And to sweeten our pains in this work, that will of God, for the discovery whereof we search, is presented to us under three illustrious and alluring properties : viz. good^ acceptable, and per- feet. Good it must needs be, because the mil and essence of God, the chief good, are not two things, but one and the same. And perfect it must needs be, because it is the beam and standard by which the actions of all reasonable creatures ought to be weighed and tried as to the moral good and evil of them. And being both good and perfect, how can it chuse but, upon both accounts, be highly acceptable and grateful to an upright soul, as that epithet zmpscov, there imports. Search the scriptures, saith Christ, John V. 39. To the law, and to the testimony, saith the prophet, Isa. viii. 20. This is not matter of mere Christian liberty, but commanded duty ; and at our peril be it, if we neglect it.
Consider. 2. No acts of ours can be good and acceptable to the Lord, further than it is agreeable to his will revealed in the word.
No man can be a rule to himself. He can be no more his own
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Tvile tlian his own end. One man cannot be a rule to another. The best of* men, and their actions and examples, are only so far a rule of imitation to us, as they themselves are ruled by the Di- vine revealed will, 1 Cor. xi. 1. uncommanded acts of worship are abominable to God, and highly dangerous to ourselves ; they kindle the fire of his jealousy, to the ruin and destruction of the presumptuous sinner. Lev. x. 1, ^. So that if the beauty and excellency of the will of God be not enough to allure us, the danger of acting without the knowledge of it, may justly terrify us.
Consid. 3. In this duty we tread in the footsteps of the wisest and holiest men that ever went to heaven before us.
It is not only the characteristical note of a good man, Psal. i. 2. but it has been the constant practice of the most eminent believers in all ages. The greatest prophets, who had this advantage of us, that they were the organs, or inspired instruments of discovering the will of God to others, yet were not excused from, neither did they neglect to search it diligently themselves, 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. Daniel, that great favourite of heaven, who had the visions and revelations of God ; yet he himself diligently searched the written word, in order to the discovery of the mind of God, Dan. ix. 2.
Consid. 4. Every discovery of the will of God by fervent prayer, diligent, and impartial search of the scriptures, and all other allowed helps, gives the highest pleasure the mind of man is capable of in this world.
If Archimedes, upon the discovery of a mathematical truth was so transported and ravished, that he cried out, sy^^j/ca, sua^jxa, / have found it, Ihavejbund it ; what pleasure then must the investigation and discovery of a Divine truth give to a sanctified soul ! " Thy " words were found of me (saith Jeremiah) and I did eat them ; " and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart,"^ Jer. XV. 16. as pleasant food to a famishing man; for now conscience is quieted, comforted, and cheered in the way of duty. A man walks not at adventure with God, as that word signifies, Lev. xxvi. 40, 41. but hath the pleasant directive light of the word and will of God, shining sweetly upon the path of his duty.
Consid. 5. By this means you shall find your faith greatly con- firmed in the truth of the scriptures.
The sweet consent and beautiful harmony of all the parts of the written word is a great argument of its Divinity ; and this you will clearly discern, when by a due search, you shall find tilings that lie at the remotest distance, to conspire and consent in one, and one part casting light, as well as adding strength to another
4;54< A BLOW AT THE HOOT ; OK,
Thus you shall find, Vetus testamentinii in novorevelatum^et novum in vetere veJatum ; the New Testament veiled in the Old, and the Old revealed in the New : and that such a consent of things, so distant in time and place, can never be the project and invention of man.
Consid. 6. The diligent and impartial search and inquiry after the will of God, out of no other design than to please him in the whole course of our duties, will turn to us for a testimony of the integrity and sincerity of our hearts.
Thy icord (said David) have I hid in my heart., that I might not sin against thee. And God will not hide his will from those that thus seek to know it. If men would applv themselves to search the word by frequent prayer and fixed meditations, upon so pure a design, not bringing their prejudiced or prepossessed minds unto it; the Spirit of the Lord would guide them into all truth, and keep them out of dangerous and destructive errors.
Cause 4. Besides the sloth fulness of the mind, there is found in many persons another evil disposition preparing them easily to re- ceive erroneous impressions ; namely, the INSTABILITY and fickleness of the judgment, and unsettledness of mind about the truth of the gospel.
Of this the apostle v> arns us, Eph. iv. 14. " That we henceforth be " no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every " wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness '• whereby they lie in wait to deceive."*** None are so constant and steady in the profession of the truth, as those that are fully convinced of, and well satisfied with the grounds of it. Every professor, like every ship at sea, should have an ihm ^ri^if/xsi, a ballast and steadiness of his own, 2 Pet. iii. 17. ready, and prepared to render a reason of the hope that is in him, 1 Pet. iiu 15. able upon all occasions to give an account of those inward motives which constrained his assent to the truth.
He that professeth a truth ignorantly, cannot be rationally sup- posed to adhere to it constantly. He that is but half convinced of a truth, when he engages in the profession of it, must needs be di'^vy^oG a'^ni, a double-minded man, as the apostle calls him, James i. 8. half the mind hangs one way, and half another, and so it is easily moveable this way or that, with the least breath of tempta- tion. And hence it comes to pass they are so often at a loss about their duty and their practice; for, Animi volutatio pendentem reddit vitam ; i. e. a doubtful mind must needs make a staggering and uncertain practice.
Erroneous teachers are called wandering stars^ Jude 13. which keep no certain course, as the fixetl stars do, but are sometimes nearer, and sometimes remoter one from another. Thus errorists.
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first imbibe unsettled opinions, and then discover tliem in their in- constant practices. Bcrtius wrote a book, dc Apostatia Sanctorum^ and soon after turned Papist. The Socinians and Libertines teach, that a man of any persuasion in rehgion, may be saved, so that he walk not contrary to his own light : such doctrine directly tends to scepticism in religion.