in me, be fatisfied in me, and have reafon to be fo to all eternity. Thus the reft God's people have in him, may be faid to be theirs by defignation.

2. It is theirs by purchase. The reft which they wanted as creatures, they had forfeited as finners. This therefore Chrift lay down his life as the price of, and by his meritorious fufferings and death, hath opened a way for their being restored to it.

This is what he had in his eye in what he underwent. The reft gracious fouls have in God, is peculiarly theirs, as purchased for them by the death of his fon. He laid down his life for the Sheep, fuffered, faith the Apoftle, for us, the just for the unjuft, that he might bring us to God, to

God as our rest.

(3.) Gracious fouls can fpeak of a reft in God, as theirs by promife. This is God's kind engagement which every one of his children may read with fatisfaction, as going through this world, and as going out of it; He has faid, My prefence shall go with thee, and I will give thee reft, Exod. xxxiii. 14.

(4.) Gracious fouls have a reft in God, by their own choice. They are fenfible if they have not reft in God, they can never have any and as he is willing to receive them, and call them to him, they by a deliberate act, renounce all things else in comparison of him, and fix upon him as infinitely better, with a refolution thus to reft and take up their happiness for ever.

So much for the first thing, viz. That holy fouls have their reft in God. They reft in God truly and only: They reft in God, they and none else, they and all of them: A rest in

God

God is theirs by defignation, purchase, promise and choice.

II. We are to shew what reft they have in him. And here,

1.) The reft of fouls in their God is not fuch as tends to make them inactive: It is a reft in which all the powers of the foul are employed and taken up in thoughts of him, in defires after him, love to him, dependance upon him, and delight in him, as the most fuitable, excellent and infinite Good.

2. It is a rest that is most pleasant and joyful : it has a pleasure in it begun here, and to be perfected above.

(1.) There is a pleasure and joy accompanying a foul's reft in God here, and this exceeding what the men of the world ever experience in their greatest abundance of earthly comforts. And

(2.) This pleasure which is begun here shall be caried to a higher pitch and perfected above, when the holy foul fhall dwell with God in that prefence of his, where there is fulnefs of joy, and where there are pleasures for

evermore.

3. It is an eternal reft, reft in a never failing unchangeable Good, in God who lives for ever. It is the rest of a foul that will never die, and which as long as it lives, God has defigned to live with himself, and be happy in himself. Whereupon,

4. The rest of holy fouls in God is incomparable, fuch as none are capable of but they,

nor can they find fuch any where else but in God. No love like the love of God, no comforts like the comforts of God, no delight like that which is to be had in communion with him, no bleffednefs like that which confifts in the full enjoyment of him. But this brings us to the

III. General, To enquire into the import of the word the Pfalmift here ufeth to call his foul to the rest mentioned, return: Return unto thy reft, O my foul.

It is here intimated.

1. That reft to be had in God only, was what the foul was originally defigned for. God made all things for himfelf; and the foul as it came at firft out of his hand, fhould have made the author of its being the center of its reft.

2. That the foul in its natural ftate is fallen from God, its proper reft, and feeking it elsewhere. Sin turns off the foul from God, and they that are under the power of it, are faid to be gone afide, and are still going farther fo.

3. That no reft can be had for the foul, but in God. They that feek it elsewhere weary themselves in purfuit of vanity: and yet how busy are the most in doing fo, without enquiring, Where is God my maker who giveth Jongs in the night? Job xxxv. 10. They that are now at reft in God were, when in their natural and finful state thus wandering from him, endeavouring to find a reft in the creature, which could be had in God only,

Laftly,

Laftly, That the foul, as gracious, is born of God, and fo is effectually invited to its reft in him, and to its return to him. Grace comes from heaven, and pointing upward as to its native skies, carries the foul to its reft there.

IV. When, or upon what occafions should a child of God ufe the Pfalmift's language, Return unto thy reft, O my foul.

1. After converfe with the world in the business of his calling every day. A child of God in the midst of what he has to do in the world, will have many thoughts of him: but at night he will folemnly, and with peculiar fatisfaction return to converfe with him. No weary traveller will be more defirous of his inn, or labourer of his home, or bodily rest, than a gracious foul to return to its reft in God, in meditations of him, and prayer to him.

"Come, O my foul, (will fuch an one say,) "tho' I must neceffarily be employed, in what "relates to this world, I have fomething higher,

fomething better to mind. These are not the things in which my happiness lies, and bleffed "be God that it does not: I have more to do "with God than with any of thefe. And O "how much the sweetest and most comfortable "part of my time, has been that which I have fpent with him. Let who will therefore be and live without him, let

a ftranger to him,

me not do fo. Return unto thy reft, my

foul.".

This is the language the faint should use at the clofe of every day.

2. As going to the fanctuary on the Lord's day. This is one of the days of Heaven, in which the people of God are especially to be taken up in his worship and fervice, as beginning the work of heaven here on earth.

Now, O my foul, return unto thy reft, in the vigorous, vital, joyful exercise of thy powers in the fervice of the living God, with whom I have this day folemnly to do. How much better is one day in his court, than a thousand elfewhere? I had rather be a door-keeper in the houfe of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickednefs. Let who will look upon the Lord's day as a grievous interruption of their business, or pleasure, in which they had rather be engag'd, and hence fay: When will the fabbath be gone? I esteem it my privilege, and would make it my delight therein to converfe with God; both alone and in company; in the folemn affemblies of his people, and in my family and closet. How pleasant to me, has been the time spent in fuch heavenly exercises as prayer, hearing the word, finging God's praises, attending his ordinances, and keeping up the communion I have had with him in fuch duties as these? After several fix days of labour about lower concerns, this holy one, this day of the Son of man, is once more dawned upon me, and finds me alive. Bleffed be God that I have another fuch feafon as this, which I have reason to welcome with the most joyful affection. And now as I am to be employed in prayer and praise, in receiving the tokens of his love, and exprefing my own, in admiring, adoring and bleffing God,