Use 1. To reprove those that cannot keep up their rejoicing in Christ Jesus as soon as they are mated with any calamity or affliction in the world. Is not grace better than any natural comfort taken from us ? Ileb. xii. 11. ' No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous : nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable
Phil. III. 3.] the true circumcision. 37
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Surely, when we have such cause of rejoicing in Christ, to be dejected with every little adversity showeth weak faith. Have you peace with Grod and communion with him at every turn, and shall a blasting of the creature destroy all your comfort ? Have you hope of glory, and can- not you bear a disappointment in the world ? Are you assured of the care of your heavenly Father, and his particular providence over you, and yet so full of grudging and repining thoughts when he retrencheth you a little and blasteth your worldly probabilities? Surely it argueth too much addictedness to present comforts and love of the ease of the flesh. Have you a due sense of the world to come, and that better and enduring substance, and yet complain so bitterly of worldly losses ? Have you a God in covenant with you who hath engaged all his love, wisdom, and power, to help you, and to turn all things to your good ? Eom. viii. 28. What though the trial of your faith and patience be very sore ? Did you capitulate with God and bargain with him how much you would suffer the flesh to be crossed, and that in such sharp afflictions you would be excused, that your gourd should not be alto- gether smitten and dried up ? You can bear any other cross but this; but was this excepted out of your resignation ?
2. It reproveth those that cherish a carnal rejoicing. A believer should rejoice in Christ Jesus : Luke x. 19, 20, ' Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, &c. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you ; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.' Rejoice not in this, that you are in dignity and honour ; this is not your felicity, nor the direct way to your felicity. The higher you climb, your station is the more dangerous : they are safer that stand on the ground, than those that are on a pinnacle. Rejoice not in that you have abundance of earthly riches, but that you have a taste of higher and better things. Be not affected so deeply with lower mercies as to overlook the special mercies that accompany salvation. Rejoice not in this, that you have con- venient habitations in this world, but in that you have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ; in that you have comely bodies, but that you have hopes of a better resur- rection, when this mortal shall put on immortality ; not in the nobility of your birth, but that you are born of the Spirit : John i. 12, 13, 'To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' Rejoice not in that you have great friends to stand by you, but that in the new covenant you are made a friend of God, as Abraham was. Not in that you have costly accommodations to please the flesh : no, this may be the bane of your souls : Rom. viii. 13, ' They that live after the flesh shall die ; ' and Luke xvi. 25, ' Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.' (Dives fared deliciously every day, and Lazarus was full of sores, and desirous to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.) ' Thou hast received thy good things, and Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.'
38 A DESCRIPTION OF [PhIL. III. 3.
Use 2. Is to encourage you to rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now, because we are helpers of your joy, 2 Cor, i. 24, and God is best pleased with this frame of spirit, 1 Thes. v. 16, I shall resume the main discourse ; and
I. Handle the nature of it. II. Show you whether this joy may be without assurance.
III. Show you the spiritual profit of it.
IV. The helps or means by which it is raised in us.
I. For the nature of it. It is an act of love, begotten in us by the sense of the love of Christ, revealed in the word, and shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, whereby the soul is more affected with delight in the grace of the Kedeemer than with all other things whatsoever.
In which description observe : —
1. It is an act of love. The acts of love are two — desire and delight. They both agree in this : that they are conversant about good, and are founded in esteem. We think it good. They differ, because desire is the motion and exercise of love, and delight the quiet and repose of it. Desire is expressed in that speech, Ps. Ixiii. 8, ' My soul followeth hard after thee.' A believer cannot forbear to seek after God. Desire of union keepeth us up in the pursuit of him. Delight is expressed in that form of si)eech, Ps. xvi, 5, 6, ' The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup. The lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place ; yea, I have a goodly heritage.' He hath all his joy, and pleasure, and con- tentment in God. Desire supposeth some want or absence of the valued object ; delight, some kind of enjoyment. Either he is ours, or might be ours if we would ourselves ; for the offer is cause of joy, as well as the enjoyment. If our desires have reached the lovely object, it is cause of joy, or if it be within our reach ; as when Christ and his benefits are offered to us, and left upon our choice. And therefore it is said, Jonah ii. 8, ' They that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies.' Their own, though not possessed by them, yet they are offered to them : they might have been their own, if they did not exclude themselves. The object is in a sort present, and brought home to us in the offers of the gospel.