And how happy should we then be! As happy as God Himself can make us. For He loves them who love Him, and makes all things else to do so, or at least to be as good to them as if they did. He gives His Angels charge over them, to keep them in all their ways: so that wheresoever they are, they have a guard of the Heavenly Host about them, and the Lord of Hosts Himself at the head of it. The Holy Spirit of God directs and assists them in what they do, and then blesses and sanctifies it to their good: yea, "all things work together for good to them who love Rom. 8. 28. God." So that nothing can happen in this world, but they are sure to be some way or other the better for it. And how happy they will be in the next, we are not able as yet to conceive. For "as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor 1 Cor. 2. 9. ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." And therefore I shall say no more of it, but pray to God that we may all be in the number of those who love Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord. SERMON CXV. THE GREAT HAPPINESS OF LOVING GOD. SERM. Eccles. 9. 1, 2. ver. 11. ROм. viii. 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. It is the wise man's observation, "that no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath." The same is confirmed by the common experience of all mankind: go where ye will, ye may with him also see under the sun, that "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill: but time and chance happeneth to them all," and to all alike. Almighty God seemeth to scatter, as it were, the things of this world among the good and bad promiscuously, without any regard to virtue or vice; but that some of both sorts may get more, some less, some little or nothing, according as it happens. Be sure there is no judging of what a man is by what he hath you can never know a wise man from a fool, a Christian from an Infidel, a Saint from a sinner, by his living in a palace or in a cottage, by his being clothed with robes or with rags, by his being rich or poor, healthful or sickly, in honour or disgrace, or by any outward circumstance whatsoever. If there be any 19-21. difference, the advantage seems mostly to lie on the side of vice and folly; the worst men having usually the most, and the best men the fewest of the good things, as they are called, here below; as we read in the Gospel, the wicked rich man "was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared Luke 16. sumptuously every day," while honest poor Lazarus "was laid at his gate full of sores, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table." So it is at this day; a Jew, a Turk, or if there be such a monster in nature, an Atheist, or which is much the same, a Deist, may thrive, and prosper, and flourish in the world, living in great ease, and plenty, and reputation among his neighbours, while such as live in the true faith and fear of God are destitute, afflicted, tormented, despised by all that are about them, or, at least, are in much worse condition as to outward appearance, than the other: I say, as to outward appearance; for if ye look into the inside of things, you will see it to be quite otherwise; for, after all, though wicked, profane, and irreligious people may abound for awhile in the riches, and pleasures, and honours of this world, and therefore may look big, and swagger, and conceit themselves to be happy, and may be esteemed so by others also as wise as themselves, yet all this while their condition is as bad as bad can be, on this side Hell: for, living in sin, they are under the displeasure and curse of Almighty God; so that all the fine things they so much boast of, are accursed to them, and serve only to enhance their reckoning, and increase their torment another day. Their table is only a snare to them, and their wealth an occasion of stumbling: their ease makes them secure, their honours proud, their strength presumptuous, and their plenty in this world puts all thoughts of the next out of their minds; so that they sail on, as they think, with a prosperous gale, till on a sudden they are engulphed, and swallowed up in the abyss of eternal misery, which they never thought of before. Thus all their seeming blessings are so many real curses to them, and contribute sometimes to their fears, and cares, and troubles in this life, and always to their greater misery and torment in that which is to come. Neither do only the things which they themselves enjoy, CXV. SERM. but all things else conspire their ruin: for He Who made and governs all things being incensed against them, nothing, be sure, can do them good, but every thing acting and moving only under Him, must needs run cross to them, and some way or other concur to execute His wrath and displeasure upon them. So that howsoever they may flatter themselves with what they seem to have at present, as it is impossible for them to receive any real happiness and satisfaction from it here, so it is impossible for them to escape [2 Thess. 1. everlasting destruction "from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power," except they repent, and turn to Him while they are in the body. 9.] But if they do that, if they turn to God, so as to love and honour Him, the case will be altered with them, so as to become just contrary to what it was before: before, all things wrought together for evil, but now all things shall work together for good to them. This we may be confident of, for so the Apostle himself was, when inspired by the infallible Spirit of God, saying, not only, we think, or suppose, or hope, but "we know," we are sure, "that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose;" who therefore are not only much happier than the other are, howsoever they may appear to the world, but they are the only happy people that are in it. But this being a matter wherein we are all so nearly concerned, it behoves us to look a little more narrowly into it, that we may get as clear a notion of it as we can : for which purpose it will be necessary to consider, I. Who they are who are here said "to love God," and to be "called according to His purpose;" that we may know whether we be in the number of them, and strive all we can to be so. II. What kind of good that is for which all things are here said "to work, to them who so love God." III. How all things work together for their good. I. First, therefore, by those who are here said "to love God," and to be "called according to His purpose," we are to understand, such as being regenerate of God's Holy 6 Spirit, and so made His children by adoption and grace, have their minds wholly bent and inclined towards Him, so as really to love and prefer Him that made all things before all things that He hath made; and so "are called out of [1 Pet.2.9.] darkness into His marvellous light," and that too, “accord ing to His purpose," or, as it is in the original, narà #góleo1v, ' according to purpose,' effectually, or, as we say, to purpose, so as to come in upon their being called, and to answer the end of it, by "cleaving unto the Lord with purpose of heart," Acts 11. 23. and making it their constant business to keep His Commandments, to serve and glorify Him, and to finish the work which He hath given them to do. "He that hath My John 14.21. Commandments," saith He, "and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." Whatsoever people may pretend, He doth not look upon them as having any real love for Him, unless they know His will and do it: but as many as do that, He reckons them in the number of His friends, His servants, His children, His elect, His saints, His peculiar people: and accordingly He takes particular care of them, and manifesteth His special love and favour to them, by ordering all things so as may tend most to their benefit and advantage; so that "all things," as the Apostle here saith, "work together for good to them." II. "For good:" not for this or that particular good, but for good in general; nor for that which may only seem good in their own or other people's eyes, but that which is good for them in the judgment of God Himself, and by consequence, for their real, spiritual, and eternal good for whatsoever can any way conduce to their being and doing good while they are upon earth, to the making of them "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in [Col.1.12.] light," and so to the bringing of them at last to the actual possession of it. That this is properly the good for which all things work together to them who are so called, appears from the reason which the Apostle gives of it in the words following my text, saying, "For whom He did foreknow, Rom. 8. 29, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of 30. His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and |