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
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
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
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
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
and furniture whereby wee beleeve is of God Next these spirituall acts being pure as they come of him yet they have some blemish in them because of our corruption as water from a pure fountaine doeth taste of the brasen or myrie channell through which it runneth For our very righteousnesse is as a filthy clout For woe to the life otherwise commendable if it be judged without mercie Yet he winketh at these blemishes and taketh our service as perfect He taketh a weake faith like a Graine of mustard-seed as though it were a Cedar Our will for deed Our purposes for performances Our very desires of grace for grace and for a sufficient preparation to fill us with grace yea and the desire of a desire is as welcome to him as though it were a greater degree We would not take so little of our neighbour no not of our selves as he taketh of us yea ofttimes we are most acceptable to him when wee are least content with our selves The people a part of this beautie SEcondly this beautie is in respect of the people and that either in themselves or in their worke In themselves they are the Lords choice and portion They have a spirituall and inward beautie in the image of God by regeneration and their love to God maketh them beautifull The love of no other beautifull thing can change us into it but the love of God maketh us beautifull like him For by loving him who is ever beautifull we become beautifull and how much that love groweth in us so much groweth that beautie because that love is the beautie of the soule The people in their work are beautifull when they flow to the Sanctuarie I rejoyced when they said Wee will go unto the house of the Lord They are like the chickens gathered under the hens wings in that dispensation of grace to be warmed with the heat of that same love of God that hath elected them It is like the Angels moving of the waters of that poole but with this difference that there only one was healed but here all are healed who can by faith but touch the hem of his garment Or it is rather like the spirit moving upon the waters in the creation Because the holy Spirit working mightily upon the hearts of the godly produceth such motions and affections as he thinketh good And in a word it is like innumerable empty vessels set about an over-running fountaine so godly soules compassing God in the Sanctuarie are sensible of their owne wants and desirous of God his supply And he in the riches of his grace furnisheth to every one as they have need In the Gospell sometimes a leper craved to be cleansed Sometimes a blind man to receave his sight Sometimes a deaf man to get his hearing c. But in the sanctuarie all these are spiritually for therein some are blinde in ignorance some are lepers in naturall corruption others are deaf and cannot heare God Others are lame and cannot walk in the wayes of God yea and more there is not one soule who hath not all these spirituall diseases by nature and Christ in his owne time healeth them by parts In this beautie the diversitie of peoples disposition and God his operation are to be considered For as many men and women as many severall dispositions and God answerably worketh on them all His word is the extract of his infinit wisedome so accommodat to man that it both informeth his minde with light and stampeth his heart with a divine power So it hath a varietie of that stamping according to the disposition of the hearer Some that are guilty of great sinnes and yet senselesse it will waken and pierce them and make them cry Men and brethren what shall we doe Some againe are wounded with conscience of sinne and feare of Gods wrath but they shall heare At what time ever a sinner repenteth I will pardon him and the conscience of his faith beleeving in Christ and repenting sinne shall be followed with this sweet whispering of his spirit Sonne be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee A contrite heart is a pleasant spectacle to God when it is brayed in the mortar of conscience Some againe borne downe with heavie affliction and in feare that they be rejected of God because they are daily afflicted their wearie hearts shall heare this word in due season That whom I love I chasten and the only way to follow him is to take up our crosse daily and that affliction is our best lot because it telleth us we are not bastards but children and that it is a part of our conformity with Christ here and a pledge that we shall be like him in glorie Moreover that same variety will be found in one godly soule at one time for being in the hand of God it is like soft waxe for the stamp and as the points of doctrine go along is answerably moved so that in one Sermon it will finde downe-cast and raising up griefe and comfort and be sensible of all these changes of operation This beautie is inward seene of God and felt of them that have it yet so that outwardly it will appeare For there is such harmonie betweene the heart and face as scarcely can any affection be in the heart that appeareth not some way in the countenance which as it ought to be expressed with modestie so should it be exponed of other in charitie Sometimes the heart will be so moved when Gods hand toucheth it that it cannot containe it selfe but will breake forth into teares of sorrow and joy but prudence commandeth us to convoy these things in publick as modestly as we can Our chambers or the fields are more convenient places for the full uttering of these affections for there we may use gestures of body speeches c. which we cannot before man for even the most sincere affection any wayes uttered will finde such uncharitable censure as Hannahs teares found at the hand of Eli. Therefore in publicke the expressions of our affections must be moderat our teares that would burst out must be turned into groanes and these groanes must be suppressed and turned into ejaculations and these brought to a soul-speech with God admiring our vilenesse and his goodnesse that taketh such paines on us Praising him where we finde his grace hath kept us in obedience resolving promising and vowing better obedience in time to come That is the joy of our heart when as it can poure out it selfe wholly on God in spirituall affections Affection hath the own voice whereby it is known of God Sometimes it requireth no other expression but is content with sighs and these sighs will breake out not only when we will but also when we know not What more pleasant thing than to see Gods people taught of him All hearers are not taught of God
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
his life or state if his partie call him to a frindly Treatie and he be so senselesse that he knew neither if he met with his partie or know not how they began proceeded and closed their Treatie So are the most part of us wee come to the Sanctuarie the Lords trysting place and when wee come home if any would ask us Did you meet with God in his house Was your treatie in the termes of peace And was it closed with this Sonne bee of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee We would answer with the Disciples at Ephesus We know not if there be such things or no. Lastly Nations or Cities who have this beautie of the sanctuarie should keepe it carefully for it is their glorie And this is our advertisement that we keep this pretious thing that God hath committed to us For we may affirme that God hath blessed us with a bodie of as sound and wholesome divinitie as any age or nation since the Apostles time No Church is absolutely perfect yet in this point wee may contest with the best For in former times Sathan busied the Church with heresies as the Ebionites Marcionits Sabellians Arians Pelagians c. And when these were damned Antichrist amassed them all in one under other terms and making therof the body of his Apostasie obtruded them to the Church under the colours of his authoritie and infallibilitie And when God led his Church by his Worthies the Reformers hee blessed this Nation with a body of most refined Doctrine If we keepe this in puritie it shall be our happinesse But if libertie of private opinions turn in a libertie of publick venting these opinions and to turne us to Rome againe then altar against altar will deface this beautie of the sanctuarie Hold fast that thou hast till I come that no man take thy crown from thee Politicks like Gallio care not for these things but the safety of the common-wealth consisteth in happinesse and that same that maketh a particular man happie maketh a Citie happy also The last day wil prove this when the sheep on Christs right hand shal be gathered out of Nations and Cities who had the beautie of the sanctuarie in the doctrine of happines in the Gospel But all other shall be ranked with the goats SECTION VIII Of our partaking and enjoying of happinesse That I may see WEe have heard of the beautie of the Lord in the Sanctuarie wherein happinesse is offered to us followeth the application whereby wee apply it to our selves set down in this word to see which hath a generall and speciall consideration In the generall it signifies with the Hebrews all sensing because it is the most excellent sense So it is put for hearing I turned to see the voyce that is to heare the voyce God hath boared through our bodies with five senses that our soules might have intercourse with the qualities of his creatures in their colour juice smell c. And spiritually for our fuller joy offereth himselfe to be the object of our five spirituall senses So we see him in his works we heare him in his word wee taste him in his goodnesse Wee smell the fragrancie of the grace of the Gospel We touch him to draw vertue out of him with the diseased woman and with Thomas to call him our Lord and our God Therefore hearing is not here excluded but included as the fittest sense for spirituall things for faith comes by hearing and it is a preparation to the spirituall sight Hearken Daugter and behold As we have heard so have we seen It supplieth the weakenesse of our sight in Gods works In them we see his power his wisedome c. But in the Word wee heare of Christ his comming in the flesh our redemption and reconciliation in him It is also a more common way to learne for mo can heare than can read and the most fit way to receive heavenly things which are revealed in the audible word It is also surest to keep us from idolatrie for though spirituall things cannot bee represented yet some have attempted to do so in images but when they are explaned by words there is no such danger We only heare the voice but see nothing Lastly wee were lost by Eva's hearing of the Serpent therefore God will wound Sathan with his own rod and save us by that sense whereby wee were lost we are saved by faith and faith commeth by hearing The speciall consideration goeth in seeing and fruition This seeing is not bodily but spirituall For as the object is so must the sense bee There have been great disputes concerning the seeing of God with our eyes but let us stand to Scripture That God dwelleth in the light inaccessible whom none hath seene nor can see in their mortalitie yet afterward we shall see him face to face and shall know him as we are known But for this life though none have seene him yet his only begotten Sonne who came out of his bosome hath revealed him to us and that both in himself who is his eternall and substantial word and the ingraven forme of his petson and likewise by the word that hee gave to his Apostles In like manner our happinesse in the owne fulnesse the eye hath not seene nor hath the eare heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to think upon yet God by his Spirit revealeth to his own in the first fruits and earnest God hath created the new man in his own and furnished him with spirituall senses His sight is the minde inlightned with heavenly light when God who commanded light to shine out of darknesse shineth in our soul by the Gospel of grace When he hath created this light in us then in his light we see light This illumination of the mind turneth in faith when the things wee simply see by light wee assent unto and apply them to us as our own and so go forward in the application of happinesse to our selves No light discovereth the Sunne but the light that commeth from it and no light discovereth God but the light that commeth from him and that so cleerly that it pulleth the heart to him and true happinesse in him Our happinesse is in union with God and the maine bands thereof are the spirit on his part and faith on our part Faith standeth not at sight but goeth on to apprehension our assent tyeth us to him by the mediation of his truth but our apprehension gripeth himselfe immediately as one who is truth it self and in whom all things are good truly and infinitely so that our trust in God may be called a thrusting of our soules on him The diseased woman was not content to look upon Christ but would likewise have vertue out of him by touching What is this said one which shineth within me and
smiteth my heart without hurt so that I both tremble and burne I tremble in so farre I am unlike him I burne in so farre I am like unto him This sight terrifieth not but comforteth It is the sight of a reconciled God by a reconciled man the matter of his presence here and of our heaven on earth There is no light clearer than this when truth shineth in the minde and the minde in truth seeth God and it selâ—e Herein appeareth the Prophets happinesse that seeking out happinesse and knowing what it is and where it is to be found he resteth not there till hee apply it to himselfe Happinesse may ever bee happinesse and wee remaine miserable if wee have no part in it God is happinesse in himselfe without us and wee are miserie in our selves without him therefore we must be in him that we may be happie And this is by application when as wee know hee is chiefe good so wee are perswaded that hee is our chiefe good and happinesse This is the proper worke of faith in her double perswasion The one direct and outgoing to the truth and things themselves The other reflecting and turning home to us by the work of our conscience in the assurance that wee beleeve and that these things are ours by faith Papists are here blame-worthie who cut the throate of the sweetest Christian consolation for what availeth it to hear that God is good that happinesse is in him if wee dare not and may not apply it to our selves And this is the end of Gods dispensation of the Gospel for he revealeth to us that we may know and the first end of knowledge is application It is also the end of the efficacie of the Spirit joyned with the word not to open our minds onely to know but also to apply to us And shall we think that the blessings of the Gospel are set before us only to looke to without application It is the food of our soule and must be eaten The cloathes of our soule and must be put on The physick of our soul and must be applied So is Christ to us The Apostle is not content to say that Christ came in the world to save sinners but subjoyneth of whom I am the chief And more clearly 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 who loved mee and gave himselfe for me Ancient Creeds content themselves more to expresse things to be beleeved because of the debates of hereticks in the matter of doctrine than to declare the way how to beleeve and yet this particular application may be found in them for as we beleeve the spirituall patrimonie of the Church in the remission of sinnes the glorious resurrection of the body and life eternall is it onely to know that there is such a treasure in the Church without application to our selves Or is an heire so simple as to content himself to know that his father hath an heritage and is not at all perswaded that it pertaineth to him Faith acteth a personall act and as the root of it is personall in the habit so the fruit of it must be personall in the application of consolation Gods work is particular to his own he chooseth them by name he calleth them by name as he called Come down Zacheus Hee casteth them down by the law personally why should not the application of the grace of the Gospel bee personall also The nature and work of conscience proveth the same for it is a withknowledge in our breast and all the actions of it are particular ending in our person And it contenteth not it self generally to say We are sinners but choppeth us in a particular branch of a particular Law and that in a particular kinde of sinne in a particular degree So it maketh us as particularly to apply the promise of the Gospel under conscience of repentance as it applieth wrath under conscience of sinne And Christ commendeth the wiseman not for finding of the pearle but for buying of it nor for knowing of the field where the treasure was but for the possession of the treasure Where this application is not there is nothing but doubting concerning the promise Probably they hold them as generall in the conscience of sinne as they are in the promises of grace and content themselves slenderly to thinke they are sinners without any feeling of particular sinnes Thus they delight to shuffâ—e themselves up in generall both in miserie and happinesse and not to come to particular application of either Gods children call him Abba Father for the divine nature in them the sense of their filiation and the testimonie of the Spirit of adoption maketh them to doe so but the want of these things make bastards and slaves to stand aloofe from him and not to thinke or speake warmely of him whom they know not to be their Father None hath this sight in the sanctuarie but the spirituall man For he only hath the heavenly light infused in him which is as necessary as the externall light in the eye for bodily things For the minde and not the eye is created to behold that greatest beautie of God And they live the better and more highly the more perfectly they behold him The naturall man percieveth it not but thinketh it a phantasie that is spoken of it They see not God but men and the actions they see are both base and a burthen to them The Philosophers called Paul a Babler because his doctrine was not in a Philosophick forme and Festus said that much learning made him mad so the naturall man conceiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned None conceiveth these things but he that is wise spiritually for the world cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth him not But the spirituall man discerneth all he seeth the glorie of God in his sanctuarie discerneth the spiritualitie of doctrine feeleth the power of the spirit and so wisedome contemned of fooles is justified of her owne children Hee who feeleth not the sweet smell of the spouse and runneth not is either dead or rotten Let us then strive to see God This sight shall be our happinesse in heaven and the godly are desirous of it in this life for they will see nothing more desireable and can see nothing more dilectable Moses desired to see his glory but was refused and saw only his way Esay saw him symbolically or significatively And though he datted the Patriarchs by the familiaritie of his divine presence yet they saw not himselfe but some thing of him For these Fathers saw him not as he was And that because to see him as he is is to be as he is but wee have that much sight of him in Christ as to save us for he that seeth me seeth the
experience but his affection is contrary to his knowledge for he neither loveth the good nor hateth the evill he knoweth We partake more of God by fruition than by sight To dispute of happinesse with a frosen and cold heart is great miserie Goodnesse is a speciall attribute of God expressing that fountaine and he revealeth it to make us good and happie in his goodnesse and that is more in the conformitie of our will and affections to him than of knowledge alone If it be true that wee know no more of God than wee affect him then fruition is better than knowledge which it both limiteth and exceedeth Instruction maketh men learned but affection maketh them wise It is one thing to know and another to possesse It is not the knowledge of riches but the possession that maketh men rich It is one thing to see God and another to feare and love him They may justly glorie of their power in being the sonnes of God in whom this sonly love burneth and this affection liveth Secondly the compleat beautie of the sanctuary is Gods presence which maketh up all the parts of it It is knowne in his working wherein wee consider foure things First the efficacie Secondly the secrecie Thirdly the sensiblenesse Fourthly the discerning His working in the Saints is the work of his omnipotencie whereby hee raised Christ from the dead for it is called a new Creation a regeneration and the Hebrewes call comfort the returning of the soule as though griefe had thrust it out of the bodie but God by comfort brought it back againe as a sort of resurrection And this is the power that goeth out with the word to make it conquering for it returneth not in vain but worketh the work wherefore it is sent Secondly the secrecie of his worke which is hid oft-times to those who have it The spirit bloweth where it listeth yea oft times we apprehend the contrarie for his diet with the godly is to lead them to heaven by the gates of hell For many a time hee plungeth us in fearefull terrors but his work endeth in joyfull comforts So David is mourning in the beginning of many Psalmes the 6 th 32. 51. c. but in the end hee is rejoycing and of a poore supplicant for himselfe is turned an Intercessour for the Church The childe in the belly feeleth not his growing yet he groweth and the hand of the horologue is not seene in the moving yet when it commeth to an houre it is manifest that it hath moved So the worke of grace hath a growing in us though hid and is manifest in some great degree of joy or great griefe Thirdly the sensiblenesse of it for wee are both the object of his work and reasonable and conscionable workers with him Sometimes wee feele the work but know not the Author as the disciples going to Emaus felt their hearts burning but knew not it came of Christ. Sometimes we know the author as Elizabeth knew the presence of Christ to be the cause of her joy at the blessed Virgins salutation And the fore-runner springing in her belly testified that he was spiritually sensible of his masters presence before he had the use of any bodily sense So the new man in us when he is not oppressed with senselesnesse leapeth for joy at the voyce of Christ. Fourthly the discerning of it goeth in three First for originall That it is a divine power though it specifie it selfe in our disposition which is humane yet it selfe is meerly divine Secondly in the force for it worketh infallibly in the Elect. Omnipotencie admitteth no resistance and mans will hath no losse when the Creator of it maketh it free from sinne no it is both the glorie and libertie of our will that God takes it in his hand boweth it what way he pleaseth And Gods best children endeavour to this as a perfection who have their wils altogether conformed to the will of God and that they can quite their owne will when they see his will revealed in his providence so farre are they from thinking their wils to be harmed when they are determined of God They strive to be like Gods who stand out in the question of free-will against God and are blasphemous while they affirm That God worketh no more mightily in the elect than Sathan doth in the reprobate But when wee finde his power to bee such that neither nature can imitate nor resist then we acknowledge it is the finger of God in us Thirdly the fruits are a change and calmenes The change is so sensible that it argueth a divine power For it goeth eyther from contrary to contrary as from joy to griefe or from griefe to joy or if it abide in either of them it commeth in a greater degree than was immediately before Yea all in us feeleth that working the old man to his wounding and the new man to his strengthning Calmenesse of spirit is the other fruit whereby with some sweet astonishment we rest in his bosome whom our soule loveth Then we break out with this or the like ejaculation Who am I that thou remembrest me with the favour of thy people and visitest me with thy salvation that thou makest me see the felicitie of thy chosen and rejoyce with the joy of thy people and glorie with thine inheritance Who am I that thou discernest mee making me both see and enjoy thee in the sanctuarie and so to be a part of the beautie of it Who can containe himselfe for joy when he findeth that divine majestie incline himselfe to his weaknesse and coâ—â— down to so familiar and sweetest societie Hereof commeth the Christian true contentment The world hath almost talked as much of contentment the marrow of happinesse as of happinesse it selfe on these same grounds in these same errors with the like fruit For they sought it never in God but in his gifts They fastened not their soules upon the chiefe good but loosed their desires upon every occasionall good and so they neither contained their lot nor were contained of it But increase of their lot inflamed their desire and augmented their miscontentment But true contentment is when the soule findeth it selfe embraced of God yea and possessed of him that it may say The Lord is the portion of my inheritance for it findeth it selfe contained of God is content to be so contained which is properly contentment As in it selfe it is so contained so in all the desires which runne no wayes out to other things for it hath a spirituall delicacie that being full of God it counteth not greatly of other things beside Therefore when the Prophet hath called God his portion hee said his inheritance was pleasant to him he found such contentment in God that hee saw nothing beside that could so much as draw his vaging desire to it Hee contemneth other things and that not
onely which hee might have but what he would have because these things doe more hurt being obtained than desired Thirdly here is a difference betwixt the true and false religion True religion presenteth the true God as an object of worship an author of working an opener of his peoples eyes to see a mover of their hearts to love him and rejoyce in him So that both the union is sensible and the communion flowing from it False religion hath none of these for idolatrie hath no true God for the object neither superstition the false worship of the true God Let them pretend affection and zeale even to extasie it is no better than the furie of the Baalites The new Pelagians also deny any other working of God in the Elect than in the Reprobate and grant no more than a morall suasion generally offering but never moving the heart to receive They hold God and man ever asunder for they give man a beginning of good which he hath not of Christ. In the work they make him his owne discerner and in the end exactour of his own due glorie But wee should consider the Elect as they are the lively members of Christ and have right to the fulnes of grace that is in that head so that when God commeth downe to work in the Sanctuarie hee looketh not to the Elect as strangers but as to the living members abiding in his Sonne and therefore his Spirit communicateth to them both easily and powerfully the grace that is in that fountain This reall union with Christ is better than their division and they who will ever be divided from the chiefe good cannot intend to have happinesse in him Fourthly this putteth a difference among them who are exercised in a true religion They are not all alike disposed some receive happinesse with joy by that effectuall working others remaine senselesse in the hardnesse of their heart which they have drawn on with the deceit of sinne Some again contemne the holy disposition of the godly So Eli albeit otherwise a good man expounded Hannahs devotion at the first uncharitably But though Eli mock Hannahs devotion and the proud Pharisee disdaine the teares of the penitent Woman yet Christ both accepteth and defendeth her No wonder for this work is personall and known only to them in whom it is That white stone hath the name of Elect written on it and none can reade it but he that hath it none is conscious of his estate in grace but himselfe Others who have the like can judge charitably while they who have not such experience doe carpe and censure This vilifying of the grace of God is a policie of Sathan thereby hee hardeneth naturall men and presseth to dash Gods children from seeking or uttering of that which is so uncharitably censured But grace guardeth them sufficiently it recompenseth them largely for that suffering doubleth their joy and the conscience of it sharpneth them to seek it the more When wisedome is justified of her children she justifies them the more for their justifying of others and erecting the throne of God in the soule by his approbation contemneth the uncharitablenesse of man Naturall men will neither mourne at Christ not dance at his pyping yet they can mock such as sympathize with them both They are like that Prince of Samaria who saw the plenty but tasted not of it but was trod down by the presse of those who desired that that he distrusted Lastly it is our dutie to seeke this fruition and it is proper to man for though other things be possessed of God yet they possesse not God and this is our possession of him to enjoy it And for this cause beside the work in the sanctuarie in private sometimes to steale our selves from our selves that wee may be found in God This selfe-stealth is our preservation for we finde our selves more in him than when wee are in our selves This is a commendable theft God commandeth it and wee glorie in it That that is stollen is safer than that which remaineth and nothing is lost but that which is not stollen For knowing of ourselves wee have need of a great custome and taske to depart from our senses and to gather our spirit in iâ— selfe For if we exceede not visible things wee have not the eye of our minde fitted to behold things eternall But when the soule hath gathered it selfe in it selfe it dare looke to God It is our griefe to come backe from such a disposition as a man delighted with a palace desires not to come to the cottage where he was borne This is the presence of God with his Saints whereby they solace their absence from him dwelling in the bodie God commandeth it Seek ye my face The godly desire it Thy face Lord will I seek hee promiseth it I will bee with him in trouble and they boast of it I will not be affraid because thou art with me They take the measure from some excesse of spirituall fruition and according thereto rule their spirituall state As a Man that hath leapen far tryeth his strength by equalling that leap thereby they judge of their lot which is the prosperitie of their prosperitie the comfort of their adversitie their walking with God like Enoch and their conversion in heaven the awband of our corruption and the spurre of Gods grace in us For no law reward or punishment can so eyther hold us from sinne or draw us to God as the conscience of Gods presence It is Gods dwelling in us and our dwelling in him and our happinesse and heaven on earth But let us not deceive our selves in the conceit of this vision or fruition except our lives answer to both For this vision is true wisedome which wee both have and kythe by the obedience of the commandements And it is the law of God written in wise soules that they live so much the better when they behold him by understanding and keep him by a godly life Therefore let none boast of vision and fruition who liveth not godly All men would come to Christ but few will follow him All would enjoy but few will imitate him SECT IX Of constant enquirie for perfect happines And to enquire in his Temple THis is the last point of the Text concerning our greatest care about happinesse to bee searching continually that we may persevere and grow therein The first enquirie was to finde out what happinesse was and where to finde it The second is after we have obtained it to goe forward in the degrees till perfection For inquirie importeth more than finding and prayer is farther off than obtaining The order telleth us that enquiring followeth beholding and none doe more seeke God and happinesse in him than they that see him Desire of grace groweth with the growth of it As the wretch wretcheth the more he is
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
Father also To have this sight we must be pure in heart blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God For God sheweth not himselfe to the uncleane We get this puritie by renovation and being defiled by sinne we purge our hearts from every evill conscience by repentance thereby wee both may and dare draw neere to the throne of grace in Christ and looke on God without whom he is a consuming fire The wicked never have this sight they shall see him in the signe of his power but never in his glorious forme Neither have all the godly it alike Neither any one godly man hath it alike at all times Of fruition of God THe second thing is Fruition the fruit of the former sight and the reall possession of the chiefe good and so our happinesse in it This no tongue can teach but grace and they who have it cannot satisfie themselves in explication of it for it is better felt than described Yet we may call it with some a possessing of God or to have him readie at hand But we shall consider in it two affections especially Love and joy The first is our inloving the other our injoying of him and they go together and carrie our soules with them on a good present and possessed Love uniteth us to God and turneth all our affections to it and with it to him It is both the contract and embracements of Christ it is our worthinesse and our reward Our merit because he loveth that his owne gift in us and our reward because so he followeth his former mercies in us It is most pleasant to our selves because it maketh the soule to rest sweetly on a present and eternall good Even the desire of a good to come hath the anxietie of delay but love hath it present It layeth not a part of the heart on God but all for that is his due Love the Lord with all thy heart neither will the heart rightly affected with him divide it selfe but seeing and feeling his goodnesse as he draweth so it yeeldeth wholly to him and desireth to be out of it selfe that it may be in him Love is that only motion or affection whereby we dare give God a meeting If hee be angrie wee dare not be angrie at him but tremble and repent If he rebuke we dare not rebuke him but deprecat his wrath If he judge us wee dare not judge him but justifie him in his judgements If he command we dare not command him but in all humilitie obey him But it is contrary in love for when God loveth us he seeketh that meeting to be loved againe for he loveth us that we may love him The second part of this fruition is joy when the soule overjoyed with God rejoyceth in him It floweth from love for when God hath filled our heart with the infusion of his love and made it to powre it selfe on him by loving him with all our heart Of the sense of these two loves followeth a new infusion of joy whereby it rejoyceth that it is beloved of God and bestoweth it selfe in loving him Love is the worke of our soule in our dearest chiefe good about happinesse and joy is the fruit of that worke and the rest of our soule resting sweetly in the possession of him whom it loveth and they are both mutuall causes and equall Mutuall because the more we love God the more we rejoyce in him and the more wee rejoyce in him the more wee love him as the matter of our joy And they are equall because in that same measure we rejoyce in him in that same we love him This is a joy unspeakeable and glorious Unspeakable even of those that have it for if they presse to expresse it their words are lesse than their thoughts and their thoughts lesse than the sense of it and their sense lesse than it selfe And therefore their usuall expression is in secret with God to powre out their heart in that joy which they cannot expresse to man When God infuseth it the heart cannot comprehend it fully but is like a small vessell filled and overturned with a greater measure of liquor than it can containe but it turneth that overrunning on God and findeth that the best containing both of it and that joy is to be contained of God It is also a glorious joy or glorified because it is the first fruits and earnest of the joyes of heaven and all worldly joyes are as short of it as the smoak of flax to a great fire Hereby are cleared both the spirituall â—atietie and excesse Spirituall satietie is that heavenly drunkennesse or inebriation of grace wherewith God filleth his owne They shall be satiat or made drunke with the fatnesse of thy house This is not of wine as the Iewes blamed the Apostles neither of malice that Sathan powreth into the heart neither of worldly cares which come of the wilde grapes of humane condition but it is of drunkennesse of the wine of grace which floweth from the fulnesse of Christ and is put in new vessels This S. Peter granted for himself and the rest we are not drunk with wine as ye thinke but with a better liquor the graces of the Spirit that came downe abundantly on them And be not drunken with wine wherein is excesse but be fulfilled with the Spirit This is that satietie that commeth of the fat things of the hoâ—se of God and of the rivers of his pleasures or Paradise what are these fat things but the fatted calfe Jesus Christ who is daily crucified in the sanctuarie in the Gospell and that for Raritie Excellence and Sweetnesse Raritie because none but he Excellencie because none like him And Sweetnesse because he fully delighteth the soule which by the faith of his incarnation and passion c. applieth him to it selfe Here is Samsons riddle Out of the labourer came meat and out of the strong came sweetnesse Who laboured more than he who trode the winepresse of the Lord alone And who stronger than the Lion of the tribe of Judah And what sweeter than that hony-combe sticking in his bowels that is the fruit of his obedience for us springing of his incomparable love This made the Greek Church to call it a monster of love The wicked go by and search not his bowels for this honie but the godly take it out and eat it yea the wicked can lick the dew off the rock but cannot sucke the honie out of it but the godly by the mounds of the rock thrust their beleeving and loving hearts into his heart and are satiat with that love of the Father the Sonne and the Spirit which they finde there This is to be filled with marrow and fatnesse who receive largely of that unction to make us fat and flourishing in the body of Christ. Spirituall Excesse