to outward profperity be the greatest or most confiderable upon earth? If you can fay this, light and gladness is fown for you. And hereupon,

6. Wait for the fpringing up of this in God's time and way, and beware of prescribing to him. It is enough that he waiteth to be gracious, and will be exalted in fhewing mercy.

7. Let fuch as in the prefent ftate have, in any good degree, reaped the light and gladness fown, return the glory to heaven for this diftinguishing grace; and endeavour to comfort others with the confolation wherewith they themselves are comforted of God.

8. Laftly, How bleffed a change will the mourning believer make by dying, for whom light is fown! though little of it was found upon earth, yet upon his removal from thence, he enters upon the full harveft in heaven. O the tranfport to go mourning to the gates of Zion; and there, at once, to have all tears dried up, and his head crowned with everlasting joy!

SER

SERMON VI.

PSALM CXVI. 7.

Return unto thy Reft, O my Soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

T

HESE words were uttered by the Pfalmift

after fome heavy afflictions he had met with, but by the goodness of God was now delivered from. After a dark and gloomy night, a cheerful morning opened upon him, and he had a quiet harbour in view, which he befpake his foul to put into: Return to thy rest, O my foul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Obferve here,

I. Something this good man would caft his foul off from, which is implied in the term here ufed, Return.

II. Something he would call it to, and this is its Reft, its proper and peculiar rest.

This Reft is not to be understood to denote a quiet, fedate, or even a cheerful temper, which the Pfalmift called his foul to, now when he faw himself to be in Safety, after he had been tempeftuously toffed and ruffled with his late afflictions: But as the rest of a faint is fomething

more

more excellent than that of a natural man, it may be juftly taken to point to the rich fountain of the faints reft, viz. God himself; and to him in oppofition to the whole creation, in which rest could not be found.

"This

And fo it is as if the Pfalmift had faid, "world is not the place I was made for, nor c am I ever to expect fatisfaction in it: though "I am neceffarily employed about its affairs, it "is what I cannot take my portion in. I am a

ftranger here, and it is no wonder if I am treated "as fuch. I have been long wandering in it, as "in a foreign and barren land:" Wherefore, return unto thy reft, O my foul, to thy reft in God. He is thy reft, the reft of fouls, the only proper and peculiar one, and thine by a claim that shall not leave thee afhamed, Return unto thy reft, O my foul.

III. We have the argument added to urge this, viz. the confideration and experience of God's goodness in his difpenfations towards him; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. As the words refer to fome foregoing trouble that disturbed his foul, we may note,

I. That faints have their trials under which the best of them, whilst they are in the body, are liable to be difcompofed and put out of frame.

2. That whatever God's people fuffer, they have still reason to think and speak well of him, as one who has dealt bountifully with them.

3. That the experience of this fhould be an argument with them to endeavour to reprefs irre

gular

gular workings with them, and calm and compofe their fouls to rest.

I shall not distinctly handle all these, but sum up what I defign in this one doctrinal Propofition, viz.

That gracious fouls have their rest in God, to which upon all occafions they should call upon themselves to return; and encourage themselves to it, by the confideration of his abounding goodness towards

them.

This the Pfalmift here does, Return unto thy reft, O my foul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Here I fhall fhew,

I. That gracious fouls have their reft in God.
II. What reft they have in him.

HI. What is meant by the term by which the
Pfalmift calls his foul to it, Return.

IV. When, or upon what occafions a child of God fhould thus call upon his foul.

V. How the confideration of God's bounty dealing with them, and in what inftances, should engage them hereunto.

Lastly, The ufe of the whole.

I. I fhall fhew that gracious fouls have their reft in God. This I fhall endeavour to open in a few particulars.

1. Gracious fouls are provided of a rest. The foul is the better part, and this, the people of God, as being made wife from above, know how to value, and are moft.concerned about. Whilst the generality of the world are follicitous for the body, how that may be fed and cloathed, protected and preserved, gratified and pleased, a be

liever's

liever's chief care is for the fpiritual inhabitant, his immortal foul, and cannot fit down fatisfied and eafy, and fay, all is well with him, when he is abundantly provided of earthly Goods, refpecting the body and fuiting the fenfes : That, and that only deserves the name of reft, which can give reft to the foul. How empty and infignificant must be that reft (cries fuch an one) that is only common to me with brutes, and in which the foul confidered either as spiritual or as boly, has none or very little fhare? The wants of the foul to a faint are the greatest wants; and the reft of the foul, the most defirable reft.

If the foul is at reft and fafe, provided for as to another world, and at ease in the expectation of

the body fhall partake of its happiness in the end; and its temporal fufferings will fignify little by the way. The reft of the foul is ballance enough against the afflictions of the outward man; But whatever reft the body may enjoy for a time, in prefent fenfual good, it is far from being well with the man, whilft the better part is neglected, and hath no foundation for true reft in this world, and ftands upon the brink of eternal torments in another, in which the body must also share with it. The reft and happiness of the foul, is therefore of the highest importance; both in itself, and in the faint's account. The faint will be thankful for outward accommodations refpecting the body; but taftes far greater fweetnefs in the promise, that his foul shall dwell in eafe, Pfal. xxv. 13.

Gracious fouls have their proper reft, which they are moft taken up about and concerned for. 2. They