whence the bee goes laden away ; nor can an unholy heart taste that sweetness which the saint doth in a creature. He hath indeed a natural fleshy palate, wliereby he relisheth the gross camial pleasure the ci'eature affords, and that he makes his whole meal on ; but a gracious heart tastes something more : all Israel drank of the rock, 'and that rock was Christ,' 1 Coi-. x. 4 ; but did all tliat tasted the water's natural sweetness, taste Christ in it ? No, alas ! they were but a few holy souls that had a spiritual palate to do this. Samson's father and mother ate of the honey out of the lion's carcass as well as Samson, and, may be, liked the taste of it for honey as well as Samson, yet he took more pleasure sure than they ; he tasted the sweetness of God's providence in it, that had deliveted him from that very lion that now affords him this honey, Judg. xiv.
Secondly, The Christian has more true pleasure from the creature than the wicked, as it comes more refined to him than to the other. The unholy wretch sucks dregs and all; dregs of sin, and dregs of wrath, whereas the Christian's cup is not thus spiced. First, dregs of sin ; the more he hath of the creature's delights given him, the more he sins with them. O it is sad to think what work they nuike in his naughty heart ! they are but fuel for his lusts to kindle upon ; away they nm with their enjoyments, as the prodigal with his bags, or like hogs in shaking time ; no sight is to be had of them, or thought of their return, as long as they can get anything abroad, among the delights of the world. None so prodigiously wicked as those that are fed high with carnal 2)leasures. They are to the ungodly as the dung and ordure is to the swine, which grows fat by lying in it ; so their hearts grow gross and fat, their con- sciences more stupid and senseless in sin, by them ; whereas the comforts and delights that God gives into a holy soul by the creature, tui-n to spiritual nou- rishment to his graces, and draw these forth into exercise, as they do the other's lust. Secondly, dregs of wrath ; the Israelites had little pleasiu'e from their dainties, when the wrath of God fell upon them, before they could get them down their throats, Psa. Ixxviii. 33. The sinner's feast is no sooner served in, but divine justice is jireparing to send up a reckoning after it ; and the fearful expectation of this cannot but spoil the taste of the other. But the gracious soul is entertained upon free cost ; no troublesome thoughts need discompose his spirit, so as to break his draught, or make him spill any of the comfort of his present enjoyment from the fear of an approaching danger. All is well, the coast is clear, he may say with David, ' I will lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou. Lord, makest me dwell in safety,' Psa. iv. 8; God will not, all beside cannot, break his i-est ; as the unicorn heals the waters by dipping his horn in them, that all the beasts may drink without danger, so Christ hath healed creature enjoyments, that thei-e is no death now in the saint's cup.
Section III. — Ans. Thirdly, I answer by way of affirmation. The power of holiness is so far from depriving a man of the joy and pleasure of his life, that there are incomparable delights and pleasures peculiar to the holy life which the gracious soul finds in the ways of righteousness, enjoys by itself, and no stranger intei"meddles with. They lie inward, indeed, and therefore the world speaks so wildly and ignorantly concerning them. They will not believe they have such pleasures till they see them ; and they shall never see them till they believe them. The Roman soldiers, when they entered the temple, and went into the holy of holies, seeing there no image, as they used to have in their own idolatrous temples, gave out in a jeer, that the Jews worshij)ped the clouds. I'ruly thus, because the pleasures of righteousness and holiness are not so gross, as to come under the cognizance of the world's carnal senses, as their brutish ones do, therefore they laugh at the saints, as if their joy were but the child of fancy, and that they do but embrace the cloud instead of Jiuio herself, a fantastic pleasure for tlie true. But let such know tlmt they carry in their own bosom, what will help them to think the j)k'asin'es of holy life more real than thus. The horror, I mean, which the guilt of their imholy and unrighteous lives does sometimes fill their amazed consciences with, though there be no whip on their back, and pain in their flesh, tells them that the peace which results from a good conscience may as well fdl the soul with sweet joy, when no carnal delights contribute to the same. There are three things considered in the nature of a holy, righteous life, that arc enough to demon-
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strate it to be the only pleasant life. It is a life from God ; it is a life with God ; it is the very life of God.