Heavenly merchandiseHeavenly merchandize

3. Why every one ought to buy the Truth.

A. There are three things, which if they be put together, will sufficiently clear up the Reason of this duty, and they are.

1: The necessity which all men stand in of it; the well being of every man hath a real dependence upon his having of it, without a spiritual and saving knowledge of the great Truths of the Gospel, there is no Salvation to be expected by any of the children of men, Hos. 4. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, without Truth in the Understanding, there can be no moral goodness in the will; without the knowing of God and Christ, there can be no believing on him; till the eyes of the mind be enlightened; the enmity of the heart will still remain in it, and there can be nothing but estrangedness from God: they, and none but they that know him, will put their trust in him, Psal. 9: 10. where Divine Truth is not exhibited, there Perdition reigns and rageth, Prov. 29. 18. Where there is no Vision, the people perish. If a man could gather together all the wealths and delights of this lower world, and enjoy them in the fullest measure ⟨p. 20⟩of content that he is capable of, if yet he be without the Truth, he is for all this a poor and a miserable man. He cannot live well without it; for his whole life can be nothing else but one perpetual wandering out of the paths of peace, and straggling in the way that leads to destruction. Truth is the only directrix of a mans life, so as to make it regular, and guide it safely, hence that,