2. It is a cordial joy : Ps. iv. 7, ' Thou hast put more gladness into my heart.' That is a delight indeed which puts a gladness into the heart, which not only tickles the outward senses, but affects the soul and comforts the conscience. Carnal joy makes a loud noise, and therefore it is compared to ' the crackling of thorns under a pot ; ' but
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this is that which goes to the heart, that fills it with serenity and peace. Carnal joj^ is like the morning dew, which wets the surface ; but godly joy is like a soaking shower that goes to the root, and makes the plant flourish. They that indulge false comfort rather laugh than are merry. But now he that is exercised in the word of God, and fetchetli his comfort out of the promises, he is glad at the very heart.
3. It is a great joy : 1 Peter, i. 8, ' In whom believing, ye rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory,' It doth ravish the heart, so that it is better felt than uttered, it is unspeakable and glorious. The higher the life, always the greater the feeling. The good and evil of no life can be so great as the good and evil of the spiritual life, because it is the highest life of all, and therefore hath the highest sense joined with it. Man is more capable of being afilicted than beasts, and beasts than plants, and a godly man more than other men ; he hath a higher life, therefore the good and evil is greater. A wounded spirit is the greatest misery any creature can feel on this side hell. So answerably are its joys : as the groans and sorrows of the spiritual life are unutter- able, so are the joys of it unspeakable.
4. It is a more pure joy than worldlings can have. The more intel- lectual any comfort is, the more excellent in the kind. Though beasts may have pain and pleasure jwured in upon them by the senses, yet properly they have not sorrow and delight. The joy of carnal men is pleasure rather than delight ; it is not fed by the promises and ordi- nances, but by such dreggy and outward contentments as the world affords, and so of the same nature with the contentment of the beasts. But now the more intellectual and chaste our delights are, the more suitable to the human nature. Well, then, none hath a delight so separate from the lees as a Christian that rejoiceth in the promises of God. He that delights in natural knowledge, hath, questionless, a purer object and greater contentment of soul than the sensualist can possibly have, that delights only in meats, and drinks, and sports, in pleasures that are in common with the beasts. Further yet, he that delights in bare contemplation of the word, as it is an excellent doctrine suited to man's necessities, as the stony ground ' received the word with joy,'
. Mat. xiii. 20, certainly he hath yet a purer gladness than merely that man that is versed in natural studies. Oh ! but when a man can reflect upon the promises, as having an interest in them, that delight which flows from faith, and is accompanied with such a certainty, surely that is a more pure delight than the other, and doth more ravish the heart ; they have more intimate and spiritual joy than others have.
5. It is a joy that ends well. Carnal rejoicing makes way for sorrow : ' The end of that mirth is heaviness,' Prov. xiv. 13. It is a poor forced thing, saitli Cooper. A man in a burning fever is eased no longer by drinking strong drink than while he is drinking of it, for then it seems to cool him, but presently it increaseth his heat ; so \ylien men seek ease and comfort in troubles from outwarc], external things, though they seem to mitigate their heaviness for the present, yet they increase it the more afterward.
6. It is not a joy that perverts the heart. Carnal comforts, the more we use them, the more we are ensnared by them : Eccles. ii. 2. ' I have said of laughter. It is mad ; and of mirth, What doth it ?' For what
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serious and sober use doth carnal rejoicing serve? There is no profit by it, but much Iiurt and danger ; therefore Solomon preferreth sorrow- before it : Eccles. vii. 3, ' Sorrow is better than laughter ; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.' But now, the more of this delight we have, the 'more we delight ourselves in the word of God, the more we love God, the better the heart is.
7. It is a delight that overcomes the sense of our affliction, and all the evils that do befall us; and therefore it is said of the heirs of promise that they have ' strong consolation,* Heb. vi. 18. The strength is seen by the effects ; therefore it is strong, because it supports and revives, notwithstanding troubles. It establisheth the heart, notwith- standing all the floods and storms of temptations that light upon it : 1 Thes. i. 6, it is said of them, that ' they received the word with much affliction and joy in the Holy Ghost.'