Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

REJOICE evermore! O good Apoftle, how acceptable SERM rules doft thou prescribe! O bleffed God, how gracious XLIII. laws doft thou impofe! This is a rule, to which one would think all men fhould be forward to conform ; this is a law, which it may feem ftrange that any man should find in his heart to disobey: for what can any foul defire more than to be always on the merry pin, or to lead a life in continual alacrity? Who readily would not embrace a duty, the observance whereof is not only pleasant, but pleasure itself? Who is fo wild as to affect a fin, which hath nothing in it but disease and disguft?

That joy should be enjoined, that fadness should be prohibited, may it not be a plausible exception against such a precept, that it is fuperfluous and needlefs, feeing all the endeavours of men do aim at nothing else but to procure joy and efchew forrow; feeing all men do conspire in opinion with Solomon, that a man hath nothing better Eccl. vii. under the fun than-to be merry. Were it not rather expe- iii. 12, 22. dient to recommend fober fadness, or to reprefs the incli- v. 18, 26. nations of men to effuse mirth and jollity?

So it may feem; but yet, alas! if we confult experience, or obferve the world, we fhall find this precept very ill obeyed for do we not commonly fee people in heavy

15. ii. 24.

SERM. dumps? do we not often hear doleful complaints? is not XLIII. this world apparently a stage of continual trouble and Eccl. i. 14. grief? Did not the Preacher, upon a diligent survey of all

the works done under the fun, truly proclaim, Behold all is vanity and vexation of fpirit? Where, I pray, is any full or firm content? where is folid and durable joy to be found?

It is true that men, after a confused manner, are very eager in the queft, and earnest in the pursuit of joy; they rove through all the foreft of creatures, and beat every buth of Nature for it, hoping to catch it either in natural endowments and improvements of foul, or in the gifts of fortune, or in the acquifts of industry; in temporal poffeffions, in fenfual enjoyments, in ludicrous divertisements and amufements of fancy; in gratification of their appetites and paffions; they all hunt for it, though following a different scent, and running in various tracks; some in way of plodding for rare notions; fome in compaffing ambitious projects; fome in amaffing heaps of wealth; fome in practice of overreaching fubtilties; fome in wrecking their malice, their revenge, their envy; fome in venting frothy conceits, bitter fcoffs, or profane railleries; fome in jovial conversation and quaffing the full bowls; fome in mufic and dancing; fome in gallantry and courting; fome in all kinds of riotous excefs and wanton diffolutenefs; so each in his way doth inceffantly prog for joy; but all much in vain, or without any confiderable fuccefs; finding at moft, instead of it, fome faint fhadows, or tranfitory flashes of pleasure, the which, depending on caufes very contingent and mutable, refiding in a frail temper of fluid humours of body, confifting in flight touches upon the organs of fenfe, in frisks of the corporeal spirits, or in fumes and vapours twitching the imagination, do foon flag and expire; their fhort enjoyment being alfo tempered with regret, being eafily dashed by any cross accident, foon declining into a naufeous fatiety, and in the end degenerating into gall and bitter remorse; Prov. xiv. for, Even, as Solomon obferved, in laughter, the heart is forrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness; and,

13.

Though, as it is faid in Job, (ch. xx. ver. 12. 14. 20.) SER M. wickedness is fweet in the mouth-yet his meat in his bowels XLIII. is turned, it is the gall of afps within him: fo that indeed sunt quæthe ufual delights which men affect are fuch, that we dam triftes fhould not if we could, and we could not if we would, Sen. Ep.67. conftantly entertain them; fuch rejoicing evermore being ever equally unreasonable and impoffible.

[ocr errors]

voluptates.

Quaquaverfum fe ver

terit anima hominis, ad

dolores fi

præter

Wherefore there is ground more than enough, that we fhould be put to feek for a true, substantial, and confiftent gitur alibi, joy; it being withal implied, that we fhould effect it in quam in te. another way, or look for it in another box, than com- Aug Conf. monly men do; who therefore are fo generally disappointed, because they would have it upon impoffible or undue terms, and least expect it there, where it is only to be had.

It is a fcandalous mifprifion, vulgarly admitted, concerning religion, that it is altogether fullen and four, requiring a dull, lumpifh, morofe kind of life, barring all delight, all mirth, all good humour; whereas, on the contrary, it alone is the never-failing fource of true, pure, fteady joy; fuch as is deeply rooted in the heart, immoveably founded in the reason of things, permanent like the immortal spirit wherein it dwelleth, and like the eternal objects whereon it is fixed, which is not apt to fade or cloy; and is not fubject to any impreffions apt to corrupt or impair it whereas, in our text, and in many texts parallel to it, we fee, that our religion doth not only allow us, but even doth oblige us to be joyful, as much and often as can be, not permitting us to be fad for one minute, banishing the least fit of melancholy, charging us in all times, upon all occafions, to be cheerful; fuppofing, confequently, that it is in fome manner poffible to be fo, and affording power to effect what it doth require.

iv. 10.

Such indeed is the tranfcendent goodness of our God, that he maketh our delight to be our duty, and our forrow to be our fin, adapting his holy will to our principal inftinet; that he would have us to refemble himself, as in all other perfections, so in a constant state of happiness; that as he hath provided a glorious heaven of blifs for

SERM. us hereafter, so he would have us enjoy a comfortable paXLIII. radise of delight here. He accordingly hath ordered the whole frame of our religion in a tendency to produce joy

33. 13. 5.

xiii. 11.

in those who embrace it; for what is the Gofpel, but, as Luke ii. 10. the holy angel, the firft promulger of it, did report, good Rom. xv. tidings of great joy to all people? How doth God reprefent Eph. ii. 4.. himself therein, but as the God of love, of hope, of peace, of 2 Cor. i. 3. all confolation, cheerfully smiling in favour on us, graci1 Pet. v. 10. oufly inviting us to the most pleasant enjoyments, bountiJam. v. 11. fully difpenfing most comfortable bleffings of mercy, of grace, of falvation to us? for what doth our Lord call us Mat. xi. 28. to him, but that he may give us reft and refreshment to our Apoc. vii. fouls; that he may wipe away all tears from our eyes; 17. xxi. 4. that he may fave us from most woful despair, and settle Tit. ii. 13. us in a blessed hope; that we may enter into our Master's joy; that our joy may be full, and fuch as no man can take from us?

Matt. XXV.

21.

John xv.

11. xvi. 22,

24.

16.

What is the great overture of the Gospel, but the gift John xiv. of a moft bleffed Comforter, to abide with us for ever, cheering our hearts with his lightsome prefence and ravishing confolations? Wherein doth the kingdom of heaRom. xiv. ven confift? not in meat and drink, but in righteoufnefs, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. What are the prime fruits fprouting from that root of Christian life, the Divine Gal. v. 22. Spirit? they are, as St. Paul telleth us, love, joy, and peace. Are there not numberlefs declarations importing a joyful

17.

fatisfaction granted to the obfervers of God's commandPfal. xcvii, ments; that light is fown for the righteous, and gladness 11. cxviii. for the upright in heart? Doth not our Lord pronounce a 11.lxviii. 3. fpecial beatitude to the practifer of every virtue? And if

15. xxxii.

we scan all the doctrines, all the institutions, all the precepts, all the promises of Christianity, will not each appear pregnant with matter of joy, will not each yield great reason and strong obligation to this duty of rejoicing evermore?

Wherefore a Chriftian, as such, (according to the defign of his religion, and in proportion to his compliance with its dictates,) is the most jocund, blithe, and gay person in the world; always in humour and full of cheer; continu

ally bearing a mind well fatisfied, a light heart and calm SERM. spirit, a smooth brow and ferene countenance, a grateful XLIII. accent of speech, and a fweetly compofed tenor of carriage; no black thought, no irksome defire, no troublefome paffion fhould lodge in his breaft; any furrow, any frown, any cloud doth fit ill upon his face; the least fretful word or froward behaviour doth utterly misbecome him; if at any time it appear otherwife, it is a deflection from his character; it is a blemish and wrong to his profeffion; it argueth a prevarication in his judgment, or in his practice; he forgetteth that he is a Christian, or hath not preferved the innocence belonging to that name. For, if a Chriftian remembereth what he is, or is fenfible of his condition; if he reflecteth on the dignity of his person, the nobleness of his relations, the fublimity of his privileges, the greatness and certainty of his hopes, how can he be out of humour? Is it not abfurd for him that is at peace with Heaven, with his own confcience, with all the world; for the poffeffor of the best goods, and the heir of a blessed immortality; for the friend, the favourite, the son of God, to fret or wail?

He that is fettled in a moft profperous ftate, that is (if he pleaseth) fecure of its continuance, that is well affured of its improvement; that hath whatever good he can with in his reach, and more than he can conceive in fure reverfion; what account can be given that he should be fad, or feem afflicted?

11.

He that hath the inexhaustible spring of good for his portion; that hath his welfare entrusted in God's most faithful hand; that hath God's infallible word for his fupport; that hath free accefs to him, in whofe prefence is Pfal. xvi. fulness of joy; that hath frequent taftes of God's goodness, in gracious difpenfations of providence, in intercourses of devotion, in the influences of grace; that hath the infinite beauty and excellency for the perpetual object of his contemplation and affection; that enjoyeth the ferenity of a found mind, of a pure heart, of a quiet confcience, of a fure hope, what can he want to refresh or comfort him?

« ZurückWeiter »