joyes What ever our condition be in the world wee are but miserable without this peace but what ever be our condition wee are happie with it and may say Blessed is the man whose sinnes are forgiven him This peace of God hath two fruits Peace with our selves and with the creatures Peace with our selves floweth from Gods peace So soone as God is offended with our sinnes and setteth us against him as marks of his wrath Then wee are contrary to our selves and revenge his quarell on us This is that holy indignation arising of the sorrow according to God when we seeke a sithment and revenge on our selves for angring him we take Gods part against our selfe and eat up our owne heart and make our flesh to pine away for his displeasure and our beautie to consume like a moth But when he pardoneth us and sealeth that pardon with his peace then wee turne to peace with our selves So long as we feele sinne wee are as an house on fire God is a consuming fire and who can dwell with devouring fire and who can abide with everlasting burnings The conscience terrified of God doth terrifie us and all the powers of the soul are in confusion The spirit so wounded woundeth the body in all the naturall powers weake appetite worse digestion troubled sleepe and an universall ineptnesse both in soul and bodie to any good office The flesh evanishing the bones consuming and the moisture turning in the drought of summer wherein the Prophet possibly alludeth to mount Horeb which had the name from burning the Law was given on it in fire and thunder and every heart in some measure must be shaken with the terrours of the Lord that it may come to the peace of God But the sight of a reconciled God in Christ changeth all to the contrary the testimonie of conscience is stronger in her judiciall acts than in other For when God is directing informing and simply proponing things she hath but a weake testimonie but when God judicially dealeth with us accusing reproving and terrifying her testimonie is strong because the hand of God is powerfull in it and therefore there is no denying of her accusation no shifting of her torture On the other part her comforting is as certaine when shee assureth us of Gods pardon because the hand of God is in her to comfort us and in us to be as sweetly comforted as we were formerly grievously tormented The combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit seemeth to trouble this peace and consequently our happinesse but it doeth rather confirme and increase it For it is not a power of God pursuing us but our owne corruption molesting us The parties are flesh and spirit nature and grace the new and the old man And though it be grievous that we have corruption either passively to receave Sathans temptations by consent or actively of it selfe to breed the worke of sinne Yet this is joyfull that we have a partie within us against Sathan And that not only a conscience or reason or care of publick honestie c. which are in the wicked but the new man and the new spirit assisted by the holy spirit The Apostle finding that combat cried out miserable man that I am yet feeling the spirit a contrary party making resistance thanked God in Christ for his deliverie and though Rebecca was grieved to finde the two children strive in her belly yet she was glad for having children This spirituall combat is a seal that we are at peace with God and our selves so long as wee abhorre our flesh strive against and complaine to God of violence and implore his helpe to his owne spirit against it Our peace with the creatures commeth not so neere to our happinesse God hath the fabrick of the world in his hand as a mounter so long as we please him he maketh all creatures go in their order but when wee offend him he distempereth it that nothing goe right till we returne to him by repentance and then he maketh the stone of the field at covenant with us But we are to inquire of the peace of the reasonable creature The good angels are ever at peace with us for though sometimes God giveth them hard commissions of punishment against us yet they love us still The evill angels will never be at peace with us but their warre is our peace Better to have Sathan without us than within us and to have him tempting us to sinne rather than tormenting us for sinne If we were his possession he would not trouble us but his tentation argueth that God hath hedged us about and we are free of his tyrannie He troubleth none of his owne but keepeth them in peace A mastive dog barketh at none of the houshold but at strangers and Sathans tentations are not against his owne but the Saints As for men their peace is various We should not looke for peace at the hand of the wicked for wee are called out of the world therefore the world hateth us and the old denounced warre betwixt the woman and the serpent hath neither truce nor peace therefore their injuries are our peace But the wrongs wee receave from the godly are more grievous for Gods grace in them coloureth their cause and perplexeth our minde more than the wrongs of the wicked And Sathan craftily setteth the godly against the godly as Jacobs sonnes against Joseph and Davids brethren against him c. But though these things may trouble the peace of our body yet they should not trouble the peace of our breast The equitie of our cause Our patience in suffering No desire of revenge but seeking occasions to do good to our injurers and that neither of hypocrisie nor policie nor a naturall softnesse but a conscience and that because God commandeth it Christ hath done so and commandeth us to follow him These worke greater peace than injuries can make trouble Joseph rejoyced more in Gods grace making him meek and beneficiall to his brethren than in the outward power he had so to doe In the second he overcame them but in the first he overcame himselfe The second part of this habitation is Rest the most desireable end of our appetites and that of resolution refreshment and securitie The rest of Resolution keepeth us at home with God For when wee are searching what is happinesse where and how it is to be found perplexitie holdeth us from home but being resolved that all is in God that as Andrew said to Peter We have found the Messias so that we may say We have found happinesse in God we rest from these first perplexities Our labours after that though painfull are sweet and pleasant because they are about the chiefe good yea we have not such rest in any thing as when we are most busied about happinesse These very labours are our rest and we goe to
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
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
bed most contentedly that night when wee have spent the day most painfully with God about happinesse Next the Rest of refreshment when God refresheth with his grace in that habitation So the Church calleth to Christ Tell me where thou feedest where thou makest thy flock to rest at noone And David professeth That God led him by the still waters and made him lie downe in greene pastures God hath provided convenient meanes for every life and the spirituall as excellent in the actions as in the kinde is ever set on the grace of Christ as the only convenient food The body turneth food to the owne substance but the food of our soule turneth us to its own nature When the heat of the holy spirit boyleth and burneth up our earthly thoughts and turneth them into heavenly There is no dwelling like this and it hath the owne convenient diet the house of God hath its owne fat things wherewith the godly are fed abundantly The third is the Rest of securitie For what availeth quiet and refreshment if the next houre wee might lose them This securitie is seene in Gods protection and our conscience of it God is like that loving sheepheard guarding his sheepe from their owne wandrings and the violence of the wolfe And like the Hen warming the birds shee hath brought forth whom ever he loveth he hath them all in his heart and preserveth them by his power to that immortall kingdome He giveth us also the conscience of this securitie when as wee know the certaintie of the matter in him so wee finde the confidence of it in our selves He hath promised to preserve us to the end and when wee feele our selves to beleeve that promise our confidence of security riseth So the faithfull soule concludeth the owne securitie formally Who so dwelleth in the secret of the most high shall abide in the shadow of the Almightie Then from the conscience of faith it assumeth I will say unto the Lord O my hope and my fortresse he is my God in him will I trust Lastly from both it inferreth that God would preserve it Surely he will deliver thee c. But the committing of our selves to him cleareth it most I know whom I have beleeved and am perswaded that he will render to me that I have committed to him This is not so much life eternall as our soule and body which are every houre in hazard Therefore when in the conscience of our weaknesse and malice of our enemies we take our soule and body as things which we can neither preserve from ignorance nor rebellion from sinne and fearefull accidents c. and lay them over in his hand to bee preserved to the last day with expresse indenting for restitution we cannot but be sensible of such a work and confident both of his taking us in keeping and of his restoring of us in the last day If God brought us not to the possession of the inheritance he would suffer the losse of the earnest This then is the power of true happinesse that maugre all the miseries of this life it provideth a peaceable habitation to us Christ reigneth in the midst of his enemies and maketh all his owne to possesse happinesse in the mids of miseries This is our heaven on earth without which it were better to dwell in hell than in the world False religions know no settled dwelling but are ever restlesse restlesse in intending restlesse in working and most in their fruitlesse end The Pagans doctrine in this point may be found in three of their sentences The first was that in any miserie they should returne to the beginnings of nature This telleth they acknowledge no miserie in nature but like the declining of a common-wealth for which there was sufficient remedy in nature to returne to the beginnings as politicks doe in reforming their republicks Our first naturals are our worst naturals wee are conceaved and borne in sinne and except wee be borne againe wee cannot enter into the kingdome of God Their next sentence was That a man should be carefull to bee reconciled to himselfe They acknowledged a discord but placed it wrong They knew no other but the discord betweene their will and the conscience Of their minde and heart Of their reason and passion Of their contrary affections And extreames of vice And most of their predominant sinne against all the rest These vexed them sometimes with such anxietie that it cut their life But they knew nothing of the Combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit nor of the offence of God in breaking his Law And therefore they neither knew peace with God nor themselves Thirdly they affirmed that it was mans happinesse to live agreeably to nature This was nothing but to loose the raines to their fleshly lusts that they might sinne with greedinesse they found the check of conscience mar the pleasure of their sin and where they should have reduced their humour to reason they threw reason to humour and of a grave counsellour they turned it into a base flatterer to applaud their greatest villanies So their pretended conveniencie with nature was not only a discord with grace but with nature it selfe and that dedolencie or senselesnesse whereof the Apostle speaketh That they were past feeling Papists also prejudge themselves greatly of this dwelling and that both in generall and particular In generall Their Church will not reconcile with God When they were first challenged they past two parts of their owne penance contrition and confession For Hadrian 6. professed his griefe for the abuses of the Church And he confessed they began at Rome He promised also reformation the third part of their penance but the world hath not seene it as yet But contrary that whorish Church in the councell of Trent hath damned divine truths with Anathems and bound her selfe by oath to beleeve and maintaine their greatest heresies and so hath sent word to God that she will not returne to the husband of her youth It is time for us to speake for reconciling with Rome when Rome hath reconciled her selfe to God In the particular they cut off their reconciliation for Scripture placeth it in the bloud of Christ but they take in the merits and satisfactions of men and Angels which rather separateth than reconcileth them to God And this habitation or rest of securitie they know not but chuse rather to dwell in the doubtings of their owne heart than with God in the assurance of his protection Albeit they confesse that it is surest to put all their trust in the mercie of God and merit of Christ and that because of the uncertaintie of their owne merit and perill of vaine glorie yet they will forsake that that is most sure and be tossed in their owne uncertainties God raised up in the Councell of Trent one to plead openly
a nation but God gave more to the Jewes in the Temple and Synagogues than to the Assyrians Persians Grecians Romans in their flourishing Monarchies He giveth to other nations without the Church great naturall and politick gifts but they are nothing to the sanctuarie Albeit they excell the Sainâ—s in these common gifts yet the spirituall gifts are infinitely better For as the waxing power is stronger in plants than in beasts because in them it is eminent but in the other subject to the sensitive power and in beasts the sensitive power is stronger than in man in whom it is subject to reason so among men they who have nothing but Nature it is eminent in them as in the own sphere Without the Church many have excelled in common gifts for mankinds civill perfection and because they had no other purpose to exercise their spirit But the Saints are taken up in things supernaturall and so are weaker in the naturall And this is a fruit of Gods dwelling among them when their soules runne out on things supernaturall rather than naturall Thirdly our duty in two things First that wee frequent the house of God in reverence for God is there in a singular maner and our salvation and happinesse is proponed there Therefore since he keepeth both time and place of trysting let us not be so ingrate as not to meet with him Many in opinion of greater spirituall profit in private abstain from temples but let them remember that David was a Prophet and laden with revelations yet in the statute times of worship hee chose to bee in the Sanctuarie rather than in private For albeit God bid us worship him privately lest we be found hypocrites yet he wil have us honour the publike meetings because larger grace descendeth from God and more groans ascend to him Moreover when we come to the sanctuarie let us remember that we are come to get happinesse which is proponed there For to passe by humanitie and phâ—losophie which treat not of happinesse and come to the schooles of divinitie Happinesse is not there so clearly proponed as in Churches For there truth is almost lost by jangling Happinesse is rather obscured than cleared new questions augmented and all more for the glorie of the disputer than edification of the hearer but nothing of heart or conscience But in the Churches happines is clearly proponed Here a man shall bee convinced of his own miserie he shall heare many are blessed whom the world count miserable for their crosses and that many are miserable whom they count happie for their prosperitie And that the best have need to look to the deceit of their heart that they steale not Gods glorie ascribing his gifts to them Churches are types of heaven and of these two great places God hath set the earth under our feet and the heaven above our head and given our bodie a straight stature to tell we should tread on the earth and aspire to heaven Next that we try if we be the Temples of the holy Spirit if we have the altar of a cleane heart daily warmed with fire from above The daily offering of Repentance The shining Candlestick of a pure conscience The Shew-bread of sinceritie and truth in obedience The altar of Incense to praise God for his blessings we receive daily God sought not sacrifices under the Law for themselves but for the thing signified They represented Christ to us and that wee should sacrifice our selves upon that great altar If we be so that unction dwelleth in us he will reveale to us the chiefe good and apply our hearts to the love of it that we may enjoy it Hee maketh us also conscious and sensible of this work for he is an unction teaching and a seale confirming our union with the chiefe good This is a great happinesse when the temples of the holy Ghost and living members of Jesus Christ come to the house of God to seeke true happinesse and obtaine it Here is also a mutuall dwelling when God man dwelleth mutually in other He prepareth us Mansions when he prepareth us for these mansions His house is the godly and then the place is prepared when we live by Faith by beleaving wee desire him that by our desire we may have him The desire of our love to him is the preparing of our Mansion So Lord prepare what thou preparest thou preparest us to thee and thee to us because thou makest a place in us to thee and thee to us for thou hast said Abide in me and I will abide in you SECT VI. The Time of learning Happinesse All the dayes of my life FOlloweth the Time which is not a Day nor a yeare but all the Time of our life This may seem too much for neither God in the fourth Commandment craveth it neither his royall affaires could permit it But this must bee exponed by the Prophets desire flowing from his delight in the house of God which was so great that gladly he would have spent all his life in it And this desire is acceptable to God for as the wicked are punished eternally albeit they sinne but temporally because they sinne in their eternall and because they never repent nor change nor diminish their desire nor delight of sinning Yea if they lived eternally here they would sinne eternally So God respecteth the holy desires of the faithfull for albeit they cannot bide continually in the temple neither be ever exercised in holy things yet God accepteth their desire so as though they remained in the Temple Hereof we may gather the Saints Kalendar We number times from the course of the Sunne and thereby measure naturall and civill actions But the godly reckon their Kalendar from the Sun of righteousnesse his aspect and influence this reckoning is for the new man for he hath his spirituall being in Christ. That I may be found in him And his spirituall life Henceforth I live not but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the faith of the sonne of God so he hath his Sunne that measureth his time and seasons For the Lord is a Sunne and Shield Yea hee counteth these daies shorter than they are and no time runneth to him so swiftly as the time of Gods worship for he is so affected with the sweetnesse of God that hee is grieved that such sweet time doth so soone end The Sabbath is both the sweetest and shortest day to him so among hours is the houre of divine service but the profane count that a long time Gods house is a prison to them and his worship a torture This cleareth the contrary disposition of the godly and the wicked while they are in that same Church in that same work of Gods worship in that same houre The godly rejoyce as in their own element worshipping God and enjoying his presence Some mocked the Jews for keeping
comfort others For this cause Luther said That a Theologue of affliction was a Theologue of light and though it be no part of our Church trials of intrant Pastors yet the consideration were profitable For whether we be afflicted it is for you c. For when beside all humane means without or labour within they are taught of God to know the vilenesse of their own sinne the deceit of their owne heart the weight of Gods wrath for both the terrours of an accusing conscience in all three the horrours of spirituall desertion the desolation and widowhood of the soule in such a case c. And on the other part the freenesse of Gods mercie pardoning sinne the sweetnesse of the peace of conscience under that assurance and joyes of the holy Ghost the sense of Gods favour shed abroad in our hearts better than life and the complete happinesse of the soule under sense of the presence of a reconciled God With this furniture they are made the more sufficient in those practick points wherein the life of Christiaanitie standeth to speake as men who have learned by exercise and experience This experience bringeth three things First a sort of obligement to communicate it according to our calling Secondly a lively speech Thirdly authoritie in both Obligement because wee get not experience for our own private use but to make others better thereby Come children I will teach you the feare of the Lord And Come I will tell you what God hath done to my soule Let men confesse before men the goodnesse of the Lord And he glorieth in it that he hid not Gods goodnesse from the great congregation Such communication of experienced men is profitable for thereby people come easily to the knowledge of that which otherwise they could not learn without great exercise And among other causes why God afflicteth Pastors grievously this is one both to furnish them with a body of experimentall doctrine and to bring the people easily to it by their communication Next it furnisheth them with a powerfull speech Our language is the daughter of our reason and our stile floweth from our complexion education and gift and the gift is laboured by experience The spirit createth the species in us the species give the notion the notion gives the stile to expresse it self Every science hath the own matter and termes so hath Divinitie The spirit who giveth the matter giveth also the stile of language and the doore of utterance comparing things spirituall with spirituall and fitly to expresse divine matters in a divine stile is his gift If we conceive things only by the minde we may speake properly but not affectuously nor effectually But if we take them in our affection our stile will be emphatick No purpose hath need to be more pertinently expressed than happinesse if it be coldly and warshly proponed it wakeneth not the affection But if they speak who have found the sweetnesse of it their words are vive lineaments both of their affection and the thing that hath affected them so that the common saying is true As is the knowledge so is the expression The Apostle condemneth humane eloquence and not divine and there is none comparable to Isay in eloquence and the Scripture hath the own pithie phrase without the flowers of humane oratorie Mens words testifie their gift and the measure of Gods working in them Nazianzens emphatick words are sentences and therefore is called the Theologue Augustine in many places hath a pathetick stile and Bernards stile is full of affection and sense and Calvin among the late Divines like another Nazianzen expresseth his deep conceptions in a pithie stile This is not only the language of Canaan but also the masculous Schiboleth their words have weight and are as goads piercing the hearts of the hearers and fastening them to God in the Sanctuarie This is the tongue of the learned not of man but of God to speake a word in due season Thirdly experience maketh them speak with authoritie Christ spake with authoritie and not as the Scribes For the Scribes spake warshly as men doing some other businesse or as Boyes in the schoole rehearsing other mens inventions But a faithfull Pastor speaketh with authoritie And that commeth of Conscience and Confidence Conscience of their calling from God of some competent furniture for the worke and of his presence with them in doing the worke Confidence of the warrant of their word from Scripture and from experience that they finde the power of it in their souls in private We beleeve and therefore we speak This maketh them speak affectuously uttering their very heart in their speech Their heart is in their words which go out with the weight of affection They are moved themselves with that they say when they feele the power of it renewed in them in publicke which they felt in secret But when a purpose though both sound and divine is rehearsed either from reading hearing or superficiall thinking there is not such union of the heart with the tongue or the word with the affection and so oft times as little union betwixt the word spoken and the heart of the hearer If any man would move his hearer he must be moved himselfe otherwise how can they think that hee beleeveth the thing he speaketh Preachers are lights and fires they must have light and heat if they would warme and lighten others So then this experience of Gods working is his speech to their heart and when he maketh them expresse it powerfully they speak to the hearts of the hearers When they speake to hearers that have experience they are heard earnestly but others judge of them according to their own disposition This made the Ancients in their sermons to cry out Give me one that thirsteth and he knoweth what I say c. Want of experience maketh uncharitable carping Fourthly the divine assistance is the beautie of their worke I shall be with thy mouth If we consider only how so fraile men in so eminent a place in the hearing possibly of some thousands can deduce heavenly matters without kything infirmitie speaking to God and man in such sort as the judicious hearer doeth confesse That God speaketh in them For God hath chosen the most part of Preachers of the meanest sort of people who possibly in common purposes can speake but little But so soone as they stand up in the chaire of truth they are overshadowed with a wonderfull presence of God that maketh them speake with authoritie But his assisting them to worke the worke of the Gospell is far more when they are workers with him to beget children to God to turne souls to him to cast down in the conscience of sinne and raise up in the confidence of mercie And though the fruit of the worke dependeth not on them for God hath put these treasures in
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
is when God so communicateth himselfe to the soule that it exceedeth the wonted disposition and is carried out of it selfe to him The excellencie of the object and singular sort of working maketh this unaccustomed sweetnesse for ordinarily wee can comprehend our disposition but when he transcendeth our ordinary diet wee must gather our wits afterward to consider the matter In our wonted diet the spirit can bide in it selfe though with reference to God and by the way can move our body in naturall and civill actions But when this excesse commeth the spirit is pulled out of it selfe and the body feebled So the Apostle knew not whether in the body or out of the body because of the excellencie of revelation so Daniels body was feebled because of the separation of the spirit taken up only with heavenly things For the soule in any degree of that excesse doeth not furnish power to the body but turneth it in halfe a carcase It is good that the body finde sometimes this feebling by the vigorous worke of the spirit because the vigour of the body often feebleth the spirit Though they both make up one person yet they have but a discording concord and doe not ay agree upon a common joy and griefe By this feebling the body resents its owne mortalitie and findeth that verified That no mortall man can see God and live and therefore is moved to long for immortalitie that it may joyfully brooke the fulnesse of that joy whose first fruits doe so affect us But this is not oft to be found no not in the best It is but as a sunne-blink in the mids of stormes that commeth rarely and bideth shortly God offereth it but rarely as a delicate lest we should thinke that it came of our owne deserving or working or lest the frequence of it should take away the sweetnesse or accompt of it And he giveth it for two speciall ends The one to refresh us after great afflictions or desertions when we have beene striving with hardnesse and witherednesse of heart But so soone as his spirit rusheth on us with that holy and heavenly satietie like the woman delivered of a sonne we forget our former sorrowes because we have found him whom our soule loveth The other is to strengthen us for some great temptation like Eliahs double supper But come what tentation may better to find that furnishing than to want it It hath also a further reach than for the present time for it leadeth us back to eternitie and maketh us feele our selves in Gods electing love whose infallible fruit wee finde in so full infusion of his love Next it leadeth us foreward to glorification and these joyes assure us that as now we have these first fruits so eternally we shall rejoyce with God for it is not as the small and warsh taste of the temporarie Christian as a drop but the full measure of Gods children as the outbreaking of a fountaine It reacheth also to a higher place than the sanctuarie for under this satietie we are in heaven with God For as he boweth downe and kisseth us with the kisses of inspiration infusion and delight so wee ascend to him in heaven and the soule is more there busied than the body in the sanctuarie This is also to assure us of life eternall for God never bringeth any to heaven but sometimes in this life he giveth them a taste of it by some transfiguration on the mountaine He hath promised it and Sathan would make us thinke his promise but winde therefore he giveth us such reall beginnings to assure us of the truth and to perswade us of the fulnesse of it in heaven For it is not a divided but a continuat thing like a chaine that cannot be broken so that he which getteth such beginnings shall also get the perfection Lastly it is to destroy the love of the world for the world will never be great in his eyes who hath seene God but the loathing of the world and the love of God will grow in his soule by equall degrees The soule thus filled with love and joy is full of God and under that disposition cannot be wrong charged to any doing or suffering for him For the sense of Christs love maketh his yoak easie his burden light That love constrained the Apostle to diligence and the nativenes of it seeketh out wayes to honour God The Martyrs were thereby moved to misregard their torments For as a drunken man neither heareth nor seeth what is done beside him so when their wives and children wept on them that they would pitie themselves they neither heard that diversion neither the paine of the torments And the Apostle met teares with What do yee weeping and breaking my heart I am not only content to be bound at Ierusalem but also to die for the name of the Lord Iesus On this excesse Moses desired to be cut off and the Apostle to be accursed for his brethren The love of God made them forget themselves with an holy oblivion But it was their best remembring of themselves to hold them fast in straitest union with God Hereof foure things arise 1. The agreement of sight and fruition 2. The compleatnesse of Gods beautie in the sanctuarie 3. The difference of religions 4. And of worshippers in the true religion 1. Sight and fruition goe well together as the double spirit of Eliseus for the illumination of the minde and the purging of the affections compleat the man for the minde knoweth and the affections will Sight or light without fruition is fruitlesse and fruition or affection without light is rash Light first wakeneth and then directeth the affection to affect things in that order and measure as it directeth And the affection followeth to justifie the trueth of that light Sight apprehendeth God as distant but fruition injoyeth him within and our selves in that union the minde is more easily inlightned than the affection bowed The Disciples knew Christ was to depart from them yet they were sorie for it their will crossing their minde But fruition is better than sight as Ephraim the younger brother was more fruitfull and mightie than Manasseh When God craveth the best of man he biddeth him love him with all his heart And the image of God consisteth most in righteousnesse and holinesse which are most in the heart Knowledge maketh a sort of mentall union and yet the heart may hate that same thing it is so united to but affection maketh a heartie and strong union which cannot be broken Knowledge is a great gift of God but if men stand at it as their happinesse and advance not to fruition they may be as hard in heart and profane in life as the ignorant Sathan hath his name Daemon from knowledge because being a compleat spirit he hath both great knowledge by creation and daily augmented by
enriched so the increase of grace augmenteth the desire of it Gods Church is busie running to and fro seeking her beloved when other companies seeke their vanities That heavenly affection setteth her on work and the want of it made them idle Peter and John were most forward in running to the sepulchre because they loved him most and Simeon came oftner to the temple than others in Jerusalem because he longed more to see Christ in the flesh And it is ever seene that they who have most knowledge with holinesse are busiest to seek the Lord. God is so glorious and happinesse is so sweet that the more wee see them the more wee seeke them And the nature of true grace is to be so allured neither is there a better token of the livelinesse of the new man than to be set continually to seek his Creatour The word enquire in the originall pointeth also at the morning because the Soule is then most fit for enquiring and the Sun rising rayseth all things up with him with their first and best actions which at Even in his falling are not so Wisedome also promiseth that they that seeke her in the morning shall finde her and the light of the Spirit in the faithfull is compared to the morning light because Jesus Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse hath brought a new light into the world after the Evening of Adams fall Therfore in seeking happinesse we would be tymous in the morning of our age and vigour of our soule and not cast off that greatest worke to old age God biddeth us haste in the morning but Sathan biddeth us delay till the evening of our time And he who doth so what knoweth he if he shal live so long Or if he doe he knoweth not if God will continue the occasions of happinesse with him Or if they abide what knoweth hee if God will blesse them No it is just with God to neglect them in their old age who neglected him in their youth Because I cryed and ye would not answer therefore ye shall cry and I will not answer but laugh at your destruction Hee who spendeth the morning of his age dissolutely hath never earnestly thought of true happinesse This word offereth three things to our consideration 1. Our imperfection 2. Our changeable state 3. And the remedy of both in a diligent inquirie 1. Imperfection is in the best for we are here not capable of perfection because wee have flesh mixed with the spirit and are layed open to the continuall tentations of Sathan This cannot stand with happinesse for in heaven neither can the sinne of ill or tentation be admitted neither can the chiefe good be lost The most perfect after Christ confessed his imperfection Not that I have alreadie attained or am already perfect and that to the astonishment of the best And here we know but in part for where wee know one thing millions are hid from us and that same that we know is more hid than knowne and all our knowledge is but some thing of all but nothing of all but nothing of the whole And the undoubted testimonie of greatest knowledge is the greatest conscience of ignorance Take the knowledge of the best it is but ignorance confusion and full of uncertaintie Therefore one crieth out justly Woe to our straight knowledge woe to the povertie of our understanding If wee looke to God how small is our knowledge and though modestly wee may search his will but not curiously his Majestie lest we be oppressed we come but short And in the search of his will if we should study from 16. to an 100. yeere old we would daily finde matter of a new searching albeit there is as much plaine as to suffice people to salvation The conceit of perfection is the greatest imperfection and the greatest stay of proceeding When men set up these two mountaines in their way of presumption and vaine glorie they leave off to go forward For whither shall they go who thinke themselves already perfect The Jewes had this and would not submit them to the righteousnesse of God The Papists have it in their perfection obtained or to be obtained their merit supererogation and all vented in the confidence they put in their merits They who will not trust in God will trust in themselves and in their righteousnesse which is a non ens or rather their greatest sinne Pelagius had this pride when he boasted that there lacked not one to doe the things commanded but one to command more But God hath dauntoned that pride by the Law And one hath answered them in the person of the Jewes Behold fulfill the Law there lacketh not one to command but there lacketh one to obey Secondly the imperfect measure we have is subject to change and that because of the spirituall combat of decay defection and desertion 1. The spirituall combat proveth our weaknesse the flesh continually rebelling against the spirit so that the good we would doe we cannot doe it and the evill we would not doe we are forced to doe For though wee were even now in some good disposition yet the flesh yeelding to some tentation casteth us downe further than we can arise in many dayes Decay falleth in the best and most wakrife Christian For the knowledge that the minde hath layed up the memorie forgetteth and the softnes and tendernes of heart decayeth even in them who labour on their heart continually and that not so much by outward provocations as by the inward deceit and native backslyding of the heart it selfe When a workman leaveth his worke at evening he findeth it in the morning in that same case wherein he left it But if we lye downe with an heart softned with the sense of Gods mercies in the morning wee finde it oftentimes like a stone grace is a stranger to us and our nature at the best giveth it but a step-mothers intreatie it findeth opposition of our corruption and therefore is subject to hourely decayes Defection stayeth our proceeding in happinesse Every sinne is a defection and a falling from a better to a worse for it hath not only the double guiltinesse of the blemish and lyablenesse to punishment but likewise crosseth the grace of God in us as one contrary doeth another And as in our youth our food hath two workes One of sustentation the other of adding a new substance so when happinesse is begun in us we have need of double labour to intertaine it Sathan rageth and the flesh fretteth the more therefore wee have need of more diligence to resist them Desertion is most fearfull when we finde not God as wee were wont and under that dreariesome widowhood of our soule are put to that grievous task to seek him againe and to greatest necessitie to finde him Sometime it is procured by great sinnes as in David under his murther and adulterie