The truly blessed man

3. There are also special seasons wherein the joy of Gods people abounds in them As they have their sinking, to their raising times; God comes & gives them more than ordinary advantage to exercise their joy; and no wonder if then they are enlarged in it; and here observe three more especial seasons

3. There are also special seasons wherein the joy of Gods people abounds in them As they have their sinking, to their •aising times; God comes & gives them more than ordinary advantage to exercise their joy; and no wonder if then they are enlarged in it; and here observe three more especial seasons

1. Upon their espousal to the Lord Jesus Christ. The time of his wooing them in order to this, is a sorrowful time; […] in breaking them from their other lovers, and making them willing to accept of him, he shows them their miserable state by nature, the misery and destruction they are going to; there is conviction, compunction, contrition, apprehension of the wrath of God, sense of Sin and Judgment, which make them afraid: now Christ is wont after this, when he hath gained their consent, and plighted the Everlasting Covenant, ⟨p. 609⟩to make it a joyful day, and the beams of his love irradiate the Soul, that was but now in its own sense perishing, and this is unconceivably refreshing. We read of the joy of Marriage.

1. Upon their espousal to the Lord Jesus Christ. The time of his wooing them in order to this, is a sorrowful time; 〈…〉 in breaking them from their other lovers, and making them willing to accept of him, he shews them their miserable state by nature, the misery and destruction they are going to; there is conviction, compunction, contrition, apprehension of the wrath of God, sense of Sin and Judgment, which make them afraid: now Christ is wont after this, when he hath gained their consent, and plighted the Everlasting Covenant,