April 17

Believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.—1 Peter 1:8.

We should learn to rejoice as believers. Can faith set open the windows of the soul, and no light of heavenly pleasure enter? Can it peruse the map of the land of promise, or see or taste the bunch of grapes, without any sweetness to the soul? That is the truest belief of heaven, which maketh men most like to those that are in heaven. And what is their character, work, and portion, but the joys of heavenly light and love? Can we believe that we shall live in heaven for ever? Can we believe that very shortly we shall be there, and not rejoice in such believing? I know we commonly say, that the uncertainty of our proper title is the cause of all our want of joy: but if that were all, if that were the first and greatest cause, and our belief of the promise itself were lively, we should at least set our hearts on heaven as the most delightful and desirable state: and love would work by more eager desires and diligent seekings, till it had reached assurance, and cast out the hinderances of our joy. How much would a mere philosopher rejoice, if he could find out natural evidence of so much as we know by faith! You may perceive what their content in finding it would be, by their exceeding pains in seeking. The unwearied studies by day and night, which many of them used, with the contempt of the riches and greatness of the world, do tell us how glad they would have been to have seen but half so far as we may. If they could but discover more clearly and certainly, the principles, and elements, and forms of beings; the nature of spirits; the causes of motion; the nature and cause of light and heat; the order, course, and harmony of the universal system of the world; what joyful acclamations would this produce in the learned, studious sort of men? What joy then should it be to us, to know by faith the God that made us; the creation of the world; the laws and promises of our Creator; the mysteries of redemption and regeneration; the frame of the new creature; the entertainment of the spirits of the just with Christ; the judgment which all the world must undergo; the work and company which we shall have hereafter; and the endless joys which all the sanctified shall possess in the sight and love of God for ever! How blessed an invention would it be, if all the world could be brought again to the use of one universal language! Or if all the churches could be perfectly reconciled, how joyful would the author of so great a work be! Should we not then rejoice, who foresee by faith a far more perfect union and consent than ever must be expected here on earth?

Alas! the ordinary lowness of our comforts doth tell us that our faith is very small! I say not so much the sorrows of a doubting heart, as the little joy which we have in the forethoughts of heaven, when our title seemeth not much doubtful to us: for those sorrows show that such esteem it a joyful place, and would rejoice if their title were but cleared. But when we have neither the sorrow nor solicitude of the afflicted soul, nor yet the joy which is every whit suitable to the belief of such everlasting joys, we may know what to judge of such an ineffectual belief; at best, it is very low and feeble. It is a "joy unspeakable and full of glory," which unseen things should cause in a believer; because it is "an exceeding eternal weight of glory," which he believeth.