he Gives Waiting for what he Promises Giving back what he requires from our hands And how requisite is a Quiet spirit to all these The Vessel into which a Liquor is poured must not stir and jog up and down but be held still Are we Vessels of mercy Are we to receive the waters of Life the streams of grace If so the spirit of grace must hold still our Spirits Keep them Quiet and unhurryed and submissive So if we are to Live by Hope and wait for the glory to be revealed how needful is Rest Assoon may you see with shut eyes as Hope with vexing and restless hearts Rest and Submission be the inlets of Hope as Hope is the inlet of Consolation and Joy. The Worship we are to give unto God hath this to be said of it It hath a Soul and Body a Kernel and Shell a Substance and Shadow An heart that is like either to the Dead Sea or to the Adriatick raging Sea may give God the carcass the Shell and the Shadow of worship The Soul the Kernel the Substance none can give but the resigning resting heart That which Resigns it self unto God's good will and Rests confident there will be nothing but what ought to be in his works As for our Usefulness to the Conversion of sinners or Edification of Converts let Reason and Experience speak Will the mire cast out of a troubled muddied Soul conduce unto these ends or to the quite contrary Words signify little without an efficacy-giving Example But a Restless man's whole Conversation is one continued slander of Religion And a Disswasive from it In short the Philosopher says right Whatever moves must move upon somewhat Unmoveable Ships move on the Sea 't is true but the Sea moves on that which moves not Coach-wheels move up and down but so doth not the Axle-tree to which they are fastned Man's heart can in no good course move till it be joyned unto God and rest in Him who is unmovable 'T is by Rest in Him we are fitted for every Motion for Him * Then it is we can do what pleaseth Him when what He doth do does please us 3. There is a Necessity of Covenant There is no true Servant of God but what is a Covenant one Nor any Covenant one but what has Promised and Vowed sincere and entire Acquiescence in God's Will. Praying without limitation that his Will be done Yea and upon Earth as in Heaven Now do Covenants signifie any thing or nothing signed sealed Covenants Such is our Covenant with God in Baptism and at his Holy Table sign'd and seal'd Or dreams any man that he hath risen to a full performance of his Sacramental Engagement If not he must feel it's force on his Soul constraining to pursue more Rest in God. Or else be inclined to renounce his Baptism as indeed the most among us but too practically do 4. There is a Necessity of Interest God allows yea commands us to Love our selves wisely without any stint The sum of all his Commands is this Be happy Whatever is truly for my eternal Interest the same is my Duty Now if any thing be so Rest in God is so For why Satan can have no good angling in the waters of my Soul if they be not Troubled Temptations spoil men but Content with God's Will spoils and shames Temptations Yea and it doth by our Comforts as our Saviour by the Loaves and Fishes Matth. 14. It multiplies them miraculously and makes a very few of them enough for us and to spare A little with Content is not a little 'T is a great deal And a great deal and Content with it is very Heaven it self A great man hath said A Contented spirit on Earth is in some respects better than Heaven Boldly I will say 'T is the best of Heaven that we can have on