distracteth; single thyself from thyself, if such sequestration may be attained. When thou seekest, let the love of obedience, the sense and feeling of thy necessity, the eye of singleness and sincere meaning guide thy footsteps, and thou canst not slide.

7. You see what it is to "ask" and "seek;" the next is "knock." There is always in every good thing which we ask, and which we seek, some main wall, some barred gate, some strong impediment or other objecting itself in the way between us and home; for removal whereof, the help of stronger hands than our own is necessary. As therefore asking hath relation to the want of good things desired, and seeking to the natural ordinary means of attainment thereunto; so knocking is required in regard of hindrances, lets, or impediments, which are doors shut up against us, till such time as it please the goodness of Almighty God to set them open in the mean while our duty here required is to "knock." Many are well contented to ask, and not unwilling to undertake some pains in seeking; but when once they see impediments which flesh and blood doth judge invincible, their hearts are broken. Israel in Egypt, subject to miseries of intolerable servitude, craved with sighs and tears deliverance from that estate, which then they were fully persuaded they could not possibly change, but it must needs be for the better. Being set at liberty to seek the land which God hath promised unto their Fathers, did not seem tedious or irksome unto them: this labour and travail they undertook with great alacrity, never troubled with any doubt, nor dismayed with any fear, till at the length they came to knock at those brazen gates, the bars whereof, as they had no means, so they had no hopes, to break asunder. Mountains on this hand, and the roaring sea before their faces; then all the forces that Egypt could make, coming with as much rage and fury as could possess the heart of a proud, potent, and cruel tyrant: in these straits, at this instant, Oh that we had been so happy as to die where before we lived a life, though toilsome, yet free from such extremities as now we are fallen into! Is this the milk and honey that hath been so spoken of? Is this the paradise in description whereof so much glossing and deceiving eloquence hath been spent? have we after four hundred and thirty years left Egypt to come to this? While they are in the midst of

Gen.

xlix. 14, 15.

their mutinous cogitations, Moses with all instancy beateth, and God with the hand of his omnipotency casteth open the gates before them, maugre even their own infidelity and despair. It was not strange then, nor that they afterwards stood in like repining terms; for till they came to the very brink of the river Jordan, the least cross accident, which lay at any time in their way, was evermore unto them a cause of present recidivation and relapse. They having the land in their possession, being seated in the heart thereof, and all their hardest encounters past, Joshua and the better sort of their Governors, who saw the wonders which God had wrought for the good of that people, had no sooner ended their days, but first one tribe, then another, in the end all, delighted in ease; fearful to hazard themselves in following the conduct of God, weary of passing so many strait and narrow gates, condescended to ignominious conditions of peace, joined hands with Infidels, forsook him which had been always the Rock of their salvation, and so had none to open unto them, although their occasions of knocking were great afterward, more and greater than before. Concerning Issachar, the words of Jacob, the father of all the Patriarchs, were these; Issachar, though bonny and strong enough unto any labour, doth couch notwithstanding as an ass under all burdens; he shall think with himself that rest is good, and the land pleasant; he shall in these considerations rather endure the burden and yoke of tribute, than cast himself into hazard of war. We are for the most part all of Issachar's disposition, we account ease cheap, howsoever we buy it. And although we can haply frame ourselves sometimes to ask," or endure for a while to "seek;" yet loath we are to follow a course of life, which shall too often hem us about with those perplexities, the dangers whereof are manifestly great.

66

8. But of the duties here prescribed of asking, seeking, knocking, thus much may suffice. The promises follow which God hath made.

ii. "Ask and receive, seek and find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Promises are made of good things to come; and such, while they are in expectation, have a kind of painfulness with them; but when the time of performance and of present fruition cometh, it bringeth joy.

i. 41.

Abraham did somewhat rejoice in that which he saw would come, although knowing that many ages and generations must first pass: their exultation far greater, who beheld with their eyes, and embraced in their arms him which had been before the hope of the whole world. "We have found that [John Messias," "have seen the salvation:" "Behold here the Luke Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." John These are speeches of men not comforted with the hope of that they desire, but rapt with admiration at the view of enjoyed bliss.

ii. 30.

i. 29.]

cxvi.

As oft therefore as our case is the same with the Prophet David's; or that experience of God's abundant mercy towards us doth wrest from our mouths the same acknowledgments which it did from his, "I called on the name of the Psal. Lord, and he hath rescued his servant: I was in misery, and 4-8. he saved me: Thou, Lord, hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling:" I have asked and received, sought and found, knocked and it hath been opened unto me: can there less be expected at our hands, than to take the cup of salvation, and bless, magnify, and extol the mercies heaped upon the heads of the sons of men? Are we in the case of them, who as yet do only ask and have not received? It is but attendance a small time, we shall rejoice then; but how? we shall find, but where? it shall be opened, but with what hand? To all which demands I must answer,

9. Use the words of our Saviour Christ; "Quid hoc ad [John xxi. 22.] te?" what are these things unto us? Is it for us to be made acquainted with the way he hath to bring his counsel and purposes about? God will not have great things brought to pass, either altogether without means, or by those means altogether which are to our seeming probable and likely. Not without means, lest under colour of repose in God we should nourish at any time in ourselves idleness: not by the mere ability of means gathered together through our own providence, lest prevailing by helps which the common course of nature yieldeth, we should offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving for whatsoever prey we take to the nets which our fingers did weave; than which there cannot be to him more intolerable injury offered. "Vere et absque dubio, (saith St. Bernard,) hoc quisque est pessimus, quo optimus, si hoc ipsum quo est optimus ascribat sibi;" the more blest,

[Jud.
vi. vii.]

[Rom. xi. 33.]

Mark

vi. 23. Esther

vii. 2.

the more curst, if we make his graces our own glory, without imputation of all to him; whatsoever we have we steal, and the multiplication of God's favours doth but aggravate the crime of our sacrilege: he knowing how prone we are to unthankfulness in this kind, tempereth accordingly the means, whereby it is his pleasure to do us good. This is the reason why God would neither have Gideon to conquer without any army, nor yet to be furnished with too great an host. This is the cause why, as none of the promises of God do fail, so the most are in such sort brought to pass, that, if we after consider the circuit, wherein the steps of his providence have gone, the due consideration thereof cannot choose but draw from us the self-same words of astonishment, which the blessed Apostle hath; "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God! how unsearchable are his counsels, and his ways past finding out!" Let it therefore content us always to have his Word for an absolute warrant: we shall receive and find in the end; it shall at length be opened unto you: however, or by what means, leave it to God.

10. iii. Now our Lord groundeth every man's particular assurance touching this point upon the general rule and axiom of his providence, which hath ordained these effects to flow and issue out of these causes; gifts of suits, finding out of seeking, help out of knocking; a principle so generally true, that on his part it never faileth.

For why? it is the glory of God to give; his very nature delighteth in it; his mercies in the current, through which they would pass, may be dried up, but at the head they never fail. Men are soon weary both of granting and of hearing suits, because our own insufficiency maketh us still afraid, lest by benefiting of others we impoverish ourselves. We read of large and great proffers, which Princes in their fond and vain-glorious moods have poured forth: as that of Herod; and the like of Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther. "Ask what thou wilt, though it reach to the half of my Kingdom, I will give it thee:" which very words of profusion do argue, that the ocean of no estate in this world doth so flow, but it may be emptied. He that promiseth half of his Kingdom, foreseeth how that being gone, the remainder is but a moiety of that which was. What we give we leave; but what God bestoweth benefiteth us, and from him it taketh nothing: wherefore in his propositions

xvi.

iv. 3.] [Mark

Iv. 6.]

there are no such fearful restraints; his terms are general in regard of making, "Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Joh23] name;" and general also in respect of persons, "whosoever asketh, whosoever seeketh." It is true, St. James saith, "Ye ask, and yet ye receive not, because you ask amiss:" [Jam. ye crave to the end ye might have to spend upon your own [ver. 2.] lusts. The rich man sought Heaven, but it was then that. 17.) he felt hell. The Virgins knocked in vain, because they overslipped their opportunity; and when the time was to knock, they slept: but "Quærite Dominum dum inveniri [Isa. potest," Perform these duties in their due time and due sort. Let there, on our part, be no stop, and the bounty of God we know is such, that he granteth over and above our desires. Saul sought an ass, and found a Kingdom. Solomon named wisdom, and God gave Solomon wealth also, by way of surpassing. "Thou hast prevented thy servant with Psal. blessings," saith the Prophet David. "He asked life, and 4. thou gavest him long life, even for ever and ever." God a giver; "He giveth liberally, and upbraideth none in any Jam. wise:" and therefore he better knoweth than we the best times, and the best means, and the best things, wherein the good of our souls consisteth.

xxi. 3,

i. 5.