Fifty Sermons
But that we are bound to a thankful rejoicing in all that falls well to us, In bonis, admits less doubt, and therefore requires less proof: But the semper of our Text extends farther, Gandete in malis, we do not rejoice always, except we rejoice in evil days, in all our crosses and calamities. Now, if we be not affected with God's judgments, if we conceive not a sorrow for them, or the cause of them, our sins, God is angry; will he be angry too, if we be not glad of them, if we do not rejoice in them? Can this sorrow and this joy consist together? very well. The School in the mouth of Aquinas gives instances; If an Innocent man be condemned, Simul placet ejus justitia, & displices afflictio, I congratulate his innocence, and I condole his death both at once. So Displicet mihi quod peccavi, & placet quod displicet; I am very sorry that I have sinned, but yet I am glad that I am sorry. So that, Ipsatristitia materia gaudii; Some sorrow is so far from excluding joy, as that naturally it produces it. S. Augustine hath sealed it with this advice, Semper doleat poenitens, Let him who hath sinned always lament; But then where is the Gaudete semper? he tells us too, Semper gaudeat de dolore, Let him always rejoice, that God hath opened him a way to mercy, by sorrow. Lacrymae Seminium quoddam sunt & foenus, quibus increscit gaudium; Sorrow is our Seminary, from whence we are transplanted into a larger Orchard, into the dilatation of the heart, Joy; sorrow, says he, Seminium est, & foenus est; It is our interest, our use; And if we have sorrow upon sorrow, it is use upon use, it doubles the principal, which is joy, the sooner. Cordae cum distenduntur, it is S. Augustine's musical comparison, when the strings of an instrument are set up, the musical sound is the clearer; if a man's sinew be stretched upon the rack, his joy is not the less perfect. Not that a man must seek out occasion of sorrow; provoke the Magistrate by seditious intemperance, and call it zeal; or macerate the body with fastings, or mangle it with whippings, and call that merit; Non ut quaerant materiam quam non habent, sed at inveniant cam quam nescientes habent; This is the way of joy, not to seek occasions of sorrow, which they have not, but to find out those which they have, and know not; that is, their secret sins, the causes of God's judgments in themselves. To discern that that correction that is upon me, is from God, and not a natural accident, this is a beam of joy, for I see that he would cure me, though by corosives. To discern that God is not unjust, nor cruel, and therefore it is something in me, and not in him, that brings it to this sharpness, this is a beam of joy too; for I see how to discharge God, and to glorify him, and how to accuse myself; and that is a good degree of repentance.
But to perfect my repentance, Non sufficit dolere de peccatis, sed requiritur gaudi • m de dolore, It is not enough to come to a sorrow in my sin, that may flow out into despair, but I must come to a joy in my sorrow, for that fixes me upon the application of Christ, and such a joy a man must suscitate and awaken in himself by these steps, In malis temporalibus, in all worldly crosses; Else he does not Gaudere semper.
No nor except he find this joy, In malis Spiritualibus, in Spiritual afflictions too. When I fall into new sorrow, after my former joy, relapse into those sins which I have repented (and beloved, the dangerous falling in any man, is to fall backward, he that falls forward, hath his eyes to help him, and his hands to help him, but he that falls backward lacks much) yet even out of these relapses we must find joy too. For when Saint James says, Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, as he speaks of all joy, so he intends, or may justly be extended to all temptations, not only temptations, that is, trials, when God proves a man by affliction, where moral constancy is exercised, but even in trial of religious constancy; in temptations to sin, still there is fresh occasion of joy in discerning God's deliverance from the falling into the sin, or from lying in the sin. Ipsa tentatio sal animae, as salt preserves flesh, so temptations preserve the Soul: not the sinning, but the discerning that it is, nay that that was a temptation to sin, preserves the soul. And therefore, he calls tentationes custodes; he makes even the evil Angels, our Guardians, our Tutelar Angels, because by their temptations they bring us up in the fear of God, and in the ways of joy. And therefore though it be a joyful thing to have overcome a temptation, yet determine not your Joy in that; that if that temptation had overcome you, you might have no more Joy, but (as Christ says) In this rejoice not, that is, not only in this, that the Spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice not in this, that is, determine not, conclude not your joy in this, that you have overcome that temptation, but rather in this; that God does not forsake you after a sin, nor after a relapse into sin; but manifests your election by continual returning to you: But that this may be the joy of the text, true Joy, not a joy that induces presumption, for that will fail, that it may be Semper, it must be in Sempiterno, a Joy rightly conceived, and rightly placed. Gaudium in Domino: and that is our next step.
Rejoice in the Lord always, says the Apostle; and left it should admit any interruption, he repeats it, Iterum dico gaudete, Again I say rejoice, But still in the Lord. For, Quasi locus quidam, iustorum capax est Dominum: though God be in no place, God is the place, in whom all good men are. God is the Court of every just King: God is the Church of every holy Priest: God is the field of every valiant man; and the bed of every sickly man: whatsoever is done in Domino, in the Lord, is done at home in the right place. He that is settled in God, centred in God, Laetitiae fontem, voluptatis radicem lucratus est. They are all considerable words; Lucratus est, he hath purchased something which he did not inherit, he hath acquired something which was not his before, and what? Fontem laetitiae; 'tis joy, else it were nothing: for what is wealth if sickness take away the joy of that? Or what is health, if imprisonment take away the joy of that? Or what is liberty, if poverty take away the joy of that? but he hath joy, and not a Cistern but a fountain, the fountain of joy, that rejoices in God: He carries it higher in the other Metaphor; he hath radicem voluptatis; a man may have Flores, flowers of joy, and have no fruit, a man may have some fruit, and not enough, but if he have joy in God, he hath radicem voluptatis; if we may dare to translate it so, (and in a spiritual sense we may) it is a voluptuous thing to rejoice in God. In rejoicing in another thing Saint Bernard's harmonious charm will strike upon us, Rara hora, brevis mora, they are joys that come seldom, and stay but a little while when they come. Call it joy, to have had that thou lovest, in thine eye, or in thine arms, remember what oaths, what false oaths, it did cost thee before it came to that? And where is that joy now, is there a Semper in that? Call it joy to have had him whom thou hatest, in thine hands or under thy feet, what ignoble disguises to that man, what servile observations of some greater, then either you, or he, did that cost you before you brought him into your power? and where is that joy, if a Funeral or a bloody conscience benight it? Currus Domini, says David, the Chariots of the Lord are twenty thousand, thousands of Angels, says our translation; Millia laetantium, says the vulgat; thousands of them that rejoice. How comes it to be all thing Angels and Reioycers? Ne miremur illos laetari continuo subiecit, Dominus in illis, Saint Augustine saith, to take away all wonder, it is added, the Lord is in the midst of them, and then, be what they will, they must rejoice; For if he be with them they are with him, and he is Joy. The name of Isaac signifies joy; and the trial of Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac: Immola Isaac tuum, sacrifice all thy Joy in this world, to God, Et non mactatus sed sanctificatus Isaac tuus, thy Joy shall not be destroyed, but sanctified, so far from being made none, that it shall be made better, better here, but not, better then that hereafter; which is our last step, beyond which there is nothing, that even true Joy, rightly placed, is but an inchoative, a preparatory Joy in this world. The consummation is for the next; Gaudebimus semper.
Sicut laetantium omnium habitatio est inte, as Saint Jerome reads those words, speaking of the Christian Church here, It is the house of all them, who do as it were rejoice; who come nearest to true joy. And so, when the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion, Facti sumus sicut consolati, We were as it were comforted. Quare sicut, says that Father, Why is it so modified with that diminution, as it were? Quia hic etiam in Sanctis non perfecta consolatio; Because; says he, in this world, even the Saints themselves have no perfect joy. Where the Apostle compares the sorrow and the joy of this world, then the Quasi lies upon the sorrows side; it is but a half sorrow; Quasi tristes, We are as it were sorrowful, but indeed rejoicing; but compare the best joy of this world, with the next, and the Quasi will fall upon the joy of the world. For though we be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, (and this is the Tropique of Joy, the farthest that Spiritual Joy goes in this Zodique, in this world) yet this carries us no farther, but Vt ex arrabone aestimetur haereditas; That by the proportion of the earnest, we might value the whole bargain: For what a bargain would we presume that man to have, that would give 20000 l. for earnest? what is the Joy of heaven hereafter, if the earnest of it here, be the Seal of the holy Ghost? God proceeds with us, as we do with other men. Operariis in Saeculo, cibus in opere, merces in fine datur: In this world, we give laborers meat and drink by the way, but wages at the end of their work. God affords us refreshing here, but joy hereafter. The best Seal is the holy Ghost, and the best matter that the holy Ghost seals in, is in blood; in the dignity of Martyrdom; and even for that, for Martyrdom, we have a rule in the Apostle, Rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; That as he suffered for you, so you suffer for him: but in what contemplation? That when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be made glad with exceeding Joy; not with exceeding Joy, till then; For till then, the Joyes of Heaven may be exceeded in the addition of the body. There is the rule, and the example is Christ himself, Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the Cross; in contemplation of the Propterea exaltatus, that therefore he should be exalted above all in heaven. Rejoice and be glad; why? for great is your reward: but where? in heaven. And therefore Ask and you shall receive; Pray and you shall have answer: but what answer: but what answer? That your joy shall be full. It shall be; in heaven. For Quis sic delectat quam ill, qui fecit omnia quae delectant: In whom can we fully rejoice, but him, who made all things in which we rejoice by the way, In thy Name shall we rejoice all the day, says David; Si in nomine suo, non tota die. St. Augustine says not that to any particular person, nor any particular calling but to any man, to every man; Any Prince, any Counselor, any Prelate, any General, any Discoverer, any that goes in any way of joy, and glory, Si nomine suo, non tota die, If they rejoice in their own names, their own wisdom, their own strength, they shall not rejoice all the day, but they shall be benighted with dark sadness, before their days end; And their sun shall set at noon too, as the Prophet Amos speaks. And therefore that shall be Christ's expressing of that joy, at the last day, Enter into thy Master Joy, and leave the joy of Servants (though of good Servants) behind thee; for thou shalt have a better Joy then that, Thy Masters Joy.
It is time to end; but as long as the glass hath a gasp, as long as I have one, I would breathe in this air, in this perfume, in this breath of heaven, the contemplation of this Joy. Blessed is that man, qui scit jubilationem, says David, that knows the joyful sound: For, Nullo modo beatus, nisi scias unde gaudeas; For though we be bound to rejoice always, it is not a blessed joy, if we do not know upon what it be grounded: or if it be not upon everlasting blessedness. Comedite amici, says Christ, bibite & inebriamini. Eat and drink, and be filled. Joy in this life, Vbi in sudore vescimur, where grief is mingled with joy, is called meat, says Saint Bernard, and Christ calls his friends to eat in the first word. Potus in future, says he, Joy in the next life, where it passes down without any difficulty, without any opposition, is called drink; and Christ calls his friends to drink: but the overflowing, the Ebriet as animae, that is reserved to the last time, when our bodies as well as our souls, shall enter into the participation of it: Where, when we shall love everyone, as well as ourselves, and so have that Joy of our own salvation multiplied by that number, we shall have that Joy so many times over, as there shall be souls saved, because we love them as ourselves, how infinitely shall this Joy be enlarged in loving God, so far above our selves, and all them. We have but this to add. Heaven is called by many precious names; Life • Simply and absolutely there is no life but that. And Kingdom; Simply, absolutely there is no Kingdom, that is not subordinate to that. And Sabba • ūex Sabbate, A Sabbath flowing into a Sabbath, a perpetual Sabbath: but the Name that should enamour us most, is that, that it is Satietas gaud • orum; fullness of Joy. Fullness that needeth no addition; Fullness, that admitteth no leak. And then though in the School we place Blessedness, in vision, in the sight of God, yet the first thing that this sight of God shall produce in us (for that shall produce the Reformation of the Image of God, in us, and it shall produce our glorifying of God) but the first thing that the seeing of God shall produce in us, is Joy. The measure of our seeing of God is the measure of Joy. See him here in his Blessings, and you shall joy in those blessings here; and when you come to see him Sicuti est, in his Essence, then you shall have this Joy in Essence, and in fullness; of which, God of his goodness give us such an earnest here, as may bind to us that inheritance hereafter, which his Son our Savior Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.