a man knowes that God's love and anger is alone to be regarded it is impossible he should be sad that hath it let things without him be how they will And therefore saith the Psalmist Shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart For godlinesse of Life past what can be sweeter then the remembrance of it unlesse it be the mercy of God A good conscience non-guilty and quiet neither disquieted it selfe with sinne nor disquieting the mind with old debts and reckonings is as great a comforter as an evill conscience or a conscience of evill things committed and intended which is like an evill spirit possessing a man can be a tormentour If it were not so certainely the Apostle Paul a humble man he that said if he rejoyced in any thing it should be in his infirmities * 2 Cor. â—2 9 would never have professed so boldly as he did 2 Cor 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisedome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world This good conscience is a Con-science or an acknowledgement in the spirit of a man of what he does or hath done the spirit of God bearing witnesse with it Or it is a commending witnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 2.15 of the goodnesse of actions in and a comforter after the performance Neither does it give a fit of comfort and away but a standing testimoniall ready for their use upon all occasions continually affording 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Rom. 2.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excuses and apologies whensoever he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grand accuser of the brethren layeth any thing to their charge It is a most cheerfull incentive or encouragement to though there be never so many impediments in the way it is a most excellent lenitive or sweetning of though there be never so much difficulty in the performance and it is a most triumphing commemoration or a delightsome redolence or relish after good actions though there be nothing got by the doing Good actions are like strong fragrant spices not only giving a sweet smell for the present but perfuming the roome where they are so that you may have the sweetnesse a long time after For Godlinesse at the present 't is better tryed then told what joy and pleasure a godly man hath in the performance of good actions both when no body joynes with him and especially in the publique assemblies when believers powre out their soules so many of them together in prayer and thanks-giving Little doe the Drunkards think that take so much pleasure in frequenting the houses of Bacchus that the godly take a great deale more and have a great deale more joy in frequenting the houses of God But 't is a thing that God promised long agoe by the Prophet Isa 56.7 Them will I bring to my holy mountaine and make them joyfull in my house of prayer their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people And methinks I heare the willing people of God's power merrily calling one to another in the words of Micah chap 4.7 Come and let us goe up to the mountaine of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his wayes and we will walke in his pathes for the law shall goe forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem How is a godly man ravished with the beauty of holinesse when he is at such meetings How was holy David taken with being in the house of God at Jerusalem insomuch that if he were kept from it but a little while his soule panted for it and longed after it and fainted for lack of it as a thirsty hart would doe for lack of water As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soule after thee ô God My soule thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appeare before God Psal 42.1.2 The poore disconsolate Captives prefered it to the best place in their memory If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning Ps 137.5 Nay they preferred it to their chiefest joy If I preferre not Jerusalem above my chiefe joy vers 6. There was no place in the world that David regarded or cared to be in in comparison of it Psal 84.10 A day in thy courts is better then a thousand I had rather be a doore-keeper in the house of my God then to dwell in the tents of wickednesse Insomuch that he could find it in his heart nay and would chuse if he might have his desire to spend all his dayes in that house Psal 27 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Was mount Zion the joy of the whole earth as it is said it was Psal 48.2 and that notwithstanding the paines the people must take to goe so farre to the place and the many burdensome ceremonies and chargeable sacrifices to be undergone when they come thither Had they so much joy then to goe so far and cannot the godly thinke you have as much and more oy now in their assemblies when the houses of prayer and preaching are so near their own and the duties to be performed so easy and so cheap and the influence from the heavens upon them so much more abundant and the sunshine of knowledge so much more cleare then it was in those dayes Doubtlesse they have more by farre What a comfortable delightsome smell doe I perceive so soon as I come into the room where hundreds are powring out vialls full of odours such as those mentiond in the Revelation which * Rev 5.8 are the prayers of the Saints But then how must it not needs be more comfortable to be one of the number One of the number I say then when so many shall joyne hands to lift up their hearts when they shall flock together with one mind and goe boldly hand in hand to a throne not of judgment but grace where they are sure to obtaine pardon for the past and grace to helpe in time of need * Heb 4.16 for the future And if there be so much joy in prayer for what I want when I am in need what is there in praise and thanks for what I have obtained when my need is supplyed Praysing can as ill consist with sadnesse as it can with sinne Of this there is constant use * Eph 5.20 because there is constant occasion through the goodnes of God therefore how can a godly man spend much time in sadnes The thought of the goodnesse of God for which we praise him our enjoyment of good things for which
without any discovery of God and his love any more then beasts have either like a candle blown out with the wind he leaves a filthy snuffe of a foul life to stink behind him having the love of no body or else he passeth away like the wind or a ship in the sea and leaves no signe at all his remembrance life being cut off together Ps 34.16 Now if a godly man have so much peace who will offer to question it whether he may have so much joy yea and much more then I speak of For if there be peace any where spirituall peace especially it seems to me impossible that joy should be long a comming after and so if joy be any where you may assure your selfe peace hath been there before See how joy and peace goe hand in hand Rom 14.17 chap 15.13 Gal 5.23 3ly A third cause that godly men have to be merry is Redemptiō Liberty Liberty obtained for we are not as others have been before us to use the words of the Prophet Zach 9.12 prisoners of hope we shall be so indeed when we are dead in regard of our bodyes a Why cannot the Papists in terpret the vers before this of the resu rection as well as those words in Mal c.. 4.2 the redemption whereof we must wait for But our maine captivity is turn'd already and God hath brought us out of darknesse b Rom. 8.23 the shaddew of death having broken our bands in sunder And therefore well might Moses say to us the Gentiles who partake of this mercy that which the Apostle repeats Rom 15 10. Rejoyce ye gentiles with his people Rejoyce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be merry For can a man if he be but as much as a beast and have but the use of a sensitive soule be insensible of so great a good as liberty when he enjoys it nay refraine from skipping and leaping for it when he thinks upon it Unlesse he can enjoy it without enjoying it God hath given thee rest from thy sorrow c Luk 1.17 and from thy feare and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve as he promised to doe the captive Jewes Isa 14.3 Wilt thou be so froward as not to take it or canst thou be so sencelesse as not to be glad for it That man that shall be any whit sad when he tells me he is redeemed from a miserable slavery in Turky I shall hardly believe what he sayes Certainly one that is delivered redeemed oh the sweetnes that is in the word snatcht as a firebrand out of the fire he cannot be sad if he would Saith David P 53.6 When God bringeth back the captivity of his people Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad So Ps 71.23 My lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee and my soule which thou hast redeemed As if there must needs be the voice of rejoycing presently where there is the least sound of redeeming Thus was it said of the redemption of the Jewes from their captivity But our redemption is more worth then theirs our liberty is greater and better and our bondage was worse And shall our joy be lesse Let us but consider We are freed from the slavery of having many masters for 't is slavery enough to have them let them use us never so well that servant who hath many masters let him be merry if he can I say many masters For many they are and many sorts and many of a sort and all that are of a sort such as if we have but one of them we shall find it hard service enough That sort I meane is our Lusts which are so numerous and various every way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving DIVERS lusts saith Paul Tit 3.3 which I could easily make appeare were it not too much digression and doe purpose to speak somewhat of it in another place But we are not freed from the slavery of these masters only No we are freed from the slavery and delivered from the pow-of all the masters who had formerly the command of us whom it is not barely service but misery and slavery to be subject to I meane Sinne Death The World The Divell I may adde Our selves for if God had not been a better friend to us then we are to our selves I know what had become of us I meane not of lusts only for we hurt our selves many other waies The fourth of these whom we most feare as dreadfull as he is thought is but the Prince of this world and therefore hath no power over the subjects and heires of another Kingdome such as Christians are being translated * Col. 1.13 from his They are dead as to sinne and what then is there left for thee O thou destroyer of men to carry away captive * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2.26 alive at and for thy pleasure They are no longer captives and gally-slaves as once they were to worke for thee and for nothing Thou mightest have heard long agoe of their releasment and their joy thereupon which thou shalt never be able to take from them no more then thou canst make them slaves againe or make the prophecy false or the promise of none effect Heare but what the Prophet's words are Isa 61.1.2.3 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek He hath sent me no bind up the broken hearted to proclaime liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound To proclaime the acceptable yeare of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God To appoint unto them that mourne in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesse that they might be called trees righteousnesse the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified Behold now the time is come I tell thee again the time is come and those promises are fullfilled For we who by that malice our own were worse then bound to be sinfull and miserable even fast bound in misery an iron are now out of out bands adopted for nothing into the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God Rom 8.21 Presume no longer upon the strength of thy associates Sin and the Lusts of our flesh For they are deposed from their regall power their dominion and strength is ended 'T is true their being is not ended but that makes so much the more for a godly man's joy as it doth for any other conquerour to have his enemy led in triumph alive or to have him lye vanquished before him more then to have him cleane removed out of the way Having sinne thus laid at our feet it may looke fiercely up upon us and threaten to bite and turne it's taile about our heeles but the danger is gone we have broken it's head and struck out it's teeth and though
we have not killed it we have utterly disenabled it for killing us 'T is but kept in life to keep us in worke and to exercise our graces as the Canaanites were fuffered to live in despaire that the Israelites might not live in presumption We are freed from Sin much after the manner as we are free from the Law that which I might very well have put in the number of those masters above mentioned being of it selfe as I may say uncorrected with grace a killing letter Sin now does not so command as that it cannot be obeyed and the Law does not commād so as if it be not obeyed we must presently dye for it We are free not as we use to take the word free when we say free of such a thing for without it When we are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 6.18 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is meant only that we are free from not of either Sin or the law that is from the dominion of them We are free from the law as that boy is from his Master who as oft as he comits a fault and is sorry for it hath a friend ready at hand to save him from whipping A Christian's liberty does not make him free from but free to obedience Free from slavishnesse both of condition and disposition and freely willing to be tied to obey it as an ingenuous dispositiō uses to be to be under goverment discipline For a man is nevertheles at liberty for being nay it is the way to be most at liberty to be most in God's service which is perfect * Psal 119.32 freedome The bands of Religion are never so strait as to wring I will say therefore as St. Paul sayd comparing the ministery of the Gospel with the law or if you will the ministery of the law in the time of the gospel with the same in the time of the Law 2 Co 4.1 Having recieved this ministery we faint not I delight in nothing so much as to be under the law of God so long as there is another ministery I would not be without goverment like a lambe in a large * Hos 4.16 place for all the world But what did I talke to you a while since of a godly man's liberty from when I may boast of more * Rom 8.37 then a conquest over all his enemies Satan his accuser by the counter-pleading of the Prince * Isa 9.6 of his peace will be shortly trod under his * Rom 16.20 feet Christ hath already spoyled Principalities and powers made a shew of them openly triumphing over them Colos 2 15. The world his enemy partly open and secret by Christ that overcame it first he hath overcome also Joh 16.33 So that neither by enticing nor mocking nor oppressing no nor killing shall a Christian be quite overcome rubbing out in life by strength of grace and rising from death by the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead The Flesh his familiar and friend-like and bosome enemy he hath crucified with the lusts thereof Gal 5.24 The enemy that hath the longest time to live is Death Yet that is already disarmed and made harmelesse so that it is as good as killed though it be not quite swallowed up into victory Upon the account of these things I may very well speak to the Church in the words of the Prophet Sing ô Daughter of Zion shout ô Israel be glad and rejoyce with all thy heart ô daughter of Jerusalem The Lord hath taken away thy judgments he hath cast out thine enemy The King of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt not see evill any more In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem feare thou not and to Zion Let not thine hands be slack The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing Zeph 3.14.15 16 17. Christian I cannot but wonder exceedingly what the matter is with thee if notwithstanding these things thou art still sad For to me it seemes cause enough why a man should be mery to have no enemies either to trouble him or with whom he may trouble himselfe viz with continuall feares of provoking them and thoughts and cares to have them reconciled which is a worse trouble then the other But for one that hath many enemies as many almost as there be creatures in the world and hath them all under his feet who can forbeare to wonder laugh and be enraged to see such a one to stand drooping as if he were beaten and overcome him selfe with his Crest downe slat upon his head and his wings about his heeles Who would not wonder to see one that hath his yoke broken off his neck to hang his head neverthelesse as bad as the Romane Souldiers did when they had been made to passe under the yoke and to walke in and out and goe to his long home with lesse cherefulnesse then the Oxe doth to his when he hath done labouring and rather look as if he were going to be yoked againe or indeed as if he were going to hanging Certainly such a one must needs be ignorant of what he is or sencelesse of what he knowes For when enemies and difficulties and sorrowes themselves are vanquished it seemes impossible if he knew his own happinesse and can a man be happy and not know it that he should not lift up his head and wash his beblubbered face and anoint it with the oyle of gladnesse For shame let him cease to shame his master whom he serves to disgrace the profession which he hath undertaken and to disparage his own judgment and choice when he undertook it with sadnesse and sighes and complaints like an over laboured servant that is hardly used Tell me whosoever thou art that art thus sad for I know it must be for feare of some thing what kind of enemie is it that thou fearest Is it such as can hurt thy soule sinne or satan or lust such thou needest not Is it such as can hurt but thy body men or any of the creatures such thou oughtest not to feare Mat 10.28 If thou art afraid then thou art afraid both without cause and so thou shewest thy selfe foolish against command so thou shewest thy selfe disobedient Rather therefore resolve to be chearfull conclude with me that thou hast nothing to feare but what thou hast cause to love and rejoyce in thine own God 'T is true wicked men like the drunken man who thinks every body else drunk because he is drunke himselfe being very slaves themselves account the condition of the godly to be slavish too and therefore though for a while they may seeme to be willing to keep themselves within the pale of the Church of Christ and to weare his yoke yet they come quickly to cry out in the Psalmist Psal
2 3. Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us But we feare not that you will take any hurt by this for we trust we have compounded you a sufficient antidote against such poyson in what hath been already said if not we have choice of many ingredients more which we doubt not will make the physick strong enough 4ly Fourth ground Accepcion of actions A fourth cause that a godly man hath to be merry may be The acceptation of his actions whereof he hath good assurance by the testimony of God's Spirit For we see amongst our selves 't is a very great cheering to a man both in and for the doing of a thing if the person for whom he does it accept's of it as the contrary must needs be a great discouragemet Goe thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work Eccles 9.7 I said By the testimony of God's Spirit for that must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Rom 8.16 witnesse together with his spirit or else the witnesse of his own spirit or conscience is nothing worth And therefore Paul when he had commended the truth of what he was to say to the Romanes by the testimony of his conscience as if he had said nothing if he had said no more presently added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Holy Ghost Rom 9.1 I I say the truth in Christ I lye not my conscience also bearing me witnes in the Holy Ghost When I have spent howers in prayer or hearing or meditation or fasting nay when I have well spent my whole life let me but have Enoch's testimony * Heb 11.5 Fift ground Experience of God's love that I have pleased God how will my heart rejoyce 5ly A fift ground may be Experiences of God's love which a good Christian hath a great many more then he takes notice of and that I must needs tell him is his usuall fault Is it not of efficacy think you to make a man merry to have in his mind when he is alone and to be able to talke of when he is in company such and such a mercy recieved at such and such a time How such a time God hedged up his way into sinne how at such a time he hedged up his way into misery How signally and plainly God hath carried him along in all his wayes by an overruling hand of providence so that all things even those which in his best advised judgment he thought the worst were made to worke for the best How at such a time God opened his eare for instructiō * Job 36.10 How at such a time he gave him a most gracious meeting with warming ēbracings of love at such a time with strong sealings of the righteousnesse of faith at another time with most lively quicknings of hope If these consolations be small I know not what consolation is 6ly The sixth ground The Scriptures The sixth thing that will afford the godly man matter of joy is that wherein the wicked man can take no comfort because it layes open his sin to him together with the punishment of it which he hath no assurance to avoid for want of faith and repentance The written word of God which we call the Scriptures even both the Testaments left with us for this end that we as the Apostle * Rom 15.4 saith through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope How many hundred most abundantly comfortable promises are there in those Scriptures not only of things able to make the godly joyfull for such might be and they might be never the better for they might take no joy in them but some of them even of joy it selfe The Spirit of the Lord is upon me c. To appoint unto them that mourne in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the Spirit of heavinesse c. Isa 61.1.2 3. See also Isa 51.11 ch 60.20 The whole Gospell what is it else but joyfull newes Not barely newes but joyfull newes glad tidings of great joy as saith the Angell Luk. 2.10 Now when godly men meet with such a treasure of rich treasures as the Gospell is which they never laboured nor paid for and such a large crop of mercies and benefits as are contained in the Gospell which they never sowed nor plowed for which Christ alone hath purchased for them to their hands of his own free love when instead of walking in darknesse as they have done all their life before they shall see a great light and though their lot was cast in the land of the shadow of death that even then the light shall shine upon them how can they chuse but joy according to nay beyond the joy in harvest and as men rejoyce that devide the spoyle * In that verse whereas we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in creased the joy it is read also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are w rds usually changed and encreased his joy and so the Sept read Isa 9.3 He that keeps continuall feasting upon such good cheare as the promises unlesse he be very stupid and absurd as it is an absurd thing to be sad at a feast his garments must needs be alwaies white his head can never lack oyntment Now in the Gospel God hath set before us the table was spread at Jerusalem Isa 25.5 though to the Jewes it became a snare Psal 69.22 a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees well refined Isa 25.6 Nay not only the promises benefits to come when Christ shall come nor the Gospel or the newes of their comming either before or after their coming but even all the commandements and lawes of God and Christ contained in the whole book of the Scriptures as grievous as they are to a wicked man are to a godly man matter of infinite pleasure and delight God's lawes are so just and righteous that the vertuous heart of a just and righteour man cannot but delight in them as all other things doe in that which is most suitable to them How many times does David tell you thus much The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Psal 19.8 And Ps 119.111 They are the rejoycing of my heart see at your leasure the 14.16 20 27 50 54 70 92 143 verses of the same psalme Indeed God's Lawes are such proper and wholsome food for a man that if the Stomack be clean and the will be not disordered with lusts and ill humours they cannnot chuse but relish them The very nature and constitution of the soule neither corrupted nor distempered with sinne and lusts will agree with it and embrace it with as much love and complacency as a healthy stomach doth wholsome food And indeed it is the maine reason why God's law is so pleasing and delightsome to a regenerated person viz
we praise his goodnesse if both these together be not enough to make our hearts merry I know not what can be Especially I cannot chuse but commend praysing for this use and purpose if it be expressed by singing of psalmes as it uses to be in the publique meetings of godly men Then there is none taken up with busines and work to teach or to learne but every one does all that he can to make and encrease mirth all cheerfully together singing not only in the right tune of the psalme and making melody with the voyce to men but in the right tune of the heart speaking not so much to be heard to others for information as to themselves and others for consolation Eph 5.19 Speaking to your selves in psalmes and hymns and spirituall songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. Believe it there is more true mirth in singing one of the songs of Zion or one of the Lord's songs though it be in a strange land as this world is no other to a godly man especially when men sing with grace in their hearts to the Lord Col 3.16 then there can be in singing never so many of the most musically composed sonnets that can be imagined For a testimony of the pleasure to be found in praysing God I need give you no other then the Psalmist's who had practised this duty as much as any man and therefore knew what belonged to it Ps 135.3 Praise ye the Lord for the Lord is good sing praises to his name for it is pleasant Psal 147.1 Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing praises unto our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely As James said If any be merry let him sing psalmes * Jam 5.13 that is let him expresse his mirth in such a way so I say If any be not merry and would be so let him sing psalmes or let him make himselfe merry by the singing of psalmes And not only in prayers and praises in publique but in the private practise of any other good action whatsoever whether of piety or justice or charity a godly man does or may take abundance of joy and delight When I am giving of almes or good instructions or a good example how much joy and content doe I take to think of pleasing him whom I love best of the good that will accrue to my brethren of the rich reward which I shall have my selfe and of the glory that redounds to him that enables me Methinks I see how merrily an ingenuous child looks up upon his master or his father while he is doing what he knowes will please him and how gladly and cheerfully a loving wife goes about to provide what her husband loves If there be so much strength in that love which many times hath no nobler nor stronger principall then nature what must there be in that which comes from grace If when I am a child and without knowledge I can doe thus in obedience and love to him that begat me to misery what will I doe when I am grown a strong man in Christ for such they are whom I most call upon to Rejoyce out of obedience and love to him who hath redeemed me to an eternall happinesse The very Heathen could find it in their hearts to make their happinesse nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The exercise of vertue For they thought it consisted not so much in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in possession as in action in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Phylosopher determines * Eth l. 1. cap. 8 They thought a man had no need of a reward for vertue but that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reward sufficient for it selfe It was the saying of one of their Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I was willing to insert because it agrees so well with that of the Psalmist Psal 19.11 speaking of God's commandements In keeping of them there is great reward I shall need give you no other English of the words Artist's not only liberall but Mechanick what delight doe they take in their work especially when they doe it well Insomuch that you shall have many of them not care a jot for any recreation besides Nay not only workers who may be thought to be merry in their work to think of the profit and the gaine but players too as at dancing or any other sport who have an eye no further then the act when no body sees them so as they cannot be thought to be merry for making others so and when no reward is expected if they doe it well so that they cannot be thought to be merry for love of profit the pleasure they take in the action is so much that the paine which they suffer cannot be felt and they care not how long they doe it Even among brutes observe the spaniel dog How glad is he when he hath done as he should and pleased his master And how does he slink for shame and shrink for feare when he hath done amisse Nay this poore silly creature can take such delight in doing those tricks that you teach him that be he never so hungry he will leave his meat uneaten and his nature unsatisfied to satisfie his master 'T is not to be believed that the body having lesse work to doe and so the lesse need to be eased shall have a priveledge to have pleasure in doing it's works as it hath in the works of nature tasting and smelling and the like and the soule that hath so much more to doe shall have none in the doing of her's Or if you will that the soule shall take a delight in the works of the body or the works that she doth by the body and not be able to have any by her selfe in her own such as I count spirituall exercises and godly performances properly to be The godly man's work must all be done though not done all by her No certainly For as much pleasure no doubt may the soule take in taking the bread of life and chewing and ruminating upon the word of life while men are living in the Spirit Gal 5.25 as the body can in eating the food that perisheth And so in doing any spirituall good work as much as it can in any work of the body Againe should not the soule have a recreation in working did it not take some pleasure and delight therein one would think it were impossible she should hold out working sithence her work is so various and boundlesse and endlesse Now to glance a little on the wicked man being reasonable in it's nature and so necessarily delighting in things that are reasonable how can it have true genuine content be unfeignedly and unflatteringly merry in the unreasonable brutish meerly sensible and many times senslesse and unnaturall waies of sinne I grant some kind of
joy Psal 132.9 The joy of the wicked is never full or perfect not so much as in simple being so as a man may truly give it the name of joy much lesse in the best sort of being For there is alwaies one thing or other missing or amisse and many times confessions are drawn from their own mouth that their mirth is not true How usuall are these speeches amongst them If this or that had been or if this or that had not been we had been truly mery 3. A third property of a godly man's joy is that it is Continuall 1. Continuall without interruption an inconvenience common to the mirth of the wicked which comes and goes by fits and lasts but for a moment to speak of when it lasts longest Job 20.5 A man had better be sad then merry so little while For it does but set him a longing and so leave him in paine And yet thus it is with the mirth of the wicked which is therefore compared by the Preacher Eccles 7 6 to the crackling of thornes under a pot It is as soone out as in makes a great cry and dyes 2. Continuall without end everlasting consolation 2 Thess 2 16 like the liberty to which he is redeemed and for which he joyes see the prophecy of Isaih to this purpose chap * And the redeemed of the Lord shall returne come to Zion with songs and ever lasting joy upon their heads they shall obtaine joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away 35.10 like every thing else that comes by grace and every way that God leads a man in Ps a Lead me in the way everlasting 139.14 Oh happy man how graciously does God deale with him He hath a long time of health and joy and cheerfulnesse of mind now before as men use to have of their bodies after some great disease and joy everlasting after the second resurection for a very short shaking ague of sorrows and pangs when he was borne anew at the first resurection If he have a tempest of trouble or sorrow for awhile he hath the longer and the greater calme for it afterward The godly man's joy is of as long continuance as he himselfe and his power of rejoycing is If he and that endure for ever so shall his joy for the object of his joy endures for ever is not subject to be lost and cannot be taken away from him like the object of a wicked man's joy Si gaudes de nummo times furem si gaudes de Domino quid times sayes Austin upon the 144. Psal If thy joy be in money thou fearest the thiefe but if thy joy be in God whom fearest thou And therefore the same father upon the 84 Psal gives this counsell Qui vult securus gaudere in illo gaudeat qui non potest perire He that will be secure in his joy let his joy be in him who can never perish We may compare this joy as Hugo de S. Victore does God's mercy from whence it drops to the oyle in the cruse which was still spending but never spent The wicked man is ever and anon in the midst of jollity troubled and sad to think that his joy will not last so that it is his usuall saying I shall weep for this another time His mirth wasts and lessens and changes colour in the using according as he sees the vanity of the thing for which he is merry perceives the weaknesse and badnesse of the cause which he will of necessity doe more or lesse within a little time Whereas he godly man's cause of his mirth being sufficient and such as whereof he will never be ashamed his mirth encreases in the use and the more the drinks the better he may Neither need he to feare that he shall be weary so cease from mirth for want of variety for he shall be continually supplyed with recruits new mercies and new songs not every morning but every moment He shall never want occasion to say as David did Sing unto the Lord a new song Psal 96 1 Sing unto him a new song Psal 133.3 He hath put a new song into my mouth Psal 40.3 The Mirth Of a Christian Life The Third Book I Would now use some words of exhortation and reproofe but that I find some rubs in in the way which I must first remove I heare too many object say What doe you goe about to prove this that to extoll the condition of a godly man as if none were merry nor happy but he when as you see your selfe plainly and in your heart cannot but acknowledge the truth of the contrary viz that he is neither happy nor merry That he is not happy is sufficiently evinced by the many troubles we know the righteous as you call them have in all ages of the world and their continuall affliction so as one would think that they alone of all men in the world were made to suffer and borne to misery as the sparks sly upward To say nothing of that which is most certaine by the word that went out of Christ's own mouth which must never returne to him againe peremptorily spoken In the world ye shall have tribulation John 16.33 To such I answer that their argument will not hold stich for want of consequence For godly men may be happy notwitstanding their afflictions and they may say as Paul did 2 Cor 4.8 9. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not dispaire Persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed Afflictions in this world are not miseries to them whatever they are to others and what ever they are deemed to be to them any more then fightings and watchings and hardships are to courageous Souldiers and volunteers who are as willing as it would be their shame if they were not to undergoe danger as to undertake service knowing they must take pains as well as wages That afflictions are not miseries to a godly man so as he is unhappy by having them may be proved by these two reasons First beceause he is prepared for them Secondly because they are prepared for him First he is prepared for them as a patient is for his physick viz with gentle preparatories that they may work kindly neither too little nor too much so as he should have either way cause to be grieved God who is his Physitian and therefore will doe the best for him for his own glory as any physitian will for his credit alwaies sends him suffering graces when he intends to give him suffering times Let poverty and sicknesse all the rest of the reputed miseries of this life come upon him like armed men at once they shall not prevaile against him For being well provided with the provision of Hope and Faith and fenced with the armour of prayer and patience and being watchfull and standing still upon his guard let them come as many as they will and let