_Of the end proposed by |Christian Prudence|, and the general means of obtaining it_.
1. BY prudence I here mean, the same with wisdom, a practical knowledge of the best end and the best means to attain it, actually directing us to the choice of that end, and the use of those means.
2. The end of every reasonable creature is God: for he alone is the true object of our happiness: all the happiness we desire, or are capable of, being to be found in him, and him only.
3. That the happiness of man is not to be found in any thing but in God, is usually proved by shewing that it cannot consist in sensual pleasure, riches, honour or power. But the shortest way of proving it is, by shewing at once that it cannot consist in any created good. For as by happiness we mean a state wherein the mind totally acquiesces, and takes full rest and satisfaction, so that which is the object of happiness must be such a good, as perfectly satisfies the mind, contents all its desires, and gives it an absolute tranquility and repose. But that no creature does this is plain from experience, from the vanity which we find in all things, and that restlesness and desire of change which is consequent upon it. *We try one thing after another, as the searching bee wanders from flower to flower; but we go off from every one with disappointment, and a deluded expectation. Almost every thing promises, but nothing answers, and even the succession of new enjoyments (the best remedy for the emptiness we find in each) amuses, but does not satisfy. And as no created good actually does this, so ’tis plain by reason none can. For as none but infinite truth can satisfy the understanding, so only infinite good can satisfy the will. But this the creature is not. As its being is, so is its goodness, both of a limited extent, and so by no means fit to satisfy the capacity of that mind, which aspires after all good. Every creature therefore must confess its utter insufficiency to be the object of our happiness: Nay, the whole collection and amasment of created good, must acknowledge the same; the very depth and abyss of it must say, _It is not in me_.
4. It is in God alone: he is the fountain of eternal blessedness; all the springs of our happiness are in him: he is our good, and our end, as being every way sufficient for our happiness. For he is all goodness; he is that infinite good which is the entire and adequate object of our will; and which being the proper object of all its inclinations, must needs be able to satisfy them. They cannot aspire to any thing beyond him, and therefore must needs center and acquiesce in him. _When I awake up after thy likeness_, I shall be satisfied with it. Then, and not before; which all resolves into that pious saying of St. _Austin_, _Thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart has no rest till it rests in thee_.