increase of possessours because it is not divided and everyone hath that entirely which many possesse in concord There is no matter of envie because it is sufficient for all and no mans measure doth prejudice another Neither is their disposition to envie in them who are advanced to happines Christs disciples envied other in the beginning but when they were filled with the holy Ghost they did not so Envie reigneth in carnall men about temporall things they are so small in themselves that they cannot suffice all and so proper in their possession that what one hath another wants But if God dwell in us his fulnesse excludeth occasion of envie and his goodnesse excludeth the possibilitie of it For God is love and filleth the heart with love to make us count the lot of our neighbour as our own The more grace the lesse envie and the lesse grace the more envie It is not a sociall happinesse that envieth another but remove envie and that that is mine is thine also In heaven there shall be no envie and the more heavenly on earth the lesse envie for they have that that they love in their neighbour Fourthly for the efficacie It is an uniting good and bindeth all in one who partake it That participation is an union and adherence and by vertue of that union with it they are unite to other the goodnesse they receive is a band among themselves as well as to it God is that fountain-goodnesse and hath summed up all in himself they are all of one originally in one by sustaining and to one finally The foure elements concurre to make one body the body and soul make up one man many men make up one citie or kingdome or armie But spiritually it is more wonderfull how many gifts graces and powers make a renewed man and many renewed men make up one mysticall body of Christ all of them are one in that head and with that head they are all one with God I in them and thou in me that they may be one as we are one Not that our union with him is equall to his union with the Father the one is consubstantiall but ours is consentible That is in substance but this is in spirit for we are one spirit with God that is native but this is factitious or wrought by grace That is properly an union in unitie but this is only in unition In like manner he uniteth us among our selves the multitude of the faithfull were of one heart and of one minde because who ever see and love the divine face are one He is as a center and sendeth out his divine power and sheddeth abroad his love in the hearts of his own and all these hearts meet in him again So the faith love of Abraham meeteth with our faith and love in him Thus then he tieth us to himself when he is our chief good and worketh the good in us to adhere to him As for me it is good to adhere to the Lord. He adhereth to the Lord who being beloved of God sucketh God in himself again by love So when God and man inhere mutually in other and are enbowelled by mutuall love then God is in man and man in God This is our happie adherence to our chief good It is our first and greatest and chiefest good to abide in him Finally this unitie is seen in the order degrees and cession Order because all order is from one to one Degrees because there is an ascension of goodnesse to one God in whom all good things are most only one for truth wisedome power which we consider diversly and work divers affections and actions in us are all one in him and our straitnesse maketh him communicate them to us but partially as his knowledge to help our ignorance his wisedome to cure our folly his power our weaknesse Cession because everie good thing naturally yeeldeth to a better good as the body yeelds to the soul the senses to reason c. Hereof we may learn first that happinesse is not in many things The multitude think otherwise for they are led by sense and must have their eye filled with a multitude of things riches honour wealth and these increased and multiplied are their choice Many things import not perfection but weaknesse and the necessitie of their number proveth the infirmitie of their worth If one sufficed there were no need of moe but when a number serveth not necessitie all are proven to be weak They feel a bodily and present necessitie but not a spirituall and therefore seek a sufficient supply of some bodily thing but cannot finde it As a man falling in water grippeth sticks or straw that swim beside him for help but he and all go to the ground together and as a man in fever changeth many places to finde rest but in stead of rest increaseth restlesnesse So every one that seeketh happines in other things beside God findeth nought but an increase of miserie Besides these things bring not contentment but rather with their increase augment their desire The skin of a boy is sound but when he commeth to age it is full of wrinkles crying for more flesh and bones So in the infancie of our lot we are most content but in its greatnesse and old age our inflamed desires cry with the horse-leach Give give This is their painfull abundance and abundant povertie while they seek one thing after another and nothing remaineth but in end they conquish vanitie of vanities Many have been better content when they had but one attendant than when they are thronged with a great train and some have thought themselves richer with a small estate than when it is multiplied an hundred fold The love of money groweth ever with money Gods blessings are good indeed yet none of them the chief good they are but as pettie goods and a small shadow of the true good and as a drop of water out of that great fountain and ocean God himself They go on their kindes degrees and numbers but God hath none of these he is his own number and his own measure he only is and calleth himself by the name I am and to be to live and to live happily are not divers things because he is his own blessednesse To close this first point our dutie is to take God for this one thing that he be most in our minde to know him most in our heart to love him most in our mouth to honour and most in our life to obey and imitate him that as bees hyve upon a branch so all the powers of our soul adhere unto him So the prophet glorieth in it The Lord is my portion for God is the summe of all our good he is our chief good We ought not run down-ward neither forward to seek another for the one is dangerous the other wicked If we seek any thing beside God we will lose him for
of a purified minde this glorious God as the prime beautie of the Sanctuarie and the only object of our religious worship wherein true Christians excell all other people who worship not this true God Religious worship in the Sanctuarie is the greatest worke we act in this life because we seeke happinesse in the union with that we worship For therein three things go together First our highest estimation of it as chiefe good in it selfe and so communicative of that goodnesse to our happinesse Next our highest affection loving it above all And these are the two maine parts of inward worship The third is a religious reverence arising of them manifesting it selfe in the acts of outward worship to pray to him and praise him According to the object wee worship so is our fruit For if wee worship the true God alone then wee come to happinesse both because our estimation affection and reverence are right placed And more because thereby he communicateth himselfe to us even to our conformitie with him for our due estimation of him is our excellencie that maketh us misprise all things beside and seeke him alone Our due affection to him is our union with him and a partaking of his divine nature in that we loath all things beside and adhere to him as our only happinesse Thirdly our religious reverence holdeth him ever in our eye as the paterne to the which wee conforme our selves So thereby undoubtedly wee attaine true happinesse But if wee worship any thing beside we make our selves more and more miserable Though wee should worship Angels and Martyrs neither can they communicate goodnesse to make us happy and their worship is impious and idolatrous and separateth us from God The pretended cause why Julian forbad Christians children the use of secular learning was lest they being armed therewith might more dextrously refute the Pagans But the secret cause was lest by reading the fables and histories of the Gods they should finde just matter of mocking and insulting over them As the old Senat burnt Numaes books because they expressed the secrets of their religion For their owne histories maketh them the worst men of their time yea monsters rather than men and yet after their death the world seeking a colour to their owne wickednesse made them gods And the devils the promoters of their worship for their owne behoofe made the world thinke that adulterie murther drunkennesse and such were good service to them If Iupiter Mars Apollo Bacchus were now living as they were at their best in their life time they would be abhorred as pests and cast out of the common-wealth This then is our happinesse that wee worship that God alone who made the heaven and the earth and finding him that all the parts of religious worship begin in him continue and abide in him Secondly the beautie of God in the Sanctuarie is in his working with his people for happinesse which wee consider in three First as it proceedeth from him Secondly the worke of his grace in the people meeting him Thirdly the worke of pastours betwixt both Gods worke toward his people goeth in foure First his offering of happinesse Secondly his exacting of service Thirdly his conferring or giving the grace that he offereth to them Fourthly his accepting of his worke in them as if it were theirs only The first is his offer of salvation and happinesse At the first it is thought that wee come to offer to him but indeed he bringeth us to his house to offer to us Here a great change God whome wee have made our enemie is our best friend Our Iudge who may plague us for our sinne turneth our repledger by his mercy rescuing us from Justice Our Creditour turneth our Pardoner and while hee might powre out all his wrath upon us he is to reconcile us to him And under this name our reconciliation goeth because he worketh the worke whereof wee are at first both ignorant and uncapable So in Scripture every where he calleth on us Come let us count together Come to mee yee that are wearie and laden and I will ease you Next in the Sanctuarie he exacteth service of us and that for our owne good only that seeing he is applying to us his happinesse purchased by his Son he craved of us preparations and dispositions to receive it So he craveth that wee lay up his word in our heart That wee repent our sinne unfainedly that we beleeve in him that wee love him with all our heart and all our soule and that we honour him in keeping his Commandements for even while he promiseth to ease us of our owne yoake he biddeth us take his yoake upon us That we pray to him for blessings wee have need of and that wee praise him for every blessing we receive For God commandeth no man any thing for his owne profit but for his profit whom he commandeth And all the businesse of our sacrifice under the Gospell is not for him but for our more profitable exercise in piety Thirdly he conferreth upon us and giveth the things that he both offereth and exacteth so hee worketh faith in us opening our hearts as hee did the heart of Lydia and while he biddeth us Come to his Sonne he draweth us to him both by alluring us with his excellencie and bowing of our wils to him He craveth of us that we understand his word and giveth us hearts to understand it when he circumciseth our eare and heart and writeth his Law therein As he commandeth that we love him with all our heart so he sheddeth abroad his love in our heart making all our heart powre it selfe out on him As he craveth obedience of us so he giveth the spirit of obedience putting his feare in our heart and causing us to walke in his Law His craving or exacting is not Legall but Evangelick for the legall is Doe and thou shalt live and yet gave no helpe to doe the thing that was commanded but the Evangelick exacting giveth us power to doe the thing that it commandeth giving us to know to will and to doe And their obedience differeth as well as the exaction for the legall obedience was to righteousnesse and salvation if they could attaine it but the Evangelick obedience is for gratitude and thankfulnesse to God for that happinesse which hee hath both purchased and applies to them freely Fourthly as a gracious Acceptor of that wee are able to doe by his grace which goeth in two First though it be his he counteth it ours for wee are not able of our selves as of our selves to thinke any good but all our sufficiencie is of him He giveth us the habite of faith of repentance and bringeth their acts out of them And though formally beleeving repenting c. be our worke because our wils moved by grace doe move themselves and so specifieth the acts of these habits yet the power
in our affection but we abhor it then God will assist us against it It may lessen the degrees of our happinesse but cannot destroy it In like manner there are degrees of good and we should love every good according to the degree till we ascend to the chief good and love him with all our heart and all our soul. These affections qualifie our person for the hatred of ill divideth us from that ill we hate and the love of good maketh us like that good we love And our love to the degrees of good maketh us grow in goodnesse and grace The wicked keep neither this order nor aseending They pervert all and chuse for their happinesse a lesser good then they refuse as worldly goods in place of heavenly That is both a transposing of their heart and a descending and so they prove the sons of Belial according to the Hebrew because they neither ascend in the Lords mountaine but are unthrifts neither take on them the Lords yoak and it is their naughtinesse or knaverie according to the Latines that they turn themselves to nothing for knaverie is the death of the life so called because it turneth to nothing But we must further distinguish these affections for though we should hate all sinfull ill yet we may not hate any good We may wisely neglect lesser goods for the chief but not hate them Though we count lesse of a lesser good then of a greater and comparatively neglect all in respect of God yet we should abhor none What ever is neglected is in comparison of a better It is not only sin to turn from good to ill but even among goods to decline from eternall to temporall things from visible to invisible from the creatour to the creature yea and to love any good too much that is lesse then our selves because it is ordered under us And that due love we give them is not to hold us on them but to send us away to the chief good for if these small goods be love-worthy with what a love should we adhere to the fountain-good The most part of men run on riches honour fame power and pleasure and yet true happinesse is not in any of them nor in all together Riches whether naturall in food and raiment or artificiall in money are but earth in their substance and worthlesse in themselves Though the wretch count greatly of them they are only for use wherein they perish Honour is not happinesse though the ambitious man count it so but a consequent of it neither hath it true worth but is a signe of it and that discerned and proclaimed by the multitude a blinde judge of worthinesse And though the supposed worth be in him that is honoured yet the offered honour is more in the honourer and at the best it is but a vanishing smoak Fame is happinesse to the vain-glorious man but at the best it is a fruit and not a cause thereof It is oftner false then true and can proclaim lowd where no happinesse is Sathan useth it as a miserable subsidie to the dead whom he hath killed with the hunger of vain-glorie and as a bait to their consorts to devoure that same angle Power seemeth happinesse to the stirring man that he may perform his own purposes and oppresse his enemies but it is rather an instrument then happinesse and more hurtfull to the abuser then to others and the abufe of it maketh more miserable then the possession of it can blesse As for pleasure the happinesse of beasts it is to be left to Epicures for though some of them pretended a pleasure of the minde yet when all is searched that is but a pretence to colour their beastly opinion of bodily pleasure They strove to purifie it with abstract explications but their life refuted their discourse and their grosse practice overthrew their subtill disputes Pleasure is the bodies happines but not the souls and if we speak properly the soul is rather the best thing of the body then any bodily thing Moreover all these idols of the world are cut off from happinesse because they are common as well to the wicked as to the godly which cannot fall in true happinesse the patrimonie of the saints Next happinesse bringeth contentment but the more we have of these the more we thirst Thirdly true happinesse is not in externall things but all these are externall The cause why so many seek these things for happinesse is they love them better then God and from their own fancie do conceit a worth which is not in them and alleadge a promise on them which they make not It is truly said that they who love fain dreams to themselves The wretch thinketh that riches cry on him saying Come to me I shall make thee happy The ambitious man thinketh honour cryes so to him so the epicure dreameth of pleasure c. But falshood riseth not of the things themselves but of our own deceiving and deceived hearts These things neither promise happinesse neither can performe the errour of their fansie turned into a strong desire maketh them father such promises on these things even as fools and babes do imagine that ringing bels do speak the thing that they think And it is our reproch that we beleeve things that neither promise nor can perform and hazzard our eternall happinesse on that credulitie But when God promiseth who is both truth and omnipotencie wee meet his word with infidelitie If these things could speake they would chide their lovers as the angels did the woman seeking Christ in the grave Why seek yee the living among the dead Why seek ye happinesse in us who have it not but are worse then your selves Some again who seem more perfect seek happinesse in the gifts of the minde as learning vertue wisedome c. These are better than the former and yet come not to true happinsse for these gifts are common and many wicked men have excelled in them and yet perished They are as the light to the eye without seeing a furnishing to seek it without fruit The Philosophers who excelled most in these things were most miserable The fleshly villanies of Socrates Plato and Aristotle equalled and exceeded their morall vertues Solomon found not happinesse in these morall vertues but in the fear and obedience of God All these erred foully in their search yet not alike The world is as a great mans house to whom many resort Some stay in the lower roomes with their companions but some go to the hall and yet stand there gazing on pictures or rich hangings but the wiser sort passe all these and stay not till they finde him in his cabinet So all men are busie for happinesse but the most part remain below on riches and pleasure Other that seem of greater spirits climb up to honour and are bewitched with the painted hangings of worldly glorie or adore the gifts of their
That God worketh in us both to will and to do It is a great gift of God to seek God It is second to no gift because it is the first It succeedeth no grace which hath no precedent and cedeth to none that hath the perfection of all Let no soul seeking God turne that great good into a great ill by ascribing it to it self but let it know that it is preveened and sought by him before it seeke him The church sought Christ in the night but was first sought of him And David confessing his wandering like a sheep prayeth to God seek thy servant If it had been in his owne power he needed not to pray for it he would but he could not and that his will was of Gods effectuall grace Therefore let every soul that seeketh God confesse that it is sought before it seek and is beloved before it love him Our invention then is Gods prevention and that prevention excludeth invention hee sought us who sought him not that we might seek him He preveeneth us with two blessings of Love and Seeking Love the cause of seeking and seeking the fruit of his love And hereof commeth our seeking because he seeketh and findeth us If wee were not sought we could not seeke him and being sought we cannot but seeke him Neither can we seeke before we be sought Neither can we but seek when God hath sought us Gods suasion is his seeking of us and his persuasion is his finding Our desire of him is our seeking of him and our faith and delight is our finding of him We seek him by desire and finde him by faith Of all that is spoken of this search we gather three things The happinesse of the godly man in his search The distinction of mankind And our duty The happinesse of the godly in that they are not left to themselves but are guided therein by a divine wisedome and justice In wisedome because they passe by all other things till they come to God They count of other goods as becommeth but not as the chief good they are lesser goods but not prime they follow happinesse but lead not to it They love that that cannot be taken from them none can take God from them Many of the Ancients make these three equivalent Wisedome Veritie and Happinesse because it is truth that directeth to happinesse and wisedome that findeth it out and this is true wisedome to chuse the best and the thing that will not be taken from us It was Maries wisedome that she chused the thing that would not be taken from her Next they are guided by divine Iustice to give every thing the owne due To God their greatest love and to his gifts they measure according to their kinde and degree of goodnesse They seek God for their happines and leave the world unto worldlings That is perfect justice that loveth best things greatly and meane things meanly None have the ballance of the sanctuarie in their heart but the sanctified ones their mindes inlightned of God value things rightly and their pure affections follow accordingly and therefore they are only the right esteemers of things but the worldling is a blinde judge he neither knowes the excellencie of things spirituall neither the basenesse of worldly things but as a sow embraceth the dongue-hill of wordly contentments and contemneth the heaven yea they are the serpents brood because they eat the dust of earthly trifles and are the more sweet morsell to him againe Secondly this distinguisheth mankinde in it selfe Mankind hath many divisions but this is a speciall one from the choice of happinesse and so goeth in two parts One the Generation of those that seeke the Lord the other of them that seek him not Many say who will let us see good things But Lord lift up above me the light of thy countenance This is not like Martha and Marie These two sisters choice were both good for Marthaes businesse was commendable but Maries was better The one was busie in the workes of Charitie doing good to the bodie of Christ the other in the workes of Pietie about his Godhead The one to feed his body The other to be fed of his spirit and yet he counteth more of Marie who neglected his body to feed her owne soul than of Martha who neglected her owne soul to feed his bodie He was fed in spirit by her whose spirit he did feed This was a work of the same love that made him neglect himself to save us he came to do divine things and to suffer humane miseries for us and so to be hungrie and eat He subjected himselfe to be a guest in mans houses who is preparing mansions in heaven for men and yet in this voluntary necessitie giveth more than he taketh and is gladder to feed us than be fed Iacob and Esau do more represent these parties the one in pietie waiting on God and injoying the blessing The other profanely contemning the blessing and following his fleshly delights Sometimes the godly will follow the common errour and chuse the world as Lot inticed with the fatnesse of the vallies chused to dwell in Sodome but that folly cost him deare for beside the societie of Abraham he lost his wife and all his goods There is no other cure of their folly but the losse of that their choice Herein the godly and the wicked have both a concord and discord in their choices They agree in the matter in that they chuse contrary things the godly chuse God for their happinesse and the wicked the trifles of the world They cannot encroach one on another for the choice of the one is the refuse of the other and the refuse of the one is the choice of the other And yet they discord because these contrary courses flow from contrary dispositions which breaketh out in enmity in the wicked for though they be content that the godlies choice leave the trifles of the world to them yet they are angrie at it because it proveth them fools who chuse that which the godly refuse And Sathan augmenteth this discord to avenge his double quarrell upon the godly The one in disdaining his baits whereby he allureth the wicked the other for loving of God whom he abhorreth Yea the wicked mocke the godly as fools for their refusing of the world and chusing of God But it is like Ismaels mocking of Isaac or rather as foolish children mocking the prudence of the ancient which they can neither chuse nor follow But the godly indure that ignorant censure patiently as wise men do either contemne or neglect the ignorance of babes or else bear with them till they come to riper judgement This expresseth that which God did by chusing his owne out of the corrupt masse Albeit they were borne twins as Jacob and Esau yet they are divided at their birth and setting their backs to
Father also To have this sight we must be pure in heart blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God For God sheweth not himselfe to the uncleane We get this puritie by renovation and being defiled by sinne we purge our hearts from every evill conscience by repentance thereby wee both may and dare draw neere to the throne of grace in Christ and looke on God without whom he is a consuming fire The wicked never have this sight they shall see him in the signe of his power but never in his glorious forme Neither have all the godly it alike Neither any one godly man hath it alike at all times Of fruition of God THe second thing is Fruition the fruit of the former sight and the reall possession of the chiefe good and so our happinesse in it This no tongue can teach but grace and they who have it cannot satisfie themselves in explication of it for it is better felt than described Yet we may call it with some a possessing of God or to have him readie at hand But we shall consider in it two affections especially Love and joy The first is our inloving the other our injoying of him and they go together and carrie our soules with them on a good present and possessed Love uniteth us to God and turneth all our affections to it and with it to him It is both the contract and embracements of Christ it is our worthinesse and our reward Our merit because he loveth that his owne gift in us and our reward because so he followeth his former mercies in us It is most pleasant to our selves because it maketh the soule to rest sweetly on a present and eternall good Even the desire of a good to come hath the anxietie of delay but love hath it present It layeth not a part of the heart on God but all for that is his due Love the Lord with all thy heart neither will the heart rightly affected with him divide it selfe but seeing and feeling his goodnesse as he draweth so it yeeldeth wholly to him and desireth to be out of it selfe that it may be in him Love is that only motion or affection whereby we dare give God a meeting If hee be angrie wee dare not be angrie at him but tremble and repent If he rebuke we dare not rebuke him but deprecat his wrath If he judge us wee dare not judge him but justifie him in his judgements If he command we dare not command him but in all humilitie obey him But it is contrary in love for when God loveth us he seeketh that meeting to be loved againe for he loveth us that we may love him The second part of this fruition is joy when the soule overjoyed with God rejoyceth in him It floweth from love for when God hath filled our heart with the infusion of his love and made it to powre it selfe on him by loving him with all our heart Of the sense of these two loves followeth a new infusion of joy whereby it rejoyceth that it is beloved of God and bestoweth it selfe in loving him Love is the worke of our soule in our dearest chiefe good about happinesse and joy is the fruit of that worke and the rest of our soule resting sweetly in the possession of him whom it loveth and they are both mutuall causes and equall Mutuall because the more we love God the more we rejoyce in him and the more wee rejoyce in him the more wee love him as the matter of our joy And they are equall because in that same measure we rejoyce in him in that same we love him This is a joy unspeakeable and glorious Unspeakable even of those that have it for if they presse to expresse it their words are lesse than their thoughts and their thoughts lesse than the sense of it and their sense lesse than it selfe And therefore their usuall expression is in secret with God to powre out their heart in that joy which they cannot expresse to man When God infuseth it the heart cannot comprehend it fully but is like a small vessell filled and overturned with a greater measure of liquor than it can containe but it turneth that overrunning on God and findeth that the best containing both of it and that joy is to be contained of God It is also a glorious joy or glorified because it is the first fruits and earnest of the joyes of heaven and all worldly joyes are as short of it as the smoak of flax to a great fire Hereby are cleared both the spirituall â—atietie and excesse Spirituall satietie is that heavenly drunkennesse or inebriation of grace wherewith God filleth his owne They shall be satiat or made drunke with the fatnesse of thy house This is not of wine as the Iewes blamed the Apostles neither of malice that Sathan powreth into the heart neither of worldly cares which come of the wilde grapes of humane condition but it is of drunkennesse of the wine of grace which floweth from the fulnesse of Christ and is put in new vessels This S. Peter granted for himself and the rest we are not drunk with wine as ye thinke but with a better liquor the graces of the Spirit that came downe abundantly on them And be not drunken with wine wherein is excesse but be fulfilled with the Spirit This is that satietie that commeth of the fat things of the hoâ—se of God and of the rivers of his pleasures or Paradise what are these fat things but the fatted calfe Jesus Christ who is daily crucified in the sanctuarie in the Gospell and that for Raritie Excellence and Sweetnesse Raritie because none but he Excellencie because none like him And Sweetnesse because he fully delighteth the soule which by the faith of his incarnation and passion c. applieth him to it selfe Here is Samsons riddle Out of the labourer came meat and out of the strong came sweetnesse Who laboured more than he who trode the winepresse of the Lord alone And who stronger than the Lion of the tribe of Judah And what sweeter than that hony-combe sticking in his bowels that is the fruit of his obedience for us springing of his incomparable love This made the Greek Church to call it a monster of love The wicked go by and search not his bowels for this honie but the godly take it out and eat it yea the wicked can lick the dew off the rock but cannot sucke the honie out of it but the godly by the mounds of the rock thrust their beleeving and loving hearts into his heart and are satiat with that love of the Father the Sonne and the Spirit which they finde there This is to be filled with marrow and fatnesse who receive largely of that unction to make us fat and flourishing in the body of Christ. Spirituall Excesse
and politicks that they can plot mischief and bring it to passe Who ever glorieth in sin professeth that he counteth it his happines It may here be demanded If affliction can stand with happines The name of it is miserable to the worldly but that name hurteth not where miserie is absent I answer it can for it is not the ill of sin or of the fault but the ill of punishment and there is more miserie in the least sin than in the greatest crosse and the Apostle called not himselfe miserable for his great affliction but glorieth in it I will glorie in my infirmities But when he found the rebellion of his will against the law of his spirit hee cryes out Miserable man that I am Gods love is the ground of our happines and affliction can stand well with it for whom he loveth he chasteneth Sin woundeth the soul and bodie and wasteth the conscience but affliction purgeth all and maketh Gods grace more sharp and lively Sin can admit no qualification but must either be simply pardoned or punished but affliction is qualified with grace to the godly and furthereth them to happines so that the spirit pronounceth them happie that are chastened of the Lord Our happines is in no externall good but in Gods favour and the state of our person qualified with his grace and image in us But affliction though it spill externall blessings yet it neither separateth us from his favour neither destroyeth his grace but augmenteth it It can make us no more miserable than prosperitie maketh the wicked happy We need not now compare Lazarus in heaven with the rich man in hell Even in this life Lazarus in his rags and sores was more happy than the rich man in his costly apparell and daintie fair Affliction is a medicine and keepeth grace fresh in us while ease and prosperitie slayeth the foolish It is both the occasion and whetstone of vertue for God exerciseth them most whom he loveth and imployeth most The best souldiers are set on hardest service and none of them going out exponeth it as their Generals base account of them but rather that he esteemeth highly of their valour God keepeth us from more miserie in making us repent former sin and keeping us from sin that we might commit than all the ill that affliction bringeth on us Our daily crosses chase us daily to God who is our happines and the godly count more of grace than of goods Job after he had lost all kept his soul so fixt on God that he made it manifest that they they were not given to him but that he was more than they and God was more to him than they and himself The second respect is to good that we choose it and that not every good but the best for wee are not now inquiring everie good but the chief Herein we must climb in two ascensions the one in our self the other in goods For our self we must not bide in our bodily senses which are evill Judges of happines but we must ascend from our body to our spirit from our affections and will to our reason and from that to the eternall law the rule of reason and from that to eternall veritie the informer of reason in that law So we must rise to the inlightned minde in Jesus Christ that we may be inabled to make this search aright Next we must ascend by the degrees of goodnesse in the things themselves for every creature of God is good but not the chief good Though we may respect it as good in the own kinde and degree yet we may not rest on it for happinesse As a man that seeketh a lost jewell in a house casteth by all that cometh to hand till he finde it Or as one in a well furnished shop seeking rare stuffe though the merchant put many in his hand after other yet he layeth them all by till he finde that he desires So in this search of happinesse what ever good come in our way we must shift it till we come to the chief good If we ascend to the height of a minde inlightned by God nothing will content us till we come to himself As his own light discovereth him so his own love shed abroad in our heart cannot rest on any good till it come to him The dove sent out by Noah found no rest till she returned to the ark so the inquiring minde findeth no rest in the creature till it come to God in the covenant of grace Spirituall things are better then temporall and heavenly things better then earthly and in spirituall things we must ascend from gifts to grace and in grace from a common to a speciall grace and in the speciall grace from a preveening to an exciting grace from that to the operating and cooperating graces and from those to preserving and persevering grace From given grace we ascend to giving grace that maketh us acceptable And from all graces inhering in us and qualifying us as faith hope holinesse c. we rise to the fountain-grace in God even his free favour whereby he hath chosen and blessed us in spirituall things in Christ This is the grace whereby we are saved our chief good and true happinesse The Prophet professeth this his search through heaven and earth ending in this choice of God alone Whom have I in heaven but thee and in the earth I have desired none with thee And the Apostle I count all things but dung for the excellencie of the knowledge of Christ and that I may know him and be found in him This is our highest ascent Reason it self craveth this for we ought to seek the best good and if these things be good God is better who made them They have their goodnesse of him which is infinitely lesse then his goodnesse as a drop of water compared to the sea They are both better and greater in him then in themselves and more truly also as the originall is better then the extract All goodnesse is both originally and eminently in him and more perfect then in creatures because what is in them a shadow in him is truth If we love riches true riches is in his favour If we love honour true honour is in his testimonie If we love true pleasure it is in his peace The authour of things is better then the things themselves and he who made all is to us for all things He who made all is better then all and that is our God he departeth not because none succeedeth to him This is the right sett of our two chief affections hatred and love Of hatred that we hate all ill absolutely There are degrees of ill some lesse and some greater and answerably we should hate them all but we may not love any degree of ill this is our separation from it for though it subsist in our substance flesh yet if it be not
with a felt necessitie and want as a whetstone to make our prayers fervent When Seth called his son Enosh that is miserable or calamitous then men began to call upon the name of the Lord So that name expressed that they were sensible of their miserie and that felt miserie maketh men religious Next commeth the desire to have that thing which we want and that is the prayer it self For a ground we looke to Gods mercie and for price we looke to Christs merite Herein is the worke of faith to make the prayer faithfull as the preceding conscience maketh it fervent It specifieth our desire and maketh it supernaturall for it is the hand of our soul meeting Gods hand who offereth his blessings to us in the promise as a lively childe taketh the pap of his mother greedily and sucketh milk out of it largely So the faithfull soul opening wide the mouth of the desire taketh in the promise and sucketh the blessing of God out of it We present his promises as his owne handwrit and obligation And he deigneth by his promises to be debter to us to whom he forgiveth all debt True prayer is not so much in our words as our heart Words in publick prayer are necessary for others to heare and follow us And in privat prayers they serve to hold our mindes constant but the life of prayer standeth in faithfull desires For long speech is one thing and a strong affection is another and the worke of prayer is done more by groans than by words and by tears more than talk And the Lord careth not much for the cry of our flesh but for the crie of our heart For his eares are in our heart and he heareth us say nothing to him but what he hath first spoken to us Moses was silent at the red sea and yet God said to him why cryest thou His mouth was close but his heart was crying to the Lord he was grieved to see the peoples danger and yet beleeved God who promised to deliver them and was challenging God in his heart to keepe his promise Therefore one saith That the people cried but God heard them not Moses cried not and yet the Lord answered him And the reason is cleare because the crie of the people was in murmuring and fleshly reason which God misregardeth but the secret and heart-cries of Moses were the language of the holy Spirit And the Apostle seemeth to point at this when he telleth the worke of the spirit helping us to pray bringeth forth sighes and groans which cannot be uttered We call him then into our selves when we call upon him Light cares can speake but great cares doe stupifie with silence Weak desires are easily expressed but excessive desires cannot be equalled by speech A rod serveth a man in a small worke but in a greater he casteth it away and taketh him to stronger instruments So the tongue is a sufficient interpreter in other things but here wee leave it and take us to groans and sighs the best language of the heart Men may be neere and not heare us and yet our groans be heard in the heaven of heavens We cannot bide in our selves but would be at God and yet cannot win to him as we would therefore we groan under that restraint Gods suggestion to our heart is by inspiration of heavenly power making us capable of grace And by infusion powring in that grace he offereth So our best speach to him is by aspiring not of ambition but of affection in breathing to him as the chased hart doeth to the waters The kisses of Christ on our soul are better impressed and stamped by him than can be expressed by us So the best expressing of our soul to him is better by thrusting it on him than by uttering of words This excessive desire of God is wrought in the heart by himself he filleth it both with himâ—elf and a desire of him that he may make it sensible of both The more it is full of him it desireth him the more and the more it powreth out it selfe in that desire it is satiat the more and the more the desire increaseth And in this heavenly inebriation satiety provoketh our thirst The more we have of God we thirst him the more and are inflamed with new desires Superstitious worshippers thinke by their prayers as charmes to devocat and draw God out of heaven And the Idolater thinketh to command him but both separate themselves from him But the godly seek him in their heart and thrust their heart on him It is also a touch of that sicknesse of love when the soul burneth in a desire of God and that sicknesse is the health of the soul and God sensibly filling the heart is the cure of that sicknesse This prayer then is nothing else but a laying of his desirous heart open to the fountaine to drinke in happinesse Who so hath receaved this affectuous devotion and devout affection to God hath already conceaved the birth of happinesse and shall travell therewith now painfully now joyfully till he be delivered of it in his full deliverie from all miserie Thirdly hope of obtaining happinesse followeth our faithfull prayers for what faith beleeveth that hope expecteth It is as soone in our hope as it is in our faithfull desire and long before it be in our hand and yet as sure as it were in our hand though sometime interveen for he that is to come will come and not delay And behold I come and my reward is with me And the hope of the godly shall not perish Our hope is greatly confirmed by the tastes of happinesse we finde in prayer We may more firmely expect that that we finde begun already and these first fruits assure us of the fulnesse in due time Such faithfull desires powred out with a delightfull freedome are not only the Lords harbengers in our heart to tell that he is comming but the ushers of his entrie and tokens that he is already come He is in that heart that earnestly desireth him and with libertie powreth it selfe out on him Moreover this word containeth three properties of his prayer Humilitie Absolutenesse and Constancie Humilitie because it is an humble asking and not a proud exacting and so excludeth mans merite which cannot stand with the humilitie of prayer If he had merit for happinesse he would not beg it as a gift but exact it as a debt The Apostle cleareth this for when he hath said The wages of sinne is death if he had followed the rules of Logick he would have said that the reward of righteousnesse is life eternall But he knew that could not stand with Gods mercie and Christs merite therefore he calleth life eternall the free gift of God And to this truth God provided himselfe a witnesse even among the Cardinals The Apostle saith he saith not that the wages of righteousnesse
God that he would give us happinesse to conceave Jesus Christ by faith or else we perish The third propertie of this prayer is Constancie For faithfull prayer knowes no end but obtaining of that it seeketh and this is both in constant love of the chiefe good and constant seeking of it The love we have to chiefe good changeth not but increaseth daily Worldly happinesse giveth not this constancie Men seek one thing to day and another to morrow they burne even now in a desire of honour and at once in greed of riches as occasion offereth or possibilitie of obtaining appeareth they change both their object and course But the godly who chuse true happinesse neither repent their choice nor change their course but grow in the like of their choice and love of happinesse They can change the place of their dwelling their complexion their diet and contentment in common goods but not in the chiefe good These things are but for the way and for a short time but the other for eternitie and in the current of changes upon other things he holdeth ever fast his love to happinesse The more he knoweth it the more he loveth it and blesseth God who hath directed him in that choice Herein he is not so much active as passive and that both willingly in a sort of sweet violence captivated with the delights of his most beloved and desired good It possesseth him rather than he doeth it and he is more in it than in himselfe The sweetnesse he findeth in it suffereth him not to change for any other God may blesse him with many other goods and Sathan may turne them as baites to withdraw or divert him from the chief good but he never changeth his first love The first impression of the joyes of happinesse are so deepe in his heart that no contentment of lesser goods can either divert it by change or diminish it by equalitie And though God from heaven would bid him make a new search of happinesse he would still fall upon his first choice The other is in his prayer he will not leave seeking till he obtaine happinesse It is not at our hand nor found at the first but we must pray often for it We faint if we be not heard at the first but that is our fleshlinesse who would have God subject to us The gift is his owne and he knoweth his time and it is our part patiently to wait on So David I waited patiently on the Lord And Jeremie The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. And Christ giveth us the parable of the poore widow who importuned the judge till she was heard It is counted a courtesie among men to take with the first refuse but with God it is no courtesie but infidelitie and we cannot give him greater rest than to importune him with our desires of happinesse And the Canaanitish woman is commended for it that shee cried out till she was heard So should wee doe in praying for happinesse and that the more because we get it not here in the fulnesse but in the degrees which should strengthen our patience because they are obligements on Gods part His purpose is in himselfe and his promise is knowen and beleeved of us and if providence begin to performe them both it is a sort of engaging of him who is libertie if wee may â—o speake to performe that he hath begun Gods delay is in respect of us but not of himselfe It is the triall of our faith the proofe of our hope the opening of our heart in large desires and a way to sweeten our delights when our desire is filled For the more and longer we have thirsted the sweeter shall our satietie be and our prayers are not so much in particular times as the constant opening of our desires to God when our hearts like emptie vessels lie at the fountaine and like the man at the poole of Bethesda wee wait on till God heale us He will have us exercised in prayer that wee may receive that that he prepareth to give us This answereth a question which some move when they heare of some who are oft and long at their private devotion They aske what purpose they had to be so oft and long with God But if we be sensible of our miserie wee will never want purpose to pray to God though it were to crave againe and againe this true happinesse we get it not at the first nor at once but by degrees and though the matter were one yet we have need of a new affection of that same matter and when that affection decayes wee have need to have it repeated The Apostle biddeth us pray continually which is not so to be taken as though we should ever be on our knees in the action of prayer because he hath commanded us to labour in our particular callings but of our constant affection our habituall desire and continuall disposition for seeking of God which most shew themselves in the frequent action of prayer though not in the continuall Out of this I raise three things First our dutie That if we would obtaine true happinesse wee aske it of God by prayer Wee are every way craving and begging creatures because wee are ever necessitous Though our grave have the name from craving yet from our conception to our grave wee are craving continually In the womb wee crave nourishment and then libertie by birth and at our birth our weeping is a craving to testifie that a miserable and indigent creature is come into the world Though there be some reason of the first weeping because we are come from a warme lodging to a colder yet the maine reason of it is because we are entring into the valley of miserie the fittest saluting of it is by teares And all our time in this life is nothing but a world of necessities after other of rayment food physick c. But among all wee care least for this one thing Our body is sensible of the owne wants and seeketh for them but our soule is senselesse and in the multitude of prayers scarcely have we one about true happinesse But wee owe to that chiefe good our greatest love the greatest care to obtaine and so the most frequent and fervent prayers Christ taught us this by expresse command Seeke first the kingdome of God and these things shall be cast to you So that comparatively other things are scarce to be sought but a promise made that they shall be cast to us And in his prayer he perswadeth the same order First to pray that God may be glorified in the hallowing of his name and so our glorification will follow his glorie Next that his kingdome may come both insubduing his enemies and ruling us by his grace to our
for this truth who affirmed That this is sincere pietie yea the ground of absolute obedience if a man abhorring from all vaine confidence of his owne worthinesse depend wholly on the mercie of God And if he be perswaded that God is with him as a mercifull Father and never suffer that perswasion to be shaken out of his minde Our dutie then is to seeke this habitation in God what ever be our lot in the world for nothing can quiet the will of man but God He hath prepared us Mansions and to assure us thereof hath promised to make us his mansions If he dwell in us assuredly wee dwell in him One made frequent meditation in the night a token of this dwelling but Christ giveth us a surer If any man love mee and keepe my Commandements the Father and I will come and dwell with him It is not his shadow will content us nor his wings nor his bosome but his heart where all our happinesse was bred Wee will not be content with the dove to be taken in the arke except he take us in the affection that bred the covenant Our superficiall thoughts of his love suffer not our hearts to warme in it it is neither the garment nor the skirt but the heart that was pierced for us that we should touch When God made the world he stayed not till he came to man and then came the sabbath after which no day is numbred to tell that man is for eternitie This dwelling in God is our spirituall sabbathizing the type of the eternall wee prescribe no measure to God but thirst the fulnesse but with the casting in of the bucket of our desires let us cast in our heart also in the fountaine The outbreaking of the fountaine is according to our straitnesse and not according to the fulnesse it selfe God hath made us to himselfe and our heart is restlesse till it rest on him For if wee shall go through the world wee shall not finde a sure place to our soule but in him Things naturall are carried to their place by their weight And the weight of our soule is our love Thereby we are carried whithersoever we go And by the grace of God it is kindled in us and carrieth us upward This is our rest and life that cannot be troubled For who so entereth in God entreth in his masters joy and shall be most happy in him who is most happy Therefore O the vertue of our soule enter in her and fit her to thy selfe that thou mayest possesse her He who is come to this is in his rest and may justly say Returne my soule to thy rest SECTION V. Of the place In the house of the Lord. Gods house is the schoole of happinesse WE have heard of the happie mans habitation Followeth the place and it is Gods house Not that he needeth a house who is All and filleth all for the heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstoole what house can we build unto him But he hath chosen Churches for his houses that therein hee may deale with us in the matter of happinesse and they are so called from his presence and delight His presence because as his providence is manifest every where in ruling the World in temporall things he would also have some houses set apart for happinesse and eternall salvation So that albeit he be in every house yet that his being in them may be called an absence comparatively to his presence in the Church His delight also is great in Churches This is my rest here I delight to dwell And to make it prove his house he decoreth it with greater beautie than all the houses in the world which made David to choose the house of the Lord though he had stately and royall palaces to dwell in as we shal heare God willing hereafter for this cause one calleth him an aspiring Lover of life eternall who sought that one thing to dwell in the house of God There are also other considerations of the Church mysticall and individuall Mysticall is the Church of the Elect to whom he imparteth this happinesse Individuall to speak so is every elect person a lively member of the Church of the Elect because they are the Temples of the holy Spirit Hereof three things arise First Gods great mercie who notwithstanding our grievous sinnes hath erected his houses every where in the world for our happinesse Man could not ascend to God therefore God came down to man to deale with him openly in the matter of happinesse When wee were cast out of Paradise Sathan thought we should never be taken in favour againe but now he hath appointed millions of houses for reconciliation And he hath appointed his houses eminently for Sathans more eminent confusion So Porphyre confessed it as from Apollo that the divels abhorred the chief God and that most in Churches because there hee exposed them to mockerie For his house is his trysting place wherein we deale with him about happinesse It is also as a richly furnished shop offered to those that have no money It is like unto these wine-cellars whereunto Christ taketh his spouse to fill her with spirituall consolations Lastly it is his open Schoole wherein the doctrine of happinesse is plainly taught He saw mankinde lye flat on the earth and though the Grecians seemed to lift mens minds to heavenly things yet they erred worse than the former in so far as errour is worse than simple ignorance and made people erre by authority who before erred only in simplicitie for among them all there was neither truth nor concord For this cause sometimes Gods house is put for Christ as he is opposed to the Philosophers because in him only is happines to be found Therefore God pitying man opened his schooles of the Church in the doctrine of happinesse and there is more of it in this one sentence This is life eternall to know thee to be the only God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ than in all the writs of Philosophers from the beginning And God doth this in the sight of the World because his works are good and seeke the light Sathan stealeth away man in his works of darknesse but he will have them publickly returning to honour him and shame Sathan Secondly the happinesse of a Nation where God hath houses Sion the perfection of beautie And more Sion the joy of the whole earth and the Citie of the great King Many count his house a burden and wrangle miserably in the provision of pastors like the Gadarens who thrust Christ away for their swine or like the Polonians who having embraced Christianitie and finding the maintenance of it heavier than Paganisme resolved to turne to Paganism again However it bideth sure that Gods presence in a Land is their happinesse and glorie The world thinketh that Monarchies are the glorie of
earthen vessels that the excellencie of the power may be seene to be of God and not of man Yet it is their glorie and happinesse to be Gods instruments in bringing others to happinesse They have his assistance first because of their calling for God is never lacking to his owne ordinance Next because of their gifts which are a greater token of his presence than their simple calling Thirdly and most by sanctification when they sanctifie their persons and gifts for the worke and remove all things from them that may either offend God or his people and this is it that disposeth them for the manifestation of spirit and power The ministration of Sacraments is a part of this beautie The first giveth us the life of God the second nourisheth that life in us The first meeteth us with provision at our entrie in the valley of teares The second strengtheneth us for temptations in it Baptisme is our first Sacrament and scarcely are we borne naturally when we are borne againe spiritually Gods grace prevening our wit our will and our worth and sealing us before wee be sensible It is a prevening of sathans malice to marke us with the seale of the covenant ere he can abuse us to any actuall sinne Therein great workes are acted with little shew the death buriall aud resurrection of Christ is there represented Our Iustification death buriall and resurrection with him are there acted Therein the sonnes of Adam are made the sonnes of God The children of wrath are made heires of the kingdome of heaven What grace from eternall ordained us prevening grace as a midwife bringeth out By our first birth we increase the number of mankinde By our second birth wee increase the Church The grace of election griped us in eternitie the grace of Baptisme gripeth us in time by the beginnings and the grace of effectuall calling pulleth us fully to God As elect children receive the seeds of grace in Baptisme so in time they break out fully in them In our election though wee were in God yet we were neither in our selves nor sensible of that his choising grip In our Baptisme we are in our selves but not sensible of his working In our calling both wee are and are sensible of the worke of his grace in us The Sacrament of the Lords supper is another part of this beautie He gave us life in Baptisme and feedeth it conveniently in the Supper as a life for eternitie He is both our life and the food of it Neither can that life live without him neither can any thing beside him nourish it It is a precious food and dearely prepared He prepared it on the crosse when he suffered the punishment for our sinnes and giveth it to us in that Sacrament as that Manna that tasteth to every man according to his desire He is with these mysteries both sacramentally and spiritually and with us spiritually to make us one with him not by mixture of substances but by union of spirits for our eating of him is our biding in him To eat his flesh and drinke his bloud is not horrour but honour Because wee eat him spiritually we need not prepare our teeth but our minde for it is not the food of the belly but of the minde and our beleeving is our eating He both feedeth us with himselfe and is fed by our profit and increase in his grace refreshing us with his spirituall joy and rejoycing for our spirituall profit Our repentance our love and amendment are his meat We are eaten when we are reproved set over when we are instructed Wee are concocted when wee are changed We are digested when we are transformed and united when we are conformed to him Then wee eat him when we dissolve in the sense of his love When his heart sendeth out that love that pierced it before the souldiers speare Then our heart is drawen to his and sucketh his heart in us we thrust the tongue of our desire into his wounds drinke largely out of them The mother suffereth not her deare babe more lovingly to lay the mouth to her pap than he suffereth us to lay our heart to his We see his heart more gladned for the glorie of God in our salvation than grieved for the wounds and therein the love of God who from eternall loved us in Christ to such a happinesse This is a drunkennesse without sinne an excesse without fault He thinketh strange things and seeth wonderfull things and speaketh unheard things who is full of this Paschall Lamb and of this beautie of the house of God Thus much for Pastours worke as they are Gods mouth to his people They are the peoples mouth to God in prayer and praise the two tables of Gods immediat worship and a great part of this beautie In prayer all adore God as the fountaine of happinesse Therein we acknowledge our miserie in sinne and punishment and send up our faithfull desire for pardon Againe the good that wee want as holinesse righteousnesse and happinesse it selfe we crave in confidence There is no part of Gods worship wherein wee be more sensible of the Trinitie The Father as the fountaine the Sonne as Mediatour in whose hand wee put up our prayers and the holy Spirit helping our infirmities and making us pray with groanes that cannot be expressed It is the sweetest exoneration of our heart for when it is oppressed with griefe or bound up in the owne hardnesse of senselesnesse if we get libertie to powre it out before the Lord wee finde a wonderfull release and God powring in joy for the griefe we powred out In the multitude of the thoughts of my heart thy comforts sustained me It is a worke of Gods grace in us for those whom he hath chosen to them he hath appointed all the blessings that follow election and so among the rest he giveth them the spirit of prayer to crave the performance of his promise By his grace they draw neere to that throne of grace by the way that Christ hath made new by his bloud and Christ who purchaseth accesse provideth also a successe to receave grace for help in time of need The more wee grow in grace the more wee are inlarged with confidence Thereof it is that wee both love more ardently and pray more confidently for that we want Privat prayers have greater libertie to feele and expresse these divine operations and is the diet that most nourisheth us but the prayers in the sanctuarie have their great fruit Therein all the prayers of the Saints are joyned with us to make an onset on God This is an holy violence wherin he delighteth It was not a reproofe of Moses Suffer mee to destroy this people but a commendation of his zeale for Gods glorie in the salvation of Israel and a professing that he cannot resist the earnest prayers of his owne He is liberty it selfe and
Not fully because in their greatest fall they have both the Spirit and the seed of God in the habits of faith love c. albeit the worke of the Spirit and of these habits doe cease during the time of their impenitencie So David desireth the restoring of the joyes of salvation while in the meane time he craveth a retaining of the spirit That retaining imported that the spirit was still with him and that restoring imported his wonted joyes werâ— stayed Neither can they fall finally because thâ— Lord in his owne time raiseth them by repentance as Peter and David c. But Scripture and reason prove the same clearely I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will never turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from mee So Christ telleth It is impossible that the elect can be seduced and the Apostle Peter telleth That we are preserved by the power of God to that heavenly inheritance so that God his preserving power maketh our perseverance And no man saith Christ shall pull my sheepe out of my hand And because they except slyly It is true that none can pull his sheep out of his hand yet what if the sheep depart from him of their owne will The Apostle meeteth That neither life nor death nor any creature shall separate us from his love If no creature then not we our selves since we are a creature And the new heart and the new spirit doe promise the contrarie If God be for us who is against us For none can hurt us but he that over commeth God and who can overcome the Almightie Reasons also taken from the persons of the Godhead prove the same For the Father delivereth us to the Sonne to be kept and presented blamelesse at the last day The Sonne committeth us to the Father and prayed for us that we perish not The Father and Sonne commit us to the Spirit to be led in our wayes who dwelleth in us and in our seale which cannot be broken But in our time God gave a fearefull document in this question For when one pressed to destroy the grace of perseverance God let him fall from such grace as he had to turne Papist and of a professour of divinitie to become a lecturer of humanitie Our late Libertines mock this doctrine They professe a perfection in this life and so deny the necessitie of a graduall increase They affirme that the justified man cannot sinne and that God neither seeth nor hateth sinne in them That they need not repent nor mourne for sinne nor incite themselves to the obedience of God That they need not pray but praise continually This is a refined extract of Sathan who as by the Pelagians he oppugneth grace by nature so in them he destroyeth it in the name of grace And under a conceit of singular grace maketh them singularly gracelesse They have carved to themselves an easie way to heaven by laughing and mirth whereas Gods best children find it a valley of teares But their pretended perfection is found to be a presumptuous colour of libertie to their flesh for they are knowne to be more licentious in their wayes than they who groan under the sense of their imperfections The last degree commeth at death Not that our happinesse is suspended till then for we are here preparing happines though we cannot possesse it till death Solons speach cannot abide an exact triall for wee are called to happinesse even in this life It is called a valley of miserie and craveth some solace by a begun happinesse And the scripture pronounceth in the present some men happie Blessed is he whose sinnes are forgiven And happinesse is here begun in us faith gripeth it in the promise hope waiteth on it in the fulnesse our desire longeth for it and the beginnings of it selfe begin our profession But after death all shall be perfected This was the weaknesse of the wisest Pagans when they had pleased themselves with their discourses of happinesse they could not indure the thoughts of death but called it of fearfull things the most fearefull They trembled at that where they should finde most comfort and their thoughts of eternitie were as confused as their doctrine of happinesse was false And therefore could finde no comfort in their evanishing But the truth telleth us that at death we end the valley of miserie and enter in everlasting happinesse At death then our perfect happinesse beginneth and that in two First in removing all miserie or what ever imperfection The other in compleating happinesse in it selfe Our first miserie is sinne originall which God cutteth off by perfect sanctification In our effectuall calling that cutting off beginneth and goeth on by degrees till death when our last breath hath the last act of mortifying grace in the full abolishing of sinne Secondly the abolishing of all guiltinesse whatsoever that wee may be presented pure and blamelesse to him Thirdly wee shall be freed from all tempters and tentations Sathan shall molest us no more There shall be no need of an hedge to Job neither shall wicked men by their example pervert us or by their violence injure us neither shall a deceitfull heart deceive us any more Fourthly we shall be freed of all affliction we shall not desert God in sinne and he shall not desert us in his anger to punish us for sinne There shall be no more sorrow nor feare nor crying out because these first things shall be ended and God shall wipe away all teares from our eyes Lastly the mortalitie of this bodie shall end It is so fraile now that hardly can we fit it to serve us in actions naturall or spirituall and is a daily burthen to us to keepe it from sickenesse and inconvenients And when it is under them a greater burthen to make it free But when it shall be made a spirituall bodie these things shall cease Christs death hath killed death and his life is our life This is the consumption of the ills of our miserie Followeth the consummation of good things that perfecteth our happinesse and these are first the ceasing of the meanes of grace which are now necessary for the way then they shall end as having neither further worke nor use in us So prophesying shall cease and praying shall turne in praise On our part faith shall end in sight hope in fruition desire in delight and the beginnings themselves in their due perfection 2. All goodnes shall be perfected in us according to our measure our light perfect without ignorance or error our love perfect without slacking our will obsequious without rebellion our affections straight without perversenes and righteousnes holines in our last breath shal be accomplished and that last act of our regeneration shall bring forth the new man and send him in a