great question, Whither shall I go? What
shall I do to find it? All men know they must seek it. But Christ tells
where they shall seek it, and whither they shall go. The word of the
gospel is for this very purpose to answer this question. If we were
sensible that we had lost happiness, certainly we would be earnest in this
question, where shall it be recovered? What shall I seek after? And no
answer would satisfy but the gospel itself, that directs unto the very
fountain of life, and holds "forth the kingdom of God" as the true
happiness of men to be sought. "Seek ye first," says Christ, "the kingdom
of God," and the righteousness thereof. Here only is a solid answer. Seek
me, for I am eternal life, I am the life and the light of men. Oh! that
your souls answered, with David, "Thy face, Lord, I will seek." Peter had
sought and found, and thought himself well, so that he answers Christ with
great vehemency, when he said unto his disciples, "Will ye also leave me?"
Peter saith, Leave thee, Lord, "to whom should we go but unto thee, for
thou hast the words of eternal life? And we believe and are sure, that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," John vi. 66, &c. It were
all the absurdity in the world to leave thee, or to go to any other thing
for life itself. Shall not death be found, if I leave life? It were
madness not to seek thee, but what shall it be called to leave thee, when
I have found and tasted thee to be so good? Every man misses happiness and
justification within himself, and so is upon the search after it. But is
it not strange, that all the experiences of nations and generations
conjoined in one, cannot hold forth even a probable way of attaining it?
Gather them all in one, the sum and result is, "We have heard the fame
thereof with our ears," but "it is hid from the eyes of all living," as we
read more fully, and should apply, what Job said of wisdom, to the true
happiness of man, Job xxviii. 12, to the end of that chapter. Certainly
there is some fundamental and common mistake among men. They know not what
was once man's happiness, and so it is impossible they can seek the right
remedy. Look upon us all, what do we seek after? It is some present thing,
some bodily and temporal thing, that men apprehend their happiness lies
in, and so whether they attain it or not, or being attained, it doth not
answer our expectation, and thus still are we disappointed, and our base
scent becomes a vain pursuit, whet