CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

6. This Christian Joy will bear up the heart above all afflictions and tribulations; Thus Jam. 1. They are to account it all joy when they fall into tribulation, and 1 Pet. 1.8. he speaketh of those who for the present were in heaviness through manifold temptations, yet at that time did greatly rejoice, and that with joy unspeakable and full of glory; They could glory over all their tribulations; This joy you heard is compared to Oil, and that will always keep us above the waters: Oh how happy is it when thy Temptations do not devour thy joy, but thy joy takes away the sting of thy Temptations; This made the Martyrs and Confessors find thorns grapes, and thistles figs; Oh we think that it's impossible ever for such weak and infirm wretches as we are to go through such Trials as the Godly have done, but if we had their joy it would be no more to us then it was to them.

6. This Christian Joy will bear up the heart above all afflictions and tribulations; Thus Jam. 1. They are to account it all joy when they fall into tribulation, and 1 Pet. 1.8. he speaketh of those who for the present were in heaviness through manifold temptations, yet at that time did greatly rejoyce, and that with joy unspeakable and full of glory; They could glory over all their tribulations; This joy you heard is compared to Oyl, and that will alwaies keep us above the waters: Oh how happy is it when thy Temptations do not devour thy joy, but thy joy takes away the sting of thy Temptations; This made the Martyrs and Confessors finde thorns grapes, and thistles figs; Oh we think that it's impossible ever for such weak and infirm wretches as we are to go through such Tryals as the Godly have done, but if we had their joy it would be no more to us then it was to them.

7. Joy as it is participated in this life increaseth more hungering and desire after the object we desire, to have more of it still; Take any Object of delight which we do not perfectly enjoy, and oh how it quickens and stirs up the appetite to have more still, for although perfect joy doth fully satiate the desire, and extinguish all thirst, because as Aquinas saith well, Gaudium se habet ad desiderium, sicut quies ad motum, and so when the stone is come to the centre, it moveth no further, yet because in this life we have not a perfect fruition of God, only have some bunches of the Grapes of Canaan, not Canaan it self; Therefore the sweetness we have in God or Christ doth more stir up the desire after God, as you see in David, those inchoate enjoyments of God did make him restless and impatient for further Communion with him; Hence David exhorteth to taste how good God is, if once we had but an experimental sweetness of the Excellency of his love, we should still be breathing after him, as David,