← Back to the beginning of 8. Joy
(5.) At the hour of death. Of those even who have had no joy in their lifetime. God puts this sugar in the bottom of the cup, to make their death sweet. At the last hour, when all other comforts are gone, God sends the Comforter; and when their appetite to meat fails, he feeds them with hidden manna. As the wicked before they die, have some apprehensions of hell and wrath in their conscience, so the godly have some foretastes of God’s everlasting favour, though sometimes their diseases may be such, and their animal spirits so oppressed, that they cannot express what they feel. Jacob laid himself to sleep on a stone and saw a vision of a ladder, and the angels ascending and descending upon it; so, when saints lay themselves down to sleep the sleep of death, they have often a vision: they see the light of God’s face, and have the evidences of his love sealed up to them for ever.
What are the differences between worldly joys and spiritual?
The gleanings of the one are better than the vintage of the other.
(1.) Spiritual joys help to make us better, worldly joys often make us worse. ‘I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst, I will not hear.’ Jer 22:2I. Pride and luxury are the two worms that are bred of worldly pleasures. ‘Wine takes away the heart;’ it is fomentum libidinis, Augustine, ‘the inflamer of lust.’ Hos 4:4: As Satan entered in the sop, so often in the cup; but spiritual joy makes one better; it is like cordial water, which, as physicians say, not only cheers the heart, but purges out the noxious humours; so divine joy is cordial water, which not only comforts but cleanses; it makes a Christian more holy; it causes an antipathy against sin; it infuses strength to do and suffer. ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’ Neh 8:80. As some colours not only delight the eye, but strengthen the sight; so the joys of God not only refresh the soul, but strengthen it.
(2.) Spiritual joys are inward, they are heart joys. ‘Your heart shall rejoice.’ John 16:62. Seneca says true joy latet in profundo, it is hidden within, worldly joy is in superficie, it lies on the outside, like the dew that wets the leaf. We read of those who ‘rejoice in appearance,’ in the Greek, in the face. 2 Cor 5:12. It goes no farther than the face, it is not within; ‘in laughter the heart is sad.’ Like a house which has a gilded frontispiece, but all the rooms within are hung in mourning. But spiritual joy lies most within. ‘Your heart shall rejoice.’ Divine joy is like a spring of water which runs underground! Others can see the sufferings of a Christian, but they see not his joy. ‘A stranger intermeddleth not with his joy.’ Prov 14:40. His joy is hidden manna, hid from the eye of the world; he has still music which others hear not; the marrow lies within, the best joy is within the heart.
(3.) Spiritual joys are sweeter than others, they are better than wine. Cant 1:1. They are a Christian’s festival; they are the golden pot and the manna, they are so sweet, that they make everything else sweet: sweeten health and estate, as sweet water poured on flowers makes them more fragrant and aromatic. Divine joys are so delicious and ravishing, that they put our mouth out of taste for earthly delights; as he who has been drinking cordials tastes little sweetness in water. Paul had so tasted these divine joys, that his mouth was out of taste for worldly things; the world was crucified to him, it was like a dead thing, he could find no sweetness in it. Gal 6:14.
(4.) Spiritual joys are more pure, they are not tempered with any bitter ingredients. A sinner’s joy is mixed with dregs, it is imbittered with fear and guilt: the wolf feeds in the breasts of his joy; he drinks wormwood wine; but spiritual joy is not muddled with guilt, but like a crystal stream, runs pure; it is all spirits and quintessence; it is joy and nothing but joy; it is a rose without prickles; it is honey without wax.
(5.) They are satisfying joys: ‘Ask, that your joy may be full.’ John 16:64. Worldly joys can no more fill the heart than a drop can fill a cistern; they may please the palate or fancy, as Plato calls them pictures of joy, but cannot satisfy the soul. ‘The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing;’ Eccl 1:1; but the joys of God satisfy. ‘Thy comforts delight my soul.’ Psa 94:19. There is as much difference between spiritual joys and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten and one that is painted on the wall.
(6.) They are stronger joys than worldly. ‘Strong consolation.’ Heb 6:18. They are strong indeed that can bear up a Christian’s heart in trials and afflictions. ‘Having received the word in much affliction, with joy.’ I Thess 1:1. These are roses that grow in winter, these joys can sweeten the waters of Marah; he that has these can gather grapes of thorns, and fetch honey out of the carcase of a lion. ‘As sorrowing, yet always rejoicing.’ 2 Cor 6: 10. At the end of the rod a Christian tastes honey.
(7.) They are unwearied joys. Other joys, when in excess, often cause loathing, we are apt to surfeit on them; too much honey nauseates; one may be tired with pleasure as well as labour. Xerxes offered a reward to him that could find out a new pleasure; but the joys of God, though they satisfy, yet they never surfeit. A drop of joy is sweet, but the more of this wine the better. Such as drink of the joys of heaven are never cloyed; the satiety is without loathing, because they still desire the joy wherewith they are satiated.
(8.) They are abiding joys. Worldly joys are soon gone. Such as crown themselves with rosebuds, and bathe in the perfumed waters of pleasure, may have joys which seem to be sweet but they are swift: they are like meteors, which give a bright and sudden flash, and then disappear. The joys which believers have are abiding; they are a blossom of eternity, a pledge and earnest of those rivers of pleasure which run at God’s right hand for evermore.
Why is this joy to be labored for?
(1.) Because it is self-existent, it can subsist in the absence of all other carnal joy. This joy depends not upon outward things. As the philosophers said, when the musicians came to them, ‘Philosophers can be merry without music;’ so he that has this joy can be cheerful in the deficiency of carnal joys; he can rejoice in God, in sure hope of glory, ‘although the fig-tree shall not blossom.’ Hab 3:17. Spiritual joy can go without silver crutches to support it. Spiritual joy is higher built than upon creatures, for it is built on the love of God, on the promises, and on the blood of Christ.
(2.) Because spiritual joy carries the soul through duty cheerfully; the Sabbath becomes a delight, and religion is a recreation. Fear and sorrow hinder us in the discharge of duty; but a Christian serves God with activity, when he serves him with joy. The oil of joy makes the wheels of obedience move faster. How fervently did they pray, whom God made joyful in the house of prayer! Isa 56:6.
(3.) It is called the kingdom of God in Rom 14:17, because it is a taste of that which the saints have in the kingdom of God. What is the heaven of the angels, but the smiles of God’s face, the sensible perception and feeling of those joys which are infinitely ravishing and full of glory! To encourage and quicken us in seeking after them, consider, that Christ died to purchase this joy for his saints. He was a man of sorrows, that we might be full of joy; he prayed that the saints might have this divine joy. ‘And now I come to thee, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.’ John 17:13. This prayer he now prays in heaven; he knows we never love him so much as when we feel his love; which may encourage us to seek after this joy. We pray for that which Christ himself is praying for, when we pray that his joy may be fulfilled in us.
What shall we do to obtain this spiritual joy?
Walk consistently and spiritually. God gives joy after long and close walking with him. (1.) Observe your hours. Set time every day apart for God. (2.) Mourn for sin. Mourning is the seed, as Basil says, out of which the flower of spiritual joy grows. ‘I will restore comforts to his mourners.’ Isa 57:18. (3.) Keep the book of conscience fair written. Do not by presumptuous sins blur your evidences. A good conscience is the ark in which God puts the hidden manna. (4.) Be often upon your knees, pray with life and fervency. The same Spirit that fills the heart with sighs fills it with joys. The same Spirit that indites the prayer, seals it. When Hannah had prayed, her countenance was no more sad. I Sam 1:18. Praying Christians have much intercourse with God; and none are so like to have the secrets of his love imparted, as those who hold correspondence with him. By close walking with God we get bunches of grapes by the way, which are an earnest of future happiness.
How shall we comfort those that want joy?
Such as walk in close communion with God have more than others.
(1.) Initial joy, joy in semine, in the seed. ‘Light (a metaphor for joy) is sown for the righteous.’ Psa 97:71. Grace in the heart is a seed of joy. Though a Christian wants the sun, he has a day-star in his heart.
(2.) A believer has real, though not royal comforts; he has, as Aquinas says, gaudium in Deo, though not a Deo; joy in God, though not from God. Joy in God is the delight and complacency the soul takes in God. ‘My soul shall be glad in the Lord.’ Psa 104:44. He that is truly gracious, is so far joyful as to take comfort in God: though he cannot say, God rejoices in him, he can say, he rejoices in God.
(3.) He has supporting, though not transporting comforts. He has as much as keeps him from sinking. ‘Thou strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.’ Psa 138:8. If a Christian has not God’s arm to embrace him, yet he has it to uphold him. Thus a Christian who walks with God has something that bears up his heart from sinking; and it-is but waiting awhile, and he is sure of those joys which are unspeakable and full of glory.
Use one: Then see that religion is no melancholy thing; it brings joy; the fruit of the Spirit is joy. Mutatur non tollitur [It varies, but it is not destroyed]. A poor Christian that feeds on bread and water, may have purer joy than the greatest monarch; though he fares hard, he feeds high; he has a table spread from heaven; angels’ food, hidden manna; he has sometimes sweet raptures of joy, that cause jubilation of spirit; he has that which is better felt than can be expressed. 2 Cor 12:2.
Use two: If God gives his people such joy in this life, oh! then, what glorious joy will he give them in heaven! ‘Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’ Matt 25:5I. Here joy begins to enter into us, there we shall enter into joy. God keeps his best wine till last. Heliogabalus bathed himself in sweet perfumed waters. What joy when the soul shall for ever bathe itself in the pure and pleasant fountain of God’s love! What joy to see the orient brightness of Christ’s face, and have the kisses of those lips which drop sweet-smelling myrrh! Laetabitur sponsa in amplexilous Domini [The Bride will rejoice in the embrace of her Lord]. Augustine. Oh! if a cluster of grapes here be so sweet, what will the full vintage be! How may this set us all longing for that place where sorrow cannot live, and where joy cannot die!