as not to meddle with particulars the infinitenesse of God the power knowledge and goodnesse of God there must be some knowledge of these in some degree and measure or else I shall not respect God as God nor worship God or make any dependance on him as God for my dependance on him by faith must have relation to the excellencie of God to have a bottome foundation and ground-worke on that In his works 2 God is to be knowne in his workes the workes of creation and providence are the maine and so in those excellencies of relation that depend on these for by vertue of this that he is creator and governour of the world hee must needs bee the Lord of all and all creatures are and must bee servicable to him for dominion and soveraigntie over another God could not have except he had made it and there was nothing till hee made manifest his excellencie in some works nothing but himselfe now no man hath dominion in regard of himselfe to speake properly as a Lordship for that is a relative attribute reflecting on the workes of God when God had made the world and the creatures in it there was a resultancie and relation arised out of that betweene him and his workes they are his workmanship and all his creatures and servicable at his disposing and he as their Lord disposeth and ordereth all and so much of necessitie must be knowne in generall to lay a tolerable foundation for any religious carriage and deportment of a man towards God In his revealed will 2. There is an other maine thing to be knowne concerning God and that is he must be knowne not only according to the excellencie of his nature but in his revealed will A man must know some thing concerning the revealed will of God what is and what is not pleasing and acceptable unto him in any religion for no religion can have any acceptance or be of any worth except it be regulated by the will of God to doe those things that wee doe out of our owne heads and fancies which wee thinke should please God or else God should have nothing is that which God abhorreth and for which he will requite you with a quis requisivit who hath required these things we must know therfore the revealed will of God to mention no other thing in the main substantiall thing viz. that God is pleased to enter into covenant with man and except we know the substance and the maine of the covenant betweene God and man in which God is pleased to reveale himselfe concerning the way to our happinesse which containes 1 Partly Which contains What he commands In the law Holinesse Righteousnesse what hee commands and requires at our hands whether In a legall way Or in an evangelicall way 1 In the legall covenant perfect obedience is required and so perfect holinesse and perfect righteousnesse In the Gospell 2 In the evangelicall covenant obedience is not so required though there be still a naturall obligation on man to God hee oweth him all obedience and that cannot be dissolved the obligation cannot be cancelled there can come no supervenient thing in the world to take it off much more is it farre from grace to annihilate the obligation of obedience it only heales the inabilitie of man and sets him in power but yet obedience now though it be required it is in another way not in the vigour of perfection of obedience but so as that all perfection of obedience is made up by the addition of two other things which the legall covenant was ignorant of and that is 1 Faith in Christ that what I come short of in my owne performance and so could not satisfie the Law or God and the Justice of God I therefore goe out of my selfe to finde it in another and lay my confidence on another who hath paid the price for my happinesse and made up what was wanting in me obedience is now supplied by faith which is evangelicall and which the law knew not of before 2 Obedience is now made up by repentance that though a man doth not keepe a constant tenour of exact and rigourous obedience yet there comes in a supplie of that in another evangelicall way making it whole by repentance by sorrowing and mourning for those failings and walking humbly before God the same obedience is required as much as before but the rigour is not exacted but God is pleased to accept of repentance such as may proceed from faith so that now our obedience is supplied by repentance for out failings in the exactnesse of it Now I speak of these things only as things to bee knowne and believed the the summe as least of Gods covenant by which he is pleased to dispense happinesse to us in what way and what he requires at our hands towards the attaining of it before he will bestow it upon us there must bee some good degree of knowledge of these things but yet this is not all the ground-worke laid towards happinesse Commends by 2 Therefore we must know not only what God commands in the substance of the covenant but how God commends this covenant unto us and how he ratifieth it 1 By menaces Menaces in which we know the sanctions and threatnings of wrath upon our breach and neglect of what God requires of us in the covenant 2 By promises on Gods part Promises in which we may see what we may expert from God and looke for at his hands if we doe performe what he requires now the covenant containes both the promises of this life and the promises of a better life These things all belong to the substance of the covenant betweene God and man and containe the way by which he conveighs happinesse unto us and therefore must be knowne but I speak only of knowledge in the act 2 Now lest there should bee any thing wanting in the branch of knowledge Divine things I adde this to make a supply of it only to mention it therefore and so to passe There must be the knowledge of Divine things The knowledge of God in his nature and in his will and of divine things that pertaine to these that have a necessary connexion with these 2 Faith in God Faith assent there must bee a liking in the understanding a man hath an apprehension of these things but a bare apprehension of these things is not sufficient but it must bee an apprehension and knowledge joyned with faith believing and assenting to those things wee doe apprehend a man may know something suppose concerning heaven that another man may tell him but hee may believe it no more than a fable or hee may be able to discourse and describe it as well as another but if so be a man yeelds an assent or beliefe unto it so as he conceives a realitie in the thing and a substance so as it is not fabular and imaginary but reall this is faith
have occasion to doe it hereafter when I come to handle the other Point For all these places that prove our happinesse to be in God alone and that there is no other way unto it they all prove this Point I shall select some few for present To mention that first wherein this argument is treated in It is the same with this wherein happinesse is seated Mat. 5. at the beginning our Saviour there in this Sermon upon the Mount purposely treats of happinesse and blessednesse Hee sets the crowne of blessednesse or happinesse on the head of many things As Blessed are those that are poore in Spirit Blessed are those that mourne Blessed are the meeke c. But among all those hee mentions there he mentions none of those created good things wherein a man might suppose they should be There is not Blessed is the rich man or Blessed is the honourable man or the wiseman or he that injoyes the goods of beauty or riches or strength of body and the like None of those things mentioned But all these things that are mentioned there are spirituall and heavenly graces that put a man into fellowship and communion with God The second Scripture is that in Psal 34.12 where the Psalmist is in a way of directiō Come to me my children I wil instruct you in the way to happinesse who is he that desires to see good to live long and see good dayes to see happinesse and to come to happines Where he mentions none of those things as I named before but the same that our Saviour seemes to expresse and hee excludes other things Hee directs to spirituall wayes and spirituall meanes for the accomplishment of happinesse but for earthly things hee doth not so much as once name them And then againe Psal 73. about the beginning there is a full proofe of it in the whole beginning there the Prophet reckons up the propriety and the happinesse of wicked men and expresseth it so much the fuller because the glister of these worldly things had dazled the eyes of the Psalmist and they had almost made his feete to stippe Ver. 2. He was so taken with the flare of earthly things and the prosperous state of men in worldly things that hee began to blesse in his heart and thinke well of those that injoyed them and to repine at his owne estate and thus hee was carried away till God brought him into the Sanctuary Verse 18. There hee found that all those that had them were not happy but those that had them were set in slippery places There was no soliditie of happinesse that could be gathered out of those things when God brought him into the sanctuary then hee learned there that there was no true happinesse in all these earthly things And so Psal 144. the last verse The Psalmist there in the beginning of the Verse seemed to looke this way as though there were happinesse in these created things Happy are the people that are in such a case the people that flourish in prosperity as in the foregoing Verses and so farre indeede as they are conjoyned with God there is something of happinesse in them But lest any should mistake the Prophet he corrects himselfe againe and saith as if hee did unsay what he he had said Happy are the people who have God for their Lord They are happy men whose God is the Lord that is the right of it it is not these things wherein true happinesse lies though they may be subservient to it and something conducible to happinesse yet our happinesse doth lie in our conjunction with God And therefore the Prophet Ier. 9.23 giveth a caution Let not the Wiseman glory in his wisedome nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man glory in his riches none of these things can make a man happy these are not the things that a man can delight in or boast of there must be other things that must make up this happinesse or else we shall come short of it And so in 1 Tim. 6.17 See what the Apostle saith concerning one thing which hath the greatest shew and splendor viz. Riches Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded and that they trust not in their uncertaine riches That they doe not build a conceited happinesse in or upon them and thinke they are in a good estate by reason of them the Apostle doth it with authoritie and efficacie and hee would have it laid home to them because men are exceeding apt to cozen themselves in such things And to give something as the Reason of it Looke Hoseah 1.21.22 Alas all these things and the goodnesse of them so farre as they may conduce in an inferiour ranke for our good depend upon God as God by the Prophet there saith In that day saith the Lord I will heare the heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and wine and the oyle c. The first linke of the chaine is tyed to the Throne of God I will heare saith the Lord the earth and the earth shall heare the corne c. All the influence there he tyes to God all comes from him and depends upon him Experience 2. By Experience All the experience in the world makes this certainely true and evident especially to those that have found the experiment and to others likewise if they will trust to experience and not like fooles buy their owne wisedome by their owne experience 1. Take an extraordinary experiment Extraordinary of Salomon the experiment of one may serve for all viz. that of Salomon who gives up his verdict Vanity of vanityes all is vanitie c. Eccles 1.2 I would desire every one to consider this well there is no exception to be put in against the verdict but it will speake home to the point and absolutely convince any one that is a rationall man A mans testimony may be elevated or abased upon divers grounds but there is none can come here to make a slight or diminish the authority of Salomon He wanted not meanes to try for he had all these things and could runne through them all and taste and picke out as it were all the excellencies of them He was the richest King that ever was he had the greatest plenty of gold and all other things that God had bestowed upon him there wanted no meanes whatsoever to make an experiment of any worldly thing but he had it being a King and a rich King Neither wanted there any Wisedome for if he had all other things and wanted skill it had beene nothing he might have gone the wrong way to worke But hee wanted not skill to make an experiment although it had beene to draw fire out of flint as Alchymists can draw oyle out of iron whereas ordinary people can draw little moisture out of it being they want skill to fetch out the quintessence of it But it cannot be said
doe no good for it is Gods blessing that makes any thing nourishing and comfortable to us though we have the things and they remaine with us yet they cannot be usefull to us neither bread to nourish us nor cloathes to warme us or wisedome to guide our wayes God can take away all these and nothing is any thing without the Lord nothing hath any vertue to preserve us without him but God may beate our own weapons on our own heads and afflict us and make those good things executioners of his just judgements against us So that without God there is no sweetnesse in these things but our conjunction with God that gives all the sweetnesse and excellencie in which they may any way conduce to our happinesse 3. Consider the nature of man we see the thing that is in the creature is a diminutive and a dependant good which may faile and there is no good at all in them without the blessing of God But now the nature of a man is such as it must be free from all these defects it desireth something else that it must be free from these defects Long immortall 1. The nature of man requires good that may be long immortall The minde is the man and the soule is the man Hospes corporis the body but the instrument of the soule and the soule is the principall it is of an immortall nature and cannot be happy but by an immortall good something that cannot decay and therefore all things that fade or decay can no way doe it they are too short to cover him to reach to make him happy except they could be extended to immortality which they cannot be 2. It must be large universall good Large universall that good that makes a man happy which nature requires must be a large good it must be an universall good according to the universalitie of his desire For there is an universall appetite and desire in man to every thing that is good and if a man had many things and not all there would be an emptinesse and want of satisfaction unlesse hee could have all the good hee is capable of but now all the creatures cannot reach this universalitie Man is capable of more than all the created things are of a greater good than is in any creature and so long as hee misseth the principall he is farre from happinesse It is a remarkeable saying of the Father concerning King Ahab when he was walking in the time of the three yeeres famine I have gold and silver and wives and children and all these like things but what doe these things good seeing the heaven is as brasse and the earth as iron I have no supply from thence so if a man have never such an abundance of all created things and doth see heaven shut with doores of brasse and barres of iron against him that hee hath no part or portion there what would all these created things doe him good Hee is made by nature capable of that high and noble happinesse and therefore whatever comes short of that it cannot give him satisfaction or perfection but he may say in the midst of all other riches and plenty I am miserable Deepe spirituall 3. It must be a deepe and spirituall good That good that must make a man happy make his nature happy as it must be immortall and universall so it must be a spirituall a transcendent and superexcellent good and therefore all the good of these created things is too short they are to shallow o not deepe enough nothing but God is better than man and it must be something better than man that must make him happy and therefore it is nothing but God that can adde the least perfection or give full satisfaction to the nature of man as the Hebrew Grammarians use to observe concerning the letters in the name Iehovah all the letters of Iehovah are Litera quiescentes quiescent letters letters of rest And there can be no true rest to the soule till it be in God it will be in trouble and anxietie it will be perplexed in the midst of all worldly things till it rest in God who is the center of the soule the center of true rest as the Father said Cor nostrum factum estate inquietum est donec requieseat in te Our heart is made oh Lord by thee and it will never be at rest till it returne to thee As it is in the circle the circle is the perfectest figure of all other figures in the world and this the Mathematicians give to be the reason of it because it begins and ends and the points doe meete together the last point meetes in the first from whence it came and so we shall never be at rest or come to perfection or satisfaction till we returne to our Originall till our soules come to God untill God doe make the circle and wee returne to God we can never rest in our perfection SER. 3. The third Sermon PSALME IV. VI. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us THE Point you remember was That no worldly thing can make us happy Wee opened the Point both concerning the Subject what those things are that will not make a man happy In a word wee shewed that it was no created good whatsoever not the best or quintessence of all nor the most and the confluence of all together Neither the intrinsecall goods of the minde nor the extrinsecall of the body or estate no nor all those that are more excellent not any pleasure to satisfie the body nor any honour to satisfie the minde nor any other thing to satisfie both whether friends or estate c. none of those can bring a man true happinesse No nor the confluence of many or all of them together although all were concentred together in one yet they would prove short of making a man happy But we added this caution None of these nor all of them without God can doe it And for the predicate wee did shew whether we considered a naturall or a spirituall happinesse or a true and perfect happinesse they come short of making truely happy And for the proofe it was done by Scripture and experience Salomons and every ones experience shew the Hoti of the Point that it is so And the Dihoti wee shewed thus viz. That that which makes happy must give perfection and satisfaction which all worldly things cannot doe And wee made it appeare by considering the nature of earthly things and the nature of man First we shewed if wee doe consider the nature of worldly things there will be found wanting all the dimensions of happinesse And secondly mans nature is too capacious to be satisfied with worldly things which are narrow and defective Wee come now to the application of the Point which I desired and thought to have finished the last time and therefore I did cast it
of Gods Word in the best of us as it is in the Parable and breedes a thousand miseries and distractions which if a man would learne to moderate his prosecution and desire of the world and worldly things hee might be free from and his soule exquisite in the service of God SER. 4. The fourth Sermon PSALME IV. VI. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us WEE are upon the Point of Happinesse and to shew wherein it consists wee have already dispatched one branch of that viz. the negative which was That our happinesse consisted not in the things of the world It is not the quintessence of any nor the confluence of all worldly things can make a man happy There now remaines the second Branch concerning happinesse wherein it lieth viz. the affirmative part here expressed in this propheticall petition which the Psalmist makes to God Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us I shall propound the Point thus and this will be the third Point in order God and his favour 3. Doct. the light of his countenance shining on us is that excellent good which can alone without the helpe of any creature without any created thing make a man truely and perfectly happy That is the summe of the Point I shall not spend much time in the explication of it onely briefely to point out some things There be two things which I shall but touch upon for the Explication of the Proposition 1. I will say something concerning the Subject of this Proposition 2. Something concerning the Predicate For the Subject of this Proposition in effect it containeth these two things Subject First the Object of happinesse or the thing that makes happy materially And secondly formally I shall speake of it so I say both Materially and Formally As the Schooles doe distinguish though with some difference Materiall 1. For the materiall happinesse of a man wherein it lieth I expresse it as the other generally and so 1. God will make a man happy God according to his And I shall desire you to understand it for I shall adde no more concerning that in this place but God considered both essentially Essence Person and in the excellencie of his nature and personally in the distinction of his persons God in Christ and God in the Spirit none is to be excluded but there is a concurrent influence of the whole Trinity and of every person in it that contributes towards our happinesse His favour 2. And I expresse an other part of the Object when I say the favour of God here noted by a phrase that is tropicall enough and yet I shall spend time in vaine to open the trope for I suppose it is commonly understood Lifting up the light of his countenance upon us is as much as casting a favourable aspect towards and upon us and being in a word gracious and favourable unto us For as when a man is well pleased with any you know it is one testimony of his love to cast a sweet and lovely countenance upon him Super omnia vultus Accessêre boni as he accepted it the Host was wonderfull carefull and solicitous to give the guests content but that which he noted as the principall was Super omnia vultus Accessêre boni her affable carriage and good countenance It is not onely the blessings of God which makes us happy although God should heape many blessings upon us but it is especially a good looke from God that proceedes from a gracious a loving disposition of God towards us that puts a price a beauty upon the blessings themselves It is an elegant story or observation which Xenophon tells of Artabazus a great courtier in the Court of Cyrus King Cyrus gave him a cup of gold and there was an other courtier in presence that was more intimate and more neere in favour than hee viz. Chrysantas to whom though the King gave nothing at that time yet hee kissed him in token of speciall love which when he had done Artabazus complained and wittily said the cup you gave me was not so good gold as the kisse you gave Chrysantas It is so in this case it is not any gift of God especially those outward things that is so great a signe of Gods favour as the light of his countenance A good looke is a speciall testimony of his reall affection which those things are not For no man knowes either love or hatred by these things And though there might be many other expressions used yet I conceive this as reall and proper a note to shew wherein our happinesse in God consists as any viz. his favour and good will and good pleasure towards us because that comprehends all the rest and if we have that that is it that interests us in all the rest of the excellencies and the blessings of God hereby they come to be all ours and wee are interested in them all so farre as they may make for our good Thus of the materiall part 2. But then there is an other thing that I intimated in the propounding of the Point and that belongs more properly to the formall part of happinesse Formall which I comprehend in two things There is nothing of it selfe what ever that of it selfe can make a man happy no not God himselfe nor his favour except it be ours and we be interested in it which I expresse by these two things Possession and Fruition Possession 1. We must be possessed of God and possessed of his favour than is be in such a state and condition that these things doe belong to us and are ours and wee are in conjunction with them Now in a word not to dilate in either of these because the next Point will give mee a more proper hint of that wee come to the possession of God and his favour to have interest in that so as wee may challenge him as ours and looke upon him as ours by these two things laid together Vocation 1. When God doth make us his owne by effectuall calling and creates or renewes or repaires his owne Image in us and sets his owne stampe and superscription or impression upon us Covenant 2. When hee doth enter into covenant with us and takes us into confederation with himselfe which is a thing resulting from the former and depending upon it that wee are in covenant with God in league with him which conjunction is expressed by divers things in the Scripture as a marrying of us to himselfe and other things that import a neere union and league but I shall content my selfe in the generality and onely desire to point at things So that now when a man comes to be effectually called that God translates him from the state of sinne to the state of grace from being the sonnes and daughters of the old Adam he ingrafts them into the new
himselfe yet he could not have manifested it to others when there were no creatures made and so all the manifestation of God had laine hidden not hid in darkenesse but hid in light in abundance of light It is not for want of ability that hee cannot make knowne himselfe but it is for glory As the Sunne cannot bee beheld not because it is too obscure but because it is too light Excellens sensibile destruit sensum The object is too strong it is so glorious an object that our eyes are too weake to looke fully upon it Now the two other wayes come in and subordinately helpe out that because God hath manifested himselfe to our capacity by his workes of creation and providence which is the onely way that God manifests himselfe in nature in every workemanship in every worke of his As the saying is the meanest creature hath aliquid Dei and the best creature hath aliquid nihili Every creature is a compound of perfection and imperfection and therefore cannot possibly exactly manifest God But there must be the two other wayes to supply it and make up that manifestation by which the soule may be reduced to the understanding of God by his workes The two other come in I say as wayes to supply it First of all all the excellencies that be in the creatures are supposed to be in God that did make them It is impossible as the saying is that ullus daret quod in se non habet It is impossible that a man should give that to another which is not in himselfe it is impossible that there should be any good or excellency in the creature but that it must be in the Creator and that in a transcendent manner which is the second way Via eminentiae But because every creature hath aliquid nihili in him that is his imperfection by which he comes short of God and will not be full we must make it up with the other supply and that is the third thing Via negationis by removing all the imperfections and setting them all aside as the concomitants of the creature for God cannot see the creature but with some deficiency which he is free from And therefore this followes as another way I say Via negationis God hath not these and these imperfections But now to apply all this and bring it home to my present purpose As God may bee knowne these wayes in generall 2. So in speciall he may be knowne to be and is our happinesse and can bee our happinesse all these wayes even alone 1. He can be our happinesse and is our happinesse Via causalitatis God is omnipotent and so if there be any thing that is necessary or conducible for our comfort or happinesse it is all in his power to give and so can be our happinesse If creatures be necessary and so farre as they be necessary if we have God wee are in the most certaine way of having these and all other things For all lye in God as a Fountaine and spring of all Suppose there be a necessity that a man cannot be perfectly meerely happy in the fruition of God formally because man is a compound creature a body as well as a soule yet God alone may be sufficient because all is in him casually he can produce and command all other good and all other creatures as being Lord over all if we want fire or cloathes to warme us and keepe us from the cold though for the present wee have not those yet God can bring fire and cloathes and command all the creatures to waite upon us and serve our necessities So that if a man have nothing yet in having God hee hath all besides hee hath the Lord of all which can with a word or a nodde an intimation command not onely the creatures that are but create creatures anew if hee would If the whole world now extant were not able to doe Christians good God were able to create another world for their good and furnish it with all creatures sufficiently to doe them good As suppose a Christian were sicke of some new disease that all the world had not a medicine for it yet God can command one or make a new medicine because all things are at his disposing So that if we have God we have all in the case and so an all sufficient good in God alone and an all-sufficiency of happinesse 2. God is all via eminentiae being able to supply the want of any creature as hee can bring all the creatures to us and give them us which are necessary for our good and comfort so he is able by way of eminency to supply the defect of them though he bring them not he can doe it by himselfe and which is most of all he can give us that without which nothing can be good for us that is set our spirits and hearts in a right frame which if they were not they would spoile all we have and they would make them rather an aggravation of our misery then any addition to our happinesse God onely is able to make a man so that he may be a fit subject of happinesse and capable of it being inlightened in his understanding and rectifyed in his will and affections whereby hee is able to esteeme of things and love things as hee ought and to use them accordingly So that whatsoever good may result from the creature for our good if we have God we have it For we have the Spring and Fountaine and Mint in which he can cast all other good for us For this is a certaine rule in Divinity that God cannot doe any thing by the creature but he can doe the same without the creature Nay more then so the creature although present cannot doe any thing without the assistance of God but he himselfe can doe it though no creature be present Yea God is so eminent a good that he containes the transcendent excellency of every creature For let any creature be wanting as fire to warme us or water to wash us yet God can supply that defect he can doe it by himselfe because all the excellency of every creature is transcendently in God He hath power to suspend the action of the creature and take off the blessing and on the other side God can supply the want of the creature by a hidden way of his owne blessing He can make a little to goe a great way yea without all as well as with all hee can make a man happy He is an equivalent good to make satisfaction for al and so in this respect he can be our happines and bring us to happines 3. Via negationis God alone can bee our happinesse because there is no defect in him He is a rocke in time of need he can doe whatsoever any creature or all can doe for us nay more for if wee had all the creatures they would be all defective but there is no defect in God As suppose if
scann them their master will you were as good scanne your lives as God for God will scan you before he admit you into heaven and happinesse you were as good therefore to trie your selves for I say God will say friend how camest thou in here what right or title hast thou to this place of heaven without thy wedding garment except you bring these things that God requires there will be no admittance and though you outbrave and outface the Ministers yet when the Lord of the feast comes hee will trie I beseech you therefore be so wise as to trie your selves Trie your selves by your knowledge trie your selves by your affections trie your selvs by your actions if you find it is not so with you as I have said doe not I beseech you loose the realitie of heaven for a fancie do not let goe the realitie while you hugg the shaddow as the Dogge in the Fable who did let goe the bone in his mouth to catch at the shaddow hee saw in the water take heed I say you doe not loose the realitie while you catch at your fancies and relie on them but this is not that which I intend Are these things I have spoken of the way to happinesse 4. Vse Reprehension Then it is a just reproofe that meets with every one more or lesse why doe not we prosecute this way more earnestly then and why are wee sluggish in this way is it not the way of happinesse why doe we not labour and endeavour after knowledge why doe not wee labour to raise and elevate our affections to a high pitch towards God Why doe not wee strive to abound in the worke of the Lord and make our calling and election sure by adding one grace to another one action of obedience to another to scale heaven climing up from one round of the Ladder to another and so be going upward still O that wee should bee so sluggish and slow in these things that make so for our happinesse that are indeed as wee have prooved the way of happinesse when on the contrary side wee are laborious enough and too much after these things that are not for our happinesse tend not to it Tanquam hac sit nostri medicina doloris Wee hunt after worldly things as though they would make us happie but alas wee are to consider that there is no happinesse in them this is the way of happinesse why doe not wee then make haste to enter this way and speedily prosecute this way it is the great folly of those that are negligent The eighth Sermon SER. VIII PSALME IV.VI. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us WE are still on the point of happines and wee are upon the last thing in that point viz. the way unto it The point that you may remember it was this Doctrine Thus sound knowledge and faith joyned with soveraigne feare and love and both these crowned with syncere repentance and obedience guided by the line and light of the true religion is the only way to true happinesse Wee have passed through the explication of the point and the last time we came so farre as the application Exhortation and in that to the matter of exhortation which by reason of the time wee could not then prosecute wee come now unto it There is a double branch of the exhortation according to which I desire to goe Particular First in relation to every one of these particulars in the point to perswade men to labour to get every one of them viz. 1. Sound knowledge 2. Soveraigne affections 3. Syncere obedience Secondly I shall say something in the generall with relation to all of them and to the true Religion which is the mother and the mistresse that must teach us all these for they are not to be had any other where nor no other Schoole can teach us these at least as they will be available To begin then with the particulars and first of the first Get knowledge 1 Concerning knowledge and faith There bee two things in which I shall prosecute that exhortation in which I shall stirre and raise men up to endeavour after knowledge and that sound knowledge What for the 1 Give me leave to circumscribe what manner of knowledge I would have you set up for your marke and aime which you know I did touch in the explication and will therefore but briefly touch here in the prosecution of it 2 I shall suggest some meanes in the use of which wee may come to attaine this knowledge 2 I will propound some considerations that may whet us on unto it But all very briefe 1 For the first therefore what kind of knowledge should a man aime at the getting of now I shall circumscribe that in these three particulars 1 Your knowledge in regard of the object Object Divine must be divine a divine knowledge knowledge of God knowledge of Christ knowledge of the mysteries of grace and of the covenant betweene God and man those essentiall things that God hath signified unto us in his covenant for our guidance to happinesse the knowledge of these things especially I know there is no knowledge in the world but is precious even the knowledg of the meanest things the knowledge even of the basest things may be of very good use But what is all the knowledge in the world to the knowledge of God that made the world and of Christ that redeemed the world That is the knowledge which doth immediately conduce toward our attaining of happinesse and salvation Men may swell themselves in vaine conceits of other kinde of literature and looke big and scornfull upon this divine knowledge but yet one drachm of this one graine of this is worth more then all the knowledge in the world and therefore remember this that we may not mistake our scope and aime I doe not interdict any other knowledge subordinate in its place and ranck but I set this in the highest place and highest rancke the divine knowledge of God and those things that concerne our happinesse in God And this is the scope of the exhortation in regard of this that we would be contented to take a little paines from other things to get this divine knowledge at least not to squander away all our precious time and parts busily in the pursuit of other things that will doe us no good but take it from them and bestow our selves our times and our wits for the pursuing of divine knowledge which is the most precious of all Act. 2 In regard of the act all that I will put you in mind of in regard of that is that it is not a bare knowledge that I am now recommending unto you Apprehension which consists in the apprehension of divine things but a knowledge joyned with faith mixed and tempered with faith that the understanding may not only
more in an houre of prayer when hee hath the motions and the power of the spirit when the fore-runner of it is some sweet motion cast into the heart of a man some sweet touch of meditation puts him upon duty O then I say a man would make use of the sailes of that hint by that wind hee might dispatch a great voyage of prayer and returne richly laden Doe not loose therfore these opportunities and so for any other p ar of duty or obedience doe notextinguifli or slightly turne back those motions of the spirit of God those voyces of thy conscience within thee calling upon thee for the performance of duty doe not neglect it but let that time bee thy time for now it is a time of winning grace and God that hath stirred thee up will certainly strengthen thee when I am private and am at leasure then is a peculiar and proper time and when Gods spirit moves me and telleth me this is the time make use of this efficacious motion 3. 3 Motives There remaines now the third thing in this branch viz. to propound some considerations to presse on this duty To dispatch that I shall propound but some two or three 1. Consider that obedience is the scope Obedience the scope of both and the end and the perfection of both the former the very top and crowne of knowledge and affections the very height that they reach unto knowledge is give that we may bee the fitter to obey and affections are given but to stirre us up to obeditence and therefore we shall loose the fruit and scope and the end of all the other preparatives if we do not adde this All acts of our understandings and affections will be imperfect if we doe not adde obedience for that is the scope and end why God gives the other why the Spirit of God worketh the other in a mans heart it is all but to prepare a man for this Now if a man be furnished with armes to fight he must fight when he is called to use them And so in this case when God giveth a man affections and endowments if a man use them not what is hee the better 2. Scale of truth This is the very seale of the truth of both the former A man can have no assurance that hee hath knowledge that is saving or that his affections are such as are right except both these shew themselves by inclining us to obedience for there is a natural l dependency betweene this and the former betweene the actions of obedience and the root that I spake of It is impossible but they must breake forth and shew themselves in actions at least in seasonable time It is true the tree doth not alway shew the life of it by the leaves and fruit they are something separated from life but yet that tree that doth not shew though it lye dead all the winter that it lives in the spring I say if it doe not spring up in the Sun-shine in summer if it doe not then flourish it is dead So in this case certainely though actions doe not alwayes accompany us a mans affections may bee strong in him but yet there is more required to action then affection the intrinsecal character of grace lieth principally in the affections and therfore when a man comes to an inward breach that is the worst the externals may faile and the Apostle complained of that Miserable man that I am his will was good his affections were good but hee had not power to act But yet when there is a season of actions and all things concurre when God affords other conveniences in abundance to produceactions if a man doth not bring forth action then certainely I will conclude that knowledge is dead knowledge and those affections are dead that life is gone out of him or else it would shew it selfe in this warme summer and wee should see both leaves and fruit for it cannot lye hidden if a man have affection to God but it will break forth upon occasion Obedience therefore is the seale of truth we can never evidence the truth of our knowledge and our affections except upon occasion wee shew it by the fruitfulnesse of our actions 3. Root of al ends And againe this obedience is the Seale and immediate root of all these ends which wee shall propound to our selves It is the immediate root of our Consolation 1 Owne consolation A man may gather comfort from his obedience to God in the performance of duty I doe not say it is the proper root but it is the most immediate root for you know apples doe not grow out of the root of the tree but they grow out of the top of the branches and yet they grow by vertue of the root but the branch is the most proper place on which they are to grow So it is in this case comfort is immediately gathered as it were from the forecite in the actions in the utmost branches of the actuall obedience Immediately wee have but little comfort from our affections because wee have buâ— little assurance of the sincerity of our affections but our comfort is gathered and multiplied in our abounding in the worke of the Lord The more obedience the more comfort I cannot expresse it better then thus A mans body is warme when his clothes are on him to keep him warme the clothes give mee not that warmth that I have but my body and yet the clothes keepe me in warmth for without them I should suffer some cold in my externall parts And so it is in this case Though our comfort doe not originally arise from our obedience yet our obedience keepes our comfort warme The more wee compasse our selves about with obedience the more we heape up things and doe them according to the rule of Gods word and our conscience the more we abound in these things the more wee keepe our comfort warme out of what feare or love we doe them to God there is the vitall excellency of them but this is mightily cherished by these breakings out in actions of obedience it is the seale of our own consolation Neigbours edification 2. The edification of our neighbour which should be an other end wee should aime at wee should depend more upon our obedience then upon any thing else for that end Indeed knowledge may be a meanes to edifie and so may our affections too but all this cannot doe any good without action Let your workes be seene before men that they may glorifie your heavenly Father we provoke others by our holy patterne Some thing may lye in us which they cannot take notice of our knowledge and affections may lye hid they will not have the treasure of grace except it be manifested to them by workes of obedience as of instruction to them or reproofe with tendernesse of heart our edification and building up of our neighbour flowes from such actions As the Candell doth