to be good, and to do good, is the fupreme felicity of God himself; therefore we may easily believe, that he is very ready and forward to make us happy, by all the ways that are agreeable to his wifdom and righteoufnefs; and that he is also willing to make us abundantly fo, and to advance us to the highest degree of felicity, of which our nature is capable, if we do not render ourselves incapable of fuch a bleffing, by an obftinate refufal of it, and utter indifpofition for it.

This, I fay, is very credible, because the happinefs of God himself confifts in that propenfion and difpofition of nature, which tends to make others happy. And if there can be any acceffion to that which is infinite, God himself finds a new pleafure and felicity in the communication of his goodness to his creatures; and therefore is reprefented in fcripture, as glad of the converfion of a finner, because the finner hereby becomes capable of the happiness which God defigned for his creatures, and is always ready to confer upon them whenever they are qualified for it, and he can, with the honour of his own perfections, beftow it upon them.

There are two things which raise our hopes and expectation of good from any perfon, if he be able and willing to bestow upon us what we hope for from him. Now if any one can confer happinefs upon us, it is he who is infinitely poffeft of it, and hath all the treasures of it in himfelf; and that God only is, who as he is able, fo he is willing to make us happy, if we be qualified for it; and it is no impairing of his happinefs to make others happy, for even that goodness which inclines him to communicate happiness to others is a great part of his own felicity;' fo that, as our Saviour argues, because I live, you fhall live alfo; we may reafon in like manner, that because God is happy, we shall be happy also, if we do but fincerely defire and endeavour to qualify ourfelves for it. The goodness of God does ftrongly incline him to defire our happiness, and makes him willing and ready to bestow it upon us, whenever we are capable to receive it.

So

So that the goodness of God is the great foundation of all our hopes, and the firmeft ground of our affurance of a bleffed immortality. It is the happinefs of the divine nature to communicate himself ; and the communications of God's goodness to us are the cause of our happiness; and therefore, both for our example and encouragement, the goodnefs of God ought always to be reprefented to the greatest advantage, and we fhould endeavour to poffefs our minds with a firm belief and perfuafion of it, and to remove from the divine nature (which we all acknowledge to have infinitely more goodnefs than is to be found in any of the fons of men) whatever we would not attribute to a good man, and to vindicate God from all fufpicion of envy and ill-will, of cruelty and arbitrary dealing with his creatures. And I cannot apprehend why men fhould be averse from thefe fo agreeable and delightful apprehenfions of God; or how it fhould be any man's intereft to leffen the goodness of God; for most certainly the better God is in himself, the better and happier it will be for us all, if it be not our own fault.

3. From what hath been faid concerning the happinefs of the divine nature, we may learn wherein our happiness must confift, namely in the image and in the favour of God; in the favour of God, as the caufe of our happiness; and in the image of God, as a neceffary inward difpofition and qualification for it. Unless God love us, we cannot be happy; for miferable are they whom he hates: for God to fay of any man, that his foul hath no pleasure in him, imports as great mifery, and as dreadful a curfe as can be imagined, and his foul can have no pleasure in a bad man; for he loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity: he is not a God that hath pleaJure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with him: the wicked shall not ftand in his fight; he hateth all the workers of iniquity. Nay, if we could fuppofe that he could love and take pleasure in any perfon that is unlike to him, (which is impoffible) yet that perfon could not be happy, because he would

would want that inward frame and difpofition of mind, which is neceffary to happiness: For the very fame caufes and ingredients which make up the happiness of God, muft, in an inferior degree, be found in us, otherwife we cannot be happy; no, though a man were in heaven, if he be still a bad man, cœlum, non animum mutavit, he hath only changed the climate, and is gone into another coun try, but he bears himself still about him, and his mind is not changed, which would fignify a thoufand times more to his happinefs, than any place or outward circumftance whatsoever. A bad man, wherefoever he goes, hath a root of gall and bitterness within him, and is miferable from himself; he hath a fiend in his own breast, and the fuel of hell in a guilty confcience.

For there is a certain temper and difpofition of mind that is neceffary and effential to happiness, and that is holiness and goodness, which is the nature of God; and fo much as any perfon departs from this temper, fo far he removes himself, and runs away from happinefs: And as fin is a departure from God, fo the punishment of it is likewife expreffed by departing from him: Depart from me ye curfed, depart from me all ye that work iniquity, I know you not.

And this is one great part of the mifery of thofe degenerate and accurfed fpirits, the Devils, who are for ever banished from the presence of God, that they are of a temper quite contrary to God, wicked and impure, envious and malicious, mifchievous and cruel; and fuch a temper is naturally a torment and difquiet to itself. And here the foundation of hell is laid in the evil difpofition of our minds; and till this be cured, and fet right, it is as impoffible for any of us to be happy, as it is for a limb that is out of joint to be at eafe. And the external prefence of God, and a local heaven (if we could imagine fuch a perfon to be admitted into it, and fee all the glories of that place, and the pleasures and delights of that ftate) all this, I fay, would figoify no more to make a bad man happy, than heaps VOL. VI.

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of gold and diamonds, and conforts of the most delicious mufick, and a well-fpread table, and a rich and costly bed, would contribute to a man's ease in the paroxyfm of a fever, or in a violent fit of the ftone: because the man hath that within which torments him, and till that be removed, he cannot poffibly be at eafe. The man's fpirit is out of order, and off the hinges, and toft from its center; and till that be fet right, and restored to its proper place and ftate by goodness and holiness, the man will be perpetually reftlefs, and cannot poffibly have any eafe or peace in his mind: For how can there be peace, how can there be happiness to him, who is of a temper directly oppofite to it? The wicked, faith the Prophet, Ifai. lvii. 20, 21. is like the troubled fea when it cannot reft, whose waters caft up mire and dirt. So long as there is impurity in our hearts, and guilt upon our confciences, they will be reftlessly working; there is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked. The Hebrew word which we tranflate peace, fignifies all kind of happiness; there can be no felicity to a bad man. The confideration whereof fhould put us upon the most serious and earnest endeavours to be like God, that we may be capable of his favour, and partakers of his felicity. The divine nature is the only perfect idea of happinefs, and nothing but our conformity to it can make us happy.

I have been fo long upon this argument, on purpole to convince men of the neceffity of holiness and goodness, and all other virtues, to our prefent and future happiness. They understand not the nature of happiness, who hope for it, or imagine they can attain it in any other way. The author and the fountain of happiness, he that made us, and alone can make us happy, cannot make us fo in any other way, than by planting in us fuch a difpofition of mind, as is in truth a participation of the divine nature, and by endowing us with fuch qualities as are the neceffary materials and ingredients of happiness. There is no way to partake of the felicity of God, blessed

303 bleffed for ever, but by becoming holy and righteous, good and merciful, as he is.

All men naturally defire happiness, and feek afser it, and are, as they think, travelling towards it, but generally they mistake their way.

Many are eager in the purfuit of the things of this world, and greedily catch at pleafures, and riches and honour, as if thefe could make them happy; but when they come to embrace them, they find that they are but clouds and fhadows, and that there is no real and fubftantial felicity in them. Many say, who will Shew us any good? meaning the good things of this world, corn, and wine, and oil: But wouldst thou be happy indeed, endeavour to be like the pattern of happiness, and the fountain of it; addrefs thyfelf to him in the prayer of the Pfalmift, Lord lift thou upon me the light of thy countenance, and thou shalt put more joy and gladness into my heart, than the men of the world can have, when their corn and their wine increafeth.

Many fay, lo here! and lo there! that happiness is in a great place, or in a plentiful eftate, or in the enjoyment of fenfual pleasures and delights; but believe them not; happiness is fomething that is nearer and more intimate to us, than any of the things of this world; it is within thee, in thine heart, and in the very inward frame and difpofition of thy mind.

In a word, if ever we would be happy, we must be like the bleffed God, we must be holy, and merciful, and good, and juft, as he is, and then we are fecure of his favour; for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and his countenance will behold the upright. Then we fhall be qualified for the enjoyment of him, and take pleasure in communion with him, becaufe we fhall be like him. For the fureft foundation of love and friendship is a fimilitude of temper and difpofition; every thing naturally affects its own likenefs, and moves towards it, and greedily catcheth at it, and gladly runs into the embraces of it. God and man must be like one another, before they can take pleasure in one another; if we be un like to God, it is in the nature of the thing impoffible

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