SERMON III.

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you that are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.—2 Thes. i. 6, 7.

HERE is an amplification of the former argument, wherein he doth more fully declare how their enduring tribulations was ἔνδειγμα, &c., a manifestation of God’s righteous judgment.

In the words note—

1. The impulsive cause, God’s justice, ‘Seeing it is a righteous thing with God.’

2. The two effects, or the different retributions, ‘To recompense,’ &c.

3. The time when this is accomplished, ‘When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven,’ &c.

I begin with the first. This is mentioned that they may be certain of the effects. Just is taken in two senses—(1.) Pro eo quod jure fieri potest; (2.) Pro eo quod jure fieri debet. That which may be done without any injustice, that which ought to be done. The first, when a man doth exact his debts; the second, for a man to pay his debts. The first may be done or not done, required or omitted, without any blemish or charge of injustice; but the second must be done, or I am unjust if I do it not. The latter is intended here, for it is brought as a proof of the just judgment of God, in counting them worthy of his kingdom for which they suffered. God would do no injury, or were not unrighteous if he should trouble them that trouble you; that would make but a cold sense. No; his justice and equity requireth it; it cannot without some injustice be omitted to punish them, and give you a relaxation from all evil.

Doct. That in the retributions of the last day God showeth his justice.

1. I shall open the justice of God.

2. Apply it to the different recompenses.

I. For the justice of God, let me set it forth in these considerations—

1. Justice is an attribute that belongeth to God as a governor. It is twofold—general and particular.

[1.] His general justice importeth the perfection of the divine nature, and is the same with his holiness. As the perfection of the divine understanding includeth all intellectual virtues, so the perfection 217of his will all moral virtues; and so God doth necessarily love righteousness and hate iniquity, and acteth becoming such a pure, holy, and infinite being. He can do nothing against the perfection of his nature; that is, cannot deny himself, 2 Tim. ii. 13, will not give his glory to another, Isa. xlii. 8, cannot be indifferent to good and evil: Ps. v. 4, ‘Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with thee.’ Hateth whatever is contrary to his holy nature: Zech. iii. 5, ‘The just Lord is in the midst of thee; he will do no iniquity; every morning he bringeth his judgment to light.’ Will not damn nor punish an innocent creature or a soul that loveth him, but still acteth with a condecency to his own being.

[2.] His particular justice, which respecteth not his nature, but his office, and belongeth to him as the governor and judge of the world. So he hath given a law to his creatures, and his governing justice consists in giving all their due according to his law: Deut. xxxii. 4, ‘He is the rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he.’

2. Of his government there are two acts or parts—legislation and execution. Accordingly you may conceive two branches of the justice of God—legislative, or judiciary and distributive.

[1.] His legislative justice determineth man’s duty, and bindeth him to the performance thereof, and also defineth the rewards and punishments which shall be due upon man’s obedience or disobedience. God made man a rational voluntary agent, capable of good and evil, with desires of the good and fears of the evil; therefore, that God as universal king might rule him according to his nature, he hath made for him a law that determineth good and evil, with promises to move him by desires and hopes, and threatenings to drive him by a necessary fear: Deut. xxx. 15, ‘See I have set before thee this day life and good, death and evil.’ In the precept there is the rule of man’s duty, in the sanction the rule of God’s judgment or judiciary proceedings with him. And wherever this law is set up, there God is said to ‘judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth,’ Ps. lxvii. 4; that is, to set up holy and righteous decrees, fitted for the benefit of mankind.

[2.] His judiciary justice, called also distributive; that sort of justice whereby he rendereth unto men according to their works, whether good or evil, Rom. ii. 6, and that without respect of persons, 1 Peter i. 17, without regard to any external thing which hath no affinity with the cause that is to be judged, as profession or non profession.

This justice is twofold—remunerative and vindictive, rewarding and punishing.

(1.) Rewarding. It is just with God to reward our obedience, or to give men what his promise hath made due to them: Heb. vi. 10, ‘God is not unrighteous, to forget your labour of love.’ If they should never be rewarded or forgotten, God should be unrighteous or unfaithful, which to imagine is abominable: 2 Tim. iv. 8, ‘Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which God, the righteous judge, will give me in that day.’ It is from God’s righteousness and promise, with respect had to Christ’s merit, and the qualification of the parties; as I shall more fully show by and by.

(2.) Vindictive, or punishing justice. God punisheth none but sinners, and only for sin, and that according to the measure of the sin: Rom. ii. 7-9, ‘To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath; tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the gentile.’ Despisers of the grace of the gospel, John iii. 19; Heb. x. 29, ‘Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy?’ There is a special guilt in such a sin, which will be most tormenting and vexing to us. They have no cause to impute their damnation to anything but their own wilful neglect.

3. This distributive justice is exercised either more darkly or plainly.

[1.] More darkly. The world is not governed by chance, but administered by an all-wise and most just providence. Here in this world now there is a punishment of the wicked, and a reward of the righteous. For punishment God keepeth a petty sessions before the day of general assizes: wickedness is now punished: Rom. i. 18, ‘The wrath of God is revealed from heaven,’ &c. Now and then God doth so sensibly and visibly reward the righteous, that men are forced to acknowledge that godliness is matter of benefit in this world, abstracted from the rewards of another life: Ps. lviii. 11, ‘Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth, verily there is a reward for the righteous.’

[2.] More plainly hereafter, when God will openly and beyond all doubt and question make good his word to his people, and declare his vengeance against the wicked. The great end of the day of judgment is the demonstration of God’s remunerative and vindictive justice; therefore called ‘the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,’ Rom. ii. 5. He will not only glorify his love and mercy in the salvation of the elect, but his justice also in rewarding the performers of the condition, and what his promise hath made their due. The business then is to remove the veil, Acts xvii. 31. The difference between the last time and now is this—

(1.) That the righteous and the wicked have but the beginnings of their reward and punishment. The wicked are not altogether without punishment, but they are but the beginnings of sorrow, if you respect God’s external or internal government. As to his internal government, the carnal world mindeth it not much, but yet others may perceive it, as by troubles and gripes of conscience, Heb. ii. 15, or impenitence, or hardness of heart: Eph. iv. 19, ‘Past feeling;’ Ps. lxxxi. 12, conscience terrified or stupified. But the external government of God is exercised, so far as the world is not left without a sufficient witness of the justice of God, to give them warning what they may expect in the other world, and to keep up the belief of a providence; that is to say, that the governor of the world mindeth the affairs of the world, and so that he may be known to be a holy and just God: Ps. clxv. 17, ‘He is holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his works.’ This is so far discovered in all the acts of God’s providence, that the contrary is never discerned. Now we may say, Rev. xvi. 5, ‘Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.’ There is some foregoing punishment, which we may take notice of for the people of God 219in this life. His servants have much of his mercy, and the beginnings of their reward in the beginnings of their salvation, but the fulness is reserved for the world to come. As to his internal government, his people have much of his love, in peace of conscience, increase of grace, tastes of God’s acceptance, assistance of the Spirit, answers of prayer, and sweet foretastes of eternal life. As to his external government, men here may sometimes ‘discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not,’ Mal. iii. 17, 18, but at the general judgment this is fully manifested in eternal reward and punishment.

(2.) The justice of God now appeareth more negatively than positively; that is to say, God doth nothing contrary to justice. As to his rewards of his servants, none can justly charge him for a neglect of them, they having deserved nothing which they enjoy, Gen. xxxii. 19, and having deserved much more than they suffer, Ezra ix. 13. All benefits are more, all corrections less than they deserve. And therefore it is not necessary that the justice of God should be always positively conspicuous; it is enough that it should be negatively conspicuous, that God do nothing contrary to his governing justice; as a man is always risible, yet he doth not always laugh; we cannot deny the faculty because of the cessation of the act. God is always just, but he doth not always exercise his remunerative justice. So for the effects of his vindictive justice; it is not always necessary they should be exercised in the day of his patience, in cutting off sinners presently as soon as they sin, and putting them into their final state; because men are now upon their trial, and the present government of the world is not that of sense, but of faith; therefore God waiteth to see if men will break off their sins, and make themselves capable of his mercy: 2 Peter iii. 9, ‘God is not slack concerning his promise.’ But hasty men would have all things done within time, without expectation of eternity. But God, that knoweth what long-suffering is necessary to the most obstinate creatures, doth not presently cast them off from all expectation of mercy. Christianity would have lost a Paul and many a useful instrument if the final judgment of God had gone according to our fancies and hasty censures. There is room still for repentance, God being always willing that the apostate state of mankind should have time, and day, and means to repent, and turn unto the Lord.

(3.) How God will exercise his fatherly justice upon his people, and his patience toward the wicked.

(1st.) His corrective justice toward his people, by many penal evils inflicted up them: 1 Sam. vii. 14, ‘If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and the stripes of the children of men.’ The faults of the godly procure to them sharp correction: 1 Cor. xi. 32, ‘We are judged when we are chastened of the Lord,’ &c. There is fatherly love, though also corrective justice, and the saints acknowledge it: Neh. ix. 33, ‘Thou art just in all that is brought upon us, for thou hast done righteously, but we have done wickedly.’ So David: Ps. cxix. 137, ‘Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.’ Sharp corrections are but just; all is good to the godly.

(2d.) Patience towards the wicked: Rom. ix. 22, πολλῇ μακροθυμίᾳ, ‘endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath.’ They 220shall want no arguments to convince them of their folly and impenitency when they are in hell.

(4.) Now it is clouded, then conspicuous. There is a veil upon God’s proceedings, they are sometimes secret, always just: Ps. xcii. 2, ‘To show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night.’

II. Let us apply it to the different recompenses here mentioned; and so—

1. To the punishment of the wicked: ‘To recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.’ There is no great difficulty to suit this part of the judgment to God’s righteousness; for sinners deserve the punishment which is inflicted upon them, who lived in ease and pomp, and neglected God’s laws, and oppressed his servants, that were more faithful than themselves.

There is a double reason of their punishment—

[1.] Their own disobedience to the laws of their creator, which is enough to involve them in eternal ruin: Rom. ii. 8, ‘But to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, tribulation and wrath.’ Men that dispute away their duty to God, and live in the world as if they had no superior but such as their interests engage them to own, and as if there were no God, no judgment, there can be nothing pleaded for them.

[2.] Their opposing them that would obey God, and so they make themselves an opposite party to God, and consent with the devil in his apostasy. There are two kingdoms in the world, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan; these are opposite. It is enough to our ruin to remain in the one and not accept of the other, when God cometh to reckon, Col. i. 18, Acts xxvi. 18. But it is a double condemnation if we be factors and agents for the one against the other. These carry on not only a defensive but offensive war against God; for these set themselves point-blank against the kingdom of God in the world, not only refusing it themselves, but seeking to discourage others: Mat. xxiii. 13, ‘Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of God against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, nor suffer them that are entering to go in.’ They divert others to their power, not only by example, but persecution and opposition to them. And if they have come under some visible engagement to Christ, their crime is the greater. If they smite their fellow-servants, and eat and drink with the drunken, Mat. xxiv, 49, malign, envy, traduce, and injure them who are faithful to the law of Christ, and strengthen the hands of the wicked, no wonder they are punished. Surely that is just which right and equity requireth, either from the nature of the thing or the threatenings of God. It only admitteth this condition, if they repent as Paul did, who did it ignorantly.

2. If we refer it to the other effect, ‘To give you that are troubled rest.’

How is this just with God?

I answer—Things may be said to be righteous with God three ways—

(1.) In respect of strict justice, when what we do deserveth the reward by the intrinsic value, worth, and condignity of our obedience. So no 221obedience, whether of man or angel, though never so perfect, can bind God to reward it. There is this difference between sin and obedience, that the heinousness of sin is always aggravated and heightened by the proportion of its object, but the merit and value of obedience is still lessened. The sin or offence is aggravated, as to strike an officer is more than to strike a private man, a king more than an ordinary officer. Thence it cometh to pass that a sin committed against God doth deserve an infinite punishment, because the majesty of God is infinite; and so eternal death is the wages of sin. But on the other side, the value and merit of obedience is lessened. The greater God is, and the more glorious his being, the greater obligation lieth upon us to love and serve him; and the good which we do for his sake being wholly due to him, God is not bound by any right or justice from the merit of the action itself to reward it; for here the greatness of the object lesseneth the action, or respect thereby performed to it, Luke xvii. 10; for the creature oweth itself to God, who made it, and enabled it to do all that it can do; so that he is not bound to reward it out of his natural justice, but inclined to do it out of his own goodness, and bound to do it by his free promise and gracious covenant.

(2.) There is his justice of bounty and free beneficence. God is just by way of bounty when he rewards man capable of reward and accounted worthy, though not in respect of perfect righteousness in himself, yet because he is some way righteous. This capacity of the reward respects either the righteousness of Christ, and that satisfaction he hath paid for us, Rom. iii. 25, 26, or the difference between the person recompensed and others; that he loveth God, is willing to suffer for him, and worketh righteousness. General justice doth require that he should reward the righteous, and put a difference between the godly and the wicked. That governor that useth all alike is not just. Therefore it is said, Ps. xi. 7, that ‘the righteous God loveth righteousness.’ It is agreeable to justice in general, ratione justitiae, that wicked persecutors should not go unpunished, but that God should deal with them as they have done with others, and that they who have unjustly suffered in this world should be righted in another world, since they suffer out of love to God, and for his sake, and merely out of the hopes of that other and better world.

(3.) God is just in respect of his promise. The condition being performed, his justice obligeth him; he hath bound himself by his covenant, and his righteousness implieth his veracity and faithfulness, 1 John i. 9. Not as if our patience merited it, as the oppressors deserve and are worthy of punishment, but God’s promise assureth us of it; for though his promise be free, yet, if it be once made, justice doth require it, and God is not free, but bound to perform it.

Use 1. Terror to the wicked, especially those that are enemies of Christ’s kingdom in the world, and haters of those that are good, 2 Tim. iii. 3. God is just, and will at length call you to an account. Consider, he is just in his legislation; as he would not make unrighteous laws for the pleasure of men, so he is just in execution, he will not pass unrighteous judgment. Your carnal minds are enemies to his laws, Rom. viii. 7, and your unbelieving hearts question his threatenings. But his laws are his laws, however you dislike them, and his 222threatenings are his threatenings, however you question the truth of them. His threatenings to be accomplished within time show always the merit of your actions, often the event; but his eternal threatenings will be made good. Hell is not a painted fire. As he will not repeal his established laws because you dislike them, so he will not revoke his threatenings for fear of hurting such wilful and impenitent sinners as you are. They that will not fear his judgments shall feel them. The wicked put it to trial whose word shall stand, God’s or theirs: Jer. xliv. 28, ‘They say, Peace, peace;’ God saith, Woe, wrath, tribulation, anguish; and it shall be fulfilled or made good. But it is a sad thing to stand to that adventure; you may set a good face on it, but conscience owneth the justice, Rom. i. 32. Thence guilty fears arise, which are so natural to man, that we can neither deny nor put off. Nature is afraid of a just judge, and the consent of all people doth evidence it. Therefore we should think of it, and prepare ourselves to be judged by him.

2. For the consolation of the faithful. God is righteous. You experiment his mercy here by the way, in pardoning your sins and sanctifying your afflictions, comforting you under them, and giving a gracious issue out of them; but then you shall find him just—(1.) In punishing your unreasonable enemies, 2 Peter ii. 9. (2.) Your reward is sure: Prov. xi. 18, ‘To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.’ Therefore we should the more resolutely forsake the pleasures of sin, and endure the afflictions of the gospel, and continue with patience in well-doing, that we may not lose what we have wrought. You have a pledge of this in the new nature given to you. As any are made partakers of a divine nature, they are more just and righteous, hate sin and sinners, love the godly. It is said of Lot, 2 Peter ii. 7, 8, that ‘just Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; for that righteous man, dwelling among them, vexed his soul from day to day in seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds.’ God, that created such a principle of grace in us, is much more righteous. Retributive justice is a ray of God’s righteousness. God is said to be with him in the judgment, 2 Chron. xix. 6.

I come now more particularly to discuss the two effects.

First, To recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. Tribulation in the issue is the portion of the wicked: Rom. ii. 9, ‘Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.’ But here the apostle would draw us to consider the harmony and agreeableness between the punishment and the offence. And thence we note—

That God usually retaliateth with men.

First, As here, ‘It is just with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;’ that the troublers should be troubled. You will say, How can this tribulation which is recompensed imply the ruin of the soul, when they afflicted only the bodies of the saints?

I answer—Two ways—

1. Because they can go no further: Luke xii. 4, ‘Fear not them that only can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.’ Implying they would do more if it were in their power, so great is their malice against the saints.

2. This trouble they occasion to the saints is their soul’s sin; not 223only the fruit of the violence of their hands, but of the enmity of their souls against the power of godliness, 1 John iii. 12. With their souls they sinned, and they are punished in their souls as well as their bodies. So that argueth this judgment of counter-passion, that as they do to others it shall be done unto themselves. God threateneth it in his word: Exod. xxii. 22, 24, ‘Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.’ But what would come of it if they did? God threateneth that he ‘will kill you by the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children shall be fatherless.’ It should be returned and paid home in the same coin. So Rev. xvi. 5, 6, ‘Righteous art thou, O Lord, for they have shed the blood of the saints, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.’ There the angel of the waters applauds the suitableness of the judgment; they had made God’s saints a prey by their rigorous laws, and God would make them a prey to the destroyer. There is a proportionableness between the sin and the judgment; bloody men shall drink their fill of blood. Now this prophetical scheme and draught is a threatening. So James ii. 13, ‘He shall have judgment without mercy that showed no mercy.’ God will meet men in their own way of sinning, that his judgment may be the more conspicuous.

Secondly, God observeth this course in his providence: Judges i. 7, ‘Threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me.’ Affliction, which is the most trusty counsellor to princes of all their retinue, for it knoweth not how to flatter, taught him to see his cruelty, and the justice of God in his punishment. The like justice God used to Pharaoh, who appointed the children of Israel to be drowned in the waters, and at length he and all his host were drowned in a branch of the Ked Sea. So God showed himself the patron of oppressed infants. Indeed, what more usual than that male factors are dealt with according to their own wicked ways? As God threateneth Edom, Obad. 5, ‘As thou hast dealt, so shall it be done to thee; thy reward shall return upon thine own head.’ Ahab’s blood was lapped up by dogs in the place where they had shed the blood of Naboth. Jezebel was more guilty than he: Ahab permitted, Jezebel contrived. Ahab humbled himself, therefore Ahab was buried with honour, but Jezebel was entombed in the bellies of the dogs. Haman was executed on the gallows set up for Mordecai, Esther vii. 10. Henry the Third of France was killed in the chamber where the massacre was contrived, and Charles the Ninth died flowing in his blood in his bed. In the parable, desideravit guttam, qui non dedit micam—He wanted a drop who gave not a crumb. But is it so with good men also? Yes; Jacob, that got the blessing by a wile, and came to Isaac, the younger for the elder, after seven years’ hard service was put off with Leah, the blear-eyed elder sister, instead of Rachel, the beautiful younger sister. Asa, that put the prophet in the stocks, was diseased in his feet. Joseph was not flexible to his brethren’s requests, as they were inexorable to him in his extremity: Gen. xlii. 21, 22, ‘We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.’ This was many years after the fact committed; they knew 224not Joseph. David, Absalom, 2 Sam. xii. 10-12. Paul consented to the stoning of Stephen; yea, assisted at his execution, for they laid down their garments at Paul’s feet; and therefore Paul was afterward stoned and left for dead, Acts xiv. 19, 20. Stephen prayed for him among the rest, ‘Lay it not to their charge;’ yet God gave him some remembrance of this sin. Barnabas was not stoned, who was assistant to Paul, but Paul was stoned; both had been alike offensive for preaching the gospel at Iconium. Paul was sensible of this crying sin, Acts xxii. 20. Well, then, if men will do to others what they should not, God will do to them what they would not. But here eternal vengeance is threatened.

Use 1. Let us take heed how we oppress any, especially that our hearts boil not with rancour and malice against God’s children. Injuriousness and cruelty to the faithful will not go unrevenged. It may be you think you do God good service, John xvi. 2. But that doth not excuse you from punishment, for God will not be served with furious and blind zeal. The rule is general, ‘It is just with God to recompense tribulation,’ &c.

2. Let not the godly be envious and repine at the temporal prosperity of wicked men. Their ruin is certain; God will remember them that show no mercy, but heavily lay on the yoke, Isa. xlvii. 6. God will put the cup of affliction into other hands, if you can but tarry his leisure, Isa. li. 22.

Secondly, ‘And to you that are troubled rest with us.’ There is his recompense to the faithful, and that which is appointed to them is rest; and not barely so, but ‘rest with us.’ Paul and the other apostles of the Lord were engaged in the same cause, and looked for a like issue. The apostles had a particular promise, Mat. xix. 28; but they were all fellow-soldiers in the same warfare, and as to the substance of it, expected the same crown.

Here note two things—

1. That the reward of the faithful is represented under the notion of rest. Here the word is ἄνεσις, which signifies a cessation or relaxation from all their troubles; but it implieth more than at first appeareth; not only a release from their troubles, but eternal glory and happiness in proportion to their troubles, 2 Cor. iv. 7. But a rest it is called—(1.) Sometimes in allusion to the rest of Canaan, where the people of God fixed their abode after their wearisome pilgrimage. So it is taken Heb. iv. 1, ‘We having a promise of entering into his rest left us, let us fear lest any of us should seem to come short of it.’ And so it noteth that heaven is the place of our eternal abode, after our pilgrimage in the world; there is our home and resting-place. (2.) Sometimes it is spoken of with allusion to the sabbatic rest: Heb. iv. 9, ‘There remaineth therefore a rest for the children of God.’ The word there is σαββάτισμος. It is a celebration of an eternal sabbath to God. Our abode there and business there is perpetual worship, and we go there not only to enjoy God, but to adore God. Heaven is a temple, and christians are all priests, Rev. i. 6. We are not fully made kings till we reign with him, nor priests till we come to minister immediately before the throne. If the priesthood we have by Christ doth chiefly concern our ministration in the heavenly temple, the case is 225clear; here we are consecrated, fitted by justifying and sanctifying grace. (3.) It is called a rest in opposition to those tedious conflicts that we have about our spiritual estate and condition before God; but then all is at an end, when the pardon is pronounced by the judge’s own mouth, Acts iii. 19. So it is ἀναψυξίς: then is everlasting joy and refreshing, no more conflicts and agonies of conscience; our doubts and fears are quite gone, and we are at rest in Christ. (4.) It is some times called rest in opposition to whatever was grievous and burden some in our duties: Rev. xiv. 13, ‘They rest from their labours.’ They cease not from duty, but from whatsoever was burdensome and trouble some in their duty, either through the weakness of their flesh, or their want of satisfaction in God. (1st.) The weakness of the flesh maketh duty wearisome to us. But there we are all spirit; even this body shall become a spiritual body, and it shall be no labour to us to serve God. (2d.) Want of satisfaction in God. Adepto fine, cessat motus. When the soul hath what it would have, it is at rest. Fulness of joy, satisfied with thy likeness. (5.) It is called rest in opposition to the calamities and troubles of the present life. So in the text, and Isa. lvii, 2, ‘Rest in their beds.’ Their souls at rest with God, and their bodies in their graves.

Use. We say rest in God, but we forget our true resting-place. Arise! here is not your rest, Micah ii. 10; as right passengers with their staves in their hands, enter into heaven.