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they rejoice in fuch circumftances as thefe and fuppofing they could, is it fit and decent that they should? Doth not Solomon the wifeft of men fay, that there is a time to weep as well as a time to laugh; a time to mourn as well as a time to dance? and doth not nature itself dictate as much? When God removes from us our dearest friends ; when he bleffes not our endeavours to thrive and profper in the world, but blasts our projects and defigns; when he vifits us with fickness and infirmity of body, or any other way chaftifes us for our fins; doth it not become us to mourn? Will not a good man mourn for the profaneness and impiety of the age in which he lives; and be ready to fay with holy David in the CXIXth Pfalm; Horror hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forJake thy law; and, Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law? Will he not be deeply and forrowfully affected for the calamities of his country, and cry out with the holy prophet Jeremiah, IX. 1. Ob ! that my bead were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the flain of the daughter

of

of my people! Finally, will not a good christian fympathize with his christian brother in his afflictions? will he not partake of his griefs, and enter into his forrows? nay, doth not our apostle himself recommend this very thing in his epiftle to the Romans, XII. 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep? What then can be his meaning, when in my text he bids chriftians to rejoice evermore? We cannot fuppofe that this precept was defigned only for the Theffalonians, to whom he wrote this epiftle: for neither were the Theffalonians in fo much better circumftances than other chriftians, as that they should be under any peculiar obligations to rejoice evermore; neither were the precepts of the apostles defigned only for those to whom they were immediately directed, but for all christians in all ages. What fhall we fay therefore to this difficulty? On the one hand it cannot be denied, that there are seasons when the best chriftians may lawfully mourn; and on the other hand, we dare not contradict an apostle of our Lord and Saviour, who exprefly commands us to rejoice ever

more.

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Therefore it is poffible for these two things to confift together: that is to fay, for a christian at once to mourn and to rejoice. Sorrow (as one well ' defines it) is an uneafinefs of mind upon the thought of a good loft, which might have been enjoy'd longer, or the fenfe of a prefent evil: and joy ' is a delight of the mind arifing from the confideration of the present or the affured approaching poffeffion of any good.' Now is it not poffible to feel fome uneafinefs upon the account of a good that we have loft, and yet to be delighted with the confideration of a greater good that we are still in poffeffion of? And may not the sense of a prefent evil give us fome disturbance, whilft at the fame time we are pleased with the profpect of a greater future good? Why may not a chriftian regret the lofs of his friend, and yet rejoice in a sense of the divine favour? Why may not he be grieved at any unhappy accidents which befal him in this world, and yet be delighted with the profpect of everlasting bleffednefs in the world to come? The gospel is a glorious scheme; it always affords occafion of rejoicing to those who fincerely

cerely embrace it. It reconciles the contrary paffions of forrow and joy, and unites them in the fame perfon. It neither extirpates grief, nor abandons men wholly to it. It indulges the innocent affections of human nature, and allows us to mourn for the misfortunes both of ourselves and others. But then it teaches us to moderate our forrows; and not to fuffer ourselves to be fo much taken up with the thought of our prefent afflictions, as to lose the sense of those bleffings which we ftill enjoy, and of those which we are in the expectation of. In a word, it doth not forbid chriftians to mourn whenever they have just cause of mourning but it obliges them to rejoice evermore, because by the gofpel they are made partakers of many great privileges, and are put into a very happy state and condition. They are juftified or made righteous they are fanctified or made holy they enter into a filial relation to God, and become his children: and they are heirs of eternal glory.

I. They are juftified, or made righteous. The apostle Paul preached this doctrine to the men of Antioch; as we read Acts XIII. 38, 39. Be it known

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unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgivenefs of fins; and by him all that believe are juftified from all things from which ye could not be juftified by the law of Mofes. He teaches the fame thing in his epistle to the Romans, III. 22-24. The righteousness of God is by faith of Jefus Chrift unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference; for all have finned and come fhort of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Jefus Chrift. And V. i. Being juftified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jefus Chrift. And VIII. 1, 2. There is now no condemnation to them who are in Chrift Fefus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit: for the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus hath made me free from the law of fin and death. And X. 4. Chrift is the end of the law for righteousness, unto every one that believeth. And 1 Cor. I. 30. Of him are ye in Chrift Jefus, who of God is made unto us righteousness. And II. 16. We have believed in Jefus Chrift, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. And Ephef. I. 7. In whom (i. e. in Chrift) we have redemption through his

blood,

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