Believers Laboring for Their Reward

Thomas Boston, 1676–1732

August 11, 1706.

Hebrews 4:11, "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."

HERE have we no continuing city, this is not the place of our fixed abode; all men are in motion heavenward or Hellward. These that are going downward, may sit still; they go with the stream, and before long shall reach the ocean of God's wrath; these that are going upward, must row against the stream, and must be at work until they arrive at Immanuel's land. Rest here is too dear bought, at the rate of everlasting trouble. Let us, then, labor here, that we may enter into that rest which is to come. In these words, there is, First, An exhortation: Second, A motive pressing it.

In the exhortation we may consider: 1. The dependence of it upon what goes before, intimated in the particle therefore; showing that it is an inference from some preceding doctrine. In the latter part of the third chapter, he shows that unbelief kept the disobedient Israelites out of God's rest; both out of Canaan, and Heaven typified thereby, chapter 4.

1. He lets them see, that they had an offer of that eternal rest, as well as the Israelites in the wilderness had; because both had the gospel, only the Israelites in the wilderness did not believe it, verse 2. He proves there was a rest remaining for the people of God, from verse 3; and lays down the conclusion, verse 9. This he confirms verse 10, which some understand of believers, and these go two ways: 1. Some take it for these that are now in Heaven, who cease there from sin. 2. Some take it for believers on earth, who are in the way to eternal rest, and so have in part ceased from sin. Others understand it of Christ, of whose exaltation he speaks, chap 1:3, and frequently in this epistle. Christ, as the believer's head, is entered into Heaven, he has gone there as our forerunner, and has now ceased from the work of redemption, finished on the cross, even as God rested on the seventh day from his work of creation. This I take to be very probable. From the whole, he does most natively infer the exhortation in the text.

2. The great thing which we should have in our eye, that rest, namely, of which David speaks, Psalm 95:11; that rest which remains, verse 9. The apostle shows, that the rest of which David spoke was not the rest of the Sabbath; for that rest of the Sabbath, in which God ceased from the work of creation, was long since over and gone; the rest which David means, was not so, verse 3–7. Neither was it the rest of Canaan, given the people by Joshua, for the same reason, verse 8; therefore, it is a rest yet to come, and that peculiar to the people of God. This rest is nothing else but Heaven, or the state of glory, which the Lord gives to his people, being taken out of this world. It is eternal life, Revelation 14:13. This is that rest from which unbelievers are excluded, Hebrews 3:19.

3. What we are to aim at, in reference to that rest; "to enter into it;" that is, to be partakers of it. The reason of this phrase is, that Heaven and eternal life is ordinarily held out by a garden or paradise, a house, a city, a kingdom, into which we are to enter by certain ways, posts, and doors. By grace we come to glory.

4. The means to be used, in order to our entering, is laboring. Labor we must, for Heaven will not fall down into our months, while lying on the bed of sloth. They that will not work, must not eat bread in the kingdom of God. Drinking of the rivers of pleasures, which are at God's right hand, is reserved for laborers only, not for loiterers. The Greek word is very emphatical, and signifies laboring with intenseness of mind, carefulness, and haste; accordingly it is diversely translated. It primarily denotes haste, Mark 6:25. That which people hasten, after they are intent upon it; so we may better understand that, Mark 6:25, "She went in å èÝùò, immediately (denoting haste,) ìåô óðïõäç ò, with haste;" (denoting the intenseness of her mind on the thing.) They also go vigorously about it, sparing no pains, and exert to their utmost. Hence, 2 Peter 1:10, the word is rendered, give diligence. They are also very solicitous and careful that they may not lose it. Hence, 2 Peter 1:15, it is rendered, I will endeavor; see also 2 Corinthians 8:16. The apostle, then, having made choice of this Greek word, we may improve it in its full extent, without stretching it beyond his intention.

5. Observe the order of the labor and the rest. In the way of God's appointment, and of the godly's choice, the labor is first, then comes the rest. It is quite contrary with the wicked. The Chaldeans measured their natural day otherwise than the Israelites. They put the day first, then the night; the Jews counted the night first, then the day follows. So the wicked begin with a day of rest, and end with eternal toil; the godly begin with a night of toil, and end, or rather continue in eternal rest. O that we may follow God's order!

6. Observe the end and design of this labor, it is rest. Men work in their young days, and lay up, that they may rest in old age. So does the Christian. The wicked also labor that they may rest; but there is a vast difference both between their labor and rest. Their labor is in sin, and their rest is there; but sought in vain, "for in the fullness of their sufficiency they are in straits." But the godly have their labor in grace, their rest in glory, and between these there is an infallible connection; who, then, would refuse that labor, which ends in that rest.

7. The persons exhorted to labor; us, which includes the apostle and all the Hebrews, whom he exhorts today to hear God's voice, and whom he alarms by the example of the ruin of their predecessors; so that this exhortation belongs to all the visible church, godly and ungodly. Some have entered the avenue leading to glory, some have not; both are called to labor to enter.

2. The motive pressing the exhortation. It is taken from the danger of not laboring. Consider here,

1. That of which people are in danger, and which will come upon them, if they labor not to enter, falling; that is, falling short of Heaven, and missing salvation. He has a respect to the people's falling in the wilderness, being destroyed there, so as they could never reach Canaan, Hebrews 3:17; so shall all slothful persons fall with respect to Heaven.

2. The great cause of ruin, that is, unbelief or unpersuadableness. Unbelief is the great cause of the ruin of the hearers of the gospel, and that which cuts the sinews of true diligence, so as people under the power of it cannot labor.

3. A confirmation of the certainty of their ruin; "after the same example of unbelief." Others read, "into the same example;" as if he had said, lest they be a sad example of divine vengeance to others, as the Israelites were before them. But our own reading is most agreeable to the scope; as if he had said, lest they fall as the Israelites did, and split on the same rock. There are examples of imitation, these we want not; and examples of caution and warning, such were the Israelites in the wilderness.

4. The universality of the danger; any man. No man is out of hazard for none that labor not can stand.

5. The connection of this with the exhortation; lest any man; (Greek,) that none may fall; importing that the hazard of falling short of Heaven ought to quicken our endeavors after salvation.

DOCTRINES. I. Heaven is a rest, into which those that now labor for it shall be at length received.

II. It is the necessary duty of all that hear the gospel, to labor to enter into that rest. I shall begin with this second doctrine. In handling this, I shall,

I. Show what it is to labor, or in what the Christian's labor consists.

II. For what it is that we are to labor.

III. How we should labor.

IV. That we must labor, in order to our entering into rest.

V. Why we must labor in this spiritual work in order to our entering Heaven. I am then,

I. To show what it is to labor, or in what the Christian's labor consists.

I take up this, in these four things hinted in the explanation of the words:

1. The mind must be intent on the business of salvation. There must be a serious bending of the soul to it and application of the mind, as he who is laboring to gain a city by storm. "The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Heaven is a rest for the soul, and therefore the soul must be at work before it come there. Mere bodily labor profits nothing here, for it is not of that kind of work that may be carried on without application of mind. Toys and trifles may be so managed, but weighty business cannot. Here the mind must be intent on the end, that is, the rest. Heaven must be in the eye. So was it with our forerunner: "For the joy set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame." The man that is on a journey applies his mind to his journey's end, and often sees it before he comes at it. He who intends to take a city fixes his mind on it, and will not be diverted from his purpose; so is it with him that labors for salvation. The mind must also be intent on the means that lead to the end. It is entering for which he labors. No man can be accounted a laborer for a good crop, who neglects the ploughing and sowing of his ground; and the means leading to salvation are such as will not be effectual without the mind be intent on them. "Strive," says our Savior, "to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."

Now this application of the mind to the business of salvation imports, 1. An impression of the weight of that matter upon the spirit. No wise man will labor for a trifle; and no man will labor for salvation, but he who has a deep impression of its importance; hence is it that so few labor this way. Most men are at no tolerable pains about their salvation. Some will not want an hour's rest for salvation, that will want a whole night's rest for something of the world. The reason is plain; the world appears great, and Heaven little in their eyes; therefore men's hearts must be pricked, that their sense of feeling may be raised, before they will be solicitous about their salvation. There are two things that make salvation weigh with them. There is first a treasure of wrath on the one hand, Romans 2:5, which is growing daily, by the increase of sin. The cup of wrath seems to them too full, that they should be able to drink it off. The vengeance of God appears a load too great for their shoulders, hence they are ready to say, who can abide with everlasting burning. A second thing is a weight of glory on the other hand, 2 Corinthians 4:13. Here they see in what true happiness consists. Will a weight of gold make a sluggard labor; and will not a weight of glory, seen by an eye of faith, make a Christian labor. This application imports, 2. An habitual minding of that business, Religion is the believer's trade, hence his conversation is in Heaven. As for others, the curse of the serpent is upon them, on their belly do they go, licking the dust of the earth; and when the frame of the new creature is such, that it looks heavenward natively, the unrenewed, like the beasts, continually look down; "their God is their belly, and they mind earthly things." They labor for the meat that perishes, and will not seek after God. But if salvation be our study, it will be often in our thoughts; and the question that occupies our attention will not be, who will show us any good? but that, what shall we do to be saved? In this application of the mind, there is, 3. The heart's being set upon salvation, 2 Corinthians 5:9. The scattered affections of the soul are gathered together from off the variety of objects which the world affords us, and are fixed here, Psalm 27:4. Most men cannot labor for salvation, because they run themselves out of breath in pursuit of the world; hence a twofold evil follows for their souls. 1. A great aversion to the duties of religion and the concerns of the soul. The full soul loathes an honey-comb; as a man that has filled himself in his own house, has no appetite for the feast to which he is invited, and the more so, if new come off a journey, and worn out with fatigue; hence the man, if he go to duty, he is dragged to it. 2. Unfitness for duties of religion. The cream and life of the man's affections are already spent on the world and his lusts, so that nothing is left for God and his soul but the lame and the sick, so that he cannot labor, and so must lose, unless some faint attempts will do the business.

But if we would labor for salvation, we must draw our hearts to the work, from off other objects; salvation will be our great desire, and with Mary we will choose the better part; our hearts will draw our hands to work. It is true, even the wicked desire salvation, but there are these defects in their desires of it, 1. They are nature's own work; they come up without the overcoming power of the Spirit of Christ. They are like weeds and wild oats, that grow without ploughing or sowing; nothing of that mighty power there, Ephesians 1:19, hence they cannot actuate a man to supernatural duties, for these are beyond their sphere. 2. His desires overleap the true means. He loves the gold, but he cannot endure to dig. He loves to reap, but he cannot endure to plough, because of the cold. 3. He desires it absolutely, but not comparatively. Give him sin and safety, too, they are welcome; but he will rather make shipwreck of his soul, than part with his lusts; but he who has his heart set on salvation, will part with all to gain it, Matthew 13:45, 46.

2. In this labor there is painfulness and diligence. He does not only think on it, but work for it; his desires are backed with suitable endeavors. We must not sit down and wish for Heaven with folded hands. These desires are, like Rachel, beautiful indeed, but barren. "The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing." There must be true pains here, and vigorous endeavors, that will make the soul to breathe, and pant and sweat, to obtain the desired salvation; and this implies the engaging with the duties of religion, as the way to Heaven. If we mind for Heaven, we must go in the path road, following the footsteps of the flock, Hebrews 12:14. They that do not labor at God's work, cannot expect his rest. It implies also, that no mean must be left unemployed, in order to the attaining of salvation; it is a matter of life and death, and all that a man has he will give for his life. They that labor for salvation will seek everywhere, and turn every stone, until they find it. He is a painful Christian, not he who will do some things, with Herod; but he who will not refuse the hardest piece of work, in order to the obtaining of his desire. Sloth may well carry a man half way to Heaven, but the laborious Christian leaves the sluggard by the way, for this diligence also implies constancy in the way of the Lord. A Christian must be always employed. Salvation is a web, into which we must weave the whole thread of our lives. The man that minds for Heaven, is a laborer indeed, whose work is never at an end, until he enter to his eternal rest. He can never want work as long as he is out of Heaven, and as long as there is a devil and an ill heart to interrupt his work. It is the mark of a hypocrite, that he will not delight himself in the Almighty, nor always call upon God. Many professors are no more laborers for Heaven, than a man who will occasionally, for his diversion, go to take hold of a plough is a ploughman. Religion is not their chief business. Finally, this diligence implies real vigor; whatever they do, they do it with all their might: "They search for wisdom, as for hidden treasures." There is a following of the Lord fully, over the belly of all oppositions and discouragements. The man labors for salvation, as working for his life itself, for indeed he sees his all is at stake. No opposition will make him give over; if he faint he will rise again, and more vigorously renew the attack. There is such a faintness in all the endeavors of many for Heaven, that with the fearful who have no heart, they are excluded; Revelation 21:8.

3. In this labor there is haste. Our work must be done speedily, for the time proposed for our laboring is but today. "Today, if you will hear his voice." There is an unbelieving haste, that will not wait God's time; but this true haste is not to let his time slip. Delays are dangerous in all matters, but damnable in soul matters; therefore David would not venture on it, but says, "I made haste, and delayed not to keep your commandments." Therefore, says the apostle, labor with all haste to enter into that rest.

OBJECTION. But how can one haste to Heaven, can he go there before death, or must he hasten his own death? ANSWER. No. But the way is long, and the entry to it is far out of our natural way. We must hasten by a speedy entrance upon the way to it, by a speedy conversion to God. They that are near conversion, are said, "not to be far from the kingdom of God." They who forsake the world lying in wickedness, have to enter into that rest, and get into the avenue of grace, from whence they shall certainly reach glory. We must also make haste, by a speedy progress in the way. There are many steps between us and Heaven. We have need to go forward, and work out our begun salvation with fear and trembling. There are many corruptions to mortify, and graces to strengthen. Two things make men that are wise labor with haste: 1. Time is flying. "Our days are swifter than a post; they flee away;" and when gone, cannot be recalled. Time is bald in the hind head. That which was, will be no more. Yesterday has taken its eternal farewell. The candle that is burnt out to snuff, cannot be lighted again. No medicine will cure that wound, no oratory will persuade it to return; crowns and kingdoms will not buy it back again. Time past is out of their power, the time to come is not theirs. Their only time is the present, what wonder then they make haste. 2. Death is approaching, and there is no return from it back again to this life, to rectify what was formerly done amiss, Job 14:14. There is no place for laboring there, Ecclesiastes 9:10; Heaven and Hell are for other work than this. If the infant come to the world dead, the open world will not revive him; and if death catch the soul idle, it shall never have occasion to labor more, but under the wrath of God.

4. There is in this labor carefulness and holy anxiety about salvation, in the managing of the work, Philip. 2:12. Now this implies, 1. The turning of the soul from anxious cares about the world, to a holy solicitude about the salvation of the soul. When a man begins to labor for Heaven, "who will show us any good?" is turned to, "what shall I do to be saved?" For the man now knows that truth, "what is a man profited, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" The mind of man is too narrow to be taken up about two such different objects at the same time. No man can serve two masters. We may as well at once grasp Heaven and earth in our arms, as be solicitous about both. It implies also a fear of falling short of Heaven. I do not mean a fear of despondency, for that cuts off laboring, and it is hope that feeds these laborers; nor yet a doubtfulness as to the event, as when a man is racked with doubts, whether he shall be saved or damned. This indeed is the man's case, when the Lord begins first to deal with him, and is of good use to stir him up to labor; for here is fear mixed with hope, and it is the work of the Spirit of God, Romans 8:15. This is also the case of the people of God sometimes after conversion; but this doubting is not their duty then, as not being from God's Spirit, "for they have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear." But that in the text is urged as duty, and there is a fear of falling short competent to assured Christians, Hebrews 4:1, which is a spur to diligence. So Paul, 2 Corinthians 5:1–11. Noah had a promise of safety, yet "was he moved with fear," Hebrews 11:7.

They ought to fear the thing, as Noah did the deluge; so as to avoid everything that may expose them to it, and to do every tiling that may contribute to their safety. It is not kindly assurance, but carnal presumption that makes a man like the leviathan, to count darts as stubble, and laugh at the shaking of the spear. No, he who seriously considers the power of God's wrath, and that it is in itself possible for him to perish, must needs tremble at the thought of Hell, and run to Christ, who alone can deliver him from the wrath to come. That God can destroy both soul and body in Hell, though he will not, is enough to make the heart quake.

It implies likewise, an earnest desire to be set and kept on the way to Heaven. Men may labor to little purpose, if they be not on the right way. "The labor of the foolish wearies every one of them, because he knows not how to go to the city." And when there are so many byways whose end is destruction, the thoughts of this must needs make the soul anxious to know where he is, and therefore he will be consulting the way-marks, examining his way, and striving to steer his course to the right or left hand, according as he may be directed by his counselors. He may come to several steps in the way, with which he is not acquainted; these will put him to a stand, not knowing to what hand to turn himself, whether that be present duty or sin, but then he will lift his eyes to the Lord for direction, Jeremiah 10:23; Proverbs 3:6; whereas others ramble forward at random, and fall, to their ruin. There is here also a fear of mismanagement in his work. The laborer for Heaven should work, and does best work with a trembling hand. It was the fundamental maxim of the heathen moralists, have confidence in yourself. But I may say the Christian maxim is, have no confidence in yourself. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. This makes them circumspect to forecast dangers, to walk warily, like a child beginning to walk, or a man recovering of a broken leg, Isaiah 38:15. They have an anxious heart and earnest care about their work, seeing they work for eternity. We now proceed,

II. To show for what we are to labor. It is to enter into the heavenly rest. This is that which we are to have in our eye, and to which our endeavors are to be directed. We are not called to work for nothing; but as Heaven is attainable, we are to labor that we may enter into it. In speaking to this, I shall,

I. Show some Scriptural notions of Heaven, to which this of entering does agree.

II. What it is to enter into the heavenly rest.

III. Some steps in the way, by which we must labor to enter.

IV. I shall consider this laboring to enter, as it respects our preparation for Heaven. I am then,

I. To show some Scriptural notions of Heaven, to which this of entering does agree.

1. Heaven is held out under the notion of a garden or paradise. "Jesus said to the thief on the cross, today, shall you be with me in paradise." Sinless Adam lived in the earthly paradise, sinless saints shall live in the heavenly. It is a paradise for pleasures, in it "are rivers of pleasures." Not one, but many Edens or pleasures. Here is the tree of life, and on this tree are fruits in the greatest variety, abundance, and excellence. We live now in a wilderness, we are to labonr to enter into a paradise.

2. A house. "We have a building of God," says Paul, "an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Solomon built a magnificent house for Pharaoh's daughter; Heaven is that glorious house which Christ the true Solomon has gone to prepare for his people. It is his father's house, even the house of his kingdom; a house in which there are many mansions fitted up for receiving all that ever shall come there; and though not all, nay though not the most now present, shall ever come to it; it is not for want of room, but for want of laboring to enter into it, for it has a straight gate that discourages many.

3. The temple typified by that at Jerusalem. "Christ entered not into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." It is called the tabernacle, Revelation 21:3; yes, the holiest, Hebrews 10:19, 20. Canaan was the glory of the world; Jerusalem was the glory of Canaan, and the temple was the glory of Jerusalem. Now all these are a ruinous heap; but no change here, "for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." How did the saints of old value the tabernacle and temple, but as they were only shadows of the heavenly. In it, we shall have Christ the true ark, in whom the law is fulfilled; the cherubim; the society of angels; the golden candlestick; yes, the Lamb is the light thereof; the incense altar Christ, by whom we are made priests to God, Revelation 1:6; the table, in communion with God. Into this temple it is that we are to labor to enter.

4. A city glorious for magnificence and beauty, largely described, Revelation 21. The saints in glory are not penned up in a garden, house, or temple; but walk at liberty in a city which God has prepared for them, Hebrews 11:16. This is the city of the living God, which shall never see ruins; here there is no hazard from within, no danger from without, Revelation 21:25, 27. Into this city must we labor to enter, there to dwell as citizens forever.

5. A country; even a better country than the best here below, Hebrews 11:16. What toil did the Israelites undergo, that they might enter into, and possess Canaan! Behold you are called to labor for a heavenly country, in which nothing is wanting. This is the country in which we are but sojourners, but Heaven is a country where we may live forever at rest.

6. A kingdom, Matthew 25:34; a kingdom that cannot be moved, Hebrews 11:28. The best kingdoms on earth are liable to sad convulsions and shakings, but here is no hazard. Sin is not there; no vapors inclosed in the affections of the earth, to make an earthquake there; and no violence can come from without. Here all the subjects are kings, each with a crown on his head. What need of penal laws here, where none of the subjects can ever err? Who would refuse any labor to enter into this kingdom, where they shall be welcome to the best of it, even to the throne, Revelation 3:21. We are,

II. To show what it is to enter into the heavenly rest. There is a fivefold entering into Heaven and life, for which we must labor.

I. There is an entering into Heaven by the covenant. The covenant of grace is the outer court of Heaven. Of this everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, David says, "this is all my salvation and all my desire." Surely, then, Heaven was in it. The covenant is the chariot in which Christ carries his people to glory. This chariot cannot stop by the way, so that they who are once in it, shall as surely come there, as if they were there already. They "are in hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised before the world began." So then we must labor to be within the bond of the covenant. Faint wishes will not carry you up into it. But, 1. You must close with Christ; make up the match deliberately and sincerely between Christ and your souls. Take hold of Christ, and you take hold of the covenant, Isaiah 42:6, and 27:5. You must, 2. Break covenant with your lusts, saying, with Ephraim, "What have I to do any more with idols?" Many pretend to have covenanted with God at communions; but it plainly appears, that of the chariot in which they are, the devil is the driver; for they are a stain to religion, and cannot resist temptations, "but are taken captive by the devil at his will." No wonder that persons hasten after other gods, when the devil drives them. Quit them we must, or quit the covenant, and so quit Heaven.

2. There is an entering by faith. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is the very being of things hoped for, it realizeth these things that to us, as yet, have no being. Now we enter into Heaven two ways by faith: 1. In so far as faith lays hold upon Christ, and unites us to him, John 6:54. Faith embracing Christ, enfolds Heaven, for he is eternal life; "He is the true God, and eternal life." Faith makes us one with Christ, who is now in Heaven; in respect of which union, the apostle doubts not to say, that believers are in Heaven already. "God," says he, "has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus." The new and living way is the only way which faith treads. Labor then for true faith, and an interest in Christ thereby. Never satisfy yourself with a faith of a lower efficacy. Say not you cannot believe, the great defect is in your will. "You will not come to me," says Jesus, "that you may have life." Stretch out the withered hand to Christ; protest you shall never be satisfied until he put forth mighty power to make you believe, and never quit the throne until you get it, if you should dig your grave at it, Luke 18:39–43. 2. In so far as faith lays hold on the promise in which Heaven is wrapped up. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." Embraced them, that is, the things contained in them. An allusion to mariners, who when they see the land, though afar off, yet joyfully salute it. God's word is as good security as actual possession. And as men, by charter and seisine, may enter into possession of lands which they never saw, so the believer by faith may get possession of Heaven. Labor we then to get hold of the promise by faith, which we must do by taking hold of Christ; "for in him all the promises are yes, and in him amen, to the glory of God by us."

3. There is an entering by hope. "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil." Therefore salvation is attributed to hope, Romans 8:24. Faith goes out as a conqueror, and hope divides the spoil. Ask these that have been plunged in despair, and they will tell you that they were in Hell, even when on earth. Despair brings up Hell into the earth, and hope brings down Heaven. Hope is indeed enjoyment anticipated, and excites the same joy, delight, and delight, that enjoyment does, as you may see in things of the world; only the difference is, in worldly things, the expectation is sweeter than the enjoyment; in heavenly things, it is the reverse. We must then labor for this well grounded hope, that the Spirit of God causes us to place on his word, and that purifies the heart. Hope of Heaven, is compared to a building founded upon a rock, Matthew 7:24; and this is a building on which true pains must be taken: 1. In pulling down the old. It is no easy thing to get down the old hopes, and to clear the foundation, leaving not one stone upon another. This is hard work, many times ministers batter at it, and still it stands, until God himself comes up, 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5; oftentimes it is never pulled down, until death come and batter it down. Like the mole, they will never open their eyes, until they come to die, Luke 16:23. But down it must be, for there is no building sure upon the old foundation, Luke 15:17. Again, true pains must be taken in rearing up the new. It is as easy for many now to hope for salvation as it is to breathe, the reason is, they are both nature's fruit. But were once the old hopes gone, it will not be easy to get up the new. It is as in the case of a malefactor with the rope about his neck, laying his head over the ladder, and one tells him of a pardon; how hard is it to hope or believe until he see it, and sometimes the Lord does not suddenly let them see it. Ah! the brand is in the fire, how hardly can it think to escape; what a conflict, then, between hope and despair!

OBJECTION. Better then we hold as we are.

ANSWER. At best you will not hold long at it, for, 1. God may make your life in sin a Hell to you, your name Magor Missabib. He can wrap these filthy garments of your sin in brimstone, and then set them on fire about your ears, as in the case of Judas. It is with the consciences of the wicked, as with iron out of the fire a little; which you would not suspect to be hot, until some water be poured on it, then it appears hot by its hissing noise; so when some drops of wrath fall on a guilty conscience, the noise will be dreadful.

Again, were your hopes fixed with bands of iron and brass, and their foundation as deep as the center of the earth, death will make such an earthquake in your soul, as shall not leave one stone upon another, but shall cast it out, and sink it in the bottomless gulf of eternal despair, Job 18:14. Once more, in keeping it up, it is easy to many to keep up their hopes, because their hope is another tower of Babel, raised up against Heaven, where the devil is master builder, and down it shall not go, if the powers of Hell can hold it up; but the new godly hope is a fort built against the inroads of Satan, which therefore the devil will not cease to attack. It must stand against rains, floods, winds, Matthew 7:25. Sometimes the child of God is ready to surrender, and to cast away his confidence. Sometimes it is ready to be taken with strong hand, Lament. 3:18. David found this work not easy, Psalm 42: Labor then we must, thus to enter.

4. There is an entering by obedience. "I know," said Jesus, "that his commandment is life everlasting." There is a personal way to Heaven, that is, Christ. "I am," says he, "the way." Also a real way to Heaven, that is, the commands of God, called everlasting life, because they certainly land the soul in Heaven, and there is an infallible connection between true obedience and glory. Christ is a captain as well as a Savior, a king as well as a priest, and must be obeyed as well as believed in, Hebrews 5:9. They that would enter Heaven, but not by the way of obedience, must resolve to get in over the walls, but come not in by the door; that is, they shall never see it; "for without holiness no man shall see the Lord." We must follow the footsteps of our blessed Lord and the flock, who all entered Heaven this way; though in different respects, he by, and they in, obedience. Here then we must labor to enter, and it is not every sort of obedience that is the entry to Heaven. There must be labor, and it will cost true pains: 1. To fall upon the way of true obedience. For alas! many do much, but to no purpose. "The labor of the foolish wearies every one of them, because he knows not how to go to the city." It is not easy to fall on the way of universal obedience, to have respect to all God's commandments. How much labor do some take in running to sermons, communions, prayers, and yet still out of this way. Still it remains true, one thing he lacks. Someone or more lusts still keep their ground, though he makes them change their name, and calls them infirmities, while indeed they are reigning sins, because his heart is knit to them. So deceitful are our hearts, that we have great need to labor to fall on this way. "O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all your commandments."

Nor is it easy to fall on the way of gospel obedience. One man takes up himself when he comes to age, or to get a family. Another gets his conscience alarmed, and he can get no rest until he turn over a new leaf. Another has been under sore pangs and throws, but like Ishmael, he is born before the time of the promise, and his law wounds get a law plaster. And thus they hold on, seeking to enter Heaven by the gate of law obedience, which, like the east gate of the sanctuary, Ezekiel 44:2, is inaccessible. But we should labor to fall on the way of the gospel, where the wheels of the soul are oiled with love, Hebrews 6:10; and faith and a renewed heart are the springs of obedience, and the glory of God the chief end.

Again, it is not easy to hold on the way of obedience. Some seem to walk with Christ a while, who at last turn apostates, John 6:66. Some fall off into the ditch of profanity, others into formality. Sometimes they are sprightly professors, but at last, like worn out horses, they fall down in the way, serving for nothing but stumbling-blocks to the blind. Their hearts grow cold, their affections wither, their consciences become stupid, and at length they are cut off, and cast over the hedge. To hold on, then, in the way, is one thing for which we must labor; for while we are on it, we will have the wind in our face, and it will be much if we be not made either to sit down or go backward, and so create new work to ourselves.

Lastly, There is an entering into Heaven by actual possession, which in respect of our souls is at death, and in respect of our bodies will be at the resurrection, which is the full and final entry, to which all the rest are subservient. This entrance is that solemn entering into the king's palace, Psalm 45:15, which shall also be most joyful. "For the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." They shall have angels to carry their souls to Abraham's bosom, Luke 16:22, and shall enter Heaven as a bride going into the marriage chamber, Matthew 25:10, where the marriage shall be solemnized through all eternity. Then comes the time when the children of God, cast out of the earthly paradise by sin, enter the heavenly, when they shall bid farewell to the cottages of clay, and enter into the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Then these priests enter the holiest of all; come into their city, and their native country, and enter as heirs to their kingdom, their minority being over and past. We proceed,

III. To mention some steps in the way, by which we must labor to enter.

1. We must labor to get grace; this is the first step. "Let us have grace," says Paul, "whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." There is a ladder by which we must mount to Heaven. The black state of nature, is the ground on which all men were once standing; grace is the first remove, the first step of the ladder. The man has now no other power, but the power of nature, but hereby he ought to labor, to get grace. This is plain from Scripture, where the unregenerate are commanded "to make them a new heart," Ezekiel 18:31, "to circumcise themselves to the Lord," Jeremiah 4:4; Deuteronomy 10:16; "and to labor for the meat which endures to everlasting life." Though God's commands are not the measure of our strength, yet they are the measure of our duty.

This must needs be the first step; but many overlook this, and so lose all their pains. They endeavor to perform duties for salvation, but neither for grace, nor from grace. This makes all their attempts for Heaven vain and fruitless, for they still leave the soul in the same state of condemnation and enmity to God as before; for as they can never atone for one sin, so they can never mortify one lust; only grace can mortify corruption. It also makes their attempts faint and languid, and at last they are ready to give over. Duties never flow freely from that soul, where grace is not as a fountain to supply them. They are like the wick in the lamp, that burns away quickly, where there is no oil about it, Matthew 25; Job 27:10. Now to get up this step is not easy, there must be labor at it. It is a rising out of the grave; it is a casting off of nature, and getting on a new nature; it is a second birth, which will not be without pangs, and throws, and struggles.

OBJECTION. But we cannot work grace in ourselves.

ANSWER. Though you cannot sow the seed, yet you may prepare the ground, Jeremiah 4:3. You may examine your state; you may see you have no grace, yourself lost and undone without it, which may break and rend your hearts; and you may strongly desire it, and cry for it importunately, and never take rest until you get it; and when you are doing thus, God may do for you what you cannot do for yourselves, even he who is found of them that seek him not. But if you do not do thus, you will be condemned for contempt of grace, as well as for the want of it; and it will be a worm in your conscience in Hell, that you did not do what you might have done for the getting of grace, and that you began your work at the wrong end. It is true, we cannot say God has obliged himself to give grace to such, but there is a possibility of success, which in such a case must determine any man to the work that acts rationally, as in the case of the lepers at the gate of Samaria. There is a probability of it, also, from the merciful nature of God, his surprising souls with converting grace; and never was there any who were so taken up for grace, that ever we heard did not obtain it.

2. We must labor to exercise grace in the gracious performance of duties. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." As the former step sets us on the way, this carries us forward in it. It is not enough to get grace, but we must make use of it. Grace is an active principle. Some gracious souls fall asleep in the way, but they must awake, rise again, and fall to work. And to do this will cost labor and pains, for often the temper of the body is a great hindrance to the exercise of grace. Some have a cheerful, light temper to struggle with, so that it is hard for them to exercise godly sorrow; some a melancholy temper, so that it is hard for them to believe and rejoice in Christ; there is likewise always a mixture of the contrary corruption, which will be active in the soul: "For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that you cannot do the things that you would." Satan also is a great enemy to the exercise of grace, if he cannot kill the man he will endeavor to set him asleep.

A third step; growing in grace. This we must labor for. Grow in grace is the divine command. It is the Christian's great work to be going forward from strength to strength, still to be adding a cubit to his spiritual stature, until he come to the measure of a perfect man in Christ. This also will cost labor. It will not be easy to get a warmer love, stronger faith, deeper humility. This will require much traveling between Heaven and earth for supply; much watchfulness over what we have obtained. See how Paul expresses it under the notion of running a race, Philippians 3:13, 14.

A fourth step; assurance of grace and glory. For this we should labor. "Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure." This will enable us to say, "we know whom we have believed, and are persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him against that day." In this way we may also know the things freely given us of God. This will cost labor, even to climb up to this top of Pisgah, to get a sight of the land afar off. There must be pains here, to walk closely with God, examine our hearts, apply our case to the Scripture, and to wrestle for the testimony of the Spirit.

Lastly, Perseverance in grace to the end; for only such shall be saved. This will cost labor to hold out all the days of your life, and never to quit God's way while you live, but to live in the Lord always, until you come to die in him.

IV. I shall consider this laboring to enter, as it has a respect to our preparation for that eternal rest in Heaven.

The man that is to go abroad is a busy man, putting all things in order for his voyage; and he who is making for his night's rest in bed, is not idle; and he who is to enter into the possession of eternal rest, has much work on his hand preparatory thereto. And thus to labor to enter into the heavenly rest implies,

1. The solid faith of eternal life, even of this truth, "that there remains a rest for the people of God." He who is thus laboring, has a firm persuasion, that his rest is not here; but that he must go over Jordan, and that there is certainly a rest in the other world.

2. A sincere desire to be partaker of that rest, after this troublesome life is over. He is one that looks for Christ's appearance, and waits until his change come, earnestly desiring to be admitted into that rest.

3. Resolute endeavors to enter there, by God's own way, which has already been described.

4. Frequent thoughts of that eternal rest. It is often in his mind. He looks on himself as a pilgrim and stranger, and one posting away to his unalterable state. Thus the man is put on to make all ready for that voyage. Now if we would do this, we must,

1. Labor to get our hearts more and more loosed from sin. Heaven's gate is strait, it will not take in a man with a burden of sin upon his back. A camel may as soon go through the eye of a needle, as a man with a load of unmortified corruption on his back enter Heaven. If it be on his back, yet if it be loose, it will then fall off, and he will get in; like Joseph, he will escape, leaving his mantle behind him, which hangs loose on his shoulders. Sin is fastened in our souls by nature, as with bands of iron and brass. Converting grace looses it at the root, but it must be loosed more and more, by the daily practice of mortification. "For if you live after the flesh, you shall die; but if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live."

2. We must labor to keep a pure conscience. "And herein," said Paul, "do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence, toward God, and toward men." As a man will labor to have his accounts cleared, and to lay down a way for the payment of his debts, who is to go off the country, never to return. The want of this, makes many of God's children to cry that death would not sist execution. For, as the man whose stomach is gnawing with hunger, is not meet to go to bed; so the man whose conscience is oppressed with guilt, is not meet for entering into the rest of Heaven. This will be a continual labor to you. Two things are to be done for this purpose: 1. You must labor to keep yourselves from all sin, so far as is possible. 2. Because it is impossible to keep from it perfectly, therefore you must be making continual recourse to the blood of Christ. Make particular application for those sins that wound the conscience, and for daily infirmities that are past knowledge or counting. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God."

3. Labor to keep waking and waiting for your transportation into that rest, Luke 12:35–37. The elect of God are not fit for that rest, while they lie with the world in wickedness, therefore God sends them converting grace; he makes a stir in their souls, that they cannot rest, until they have some evidence that Christ is theirs. But ordinarily, after this they fall asleep, Matthew 25:5; therefore there is a new labor to get out of this security. The day was, when you could not sleep without some evidence of the Lord's love; but now you think the main work is done, and you have yet much time, so are not waiting. O! but a surprise in this matter is heavy; if death finds you asleep when it comes and arrests you on a bed, you may be saved, yet so as by fire. Labor, therefore, with old Simeon, to wait for the consolation of Israel, and then you shall meet death with a song. "Lord, now let you your servant depart in peace, according to your word." Waiting for this rest has a twofold advantage. It makes a man diligent in making all ready for his departure. The wise virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. They that have truly learned to number their days, will apply their hearts unto wisdom. The servant that is thinking his Lord delays his coming, will eat and drink with the drunken. Again, this waiting makes a man welcome the grim messenger, and embrace death in his arms, Job 14:14, 15. So that though nature cannot but shiver at the first sight of such an enemy to nature; yet faith beholding its commission, will salute it with old Simeon, Luke 2:29. The soul will see Christ at the back of the messenger, and so say, "This is our God, we have waited for him."

4. To keep up communion with God in duties, and in the constant course of our lives. This is to have a Heaven on earth. "Our conversation is in Heaven." The philosophers say well, that happiness consists in operation. Heaven is not a rest in idleness, but a working rest. We should then labor to inure ourselves to the work which we are to have above. In this world, we are as it were apprentices at the trade of communion with God, that when our time is out, we may set up in the New Jerusalem; for there is working, "there they rest not day nor night." There remains, says the apostle, Hebrews 4:9, a rest; the keeping of a Sabbath, which is no idle day to those that are spiritual. Here is work for you; you have your trial-piece to make, O Christians! Try now the singing of one of Zion's songs in a strange land.

5. To get our hearts weaned from the world. The man that is going abroad, he is busy taking leave of his friends. Christ has given you the first call already, that you may take leave of them all. "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me, from Lebanon." Let it not then be to do, when the next call comes. When the corn forsakes the ground, it is ready for the book; and when the apple is ripe, a little shake makes it with ease fall from the tree. It will not be easy to get our hearts weaned from the world, for we are born with it in our hearts. Only sovereign grace can make such an earthquake in the soul as will shake it out. Labor to be loosed even from lawful enjoyments, to be crucified to them, Galatians 6:14; and while you use them, do it with fear, like the dogs of Egypt, who, when they come to the Nile, lap their water, running for fear of the crocodiles in the river.

6. Labor to dispatch the work of your day and generation with all speed. There is a twofold work we have to do. 1. Our salvation work. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." This must be dispatched. Of this we have spoken before. 2. The work of our day and generation, Acts 13:36. The former respects our eternal salvation, the latter God's glory in the world; the first for ourselves, the next for God. To every one God has carved out a certain piece of work, which should be performed before working time be done, Ecclesiastes 9:10. The apostle sets this work before you. "As we have therefore opportunity," says he, "let us do good unto all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith." Are you a parent, then bestir yourselves in time for your children, that they may be the Lord's. Are you a master of a family; can you do anything for the church of God? does God put any opportunity of doing him service in your hand? then dispatch your work. Before long the opportunity may be taken out of your hand; and it is an unworthy thing for a man to say, I was not aware of this, as many do in a dying hour.

7. Labor to die daily. "I die daily," said Paul. We should as it were habituate ourselves to dying, and be frequently making an essay of dying. This was Job's practice, Job 17:13, 14. Ask yourselves what you would do, if you were just to expire; and do the same. A Christian should be frequently making his testament. When you go to a duty, do it as if it were the last you were ever to do on earth. When you awake in the morning, do as if you were to have the grave for your next bed; and when you lie down at night, so compose yourselves as if you were never to awaken more. So it may be.

8. Labor to get your hearts made willing to die, and to long to be partaker of that rest. "I am," says Paul, "in a strait between two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." For this you must labor, it is not easy to attain it. A fit of passion indeed, may make some desire to be gone, as Jonah; but soon would they shrink back, should the Lord take them at their word. But would you be thus willing, then labor to lay all your cares on the Lord by faith, and to trust him with your worldly concerns, Philippians 4:6; Jeremiah 49:11. Faith makes the soul rest in God, in midst of perplexing difficulties. You must also keep up due thoughts of the body of sin and death. Keep its ugliness ever in your eye, this will make you long to be rid of it, Romans 7:24; and truly, none fitter for rest than that soul that is groaning under the body of death. Labor also to taste the sweetness of the enjoyment of God by faith. The more that a soul gets of this, the more it would have. These heavenly influences carry the soul heavenward. Finally, clearness as to your interest in Christ, is a noble preparative for that rest, and to make us willing to depart. Here is work enough for you; and when you have done it, you will find you have done nothing more than was necessary. We now go on to the

III. General head. To show how we should labor. The apostle tells us, that a man is not crowned except he strive lawfully. Great labor may be to no purpose.

1. We should labor willingly and cheerfully. "You, Lord, meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways." God loves a cheerful giver. When people do nothing in religion, but as reluctant slaves from the force of the whip, it is very unacceptable to God. His people are a willing people, and he cares not for forced work, when the hands work without the heart. If people work not willingly here, where will they do it? It is for your own salvation you are working. God is a good master. Christ's yoke is an easy yoke to a renewed heart. "His commandments are not grievous" to those who obey them from love. Get then the new nature, and then this work will be natural and easy to you, as streams flow easily from a fountain.

2. Diligently. "The soul of the diligent shall be made fat." The slothful man is the waster's brother. How busy will a man be to gain something of the world; he will rise early, and sit up late. How busy is the devil to prevent our entrance into that rest, and shall we not be diligent that we may enter. Consider well the eyes of the great Master are upon you, for he is every where present. He sees you in the church, in the closet, in the family, and in all places, Psalm 139:7–10.

3. Labor with all your might, Ecclesiastes 9:10. We have a great work to do. Feeble attempts will not accomplish it. It is requisite that we summon together all the powers of our souls. The iron is blunt, we must wield it with more strength. He who asks a thing coldly, courts a denial; and he who works carelessly, and faintly here, portends want of success.

4. Resolutely; like Jacob, who would not let the angel go until he blessed him. We labor for what we cannot want, and therefore must put on a resolution to face, and to run through all difficulties. "The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." "Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has, will he give for his life." The Israelites when they heard of the Anakim in Canaan, their hearts fainted, they were discouraged, therefore they never saw the land; only Caleb and Joshua, who followed the Lord fully, were allowed to enter.

5. Constantly. "The righteous shall hold on his way, and he who has clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger." "We must be steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." We must not take our work by fits and starts; that is the thing which makes it so uneasy to many; whereas constancy would make it easy to us, and uneasy to be out of this work. Hot and cold fits are signs of a distempered body, so unsteadiness in religion is an evidence that all is not right within. This warfare and work is for term of life. "No man that puts his hand to the plough and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God." "For if any man draw back," says God, "my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Deserters are shamefully and severely punished, when prisoners of war are honorably entertained. We are laboring against the stream, and therefore cannot intermit our work without loss. "Look then to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward."

6. With fear and trembling, Philip. 2:12. Keep a holy dread, and reverential fear of God always on your spirits. Fear him as a witness to all you do. He sees what, and how you do. He must be a bold servant indeed, that will neglect his work, or go about it slightly, while his master's eye is upon him. Fear him also, as him from whom you have all your ability for working, lest he should be provoked to withdraw his influences from you. And fear him as your judge, who will one day reward you according to your works. Remember your work will be brought to light, and what you do will be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary.

7. Quickly; without delay, for you know not how soon your sun may go down. "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night comes when no man can work." Your glass is running, and if your time be done before your work, it will be a heavy case.

8. You must refuse no piece of work which God puts into your hands. "Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all your commandments." Many are like servants who, when they are hired, will promise to do all things; but when it comes to the push, the sluggard will not plough because of the cold. You must not carve out your own work, but let Christ carve it out for you, saying, "Lord, what will you have me to do?"

Lastly, Evangelically; which comprehends the acting from a principle of a new life of grace, called the life of Jesus, 2 Corinthians 4:10. Next a sweet principle of love to God, "For the love of Christ," says Paul, "constrains us." Again it comprehends a noble end, the glory of God, the honor of the Redeemer, the glory of his grace, and our own salvation. Finally, A doing of all in borrowed strength, leaning upon our beloved, and denying ourselves. "For we, as Christians, must be the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." We proceed,

IV. To show that we must labor in order to our entering into that rest. I shall evidence this by these considerations following:

1. Consider the several notions under which the Christian's life and the way to Heaven is held forth, all of them implying true pains and labor. It is a working, John 6:27, "Labor not for the meat that perishes." (Greek,) "work." Here he who works not, shall not eat. Yes, it is a working out of our own salvation; a bringing the work to perfection, otherwise what is done will be lost, 2 John 8. It is compared to the work of the gardener, which you know is not easy, ploughing, sowing, reaping, Hosea 10:12, especially considering that they are both the laborers, and the ground that is labored. The Christian is a spiritual soldier, he must fight, 2 Timothy 4:7; yes, and overcome, Revelation 3:21. Heaven has a strait gate by which to enter in, and therefore cannot be entered with ease. Men must press into it, Luke 16:16; and take it by storm; yes put forth their utmost strength as they that are agonizing. Luke 13:24, as wrestling upon life and death. They have a wrestling life of it, Ephesians 6:12, such as makes all the body to shake again. It is a real fight, 1 Corinthians 9:26. It is the running of a race, Hebrews 12:1; which requires patience and perseverance, and great eagerness; for they must so run as to obtain the prize. They must pursue holiness, Hebrews 12:14; as one that earnestly follows a person flying until he catch him; or that pursues the prey, until he seize it. The apostle says, 2 Corinthians 5:9, we labor; the word signifies to labor most earnestly, as an ambitious man for honor; and what will not such do, to gain their point?

2. Consider how the way to Heaven was typified under the Old Testament. Canaan was a type of Heaven, and to what labor were the Israelites put, before they could reach that land, though it was promised to them. This I take to be aimed at in our text. Many a bloody battle they fought, before they got possession. Many a temptation and trial they met with, that laid many of them by. The taking of the castle of Zion, 2 Sam, 5:6. Another eminent type of it, was the ascent into the temple, which was seated upon a hill, even Mount Moriah, 1 Kings 10:5. Many a weary step had some of them before they got to Jerusalem, Psalm 84:6, 7; and when they came there, they had to ascend unto the hill of God, Psalm 24:3, the mount of the Lord's house, a type of Heaven. What a wrestling had Jacob, before he got the blessing, Genesis 32; and wherefore this, but to teach us what we have to do, Hosea 12:4.

3. Consider how the Scripture supposes this labor. In that the Christian is held forth as a man lying groaning under a heavy burden, Romans 7:24; and can such an one be at ease. Again it exhorts us not to weary and faint, Galatians 6:5; what need of this, if we must not labor? It prescribes remedies against these, and directs us "to consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we be wearied and faint in our minds." It also calls upon us to increase our stock, which will not be done by idleness. "Occupy until I come." We are also promised strength for working, Isaiah 40:29–31. Finally, Heaven is held forth to us as a reward; a reward not for, but according to, our works. "Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ."

4. Consider how the Scripture represents the sluggard and his temper to us, as most hateful to God, and as one that is lost by his sloth, Proverbs 13:4; 20:4; and 21:25. The sluggard is the unprofitable servant, Matthew 25:26–30. He is unprofitable to himself, unprofitable to his master, as neglecting his two great works above mentioned. Mark his sentence, he loved darkness to sleep in it. He shall have enough, for his portion shall be in outer darkness. For carnal mirth, he shall have weeping and wailing. He would not plough because of the cold. In Hell he shall have it so, as he shall gnash his teeth.

5. Whom God intends for Heaven, in them he puts an active principle of grace. It is as natural for grace to bring forth good works, as for a good fruit tree to bring forth good fruit. True grace will not hide, more than a fountain, which if it be stopped at one place, will find vent at another. The Spirit is in believers, as a well of living waters, springing up to everlasting life. Therefore, if you think to be saved without laboring, conclude you shall be saved without grace. If you cannot be saved without grace, no more can you without laboring.

Lastly, To enter Heaven without labor is a contradiction; and so impossible. Heaven is a reward, and necessarily pre-supposes working. Moreover, it is a rest which is a relative term, and has necessarily labor pre-supposed to it. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." Heaven cannot be Heaven to idlers, for it cannot be a rest to them. The word in the text signifies a ceasing or desisting, therefore they must be laboring before. It is the keeping of a sabbath that remains to the people of God; therefore there must be working through the week of our life. Let us now,

V. Show why we must labor in this spiritual work, in order to our entering Heaven. Negatively; not because by works we must merit Heaven, for the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our working is the way to the kingdom; not the cause of our reigning; Christ's working was that. Men lose their labor, while they offer it to God as their righteousness. The price of Heaven, to them that will buy it for themselves, is perfect obedience; according to the King's book of rates. "If you will enter into life, keep the commandments." Now we can never make up this sum, unless we can satisfy for bygone sins, and perfectly obey for the time to come. But we must labor, because,

1. It is the command of our great Lord and Master, whose command we are not to dispute, but to obey. "Why call you me," says he, "Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? A son honors his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a Father, where is mine honor? and if I be a Master, where is my fear?" In whatever state man be, he is still a creature, and as a creature owes obedience to his Creator. Though you have shot the gulf, as to condemnation, yet you are still under his law. The queen is on the right hand; but she is standing, in token of subjection to him as her Lord, Psalm 45:9.

2. The glory of God requires it. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." Now his glory is our chief end, 1 Corinthians 10:31. Our souls and bodies are his, and therefore ought to be employed in his service. It glorifies God before the world, when a man is at all pains to get there, where God has his throne. The way that we glorify God, is by declaring his perfections before the world. Now God has stamped his image on the gracious soul; but this is hid, until, by good works in the life, it be displayed. And moreover, the laborious Christian glorifies God, in so far as, by his course of life, men know what a God he is, whom he serves. His carefulness to get on Christ's righteousness, shows him a just God; the Christian fleeing from sin, preaches God's holiness; and his secret conscientious walk speaks God's omniscience and omnipresence.

3. Because there is an infallible connection between laboring and the rest. Laboring is the only way we can attain it. There is no reaching the treasure of glory without digging for it. "If we live after the flesh, we shall die;" "and without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." If men must have yet a little sleep, outer darkness will be their landing place. Heaven is a place of rest for laborers, not for loiterers. By an eternal decree, this is the fixed way to Heaven. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works; which God has before ordained, that we should walk in them." Good works are the seed, after which only we can expect the harvest of glory, Galatians 6:7, 8; and laboring must needs go before a reward.

4. Because otherwise, we pour contempt on the heavenly rest. It was the sin of the Israelites, Psalm 106:24, 25. This rest is God's special mansion house; the palace of the great King, purchased by the blood of the Son; the place for which the Holy Spirit prepares souls. If we labor not for it, this says we think it not worth the pains. How will men labor for the things of the world, yet will not be at pains for Heaven. Is not this a real preferring of the world to that glory? Mark the apostle's exhortation, Heb 12:14, 15; with the reason of it, verse 16.

5. Because it is difficult work you have to do, and therefore we should set ourselves to laboring, for it is heart work. Much of religion is inwardly, and the heart must be brought up to every piece of work; and none ever tried that, but must say it is indeed difficult. Again, it is work in which you have all that you did before to undo. Sinner, what have you been doing, but laboring to keep yourself out of that rest? You have been platting cords to bind yourself in the pit. You have been weaving your whole life into one web of sin. Now you must open all out again, by repentance and fleeing to Christ. Besides it is a work in which you must undo; for there are that labor to keep you out of that rest, the devil, the world, and your own corrupt hearts.

Now for APPLICATION.—I exhort you in the words of the text, "Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest." Old and young, we would call you here to your work. This is a great purpose, on which we would insist; and to make way for what is to be said to stir you up, I would lay some evidences before you to show that there is little of this laboring among us.

1. Infrequency in the duties of religion. Many live utter strangers to the duty of prayer, particularly in secret. These that are praying persons, how easily are they satisfied; maybe once a day, maybe twice, though God put other opportunities in their hands. Religion is their least work, not their business.

2. The unconcerned way of performing duties. How dead and cold are we for the most part, in the duties of religion. In hearing, though our ears be open, our hearts are shut; in prayer, the heart leaves the tongue. We pray as if we cared not whether we be heard or not. Duties are rather managed as a task, than as a privilege. How few labor wrestling for the blessing, and are afterwards concerned to know how they succeed?

3. The want of desire after the heavenly rest. Rest is sweet to the laboring man. Will not the traveler desire the place to which he is going, and the laboring man desire his rest. And so will the Christian; his treasure is in Heaven, and his heart will be there also. But alas! the language of the hearts of many is, with that profane cardinal, who said he would give up his part in paradise for certain specified enjoyments on earth. No doubt many would make a bargain with God on lower terms, and let him keep his Heaven to himself, so that he would permit them to live on this earth, and shift for themselves.

4. The little appetite after spiritual food. Laboring men can readily take their meat, their work gives them an appetite; and so the man that is laboring to enter will desire the influences of grace, the communications of the Spirit, and fellowship with Christ, that he may be the better fitted for his work. And so his work is to be frequently drawing strength from the fountain of it. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

5. The little progress that the most make in the way to Heaven. Alas! some are gone backward, and are fallen from their first love. Many are like the door on the hinges, still where it was some years ago. How few are there, that are adding a cubit to their spiritual stature? And are these laboring to enter, who are never a whit farther forward than they were? Surely continual dropping wears the rock, and labor overcomes all difficulties. For motives to this labor take the following:

MOTIVE 1. Consider that in other things you do not refuse to labor. You are not such as live idle and at ease. Now God is putting a piece of work in your hands; will you labor for others, but not for him?

1. Consider the work and labor which you have for your livelihood. You are not as many; who sit down to eat and drink, and then rise up to play. No; in the sweat of your brows you earn your bread. When you have wrought to weariness, all has enough to do to procure you a maintenance, though coarse; and within a little you shall die, and that body for which you labor will molder into pieces of dust; and of all your labors you shall carry nothing hence, Ecclesiastes 5:15.

But ah! may not many say, they have made me keeper of another's vineyard, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. I have been busy laboring the ground, but mine own heart has been neglected; I have been wearied cutting down the harvest of others, but as yet mine own seed for glory is not sown. I have managed a house, but neglected mine own soul. I have toiled these many years for my body, but neglected my soul. And what wisdom is in this? For consider, 1. The body is mortal, your soul is immortal. Were you to die like a beast, you might live like a beast, and only eat, drink, sleep, and work. But you have an immortal soul, that will live when your body dies. It will be vigorous when your tongue begins to faulter, and your breath comes to take its last farewell; and will be going to the judgment when your friends are closing your eyes, and preparing for your burial. Will you then labor for the body, and not for the soul?

2. Your soul craves far more than your body. While the body is active, a little will serve it for food and clothing; and after death, a small piece of ground, which none will grudge it. But the soul cannot be so easily satisfied. Nothing less than an infinite good can satisfy the soul. He was a fool indeed, who spoke of his soul, as of his swine, saying, "Soul, you have goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Nothing but the eternal enjoyment of God can satisfy the soul, that is the only breast that can stay this hungry child.

3. Your soul is of far more worth than the body. Is a spiritual substance to be laid in the balance with a piece of dust? The soul is the diamond in the ring, the jewel in the cabinet. To lose the soul by caring for the body, is to lose the foot to save the shoe, Matthew 16:26. What a poor bargain had Judas of his thirty pieces! And what a poor bargain have they at death who, like the spider, work out their affections, and in a moment they and their labors are swept away into darkness!

4. The true way to care for the body, is to labor for the soul. Were there no resurrection of the body, the course of the world were more tolerable; but now they do quite mistake the point; for caring thus for the body at the neglect of the soul, they do but fatten the body for the day of slaughter; laying it down full of sin, to be raised full of wrath, for fuel to God's vengeance. In this sense, that is true, which we have Matthew 10:39; "He who finds his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake shall find it." But would we labor for our souls, we should then lay up for our bodies, Philippians 3:19–21. Make these reflections when you are at your labor.

5. We are all laborious creatures. The greatest idler on earth is in some respect busy. When your hands are doing nothing, yet your hearts are busy. Our life is nothing but a continued succession of actions, as the fire continually burns, and the rivers continually run. Now God does not require of us to do more work, but only other work. To do more than we do is in some sense impossible, for we are ever doing. The soul of man is like a watch, where the wheels go as fast when it moves falsely, as when it goes true. Seeing then we are ever traveling, why may we not rather hold the King's highway, than be wandering, as the blind, hither and thither.

6. While we labor not to enter into this rest, we are laboring about trifles; like Martha, we are careful and troubled about many things; and like Ephraim, feeding on the wind, and following after the east wind. What are riches, but the name of nothing, Proverbs 23:5. Honors, but as a fair bubble that children blow up. In all which, we but load ourselves with thick clay; and when we come to cast up our accounts we may say, "We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind." And we answer Solomon's question with shame and blushing, "What profit has he who has labored for the wind?" What a fool was he who pretended to lead out an army to fight the enemy, and all he did was to make them gather shells by the sea-side? What a fool was he who busied himself catching flies, while he should have minded the affairs of the empire. Laborious idleness, and solemn trifling, are very unfitting a Christian.

MOTIVE 2. Your profession and your vows call upon you to labor to enter. You have been professing yourselves believers in Christ, and followers of him. You are therefore called upon "to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold upon eternal life."

You were professing your union and communion with Christ, and therefore labor to enter his rest. The head is gone to Heaven, why will not the members labor to follow? Idle members, or such as trifle away their time, are very unsuitable to a head that labored so hard for their salvation. There is sap in the vine; must the branches hang on it withered, shall they not bring forth fruit? If not, take heed you be not lopped off, and cast over the hedge. Show your faith by your works, your union with Christ by your spiritual labor. You were professing your near and special relation to him. Are you Christ's children, then mind you are to labor, for he brings up no idlers. The heathens exposed those children that they judged would not be useful for the commonwealth. Christ's spouse must labor to be with her husband, else she gives a shrewd sign of a whorish heart. His servants must all labor, and his soldiers must fight for the kingdom above.

You professed your turning your back on the world and your lusts. What must you do then, but labor to enter into that rest; and as you were called, so to come away with him. Will you look back again to the flesh-pots of Egypt? Know what a look cost Lot's wife. Have you set your face towards Canaan, and will you not labor to enter there?

You were at a spiritual feast; you have got your meal to fit you for your work; then up and be doing. The Passover was eaten by the Israelites with their loins girded, and their staves in their hands, as ready to go forward; so ought it to be with us. He feeds his people, not for slaughter, but for work. There is a banner in Christ's banqueting-house, that the guests may know their work which they have to do.

You were getting a full covenant sealed, influences of grace, strength against corruption, all confirmed to you. It is but a mock if you labor not, and so improve them. Why went you to seek strength, if you intend not to use it? What need have you of influences if you mind not to go in the strength of them?

You were devoting yourselves to the Lord; you have lifted up your hands to the Lord, and you cannot go back. If you do, God will abhor you, the devil will find you more work than before, and you will be a reproach to religion, and you will never sin at so cheap a rate as before.

MOTIVE 3. Your time is short; before long, all of us shall be in an unalterable state. By the course of nature, some are at the borders of the grave, many in their, declining state; to all of us our time is uncertain, for graves of all sizes are in the churchyard. One generation passes away, another comes in its stead. There is room enough in the earth, notwithstanding of the vast numbers that came to it before us. Every child that is born, comes to us with a warning away, telling us to provide our lodging elsewhere. Death will neither be boasted nor bribed. Our life is a vapor, our days a shadow, an handbreadth, soon passed over, yes a mere nothing. Is our time short, then it will soon be over, and therefore,

We must labor now or never. The night comes, in which no man can work. Time for working will soon be gone, how can we be at ease, while so much of our time is past, and so little of our work done? Yet are not there many on whom the shadows of the evening are begun to be stretched out, and yet they know not where they will take up their eternal lodging?

Before long our labor will be over, and we will come to that eternal rest. If the work be hard, yet it is not long. He who is tired with his journey, will recover his spirits, when he sees he is near the end of it; and the shadows of the evening make the laborer work heartily, knowing that it will soon be done. The apostle tells us, our afflictions are but short, our weeping is but for a moment. For yet a little while, and the laughter of fools, which is but as the crackling of thorns under a pot, will go away in a blaze, and the sorrows and labors of the Lord's people will be at an end. The watchmen will be called in from the posts, the soldiers will lay by their swords and put on their crowns, and the laborers will bid an eternal farewell to their painful labors, and enjoy their reward.

I add, that in some sort, less pains will serve in religion to save you, than men take in sin to damn them. For consider, religion contracts our work, it brings it to one thing, Psalm 27:4; Luke 10:41, 42. Sinners have the devil, the world, and the flesh, to please. The work of religion also is of a piece. Sin not so. All the graces of the Spirit go together in sweet harmony, but our lusts are quite contrary to one another; and as they war against grace, so they war among themselves; so that the sinner is dragged by one lust one way, by another another way. And how uneasy is it to work to different masters. This is what sinners do, and only religion can give ease here.

MOTIVE 4. Your time is uncertain, as well as short. We have no security of life, but are tenants-at-will; when the Lord may call us away we know not, Matthew 25:44, 46. A moment's delay here, may be an eternal loss. What an unsure thing is life to depend upon! How many have projected great things to be done in the time to come; but death has come unlooked for, and that day their thoughts have perished. What remains, but that we should quickly set ourselves to work, and with all diligence hold at it.

MOTIVE 5. The devil is busy to keep you out of that rest. He goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Though you be idle, he is not idle. He is an industrious adversary. He will be careful to put other work in your hand, and to suit his temptations to your corrupt inclinations. If he can keep you out of Heaven, and accomplish your ruin, he will do it. He is an enemy that wants not skill to contrive means for your ruin. He has had several thousand years' experience of the art of ruining souls. He wants not malice enough to make him act vigorously; and he has plenty of cunning to deceive. His power is great, but limited. He may be counteracted, but it will cost labor. By the shield of faith properly wielded, "We shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." Learn then of the devil the worth of your souls.

MOTIVE 6. You have weighty calls to this work and labor.

1. You have the call of the word and ordinances. Wherefore has the Lord sent you his gospel, but for this end. Does a master light a candle for his servants to play themselves? God has lighted his candle among you. The work of ministers is to call you to labor for the salvation of your souls. You are not shut up in the dark, nor muffled up in clouds of error and ignorance. The darkness is over, the light is come; the night is over, the day breaks, and the sun is up; be not then as the beasts, but quit yourselves as men, Psalm 104:22, 23.

2. You have the call of providence. What may be the conduct of providence towards each of you in particular, you ought to observe. I dare not but say, that the dispensation of providence towards this congregation at this time, calls us to stir up ourselves and to set about our work. The state of affairs also, in this land at this day, has a loud call to us. Many are afraid of a stroke to these nations; and while such great affairs are in agitation, it is unaccountable to be idle and unconcerned.

3. The call of conscience. It is scarcely to be supposed, that men who live under such gospel light as we do, but that sometimes they have their convictions, when even heathens have theirs, Romans 2:14, 15. Does not conscience often tell the sluggard, that a little more sleep may be fatal to him. O hear the excitements of your conscience to duty, that you may not have to endure its gnawings.

Lastly, If you labor not, you will never see Heaven. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Here consider, that without laboring, you will not be meet for it. In Heaven there is eternal work; you should inure yourselves to it then, while on earth. "They rest not there day and night." How uneasy it is for a man to work who has spent most of his days in idleness; and how unfit are idlers for Heaven; and unless you be meet for it, there you cannot come. God makes his people "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Consider also, that falling short of Heaven is certainly getting Hell. There is no middle place. Now who can dwell with everlasting burnings? O how dreadful will the thoughts of slighted salvation be to the damned?

OBJECTION 1. I am but young, it is time enough. ANSWER. Begin when you will, you will find work enough to occupy all your days. Youth is the best time for that great work; and sure I am, it is far more reasonable to give the best of our days to God than to the devil. But there are graves of all sizes. You know not if ever you shall be old. If you get not something of religion when you are young, seeing you are brought up under a gospel ministry, it will be a thousand to one if you get anything of it when you are old. If you should get it then, you will have but little time to serve the Lord, and little strength for that little time.

2. Some say they are old now, and are not able. ANSWER. Consider how you have spent your former days. Some never minded God nor religion while strength lasted, and now strength is gone in a great measure; you have the more need now to be at pains, "lest you shall lie down in the dust, with your bones full of the sins of your youth." As for those that formerly have been at pains, beware that you think not that is enough. To you Jesus says, "Be you faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life." None are excepted from labor that will enter; and put the case that your temporal life were lying at the stake, what would you do? But it is the least part of religion that consists in bodily exercise, the most weighty and important part of it consists in soul exercise.

3. Some say they have another thing to mind. They have an ill world to wrestle with, and have much ado to get through it, and obtain a livelihood. ANSWER. It will be sad to wrestle with the world here, and with the wrath of God hereafter. Have you not a soul to wrestle for? Alas! many do in this, as some who, when a house is on fire, to save their clothes, they lose their lives. That is the wrong way to get a through bearing. The safest way is to labor for your souls, and trust to God for your bodies. In this way "bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure." "For godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." You that are servants, will work your master's work, and trust that he will pay you what he has promised; why do you not work God's work, and trust his promise as much?

4. Some say they do indeed resolve to be laborious Christians after this.

ANSWER. Is this work so easy, that you will needs have it to be harder, before you put hand to it. Assure yourselves, the longer you delay, you will find the harder work of it. The devil comes alone at first, at length his name is legion; and it is always hard to turn out old possessors. Sin is like waters, the farther from the head the greater they grow, as Ezekiel 47:3–5. But again, you are not sure that you shall see another day. We are agreed about the necessity of laboring; the only thing is, God says do it now; you say you will do it afterwards; but the time to come is not yours. "Repent," said the Jewish doctors, "only one day before your death." It is wisely said then, "Repent this day; for it may be you shall die tomorrow." Once more, God's grace is not at your disposal, for the outward call may cease, or it may grow more faint. Conscience and the motions of the Spirit may cease; and if all should continue, you cannot assure yourselves of grace to close with them after this moment.

5. Others say, the business is not so great but it may be soon done; it is but to cry to God for mercy, to believe and repent, and we may do that on a death-bed.

ANSWER. How do you know that you shall get a death-bed, that you shall not in a moment drop down into the pit? Are there not some so suddenly snatched away, that if a bare cry for mercy would save them, they cannot have opportunity for it. But if they should get leave to cry, it is not so easily got, Luke 13:24. Again, do you think believing and repenting so easy? Then I say, why do you not believe and repent now? Will you not please God in a thing you can so easily do? If you will not do for God what you think you can do so easily, what confidence can you have to look for his favor. Again, I think common sense should teach men at least once to try that on which they mind to venture their eternal state, which if it misgive they eternally perish. If a man were to be let down a steep rock upon a rope, would he not first try if it would bear his weight? Will you then try faith and repentance; and if you have that faith and repentance, that will secure your souls, they will put you on laboring. But it is not so easy to get them as you suppose. True faith and repentance are above nature's reach, Ephesians 1:19, 20; Acts 4:34. When conscience is awakened, though it is easy now for some to presume, yet then it is not, as we see in Judas. The blind mole, when dying, may recover its sight. Do you not observe that a death-bed has oft enough to do with itself? Are not some persons taken away in the rage of a fever, deprived of their senses? Is it time to turn to God, when you cannot turn yourself on your bed; or to secure your soul, when every member of your body is pained.

6. Some say all this is needless, for they have no power in themselves to do anything.

ANSWER. Wicked men do but mock us in making this objection, for they think not as they speak. To evince this, tell me, did you never resolve to labor? Had you never in all your life one serious thought concerning your souls? Did you never put off the motious of the Spirit with delays? Wherefore do you lean to your own works? Again, no man does all he can, or is able to do. There are many things you are able to do without special saving grace, and yet you will not do them. Does the devil beat drums in your ears while you are hearing the word, that you cannot listen to it, nor apply it? Does he hold fast your doors, and bind you to one another, that you cannot go alone, and meditate on it? Does he forcibly stretch out your legs, and lay a band on your tongues, that you cannot bow a knee to God, nor cry to him for your souls? Do then what you are able, and look to God for grace, and never rest satisfied until he has put you on the way of laboring. Would a master take this for an excuse from his servant, that he has no power to work until God act and move him? Why this is a most certain truth. Yet he must set himself to it, and look to God for his concurrence. Upon the whole then, let me charge your consciences with that word, Why stand you here all the day idle?

7. Some say there are but few at such pains about religion, and these are a crowd of mean people.

ANSWER. These might be just prejudices against religion, if Christ had not foretold that it would be so, Matthew 7:13, 14; Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 1:26, 27. But I had better go to Heaven with the poorest on earth, than to Hell with nobles, rich men, and the greatest wits of the age. If the Scripture be true, it is but few that will be saved. This work honors any man, but no man can honor it.

Now to make this labor easy to you, I would recommend,

1. To keep the encouragements to the work in your eye; particularly such as these, the example of these that have gone before you, and have got safe to the journey's end. These have made it appear the work is possible, and the reward certain. You are not the first that have taken Heaven by storm. There is a cloud of witnesses before you. Again, that God accepts of sincere obedience, though the work be not perfect; if the workman be so, that is sincere, the Lord accepts the work. "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not." Now that heart is sincere, where there is not an allowance of any known sin. Another encouragement is, the help promised and ready for those that sincerely labor. "It is God that works in them, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." If you do the things that please him, you are not alone, he is with you. There is also the great reward that is promised; and we are to have "respect unto the recompense of reward." It is no wonder people labor for a rewarding God, whose hands are as full of rewards as his mouth of commands.

2. Live by faith. Faith has a mighty influence on our laboring. Faith entitles us to that rest, and faith brings supplies for that labor from the Mediator. It provides for all the rest of the graces of the Spirit. A faith of the principles of religion, and a faith relying on the Mediator, are most useful.

3. Labor to get and keep up love to Christ. Love is the loadstone of obedience. It makes everything easy for the attaining of what is beloved, as in Jacob's love to Rachel.

4. Look upon that laboring as your interest, as well as your duty. Duty, considered as a mere task, is a weary business. O wonder that there is a possibility of entering that rest, and that you may in such a way attain to it.

Lastly, Be constant in that labor. The great uneasiness flows from the interruptions in that work. To stand still is to backslide, and produces a new work to make up our lost ground, and constancy creates easiness; what is at first hard, by continued custom becomes easy.

DOCTRINE II. That Heaven is a rest into which, those that now labor for it shall be received. I have several times had occasion to discourse of Heaven. I will at present only point at a few things.

I. In what respect Heaven is a rest?

1. It is a rest from sin. Sin is a toil to a gracious soul. Satan often gets God's children set to his work now; but were they once there, they shall sin no more, for the spirits of just men are made perfect. They shall then be freed from all commission of sin, from the indwelling of it, inclination to it, yes, or possibility of it.

2. From all misery, outward or inward; no pain nor sickness; the poor shall be as easy there as the rich; no desertion, nor hidings of God's face. The wrath to come shall not come near their dwelling.

3. From the works of their wilderness state. They shall not be put to gather the manna in societies for prayer, or in public ordinances; but they shall be fed to the full with the product of the land falling into their mouths without toil; no prayers, mourning self-examination, nor mortification there. Faith gives place to sight, and hope to fruition.

4. It is a rest, in that it is the fulfillment of all the desires of the soul. There they shall have the perfect enjoyment of God, and uninterrupted communion with him. This is the point to which the soul inclines; as the needle in the compass, to the north. Until it comes there, it is restless; but when there, it rests; for he is the ultimate end, and it can go no farther. The soul can understand, will, desire, no more. "Whom have I in Heaven but you? and there is none on earth that I desire besides you."

II. What sort of a rest is Heaven?

1. It is an active, or working rest. Their works follow them in this sense. It is not a place where the soul may sleep out an eternity; but they rest not day nor night, yet their work is a rest. They will wonder evermore, and yet with delight they will rejoice evermore without any surfeit, and praise without being weary of the exercise.

2. A perfect rest; a rest for soul and body both. The Israelites when they got free of Pharaoh's taskmasters, yet in the wilderness had sore toil, but then came to Canaan; so the people of God, they get some rest by conversion, but their great rest is reserved for glory. When they came to the typical rest, there were thorns left for their eyes, and pricks for their sides, but none in Heaven.

3. Eternal; it shall never be disturbed. "They shall be ever with the Lord." Their glory is eternal, their crown fades not away. When they shall have been millions of years in their beds of glory, there shall be none to create them the least disturbance, but forever they shall rest in the bosom of God.

O then take heed you fall not short of this rest, Hebrews 4:1.

1. Consider that the most of us, at least, have none of the pleasantest lives in the world. You work, you toil, and win your bread with the sweat of your brows. The world is a deceiver to many of us; now to fall short of this rest after this, is to have a continual winter, two hells, neither rest here nor hereafter.

2. All of us have some hopes of this rest. Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but the eternal frustration of it will be a death, an arrow sinking through the heart. To fall out of a hoped-for rest, will sink the soul to the bottomless gulf of despair.

3. We have this rest in our offer. The King of glory declares his willingness to match with us, and to bring us into the holy land. To be excluded out of an offered rest, will make the soul for ever restless, and gnaw it as a worm.

4. There is not the least rest in Hell, not a drop of water. They must needs be forever sinking that are sent to a bottomless pit. The smoke of their torment ascends, the worm never dies there, the fire is never quenched. Let us then labor to enter into that rest.

 

Lest any man fall, after the same example of unbelief.

DOCTRINE. That unbelief is the great thing that makes hearers of the gospel fall short of Heaven. It is by this they stumble, fall, and destroy themselves; even as by it the Israelites fell short of Canaan. To confirm this point, consider unbelief two ways:

I. As it rejects the Word of God. "They despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word." God has made a revelation of his will unto sinners, in his word, faith believes his word, unbelief rejects it, and so in effect says God is a liar. What can be expected then, but that the God of truth avenge himself on this affront, by shutting the unbeliever out of Heaven.

1. Unbelief rejects the doctrines of the word. We see how far it has proceeded with some this day, that it has steeled their foreheads with as much impiety and impudence as to reject the Word of God openly; and to disbelieve all these truths that reason teaches not. The same root of unbelief is in us all by nature, and reigns there, where grace has not captivated the heart to the obedience of the truth. That this unbelief is even there, where it is not professed, is clear, if we consider how few there are, that have had the inward illumination of the Spirit of Christ to discover to them these truths in their heavenly luster, John 6:45. Most men have received the principles of religion, merely by the benefit of their education; and so their belief rests upon human testimony, which is no foundation for divine faith, and therefore they are still unbelievers, Matthew 11:25; and 16:17. Again, how many make shipwreck of their faith, even of fundamental principles, in a time of temptation, especially in a time of suffering, 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12. That house must be built on the sand, and that faith must be ill founded, that cannot abide a storm. Often it has been seen, that they that could dispute for the truth, could not suffer for it; while others that could not dispute, could suffer. What is the reason, but "that God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes." Another proof of prevailing unbelief is, the inconsistency of most men's lives with their professed principles. Many a man that pretends a sound head has an unsound heart. You may as easily bring east and west together, as many men's practice and their principles; therefore God may say to them, as Delilah to Samson, "How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me." Every person believes fire will burn them, and therefore none cast themselves into it.

2. Unbelief rejects the promises of the word. God has made great promises, but unbelief looks upon them only as fair words. They that receive these promises, are by them made partakers of a divine nature; but surely men possessed of such a nature are very rare, for as the apostle says, "all men have not faith," that is, few men. The Israelites had a promise of entering Canaan, but did they believe it? No; they said, "God had brought them to the wilderness to kill them." The promises are as silver cords sent down from from Heaven, to draw sinners to the promised land; but unbelievers cast these cords away from them.

3. Unbelief rejects the threatenings of the word. Men are of stubborn natures; God has therefore hedged about his law with threatenings of wrath. As men traveling in deserts carry fire with them, to drive away wild beasts from attacking them, so God threatens men, to keep them from sin; but sinners generally are more beastly than beasts, and will touch the smoking fiery mountain, though they should be thrust through with a dart; and will make promises of safety to themselves, in opposition to God's threatenings, Deuteronomy 29:19, 20. If we consider narrowly, we will find unbelief of the truths of God at the bottom of almost all these sins that ruin souls, as the mother that brings them forth, Hebrews 3:12. I will instance this in a few, what more bloody sin than unconcernedness about the state of our souls. Few are concerned to inquire into that, whether there be a change made on them, that is saving or not. They live as they were born, and are like to die as they live. Now, what is the cause of this but unbelief, which makes them say, "we are rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," and know not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Do these persons believe the sinfulness and misery of a natural state? Do they believe they cannot please God, that they are full of sin, and everything they do is sin? that they are under the wrath and curse of God, and that there is no salvation without regeneration, and no regeneration but that which makes a new creature?

Again, presuming on the mercy of God, they live in their sins out of Christ, and yet they hope for mercy. Do these believe that God is such an one as he has revealed himself to be? Do they believe him to be just and holy, and that he will by no means clear the guilty. They overturn the very foundation of the gospel; for if mercy could have been had for mercy's sake, what needed Christ die.

The text intimates to us, that it is unbelief that cuts the sinews of the labor here enjoined. What idler would not dig, if he thought to find a gold mine that should be his own? How do men sweat and work, in order to get a livelihood, and these same persons will not be at pains for Heaven. Surely if they believed the one as well as the other, they would not refuse. By the continuance of an unholy life, men show that they do not believe that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Do they think Hell to be a real place of torment, or only a bugbear?

II. Consider unbelief as rejecting Christ. When men had by their sin excluded themselves from Heaven, God sent Christ into the world, that whoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now unbelief rejects him, and casts him off, who is the only Savior, Acts 4:12.

Unbelief questions, yes and denies the soul's need of Christ. It puffs up men with conceit of themselves, so that it is a difficulty to get them to submit to be carried to Heaven. "Going about to establish a righteousness of their own, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Strange indeed, that the patient will refuse to submit to a cure, or a naked man to receive clothes.

Sometimes unbelief denies the infinite merit of Christ, and with Cain says, as the margin has it, Genesis 4:13, "My sin is greater than can be forgiven." O! but it goes ill down with an unrenewed heart, to expect life out of death, and satisfaction to justice by another. They that have believed according to the exceeding greatness of God's power, have found this very difficult.

Sometimes it denies Christ's willingness to save and help the sinner. Hence we find the leper believing his power, but doubting his will: "If you will, you can make me clean." Men think it easy to believe Christ's willingness to save them, until the conscience be enlightened, and then this monster sets up its head. Now rejecting Christ, it must needs make men fall short of Heaven. For by this mean,

1. It keeps the soul in a state of condemnation. "He who believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." It keeps the soul under the curse of the first covenant, lays them open to the justice of God, in so far as it makes the soul turn its back upon the city of refuge. The soul is kept naked, having no righteousness in which it can stand before the Lord.

2. It keeps the soul in a state of impotency to do anything to purpose for its salvation. It shackles the man so as he cannot labor, nay, nor move heavenwards. "Without me," says Jesus, "you can do nothing." No influences of grace, to help to resist temptations, can the unbeliever have; for unbelief blocks up the way of communication between Heaven and earth, Jeremiah 17:5, 6; Matthew 13:58. The unbeliever may pray, but God regards not his prayers, "for without faith it is impossible to please him."

3. In a state of separation from God; for there is no access to God, but by Jesus Christ. "No man comes unto the Father but by him." Faith lays hold on him in whom the Father is well pleased. But as all they that were out of the ark perished in the waters; so all they that are out of Christ shall perish in everlasting misery.

4. Under the guilt of all its other sins. If a man believe, he will be saved, whatever his sins have been; for faith transfers the guilt upon Christ, which the river of his blood washes away: but if not, he is damned: for unbelief rivets all other guilt.

USE. Take heed, then, there be not in you an evil heart of unbelief. Here is the enemy that kills its ten thousands; that makes foolish virgins fall down to Hell from the threshold of Heaven. It signifies little what lusts be borne down, if this set up its head and prevail; if there be any hazard, it is from this quarter; yet how many are there that will mourn and confess other sins, but this that wounds Christ's heart most, touches their hearts least. Seek it out then, lest if it be with you undiscerned, it lock you out of Heaven at last.

The example of others that have fallen by unbelief, should quicken us to all diligence about our salvation. By unbelief the Israelites fell in the wilderness, and never saw the promised land. By unbelief, many that have a flourishing profession have turned apostates from God; see these, John 6:60, 66. The Jews fell out of the visible church by this, Romans 11; and by this, hypocrites in all ages have fallen short of Heaven. For this end they are recorded, that we may escape the rocks on which others have split. Our hearts are all alike by nature; "as in water, face answers to face; so the heart of man to man." We may stumble on the stumbling stone on which others have broken to pieces, if we do not take heed.

See then what use we are to make of the sin and ruin of others.

They are not matters of sport or talk, to spend the time; but fearful examples placed before us, to bid us always beware. Sure, as a fall from a high place is the most dangerous; so for us to fall over others that have fallen, and whose fall should make us take heed to our feet, will make us fall very deep into the bottomless pit. The first unbelievers may say, though they heard, yet they saw not the danger; but after such direful examples, we cannot but say, as we have heard, so have we seen. Amen.