be any thing advanced in His happiness by them, or to receive any accessions of glory from them; but merely out of His Own essential goodness, which is naturally communicative of itself, even as the sun is naturally diffusive of its light, though he get nothing by it. And therefore, whether thou beest damned, He is not the worse, or whether thou beest saved, He is never the better for it. But howsoever, out of His Own intrinsical goodness He hath made thee; and upon the same account is desirous to make thee happy; and if thou acceptest of the overtures of grace He makes thee, it is thou that receivest the happiness, not He. It is true, He is the good husbandman that breaks up the fallow ground of thy heart, and sows the seed of grace in it: it is He also that waters, and weeds, and dresseth it, and causeth it to spring up and flourish; but, when all is done, it is thou only that reapest and receivest the whole crop of glory from it. And therefore thou must not think, that He hath any ends in loving thee; He only loves thee, because He loves Deut. 7. 8. thee. And now that He calls upon thee to love Him, it is not because He wants thy love, but because thyself wantest it for it is no addition to His glory, but it is the perfection of thine to love Him with all thy heart. Oh, how art thou able to consider these things, and not be forced to cry out with the spouse in the Canticles, "Stay me with flagons, Can. 2. 5. comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love?" [II] Secondly, Neither doth God only deserve your love because He hath been so loving unto you, but especially because He is infinitely lovely in Himself. And certainly, though God doth give us leave to love Him for these astonishing instances of His goodness to us, yet He requires us especially to love Him for that bottomless ocean of goodness that is in Himself. And, verily, for all the low apprehensions that we may have of the Eternal Deity, did it but please the Most High God to open our eyes, and shew us that glory that shines round about us at this time, how should we all lie grovelling in the dust before Him, and our souls be melted into holy desires and pantings after Him! When the Syrians came to Dothan, the servant of the Prophet Elisha could see nothing but the chariots, and horses, and hosts of the Syrians; but when God had SERM. opened his CXL. 2 Kings 6. 17. you: eyes, "Behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." So here, you look about you from place to place, but can see nothing but your fellow-creatures about but if God would be pleased but to open your eyes, as He did the servant of Elisha's, "Behold the place is full of horses, and chariots of fire," yea, it is full of the glory of the Great God; Whom if we could but see, how would our hearts be even snatched from us, and our souls transported wholly into flames of love! And though these ravishments of love from the sight of God, may seem paradoxes and mysteries to deluded mortals; yet, certainly, could you and I but look upon this glorious object with the same eyes wherewith Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Peter and Paul, and the rest of the Celestial Hierarchy, do continually, and at this very moment behold Him, how should we all be raised beyond our former selves! How should we immediately throw our melted, ravished, inflamed hearts at the feet of such transcendent glory! Certainly, did we thus behold Him, we should be as much unable to keep off our affections from Him, as now we are to draw them up unto Him; and it would be as impossible, as it is unjust, to let any thing come into competition with Him. I know you expect I should speak something in particular, in the praise of those amazing, and enamouring perfections that are in God, which thus deserve the choicest of our affections from us; but verily you must excuse me; for I am conscious to myself, that my highest celebrations of them would be but as so many detractions from them. Only let me tell you this in general, if ever it shall please this, the Chiefest Good, to discover Himself unto you, and display His glory before you, you will find Him to be the Source of Wisdom, the Abyss of Goodness, the Rule of Holiness, the very Centre of all Perfections; One Who doth not only possess infinite perfections, but One in Whom every perfection is infinite; One so amiable, so desirable, so pure, so perfect, so altogether lovely, that had we no relation to Him, had we received no expressions of love from Him, yet His bare essence, His native excellencies, could not but make us ravished and enamoured with Him; one so altogether lovely, that the glorified Angels, from the beginning of the world to this moment, could see nothing, either in or out of Him, to lessen their affections to Him: yea, One Whom to behold, and love, and praise, will be our happiness for evermore; and therefore, One Whom, though thou shouldst sift and rack thy brains to Eternity to find out some exceptions against Him, or some excuse for thy withholding thy affections from Him, it would be impossible. : And, therefore, be it known unto you, that every soul amongst you that doth not love God above all things, therefore does it not, because he doth not know Him. For as thou canst not love Him unless thou knewest Him, thou couldst not but love Him, if thou knewest Him. Let not the deceitful world then cheat thee any longer of thy affections but let Him be the Centre who was the Author of them. Dote no longer upon these childish gewgaws, but fix thy love upon the Chiefest Good. And seeing He hath called for thy heart from thee, what canst thou do but throw it before Him, all open, all melted, all on fire, with love unto Himself, without keeping back the least spark of love to any thing else, but only in subordination unto Him? Raise up therefore thy affections to Him, and fix thy love continually upon Him, never give over heaving at thy heart, until thou hast gotten it up to Him, Who so infinitely deserves the choicest of thy affections, not only for those expressions of love, which He hath shewn to thee, but for those attractives of love, which are all concentred in Himself. SERMON CXLI. RELIGION THE HAPPINESS OF ANY PEOPLE. SERM. PSALM cxliv. 15. Yea, happy is that People whose God is the Lord. THAT supreme and all-glorious Being which we call God, as He is the Creator and Preserver of all things, that issueth forth from Himself continually both Essence and Existence to every thing that is; so He cannot but be acknowledged. likewise to be the universal Governor of the world, the first and supreme orderer and disposer of all and every thing in it; for He being the cause of all causes, and the principle of all motion whatsoever, it is impossible that any thing should act or move without Him; insomuch, that there is not the least thing imaginable can happen to any nation in general, or to any particular person in the world, but exactly according to His will and pleasure. Indeed, the whole world is but one great empire or kingdom, whereof the Lord Jehovah is the sole King or Monarch; He gives laws, administers justice, and manageth all the affairs in it, as Himself sees good. This kingdom of His, although it be but one entire monarchy, yet it is ordinarily divided into two parts or circles, the upper and the lower, the one called Heaven, and the other earth. In Heaven, the far greatest part of His kingdom, where His Honour and Majesty in a more peculiar manner resides, and keeps His court; there He hath myriads of Angels, Archangels, Cherubims, Seraphims, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers, all subject to His supre macy and command; which some of them presuming to oppose, they were soon banished from that higher orb, and cast down into these lower regions of the world, where they have been ever since confined, and reserved for chains of [Jude 6.] darkness at the great day. And as many of the inhabitants of Heaven, so, by their instigation, all the dwellers upon earth, have rebelled against the universal Monarch of the world, whereby they are become obnoxious to the severest penalties that His justice can inflict upon them; insomuch, that He might justly condemn them all to the same torments that are prepared for the Apostate Angels, or, if He please, reduce them into nothing. Howsoever, out of His Divine clemency, He still vouchsafeth to continue them in their beings upon earth for some considerable time, to see whether they will return to their allegiance to Him or no; which that they might do, although He suffers them to walk in their own ways, nevertheless He never left "Himself with- Acts 14. 17. out witness" among them, "in that He did" them "good, and gave" them "rain from Heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling" their "hearts with food and gladness," as the Apostle argues. But their depraved natures being so mischievous and unruly, that they are prone to ruin and destroy each other; hence it hath pleased the Most High God, by His all-wise providence, to form them into several nations and societies of men, entrusting some one or more persons amongst them with some of His Own power and authority over them, so that He might restrain them from committing injuries and violence upon one another, by one or more taken from amongst themselves, and differing in nothing from them, but only in the exercise of that power and dominion over them, which God in His providence hath conferred upon them. Thus far it pleaseth the Supreme Governor of the world to take care of all mankind, that they may live for the most part quietly and peaceably together; and without any disturbance or interruption from one another, contemplate His infinite wisdom, power, and goodness in the works of creation and providence; and by that means either be induced to admire, adore, and obey Him that is the Author of them, or else be rendered inexcusable before Him. But besides |