BOOK 2. FROM ETERNITY.
CHAPTER 2.
2.2.7. Of Joying in Jesus in that Respect.
Of Joying in Jesus in that respect.
We must joy in Jesus, as carrying on that great work of our salvation in that eternity, This joy is a passion arising from the sweetness of the object we enjoy. O my soul, dost thou believe? And art thou now cast into a pang of love? How then should thy joy come on? As Christ said to the seventy, "In this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven," Luke x. 20. So rejoice not thou in this, that the world is thine, that riches are thine, that thou hast subdued men and devils; but herein rejoice that thy name is written in the book of life. O what a comfortable point is this! that the Father and Christ should transact a bargain from eternity, concerning thee by name, that the Father and the Son should commune together concerning thy heaven, as if their language had been thus; "Father, what shall be given to thy justice to ransom such an one, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mary, Martha, Hannah," etc. Why no more but this, "Thou shalt die, my Son, and whosoever believeth in thee shall live forever." Why then saith Christ, "I will engage for such and such an one; I will enter into bond for such and such a person; Abraham shall believe in time: see I have wrote down his name in the book of life." And who art thou that readest? Art thou a believer? Dost thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Christ said the same of thee, and entered into a bond for thee, and entered thy name in the book of life, see the certainty of this in Phil. iv. 3. Thou Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Christ knows thee by name, and thy name is written in the book of life. O go thy way, and rejoice, and take strong consolation! is there not cause? Why, I tell thee, thy name is in the book of heaven; and, if this may add to thy joy, know there is none in heaven or earth shall ever be able to blot it out again. No, no, poor soul, "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," Rom. viii. 1. God hath decreed thy salvation, and God's decree shall stand, let men and devils say what they will to the contrary, "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations" Psalm xxxiii. 11. It is as possible for God to deny himself, as it is possible for thee a believer to perish. "We are kept (saith the apostle) by the power of God through faith to salvation," 1 Pet. i. 5. And therefore "rejoice, and again rejoice:" Yea, raise up thy joy to that pitch of triumph, which is joy elevated; and elevated so high that it comes to victoriousness and magnanimous conquest of heart over all things. Say with the apostle, "What, my name is written in the book of life, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? -- "Who then shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord," Rom. viii. 33, 35, 35 etc.