to him to see God hiding himself from his Child and that Child broken with fears torn in pieces with Griefs made a Brother to Dragons a Companion to Owls under restless Anxieties perpetual Lamentations feeble and sore broken their Tongue cleaving to their Jaws their Bowels boyling their Bones burnt with heat and their flesh consumed * Dr. Gilpin on Satans Temptations Part 2. p. 281. He sets upon us after we have been long troubled and weary with our March in the doleful Night And which is the sorrow of our sorrows God may for a long while leave us in his hands and by his usage of Job we know what his temper is Luke 22.31 'T is the hour and the power of darkness Eleventhly Sometimes this Sorrow is mixed with deep Despair It is a Tempestuous and Stormy Night And as Paul said in another case All hope of their being saved is taken away I shall surely perish saith the mourning soul I am damned I am lost for ever I am already as in Hell under unexpressible insupportable pains and amazing fears the Lord will be favourable no more he hath shut up his Bowels and his Tender Mercies he is gone he is gone from me and he is for ever gone No more shall I call him Father no more shall I behold his shining face no more shall I hear his kind and loving Voice he is my Judge and my Enemy and I am afraid he will be so for ever He hath cast me off he hath forsaken me he hath condemned me and I am lost for ever I am now like to have my poor Soul gathered with Sinners and with Bloody Men I am now never like to see that Heaven where I once hoped to go I see nothing but ruin nothing but desolation nothing but blackness of darkness and these unbelieving despairing Conclusions produce hard and strange thoughts of God and an enmity to him in our minds Twelsthly Looking upon their present troubles as an Introduction to more and that these are but the beginning of sorrows Isa 38.13 I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my bones from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me How often do we hear such saying Oh! what will become of me should I dye in such a state as I now am in in such horror and amazement where will my guilty soul then go Alas I am no way prepared to give up my accounts and yet am like every moment to be called away If I cannot bear these Pains and this Wrath what shall I do to bear an Eternal Hell If I tremble so now what shall I do when the blow is given and the final Sentence past I have but one change to make and it is like to be a sad and woful change God knows I dare neither live nor dye Oh! what shall I do whither shall I go Stay I must not and depart I dare not I am now sorely tormented and must I be for ever and for ever so and worse too I now see that the Gate is strait and the way is narrow and that there will be few indeed that will be saved The shadows of the Evening are stretched out upon me and what shall I do if it prove an Eternal night For as it is the glory of Faith to shew us future things as if actually present and to give us joy from them so considered So it is the torment of despair to make poor distressed Souls believe they are even as in Hell whilest they are on Earth and that they are actually scorched with that wrath that is to come in greater measures Thirteenthly From all these follow strange discourses and expressions of sorrow they are forced to complain to cry out and to weep bitterly Job 7.11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth I will speak in the anguish of my spirit I will complain in the bitterness of my soul They speak without any manner of concern or fear things that both vex themselves and make others tremble they scarce care what they say of God or of themselves My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitterness of my soul Job 10.1 3. Nay they frequently proceed to wish they had never been born knowing it is better not to be than to be miserable Job 3. Job 10.16 17 18. Nay they may proceed so far as to wish even to be destroyed that they may know the worst Such is the sorrow of their hearts and so violent Job 6.26 Do ye imagine to reprove words and to reprove the speeches of one that is desperate which are as wind And there are two things that make their sorrows more sorrowful 1. As comparing their state with that of others 2. As with their own former state 1. It makes them more sad when they consider the case of others with what peace and joy they live with what hope and comfort whilest they are drowned in sorrows Others says the deserted Soul can sing the Praises of God with delight whilest I am overwhelmed and my Harp is hung upon the Willows others can go into the solemn Assemblies and hear his Word but I am confined in my thick darkness and dare not go thither others have the hope of Heaven and I have the dayly fear of Hell I am like to see others enter into Glory and my self shut out Oh! what have my sins done If I had not greatly sinned I might have had as much quietness and comfort and peace as they and I that am now cut down for my unfruitfulness might have been serving God with as much chearfulness and light and hope as they do 2. When the deserted soul compares its present with its former state To a person in misery it is a great increase of misery to have been once happy It was to David an occasion of new Tears when he remembred his former Joys Psal 42.3 4. Time was says the poor Soul when I thought of God with comfort and when I thought of him as my own God and to lose a God that I once enjoyed is the Loss of all my Losses and of all my Terrors the most Terrible Time was when I could go and pray to him and ease my self in Prayer but now I have no boldness no hope no success in Prayer I cannot call him my Father any more Time was when I could read the Bible and treasure up the Promises and survey the Land of Canaan as my own inheritance but now I dare not look into the Word lest I read my own Condemnation there The Sabbath was formerly to me as one of the days of Heaven but now it is also as well as the rest a sad and a mournful day I formerly rejoyced in the name of Christ I sat under his shadow Cant. 8.10 I was in his eyes as one that found favour but now my soul is like the deserts of Arabia I am scorched with burning heat From
intentions to ruin and destroy but God with a design in all his Corrections to purify and reform and to do us good in the latter end 2 Sam 24.13 14. God came to David and told him Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy Land Or wilt thou flee three Months before thine enemies while they pursue thee or that there be three days pestilence in thy land Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me And David said unto Gad I am in a great strait let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man Inf. 4. What a good Master is God whose anger is but for a moment other Masters may be hasty and froward and hard to please but he is patient and slow to wrath he is never angry till we disobey his voice and by our Laziness in his work force him to it and even then his nature enclines him to moderate our stripes and he adds no more than what are necessary to promote our good he treats us not as slaves but exercises toward us a mild and a favourable Government He threatens a long while before he punishes the clouds gather blackness to give us notice of a coming Storm and the Thunder of his wrath as well as that of nature doth roar before it falls he threatens and advises and perswades and uses several affectionate expostulations with us before we feel the Rod and when in vindicating his own right he seems to be very Just he ceases not at the same time to be very Good we frequently provoke him and he is most ready to forgive he seeks not advantages against us nor waits for our halting it grieves him when we sin and he is only angry that we may repent he delights in peace and not in war in the manifestations of his Mercy and Love more than in the terrible discoveries of his wrath He whets his Sword before he strikes that in the preparations of his Judgments we may see what we may expect and seek to prevent them He summons us to surrender our selves before he begins to make us by sharper methods to be sensible of our follies and whilst his Rod is in his hand he stays to see if we will even then return and he is unwilling to punish even when he is forced to do it as a tender Judge does with sorrow and regret pronounce Sentence upon a Malefactor Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel Psal 78.38 Many a time he turned his anger away He recall'd or order'd his anger to return as one expresses it as if he were unresolved what to do he recalled it as a man does his Servant several times when he is sending him upon an unwelcome Message or as a tender-hearted Prince trembles when he is to sign a Writ for the death of a Rebel that had been before his Favourite he blots out his name again and flings away the Pen He singles out here and there some of his Servants when he might punish all for their sins he makes one smart to be a warning to the rest and according to the Doctrine of the Schoolmen He recompences good works far above their merit but he punishes Crimes far below their demerit He makes his Mercy to triumph over Judgment he punishes with regret and he retains a great deal of his wrath when he corrects but he keeps no measure when he rewards and the miseries of the miserable are not greater than the joy and happiness of the blessed Oh! who would not serve so gracious and so good a Master as God is and who is long before he is angry and who is soon appeased again Are the cruel commands of Satan the slavery of the World the defilement of Sin to be preferred to the gentle and the pure Commands of God How many Curse their folly in adhearing to these but none repent that they have been employed in his service His most Aged Servants find the greatest Honour and delight in having served him very long and would not quit their experienced and kind Master for all the World They know that his Corrections are short but his Love is Everlasting his wrath is for a moment but their Heaven will be for ever Inf. 5. The Enemies of the Church of God have no Reason to insult over such as are afflicted in it for tho God for their sins is angry yet his anger is but for a moment Thus they treated David Psal 41.1 All that hate me whisper against me an evil disease say they cleaveth to him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more And Psal 42.3 My tears have been my meat day and night while they say continually unto me Where is thy God They thought him entirely forsaken and abandon'd for ever putting these Questions to him What is now become of thy God in whom thou wast wont to boast Where is he now whom thou didst once call thy refuge and thy hiding-place Where is his power and his goodness that he leaves thee to such a deep and violent affliction In allusion to that of Shimei 2 Sam. 16.6 7 8 Thus said Shimei when he cursed Come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the Kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy Son Behold thou art taken in thy mischiefs because thou art a bloody man This bold Man put a wicked interpretation on the Providence of God and because David met with so many troubles and such interruption in his Affairs ere the Kingdom was well setled in his hand he thought that God was against him but he lived to sit with prosperity on the Throne for many years together and Shimei had leisure enough wherein to repent of his foolish and extravagant reproaches of so good a King Thus the Barbarians thought that Paul had been a Murderer because a Viper fixed upon his hand and that vengeance had pursued him for some great offence till he shook it off and taught them to see how ill-grounded their opinion was and that the God they thought his Enemy did assist him to work Miracles When you see any greatly afflicted and groaning under a sense of the wrath of God you ought rather to tremble than to rejoyce to weep than to laugh to consider how holy and how just God is seeing he will not spare even his own for all his Elect shall at one time or other taste the bitterness of sin You that were never serious have reason to humble your selves and to think what may you expect when his Children are Corrected after so severe a manner If his own Family suffer such afflictions what has he then in store for his open Enemies If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall
Lake of Fire O do not wound nor destroy nor torment your own Souls do not carry fuel to that Fire which will never be quenched do not run into the Furnace out of which there is no escape for the Lord's sake and for your own sake and for the sake of your friends that would fain see you to become Religious awake and call every one of you upon your God seek him while he may be found hear his voice while it is called to day lest the God that alone can help you laugh at your Calamity lest he that is now so merciful hereafter take pleasure in your Punishment if you will forget your danger and sleep on know when you are in Hell you will be then forced to open your eyes and they must never be closed again Oh what a dreadful and amazing light will you then see when you see the Great God to be your Enemy the Devil to be your Tormentor damned Souls to be your Companions and Everlasting Fire to be your own Portion God will not then repent of the evil he will not then send his Messengers with glad tidings any more What will you do in the day of the Lord Nahum 1.5 6. The mountains quake at him the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him Have we not some representation of the Terror of the great day in some greater Thunders that make us tremble that with their Noise and Lightning make the Inhabitants of this Earth to be astonisht The voice of the Lord is powerful and full of majesty the voice of the Lord rends the air and sends out flames of fire Psal 29.4 But what a more terrible season will that be when we shall hear the Voice of the last Trumpet saying Arise ye dead and come to judgment When the Elements shall melt with fervent heat when the Sun shall be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Blood When the Stars shall fall from Heaven and this admired Earth shall be full of Convulsions and Violent Agitations when the Seas shall roar and the Graves open and the Judge appear in the Clouds when you shall hear the Cracks and the Groans of the dissolving world where will you sinners hide your heads what will you then think of the Wrath of God in that great and that terrible day You will then wish that you had never been born Oh how happy would you then reckon your selves might you but go into the Grave again Oh how happy if you could but dye but it will flye from you this is that Hell where the wicked must live and ever live tho it be in misery Oh little do you think what you do when you sin you are like a man that should be drinking at the edge of a Furnace into which he were to be thrown when he had drank a few glasses off Like a Malefactor that is jolly and merry over-night and is to be executed the next day Then you shall see that it shall be well with the Righteous tho it go ill with you Judge of things now as they will appear to be at that day join your selves to that Society among which you would then be found Judge of Religion as it will then appear Here it seems through the many afflictions and sorrows that attend it not to be such a lovely thing but then it will appear in its true Lustre and its fullest Beauty Here you see many times a true Servant of God brought very low complaining of his Iniquities now you hear his Groans but a moment hence you shall hear his Praises and his Hallelujahs It is night with him now but a Moment hence you shall see him Triumph in Eternal day He is now in a strange land but shortly he will be with his God at rest in Heaven and happy is he that gets to such a Blessedness though he go out with a sad Heart and weeping Eyes and meet with broken Bones and many a trembling dispensation in his way thither What course will you take Which pattern will you chuse Will you serve God or your own Lusts Will you have your portion here or in the World to come Will you be content with the present Afflictions of Religion in hope of Eternal Joy Consider that they are not to be judged the most happy men who fare well for a moment but those that do so for ever If you serve your Sin you will have pleasure it may be for a while but Bitterness and Sorrows in the latter end your farewell will be very terrible Will you please your selves for a moment and venture an eternal Wrath or will you not rather yield your selves to a Gracious and a Loving God and then you shall sow in tears but you shall reap in joy you may feel his anger for a moment but he will entertain you in his own Kingdom for ever Inf. 7. We have no cause to be offended with the prosperity of the Wicked 'T is true the Righteous are now sowing in tears but they shall reap in joy In a little while it shall be the portion of the Ungodly to Mourn and to be Sorrowful Would you envy a Malefactor that is jovial and pleasant over night When you know he is to be led to Execution the next day His approaching Punishment might justly spoil the relish of his own dainties but however it gives the Spectators no occasion of grudging him his Drunken joys seeing they are the last that the poor man is ever like to have and a little space obscures all the gaity of his looks with an Everlasting cloud It is no just objection against the wisdom of the Divine Providence That the good are afflicted whilst the Rod of God is not upon the bad For he gives to the one the Blessings of the right hand the knowledge of Himself and their own Duty whilst to the other he only gives the Blessings of the left hand Riches and Honour and the like goods which being only outward and for this present World they are not of so great a value as those which are Spiritual and relate to a life to come We think it fares well with the Wicked because we do not for the present see them shed so many Tears nor complain after so doleful a manner as the good are often forced to do But we see not in what chains they are held nor with how many stinging thoughts their minds are harass'd all the while they forget God We see not the perplexities to which they are reduced by the contrary commands of divers Lusts It we consider that God is angry with them every day and that we know not but in a day or two they may be cut off and perish we shall have no cause to murmur at their
doth behold the upright Psalm 11.7 He encourages the weakness of that Soul that is tender and afraid of sin he will not treat you with the kindness that he shews to his honourable Subjects if you take part with his open enemies Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15.14 Obedience is the genuine effect of so excellent and so near an alliance and 't is the proof and evidence thereof Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and doth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him And vers 23. We will come unto him and make our abode with him A Promile full of Mercy Words that have in them all that is desirable that are big with consolation What can a soul wish for more than to have God the Father and the Son to have them for his Friends for his Guest and not only to tarry for a night or a day but for ever Not to comfort him with a transient visit which were a great privilege but to dwell with him Oh! blessed is the House that hath such Inhabitants and blessed is the Soul who is thus honoured and esteemed By obeying his Commands you shew your selves to be vessels of Honour and when you are so he will at one time or other fill you brim-full of Joy If you serve the Devil you can by no means have that satisfaction that flows from the hope of being a Son of God and an Heir of Heaven And tho' his Showers fall upon the Sands as well as on the manured and cultivated ground yet till you are fruitful you cannot expect to be refresh'd with his gentle and comfortable Dews There are peculiar influences of his Grace that fall upon his inclosed Gardens and not upon the Deserts If favour should be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness Isa 26.10 It shines like the Sun on a Rock he is no more fruitful no more tender-hearted than he was before if you embrace your ancient Sins if you hold on your correspondence with your former Lusts God will not pour the oyl of gladness into such old and depraved hearts if we go on in sin we violate our own serenity and raise within our breasts a multitude of storms whereas Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them And so Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Isa 64.15 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness By these means you shall obtain the favour of God and when you have so obtained it CHAP. IV. Shewing that we ought to take heed that we do not lose the favour of God after we have once enjoyed it and what we are to do that we may not fall into a condition so miserable at this would be 7. TAke great heed that you do not lose the favour of God again It is true indeed that those whom God once loves he loves to the end they are not suffered totally to be miserable but yet they may lose the sense of his favour and all the comfort that once flowed from the pleasant thought That he was their God Those that have sailed with a very prosperous gale may upon their negligence be tost with very many storms and may be terrified with a Thousand dangers and calamities whilest they do not see the Sun Moon and Stars for many days and nights together and tho' they do not at length fall short of Heaven yet they may travel as through a Wilderness in their way thither and not meet with those clusters of the promised Land with those joys and comforts that others meet withal The Spirit may suspend his influences and leave the Conscience in a very lamentable slate and take away the peace that he once gave so that the poor soul in that condition cannot but look upon it self with as sad an eye as if it were a reprobate and great difficulties and dangers there are ere the spirit return again to repair the breaches which our sin hath made The disorders of our souls afterwards remain a great while and it will cost us vast labour to remove them as when some River that is very muddy has overflowed the neighbouring Fields tho' it do return to its ordinary Channel yet it nevertheless leaves those places all covered with slime and dirt The least Eclipse of the Face of God is a very formidable thing 't will shake all the powers of your souls and put you into such terror as will seem to be like Hell it self If you be so foolish as upon slight temptations to forfeit his favour you ll dearly pay for that folly you may do that in a moment that may fill you with astonishment and sorrows all your days and make you go at last mourning to the Grave You may by a sudden fall have your Bones broken and it may be never again recover your former ease and strength do not therefore wound nor bruise your selves If you are not very careful that Candle of the Lord that shines upon your Tabernacle may be removed and then you I know by a sad experience that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against him Tho' you now do not question your title to Salvation yet you shall then be full of doubts and fears tho' you are now looking to God as to a Friend yet you shall then be forced to look upon him as an Enemy and think your afflictions not the rebukes of a Father but of an angry Judge He will be indeed the same God still as full of Goodness and of Love but to you he will be as a Fountain sealed up and your poor mourning souls like the Mountains of Gilboa curst and barren there will be no Dew nor Rain upon them Tho' you are never so flourishing now yet then the sharpness of the Winter will blast all your Fruit that the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall there be any fruit in the Vine and the labour of the Olive shall fail Consider how great was the sorrow of David when God was for a season departed from him How many were his Tears how heavy his Complaints and how sad his Thoughts Tho' he was as 't is usually judged of a sanguine and a merry temper and had a peculiar skill in Musick which is the usual allayer and charm of Grief yet in the sense of God's displeasure his Joy was turned into Lamentation his Harp and those Songs with which he had driven away the melancholly of Saul could not stifle or chase away trouble from his own soul the Storm was too loud to listen to those softer Airs the Wound was too deep to be Cured by those gentle and easie Methods Beware lest you lose the sense of the Favour and the Love of God lest you make your Heavenly Father to visit you with painful Rods and severe Afflictions Take
Gods favour to a soul is matter of great joy to it or these words may denote the promptitude and readiness of Divine Consolations Three things are the usual occasions of joy all which are in this case 1. The remembrance of some danger that we have lately escaped 2. The possession of a present good 3. The solid expectation of some future happiness First The remembrance of a past danger does occasion a more lively sense of joy As past joys renew our grief and make our sorrows more sorrowful so the griefs that are part give us a sweeter and a better tast of joy after long sickness and acute pain 't is very pleasant to be at ease 't is pleasant to rest when we have been tired all the day with hard labour the Laurels of a Soldier flourish with a purer Green when they have been obtained with a mighty difficulty the danger of the Combat brightens the glory of the succeeding Triumph 'T is grateful to the Mariner to stand upon the firm Land and from thence to behold the waves in which he had like to have been thrown away one that has been long in chains rejoyces to find himself at liberty 't is pleasant after a man has been long athirst to be refresht with the fountain of Living waters it renders the joy more accomplished and more satisfying when refreshment comes after long and grievous miseries After long despair the least beam of hope is more reviving a man that has lost his way all night has cause to rejoice at the sight of day As to persons newly converted their faith is full of joy when they compare their former danger and their present safety their former darkness and the shining light that guides their paths so to souls that have been in great anguish and tribulation for sin that have apprehended themselves to be cast out of the presence of the Lord 't is very pleasant to behold his face again 't is pleasant to such as by reason of their sore affliction have been Companions to Owls and Dragons to come into Religious Assemblies and instead of solitary groans and tears to join with the multitudes of those that keep Holiday the soul is then like that of the Returning Prodigal finds it self in the Arms and Embraces of a Loving Father and well treated when it looked as it might justly for rebukes and wrath Thunder and Lightning and Storms make the calm and pleasant weather more grateful to us 't is pleasant after long absence to meet our friend again we find a joy sparkling in our eyes and in our breasts at the sight of them whom we have not seen for many sad and doleful years whom yet we longed to see and that which heightens our pleasure is when a blessing arrives to us that was unexpected that mercy docs fill us with the biggest joy which is extremely suitable to us and which yet we hoped not to receive The Crown sat the easier upon David's head after he had so often thought that he should have fallen by the hands of Saul As life tasts with a better relish when there has been but one step between us and death With what Transports doth a kind mother see her Son coming home whom she gave for lost and dead What a chearful Interview was that which Jacob had with his Son after he had so often thought that he had been torn to pieces as soon as he came near he fell upon his neck and there the revived soul of the poor old man was ready even with excess of pleasure to melt away he never thought to have seen his Joseph his dear Joseph any more he was even with sorrow for his apprehended death going down to the Grave and the news of his Son's welfare made him to be young and live again for at the hearing of it the spirit of Jacob revived and Israel said It is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die Gen. 45.28 And so the Jews having liberty to return from Babylon were so surprized with the favour of their sudden deliverance and the greatness of the mercy that they could hardly think it true it seem'd to be the meer effect of Imagination which during the Interruption of our usual thoughts by sleep put several deceits upon us Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion we were like them that dreamed They were delivered in a manner illustrious and surprizing and it is thus exprest for three Reasons 1. A man does not foresee what he dreams of a man that is apt to be cherished with sound and refreshing sleep does not know whether he shall dream or not So this deliverance arrived to them when they thought not of it 2. As it arrived without any pain to them that were delivered as when we dream we are in repose and are at no trouble and this heightens the glory of a deliverance and the love of the deliverer when the person delivered takes no care about it 3. This deliverance was above all that they could hope for as if a man dreamed of something like it but which he saw not when he was awake for such are the Chymera's which the Imagination then forms and which fall not under the notice of our senses such a thing was never heard or seen before * Monsieu Charles in loc The return of comfort to a Soul that was even expiring in grief and sadness is like the raising of Lazarus to his mourning Sisters they thought that if the Lord had been there he had not died but they did not in the least think that he should be raised again The review of our former miseries does encrease the sense of present happiness the light which the Grace of the Gospel brought into the world and that dissipated the obscurities that compassed it about made the Apostles full of admiration and of wonder when they thought of their former ignorance and error and the light and knowledg that God had given them ever are they wondring at the Riches of his Grace that instead of the corruption in which they were plunged gave them Sanctification Joy and Hope What a surprize was it to the poor Shepherds that were in the field watching their flock by night Luk. 2.9 to see an Angel and the Glory of the Lord shining round about them To see such a Glory when they thought of nothing less nor did expect so great a Grace * Claude Traitte de la Composition d'un Sermon p. 267. but 't is usual with God to bestow the most eminent favours when men do not look for them as Christ came to seek Sinners when they thought not of him and when their minds were filled with other objects they were afraid for great objects when they present themselves suddenly to us usually give us much astonishment for our spirit on these occasions has not the liberty to use its forces and they are most frequently
from natural and ordinary Causes is very healthful and adds very much to the strength and vigour of the body much more then will that joy promote it which is founded on the Word of God and on the hope of his Acceptance And no question David had a respect to this when he said Psal 51.8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Ps 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord who is like to thee which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him and the needy from him that spoileth him No troubles wast our natural spirits more than our inward griefs and fears no joys refresh and make them more sprightly than the joys of our Souls See Job 33.19 to 26. God is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down into the pit I have found a ransome his flesh shall be fresher than a childs he shall return to the days of his youth he shall pray unto God and he will be favourable to him and he shall see his face with joy Those that have writ of Long Life and the means to obtain it advise us to keep our minds always full of splendid and illustrious objects of Histories and the contemplations of Nature and the like but the best Medicine is a quiet Conscience And tho all our Religion will not indeed save us from sickness yet it will enable us to bear it not to be too much concerned and overwhelmed with the manifold and unavoidable Calamities of this mortal Life This is Joy indeed that will recreate our souls and our bodies too that will prepare the one for its passage to Glory and the other for its lying in the Grave Thus our soul which is our glory shall rejoyce and our flesh also shall rest in hope Psal 16.9 and both at length as they have mourn'd so rejoyce together and that for evermore For when God is pleased to speak and to help us both in our bodies and our souls 't is multiplied Salvation and many thousand Cures in one The third General is that Joy arises from the hope of some future Good and this good must be both very agreeable to the soul and very certain For if it be not so there cannot be any other than a weak and a trembling joy There is a great pleasure in expectation of what is to come if it be great and lasting and attainable now to one that hath the returning-sense of God's favour ' tis-very pleasant to look for that hour or day or rather for that chearful Eternity when he shall have the same reviving smiles of his heavenly Father in a more bright and conspicuous manner when not only the night of weeping is gone but that morning is come which shall shine more and more to a perfect day And thus will the comfortable person say If the tast that I have now of God be so sweet Oh! what will the full enjoyment of him be If in this strange Land I am entertained as with the Bread of Angels What Feasts will refresh me when I am at home when I am past the Storms and beyond the Grave and Sin and Tears shall give me no further molestation The first Fruits make them to long for the full Harvest thus says the Apostle We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and this made the Church to say Make hast O my beloved and be thou like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of spices Expectation of any main event as one says is a great advantage to a wise heart If the fiery Chariot had fetcht away Elias unlookt for we should have doubted of the favour of his Transportation 4. This Morning-Joy will express it self As our griefs cause us to groan and sigh so does this make us in an open pleasant way to manifest our gladness The reviving sense of God's favour does so fill our hearts that we cannot without dishonour to him and prejudice to our selves conceal or stifle it When we apprehend our selves to be happy we take a peculiar pleasure in communicating to others the notice of that happiness and are much more pleased by such a communication This Joy is always attended with an expression of the Mercies of our Deliverer that we cannot but say to our Brethren Come and behold what God has wrought for us Behold what Salvation his own Arm and Power has accomplished so Psal 51.12 Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit then will I teach transgressors and sinners shall be converted unto thee Then I shall be able to tell them That thy ways however rugged they seem to be for a while yet are at length even and pleasant ways That they lead to Life and Happiness and beholding the beams of thy Love that make me so pleasant and so chearful they shall by such a sight be incouraged also to Religion And to the same purpose Psal 16.9 My heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth His inward Joy was not able to contain it self We testify our pleasure on lower occasions even at the gratification of our senses when our Ear is filled with harmonious melody when our Eye is fixed upon admirable and beauteous objects when our Smell is recreated with agreeable odours and our tast is so by the delicacy and rareness of Provisions and much more will our soul shew its delight when its faculties that are of a more exquisite constitution meet with things that are in all respects agreeable and pleasant to them and in God they meet with all those with his Light our Understanding is refresh'd and so is our Will with his Goodness and his Love So in Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turn'd again the captivity of Sion then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing It was a sign their hearts were very sull of joy seeing the mouth and the tongue poured it out in so great abundance nay their Neighbours could not but take notice of it They said among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them far beyond the methods of an ordinary Providence Their Liberty was strange and miraculous that surpassed all Imaginable Reasons and behold as people take delight to go over and over again with a pleasant thing they Eccho to this saying of the Heathens saying Verse 3. The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad Others knew it only by report that God had been so good to them but they by sweet experience In the delivered people it was indeed an inward Jubilation with a loud Cry and Song of Triumph as when God is withdrawn we are forced to speak in the anguish and bitterness of our Souls so when he returns the return is so pleasant that we cannot hold our tongues In our troubles there is a latent grief so sinking and so very sad that no words can express so in the good hope of God's acceptance