particulars couched in the words 1. The Subject of them spiritual joy or an holy exultation of soul in the Lord as the most beloved desired supreme good wrought in it by the spirit of grace rendring Christ by faith present unto it whereby it is not only supported under all afflictions but enabled to glory in them and to triumph over them 2. The difficulty of this joy intimated in that believers are so often invited unto it 3. The sureness and the greatness of it noted in the doubling of the words 4. The stability and perpetuity of it They may rejoice alway in the midst of their sorest fears or distresses 5. The object of it a glorious and replenishing object Christ the Lord 6. The Apostolical attestation given unto it Again I say rejoice I speak it by Commission from the mouth of Christ requiring it I speak it by the experience of mine own heart enjoying it in the midst of all my sufferings So you have both a mandatum and a probatum for it Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say rejoice But because I love not to mince and crumble the bread of life into too many particulars I shall therefore comprize all in this one Proposition which I shall make the subject of my present service That the Lord Jesus is the great sure and perpetual joy of his own people By accident unto wicked and impenitent sinners he is a stumbling block as wholsom meat is offensive to sick stomacks and the light of the Sun unto distempered eyes but unto those that believe he is altogether lovely pretious and desireable Abraham rejoiced to see his day Iohn 8 56. Mary rejoiced more that he was her Saviour then her son Luke 1. 47. Simeon embraced him with a Nunc dimittis Luke 2. 28. Mathew made a great Feast to receive him Luk 5. 29. Zacheus entertained him at his house joifully Luke 19. 6. The Eunuch as soon as he knew him went on his way rejoicing Acts 8. 39. The Jailor who even now was ready to have killed himself when Christ was preached unto him rejoiced and believed Acts 16. 34. Christ is the author of our joy he calleth it his joy Iohn 15. 11. It is the work and fruit of his spirit Gal. 5. 22. and he is the object of our joy it is fixed and terminated on him as on the most commensurable matter thereof Phil. 3. 3. There are many things belonging unto the object of a full and compleat joy 1. It must be good in it self and unto us 2. That good must have several qualificatious to heighten it to that pitch and proportion which the joy of the heart may fix on 1. It must be a Good present a in the view and possession of him whom it delighteth Good absent is the object of desire good present of delight It is true b a man may rejoice at some good that is past as that he did at such a time escape a danger or receive a benefit but then the memory makes it as it were present and the fruit of that past good is some way or other still remaining Also a man may rejoice in a good to come as Abraham rejoiced to see Christs day Iohn 8. 56. and believers rejoice in the hope of glory Rom. 5. 2. but then faith gives a kind of subsistence to the things so hoped for Heb. 11. 1. and the vertue and benefit of them is in being though they themselves be but yet in hope and so in regard of efficacy Christ was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world though not actually slain before the fulness of time So still the most proper ground of delight is fruition which presupposeth the presence of the thing enjoied 2. It must be good pretious which hath some special value belonging unto it We read of the joy of harvest Isa. 9. 3. because men then reap the pretious things of the earth as they are called Deut. 33. 14 16. Iam. 5. 7. It was not an ordinary thing but a treasure a pearl of great price which made the Merchant-man sell all that he had to buy it Mat. 13. 44. 46. 3. It must be a full good sufficient and throughly proportionable to all the desires and exigencies of him that is delighted with it Bring the richest pearl to a man under some sore fit of gout or stone he cries groans sweats is in pain still The object though good though pretious yet is not suitable to his present condition in that case he takes more pleasure in an anodine medicine then in a rich Jewel It would be little good news to such a man to tell him that his kidnies or his bladder were full of pearls or diamonds because there they would not be his treasure but his torment 4. It must be a Pure good without any dregs or dross to abate the sweetness of it All earthly delights are bitter-sweets wine tainted by the vessel which brings a loathing along with it the best corn hath its chaff the richest wine its lees the sweetest oyle its dregs the sun it self its spots nothing of meer creatures can cause an unmixed joy free from all tang and tincture of the vessel from whence it proceeds And any one defect may corrupt all the content which the rest ministreth as a dead fly will spoile the whole pot of oyntment 5. It must be a rare wonderful glorious the commonness even of good things takes from the loveliness of them If diamonds were as plentiful as pebles or gold as iron they would be as little esteemed if there were but one balsom or drug in the world that would cure any mortal disease a man would value the monopoly of that above the richest Jewel Because the Pool of Bethesda had a rare healing vertue multitudes of impotent blind halt withered were waiting continually for the moving of it John 5 2 3. 6. It must be various like the holy anoynting oyle compounded of many principal spices Exod. 30 23-25 in rich hangings in choice gardens in great feasts in select libraries variety is that which greatly delighteth the spectators were a table filled with one and the same dish or a study with the same book or a garden with the same flowre it would wholly take away from the delight of it And this variety is then much more delightful when each particular good doth answer some particular defect or desire in him that enjoyeth it when it is as a rich Storehouse as the Shop of the Apothecary or as a Physick Garden wherein a man may in any distemper fix on some thing proper to help him 7. It must be a prevalent and soveraign good a most efficacious catholicon against evils Victory even in trifles where no evil is to be removed as in bowling or shooting is that which makes the pleasure in those games much more delightful must that needs be which can help a man to overcome all
the evils and enemies that assault him no joy to the joy of a triumph when men divide the spoils In this case Iehosaphat and his people came to Ierusalem with Psalteries Harps and Trumpets to the house of God rejoicing over their enemies 2 Cron. 20. 25 20. 8. It must be a perpetual good commensurate in duration to the soul that is to be satisfied with it they are but poor and lying delights which like Iordan empty all their sweetness into a stinking and sulphurious lake True comfort is a growing thing which never bends to a declination That man will find little pleasure in his expedition whose voyage is for a year and his victual but for a day who sets out for eternity with the pleasures and contents of nothing but mortality Such are all natural sensual secular sinful joies As the sheep feeds on the grass and then the owner feeds on him so poor sinners feed awhile on dead comforts and then death at last feeds on them Psal. 49. 14. Lastly That which crowns and consummates all is it must be our own proper good all the rest without this signifie nothing unto us A begger feels not the joy of another mans wealth nor a cripple of another mans strength the prisoner that is leading to death hath no comfort in the pardon which is brought to another malefactor As every man must live by his own faith so every man must have his rejoicing in himself and not in another Gal. 6. 4. Now then let us consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession Christ Jesus and we shall find him alone in every one of these particulars to be a most adequate object of the joy and delight of all his people 1. He is a Good ever more present with them I am with you alway Mat. 28. 20. though bodily absent and that for the expediency and comfort of his servants Iohn 16. 7. yet in his Ordinances and by his Spirit ever amongst them You shall see me saith he to his Disciples because I go to my Father Iohn 16. 16. whereby is not only intimated his purpose of appearing unto them before his ascension but with all the full manifestation of himself unto them when he was gon by sending the holy spirit per cujus vicariam vim his bodily absence should be abundantly compensated By that spirit his people are joined unto him as the feet below to the head above 1 Cor. 6. 17. by that spirit in the Gospel he Preacheth peace unto them Eph. 2. 17. and is evidently set forth before them Gal. 3. 1. by that spirit he dwelleth in them Eph. 3. 17. manifests himself unto them makes his aboad with them Iohn 14 20-23 Rev. 3. 20. walks in the midst of them as in his house and Temple 2 Cor. 6. 16. is more present with them then any good thing they have besides Some things are present with us in our eye in our possession yet still without us as Goods or Friends some things more intimate but yet separable from us as health strength our soul it self but Christ is not only with us but in us Col. 1. 27. not only in us but inseparably abiding with us Rom. 8. 38 39. As in the Hypostatical union there is an inseparable conjunction of the manhood to the Godhead in one person so in the mystical union there is an inseparable conjunction of the members to the head in one Church or body 2. He is not an ordinary common good which if a man want he may compensate by some other thing but a Treasure and Pearl of highest price in whom are unsearchable riches Eph 3. 8. Hidden treasures Col. 2. 3. in comparison of whom all other things are loss and dung Phil. 3. 7 8. most precious in the eyes of his people 1 Pet. 2. 7. precious in his own immediate excellencies the chiefest of ten thousand Cant. 5. 10-16 precious in the respects he bears towards us in the sweet and intimate relations of an Husband an Head a Saviour a Brother a Father a Friend a Surety a Mediator a Propitiation an Advocate Pretious in the great things he hath done for us in the rich supplies of grace and peace he doth bestow upon us in the high dignity whereunto he advanceth us John 1. 12. 1 Iohn 3. 1. Rom. 8. 15 16. in the great promises he makes unto us 2 Pet. 1. 2 3 4. in the glorious hope which he sets before us and blessed mansions which he prepareth for us Col. 1. 27. Iohn 14. 2. in the light of his countenance shining on us in the fruits of his spirit wrought in us in the present life of faith in the hidden life of glory in the great price he paid for us in the great care which he takes of us in the effusions and manifestations of the love of God unto us In the Seals Pleadges Testimonies first-fruits of our eternal inheritance which he is pleased by his spirit to shead forth upon us in the free and open way which he hath made for us unto the Throne of grace in these and many other the like is the Lord Christ more honorable and precious in the eyes of his people then a thousand worlds could be without him 3. He is not only a most present and a most precious good but full and sufficient for his people He ascended on high that he might fill all things Eph. 4. 10. that he might powre forth such abundance of spirit on his Church as might answer all the conditions whereunto they may be reduced Righteousness enough to cover all their sins plenty enough to supply all their wants grace enough to subdue all their lusts wisdom enough to resolve all their doubts power enough to vanquish all their enemies vertue enough to cure all their diseases fulness enough to save them and that to the uttermost all other good things below and without him have a finit and limited benignity Some can cloath but cannot feed others can nourish but they cannot heal others can enrich but they cannot secure others adorn but cannot advance all do serve but none do satisfie They are like a beggers coat made up of many pieces not all enough either to beautifie or defend but there is in Christ something proportionable to all the wants and desires of his people He is Bread wine milk living-water to feed them Iohn 6. 51. 7. 37. he is a garment of righteousness to cover and adorn them Rom. 13. 14. a Physician to heal them Mat. 9. 12. a Counseller to advise them Isa 9. 6. a Captain to defend them Heb. 2. 10. a Prince to rule a Prophet to teach a Priest to make attonement for them an Husband to protect a Father to provide a Brother to relieve a Foundation to support a Root to quicken an Head to guide a Treasure to enrich a Sun to enlighten a Fountain to cleanse As the one Ocean hath more waters then all the Rivers in the
blessed hope secured by the witness of the spirit who is the seal and earnest of our eternal inheritance filleth the hearts of believers with joy unspeakable and full of glory while they look not on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen 9. In the fellowship of his sufferings which though to sense they be matter of sorrow yet unto faith are they matter of joy When Gods servants consider that unto these sufferings they were appointed 1 Thes. 3. 3. That Christ owns them as his Col. 1. 4. That they work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. That thereby the spirit of glory resteth on them and that God himself is glorified in them 1 Pet. 4. 14. In these respects they not only rejoice but triumph as more then conquerors in all their afflictions Acts 5. 41 Rom. 8. 37. Iam. 1. 2. Thus are Believers to rejoice in Christ And that 1. Greatly again and again Other delights may please the senses tickle the fancy gratifie the reason but there is no joy that can fill all the heart but the joy of the Lord Zeph. 3. 14. 2. Alway Rejoice ever more 1 Thes. 5. 16. all other joies have their periods and vacations they flow and ebb they blossom and wither In a fit of sickness in a pang of conscience under a sentence of death they are all as the white of an egg without any savor But no condition is imaginable wherein a conscionable believer hath not a foundation of joy in Christ This Tree of life hath fruit on it for every month Rev. 21. 2. The comforter he sends abides with us for ever Iohn 14. 16. The joy he gives none can take away Iohn 16. 22. Though Gods people have many causes of sorrow in themselves strong corruptions hard hearts little strength weak graces many temptations yet in Christ they have still matter of rejoicing in the constancy of his love in the abundance of his pardoning mercy in the fulness of his spirit in the sufficiency of his grace in the fidelity of his promise in the validity of his purchase in the vigilancy of his eye in the readines of his help in the perpetuity of his intercession we disparage so good a Lord discredit his service disquiet our selves discourage others grieve his spirit expose his waies to prejudice reproach weaken our hands in his service and our hearts in his love when we pine and languish under groundless perplexity and waste that time which should be spent in his work about our jealousies of his favor 3. With trembling and holy reverence Res severa est verum gaudium without levity without wantonness without presumption without arrogance Psal. 2. 11. So rejoice in him as withall to fear to offend him to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling even for this very reason because he is so gracious as to give us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2. 12 13. 4. With improvement of this joy 1. Unto thankfulness for Christ and any thing of Christ in our selves having tasted that the Lord is gracious let us ever be speaking good of his name though our measures are not so great as some other mens yet we may not esteem any thing of salvation small or little it will grow unto perfection 2. Unto more chearful service the more we triumph in his victory the more we shall abound in his work 1 Cor. 15. 57 58. The joy of the Lord is our strength Nehem. 8. 10. Return to thy rest O my soul there is Davids joy I will walk before the Lord there is the work of that joy Psal. 116. 8 9. None are more fruitfull in his service then they who are most joifull in his favor 3. Unto consolation against any other evils though we have not the wealth health gifts imployments honors that others have yet if Christ have given us himself his bloud to redeem us his spirit to quicken us his grace to renew us his peace to comfort us Should such consolations seem small unto us Iob 15. 11. What wants are there which the joy of the Lord doth not compensate What sufferings are there which the joy of the Lord doth not swallow up Would we exchange Christ if we might have all the world without him And shall we be displeased if we have not all the world with him Nay have we not in him all other things more eminently sweetly purely richly to enjoy then in all the creatures besides Fidelibus totus mundus divitiarum est Doth thy journey to heaven displease thee because the way haply is deep and stony admit it were a Carpit-way like Salisbury Plain haply there thou wouldst loiter more haply there thou wouldst be more assaulted whereas in a deeper way thou art more careful of thy self and more secure against thine enemies Lastly unto a zealous provocation of others to come in and be partakers of the same joy In times of festivity men use to call their neighbours under their Vines and Fig-trees Zach. 3. 10. The Lord Jesus is the feast of his servants 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. unto him therefore we should invite one another as Andrew did Simon and Philip Nathaniel Iohn 1. 41 45. Joy is of all affections the most communicative it leaps out into the eyes the feet the tongue staies not in one privat bosom but as it is able sheds it self abroad into the bosoms of many others It was not enough for David to express his own joy by dancing before the Ark but he deals amongst all the people cakes of bread pieces of flesh flagons of wine that the whole multitude of Israel might rejoice in the Ark of God as well as he 2 Sam. 6. 14. 19. I shall shut up all with removing two obstacles which seem to stand in the way of this joy 1. If I must alway rejoice how then or when shall I sorrow for sin I answer These two doe sweetly consist As the Passeover was a Feast yet eaten with bitter hearbs so Christ our Passeover may be feasted upon with a bitter sense of our own sins As in the Spring many a sweet flowre falls and yet the Sun shines all the while So there may be sweet flowres of Godly sorrow and the Sun of righteousness still shine on the soul None do more mourn for offending Christ then those who do most rejoice in the fruition of him 2. But what shall we say of wounded and afflicted consciences lying under the buffets of Satan under divine desertions sinking under temptation and wrestling with the sense and fear of wrath can these rejoice at all much less always It is true when God hides his face none can behold him in such a shipwrack neither Sun nor Stars wil appear But yet 1. There is the matter and foundation of true joy the seed of comfort Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in
Joy in the Lord Opened in a SERMON Preached at Pauls May 6. DVM PREMOR ATTOLLOâ— London Printed by Tho Newcomb for Robert Bostock and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Kings-Head in St Pauls Church-yard 1655. To the Right Honorable Christopher Pack Lord Major of the City of London and the Honorable Court of Aldermen there Right Honorable IN Conformity to your desires signified by your Order unto me I here humbly present you a second time with that plain but wholsome Doctrine which you were lately pleased to receive with all ready attention And indeed the argument is such as the Apostle thought need ful to inculcate once and again And therefore if the Tongue and the Pen the Pulpit and the Press do a first and a second time invite you unto the same duty the Apostles example will both commend your zeal in desiring it and excuse my obedience in conforming to so just a desire Self-sufficiency is Gods peculiar honor one of those Regalia which belong unto him alone All creatures must go out of themselves both for the continuance of that Being which they have and for the Acquisition of such further good as they stand in need of And since they are all thus defective in them selves they must needs be unable to complete the perfections of one another much less of man who is one of the principal and most excellent of them That good therefore the want whereof doth kindle desire the fruition whereof doth produce delight must be sought above the world in him who as he is sufficient to himself so is he alone All-sufficient unto his Creatures And because there is no approach for sinful men unto God without a Mediator the Father hath set up his eternal son as that middle person in whom we may have communion with him and access unto him Justly therefore was the Lord Christ before his coming stiled The Desire of all Nations as justly is he after his coming their everlasting Delight since in and by him alone the Lord is pleased to be at peace with us and out of his fulness to communicate all good unto us To set forth this Preciousness of Christ unto his people and to quicken their joy in him was the end of this Sermon and is indeed the end of all other We live in changeable and uncomposed times we see distempers at home we hear of distresses abroad the Lord is shaking heaven and earth Churches and States our eyes and our experience tell us how mutable are the wills how inconstant the Judgements how fickle the favors how sudden the frowns of men how vain the hopes how unstable the delights which are drawn out of broken Cisterns how full of dross and dregs the most refined contents of the world are God alone is true and every man a lyar either by falseness deluding or by weakness disappointing those that depended on them Since therefore the life of man doth hardly deserve the name of life without some solid comfort to support it and neither men nor Angels much less honors or pleasures plenty or abundance can supply us with that Comfort what remains but that we betake our selves unto that Fountain of living water whence alone it is to be had that we secure our interest in the Lord Christ who is faithful and cannot fail powerful and will not forsake nor expose those that come unto God by him that so being upon the Rock which is higher then our selves we may be able amidst all the tempests and shakings the delusions and disappointments below to Rejoyce in him with a fixed and inconcussible delight who can bring joy out of sorrow light out of darkness and turn all confusions into order and beauty This that you and all Gods people in City and Countrey may every where do is the prayer of Your Honors most humble servant in the work of the Lord Edward Reynolds From my study Iune 2. 1655. Joy in the Lord Opened in a Sermon Preached at PAVLS May 6. PHIL. 4. 4. Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say rejoice THere is nothing which the hearts of Believers doe either more willingly hear or more difficultly observe then those precepts which invite them unto joy and gladness they being on the one hand so suitable to the natural desires and yet withall on the other so dissonant to the miserable condition of sinful man Had our Apostle called on the blessed Angels to rejoice who have neither sin nor sorrow nor fear nor sufferings nor enemies to annoy them it might have seemed far more congruous But what is it less then a Paradox to perswade poor creatures loaded with guilt defiled with corruption cloathed with infirmities assaulted with temptations hated persecuted afflicted by Satan and the world compassed about with dangers and sorrows born to trouble as the sparks fly upward that notwithstanding all this they may rejoice and rejoice alway But we have a double corrective to all these doubts in the Text one in the Object another in the Preacher of this Joy The object of it is Christ the Lord as appears by the same thing twice before mentioned cap. 3. 1. 3 The Lord that pardoneth our guilt subdueth our lusts healeth our infirmities rebuketh our temptations vanquisheth our enemies sweetneth our sufferings heightneth our consolations above our afflictions and at last wipeth all tears from our eyes Here is matter of great joy may we be satisfied in the truth of it And for that we have the word of an Apostle who gives assurance of it by Divine Revelation and by personal experience He who next to the Lord himself was of all his servants a man of sorrow in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in perils in deaths in weariness in watchings in hunger in thirst in cold in nakedness beaten with rods stoned with stones shipwrackt at Sea beset at Land he who in the prison the inner prison a the stocks a kind of case of prisons one within another did yet b rejoice and sing Psalms unto God Acts 16. 24 25. He it is who from the Lord calleth upon Believers to rejoice alway Instead then of a Paradox you have here a Paradice a Tree of life as joy is called Prov. 13. 12. And the servants of God may securely notwithstanding their sorrow for sin their sense of sufferings their certainty of temptations their conflicts with enemies their sympathy with brethren may yet I say securely rejoice and rejoice alway they have the Lord to warrant it they have his Apostle to witness it Let worldlings delight in sensual pleasures Let false Apostles delight in carnal worship and ceremonial priviledges but you my brethren have another kind of object to fix your joies upon Rejoice in the Lord and again rejoice and rejoice alway and that upon the word and credit of an Apostle I say it and I say it again There are many