suades the mind, and this yields the obedience of faith; and under this power the sinner does the will of his Father. He gives an unction to the understanding, which is an eternal light to it; and, though the believer at times may sit in darkness, yet the Lord the Spirit is still a light unto him, and always brings him forth to the light again, and makes him shine the brighter after every seeming eclipse. He gives information to the judgment, so that, "He that is spiritual judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man." He gives life also and peace to the mind; and to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

The mind of man is a most busy faculty; it is always at work; and the enmity of it alienates it from the life of God; therefore vanity possesseth it. The natural activity of the mind is called the spirit of it. "Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind." To renew it is to purge the dross and enmity from it, to influence it with faith, and to stock it, inlay it, and furnish it with the word of God, with the life of grace, and with the enjoyment of peace, and so to set it to work upon high and heavenly things; and the more it works on these things, the more lively and peaceable it is. Again: the Spirit furnishes the conscience with his own witness; and by that conscience is kept under the tuition and influence of the Holy Spirit; so that conscience and the Spirit bear one testimony; hence we read of conscience bearing wit ness in the Holy Ghost. And again: "If our

heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." And again: "Our rejoicing is this, the testimomy of our conscience."

The Spirit influenceth our affections also with the love of God. "We love him, because he first loved us. And we read of setting our affections on things above, at the right hand of God, where Christ sitteth. By observing these things the believer may perceive something of the renewing work of the Spirit on himself, and come to some certainty and satisfaction about it.

And thus have I shewed the highway, which is Christ; and the way, which is regeneration. And as every quickened sinner is seeking and feeling after light, life, faith, peace, joy, love; for his whole soul is set upon these things; so God says the wayfaring men, that is, all such men as are found walking in this way, though fools in themselves, yet they shall not err in this way. "No lion shall be there;" no enemy to God, nor persecutor of the saints: "nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon;" no wolf, nor fox, who try to destroy the sheep and lambs of Christ by errors and heresies; these shall not be found there, and I doubt not but all believers will consent to this, that they never saw an unclean person; a roaring lion, like Nero; an envious fox, like Herod; or destroying wolves, like the popish tribes, walking in Christ the highway, or following him in the regeneration. "They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

So I sware in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest."

I come now to treat of the saint's rest. The first account that we have of this is at the conclusion of the work of creation. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." This seems to intimate that the Lord, upon a survey of the displays of his own wisdom and power, ceased creating, seeing all things complete, and rested, well pleased with the work of his own hands. And from thence he appointed one day in the week, the seventh, to be a day of rest to man and beast. This day of rest seems to be set forth as representing something yet to come. "Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come."

2. The promised land is set forth in the word of God as a rest to the Israelites. They had been in hard bondage in Egypt, and had been afflicted there four hundred years. And after this they had long, wearisome, and painful journies for forty years together in the wilderness, and found no city to dwell in, no resting place; and, even after they came into the promised land, they had long wars, and continual fights, till the country was subdued before them. Then the land rested: from war, and Israel from fighting. "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware

to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers; and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them," Josh xxi. 43, 44. This land may be a figure of the heavenly country which Abraham sought; that land which, as Isaiah says, is very far off. But Israel which came first to the borders of it, entered notiin, because of unbelief; they failed both of this country and of the heavenly one; for Jude says that God, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not. Το these he sware in his wrath, that they should not enter into his rest. But there is one mystery that I shall take notice of before I finish this work, and that is, that Moses himself entered not into the land of promise, but died on the march as well as the rebels; and yet he found rest on the other side Jordan. "Now, therefore," says Moses, “I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight; and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest."

3. Moreover, the tabernacle which David pitched, and the temple which Solomon built, are called resting-places for the ark of God, which before moved from place to place, and had no settled abode. Moreover, the ark had been in the hand of the Philistines for some time, of which

David sadly complains. "For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand." And when the Philistines, being sorely plagued by the ark, sent it back, yet it was long before it rested. "And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." Upon this David erected a tabernacle for it, which he called the Lord's rest. "We will go into his tabernacles; we will worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength."

But to proceed a little further: when Noah offered his sacrifice and thank-offerings for the preservation of himself and family in the ark, as it is said; "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a savour of rest; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more every thing living." Here we have an account of God's just displeasure in drowning the world of the ungodly. Upon