X HUS, and unspeakably more than thus, do saints rejoice and shout for joy, when they reap the favour and love of God, for which they laboured in many a weary duty. This joy of har- vest, as great as it is, and as much as carnal hearts are lifted up with it, is but a trifle, a thing of nought, compared with yours; after they have sown to themselves in righteousness, and waited for the effects and returns of their duties with patience, and at last come to reap in mercy, either the full harvest in heaven or but the first-fruits of it on earth, yet rejoice, " with joy unspeak-
*' able and full of glory,'' 1 Pet. i. 8. " This puts more gladness *' into their hearts, than when corn and wine increase,'"' Psal. iv. 7. Carnal joys are but as soul-fevers, the agues of the inward man ; there is a great difference betwixt the unnatural inflammations of a feverish body, which waste the spirits, and drink up the radical moisture, and the kindly well-tempered heat of an healthy body ; and as much between the sweet, serene, and heavenly joy, which flow from the bosom of Christ in the hearts of believers, and those earthly delights which carnal hearts, in a sensual way, suck out of creature enjoyments. I will shew you the transcendency of spiritual joys, above the joy of harvest, in these eight particulars following.
1. You that joy with the joy of the harvest, are glad, because How you have food for yourselves and families to live upon all the year : but the Christian rejoiceth because he hath bread to eat that the world knows not of, Rev. ii. 17. Christ is the food of his soul, and his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed, John v. 65. i. e. the most real and excellent food. You read Psal. ixxviii. 25. that men did eat angels food, i. e. Manna ; which was such excellent bread, that if angels did live upon material food, this would be chosen for them ; and yet this is but a type and dark shadow of Jesus Christ, the food of believers.
2. You rejoice when your harvest is in, because corn is virtually many other things besides food ; you can turn it into clothes to keep you warm, and many other necessaries may be purchased by it ; but yet it is not like Christ, the object of a saint's joy ; though it answers many things, it doth not answer all things, as Christ doth ; turn it into what you will, it hath but a Hmited and respective usefulness ;
128 irtTSBANDRY SMRITUALI2ED ; OR;
but Jesus Christ is all in all to believers, and out of him their faith can fetch all supplies; he is their health in sickness, their strength in weakness, their ease in pain, their honour in reproach, their wealth in poverty, their friend in friendlessness, their habitation when har- bourless, their enlargement in bonds, the strength of their hearts, and life of their life ; O ! he is a full Christ ! and whatever excel- lencies are scattered among all the creatures, do meet all in him, and much more. ^
3. You rejoice, when you have gotten in yourharvest, because now you can free those engagements, and pay those debts wich you have contracted. 'Tis a comfort to be out of debt ; and you may lawfully rejoice that God gives you wherewith to quit your engagements, that you may owe no man any thing but love ; but still the joy of harvest falls short of the joy of the saints ; for you rejoice that you are or have wherewith to help yourselves out of men'^s debt : but they rejoice that they are out of God's debt ; that his book is cancelled, and their sins pardoned : that by reason of the imputed righteousness of Christ, the law can demand nothing from them, Rom. viii. 1. O what matter of joy is this !
4. You rejoice, because now your corn is out of danger; all the while it was abroad, it was in hazard, but now it is housed you fear not the rain : but Christians rejoice, not because their corn is safe, but because their souls are so. A.11 the while they abode in an unre- generate state, they were every moment in danger of the storms of wrath : but now being in Christ, that danger is over; and what compare is there betwixt the safety of a little corn, and the security of an im- mortal soul ?
5. Your joy is but a gift of common providence. Turks and Hea- thens can rejoice with your joy ; but the joy of a Christian, is a pe- culiar favour and gift of God. Corn is given to all nations, even the most barbarous and wicked have store of it ; but Christ is the portion but of a few, and those the dearly beloved of God. Luther said of the whole Turkish empire, (where is the best and greatest store of corn) that it is but a crumb which the master of the family throws to the dogs. He that had more corn than his barns could hold, now wants a drop of water to cool his tongue. Christ is a gift bestowed only upon God's elect.
Your joy will have an end ; the time is coming, that when you have reaped down your harvests, yourselves must be reaped down by death, and then you shall rejoice in these things no more. But when your joy is ended, then is the joy of saints perfected ; they reap their harvest, when you leave your harvest ; their consolation is everlasting.
7. God can separate your joy from these enjoyments, even while you have them, as well as when you leave them. It is one thing for a man to have riches and full barns, and another thing to have com- fort in them, Eccl. v. 19, 20. But now the joy of Christians is a thing
THE HEAVENLY USE OF EARTHLY THINGS. 1^9
inseparable from their enjoyment of Christ : indeed the sense of their interest may be lost, and so the acts of their joy intermitted ; but they always have it in the seed, if not in the fruit, Psal. xcvii. 11. « Joy is so^vn for the upright ;" he hath it still in the principle, and in the promise.
8. The joy of harvest-men, for the most part, is only in their harvest, and in such earthly things ; take that away, and their joy ceases. Earthly hearts are acquainted vnth no higher comforts ; but the people of God can joy in him, and take comfort in their earthly enjoyments too. And what comfort they take in these things, is much more refined and sweet than yours ; for they enjoy all these things in God, and his love in giving them, puts a sweetness into them, that you are unacquainted with. Thus you see, how far your joys fall short of theirs.
1. How have I rejoiced in a thing of nought, J - 4j t' /*
and pleased mvself with a vanity? God hath .j ij ., ^ ^^
11 ^j •"r.u J- "^^ 1. one titat liatli a full
blessed me m my neJds, and m my stores; but 7 7 , r^i . ^
. -1 • V 111 • -1 *^ 1 1 • oarn,biiinoCiirist not with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ. ^ly barns are full of corn, but my soul is empty of grace;
common bounty hath given me a fulness of the things of this life ;
but what if the meaning of it should be to fat me for the day of
slaughter ? AVhat if this be the whole of my portion from the Lord?
What if the language of his providences to my soul should be this,