5thly. Keadiness to do many things on the sole account of God's glory is also required hereunto. I have showed that there are par ticular and general ends of our moral actions, and how they differ. Now, our particular end cannot be made a general end, but our gene ral end may be made a particular; that is, the immediate end of what we do, without the interposition of any other. So ought we to make the glory of God the particular end of much of what we
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do in the world, especially of what we suffer. Discarding all other considerations and motives, the concern of the glory of God is that which alone should influence us, and is itself the thing alone that we should aim at.
(2.) We live unto God as our Lord, when our principal aim is to enjoy him as our chief good. This is our utmost end and blessed ness, the excellency and pre-eminence of our nature consisting in its capacity for such a happiness. And there is a double enjoyment of God whereof we are capable; — the one present, in his love and favour; the other future, in the presence of his glory: and they are both intended in this rule.
[1.] Whoever lives to God as his chief end, prefers the present en joyment of God, in his love and favour in Christ, before all other things in the world. So doth the psalmist, Ps. iv. 6, 7, Ixiii. 3. In deed, he walks not with God, nor glorifies him as God, whose principal aim and endeavour in this world is not to enjoy his favour in Christ, and to be made partaker of the pledges of his love and grace. And we may observe concerning it, — 1st. That he who doth so will not have his endeavours after it, nor his care about it, nor his love to it, abated, in the greatest confluence of earthly mercies. Nor, Zdly. will he de spond of finding rest and satisfaction in God under the greatest pres sures imaginable. Sdly. It may be observed, also, that our aim and design at the present enjoyment of God in the tokens of his love is the true measure of what our real desires are to enjoy God in glory when we shall be here no more. For take that alone by itself, and it is a matter wherein men are very apt to deceive themselves. Every one would "die the death of the righteous/' and would, out of a natu ral desire of happiness, with traditional notions, wherein that must consist, come to the enjoyment of God. But all these things may be false and deceiving. We have, indeed, no more desire to come to the future immediate enjoyment of God than we have desire to enjoy him here in his love and favour by Christ at present. [But,]
[2.] The future enjoyment of God in glory is the great design of all that walk with God, and belongs in an especial manner unto our living unto him as our chief and utmost end. This is spoken out plainly in the nature of the thing itself; for if God be our chief good, ultimate end, and eternal reward, it cannot be but that our prin cipal design must be to attain the enjoyment of him. And that this may be regular, two things are required : —
1st. That we look for it by the way that he hath appointed. Now, this is only by faith in Christ Jesus; for none can come to God but by him. God despiseth all attempts for the enjoyment of him by any other way or by any other means, as knowing that those who use them seek not him, but themselves. And therefore those natural desires
580 ENOCH'S WALK WITH GOD.
which all men have, to go to God when they die, are no evidence that they either live to God or walk with him. They only are ac cepted in this duty who make Jesus Christ, with faith and obedience in him, the way of attaining their end.
2dly. That we aim at the enjoyment of God as a spiritual good, and at a holy, spiritual satisfaction in him. God is herein to be eyed as infinite holiness, infinite goodness, infinite power, all in an infinite, eternal being. Wherefore our blessedness in the enjoyment of God consists in our eternal contemplation of these things, and assimila tion unto them, according unto our capacity and measure. This is that which is to be the object of our desires. For men to have carnal notions of God and glory, or those which will give satisfaction unto their natural appetites and affections, is but to dream away their souls into disappointment and misery.
And this is the first thing in them who design to live unto God, — namely, that in all things they make him their chief end.
2. Where the prevailing design of our souls is to live unto God, his revealed will is the rule and measure of all we do, either in religion or in our course in this world. God doth as much require that his will be our rule as that his glory be our end ; and it is equally ne cessary that it should be so, from his nature and ours. If we make OUT own reason or our own desires to be our rule, we cast off our depend ence on the rule of God, and make ourselves to be in the stead of God unto ourselves. But it is a principal part of the design insisted on to do what God would have us to do, and to be what God would have us to be ; without which we can never either please God or have peace in our own souls. Now, that we may thus make the will of God in all things to be our rule and measure, to give bounds unto our affec tions and desires, and order unto our actions, it is necessary, —