this fhadow of the Tree of life itself, from which Peter's virtue was borrowed! O dead and diseased foul, look to this Apple-tree to overfhadow you, and fit down under this fhadow. This leads,

III. To the third thing propofed, viz. To fpeak of the act of faith, as it is expreffed by a fitting down under this fhadow. And,

1. Faith, as it is a fitting down under this fhadow, imports deliberation; it is a deliberate act: when one fits down, he is not rambling nor rufhing headlong, but acting deliberately and confiderately. Here he acts from a manifold conviction.-From a conviction that it is lawful and warrantable, and no prefumption for him to do it: Why, here is a fhadow propofed to me to make use of; I am a poor finner, in danger of wrath, God holds out to me the fceptre of grace, and calls and allows me to take up my reft under this fhadow. He acts from a conviction of neceffity: I must do it or be undone to eternity; but I must not abide in Sodom, for the fire of God's wrath will deftroy me there : I must put myself under this fhadow, or perifh.—He acts from a deliberate conviction of profit and advantage that is to be had under this fhadow: If I were once there, may he say, what blessed fruit will I find upon this Apple tree? Peace with God, and accefs to him, and communion with him: what juftification from all guilt, what manifeftations of God's love, what confolations of his Spirit may I expect! Therefore I will do it, because I may do it, and because I muft do it, and because it is the beft, the only fhift, and the moft profitable course that can be taken.

2. Faith, as it is a fitting down under this fhadow, imports, not only deliberation, but defign alfo, for prefent rest and prefent eafe. The man is purfued, and wants a city of refuge; fcorched, and wants a fhadow from the heat; and fo he comes, and receives, and refts upon Chrift alone for falvation.-He fits down for reft from a troubled confcience, and from all the challenges thereof, under this fhadow; his heart is Sprinkled from an evil confcience: here the law cannot

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touch him; "Chrift is the end of the law :" here justice cannot condemn the Mediator, and I am under his hadow wrath cannot win through to me here. He fits down for reft from his exceffive defires after created good, which he vainly pursued before, faying, O for this and that worldly thing! "Who will fhew us any good?" But, when he comes to Chrift, he finds contentment; he is where he would be; and finds no want: he hungers and thirts no more infatiably after vanity; "I have learned, in whatfoever ftate I am, therewith to be content." Tho' ftreams fhould fail him, he now hath the ocean; tho' the ftars fhould be withdrawn, he hath the Sun. He fits down to be free from the turbulency of corruption: there is a great ftruggle between a man's light and his lufts; his lufts driving him contrary to his light; but, under this fhadow, his lufts are brought into fubjection to his light grace gets above corruption, and faith purifies the heart. He fits down, to be free of fcorchings that annoy him. Faith is acted to be free of all hot purfuits whether from law, justice, confcience, or from any other quarter: from the heat of fiery lufts, which only can be quenched with the blood of Chrift; from the heat of fiery temptations, this thadow is a fhield for fafety in this cafe: alfo from the heat of wrath-like difpenfations; " If thou mark iniquity, O Lord, who fhall fland?" When trying and fiery-like providences come, who can abide them, till they lay themselves down under this Apple-tree? Faith acts likewife to be free from the heat of "Fearful looking for of judgment, spoken of, Heb. x. 17. and fiery indignation, that fhall confume the adverfaries;" from the fear of death, the king of terrors, with its fting; and from the fear of an awful tribunal, and a wrathful fentence iffuing from it. Where fhall I be fecure from these fears, but under this fhadow of the Mediator's blood and righteoufnefs? It acts, in a word, to be free from the curfe of the fiery law, faying, "Curfed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, todo them;" to avoid this, fays the believer, I caft myself under Chrifl's fhadow; "I fly to thee to hide me." I quit the law as a Covenant,

covenant, and want to be married to another Huf band.

3. Faith, as it is a fitting down under his fhadow, imports, a centering here. When reillefs, wandering fouls come to Christ, they need go no further; if they come indeed to God in Chrift, they may now fing a Requium to themselves, Soul, take thy refi. Chrift, as Mediator, is the way, and as God, is the end of that way. The bride of Chrift here was like a weary traveller walking through a wood; and whatever tree fhe met with, the found fome defect and barrennefs in it but coming to the apple-tree here, fhe found none; and therefore goes no further. When one comes to Chrift, and to God in Chrift, then he is at his journey's end; he may fet up his ftaff, and take himfelf reft.And hence also,

4. Faith, as it is a fitting down under this fhadow, imports, a continuation of the act thereof. When we meet with Chrift, we should fit down, and make him our home, our houfe of refidence, our habitation, to which we may continually refort. The true improvers of Chrift must abide with him: though fenfible comforts fhould be withdrawn; yet they must not quit their refling-place. It is a fitting down without purpofing to rife again. Every believer fhould have a firm purpofe to live by faith on the Son of God, under all poffible changes and alterations that fall out, either in his fpiritual or temporal condition; he is to make ufe of Chrift while he is living, aud when he is dying.-When he is deserted, he muft live upon Chrift, faying, "I will wait on the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob."--When he is difmayed and afraid, he fhould live upon Chrift, faying, What time I am afraid, I will truft in thee." When he is weighted with work, he fhould live upon Chrift, faying, "I will go in the ftrength of the Lord, making mention of his righteoufnefs and his only."When he is oppreffed with burdens, he should live upon Christ, cafting all upon him, and faying, "Why art thou caft down, O my foul? Why art thou disquie. ted within me? Hope in God, for I fhall yet praife him."

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5. Faith,

5. Faith, as it is a fitting down under this fhadow, imports, a ready act of faith, and catching the opportunity. No fooner is the apple-tree difcovered to the bride here, in the fuperlative excellency thereof, than fhe juft takes hold of the occafion, and fits down under the fhadow of that tree. No powerful corruption, no affaulting temptation of Satan, no dark difpenfation of providence, no great or greatly aggravated fin, nor long continuance in fin, fhould hinder or make a delay in the acting of this faith; but the feeling of these maladies, the present feeling of the fcorching heat, and the feeing of what a thick, and broad, and living, and lafting fhadow this is, fhould make us quickly fit down here. Nothing muft hinder you from making use of Chrift; neither fins against law, nor fins againft gospel, nor fins against vows, mercies, croffes, providences; inftead of hindering they fhould haften you, that here you may get relief.

6. Faith, as it is a fitting down under this fhadow, imports, a full and entire acting of faith, the whole man upon a whole Chrift; I fat down. The believer leaves not one part of himself from under the fhadow. I fat down under bis fhadow; he makes ufe of all the fhadow for all the good that God gives him for. Some, thro' unbelief, fear it would be too bold for them to expect all the benefits that are to be had in Christ, viz. wisdom, righteousness, fanctification and redemption; but true faith acts fully for all the good of the gofpel. Some, like the prodigal fon, think God will not make them fons but as hired fervants; but this faith is a fitting down where no drop of wrath can touch you, and where you may have all the fruits that grow upon the apple-tree, and have perfect reft.

7. Faith, as it is a fitting down under this fhadow, imports, the activity of faith through grace. The foul being acted is active in fitting down, faying, "Return, to thy reft, O my foul," Pfal. cxvi. 7. I was weary with wandering from one barren bufh to another; but whenever I got a view of the glorious Apple-tree, the Tree of life, fome invifible fecret virtue came from it

that

that catched my heart, and made me take up my reft here; and fo I fat down.

8. And laftly, Faith, as it is a fitting down under this fhadow, imports, as compofed a pofture of foul as can be had in this world. Chrift is elfewhere compared to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, Isaiah xxxii. 2. The reft to be had here, by faith, will always be different from, and fhort of the rest that remains for the people of God hereafter it is therefore a rest amidst trouble; "In the world ye fhall have tribulation, fays Chrift; but in me ye thall have peace," John xvi. 33.

Let us not mistake the nature of this reft and recumbency under this fhadow: fome may think they have been effaying to fit down and reft under this fhadow; but they cannot find that which they can call a rest: but, in order to remove this difficulty, you will confider the nature of this reft. It is not like the reft of a big rock on the land, or in the fea, that doth not fhake or move when the waves beat, or the forms blow and make a tumultuous noife about it; but it is like the reft of a fhip at anchor, that may be toffed and moved to and fro in a ftorm, and fome waves going over her, but fhe is fecured against splitting, or finking, or being caft away, as long as the anchor does not drive fuch is the nature of this reft; it is a reft with fighting and exercise, a reft that fecures the main point from ruin as long as the foul keeps under Chrift's fhadow. And this is the reft and recumbency of faith that we fhould look for in time: and if we thus took up the nature of this quiet rest under the apple-tree, it would loofe many doubts, and help to break many fnares and temptations, to which we expofe ourselves many times, because we cannot get that reft we would be at.

In a word, faith's fitting down under this fhadow, imports, that faith is a compofing grace, making the foul easy quiet, and compofed amidst all troubles, faying, "Tho' my house be not fo with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, well-ordered in all things and fure and this is all my falvation, and all my defire,"