child is not to be governed by bis own fancy, but the father's discre- tion ; nor the sick man by bis own appetite, but the physician's skiU. It is expedient sometimes that God should make his people sad and displease them for their advantage : John xvi. 6, 7, ' Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts : nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go aw'ay.' "We are too much addicted to our own conceits : Christ's dealing is expedient and useful when yet it is very unsatisfactory to us : lie is to be judge of what is good for us, his going or tarrying, not we ourselves, who are short-sighted and distempered with passions, whose requests many times are but ravings, and ask of God we know not what, as the two brethren. Mat. xx. 22, and seek our bane as a blessing, as children would pkay with a knife that would cut and wound them, pray our- selves into a mischief and a snare. It were the greatest misery if God should carve out our condition according to our own fancy and desires. Peter said, Mat. xvii. 4, ' Master, it is good for us to be here ; ' he was well pleased to be upon Mount Tabor, but little thought what service >God had to do for him elsewhere, how much poor souls needed him and the other apostles' help. AVe would always be in the mount with God, enjoy our comforts to the full, even to surfeit; but God knows that is not good for us. His pleasure should satisfy us though we do not ?ee the reason of it. So Jer. xxiv. 5, God speaketh of the basket of good figs (whereby were represented the best of the people) whom I have sent into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. What can there be seemingly more contrary to their good than a hard and an afflicted lot out of their own country? Yet God, that foresaw all things, knew it was for their good ; worse evils would befiill the place where they had been. So to be kept under, to have no service for the present, no hopes to rise again for the future, and to be laden with all manner of prejudices and reproaches, this is for good. We think not so, but God knoweth it is so, most for his glory and our benefit. So the selling of Joseph into Egypt, Gen. 1. 20, ' God meant it to good/ Alas ! what good to liave the poor young man sold as a slave, to be cast into prison for his chastity and continency, and exposed to all manner of difficulties ! But alas ! many had perished if he had not been sent thither. So God taketli away many beloved comforts from us ; he meaneth it for good. We think it is all against us ; no, it is for us. So Ps. xxxiv. 10, ' They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.' Many times they want food and raiment, want liberty, at least in some degree ; they may want many things that are comfortable ; though they have things sparingly, though they have of the meanest, yet they have that wdiich is good for them. So Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, ' No good thing will he withhold.' He may keep us low and bare, feed us cibo extemporali, as Lactantius ; but that is good for us. If it were good for us to have larger revenues and incomes, we should not Avant them. The true and absolute ground of all submission is to think that which God seudeth is good, be it prosperity or adversity, the having or wanting children, or other comforts.
2. The next measure is this, that good is to be determined by its respect to the chief good or true happiness. Now, what is our chief hap- piness but the enjoyment of God ? Our happiness doth not consist in
254 SERMONS UPON psalj\i cxix. [See. LXXIX.
outward comforts, riches, health, honour, civil liberty, or comfortable relations, as husband, wife, children ; but in our relation to and ac- ceptance with God. Other things are but additional appendages to our happiness, Mat. vi. 33. Affliction taketh nothing from our essen- tial solid happiness, rather helpeth us in the enjoyment of it, as it increaseth grace and holiness, and so we enjoy Grod more surely. That is good that sets us nearer to God, and that is evil which sej)a- rateth us from him ; therefore sin is evil, because it maketh an estrangement between us and God, Isa. lix. 2 ; but aflSiction is good, because many times it maketh us the more earnestly to seek after him: Hosea v. 15, ' In their afflictions they will seek me right early.' There- fore every condition is good or evil as it sets farther off or draws us nearer to God ; that is good that tendeth to make us better, more like unto God, capable of communion with him, conduceth to our everlast- ing happiness. So ' It is good that a man bear the yoke from his youth,' Lam. iii. 27, that he be trained up under the cross, in a con- stant obedience to God and subjection to him, and so be fitted to entertain communion with him. If afflictions conduce to this end, they are good, for then they help us to enjoy the chief good.