seeming forced pleasure it may have in those things whereof it will be one time ashamed as being either drunk with lust or bewitched to madnesse like a man that is tyed up to the love of an ugly woman by the strength of a potion and that is the most I grant that even while she is fetter'd and confind to things below her condition and unbecoming her breeding she may be merry as long as she doth not think of it or after a sort make her selfe so that she may not A noble spirit forced to be a servant or a drudge or a begger as long as he does not think upon his condition may be as another man and make a shift it may be to have a sprinkling of mirth now then to wash away the memory of his unhappinesse of being brought into that condition But yet still his heart is another way and his mind is higher then so He is like the bird in the cage singing perhaps sweetly so that a man would doubt sometimes whether he had not rather be there then any where else but yet ever and anon thrusting out his head at the holes so that a man may be sure he is not where he would be or he is not in his element and that though he sing sweetly and pleasantly to you yet it is not so to himselfe Besides there is a singing tongue with a weeping heart and all the mirth such a man hath is but sorrow and sadnesse in comparison of that mirth which he would have if his person were as free as his spirit is ingenuous Thus the soule of a wicked man it is of the same breed that a godly man's is and being borne as rational as his would delight in rational actions and in the reasonable service of God as his does if it were it 's own soule and it 's own soule it would be if it knew well that it is not But alas she is not her own For the Devill hath bought her unto sinne for nothing and made her a slave she hath sold her selfe to slavery to commit iniquity for pleasures only seeming so by the jugling tricks and panourgie of the tempter and being in the power of darknesse does not regard to be redeemed The Divill hath taken her alive * 2 Tim 2.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put her in the cage made her miserably subject a most pure spirituall divine substance to most foule carnal divellish accidents to the base impure passions and lusts of the flesh as to the commands of an imperious whorish woman But what doe I goe about to prove that gladnesse may be when I might as easily prove that it must be the companion of good actions insomuch that they cannot be good without it Companion I say not as bells on the neck of a horse to make him goe the faster or as sweetning to a pill for feare of nauseating good actions without it as if it were necessary only thus viz that we and not that God may be pleased No surely it is more then after this manner necessary For else the actions might be good enough without it as pills may be without sweetning if the mouth would receive them which they cannot be no more then they can without willingnesse which is altogether necessary for I meane in this sense the will of God cannot be performed without the will of man To goe further gladnesse in the performance of duties is more necessary then the performance of duties For a duty may not be done and yet I may doe my duty because I may doe another duty though I doe not this But I cannot doe my duty at all unlesse I be glad or unlesse I be willing willingnesse will cause gladnesse wheresoever it is in some measure I know not but it may be a command as well as advice Serve the Lord with gladnesse Psal 100.2 And so that Psal 107 22 Let them declare his workes with rejoycing And there is excellent encouragement for as many as doe so For it is said that God meeteth him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousnesse Isa 64.51 Wherefore as James said If any be merry let him sing psalmes so I say If any sing psalmes or doe any other duty let him be merry for God loveth not a cheerfull giver only but a cheerfull doer of any thing else that is good 'T were better thou did'st sleep when thou broughtest thine offering to the Lord unlesse thine heart encourage thee and thy spirit make thee willing Exod 35.21 But to make the joy which is to be had by good actions better yet and to speak a little more to what I began with as we are commanded to hold up our heads and look right forward with cheerfulnesse upon what we are doing so are we allowed to turne about our heads too sometimes and look backward with gladnesse and rejoycing upon what we have done as a carpenter or mason or any other workeman uses to doe upon his worke And good turne is it that we are so allowed Else we should soon transgresse For how could we chuse but be glad when we have done that which we are glad to doe when we did it and must will be glad to doe if it be to be done againe Even good words or words which we have well spoken are to look to like apples of gold in pictures of silver Prov 25.11 Much more then may good actions be pleasant to look to and comfortable to think upon Methinks I see how joyfully Samuel stood upon his justification because he had lived honestly and had done no body wrong Behold here I am wttnesse against me before the Lord and before his anointed Whose Ox have I taken or whose Asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I recieved any bribe c 1 Sam 12.13 And indeed I doe not not see how we can have any joy whatever we may have else if we want this cause Or it we have any it will be very short-liv'd and such as will runne away like hony that hath no combes made before to hold it as Bernard said upon those words of Paul Rom 14.17 Righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Justitia pax ipsa ergo praecedant tanquam cellulae mellis ut adhuc labilem liquorem suavitatis solidior possit materia continere comparing joy to the hony and righteousnesse and peace to the combes You may remember I told you that good actions are as pleasant to the soule of a spirituall man one that lives in the flesh indeed but not after the flesh but after the spirit and by the faith of the Son of God as meat and drink are to the body when it is sit to recieve them And so indeed they are and that not only for the present while they are as I may say in the mouth For so unwholsome meat may be pleasant to the distempered sick man and so
He bids me come out of the pit but will not give me his hand and yet he knowes I can never be able to get up without it His commands are many and he is nice in the performance of every one of them He is not like other masters who are satisfied if their worke be well done not examining my thoughts but he searcheth my heart and my reines and my inmost thoughts before I can think them He requires such obedience as I have no ability to performe so that I must needs be disobedient and sinne and yet The soule that sinneth shall dye This is thy usuall complaint And indeed I confesse it is a hard case to be servant to such a master as thou describest Whom thou must thank most that thou art in such a case I know not This I know that thou art bound to thank thy God whom thou so much blamest that there is also a way made to to come out of it He who was not the servant a Heb 3.5 only b He is called a Servant Zach 3.8 but the everlasting c Mich. 5.2 son of the same master freely over and above what he was bound to doe took upon him the forme of a servant * Phil. 2.7 did as hard service as ever servant did pacifiedthy master for the past made him mercifull for the future and fulfilled all righteousnesse in thy behalfe I grant there had been no remedy but the soule that sinnes must surely dye had not he dyed who never sinned And why he should dye when he did not sinne unlesse it were to redeeme and save thee that diddest sinne as the innocent beast did the sinner in the time of the Law I cannot tell Well thus it is what was to be done by any one he hath done and what was to be suffered by us unlesse it be some few 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Col 1.24 he hath suffered himselfe All thy work is but to believe that he hath done so much and to trust that he will doe more and to live accordingly as well as thou canst But let me be plainer with thee Perhaps thou that makest these complaints never trod'st one foot in the pathes of God's commandements and I much feare that thou art such a one For shame doe not talke of the difficulty of the work which thou art to doe before thou knowest what it is The tryall of worke is only in practise First make tryall and tast and see how gratious the Lord is and then tell me afterward what thou thinkest Suppose there be some things as I doe not deny but there be that are irksome and painfull to thy body Be not dismaid Thy body will scarce be sensible of the paine for the joy which thy soule takes both in doing the worke if thou doest it in the best manner as there be many that doe and in the hopes of having more hereafter when it receives the wages If I would I could give thee an hundred cordialls every one of which if thou wouldest take it should be strong enough to keep the from fainting at thy worke under any of thy discouragements But for the present I will prescribe but two meditations 1 Meditate upon the immensity of the wages which God will give his servants at the last day and the unspeakable astonishing disproportion those wages bare to the worke which they doe for it O the wonderfull lenity and bounty of God towards them For much ill done they have a little temporall chastisement and for a little well doing aninfinite lasting reward This disproportion for I know not what proportion to call it I say not 't is a hundred fold which our Saviour said they should have in this life Math 19.29 but infinitly more then an hundred times a hundred Now what man can for shame say he hath hard service when for a pennyworth of work perhaps badly done his master out of love he beares him or upon his sons entreaty or because he endeavoured only to give him content shall give him an estate great enough to maintaine him as long as he lives Much more then should it be a shame but to think it hard service when for a little done in all so as it is and nothing at all so as it should be my master notwithstanding as if I had done whatsoever was my duty to doe or as if I had been righteous shall give me such a crowne of righteousnesse 1 Tim 4.8 as is a crown of life Rev 2.10 such a crown of life as is a crown of glory 1 Pet 5 4 and such a crowne of glory as is everlasting an inheritance incorruptable undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet 1.4 Doubtlesse all godly men have a great deale of comfort and joy even in their actions to think of their end and the reward and profit wherewith they are crowned And indeed their condition would be as comfortlesse if they had not such thoughts as it would be miserable if they had no reward The wicked cannot take comfort in their actions if it were for nothing but this that though they doe not know that they cannot profit yet they doe not know that they can or will The knowledg of this and the thought thereof is of great concernment to cause a man cheerfulnesse in working For what should one labour for the wind yet so the wicked doe which will be their complaint one day against themselves among other things What hath pride profited us or what profit hath the pomp of riches brought us Wisd 5.8 The second Meditation is upon the greatnes and goodnesse of thy company Most men will be merry in good company if ever they will be merry and most men will say The more the merrier A bruit creature though his work be hard will goe on cheerfully with company and will keep up with the rest though he break his heart To cheer-up thy spirit therefore in thy march to heaven be ever and anon thinking upon the armies of Saints that are gone before thee the same way But especially I would have thee think upon him who is Captaine of the company him I meane who is himselfe the way it selfe and the life Joh 14.16 The Shepheard of our soules 1 Pet 2.25 The Apostle and high-priest of our profession Heb. 3.1 and the captaine of our salvation ch 2.10 Looking unto Jesus the authour and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Heb 12.2 Let it not seem hard and tedious to thee but to follow so farre as to the Cross since it seemed not so to him to goe first to be crucified on it A dog will follow his master thorow thick and thin whether he call him or not and though he knowes not whither he goes or what it is for And cannot I who know the way that I goe
hurt him and God besides hath made a promise to his children long agoe Isath 43 3 That when they passe thorow the waters he will be with them and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow them when they walk thorow the fire they shall not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon them Insomuch that Hierome seeing the Church still having the worst and yet being never the worse compared it to the Bush Exod 3 2 that continued burning and was not consumed but also because they are infinitly profitable and beneficiall every way to perfect us and make us fit to be redeemed ons as our Redeemer himselfe was perfected by sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb 2.10 and so made fit to be a Redeemer Like the bitterest pills they have the sweetest operation and that to many excellent effects which I shall speak unto 1. They are very good to hasten both the birth and the growth of the new man There is no readier way to be borne againe then through paines and pangs and travells Nay there is scarce any way but that For how shall there be a birth and delivery where is no travell nor burden How can the body of sinne be dissolved and the life of the old man be taken away without paine while the body of flesh and bone and the life of the man himselfe cannot Can a man goe on hot coales * Prov 6.28 and his feet not be burnt or can a man be a â—ath 3.11 baptised with fire and feel no paine Certainly weaning from the milk of the world must needs be painfull at first before a man finds that there is better nourishment in the milk of the word The circumcision of the foreskin was exceeding painfull insomuch that b Gen 34.3.5 two men could master a whole town when the men were circumcised And doubtlesse the circumcision of the heart the circumcision of Christ as the Apostle calls it or the circumcision brought in by Christ is as painfull the heart being as tender as that part and without the circumcision of the heart there can be no putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh according to the words of the Apostle Col 2.11 A man must put off cast off and cut off deny not only the world but his own selfe The very heart must be broken up the old frame quite taken abroad ere Christ can be formed in it No setting a new stamp without defacing the old You must get away the bad flesh if you will have better come As in the ordinary course of nature there must be a corruption before there be a generation so in the ordinary course of grace the death and corruption of the old man is necessarily prerequired to the generation and birth of the new I call it generation because it is called regeneration and because it is a second generation whereby we are begotten a new Not as if it were a generation properly so called For there is nothing in us out of which grace can make any thing Who can bring a cleane thing out of an unclean And therefore that new thing which is made is called a * Galat 6.15 creature It is indeed a creation rather and the worke of an Almighty power to make a new man or to forme the the second a Gal 4.19 I travell till Christ be formed in you Christ is the second Adam 1 Cor 15.47 Adam even as it was to make the first man or to forme the first Adam I say that before this introduction of the new there must be an ejection of the old inhabitant by reason of the enmity between them they cannot be together Believe it I speak for the most part there is a great deal of paines to be indured in fashioning a new man A bone out of joynt is not set in it's place but with paine If there were no paine when it was set without doubt it was not set aright and in short time though it may not for a while it will appeare I speak of the paines of Humiliation and Conviction Commonly your seeming religious men are such as never knew what the throwes of the new birth meant and did but only pretend them I shall ever suspect that Christian that was never afflicted His drosse and tinne must be purged out in fire and there must be much contrition and beating with the hammer of affliction before it can be well wrought I cannot hope that any thing that is hard as our hearts are will be made into a new fashion till it be put into the fire and softned with the flames Honey-combs must be squeez'd D. Featly Ore must be stamped in the mills and tryed in the fire and so must the Saints too before they can be gold fit for the building of the new Jerusasalem And so for the growth of the new man As our rational life is best when our vegetative is worst and as we begin to grow in wisedome when we cease to grow in strength so our spirituall life hath more life and spirit vigour then when the life of the flesh whether by reason of sicknesse or poverty or persecutions or voluntary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mortification is ready to dye When the body is lowest the soule is highest Like two scales when one is down the other is up The more weight you throw upon the body the lighter the soule Water in a vessell if you throw stones into it it mounts the higher A godly man may say with Paul when I am weak then I am strong 2 Cor 12.10 Yea though his very heart should faile he will be a gainer by it For whereas before he had no strength but his own which would quickly faile him now God will be the strength of his heart Psal 73.26 The Body without exercise will grow sickly and so will the Soule also needing exercise more then the body as needing both it's own and the bodies too 2. Afflictions are beneficiall because they have an excellent vertue to cleare the sight They make a man see the vanity basenesse of his pleasures viz that they are such as are presently destroyed if but one part of them that use them and that the worst too this contemptible fraile body of theirs be never so little distempered But besides the discovery of the vanity of the object they mak a man also to see the vanity and basenesse of the subject the Soule viz In looking after and being pleas'd with such pleasures the use and enjoyment whereof must depend upon the strength of such weak helps and instruments as the members of the body that are subject to so many casualties even according to that abundance of supplies necessaries which they stand in need of continually Afflictions discover the sinne of the Soule in that manner as many times men by one disease of the body discover another being made to looke more narrowly to their health by their
is all in every thing For what is a faire easy way if it end there where I would not be or if it lead me out of the way But then as I have formerly said a wicked mans wayes besides that they are slippery are dark too And what sad walking is it besides the toyle and vexation in the dark Prov 14.9 The way of the wicked is as darknesse they know not at what they stumble 2. A wicked man has many masters and many sorts of masters and such as are very bad If they were good it were bad enough in that they are many viz The devill the world and six hundred Lusts Such masters as are to him for the most pars task-masters and such taske-masters as are Egyptian task-masters For. 1. they are unreasonable They will require brick of him when he has no straw Command him him to doe this and that and make him covet and feare and lust and hope and be angry when there is no possibility to obtaine or voyd or be reveng'd Which must needs put him to a great deale of torture and vex him exceedingly 2. They are unanswerable imperious and importunate They will not be put off They will have their commands executed what ever come of it presently to the full and every one though they be never so contrary to reason and to one another or else he shall never be quiet And shall he be quiet so 3. As their commands are unreasonable and imperious so they are continuall and without intermission 'T is not company nor want of company not opportunity nor want of opporrunity to doe what God would have him 'T is not night nor day Not sleeping nor watching Not being in publick nor being in private Not any time nor place nor person nor thing that will make the devill or his Lusts forbeare tempting him one minute of an houre And what domineering manner of tempting is it wherewith they tempt a wicked man But 4. there is one thing more in this tyranny which the devill and the flesh have over a wicked man that makes it intolerable and that is this that it is to be obeyed in severally ways extending it selfe both to body and soule They will be served with all the soule and with all the body which is more then God himselfe to whom only our service is due necessarily requires for if the spirit be doing it will suffice when the body cannot But this they doe and that with the inevitable hurt now and necessary destruction hereafter of both body soule which have thus served them which will make a fifth aggravation of a wicked mans misery in being subject to these masters viz because their commands are cruell enjoyning him to doe not that from which some good or benefit may come or which is indifferent or which is onely wearisome and painefull but that which is only evill absolutely and every way unprofitable in a spirituall sense and many times and many wayes in a carnall sense necessarily hurtfull and destructive not only to the body now as in the sins of whoredome intemperance contentiousnesse but both to body and soule hereafter 3. A wicked man hath many enemies Even those his masters are his enemies What condition can be more sad then his who cannot fight with but is under the command of his enemie Especially 1. If it be an intestine and domestick enemy No misery like to that One would endure to be under a forreiner but a civill enemy my subjection to him is as slavish as the hatred between us is bitter A wicked man's lusts Satan being his masters his enemies his enemies are domestick enemies and his domestick enemies are the most bitter and malitious for they seeke not any good of their own yet they seek his everlasting hurt 2. If it be a secret enemy and a seeming freind so these enemies and masters are which makes them the easier to be believed the harder to be avoided and the worse to be dealt with Those enemies are all in the darke to a wicked man who walkes altogether in the darke and hath noe light at all either without him or within him and what advantage has my enemy that stands neere me in the dark while I am in the light A wicked man being in darknesse is no more able to deale with the divell who is able to transforme himself into an Angell of Light then a blinde man is able to fight with one that hath his sight But beside these that dwell within him he hath other enemies without him that are not far from him neither 1. God who made him is made his enemy what an enemy must he be One whose eyes are alwaies upon him who knowes all that he does or sayes nay that he will doe or say or thinke every counsell and thought of his hart and that a farre off and long before What a case is he in that hath such an enemy and provokes him too as he does every minute 2. Men. Wickednesse will make enemies one way or other in the execution of sinne Now if those men be wicked there is malice enough with them and God is like to prosper it against his enemy If they be godly there is power enough with God and he is certain to exercise it first or last in the behalfe of his children What a poore love is it that a wicked man hath The godly man loves him but does not love his company the wicked man loves his company but does not love him He may love what he does as drinking and the like because he loves to do it himselfe but no longer then he does it neither Nay no longer then he does it with him and as he would have him wicked men associate not so much to beare one another company as to beare a part with one another but he loves not what he is he loves not his soule that is the most that a man is His soule is seldome knit to the soule of his companion by the band of friendship Neither indeed can it be For there can be no true friendship and yet without that there cannot be a merry life where there is no vertue Philosophers have said so long agoe and Christians find it to be true Wicked men may keep one another company to keep one anothers counsell they may agree together to doe mischiefe because they cannot doe it otherwise But it is no better then when dogs curres agree to cath a prey unlesse it be in this that they will agree sometimes when they have taken a prey which not withstanding usually they doe not so much out of mutuall love to protect one another as out of selfe love to preserve every one himself from the hand of justice 3. The Creatures who beare him a grudge continually That they forbeare him the least minute it is through the infinite forbearance of a most mercifull long-suffering God who can endure to let his sun shine both upon the
the godly is The workes of God of all sorts whereof both their duty and their practise is to be frequently meditating especially his wonderfull workes to the children of men * Many O Lord are the wonderfull works which thou hast done thy thought to us-ward Psal 40.5 in their preservation and redemption Ps 107.21 David bids us declare his workes with rejoycing Psal 107.22 And he speakes of it as if it were a thing for which especially he desired to live and wherein he should take most comfort I shall not dye but live and declare the workes of the Lord Ps 118.17 How can Believers chuse but rejoyce to think upon that wonderfull work of the Redemption both of Jewes and Gentiles by the Sonne of God the Sonne of Man Christ Jesus blessed for ever to think of Gods's wonderfull Love in the purpose a The eterrnal purpose Eph 3.4 his wonderfull freenes in the price his wonderfull wisdome b The manifold wisedome of God Ep 3 10. in the contrivance and his wonderfull faithfulnesse truth in the performance after so long c Psal 105.8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever the word which he commanded to a thousand generations a time and so much provocation by the sinns of the world to desist from his purpose Neither can a godly man's heart chuse but be exceedingly taken with the thoughts of God's power and wisedome in the first forming and the continuall governing of such a world of creatures Especially in the making of himselfe For he is fearefully and d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 13.9.14 wonderfully made God hath given him an excellent Soule and of a divine extract He hath most curiously †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as with a needle Psal 139. v 15. wrought him and most excellently * Job 10.11 cloathed him with skin and flesh and fenced him with bones and sinewes he hath endowed him with most excellent naturall gifts reason and judgment which he hath not given to other creatures But that which is the greatest of all he hath bestowed on him most excellent spirituall gifts faith hope and love and many many graces which he hath denied to other men The medication upon these last only Basil the Great in his Sermon of Thanks-giving upon those words of the Apostle Rejoyce alwaies c affirmed to be sufficient matter of rejoycing in the middest of the furnace of the hottest afflictions David who in the day of his trouble even when his soule refused comfort had recourse for comfort to meditation upon the workes of God as if it could not chuse but recieve comfort from thence hath abundantly testified how usefull the meditation is for the purpose we speak of and what an excellent antidote it is against sorrow See Ps 77. In the second verse of that Psalme he saies My Soule refused to be comforted But in the tenth and twelfth verses And I said this is my infirmity c. I will remember the workes of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old As if he had said thus I am very much discomforted insomuch that my soule refuseth to be comforted but I know what to doe to helpe it I will remember the workes of the Lord surely I will remember his wonders of old And a thousand to one but that if any thing will cause me to rejoyce this will To a wicked man the workes of God both of power and mercy are but matter of bare speculation after a Philosophicall manner wherein there is abundance of vexation And many of the former sort the creatures are unto him but objects and instruments and incentives of evill thoughts and words and actions to his own hurt Present any Creature to a wicked man and it will presently stirre up in him Covetousnesse envy lust feare or any thing rather then joy Wheras if you set all the Creatures in the world before a godly man he is able to look upon them and think upon them without any perturbation at all nay with comfort and delight 7ly A seventh groud God's Ordinances Another thing from whence a godly Christian may fetch abundance of joy is God's Sacraments and Ordinances For first What Christian can chuse but be ravish't with joy and consolation to think how by the baptisme of water and the renewing of the holy Ghost he is brought so neare to the God of joy and consolation as to be taken into a covenant of salt with him An everlasting Covenant such as he need not be sad to think it will end suddainly A covenant not of hard servitude and bondage the very thought whereof would never suffer him to be merry but of honourable service and freedome such as he need not be sad to think he shall never be able to keep because God will not regard a Hebr 8.9 him For it is a covenant better then many of his forefathers had and established upon better promises Heb 8 6. What Christian can chuse but be ravished with joy to think that he is made a member of God's own b Eph 2.19 c 1 Cor◠12.27 Citty of his own ◠houshold of his ◠body nay that he is by this meanes become even one with Christ as much and more then a wife is with a * Being dead to the law by the body of Christ Rom 7.4 husband as I may say bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh * Eph 5.30 31. I may adde spirit of his * Rom 8.9 1 Cor 6. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit spirit being baptized not only in or to but * Thus Beza interpret's it and the context requiers it into Jesus Christ as the Apostle expresses it or as we render it Rom 6.3 2ly What a glorious life hath he and consequently what a merry life must he needs have who is not only taken into the Lord's own house so soon and so freely and to be there for ever but is also feasted so often at his own table I am sure I should be able to say so for if it be seldome it is the steward's fault and not the master's who allowes freely enough I say what joy is it to be feasted so often at the table of the Lord in the Sacrament of Communion where he can feed better on him then other where upon the Lord 's own flesh and bloud which is meate and drink indeed and whose nourishment is to an everlasting life 3ly What a life for light and knowledge and consolation in case of trouble of Conscience and consequently what a merry life must he needs have that hath a doore of a Col 4.3 utterance for the preaching of the word and a doore of b Act 14.27.2 saith and c Pet 1.11 entrance into the everlasting Kingdome for the hearing of the word continually open banqueting houses continually open Cant 2.4 Feasts of fat things continually provided Isa 25.6 And all this
nay he is as glad and as merry as a man that finds a treasure or hath got-somewhat beyond his desert and expectation And if that little should be never so much yet will he himselfe be the same still only more bountifull and perhaps a little more merry and this is all the change you shall find in him On the contrary for the wicked man whose mind is bent after these things with eagernesse and affection consider what a deale of hard service and toyle what sleeplesse restlesse endlesse cares his lusts and passions and vices like so many peevish and never-to-be-pleased task-masters continually put him upon every one commanding and domineering over him many times all together and sometimes for contrary designes and most times for such as cannot be followed without difficulty and paine and danger of the losse of his body if I should say the soule he would weigh but little of that being a thing which he himselfe sees not nor any body else and so out of sight out of mind and regard If there were no such contrariety in the objects to say nothing of the contrariety also in the desires themselves worse then a civill warre in a Kingdome the quantity and the greatnesse of the number were enough to overloade him and the quality and the variety of the sorts sufficient to distract him While the godly man or the spirituall * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor 2.15 man hath but one single spirit to please he living a sensuall life hath as many masters to please as he hath senses or acts of those senses or objects of those acts The most temperate rationall worldling and such a one it may be soonest for he is for others too whereas the intemperate bruitish sot is for none but himselfe how is he to use the words of the Apostle 2 Tim 2.4 Intangled with the afaires of this life What a deale of cumbersome imployments hath he How many perplexities to find and untangle How many doubts to study to cleare How many wayes and meanes to examine and essay dangers and inconveniences to enquire into and avoyd How many circumstances conditions events persons times and places to trouble his head with so that he is quite wearied and tired with multitude of counsells * Isa 47.13 to dispatch his businesses O the exceeding monstrous headlesse endlesse colluvies and the numerous tumultuary army of disordered and confused thoughts and plots and counsels that continually throngs and crouds in the little roome of the heart of a carnall man I dare say he hath no less then a thousand to one with the godly man For the godly man having but little to doe cannot have much to think or to speak and that little which he doth is cleane contrary to what alwaies is to be seen in the actions of wicked men not only not accompained with sollicitude in but not attended and dog'd with biting vexations and sorrowes and repentings after the doing Methinks I would faine in large a little upon this point and therefore I desire your patience to consider a little longer with me whether godly man have not by much lesse to doe then the wicked besides what hath been already said for these ensuing reasons 1. Because both they and their vertues are like men within a castle or those that have the defensive part whose businesse and care relates but to a little and to a few objects for the preservation of themselves that is almost all that they care for and if they take any care about others 't is in relation to their own duty and with an eye to their own recompence of reward whereas wicked men and their vices are rather like the besiegers or those that are without the castle whose maine businesse it is to offend which makes them have a great deale more to doe inasmuch as every offensive party hath necessarily both parts to act 2. Because vertue or a good action or the vertue goodnes of actions is like the mark in a But simple and single and but in one place whereas vice or a bad action or the badnes and pravity of actions may be either here or there nay is here and there every where except in the middle When there is shooting at a common marke suppose one man able and willing to hit the marke every time and suppose another neglectfull of the mark and desirous rather to shew his skill in shooting to any other place besides the mark sometime to one and sometimes to another and tell me who hath most to doe or whose worke is hardest he that hath but one place to hit though he have many to avoid or he that hath many places to hit and so many times as many more to avoid as he hath places to strike God appoints but one way The wicked man * Jer 3.13 disperseth his wayes and by that meanes encreaseth his trouble How often do we see the most cunning wicked men weary themselves in the mutitude of their wayes Isa 57.10 To instance in one vertue veracity What an easy thing it is to speak every man the truth to his neighbour We need not take much paine in apparelling Truth or putting over many cloathes about her For though she may be modest she is bold and loves to goe naked No need of a guard of many words to attend her nor of colours of gaudy expressions to make her take the better No need of adorning her with devices of Rhetorick to make her beautifull for she is naturally so nor of arming her with artifices of arguments to make her strong for she is strong enough of her selfe stronger then women or wine Darius being judge in the Apocryphall history 1 Esdr 4.14 With Leasing or falshood it is cleane otherwise For it must be as well clad and adorned by him that useth it as it is naked and deformed of it selfe He that bends his * Jer. 9.3 tongue like a bow to tell a lye with how much anxiety care study feare doubt compunction and sence of guilt doth he elaborate his story And when he thinks he hath made all sure and stopped every gap and does not only not know of any that knowes but knowes that no man knowes how to find him yet neverthelesse he hath palenesse in his face and faintnes in his heart his tongue faulters his lips hands and leggs tremble and the sound of a shaken leafe will chase him Although the feare of God be not in him to keep him from sinning yet the a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen 35.5 terrour of God will be upon him to affright him in it This sollicitude in the contrivance of lying whether by words or actions is as great as in any wickednesse whatsoever And therefore well might the Prophet complaine of the Jewes at once that they taught their tongues to speake lyes wearyed themselves to commit iniquity Jer 9.5 A second reason of the easinesse and pleasantnesse of a godly
life you may gather if you consider how there is no trouble after nor when once a man hath been used to it in forbearing to doe evill as for example in forbearing to eate or drink too much or in any other act of temperance or indeed in any act of any other vertue that attends godlinesse Nay rather on the contrary what lightnesse and alacrity in the mind as well as ease and lightnesse in the body whereas on the contrary for example intemperate men when the short winded pleasure of tast which the longest winded draught can afford is past to say nothing of the nauseating and paine of the stomach sometimes for the present they have not done that which they will no more hear of but they are almost certaine to meet with pain and sicknesse and sorrow and if not a reckoning more then they can well pay now which is often enough yet without question a most difficult account to be made O this word they must needs be sad to heare it named Heareafter Godly actions are like the workes of nature * See next reason which are with pleasure Wickednesse a man may be weary with Nay he will be certainly so one time or other Take the confession of the wicked themselves We have wearied our selves in the way of wickednes and destruction we have gone through dangerous waies but we have not known the way of the Lord Wis 5.7 Infinite deale more might here be spoken of the troubles and difficulties and sorrowes of the works of wickednesse especially by instancing in the practises of severall vices as thieving adultery drunkenesse pride envy and the rest but I should make my volume swell too high 3. The workes of godlinesse are most easy because most agreable to nature Reasonable and spirituall service such as that is is fittest for reasonable soules and spirits On the contrary vices and the workes of wickednesse the greatest part of them are for the greatest part but sensuall carnall and materiall fitting only the body to which we should be loath to give the name of nature Rather let nature be the better part which is enough to serve for denomination the Soule We never live truly according to nature till our lives are suitable to this part And therefore besides the dishonour we doe to him that made us we doe highly undervalue our selves and our discent when we live wickedly in regard that being borne gentlemen as I may say we live like beggers being of a noble heavenly and divine extract we are notwithstanding base and earthly and like so many Sons of the earth fighters against heaven Certainly if we doe so if we live according * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 8.13 to the flesh only we are which we should be loath to be enemies to our selves and very unnaturall man for our soules are our nature and vertue and godlynesse best befit our soules Vice would seem as much against nature as it is and would goe against the graine if it were not for our default And it is an argument that as we are we are not our selves but that we have lost our selves and our natures and that all those inclinations of our soules which should be in us are not in us because we can entertaine that which is our enemy and suffer it to dwell with us and in us with approbation and welcome as if it were our friend Certainly if the stomack were cleane such unwholsome food would never be well liked and where the stomack is not cleane let no food be discommended for being disliked The fault is in none but the man if the workes of piety be painfull No imployment ought to be called painfull because it is so to a man that is not well 5. The workes of Godlinesse are easy because the vertues and graces that accompany it produce much ease and quiet and content For what a deale of ease hath patience and forbearance in comparison of impatience and rage contempt of the world in comparison of worldly-mindednesse continence and temperance and contentednesse in comparison of the troublesome importunate and unsatisfied qualities of lust and gluttony and ambition The Graces of God how much trouble doe they ease us of helping us forward in good things and restraining us from evill things either making us out of conscience not to grieve at all for losses and crosses or out of providence to grieve for a little while for sinne that we may not grieve for ever 6. It may be proved by scripture 1. By the testimony of Christ himselfe Mat 11.30 My yoke is easy and my burden is light 2. By the testimony of the disciple whome he loved 1 Joh 5. His commandements are not grievous God's wayes are not rough with hills and stones and rocks such as might make them uneasy to goe in but only so rough as not to be slippery as the other wayes are Only a little rough-casted as I may say with sand as the fighting places were wont to be so whereby they are the lesse dangerous to walke in and much the more fit for souldiers and fighting men or men continually fighting such as Christians are Whosoever thou art therefore that art taking a journey for the heavenly Canaan be not dismaied to thinke that it will be troublesome When thou goest thy steps shall not be streightned and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble Prov 4.12 But yet after all this I know many will be ready to say that I speak against mine own knowledge and the opinion of every man else viz that Christianity is no idle religion but painfull and laborious promising much ease but enjoying but little regarding little the present but differing all to the future Answ Well suppose I doe grant you that it is laborious as the waies and meanes to all excellent things are for difficilia quae pulchra the fairest apples are at the top of the tree and they will not drop into a man's mouth nor fall into his hands it is not by and by grievous and wearisome voide of all pleasure No Christians may and many men of necessity doe eate their bread in the sweat of their face But yet neverthelesse they may eate it with abundance of pleasure and content 'T is the bread of idlenesse as Solomon calls it Prov 31.27 not the bread of labour and paines unlesse it be the bread of wickednesse and wrongs that is the bread of sorrowes The worke of husbandry is laborious but it is easy to learne and pleasant to practise affording a great deale of health and delight The earth is dig'd with paine but with pleasure too for it yeelds a smell wholsome to the digger in the digging besides that a treasure may be found and abundance of fruit is to come Againe there can be no greater torment or cause of sadnesse to one that hath any life in him then to want imployment and therefore to be laborious cannot make godlinesse a cause of sadnesse
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
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
patience it could have been only lessened and weakned by my softnesse and gentlenesse and meeknesse is altogether prevented A godly man having both meeknesse at all times to carry himselfe and patience in persecution to carry his crosse will either be quiet with all mens consent or be merry in spite of their teeth A meek man hath seldome any bodyes ill will because being no busy body to be in many places he is seldome in any bodies way to give him occasion of offence Either he is quite out of the way private and retired possessing his soule in humility or if he be in the way he is so low and close to the ground that none but he that hath a hellish foot and treads under ground can stumble at him and none but he that hath the divell in his heart can find in his heart to molest him If any malicious spirit shall be angry for want of an occasion and sithence he could not be moved by him by a provocation will be moved by the divell by a temptation to injure him he will either make the fire goe out for want of fuell making him leave striking by not resisting weakning the blow by withdrawing his body and lying like the dog upon his back so that unlesse he be worse then a dog he will leave off biting Or else if his enemy be resolved to persist and there be no remedy but his body must needs suffer yet he will be sure his soule shall doe well enough and with very indignation beare up He will clap his head under his wings like the beaten Cock that would seem to be beaten so much that he may not be beaten any more and when the other thinks he hath brought him to despaire laugh in his sleeve or in his heart and be merry where no body can see him Whosoever can beare an injury offered can easily forbeare to returne an other and he that can forbeare and hold his hand but never so little will be so glad of his forbearance and so proud of his patience that for the joy which he hath for so doing he would not for all the world but he had done as he did 'T is as much joy to a moderate man that he hath tempered his passions as it is to a temperate man that he hath moderated his appetite A patient man saith the Son of Syrak will beare for a time and afterward joy shall spring unto him chap 1.23 He that does not think himselfe so good as not to deserve to suffer an injury will think the offering of the injury not to be wonderd at and the suffering of the thing it selfe not to be grieved for I pray doe but consider who is most likely to be merry or who is likely to be most merry he that is meek and hath injuries offered but never receives them or he that is proud or stomackfull and provokes men to injure him and receives the injurie and cannot take rest till he have taken rvenge 'T is not easy to think unlesse thou hast tryed what content joy and triumph it is to a godly man more then if he had obtained a conquest over his person by force as it were to starve his enemies malice by denying it matter to feed on to weary him out with waiting for provocations to make him vex and pine and wast his own strength and so to get the better of him as Fabius did of Annibal by slighting and forgiving and refusing to fight with him Such a man as this who is merry not only by his patience but for his patience and not only glad to suffer but glad that he hath suffered which is a joy that will last to all eternity notwithstanding all his sufferings let them be never so many we are so farre from thinking him a sad disconsolate man and an object of pity that we are rather of Aristotl's mind not to commend him with praises but to magnify him with admirations * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam 5.11 We may venture to call such men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of blessed memory while they are yet amongst us Godly men upon the account of this and other such graces are so farre from being ordinary men that they seem not to be men at all but Angels for they live Angels-lives and have their conversation in heaven Every godly man is a man of a heavenly spirit and no earthly thing in the world can have power over him Only a sad look from heaven can mak him look sad 'T is not all the foule weather of scornfull looks nor the continuall showers of scornfull speeches can doe it 'T is no newes to him to be hated that abhors himselfe nor to be vile to him that hath humility which is the next vertue that I mentioned because he is vile in his own eyes already which makes him not care how vile he is in anothers Doe not think to make him sad by reproaching him with lownesse and basenesse in the worlds account Humility who is so in his own Thou canst not make him lower then he is already for he is as low as the ground which thou treadst upon and makes it his common practise to lay his mouth in the dust All thy hard sayings and reproaches that thou castest upon a godly man fall upon him like stones upon a bag of wool or fiery darts on a leathern shield Eph 6.16 His clothes are girded close to him for he is no loose liver with truth and innocency Eph 6.14 and he hath also upon him the brest-plate of righteousnesse so that thou canst take no advantage against him Thy reproaches have not the power upon him which they have upon a wicked man For there they meet with resistance like stones struck upon steel and strike fire and make a combustion The least sparke of fire will set him all in a flame Having much combustible matter of passions he is soon incensed and troubles himselfe for revenge and is sad if it be but delayd The godly man is above wrongs and injuries and miseries and the world and all Without pride be it spoken he scornes to take notice of his enemie or his malice He hath humility indeed which makes him look low but he hath nobility too by adoption which makes him look high and live above the things of a lower world His humility will make him look upon the ground but not for dejectednesse as if he could not look upward nor for affectednesse as if he thought it a good worke as I feare many doe but only that he may not look and gaze upon the things that are round about him and see such things as may displease him or grieve him or seduce him He hath none of those cares * Non de integrâ conscientiâ venit studium placendi per decorem Tertull de Cult Faem which the proud man hath so many of viz among others lest his clothes or his
on the contrary constant experience tells us and I can say somewhat my selfe if a man doe not busie his mind but be either a busie-body only and wander about from house to house to tattle and prattle or else lyes gaping and folding his hands out of sluggishnesse or making pictures in his fancy as children doe in the walls out of pensivenesse and dumpishnesse I say if a man have such abundance of idlenesse as the Prophet's word is Ezek 16 40. let him have never so great abundance and fulnesse of bread let him have an affluence of all worldly things to his mind and let every body please him and doe all that they can to make him merry besides being more exposed to the temptations of Sathan more open to his assaults while he hath no Work a doing to keep him out his own necessarily active and still busy such is the nature of his soule but yet idle and not busied mind and fancy will worke him sorrow enough and more then ever he will be able to conquer though nothing from without was ever able to overcome him Another vertue of a godly man that will dispose him to mirth is Temperance a vertue that will make the heart as light as it doth the rest of the body A Temperate-man first Resolves to use but a little and therefore hath not much trouble of care to provide what he would have Secondly he doth use but a little and therefore he hath not much trouble of feare that it will doe him hurt Thirdly he hath used but a little and so is free from the trouble of distempers paine and sorrow and of much losse to boot It were easy to be large upon this But I have much field and I cannot tell how to stand long upon one place There is one more that is farre beyond all the rest a vertue shall I call it or a compound of vertues I meane Harmlesnes or Innocency or unwillingnes to hurt any body for the present or hereafter for of innocency i e unguiltinesse and not having done hurt heretofore I have spoken already He that will not hurt his enemies with injuries will never hurt himselfe with sorrows and vexations I think there is none more troublesome to himselfe then he that is most troublesome to others The creatures of prey live solitary in desarts disconsolate places while the poore harmelesse sheep and other such creatures as they are though they be nearest the slaughter skip and play and think of nothing The innocent man intending to hurt none and having a desire to doe every one good while he knows that non-intention to hurt is sufficient to excuse a desire to doe good good enough to commend him can no more be sad for having done hurt then he hath cause to grieve for not having done good 'T is not the act of doing hurt will make a man the worse no more then the power of doing well will make him the better With his unwillingnesse to doe hurt for else I should not care much to commend him there goes a willingnesse to doe good then which there is nothing that workes more constant quiet to the soule of any Christian especially if his endeavour be for the soule of his brother The object being better the good done is the better too the person's commendation more and the joy for having done it greater To enlarge a little here though I have spoken to this purpose already What a deale of comfort does a man take what happinesse doth he count it and with what joy does he tell of it and remember it that he lifted up an other man's oxe out of the ditch or saved his lamb from the fox or any thing else though it be but of little value from the fire How much more joy then think you must it be to a man unlesse he doe well and know not of it which is more then he can doe for a senslesse creature may as well doe a good deed that hath no knowledge at all as a reasonable creature if he have no knowledge of what he does to have sav'd or wonne or gain'd a soule for such a thing it is to convert a soule and we have no weaker adversaries then Satan and all the world to contend with us for the prize to have lifted it up from the pit of hell recovered it from the jaws not of the fox but the Lion and snatcht it as a firebrand out of the fire when it was so near to be burnt If it be such a comfort and joy and glory to a School-master to have made a good scholler in human learning what must it be to have made one in Divine and there is no learning truly learning but the Divine nor any Divine learing truly Divine learning but Christianity and godlines Paul cals the Christians in Philippi his joy and crowne chap 4 1 and so those or Thessalonica his joy and Glory 1 Epist chap 2.20 Surely he that converts a sinner since his charity is all as much his joy must be no lesse then the woman 's was when she found the gâ—oâ—t or the Shepheard's when he found that sheep that was yeelded for lost And here now I am speaking of saving of soules and converting of sinners In which I comprehend strengthening the weak instructing the erroneous and ignorant and comforting the afflicted and all other such actions of a godly man as these are tending to the benefit of other mens soules I have an ocean of matter before me I have much adoe to forbeare launching into it but I am afraid of going too farre or tarrying too long at sea it is such pleasant sayling There are two things more in a godly man that dispose him for mirth which I will but mention The first is the Agreeing of his Will with the will of God The second is that which will follow upon this and the rest of his qualifications formerly mentioned a Preparednesse for any condition or time though it be the very last judgment for he lives not in darknesse and therefore that day cannot come upon him as a thief in the night 1 Thess 5.4 For the first that it is so may not be questioned for his constant prayer is Thy will be done and his ordinary motto The will of the Lord be done or It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth good And then if it be so that he may be merry in any condition is all as true For if his will be according to the Lord's will nay if his will be at all times this that the will of the Lord be done and he knowes that there is no evill in the City but what the will of the Lord is should be done 't is as impossible that any evill should make him sad as it is that that which is according to his will should grieve him which cannot be For the second that it is so appeares by all my discourse hitherto concerning his cenditions For being
adde with him And my soule which thou hast redeemed Psal 71.22 If a godly man's mirth were no better then so viz to consist in laughter it were little better then madnesse for ipse dixit Solomon who no doubt had liv'd a joviall life and therefore could tell by experience said it and stood to his word I have said of laughter it is mad Eccles 2 2. No the mirth I speak so much of is no such thing as uses to be expressed by or hath it's being in shouting or dancing or shaking of the sides or shewing of the teeth Neither are any of those expressions the necessary fruits or signes of it For then you might often conclude against me in regard you shall often find them missing being either neglected for love of better or forborne for feare of offence The instrumentall causes of this mirth are of the same nature the efficient moving and all the rest are not carnall but Spirituall Godly joy playes least in sight and plays most so It is not ordinary ware to be seen by every one that sees the owner 'T is not a thing that may be imitated by beasts or any man but the spirituall Flesh and bone and skin and bodily organs cannot act such a pure spirituall and divine work Nay most commonly when for ought a man can see by his countenance without a godly man may be sad and melancholick and perplexed his joy and mirth within grows so much the stronger as heat does in many bodys in the inner parts by the antiperistasis of the cold that is without Or rather indeed the Soule knowing the nature and worth and excellency of the joy coming from a Spirit thinks it unfit to marre the gift in the use and abase it in the enjoyment by suffering it to be exercis'd by lower instruments then spirituall therefore keeps it wholy to her selfe without dividing it out to many subjects so that the joy being undivided must needs be stronger in it's exercises by being united the Soule the stronger to exercise it by being undistracted more at leasure For so she does all her selfe and trusts not to servants and who doubts that the work is bettter done when the mistresse does it her selfe Other marks there are of this joy to be fetcht from the nature and kind of it and from the chief properties qualities belonging to it The properties belonging to a godly man's joy which are not to be found in the joy of the wicked are 1. Truth Sincerity It is joy in puris naturalibus as they say 'T is all gold without any alloy No mixture of wormwood in the cup to imbitter it no ill herb in the pot to marre the broth No trouble to goe with it no bitternesse or sorrow in the bottome to come after it It is good without sorrow so that he does not grieve with it now and it is good without sinne so that he need not repent of it afterwards 'T is without the adulteration of sadnes to make it uncurrant the mixture of any thing that is evill to make it unpleasant The mirth of the godly is the quintessence of joy the gladnesse of joy as the expression of the Psalmist is more then once when he would set forth the greatnesse of joy Psal 43 4 I will goe unto the altar of God unto God my exceeding joy In the originall 't is the gladnesse of my joy So Psal 68.3 Let the righteous be glad let them rejoyce before God yea let them exceedingly rejoyce In the original 't is let them rejoyce with gladnesse as if there might be a joy that had sorrow with it and as if none but the righteous could have such a joy as hath none with it A wicked man's joy can be but little better then equivocally so as a painted dog is a dog or a dead man a man 'T is not true i e sincere For it is mixt with sorrows and never runs cleare Neither is it true i e genuine for it is but fain'd and hypocriticall 'T is no jugis aqua water that comes from a fountaine from whence it may be continualy supplyed 'T is but like the river that Job speaks of dryed up in the scorching summer of adversity when he hath most need of it and when the godly man's joy is highest There is a faire outside indeed of profuse laughter and jollity but there is nothing else There seemes to be something goodly but 't is no more then a whited wall with mud underneath or as a whited sepulcher beauty full without but full of dead mens bones and rottennes within 'T is not gold that you see in a hypocrite 't is but gilt upon tinne So much gilt without so much guilt and vexation and sorrow within His inward parts are as full of vexation and sollicitous thoughts as they are of ravening and wickednesse Luk 11.39 His mirth is like the pleasant itching of a sore that is healed to soone for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it festers underneath though it look never so well Within there are prickings of heart for in the midst of their laughter as Solomon saith their heart is sorrowfull and besides that the end of such mirth is heavinesse Prov 14.13 2. Property of a godly man's mirth is Fulnesse and perfection Fulnesse I say absolute in quality or truth and in quantity as much as this present life is capable of For as for absolute fulnesse of joy in * Melancthon upon those words Your joy shall be full Joh. 17. Intelligatur ergo non quantitate sed sirmitate quantity we must tarry till the next life However there is such fulnes of this joy even in this life as that it cannot be exhausted measured or expressed either by the actions of the body or the relation of the tongue Yet is it not the worse neither for being so great for it is all as good too even as Peter says Full of glory 1 Pet 1.8 It is said of the disciples Acts 13 52 that they were filled with joy even in a time of persecution What Christ hath done and spoken for us and so whatsoever he does or speaks for us still it cannot have lesse effect in us then to make us truly joyfull John 15.11 These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remaine in you and that your joy may be full All redeemed ones that have so many mercies on every side are encompassed with the * Ps 5.12 32.7 favour of the Lord must needs be encompassed also with a Ps 32.10 songs of deliverance and girded b Ps 30.11 with gladnesse If it were not so or if it should not be so God would never have said by his Prophet Isaiah chap 65.14 that his servants should sing for joy of heart for the godly only sing for joy of heart the wicked sing for want of it nor would the Psalmist have the Saints be so merry as to shout for
afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cryed unto him he heard him Psal 22 24 and therefore hath he said Psal 91 15. He shall call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him 5. Afflictions are beneficiall to them because they make them pray the more earnestly for spirituall things to recompence and supply the want of temporall things which Afflictions deprive them of They will make a godly man say thus with himselfe Is it so Well I am resolved if my body must needs be thus distressed yet my soule shall be well If I must be poore one way I will be rich another Let my goods miscarry one way and my trading be bad in this country yet I shall have sufficient amends by the greatnesse of the gaine which I am to have in another All the hurt it shall doe me shall be to make me drive a better trade in a farre better * Heb 11.6 countrey where I shall have a farre better returne not a hundred fold for that I may have in this a Math 19.29 countrey but more then a thousand for one Whereunto adde that such prayers are seldome succeslesse The soules of such men usually are as a b Jer 13.12 waterd garden 6. Afflictions here are beneficiall because they endeere to men their happinesse which they are to have hereafter making them to long for it with more earnestnesse pray for it with more confidence and hope for it with more assurance They have not their portion in this world even to this end that they may and for this reason because they shall have it in the next I cannot have a greater temptation to neglect my happinesse hereafter then the enjoyment of happinesse here and there is no readier way to lose my happinesse then by neglecting it And shall I then be said to be miserable for Afflictions Nay my present Afflictions will make my future happinesse not only dearer to me now so that I shall be the more carefull to looke after it but more sweet and welcome to me when it comes so that I shall be the more happy when I have it the pleasure of happinesse being as much inhannced by the remembrance as the price is by the endurance of the afflictions And shall I then be said to be miserable for afflictions 7. Afflictions are beneficiall because the losse of a temporall estate as it makes us pray the better for a spirituall so it makes us improve it better not only while we are thus afflicted but for ever after Not only God's grace is most prayed for then because then we have most need but our own graces are most exercised then because then we are most at leasure But you will say That for the present because the dirt hangs heavy and troublesome about me or because I feare that I shall be call'd to appeare before God I will clense my selfe from mine iniquity That it may be while I am sick for my own ease even out of nature I may seek for grace as the sick dog does for grasse to make me cast up my sinnes that oppresse my conscience but as soon as I am eased with the dog I take up my vomit againe and returne with the sow to the mire No no I cannot so soon forget the paine which I felt in vomiting to make my selfe sick againe nor the paines which I took in washing my selfe to make my selfe foule againe For my own ease I shall keep my selfe temperate and cleane from sinne for time to come yea more temperate and clean then ever First my Love to God shall be more for the love that I found from him in my sicknesse and my recovery Secondly my Faith in him for the future shall never faile now that I see his faith and truth failes not but endures for ever and that he leaves me not though he leaves me nothing I cannot but be faithfull to him that is faithfull to me And thirdly my obedience towards him shall be better I will doe the more for him that hath done so much for me stood by me in my misery relieved me in it and released me out of it I am so farre from being the worse I shall have much the more grace and my grace shall be more True valour is not dull'd but whetted by difficulties and encreased by resistance My sword is the better for being used if it were still kept in my scabberd it might be marred with the rust Let my enemies persecute me never so much the more hurt they doe me the more good they do me Like the palm-tree if it be the true palme the more they endeavour to keep me down the more I shall strive to rise My graces and vertues like a running river will rise higher for being stopt now that affliction hath brought me to see my way which I lost I shall goe the faster ever after to make amends for my losse I will endevour to improve my graces now if it be for nothing but because I found so much good by them in my affliction because I will be better provided if affliction come againe As one said sanguis martyrū c so I may say afflictio mart est semen Ecclesiae For when they are broken up and harrowed by afflictions when long furrowes are made upon their backs by oppression and persecution then is the time for God who is the husband man to sow the seed and the seed to grow If it be sowne in such a time it will sink the deeper and grow the higher If we will but keep a good diet and keep a watch over our soules we shall be in the Spirit after afflictions as men use to be in the body after agues or other diseases viz we shall grow the faster become much the taller Christians True Grace like some grasse will grow the thicker for being trod upon Before I was not much afraid of affliction when it was coming but now I can be glad Before I took it patiently but now I can take it joyfully Before I trusted in God to helpe me because he promised me but now since that he hath been as good as his word I am confident of him that he will never forsake me I am every way better then I was and whereas sinne abounded before now grace doth much more abound Ab ipso ducit opes animumque ferro Our graces are apt to loose their strength as our bodies use to doe in the scurvey and to wast and consume away for want of exercise But Affliction makes us seek for physick to purge the humors and remove the obstructions those which hinder our growth in Christianity will not suffer grace to be nourished but are nourished themselves by a too plentifull diet of prosperity A stomack well scowred with purging will relish wholsome meates much the better a long time after and a man's meat never does
him more good then when he is most hungry If God keep me a while from the enjoyment of blessings by adversity or the use of blessings and the practise of good duties by infirmity of body when I come to enjoy the blessings again I shall make better use and when I come to performe the duties I shall make better work If my Affliction be persecution my persecuted vertues like spices beaten will smell the better The graces of my soule when my body suffers like sweet odours in a box when the box is broken will goe the further and continue the longer Nay by this rising in grace by falling into affliction you may judge of the soundnesse and strength of the Christian for the strong Christian like the strong tree the more heâ— shaken in the top in the boughs in the outside of his body or estate the more hearty he will be at the root and the better rooted at the heart And so for the time after when a man hath seen what need and what use there is of grace and the strength of grace in a time of affliction if he have any providence in him or if he have his senses about him knowing how subject he is to come into the like condition againe it is impossible but he must doe his utmost and make all the provision he can to maintaine himselfe in it He will endeavour to encrease his Love that when all other delights faile him he may delight himselfe in the Almighty He will endeavour to encrease his Faith that when God shall deferre to fulfill his promises or to heare his prayers he may not make his sufferings more tedious by making hast for deliverance He will endeavour to have a more lively Hope that when he shall be quite deprived of things that may be seen have nothing at hand he may be able to support his spirit with the expectation of things that are not seen Whatsoever graces he found use of or stood in need of if he have but so much nature as to love himselfe he will be so farre from neglecting to furnish himselfe of those that he will study and enquire and labour all that ever he can for more 8. Afflictions are beneficiall because they make us set a greater price both upon the goodnesse of God and the goodnesse of his gifts and blessings which we have formerly undervalued or not valued as we should and so behave our selves with more thankfulnesse and humility The price and estimation of things is alwaies raised by the want and the losse according to what I said before of God And we are never so well possessed with the opinion of the worth of a thing as when we have not the possession of the thing From this alteration in judgment proceed these fruits First Repentance of and secondly Prayer against sins which before men thought not of For while they had what they never prayed for and kept what they never gave thanks for and were permitted the use of what they abused by intemperance and luxury they hardly ever thought either prayer and thanksgiving to be duties or intemperance and luxury to be sinnes certainly many wicked men in their prosperity doe not because they see they are never the worse or because they have no changes Psal 55.19 But now in Affliction when their blessings are taken away when they examine the matter and search for the cause as soon as they look back upon their own lives they find the fault to be there Aman that looks back is like a stander by and makes his own eyes serve for another man's In any kind of work if I keep on working and never stop to look back unlesse my hand be guided by another's I may commit many faults or commit the same fault many times which otherwise I would not doe and never perceive it So if I have a constant uninterupted enjoyment of outward felicity unlesse there be a speciall hand of God to direct me I shall sin and sinne over and over and never change my conditions till I change my condition There is also a third fruit of this alteration of judgment viz performance of duties before omitted as praysing of God's goodnes to all and giving thanks for his goodnesse to them together with a humble acknowledgment of the mercy of the Lord that giveth and the justice of the Lord that taketh away * Job 1.21 9. Affliction or adversity is benefiicall because it makes men not only to esteem of but use prosperity better Like physick and fasting it clenseth the stomack and begets a more kindly appetite and so makes a man digest and improve temporall blessings to spirituall nourishment If a man never know what the bread and water of affliction meanes but alwaies sit at a full table of worldly contentments either by taking too much he takes surfeit or else by the foulenes of his stomack and a mind overcome with lusts and ill humours his food to turnes to choler his happinesse to bitternesse and misery and his blessings into curses Nothing better for such a stomack then as the Prophet's words are however it be displeasing to the palat for such things are commonly wholsomest to be fed a while with the wormwood of affliction and to have the water of gall to drink 10. Afflictions are beneficiall because they are good both to make a man have a low esteem of himselfe for his weaknesse that he could not helpe himselfe in his adversity and to make him abhorre himselfe for his sinfulnesse that ever he hurted himselfe in his prosperity Never such a time to be low in mine own eyes as when I am so in every ones else When a man is upon the ground 't is easy to put his mouth in the dust When my body is weaned from the pleasures of the world it is the easier for my soule to be as a weaned child 11. Afflictions are beneficiall because when they have made us see our own weaknesse and wickednesse in the next place they will make us see Gods power and goodnesse When our selves are odious that we cannot looke upon them then we will begin to looke to our Maker So the Prophet's expression is Isaiah 17.7 At that day sayes he viz when the glory of Jacob is made thin and the fatnesse of his flesh become leane vers 4. a man shall look to his maker and his eyes shall have respect to the holy one of Israel Hereupon there will follow First Trust and relyance and staying our selves upon God being now become so weak that we cannot stand by our selves and so wise as to know that we cannot Now as the Apostle said 2 Cor 1.9 We have the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust to our selves but in God who raiseth the dead Secondly now that we have seen our own naughtinesse and Gods goodnesse a resolution to live more free from one and more worthy of the other The blunesse of a wound
to have had many temptations to yeeld and yet to keep his old ground his first Faith * Tim 4 7. and love a Rev 2 4. and a good conscience b 1 Tim 1.19 Such a one if men did rightly judge of things would not only be talked of with commendation but poynted at with admiration whethersoever he went Digito monstrari dicier hic est Even as those Saints in the Revelation are by the Elder chap 7 vers 13.14 Where observe how he takes a delight to boast of them asking as if he did not know What are those which are arayed in white robes and whnce came they and then answering himselfe These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and have made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. The Apostle James allowed a rich man to glory * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred rejoyce in his abasement Jam 1 9 10. Thus you see that Afflictions are so farre from being as they are thought to be miseries or any thing hurtfull that they are rather indeed mercies and very beneficiall so that they make our condition exceedingly blessed And therefore insteed of pitying any man that is afflicted I will boldly say with Eliphaz and care not who heares me Behold happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth therefore despise not thou the chasttening of the Almighty Job 5.17 For what hinderance can Afflictions be to mirth if they are so beneficiall How many things could I name which although they are painfull yet because they are known to be beneficiall men endure with joy Be glad then O ye righteous rejoyce in the Lord in the mid'st of your greatest Afflictions If Paul could rejoyce in his Afflictions because he had done so much good to others other wayes 1 Thes 3 7 Therefore brethren we are comforted over you in all our affliction distresse by your faith why cannot we rejoyce in and after and for our Afflictions when even the Afflictions themselves doe so much good to our selves Certainly we can and doe and will rejoyce 4. Reason why the Afflictions of the godly in this world neither are miseries nor are to be so accounted by them is because of the inestimable amends which is certainly made after a very few minutes in a better world For if we suffer we shall also reign * And so those words Rom 8.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per haps may well be rendred thus for as much as we suffer with him that we may be glorified with him You cannot deny the consequence for I have it of the Apostle 2 Tim 2.12 The greatest burden must needs be light in the ballance that hath such an exceeding weight * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 14.17 of glory laid against it Which made Moses and the rest of the faithfull in the old Testament beare their burdens so cheerfully as they did as knowing whether they went with them Moses as 't is said Heb 11 25 26 Freely chose rather to suffer Affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward What is a little short paine of a purge or a vomit or a letting bloud in comparison of a long lasting health He were a very foole who would not be not only contented but glad to have no fruit at all this yeare when every one else hath a great deale upon condition to have a great deale next yeare when few besides have any Doe but have a little patience and stay till the Lord come and all will be well I will use James his words to you chap 5 7 Be patient therefore brethren unto the comming of the Lord Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth hath long patience for it untill he receive the early latter raine Let it not be said any man shall have more patience for a temporall then you can have for an eternall reward 5. The Afflictions of the godly are not miseries because for the most part I mean Afflictions which are chiefly counted such by the wicked in their objections to whome I direct my answer they are arrows that will reach or at most kill no further then the body which is a thing they doe not reckon so much of Neither indeed is it a jewell of such a price as that a man should be miserable presently as soon as it is crack'd Rather they count it a happinesse for the soule and consequently no misery to them For a man would willingly be miserable as the world accounts misery in the worst part to be happy in the best which is happinesse indeed Many times it is the way to be so as it is many times a meanes of preserving the vitall parts of the body within to make a wound in one of the others without The body is as a prison or manicle to the soule Quod equidem non aliter aspicio quam vinculum libertati meae circundatum said a heathen * Sene-Epist 65. And will a prisoner count it a misery if his maâ—icles be loosned or his prison or the walls thereof goe to decay whereby there may be hopes of escaping Nay the body in this condition it is now in till it be well purged and resined and made fit for such an inhabitant as the soule is is not only troublesome but hurtfull to the soule Noxia corpora tardant Terrenique hebetant artus * Virgil The bodies of clay hanging about the Soule are like so much dirt hanging about the wings of a bird and will not suffer it to fly like a bird to the mountaine Psal 11.1 Hath the soule reason to be heavier for that it is the lighter Or will any thing that is hurted by another thing be the worse because that thing is hurted Or may I be counted miserable when that is not well which the better it is I am commonly the worse Certainly it cannot be Unlesse the Soule were improv'd by the accession of things corporeall more then it is it cannot be so much impaired by the want But the improvement it hath from thence is but little For commonly when there is a diminution of the things of the body there is as great an addition of the things of the Soule Now as I said before those Afflictions of the godly which the wicked talke so much of and for which they account their condition so miserable are so farre from adding * Phil 1 16. to the bands of the Soule that they are the usuall meanes to release her of them and have no power but upon the bands themselves A skilfull workman will knock off the band of a thing and doe the thing no hurt at all And so God can doe a man's body hurt and yet doe him no hurt at all Nay if God
love a man he will punish his body in this day of his own that his Spirit may be saved in that day of the Lord. Like a fencing master or one that fights in love he never strikes at the vitall parts Or if he does 't is but with a blunt weapon as intending not to kill but to teach the Combatant His blow shall make him smart so as it shall not easily be forgotten but it shall be in such a place where it may be easily cured Cured I say either living or dying which is all one both to him to whom all doe live and to the man also to whom to live long is but so much losse unlesse so far as it is Christ and to dye betime advantage I say the Soule of a godly man being a Spirit by nature and being spirituall by grace is out of gun-shot for ought that any thing in the world can doe to it God who is able is unwilling And the divell and the world who are willing are unable The divell though he be a spirit is no more able to hurt this spirit then one body is to hurt an other when it is armed as the spirit is throughout even with a whole suit * Eph 6.13 or panoplia of spirituall armes The world whether malicious men or worldly crosses or sicknesse or poverty or persecution is not able to reach it I may say to any of these as the Philosopher did to the Tyrant Tundis vasculum Anaxarchi non Anaxarchum Knock and beat and doe your worst Though you break the casket in a thousand pieces you shell never be able to hurt the jewel in the least manner Beat upon the outside the body as you will you doe but make that which is within the stronger for now the bloud and the spirits retire to the heart and so to the soule which by this meanes will take heart and gather spirit and prove the stronger 'T is true If a wicked man be not well in his body he is not well in any part If his out-workes be taken he can hold out no longer His soule is the most diseased part and therefore will be sure to suffer most being also least able to beare it He is rotten at the core His heart neither is sound nor ever was It was alwaies the weakest spoke in the wheele though you never heard hard it creak and though you might think it strong enough even then when his body had health enough and God did grant his desire in those things As the Psalmist says Psal 106 15 God gave him his request but sent leannesse into his soule If his soule were so bad in prosperity it must needs be worse in adversity For then all the ill humours run to it as they use to doe to a weak or diseased member And his sinns which he hath formerly committed like so many dogs when they see another dog beaten come every one of them not to helpe but to opresse the weaker side The pleasures which he hath loved and us'd the creatures which he hath loved and abused the divell whom he hath not loved but obeyed when the body is hindered from being any longer serviceable to such purposes like enemies made to be friends or friends restrained from being enemies only with gifts complyance will be all ready to fly in his face and testifie against him all that ever he did Now it is otherwise with a godly man For if one part be afflicted he shall have amends presently made in the other If the outward man * though our outward man pereâ—h yet the inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor 4.16 be weak he hath not therefore lost his strength for the inward man viz the soule and the soule of a man is the man hath so much the more What ever else failes his heart shall never faile him because he depends upon God who never failes of his word and hath promised to strengthen the heart of those that depend upon him Psal 27 14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. And indeed herein hath the godly man a great advantage above the wicked For the wicked man's care being for the body which is not able to live without the soule his care and trouble must needs be the more in regard that those things which the body needs are so many and so hard to be supplyed But the godly man's care is chiefly for the soule which can live without the body and upon such things as the poorest man may buy a little will serve to maintaine it If it be but a bare Hope it will make a shift to live with that So that a godly man is so much lesse miserable in affliction then a wicked man as a man that hath a little appetite is less miserable in a time of famine then he that is a great eater The food of the soule is his food and that can be gotten at any time and more plenty of it when there is least of the other food If God give the godly weaknesse of body he will be sure to give them strength of soule Ps 138 3 In the day when I cryed thou answeredst me strengthned'st me with strength in my soul Perhaps he cried to him for strength of body or for power against his enemie and had it not But he had that which was as good God strengthned him with strength in his soule God is more then a Father to us if we trust in him For he will not only when we aske an egge not give us a scorpion but when like foolish children as many times we doe we aske for a scorpion he will give us an egge * Luk 11.12 Nay he will not only give us better then what we aske for when we aske for that which is not good * Who is able to doe exceeding abundantly above all that we aske or think according to the power that worketh in us Eph 3 20. but he will give us being as willing to give as he is able farre above what we aske or are able to aske or thinke God is never behind hand with his children He will one way or other make it good Either they shall have mony or mony-worth still If he strike them with one hand he will stroak them with the other and they shall never have a purge for their bodies but they shall have a cordiall for their soules If they be in poverty and as the Apostle saies 2 Cor 4.8 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perplexed or to seek of a plentifull supply of maintainance yet shall they not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleane out of cash altogether helples The way wherein God usually supplies them and makes amends for their sufferings is that which I have already mentioned viz If their bodies be in trouble their soules shall be at ease Psal 25.13 His soule shall dwell at ease and his
seed shall inherit the earth So long as that is well For the other if it be not well they are able to beare it And therefore is it that they take so much care of the soule and so little care of the body For their prayers are not so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may not labour or be sick or weak in their bodies as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they be not so in their soules as it is in the Epist * Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himselfe lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds or soules to the Heb cap 12.3 and in that they are most sure to be heard Though in their bodies they be never so ill ready to dye yet in their soules they shall be well their heart shall live Psal 69 32 Your heart shall live that seek God And so long as 't is so they care not They are well enough preserved from evill if their soules be preserved The Lord shall preserve thee from all evill he shall preserve thy soule Psal 121.7 God may suffer their hungry bodies many times to continue empty yet he will be sure to fill their hungry soules with goodnes The Lord will not suffer the soule of the righteous to famish but he casteth away the substance of the wicked Prov 10.3 Indeed the wicked man's soule who maketh himselfe rich and yet hath nothing Prov 13.7 according to what was said in the Scripture last cited in his greatest plenty is poorest so that he starves as they say in the Cooks shop In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits every hand of the wicked shall come upon him Job 20.22 Insomuch that he may very well use the words of the Poet Inopem me copia facit But it is cleane contrary with the godly For if God have not of his goonndes prepared abundance of goods for the poore godly man yet hath he of his mercy prepared abundance of his goodnesse for him Psal 63.10 If he have not the blessings of the earth yet he shall be blessed upon the earth The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive he shall be blessed upon the earth and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies Psal 41.2 You never saw him forsaken no nor his seed after him although they beg their bread Neither shall you often see them beg their bread Pract Catech. especially if they be such as D. Hammond would have to be meant by the righteous man viz a mercifull man and one that is charitable and free to the poore For you shall seldome see such mens families goe to decay and their children a begging And so likewise you shall never know such people as they not satisfied though they have never so little which is all one as if they had never so much Even in the dayes of famine they shall be satisfied Ps 37.19 Satisfied and that abundantly if not with the fatness of their own houses with the fatness of God's house which is farre sweeter Psal 36 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures In somuch that if I should say They shall never be in want because God is he that provides for them as David says Psal 23 1 The Lord is my shepheard I shall not want I should speak truth although you should say that they are miserably poore and in want of all things For it will be true either in this sence viz that though they want all things that seem to the eye of a worldly man to be necessary and good yet they want nothing that is good indeed and that which God knowes to be good for them They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing and Psal 84 11 No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal 34.10 Either God hedges them about so with his blessings so that nothing can break in upon them to hurt them as he did Job Job 1.10 * Hast not thou made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath one every side Or he hedges up their waies with punishments so that they cannot goe on Job 19.8 a He hath fenced up my way that I cannot passe and he hath set darknesse in my paths At such a time when their way is not right before them nor safe unto them and when they had better be stopped then suffered to goe Or else in this sense viz as I said before because they can be satisfied and contented in any condition as being able to live very well in it whatever it be neither troubled with sorrow that it is not nor with care that it may be better He that loves course fare and can live upon that as well as upon better will not be displeased because he hath not better provided scornes to be sad for the want of it He that cares not for a thing which he hath not does not want it though he hath it not When I have no use for a penny I cannot so well be said to want it as when I would have it to spend A godly man if he have never so little does not want more because he cares not to have ony more and so he is more rich then the richest wicked man who hath never enough if he have never so much A wicked man cannot be without this or that besides when he hath most and he must desire it and he cannot get it for every thing he cannot have He is still without this or that to helpe him and hath alwaies a hole to fill A godly man may say to wicked men when they object poverty to him as M. Cato does in A. Gellius cap 22 vitio mihi vertunt quia multis egeo at ego illis quia nequeunt egere I may say and say truely Only he that can want does not want and he that cannot does You tell me that a godly man wants these and these things which the wicked man hath but I tell you he can no more be said to want them then a Butcher may be said to want Homer or such another thing because his disposition is such that he makes no reckoning and his manner of life is such that he makes no use of those things which you usually mean 'T is but only necessary things that he cares for And those are not many But one thing is necessary and that he hath chosen viz the better part And therefore if he have nothing at all of other things he does not want neither is there any thing wanting which might make him rich enough or by absence whereof his riches should be said to be deficient A body is not maimed unless it have lost a principall part Only privative defects discommend a thing and not those that are negative When we say there is nothing
partakers of his holinesse must needes come exceeding short of that exceeding weight of glory which they may be said to bring forth in the world to come What Shall he that expects such a harvest of profit having now sown his wheat be out of heart because of the winter Let the seed alone If it doe not yet come upward 't is because it takes root downward and that it may not be forward out of season for so it might be backward when the season comes Nothing better then frost and snow to chasten corne and nothing better for corne then a little chastening Why am I in such hast And why doe I vex and grieve If I can but tarry for all my loss of a temporall health and wealth and happinesse of the body I shall have an unvaluable satisfaction of an eternall health and wealth and happinesse of body and soule to make me amends This could make the primitive Christians at Jerusalem endure the loss of their goods with joy and why should it not me Why should I repine against God for Afflions when I know that they are tokens and pledges and as it were new security of his love This kept David from repining even because he said he knew that God out of very faithfulnesse did afflict him viz because he meant to be faithfull in keeping his promise in his everlasting covenant of grace and not to leave him to himselfe without afflicting him lest being thus left he should sin and so give God occasion to forsake him Why should I be a jot troubled or break my sleep for any persecution when I have God standing by my bed-side So Peter had no doubt and thence it was it that he slept so quietly even between the two souldiers in the prison Why should my soule be disquieted within me when I have God himselfe about my path and about my bed And so had David And therefore though he were persecuted so much never took it a jot to heart but even layd him down and tooke his rest Psal 3.5 I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me And this he said was his resolution still to doe upon that account Psal 4 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety Last of all why should I be of a dejected spirit as long as I have a comforter within my very spirit The Spirit of the God of all consolation in whose presence there can as well be want of joy as there can be want of light in the presence of the Sun or want of heat where there is a great fire What doe you talke of sadnesse They that have such to keep them company and such company to keep them safe God in all the persons of the Trinity the blessed Angels cannot be sad if they would To have company that is so comfortable protection that is so near that so is strong protection company both that is so faithfull that never parts that is most willing to helpe when I have most need To think that I have God himselfe not for my helper only one that can will helpe me when I need but even for my very help David says he is a present help in time of trouble so that if I have him I have presently help with the same what all this 't is enough to make me merry if I lay a dying and to say with David Ps 23.4 yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill for thou art with me thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me But to this purpose I have spoken before viz when I spoke to the severall grounds and causes of the godly man's joy I will next shew you some Scriptures for a godly mans mirth in Affliction 1. There is Christ's exhortation Mat 5.11 and 12 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Luk 6.22 23 Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach and cast out your name as evill for the son of man's sake sake Rejoyce ye in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven 2. We are cal'd to patience 1 Pet 2 21 For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps We are none of Christ's souldiers if we cannot endure hardness as Paul said to Timothy 2 Epist 2 3 Thou therefore endure hardness as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ Now we cannot endure hardness if we cannot endure it with cheerfulness For to endure it with repining grieving is not to endure it So any one can doe because he cannot doe otherwise Adde hereunto next Saint James his exhortation chap 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations Paul you have not only his exhortation to rejoyce at all times to the Philippians chap 3 1 Finally my brethren rejoyce in the Lord And to the Corinthians in the last words of his Epistle to them 2 Epist chap. 13.11 Finally brethren farewell Be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you But also his desire and constant prayer to God in behalfe of the Colossions ch 1.9 10 11. that they might be strengthned unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulnesse as if their patience and long-suffering had been nothing unless it were joyned with joyfulness 3. You have before you the practise not only of the primitive Christians as of Paul himselfe Colos 1.24 Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the church Of himselfe and others Rom 5.3 And not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience And of the Hebrewes 10.34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that you in heaven a better and an enduring substance But of the Saints also in former ages as of David Psal 119 92. Vnless thy law had been my delight I should then have perished in my affliction And of many others Some of whom you have recounted Hebr 11. So that you have not only a cloud of witnesses to shew that it may be so but a large catalogue of good examples to prove that it should be so in you I meane that you should rejoyce in afflictions as they did through the comfort of hope and the strength of faith resolving as David did that you will not feare though the earth be removed and the
is sorrowfull for he sorrowes for his joy for hurting others And his sorrow is exceeding sorrowfull for he sorrowes for his sorrow for hurting himselfe His sorrow is but worldly at the best and accordingly it worketh death one way or other Seldome have you known the godly man's sorrow which is a godly sorrow to cause him to doe any thing to hurt his body either by hanging himselfe or breaking his heart or the like That he does his soule good by it for this world he knowes it by exderience and for the world to come by the word of God Of this good nature is his sorrow for sinne And he hath little or none other sorrow to speak of but what is of this nature David Psal 38 though he complaines indeed of his sicknes and the diseases of his body yet it semes he could deale pretty well with them But when he comes to feele the burden of his sinnes and the diseases of his soule then he is ready to sink verse 4 They are as a weighty burden too heavy for me If he speaks of sorrow as he does verse 17 My sorrow is continually before me presently he makes mention of sinne verse 18 for I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry for my sinne so Psal â—5 verse 17 18 The troubles of mine heart are enlarged O bring thou me out of my distresses Look upon mine affliction and my paine and forgive all my sins He no sooner speaks of his afflictions but he prayes for forgiveness of his sinnes He is sure to complaine of them what ever he complaine of else as being that which lay heaviest and longest upon his stomack To speake the truth the soule never truly grieves but for what is either in her that should not be in her or done by her that should not be done by her the being or doing whereof could or should have been prevented such a thing is sinne Plus dolet qui quod intus est dolet Griefe within the soule shall never be or it shall never be much for things that are without it with which it hath nothing to doe Nemo nisi suâ culpâ diù dolet The griefe is quickly over when I my selfe have no hand in the cause If I am never so much at a fault or to seek for a worldly good If I am not in fault too it shall never trouble me a whit All the bitterness that any man hath that walketh in the way of godliness he hath it not from the way but from turning out of the way Hence it is partly if godly men are seen at any time to be sorrowing for outward evills they are but as Paul saith as sorrowing and yet rejoycing For their sorrow is no more then a spark of fire is in the sea suddenly quenched with waters of comfort and rivers of joy of the Holy Ghost If there be a mixture of both joy and sorrow joy is still the predominant So that at the worst they cannot be swallowed up of sorrow because the sorrow is so soon swallowed up of joy Having shewed you why you are to goe the journey and what manner of way you have and what the fruit of the journey will be Now that I have removed the rubs also it remaines although I have not been idle as to this work in my answers to the objections that I put on my spurres and use some motives of exhortation to stirre you up prick you too by reproofe if you goe not on First then I will exhort you and beseech you to rejoyce in the Lord. You that are call'd by the name of Christ you that have the Lord for your God you that are so fast in the favour of heaven that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth or any other creature shall be able to seperate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord * Rom. 8 38 39. to be breife you that enjoy so many and so great priviledges and enjoy them so freely you I say though you doe suffer afflictions yet neverthelesse lift up your eyes and your heads unplait your browes and cleare up your countenance so that no signe or cause of suspition of sadnesse be left for your redemption drawes nigher and nigher every day and your salvation is so certainly determind that it is every day neerer * Rom. 3 11. then when you first beleev'd A way with this squalid dejected sowre Monkish pharisaicall carriage Wash your faces and anoynt them with the oyle of gladnesse for your deliverance comes on a pace I tell you melancholy and Christianity are no such companions as the world thinke they are and therefore pray do not you thinke so of them And if you find affliction Christianity to be so be no more troubled Cypri-Ep ad Mart then I have prov'd you have need to be Certaine it is if you are good grapes de vinea domini pingues racemi there is no talking of it you must to the winepress you must be squeez'd and bruis'd and oppressed But as I told you before such usage is a signe not that you are the less but the more cared for Now you shall be safely kept as men keep their wine and highly priz'd and never thrown away However you are or have your selves ill yet be sure to behave your selves well cheerfull if for nothing else yet for these few reasons 1. To avoid scandalizing and disheartning of men that so you may gaine more credit and more Proselytes to your profession 2. To avoid scandalizing as the word is also used for making a thing a scandal and dishonouring of God and making Christ a scandall that so you may gaine more glory to the truth by living up sutably to the honourable and happy condition of those that keep it Believe it it becomes no body so well as a good Christian and nothing becomes a good Christian so well as to be merry Psal 33.1 Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright In the wicked it is uncomely and absurd because they have no reason wherefore Yea 't is folly and madnesse because they have so much reason wherefore not 3. Because 〈…〉 well are wont to be by their master neither is God only delighted in you like such masters when you doe your work cheerefully but you are taught likewise and if not commanded yet exhorted as I told you before in an imperative mood so to doe The places I cited were Matt. 5.12 Luk. 6.22 Christians it is strange to me not to see you merry when you are doing well For if you are willing to doe what you doe I doe not see how you can be sad in the doing unless you can be unwilling when you are willing If you are not willing you had better let it alone then doe it The high spirited-Roman Souldiers went home-ward with
merry for having a great deal of wealth then any creature that is put a part to be kild has cause to be glad though glad enough too no doubt he is for having a great deale of meat For even in the same manner are they fed and therefore they have the same cause to feare they are left if not designed to the same end They are fed with the fat of the Land but leane meat and poverty is more wholesome and fatted up with plentifull feeding So Eliphas speakes Job 15 27 He covereth his face with his fatnesse and maketh collops of sat in his flankes But then see what he sayes afterward vers 29 30. He shall not be rich neither shall his substance continue neither shall he prolong the perfection there of upon the earth He shall not depart out of darknesse the flame shall dry up his branches and by the breath of his mouth shall he goe away Little doe they think why they are thus sufferd to prosper and sufferd to prosper thus viz that like beasts they may be fitter for slaughter When the wicked spring as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroy'd for ever Psalm 92.7 The fatter they are the fitter they are for slaughter the sooner slain * Psal 78.31 He slew the fattest of them Did I say a wicked man is fed with prosperity Nay but he need not be fed for he will feed himselfe if he be let alone and have meat enough unlesse being in honour he had as he has not understanding enough though it were never so little more then the beasts that perish to be temperate in the use of it He is like bad ground Whether he have any thing sown on him or whether he have nothing he is all one unlesse the difference be in this that he brings forth most weeds when he is sown with the best seed Prosperity is to him as a horse which he can neither breake nor ride and so he must needs be thrown A wicked man having a bad heart or as I may say a bad stomack prosperity and the best meat that can be given him will beget in him nothing but ill humours fears and cares and vexations and sins continuall distempers both of body and mind Perhaps sometimes his prosperity has not these troubles with it Yet is it not enough to make him merry No it is too negative so and that which makes a man truly merry must be more positive He must take delight in it he must enjoy himselfe in the prosperity as well as enjoy the prosperity or else it will be nothing worth This a wicked man can never doe though he should have never so much and enjoy never so much outward peace * Prosperity so the word is used in our Bible because he has no peace within Having no peace within him what ever peace he has without him he can no more be merry then a Prince who is plundring of another mans house abroad and in the mean time has an enemie seizing upon his kingdome at home But then againe here is more misery for a wicked man For as he is not able to use prosperity so that which will necessarily adde to his sorrow he must necessarily have it As he knows not what to doe with it so he knows not what to doe without it For he has no strength to encounter with adversity and is no more able to live merry in sad times then a man that is not before hand is able to live plentifully in a dearth or a man that has no stock of money to lay out is able to get his living by a trade Being poore without a stock of grace he cannot find himselfe maintenance and being lazy without a principle of grace he will never labour to get it His soule is naked and without the garment of faith to keep it warme and so cannot endure the cold It is loose and without the anchor of hope to hold it fast and so cannot endure the stormes of affliction Certainly it must needs be starv'd to death it must needs be miserable toss'd in this world and irrecoverably cast away in the world to come Wherewith should a wicked man encounter with adversity The best weapon for such an use must be a strong soule for a strong body opposed to miseryes is but a great heap of wood to a flame of fire but alas his soule is so sick with sin that insteed of easing him of his burden it will adde more weight and presse him lower to the ground But I will not speake much of adversity lest wicked men tell me I may spare my labour they are not so much troubled with it I will returne therefore and have a word more of their prosperity which they so much brag of and of which they have so little cause to brag considering to what passe it brings them they being so much the more miserable in the end for that their beginning was so happy Nay not only their end hereafter but every interuption of their condition while they are here is so much the worse For the more they have and the fatter they are the more is their griefe when they lose and the greater their paine when they are any way sick or afflicted as it is usually seene in fatt and corpulent men in regard of bodily sicknesse and yet they are subject also to as much as another and more too as full bodies are to diseases What a sad comfortlesse sight is a wicked man in his sicknesse or in any other affliction whereas on the contrary what comfort is there in a godly man not onely to himselfe but to any other that shall visit him even then when the hand of God is heaviest upon him All sorts of evills partly by their Suddennesse partly by violence and partly by his owne unpreparednesse and security presuming of nothing but peace like naturall things meeting with things of a contrary quality have their full blow upon a wicked man That which was threatned to the Babylonians is usually his case Therefore shall evill come upon thee thou shalt not know from whence it rises and mischiefe shall fall upon thee thou shalt not be able to put it off and desolation shall fall upon thee suddenly which thou shalt not know Isa 47.11 His Candle seldome goeth out but is put * Job 21.17 out suddenly though I speak not so much of outward admonitions as of Gods inward preparation of this heart But to returne to the wicked mans Joy Give me leave to mention a few reasons why a wicked man's mirth that which he has is so short liv'd My reasons shall be drawne 1. From the Abundance of helps which it needs and from the weaknesse and fullibility of those helps 2. From its imperfection both in regard of its subject and object and also in its owne nature For the first viz the Abundance of helps which it
needs 1. It depends much on the company of men wherein be cannot alwaies have his mind yet otherwise he cannot be merry For still one thing or other is amisse Either he wants company or he has too much or too little or such as does not agree with his humour If the fault be one of these three last he may perhaps scrabble out with a great deale of paine But if it be the first he has no shift to make For he has such a number of objects without him to tempt him and vexe him which he cannot put off such a lowd importune noyse within him viz of a troubled conscience continually upbrading him which he cannot appease finally such disturbance from his thoughts to or for the committing of sinne which he cannot remedy that if you put him to single mirth he is no body If you keep him but within doores never so little he is presently off the hinges and like a thing as I may say unhang'd dull unweildy and without any activity at all Certainly that clock is not good that cannot goe long after it is set a going whose hand will goe no longer then it has the helping hand of another to keep it going Even such another thing is a wicked mans joy The joy of a godly man is cleane contrary because he has so little need of forrein assistance being so well furnish'd at home and able to live of himselfe You may not think to make him sad by making him solitary who has most of God when he has least of men and is never lesse alone then when you think him to be so 2. It depends much upon the state of his body He is merry either because he is of a sanguine complexion and so his mirth can be but a humour at best of an uncertaine continuance being that which proceeds from a humour which must be supplyed and may be corrupted will runne away at the least hole in a veine Or else because he is in a good condition of health and strength and so his mirth must needs be as his body is viz. seldome sound quickly disturbed and easily destroyed Keep such a one but from a meales meat or give him a morsell too much hurt him in one of his fingers or let him have but a little dumpish weather how does he sit mourning like an owle and knows not how to be comforted His laughing is presently turned into howling and sighing his harp into mourning and his organ into the voyce of them that weep 3. It depends much upon his age As his mirth dyes with him so it grows old with him and decayes as he does There is seldome a wicked man but his gray haires are brought downe with sorrow to the grave Sorrow for paine and Sorrow such as it is for Sinne and Sorrow that he cannot be merry Every thing that he has been he cannot think of it without sorrow either that he was so or that he cannot be so any longer or that he has no longer time to be not so How oft does he repeat it sighing and shaking his head I was and I have been thus and thus Those daies are gone or It was a merry time with me thē And So every thing that he has done he cannot think of it but with sorrow at least he cannot be glad to think of it If he were able to lay together before him all the deeds that ever he did all the words that ever he spake all the thoughts that ever he conceiv'd and all the objects too that ever entered into his sences or his understanding he would not be able to extract out of them one dramme of Comfort to exhilarate and revive his disconsolate drooping soule 4. It depends much upon his meat and drink His bones are never at ease till his belly be full I will not give a pin for his mirth if he be fasting If he be hungry and not presently supply'd which meat he is angry and was pish As the frensh-man says A hungry Clowne c so may I say a hungry wicked man is halfe mad And yet if he is not hungry he will be angry then too and sad for want of a stomack When he is empty he would be full and when he is full he would be empty He will be sad because he cannot eate and he will be sad because he can eate no more He has more then enough to doe to please his tast and the rest of the sences and yet he knowes not what to doe if he doe not Deny the merriest epicure such a dish or such a sawce or let him want but his wine and tobacco and who so melancholy a body as this merry soule Beleeve it such a mans mirth is for the most part but drowning of sorrow upon times and tides For when the water is gone and the drink is all up and downe his mirth is upon the head his joy is at an ebbe and like bankes that have been overflowne there is none so muddy as he 2. A Second fault in a wicked man's joy is that it is imperfect And so it is in regard both of the subject and the object 1. In regard of the subject that has it viz because it is but in one part of the man and that the worst too the body and not in the soule and in the worst part of the body the outer part and not in the heart or if at the best it be in the Soule it is but in a part of that neither and the worst part thereof too even as farre as it is carnall or naturall and not a jot further or higher But it is seldome so neither and therefore it can hardly be said to be in the man or to have any depth in it and consequently a man cannot be truly affected with it For seeing it is but outward and carnall superficiall and floating upon the top 't is no more comfort to the heart then a cup of strong water throwne in a man's face I say a wicked man's joy in regard of its subject is as grosse and earthly remaining in the members of the body As in regard of the cause it is aërie and vain beginning and continuing upon light occasions so that it is neither pure enough to pierce so farre as the Spirit nor weighty enough to sinke to the bottome of the heart Any stranger * Prov 14.10 may intermeddle with it and any strange accident will interrupt it His heart will be many times sad when his countenance is merry but his heart can never be merry when his countenance is sad A merry heart may make a cheerfull Countenance but a Cheerefull countenance will not make a merry Heart His heart is so farre from the objects of his joy which are grosse and earthly things that cannot get to it and the objects of vexations so neere his conscience and his conscience so neere his heart that he can never be heartily merry Perhaps he
may be pleasantly touched and tickl'd on the outside of his heart and so he may have a little forced mirth for a while as a sick man or an old man may have by the strength of a potion or a cup of liquour But I doe not remember that ever I read or heard and I beleeve he cannot say it himselfe that joy entered into his heart and that his heart was enlarged with it so that his very spirit rejoyced so as the godly man's uses to doe and as the Scriptures testifie of him every where He lookes merrily without like a whited sepulcher but within there is a sad sight of dead men's bones of a dead heart and a dead conscience and a whole soule dead in trespasses and sins He is like a countrey where the wayes are cleane such as one that has no judgment will preferre before any other but the soyle underneath is heartlesse and barren and fruitlesse His pleasure is not a whit more hearty then the heart is fleshly For if by the heart you do mean any thing that is spirituall it is nothing hearty at all Now the pleasure that goes not home to the heart is as when a man may tast of a thing but must not or cannot let it downe which does but vex him the more and set the stomack a longing and the body a pining And truly even so the spirit of a wicked man that which is of most consequence and he thinks not of it and that which let him use it how he will will live however and cannot dye is sad and hungry and ready to starve for want while the flesh and the members of the body are glutted and not so much delighted as sated and sadded while they seeme to be gladded with abundance of pleasures As plus dolet qui quod intus est dolet so plus gaudet qui quod intus est gaudet For what is shaking of the legs stretching abroad of the jaws and making a noyse with the throat wherein there is paine and wearinesse and which are as suddenly ended as they are vainly begun and violently prosecuted to a well grounded quiet undisturbed endlesse joy of the spirit Joy is better enjoyd by the spirit and the joy of the spirit is better and more It is not only with lesse feare and disturbance but in more abundance The Vessell must needs be the fuller when lesse runnes out and is not so soone empty Griefe is greatest that is least expressed and wrung out into teares Expletur lacrymis egeriturque dolor and so doubtlesse joy is more and more sound and perfect if it be in one lump only in the heart then if it be minc'd into parts and scattered and diffus'd into the severall parts of the body 2. A wicked man's joy is imperfect in regard of the object too 1. Because it is corporeall And so it is the lesse wonder that his pleasure is but corporeall for the subject while the objects of it are no other such as meate and drink monyes and the like For such things as these being corporeall and of a grosse substance it is impossible they should come neere enough to the soule which is spirituall and of a pure sustance either in place and being or in pleasing and being liked as to make it fully and intimately and thorowly glad Nothing is suffered to be neere another thing in situation that is altogether of another kind and nothing is lik'd or suffered to be neer in affection which neither is nor can be made like to that which is to like or to love it Things that love one another would even be one another as we use to say Amicus alter idem a freind is another selfe for love and desire are such strong affections that they will never leave clipping and embracing and joyning the thing that is lov'd to the thing that loves till imitating nature in her operation they have made it almost one with it and in a manner transform'd it into the same thing For thus it is with a godly man and the objects of his love God and Christ who are all one in the other and one with one another as Christ said I am in the father and the father in me and you in me and I in you Insomuch that a godly man's joy having such objects which may be so enjoy'd must needs be perfect without defect Now if the Soule or the mind love such objects as these as it cannot doe if it be it's selfe and in it's right mind not mad nor drunck nor set besides it selfe with passion all that it could do would be only this even create the more trouble to her selfe in loving and desiring that which she is not able to enjoy even as much trouble and paine as it is for any one to love that which he cannot eate or a woman with child to be still longing for what can never be gotten or a man to strike at a ball with all his might and misse of his blow And yet on the other side if the Soule do not love such objects her vexation is all as much to have them alwaies offer'd to her so as they are 'T is an equall misery to love nothing but that which I cannot have to have nothing but that which I cannot love How miserably is the Soule of a wicked man eith r pined with want of food or vexed with such as it cannot eate Poore soule that must take all the paine and canst have none of the pleasure Not one of the senses can have the pleasure of the mēbers or the mēbers the pleasure of the sences without thy help must thou only be helples thy selfe and is there nothing provided to comfort thee Canst thou and must thou take care and provide for all their not only necessities but pleasures and in the meane while must thou sit alone thy selfe as if thou wert no body as thou art not sad and hungry and neglected kept in a fooles paradise and in a prison as long as thou art here a prison too well loved by thee and supported by thine wone care and yet to be condemned for ever to another hereafter for thy labour Truly truly I must needs say thy condition is slavish and miserable and thou maist well cry out Woe is me that I have my habitation in the tabernacle of the body and in these tents of Kedar 2. Imperfection of a wicked mans joy in regard of the object it being suppos'd that the true subject of joy which is the Soule is incorruptible is this that the object is corruptible neither good enough nor great enough nor lasting enough for such an excellent glorious everlasting creature as the soule is to rejoyce in They say a horse will never prove where he hath not a full bite his unsatisfiednesse and his longing does him more hurt then is meat does him good so the soule if it have only a little slender corruptible food if it have
no better diet or entertainent in the body then so it may seem to live but it will secretly Consume and pine and with eating food too long that is not fit for her at length lose her stomack to better and then dye to all eternity Corruptible objects to an incorruptible soule especially if it can have no other are like weak meats to a strong stomack or bad meats to a good stomack which because it must have some and it has no other does not reject them by degrees may be brought to use thē constantly as many by degrees are brought to a diet contrary to their nature but then in the mean time it turns the meats into ill humours and growes the weaker it selfe for want of a stronger subject to work upon So it is with the Soule in the use of this Corruptible food It is so farre from being improved with it that it proves the worse and not only abuseth the creatures with too much mispence but wrongs her selfe with abundance of diseases I tell thee thy soule must have otherguise food if ever it think to grow unlesse it be to grow worse An Incorruptible soule is so farre from being satisfi'd with any Corruptible things so as to make her selfe merry in the enjoyment of them that when she has used thē like a great stomack with a very little meat she grows more hungry and consequently more discontented and sorrowfull If it had no knowledge nor sense it would never prosper so long as it is ty'd to such things as disagree with the nature of it or are a hinderance to that which does agree no more then a vine or any other plant can grow neere that which either has an antipathy to it or hinders the influence of the sun or diverts its nourishment another way How much lesse then having knowledge what those Corruptible things are how vaine and empty and altogether unfit for her is she able to be merry in the enjoyment of them How can I take full delight in that company which I am sure will leave me suddenly Even the more delight I take in such Company the lesse I take for the thought that it will not continue The faster a thing is joyned to another thing with the greater paine it is separated from it 3 A third Imperfection in a wicked man's joy in regard of the object is because its objects as they are of too short continuance so are they of too narrow extent for such a thing as the soule is to be merry with The soule hath an infinite capacity and a Capacity of that which is infinite Though she be coop'd up much against her will and made to dwell below her dignity in a little poore cottage yet is shee big enough for all the Trinity to dwell in and too big for all the world besides to fill She doth not only looke forward beyond the world the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world of the creatures to things which last in another world where she knowes she is to dwell longest and therefore makes the greatest provision for it but she lookes beyond the world every way beyond the creatures of the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world whether in heaven or earth Spirits Angells and all T is not the most divine thing but only that which is Deity it selfe can set a bound and give content to the desires of this Spirituall immortall and divine creature Nothing but the feare of God and such wisdome as that affords will fill her The rich man might brag as much as he would and tell his soule Soule thou hast enough and Soule thou art well enough when his barne was full But 't was more then his soule would tell him or was able to say herselfe For if the whole world had been his barne and a world of riches had been in his barne and his barne been full to the brimm alas poore wretch and never so wretched as now his empty soule all the while is ready to starve and die and he feeles it not I might say to him as it was said to Laodicea Rev 3.17 Thou saiest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poore and blind and naked Nay it may be that which is worse by this time by reason of long want of food the soule 's appetite is gone and she cannot desire what she should have She may be full but 't is as a vessell that is empty of good liqour and full with aire She is full with wind and vanity like a stomack that hath been kept fasting too long She hath nothing and she is neither able nor desirous to take any thing and so her condition was never so dangerous as now it is Say thy soule be full yet it is not satisfied And unlesse there be a fullnesse of satisfaction all other fullnesse is but a burthen and nothing worth That is the fullnesse which the preacher meanes Eccles 6.3 If a man beget an hundred children and live an hundred yeares so that the daies of his yeares be many and his soule be not filled with good and also that he have no buriall I say that an untimely birth is better then he Though thy soule have as much as it can have now while it hath what it hath yet it hath not what it would have if it were as it should be and what it could have if it were not as it is It is full i. e. sated as a stomack overchargd with heavy meat to sicknesse but it is not full i.e. satisfi'd as a stomack refresh'd with what is fitting to alacrity and content Neither indeed is it possible it should be so with such heavy and light vanities as these earthly goods are which like sweet cates cloy the stomack before they fill it and fill it before they satisfy it These overlushious dainties of corruptible pleasures take away the appetite before they satisfie the desire It was not for nothing you must think that David was so afraid to touch them Psal 141.4 Incline not my heart to any evill thing to practise wicked workes with men that worke iniquity and let me not eate of their dainties But the worst of it is the soule perhaps is not full so neither For if she were I believe she would feele some paine by this meanes be brought to take some course to be cur'd of of the distemper and resolve to be distemper'd and glutted so no more Doubtlesse the soule being in this condition of a surfet yet feeling no pain the condition of the wicked man must needs be the more miserable and his soule the sicker even as the body is in the worst condition when it eats nothing but unwholesome meat and eats too much and is not sick with it neither For feeling no paine as long as she can eate she keeps on her old diet her diseases encrease secretly and so encrease
furnished with good qualities and all things necessary within doubtlesse he is provided to entertain any guest that shall come from without and to welcome and comply with any accident Which if it be so that he cannot be sad will follow because being so prepared he knowes how and he hath ability wherewithall to doe it He will use every condition so as it shall in no way force him to sadnesse If it be bad he will not be so much troubled as to be sad now and if it be good he will not be so much gladded as to occasion himselfe to be sad for it hereafter as other men are wont to doe through want of moderation Having so many props and helps as he hath the grounds and causes of joy which I have mentioned and being so well taught as he is by the spirit from within and by experience from without and endued with so much strength and courage from above like a thing that is square which way soever he falls he will stand upright and throw him how you will he will be sure to pitch upon his legs and courageously say with Paul Philip 4.12 〈◊〉 know how to be abased and I know how to abound◠every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need It were easy to shew what quiet the Continent man hath in comparison of the Incontinent man whose restlesse burnings with desire and his difficulties and feares and diseases in or after the accomplishing of it there is none but will easily believe So likwise to shew how quietly and void of vexatious thoughts the Mercifull man lives in comparison of the Cruell man Neither were it difficult to enlarge upon severall other commendations of a godly man in regard of his vertues and the usefulnes of them ro the producing of joy but this much may suffice or the present There are also severall other wayes for a godly man to make himselfe merry I could shew him some out of Basil in his sermon of Thanks-giving wherein he explaines those words of the Apostle Rejoyce alwayes c For putting the question whether the Apostle did not exhort Christians to an impossibility in regard that at all times either they are in afflictions which it is impossible they should be glad of or have committed sinnes which they are bound to be forty for he answers himselfe and says First that misery and sinne * Licet uti peccatis Estius in L. 1. Dist S. 2. which breed so much sorrow to others to a man that is in Christ prove an augmentation of joy Secondly that such a man in the greatest affliction hath those things to meditate upon which will afford him abundant occasion to rejoyce as among other things his creation out of nothing his being made after the image of God his having reason and understanding his power to discerne between good and evill his restauration after his fall and his hoped for resurrection after his death In the next place because the carnall man whom Idesire to lure over to christianity understands not these things is better acquaintend with worse I think it may doe well now I have spoken so much of the chiefe causes of joy which a godly man hath to say somewhat of the chiefe causes of sorrow which he hath not especially considering that men of fearfull and prejudiced minds though you tell them of never so much good which they never thought of you had as good say nothing unlesse you tell them likewise how they may avoyd never so little evill which they are affraid of although that evill be so cleane contrary to the good that it cannot consist with it You shall never make them merry by telling them of living in plenty or an assurance of having this or that unlesse you can perswade them that they cannot come to poverty by such or such a mischance or that nothing can hinder them of it or take it from them There are within a man 's own selfe two grand enemies to his own mirth Care and Feare He that hath the first is sad because he thinks he cannot obtaine and he that hath the last because he thinks he cannot avoyd what he would For the first The godly man may not and being a godly man will not because he may not suffer it to be within him He may not by any meanes take care upon him and if he happen to have it thrown upon him he hath a warrant to cast it off againe upon God who careth for him See an expresse command for it Phil 4 6 Be carefull for nothing c Be not sollicitous as if thou thoughtest thy caring were sufficient without God's providence or as if God's providence were not sufficient without thy overmuch caring He that is so must needs be sad for the present with the trouble of care for good and will be afterwards with the trouble of sorrow for ill succes But the godly man is never so nor so As for Feare it is too cowardly an adversary to conquer the heart of a Souldier of Christ The righteous is as bold as a Lyon His heart is too well fixed to shake for Feare Prov 28. Psal 112.7.8 It is tyed fast to God by hope and faith and it is held fast by God by his everlasting love A godly man is a choyce vessel without crannie or breach or leak not to be sunk with the waves and troubles of conscience for they shall never be so strong as to break him nor yet to be overwhelmed with the waves and troubles of afflictions for they shall never rise so high as to get above him And therefore is it that an upright man can walke to and fro so boldly and not be touched at heart though all his haire be burnt in the greatest combustions Isa 33.14 15. If he have at any time a little touch of feare as he may have being a man neither doth reason require that a man or faith that a Christian should be senselesse yet it is so that he may be merry nevetheless and rejoyce with trembling as the Psalmist speaks Ps 2.11 But yet I pray tell me what should he feare It cannot be any kind of misery for he knowes well enough that all things work for his good and therefore misery too among the rest Neither can it be any kind of adversary and who will slye when none pursues him unlesse the terrour of God be upon him which is only upon the wicked for he is well eased of all his adversaries therfore feares them not First he feares not what the divell can doe because he cannot kill the soule but with it 's own sword I meane thoughts words actions which by the grace of God he shall never have power of Secondly he feares not what Men can doe because they can but kill the body and for that he could afford to come againe and give them thanks because of
a better life which by this meanes he enjoyed the sooner Thirdly He feares not what his lusts can doe because they are Mortified themselves and cannot kill either soule or body Fourthly he feares not what the World can doe because he hath overcome not only the temptations and tempting vanities of it so as he scorns to be sorry if he want them but all crosses and unpleasing accidents that he can meet with in it so as he scornes to be sorry if he have them Last of all he feares not either the King of terours himselfe Death because they two are friends now and he hath in a verry good sense made a covenant with him not that he may not meddle with him but that he doe him no hurt or secondly any of his Pursuyvants as Sicknes and deadly diseases because to him that I may use the words of our Saviour concerning Lazarus even when he knew he was to dye John 11 14. They are not unto death They are not sent by God so much to kill him take away a life that is but temporall though that be no more then to lay his body down softly on the ground or rather lay it up safely in the grave against a good time as to make it better alive that when he hath raised it up againe an incorruptible and glorious insteed of a corruptible and base condition he may give it a life that shall last to all eternity By this time I hop I have brought you over to be of my mind that a godly life is the merriest In the next place lest you should mistake and because the best life hath so much mirth where you see much mirth presently think that there is the best life I will give you some marks chraracters whereby to distinguish the true mirth which is to be found only in a godly life from that which may be had in a wicked Those marks are drawn partly from the Authour partly from the the object and subjects partly from the properties of it 1. For the Authour the principall mover or efficient cause of it it is the Spirit according to Paul Gal 5.22 But the fruit of the spirit is love joy c Joy hath the second place among the fruits of the Spirit who may be compared to a Fire as it is in Math 3.11 as well for warming and cherishing and refocillating the heart with joy as for purifying and purging and cleansing the conscience from dead workes 'T is the Spirit 's proper office and businesse to be a Comforter And therefore a godly man may lawfully be merry upon his warrant and never feare to be troubled for it whereas the wicked man is sure to be cal'd to an account for his mirth because his authority is good having his warrant and commission from the Father and the Son both and being sent down among'st us under that name 2. For the Object The maine ultimate and adequate object of it is God who is the object perse and there is none other besides unlesse it be anologically in relation to and by participation of him I say the object of it is God For as the joy is from and by God the spirit who beget's it in us so is it in God the Father who gave his Son and all things else with him and especially in God the Son who gatt it for us and gave himselfe a ransome to redeem us from sinne and punishment and sorrow Whence it is that you find those expressions of rejoycing in God c so frequent in Scriptures wheresoever there is either an exhortation to rejoycing or mention made of the practise of it See one place in the prophecy of * cap. 61.10 Isaiah and two in the Epistle to the a cap 3 1. c. 4.5 Philippians where I think as in most other places of the Epistles by The Lord is meant more especially Christ as I hinted but now the Soveraine Lord and God indeed of all the world but more peculiarly the Lord and Master of the Saints who are his houshold and their High Lord of whom by faith they hold their inheritance which he purchased for them and their Lord and Owner whose peculium or peculiar possession they are purchased by and to himselfe What happinesse hath he that hath such an object to rejoyce in What perfect joy hath he that rejoyces in such an object though in none besides And indeed none besides must it be for if he rejoyce in any thing else that the world affords his joy in this will be little Sicut * Bernard Serm 38. De Verbis Domini non potest homo duobus dominis servire sic nemo potest in hoc seculo gaudere in Domino A man can no more rejoyce in God and the world too then he can serve two masters Better be content with this object alone and seek no further T is the way to make the joy better A true friend will be most trusty to me when I trust most to him and if I trust wholy to him I shall be sure to have my businesse done If thou shouldest seek further thou wouldest but loose thy labour as Solomon did who sought farre and neare to pleasures wisdome and wealth thinking they might make him some mirth and content but in the end he confessed he found the best of them but meer emptinesse and vanity and vexation of spirit 3 For the subject of this mirth as the Authour was the Spirit of God so the subject of it is the spirit of man or the spirituall man For in a godly man's mirth the outward man hath little or no share 't is the inward man that rejoyceth and that for inward and spirituall things only De interioribus gaudeamus de exterioribus necessitatem habeamus non voluptatem sayth Austin on the thirteenth psalme Outward things are but for his necessity and so he uses them and not for his pleasure or delight for so he should abuse them 'T is not as the mirth of a wicked man for that is but just as much as you can see meerly superficiary or shallow The wicked man is like one that weares all his clothes at once If he have never so great need he hath no change When his mirth of laughter is done which heshewes abroad to all the world commonly to serve them he hath no more at home to serve his own turne When his outward mirth is ended his outward comforts faile him he hath not one dram of inward mirth or comfort to support him keep him warme for one minute Alas it were a poore businesse if a godly man's mirth were no better then so For what joy can be in the labour of the sides or the throat if it goe no deeper What is the merriest tune upon the treble of the tongue unlesse the base and ground of the heart consort Or what is it to say with David my lips shall rejoyce unlesse we can