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you may have it with God's hatred, who can make you miserable when- ever he pleaseth. He can blast you with diseases, fill you with dis- quiets of soul, embitter all your comforts. But suppose you had the love of God, then what wanteth to your solid satisfaction and peace ? That is the sweetest thing that ever was felt : Ps. iv. 6, 7, ' There be many that say, Who will show us any good ? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us; thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their corn and wine increased ;' Ps. Ixiii. 3, ' Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee/ This is marrow and fatness ; one drop of it sweeteneth all our crosses, and it is the life of all our comforts.
[3.] Wisdom inviteth to an holy and heavenly life, or to all those ways and means whereby we may come to enjoy God at last ; and this breedeth the lively foresight of that fulness of joy and glory which ravisheth the soul. Is it nothing to you to live for ever with God, and to see his glory, and to be perfected in holiness and happiness ? This is the end of the ways you walk in. Alas ! others can never have solid comfort ; they know where they are, but they know not where they shall be. When they die, they must go into an unknown world ; yea, which is worse, to an unknown God, of whose love they never had any taste or experience, and therefore cannot deal with him when they come into his presence. But those that have lived always in the sight of a world to come, and kept themselves in the way that leadeth thither, they have solid rejoicing : Eom. v, 2, ' We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.' What though they be ill-treated for the present ? things will be otherwise in heaven: Mat. v. 12, 'Kejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.' Well, then, from the whole, the only satisfying delights of man can be nowhere but in the pardon of sins, love of God, and the foresight of endless glory, which is alone had in the paths of wisdom.
2. From the manner how it is obtained : ' Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and her paths are paths of peace.' It is by walking, not by speculation. It is a ravishing thing to understand heavenly doctrine, and to see the apt proportion and due connection between ends and means ; especially when we have it not only upon tradition, but our own search and study : Prov. xxiv. 13, 14, ' My son, eat thou honey, because it is good ; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste : so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to thy soul, when thou hast found it ; then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.' There is a comparison between the delights of the body and the delights of the soul ; what honey is to the body, that is wisdom to the soul. There is a ravishing sweetness in the study and contemplation of truth ; when by searching, reading, hearing, meditating, we have found it out, there is an incredible delectation. Alas ! wisdom and knowledge to the ignorant and foolish world seemeth as wormwood, but to the diligent, painful student it is as the honey and honeycomb. A man in his study hath truer pleasure than the greatest epicure in the most exquisite enjoyments of sense ; especially when this contemplation is employed about divine truths, as salvation by Christ, reconciliation with God, and eternal life. But the pleasure of contemplation is nothing to the pleasure of practice. Why ?
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[1.] Because practice giveth a more experimental knowledge of these tilings, for there they are confirmed and verified in ourselves. We have not only a sight, but a taste. We have a sight by contemplation, but we have a taste by practice ; and are more deeply and intimately acquainted and affected with these things : 1 Peter ii. 3, ' If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.'
[2.] The taste of these things is kept upon our hearts by serious obedience and practice. If there be any taste by speculation, it is very vanishing : it leaveth the heart little the warmer ; but here it abidetli and remaineth with us : John xv. 11, ' These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and your joy might be full.' They were cheered when they heard Christ's comfortable promise ; but when they were in the pursuit and practice, it filled their minds with more durable pleasure ; it abode in them in a more full and constant manner. It is a flash of joy that is stirred up by contemplation, but this of practice and fruitful obedience is a constant, solid, and uninterrupted joy ; it doth not die away so soon as the other.
[3.] Every holy action is rewarded by peace of conscience : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world.' Not every act of contemplation, for that is an imperfect operation till the effect succeed, and so far as to be our common practice.