The second Support is this, Consider, Support 2 that though your Comfort, Joy, and Peace, doth depend much upon ⟨p. 591⟩your Assurance, yet your Eternal Happiness and Blessedness doth not depend upon your Assurance; if it did, you might be happy and miserable in a day, I, in an hour: Your Happiness lies in your Union with God, in your Communion with God, in your Interest in God, and not in your seeing and knowing: Your Interest, your Joy, and Comfort, lies in your seeing and knowing your Interest in God, but your Everlasting Happiness lies in your being interested in God. The welfare and happiness of the child lies in the interest that he hath in his Father, but the joy and comfort of the child lies in his seeing, in his knowing of his interest in his Father: It is so between the Lord and Believers. Psal. 144. 15. Happy be the people that be in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the 1Lord. Among the Philosophers there were Two hundred and eighty Opinions concerning Happiness, some affirming Happiness to lie in one thing, some in another. Ah, but by the Spirit and Word we are taught, that Happiness lies in our oneness with God, in our nearness and dearness to God, and in our ⟨p. 592⟩conformity to God, &c. Mark, the2 Scripture pronounces him happy, whose hope is in God, though he want Assurance, Psal. 146. 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Again, he is happy that trusteth in the Lord, though for the present he want Assurance, Prov. 16. 20. And who so trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Again, he is happy that feareth the Lord, that hath set up God as the object of his fear, though he want Assurance of the love of God, Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth always; That fears to offend, that fears to disobey, that fears to rebel, &c. Again, he is happy that believes in Christ, that rests and stays upon Christ, as the Scriptures every where testify, though he may want Assurance.
The second Support is this, Consider, Support 2 that though your Comfort, Joy, and Peace, doth depend much upon ⟨p. 591⟩your Assurance, yet your Eternal Happiness and Blessedness doth not depend upon your Assurance; if it did, you might be happy and miserable in a day, I, in an hour: Your Happiness lies in your Union with God, in your Communion with God, in your Interest in God, and not in your seeing and knowing: Your Interest, your Joy, and Comfort, lies in your seeing and knowing your Interest in God, but your Everlasting Happiness lies in your being interested in God. The welfare and happiness of the childe lies in the interest that he hath in his Father, but the joy and comfort of the childe lies in his seeing, in his knowing of his interest in his Father: It is so between the Lord and Believers. Psal. 144. 15. Happy be the people that be in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the 1Lord. Among the Philosophers there were Two hundred and eighty Opinions concerning Happiness, some affirming Happiness to lie in one thing, some in another. Ah, but by the Spirit and Word we are taught, that Happiness lies in our oneness with God, in our nearness and dearness to God, and in our ⟨p. 592⟩conformity to God, &c. Mark, the2 Scripture pronounces him happy, whose hope is in God, though he want Assurance, Psal. 146. 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Again, he is happy that trusteth in the Lord, though for the present he want Assurance, Prov. 16. 20. And who so trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Again, he is happy that feareth the Lord, that hath set up God as the object of his fear, though he want Assurance of the love of God, Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth always; That fears to offend, that fears to disobey, that fears to rebel, &c. Again, he is happy that believes in Christ, that rests and stayes upon Christ, as the Scriptures every where testifie, though he may want Assurance.
- 1Nemo aliorum sensu miser est, sed suo. Sal. de Gub. Dei, •. 1. A godly mans happiness or misery is not to be judged by the worlds sense or feeling, but his own.
- 2To make up happiness, these things must concur: First, it must be a convenient good, a suitable good to our natures; Secondly, it must be an excellent good, a good that hath worth and excellency in it; Thirdly, it must be a sufficient good, a few scrapings of gold will not make a man rich, &c. Fourthly, it must be a permanent good, it is permanency that s•ts the greatest price, and hath the greatest influence into our happiness and felicity.
