Right Rejoicing, Application
AND now I am approaching to a closer Application, I hope I may suppose that I have removed the Objection that met me in the beginning, and that by this time you see, that I am not unseasonably suppressing your warrantable joy; but 1. preventing that which is unwarrantable, and 2. Shewing you the higher joys, which must animate these, or they will be but dead corrupted things; It is only the regulation and the Exaltation of your joyes that I am endeavouring: And for the first, my Text affordeth me so full instruction, that you may see this Observation meeting you in the first perusall of the words.
That when the Lord hath vouchsafed us matter of rejoycing in his wonders of Mercy, and our great successes, the best of us are too prone to take up a selfish carnal joy, and have need of Christs prohibition or Caution: [Rejoyce not in this.]
The soul is active, and will be doing: and there is nothing that it is more naurally inclined to, then delight. Something or other (which may be suitable to it, and sufficient to answer its desires) it fain would be rejoycing in. And the spiritual part of all our mercies is pure and refined, and too subtile for the discerning of our carnal minds, and therefore is invisible to the dark ungodly world: and also it is contrary to the interest of the flesh, & to the present bent of mans concupiscence; and therefore it is that spiritual mercies are not perceived, nor relished by the flesh, yea that they are refused (as food by a sick stomack) with enmity and loathing, as if they were judgements or plagues, and not mercies: And hence it is that a carnal mind doth as unwillingly accept of any mercies of this sort, as if it were some heavy service that made God almost beholden to him to accept them. But the Objects of sense, the matters of commodity, or honour, or sensuall pleasure, are such, as the worst of men are more eager after then any other: They are things that flesh it self doth favour, and can judge of, and is naturally (now) too much in love with. And therefore there being too much of this concupiscence yet within us, the best have need, as to be excited to the spiritual part of their rejoycing, so to be warned and called off from the carnal part. Our successes and our other common mercies, have all of them both a carnal and a spiritual part: somewhat that is suited to our bodies, and somewhat to our souls: And as we are all too prone to be sensible and regardfull of our bodily affairs and interests, and too insensible and neglectfull of the matters of our souls; so we can easily pick out so much of providences and mercies, as gratifie and accommodate our flesh; and there we would stop and know no more; as is if we had no spiritual part to mind, nor the mercy any spiritual part to be improved. To rejoyce in meer prosperity & success, may be done without grace, by pride, & sensuality, as easily as a drunkard can be mer…y with his cups, or any other sinner in his sin. Think it not needless then to hear this admonition, Take heed that you rejoyce not carnally in the carkass or outside only of your mercies: As such an outside-Religion consisting in the shell of duty, without God who is the life and kernell, is not Religion indeed, but an hypocriticall, self-deceiving shew; so you may turn a day of Thanksgiving into a day of fleshly mirth, more sinful then a Morrice-dance or May-game, because of the aggravation of conjunct hypocrisie, if you set not a faithfull guard upon your hearts.
For the rectifying therefore and elevating of your joyes, I am first to tell you, that there is matter of far greater joy before you, then all the successes or prosperity of the world; and if it be yours, it may be the matter of your present joy: and if it be not, yet being freely offered you, your acceptance may quickly make it such. Eternal joy and glory is at hand. The door is open: The promise is sure: The way made plain: The helps are many, and safe, and powerfull; You may have the conduct of Christ, and the company of thousands (though the smaller number) if you will go this way; There are passengers every day going on, and entring in; Many that were here the last year, are this year in heaven; yea many that were yesterday on earth, are in heaven to day. It is another kind of assembly and solemnity then this, that they are now beholding, and you may behold. One strain of their celestial melody, doth afford more ravishing sweetness and delight, then all that ever earth could yield. If a day in Gods courts here, be better then a thousand in common employments or delights, then sure a day in Heaven is better then ten thousand. That's the Court: and (except the Church which is a garden that hath some celestial plants, and is a seminary or nursery for heaven) this world's the dunghill. There all is spiritual, pure and perfect; the soul, the service and the joy: But here they are all so mixt with flesh, and therefore so imperfect and impure, that we are afraid of our very comforts, and are fain upon the review to sorrow over many of our joyes. We come now from cares and troubles to our feasts; and our wedding garments smell of the smoak; and a secret disquietness in the midst of our delights, doth tell us, that the root of our troubles doth remain, and that yet we are not where we should be, and that this is not our resting place. We lay by our cares and sorrows on these dayes, with our old clothes, to take them up again to morrow, and alas, they are our ordinary week dayes habit; and it were well if it were only so: But even in laughter the heart is sorrowfull; and in our sweetest joyes we feel such imperfections as threatneth a relapse into our former troubles. But the face of God admitteth no such imperfections in the joy of the beholders: There we shall have joy without either feeling or fear of sorrow; and praise without any mixtures of complaint. Our sweetest Love to the Lord of love with feel no bounds, and fear no end. O what unspeable delights will fill that soul that now walks mournfully, and feedeth upon complaints and tears! How the Glory of God will make that face to shine for ever, that now looks too dejectedly, and is darkened with griefs, and worn with fears, and daily wears a mourning visage! No trouble can enter into the heavenly Jerusalem: nor is there a mournfull countenance in the presence of our King! Self-troubling was the fruit of sin and weakness, of ignorance, mistakes and passion, and therefore is unknown in heaven, being pardoned and laid by with our flesh, among the rest of our childish weaknesses and diseases. That poor afflicted wounded soul, that breaths in trouble as its daily air, and thinks it is made up of grief and fear, shall be turned into love and joy, and be unspeakably higher in those heavenly delights, then ever it was low in sorrow. O blessed face of the most Glorious God! O happy presence of our glorified Head! O blessed beams of the eternal love, that will continually shine upon us! O blessed work! to behold, to love, to delight, and praise! O blessed company of holy Angels, and of perfect Saints, so perfectly united, so exactly suited to concord in those felicitating works! where all these are, what sorrow can there be? what relicts of distress, or smallest scars of our antient wounds! Had I but one such friend as the meanest Angel in heaven to converse with, how easily could I spare the courts of Princes, the popular concourse, the learned Academies, and all that the world accounteth pleasure, to live in the sweet and secret converse of such a friend! How delightfully should I hear him discourse of the ravishing love of God, of the Glory of his face, the person of our Redeemer, the continued union of the glorified humane nature with the Divine, and of the Head with all the glorified members, and his influences on his imperfect ones below! of the dignity, quality and work of Saints and Angels, and of the manner of their mutual converse? How gladly would I retire from the noise of laughter, the complements of Commick gallants, the clutter and vain-glory of a distracted world, or any the more manly inferiour delights, to walk with one such heavenly companion? O how the beams of his illuminated intellect, would promote my desired illumination? and the flames of his love to the most Glorious God would reach my heart; what life and heavenly sweetness there would be in all his speeches! that little of Heaven that I have perceived on some of the servants of the Lord, that are conversant above in a life of faith, doth make them more amiable, and their converse much more delectable to me, then all the feastings, musick or meriments in the world. O then, what a world of joy and glory will that be, where we shall not only converse with them that have seen the Lord, and are perfected in the beatifical vision and fruition, but also shall our selves everlastingly behold him, and enjoy him in perfection! That world all true believers see; They see it by faith in the holy glass which the spirit in the Apostles and Prophets hath set up; And they have the earnest and first fruits of it in themselves, even that spirit by which they are sealed hereunto; That world we are ready to take possession of; We are almost there; We are but taking our leave of the inhabitants and affairs of earth, and better putting on our heavenly robes, and we are presently there. A few nights more to stay on earth; a few words more to speak to the sons of men; a few more duties to perform, and a few more troublesom steps to pass, will be a small inconsiderable delay. This room will hold you now but an hour longer; and this world but a few hours more; But Heaven will be the dwelling place of Saints, to all eternity. These faces of flesh that we see to day, we shall see but a few times more, if any; But the face of God we shall see for ever. That glory no dismal times shall darken; That joy no sorrow shall interrupt; No sin shall forfeit, no enemy shall endanger or take from us; no changes shall ever dispossess us of. And should not a believer then rejoyce, that his name is written in Heaven? and that every providence wheels him on, and whether the way be fair or foul, its thither that he is travelling? O Sirs, if Heaven be better then Vanity and Vexation; if endless joy be better then the laughter of a child that ends in crying; and if God be better then a delusory world, you have then greater matters set before you, to be the matter of your joy, then prosperity and success, or any thing that flesh and blood delights in.
And this being so, I am next in faithfulness to your souls, obliged to call you to enquire, Whether the Rejoycing of this day, and the Rejoycing of your lives, do here begin? Is God the beginning and the end of all? O that the Lord would awaken you to perceive, in all your mirth, how nearly it concerneth you, to know first whether your names are written in heaven? and whether your cheifest joy be fetcht from thence.
Alas, Sirs, its a mhst pittifull sight, to see men frisk about in jollity, with the marks of death and wrath upon them! and to see men so phrantickly merry in their sin, as to forget the misery that will so quickly marre their mirth! and to see men live as quietly and pleasantly as if all were well with them, when they have taken no succesfull care, for their precious souls, nor made any considerable sure provision, for their endless life. Poor sinner! the Lord, who sent me on this message to thee knows, that I envy thee not thy mirth or pleasure, but only would have it better for thee, or have thee set thy mind on better. But let me so farre interrupt thee in thy mirth, as to ask thee, whether thou art sure of Heaven? or at least, whether thou hast given diligence to make it sure (2 Pet. 1. 10.) If this night thy soul be called away, canst thou truly say, that thou art an heir of life, and hast laid up thy treasure there before hand? If thou say, that thou hopest well, and no man can do more, and thus dost desperately cast thy everlasting life upon a careless venture, I must tell thee first that Assurance may be had: would God bid us Rejoice that our Names are written in Heaven, if it were a thing that could not by any means be known? would he bid us give diligence to make our calling and election sure, if it were a thing that could not by any diligence be attained? And I must add, that presumption is no sign of a safe condition: It shall not go well with you because you imagin it shall go well: A man in a Dropsie or Consumption will not live, by saying that he hopes he shall not die. Yea more, I must add, that a careless venturousness is a mark of misery: for a man that valueth God and his salvation, cannot put off a matter of such eternall consequence, so sleightly and disregardfully! And a fear and care about your salvation, would be a farre better signe. For the most part, they are safest that fear their danger: and they are in the saddest case that are never sad at the consideration of their case. It's not your bold and confident conceits, that will open Heaven to you; And therefore I beseech you presently look out for surer grounds of peace then these.
If you say, How can it be known to me, whether my Name be written in Heaven or not? I shall briefly, but satisfactorily answer it.
In generall, if thou know that thou art one that God hath promised Heaven to, thou maist know thy title, which is meant by the writing of thy name in Heaven; and thou maist know, that this promise shall be made good.
More particularly, 1. If thou hast had such an effectuall sight of the vanity of earth, and of the heavenly felicity, that Heaven hath the preheminence in thy practicall estimation, and choice, and thou hast resolved that Heaven or nothing shall be thy Happiness; and art so farre at a point with all things under the Sunne, as that thou art resolved to stick closer to Christ then unto them, and whatever it cost thee, to take the fruition of God for ever as thy portion; If upon consideration of the difference between Heaven and earth, God and the creatures, eternity and time, thou hast heartily devoted thy self to God, and art willing to be his servant upon the termes that he inviteth thee on, thou maist be assured that thy name is written in Heaven, Matth. 6. 19, 20, 21. & 16. 24, 25, 26. & 13. 45, 46. Luk. 18. 33.
But if earth be the place of thy highest estimation, and choice, where thou placest thy chief affections, and which thou adherest to more resolutely then to God, and which thou wilt not leave whatever thou lose by it, then as earth hath thy heart, so earth is thy treasure, and thy name is not written in Heaven, but in the dust.
2. If the obteining of Heaven be the principall part of thy care and business, the principall work which thou mindest in the world, its certain that thy name is written in Heaven. Col. 3. 1, 2, 3, 4. otherwise not.
3. If finding thy self lost and filthy in thy sin, thou see the necessity and sufficiency of Christ, and being desirous of his grace and righteousness, dost unfeignedly take him for thy Saviour and Lord, and give up thy self to be healed, and justified, and saved by him, as the only Physicion of souls, thou art then his member, and thy name is written in Heaven, Joh. 1. 12. & 3. 16, 18.
4. If the heavenly nature be most amiable in thy eyes, and the heavenly life be it that thou most desirest: If thou hadst rather be Holy then be unholy, and hadst rather perfectly obey the Lord, then live in sin; and longest to be better, and studiest to live in obedience to the Lord, thy name is in Heaven, and thither thou art passing, and it will be thy reward. But if thou love not Holiness, but hadst rather be excused from it, and live in thy sins, thou art as yet no heir of Heaven, Joh. 3. 19. & 12. 26. Psal. 1. & 119. 11.
5. If thy name be written in Heaven, thou hast a speciall love to the heirs of Heaven: and the more of Heaven thou findest in their hearts and lives, the more amiable they are unto thee, and the sweeter is their converse, 1 Joh. 3. 14. Psal. 15. 4.
I shall name no more: These Evidences are sure. By these you may know while you sit here in these seats, yea if you lay in the darkest dungeon, that you are the heirs of Heaven, and your names are there.
But where there is no such work, no high estimation of Heaven and resolution for it, no mortification or conquest of the world, no prevalent care and diligence for Heaven, no resignation of the soul to Christ, that by faith and holiness we might follow him to that glory, no love to holiness, and no delight in the heirs of Heaven, such persons are yet aliens to the heavenly nature and inheritance, and cannot rejoice that their names are written in Heaven.
And now I have set the glass before you, I earnestly intreat you, that you will here seriously view the complexion of your souls. It more neerly concerneth you to know whether your names are written in Heaven, and where it is that you must dwell for ever, than to know how to manage your trades and business, or to know whether you shall stirre from this place alive, or ever see another day. O sirs take heed of living in self-deceit, till your trying and recovering time is past. This is it that your enemy aims at: he will do all that malice and subtilty can do, to keep such matters from your sober thoughts, or to make you groundlesly presume that you are safe, or securely to cast your souls upon a desperate venture, under pretence of trusting in Christ; till he hath you where he would have you; and then he will himself take off the veil, and let you know that you had time and light to have acquainted you with your disease and misery, while you might have had a free, and sure, and full remedy. Then you shall know that it was long of your self-deceit if you would not understand and beleeve in time, that if you lived after the flesh you should die] Rom. 8. 13. and [that it is the pure in heart that shall see God, Matth. 5. 8. [Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6. 9, 10. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God: Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience, Ephes. 5. 5, 6.] And can any thing justifie the Rejoicing of men, in so sad a state?
Give me leave therefore to make a little closer application, of the severall parts of my Text, to the severall sorts of persons whom they do concern. And first to all that yet are not become the heirs of Heaven: Rejoice not though Devils were subject to you, till your souls are subject to him that bought them: Rejoice not though you had conquered all the world, and had your wills of all your adversaries, as long as you are conquered by your fleshly lusts, and Satan leads you captive at his will, 2 Tim. 2. 25, 26. Rejoice not though you had all the riches of the earth, as long as you are void of the riches of grace, and have nothing to do with the riches of glory. Rejoice not though all men should honour you, and bow to you, and proclaim your fame, as long as you are the drudges of the Devill and the flesh, and the God of Heaven proclaimeth you his enemies, and resolveth on your destruction, if you do not soundly and seasonably repent, Luk. 19. 27. & 13. 3, 5.
Be not offended with me, that on a day of Thanksgiving I thus farre forbid you to rejoyce; For, it is not you that are qualified for it, or have any part or fellowship in this business, being in the gall of bitterness and bonds of your iniquity, your hearts being not right in the sight of God. Though the invitation be generall, it supposeth that you come prepared: and therefore even he that calls men to his joyes, will find out him that hath not on the wedding garment, and will bind him and cast him into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matth. 22. 12, 13.] 1. Alas Sirs, if God would allow you to Rejoyce, how willingly could I allow it you? But hear whether he approve it, Jam. 5. 1, 2, 3. Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming on you: your riches are corrupted, and your garments motheaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire: yee have heaped treasure together for the last dayes.] Luk. 6. 24, 25, 26. Woe unto you that are rich (if you have no better riches;) for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger: Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep: Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, &c.] You may find your lesson, Joel 2. 12, 13. Thus saith the Lord; Turn ye, even to me, with all your hearts, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rent your hearts. You see what God calls such men to. And if he allow you not to rejoyce till you are Converted, if I or any man should flatter or cheat you into joy, it would be but a curse to you, and not a benefit.
2. Were your Joy but Reasonable I would not discourage it. But a mad mans laughter is no very lovely spectacle to your selves. And I appeal to all the Reason in the world, whether it be Reasonable for a man to live in Mirth, that is yet unregenerate, and under the curse and wrath of God, and can never say, in the midst of his greatest pomp or pleasure, that he is sure to be an hour out of hell; and may be sure he shall be there for ever, if he die before he have a new, a holy and a heavenly nature; though he should die with laughter in his face, or with a jest in his mouth, or in the boldest presumption that he shall be saved, yet as sure as the word of God is true, he will find himself everlastingly undone, as soon as ever his soul is departed from his body, and he sees the things that he would not believe. Sirs, Is it rationall to dance in Satans fetters, at the brink of hell, when so many hundred diseases are all ready, to marre the mirth, and snatch away the guilty soul, and cast it into endless desparation? I exceedingly pitty the godly in their unwarrantable melancholly griefs; and much more an ungodly man that's bleeding under his wounds of conscience: But a man that is merry in the depth of misery, is more to be pittied then he. Me thinks it is one of the most pittifull sights in all the world, to see a man ruffle it out in bravery, and spend his precious time in pleasures, and melt into sensuall foolish mirth, that is a stranger to God, and within a step of endless woe! When I see their pomp, and feasting, and attendance, and hear their laughter, and insipid jests, and the fidlers at their doors or tables, and all things carried as if they had made sure of Heaven, it sadneth my heart to think, Alas how little do these sinners know the state that they are in, the God that now beholdeth them, the change that they are neer! How little do they think of the flames that they are hasting to, and the outcries and lamentations that will next ensue.
3. Your Mirth is disingenuous and dishonest, as long as you are without a title to Heaven: You slight the Lord, that can find such matters of rejoicing, when you have not his favour to rejoice in, and are under his displeasure! while you are refusing Christ, abusing grace, resisting the spirit, serving the flesh, and undoing your own souls, it cannot be an honest or ingenuous thing for such as you to live in joy.
4. If your mirth were truly Honourable to you, it were the more excusable. But to laugh in sin and misery, and make merry so neer your endless woe, is a greater shame to your understandings, then to make sport to set your house on fire: This is the laughter of which Solomon might well say, Thou art mad, and the mirth of which he saith, what doth it? Eccl. 2. 2.
5. Would thy mirth do thee any good we would not discourage it; yea if it did not do thee harm. But O how many are now in sorrow, by the means of their unseasonable sinfull mirth? They are too jocund to hear the Preacher, or their consciences, or to observe the checks and motions of Gods Spirit: or to spend now and then an hour in retired sober thoughts of their everlasting state. Should we but presume to call them to exercise their reason, and mind them of these most needfull things, and tell them, O poor distracted mortals, your time is given you for greater things, then to fiddle, and dance, and drink, and jeast, and praie, and complement it away! Should we not be thought morose, or melancholly, or fanaticks; and should we not have some such answer as their ancestors in Sodome gave to Lot? Gen. 19. 9. [stand back: this one fellow came in to sojourn, and and he will needs be a judg: we will deal worse with thee then with them,] wee'l take a course with these controllers. Alas, it is this foolish mirth, that casteth mens reason and consciences asleep, and drowns the voice of sober words, so that God himself cannot be heard. Could we but get men to retired soberness and seriousness, we should hope that we might find a friend within them, and that we speak to men, and that reason would take part with the most reasonable motions that are made to them from the Lord.
6. Lastly, Would your groundless mirth endure, we would not say so much against it. But, alas, to be merry for a day, and then to lie in misery for ever, is a thing deserving no encouragement. We see its a merry world with many that have least cause of mirth: but how long will they continue it? To see a man laugh, and play, and feast in a chariot that drives on so fast to death; in a vessell that is in so swift a stream that ends in the gulf of endless horrour, is a dolefull sight. O how quickly will that merry countenance turn sad; those proud looks be turned to an earthly paleness; and those wanton eyes be mouldered to dust, and leave the empty holes, to warn the next spectators to use his eyes more wisely while he hath them? How quickly will these same sensuall persons, exchange their mirth for sighs and groans, and endless torments, and fruitless lamentations, when they shall have everlasting leisure to peruse their lives, and to consider of their ways, which now there is no perswading them to consider of? Who can encourage such hurtfull and unseasonable mirth as this? Hos. 9. 1. Rejoice not O Israel for joy, as other people, for thou host gone a whoring from thy God.] Rejoice not in a thing of nought, Amos 6. 13. Much less in the sufferings of your bretheren; see Obad. 12. and least of all in any hurt that befalls the Church. If enmity to holiness, and exalted impiety should take occasion to triumph; we answer as Mich. 7. 8, 9. Rejoice not against me O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise: when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me: I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, untill he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
If you think I have stood too long on the first part of my Text, it is not to rebuke your holy joy, but only to promote it, and repress that carnall joy, which is more destructive to it, then sorrow it self. As you must [seek first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness, and then other things shall be added to you,] (Matth. 6. 33.) so must you rejoyce first in the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Righteousness that is the way thereto, and then you may add a moderate rejoicing in the things below, in a due subordination thereunto. You have the summe in the words of the Holy ghost, Jer. 9. 23, 24. [Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdome, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, &c.]
2. My next address must be to them, whose names are written in Heaven, and that with a twofold Exhortation.
1. Rejoice that your names are written in Heaven. Its you, Christians, that joy of right belongs to. Little know the lovers of pleasure, more than God, that they lose a thousand fold more pleasure than they win: and that by running from a holy life for pleasure, they run from the fire into the water for heat, and from the Sun into a dungeon for light. O shew the unbelieving world by your rejoicing, how they are mistaken in their choice. Be ashamed that an empty sott, and one that must be for ever a firebrand in hell, should live a more joyfull life than you! O do not so wrong your Lord, your faith, your endless joys, as to walk in heaviness, and cast away the joy of the Lord which is your strength, and to be still complaining, when those that are prepared for the slaughter, are as frolick as if the bitterness of death were past. It's well that you have so much life, as to feel your sicknesses: but it is not well, that because you are yet diseased, the life of grace and of glory should be so uneffectuall to your comfort. And yet alas, how common is it, to see the most miserable frisk and fleere, while the heirs of life are sinfully vexing themselves with the inordinate fears of death! Lift up thy head Christian and remember, whence came thy graces, even thy least desires, and whither do they tend! Where is thy Father, and thy Head, and the most of thy dear companions? where is it that thou must live to all eternity? Doth it beseem a companion of Angels, a member of Christ, a child of God, an heir of Heaven, to be grieved at every petty cross, and to lay by all the sense of their felicity, because some trifle of the world falls cross to their desires and commodity? Is it seemly for one, that must be everlastingly as full of joy, as the Sun is full of light, to live in such a self-troubling, drooping state, as to disgrace Religion, and frighten away the ungodly from the doors of grace, that by your joyfull lives might be provokt to enter? I know as to your happinesse the matter is not comparatively great; because if mistakes and the Devils malice, should keep you sad here a hundred years, yet Heaven will wipe away all tears, and those joys will be long enough when they come: and as the joy of the ungodly, so the sorrows of the humble upright soul, will be but for a moment. And though you weep and lament when the world rejoyceth, as their joy shall be turned into sorrow, so your sorrow shall be turned into joy, and your joy shall no man take from you. But in the mean time, is it not shame and pity, that you should live so unanswerable to the mercies of the Lord? that you should sinfully grieve the comforting spirit, by the wilfull grieving of your selves; and that you should peevishly cast away your precious mercies, when you so much need them, by reason of the troubles of a vexations world, which you cannot avoid? that you, even you that are saved by the Lord, should still be questioning it, or unthankfully denying his great salvation, and so much hinder the salvation of others? For the Lords sake Christians, and for your souls sake, and in pity to the ungodly, yeeld not to the tempter, that would trouble you, when he cannot damne you? Is God your Father, and Christ your Saviour, and the Spirit your sanctifier, and Heaven your home? and will you make all (for the present) as nothing to you, by a causless obstinate deniall? If you are in doubt, let not meer passionate fears be heard; and let not the Devill, the enemy of your peace be heard: but peruse your evidences, and still remember as the summe of all, that the will is the man; and what you would be, that you are, before the Lord. If you cannot see the sincerity of your hearts, go to your faithfull able guides, and open the case to them, and let not passion prevail against the Scripture and Reason which they bring. Yea if in your trouble you cannot by all their helps, perceive the uprightness of your hearts, I must tell you, you may stay your selves much upon their judgment of your state. Though it cannot give you full assurance it may justly help to silence much of your self-accusations, and give you the comfort of probability. If a Physician, that feels not what you feel, shall yet upon your speeches, and other evidences, tell you that he is confident your disease is not mortall, nor conteineth any cause of fear, you may rationally be much encouraged by his judgement, though it give you no certainty of life. As wicked men through contempt, so many godly people through melancholy, do lose much of the fruit of the office of the Ministry: which lieth much in this assisting men, to judg of the life or death of their souls. Alas, say they, he feels not what I feel: he is used to judg charitably, and he knoweth not me so well as I know my self. But when you have told him faithfully (as you do your Physician) what it is that you know by your self, he is able to pass a farre sounder judgment of your life, or death, then your selves can do, for all your feeling. For he knows better what those symptoms signifie, and what is used to be the issue of such a case as yours. Be not then so proud or wilfull, as to refuse the judgment of your faithfull Pastors, about the state of your souls, in a confidence on your own.
And look not for more, as necessary to your comforts, then God hath made necessary. Is it nothing to have a Title to eternall life, unless you be also as holy as you desire? Yea is it nothing to have a desire to be more holy? Will you have no comfort, as long as you have distractions or dullness, or such like imperfections in duty? And till you have no disease of soul to trouble you, that is, till you have laid by flesh, and arrived at your perfect joy? Dare not to disobey the voice of God: Psal. 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous; and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. 1 Thess. 5. 16. Rejoice evermore. Let it be something that Heaven cannot weigh down, that shall suppress thy joy? Art thou in poverty? and is not Heaven sufficient riches? Art thou in disgrace? and shalt thou not have honour enough in Heaven? Art thou in danger from the injustice or the wrath of man? and is he not Almighty that hath undertaken to justifie thee? Rom. 8. 33, 34. Dost thou languish under pining sicknesses? and is there not everlasting health in Heaven? Art thou weak in knowledg, in memory, in grace, in duty? troubled with uncommanded thoughts and passions? and was it not so on earth with all that are now in Heaven? O Christians make conscience of obeying this command: Rejoice that your names are written in Heaven. Did you but know how God approveth such rejoicing, and how much it pleaseth him above your pining sorrows; and how it strengtheneth the soul, and sweetneth duty, and easeth suffering, and honoureth Religion, and encourageth others, and how suitable it is to Gospell grace, and to your high relations and ends, and how much better it serves to subdue the very sins that trouble you, than your fruitless self-weakning complainings do; I say, did you well consider all these things, it would sure revive your drooping spirits.
And do not say now, [I would rejoice if I were sure that my name were written in Heaven: but I am not sure.] For 1. Who is it long of, that you are not sure? you may be sure that he hath valueth and seeketh Heaven as better then earth, and that loveth the holy way to Heaven, and the most heavenly people, is indeed an heir of Heaven; and you may be sure, if you will, that this is your own case: and yet you say, you are not sure that your names are written in Heaven. If God give you his grace and you deny it, will you therefore deny your right to glory, and make one sin the excuse for another?
2. And if you are not sure, is it nothing to have your probabilities, and hopes, and the judgment of your able faithfull Pastors, that your souls are in a safe condition? We dare not say so to the careless world, nor to the most of men, as we do to you.
Especially take heed lest melancholy habituate you to fears and griefs; and then Religion must bear the blame, and you undergo a calamitous life, though you are the heirs of Heaven. To this end 1. Use not musing serious thoughts beyond the strength of your brain and intellect. 2. Place not too much of your Religion in the perusals and study of your hearts: but (for such as are inclined to melancholy) it is the fruitfullest way, to be much in expending duties abroad, and labouring to do good to others: such duties have less of self, and as much of God, and divert the troubling melancholly thoughts, and bring in more comfort by way of reward, then is usually got by more direct enquiring after comfort. 3. Use not too much solitariness and retiredness: man is a sociable creature: and as his duty lyeth much with others, so his comfort lyeth in the same way as his duty. 4. Take heed of worldly sorrows: and therefore of overvaluing worldly things. 5. Take heed of idleness, or of thinking that the duty of holiness are all that you have to mind: but make conscience of being diligent in a particular calling: which diverts the hurtfull troubling thoughts, and is pleasing unto God. 6. Take not every sickness of your souls for death: but rejoyce in that life which enableth you to be troubled at your diseases. Keep under melancholy by these meanes (and the advice of the Physician) and you will escape a very great hinderance to this high and holy duty of heavenly rejoycing.
2. But you think perhaps that I have all this while forgotten the duty proper to the day. No: but I was not fit to speak for it, nor you fit to hear and practise it, till the impediment of carnall rejoycing was removed, and till we had begun with heavenly joy. It is Heaven that must animate all our comforts. They are so far sweet as Heaven is in them, and no further. Now therefore if you first rejoyce for your heavenly interest, I dare safely then perswade you, to rejoyce in the mercies which we are, to be thankfull for this day. And though some of them are but yet in the birth, if not in the womb, and we are yet uncertain what they'le prove, that will not excuse us for any unthankfullness; for the first conception or infancy of our mercies. And though Satan seek to get advantage by them, that will not excuse us for our overlooking the merciemercy in it self. And though there are yet abundance of fears and troubles, on the hearts of many of Christs servants through the Land, we cannot by any such accidents be excused, from the thankfull observation of the workings of the Lord. All mercies on earth even spirituall mercies, have their mixtures of trouble and their imperfections: but must not therefore be denied or extenuated. And though many that are dear to us, smarting by the change, will be offended and grieved at our most moderate thanksgiving; we must not therefore offend the Lord, by our disregardfullness of his works.
There are these things to be commemorated by us this day, which I dare not overlook. 1. That God hath so honoured his justice and impartiality, as to shew how he hateth sin in whomsoever. And indeed the justice of God it self would seem more amiable to us, were we not so selfish, as to think hardly of all thats hurtfull unto us. Justice demonstrateth the holinesse of God, and all the appearances of his holinesse are lovely in themselves.
2. That the holy God hath disowned heresie and divisions on the one side, as well as impiety and prophaneness on the other: and that his wisdome thought meet, to acquaint us experimentally with the hurtfullnesse of both, and our danger of both, as he did in former ages of the Church. We first found the serpentine malice of the ungodly, and God delivered us, when they would have swallowed us up. But while we only heard and read of heresie and schisme, and that too often abusively applyed, to many of the most peaceable servants of the Lord, we understood not the mischiefe of those evills; but were ready to take the very names, to be but the reproaches of piety it self. But God saw meet to let out a flood of this sort of calamities, and to suffer heresie to disgrace it self by its unrighteous fruits, that by those fruits we might the better know it. We never knew before how much we are beholding to him, for saving us from this sort of evils; and should never have sufficiently hated them, if we had not smarted by them.
3. It is a mercy to be thankfull for, that thus the Church is notably fortified, against ever relapsing into heresie or schisme for the time to come.
4. And that the frailties of men professing godliness, having so lamentably appeared, they are taught to take heed of spirituall pride, and to know and distrust themselves, and not to be high-minded, but to fear.
5. It is a very great mercy, for which I must profess I was thankfull from the first appearance of it;We kept this Thanksgiving voluntarily in Worcestershire, by Agreement among the Associated Ministers, as we do here this day. See the Agreement published by the weekly Mercury. that so many that I hope are dear to God, have the advantage of his frowns to further their conviction, and repentance, and salvation. As prosperity was the temptation, by which ambition got advantage, and providence mis-understood was pleaded, against the holy rule: what a mercy is it that providence also should undeceive them, and vindicate it self, and teach men hereafter by the example of this age, to stay till the end, before they take the sense of providence, or rather to adhere to the holy word, because the longest liver shall be too short-lived to see the end, so far as to furnish him for such an interpretation? And therefore that word that is the glass in which we can foresee the end, must be our guide. I had rather have my friend poor and penitent, than wealthy and impenitent; and rather in a prison, than in the chains of pride: and am glad that God hath taken away the snare that brought so many souls to so sad a pass; and hath undeceived them in part, that had carnall thoughts of the happiness of Saints, and lookt for temporall reign and dignity; forgetting that rich men must pass through a needles eye to Heaven, and that lowliness, meekness, humility, patience, forbearing, forgiving, self-denial, contempt of this world, and living all upon things unseen, is the life that Christ by his doctrine and example taught us, and how ill prosperity befriendeth these. I am in far more hope to see many Peters go out and weep bitterly, then I was when they prospered in a sinfull way. And if yet any be so far unhumbled, as to deny it to have been a sinfull way, I am in far greater hope of their conviction now, then heretofore. In their greatness few durst tell them of their crimes: and those of us that did it, were voluminously reproached, threatned, calumniated, and represented as turbulent to the world: (it being usuall with base spirited men, to take the judgement of the greatest for their rule, and to think all suffering to be just and dishonourable, that is inflicted by such as few dare contradict.) But now I hope plain dealing may recover many that before lived under flatteries, and were above reproof. I must profess that my hopes of the saving of many that are dear to me, by the furtherance of this providence, is matter of so much thankfulness to me, that were I sure to suffer with them, I would yet give thanks.
6. It is matter of thanksgiving to me, that God hath so far owned an unanimous, painfull, faithfull Ministry, (for all their many sad infirmities,) as first to break the profane opposers of them, and then to scatter the adversaries on the other side. Ever since I heard it so familiar among them, to call Christs faithfullest servants by so many reproachfull names, as Priests (in scorn) Pres-biters, Drivines, Jack-Presbyters, Blackcoats, Pulpeteers, &c. and theirs friends, Priest-ridden; to suffer Quakers openly in the streets to revile them as Deceivers, Doggs, Wolves, Hirelings, false-Prophets, Lyars, and all the names that hell could teach them, I waited in fear for the Judgments of the Lord; which he hath executed in our sight, and caused us to know, that his delayes are no desertions of his servants, nor justification of our revilers. And let it stand as a warning to you that have seen it, and you that have executed the punishments of God, upon the reproachers, that you take heed of falling into the same crime, and dashing on the rock on which they have been broken; but let all England hear and fear, and do no more so malignantly or presumptuously.
And O that we the unworthy Ministers of Christ may remember, that we are not vindicated and delivered to contend, or to imitate our afflicters, in seeking greatness to our selves, not to live in idleness, and neglect the souls committed to our care.
7. It is very great cause of Thankfullness in my eyes, that from first to last God hath been so tender of the honour of his unanimous sober people, and his cause, and of the innocency and consciences of his servants; as to execute his afflictions mostly by the hands of erring men; and to keep the rest by imprisonments, seclusions, and other means, so farre from all appearance of consent, to irregularities: and that at last he hath put an opportunity into their hands, to declare to the world, their innocency in the things, with which they were reproached: and that while prophane opposers of Religion, did boast and vapour, and swear, and curse, and drink healths for his Majesties restitution, it is those whom they reproached, that have silently and effectually accomplisht it, and that with speed, as soon as they had power.
8. It is some matter of Thankfullness to me, that whereas to our perpetuall shame, we could not in so many years compose the disagreements in Church affairs among us, we are not altogether without hope, that agreement may be now more effectually procured; not only because that carnall advantages, that hindred it with some, are taken from them, and suffering will dispose some more to peace; but because we are perswaded the disposition, and we are sure the interest of his Majesty standeth, for our re-conciliation and unity. And verily we are the most inexcusable people in the world, if our own long and sad experiences do not resolve us to do the utmost in that work our selves, which if we are not horridly proud and wilfull, in easie to accomplish.
9. And its matter of Thanksgiving, that God hath been all along so wonderfully seen in the work; which makes us hope, that the issue will yet be for our good. The first sparks that set fire on the last foundation, are yet much unknown, but were so little as makes it the more strange. The wonderfull whirlwind that suddenly finished the subversion, was marvellous, though sad, because of the wickedness of men. The introducing of the remnant of the Members; the stop that was given them, when they had voted in a Committee, a liberty in Religion, that excepted not Popery: the casting of them out, by those that set them up; the discoveries of the fallaciousness of some of their chiefs, that then were tempted into a compliance with the Army, and were fabricating a new form of a Commonwealth: the breaking of them and of the Army, in part by the returning Members: the unexpected stop that was given first to their proceedings by his excellency in the North: the expeditiousness, the constancy, the unanimity and strange successfullness of that attempt, that an Army that thought themselves only fit to be the Nations security for liberty and Religion, and were thought necessary to be entailed upon us to that end; that were so heightned in their own and other mens esteem, by their many and wonderfull successes, should in a moment (we scarce know how) fly all into pieces, as a Granado that's fired. The Ireland at the same time should be so strangely and easily reduced, and that by sober faithfull hands, and by so few, and with such speed! That this famous City should be so unanimously excited to concurre so eminently, and contribute so very much to the success: that his Excellency should conquer without any blows; and all be dispatched that since is done, with no considerable resistance; all this and much more, do make us wonder at the hand of God. And seldom is there so wonderfull an appearance of the Lord, but it holds forth matter that's amiable as well as admirable to his Church.
Lastly, That all this is done with little or no effusion at all of blood, when so much blood was shed in the foregoing changes, advanceth the wonder to a greater height. And I hope his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament will take notice, how God hath gone before them in a tender and unbloody change, and will not hearken to them that protest against revenge, while they would use it under the name of justice. When the wheel of providence turneth so fast, if all that have the advantage of executing their wils under the name of justice, should take their advantage, you know what names and sufferings multitudes of the usefullest Members in such Nations, in the severall vicissitudes must incurr, to the detriment of the Commonwealth and Governours.
3. You see what cause we have of thankfulness: but I must tell you that this (as all inferiour mercies) are imperfect things, and being but meanes to greater matters, (the heavenly interest first treated on) they are no further significant or valuable, then they have some tendency to their end. And I must further tell you, that it's much committed into the hands of man, (under God) whether such beginnings shall have a happy or unhappy end. If Christ become to many a stumbling stone, and be set for the fall of many in Israel, (Luk. 2. 34.) and if the Gospel it self prove the savour of death to some, no wonder if it be yet possible and too easie, for a sinfull Land, to turn these forementioned mercies and successes, into most heavy judgements, and to rob themselves of all the honour and the benefit. And therefore above all, for the Lords sake, and for a poor tired yet hoping Nations sake, and for the sake of the cause of Christ through the world, I beseech you, all from the highest to the lowest, that you will be awakened to an holy vigilancy, and look about you in your severall places, lest the enemy of Christ and you, should play his after-game more successfully then now you can foresee: and lest the return of a sinfull Nation to their vomit, should make the end yet worse than the beginning. It is not enough to have begun: the fruit of all is yet behind. I must here deal plainly with you, however it be taken, lest I be charged with unfaithfulness, at the dreadfull Tribunal to which both you and I are hastening. If these beginnings, through your neglects, or any others that have been the instruments, should now be turned to the reviveing and strengthening of prophaneness, and malignity against the holy wayes of God; to the introduction of meer formality in Religion; to the casting out, or weakening the hands of the faithfull Ministers in the Land; to the destruction of order and Discipline in the Churches, to the suppression of orderly and edifying meetings for mutuall assistance in the matters of salvation; or to the cherishing of ignorance or Popery in the people; it will blast the glory of all that you have done, and turn the mercy into gall. Believe it, the interest of Christ and holiness, will be found at last the surest ground, for any Prince to build his interest upon: And the owning of corrupt and contrary interests, that engage men in quarrels with the interest of Christ, is it that hath undone so many Princes and States already, that it should make the greatest learn at last, to account it their highest honour to be the servants of the King of Saints, and to devote their power to the accomplishment of his will. I need not tell you, that it's the sober, godly, conscionable sort of men, that know what they do, and why, that will be the honour of their Governours, and the usefullest of their subjects, and not the barbarous malignant rabble, that understand not what belongs to the pleasing of God, the happiness of themselves, the good of the Commonwealth, or the honour of their King. And do you not think that remisness (to say no worse) of Magistrates that should restrain the insolencies of such, is not a great dishonour to our Nation, and a great temptation to many in the Countrey, that stand at a distance from the fountain of affairs, to continue their fears lest we have changed for the worse? Put your selves in their cases, and tell me whether you could with equall cheerfullness keep this day, if you were used as many able, faithfull Ministers and people are in the Cities and Countreys of the Land, who have their persons assaulted, their windows battered, their ministrations openly reviled, and that go in danger of their lives, from the bruitish rabble that were formerly exasperated by the Magistrates punishing them, or the Ministers reproof, or crossing them in their sins. As Physicions are judged of, not so much by the excellency of their remedies, as by their success, and the people think of them as they see the patients live or die; so will they do by your great-performances which you mention before the Lord this day. Should they prove to the suppression of serious godliness, and the setting up of the wicked of the Land, I need not tell you what a name it will leave unto the actors to all generations. But if you vigilantly improve them (as you have given us abundant reason to expect,) and the issue shall be the healing concord of the Churches, the curbing of profaneness, the promoting of a plain and serious Ministry, and of the diligent service of the Lord; this is it that will make your Names immortall that have been the happy instruments of so blessed a work! How joyfully then will the subjects commemorate, the happy introduction of their Soveraign? With what love and honour will they hear his Name? How readily will they obey him? How heartily will they pray for him? How precious will your memory be? and this will be numbered among the wonderfull deliverances of England. If Godliness be persecuted or made a common scorn in the Land, the holy God will vindicate his honour, and make their Names a scorn and curse that shall procure it. But if you exalt him, he will exalt you: Protect his Lambs and he will be your Protector. He is with you while you are with him, 2 Chron. 15. 2. Those that honour him he will honour; and those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed, 1 Sam. 2. 30.
FINIS.
End of the text · Richard Baxter, Right Rejoicing (1660)