^ Our whole life, says Austin, is nothing but a continued tentation.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 259
James iv. 7; 1 Pet. v. 9. Now joy and rejoicing attends not the com- bat, but the conquest. The Romans never used to ride in triumph, but after conquests obtained. A Christian's triumphing time is his con- quering time. Joy is most seasonable and suitable when a Christian has beaten Satan out of the field. The cock in the Arabic fable began to crow and clap his wings, as if he had obtained a perfect conquest, but, behold, on a sudden a vulture comes, and snatches this great conqueror away. They that triumph and rejoice over Satan before they have overcome him, are in no small danger of being worsted by him. But, [5.] Fifthly and lastly, To gather up many things together. I say that their present sorrow and sadness may arise from their going astray into some by-path of vanity and folly, wherein they have got a fall, or broke a bone, or put their souls out of Joint. As children sometimes get a fall, and then they come home by weeping cross ; so Christians too often go astray and get a fall, and then they are fain to weep it out.i When men keep not the king's highway, they are often robbed of their money, and stripped of their clothes, and wounded too, as he was in the Gospel who fell among thieves ; so when Christians keep not in the King of kings' highways, which are ways of righteousness and hohness, then they are often robbed of their comfort, and joy, and peace, and assurance, and communion with God, &c., and sorely wounded and bruised, and then it is no wonder if they are brought home with tears in their eyes. Or it may be their evidences for heaven are so blotted and blurred that they cannot read their title to heaven, and then it is no wonder if they are perplexed and grieved ; or it may be they call in question former grants of favour and grace ; or it may be a deeper sense of misspent time Kes harder than ever upon them ; or else the littleness and smallness of their graces under such soul-enriching opportunities and advantages do sorely oppress them ; or else the lateness of their conversion may sadly afflict them, &C.2 Now how absurd and unreasonable a thing is it for any men to argue thus, that surely godly men have no joy, no delight, no pleasure, &c., because there are some particular cases and conditions wherein they may be cast which rather bespeaks sorrow than joy, grief than gladness, mourning than mirth ! Certainly you may as rationally and as righteously expect mirth, joy, and gladness from carnal, worldly, and ungodly wretches when they are under burning fevers, loathsome diseases, or violent pains of the stone or gout, &c. , as you may expect upon a rational or religious account, joy and gladness, &c., in the saints in the forementioned cases that are incident to them. It was a very unreasonable request that they made to the people of God in that Ps. cxxxvii. 3, 4, ' For there they that carried us away captive re- quired of us a song ; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying. Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?' And it is as unreasonable to expect or look that the people of God should sing and be merry, rejoice and be glad, when they are under soul distresses, and under the sore rebukes of God, and poured from vessel to vessel, &c. Music in
^ Gal. vi. 1, KaTaprl^ere. Set him in joint again ; it is a metaphor from chirurgeons and bone-Betters, who handle their patients gently and tenderly. » Luke X. 30; Isa. xut, 8; Ps. cxix. 176.
260 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
times of mourning is as unreasonable as it is unseasonable and un- savoury, Jer. xlviii. 11 : Prov. xxv. 20, ' As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.' Music and mourning, singing and sorrow, agree like harp and harrow. There is such a contrariety be- tween singing and sorrow, that he that sings does but add weight to his sorrow that cannot sing. 0 sirs, as there is a time for rejoicing, so there is a time for mourning, Eccles. iii. 4; as there is a time to laugh, so there is a time to weep ; and as we must rejoice with them that rejoice, so we must mourn with them that mourn, and weep with them that weep, Eom. xii. 15. The condition of God's people in this life is a mixed condition. In this life they have their rejoicing times and their mourning times, their laughing times and their weeping times, their singing times and their sorrowing times, &c. It is true, in heaven there is all joy and no sorrow, all gladness and no sadness ; and in hell there is all sorrow and no joy, all grief and no gladness, all howling and no singing, all madness and no mirth ; but in this life it is otherwise, for if there should be nothing but joy, many would look for no other heaven ; and if there should be nothing but sorrow, most would look for no other hell. If men should have nothing but joy, how sadly would they be puffed up ! And if they should have nothing but sorrow, how easily would they be cast down ! But now, by a divine hand, our sorrows being mixed with our joys, our hearts come to be the more effectually weaned from the vanities of this life, and to long more earnestly after the pure and unmixed joys of a better life, &c. But,
8. Eighthly, I answer. That it is possible that the sadness, sorrow, and grief of those particular saints that thou hast thine eye upon may arise from the natural temper and constitution of their bodies.'^ Many saints are often cast into a melancholy mould ; for though grace changes the disposition of the soul, yet it alters not the constitution of the body. Now there is no greater enemy to holy joy and gladness than melancholy, for this pestilent humour will raise such strange passions and imaginations, it will raise such groundless griefs, and fears, and frights, and such senseless surmises and jealousies, as will pasily damp a Christian's joy, and mightily vex, perplex, trouble, and turmoil, daunt, and discourage a Christian's spirit. A melancholy constitution is Satan's anvil, upon which he forms many black, dark, and dismal temptations, which do exceedingly tend to the keep- ing down of divine consolation from rising high in the soul.2 This black, dark, dusky humour disturbs both soul and body ; it tempts Satan to tempt the soul, and it unables the soul to resist the tempta- tion ; yea, it prepares the soul to hearken to the temptation, and to close and fall in with the temptation, as the experiences of aU melan- choly Christians can testify. Look, as coloured glass makes the very beams of the sun seem to be all of the same colour with itself — if the glass be blue, the beams of the sun seems to be blue ; if the glass be red, the beams of the sun seems to be red ; or if the glass be green, the