2. To mar the taste of carnal pleasures. The soul cannot remain without some oblectation ; it delighteth either in earthly or in heavenly things. Love will not remain idle in the soul. Now God will give us a taste of spiritual joy, of pleasantness in wisdom's paths, that we might disdain carnal pleasures. It is not a wonder for a clown, that hath not been acquainted with dainties, to love garlic and onions ; but for a prince, that hath been acquainted with better diet, to leave the dainties of his father's table for those things, that were strange. I do not wonder at carnal men, that they are delighted with carnal objects ; they never knew better ; but for a child of God, that hath tasted how gracious and sweet God in Christ is, to find sap and savour in coarser fare, this is wonderful.
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3. It is for his liouour. Notliinpj l)iin<2,c(li reproach upon tlie ways of God so much as the sadness of tliose that profess them. Spirilits Calvinianus est spiritus inelancholicus, was a Lutheran proverb, be- cause the Calvinists were asjainst wakes and dancings and revehs. You darken the ways of God by your melancholy conversation. Keli- gion should be cheerful, though not wanton and dissolute. We are to invite others : Ps. xxxiv. 2, ' My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.' Otherwise thou art as one of the spies that discouraged the children of Israel, by bringing up an evil report upon the land of Canaan.
4. Because he delighteth to see us cheerful : ' He delighteth in the prosperity of his saints.' Certainly the Lord doth not delight in a sad devotion, and that the finger should always be in the wound. As a man delighteth that his fields should prosper, and laugh with fatness, so doth Christ in the saints. They are his charge : John xv. 11, ' These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.' Would you make Christ's heart glad, keep your own cheerful.
Fourthly, I shall give you some observations concerning joy.
1. God's providence to all the creatures doth aim at their joy and welfare. In inanimate creatures there is a cessation and rest, in the beasts a sensitive delectation, in a man joy. All actions that tend to the 2:)reservation of life, have their pleasure mixed with them ; and therefore certainly he hath provided some christian joy for a christian. All actions of godliness have a delight mixed with them.
2. Spiritual joy ariseth more from hope than possession : Rom. xii. 12, 'Rejoicing in hope;' Heb. iii. G, 'If we hold fast the con- fidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end;' Rom. v. 2, ' We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' It is an affection proper to the next life ; but some birds sing in winter. Though we have not an actual possession of glory, yet there is a certainty of possession.
3. This joy is more felt in adversity than prosperity : 1 Peter i. 6, ' Wherein ye greatly rejoice ; though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations ;' Rom. v. 3, ' We glory in tribulation.' Partly from God himself ; he proportioneth his comforts to our sorrows, and then sheddeth abroad his love most plen- tifully : 2 Cor. i. 5, ' As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.' Partly from the saints ; they rejoice most in afflictions, because they taste in them what evil they are freed from in Christ. If we never had afflictions, we should not know what it is to be freed from eternal horrors and pains ; but when we feel them then we say, If I have much ado to bear these temporal •sorrows, Avhat should I have done if I had been still liable to eternal ! 0 blessed be God for my deliverance in Christ ! Partly because of sweet experiences. We are kept from perishing with the world ; a servant and stranger is turned out of doors, but a son is corrected. If it serveth for nothing else, yet for a spite to Satan, to confound him, when he thiuketh he hath most advantage against us now, to over- whelm us with grief ; as when one seeketli to wrest a staff' out of our liands, we hold it the faster.
4. Those have the highest feeling of joy that have tasted the bitter-
VeR. 13.] SEKMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 357
ness of sorrow : Isa. Ivii. 18, ' I have seen his ways, and will heal him : I will lead him also, and restore comforts nnto him, and to his mourners ;' Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,' &c. ; ver. 20, ' Is Ephraim my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still,' &c. Unutter- able groans make way for ineffable joys ; they feel the most lively elevation of joy as a recompense for the pangs of the new birth. God permits sorrows, that we may find the fuller comfort. Bernard thinks that the joy of the saints is greater than the joy of angels, because they wlio have been kept, and not restored, had never experience of any other condition ; however, his reason is notable : Placet Sanctis securitas, seel ei magis qui timuit ; jucunda omnibus lux, seel liherato de j)otestate tenebrarum jucundior ; transisse demorte ad vitam, gratiam duplicat.