[3.] Love to God also causeth us to rejoice in him, for it showeth itself in a complacency and well-pleasedness of mind in God as our chief good : Ps. xvi. 5, 6, ' The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup ; thou maintainest my lot : the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places.' Certainly they do not love God that do not value and esteem him as better than all worldly things. Other things with- out him cannot give any solid contentment to the soul, but he without other things is enough ; he is all in all to the heart that loveth him. Therefore if we be rooted and grounded in love to God, he will be the delight of our souls and our exceeding joy, whatever we lose in the world. Thus you see faith, hope, and love have a great influence upon this joy,
3. All the ordinances and duties of religion were appointed to breed, and feed, and act, and increase this joy in us. Eeading, hearing, pray- ing, meditating, the Lord's supper ; all these duties were appointed to quicken the soul to delight in God, and they must all be used to this end. Eeading ; wherefore were the scriptures written but to beget in us a comfortable sense of the love of God in Christ? 1 John i. 4, ' These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.' The word doth beget and keep up our delight in God by those discoveries Avhich it maketh of his goodness to us, in doctrines, counsels, and pro- mises, that every time we look into God's blessed book we might have a fresh delight acted and stirred in us. So for hearing ; its main end is to increase our joy, therefore was the ministry appointed : ' not for .jhat we have dominion over your faith, but as helpers of your joy,' 2 Cor. i. 24. That is the main end of our ministry, because the gospel dispensation is a dispensation of grace. We must press repen- tance, but it is to cure you of your vain rejoicings in order to more solid comfort ; to put you out of your fool's paradise, that you may prize and esteem your Saviour, and set more by him than by all the pleasures, honours, and riches of the world. Holy mourning is in order to comfort, the vain delight and carnal rejoicing^ is checked and deadened, that we may raise in you the true joy. We are helpers of your joy in God's way, and truly that is the only way. We need not over-gospel the gospel, as honey needs not to be sweetened with other things. So prayer; we put pro- mises in suit that we may have new experiences of the love and bounty of God : John xvi. 24, ' Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.' In prayer you come to solace yourselves with God and to
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unbosom yourselves to him as your best friend. Meditation on God's excellences and benefits, it is still to maintain this delight in God : Ps. cxl. 34, ' My meditation of him shall be sweet, I will delight in the Lord.' The Lord's supper was appointed for the elevation of our joy to the height ; it is our spiritual feast and refection, that we may go on our way with joy ; as the eunuch, when baptized, ' He went on his way rejoicing,' Acts viii. 39. Here the whole gospel is applied and sealed to us ; and bread and wine doth not so much cheer the body as the body and blood of Christ doth the soul. You come not only to remember your privileges by Christ, but it is your solemn in- vestiture ; here you take possession of Christ and all his benefits.
SEEMON IL Bejoice evermore. — 1 Thes. v. 16.
Use. To press you to this spiritual rejoicing. God never hath our hearts till he hath our delight. To enforce this exhortation, I must — (1.) Take off prejudices; (2.) Persuade by arguments; (3.) Direct you in the exercise of this great duty.
First, To take off prejudices and objections which may lie in the hearts of men against this duty.
1. Prejudice. How can this rejoicing evermore stand with that sense which we should have of afflictions coming from God ? Is it not a stupid thing to be merry when God is angry ? Must we rejoice in troubles notwithstanding the breaches God hath made upon us ? I answer —
[1.] Carnal rejoicing is a very provoking thing, because it is an affront to God's providence. It is a defiance of the dispensation we are under when we are not affected with our own or our brethren's misery, or our father's anger : Isa. xxii. 12-14, ' In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth : and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine : let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely, this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die.' So James iv. 9, ' Be afflicted, and mourn and weep ; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness ; ' and chap. v. 1, ' Go to now, ye rich men ; weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you ; ' and ver. 5, ' Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth, and been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.' Now compare this with chap. i. 2, 'My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.' Never any were reproved for rejoicing in God in calamities, but for carnality and for rejoicing in sensual satisfactions. If you say the answer Cometh not home ; you may rejoice in unjust dealings and persecutions of men, or in trials ; but in corrective dispensations from the immediate hand of God how shall we rejoice ? I reply — We are directed to this