_ (1) It is not difficult to remove this objection. Our Lord Jesus Christ hath done it for us, in these words of his to his disciples, “In the world ye shall have trouble; but in me ye shall have peace,” John xvi. 33. The rest we treat of is spiritual; God’s rest, and our rest in God. Now spiritual, inward rest, in and with God, is not inconsistent with outward, temporal trouble in the world. We might go over all those things wherein we have manifested this gospel-rest to consist, and easily evince that no one of them can be impeached by all the troubles that may befall us in this world; but our apostle hath summarily gone through with this work for us: Rom. viii.
264 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IV.
35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribula- tion, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword#..... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him thatlovedus. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The sum of all is this, that no outward thing, no possible opposition, shall prevail to cast us out of that rest which we have obtained an entrance into, or impede our future entrance into eternal rest with God.
(2.) Moreover, one part of this rest whereinto we are entered consists in that persuasion and assurance which it gives us of eternal rest, wherewith believers may support their souls under their troubles, and balance all the persecutions and afflictions that they meet withal in this world. And this also our apostle directs us unto, 2 Cor. iv. 16-18: “For which cause,” saith he, “ we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” That persuasion which we have in this gospel-state of an assured enjoyment of eternal, in- visible things, an “ eternal weight of glory,” casts out of consideration all the momentary sufferings which in this world we may be exposed unto. As our peace with God by Christ, our interest in him, our communion with him, and acceptance in our worship through the blood of Jesus, the spiritual freedom and liberty of spirit which we have through the Holy Ghost in all that we have to do with him, and the like spiritual mercies, wherein this rest doth consist, can neither be weakened nor impaired by outward troubles; so it sup- plies us with such present joy, and infallible future expectation, as enable us both to glory in them and triumph over them, Rom. v. 3-5. Yea,—
(3.) Further, God is pleased so to order and dispose of things, that this rest is never more assured, more glorious and conspicuous, than when those who are entered into it are under reproach, trouble, and sufferings, upon the account of their profession of it. So saith the apostle, 1 Pet. iv. 14, “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.” Whatever may befall us of evil and trouble upon the account of the gospel, it adds unto that blessed state of rest whereinto we are entered; for therein “the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on us.” There is more in the words than that one expression should
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serve merely to explain the other, as if he had said, ‘The Spirit of glory, that is, of God;’ nor is it a mere Hebraism for the glorious Spirit of God; but the especial work of the Spirit of God in and upon believers in such a season is intended. ‘He shall work glori- ously in them, and by them; supporting, comforting, and powerfully enabling them to maintain and preserve their souls in that rest whereinto they are called’ This state of rest, therefore, cannot be impeached by any outward troubles.
2. ‘But it seems not inwardly and spiritually to answer the de- scription that hath been given of it; for, (1.) There are many true believers who all their days never come to any abiding sense of peace with God, but are filled with trouble, and exercised with fears and perplexities, so that they go mourning and heavily all their days, These find it not a place of rest. (2.) There are no believers but are exercised with continual troubles from the remainders of sin yet abiding in them, These keep them in a continual conflict, and make their lives a warfare, causing them to cry out and complain because of their trouble, Rom. vii. 24. And it may be said, How can these things consist with a state of rest?
Some few distinctions will clear our way also from the cumbrance of this objection. As,—