the breeders of spiritual joy. A holy man's heart is usually fullest of joy when his eyes are fullest of tears. When Hannah had wept, she went away and was no more sad. The bee gathers the best honey of the bitterest herbs. Christ made the best wine of water : the best, the purest, the strongest, and the sweetest joys are made of the distilled waters of evangelical repentance. Gospel mourning is no way incon- sistent with holy joy. Though it must be granted that the love of sin and true joy are inconsistent, and that the reign and dominion of sin and true joy are inconsistent, yet it must be confessed that mourn- ing for sin and holy joy are consistent in one and the same heart ; and though legal terror and evangelical joy are inconsistent, yet evangelical sorrow and evangehcal joy are consistent in one and the same soul. The same eye of faith that drops tears of sorrow, drops also tears of joy, Zech. xii. 10 ; 1 Pet. i. 8. A clear sight of free grace, of pardoning mercy, and of a bleeding dying Saviour, will at the same time fill the soul both with sorrow and joy, as the experiences of a thousand Christians can testify. A Christian always joys most, and mourns most, when he is most under the sense of divine love, the influences and incomes of heaven, the hopes of glory, the reports of mercy, and the precious sealings of the blessed Spirit. Look, as physic is the way to health, so godly sorrow is the way to holy joy; and look, as a wicked man's joy ends in sorrow, Prov. xiv. 13, so a godly man's sorrow ends in joy : Isa. Ixi. 3, ' To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.' Godly sorrow is the parent of holy joy ; a godly man's mourning time is his most joyful time. I have read of a godly man who, lying upon his dying bed, and being asked which was the joyfullest time that ever he had in all his life, cried out, ' Oh, give me my mourning days again, oh, give me my mourning days again, for they were the joyfullest days that ever I had.' The more a Christian ' sows in tears,' the greater, even in this world, shall be his 'harvest of joy;' his merry days shall be always answerable to his mourning days, Ps. cxxvi. 6. But,
3. Thirdly, I answer. That this is a false charge, a mere slander, an unjtist calumny that Satan and his bond-slaves have cast upon holiness, and the ways of holiness, on purpose to hinder men from pursuing and following after holiness. The language of the objection is quite con- trary to the language of the holy Scripture ; witness that Ps. cxxxviii. 5, ' Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord ; for great is the glory of the Lord.' When the kings of the earth shaU be generally converted and sanctified, as it is in verse the 4th, ' then they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.' When they shall come to experience and taste the power, excellency, and sweetness of holiness, ' then they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.' Conversion and sanctification administer the highest grounds of joy and rejoicing : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-wards.' A holy conversation affords the greatest ground of
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rejoicing. There is no joy to that which springs from the testimony of a sanctified conscience. God has given it under his own hand, that * the ways of wisdom' (which are always ways of holiness) ' are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,' Prov. iii. 17. There is no pleasure nor felicity to that which flows from the ways of sanctity. The sweetest roses, the strongest comforts, and the greatest pleasant- ness, is to be found in the ways of holiness. Oh the joy, the peace, the tranquillity, the serenity that attends the ways of purity. I might call in many millions of saints, who from their own expe- riences are able to give the He to this objection, and further to tell you, that they have met with more comforts, sweetness, and plea- santness in one hour's communion with God, in one hour's walking with God, than ever they have found in aU the ways of ungodliness and wickedness, wherein they have wandered. Oh, they are able to tell you, that when they walked in ways of impiety, they found by experience that God had made a separation between sin and peace, between sin and joy, between sin and assurance, between sin and the light of his countenance, &c., Isa. Ivii. 20, 21; and they are able to tell you from what they have found, that there is no fear, no terror, no horror, no gripes, no grief, no stings, no hells to those that attend the ways of ungodliness ; and this were enough to blow off this objection, Kom. vi. 21. But,