to the greatest sufferings, the world would not then be able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which we speak, but the faces of believers would sometimes appear to the terror of their persecutors as the faces of angels, as Acts vi. 5. 10. 15. vii. 51.55, 56.60. They are high and glorious things that are assured to us in the promises of the Gospel. Did but these things appear, in the stedfast faith, the confident hopes, desires, and joys of us that do expect them, believers then would be the wonder of the world; and our joys would so shame their dreaming, childish, brutish pleasures, that doubtless multitudes would flock in, to see what it is that so delighteth us, that they might be made partakers of our joys. Even as Simon Magus himself when he saw the miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost, would fain have bought that gift with money; so men that are yet carnal, in the gall of bitterness and bond of their iniquities, will yet see a desirable excellency in the joy of the Holy Ghost, and wish they were partakers of such joys, though yet they are unacquainted with the way to attain it. I do therefore entreat you all that believe and hope for an everlasting crown, that you will shew the poor deceived world the preciousness of your faith and hopes, and the high prerogative of the saints, in your answerable cheerfulness and joy, and live not with dead and uncomfortable hearts, as those that have nothing but a vexatious, transitory world to comfort them; much less to be more dejected than these wretched souls. Do you not desire the conversion of your carnal friends, and all about you? Would you not be glad if you could further it? O that you would try this pleasant way! and shew them that you have found the invaluable treasure! And as the rich live in greater pomp, and at higher rates than the poor, so you that speak of the riches of grace, and live in the family of the Lord, O shew the world the dignity of your state, by your holy courage and comfortable behaviour, and by your living above the pleasures and griefs of unbelievers! When they glory in their prosperity, do you glory in the Lord: when they boast themselves in their riches or reputation, do you imitate holy David, who professeth, "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name toge ther;" Psal. xxxiv. 1-3. And Psal. xliv. 8. "In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever." By such spiritual joyfulness your lives would be a continued sermon; and you might thus preach home more souls to Christ, than the most excellent preacher by bare persuasions. Poor sinners would begin to pity themselves that live so far below the saints; and they would think with themselves, 'It is not for nothing that these men rejoice, and are comfortable even in the loss of all those things that we take all our comfort in!' For the honour of your dearest Lord, and for your own felicity, and for the sake of the miserable souls about you, I beseech you Christians do your best to reach this sweet and most joyful life, and to avoid those inordinate troubles and despondencies which are like to cross these blessed ends. And pray for me and the rest of his servants, that the Lord will forgive us our dishonouring his name, our wronging of our own souls, and our discouraging the world from living unto God, by our living so far below his mercies, and so unanswerable to the unspeakable treasures of his saints; and that for the time to come, we may lay this duty more to heart, and by the comforting Spirit may be elevated to the performance of it. But I suppose some will say, To tell me how I should live for the encouragement of others is but to draw me to an hypocritical affectation and counterfeiting of joy and courage; as long as I am unable inwardly to rejoice, and can see no sufficient cause of my rejoicing in myself.' Answ. 1. I shall by and by shew you that you have sufficient, yea, unspeakable cause of joy. 2. And now I shall only say that you are not to suspend and forbear your comfort, till you have full assurance of your own sincerity; your probabilities, and weakest faith, and hope, will warrant a more comfortable life than you can live. And it is not hypocrisy, but a necessary duty to do the outward actions that are here commanded us, though we cannot reach to that degree of inward comfort that we desire: for we do not hereby affirm ourselves to have the joy which we have not: (I am not persuading any man to lie :) but only we express as fully as we are able that little which we have. And a little indeed little of such a high and heavenly nature, grounded on the smallest hopes of everlasting life, will allow you in the expression of it, to transcend the greatest delights of the a very ungodly. And as we do perform the external part, both as a commanded duty, and as a means to further the inward rejoicing of the soul; so outward solemnity and feasting in the days of thanksgiving, are as well to further inward joy, as to express it. Even as mean attire, and fasting, and humblest prostrations before the Lord, on days of humiliation, are as much to further inward humiliation as to express it. The behaviour of the body hath an operative reflection on the mind, and therefore should be used not only for the discovery, but for the cure of the soul. If you cannot restrain your anger as you desire, it is no hypocrisy, but your duty to hide it, and to refrain from the sinful effects. And if you can but use yourselves some time to behave yourselves in your anger, as if you had no anger, in meekness of speech and quietness of deportment, anger itself will be the more quickly subdued, and in time will be the more easily kept out. If you cannot restrain your inordinate appetite to meat or drink, for quality or quantity; it is yet no hypocrisy, but your duty, to hold your hands, and shut your mouths, and refrain the things to which you have an appetite. And if you will but use yourselves a convenient time to forbear the thing, you will subdue the appetite. If the drunkard will forbear the drink, and the glutton his too much desired dish, and the sportful gamesters their needless and sinful recreations, they will find that the fire of sensuality will go out, for want of fuel. As the too wanton poet saith concerning wanton love, "Intrat amor mentes usu: dediscitur usu : Use kindleth it, and use quencheth it. He that can but live as a sound man, shall at last become a sound man. If you cannot overcome your inward pride as you desire, you must not therefore speak big, and look high, and swagger it out in bravery, and accompany with gallants, to avoid hypocrisy but you must speak humbly, and be clothed soberly, and accompany with the humble. And 1. This is the performance of one part of your duty. 2. And it is the expression of your desires to be more humble, and consequently of some humility contained in these desires. 3. And it is the way to work your hearts to that humility which you want, or the way in which you must wait on God for the receiving of it. So if you cannot overcome the love of the world as you desire, do not therefore forbear giving to the poor, for fear of hypocrisy ; but give the more, that you may perform so much of your duty as you can, and may the sooner overcome your worldly love. Some trees will be killed with often cropping. But if they will not, it is better that a poisonous plant should live only in the root, than sprout forth and be fruitful. Even so, if you cannot overcome your inward doubts, and fears, and sorrows, as you desire, yet let them not be fruitful, nor cause you to walk so dejectedly before the world, as to dishonour God and your holy profession. And if you have not the inward comfort you desire, express your desires, and the hopes and smallest comforts that you have to the best advantage for your Master's honour. And you will find that a holy cheerfulness of countenance, expression, and deportment, will at last much overcome your inordinate disquietments, and much promote the joys which you desire. But yet that you may see cause for the cheerfulness to which I now exhort you, I next add, 3. If thou have but one spark of saving grace, it is not possible for thee now to conceive or express the happiness of thy state, and the cause thou hast to live a thankful, joyous life. If thou have no grace, thou art not the person I am now speaking to. If thou have no grace, whence is it that thou so much desirest it? What is it that causeth thee to lament the want of it, and walk so heavily, but because thou art so much in doubt of it? If thou truly love it, thou hast it, (for it is only grace that causeth an unfeigned love of grace). And if thou love it not, why canst not thou more quietly be without it? Why dost thou make so much ado for it? But if thou have it in the least degree, and so art born again of the Spirit, thou hast with it an unspeakable degree of delights. The God of life and love is thine; the Lord Jesus Christ is thine; the Spirit is thine; the promises are thine; and heaven itself is thine in title, and shall be thine in full perpetual possession. The God that made and ruleth all things, is reconciled to thee, and is thy Father; having by grace in Christ adopted thee to be his Son; Rom. v. 1, 2. 10, 11. viii. 1. 16, 17. Gal. iv. 6. 2 Cor. vi. 18. The Son of God is become thy Head, and thou art become a member of his body, as "flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone (which no man ever yet hath hat ed); Ephes. v. 23. 27.29, 30. Thou art become the temple and residence of the Holy Ghost. Thy title to heaven is incomparably more sure than any man's human title to his possessions or inheritance on earth. And what rejoicing can be too great for a man in thy condition? O what a life should that man live! with what sweet delight should he be transported, that hath the Spirit of Christ now living in him, to prepare him, and seal him up for an endless life with Christ! He that shall be shortly so full of glory, should not be empty now, when he remembereth what he must shortly be. Doth it beseem him now to dwell in grief, and refuse consolation, that must in a few days be swallowed up with joy? If thou that sittest here in heaviness, wert assured that shortly thou shouldst be with Christ, and made a blessed companion of angels, and possessed of thy Master's joy, a joy that hath no bounds or ends, would not thy conscience then tell thee, that thou greatly wrongest such abundant mercy, in that thou art no more affected with it? and that thy want of joy doth express thy too much want of thankfulness. Dost thou sit there like a child of God, like an heir of heaven, and a co-heir with Christ? Rom. viii. 16, 17. Doth that sorrowful heart, and that dejected countenance become one that must live with Christ for ever, in such resplendent glory as thou must do ; and that hast but a few more days to live, till thou takest possession of these endless joys? The Lord pardon and heal our unbelief. Did faith more effectually play its part, as it is the evidence of things not seen, and withdraw the veil, and shew us, though but in a glass, the glory which we must see with open face, it would be wine to our hearts, and oil to our countenances, and make our poverty, sickness, and death, more comfortable than the wealth, and health, and life of the ungodly. I know you will say still, that you could rejoice if you were sure all this were yours; but when you rather think you have no part in it, it can be but small comfort to you. Answ. 1. But who is it long of that you have still such fears? Have you not in your souls that love to holiness, that desire after it, that hatred and weariness of sin, that love to the searching, discovering use of the word of God, that love to the brethren, which are the evidences of your title, and to which God hath plainly promised salvation? If then you have your title in the promise, and your evidences in |