' [August. Confes., lib. i. c. 1.]
360 THE LABOURING SAINT's
fighting, thougli he be never foiled, he hath not peace. Tliough the saints should have success m every engagement against sin, yet because it will still be rebelling, still be fighting, it will disturb their peace. So also doth the guilt of it; — our Saviour testifietli, that a sense of it will make a man to be " weary and heavy laden," Matt, xi. 28. This oftentimes makes the inhabitants of Zion say they are sick; for though an end be made of sin, as to the guilt of it, in the blood of Christ, yet, by reason of our darkness, folly, and unbelief, and the hiding of the countenance of God, the conscience is often- times pressed with it, no less than if it lay indeed under the whole weight and burden of it.
I shall not instance in more particulars concerning this cause of want of rest and disquietness ; — the perplexity of temptations, buffet- ings and winno wings of Satan, allurements and afifrightments of the world, darkness and sorrows of unbelief, and the like, do all set in against us upon this account.
This, in general, is the first thing that the dismissed saints are at rest from : They sin no more, they wound the Lord Jesus no more, they trouble their own souls no more, they grieve the Spirit no more, they dishonour the gospel no more, — they are troubled no more Avith Satan's temptations without, no more with their own coiTuption within; but lie down in a constant enjoyment of one everlasting vic- tory over sin, with all its attendants: saith the Spirit, "They rest from their labours," Rev. xiv., — those labours which make them faint and weary, their contending with sin to the uttermost They are no more cold in communion ; they have not one thought that wanders oflf from God to eternity. They lose him no more, but always lie down in his bosom, without the least possibility of disturbance Even the very remembrance of sin is sweet unto them, when they see God infinitely exalted and admu-ed in the pardon thereof They are free from trouble, and that both as to doing and suffering. Few of the saints but are called out, in one kind or another, to both these. Every one is either doing for God or suffering for God; — some both do and suffer great things for him. In either of them there is pain, weari- ness, travail, labour, trouble, sorrow, ami anxiety of spirit ; neither is there any eminent doing or working for God but is carried on with much suffering to the outward man.
What a life of labour and trouble did our deceased friend lead for many years in the flesh! how were his days consumed in travail! God calling him to his foot, and exercising him to understand the sweetness of that promise, that they that die in him shall have rest. Many spend their days deliciously, — with so much contentment to the tlesh that it is impossible they should have any foretaste and sweet relish of their rest that is to come.
DISMISSION TO REST. 361
The apostle tells us that " there remaineth a rest for the people of God;" and yet withal, that they who believe are entered into that rest; — those who in their labours, in their travails, do take in the sweetness of that promise of rest, do even in their labour make an entrance thereinto.
(2.) They rest from all trouble and anxiety that attend them in their pilgiimage, either in doing or suffering for God, Heb. iv. 10. They enter into rest, and cease from their works. God wipes all tears from their eyes. There is no more watching, no more fasting, no more wrestling, no more fighting, no more blood, no more sorrow ; the ransomed of the Lord do return with everlasting joy on their heads, and son-ow and sighing flee away. There, tyrants pretend no more title to their kingdom ; rel)els lie not in wait for their blood ; they are no more awakened by the sound of the trumpet, nor the noise of the instruments of death : — they fear not for their relations, they weep not for their friends; the Lamb is their temple, and God is all in all unto them. Yet,—
2. This will not complete their rest ; something farther is required thereto, — even something to satisfy, everlastingly content, and fill them in the state and condition wlierein they are. Free them in your thoughts from what you please, without this they are not at rest. This, then, you have in the second place, God is the rest of their souls, Ps. cxvi., " Return to thy rest, 0 my soul." Dismissed saints rest in the bosom of God, because in the fiiiition and enjo3Tiient of him they are everlastingly satisfied, as having attained the utmost end whereto they were created, all the blessedness whereof they are capable. I could almost beg for liberty a little to expatiate in this meditation of the sweet, gTacious, glorious, satisfied condition of a dismissed saint. But the time is spent, and therefore, — without hold- ing out one drop of water to quench the feigned fire of purgatory ; or drawing forth any thing to discover the vanity of their assertion who affirm the soul to sleep, or to be nothing until the resurrection ; or theirs who, assigning to them a state of subsistence and perception, do yet exclude them from the fruition of God, Avithout which there is no rest, until the end of all ; with such other by-persuasions as would disquiet the condition or abridge the glory of those blessed souls; wliicli yet were a facile undertaking, — I shall draw towards a close.