BLESSEDNESS, OR, GOD and the WORLD Weighed in the BALANCES OF THE SANCTUARY AND THE World found too light.  
Preached in a Sermon at Paul's, before the Right Honourable the Lord Major, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of London, on a Thanksgiving-Day, for the prosperity of our Navy in a conflict with the Spaniard, October 17. 1656.  
By Francis Raworth, Teacher to the Church at Shoreditch.  
London, Printed by T. Maxcy, for John Rothwell, at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-Row in Cheapside, 1656.   

To the Right Honourable ROBERT TITCHBURNE LORD MAjOR, And the Right Worshipful the ALDERMEN of the City of LONDON.  
Honourable, and Beloved,  
IT cannot be denied, but that our greatest happiness in this world is, That we have liberty to make provision for the world to come; yet generally so unhappy are men, as that they little ponder upon their future Crown, and little consider of their present race; but either they vainly misspend their time (to allude to the Roman Emperor) in gathering Cockle shells, in heaping together the Mammon of unrighteousness; or in a more degenerous way, in a base drudgery for the lusts of the Flesh.  
The Profession of Christianity laboureth under two Extremes; some pretend to an Anticipation or prevention of Heaven, and would fain persuade us that there is no state of Glory after this life: These men, notwithstanding their present Triumphs, are under great Temptations; and in a sober sense, are rather besides their wits, then above God's Institutions.  
Others charge the faithful Professors of Religion with usurpation against God, with Antedating the state of Perfection, as if they did confound the distinction between the Church Triumphant and Militant: No, say they, Purity and Holiness are our aim on earth, but our possession only in Heaven: These Sensualists may learn, that the great change of man is made in this world, and only confirmed in the next; the Tribunal Bar Regenerates no man, but publicly and finally acquitteth the Regenerate: Heaven must first enter into us, before we can enter into Heaven; though the perfection of Purity be only in Heaven, yet the principle of Purity is to be had on Earth: He that dies a sinner, shall never rise a Saint: He that by the Love of the Brethren shoots not the gulf here, shall never pass from death to life hereafter: He that hath not God to be his Lord now, shall never have the Lord to be his God. Woe be to that man that was born, and is bred, and shall be buried in sin, that goes out of this world in that condition that he came into the world with, happy had he been that he had never been born; happy, if when dead, he never should have had a resurrection, because he shall arise, not so much to be judged, as to be condemned.  
Nothing is so much discoursed of as blessedness, yet nothing so little understood; some place it one thing some in another, yet both amiss; some men would be happy, but without communion with God, which is impossible: These should know, That God hath not only Mines of Brass, but Mines of Silver and Gold; and that though the enjoyment of this world be not an Argument of God's anger, yet it's no argument of his peculiar love, and therefore we must take heed of valuing the good things of God's footstool, above the good things of his Throne.  
My work in this Sermon, hath been to give the world its due, both in its white and black sides: I have weighed the blessedness of this world and of the next, in the Balances of the Sanctuary, and notwithstanding this world be ponderous in a providential sense, yet comparatively, by the verdict of God himself, it is found too light; to which when you had given a patiented hearing, you were pleased by your order to importune its publication: I have satisfied your request, and my prayers to God are, That because it is a subject of the highest nature, that it may have the deeper Impression on your hearts: That as God hath lifted you up into the seat of Honour, so you may lift up that God with Thankfulness: That as you have public Opportunities to do good, to restrain Profanation, and discountenance Error, so you may have hearts suitable to your Opportunities. That as God hath thrown into your laps the outward Happiness of this World, so you may prise the Benefactor, and set a greater Estimate on the light of his Countenance, the least beam whereof is worth ten thousand Worlds.  
Your Honours, and the Church's Servant in the Gospel, Francis Raworth.   
PSAL. 144. ult. 
Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.  
WHatsoever the Prophet David, (whose Character is, A man after Gods own heart) doth undertake, he performs it cordially and hearty: If he be in a gratulatory vein, and fall to the praises of God, he cannot nullify and debase man too low with him; He is but vanity, and his days are but as a shadow, not worthy to be taken notice of, ver. 3, 4. And he cannot magnify and advance the Lord too high; He is his Goodness, his Fortress, his Tower, his Deliverer, and his Shield: If he be in a praying posture, he is so pathetical and powerful, as if God, q. d. could not deny him audience: Bow the Heavens, O Lord, and come down, send thine hand from above, and deliver me out of great waters; I, and with such a majesty and life, as if he had the key of God's Armoury to open it at pleasure, and to throw out swords and flaming fire of wrath against the wicked: Cast out lightning, and scatter them; shoot out sharp arrows, and destroy them, ver. 5, 6, 7. Finally, If he begin to exalt God, he sets him out with such beauty and excellency, as no Creature or created comfort can be preferred before, no not possibly be weighed in the balance with him; to which purpose it is observable, that as the maledictions threatened against David, were presented by the Prophet under three forms, of War, Famine, and Pestilence; so here in the latter part of this Psalm, the Blessings of God are expressed under three contraries; against the Pestilence is opposed this Petition, That our sons may be as Plants grown up in their youth, ver. 12. Against Famine, That our Garners may be full, affording all manner of store, ver. 13. Against War, That our oxen may be strong to labour, that there be no breaking in nor going out, that there be no complaining in our streets, ver. 14. And my Text is an Epiphonema, with which he concludes, Happy is that people that is in such a case, etc.  
There is a double blessedness, sinistra beatitudo, a Blessedness of the left hand, a Blessedness of this World. And secondly, There is dextra beatitudo, a right hand Blessedness, a Blessedness of Grace, of Salvation; This Blessedness is the aim of men on earth, but the perfect possession only of men in Heaven: Accordingly there is a double interpretation of this Text, suitable to the double Blessedness in it; One interpretation proposeth it by way of competition, Blessed is the people that is in such a case; that is, while others are annoyed with the Pestilence, have prosperity; while others are consumed by the Famine, have plenty; while others are destroyed and harrassed with Wars, Tumults and Alarms, have peace and quietness in their Borders, sic aiunt, ferunt: This is the Popular rumour, this is the only Language and Dialect of the vulgar: If they can but have these things, they think themselves happy; whatever become of Religion or of their immortal souls; but David stands up as offended with this vote and verdict: How now? Is this true Blessedness, to enjoy the shell without the kernel, the Ring without the Jewel, to live like a Beast, and die like a Dog (and having no portion in God) afterwards to be damned like a Devil? No, no, saith the Prophet, this is a false Maxim, a man may be thus imaginarily happy, he may have riches, honour, plenty, pleasures, and the world at will, and yet be really in a miserable case to all eternity: But if you speak of happiness, I will put you a better case, Happy, yea thrice happy is that people, whose God is the Lord; a notable Epanorthosis and correction of the Opinion of worldly happiness. But the second interpretation more probably supposeth it to be spoken by way of subordination and comparison; as if David had said, You call poverty, and disgrace miseries; and you call riches, and honour happiness: Why? let this be granted that there is some kind of felicity in this world, and that it is better to be rich then poor, to be in honour, then in disgrace: I will not affirm that there is an inconsistency & inchoherency between a possession in this life, and a propriety in the next; let it be so, that a people in such a case is happy (and so it is a Synchoresis or grant) it is true what you say, How happy then is that people, that hath not only peace without, but peace within; that hath a portion in this world, but yet not this world for their portion; that hath a title not only to the streams and Creatures, but also to the Fountian & Creator? yea doubtless, happy indeed: Well far that man, that Nation, who in this sense have God to be their Lord; and farewell the contrary.  
Prop. The proposition from hence is, That the greatest happiness in this world, is not to have this world to be our happiness; but in our Worldly happiness, to have God to be our Lord.  
The truth whereof will the better appear, by setting before your eyes, as in a Table, and by weighing as in scales, the happiness of this world, and the happiness of God's people.  
1. We must make an Anatomy of the World, view it, and see what it bids towards happiness, and without offence I presume I must personate the moral or mere worldly man, and show you the happiness of being in his case.  
1. Let health, strength, and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or good temper of body appear: and indeed, what is a velvet Pantofle to a disjointed foot; a Velvet Jacket to a broken arm; the most delicate viands to a dis-eased Stomach? The world, my Beloved, is like an Hospital of diseased Patients; Here stands one man crying out of the Toothache, there sits another tormented with the stone; there lies a third distracted with the Colic, a fourth wracked with the Gout: And who is there in this great Assembly that can say, For my part I know not who you speak to, I feel no distemper, I bless God I ail nothing; But how many are ready to complain with him that cried out, 'tis true, God hath set his Rainbow in the Heavens, his mark in the clouds, that the world shall not again be drowned with water: But what's that to me, that am like to be drowned presently? So what is Peace and Tranquillity abroad, when I have a burning fear within my body? what is it to have plenty in the Land, when I have a lingering Consumption and Fever in my blood? It is true, there is never a gracious heart, but would of the two, rather be a Lazarus here, than a Dives hereafter; rather (if God put it to his choice) beg his bread on earth, than his water in hell; yet as to this world it is better to far delicately, then to be a Beggar, to be a Dives then a Lazarus; for a man to have work for God to do, and to have ability of God to do it, while others groan out their days, and waste their precious time in languishments, for others to have good blood running in their veins, to have their bones, as the Prophet speaks, full of marrow and strength: Who would not think himself happy to be in such a case?  
Secondly, What though a man have health, if he enjoy not his Liberty? I must confess, It is better to be a Galleyslave at Algiere, then to be a drudge to the Devil; it is better to be a Cato in a Prison, with shackles & fetters about one's heels, than a Caesar in the Senate house, with a chain of Gold about his neck: Yet how sweet is freedom, not only in Conscience, but of Body? Whom doth it not pity to see another's Body to be a Gaol to his Soul, and his House to be a Prison to his Body? And who would not give the greatest sum, with that Greek Captain (in another sense) to obtain this freedom, Matth. 22.28. When I take a view of our weekly Bills of Mortality in London, I find a report of so many dying in one Parish of a Fever, of so many dying in another Parish of a Consumption, etc. But when I cast my eye down to the bottom of the Leaf, suspecting still that I should see some Funerals of the Plague, contrarily for these 12. months and above, I find there nothing but cyphers: Ah Lord, how unthankful are we for such a blessing! when thou mightst as justly as suddenly, turn our cyphers into Figures, cause our faces to gather paleness, hang our streets with mourning, and make us know what an happiness health and liberty is, by the doleful and dreadful effects and restraint of the Plague and Pestilence.  
Thirdly, But what a case were man in, though he had his health, if he wanted Relations and Friends? How comfortable is it in the Marriage state, for a man to have his Table compassed about not with Thorns and Briars, but with Olive-plants, emblems of peace: How much better is it for a man to have so many children to call him Father, then to have so many pieces of gold to call him Lord? Therefore it is, that when God would give us an Inventory of Jobs happiness, he first sets down his piety, A man fearing God; but descending to his comforts in this life, he gins with his children before his estate: Item, saith God, Job had given him so many sons and daughters, whereas certainly some ungodly men count children but Bills of charges; and it's an ordinary thing to say, such a man hath a fair estate, and would be an happy man but that he hath a great charge of children. Man is immortal, not only Physically in his soul, because that dies not being immortal; not only morally in his name and reputation, if godly, because God hath engaged himself to make men afraid to pollute the names of them (who while living feared his name) but also naturally, in regard of offspring, a man leaving so many Lamps burning behind him, as he hath children surviving; and as it was an Old Testament curse to be barren, and to have no light, so also for God to put out a man's Lamps, and in that sense, to leave a man no light to follow him: Happy, or Blessed am I, said Leah, (when Zilpah her maid bare Jacob another son) for the daughters will call me Blessed; and she called his name Ashur.  
And as for friendship, a Friend is a man's second self, he careth at all times, he is particeps curarum, partaker of our care; he is (as Alexander was wont to boast) the best treasure: We know diseases of stops and suffocations, are the most dangerous in the body, and it is not much otherwise in the mind: You may take Sarza to open the Liver, and Steel to open the Spleen; flour of Sulphur for the Lungs, but no receipt, in a moral sense so opens the heart, as a faithful Friend: The Parable of Pythagoras is obscure, but true, Cor ne edito, Eat not the heart: Certainly if a man would give it a hard phrase, those that want friends to open themselves to, are Cannibals of their own hearts: Two, saith the Wiseman, are better than one, when one falleth, the other helpeth him up. To have health, and liberty, and relations, and friends, is comfortable under God, and who doth not applaud his happiness that is in such a case?  
But Fourthly, What though a man had all these Providential favours, if he wanted an Estate; though its a thing more honourable to be master over his Lusts, then to be master of a great estate; and more glorious for a man to have Grace, Love, and Faith, and Patience in his heart, than silver and gold in his purse; yet who knows not but Money is a Queen, and those that abound in it are Kings upon earth with men; that the Borrower is a servant, I oft a very slave to the Lender; that he that hath riches, hath wherewithal to give, which because its an imitation of God, is better than to be on the receiving hand; that it is somewhat for a man to be able to defray his charges as he passeth out of the world, and when he is dead, rather to have the Parish left to his children, than his children to the Parish: And riches (as the great Statesman saith) are so honourable among worldlings, that its hard to distinguish between virtue and fortune; for the most virtuous, if unprosperous, have been despised; and the most impious, if prosperous, have ever been applauded. It is certain, that its only the right hand of Christ, the light of his countenance that must save, that must embrace us; yet his left hand may be under our heads, the mercies of this world may help keep us from murmuring and distrust, they may uphold us: It is not for nothing that God coupleth Poverty and Shame together, Prov. 13.18. The reason whereof may be either, because poverty usually maketh men ashamed (though in itself its no more shame for a man to be poor then to be honest) and often is a temptation to men to do things that are shameful; and that Solomon intimates to us, that there is greater danger in extremity of want, then in excess of wealth: Give me, saith he, neither poverty nor riches: Why so? Not riches, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? A desperate Interogatory indeed! but yet not poverty neither: Why so? Lest I be poor, and steal, and take the Name of God in vain: Mark it, the Temptation of Riches is Pride, but the temptation of Poverty, is sacrilege against God, and it is a greater sin to Blaspheme God, whom we own, then to turn Atheist and deny him.  
But,  
Fifthly, How can this man be yet happy, if in his wealth he want Honour and Reputation? It is known that our Lord and Master lost his good name, and was miscalled, before he lost his life; and sure enough there will, to the comfort of the righteous at the last day, be a Resurrection of their Names, as well as of their Bodies: Though it be the affliction of a just man to be traduced, yet it's the sin only of the Traducer; for though we have the command of our ears, yet we have no bridle to restrain others tongues, and its an ordinary, yet a royal thing to do well, to hear ill: And let no man be despondent that his coat be torn, if his conscience be whole; yet it must be acknowledged a great Blessing, though not to be flattered, yet to be well reported of; not only to have a good conscience towards God, but a just credit before men; and if a man lose the opinion of being good, though yet he be good, he may be packing out of the world for any advantage of doing good; for though a good conscience be necessary for our own salvation, yet a good name is necessary for the salvation of others; and though it be the care of men generally, rather to be thought honest then to be honest: To covet a milk white name, and to be cried up and down the world, to have the encomiums of men, There goes a righteous man, there goes a charitable man; yet it's an honour for a man to have a pot of ointment, and to have no dead flies in it to make it stink, Eccles. 10.1. And a good name is rather to be chosen then great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold; though such may not have the Lord to be their God, yet happy is he in a moral sense that is in such a case.  
Sixthly. But how inestimable were a man, and so a Nation, with all this respect, if they should want Dominion and Empire: It is a promise that God's People shall possess the Gates of their Enemies, Gen. 22.17. and that their Rule shall extend from Sea to Sea. The Athenians reckoned their great Empire to be their greatest glory: Alexander thought himself unhappy that he had not another World to Conquer: Caesar had rather be King of a Cottage, (he so loved Rule) than the second at Rome: The King of SPAIN gives for his Arms a Shield, with the Sun rising and setting on it. It is observed, That he that hath the command of the Sea hath the command of the world, and he that hath the command of the Navy, hath the command of the Sea: Now let us suppose a Nation to have riches at home, and power abroad; for a Nation to be Admiral of the vast Ocean, to wear the victorious Flag, and to bring all others under the Lee, and to strike Sail to them as supreme, to be instrumental hereby to report their glorious acts in the world, that all Kingdoms and Crowns should admire and honour them; What Nation that had this opportunity to bridle their Neighbours, and awe their most distant powers into a respect, would not count it their glory and happiness to be in such a case?  
Seventhly, But what is Wealth, and Honour, and Dominion, without Peace? How sad is it to consider, that while we contend for an ounce of truth, we lose a pound of love? that like children in the dark mistaking our enemies, we strike our friends that are nearest us? How many are there with us that have once shed their blood together, that now are ready even to shed the blood one of another? Hitherto we have in England been running so far from Babylon, that we are building a Babel; what one calls truth, another calls error; what one calls order, another name's Tyranny and Cruelty; but what if Providence should now confound our confusions? Hitherto we have, like Noah's Ark, been tossed up and down upon the waves of public contentions, and endless controversies; What if Providence should send some Dove with an Olive-branch of Peace, to give us intelligence that our waters shall be assuaged, that our swords hereafter shall be turned into ploughshares, that we shall neither smite one another with the sword of the tongue, nor with the tongue of the sword; that the falling out of Lovers, shall be the renewing of love; that if we can't love one another as men of one Opinion, yet we shall as men of one nature and of one Nation; that though we can't bury all our controversy, yet we shall banish all our contention: Suppose, my Beloved, the Wolf should now lie down with the Lamb (that he may do, and yet not be turned into a Lamb) and the Lion should eat straw like the Ox, and a little child should lead them; suppose that every man should 〈◊〉 under his own Vine and Figtree (instead of men's longing after their Neighbour's Vineyards, like Ahab) What if sound and solid knowledge, even of moral righteousness, should revive amongst us, and should increase extensively and intensively, as waters upon the Sea; and that in England, the mountain of the Lord, there should be no destroying thing; that we should rather mind the stearage of the whole Ship, than the guiding of our particular Cabins; rather consider the common Principles of Reason and Religion, to unite us, than the disputable Points in Church and State that seek to divide us: I believe none among us but would deem this Nation happy if ever it should come to be in such a case. But though this be much,  
Yea Eightly, For Governors to be as the Angels of God; for Princes to be Shepherds, to make it their business to defend the People, and for the People to make it their business to defend their Princes; For Magistrates to paint the Walls of a Nation, and not to pluck up also the Foundation; to beautify a Kingdom with Peace, and to build it also with Righteousness, that those in a Nation that have no will to do Justice, should have no power to do injustice; that the Mountains should bring forth Equity, and the little Hills Peace, Psalm 72.3. That the grand Principle of Nature should universally be put into practice amongst us, for no man to do to another, but that which he would be content another should do to him; that there should be satisfaction given for wrongs done to all parties; that a composition and composure should be of all Injuries, by a sweet Amnesty or Act of Oblivion; What a Golden Age would such things make? For though Morality be not Grace, nor Justice to men Righteousness before God for Satisfaction; yet what a shame is it for People to pretend to Gospel Light, and yet not to live up to Natural Light? And assuredly, I had rather converse in common dealing with a man that is but a Moralist, though he be no Christian, then with a Professor, an high Professor of Christianity, that is not a Moralist.  
But if we could imagine a Blessedness of Health, without permanency, we might call an intermitting Ague a good day without health.  
If a Blessedness of Plenty, without permanency, we might call one man's surfeit in a time of dearth, plenty.  
If Peace a Blessedness, without permanency, we might call a night's sleep in the midst of a field of Arms, peace. If Riches without permanency Blessedness, than a traitor might be a landed man, that is condemned and must die to morrow: Now suppose what we there call Blessedness, should be possessed, not only by this present Generation, but by Providence entailed on our Posterity, and the ages to come? Whose Vote is it not that we might see this good? and who hath faith to believe that God will render us thus happy? Yet were we thus happy, it were nothing comparable to that happiness which follows, of having the Lord to be our God, the Lord God to be our Portion.  
And now I come to take off the vail, and show you the world in its deformed, at least, defective colour, in respect of the liveliness and loveliness of their estate who have an interest in the God the Lord. Yea happy, etc. Happy, Ashrei. Happiness is the subject of most Books, of all Tongues; Aristotle gins his Ethics with Happiness, David his Psalms with Blessedness; so Christ himself the Gospel, Blessed are the poor, etc. It may be noted, That no Grammarian among the Jews could ever tell us what this word Ashrei signifies, as no Philosopher among the Gentiles what Happiness is; some place it in one thing, some in another; the Peripatetics place it in Contemplation; the Stoics in Contemplation and Practice; the Academics in Practice; the Epicure shot nighest the mark (however time hath represented them) they placed it in the delight that did arise from virtuous Actions. Some Critics say Ashrei is an Adverb, and signifies Happily; others rather conclude it a Substantive, and that Plural or Dual, and so it's to be rendered Blessednesses: And the reason why a gracious man is so called, may be either because his happiness is a Catholic happiness: God is not a partial or fragmentary, but a full and perfect good; as all the Lines meet in the Centre, so all the happinesses that are scattered in the Creature, centre in God. Or secondly, Because such an one's happiness is not only in the Present, but also in the Future Tense; he is happy (its true) here, but imperfectly, his greatest happiness is yet to come; here indeed happiness enters into him, but hereafter he shall enter into happiness. The Moralist speaks at a great rate, when he saith, Call no man happy that hath a great Estate, but him that lives up to the Prescript of Reason and Law; He that sees no man with whom he would change his condition, he that loseth that he cares not to enjoy, and enjoys that he can't lose: And in a spiritual sense he only is such a man whose God is the Lord: Methinks the words are here represented as Antiphanys, Dialogue-wise, The world gins, Happy is he whose Sons grow like Olive plants, yea saith David, whose God is the Lord; the World succeeds, Happy is he whose Oxen are strong to labour, and that Nation whose streets knows no complaining; yea, saith David, whose God is the Lord; still that is the note of a gracious heart, as he rescribed back nothing but King of France, King of France, King of France; and why happy such a man above a worldling.  
1. He that hath outward happiness in the world, may not have a title to the Lord; but he that hath God to be his Lord hath a title, a spiritual title to the World: The Corinthians were ready to quarrel about their properties; I am of one from Paul, saith one, I am from Apollo, said another; tush, said a third, I care neither for Paul nor Apollo, give me Cephas, I am for Cephas: The Apostle rounds them in the ear, what saith he, Is Christ divided? will you contend for a part? All men are gain, not only Paul, Apollo, Cephas, but all things, life, death, things present, and things to come; But by what tenure? Why? Because Christ is gain: When we lost our Title to God, we lost our comfortable title to the Creatures, and no wonder the Creature rebels against us, since we have rebelled against the Creator: The Creatures may justly say to unregenerate men, that hunt after, and dig for happiness in them; I say, Honours, Riches, Pleasures, may say to such, as Samuel did to Saul, Why come ye to us, since God is departed from you? He is a Rebel that harboureth him whom the King hath Proclaimed a Traitor: And what comfort can that soul have, to lay his head in the bosom of any Creature, when God himself hath turned his back on him? But he that hath a new title to God, hath a better title to outward comforts, he holds them in capite: God hath provided for him a Kingdom, and therefore doth not grudge him crumbs? How sweet are those morsels of bread, that by Faith are dipped in Christ's blood? not that property comes by Grace, but it is cleared up by Grace: Many a man hath an Estate, and a child of God enjoys the comfort of it: The worldly man may say, This house, this child is mine by Creature right; a Saint saith, These are also mine by Covenant right; but you may have all worldly happiness and not be happy.  
Therefore secondly, Grace claims a title to all the Ordinances of God: Preaching is thy Chariot, to bring the Lord down to thee: Prayer and Meditation, are wings to carry thy soul up to God. It is generally believed, and without scruple among the judicious, that the visible, and not the invisible Church, is the prime and proper subject for the dispensation of Gospel Seals, but his title to them that hath a right to Christ, is indisputable: He that can say the body and blood of Christ is his, may challenge and claim the Bread and Wine that signify those as his: He that hath right to the Pearl, hath right to the Casket: He that is married to the King of Glory, ought not upon any pretences whatsoever, to be kept out of the Presence Chamber, and from prayer, while others stand like strangers without doors knocking, and speaking to God at a distance, as slaves to a master, you have freedom to enter into the Palace of Heaven, and cry, Abba, Father: The Ordinances are the glory of a Nation, and where ever God goes, his Ordinances go too, and where ere they reside and abide, he abides too.  
My Beloved, God and his Institutions go and come from and to a Nation together; as it's the honour of a Nation to say, Jehovah-Nissi, The Lord is our Banner, in a Military sense for God to fight for us; so a greater for others to say of any Nation, Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there, in an Ecclesiastical sense: The Ordinances are the comfort of the soul, they are not as some new Antiscripturists calumniate, the Grave wherein Christ lies, but the Throne whereon he sits as King of the Church; and we were better lose our evidences for our Lands, than part with the seals of the Gospel: Is it then a small matter to have liberty to tread in God's courts, to sit under the tree of Life and dew of Heaven? to have commerce with Angels, to have communion with the Lord of Glory; when thou art hungry, to have freedom to run to God's House for Bread; when thou art distracted and troubled with doubts of thy Faith, thy salvation, to have recourse, with David, to God's Sanctuary for resolution, and that by thy title to the Lord, as thy Lord?  
Thirdly, Thou hast moreover a propriety in all his Providences; his Providences are thine for thy satisfaction; if thou wantest enlightening, he is thy Sun; if defending, he is thy shield; if a Nation be fearful, he is a wall of fire without; if fainting, he is a well of water within: They may be without many things, but we have the Broad-Seal of Heaven for it that they shall want no good thing: Thou art in trouble, and if thy Friend could but see thee, How happy? God is therefore Omniscient: Thou art weak, if thy Friend could help thee? God is therefore Omnipotent, El Shaddai, All-sufficient: If thou art weak, he hath a shoulder to carry thee; if feeble, a bosom to warm and cherish thee: He that hath him that is all, hath all.  
Secondly, For thy security, and that 1. To sustain thee: If thou goest into the water, I will be with thee; if into the fire, I'll be with thee, said God, q. d. If thou burn, I'll burn too; if thou drown, I'll drown too: Hence it was that Israel was safe in the Red-sea, and the three children secure in the Furnace: God may cast his child down, and so his Nation, yet not cast them away; he often breaks your hearts, that he may not break your backs. 2. To order all for thee: The Devil may turn Cordials into poison, but providence turns those poisons into Cordials again: God hath his fairest ends in our foulest ways, when temptations have sucked our corrupt blood away, those Leeches shall be taken off; when you are provoked to storm at God, and quarrel with the seeming inequality of his ways, are ready to judge his present carriage to your souls, inconsistent with the hopes of election past, or future glory: Let despair vail, and murmuring be tongue-tied, and consider the Lord thinks it better rather to bring order out of these spiritual disorders, than not to suffer those disorders to be at all: It's easier for vain man to wrangle with the Almighty, and to set up in his pride an Anti-Providence in the world, then rightly to discern what God is a doing; we neglect to consider his way which lies open, and no wonder than we are hampered in finding out his ends, which are secret: It's sufficient, though God for the present seem to scribble to a natural eye, yet he will, before he hath done, make his Copy fair: Though the building of Zion seem confused, here lies a beam, there an heap of mortar, there unhewn stones, yet all things in the end shall serve this great Architect: God hath not more glory now, than we shall have good (according to our capacity) hereafter, Rom. 8.28. God's house may be stormed, but it shall not be shattered; Zion like a bottle may be dipped, but it shall not be drowned; who dare invade that Nation where God is Pilot, or levy an army against that people whose God is the Lord? For,  
Fourthly, All the Promises of God are thine, both first for this life: I profess Christians, though we slightly overlook the Oracles of God: Yet as there is not one command we could miss, we stand in need of so much holiness; so there's not one promise (though there be thousands there we could miss) we stand in need of so much comfort: And moreover, there is as much reality in the promises of your God, as there is of formality in the promises of men; what men speak falsely, God speaks faithfully: And if any poor soul say, If God be mine, why then is not comfort and peace mine? Can a man have God to be his Lord, and yet be tormented with so many doubts, scruples as I am? Yes, your comfort is not always so much as your title (your title is to Christ, to peace of Conscience, to a full and perfect joy in the Spirit, but your comfort may be little) but yet your title is always more than your actual comfort: The reason why you are perplexed in your consciences, is not because you have relation to God, or because their's no satisfaction for you in the Bible, but because you want a mouth to suck the breast of Consolation, and an hand of Faith to reach the Pearl of Price: God always hath a promise for your Faith, but you have not always Faith for a promise. Specially the promises are yours,  
1. For the Perseverance of your Graces: I fear, saith a Believer, I shall one day fall by the hand of this Saul, of this lust; no, saith God, The house of David shall grow stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul weaker and weaker: But though I depart not from God, yet God may departed from me; he may give me a Bill of Divorce, and recall my sense of his Love, and the testimonies of his Grace: No, saith God, I will be your God, and I will not departed from you: The truth is, our Faith could not keep us, unless the power of God kept our Faith: Therefore the Apostle tells us, We are kept by Faith, but it is also through the power of God to salvation: You say you may fail, because God's promises are your conditions, but remember withal, your conditions are Gods promises, he bids you make you a new heart, that you may see your weakness, and his faithfulness; therefore he saith, I'll take away your stony heart, etc. God is on both sides the Covenant of Grace, and though the evidence of a Believer may be blurred and blotted, yet the Seal remains on, and is never broken off: Whatever Doctrines some vent against the immutability of special Love, yet we may easily know by experience, or rather, I confess, by Scripture, That God hath other ways to correct his children, then by casting them out of his Family.  
2. To pardon infirmities and sins: God hath an hook to fetch in your wander, and a breast to take in your weaknesses: Christ hath righteousness against your unrighteousness, blood to wash our tears: Your Coin, though it have some allay, yet if it have the right stamp, that shall not hinder its currency in Heaven: If you bring your duties to the touchstone, God will ne'er bring them to the Balance: O how happy are they, that though the world see it dirty under their feet, can themselves at that time see it fair above head! That when riches, and health, and friends fail them, and they can't say, we have  to cover us, or food to refresh us; that can yet say, Blessed be God we are not miserable, for we have the promises, the honey-combs of sweetness still by us. And though you have but little in possession, yet,  
2. For the future you have riches in Reversion: Is he an Infidel that will not provide for his Family, and will God neglect his own? Shall ever any be able to write Infidel on God's door? He is a Father, and as he now lays out by Providence, so by Promise he hath laid up for his Children: Will communion with God in his Ordinances satisfy you? if not, you have a promise of communion with God above Ordinances, where the Sun shan't shine by day, or the Moon by night, for the Lamb shall be your light: God hath already prepared Heaven for his, and wonder not at the crosses, calamities of this life, for they are our Father's foils and fires to prepare his for Heaven: Earth is the place where you seek happiness; Heaven is the place where you shall find it. A great part of our Estates lies in Bills and Bonds, and it is kept for you in your Father's hands till you come to Heaven: You may look for much, and often turn over your Evidences, I mean your promises, and see your future riches, but you'll never know all your Estate till you come to enjoy it, and then you shall have as much peace, as much glory in possession, as now you have in hopes: If therefore the promise of a Land of Canaan, after a Wilderness; the promise of an Harbour, after storms and tempests, will make you happy, you can't be miserable; and if the sense of the joy of Heaven, if the Contemplation and Beatifical Vision of God; if the actual participation of Glory, with the Communication of the beauty and face of Christ himself can take away your miseries, than you shall be happy, for the Lord shall without doubt of scruple, then manifest himself to be your God.  
Fifthly, You have a title to all the Attributes of God, his Providential care is yours: the eye is the tenderest part of the body, the apple is the tenderest part of the eye; now you all are as dear to God as the apple of his eye, Zech. 1.8. A man will rather endure a thump on the back, than a touch on the eye: When you are asleep, God is awake; when you are in a fit of temptation, careless of his glory, yet even then he is careful for your salvation: Israel that is kept, may both slumber and sleep; but he that keeps Israel cannot sleep, no not slumber: God so provides for all his children, as if they were but one, and so provideth for every single or particular child, as if he had never another child to provide for in all the world besides: The Lord hath a Book to write down your names, and a bottle to put your tears in. His power likewise is yours: the Lord hath not so much need of your patience, as you have of his power; and as what the Lord is, he is for you; and as what the Lord hath, he hath for you; so what the Lord can do, he will do for you. Though the promise of God be the measure of your faith (and therefore beware in times of trial, of charging yourselves for unbelief, when God himself possibly doth not in that particular command you to believe) yet your faith is not the measure of his power: The Lord usually doth for his Church more than they believe, and we must believe he can do more for his Church then he doth; nothing but contradiction (to speak reverentially of God) passeth omnipotency: God's people have a double guard, one within them, and that is, The finger of God, the Spirit; another without them, and that is, The arm of God, his Power; a double hold also on God, as he hath that double guard on them; Promise what he will do, experience what he hath done: As Zions cause is good, so she wants not as good a Champion to maintain it: The name of the Lord is a strong Tower; and though the righteous cannot rest in a name of Godliness, yet they may in the name of God; and therefore in times of trouble they run to it, Prov. 16.10. Lord, may Zion say, Support under trials, and deliverance from danger, is an Article of thy Covenant; And will not the Lord be faithful? Are our infirmities many? the Lord our God hath mercy to pardon them: Are our corruptions many? he hath power to subdue them: Are our sins great? he hath love to cover them: What a Constellation and Centre of Attributes are in God Righteousness, Holiness, Wisdom, Power, Grace, and mercy? I, every one of these Attributes is God; and as when Mithridates espoused the daughter of a poor labouring man, the General to testify the approbation of his choice, sent the old Father a Cap full of gold, with which he being overjoyed, runs up and down the streets showing of it to all the people, crying out, All this is mine: So may the people of God, whose Promises, Providences, Ordinances, Attributes, Graces, are theirs, triumphantly signify to the world, All these are ours; and that which is more than all this, if more can be, you whose God is the Lord,  
Sixthly, Have a propriety in God himself, in Christ himself; as the Lord, when he could swear by no greater, swore by himself; so he having no greater thing to give, gives himself: Christ, who is the beloved of the Father, and the Firstborn of every Creature, he likewise is yours, your King to Rule you, your Priest to satisfy for you, your Prophet to Indoctrinate and teach you; his Death, and Resurrection, and Intercession are yours, not only for signification, but for efficacy: His blood, his precious and pearless blood is yours to pardon you; His glorious and sweet Spirit is yours, to purify and purge you: And for all things else in the World, they are,  
1. But short and transitory: Riches are well called Movables, and ere long they will either take their leave of us, or we shall certainly take our leaves of them: Honour is but brittle, it is even like Glass, of which they say, when it shineth brightest its nighest melting: And for the rest, how uncertain are all things, money for the Thiefs, Merchandizes for the Winds,  for the Rot, Buildings for the Fire? The glory of this World is in itself but the Scheme, but the Picture of Happiness, and it will not sit so long before your eyes, as that you may draw its Picture, it's gone before you can say 'tis here: But suppose Worldly happiness were long, yet,  
Secondly, It's Insatisfactory: Worldly comforts are even like drink to the Dropsy man, increasing thirst; like Wood to the Fire, enlarging its Flame: The chest may be filled with gold, but God only can fill the heart: These things cannot make you happy, because they are desired not for themselves, but for other things; but the Lord is desirable not for something else beside himself, but only for himself: Deus propter Deum: If you have Riches, you may look beyond them and see Honours to tempt your eye; if you have Riches and Honours, you may look beyond them, and see moral Wisdom to tempt your head; if you have all these, you may yet look beyond, and see health to tempt your heart: And while these partial and imperfect happiness lay before you, you may look beyond them all, and see a necessity of something else, that is, God to be your God: But let a man be made an heir of salvation, let a man be adopted into the Family of God, and be able to say, The Lord is my God; and I provoke that man to say its true, God and Christ, and Heaven and Grace are mine, but I want something else besides these in the world to make me happy: These things are not universally good; clothes are but for the back, meat for the belly, music for the ears, flowers for the smell and eye, etc. but the Lord is a Catholic, a viscerate and entire good, he is Almighty or All-sufficient: As a man that hath a mind to some particular dish, can find all dishes in that one dish; as suppose Patridges, Capons, or Pheasants: So a child of God can find all things in God, riches, honour, pleasure: The covetous man makes his gold his God, but a gracious heart, saith God is my Gold: A man may have silver, but silver shall never satisfy him without God; but if a man love God, he will satisfy him without silver: When a poor Beggar is matched to a Royal Prince, she views his Palace, she surveys his gardens, and pleaseth herself in a delightsome prospect of all his greatness and glory, and can say, These are mine, for the Prince himself is mine: So because you have a title to the Fountain, the streams are yours: Whatever happiness is scattered here and there abroad in the Creatures, it is all virtually, eminently, and superlatively in God. I read of a couple of Ambassadors, the one a Spaniard, the other a Venetian, and they did both of them extol and prefer the Revenues of their particular Masters; said the Venetian Ambassador, My Master hath so many chests of Silver and Gold; alas, said the Spanish Ambassador, Your Master's Treasures have a bottom, but my Master's Treasures in the Indies, have a Root, a Spring: So may a true Saint say to the World, your riches and comforts have a leak or limitation; but my Lord Jesus, his comforts and riches, his Treasures, have neither Banks nor bottom: God is mine, and if he can make me happy I shall not be miserable: This, this my Beloved, is your Inventory for Happiness, that can say, The Lord is our God.  
I shall now come to the Application of the Proposition, and treat with your Consciences in these following Deductions or Conclusions.  
First Conclusion from hence is, a Vindication of that true Opinion that God's people have of the false happiness of the World: Wicked men are infiliciter felices, unhappily happy; you feliciter infelices, miserable in your Imagination, but happy really and indeed: You rightly and righteously determine, that a man may have a gay coat and a festered Conscience; a great Estate in his hands, but little or no true comfort in his heart; that though Riches have not so much as the wings of a Sparrow in flying to us, yet they, when gotten, make to themselves wings, and that of an Eagle, to fly away from us: That worldly delights are but as a Snowball, which being with much pains heaped up together, melteth presently if the Sun do but shine out: That restless man, in wrestling and contending for what he desires, is but like a child running up and down in a pleasant Meadow after a painted Butterfly, which when he hath taken, all the recompense it affords, is, but only to besmear his fingers. You speak truly and sound, when you say, That a dram of Grace is worth a pound of Gold; that all the contents and Creatures in the earth are but mere cyphers, unless God be purposed to set on the first Figure: That while a Diadem sitteth light on a Prince's head, it may for all that lie heavy enough on his conscience: That there is no indivisible connexion between a Kingdom on Earth, and a Crown in Heaven: That a man may possibly swim in a Sea of Pleasures in this World, and yet sink into an Ocean of wrath and Brimstone in the next: That a man may be so honourable, so rich, so glorious, while he lives, that every man may be ready to say, There goes an happy man; yet that man, when he dies, for want of a configuration to Christ and title to God, may be miserable to all Eternity. Can men carry their estates beyond the Line of Mortality, and with their money ●ee the Angels at last day to plead for them, to prevent the Sentence of the Judge of Heaven and Earth; or after that Sentence is pronounced, bribe the flames of Hell-fire to be pitiful towards, and not to pray on or torment them: this were something for worldly happiness, but when we see that there is no advantage, though a man gain the whole world, if yet he lose his own soul; that all these sublunary felicities, are consistent with Gods eternal indignation, that these things, neither singly nor jointly; can so much as assuage grief, put off cares, much less adjourn death or prevent Hell, where there is no remission of sin, no intermission of punishment; where the pangs of the damned are not only for the present intolerable, but for the future interminable. Who would not pray with a gracious heart, Lord let me be rather miserable for a time (as the world speaks) that I may be happy for ever, then that I should be happy for a season only, and after that miserable for ever: Lord, though I desire to be of the number of those Christians that have their hope and expectation in this world, yet deliver me from those worldlings, whose entire portion is in this world, is this world, Psal. 17.14. Now we are ready to call the proud, happy; to lift up them high in our thoughts, that are lifted up in the world; but when Jesus Christ shall come to give to every man according to his works, and in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know him not, on the one hand; and on the other hand when he shall come to make up his Jewels that now are despised, and to repair their reproaches before God, in the sight and audience of men and Angels, that now are triumphed over and trampled upon by men: Who would deem himself happy at that day, if he be not in their case whose God is the Lord?  
The second, Deduction: Here we see, as in a Looking-glass, the false Opinion that worldly men have of true happiness, or of the state of the godly: How ready is a wicked man to compassionate the children of God? Alas, saith he, To what purpose are these men so precise and exact? It may be there may be a Judgement day, it may be not; and how miserable are they to provide for that which no man living ever saw, while they neglect that which is obvious to their very senses? Honour's are certain, riches are certain, and while they expect their food, they starve; while they pretend after a Kingdom, they go naked, while they call God Father, they want even the bread of children; Whereas no man is miserable in another man's account, but in his own: You may possibly see a Joseph in Prison, while Pharaoh keeps a Court; a Job on a dunghill, while a Julian is on a Throne: You may see them poor and reproached, but did they ever tell you they were miserable; and when they were without Estates and reputation, that they wanted them to make them happy? never say a child of God is miserable, till he say so of himself. A wicked man may have Blessings, and yet not be blessed; and a child of God may have curses (still from men) and yet not be cursed.  
It's observed, That men thus varied their Opinion about happiness, because they supposed the fruition of that whereof they were destitute, would make them happy: He that was poor, said, If I had but riches, I should be happy; and so riches came to be called happiness: He that was in reproach, said, Oh! If I were but respected I should be happy, and so respect and repute came to be called happiness: He that was diseased said, If I had my health I should be happy, and so health came to be accounted an happiness: The natural man is mistaken in his verdict; the Saint saith, I account all things loss and dung for Christ; the natural man; I account Christ loss and dung for any thing else in this life: The Saint seeks for happiness in crosses, Job 5.10. but the natural man or Philosopher will assoon seek for light in darkness, heat in cold, fire in water, sweetness in gall and wormwood, as for comfort in calamities. Hence Christ reads a Lecture contrary to nature, Not blessed are the merry, but the mourners; not the lofty, but the weak; not the Mammonist, but the poor in spirit, Matth. 5.3. 
Vos editis beatos esse pauperes. Ergo ut tanto facilius f●atis beati, omnia bona vobis adimimus. Juliani scomma in Christianos factum.  Those eight Beatitudes, are the eight Paradoxes of the world: As Christ said, He had bread to eat that his Disciples knew not of; so the Disciples of Christ have an happiness to enjoy, that the natural man knows not of: The World should consider, That a man can never properly be miserable, till he lose that which made him happy: You that call outward things your happiness, your Greatness your happiness, your Gold and Silver your happiness; when your greatness is abated, and you made little or low before the people, when your Gold and silver is cankered or corrupted; when the scales turn, and you meet with poverty, your happiness is gone, you are miserable: But because the happiness of a Saint consisteth not in these things, but in Communion with God, but in the Justification of his PERSON, and a title to everlasting life; therefore whatever you take from him you make him not miserable, till you can take from him his God, his Justification, his everlasting life, for these are the things that make him happy: Suppose a man that hath thousands per annum should lose a few farthings, his Estate suffers no loss, because he hath not suffered in, hath not lost his estate: Or take a Traveller that hath a precious Jewel about him, a Jewel of inestimable price; he hath some lose money, some spending money for his journey in his pockets, but his Jewel is made secure in some private place about his body; a company of thiefs surprise him and rob him of some few shillings, or some small pence; do you think this man, when he comes to the next Town, would run up and down the streets like a mad man, and cry, I am undone, I am undone? No, because whatever he hath lost, he hath kept and not lost his Jewel: How can a child of God complain of the loss of outward things, of friends, of estate, while his God and Christ, his Pearl of price are safe? As he, said a wise man, will not pine at his bad fortune, while Caesar, while his Emperor is safe: When they have lost God, than they may justly exclaim they are undone. Even Plato could recommend to the Writers of his age, that they should chracterise to posterity no man to be happy that was wicked, and no man to be miserable that was good: There is no greater thing on earth than man; there is no greater thing in man then his soul; and there is no greater thing in the soul of Man then God. 'Twas a vain conceit of that Potentate, who refusing the name of Pius, would be called Foelix; but Scylla, surnamed Foelix, accounted it not the least part of his happiness, that Miletus, surnamed Pius, was his friend. Piety is the best friend to Felicity, though Felicity, outward Felicity, do not always befriend Piety: Foelix, Acts 24.22. thought Paul unhappy, but Paul knew Foelix miserable; because though he might have a chain of Gold about his neck, he had not a dram of true Grace in his heart, the Lord was not his God.  
Third, Conclusion: This Text rectifies a latent and secret error, a rash suspicion, as if a man could not be great and good together, rich and righteous at the same time; as if a man might not have Gold in his chest, and yet Grace in his heart. My Beloved, That man is not miserable that hath a proportion in this world, but he that hath his Portion in this world, or this world for his portion: And though outward excellencies be not godliness, yet a man may have outward excellencies, and yet have godliness too; as a wicked man may have some sparks of wrath here, yet the Furnace of wrath is reserved for hereafter; so a child of God shall have his inheritance hereafter; yet he may have some legacies, some largesses, some common gifts of Providence here: Covetousness is not the Attribute of Riches (for all covetous men are not rich so all rich men are not covetous) but of the Man: Though a man cannot serve God and Mammon, yet he that hath served Mammon may serve God, he may have God and Mammon; I, and through Grace, may serve God with his Mammon: Here stands a poor man in rags, and for aught we know, he is covetous; there sits a rich man, a wealthy Alderman, and we trust charitable: It's notable that God doth indifferently dispose of the black and white sides of Providence: Many times he bestoweth the good things of this world on evil men, there we have an argument that these things are not goodness in themselves, and done't make a man happy; and often he dispenseth these outward good things on the godly; and than you may see Job, the richest man in the East, and Solomon King of Israel: Here we have an Argument, that these things are not evil in themselves, and so don't conclude a man miserable that hath them.  
The Apostle gives a charge to rich men that they be not high minded, but no charge that a poor man become not rich, 1 Tim. 1.17. The Prophet tells us, That though here there be a difference between man and man, yet in the bed of the Grave the poor and rich meet together, and God owns himself the Maker of them both, Eccles. 9.1. And therefore we find in the Gospel, poor Lazarus in the bosom of wealthy Abraham; I, Christ himself bids us not to throw away our Treasures, but to lay them up by employing them.  
The Father acquaints us, That one day meeting two men in the streets, the one a Gallant, the other a Beggar, censured neither, but had this charitable reflection on himself, There goes a Beggar, and for aught I know, may better bear his Cross than I do; and there goes a rich Gallant, and for aught I know, may have a better heart under his velvet Jacket than I have. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, saith Job, so that Riches are GOD'S gift, as well as poverty, and for aught I know, you may enjoy your Honour and your graces too, your favour, your lawful favour with men, and the smiles of God's countenance too; you may keep (and so to improve them by Charity) your wealth, your strength, and your relations, and your title to God, and the grace of God too: I know nothing but that you may be rich and happy, if you will be rich and godly: I don't love to hear a poor man declaim against riches, and a beggar to spit at and vilify a Crown: Religion may be the pretence, but the heart may be deceitful for all that: But for Magistrates that are highly advanced, to be lowly minded; for Kings to throw down their Crowns at Christ's feet, and to say, Let him reign (and for aught I know, Christ may put them on their heads again) for such learned men as Paul, that know the price of Learning, and have known the value of worldly felicities, for these to count all nothing for Christ, this is to enrich riches and honour, honours indeed.  
Let men beware of discontented humours in these times: The Fox dispraiseth the Grapes he cannot reach; let poor men beware of prjudice against men because they are rich; and it may be rich men may think better of the poor, and of the Lord our God for their sakes.  
Fourth Corollary: This condemns the despondency of those that profess themselves to be the people of the Lord: It is strange to consider how the wicked many times deport themselves so comfortably, so cheerfully, as if they were the children of God; and on the contrary, the children of God carry themselves so melancholily, so despairingly, as if they were wicked men, and had no interest in God at all; they rejoice when they should mourn, and you mourn when you should rejoice. Christians! Is the Lord contented with you, and is not God sufficient? Will not you be contented with him? Is the Lord satisfied with a My son, give me thy heart, and are not thou satisfied with this, the Lord hath given me his spirit? tolle meum, tolle Deum: It's remarkable that all the Beatitudes are fixed on unlikely conditions; to intimate, That the Judgement of this world, and the Judgement of God's children differ about Blessedness: Shall that man rejoice that hath but his Angels of gold to smile on him, and wilt thou not rejoice that hast the Angels of God, I, the God of Angels to tend on thee? Is not he sad that hath only a claim to the dirty and muddy streams of Peace, and outward prosperity, and wilt thou be sad that hast a title to the Wellhead of Comfort, to the Spring and Fountain of Happiness? Shall he be merry that can but say, This mirous House, that Manor is mine; and wilt thou not be glad, when thou sayest, That this God, the Landlord of Heaven and Earth is mine? Religion is no melancholy thing, though the Religious may be often melancholy; and what ever worldlings fancy, though oft the body be sad, yet the heart of a child of God keeps Holiday; and if he be troubled, it is not because he is Religious, because the Lord is his God, but because he is so carnal, and doubts of that claim: And surely one great reason why we are not so composedly cheerful enough, it is because we are not Christians enough.  
Is God thy Father, Christ thy Redeemer, the Spirit thy Comforter; & will not this support thee? Hast thou sometimes such triumph of heart, that thou wouldst not exchange those few sweet minutes for all the World? and dost thou live in the longing and thirsting for Death and a Resurrection, and after them the sight of Glory, and an immutable and immortal state of Heaven and Happiness, where thou shalt sigh and sorrow no more? And will not these hopes relieve thee? Hath the Gospel disappointed thy thoughts? Didst thou unadvisedly enter into Covenant with God? Is not there that felicity and favour in God's presence, that thou didst promise thyself to find in him? Wilt thou change portions, and exchange properties with the world? Shall this man have thy pardon of sin, and thou his riches? that man thy hopes of Glory, and thou his Lordship and Honour? Speak out, what wilt thou take for God, what price for thy soul? Will Pleasure and Past-time buy it? Will Riches or Revenues buy it? Are not all these things partial and improportionable, to the God of Glory and Centre of all Happiness? If the World can't come up to thy price, and thou canst not mend thy market, for shame be satisfied and be at rest? If you would credit Christianity, and commend thy God to the lost world; get comfort in thy conscience, away with unjust scruples against thy entitled peace; part not with thy privilege or thy God, till thou canst meet with better: If you value not your own peace, have an estimation of God's glory.  
What will carnal men say? Would you have us part with all for God, when you are ready to part with God for nothing? Why do you exclaim against our worldliness and our vain Pleasures, when you yourselves do seem to count Mortification and Heavenliness a burden? either keep your breath to yourselves, and reprove us no more, or live up to your interest, and to honour your God? How do you convince us it is worth the while to sell all for the Pearl of price, that when we have done so, we should think ourselves miserable after the bargain? It seems rather by the anxiety and perplexity of your minds, that you envy our comforts in the world, to which for shame you dare not return; and would esteem it a piece of your happiness, if we would be miserable with you for company? But let the world consider, that a Saints want of comfort proceeds not from the insufficiency of his purchase, but from his want of faith to claim it: And let Believers consider, that as their unbelief is uncomfortable to themselves, so it reproacheth God. Hence many have denied God, and so have turned Atheists, because they could not maintain God's All-sufficiency, and live like Epicures: Habitual distrust of God, is a greater Blasphemy in some sense, than a total denial of God; for what greater shame, than not to believe him whom we profess cannot deceive us, and not to be content with him whom we acknowledge to be All-sufficient? Verily the poorest soul in all this Congregation, that can but say, God is mine, is happier than if he could say, all the Mines of Gold and Silver in the West-Indies are mine.  
Fifth Inference: By way of persuasion to the worldly happy, that they would look after the Lord: Why will you seek any longer, vitam beatam, a blessed life; in regionem mortis, in the Region of death? Pearls in the dust, and Heaven (compararatively) in Hell: Wilt thou perish for that which shall perish? Dost thou love Gold so well, as to run into Hell fire to fetch it? Thou proclaimest thy happiness because of an healthy Body; and wilt thou be less happy in having a sound Conscience? How happy wert thou, if besides these Rings of gold, thou hadst but the inestimable Jewel, if in thy Terrestrial and Earthly Paradise, thou hadst but in the midst thereof the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ? You ought not to throw away Christ when you embrace the world, neither need you prodigally throw away the world when you embrace Christ. Christ and the world may dwell both in one house, though not in one heart: Be as covetous as thou wilt, be as ambitious as thou wilt; wouldst thou have earth, wouldst thou have this World? so thou mayst, and Heaven, and the next too.  
As Achsah, when her Father gave her a Portion, desired a Blessing, so do thou at God's hand, and say, Lord, Thou hast given me the nether springs, but I yet want the upper springs; thou hast given me the Streams, but what are all they without the Fountain? As thou art not content with my things without myself; so Lord I have thy Gold and Silver, thy Comforts and Creatures, but these are not thyself; all these I may have, and yet be poor, naked, be hopeless in this life, and a damned wretch to all Eternity. As the Father brings in King Ahab, sitting in his chair of State, with his Nobles attending about him, and environed with all outward glory, in the three years' Famine, crying out, What avails all this, if yet the Heavens continue to be Brass and the earth Iron? So what is it to have Friends & favour, etc. and to have a hard heart, a reprobate mind; for God to frown on me, for to live like a Rebel and Runagate without Christ and the Covenant of Promise? It is true, you should have sought the Kingdom of Heaven first, and then all things would have been added to you; but yet since you have begun with the World for God's sake, for your souls sake end with God; you are already in possession of temporal Blessings, will it be any damage to have the accession of eternal happiness? Are you jealous, lest as you should gain Christ, you should lose the world, and that as Grace comes into your hearts, that your Estates must needs go out of your hands? Have there been many, that in the midst of their outward pomp and splendour, that yet have cried out Undone; and that for want of God's presence and will, their riches impoverish you, their wisdom make you fools, and their Plaster wound you? Can All-sufficiency itself undo you? Will security always bar out wrath? Will your Opinion never alter concerning the World? Will Jesus Christ never be precious? Will there not come a time when the favour of God will be more necessary there, than this man's favour is now? What will you give for a Christ at the last day? Will the sense of your past joys, kill the then stinging worm of conscience? Do but try what peace of conscience means after your troubles, how much the Pearl of Price weighs after your worldly experience; and if one smile (after true possession) of God's favour, if the least assurance of the pardoning sins, do not outweigh all things else, return to the world and to your lusts again. It's reported of Pyrrhus, That one day he opened his mind to his friend Cyneas, and told him, If he were but Possessor of Italy▪ what then, said his friend? Why then if he could but conquer Africa; what then Pyrrhus? O then if he could but subdue Asia, he would be at rest, and be merry with his friends; so you may be now, saith Cyn●as, without all that trouble.  
Sixthly and lastly, By way of Satisfaction: How shall I have evidence in the enjoyment of worldly (happiness, or) goods, that the Lord is my God?  
A. 1. If thy Estate come to thee by descent, Industry, or the bounty of Providence; it is one thing to have what we have be Covenant, another to have it by Extortion▪ Many can say, This Estate, this Land is mine, because God is mine; but others have occasion to say, If God had been mine, this had not been mine: It is a currant, but unhappy Proverb in England, Happy is that child whose Father goes to the Devil; the meaning of it is, The Son oft comes by a great Estate, and the Father sells his soul to get it for him; but better it were, that the estate should never come to the children, then that the father should go to the Devil for it, Ah Lord! How solicitous are men to adorn the bodies of their children, but how careless for their souls? How many leave vast Estates to their children (there's no hurt in providing for their Families, that's a duty) but this is their misery, their Oppression and Extortion, which procured them entail the curse of God on those Estates: Woe be to them, says the Prophet, Isa. 5.8. that join house to house, and that lay field to field, till there be no place, etc. Then woe be to me, said a Landed Extortioner, and to my children.  
2. Another evidence of our true enjoyment of this world upon a good ground is, when we can see God in what we enjoy: The Language of Esau is, I have enough; but jacob's Dialect is otherwise, The Lord hath given to me; and that which is remarkable, he saith of his children, Which the Lord hath graciously given to me: One would think Jacob were speaking of the pardon of sin, of the hope of the Messiah, or of everlasting life. Grace seems to be the language of the Gospel, and proper only to spiritual Blessings; but a gracious heart sees not only providence, but Grace in what he hath; he sees grace in his cat el, grace in his children: The rich fool in the Gospel talked at a great rate, I will pull down my barns, and I will bestow my fruits; all belike was his own, God was not in all, in any of his thoughts: Though we must not look on the Creatures with doting eyes, so as too much to admire them; yet we must not look away from them with shut eyes, so as to neglect to see God in them: How comfortable is it for the soul to see the love of God to him in the love of his children, and the protection of God ratified to him in the obedience of his servants to him, and the Image of the King of Glory in graven in all his Coin, on all his gold and silver?  
3. We may know the Lord is our God in the fruition of the world, by the enjoyment of God in them: It is nothing for a man to find a piece of Parchment, a Deed signed and sealed, unless there be Land conveyed in it; so the possession of a great Estate is no Argument of God's love: You have the Deeds, the Conveyances, the Honour and riches of Gods left hand, but by what title? Evidences (my Beloved) are Evidences to them that have a title: If a man enjoy God in his Goods, he hath a title with his Evidence, a better title than that the worldling hath: It is a suspicious thing to find Goods in a man's house, and for him not to be able to tell how he came by them. My soul, How camest thou by thy Estate, is it given to thee as to a Son, or as to a slave? thou art advanced into high place, but since thou art lifted up, hast thou lifted up God in thy Honour? Ah Lord! How many are risen in honour, but forgot that hand that lifted them up, and the ground from whence they came? Are your Estates as Looking-glasses, to see God in, to see his wisdom and care, and loadstones, to draw out your love by? Are they wings to make you mount up to Heaven, or no? If they be not wings, they will be weights to sink you down to Hell: Do Riches make you charitable? Doth Honour make you humble? Doth your strength make you watchful? Do you not cast away the Net, now you have got the Fish? Are you in satisfied when you have the cap full of gold, till you have the kiss? To allude to the competition of Cyrus his two Friends, Chrysautus and Artabarus; are your turns served of God, and do you turn your backs on God? Are you the better for your goods, and the more in love with the Rose of Sharon for your beauty? Can you bless God the more for your Blessings, and say, There was a time I was poor and passionate, but as God hath given me riches, so also a thankful heart, as God hath increased my store, so he hath increased my Faith; and the higher I am, the more holy; the greater, the better? If so, we are happy; otherwise it were better we had had less of this World, then that like the Moon at the full, we should be more distant from the Sun; then that with Jonathan we should follow the chase, be exact Professors, or Professors of exactness, no longer then till we meet with honey. It is a serious Observation of a great Traveller, That notwithstanding all the Religious pretences of the Court of Rome, That the Indians have brought more of the Spaniards to worship their gold, than the Spaniards have brought of the Indians to worship their God; that is, The Indians have made more Infidels, than the Spaniards have made Christians.  
4. When we employ our Treasures for God, than we spiritually enjoy our Treasures from God: They are not Goods to us, if we do not good to others with them: We are too ready to receive the Token, and to neglect the Contents of the Letter that God sends us. We say such a man hath an happy Estate, when he hath a great Estate; but whatever the Estate be, the man is unhappy if he be not charitable: Wherefore David giving the Character of a blessed man, tells us, Blessed is the man; What man? not he that hath riches, but he that considers the poor: Consider how to bestow them, Psalm 41.1. Oh that men would consider they are not masters of their Estates (and it is well if their Estates be not master over them) but Stewards: And the Language of a gracious Steward is, How shall I dispose of my Trust best for my Master's use; where shall I find a naked back, that I may cloth it; an empty belly, that I may fill it; an aged Christian, or Minister of God, past the labours of their special Callings, that I may succour and supply them. And it would be a noble enquiry of Magistrates, whom God makes successful against Babylon, how shall we consecrate the gain taken from them to the Lord, for Zions good? for the advancement of the Gospel, and Ministerial Propagation of Christ's Kingdom; for the preservation of Gospel Ordinances amongst us, from the Invasion of Profaneness, and the attempts of Heresy and Atheism? But where are these ubies? How many are loaden with Blessings, and yet load God with Curses? How do men employ their Estates rather against, then for God; like water putting out the fire, and like clouds hindering the sight of the Sun? But there is a time a caming, when ye men of the World shall see that Charity was the best Usury, that a good Estate was better than a great Estate; when they shall take their leave of this World, and the glory thereof; when they shall by Death be summoned out of this life, and lose their Estates and their Souls together; how happy soever they have been accounted of by men on earth, yet when they shall arrive to that Infelicity and ruin, Who would be in their case, whose God is not the Lord?  
FINIS.