The Christian's charter showing the privileges of a believerThe Christian's charter shewing the priviledges of a believer

SECT. V. The fifth Privilege of being with Christ.

SECT. V. The fifth Priviledge of being with Christ.

I Proceed to the next privilege, which is Rest^*. A Christian in this life is like Quick-silver, which hath a principle of motion in it self, but not of rest: We are never quiet, ⟨p. 115⟩but as the Ball upon the Racket, or the ship upon the waves· As long as we have sin this is like the quick-silver: A child of God is full of motion and disquiet; I have no rest in my bones by reason of my sin, Psal. 38.3. While there are wicked men in the world, never look for rest. If a man be poor, he is thrust away by the rich: if he be rich, he is envied by the poor; sometimes losses disquiet, sometimes law-suits vex: 'Tis only the prisoner lives in such a Tenement as he may be sure none will go about to take from him: one trouble doth succeed another, Velut unda supervenit undae: sometimes the floodgates of persecution are opened; ^*sometimes the Tombstone of disgrace is laid upon the Saints: either the body is in trouble, or the mind, or both; The Saints in this life are in a pilgrim-condition: the Apostles had no certain ⟨p. 116⟩dwelling place, 1 Cor. 4.11. We are here in a perpetual hurry, in a constant fluctuation: our life is like the Tide, sometimes ebbing, sometimes flowing: here is no rest: And the reason is, because we are out of our centre; every thing is in motion till it comes at the centre; Christ is the centre of the soul: the Needle of the compass trembles, till it turns to the North-pole. Noah's Dove found no rest for the sole of her feet, till she came at the Ark: This Ark was a Type of Christ; when we come to heaven, the Kingdom that cannot be shaken