Joy in the Lord opened in a sermon preached at Pauls, May 6

5. It must be^a rare, wonderful, glorious; the commonness even of good things, takes from the loveliness of them. If diamonds were as plentiful as pebbles, or gold as iron, they would be as little esteemed; if there were but one balsam or drug in the world that would cure any mortal disease, a man would value the monopoly of that above the richest Jewel. Because the Pool of Bethesda had a rare healing virtue, multitudes of impotent, blind, halt, withered, were waiting continually for the moving of it, John 5 2, 3.

5. It must be^a rare, wonderful, glorious; the commonness even of good things, takes from the loveliness of them. If diamonds were as plentiful as pebles, or gold as iron, they would be as little esteemed; if there were but one balsom or drug in the world that would cure any mortal disease, a man would value the monopoly of that above the richest Jewel. Because the Pool of Bethesda had a rare healing vertue, multitudes of impotent, blind, halt, withered, were waiting continually for the moving of it, John 5 2, 3.

1. aBonum insolitum plus amatur. Cassiod. variar. l 8. c. 20. Quaesitissimae dapes non gustu sed difficultatibus aestimabantur, miracula avium, longinqui maris pisces, alieni temporis poma aestivae nives, Hybernae Rosae. Mamertinus in Panegyr.

6. It must be various, ¹like the holy anointing oil, compounded of many principal spices, Exod. 30 23-25. in rich hangings in choice gardens, in great feasts, in select libraries, variety is that which greatly delighteth the spectators: were a table filled with one and the same dish, or a study with the same book, or a garden with the same flower, it would wholly take away from the delight of it. And this variety is then much more delightful, when each particular good doth answer some particular defect, or desire in him that enjoyeth it; when it is as a rich Storehouse, as the Shop of the Apothecary, or as a Physic Garden, wherein a man may in any distemper fix on some thing proper to help him.