Spouse the particular Christian she complaineth here of her own voluntary neglect and carelessness as to her own Soul suffering the weeds of lusts and corruptions to grow up and to prevail according to that of Solomon I passed by the Vineyard of him who was vaid of understanding and to it was overgrown with thorns Nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone-wall thereof was broken down Prov. 24. 30 31. This now is the fourth cause which the Spouse here assigneth of her blackness thus I have given you the best account I have been able of the sense of these words which if you take them as the words of the Church the collective Spouse of Christ sound thus O you that are my Brethren members of other Churches you that are my Neighbours the men of the World I must confess I am something black yet not wholly black not inwardly black not without some comeliness I may be a little black yet let not me be the object of your contempt despight or scorn let not my blackness make you decline be afraid or ashamed of the ways of God let it not cause you to err as I have erred I have been under great temptations long and sharp trials of persecution these have a little tanned me and made me to look something unlovely I have had some Neighbours and false Brethren who have allured intiâ—ed and betrayed me my Enemies have imposed upon me a superstitious Worship superstâ—tious Rites and Ceremonies and have prevailed with me something to comply with them Nor am I as to my self to be wholly excused I must own that through my own voluntary omission and neglect I have not kept the Truths and Ordinances of Worship nor any of the Laws of God concerning me so as I ought to have done or might have done If we take the words as the words of the particular believing Soul they sound thus O my Brethren I am I confess black but let not my blackness cause you to trâ—umph over me nor yet for my sake to decline the holy ways of God I have been under many sore and great temptations in great heats of affliction the Sun hath looked upon me others have too much seduced me and I have been misled by them I have been too much intangled in secular concerns so as I have been too negligent as to the concerns of my own Soul From the words thus opened several Propositions may be raised of which I shall discourse in their order I shall only name them at this time That even the Spouse of Christ on this side of Heaven hath her blacknesses which will expose her to the reproach and obloquy of her Brethren and the men of the world Though the Spouse of Christ be black yet she is also comely As the Spouse of Christ ought to know that she is black so she also ought to understand she is comely As the Spouse of Christ ought to own and acknowledge her infirmity and desormities so it is also her duty at sometimes to own and acknowledge her beauty and graces and to justify her self against those who would upbraid her for her blackness It is our duty to take heed how we look upon the Spouses blackness Affliction and persecution from the world will make the Church and people of God look black especially in the Eyes of the men of the world Corruptions within and false Brethren in the bosom of the Church will make both the Church and the particular Soul appear black Great intanglements in worldly affairs will make Gods people look black The yieldings of a Church or of particular Souls to impositions of false and corrupt worship are a great cause of their appearing blackness Nothing makes a Church or particular Soul so black as their own neglect in keeping their own Vineyards the trust which God hath betrusted them with I shall speak something to all or the most of these in their order hereafter Sermon XXXII Cant. 1. 5. I am black but comely O you Daughters of Hierusalem as the Tents of Kedar as the Curtains of Solomon I Shall now begin a larger discourse upon those Propositions which I did but name the last time after my explication of this and the next verses I will join the two first and handle them severally then apply them jointly The Spouse of Christ on this side of Heaven hath her blackness exposing her to the reproach and obloquy of others but she is also comely and therefore ought not to be looked upon because she is black My business in the handling of this Proposition will chiefly lie in these two things 1. First Shewing you wherein lies the Spouses blackness exposing her to the obloquy of others 2. Secondly Shewing you wherein her comeliness lieth The confirmation I shall mix with the explication By the Spouse here I have all along understood the believing Soul the Church of Christ which is a body made up of these as its Members they have both their blackness for which they are exposed to the obloquy of others 1. First Sins and Corruptions make them black The best of men are but as white Swans with black feet they have in them a body of death a law in their members rebelling against the law of their mind the flesh lusting against the Spirit and they are many times brought into a captivity to the law of their members and though these motions to sin be ordinarily suppressed yet they sometimes break out The Pride of one and the ssionate anger and wrath of another and other lusts in others often break out unseemly and make even the best of Gods People appear black the habituated Sinner is all black there is in him no whiteness no comeliness at all The glorified Saint is all white there is in him no blackness at all The militant Saint is partly white and in part black All sin is black Christ therefore in justification makes the Soul white through his blood Rev. 7. 14. They are made white in the blood of the Lamb. In regeneration they are made white cleansed through the washing of water Eph. 5. 21. Hence Christ tells his Disciples except I wash you you can never be made clean they are clean but yet had need wash their seet John 13. 10. If there be in us any thing of faith yet there is also much of unbelief who liveth and sinneth not the righteous man falleth seven times in a day and who can tell how often he offendeth and though indeed the lust and corruption that is in a good mans heart doth not commonly break out into scandalous acts which standers by take notice of yet sometimes they do Lot and Noah were both overtaken with Wine David was overcoâ—e by the stranger that came to his House Peter denied his Master Solomon Asa Jehosaphat all the good Kings of Judah had their great Errors which are as black spots upon their memories to this day And
Word strict in their walking ready to exhort to reprove and admonish such as walk disorderly and not as becometh the Gospel Hypocrites and false Brethren are no more able to bear this then they are able to obtain of themselves to do like them Hence are their censures of them as Persons that are righteous overmuch needlesly strict and severe hence their envy and reproaches and their watchings for their haltings and taking all advantages to blazon their infirmities and to make them as odious and to look as black as they can 3. Another reason of it lyeth in the looseness of their principles both their principles of Doctrine and Faith and their practical principles directing their lives and conversations False brethren are alwaies looser in one or both these sorts of principles then the sincere Christian is The study of the Hypocrite is to form his faith and to interpret the law of God into a consistency with his lusts that he may keep his lusts and yet protect himself from the checks and reverberations of his conscience and flatter himself with hopes of Eternal Salvation and also keep up his credit and reputation with the world The sincere Christian hath no other design then to form his faith according to the revelations of truth in the Word and his conversation to the rule of life in the Word of God the Word is a lamp to his feet and a lanthorn to his paths and from that he dares not start when the false Prophets told Micajah that the Prophets had all with one mouth prophesied good to Ahab and suited his humour Micajah answers them As the Lord liveth whatsoever the Lord bids me speak that will I speak The same is the language of every true Christian whatsoever Propositions of truth I find spoken by Holy Men that were inspired by God in his Word that â—nd nothing but that shall be an article of my faith What way soeâ—â—r God hath prescribed me in his Word to Worship him in and by that will I do neither adding thereunto nor yet diminishing therefrom whatsoever rules God hath given me for the order of his Church to them I will adhere whatsoever laws God hath given me to guide my conversation to the observation of them I will keep thus he is in all things tied up to a divine rule But now the false Professor hath looser principles He dare allow the judgment of his own natural reason in determining of truth as the object of his faith and of the Traditions and Practice and Precepts of men as the rule of his Worship and the will of men as to the order and government of the Church and from one of these three causes most ordinarily proceeds that opposition which is given to the strict Servants of God from the anger of their Mothers Children I come to the second Member of the Proposition 2. This opposition is one great cause of the Spouses appearing black Both the opposition which the particular Christian hath from his own impetuous lusts and motions to sin and which that part of the Church which is alone the Spouse of Christ hath from false Brethren and the opposition given her by them are a great cause of the Churches blackness or appearing blackness The grounds of it are 1. Partly that trouble and sadness which usually attends those conflicts in the Spirits of Christians The time of War is a time of sadness in that part of the world which is the seat of it and the hour of this Spiritual War and Conflict is a sad time in the Soul Paul cryeth out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Hence are Christians sad and heavy walkings which the World counteth blackness 2. Partly from the prevailings of sin sometimes in the Soul David complained under the Old Testament that Iniquities prevailed against him and Paul complaineth under the New Testament not only of a War but of a Victory in some Skirmishes that the law of his Members got against the law of his Mind so that he was brought into a captivity to the law of Sin which was in his Members Rom. 7. 23 Now sin is that which maketh the Soul really black and where any of the People of God in the view of the world so discoloureth himself the world needeth no provocation to call them black The Eye that is directed by a Soul full of malice envy and hatred spies the least miscarriages in the Soul that is hated and aggravates them with the highest aggravations And as this is true concerning that opposition which the particular Soul findeth from its inbred lusts and corruptions that makes the believer black so it is as true that the opposition which that part of the Church which is the true Spouse of Christ meets with from false Brethren will make the Church appear black This will appear from the several unlovely consequences of such opposition 1. From hence are Errors and Heresies Schisms and Contentions in the Church of Christ of these you read in the Episties to the Romans Carinthians Galatians then which nothing make a Church appear more black in the Eyes of the World and they are more especially the reproaches of the Church of Christ by how much the Gospel which is their rule in which they are instructed and to the rules of which they profess a submission is a Gospel of peace and Christ Jesus which is their head and the Author of the Gospel is the Prince of Peace Errors rise up in the Church from men of corrupt principles The Apostle tells us of perverse disputingâ— by men of corrupt minds 1 Tim. 6. 5. and 2 Tim. 3. 8. you have it again men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith Hence also are Schisms and Contentions Only by Pride saith Solomon cometh contention The cause of 〈◊〉 is generally some corruption in Churches and deviation from that Order which Christ hath set and established which that part of the Church which keeps close to the Word as its rule cannot bear with Indeed sometimes they are caused from mens corrupt principles as to the faith and love of preheminâ—â—ce their rashness and want of Judgment how far Christians ought to preserve unity but I say generally they are caused by such as are â—â—lse Brethren who if they be not those who divide yet are those who give the cause of the division 2. From hence are â—â—srepresentations of the Servants of God 〈◊〉 Pharâ—â—â—â—ical generation that say unto others stand far from us we are 〈◊〉 then you such as would be too pure and righteous ovâ—â— much that make a shew of more then indeed thâ—yâ—ard Hypocrites Precisions that are over-nice c. Such kind of charges and imputations as these proceed ordinarily from Mothers Children saâ—e Professors and Brethren such as have a form of Godliness and deny the power of it such as are Mâ—mbers oâ— the Church but their hearts are not perfect with God 3. From hence Thirdly are
Heresies So as we are not to wonder if the things that have been still are whiles the state of the Church is yet militant we are not indeed to cause them or be the Authors or Abettors of them but neither are we to be discouraged or condemn Churches for them who may be comely though they have something of this blackness thus caused I shall shut up this discourse with a few words of Exhortation 1. To all such as own themselves Christians and glory in the name of the Sons and Daughters of the Church That they would answer that name and relation and not be a cause of the Spouses blackness or appearing blackness There are two ways by which we may be so 1. By a loose and scandalous conversation 2. By being angry with our Brethren By the first we make the Spouse black By the second we cause her to be reproached and called and counted black 1. Take heed of a loose and scandalous conversation This makes you spots in the Assemblies of Christians and declares you to be but presumptive Members Can a man be a Member of Christ and a Member of a Harlot Christs Companion and a Pot companion A Disciple of Christ who hath commanded us not to swear falsly idly or prophanely and yet being a common Swearer and Curter and Blasphemer Only let your conversation saith the Apostle he as becometh the Gospel of Christ Loose livers are the blots of any Church the Church is a body of called ones now you are not called to uncleanness or profaneness but unto purity and holiness It is for your sake that the name of Christ and the body of Christ is evil spoken of Consider that though it be the way of God to denominate his Church a parte meliori from the better part of it and therefore he calls the Church those that are called and sanctified in Christ Jesus though they all be not so that are Members of the visible Church yet it is the way of the World out of their hatred both to Christ and all that have relation to him to denominate them a parte deteriori from the worser part and to call all Professors of Religion by the name that belongeth only to the worser part of them But this is not so proper an application of this Proposition which speaks of the anger of false Brethren as the cause of the Spouses blackness 2. Therefore let me speak to you whose corruptions will not allow you to be so strict in your walking with God as others are whether in matters of Worship or your more ordinary conversation yet not to be angry with those who desire to walk more closely with God then you think needful and in some things dare not give themselves that liberty which you dare allow your selves I will offer three things to your consideration which may help you to abate your wrath 1. Consider first How little reason there is for you to be offended You all profess to be going the same journey aiming at the same end you all profess to be going towards the new Hierusalem Your dispute is only about the nearest way you are satisfied that this way of worshipping God this course of Religion will bring you to your journies end others cannot be so satisfied but take a straiter way what reason is there here for thy wrath who thinkest a broader will bring thee as well to thy Journies end how doth his walking more strictly prejudice thee Thou thinkest thou doest enough in the Service of God another thinks he can never do too much never do enough and therefore he heareth more and readeth more and prayeth oftner wherein art thou hereby prejudiced Hast thou not rather cause to bless God for the good example of others and to examine thy own ways and why another should not take up with those measures in duty with which another cannot be satisfied Thou thinkest that in the Worship of God thou mayest be guided and limited by the precepts and practices and traditions of other men others considering that it is but reasonable Worship being an Homage which the Soul payeth to God that God should prescribe his own Homage and considering that God hath declared himself to be a jealous God and affixed the declaration of this his jealousy to the second Commandment which concerneth his external Worship and that in the whole course of Scripture the revelations of Gods wrath appear more against sins relating to the Worship of God then any other sins they dare not in the matters of Divine Worship deviate from the Divine Rule wherein art thou by this prejudiced What reason is there for thine anger Surely they walk most safely that finding the Holy Scriptures a perfect rule able to furnish a man to every good work keep close to that and dare not in practice admit any thing but what they find there commanded or practised Thou ownest the Holy Scriptures as thy rule Why art thou offended that another keepeth closer to it then thou dost 2. Consider you are a great cause of the Spouses appearing black She is reproached for the contentious divisions and Schisms that are in it who are the cause of them those that keep to the rule of Gods Word or those that depart from it Surely the whiteness and purity of any Church lieth in its adherence to the Divine Rule the more a particular Christian or any society of Christians keep close to the pattern which Christ and his Apostles have set them and to the rule which God hath given them the more pure the more white and comely they are Their deviation from it is their blackness so are those contentions and divisions which arise in the Church because of those deviations it is a dreadful text 1 Cor. 3. 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy The Apostle is there speaking with reference to the Bodies of Professors which he had called the Temple of God But it is as true concerning the Church of God that is the Temple of God this is destroyed or defiled for the word may be translated by either of these words God saith the Apostle will destroy him who are they that defile the Church and indeed destroy it but those that are the cause of scandals in it either of its being black or of its appearing black unto the World 3. Lastly Let the words of our Saviour sink into your hearts Mat. 18. 7 Woe unto the World because of offences for it must needs be that offences must come but woe to that man by whom the offence â—ometh Luke repeating that passage ch 17. v. 1. addeth v. 2. It were better for him that a milstone were hung about his neck and he cast into the Sea then that he should offend one of these little ones Whoso considereth the Church as the only body of People in the World by whom God is spontaneously glorified and how God hath expressed his favour and love to it must dread the laying
universally agreed and that he wrote it by a divine inspiration can be as little questioned by him who understands aright the Jewish reverence of it and ranking it equally with other Books of the Canon Besides that the Churches constant possession of it requires some force of argument before it can be rejected and this hath not yet appeared Several witnesses indeed have come against it but either they have not been agreed or they have spake nothing Cogent in the cause Whereas some object the many amatorious expressions throughout the Song It signifies little to those who have so far observed the Scriptures as to take notice that as the Apostle makes use of the Ordinance of Marriage to represent the mystical Union between Christ and the Church Eph. 5. 32. So Christ is expresly called a Bridegroom his Church and the believing Soul in particular the Bride Joh 3. 29. And that his preparing the Soul for and uniting the Soul to himself is called a Betrothing Hos 2. 14 15. and the Church is called the Lambs Wife Rev. 22. and a pure Virgin 2 Cor. 11. Yea so far is this from being an argument against the Divine Authority of this sacred Book that the uncouthness of the same expressions is an argument that it is no meer Woman here intended for besides that which Mercer noteth out of Aben-Ezra that modesty would not have allowed Solomon to have left such expressions had they been to have been carnally interpreted upon publick record to posterity Nor was it lawful to the Jews to make their Sisters their Spouses yet is it a phrase often used in this Song My Sister my Spouse besides what I noted before of the strange comparisons used if they were carnally to be interpreted Whereas it is objected by others that the name of God is not once mentioned throughout the Book They might as well upon this account quarrel at the Book of Ecclesiastes out of the Canon or if not that yet the Book of Esther which are both subject to the same charge if any will tell us that though the name Jehovah be not found in Ecclesiastes yet other names of God are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Besides that neither those names are peculiar to God nor yet to be found in the Book of Esther We also say with Mercer That there is hardly a verse in this Song wherein mention is not made of God and Christ according to that metaphorical way of expression in which it pleased the Holy Ghost to dictate this Sacred Song to Solomon nor was their need of any further mentioning of God in a discourse composed in this form than under the notion of a Beloved c. in which notion he is frequently mentioned And certainly had this objection been of any value the superstitious Reverence which the Jews had of the name Jehovah would have engaged them first to have pickt this quarrel which yet it did not But Bernard gives another reason and with him I find Sixtus Senensis Delrio and others agreeing which I confess pleaseth me Amor loquitur qui Dominum nescit c. God is not indeed made known to us in this Song under the names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which speak Power Lordship Soveraignty Sufficiency c. It is love here speaks Quando vult timeri dominum quando vult honorari patrem quando amari sponsum se nominat Dominus Solomons design in this Book is to set out God in Christ reconciled to his Church and to the souls of his People imbracing them in the arms of loving kindness Those other names of God Jehovah Elohim c. spake the power and greatness of God which well suited the first dispensation of the Covenant of Grace which was more hard and rigorous than the latter dispensation of it So that the not naming of God under those fore-mentioned notions through out this book only speaks it a more evangelical portion of Scripture than some other Books of Holy Writ are Solomons design in this Book was to set out God in Christ reconciled to the Soul imbracing it in the sweetest arms of loving kindness and tender mercies The wisdom of the Holy Ghost therefore directeth Solomon to speak in a dialect proper to the matter he writeth nor is there any thing more usual in Scripture than for Gods people going to him for mercies to give him names expressive of that sufficiency which is in him and of that suitableness in him to the necessitous state of his people and readiness to help him David praying for Divine Protection calleth God his Rock his Shield his Buckler his strong Tower and Christ hath taught Gods Children to say unto him Our Father Nor thirdly Is their quarrel against this Sacred Book considerable who have this to object against it That no place of it is quoted in the New Testament for besides that by the same allegation they may blot out the Book of Judges Ruth 2 Sam. 2 Chron. Ecclesiastes and divers of the small Prophets out of the Canon of Scripture I say besides this there are some phrases in the New Testament which in the Judgment of Beza and others seem to be borrowed out of this Sacred Song such as those Joh. 6. 44 No man cometh to the Son but he whom the Father draweth compared with Can. 1. 4. Saint Paul tells his Corinthians that his desire was to present them to Christ as a Chast Virgin which corresponds with Chap. 5. v. 2. of this Song where Christ calls his Spouse Undefiled From what hath been said appeareth that although the Penman of this Book was Solomon yet a greater than Solomon was the Author of it Solomon an holy Man spake in it as he was inspired by God I proceed to the 2d Proposition 2. Prop. That this Book is a Song This argues it a piece of Hebrew Poetry wrote originally in Meeter upon which account it differs from most of the other Books of Holy Writ But more particularly I shall open this in 4 or 5 particulars 1. It is I say a Song one of those which the Apostle Eph. 5. calls Spiritual Songs it may be too hard a task for me to determine why it pleased the Holy Penman of this Scripture to write it in this rather than in any other form I shall by and by shew you that it was a Song of Love and possibly the holy Penmans design being to discourse the Souls Communion with Christ here under that Metaphor might be one cause Marriage-Songs being very ancient 2. To this I shall only add the observation which some have made of that singular vertue which the composing and singing of Songs hath had to excite and inflame the affections I remember our Divine Poet tells us That he was most with God while he was exercised in his Divine Poetry Besides the suitableness that a Song hath unto the natures of others the same Author observes That a verse may hit him
or despise me for it it is no native blackness it is but accidental to me it is not internal but external that which makes me thus black in your Eyes is those Affl ctions persecutions which I have met with in and from the world The exceeding heat of that sornace of affliction into which the Providence of God hath cast me hath scorched me and that is it which maketh me appear so black in your Eyes It followeth My Mothers Children were angry with me The Chaldee Paraphrast all along taking the Church of the Jews to be the Spouse here mentioned by Mothers Children here understands the Heathen who were the Children of her mother Eve tempting and seducing them to their Idolatryes The thing is true of that Church very often by the Heathen seduced to their Idolatrys but I find amongst Interpreters two other senses much more large and probable 1. Some by Mothers Children understand those lâ—sts and Corruptions which lye in the womb of our Souls Together with the habits of grace Thus Paul complaineth of the flesh lusting against the Spirit and of a law in his mâ—mbers rebelling against the law of his mind 2. others more probably understand such as are presumptive members of the same visible Church The true members of the Church can be no others then such as are ordained unto Life such as are truly Sanctified through the Sanctification of the Spirit But there are many others who from their external profession are presumptive members of it so may be called our Mothers Children tho not the Children of our Heavenly Father such are all false brethren all hypocrites glorying in an External profession and meer outward appearance Such as these are ordinarily angry with such as are the true Spouse of Christ David complained long since that he was become a stranger to his brethren an alien to his Mothers Children the Apostle Acts 20. 30. foretelleth to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus that there should arise of themselves men speaking perverse things to draw many disciples after them you may read at large in the Epistles to the Romans Corinthians Galatians how the primitive Churches of Christ were troubled with them and Paul in his Epistles to Timothy foretells that latter times should be more troubled with such as should resist the truth as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses It was Bernards Observation long since more lately noted by Genebrard upon my text that she doth not call them Brethren but only her Mothers Children not her Fathers for they were of their Father the Devil his works they did Many such there now are will be in the Church to the End of the World who have only a titular relation to Christ no real relation This now is a Second cause which the Spouse assigneth of her blackness There were many false brethren in her communion who had falsely represented and reported her and made her appear far more unlovely in the sight of others than indeed she was this I take to be the most proper sense of this phrase They made me the keeper of the Vineyards The Chaldee Paraphrast by the Vineyards here understands the Idolatry and Superstition of the Heathen to which the true members of the Jewish Church were tempted by the Heathen their Neighbours and the false brethren they had amongst themselves Hypocrites and formal professors are very prone to admit the Superstitions of men in the Worship of God The Pharisees in our Saviours time laid heavy burdens of humane traditions upon others Mat. 23. 4. Into this sense Mercer and Ainsworth interpret the text observing that it is their Vineyards their Vineyards opposed to her own Vineyard seems to imply the false Worship Rites and Ceremonies of dâ—bauched and apostatized Churches There is yet another sense of the words hinted by Delrio and Genebrard It is this They intangled me in secular affairs so made me neglect the things which were Spiritual and of much higher concernment to me This now is a third cause which the Spouse assigneth of her blackness 1. She had before told us she was Scorched with afflictions and persecutions The Sun had looked upon her 2. She had been betrayed by her own lusts and by false brethren and seduced her to intertain their corruptions to keep their Vineyards now she tells us That her secular diversions did also much contribute to her darkness she had been made to serve in the brick-kilns of the world Keeping of Vineyards was a great deal of the labour of those Countrys a painful and laborious imployment therefore you read 2 Kings 25. 12. upon the King of Babylons conquest of Judea that the Captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be Vine-dressers husbandmen those who in the parable had been labouring in the Vineyard tell the Lord of the Vineyard they had born the burden and heat of the day My own Vineyard I have not kept Here now the Spouse assigneth a fourth cause of her blackness The question here is what is meant by her own Vineyard It is manifestly to be understood of something which the Lord had committed to her to keep considering the Church as the Spouse The Oracles of God were committed to the Church of the Jews as the Apostle telleth us Rom. 3. 2. and the Church is called The pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. Paul tell us 1 Tim. 1. 11. that the glorious Gospel of the blessed God was committed to his trust and telleth Timothy the Ministry was committed to his trust St. Paul calls it his Gospel upon this account Rom. 26. 25. and saith they were put in trust with the Gospel that is the Custody and Ministration of it And St. Paul commandeth Timothy to commit the things which he had heard of him amongst many witnesses to faithful men who should be able to teach others That general term of the Gospel signifieth both the Propositions of the Truth and Doctrine of Faith contained in the new Testament and also those excellent rules which are to be found in it relating both to the Worship of God and the Government of the Church of Christ the dispensation and administration of it This Gospel as to the Ministration of it was by Christ committed first to the Apostles to be by them transmitted to faithful and able men as to the keeping of it to the whole Church The Church of Sardis Rev. 3. 8. is commended for keeping Christs word and not denying his name This undoubtedly is the Churches Vineyard The Province which God hath betrusted to her to keep But every particular Soul hath a Vineyard too And what is its Vineyard but its immortal Soul and the particular trust which God hath committed to it with relation both to its self and others What is the keeping of this Vineyard but a Christians observance of the duties incumbent upon him with reference to his more general or more particular calling So that understanding by the
Body of Christ to the Body natural for the order of the Parts and Members the several offices of the Members the mutual subserviency of one Member to another and that sympathy which should be found betwixt the Members Hence we are commanded by the Apostle to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those that weep and Paul saith of himself who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not and again we are commanded to remember those who are in bonds as if we were bound with them and those that suffer adversity as being our selves in the Body So that 1. The precept of God obligeth us to it who having made his people all one Body hath made them also Members each of other 2. Their relation calleth to them for it It seems to be the law of nature upon all near relations for it is not only where as in natural Bodies the natural union is made by Nerves and Sinews but where love hath made an union as in the union betwixt Parents and Children Husbands and Wives c. Nor is this to be extended only to such cases where the person beloved feels a burthen or misery but where they lie under it though they be not sensible of it what Husband or Wife is not affected with the affliction of their correlate in an Apoplexy or under some distempers of which themselves possibly have iittle or no sense So will every good Christian be affected at the case of his Brother fallen tho he possibly hath not that due sense of his own fall which he should have and at the case of the Church under its blackness though possibly the Rulers or generality of the Members be not so sensible of their own corruptions and deviations and to look upon the Spouse of Christ in her blackness with a mournful pitying and compassionate Eye is very much the duty of every good Christian and what we find the constant and religious practice of the People of God at all times 2. We may so far look upon the Spouses blackness as our sight of it may inform us better or quicken us to seek God on her behalf It is our duty to pray for one another James 5. 15. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another They are put together and the first seemeth to be mentioned as a means in order to the other How can I plead for a Church or a particular Child of God if I know nothing of their state how can I know it if I may not look upon it It is a divine indulgence granted by God to his People that they shall not be heard only praying for themselves but for their Brethren also 1 John 5. 16. If any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give them life for them who sin not unto death All a Christians sins in their own nature are mortal and unto death The Papists err in their distinction of sins into such as are mortal and such as are venial but no sin is mortal in that sense as it signifies what cannot be forgiven saving only the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost mentioned by our Saviour and in respect of Gods gracious Ordination no Child of God sinneth or can sin unto death Now where the sin is not unto death God hath promised us on the behalf of our Brethren that if we see them sinning and pray for them their sins shall be forgiven them Now if they may not look upon them in any sense or to any purpose how should they pray for them And thus it is highly the duty of Gods People to look both upon the Church and the People of God because of their blackness through affliction Is any man afflicted saith James 5. 14. let him pray and let them send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over them and the prayer of the faithful shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he hath committed sin it shall be forgiven him In this sense it is so far from being Christians sin that it is their duty to look upon the Spouse because she is black 3. Lastly It is Christians duty to look upon the Spouse because she is black so far as to inable us in any measure to the purging out their corruptions A good Christian ought so far to consider the corruptions of a Church as in his place to endeavour its reformation and consequently it cannot be his duty to have communion with her in those things wherein she deviateth from the rule of her Lord. It is true the effectual Authoritative Reformation of a National Church belongeth to the Rulers if they be Christians as appeareth by all the instances of the Old Testament concerning the Kings of Judah and such a Reformation of a particular Church or Congregation belongeth to the Officers of Christ in it but every private Christian hath his part viz. to inform such in whom the power is to bear a testimony against such corruptions and not to have fellowship with the Church in such things I cannot grant that all Corruptions in the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of a Church are a sufficient cause to conclude it no true Church and wholly to withdraw himself from the communion of it But I doubt not to say that it is my duty to withdraw Communion from a Church in such acts as without sin I cannot have communion with it but of this more by and by The case is the same in the case of a lapsed Brother I am bound to admonish him to tell him of his offence and if he will not hear me to take two or three with me If he will not hear them to tell the Church that he might be separated from the Communion of it The Apostle hath directed us If our Brother be overtaken with a fault to restore him in the Spirit of meekness Gal. 6. 1. Now in order to the performance of this I may yea it is my duty to look upon my Brother when he is black for the Lord who hath willed the end must be understood to have also willed the means that are necessary to that end Let me in the next place shew you what kind of looking on the Spouse in her blackness is sinful this I shall more largely open in several particulars 1. First We ought not to look upon them with a censorious and condemning Eye Neither for their seeming blackness through Afflâ—ctions nor yet for their real blackness through coorruption either breaking out of a Christians heart or appearing in a Church Judge not saith our Saviour Luk. 6. 37. and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned He that judgeth the truth of a Christians Grace or of a Churches state from the more external providences of God either towards the one or towards the other doth not consider what hath been the lot of the
presently after his death and troubled the Church for 300 years together the root of them was doubtless the worlds hatred this our Saviour hath learned us and in some measure armed his people against it John 15. 8. If the world hate you you know it hated me before it hated you If you were of the world the world would love his own But because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you God hath put an enmity betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent Christ and his Seed the Devil and his Children but in regard we must not so understand that Text Gen. 3. 15. as if God infused those evil habits of malice and envy and hatred of God and goodness but only that God would infuse such Spiritual gracious habits into the Souls of his People as through that native malice envy and corruption which is in the hearts of such as God pleaseth not to change by his special grace would provoke such an enmity in them we must inquire into the root and grounds of that hatred which produceth this enmity and hostility and that is 1. Their natural aversion to all piety and goodness And 2. That Pride which is in their hearts which suffereth them not to be patient of the preference of godly men in the favour of God nor of being excelled by them before men in such a conversation as their lusts will not suffer them to lead much less to be condemned by their Doctrines and reproofs hence they both hate such as will reprove them either in the Gate or from the Pulpit and because the Ministers of Christ are those to whose Office especially the latter belongeth hence they have in all times been made the buts and objects of their fury But though these afflictions come immediately and proximately from men yet they are also the appointments of God the counsels of God executed by his permissive Providence not restraining the malice and lusts of wicked mens hearts but suffering them to exert and put it forth the same account must be given of this sort as of other sorts of Gods afflictive dispensations 1. The punishment of his peoples sins 2. The trial exercise and manifestations of his peoples graces 1. The punishment of his peoples sins and this is for the most part evident in such Persecutions as fall upon whole Churches I say for the most part it is rare that God lets loose Enemies upon a setled Church to disturb its quiet till it hath losts its first love and admitted sinful mixtures Thus it fell out to the famous Churches of Asia to whom the Epistles were written in the Revelations and it may be the obvious decays of Religion in the Primitive Churches were no small cause of the Persecutions which vexed and destroyed them for three hundred years together 2. The trial exercise and manifestation of his peoples graces was also another cause this we are often told in the Epistles of the Apostles nor did the Church of Christ receive a small augmentation and increase by the courage and constancy the faith and patience of the Martyrs 3. Lastly God also by this means obtaineth another end viz. Wicked mens filling up the measures of their iniquities That upon them might come as our Saviour speaks all the righteous blood that hath been shed by their Fore-fathers But all this is a digression from the principal thing in the Proposition which is to shew you how these blacken the Spouse of Christ That is either 1. Really by drawing out corruption Or 2. Appearingly in the Eyes of the world 1. Afflictions often really blacken the Spouse of Christ as they draw out that latent Corruption which is in their Hearts This is true both concerning the Church and concerning the particular Soul 1. As to the Church which is by our Saviour compared to a Field of Wheat in which are Tares as well as Wheat and to a Net which within the swallow of it hath bad as well as good fish Now Persecution makes a great discovery of Hypocrites they that received the Seed into stony ground having no root in themselves fall away enduring but a while and when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth for the Word are immediately offended the Dragons Tail Revel 12. 4. drew down the third part of the Stars of Heaven and did cast them down to the Earth Thus it is seen in all Persecutions they alwaies discover a great number of Hypocrites false Brethren yea and often many of Gods People at first shrink and fall under the greatness of the temptation so you know it sell out as to Peter in the High Priests Hall and so it hath been with many of such as have at last dyed in the testimony of the truths of God These things make the Church black when the Sun looketh upon it though in the issue the melting of the Church proveth the purifying of it and making it exceeding white as you know it is with many things purified by fire though the fire maketh them at last more bright and pure yet at first till their dross be cleansed they look more black so it is with the Church of God in the day of its fiery trial So it is also as to Particular Christians Tribulation in them at last worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope Even such an hope as will not make ashamed but this is after some excercise therein Hence saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 11. Now no chastening for the present seeâ—oth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby How black did holy Job look Chap. 3. When he Cursed the day of his birth Who afterward being exercised with a long affliction came out white Till by Tribulation the Soul cometh to be humbled and tamed to the will of God and to have his will melted into a resignation to the will of God till his faith and patience come to be both tryed and to have their perfect work Tribulation and Persecution maketh the Spouse really black like the Person that hath taken Physick to purge out some ill humours so long as his Physick is working and strugling with the peccant humours he is sicker and appeareth worse then before he took it 2. But secondly Tho Persecution and Tribulation may at first make the Spouse really black yet they make her appear much more black then she is in the Eyes of the world and the generality of men and women in it of which a various account may be given I will instance but in two or three things 1. The first is the impressions which the calumnies and slanders of Enemies thrown upon the Church and upon believers have upon many people There is nothing more ordinary then when the Enemies of God are in their highest rage against his People to have their mouths fullest of obloquy and slander
a foundation for those scandals which arise in it and are thrown upon it from which it appeareth black Lastly You that are the sincerer part of the Church and have heard that you must expect that your Mothers Children should be angry with you that there should be some bad fish in the drag-net with the good some Tares in Christs Field of Wheat some that will be spots in your Assemblies and that these if they do not make you black yet will make you appear black what remaineth but that you take care that neither the lusts of your own hearts which are in a sense your Mothers Children make you black nor the opposition that you will meet with from such as are false Brethren make you appear more black then indeed you are This care of yours must be shewed 1. In a watchfulness against your motions to sin especially such sins as are your proper lusts the sins which do most easily beset you 2. In a mortifying of your Members 3. In a care that you be not unwarrantably disturbed and unduly disquieted because of the opposition which you find srom the law of your Members 4. In a maintaining the Spiritual Combate c. 5. In an innocent and inoffensive carriage in your stations that those who would speak evil of you as evil doers may see your good works and glorify your heavenly Father for so saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 15. is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolishmen in avoiding unnecessary divisions and separations we ought to walk with all that own the name of Christ as far as the Shooes of the Gospel will carry us where we cannot walk with any who call themselves Christians and walk with Christ that is keep to the rule and law which he hath given us there we must part and the offence lieth on their parts who give the cause of it but otherwise we ought to keep Unity Finally in a peaceable and quiet departing from them with whom we cannot agree I know all this will not avoid the unreasonable anger of some of our Mothers Children but by doing this we shall remove the stumbling stone and rock of offence from our own doors they will be those by whom offences come and the woe pronounced by our Saviour will belong to them Sermon XXXIX Cant. 1. 6. They made me the Keeper of the Vineyards THE Spouse is yet apologizing for her Blackness of which she assigneth four Causes 1. Her afflictions The Sun saith she hath looked upon me 2. Her opposition both from within and without My mothers Children were angry with me These I have discoursed and come now to the third Cause assigned by her expressed in these words They made me the Keeper of the Vineyards They that is my Mothers Children before mentioned made me the Keeper of the Vineyards In my Explication of the Text I hinted a double sense of the words the one literal the other metaphorical In the former it signified her intanglement in secular affairs Keeping the Vineyards is a secular imployment a mean imployment and a laborious imployment Thence you read that the General of the Assyrian Army 2 King 25. 12. left of the poor of the Land to be the Dressers of the Vineyards and those in the Parable who had laboured in the Vineyard told their Lord that they had born the heat of the day Thus the sense is I have been too much intangled in secular affairs that hath been the cause of my blackness 2. Others understand the term Vineyard in a metaphorical sense God useth the term to signifie his Church Isa 5. 1 2 3. As God hath a Vineyard so Idolaters and superstitious persons had their Vineyards Most Heathen Nations having some notions of a God have had some Worship of a Deity and wanting the guidance of holy Writ grew vain in their own imaginations hence came Idolatry and Superstition the Israelites having lived many years in Egypt and in their passage through the Wilderness conversing with the Moabites and Midianites and not driving out all the Canaanites out of the promised Land by converse with them learned to know and to serve their gods as you shall read in their whole story in the Books of Kings and Chronicles there being a corrupt as well as a sincerer part in the Jewish Church the corrupter part imposed upon the whole the Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship and Rites of these Nations This is the sense into which the Chaldee Paraphrast interpreteth these words I am not apt to think this the sense but more incline to the former yetâ—â— shall not wholly pass it over partly because the Chaldee Paraphrast is a very antient Interpreter and partly because that sense carries a truth in it Hence arise two Propositions Prop. 1. That a submission to false Worship and Superstitious Rites in the Service of God will make the Spouse of Christ appear black Prop. 2. That great entanglements in secular affairs will make the Spouse of Christ black I shall speak shortly to the first and more largely to the second which I rather think to be the sense The Church of God hath three things committed to her trust the Doctrine of the Gospel the Ordinances of Worship The Rules of Discipline The admission of corruption in any of these maketh a Church black as it is a breach of trust and a deviation from the Divine Rule This is sufficiently proved by the message Christ sent to the seven Churches of Asia He let the Church of Ephesus know that he had something against her because she had left her first love Rev. 2. 4. v. 13. He reflecteth upon the Church of Pergamus because she had those in her who held the Doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans v. 20. He reflecteth on the Church of Thyatira for suffering the woman Jezabel to seduce the Servants of God to commit fornication and to eat things offered to Idols Nor is any thing plainer in the whole story of the Jewish Church than that the admission of corruption in the Worship and Order of that Church was that which made it black and defiled and look unlovely in the Eyes of God and was at last the cause of its ruine and destruction But because Christians may not so distinctly understand either wherein the Nature of Worship lies or wherein the difference lieth betwixt that which is true and false I shall in a few Conclusions lay down what I conceive to be truth in this case and then pass on to the handling of the Proposition arising from the other sense of the words 1. Worship is an homage performed to God immediately in consideration of his Excellency This is Aquinas's and other of the Schoolmens notion about Worship and it is a very good one 2. This homage is either the homage of the outward or inward man The homage of the inward man lieth in the exercises of our Faith Love Fear the exercise of
much to be therewith content It is an excellent Exhortation which the Apostle hath given and those are especially capable to receive to whom God hath given a plenty in this world Heb 13. 4. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with those things which you have for God hath said I will never leave nor forsake you Let this caution us all in the last place to take heed how we keep Vineyards how we make our selves drudges and slaves to secular imployments Take heed of such a Service to the world as is inconsistent with that duty and service which you owe unto God You cannot serve two Masters you cannot serve God and Mammon Suffer me to allude to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 9 10. I wrote saith he to you an Epistle not to keep company with Fornicators yet not altogether with the Fornicaters of this world or with the Covetous or the Extortioners or the Idolaters for then you must go out of the world But now I have wrote to you not to keep company if any Brother c. I do but allude to the Text. Brethren I have this day been speaking to you to have a care of medling with the world because it wasts your time spends your spirits distracts your thoughts allureth and inticeth you to the too much love of it because it will be a blot upon your Profession yet I would not be understood as if I had been persuading you to the lives of lazy Monks and Nuns and Hermites if you will have nothing to do with the world you must not live in it God hath commanded us in the sweat of our face to eat our bread The Apostle bids that those who would not labour should not eat and hath told us that he would have us to labour with our hands that we might have something to give to those that want and hath told us that he who provideth not for his family is worse than an Infidel and hath denied the Faith Only take heed how you converse with it that you be not by it defiled that it takes not up too much of your time nor wasts too much of your spirits and strength that it leadeth you not into temptation distracteth not your hearts in holy duties Keep thy foot when thou goest into the House of God look to your thoughts and affections when you draw nigh unto God in holy services and duties use the world so as thou mayest have time for Religious duties in thy family and mayest not by thy worldly concerns be distracted in them I would speak to you in this case as Paul doth in the case of servitude to men and of Marriage Are you by the Providence of God loosed from the world seek not to be bound to it Do your necessities call and for the present bind you to it Till God by favourable Providence loosen you from it do not loosen your selves by idleness and laziness It is possible thou mayest be God's free-man while thy necessities bind thee to worldly business I confess thou hast an hard task but saith the Apostle Let every man in the Calling wherein and whereto he is called abide therein with God Mark that last term not without God not in a neglect of his duty to God but with God Labour to have manum in clavo oculos in coelo to be in thy heart thoughts and affections with God whiles thou art imployed in thy lower business and concerns in this life Sermon XL. Canticles 1. 6. But my own Vineyard I have not kept THe Spouse by which I understand the Church of Christ and every particular believing Soul that is a true member of it is yet apologizing for her blackness or appearing blackness from the causes of it three of which she hath already assigned 1. Her afflictions or persecutions The Sun hath looked upon me 2. Her opposition from false Brethren My Mothers Children were angry with me 3. Her submission to Idolatrous or Superstitious Rites Or her too great intanglements in secular affairs They made me saith she the keeper of their Vineyards She comes now to a fourth Her own too much neligence My own Vineyard I have not kept 1. The Spouse had hitherto not much charged her self she had charged her blackness upon her afflictions and Persecutions upon the opposition she had met with from false Brethren and upon her intanglement in Secular affairs but was there no fault in her self here now she comes to lay much of the blame upon her self My own Vineyard faith she I have not kept Gods dispensations of Providence to me saith she have been some cause of my blackness The opposition I have met with from false Brethren have yet been a greater cause but the truth is saith she notwithstanding both these had not the fault been my own I had not been so black I might have kept my Vineyard better then I have done The truely gracious and humble Soul will not as to its failings excuse it self wholly It may charge something upon forreign causes out of its self either from God or Satan or men but will not discharge its own naughty and corrupt heart The hypocrite chargeth God and the Devil and men highly but seldom chargeth himself or if at all very faintly The reason lyeth in the pride of his heart which will not suffer it to stoop so low as to give God glory or to take any shame to its self 2. Secondly Observe what words they are which these words immediately follow They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but my own Vineyard I have not kept The Soul that is too much abroad is ordinarily too little at home he or she that must have an Oar in every ones Boat seldom hath his own Boat well governed Such a Soul is like the gadding housewife whose own house rarely is well lookt after This happeneth especially when the Soul is much abroad about secular concerns the Soul though it be of a Spiritual nature yet is very capable of being laden with and mired in thick Clay No Soul is so careless of things of an Eternal concern as those Souls which are most careful and sollicitous about things transitory and perishing There is a kind of inconsistency betwixt the business of the world and the business of Heaven the prefent world and that which is to come Nor is any Church so neglective of the Vineyard with which God hath betrusted it as that Church that hath bowed down to impositions of false worship But I shall not largely discourse either of these points though there be a good foundation in the text for it There are vet two other 3. Thirdly It is the Spouse that here complaineth saying My own Vineyard I have not kept Hence observe Even Gods own People are to ready to neglect the Vineyard with which God hath betrusted them 4. Fourthly In that she assigneth this as one and that no small cause of her blackness observe Prop. The
Churches or particular Christians negligence in keeping of their own Vineyard is one main cause of their appearing blackness This includeth the other I shall therefore discourse them together I shall handle this by inquiring 1. What is the Spouses own Vineyard 2. Wherein the keeping of this Vineyard doth lye 3. I shall shew you That even the Spouse of Christ is aâ—t to neglect her own Vineyard 4. I shall shew you what the Ordinary causes of this negligence are 5. Then I shall shew you how this doth cause her to appear black After which I shall make some application of the discourse 1. There is no man that liveth be he believer or unbeliever but were he sensible of it hath a Vineyard committed to him by God to keep It is his Soul Nor is this interpretation of the Metaphor without some foundation in holy Writ The Lord expressing the sinful works of the Jews saith Deut. 32. 32. Their Vine is of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah Their grapes are grapes of gâ—ll their clusters are bitter Their Wine is the poison of Dragons and the cruel venom of Asps Works you know are the fruit of the Soul as Wine and Grapes are the fruits of the Vine As God when he first created man trusted him with a garden to keep so he never breaths into man the breath of life so as he becomes a living Soul but he gives him a Soul to till cultivate and take care of The Soul of man is a Soil naturally prone to bring forth weeds briars and thorns yet capable also to admit plantations of grace and vertue for grace grows not naturally in the Soul more then the Vine doth in the Vineyard I might shew you many other particulars by which this sense of the Metaphor might be justifyed but I forbear that discourse 2. Secondly You may here by Vineyard understand whatsoever God hath committed to a mans trust to be kept maintained and looked after by him Now all this considering man singly personally is summed up in two things The profession of faith and the Profession of holiness 1. A profession of faith both of the Doctrine of faith and of the grace or habit of saith It lyeth upon a Christian to keep both 2. The profession of holiness which is indeed but the practice of faith for that worketh by Love and the fruits of holiness must proceed from the root of faith This is every Christians Vineyard and indeed the Vineyard of his Soul is not kept without the keeping of these Hence David glorieth that he kept the ways of the Lord Psal 18. 21. Paul kept the faith 2 Tim. 4. 7. David kept the Lords testimonies his Law his Precepts his Word Psal 11. 9. 22 55 56 67. The Church of Philadelphia is commended for keeping the Lords Word Revel 3. 8. The word of his patience v. 20. This is the Vineyard of every Christian according to the more publick or private station which he hath in the Church of God 2. The Church of Christ hath a Vineyard also Indeed the Church is her self compared to a Vineyard Isa 5. and in the parable of him who let out his Vineyards to husbandmen but in that sense Christ is himself the Keeper of it Onely he lets it out to husbandmen intrusting certain Officers of his own appointment with the managery of the affairs of it but himself hath such a Superintendency upon it and so keepeth it that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The Church hath a Vineyard to keep what is this Vineyard but the Doctrine of faith The Ordinances of our great Lord for worship and for discipline These are the Churches Vineyard Paul speaking of the Church of the Jews saith that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. Paul saith the dispensation of the Gospel was committed unto him 1 Cor. 9 17. The word of reconciliation is said to be committed to the Ministers of the Gospel 2 Cor. 1. 19. The Gospel was committed to Pauls trust 1 Tim. 1. 11. Hence Timothy is spoken to to keep that which was committed to his trust 1 Tim. 6. 20. The Church is therefore called The pillar and ground of truth and is fitly compared to the Ark in which was laid up the Pot of Manna signifying the word and truths of God The two Tables containing the Laws for Worship and our more ordinary conversation and the rod of Aaron signifying the Government and discipline of the Church The rules for these are laid up in the Church being part of those Oracles of God which are committed to it It is a task which God hath layed upon his Church to keep this Vineyard What it is to keep it we may easily gather from an understanding what it is to keep a Vineyard or nursery or garden c. It signifies the keeping it clean from Weeds which would hinder the growth and flourishing of the plants and return the place into its former incultivated state and condition To keep it with digging planting manuring dressing and cultivating that it may yield that fruit and profit to the Owner which he expects from it and for which he at first planted it Hence then may easily be concluded what it is both for a particular Christian and for a Church to keep its own Vineyard The whole business lyeth in these 2 things 1. It signifieth a Christians keeping of his Soul from Errors and from lusts and corruptions All motions and inclinations to sin are the Souls Weeds and what the Souls of the best of men are too prone to its natural fruit and Quod Sponte prodit laetiâ—â— prodit naturally Weeds grow faster then induced plants A particular Christians care in keeping the Vineyard of his Soul lies in keeping his understanding and judgment untainted with Errour as to Doctrine in keeping his will from closing with motions to sin whether from within or without and his conscience sprinkled from Evil works So for the Church of Christ her keeping her Vineyard lies in preserving in all her members a purity of Doctrine in opposition to the impurity of corrupt opinions and errors A purity of Worship in opposition to all Superstition and Will-Worship and a purity of discipline 2. Secondly it implieth the Souls filling and furnishing it self with knowledge and Spiritual habits the plants which the Lord would have to stand and to grow in all parts of his inheritance and in every Soul that pretendeth any relation unto him As the Gardiner who is intrusted with the keeping of any of your Gardens doth not keep them as he ought unless beside the weeding of them and purging them of Weeds and nettles he also furnisheth them with useful plants and herbs and keeps them duly cut and pruned c. So neither doth that man or woman keep the Vineyard of his own Soul that doth not take care to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and in all other
good and vertuous habits So as to the Church that Church doth not keep its own Vineyard that doth not besides purging itself of errors and scandals take care also that the truths of God be duly preached and published and the Ordinances of God purely administred This is now for the Spouse to keep or not to keep her own Vineyard now I say the Spouse of Christ whether the Individual Spouse which is every truly gracious Soul or the collective Spouse Which is the Church of God is very prone to neglect the keeping of its own Vineyard This needeth no other Evidence then the experience of all Christians and all Churches and that in all ages 1. I say first the Experience of particular Christians for who liveth and sinneth not against God The righteous falleth 7 times in a day now though it be true that many of the sins of Gods people are sins of pure infirmity Either through ignorance or impotency to resist the temptation yet both this ignorance and impotency are often occasioned through a neglect or not improvement of the means of knowledge and better information and through our not preparing our selves to the Spiritual fight putting on the whole Armor of God as we ought to have done Avoiding occasions to Sin abstaining from the appearances of Evil and giving no advantage to the adversary all which are our duties and enjoined us by the Apostle 2. Nor Secondly either is there or ever was any Church of God upon the Earth that kept its own Vineyard as it ought to have done The Church of the Jews was the only Church God had upon the Earth until the time of John the Baptist Whosoever readeth their story in the Books of Moses the Books of Kings and Chronicles or in the Writings of the Prophets will find that they did not keep their own Vineyard Never had any Church a trust more clearly committed to them they could have no long disputes about any thing of the revealed will of God if any question did arise they had an infallible rule Deut. 17. for the determination of it yet as I told you before as the ten Tribes made a total defection after the reigns of David and Solomon both whose reigns made up but 80 years in the latter part of which in Solomon's time towards the latter end of his Reign they also admitted very great corruptions so in the Kingdom of Judah they lost what was committed to their trust many times and seldom kept it 60 years together in any degrees of purity So that in Josiahs time the Book of the law was thrown about and hid in the rubbish and found by the repairers of the house of the Lord as you find in the story of the Book of the Kings Now that this was their most wilful neglect appeareth by their frequent reductions though not perfect to the Divine rule When Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Joash Josiah attempted it and the plain revelation which they had of the will of God both from the letter of the law their way for decision of doubts about it and the Prophets which God favoured them with all the while that Kingdom remained After that Church was destroyed and the Christian Church set up all the Apostolical Epistles give a proof of the proneness of Churches to neglect the keeping of their own Vineyards and of the Lords Watchmen to sleep while the Enemy sowed tares The same is also Evidenced by all Ecclesiastical history and from the History of all modern Churches their Deviations in Doctrine Worship Discipline c. testify it Nor is the reason of this aptness in us to neglect the keeping of our own Vineyards hard to be assigned 1. The first is the laboriousness of the work and the crosness of it to the genius of Flesh and blood For a Christian to keep his heart with all diligence is no easy work it lies much in a Christians denial of himself taking up the Cross mortifying his members as to which our flesh incessantly cries in the language of Peter Master spare thy self So that he who doth it rows as we say both against wind and tide It requires much knowledge and judgment to keep a mans self unspotted from errors but a great degree of self denial for any man to keep himself unspotted from the pollution of the World through lust upon this account it is that our Saviour compareth the way â—o heaven to a narrow way a strait gate And tells us that it is as easy for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle as for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God Our work is compared by our Saviour to a cutting off the right hand and plucking out of a right Eye In works of great labour and difficnlty we are very prone you know to be remiss and negligent 2. But this is not all The native corruption and inclination in mans heart to deviate from the holy and right ways of God is a great cause I must confess that as to the Churches keeping its Vineyard I cannot apprehend such a difficulty in it As to truth a man indeed cannot believe what he listeth but the Church notwithstanding this may keep the Doctrine of saith if particular Persons that are otherwise persuaded in some points then the rest of the Church is would but learn what the Apostle directs in that case Hast thou saith have it to thy self Rom. 14. and not think themselves obliged to publish to the disturbance of a Church what is their own particular opinion As to Ordinances relating to Worship and Government what difficulty can there be in keeping strictly to the Divine rule and doing that alone which Gods Word requireth the questions concerning that would be very few if men did not lay hold upon some general passages and apply them to their own fancies Were men but fixed in this to adhere to the Divine rule without diminishing it or without adding to it unless in cases where such additions are apparently necessary certainly this were all to be required in order to the Churches keeping its own Vineyard as to the Ordinances committed to it But the corruption of mans heart inclining him to interpret the will of God in a consistency to his own reason makes all the difficulty in the Churches keeping the Doctrine of faith And the wild humour that hath always possest men to Worship God according to their own fancies and to create decencies and matters of order according to their own pleasure and to conform their Altars to that of Damascus hath been all along in the story of the Church the cause of the Churches neglecting to keeps its proper Vineyard 3. Thirdly It is much caused from the mixture of the world in our conversation This is true both as to the neglect of the particular Christian as to the neglect of the Church also As to the particular Christian we are but flesh and have senses to be gratified with pleasures
profits honour c. as well as with the supply of our necessities We live in and converse with the world which is full of objects that gratifie our sensitive appetite in these things these are continual temptations to us to remit at least the care of our own souls to neglect our own Vineyards The Church also while it is militant here on Earth considered as Visible hath in it a great mixture of the world though not of the Pagen world there must be a profession of Christ in all the Members of the Visible Church yet of that world which lyeth in wickedness and it is this mixture of Hypocrites with such as are the sincere Servants of God that causeth the Church's neglect of its Vineyard All the remissness in a Church of its care as to the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of Christ proceedeth from this mixture of persons who are no more than Visible with such as are sincere and true Members of the Church of Christ 4. A fourth cause of this neglect is mens foolish presumptions that they are well enough The work of every particular Person in keeping the Vineyard of his own Soul is so contrary to the grain of flesh and blood that not only the natural man but even the Sanctified man in regard of that corruption which is yet in him is ready to take up with short measures of it and to think his Vineyard is well enough kept when indeed it is not men are loth to be righteous over much and are very apt to think that a little is enough We are very apt to think that we do enough duty and consider not the mark which we are to press after the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ It is something natural to us to think we may not only do but over-do what God requireth of us when alas when we have done all we can we are unprofitable servants servants so that what we do is but our duty unprofitable servants so that what we do cometh much short of our duty Perfection is what we are all bound to aim at and strive after but withal it is what no man attaineth not as though I had already attained or were already perfect saith the Apostle You know in works that are not naturally pleasing to us we are well pleased to think we have done enough Thus it is in the business of Religion and holiness they are things which please not flesh and blood so as we are well pleased when we can Satisfy our selves and think that we need do no more nor go any further and as it is with particular Christians so it is with Churches all which have not Pastors and Governours according to Gods own heart nor are all the members of them members of Christ Now those who are not so are no great lovers of nor zealous for the perfection of purity but can take up with measures short of those which Christ hath made and given Hence is that neglect of the keeping their own Vineyards which is but too obvious in all Churches and hence are those obvious declinations in that duty which men owe to God and in the purity of Churches every Age is still declining and growing worse then the former whiles a party in the Church still studyeth more and more to wriggle their neck out of the yoke of Christ and to get rid of some ingrateful things to flesh and blood which a former Age retained For as no particular Person at first runs up to the highest degree of wickedness so seldom doth any Church at first Apostatize to that degree but gradually declineth None shall need to enquire whence it is that this Neglect of our own Vineyards maketh us to appear thus black who but considereth that this Neglect is contrary to the Divine rule which obligeth us to keep our hearts with all diligence Prov. 423. to strive after perfection and to go on unto it and also obligeth all Churches to keep that which is committed to their trust to keep the Lords Word c. There is no medium in this case betwixt black and white The Whiteness beauty and glory of a Christian lyeth in his holding fast of his profession both of faith and holiness his keeping close to the divine rule and here in also lyeth the whiteness and beauty of those assemblyes of Christians which we call Churches and the more or less both of a Christians and of a Churches beauty and whiteness lyeth in his or their more or less conformity to the divine rule which being granted their neglect of this must necessarily render them black and make them to appear so to others This discourse may in the first place let us see the weakness of our faith in our different apprehensions of our worldly and spiritual concernments Certainly had we the same persuasions that we have Souls as that we have Bodies as quick apprehensions of the danger of our Souls miscarriage as we have of our bodily dangers had we but a firm persuasion of the excellency of our Souls above our Bodies we should have an equal if not a greater care to keep this Vineyard of our immortal Soul as we have to keep our Bodies but have we so It is true there are some in the World that are lazy and slothful as to their outward concerns they will rather steal or beg then work but these are but few in comparison of others God hath given men a body to look after with what diligence doth he keep that he riseth up early lyeth down late and eateth the bread of carefulness and all this for the keeping of his body but for this Vineyard of the Soul of man how few are they that look after it how little is the diligence that is used in keeping of that who attendeth the health of his Soul with that diligence that he attendeth his bodily health or the maintenance and food of his Soul with the same diligence that he attendeth his bodily food and sustenance or the adorning of his Soul with the same care and diligence that he attendeth the adorning of his body What doth this argue doth it not speak either that men have no great opinion that they have immortal Souls or that they have no great opinion of the price and value of them or that they do not think there is so much care necessary for the keeping of them We may observe from hence upon what the blackness of particular Souls and Churches is principally to be charged There may be some blame to be laid upon forrein causes Temptations from the World and the Devil but the greatest blame must be laid upon our selves Did we keep our watch so strictly as we might keep it Temptations could have no such power upon us as they have the Devil and the world can do no more then strike fire the tinder that receiveth it must be in our own box when the Prince of the World came to Christ
put on thy shoes upon thy feet and cover not thy lips It was also a token of shame Harlots were wont to cover themselves Gen. 38. 14. It was also done as a token or signification of modesty so you read of Rebeccah Gen. 24. 65. when she heard of Isaac his coming towards her she hasted and took a vail and covered her self this custom of Virgins covering themselves was of long use in the Church of God so that Tertullian who lived 2 or 300 years after Christ hath a particular Book to persuade the upholding of that custom which it should seem then began to be disused Our Translators interpret the word turn aside The cause of the difference lies in the doubtfulness whether the Hebrew root be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first signifieth to turn aside the second to cover Hence also ariseth the difference of Interpreters about the next term By the flocks of thy Companions Those who interpret the former word turn aside understand by Companions Idolaters and Superstitious persons who indeed make themselves the companions of Christ or rather make their Idols his companions some interpret it of Hereticks Idolaters make their Idols Christs Companions by giving that Homage to them which is due to him alone Thus the Papists do to their Images and Crucifixes to Saints and Angels Hereticks make their leaders Christs Companions making them the guides of their faith and practice which is an Homage due unto Christ alone Indeed Christ hath properly no Companion consider him as to his Divine Nature He is and there is none besides him nor hath he any Companion as our Mediator and Intercâ—ssor He trode the Wine-press alone neither was any of the People with him he had no Companion either in his Kingly Prophetical or Priestly Office But he hath some who call themselves his Companions and arrogate to themselves that title nay which others sinfully make his Companions Beza thinks these are here meant 2. But secondly Christ hath some who though they are not strictly his Companions yet he graciously so calleth them being as the Apostle saith not ashamed to call them Brethren of these I should chuse to understand the text and though I am very tender of differing from the received translation of a Church in any matter of moment should be more inclined as I said before to translate the former term one covered So the sense is For why should I be amongst thy People as a Mourner or as one that is an Harlot with whom thou wilt have no communion or fellowship Why should I walk as one covered either as a Mourner or as a Strumpet amongst thy People whom thou hast so far owned as to declare thy self not ashamed to call them Brethren or Companions This I take to be the sense of the Petition O thou whom my Soul loveth above all other objects whatsoever who art my Shepheard let me know where and how I may enjoy communion with thee how I may have fellowship with thee in a time of trouble and affliction and when I may have the nearest fullest and most uninterrupted communion with thee for why should I for want of thy presence be under a constant temptation to turn aside from a true fellowship and communion with thee to the Synagogues and Assemblies of Idolaters Or why should I walk amongst thy People either as a Mourner or as an Harlot whom thou hast cast off or divorced To this now her Beloved answereth O thou fairest amongst Women it is an Hebraeisme a way they have to express the superlative degree so Luk. 1. 28. 42 Thou art blessed amongst Women that is very much very highly blessed So the Lyon is said to be strong among Beasts Prov 30. 30. that is the strongest Beast It is no more then in our dialect O thou that art fairest to whose Beauty in my Eyes no others Beauty is to be compared If thou knowest not the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Septuagint translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if thou dost not know thy self the vulgar Latin Aethiopick Syriack and Arabick Translators and indeed most ancient Interpreters that I meet with follow the Septuagint and translate it If thou knowest not thy self Hence Bernard upon the place runs into a large discourse concerning Christians ignorance of themselves and the profitableness of our knowledge of our selves according to the ancient Precept of the wise man amongst the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But undoubtedly though this be a great truth yet it is nothing to the sense of this text where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Pleonasme as both Tremellius Mercer and Mariana three Interpreters very learned and critical in the Hebrew Dialect do all agree so as we translate it truly according to our Idiom If thou knowest tho in the Hebrew it be If thou knowest to or for thy self It followeth Go thy way by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy flocks by the Shepheards Tents These words now contain her beloveds direction if she were at a loss what to do in a time of streights or how to enjoy the most full and free communion with him she must go her way by the footsteps of the flock Interpreters vary in the sense of these words according to their different notion of the former If thou knowest not Those that will not allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Paragogical or Pleonastical but will interpret them If thou knowest not thy self and so make the whole to be a rebuke or chiding of the Spouse for her ignorance or pride will have the flocks here to be the flocks of Idolaters and Hereticks and by the Kids here understand her own vain imaginations and make this speech to be the language of an angry God giving up a People in wrath according to that of the Apostle to strong delusions to believe a lie for their wilful ignorance and non-improvement of the means of grace This is the sense put upon the words by Hierome Gregory Bernard Aquinas Lyra and others And there is a truth in this when a people continue in the bosom of a Church under the means of grace ignorant proud and unprofitable God often in wrath giveth them over to Seducers and leaves them to the vanities and delusions of their own hearts a Judgment of all others most formidable But certainly this is not the sense of the words Delrio though a Papist differs from them and gives us a good reason telling us if that had been our Lords meaning he would never in the same breath have called her the fairest among Women Therefore Tremellius both the English and Dutch Annotators Deodate Piscator Mariana and others understand here by the footsteps of the flock and by the Shepherds Tents the Precepts and Examples of Moses and Aaron the Prophets and the Apostles and the purer Church of God and by the Kids mentioned they understand particular Souls So that the sense of the words
Servants v. 10. They hated him that rebuk d in the gate and abhorred him that spake sprightly v. 12. They afflicted the just They took Bribes and turned aside the poor in the gate from their right These are they of whom God saith I will not smell in your Solemn assemblies To the same purpose God speaks Jer. 6. 20. To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your Sacrifices sweet unto me And Isaiah 2. 11 12 13 14. Look as it is with some very strong natural ill savours they do not only themselves offend our nostrils but they so infect the whole air which should bring the sweeter savour of some other things which we have about us to our nostrils that nothing smells sweet we smell nothing but the Castoreum or other stinking thing so it is with rampant lusts and corruptions with notorious Scandalous sins whether the acts of impiety towards God such are Idolatry c. Or acts of injustice and uncharitableness towards men they send forth such a strong and ill savour in the nostrils of God that the Lord can smell a sweet savour of nothing they do that live in such sins he will not smell in their Solemn assemblies their Sacrifice are abomination to God God cannot away with the calling of their assemblies Ah how many are there whose smells are of this nature 2. Neither are these smells only offensive to God but to the Church of God The Protestant Religion may speak to these Simeons and Levies You have troubled us you have made me to stink amongst Papists and Atheists and God grant that these spots in the assemblies of Protestants in our time cause not the latter part of Jacobs Words to be verifyed upon us That our Enemies gather not together against us and slay us and we be destroyed 2. We may learn from hence That a true Child of God need not set a Trumpet to his own mouth to blazon and proclaim his vertues The Wise man saith Let anothers mouth praise thee and not thy own The Child of God needs not that his own mouth should praise him His Spikenard will send forth the smell thereof and that is alwaies a pleasant smell Good Wine needeth no Bush we say We have a saying That Virgins should be seen and not heard God's Virgins should be so they should be seen acting and exercising their gracious habits not heard admiring themselves for them It is the Pedler that goeth about the Country proclaiming his Pins Points and Laces The rich Merchant though better furnished leaves himself to the report that others shall give of his Warehouse The naughty woman praedicates her own vertues whiles the woman that is truly vertuous trusts her reputation to those who see and observe her to speak of her as they find her You need not write upon a Box of Spikenard This is Spikenard the smell will tell you what it is From what you have heard you may observe That every one is not to be condemned whose Spikenard sends not forth so strong a smell as anothers There is no Child of God but hath his Spikenard his Box of Spikenard his measure of grace but every one hath not the same measure The least of the Believer's Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof But I have shewed you before that in the People of God there are differences in degrees of grace None can lay claim to the name of a Believer or a Child of God but he must have some faith some love some gracious habits and must bring forth some fruits of holiness proportionable to his measure of grace One Christian hath not the like measures of grace as another nor the like influence of heat from the Sun of Righteousness to elicit the smell of those good habits But of the necessity of that I shall speak more under the next Proposition If a Christian's Soul be kept from scandalous and presumptuous sins if he liveth up to those measures of knowledge and light which God hath given him if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we say in the generality of his conversation he walks close with God though in some things his foot slippeth a Christian is not to be condemned if his Spikenard sends forth the smell thereof though larger quantities in others and under more incouraging and glistering circumstances send forth a greater and stronger smell 4. A Christian may hence take some comfort who doth not see his own grace It is the case of many a good Christian yea almost of every good Christian at one time or another he cannot see his own Faith or Love or it may be any other habit of grace with which the Lord hath blessed him Others possibly can see much good much of God in him he can see nothing in himself This often perplexeth a Christian who thinks that he should know himself best But the judgment of others is not alwaies to be despised as no foundation of comfort Grace casts its smell and there may be a time when a Christian's grace and Spiritual life may be more discernable to others than to himself Nay there are several such times times of natural disturbances from Melancholy times of Divine Desertion times of great Temptation In all such times others are better Judges of the People of God's grace and sincerity than themselves are these things cast a mist before their Eyes 5. I shall conclude this Discourse with a word of Exhortation To do what in us lies that our Spikenard may send forth the smell thereof It amounteth to that of our Saviour Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven I shall press it with two Arguments 1. It is no Spikenard that sendeth forth no smell no pleasant smell James tells us that Faith without works is dead that is it is no true Faith John calleth pretended love to God without love to the Brethren no love Tantum es quantum agis a man is so much and no more a Christian than he acts and liveth like a Christian 2. There is nothing so scandalous in the World so dishonourable to God so dangerous and infignificant to our selves as the name of Saints without the smell of Saints The World expects that things and persons should in some measure answer their names hence it is that the falls and slips of Christians make a greater noise and give a greater offence to the World than the grosser actions of persons who make no pretences to Religion and Godliness For Branches in Christ which bring forth no fruit Christ tells us the Husbandman his Father will cut them off These are they who bring up an evil report upon the waies of God and make them to be abhorred Nor can an empty name be of any significancy to our selves I shall shut up this Discourse with a few Directions 1.
followers of Paul been to despise the followers of Cephas and those that followed Apollo to despise those that followed Paul How subject have we been to contemn those not of our own form though possibly better Scholars in Christs School then we for Scholarship in Religion is not to be judged by forms in the Church Certainly it had been much better for those self conceited Christians that looking upon their own beauty have so scorned others as low legal Christians to have thought with themselves Ah! but what is my Beauty to Christs Beauty And why do I despise who my self have not attained 2. A 2d sort of professors have erred by thinking of themselves above the measure of faith given to them I know nothing hath contributed so much to the miserable distempers of our Church as this that our professors have looked their faces in a multitiplying glass there they have beheld their parts above what indeed they were yea and their graces too But alas Friends Suppose them what you would have them there is no cause of glorying for if thou hast received it why doest thou glory as if thou hadst not received And let the parts and graces that make thee beautiful be what they will certainly they are short of Christs still who is thy great Example 3. But most abominable are those who dream that they are as holy as Christ as perfect as he is yea that they are Christed and Godded They may be Devilled and Sathanized with pride and self conceit but certainly when the Saint is grown to the highest pitch Christ must be higher by the head and shoulders Did these poor worms ever drink of that cup of which he drank Or were they ever baptized with the Baptism wherewith he was baptized If not how come they to sit at his right hand were they the onely begotten Sons of God full of grace and truth How then come they if they were not so to be sharers with him in his glory Away then with this blasphemous pride and if thou O thou worm of the Earth knowest not how to difference Christs Beauty from thine go to the Sun and Moon and Stars and consider if the imperfect twinkling light of the latter bear any Proportion to the triumphing light of the former go and learn how the heat of thy hand made hot by the Fire can possibly be proportionable to the heat of the Fire which gave thy hand what heat it hath But no more of this It is a thing not fit to be named amongst Christians This is the first Use In the 2d place Let this Caution you against that which the Apostle Jude complains of Jude 16. Having mens persons in admiration Under the former branch of Application I took notice of one great cause of the sad miscarriages of professors in our age I shall here touch upon another It is This having mens persons in admiration Christians have had such a one in their Eye whom they have looked upon as an holy and eminent person full of Spiritual Beauty and him they have followed over hedge and ditch never looking at Christ all the way It is good to behold the workings of Grace upon those who are made the subjects of it but to what end What that we might admire them and follow them no but that we might admire God in them and that Grace of Christ by which they are so holy so humble so meek so eminent in any Grace I am afraid many have made another use of Professors seeming Beauty in these times and the Lord hath let them see that their Beauty was vain and their appearing Favour deceitful Certainly Brethren if that which you have heard be true Christ alone is to be admired by you he is the chiefest of ten thousand Do you hear any one saying such a Minister such a Christian is fair O! he or she is fair they have Doves Eyes look thou up to Heaven and say Nay my dear Saviour thou art fair these are derivative Beauties thine is a primitive Beauty the Beauty of these is but an accidental adventitious Beauty thine is an essential substantial Beauty these are mixed Beauties thine is a perfect Beauty We have hearts that are exceeding carnal Men are very prone to admire their fellows rather for Outward Advantages than for Spiritual Perfections more for outward parts than for Grace and when they take notice of Grace in any to admire them rather than Christ for the Grace of God bestowed upon them The Woman Luk. 11. 27. was guilty of the first that hearing Christ speak lift up her voice and said Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked Christ reforms her wish v. 28. yea rather Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it The Corinthians were guilty of the second who much admired those amongst them that had parts and extraordinary gifts The Apostle endeavours to reform that 1 Cor. 12. 31. I shew unto you a more excellent way that was Grace Grace is better than all the gifts in the World Christians are also subject to a third Errour where they see or at least think they see eminent Grace in any they are prone to admire them and follow them But Christians I shew unto you a more excellent object do you see eminent grace in any admire Christ in them and the eminency of Grace in Christ who hath given them such a proportion But let Christ still be greater in the Throne than the greatest Saint upon the Earth admire him and follow him But that will be a third branch of Application What you have heard methinks should send you all away filled with the admiration of Christ panting with desires after Christ and filled with the love of him 1. I say first Filled with the admiration of Christ Have you at any time seen an eminent Christian abounding with love to God zeal for him clothed with humility buried in self-denial adorned with any Graces which have made him acceptable to all with whom he hath conversed and have you admired such a one how he could abridge himself of the sweets and contentments of this life and satisfie himself with being any thing or nothing so he might but attain to the Resurrection of the Dead win Christ be found in him and win others to him and will you not admire that Fountain from whence all these streams are derived Is he a reasonable creature that gazeth upon a twinkling Star and admires the lustre of it and looks upon the Sun without any admiration at all Oh! admire Christ to whom all created Perfections are no more than so many drops of Water to the Ocean so many grains of Sand to a Mountain so many slender Beams to the body of Light in the Sun 2. Shall not this send you away panting after Union and the seal of Union with Christ Man as a sensual creature desires corporeal Beauty and 't is hard for him to see it
the fruitfulness of the Church lies in its bringing forth many Sons unto God The more Souls are converted the more fruitful the Church is but without Christ's conjunction with it it bringeth forth none If Christ's presence be in his Church it brings forth many Souls If he be not present it brings forth no Children This will easily appear by considering how the Church of God is Instrumental to the conversion of Souls and by making it appear to you that these causes are not principally efficient sole causes nor can be so but are only instrumental causes 2. That upon experience it is made evident that where Christ doth not concur they do nothing For the first 1. The Church is to be considered as to its parts and as to its priviledges as to what God hath planted in it and what God hath betrusted to it As to its parts So it is made up of Officers and members As to its priviledges so there is committed to it the Oracles of God the Mysteries of God the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven there is none of all these but have or may have for ought I know an instrumental causation in bringing forth Children unto God or in bringing of them up but none of them have a Principal efficiency none of them have a sole efficiency nor can produce the effect without Christs conjunction let us look upon them severally 1. Look first upon the Officers of the Church these were extraordinary such as Apostles Evangelists Prophets Ordinary Pastors and Teachers That these have an instrumental causation in the conversion of Souls is plain they were set in the Church for the perfecting of the Saints Eph. 4. 12. for the perfecting their number and for the perfecting of their graces Paul calls them Fathers 1 Cor. 4. 15. and saith he begat the Corinthians He saith the same of Onesimus but alas as the Apostles of old so Ministers now have no more then an instrumentality in this production Paul planted and Apollos watered but God gave the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6. God was all he that planted nothing he that watered was nothing but God that gave the increase was all v. 7. v. 9 They are but waterers together with God workers together with him Hence though Paul Preached the same Doctrine to all yet he was to some the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death And though his earnest desire was to convert his own Nation it was his hearts desire and Prayer to God that they might be saved Rom. 10. 1. yet he could not effect it And if the Officers of the Church who are under a special ordination of God for the great end of conversion could do no more it will easily be granted of private members whose indeavours in quickening others though they may be sometimes blessed of God to such an end yet doubtless are not more efficient to it then the labours of Ministers nor yet in an equal tendency with their's unto so great an end 2. As to the priviledges granted to the Church The Oracles of God are committed to the Church Rom. 3. 2. it is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the mysteries of God are committed to it 1 Cor. 4. 1. The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are Committed to it Mat. 16. 19. I understand ever by the first term the Word of God and the dispensation of it in the Preaching of the Gospel by the second the Sacraments of the Gospel by the third the Censures of the Church I know the terms are more generical and not so to be restrained I only for distinction sake so restrain them at present nor do I meddle here with the disputes whether the dispensation of these or any of these belong to the whole Church or only to Officers nor yet to which of the Officers I shall only assert two things 1. That the Scripture seemeth to assign to all these some instrumentality as to the bringing forth of Children unto God this is plain 1. Concerning the Word 1 Cor. 4. 15. I have begotten you through the Gospel James 1. 18. of his own will begat he us by the word of truth As to the Sacraments for the Sacrament of Baptism we are said to be Baptized into Christ Rom. 6. 3. Gal. 3. 27. and again Acts 2. 38. to be Baptized for the Remission of sins For the Sacrament of the Lords Supper though I dare not assert it a converting Ordinance yet unquestionably it hath its instrumentality to the Salvation of Souls For Censures they have also their instrumentality 1 Cor. 5. 5. the end of their administration is for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of Christ But now 2. It is as plain that they have but an instrumental causation and separated from the influences of Christ and his concurrence with them they do nothing hence James 2. 18. of his own will begat he us with the word of truth John 1. 13. we are born again not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God John 3. 5. except you be born again of water and of the Spirit you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Thus the truth is evidenced from Scripture And Scriptural reason 2. In the second place Consider all experience where-ever the Word of God hath been Preached the Sacraments administred Church Censures duly executed so long as Christ hath granted his presence with the administrations they have been made mighty in order to the bringing home of Souls unto God Where the Lord hath withdrawn his presence either as to the generality of Persons under the external administrations or as to any particular Souls they have signified nothing Isaiah doth but make the heart of the People fat and their Ears heavy and shuts their Eyes Ch. 6. 10. he complains that he laboureth in vain and spendeth his strength for nothing and in vain Saint Pauls Gospel is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness 3000 are converted at St. Peters Sermon while Christ is in his Bed with his Church but few or none of the Jews in their Synagogues Acts 19. they were hardened Christ was gone out of his Bed and it was now no longer green and flourished no more But this is enough to have spoken as to the proof of the Doctrine come we now to the Application The Proposition might be applied variously 1. For the confutation of the errors of those who either deny the necessity of any conjunction of Christ with the Soul as to the production of the fruits of grace or at least of such a conjunction as is unquestionably necessary and of those who think that there is a power in mans will ad bonum Spirituale to produce that which is Spiritually good and that a moral suasion is sufficient to the conversion of a Soul 2. We might from hence observe the
to be holy they are in the House of God and God is an holy God There is in this Notion a double Argument for this from 1. God's Holiness 2. God's Jealousie 1. God is an holy God Hence those who are unholy are not like to please him nor he likely to continue long with them Look as it is with a Neat man who hath a large House the filth and nastiness of this or that Room will not make him leave his whole House but it may make him leave this or that part of it and seldom or never be seen in this or that Room the dirty filthy Room shall not be his Lodging-chamber nor the place where he will rest or feed So it is betwixt God and the Church The prophaneness or looseness of a particular Church or particular Person in the Church shall not make God forsake his whole Church but it may cause God to leave this or that Church or this or that Member of the Church 2. God's Jealousie engageth Members of his Church to be holy Hence it is that he is more severe to a Professing People living contrary to their Profession than to any others Judgment begins at the House of God Hence that in Jer. 7. 9 10. Will you steal murther and commit Adultery and swear falsly and burn Incense to Baal and walk after other Gods whom you know not and come and stand before me in this House which is called by my Name Is this House which is called by my Name become a Den of Robbers c. And that Amos 3. 2. You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefor I will punish you for all your iniquities O therefore you that profess to God be holy for he is an holy God and a jealous God and you are his House 3. I may add a third Argument it is that of the Apostle Heb. 3. 6. Whose House we are if we hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of hope firm to the end The unholy man disclaims God and God disclaims him he hath but the name of a stone in the Lord's House if he be not a lively stone Thirdly This Notion of the Church's being the House of God speaks protection and security to it Every man stands obliged to defend his House God stands obliged by his Nature and by his Word to protect and defend his Church Hence those many Promises for its protection Psal 46. 5. God is in the midst of her therefore she shall not fall Psal 125. 2. As the Mountains are round about Hierusalem so the Lord is round about his People The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Matth. 16. 18. with many others of the like nature particular Churches may be destroyed and rooted out But God will have a dwelling place upon the Earth let Satan and his Instruments do what they can Fourthly It speaks to us hopes of Reformation No man will suffer his House to fall down but will repair it if there be any breaches and if he be able he will make it his business to adorn and beautifie it and make it fit for him to dwell in it God will not let his House run to ruine but will seasonably repair it and make it a dwelling-place fit for his Holiness Lastly Is the Church Christ's House and the Saints House what cause have we to bless God who hath cast our Lot within the Pales of the Church And how do we all stand concerned not to forsake her Assemblies But I shall not inlarge further upon this first Proposition Sermon LXII Cantieles 1. 17. The Beams of our House are Cedar and our Rafters are of Fir. I Come to the second Proposition which I have observed out of these words Prop. 2. That the Word and Ordinances of God are the Beams and Rafters of his House which is his Church So I chose rather to interpret these metaphorical terms than as some concerning Persons I shall shew you the propriety of the Metaphor in a few particulars 1. Beams and Rafters are integral parts of an House indeed part of the substance of it without which there can be no House An House may want a due proportion of Beams and Rafters and yet be an House but some there must be some more principal Beams and Rafters or there can be no House Without the Word and Ordinances of God there can be no Church of God Every company of men make not a Church but a company owning the Word of God and walking in the Fellowship of Ordinances these make an House of God A Church may for a time it may be for some long time want some particular Ordinances and yet be a true Church of God but its state must be lame and imperfect But if it want all the Ordinances if it wants the Word and Sacraments which are the Church's Beams it cannot be a Church of God It is lame if it wants any Ordinance of God but it loseth the nature of a Church if it wants all Ordinances That which makes a Church to be a Church is Union and Fellowship now the Word of God and the Doctrine of Faith contained in the Word and the Ordinances for Worship and Order are those things in which the Church hath its Fellowship by which the Members of the Church have Fellowship both with God and also one with another 2. The House is built upon Beams and Rafters and they bear up the weight of the other materials The weight of every Tile in the House lies upon the Rafters and the whole Building is laid upon the groundsel and dormans and wall plates and studds all which come under these two Notions of Beams and Rafters The Church of God also is builded upon the Word of God this is that which the Apostle Eph. 2. 20. calls the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets the Faith and Obedience of every particular Member of the Church is builded upon the Word of Promise and the Word of Precept Our Faith is built upon the Promises of the Word our Obedience upon the Precepts they are the Foundations and Rule of all Holiness The whole weight of every particular Soul is laid upon the Word and the weight of the whole Church lies upon the Word of God Look as it is in an earthly house builded with the hands of men if the Beams prove false or untrusty or the Foundations prove unsure the whole Building either sinks and falls or at least sways this or that way So it is with the Church as to the Word of God yea so it is as to every particular Soul the security of the particular Soul and the whole Fabrick of the Church depends upon the truth and sureness and permanency of the Word of God If the Word of God should not hold sure if the Truth of God could be found a Lye all our Faith and Hope is in vain The very notion of a Church is a Chimaera and the greatest concernments of
and from formality 300. it is the Christians Ornament 725 726. Arguments to persuade it 726 727. Horses why believers are compared to them to a company of them in Pharaohs Charrets 701 702 703 704. I. JEsuits Notion of Grace 269 270. Influence of God upon our natural and upon our Spiritual acts how different 763 764 765. Joy the Nature of it 398 399. The special Nature of Spiritual Joy 399 400. Christ the peculiar object of the believers Joy 404 405 406. The reasonableness of rejoicing in Christ 407 408 409. K. KIsses various used as various Indications 41 42. Kisses of Christs mouth what 44. 45. Knowledge the various degrees of it 178 179. The Kings sitting at his Table what it signifieth 761 762. What we are to do that we may keep Christ sitting at his Table 772 773. L. LEast tokens of Christs distinguishing love what 67 68. desirable to believers and why 69 70 71. all persuaded to value them 75 76. Looking on the Spouses blackness how far our duty how our sin 524 525 526 527 528. Vnkind lookings upon the Spouse because she is black reproved 529 530. Love to Christ in what seen 443 444. by what it may be discovered 450 451 452 601 602 603. How far it may be in an unbeliever 813 814. Love to Christ persuaded from his love to us 157 158 159 160. Loves of Christ what 148 149. proved better then wine 162 163 164. Love of God to man whether more commended from the Doctrine of Common or special grace 282 283 284. M. MErcies of several sorts distinguishing mercies what 58 59. Ministers of the Gospel how necessary 662 663. Murmurings for God's inequal distributions of special grace unreasonable why 386 387 388 389. Myrrh the several acceptations of it 777 778. A bundle of Myrrh what 778 779. Why Christ is compared to it 781 782 783. N. NAme of Christ what 54 216 217 218. How sweet 212 213 214. Whence its sweetness is 219 220. Neck of the Spouse what it signifieth 719. O. OYL its sacred and civil use 51 52 53. the met aphorical sense of it 52 53. pouring forth what it imports 54. Ordinance of the ministry how necessary 662 663. Ordinances the Beams and Rafters of Christs house 890 891. how properly so called 892. Why compared to Beams of Cedar 903 904. their beauty power durableness 900. what to conclude from hence 905. Ornaments of believers what 726. Excess in other Ornaments dissuaded 727 728. P. PErfection of Christians threefold 481 482. Pleasant what it signifies 861. How Christ is not only fair but pleasant 861 862 863. What rendreth him so 865 866. Prayer rightly ordered what 146 147 148. it is a mean of our communion with God 140 141 142. Sometimes presently answered 345 346 347. What Prayers usually meet with such answers 348 349. Prayers of faith what 349 350 351. what to be done when we have not a present answer of our Prayers 368 369 370. Prayers heard a cause of joy and rejoycing in Christ 410 411. How to discern an answer of Prayer 420. 421 422. Special Presence of God what 375 376 377. Presumption no saith 296. R. REsisting divine grace how far there may be or not be 258 259 the great danger of such resistance 308 309 310. Rejoycing in Christ our duty how to be discerned 413 414. Persuaded by Arguments 416 417. Remembrance of Christ and his loves what it importeth 424 425 426 427. Why our duty 428. Who come short of it 429 430 431 432. The duty persuaded 433 434. Directed 435 436. Repetitions of Christs Love to Souls why used 823 824. Why not to all Souls alike 825 826. Returns of Prayer sometimes very quick 345 346. In what cases usually 348 349. Rows of Jewels and Chains about the Spouse what they signify 719 720. Running after Christ what it implies 242 243 244. 318 319 320. Many run not 327 328. S. SCripture rule compared with other rules 675 676. Scandal and sin the two great objects of believers fears 627 628. The Nature and difference of Scandals 628 629. why to be feared 630 631. Shepherds Tents what they signify 670 671. By what Shepherds Tents we are to feed our kids 673 674. How to know the true Shepherds Tents 680 681 682 683. Smell of grace what and whence 752 753. How to be promoved 759 760. Smells of wicked men what 754 755. Solomon what he was 18 19. whether he sinned in marrying Pharaohs Daughter 19 20. whether his Apostacy was total and final Opinions and Arguments on either side 21 22 23 24. That it was not total nor final proved 22 23 24. In what order he wrote his books 27. Song of Solomon of Divine Authority Objections answered 28 29 30. The Nature of the Song 32. Why called the Song of Songs Spirit how it teacheth and how by it we have communion with God 108 109 110 111. Special favours of God what 172 173. Sweetness of Christ to a Believer 785 786 787 788 789. T. TIme for mercy set how to know God's set time 353 354 355. V. VAriety of Divine Grace 81 82. Valuing of Christ's Loves an excellent Argument when it can be used in truth in our Applications to God 188 189. None but Believers can use it 193 194 195. Means to bring our Souls to a due value of Christ 196 197. Vineyard what the Church's Vineyard is 580 581. What the particular Christian's Vineyard is 578. How Both are to be kept 581. Not duly keeping our own Vineyards the cause of our blackness 585. Tht due keeping them persâ—aded 587 588 589. Virgins who 55 223. Why Believers so called 223 224 225. Whence it is that they love Christ 445 446. Upright who 439 440 441. Those who are so love Christ they cannot but love him why 445 446. Unity persuaded 713 714. In what 895 896. Means to it 897 898. W. VVAnts of men what the principal 162 163 164. Willingness to a communion with God if true how to be judged 141 142. Arguments to persuade it 143 144. Wine in no notion to be compared with the Loves of Christ 165 166 167. How to know whether we do not prefer Wine to the Loves of Christ 170 171 172. Word of God its several parts 95. Communion with God in it three waies 94. Why desirable 97 98 99. Those who despise it reflected on 101 102 103. In what sense the Word of God is as the Beams and Rafters of the Church 893. The Beauty Power and Duration of the Word 904. Worldly Imployment a cause of the Spouses blackness why 571 572. Worship the Nature of it several Propositions about it 564 565. The sinfulness of corruptions in it 567 568 569. FINIS V. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth Of thy mouth Kisses pl. For thy loves are better then Wine V. 3. Because of the savour of thy good Ointments thy name is as an ointment poured forth Therefore do the Virgins love thee V.