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
own minde But the godly pittie these men in their errours who are intised with such trifles They know that they are not called to a worldly felicitie but to a heavenly they passe from one good to another and urge pensively their inquirie till they come to God himself So the church in her search could not stay till she found him whom her soul loved God is above all whom if we follow we learn well if we apprehend we learn both well and blessedly his following is our appetite of happinesse his apprehending is happinesse it self Let us therefore in this inquirie lift our mindes above all things visible or created and seek true happinesse in God alone for none can make man blessed but God that made man Seek the thing that you seek sayeth one but not where you seek it You seek a blessed life in the region of death it is not there For how can there be a blessed life where there is no life And we may say Woe to that bold soul which hopeth if it depart from God that it can finde any thing better than God For the soul goes into fornication when it departeth from and seeketh not out of him these things pure and clean which it will never finde till it returne unto him The choice it self WE have heard of the search of happinesse followeth the choice it self I know school-divinitie speaketh otherwise and thinketh some of them at least with the Philosopher that election is not of the end but of the midst to it But I am content to speak rather with Christ than the Philosopher who commended Marie for chusing that one thing that was necessarie and Divines speak roundly What shall we chuse to love but that than which we finde nothing better There is formally a choice of the end This choice is the act of the will and goeth in foure speciall works Inclination Apprehension Retention and Rest. Inclination when the will inclineth and applieth it self to the sought and found happinesse The desire of our heart is unto theâ— We have naturally a desire of happinesse but when the truth hath particularly revealed it then we desire it more firmely And this hath not only the last judgement of the practicall understanding as some speak but more the finger of Gods spirit bowing the will to it for many in their reason do apprehend things to be good and yet their will followeth not The Creator of the will doeth bow it to good else that pointing of the minde were not sufficient All the time of our search the will stood in suspense but now being informed by the minde of the nature of happinesse and bowed by the spirit it inclineth to it willingly Our first sin began at a declining from God and our first good disposition beginneth at the inclining of our will to him againe 2. Apprehension is when the will embraceth that greatest good with greatest power I layed hold on him whom my soul loved In griping other goods it abideth in it self and gripeth them slenderly as inferiour goods but it goeth out of it self gladly to this chief good and quitting that proud title of mistresse of her own actions is glad to go out of her self and to be taken up in that chief good For the pure and perfect soul subjecteth it self unto happinesse 3. Retention is our firme keeping of happinesse I would not let him go till I brought him in the house of my mother This keeping is his keeping of us for as inclination is by his power our apprehension by his griping of us so this retention is by his holding of us The stock beareth us and not we the stock 4. A sweet rest on this good followeth which is the sweeter the greater our search hath been As Scripture hath some mysteries otherwise men would neither seriously search nor sweetly finde out the truth So in the search of happinesse the more labour the sweeter rest If Adam had painfully laboured for his happinesse he had kept it better than he did Easie finding maketh slack keeping but a painfull conquest is carefully preserved It is but the continuance of one care and that with more joy in the preservation than was in the purchase This choice is accompanied with a conscience of it self for our conscience goeth along all this work and maketh us conscious both of our seeking and finding God hath joyned it to the reasonable soul as a witnesse of all actions yea even of the least motion of our affections We both know that they are and we know that we know The conscience making us sensible of the own consciousnesse So that it is a comfortlesse religion that involveth men in the confusions of an implicite faith towards God and holdeth them in senselesnesse of their own estate as not being conscious of that they do They destroy the image of the Trinity in us which is knowen by conscience Our being to know that our being and to love both Our being in him hath no death our knowledge hath no ignorance and our love no offence but they confound all He is senselesse who feeleth not the work of his own affections when he hateth or feareth or rejoyceth so here if we love God we need no more doubt that we are beloved of him than that we love him By this I know that it is true that is said And again I know that I know these things and when I love God I can no more doubt that I am beloved than that I love But the experience of the Saints will clear this practick point of the search and finding of happinesse And first in Solomon He wrote the book of Ecclesiastes than which the world hath nothing more perfect of this purpose Therein he expresseth his consultations ending in just sentences His counsell-house for this inquirie was his heart I said in my heart where gathering all his thoughts in the presence of God he pondered things deeply Next he proponeth the purpose for consultation that he might see what was that good for the sons of men which they should do uuder the heaven all the dayes of their life Thereafter he bringeth in all these common places of worldly happinesse as riches honours wisedome possessions c. and sentenceth every one of them This also is vanitie and vexation of spirit Moreover in the beginning of the sixt Chapter he gathereth Paradoxes adjudging rather happinesse to the contrary of these things than to themselves That it is better to be in the house of mourning than of laughing That the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit And in the end he closeth with the sum of all that to fear God and keep his commandments is the duty of man If we look to the beginning of his discourse Vanitie of vanities all is vanitie it is like a program affixed on the entrie of a citie
but only such as the unction teacheth He speaketh to the renewed eare and heart and the soft heart is only sensible of his working and giveth him the Echo of his voice When thou saidst Seek ye my face my heart answered Thy face Lord will I seek If he speak of sinne it groaneth under guiltinesse or praiseth him if it be free If hee speake of wrath it trembleth and prayeth for averting If hee command it prayeth for grace to obey And as clean paper taketh the stamp of everie type so the soft heart is stamped with all his word this is the writing of the Law in our heart The pen is his effectuall power the ink his unction the letters are Gods properties stamped on the powers of our soule the words are infused habits the lines are the lineaments of his image in righteousnesse and holinesse This is to heare to our happinesse when we heare in our heart and there remaineth no more doubting But oft times we know not what Christ speaketh because we feele not what he feeleth If any thinke this beauty to bee marred because therein possibly are Hypocrites and Atheists c. I answer that as there is a beautie of the universe which is not destroyed but decored by some naughtie things for ill vices argue a good nature wherin they are manifest good things to be better by their comparison By some things perfect and some things imperfect the universe is perfect God seeth them as blots in the Sanctuarie without prejudice of the godly who are his delight How Pastors are this beautie THe beautie of the sanctuarie in respect of Pastors is in their calling and work Their calling is to stand betwixt God and man They are Gods mouth to the people in doctrine and the peoples mouth to him in prayer and praise This is the onely calling that teacheth man true happinesse that openeth the heaven and leadeth him to it All the body of the heavens is pure yet the stars are most pure parts receiving light from the sunne and rendring it to the world So are Pastors among men the light of the world starres receiving light from God and rendring it to others They are as one of a thousand to declare to man the righteousnes of God and their very feet are beautifull because they bring good tidings to the world God sendeth them not of indigence but indulgence as a more fit way to teach man than either by himselfe or by Angels for man can peaceably receive instruction of man but the glorie of God or of Angels would overwhelme us It is likewise mans triall and the commendation of his Faith for if we were taught onely by God immediately and not of man there were no proofe of our obedience to Gods ordinance Pastors then are a part of this beautie when they stand between God who heareth the prayer and inhabiteth the praise of Israel and are remembrancers to both The beautie in respect of their work is as the mouth of God to the people and their mouth to him They are Gods mouth in preaching the beautie whereof standeth in the matter form the diversitie efficacie The matter that they preach Christ crucified and happines in him That it be sound without error or heresie and divine according to Scripture Mans minde enquireth a reason of all humane verities but when it heareth divine veritie it neither enquireth nor examineth but at the first resteth upon it with a divine faith Therefore the Ancients in their sermons were exceeding sparing of humane testimonies and contented them with Scripture because they knew to doe otherwise was to confound divine and humane faith in the hearer As now the Papists who have equalled traditions with Scriptures have brought their people that they know no difference betweene divine and humane truth or betwixt divine and humane faith respecting both When any thing is spoken beside Scripture the minde of the hearer will vage but when God speaketh all doubting ceaseth The second beautie of their doctrine is in the form that holy things be delivered holily As every science hath the owne proper matter so hath it the owne proper forme and Gods word which is holy hath the owne paterne of wholesome words wherein it should be delivered If therefore we propone it as Oratours in the schoole or Lawyers wee spill the native beautie of the word And this is it which the Apostle calleth the demonstration of spirit and power which is not so much to be expounded of an exact forme of reasoning as with a manifesting and kything of a spirituall power in doctrine Doctrine commeth of foure speciall grounds 1 Naturall quicknesse 2. Art and learning 3. Diligence in industrie hearing reading collecting and by grace in the inward teaching and inspiration of the Spirit Now publick doctrine is a kything how many of these or what of them are in us For a judicious hearer can well discerne from which of these one or moe or all it floweth And though we could rub the itching eare wonderfully with the first or the second or the third or all three of them together yet if the fourth be lacking it is not the Apostles demonstration of the spirit and power but of nature and industrie This commeth of the concurrence of the spirit who is first effectuall in them by sanctification and then effectuall by them in a heavenly doctrine in the hearts of people Then his Priests are clothed with salvation and his Saints shout for joy Thirdly the beautie of Pastors doctrine is in the diversitie of their gifts Gods house hath people of all complexions and his word hath a sufficiencie to every mans condition So wife Pastors propone it as milk for the weaker and as strong food for the perfect For they studie not to their owne vain honour and praise but to the profit of their hearers God is not like Isaac that hath but one blessing but out of his fulnesse to some hee giveth the gift of knowledge to some the gift of wisedome he hath given some to be Apostles some Pastors some Doctors c. and all to the edifying of the Church but these two are most eminent and ordinarie gifts Knowledge and Wisedome The first is doctrinall knowledge preserving the puritie of doctrine in the Church The other is pastorall wisedome dividing the bread of life aright and applying it to the hearts of people which Saint Austine preferreth to the other as farre as the Sunne is above the moone This commeth not only by ordinarie teaching of men and that measure of Instruction which the spirit giveth to every one but likewise by exercise of the crosse and experience For God schooleth some Pastors greatly in affliction and that not only for their personall sinnes which they have as great as any but also to make them fitter instruments to instruct and
yet willingly is bound by the bonds of his owne making For what is our faith challenging him of his promise but his owne grace in us telling he is minded to yeeld because he worketh in us that strength to wreastle with him like Jacob till wee prevaile His Fatherly love that preveneth us with that disposition meeteth us with the desire to answer It is most profitable even in this that by our prayers we partake of all the prayers of the godly that have beene made from the beginning God hath them all in register and they are a treasure of the Church but above all the prayer of Christ that gives life unto them If therefore we put in our mite in this treasure we have a right to the whole Some have questioned of what thing men made most gaine as twentie fourtie fiftie in the hundreth but prayer exceedeth all for we gaine a million for one Neither let us be discouraged if sometimes we finde our prayers but faint few words no order weake desires and no satisfying of our selves therein For as a mother will sooner heare her sicke babe in the cradle and run to him if he begin to weepe than a stronger boy that cryes strongly so God is more neere and ready to helpe when we can scarcely cry than when wee finde greater freedome Wee please God best when wee please our selves least and we please him worst when wee please our selves best our cutted and broken desires are our voice and these desires are as acceptable to him as our long prayers Oftentimes wee come to prayer with a trembling and withered heart but continuing therein sometimes grace is suddenly infused the heart is filled with joy and we finde the libertie we crave Praise is the other part of this beautie The floods returne to the sea so should we give thankes to God our Maker in creation our Benefactour in providence our Redeemer in Christ our Rewarder in crowning his owne mercies in us That affection is dead that powreth not out it selfe wholly in thanksgiving Therein people with heart and voice render him thanks And with prayer it maketh up the sweet respect betwixt God and man for in the first wee pull downe grace for grace in the second we send up praise for prayers In the first the sense of our miserie filling the heart with griefe openeth it with a desire of reliefe In the second the sense of mercie filling the heart with joy maketh it with an unspeakable delight to thrust it selfe upon God That heavenly thanksgiving that closeth Gods service is some token that people have gotten what they sought and that God sendeth them away in peace with his blessing pronounced upon them as a seale thereof It is the peoples triumph over sathan who is more grieved with the Saints praising than with all the charmes of his confederats Some have thought strange why wee are commanded by the Apostle both to pray and praise continually But that continuall is not as though we should be ever in the action of prayer or praise which is impossible but of our disposition and affection rising therefrom That as we have rooted in us the affections of griefe and joy so when God sendeth grievous things wee should pray and when he sendeth joyfull things we should praise They stand well with our mixed state here for there is no man who wanteth his owne daily miseries and so hath need to pray continually and none wanteth his owne daily blessings and so hath cause to praise continually Even our affliction is a secret cause of praise for as it telleth Gods love and foretelleth the happie fruit so God leaveth ever better behind him than he taketh from us For if he take away our health or fame c. yet if he leave remission of sins peace of conscience c. they are better than the blessings removed Lastly these two are mutuall causes to other for when our heart is soaped with sorrow and teares run downe our face wee have cause to rejoyce in that disposition as a speciall worke of grace so bruising our heart And in our greatest joy wee have cause of sorrow For while God is filling our heart with joy yet at that time we will be grieved because that joy will bide but shortly and that on our default For we can no more keepe it than a riven lanterne can keepe a candle in a storme or a cold hearth a sparkle of fire This is the sett debt which the Church acknowledgeth different from all other Civill debts oppresse men but this relieveth them And the debt of sinne maketh us wearie and laden but this easeth us We owe a heavie debt to Gods justice It is first directing when we obey it not turneth into a vindictive justice to punish us and we lye under a double burthen of sinne and punishment whereof Christ biddeth us pray for pardon Forgive us our debts But this is a debt to Gods mercie because it ingageth us by blessings so with new grace it helpeth us to pay that contracted debt In other debts the more wee pay the lesse is to pay but in this the more wee pay the more we owe because the thing that we pay is a new gift of God Thankfulnesse receiveth continually greater blessings and the opened thankfull heart keepeth Gods hand and treasure open We crave not to be freed of this debt but to be drowned in it so that we be not able to pay till we be in heaven eternally This life is too short a time and our soules and bodies now are ill tuned instruments to praise him Here we have but beginnings and preparations of praise for griefe the basse-string of our harp soundeth now highest but in heaven God shall take away that basse and tune our harps like the harps of the Angels when he hath wiped all teares from our eyes Now Christ giveth us a prayer for the way but then he shall put a new song in our mouth New for matter because Evangelicall not Legall New for the forme because all joy without mixture of griefe And new for Indurance because eternall Of this beautie of the sanctuarie we may gather First that when the Saints are met with God in the sanctuarie they are the most beautifull congregations of mankinde Other meetings as triumphs coronations c. have their owne shew and glorie but nothing to this Their expectation is more than their being and their being evanisheth at the height God is also in other meetings but not so as in the sanctuarie For there he is as Creatour ruling all things for this present life But here he is as Redeemer working true happinesse in his children that we may justly say That his presence elsewhere comparatively is a desertion to his presence in the sanctuarie His worke in the sanctuarie is the kernell and his providence in all things is the husk and the shell He hath more delight to see
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