the joy of the just with the signs of such. A discourse tending to…the ioy of the iust vvith the signes of such. A discourse tending to…

Secondly,¹ to incite all those that have attained to this estate, to joy in it: and not to suffer outward losses, worldly crosses, calamities or the like, to deprive & bereave them of that alacrity and cheerfulness that their estate may well afford them; and that the holy Ghost, as we heard before, doth so oft require of them, even so^a oft, as no one thing almost more. True it is indeed, that it is a very hard and a difficult thing, especially amidst the manifold miseries of this our present^b Pilgrimage, and the ^cevil days that here we pass rather than live, and the rather also having so much of that^d dull metal, that^e muddy mould of the old Adam remaining still in the most of us, for Christian men to rejoice so as they ought, and as they have just cause to do. It is a point that is far more easily preached than practised. Yet this should we every one of us strive and strain our selves unto; and to this purpose^f Give, as the Apostle adviseth, all diligent endeavour to get assurance to our selves of our election and of our calling and conversion unto God; since that ^gupon our notice and apprehension of it, doth this our joyful and comfortable estate for the present depend; and for want of it, many that have much cause of joy and comfort, were they but aware of it, live oft times a very heavy and uncomfortable life; and so are, through their own ignorance and default, many times most ⟨p. 26⟩miserable, when yet they are indeed, or at least might be most happy. And when we find our selves so depressed and dejected, by means of cross occurrents, that this alacrity and cheerfulness is overwhelmed therewith, labour to rouse up our spirits, and say, as David sometime said;