mercy, "It is good for me to cleave to the Lord," I fee what will become of all others.

The next thing that follows upon this; that God's children thus conflicting, and going into the fanctuary, and feeing the end of all there," they go a contrary courfe to the world they fwim against the ftream. As we fay of the ftars and planets, they have a motion of their own, contrary to that rapt motion whereby they are carried, and whirled about in four and twenty hours, from east to weft; they have a creeping motion and period of their own; as the moon hath a motion of her own, backward from west to east, that makes every month; and the fun hath a distinct motion he is carried with,

that he goes about in a year. So God's children they live and

converse, and are carried with the same motion as the world is: they live among men, and converfe as men do; but notwithstanding they have a contrary motion of their own, which they are directed and carried to by the fpirit of God; as here the holy prophet faith, "It is good for me to draw near to God." As if he fhould fay, for other men, be they great or fmall, be they of what condition they will, let them take what course they will, and let them fee how they can justify their course, and take what benefit they can; let them reap as they fow, I do not matter much what courfe they take, I will look to myself; as for me, I am sure this is my best courfe, to draw near to God. So the fanctified spirit of a holy man; he looks not to the ftream of the times, what be the currents and opinions, and courses of rifing to preferment, of getting riches, of attaining to an imaginary prefent happiness here; but he hath another judgment of things, and therefore goes contrary to the world's courfe Hear St Paul, Philip. iii." All men feek their own, I cannot fpeak of it without weeping; whofe end is damnation, whofe belly is their God, who mind earthly things." But what doth St Paul, when other men feek their own, and are carried after private ends? Oh, faith he, "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, who fhall change our vile bodies, and make them like his glorious body; according to his mighty power, whereby he is able to fubdue all things to himself." So you fee the bleffed apoftle, (led with the fame fpirit as the man of God here), he fetcheth not the rules of his life from the example of the great ones of the world, or from the multitude--thefe are falfe deceiving rules; but he fetcheth the

rule

rule of his life from the experimental goodness he had found by a contrary courfe to the world. Let the world take what courfe they will," it is good for me to draw near to God."

I might add a little further, that the courfe and corrupt principles of the world, are fo far from fhaking a child of God, that they fettle him, They ftir up his zeal the more. As we fay, there is an antiperiftafis, an increasing of contraries by contraries; as we fee in winter, the body is warmer, by reafon that heat is kept in, and springs are warmer in winter because the heat is kept in. So the fpirit of God in the hearts of his children works and boils when it is environed with contraries; it gathers ftrength, and breaks out with more zeal, as David, Pfal. cxix. when he faw men did not keep God's law, he complains to God, "It is time, Lord, for thee to work." Indeed it is the nature of oppofition to increase the contrary; thofe that have the fpirit, and grace of God in truth, they gather strength by oppofition.

Therefore the ufe we are to make of it, is to difcern ourselves, of what fpirit we are, what principles we lead our lives by, whether by examples of greatness, or multitude, or such like, it is an argument we are led by the fpirit of the world, and not by the fpirit of God. God's children, as they are fevered from the world in condition, (they are men of another world), fo they are fevered from the world in difpofition, in their course and converfation; therefore from thofe grounds their courfe is contrary to the world." But it is good for me;" the word "but," is not in the original; it is, and it is good for me;" but the other is aimed at the fenfe is, "But it is good for me to draw near to God," and fo it is in the laft tranflation. Thus you fee what way we have made to the words. I do but touch these things, and it was neceffary to say fomething of them; because the words are a triumphant conclufion upon the former premises.

And in the words, in general, obferve this first of all, that God by his fpirit enableth his children to justify wifdom by their own experience.

To make it good by their own experience, " It is good for me to draw near to God." And this is one reason why God fuffers them to be fhaken, and then in conflict to recover, that after recovery they may juftify the truth; nothing is fo certain as that which is certain after doubting, no

thing is fo fixed as that which is fixed after it hath been shaken ; as the trees have the strongest roots, because they are most fhaken with winds, and tempefts. Now God fuffers the understanding, that is, the inward man, of the best men to be shaken, and after fettles them; that fo they may even from experience justify all truths: that they may say, it is naught, it is a bitter thing to fin: Satan hath abufed me, and my own luft abufed me, and enticed me away from God: but I fee no fuch good thing in fin as nature perfuaded me before. As travellers tell men, you live poorly here; in fuch a country you may do wondrous well, there you fhall have plenty and refpect; and when they come there, and are pinched with hunger and difrefpect, they come home with fhame enough to themselves, that they were fo beguiled. So it is with God's children: fometimes he fuffers them to be foiled, and lets them have the reins of their lufts a while, to taste a little of the forbidden tree; that after they may fay with experience, It is a bitter thing to forfake God, it is better to go to my former husband, as the church faith in Hofea, when God took her in hand a little-fin will be bitter at the laft. So the prodigal, he was fuffered to range, till he was whipped a while; and then he could confefs it was better to be in his father's house. God fuffers his children to fall fall into fome courfe of fin, that afterward by experience they may justify good things, and be able to say that God is good.

And the judgment of fuch is more firm, and doth more good than those who have been kept from finking at all. God, in his wife providence, fuffers this.

Ufe. We fhould labour therefore to justify in our own experience all that is good. What is the reafon that men are afhamed of good courfes fo foon? It may be they are perfuaded a little to pray, and to fanctify the Lord's day, to retire themselves from vanity, and fuch like: ay, but if their judgments be not fettled out of the book of God, and if they have not fome experience, they will not maintain this, therefore they are driven off. Now a christian should be able to justify against all gainfayers, whatfoever can be faid by his own experience. That to read the book of God, and to hear holy truths opened by men having the spirit of God, it is a good thing: I find good by it by experience. That where there is the communion of faints, holy conference, &c. I can justify it, if there were no fcripture for it: I find it by experience to be a blessed way to

bring me to a heavenly temper, to fit me for heaven. So there is no good course, but God's children fhould be able, both by fcripture, and likewife by their own experience, to answer all gainfayers when either their own hearts, or others fhall oppofe it, he may be able to fay, with the holy man here, it is no matter what you fay; "It is good for me to draw near to God." So much for the general. To come more particularly to the words. It is good for me to draw near to God.

Here you have the juftification of piety, of holy courfes, which is fet down by drawing near to God. And the argument whereby it is juftified, "it is good." This glofs put upon any thing, commends it to man: for naturally fince the fall there is fo much left in man that he draws to that which is good: but when he comes to particulars, there is the error; he feeks heaven in the way of hell, he feeks happiness in the way of mifery, he feeks light in the way of darknefs, and life in the way and path of death; his lufts fo hurry him, and carry him, the contrary way: but yet there is left this general foundation of religion in all men; as the heathen could fay, naturally all men from the principles of nature draw to that which is good. Here religious courfes are juftified and commended, from that which hath the best attractive, and most magnetical force." "It is good to draw near to God." Good hath a drawing force; for the understanding, that fhews and difcovers, but the will is the chief guide in man; and, anfwerable to the discovery of good or ill in the understanding, there is a profecution or averfion in the will, which is that part in the foul of man which cleaves to good discovered. To unfold the words a little.

1. "It is good."-To draw near to God, who is the chief good. It is good in quality, and good in condition, and state. It is good in quality and difpofition: for it is the good of conformity for the understanding creature to draw near to God. The nearer any thing is to the principle of fuch a thing, the better it is for it: the nearer to the fun, the more light; the nearer to the fire, the more heat; the nearer to that which is goodnefs itself, the more good; the nearer to happiness, the more happy; therefore it muft needs be the happiness of condition to draw near to God. So you see what is meant, when he faith here," it is good :" It is a pleafing good, conformable to God's will, he commends it: and it is for my good likewife, it advanceth my condition to draw near to God.

To draw near."What it is to draw near to God, we fhall fee by what it is to go from God. God is everywhere, we are always near to God." "Whither fhall I go from thy prefence? If I go to hell, thou art there," &c. faith the Pfalmift. God is everywhere indeed in regard of his prefence, and power, and difpofing providence; but then there is a gracious presence of God in the hearts of his children. And there is a ftrange prefence of God to Chrift, the prefence of union; which makes the human nature of Chrift the happiest creature that ever was, being joined by a hypoftatical union to the fecond perfon; but we fpeak not of that nearnefs here. There is a gracious nearness, when the fpirit of God, in the fpirits of thofe that belong to God, fweetly enlargeth and comforts, and fupports, and strengtheneth them, working that in them that he works in the hearts of none else. For instance, the foul is in the whole man, it is diffufed over all the members; it is in the foot, in the eye, in the heart, in the brain. But how is it in all these? It is in the foot as it moves it, it is in the heart as the principle of life, it is in the brain and understanding, ufing and exercifing his reasoning understanding power: fo that though all the foul be in the whole man, yet it is otherwife in the brain than in the reft. So, though God be everywhere, yet he is otherwife in his children than in others: he is in them gracioufly and comfortably, exercifing his graces, and comforting them; he is not fo with the reft of the world. You fee how God is prefent everywhere, and how he is gracioufly prefent with his. So anfwerably we are faid to be near to God, (we are near him in what ftate foever we are); but then there is a gracious nearness, when our whole foul is near to God, as thus: 1. When our understandings conceive aright of God, as it is faid of the young man in the gofpel, when he began to fpeak difcreetly and judicioufly, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God" when men have a right conceit of divine truths, they are not far from the kingdom of God, when there is a clearnefs of judgment to conceive aright.

2. Then again there is a nearnefs, when we not only know things aright, but mind them; when the things are present to our minds, when God is in our thoughts. David faith of the wicked man, "God is not in his thoughts." When we mind, and think of God, and heavenly things, they are near to us, and we to them: For the foul is a fpiritual effence, it goes everywhere, it goes to heaven, and is prefent with the things it minds.

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