there will be no sincere desires in the Soul after these things The Schoolmen tell us there are three ways by which we gain the Knowledge of a thing By Signs Conjectures and Effects as some Causes are known 2. By the enquiry of our Reason into the nature of it 3. By Divine Revelation The Excellency of the Loves of Christ is a spiritual thing and to be judged upon Spiritual accounts and in a Spiritual manner The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. So as the natural Reason of a Man will serve him very little to the gaining of this Knowledge by the Effects having never experienced it he cannot know it so as there is no other way to know it but by Divine Revelation God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 10. hath revealed them to us by his Spirit And v. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God So as that I say God must shew some special token of his Love to our Souls for good before we can shew any Love to him or make so much as one step toward him Observe from hence That a Believers Soul moves rationally and accountably enough in all its desires after the Loves of Christ The Souls of Believers are not so unintelligible as some prophane Persons would make them in their Passions for and Motions towards Christs Loves The Knowledge a Soul hath or the Experience which it hath had of the Goodness and Excellency of any Object moves the reasonable Soul to the desires of it Admitting the Believer to see things in another Light than a natural Man hath or can see in to have other Notions of Good and Evil and to take the measures of them from their subserviency to the Spiritual and eternal good of the Soul the Passions and Desires of his Soul after Christs Love are as natural Motions of the reasonable Souls as the Worldlings Desires after Riches or the sensual Mans Passions for such things as gratifie the sensitive Appetite The Reason why every Soul moveth not after these Spiritual Things is because every Soul seeth not the Good and Excellency in them Multitudes hardly know that is believe they have immortal Souls that shall outlive their Bodies in a state of Happiness or Misery or if they know or believe that yet they do not believe that there is no other name under Heaven by which they can be saved but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Nor ever had any experience of the Love of God to Souls Their deriding of Religious Passions and the Breathings of pious Souls after the Manifestations of Divine Love flows from their ignorance of them and their unreasonable Rudeness in speaking evil of the things which they know not The original difference betwixt a person truly pious and panting after the Love of Christ and others lies here These Creatures know that they have Souls Souls ordained to an eternal existence either in HÄ—ll or Heaven in eternal Happiness or in eternal Misery They believe what God hath said that there is no other Name under Heaven by which Men and Women can be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ neither is there Salvation in any other That he that believeth on him is not condemned and he that believeth not is damned already the Wrath of God abideth on him and he shall never see Life they do not only read these things in their Bibles and hear them from their Preachers but the Holy Spirit of God hath firmly persuaded them that they do as fixedly believe them as they do any thing of sensible or rational Demonstration they have more waky thoughts with reference to Death Mortality and Eternity are things more in their Eyes than in the Eyes of others Again they have tasted and experienced more of the Love of Christ Allow the Souls of others to be in the same Circumstances they would have alike Motions but because they are ignorant knowing nothing of Spiritual Things or at least nothing as they ought to know it thence it is that their Souls move not this is now but the natural working of reasonable Souls in other cases nor is there any such unaccountable or unintelligible thing in it And indeed this gives us the true Reason why every unregenerate Soul is so cold in its motions toward Christ and also may inform us how far it is possible such a Soul may go in motions of this nature The Reason why such a Soul moves no more is want of Evidence which such a Soul hath of the Goodness of his Loves Simple Goodness and Excellency in an Object is not attractive of the Soul but Goodness apprehended by evidenced and appearing to us All the apprehension that it is possible a natural man should have of the Loves of Christ must be from Reading Hearing or its own Reasoning and concluding from what it hath so heard or read for it wants both the demonstrative persuasion of the Holy Spirit and also any experimental Tasts or sensible Evidence All Knowledge which hath no better Foundation will arise no higher than to beget in the Soul an Opinion and leaves the Soul at some Incertainties and unfixed and hence its Motions towards an Object of which it hath no better Evidence are also incertain and faint and fluctuating Knowledge being the Foundation of Desire Reason will tell us that the Desire must bear proportion with the Knowledge The unregenerate man having no Knowledge of Spiritual things that is productive of more than an Opinion the desire must be incertain and faint according to the nature of the Opinion that causeth it By this also Christians may be able to take some Measures and make up some Judgments of themselves whether the desires they find in their Souls after Christ and his Loves be such as are peculiar to the Souls of Believers yea or no. We usually say that Desires after Grace are Evidences of it and there is a truth in it but all desires are not so for as I have said there may be desires after Christ and his Loves in an unregenerate Man commensurate to that knowledge which he hath of the Goodness of them but this will speak nothing of good to the Soul only such Desires as flow from a Christians Knowledge of Faith and from Experience He that hath only a knowledge of Christ and his Loves from Reading the word or from the Report of Ministers may so far desire Christs Loves as may serve him for his own ends nay though he hath no great Faith as to that eternal State of Happiness to which Christ brings the Soul but hath only received Notions of such ablessed State to which he gives no great credit yet for his own Security because his notions may be true though he hath no great fixed persuasion of them he may yet desire the Loves of Christ so far as to bring him to
reasonings of one part of the world that have pretended to more Learning and Knowledge than others and the prophane scoffs and mockings of a more silly part of it at the greatest Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Some by Wisdom know not God being under the meer conduct of reason and tying up themselves to the meer informations of that natural Eye Some knowing less have blasphemed God and the holy things of God counting their own Ignorance a sufficient excuse for their Blasphemy None knoweth the things of God aright but he that is under the Teaching of the Spirit Take the first Principle of all Religion viz. That the holy Scriptures are the Word of God no Soul knoweth this as he ought to know it but he that is under a further Teaching than that of the Church or of Reason much less doth it know the momentous Propositions that are contained in those holy Writings To all knowledge there is required 1. A sufficient Revelation 2. A sufficiency in our faculty to receive and comprehend the Revelation The holy Scriptures are a sufficient Revelation of all Truth There are no Mysteries of the Kingdom of God to be admitted but what are there revealed But we want a visive faculty a sufficiency in our understandings to apprehend and to conceive them till the Lord by the finger of his Spirit toucheth our Ears and saith Ephatha be opened When Peter made his confession of Christ for which Christ blessed him Christ addeth Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to him Secondly The Spirit teacheth by a special Application of the Word to the Conscience The Word as written is no more directed to one man than to another it equally concerneth all men When we Preach we are like Benhadad's Archers we draw Bows at adventures and let the Lord's Arrows fly who is it that directs them betwixt the joints of one harness more than another that when we reprove sin and denounce the Judgments of God against it saith to this or that sinner Thou art the man or when we display the grace of the Gospel and open the Promises of God teacheth one Soul to apply them while another refuseth the comfort of them All special Application of the Word to the Soul which indeed is the true Teaching is from the holy Spirit of God It is the Spirit that was promised Joh. 16. 8. to convince the world of Sin Righteousness and Judgment It is the Spirit which convinceth the Soul of Truth of Wrath of Love indeed of any thing of Spiritual Revelation It is the Spirit that makes the Word stick to the Soul All the Ministers on Earth cannot make a threatning to stick to the heart of an hard and impenitent sinner nor a Promise stick to a broken and contrite heart until the Spirit comes and joyneth with the Ministration of the Word We sometimes meditate of the Lord's terrours and compose Discourses with the best Art we are able and in the vanity of our hearts are it may be sometimes saying within our selves Surely this Sermon will alarum some sinners open some blind Eyes Another time we study the Grace of the Gospel and with the best Art we can compose Discourses to affect Souls with the sense of the love of God in Jesus Christ and are ready to think surely this Discourse will affect some Souls and bring them to love and admire Jesus Christ to seek to him for pardon and forgiveness to receive him as the Saviour of man as their Saviour We go about our work and when we have done we see cause to return unto the Lord that sent us mourning and saying We have laboured in vain and spent our strength for nothing and in vain The Spirit of the Lord moves not upon the face of our waters there 's not one Soul washed from its filthiness The Angel comes not and troubles the waters though our people lye from year to year at the Pool yet possible not a Soul is cured of its infirmity The Word is but a dead letter it is the Spirit that quickeneth whom he pleaseth The Word the Minister teacheth us by communicating notions but the Spirit only teacheth by particular and effectual Application of notions to our Souls advantage Thirdly The Spirit teacheth by evident Demonstration There is a threefold Demonstration of things 1. The Demonstration of Sense Thus it is demonstrable that the Fire burneth that Snow is white all know that spiritual things come under no such Demonstration 2. The Demonstration of Reason thus a proper effect is a demonstration of the cause Some Propositions in Religion are indeed capable of this demonstration The Creation demonstrateth a Creator c. But alas there are very few things in Religion that fall under the demonstration of Reason most Propositions of that nature depend upon Revelation and theâ—truth of them is to be judged from thence That Christ is the eternal Son of God That he took upon him our Nature died for Sinners In short all the main Propositions of Religion all Propositions immediately concerning our Salvation all Articles of Faith are things which fall not under the demonstration of Reason 3. There is therefore Thirdly a Demonstration of the Spirit St. Paul tells us his Preaching was in the Demonstration of the Spirit that is attended with the Demonstration of the Spirit and let Scoffers say what they will if this Demonstration of the Spirit attendeth not all our Preaching we do but beat the Air and labour in vain Logicians rightly tell us of two sorts of Arguments The one they call Topicks the other Demonstrations The difference of them lies in the effects they have upon our minds The former make a thing only probable to us the other make it certain If a notion appears only probable to us we have some doubts and fears and suspicions about the truth of it Nothing is demonstrated to us but that of the truth of which we have no further doubts against which we can make no Objections Now nothing but the Spirit of God thus teacheth The Gifts of Ministers are various the discourses of some may be meer words oratorial discourses these of all others have least influence upon any but airy Souls others more mind their work and knowing that nothing but the Word of God layeth hold on the Conscience endeavour to prove what they say by holy Writ and some in this are more happy than others as they are more skilled in the Scriptures and the true sense of them others are more rational in their discourses men of great parts good reason though the second sort of these best discharge their Office yet the effect of the best is to make a thing but probable to the Soul The Soul will find out some distinctions excuses and evasions until it comes under this Teaching of the Spirit it is an easie thing to make it probable to the Soul that it is in a road and high-way to Hell and eternal destruction that sin is the
promises The only thing that I can fancy why a Christian should make a doubt here is because they may be consequent to the removal of some bodily distempers whose influence upon the mind might cause those troubles that weakness or dulness such as Melancholy c. But hath God no hand in bringing or removing such bodily causes if he hath as certainly there is no evil in our bodies more than in our Cities which he hath not done why may not God both afflict us as to our spirits by sending such distempers upon our bodies and also remove the former which are the effect by the removal of the latter which he hath made to be the cause So that admit these things consequent to the removal of some bodily distemper yet they are the effect of God and may be and ought to be looked upon as the answer of our prayers 3. The greatest difficulty of judgment in this case is as to those things which are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things which concern this life which God giveth to the righteous as well as the wicked to the sinner crying unto him as well as unto his Children How a Christian shall discern that God when he gives him in these mercies gives them in as a God of Truth and Faithfulness remembring his promise to his Servants nor indeed is this Judgment very easie to the most discerning Christian Something I shall say in the case whether what will be satisfactory or no I cannot tell 1. If they have been given in after prayer made with a Spirit indifferent not too importunate I mean for the receiving of them we may hope well We may observe in Scripture that sometimes common good things have been wrung out of the hands of God by too much impatience and importunity which have never proved blessings Such were the Quails Num. 11. 31 32 33. the Text saith while the flesh was yet between their teeth e're it was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the People Such was the first King given to the Israelites even Saul the Prophet saith Hosea 13. 11. I gave thee a King in mine anger But when a Christian begs of God any good thing without too much impatience and importunity with an indifferency of Spirit resigning up himself to the will of God as to the receiving of it and God after such a prayer gives in the mercy I know not why we should not conclude it an answer of prayer This I think was the case of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. She was indeed grieved and troubled because God had denied to her the blessing of a Child in this trouble she prays in a solemn manner we read not of any anger in her Spirit against God any impatience or sinful importunity but she prays as a Woman of a troubled Spirit the Lord gives her a Child it was but a mercy of a common nature wicked Women have Children as well as others but it is given in after a solemn prayer she looks upon the Child as begged of God For this Child saith she I prayed and the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him 2. I shall add but one thing more viz. When together with the good thing there is an heart given to the person to improve and make use of it for the honour and glory of God James lets us know that God never gives us in mercies in answer to our prayers and as evidences of his love and faithfulness that we might consume them upon our lusts when he tells those to whom he wrote James 4 5. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts when God giveth us in an outward mercy if he giveth it us in performance of his promise and in token of his love and favour he together with it gives in an heart inclined and ready to make use of it for the honour and glory of his name This is also exemplified in the case of Hannah in the text before-mentioned 1 Sam. 1. 27 28. For this Child saith she I prayed the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord. In the margent of your larger Bibles you will see it may be read He whom I have obtained by Petition shall be returned to the Lord. You have another no less famous instance of it in David Psal 116. v. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and supplications The Lord hath heard his voice v. 1. He had inclined his ear unto him v. 2. The Lord had dealt graciously with him v. 7. He had delivered his Soul from death his Eyes from tears and his feet from falling Now mark the product of this He loved the Lord because of it v. 2. He resolveth to call upon the Lord so long as he lived v. 9. To walk before the Lord in the land of the living v. 13. To take the cup of salvation and to call upon the name of the Lord. v. 14. To pay his vows v. 16. To be the Lords Servant v. 17. To offer the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving c. Now where upon prayer for a more common mercy suppose life health riches success in business we find that the Lord hath given us both the thing which we asked of God and an heart to honour God with it and to make a due improvement of it we have there no reason to doubt but that it is given us in answer to our prayers and in testification of his faithfulness and love towards us This now is of great concern to us in order to our gladness and joy in him upon the receiving an answer of our prayers for how shall we rejoice in him upon any such occasion unless we discern our good things coming from him This I think is enough to have spoken to this question and upon this whole argument I shall now proceed as God gives me opportunity to the other effect this mercy had upon the Spouse We will remember thy loves more than Wine But of this hereafter Sermon XXIX Cant. 1. 4. We will remember thy Loves more than Wine YOU heard in my last discourse the first effect that the Beloveds favour shewed to his Spouse in the quick return he made to her prayers and the royal favour he had bestowed upon her in bringing her into his Chambers admitting her to some more special and intimate degrees of communion with himself had upon her it put gladness into her heart and brought her up to an exulting and rejoycing in him Joy is but a passion cito fit cito perit that doth not last alwaies it is like a Land-flood that is sometimes up but will in a short time abate Ordinary Joys do so But the Spouse resolves to keep up here and to this end she saith She will remember the Loves of Christ and give them a
of God Let us take heed that we be not made black by afflictions of this nature which we shall be if by them we be moved from our good opinion of the ways of God from our profession or practice of them there is no sinner more black then the Apostate See 2 Pet 2. 20. 21. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it is better sor them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them Indeed failings in a time of Persecution are caused from a double cause Sometimes meerly from the fear of life or some great danger that will befall to men if they adhere to their former profession failings of this nature make a Soul look black but many such recover themselves and the Lord who can have compassion upon our insirmities pities them and recovers them out of the snare of the Devil this is a blackness we ought to avoid by putting on the whole Armour of God that we may be able to stand in the day of the Lords Battel But there is another defection which is occasioned by Persecutions and Afflictions of this nature That is when men out of a greater love to other ways in a time of tryal renounce the truths of God they have formerly owned and forsake the ways of God in which they have formerly walked to these now Persecutions and Afflictions of this nature are but a slight occasion of their defection and Apostacy and this eminent difference you will find betwixt the others and these The others though they may be prevailed withal to warp and start aside because of the greatness of the temptation it was Peters case in the High Priests Hall yet will never be prevailed with to speak evil of and to revile the truths of God which they have owned nor the ways of God in which they have formerly walked and others yet walk The others being prevailed upon to their Apostacy meerly from the lusts of their hearts and the greater love they have alwaies had tho like Hypocrites they have concealed it to looser principles and a looser way of living take themselves concerned to reproach their former ways and those who yet walk in them This is a dreadful blackness not a tincture upon the face only but a tincture of the heart which by occasion of Persecution for the Gospel breaketh out into the more exteriour conversation To enforce this caution I shall only mention three things 1. That this is the affection only of the stony ground Mat. 13. 6 21. It is a certain sign that those never received the Seed of the Word into honest and good hearts that they never had any root in themselves who when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word by and by they are offended He that receiveth the truth in the Love of it cannot so easily abandon the profession of it 1 John 2. 19. They went out from us they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us The day of Persecution and tribulation for the Gospel sake is the day of the manifestation and discovery of hypocrites I do not think that all shrinking in a time of persecution is a note of hypocrisy there is a shrinking through fear in the time of great temptation so Peter shrank But for men to make a defection out of a principle of lust and greater Love to other ways and to reproach and speak Evil of the ways of God which by the way is a certain indication of such a defection this speaketh the man or woman to be no better then an hypocrite nor ever to have been other tho to serve his lusts he disguised himself with a mask of holiness and Religion 2. Secondly consider That no sinner so reproacheth the good and holy ways of God as such a sinner doth He tells the World that he hath tryed them that there is nothing in them that nothing but the ignorance prejudices of his education youth led him into them that the ways of sin profaneness of Formality and Superstition are better and therefore he is at last grown wiser then to take such pains to go to heaven If I would pick out a wretch out of the whole herd of sinners to reproach God to blaspheme the Gospel and the ways of holiness I would pick out onethat had been formerly a professor and had turned away from his profession this wretch pretendeth from experience to justify what others do but loosely discourse 3. Thirdly no sinners must expect a more dreadful Vengeance The reason is evident because none sin against more light There is no man who hath made a profession and lived in any practice of Religion but knows that there is no iniquity in it nothing but what suteth the common reason of mankind not debauched through lust and that those who in any measure live up to the profession of the Gospel are if sober heathens were to be judges the best of men with respect to all duty which the light of Nature teacheth toward the Divine Being and all good offices towards men I say there is none who hath made any profession but knows this and in all his Evil speaking of them doth not sin like an heathen nor like a profane man who speaketh ill of the things he knoweth not but speaketh contrary to the dictate of his own conscience I would not have this understood of those who are made black through these afflictions from the temporary prevailing of a strong temptation these with Pâ—ter tho they fall yet go out and weep bitterly and are recovered and made stronger by their fall but of those others before mentioned to whom Affliction and Persecution are but the externall occasions to draw out the lusts of their hearts which waited but for an opportunity to discover its self 2. Finally to shut up this discourse let this caution us from Judging the Spouse of Christ black because the Sun hath looked upon her You have heard that this is but the Worlds judgment not according to any measures of truth or righteousness To this End 1. Root your selves in this truth That none can judge of Gods Love or hatred from what happeneth to him in this life It is Solomons Maxime and a great truth God governeth the World according to the just Oeconomy of his Providence with respects unto his own wife Ends and no spiritual judgment can be made of the state of any from those administrations oft-times he maketh Princes to go on foot when servants ride on horse back and the wicked to devour those that are more righteous then they 2.
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
is this Thou believing Soul who in my Eyes art more beautiful and lovely then any other Soul in the world if thou beest in any thing ignorant of my will and where to meet me and how to enjoy fellowship and communion with me do not stray from the rule of my word nor vary from the examples of those whom I gave for Shepherds to my People keep close to them to their Doctrine and to my Ordinances administred by them There thou shalt find me There I rest at noon These two verses thus opened afford us several Propositions of Doctrine as matter of further discourse Prop. 1. Christ is he and only he whom the believing Soul loveth Prop. 2. Though there may be a time when such a Soul may conceal and disown its love to Christ yet there will be a time when it will break forth and she will acknowledge it Prop. 3. A gracious Soul desireth nothing more then a quiet full and sweet communion with Christ Prop. 4. Christ hath shades where he resteth and feedeth his flock under the greatest and most scorching Afflictions Prop. 5. Though a pious Soul never slighteth a communion with Christ yet she never prizeth it at an higher rate then in an hour of greatest trials and temptations Prop. 6. Gods People will especially in times of trial and great temptation be prone to fall into sin and error to the scandal of their profession Prop. 7. Sin and Scandal are the two great things which a gracious Soulfears Prop. 8. The Believing Soul is of all other Souls the most beautiful in Christs Eyes Prop. 9. The Beauty of this Soul is not perfect it may in some things be ignorant Prop. 10. The surest way for a Soul to get a perfect instruction in the things that concern its spiritual good and to keep and to enjoy communion with Christ is to feed its self by the Tents of Christs Shepherds and to live according to the examples and directions of his holy Servants recorded in Holy Writ I begin with the first of which I shall speak but briefly Prop. 1. Jesus Christ is he whom the Soul loveth with a singular love I put in the term singular because as I told you the phrase imports it Love is nothing else but the adhaesion or cleaving of the Soul to an object out of a goodness and suitableness which it hath discerned in it with a complacency which the Soul taketh in it which is such as if the Soul wants it it desires it if it enjoyeth it it is glad and rejoyceth in it which being first considered it followeth that look how many objects as there are that have in them any goodness or suitableness to our state so many objects of our love there are in the world And 2. That look how much goodness and suitableness to us we apprehend in one object more than in another so much we love one thing more than another or one person more than another 2. There is also a love that floweth from Union and Relation of which we are not able to give a perfect account the Parent loves the Child and the Husband loves the Wife and the Wife the Husband not alwaies out of Judgment The Husband discerning in the Wife a suitableness to him is not alwaies the cause of love Nor is the Child's love to the Mother or Father alwaies rational flowing from an apprehension of the suitableness of the Parent to it but rather from an impetus of nature an unaccountable complacency in those whom God hath made correlates caused by the God of Nature who hath made them one flesh who so deliberately considereth this will easily understand a double reason of the Believers Love to Christ 1. The first is That Union which is betwixt the believing Soul and the Lord Jesus Christ which is wrought by Faith this produceth this second Union which is that of Love By Faith Christ is united to the Soul and becometh a member of his body and that is followed by this Union of Love The Soul in the same hour wherein it is united by Faith to Christ being taught of God to love the Lord Jesus Christ It 's a piece of its Regeneration which continually followeth Justification and is indeed coaevous with it so that as in the natural Union the same day the man becomes a Father or the Woman a Mother there is a new Emanation of affection and love the Man or Woman that before knew nothing of the heart of a Parent now begins to feel it and in the moral Union betwixt the Husband and Wife the same day that they are married to each other there floweth a reciprocal Affection each to other so as they then begin to know the heart of an Husband and a Wife of which they knew little or nothing before So it is upon the Spiritual Union as the God of Nature influenceth the Souls of persons whom he hath given one to another in natural and moral Relations ordinarily for a reciprocal usefulness one to another So the God of Grace influenceth the Soul put into a spiritual Relation to Christ That the Believer upon his Union with Christ doth find his heart cleaving to and taking a complacency in the Lord Jesus Christ and begins thus to know the heart of a Believer And look as it is in the moral Relation betwixt the Wife and the Husband though the Man may have heard such reports of the virtues and excellencies of the Woman before he hath married her as hath inforced from him a complacency in her yet this bears no proportion to that delight and complacency he taketh in her when she is once married to him So although a Soul upon the large discourses he hath heard of Christ and of his love to Mankind and what he hath done and is ready to do for the Souls of men may have some good thoughts of him and some kind of complacency in his thoughts of him yet there is a vast difference betwixt this and that complacency which the Soul taketh in Christ when it is once by Faith united to him and amongst other habits of grace hath that of Love to God infused into his Soul according to that Rom. 5. 5. The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us I know there is a Dispute raised by some whether the natural man's love to God differeth from the Believer's love to God specifically or only gradually I do not think that these spiritual habits fall under those logical measures I am sure it is a love flowing quite from another cause The natural man's love is no more than a natural Plant cultivated by reason the other 's is a fruit of the Spirit so as they differ further than gradually but whether we should call it specifically or no or want a Logical term to express the difference I shall not think it worth my time to enquire 2. A second Reason of the Believer's love and so
at Peace with God All that can be said to relieve the Child of God under this complaint to ease him under this burden is this That this misery which befalleth him is but what is common to the very best of men it is a priviledge reserved for the Saints in glory to live in a not interrupted communion with God To be ever with the Lord beholding his face to live in the sense of such a constant communion with Christ as doth afford the Soul a perfect Satisfaction The sublunary Saint is often crying out Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where tho u feedest This dispensation indeed will speak thee sensibly miserable and sad but it will not speak thee to have no relation to Christ I shall shut up this discourse with a Word or two of exhortation Pleading with you to do what in you lies to avoid such a state and to keep your selves within the knowledg where Christ feedeth where he makes his flocks to rest at noon 1. Consider first That as the Spiritual life of any Soul lyes in its union and communion with Christ So the comfort of his life lyeth in his sense of this communion and knowledge how at all times and in all conditions to Support and to maintain it Our Saviour tells us that As the branch cannot bring forth fruit unless it abide in the Vine so neither can we except we abide in him John 15. 4. That Soul which hath no communion with Christ is as certainly dead as the body is that hath no communion with the head or the branch that hath no communion with the stock Now it is true Sense is not necessary to Spiritual life We live saith the Apostle by faith not by sight But the comfort of the Soul doth depend upon sense and knowledge it is true as to a Christians comfort not to live and not to know that we live are much the same thing as to its happiness it is not but I say as to his comfort it is What quiet can a Christian have in his breast what Peace in his conscience What joy in the Holy Ghost that feeleth no intercourses is sensible of no inward communion betwixt his Soul and Christ 2. Hence consider Secondly That to the waky Christian there is no greater misery upon the Earth then what ariseth from his apprehensions of his having no communion with Christ All the enjoyments of the World will be nothing of Satisfaction to such a Soul it is an evil Nullis medicabilis herbis I say with a waky soul it will be thus some Souls are in a profound sleep they never think of Eternity never consider their latter end they are ignorant and know not the relation that Christ hath to a State of Eternal happiness that as Eternal life is the gift of God so it is through Christ for that the Father hath given into his hands the Power of Eternal life and he giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth Now these Souls though they have no fellowship no communion at all yet they have no misery no grief from it But I say to the Soul that is awake to consider the Grave the Eternity to which he is hastening 't is the greatest burden imaginable to lye under apprehensions that his fellowship is not with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ 3. Thirdly consider that of all evils those lye heaviest and most sadly upon the Soul concerning which the man or woman is conscious that he himself hath been accessary to them and a cause of them Let a good Christian be at loss for his communion with God let the cause of it be what it will he is sad enough but if his heart smites him that he himself hath been the cause of it Oh! insupportable burden of that reflection he cannot bear the thoughts of his destroying his Soul by his own hands of this you may make an easy judgment by considering the frame of your Spirit under such accidents though of a much lighter nature it is sad enough for a man to lose his estate for a Mother to lose her Child but for the man to think that he lost his estate through his own supine negligence or for a Mother to think she hath been the death of her Child These are wounds healed usually with great difficulty So for a Soul to think it hath lost its communion with its dear Lord by its own supine negligence or any voluntary act of its own which it might have avoided This maketh a deep wound in the Soul But will some say what should what can we do to uphold our communion with Christ and to maintain a sense of it Let me here speak two words The first to such as have their beloved in view and do yet injoy desired communion with him 2. To such as have lost this view in order to their recovery of it To the first I say 1. Be much with him whom your Soul loveth What the Prophet said of Gods presence of Providence is as true concerning the presence of God in gracious influences 2. Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while you are with him if you seek him he will be found of you Souls that are much with God seldom lose their sight of him ordinarily the Souls of men and women first withdraw the communications of themselves unto him through levity and wantonness then Christ withdraweth both in justice to punish in them that levity and in wisdom to make them to seek after him Hos 5. 15. I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early That Soul is seldom or never at a loss to know where Christ feedeth his flocks that keepeth a constant correspondence with him Be much in Prayer especially secret Prayer much in Heavenly meditation and contemplation when the Spouse after her loss Cant. 3. 1 2 had found her beloved I held him saith she and would not let him go How doth the Soul hold Christ so as she will not let him go but by faith and constant and frequent acts of fellowship and communion with him 2. Secondly Take heed of grieving the holy Spirit It is the Apostles Counsel Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption We maintain our fellowship with Christ by the Spirit That takes of Christs and giveth to us and again it takes of ours and giveth to Christ by the Spirit we Pray by its assistance we exercise faith Love c. Christ by his Spirit communicateth himself to us and we by the Spirit do communicate our Souls to him Take heed therefore you grieve not this Spirit either by any presumptuous sinnings or by quenching its motions or resisting its operations Let every Knock every motion and impulse every impression of the holy Spirit be very valuable to and regardable in the Eyes of your Souls 3. Thirdly Maintain in
reputation and reason which were the principles of the Roman valour but these which I have shewed you 2. As to the Acts of it They are all lawful resistances of sin He will resist unto blood but it still is in striving against sin Heb. 1. 2. 4. And this he doth by a lawful resistance This in the description I called a governing himself according to the rules of Gods Word 2 Tim. 2 5. If a man strive for masteries yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully All sin is a transgression of the law of God No Christian fortitude can be shewen either in the encountring of a danger for not doing what he ought to do Or for the encountring of a danger rather then doing what God hath given him a freedom and liberty to do As to the first a man is not Gods Martyr but the Devils As to the Second he cannot be a Martyr for God but for his own humour God hath left him a liberty he need not suffer unless he will But now there may be several actions as to which a good man doth not see his liberty but lyeth under apprehensions that they are unlawful The Question is what a Christian is to do as to them And whether a Christian can shew any Christian fortitude in incountring dangers rather then doing them To which I shortly answer 1. That it is the duty of every good man as to such actions to use all the means he can as to a true information of his own conscience Reading the holy Scriptures and other good Books interpreting the Scriptures which may rightly inform him Keeping his ear open to all arguments on both sides to all instructions 2. If by no means he can receive Satisfaction as to the lawfulness of such actions the doing of them would be sin to him and he is bound to incounter any danger rather then do them and this is a piece of Christian fortitude The proximate Rule of our actions must be our own Conscience by which I mean our own practical judgment of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of things to be done according to the best information we have or can get concerning the will of God in his word the persuasions commands dictates or practice of others is no rule to us We must resist what our own Consciences tell us is sin and contrary to the will of God But it must be lawfully It must be such a resistance only as Gods Word doth allow us A private Person in the resistance of sin must not resist the power which is the Ordinance of God Rom. 13. 2. It is one thing to do what such powers command another thing by Arms to resist God hath not given the Sword into any private hand and such a Person drawing it shall perish with it we must strive against sin but we must strive lawfully not by ill Language or boisterous actions but by meek and patient Suffering 3. Lastly The End of Christian fortitude must be 1. The glory of God 2. The Salvation of our own Souls 'T is no Christian valour to be valiant for any thing but the truth the honour and glory of God the cause and concern of God in the World and in a matter where the Eternal Salvation of his own Soul is concerned Thus far I have opened to you the nature of this Christian courage and fortitude which I am calling to you for Let me in the next place offer something to you which may promove this excellent habit in your Souls A Natural courage cannot be given where any thing of a Moral fortitude may be promoved by rational arguments education and a due digestion of moral Principles But there must be some good natural foundation of courage for the Moralist in the managery of his disciple to build upon but it is not so as to this Christian fortitude Persons of the weakest sex of the lowest meanest weakest Spirits by nature have been made valiant as to the Spiritual fight from the dread of God the Love of God by saith in the Word of God and in the Lord Jesus Christ Now in order to this excellent habit and so necessary for these times 1. The first thing which I shall commend unto you in order to it is a Sound knowledge of the revealed will of God both concerning sin and concerning duty Knowledge is the foundation of saith It is that which giveth boldness to a man both in speaking and in acting A poor ignorant Person may be valiant but he cannot expect to be so he is Sometimes made valiant in an extraordinary manner by some special instinct and impression of God upon him as that Woman which told her Judges She could not dispute but she could dye for Christ A just knowledge of what I may or may not do of the Nature of God his promises and threatnings is most necessary to a true Christian courage and fortitude He fighteth more like a madman then a Christian that is not first fully Satisfyed in the goodness and justice of his cause 2. A knowing man may be cowardly if he be not rooted and grounded in the faith heartily and firmly believing what he hath the notion of Faith is the only shield that keepeth off the fiery darts of the wicked Now this is the gift of God and the way to obtain it is Prayer Beg of God his Spiritual armour and to make you valiant in the Spiritual fight Math. 26. 41. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation 3. Set as loose to the World and all your concerns and Relations in it as you can It is observed of great Cities that they seldom hold out long against an Enemy Their Riches their Wives and Children make them Cowards That Man or Woman that hath not learned to deny himself in all his worldly contentments can never be valiant 4. Lastly look unto Jesus the Author and the finisher of your saith who for the joy that was set before him indured the cross despised the shame and is set down on the throne of God consider him who indured such contradiction of sinners in himself lest you be wearied and saint in your minds It is the Apostles advice Heb. 12. 3. The valour and courage of a General oft times puts mettal and courage into his Souldiers retrieveth a day of battel when it is upon the point lost The eying of Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith is of mighty use to us to ingage us to go on to the Spiritual fight without fear or dread Let me press this upon you by a few arguments 1. The first shall be from the ton general decay of this gracious habit in the Spirits of Christians God of 'old complained by his Prophet Jer. 9. 3. That there was a generation of them who bent their tongues like bows for lies but there wâ—â— none valiant for the truth upon the Earth How few are there this day that are valiant for the truth There are
Rom. 7. 4. In me saith God is thy fruit found hence a life of Holiness is called a walking in and after the Spirit Gal. 5. 25. Rom. 8. 1. I live saith the Apostle Galat. 2. 20. but yet not I but Christ liveth in me and again Phil. 4. v. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me To every good act there is not required only a first exciting grace and a working grace quickening and determining the will unto the act But a further exciting assisting and cooperating grace Thus that ancient Councel Concil Araus Can. 9. determined As often as we do that which is good God worketh sn us and with us that we may work Hence the Apostle saith of himself 1 Cor. 15. 10. By the grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me In every good action of a regenerate Soul The renewed Soul acts and God acts Thus I remember August asserted of Old Some saith he may say Then holy men are acted and do not act Respondeo saith he Immo agis ageris â—unc bene agis si ab eo agaris that is I answer yes thou both actest and also art acted and then thou actest well if thou beest acted by him For the Spirit of God which acteth thee helpeth thee in acting he hath stiled himself thy helper because thou thy self dost something only here is to be observed a double difference 1. The first is the difference between Gods influence upon our natural powers to their natural acts and our Spiritual habits powers as to their Spiritual acts God influenceth our bodily members as to their natural acts Without his influence we could not move nor speak nor do any natural act but how doth he influence us as to them By upholding our natural powers And by keeping off those things which would hinder their natural exercises God hath given unto man a Soul indued with the powers both of the Vegetative Soul in plants and of the Sensitive Soul in brute creatures besides some more noble powers which are proper to the reasonable Soul Now these Souls act from this natural power in them which being upheld in them not hindred by any forraign or intrinsick cause produce the acts that are proper to them This is but an influence of common providence and is common to all men But the influence I am speaking of is an influence of Special grace Not an influence common to men but peculiar to the People of God who have experienced this grace 2. The Second difference I desire you to observe is The difference betwixt Divine influences as to the first and this further grace No man cometh unto the Son unless the Father draweth him In the first grace the Soul is meerly passive that change is wrought by working grace this by cooperative and assisting grace the renewed Soul moves and acts from it self It is only quickened and assisted by Divine influences To speak therefore clearly and distinctly we say God hath a double influence upon our wills as to any good actions done by us 1. He influenceth our wills as the cause Exciting our wills to the Acts. Our wills are the cause of all good actions done by us the proximate cause we first will the thing which we do sed ille facit ut velimus it is he who influenceth our wills and makes us willing and then excites our wills 2. God together with our wills as the proximate cause hath an influence upon the effect It is universally granted by sober men That there is a concurse of Divine providence to the production of every effect nor doth this concurse of the first cause hinder the liberty of the Second Cause No Natural agent produceth any effect without a concurse of the Divine power and a simultaneous motion of the Divine power Some will have this influence of God upon us as to Spiritual acts to be no more then an ordinary concurrence of Providence But I think the contrary will appear to every one who shall diligently consider two things 1. The imperfect state of the will of man even after regeneration Before Regeneration man hath servum arbitriun A meer servile will Augustine tells us that in the state of Innocency mans happiness lay in a posse non peccare a power which he had in that state if he would not to sin against God The happiness of the state of the Souls in glory will lie in a non posse peccare in this that they shall have no power more to sin They shall be like the Angels in Heaven confirmed in a state of purity and holiness The state of a Man or Woman not regenerated is that he cannot but sin Now though the Regeneratedman be by regeneration freed from the servitude of the last mentioned state yet it is much short either of the more perfect state of the will of the glorified Saints or of the state of Adam in innocency we cannot say that their will is so stated through Grace that they have a power not to sin Even the best of men sinneth 7 times a day and who can tell how oft he offendeth We know but in part and so may sin through ignorance and oft times do so We are men full of passions and live in a World that is full of temptations and are often over-born Our will is indeed manumised and to will is present with us but our freedom is imperfect 2. Yea I cannot understand but that we should have need of a Divine influence exciting and assisting us to our Spiritual acts supposing that upon our regeneration we had been perfectly restored unto that indifferency in which Adam was created For admit the will of man indifferently free to move to good or evil what but the Influence of Divine Grace should incline and determine it rather to that which is good than to that which is evil But that which makes it much stronger is the consideration that we are not restored to such a perfect liberty or indifferency but there is remaining even in the best the body of death passions impetuous passions which strongly Incline us to that which is evil and often prevail against us David complaineth That iniquities prevailed against him Paul complained That he was sometimes brought into captivity to the Law of his Members Besides if we could imagine that the will of man though renewed could be the first Principle of any spiritual action it must be a First Cause and man would be a God to himself But it may be some will say though it be true that the will of man cannot move it self to a Spiritual Act but it must have a first mover yet God's Influence upon it may be no more than the ordinary concurse of his Providence such as he allows to all his creatures upholding their Beings
and their natural powers and faculties I therefore add 3. That this may seem plausible to those who either do not consider or will not allow those two contrary Principles which are in every renewed Soul but to those who believe and consider this it cannot Gal. 3. 17. For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things which you would especially when we consider also the advantage which the Flesh hath in us against the Spirit Vicious habits and inclinations are natural to the soil of our hearts It is a common observation Quod sponte prodit laetius prodit what a soil naturally brings forth it brings forth more vigorously and certainly than what it is made to bring forth by Art and Cultivation The heart of every man naturally inclines to motions and actions contrary to the Will of God Hence Self-denial is the first thing necessary to Christ's Disciple this makes more than a concurse of common Providence necessary to a spiritual act Now in our natural motions there is no opposition and therefore an ordinary conservative power of common Providence is sufficient to their production Nature giving no opposition to them but this reason differeth very little from the first therefore I shall not further inlarge upon this head 4. Lastly If we could exercise gracious habits without any supernatural influence exciting and quickening and also assisting and cooperating Then we might from our selves begin and carry on a supernatural act For suppose one indued with the habits of grace he is only by these furnished with a power to believe to love God c. The Question is Whence he acts and exerciseth these powers If this be from himself then the supernatural act begins and is carried on from himself and God should give only to will but not to do The Apostle tells us in 2 Cor. 3. 5. That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is from God If it be answered That as in natural actions God upholdeth the natural powers and faculties of the Soul so in the renewed Nature he upholdeth the Spiritual Powers This is too short for the Question is Whence a Christian is inclined to this or that individual good action and why more at one time than another for there is a never-ceasing influence of God upholding the principles and powers of the renewed Nature yet experience tells us there is not at all times the same power and vigour to act Besides in all God's influences and concurses of Providence with his creatures his influence is according to the nature of the second Cause with which he concurreth But when God concurreth with a spiritual habit or power in the Soul he concurreth with a Second Cause which is supernatural not a native quality in the rational Soul but adventitious superinduced qualities therefore an ordinary concurse of Providence is not sufficient and as the Second Cause with which he concurreth is supernatural so the Effect to be produced is of that nature also To all this might be added the mention so often made in Scripture of the Spirit dwelling in us helping our infirmities working in us And St. Paul's telling us that he lived yet not he but saith he Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 2â— and that 1 Cor. 15. 10. By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet NOT I but the grace of God that was with me But I have spoken enough to the first Conclusion I laid down proving that our exercise of grace depends upon the Influence of Christ and that considering him not as God only granting his ordinary concurse of Providence to all his creatures motions and actions but considering him as Mediator and from whom the Spirit of Grace proceedeth There must be a double Influence of Christ to a Spiritual Act. 1. The first exciting moving quickening and stirring up the Soul unto it 2. Assisting the Soul in it 2. Degrees of exercises of Grace depend upon the degrees of those Influences Christ tells us That he came into the World that his People might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10. 10. The aboundings of gracious acts depend upon the aboundings of Spiritual Life This is so obvious to every man's common reason that I need not inlarge in a Discourse to prove it Every one will conclude That if without Christ we can do nothing we cannot without him do great things if we cannot think a good thought we cannot pray a good prayer nor do an act which must speak a great self-denial and mortification of our members 3. As is the exercise of Grace so is the smell of it I have before told you that some Divines say the exercise of Grace is the smell of it I had rather by it understand the Acceptation of such exercise of Grace with God and the report of it amongst men which indeed dependeth upon the exercise and is more or less according to the exercise of it The more a Soul liveth in the improvement and exercise of those blessed habits with which God hath endued it the more it glorifieth God Joh. 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit so shall you be my Disciples Abraham being strong in the Faith gave glory to God and the greater is the sweet savour which the Soul gives in the World There is nothing in the exercise of gracious habits that is unlovely or unsavoury to that part of the World that hath not through malice out-lawed its reason they are not the exercises of Grace but the breakings out of sin and corruption which give the Souls of Christians any ill report amongst the generality of the men of the World Some few persons indeed there are who have such a perfect rooted hatred of God in them that as they say of the Basilisk that it hath such an hatred and antipathy to man that it will flie upon the Picture of a man so they will flie upon the Image of God where-ever they see it or think they see it but the number of these though in it self too great yet comparatively is but small The generality of men and women in the World are not so bad but a good man living uniformly up to his Principles hath a fairer quarter amongst them But amongst the People of God those who excel in vertue the exercises of Grace alwaies smell very sweet and amongst all men under the conduct of reason as is the exercise of these spiritual habits so is the Christian's smell more or less The Ointment poured forth is that which perfumes the house the reason is because that odoriferous quality is by the Air as its vehicle conveyed to our senses So for men and women in the World
objects Christ now cannot shew his grace to such a Soul the bank hinders where he pleaseth indeed he worketh secretly takes away the heart of stone and makes it an heart of flesh takes away unbelief vanity earthly mindedness sensual affections and then he emptyeth the treasuries of grace upon the Soul In a word to apply this No wonder then to hear many a poor wretch complain that God never yet spake peace to his Soul others indeed have heard their beloved hath said to others behold thou art fair my love behold thou art fair but they never yet heard such a voice Let me ask thee who thus complainest this question Did Christ ever yet hear thee say as a bundle of Myrrh is my beloved unto me he shall lye all night betwixt my breasts Hast thou served Christ with Ordinary expressions of duty How canst thou expect to be feasted by him with extraordinary returns of mercy If thy breathings after him have been faint and short what reason hast thou to expect that his breathings should be so full upon thee He is indeed a full ocean of free grace but it may be thou hast cast up a bank against him it may be thou hast clogg'd him with an hard heart and unbelieving heart a vain heart a filthy sensual heart Wonder not O Christian that he is so little towards thee in a way of mercy if thou beest scant towards him in thy way of duty There is a generation of men and women in the world who are taken notice of to behave themselves as if they thought that all the World were made to serve them and they not made to serve any but they are an unreasonable generation and sober persons so account of them and accordingly slight them Oh that there might not be such an unreasonable Christian found in the World who should so much as think in his heart that Christ stands concerned to open all his Treasuries of Love upon his Soul which in the mean time hath scarce a thought of doing any thing more than ordinary for the Lord Jesus Christ if thou findest thy heart cold in duty frozen in affections toward Christ wonder not at all if thou findest the bowels of thy Saviour which yern upon others tied up towards thee And I fear me this is the cause of most complaints of this nature although it may be possible that this is not the case of every such complaining Soul witness David Psal 22. 1 2 3 4. 2. What an ingagement doth this Notion of Truth lay upon the Sons and Daughters of men to stretch out their Souls for and towards God Certainly if there be any thing in the World of force to open a Soul for Christ this will do it to hear that Divine Grace keeps pace with our duty and that the proper way to have Christ speak to us and say Thou art fair my Love Thou art fair is for us to get up our hearts in a readiness to say and say it in truth As a bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved to me The Psalmist cries out Psal 34. 12. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Depart from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it Give me leave to speak to all you who fear the Lord in the same dialect What man is there amongst you who would not gladly have Christ speak peace unto your Souls and whisper the words of my Text in your Ears Thou art fair my Love thou art fair O let Christ be yet more and more precious to you let him have the strength of your Love that you may have the seal of his Love let the World know and let him know that he is dear in your Eyes that you may know that you are fair in his Eyes But this is enough for the second Circumstance which I observed I pass to a third Thou art fair my Love thou art fair It is not said thou O man or thou O woman art fair but thou my Love art fair It is both the observation of our own Annotators and some others Obs The Spouse of Christ is fair as she is His Love I observed to you before that the word signifies Amica Socia a Friend and a Companion the Object of ones love and the Companion of ones life This is not after the manner of the Children of men amongst them Beauty raiseth Love but with Christ it is Love that raiseth Beauty Locutio verbi infusio Doni Christ in calling her fair makes her fair Ezek. 16. 14. Thy Beauty was perfect through my comeliness which was put upon thee saith the Lord God A good complexion with a lovely air of the countenance and a due proportion of bodily parts makes the Children of men fair to a sensual Eye An head well furnished with Notions of Learning and a mind indued with vertuous generous dispositions makes a man fair and beautiful to a rational Eye But it is Grace alone that can make the Soul fair to the Divine Eye 1. Nature doth it not for all are by Nature Children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. like the Infant not cut not washed not swadled Ezek. 16. We are by Nature all Blackamores in the Eyes of God our Father an Amorite our Mother an Hittite 2. Art will not do it Though thou wash thee with Nitre and take thee much Sope yet thine iniquity is marked before me saith the Lord Jer. 2. 22. The Pharisees were men who used as much Art as others yet their Beauty to our Saviour's Eye rose no higher than to the Beauty of a Painted Sepâ—lchre that outwardly is beautiful but within full of rottenness so little that our Saviour saith Publicans and Harlots should as to the Kingdom of Heaven have the preheminence before them 3. Grace then alone must do it Those who are Christ's Love are fair only so far forth as they are his Love his Companions There is a double Grace the first of Justification the second of Sanotification according to the first the Believer is Christ's Love according to the second the Believer is Christ's Companion 1. I say first the Grace of Justification this is gratia gratum faciens that Grace by which the Soul is accepted of God It is the free Love of God shewn to the humbled Soul upon its exercise of Faith pardoning its sins reckoning over the Righteousness of Christ unto it and accepting it as righteous in and through Christ this changeth the Soul's state this is it which taketh away its filthy garments and covereth the Soul with Christ's Robes with this is conjoined the Grace of Regeneration by which God changeth the Soul's nature and disposition old things pass away with it and all things become new this is no quality infused into us or inherent in us but the free and pure love and good will of Christ imbracing us 2. The second is the Grace of Sanctification this makes the Believer the Companion 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.