295. A Christian joys aright, when it proceeds from right principles, from judgment and conscience, not from fancy and imagination ; when judgment and conscienoe will bear him out ; when there is good terms between God and him : for our joy must spring from peace : Rom. v. 1, ' Being justified by faith, we have peace towards God.' The apostles begin their Epistles with mercy, grace, and peace : mercy in forgiveness ; grace to renew our natures ; and peace of conscience here. These are things to be gloried in. If we find our sins pardoned, our persons accepted, and our natures altered, then we may comfort ourselves in anything, in health, in wealth, in wife, in children, in anything, because all come from the favour of God. We may joy in afflictions, because there is a blessing in the worst things, to further our eternal happiness ; and though we cannot joy in affliction itself, as being a contrary to our nature, yet wemay joy in the issue. So that we may joy aright, when having interest in God, we
* That is, ' owed.'— G. t That is, ' undervalue.'— G.
220 DIVINE MEDITATIONS
glory ill the testimony of a good conscience ; when looking inward we find Jill at peace ; wljen we can say upon good groiuuls, that God is mine, and therefore all is mine, both life and death and all things, so far as they may serve for good.
29G. The hearts of men, 3-ea, of good men, are apt to be taken up with outward things : when the weak disciples had cast out devils, they were ready to be proud ; but Christ quickly spies it, and admonisheth them, ' not to rejoice that the devils were subject to them, but that their names were written in the book of hfe,' Luke x. 20. Therefore, when we find the least stirrings to glory in anything, we must check ourselves, and con- sider what grace we have to temper them ; what love we have to turn these things to the common good ; for whatsoever a man hath, if he have not withal humility and love to use it aright, it will turn to his bane.
297. It hath been an old imputation to lay distractedness upon men of the greatest wisdom and sobriety. John the Baptist was accused to have a devil, and Christ to be besides* himself, and the apostles to be full of new wine, and Paul to be mad ; and the reason of this is, because as religion is a mystical and spiritual thing, so the tenets of it seem paradoxes to carnal men : as, first, tlaat a Christian is the only freeman, and other men are slaves ; that he is the only rich man, though never so mean in the world ; that he is the only beautiful man, though outwardly never so deformed ; that he is the only happy man in the midst of all his miseries. Now these things, though never so true in themselves, seem strange to natural men. And then again, when they see men earnest against sin, or making conscience of sin, they wonder at this commotion for trifles, as if we made tragedies of toys.f But these men go on in a course of their own, and make that the measure of all : those that are below them are profane, and those that are above them are indiscreet ; by fancies and affections, they create excellencies, and then cry down spiritual things as folly ; they have principles of their own, to love themselves, and to love others only for themselves, and to hold on the strongest side, and by no means to expose a man's self to danger. But now when men begin to be religious, they deny all their own aims, and that makes their course seem madness to the world, and therefore they labour to breed an ill conceit of them, as if they were madmen and fools.
298. God's children are neither madmen nor fools, as they are accounted. It is but a scandal cast upon them by the madmen of the world. They are the only wise men, if it be well considered ; for, first, they make the highest end their aim, which is to be a child of God here, and a saint hereafter in heaven. Secondly, they aim to be found wise men at their death, and therefore are always making their accounts ready. Thirdly, they labour to live answerable to their rules. They observe the rule of the word, to be governed according to the same. Fourthly, they improve all advantages to advance their end ; they labour to grow better by blessings and crosses, and to make a sanctified use of everything. Fifthly, they swim against the stream of the times, and though they eat, and drink, and sleep as others do, yet, like the stars, they have a secret course and carriage of their own, which the world cannot discern ; and therefore a man must be changed, and set in a higher rank, before he can have a sanctified judgment of the ways of God.
299. Those that lay the imputation of folly and madness on God's chil- dren will be found to be fools and madmen themselves. Is not he a fool