to enjoy them. Men have done much this way for the love of their country, and by a principle of moral virtue; but to lose any delight, or to suffer any hardship for that highest end, the glory of God and by the strength of love to him, is far more excellent, and truly pleasant.

2. The delights and pleasures of sin, religion indeed banishes, but it is to change them for this joy that is unspeakably beyond them: it calls men from sordid and base delights to those that are pure de* lights indeed; it calls to men, Drink ye no longer of the puddle, here are the crystal streams of a living fountain. There is a delight in the very despising impure delights; as he said, How pleasant is it to want these pleasures? But for such a change, to have in their stead such delights, as in comparison the other deserve not that name; to have such spiritual joy as shall end in eternal joy, it is a won der we hasten not all to chuse this joy; but it is indeed because we believe it not.

3. It is true, the godly are subject to great dis tresses and afflictions; but their joy is not extinguished by those, no, nor diminished neither, but often sensibly increased. When they have least of the world's joy, they abound most in spiritual consolations, and then relish them best. They find them sweetest, when their taste is not depraved with earthly enjoyments, We rejoice in tribulation, says St. Paul; and here our Apostle insists on that, to verify the substance of this joy in the midst of the greatest afflictions.

4. Spiritual grief, that seems most opposite to this spiritual joy, excludeth it not, for there is a secret delight and sweetness in the tears of repentance, a balm in them that refreshes the soul, and even their saddest kind of mourning, viz. the dark times of desertion hath this in it, that is some way sweet, that those mournings after their beloved, who absents himself, are a mark of their love to him, and a true evidence of it, and then all these spiritual sor* Quam suave est istis suavitatibus carere? AUG.

rows, of what nature soever, are turned into spiritual joy; that is the proper end of them; they have a natural tendency, that way. 9-ef of tie

5. But the natural man still doubts of this joy we speak of; because he sees and hears so little of it from them that profess to have it, and seem to have best right to it. If we consider the wretchedness of this life, and especially the abundance of sin that is in the world, what wonder though this their joy retire much inward, and appear little abroad, where all things are so contrary to it, and so few are capable of it, to whom it were pertinent to vent it. Again, we see here, it is unspeakable; it were a poor thing if he that hath it could tell it all out... And when the soul hath most of it, then, it remains most within itself, and is so inwardly taken up with it, that possibly it can then least of all express it. It is with joys, as they say of cares and griefs, Leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent. The deepest waters run stil lest. True joy is a solid grave thing", dwells more in the heart than the countenance; whereas on the contrary, base and false joys are but superficial, skin-deep (as we say ;) they are all in the face.

Think not that it is with the godly, as the prophet says of the wicked, that there is no peace to them; and the Septuagint reads it, no joy. Certainly it is true; there is no true joy to the wicked: they may revel and make a noise, but they rejoice not; the laughter of the fool is as the crackling of thorns under the pot, a great noise but little heat, and soon at an end. There is no continuing feast, but that of a good conscience. Wickedness and real joy cannot dwell together, as the very moralist Seneca hath it often, and at large: but he that can say, The righteousness of Jesus Christ is mine, and in him the favour of God, and the hope of eternal happiness, hath such a light as can shine in the darkest dungeon, yea in the dark valley of the shadow of death itself.

1 Pauperis est numerare pecus.

m Res severa est verum gaudium. SEN.

Say not thou, if I betake myself to the way of godliness, I must bid farewell to gladness,. never a merry day more; no, on the contrary, never a truly joyful day till then, yea, no days at all, but night to the soul, till it entertain Jesus Christ, and his kingdom, which consists in those, righteousness; peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Thou dost not sacrifice Isaac, which signifies laughter (as St. Bern.) but a ram; not thy joy, but filthy sinful delights that end in sorrow.

4. Oh! seek to know in your experience what those joys mean, for all describing and commending them to you will not make you understand them, but taste, and see that the Lord is good: you cannot see and know this goodness, but by tasting it"; and having tasted it, all those poor joys you thought sweet before, will then be bitter and distasteful to you.

And you that have Christ yours by believing; know your happiness, and rejoice, and glory in it. Whatsoever is your outward condition, rejoice always, and again I say rejoice, for light is sown to the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

Ver. 10. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired, and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.

11. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when he testified before hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

12. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, which things the Angels desire to look into.

IT is the ignorance, or at least the inconsideration of divine things, that makes earthly things, whether n Lauda mellis dulcedinem quantum potes, qui non gustaverit, non intelliget. AUG. P Psal. xcvii. 11.

Philip. iv. 4.

good, or evil, appear great in our eyes: therefore the Apostle's great aim is, by representing the certainty and excellency of the belief and hope of christians to his afflicted brethren, to strengthen their minds against all discouragements and oppositions; that they may account nothing too hard to do or suffer, for so high a cause, and so happy an end. It is the low and mean thoughts, and the shallow persuasion we have of things that are spiritual, that is the cause of all our remissness and coldness in them. The doctrine of salvation, mentioned in the former verse, as the end of our christian faith, is illustrated in these words, from its antiquity, dignity, and infallible truth.

It is no modern invention; for the prophets enquired after it, and foretold it in former ages from the beginning. Thus the prejudice of novelty is removed, that usually meets the most ancient truth in its new discoveries.

Again, it is no mean thing that such men as were of unquestioned eminency in wisdom and holiness did so much study and search after; and having found it out, were careful not only to publish it in their own times, but to record it to posterity; and this not by the private motion of their own spirits, but by the acting and guidance of the Spirit of God, which likewise sets the truth of their testimony above all doubtfulness and uncertainty.

But taking those three verses entirely together, we have in them these three things, testifying how excellent the doctrine of the gospel is, 1. We have the principal author of it. 2. The matter of it. 3. The worth of those that are exercised about it, viz, the best of men, the prophets and apostles, in administering it, and the best of all the creatures, the angels, in admiring it.

I. The first author is the absolutely first, the Spirit of God in the prophets, in the apostles. But the Spirit of Christ there, is the same spirit that he sent down on his disciples after his ascending to

I v.

11.

r

* v. 12.

S v. 11.

glory, and which spoke in his prophets before his descending to the earth. It is the Spirit of Christ, proceeding jointly from him with the Father, as he is the Son of God, and dwelling most richly and fully in him as the Son of Man.

The Holy Ghost is in himself holiness, and the source and worker of holiness, and author of this holy doctrine that breathes nothing but holiness, and urges it most pressingly upon all that receive it.

This is the very life of divine faith, touching the mysteries of salvation, firmly to believe their Revelation by the Spirit of God. This the word itself testifies, as we see, and it is really manifest in it; it carries the lively stamp of divine inspiration, but there must be a spiritual eye to discern it. He that is blind knows not that the sun shines at noon, but by the report of others; but they that see, are assured they see it, and assured by no other thing, but by its own light. To ask one that is a true believer, How know you the scriptures to be divine? is the same as to ask him, How know you light to be light?

The soul is nothing but darkness and blindness within, till that same spirit that shines without in the word, shine likewise within it, and effectually make it light; but that once done, then is the word read with some measure of the same spirit by which it was written, and the soul is ascertained that it is di vine, as in bodily sight, there must be a meeting of inward light, viz. the visual spirits with the outward object.

The Spirit of God within, brings evidence with it, and makes it self-discernible in the word; this all arguments, all books and study cannot attain unto. It is given to believe.

No man knows the things of a man, but the spirit of man". But how holds that here? For if a man speak out the things that are in his spirit, then others may know them; but the Apostle's aim there is, to conclude that the things of God, even such

*Philip. i. 29.

"1 Cor. ii. 11.