It is because they act not with that uprightnesse as the righteous doth Perhaps there is too much of self-pleasing and vain-glory in it So the hypocrites give almes to be seen of men verily I say unto you they have their reward But do it as you ought to do it and ye shall finde the incouragement and joy in it And 1. Do it as in the sight of God setting him still before your eyes as spectator witnesse and the judge of all your actions Gen. 17.1 I am God all-sufficient walk before me and be upright So to walk before God as alwaies in his sight this is to be upright in the eyes of God Thus Abraham walked before God that is he walked uprightly And thus Jotham prepared his way before the Lord that is in the sincerity and uprightnesse of his soul he set himself to seek the Lord. Thus Paul 2 Cor. 2.17 We are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ Jesus Whilst we corrupt our waies in darknesse we darken and corrupt our joyes but when we act openly as alwaies in Gods eyes then we have our rejoycings before God 2 Do it with the whole heart Ps 119.7 I will praise thee with uprightnesse of heart when I shall have learn'd thy righteous judgements And then vers 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee So to seek God with an upright heart is to seek God with the whole heart Thus Samuel exhorts the people to fear the Lord and to serve him in truth and with all their heart He that serves God in the truth of his heart will serve him with all his heart So Josiah and the people made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul And David's Worthies are commended that they were not of a double heart a heart and a heart where there is a divided heart there can be no settled joy A double minded man is unstable in all his waies as a wave of the sea driven to and fro and tossed Whilest as those Samaritans that feared the Lord and served their own Gods so our hearts are divided and our joy to seek Psal 12.2 They spake vanity every one with his neighbour with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak A double heart speaks vanity and so his rejoycings are but vanity It is an entire heart that gives us an entire joy 3. Do it with a pure heart a heart cleansed from the filth of sin I do not expect that ye should be without sin whilest you carry flesh about you For who can say I have cleansed my heart I am pure from my sin But keep your hearts from the love of sin 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the commandement is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience Where there is a good conscience an honest and an upright heart there is a pure heart O do not deceive your selves with the love of any filthy lust but pluck out that right eye your darling and beloved sin Though it be but one and as Lot concerning Zoar Is it not a little one That little sin as a thief in the chest will rob you of your comforts If the fountain be defiled must not the streams be muddy and your rejoycings like the troubled waters so they lose their clearnesse But Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God It is the pure heart that intitles to thâ—se pure joyes 4. Do it in truth and in sincerity Heb. 10.22 Let us draw more with a pure heart An upright heart that is a true heart and a true heart is a sincere heart without fraud and without guile Sincera quasi sine cora As honey without wax or as bread without leaven so without that leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Thus Hezekiah wrought that which was good and right and true before the Lord his God To walk uprightly is to walk truly So David walked before God in truth in righteousnesse and uprightnesse of heart And it is the prayer of Hezekiah I beseech thee O Lord remember how I have walked before thee in truth and with an upright heart There 's a truth in our words opposed to lying and a truth in our works opposed to hypocrisie A saying in truth and a doing in truth But O damnable hypocrisie The hypocrite you know is a painted sepulchre fair without but full of rottennesse within such is their joy but a rotten joy as the summer Pear mellow to the eye but rotten at the core Job 8.13 The hope of the hypocrite shall perish Nay Cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites as if for them God had provided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a greater damnation But as before so I tell you again 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world Thus you have had the motion to perswade you to the love of the waies of righteousnesse both toward God and toward men and to exercise your selves in them with an upright heart It will be your joy Now I come to the 2. Rejoyce Let such as are righteous such as are upright in heart remember that it is their duty and God cals upon them Rejoyce ye righteous Oh be not awanting to your selves but consider that happy condition wherein God hath set you maugre the malice of men or devils and let not any take away your glory Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies and again I say rejoyce Beloved though it may seem easie yet this is a duty of much difficulty It is easier for me to preach then either for you or me to practise especially in such times as these A voice of wailing is heard in our streets How are we spoiled Had we no more to look upon but only the ruines of a glorious Church to see our cattle engendring with divers kindes and begetting such monsters in Religion to see our ground sown with several seeds and the tares so choaking the good wheat to see our garments mingled of linnen and woollen and this grown so much into fashion that many follow their pernicious waies by reason of whom the way of truth is evill spoken on Are we priviledged beyond the Angel of the Church of Thyâ—tira Rev. 2.20 I have somewhat against thee Because thou sufferest the woman Jesabel who calleh her self a Prophetesse to teach and to seduce my people And how sad is the doom Jer. 12.9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird the birds round about are against her Come ye assemble all the beasts of the field come to devour And now how shall we sing the Lords song thus in a strange land But why not were the times worse then blessed be God they as yet are yet there 's joy for the righteous
them as love-tokens This beyond all saith David In the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts they delight my soul 3. Because they have right in these injoyments Others indeed injoy them by a common providence I will not say as some that they are usurpers God gives them their portion in this life The eyes of all wait upon him and he gives them their meat in due season But these have a more special interest Christ hath purchased a more speciall title and right for them And surely that man lives more comfortably that lives purely on his own Saith Paul Let no man glory in man for all things are yours 4. Because they have the right use of these injoyments whilest others are worse for them Eccles 5.13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt As a sword in a mad mans hand so they endanger themselves with them or at the best they do but gather for themselves they live to themselves till they lose both themselves and that which they have gathered Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and then whose shall these things be But the righteous they make themselves friends of that unrighteous Mammon they lay up for themselves treasures in heaven If rich in this world they are rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold upon eternall life What a world of difference there is between that man who hath the right use of his estate and him that wants it How comfortable is the life of the one beyond the other 5. Because their happinesse doth not depend upon these outward blessings They may take pleasure in them for a time as the scholar takes pleasure in his meat but findes a better relish at his book so they have fixed their affections upon higher matters If they be crost in these injoyments yet there is no interruption of their joy because it doth not depend upon them Rev. 12.1 They have the Moon under their feet By the Moon understand things sublunary all things under the Moon they are above these things As using the world saith Paul but not abusing it and I would have you without carefulnesse Therefore they injoy it with more comfort because they injoy it with lesse care Look upon a man whose happinesse depends upon it whose heart is set upon the world how he frets and grieves and when crost in his pursuits as Micah Ye have taken away my Gods how is it then that ye say unto me What aileth thee Whilest those whose hearts are centred upon God they sing sweetly with that holy Job The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord. Lastly Because they look upon these things but as the Israelites on those clusters of grapes brought by the spies out of the land of Canaan so to put them in minde of the wealth and fertility of the Countrey to raise up their hearts to the meditation of those heavenly joyes Every mercy we receive it is as another step to mount up our thoughts upon Jacobs Ladder to celestiall glories These are but the Viaticum a refreshment by the way we look for another Countrey a City which hath foundations a building of God and hourly expect the call Come ye blessed children of my Father inherit ye the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world And if we finde this comfort in our Inne how much more then when we come at our own home Thus whilest others receive but the single comforts of these earthly blessings the godly have a double comfort whilest thus from these things below they are carried up unto the things above If others therefore can rejoyce in these things how much more cause have you to rejoyce with joy above other men Rejoyce ye Righteous 6. Whilest we look upon the left hand Many are the troubles of the righteous What crosses and afflictions what poverty and disgraces what reproaches and persecutions what bonds and imprisonments besides inward troubles that law in our member warring against the law of our minde that when we would do good evill is present with us Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death And then God himself drawing the black curtain between him and us withdrawing the light of his countenance from us Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Be not discouraged Psal 112.4 Unto the righteous there ariseth light in darknesse So a joy in sorrowing Nay let me tell you further you have more matter of rejoycing in the very depth of your adversity then others in the greatest height of their prosperity Therefore was it Moses his choice Heb. 11.24 He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season He chose rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God then to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures in Egypt Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Look upon thy Saviour 1 Pet. 2.22 Christ hath suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps And shall we not rejoyce to be made like unto Christ This is that in comparison of which the Apostle accounts all things as nothing and worse then nothing as losse and dung Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Thus we have a fellowship with Christ Nay further we bear a part of his sufferings And then saith St. Paul Col. 1.22 I rejoyce in my sufferings for you to fill up that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ in my flâ—sh for his bodies sake which is the Church As Christ suffered in his natural so he must suffer in his mysticall body Our afflictions therefore they are Christs afflictions a filling up of that which is behinde of his afflictions Et quis non hic superbit saith Luther in his Consolatory to the Duke of Saxony who would not rejoyce to bear part with Christ So is it the Apostles triumph Rom. 8 35. Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or the sword As it is written For thy sake are we killed all the day long and are counted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we are more then conquerors Conquerors and more then conquerors How 's that Not only bearing them with patience but with joy Act. 5.41 They went away rejoycing that they were count à worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Christ Or if all this be not sufficient yet take notice of the benefit
which causeth him to weep even that is it which so much delighteth him Thus is it here The faints tears are the saints joy and it is the rejoycing of their souls that they weep and sorrow The tears of Saints is the joy of Angels as I told you before There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth Nay let me tell you further they have greater cause to rejoyce in their sorrowes then others in their greatest jollities The Apostle understands it Therefore saith he 2 Cor. 7.8 Though I made you sorry with a letter I do not repent though I did repent Now I rejoyce not that ye were made sorry but that ye sorrowed to repentance that ye were made sorry after a godly manner for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death There 's a vast difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow the one tends to death but the other to life to repentance salvation The sorrow of the godly is like the sorrow of a woman travelling with childe It is not a barren but a fruitfull sorrow The sorrow of world is barren it brings forth nothing but sorrow but the sorrow of the godly is fruitful it is a joy-bearing sorrow Joh. 16.21 A woman hath sorrow when she travelleth because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of a childe she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world And ye now have sorrow but I will see you again and your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you Thus you see the mistake The sorrow of the righteous is a joyful sorrow Oh but thirdly It may be objected that sometimes God requires it as a duty Es 22.12 In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and doubtlesse the sorrow of the Saints is hearty when the Lord cals for it For answer to this we must confesse it is so indeed Neither do any sorrow as they sorrow Therefore as if they only sorrowed saith God Ezek. 9.4 Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of Jerusalem Their sighs are sighs indeed and their cries are cries indeed God sets a mark upon them as if they only were the mourners Yet withall take notice that it is not for righteousnesse but for wickednesse all the abominations that are done in Jerusalem righteousnesse is not the cause but it is sin either in themselves or others 1. In themselves For so the Saints have their failings Seek thy servant O Lord for I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost And as they have theirs sins so they have their sorrows It cost David many a salt tear How he weeps and prayes Psal 51. Lord make me to hear the voice of joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce The cry of his sin had made such a noise of sorrow that it deaft his ears from the voice of joy And he is afraid O cast me not away in thy displeasure but restore to me the joy of thy salvation Do not charge your sorrows on the waies of righteousnesse but your swarving from those wayes He that goes out of Gods way he goes into harmes way and returns again by the weeping crosse Or if it be not the sense of their present sins which causes all this sorrow perhaps they consider the time past and it is their trouble that they have spent so much of their time in vanity so they mourn not because they are righteous but because they were no sooner such Or if they be troubled at their present condition it is not because they are good but because they are not so good as they desire to be They count not themselves as if they had already attained or were already perfect they see others that are far before them so they are heavy not because they are holy but because not so holy as they should As some covetous worldling who frets and toyles in the world as if he were not worth a penny and out of a greedy desire of more still complains of poverty So the Saints sometimes so earnestly desirous to be yet more righteous they lose the joy and comfort of those graces they already have Let us not then impute that to their godlinesse which proceeds rather from the want But certainly conclude there 's much sweetnesse in it whilest they thus hunger and thirst after it Thus in themselves 2. In others The Lord cals to weeping and they mourn in Sion It is for the abominations that are done in the land So David Psal 119.136 Mine eyes run down with tears because men keep not thy commandements And Lot amongst the filthy Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 In seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawfull deeds It is the sorrow of the Saints to see God dishonoured and poor souls endangered To hear on the one hand men speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them and to see on the other hand men so unreclamable from their foolish and vain courses and running headlong to their own damnation If there be any consolation in Christ Jesus if any comfort of love if any bowels and mercies must it not needs grieve them to see men so fool away their hopes of glory to dwell with everlasting burnings Their charity is great and they could wish all men like themselves in that which is good As Paul to Agrippa I would to God that not only thou but all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am excepting these bonds And if they will not be perswaded Jer. 13.17 If ye will not hear my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride Thus weeping for them that weep not for themselves And Elijah betakes himself unto the cave And why so They have broken the covenant they have thrown down the altars they have slain the Prophets with the sword Are the lives of the Saints sorrowful But examine your own hearts if the fault lie not in your selves Were your selves lesse wicked their lives would be more comfortable Thus still you see it is not the righteousnesse of the Saints which makes their hearts sad but rather the want of it either in themselves or others Nay yet further even this sorrow is their joy Whilest they thus mourn though others provoke God and perish in their own devices yet God will set a mark upon them that mourn in Sion that the destroying Angel may passe over Es 4.5 God will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Sion and upon her Assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence So that nothing might hinder their peace and joy in believing but so still Rejoyce ye