dependeth upon the will of God He sheweth mercy where he will shew mercy Thus God is said to be present where he sheweth mercy and kindness and to be absent where he with-holdeth his acts of kindness Thus the Saints in Heaven are said to be ever with the Lord in Heaven because they shall be ever under the fullest manifestations of his glory and goodness and the damned are said to depart from God because they are never like more to see him or feel him in any manifestations of his mercy and goodness the shewing of mercy and goodness is so natural to God so much his proper work and delight that he is said to be wholly absent from them to whom he will never more shew kindness and mercy So as to this life God is said to be present with a people when he sheweth them goodness and mercy to be departed and to be absent from them when he with-holdeth from them such dispensations as they have formerly enjoyed and are suited and proper to their wants or desires Now these mercies or good things being such as are suited to the necessities of our bodies here in this life or of our Souls the first of which we usually call the good things of common providence The latter the good things of special grace God is said to be present with or absent from his people with respect to the one or to the other with respect to the good things of common providence God is present with a people when he goeth forth with their Armies gives them peace and plenty success in business prosperity in their tradings and commerce and on the other side he is said to be absent from them and to be departed from them when he goeth not forth with their Armies but makes them to fall before their enemies when he sends amongst them famine and pestilence c. Thus as to particular persons as God is said to be present with persons when he upholdeth their Souls in life their bodies in health when he blesseth them in their businesses and relations and maketh the works of their hands to prosper so he is said to have forsaken them and to be departed from them when he leaves them to sicknesses blasts them in their Estates c. thus Gods presence and being with his people his absence forsaking of and departing from a people or person are often taken in holy writ Thus God may be present with the very worst of men thus he may be absent and depart from the very best of his people But then there is a presence of God with men and women with respect to the good things of special grace Now these things again are such as are either absolutely necessary to salvation Or 2. Such influences as though they be not absolutely necessary to the salvation of the Soul yet do highly accommodate the Soul in its way to Heaven Of the first sort are the graces of justification and of Regeneration Sanctification without these the Soul can never enter into the Kingdom as to these therefore God is always present with never absent from the Souls of any whom he hath chosen and called out of darkness into light in that sense the promise doth and ever shall hold true He will never leave his people nor forsakethem But now there are other influences of grace exceeding pleasant of high advantage accomodation to the Soul in its way to Heaven such are further degrees of strength and ability further freedom lâ—fe and activity and chearfulneâ—s in the service of God pâ—ace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost these are not absolutely necessary unto eternal life and salvation nor to the upholding of spiritual life in the Soul the want of them is only afflictive to the Soul and incumbers it in its spiritual life without a total destruction of it as to these God giveth more or less to the Souls of his people and to the same Souls more or less at one time then at another and so is said to be present or absent from them according to the greater or lesser degrees of these influences which he vouchsafeth unto them and those Souls may be said to be brought into the Lords Chambers to whom he vouchsafeth greater degrees of these gracious influences and those Souls may be said to be under desertions forsaken of God to whom the Lord denieth such degrees of these influences as either themselves have before enjoyed or others do enjoy As to these God is very various in his dispensations they being such dispensations as God upon the covenant of grace is left at liberty to dispense out to the Souls of his people or to with-hold from them according to his own good pleasure and wisdom and which accordingly he doth dispense out in pursute of the design of his own glory and as according to his infinite knowledge and wisdom he seeth will be most for the good of his people when God dispenseth out more of these he is said to be more present with the Souls of his people when he more with-holdeth them he is said to be absent not that at any time he is wholly absent from the Souls of his people as to his gracious presence for without that they were able to do nothing the seed of God abiding in the Soul must be upheld in its life and cherished by the influence of the Sun of righteousness upon the Soul but as God though he be alwaies present in the world by his essential presence yet doth not alwaies shew forth his power in upholding and preserving this or that part of it no not the same parts of it which is the reason of that sickness and mortality with which some parts of it are affected more than others and the same parts of it are affected at some times more than others So as to spiritual influences though he alwaies vouchsafeth such a presence of his gracious influences as shall keep up spiritual life in the Soul yet for further gradual influences the want of which is yet consistent with spiritual life in the Soul the Lord granteth or with holdeth them according to his own will guided by his infinite wisdom with respect to the great ends of his own glory and his peoples good And the Lords withdrawings of this nature are the cause of all the Souls sickness and spiritual distempers upon this are the grievous complaints of the people of God of the strength of their corruptions the violence of temptations their deadness and inactivity to in the operations of the spiritual llfe their heaviness sadness and want of comfort When the Lord granteth out to any of the Souls of his people more of these influences then he may be said to bring them into his Chambers when they find more internal strength to the performance of their duties that their meditation of God is more sweet to them they can believe with less doubting pray with more faith more fervour less distraction
such a time Other men may seem to do well enough so long as they have rest and ease and prosperity But what will they do in the day of their visitation God takes another care for his People when David can incourage himself in nothing else he can incourage himself in his God When the Fig-tree doth not blossom and there is no fruit in the vine when the fields yield no meat and the flock are cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stall yet even then they can rejoyce in the Lord and be glad in the God of their Salvation Habak 3. 17 18 19. Vnder his shades we shall live saith the Afflicted Church Lam. 4. 20. I state under his shadow with great delight saith the Spouse Cant. 2. 3. There are many promises which God hath made to his People to be their hiding place their rock their Covert their shadow from the storm and from the tempest To which I refer you In the next place What cause of rejoycing and lifting up of the head is here to the People of God whether such as lie under the present pressures of Tryals or Afflictions or such as have these storms in prospect though they be not already fallen upon them Is the noon of Tryals and Afflictions come upon any of you Hath the Lord taken away those gourds which heretofore were a shade to you your health friends estate your outward comforts of what kind soever yet be of good cheer God is only changing your Souls Pastures Hitherto you have lived more immediately upon the creature you shall only now live more immediately upon God hitherto you have lived by sight God is now calling you to live by Faith hitherto your great Shepherd hath fed you in the fields of sensible comforts and enjoyments things that are seen he is now calling you to live upon things that are invisible but every way as sufficient for the support and sustenance of the Soul he that hath fed thee in the morning will not leave thee at noon time Psal 37. v. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good and so shalt thou dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed David saith He never saw the righteous forsaken The Believer shall be fed either with that bread which the world knoweth and calleth so or with that bread which the world knoweth and calleth so or with that bread which the world knoweth not of There is a revolution of time a vicissitude of Providences but there is no change of the Word and Promises of God Verily they shall be fed There shall be no want to those that fear the Lord. A noon may come but Christ hath a shadow a feeding a resting place for his flocks at noon That God who hath kept thee in health will also keep thee in sickness He that hath hitherto kept thee from the malice of a most malicious world will keep thee under the pressures of their malice Only take care to Trust in the Lord and to do good Is not this thy case Hast thou the storm only in prospect but it is not yet fallen upon thee and art thou only tormented with the fears of what is likely to come upon thee oft-times slavish fear proves a great evil and an evil in prospect is greater than when it is fallen upon a person Let this incourage you to hear that Christ hath shades for his People at noon God hath said I will never leave you nor forsake you Let me only commend one Promise to you it is made to the Church and to every Believer as a Member of it it is that Isa 4. 5 6. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her Assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence and there shall be a Tabernacle in the day-time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from Storm and from Rain I will shut up this Discourse with a word or two of Exhortation First To such as are yet none of the Inhabitants of Mount Zion None of those I mean who are the true Members of the Church of Christ Those who have no title or are able to make out no title to the dwelling-places upon Mount Zion or any of them what a motive should this be to all such to indeavour what in them lieth to get into Christ's little Flock A noon must come Possibly it is now morning with you and you are more careless but man is born to trouble and it is as natural to humane nature as it is for sparks to fly upward as Job tells us The Children of God in respect to the world's hatred are more exposed to others but there is none who liveth and shall not see death none that lives but must look to be in deaths often of one nature or another It is certainly the highest prudence to be prepared for all Assayes Thou hast no way for this but to get an interest in Christ Whilst thou art an Egyptian thou canst not look for the Priviledges of one that is an Inhabitant in Goshen Doest thou ask me how can this be How should I who am a Goat be transformed into a Sheep Our Saviour answers thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God he can be none of that little Flock to whom it is God's will to give that Kingdom Regeneration a new Birth from the holy Spirit can only make this Spiritual Metamorphosis Thy work in order to it lyeth only in some external actions such as refraining what thou canst from sin waiting upon God in Ordinances calling upon God in Prayer not resisting the motions of his holy Spirit 2d Branch Secondly This Discourse ought to quicken such as are of the Flock of Christ in all their Noons of Affliction and Trial to betake themselves to Christ's shades to the places where Christ useth to feed and to make his Flocks to rest at Noon What those shades are I have shewed you our work is to betake our selves unto them It is natural to us when we are pursued to look for a covert for some refuge or shelter where we may hide our selves till the storm be passed over and to flee to such places where we think that we may be secure There is no true shelter but in Christ's shades Let us then inquire what is the duty of a good Christian in an evil day that he may bring his Soul to a rest and quiet 1. The first and great thing is to look out our Evidences to make out our title to and interest in the Lord Jesus Christ We must intitle our selves to the great Shepherd of our Souls as our Shepherd before we can expect that he should in a scorching time make us to lie down in green Pastures and lead us besides the still waters and encourage our selves as David Psal
their own Child above any others The man of art takes most delight in his own workmanship God can do nothing but what is truly and highly good and he cannot but be most pleased in his own work 2. Secondly The beauty of the Child of God is Christs beauty and lyeth in the Souls assimilation or being made like unto Christ Is he justifyed It is by the imputation of his righteousness Is he regenerated It is through his Spirit and by his regeneration the image of God and Christ is renewed in him in Knowledge righteousness and holiness the like mind is in him that was in Christ Likeness is the Mother of Love and all Love floweth from some likeness or conceived likeness in the object beloved Christ cannot but love that Soul that is made partaker of the Divine nature renewed according to his image made like unto himself The believer was predestinated to be conform to the Image of the Son by Faith Regeneration he is made conform renewed according to the image of God according to the Apostles phrase If Jacob knew his sons coat again and the sight of it was enough to set the Fathers bowels on yerning Christ will doubtless know his own robes and cannot but account that Soul most beautiful that is adorned with dressed in them This in the first place may serve to convince us of the truth of what John tells us 1. John 5. 19. That the whole world lyeth in wickedness For these Souls whom Christ judgeth and calleth the fairest amongst Women The most lovely and beautiful Souls are those who in the Eyes of the generality in the world are counted the most unlovely despicable and contemptible Persons in nature in so much that Godly men and women may take up the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 9. concerning himself and those of his own order 1 Cor. 4. 9. We think that God hath set as forth as it were appointed unto death for we are made a spectacle to the world to angels and to men We are fools for Christs sake profane leud men they are wise we are weak they are strong they are honourable we are despised the People of God in the present age in all former ages are they who hunger and thirst who are naked and buffeted and have no certain dwelling place yet they labour working with their hands being reviled they bless being persecuted they suffer it being defamed they intreat yet are they made as the filth of the world as the off-scouring of all Nations even to this day Thus it was under the Old Testament the prophet complained in his time Isa 59. 15. That truth failed and he who departed from evil made himself a prey but he addeth and the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no judgment It was so under the New Testament who was more despised and rejected of men then Christ Who was more reviled contemned abused both in words and deeds then John the Baptist Christ and his blessed Apostles and all the Primitive Christians Christ foretold his disciples that the world should hate them that they should speak of them all manner of Evil persecute them turn them out of their Synagogues c. It is so in our times if there be in any places Persons fearing God and working righteousness Persons that make a conscience of their waies that fear an Oath that durst not drink and swear and curse and blaspheme the living God as others do that make conscience of their worshipping God and are a little more strict and frequent in it then others are These are the Persons against whom the world spits all their venom against whom their hands are lifted up men may meet together to drink and revel to hear leud and profane Songs and Plays but not to pray not to consider and exhort one another to love and to good works what is this an Evidence of but that the world lyeth in wickedness Christ judgeth pious Souls the fairest Souls these are they sor whom he died Whom he calls his Sister his Spouse the fairest Souls in the creation these are those Souls whom the World sets up as marks to shoot all their invenomed arrows bitter words against to offer all affronts and indignities unto Shall not the Lord visit for these things Shall he not be avenged on such a generation Shall a gallant in the World draw his Sword upon the man that affronts his Paramour or Mistress a wanton Woman that he hath espoused or to whom his heart cleaveth and shall the Lord bear these affronts these injuries offered to Souls that are more precious in the Eyes of their Lord then all the world is beside Hear what the Lord said by his prophet as to that antient People of his Isa 43. 2 3. I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour I gave Egypt for thy ransom Ethiopia and Seba for thee Since thou wert pretious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and People for thy life Was this spoken for the Jews only think we or did this concern the profane part of the Jews or those only that feared the Lord walked in his commandments and worshiped him in Spirit and in truth That it was not to be understood with reference to or upon the account of the leud and profane part of the Jewish Nation is evident by Gods declared detestation of them by the same prophet and by others of his Prophets If it were spoken with reference to such as feared God and walked in his commandments and kept close to the rule of Worship which he had given them it holds good still to all Souls that fall under that Character They are precious in Gods fight honourable he hath loved them the holy one of Israel is their Saviour and the worlds hatred of them profane mens reviling contemning abusing them is but a continued Evidence that the world knoweth them not and speaketh evil of and doth evil to things and Persons they know not Or that it lieth in wickedness in a vile and wicked Error of judgment judging those vile and base whom God judgeth precious and honourable and those worthy of hatred whom he loveth though the Lord may for a time suffer his good righteous Servants to be thus reviled thus treated thus abused by leud and ungodly men for the trial of their faith and for the exercise of their patience and that some of the blood of his Saints may be poured into the cup of wicked mens sins that the cup of their iniquities may be full and they may fill up their measures of sinning That upon them may come all the righteous blood of his People which hath been shed yet be assured the Lord will not suffer it alwaies but awake as one out of sleep plead the cause of his People and give Egypt for their ransom and Ethiopia and Seba
when the Soul that found in itself a strength before sufficient to grapple with its temptations and to perform the several duties and operations of a Spiritual life hath suffered itself to be overcome with motions and temptations to sin it finds itself weak falls before a temptation fails in its Spiritual duties it cannot believe hope meditate rejoice and delight in God c. Thus it was with Peter that had faith enough to walk upon the Sea at Christs command when he had sinned by too much confidence in himself he falls by the hand of a silly Damsel in the High Priests Hall hence it is oft-times that the liveliness and chearfulness of the Soul in its conversation also fails and it is at a loss where to find its beloved and how to enjoy its desired communion with him 2. Sometimes these dispensations are not so much founded in the Divine Justice and intended as the punishment of guilt in the Soul as in the Divine Wisdom designing to prove and to try his People and to make them to seek more after him Job was thus tried Though Job doubtless had guilt enough of sin to have justified God in such providences yet God himself saith of him Job 2. 3. That there was none like him in the Earth that he was a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil yet had he not been under some divine desertion and withdrawings of grace as well as more external Trials he had never fallen into those extravagant passions in which you find him ch 3 c. 3. On our part this loss and ignorance happeneth divers ways I shall instance in some more principal causes 1. The prevailing of sin and corruption in the Soul The guile of sin alwaies causeth weakness and blindness How weak is thine heart saith the Lord seeing thou dost all these things Zech. 16 30. Weakness is the cause of sin and it is the effe ct of sin it argueth weakness in a Soul to do those things which God hath forbidden and which will certainly end in the harm of the Soul It is a weak thing wilfully to sin against God and weakness is also the effect of sin this is caused from the sour reflections and reverberations of conscience when a man would medirate on God believe and hope joy rejoice and delight in God conscience throws his sin in his face and bringeth his iniquity to remembrance he remembreth God and is troubled he cannot tell how to believe how to hope how to joy and rejoice in God whom he now looketh upon as angry with him for the proof of this though I might fetch enough from Davids Poenitential Psalms yet I need no more then the experience of every good Christian who keepeth any watch upon his own heart and ways I appeal to any of your Souls when you are conscious of any wilful slips and failings in your life can you remember and think of God as at other times Can you believe and hope in his mercy Can you pray with that boldness and courage and confidence doth not shame cover your faces so as you know not how to look upward 2. Diabolical suggestions are another cause what strange and horrid impressions do the best of Gods people find some indeed of more strength and longer continuance then others but there is scarce any who doth not find them at some times and in some degree or other and although if they be mere impressions not consented to by the Soul but abhorred by it they are not the Souls guilt yet they must be the Souls disturbance so as under them the Soul will not know how to uphold and maintain a communion with God as at other times but its communion is broken and interrupted and imperfect though the Devil cannot stain the Soul without its own concurrence yet he can trouble the Soul if God permits him by his mere suggestions and impressions and therefore we had need pray every day Lead us not into temptation The Devil in this case can do as much to a Soul as a clamorous railing fellow can do to disturb our communion with our friends though we hearken not much to him and chide him away yet he can make a noise and disturb our communion 3. Severe outward afflictions may be a cause Though afflictions be not alwaies indications of Divine Wrath for the Apostle tells us that whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Child whom he receiveth yet oftentimes they are so and whether Gods end be to punish sin or no yet there is no Soul but is conscious of so much daily guilt as gives him cause to suspect they are the punishments of some guilt and I told you before how apprehensions of guilt very ordinarily make the Soul at a loss how to uphold and maintain its wonted communion with God Besides afflictions usually excite passions particularly those of fear and sorrow Both opposite to the exercises of faith and joy and delight in God both distracting the Soul in the sweet meditations of God To this may be added that the Soul in afflictions as it standeth in more need of the divine presence and influence so it is prone to expect more or to think it hath nothing Neither can the Soul under the roilings and prevailings of passion so well discern Christs communications of himself unto it and besides they hinder the Soul in its motions and communications of it self to Christ I am so troubled saith the Psalmist that I cannot Speak The Soul is so troubled that it cannot believe it cannot hope it cannot Pray c. 4. The last cause that I shall assign is distractions caused either from worldly cares and businesses or from some false guides A Soul overwhelmed with businesses and cares of the World will many times find it self at a loss how to maintain its communion with God there is such an opposition betwixt a communion with God and the World the first being wholly a Spiritual thing the other wholly of the Earth earthly that a man overwhelmed in the World will find the maintaining of this communion difficult and be more at a loss to it then another man more free from these incumbrances Besides in the World Christians are subject to distractions from false guides one saying loe Christ is here another saying loe he is there one telling us that the way to have communion with Christ is to cast off duties and ordinances another prescribing an attendance upon them as the onely means of such communion One telling them that there is no other communion with Christ then with Christ mystical having and keeping in the communion of his Church whereas many may do so if we mean the visible Church that have no communion with Christ at all Upon Christs floor there is Chaff as well as Wheat which when Christ cometh with his fan thoroughly to purge his floor shall be cast into unquenchable fire tares as well as wheat which must grow together untill
David saith before he was afflicted he went astray but his affliction had learned him to keep Gods Statutes Psal 119. But it is said of Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his distress he trespassed more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz and I am sure the same is said of the body of Israelites Amos 4. 6 7 8 9 10 11. God followed them with judgment after judgment yet they returned not unto him Afflictions are good remembrancers to them who have learned their duty before but they must be some particular afflictions that give leisure for Instructions to be then first given or time for the digestion of them if they can be given I conclude in short whatever use God may sometimes make of Afflictions it is not the drawing by them which the Spouse here prays for Secondly There is a drawing by liberal distributions of mercies of common Providence Thus God saith Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with the Cords of a man with bands of love So Jer. 31. 3. With loving kindness have I drawn thee Love is of a drawing nature it is like the hook in the intrails of a Creature which draweth more forcibly than Cords fastened to the flesh and outward part But experience teacheth us that this is not a sufficient Cord to draw Sinners Souls to God God in his parable of the Vineyard Isaiah 5. repeats what he had done for the Israelites and concludes v. 4. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Yet when he looked it should bring forth Grapes it brought forth wild Grapes Oppression instead of Judgment and a cry instead of righteousness How many thousands are there in the world that are incompassed with Mercies of this nature they have healthy bodies pleasing relations full barns plentiful estates they want nothing yet are they Enemies to God and to the Cross of Christ nor do the People of God ordinarily run most after or walk most close with God when they most abound with the good things of this life Gods People Jer. 2. that followed him in a Wilderness and in a land of droughts forsook him when they came into a land that flowed with Milk and Hony whence Agur prayed as much against Riches left he should being full blaspheme God as against poverty And even the man according to Gods own heart offended more when he was come to sit upon his Throne in Hierusalem than when he was hunted like a Partridge in the Wilderness and knew not where to rest and this is seen in our ordinary experience 3. God draweth us thirdly by the potent arguments of the Gospel as it lieth before us to be read or as it is opened and applied to us by the Ministry of the Word Man hath a tunable ear and is a reasonable Creature so as arguments have a great force upon humane nature and the more as any of us are more knowing and rational and able to raise conclusions from Principles Into this sense Interpreters do interpret those words of our Saviour John 12. 42. When I shall be lifted up I will draw all men after me after my death upon the Cross I will send my Apostles up and down the world to be witnesses of my death resurrection and ascension and to persuade men to receive me in my true notion as the true Messias and Saviour of the world Accordingly the Apostle tells the Corinthians that Christ had committed to them the word of Reconciliation Now then saith he 2 Cor. 5. 20. We as Embassadours for Christ as tho God did beseech you by us we pâ—ay you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God and this must be the meaning of that command to the Servants Luke 14 23. Compel them to come in Christ is not there speaking to Magistrates or of their duty but of the duty of Ministers who have no power from him to compel any but by a lively and powerful Preaching the Gospel the potent arguments of which set home upon reasonable and ingenuous Souls by the gifts God hath given to his Ministers have a kind of compulsory force and power in them and the Apostle tells us that Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10. and as men are by it drawn to Christ so they are also by it drawn after him and therefore Peter exhorts Christians 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes to desire the sincere milk of the Word that they might grow thereby The believing Soul followeth Christ in the scent or favour of his precious Ointments It is the publishing of the Gospel that makes the name of Christ an Ointment poured out Fourthly God may be said to draw men by the common motions of his Spirit impressing good thoughts upon us either upon occasion of his Providential dispensations or while we read or hear the word some say that there is a common Ministration of the Spirit attending the preaching of the word sufficient to assist every Soul that will to repent and believe and to do what God requires of us in order to Salvation that the holy Spirit doth ordinarily attend the preaching of the word and suggest to and imprint upon the hearts of those that hear it some good thoughts is what will not be denied I believe there are but few who have used to attend the preaching of the Gospel where it hath been faithfully and livelily preach'd but must own that he hath heard the Lord standing at his door and knocking But still the question is whether this be all the drawing which the Spouse here begs No doubt but she begs such a cause such operations of a cause as should be productive of the effect The effects are coming unto Christ running after Christ Coming is not expresly mentioned in this Text but it is Joh. 6. 44. No man cometh unto me except the Father who hath sent me draw him and it is included in the term running The question therefore must be whether such a drawing as is by common mercies by the preaching of the Gospel or by the common work of the Holy Spirit all which reprobates may have is sufficient to innable a Soul yet a stranger to God to come to Christ or to innable any Soul already come to Christ to run after him I think not and therefore I conclude in the last place 5. That both in the Souls first motions to Christ and its further motions after him the Lord putteth forth a powerful influence of his Spirit of grace beyond the arguments of the word the suasion of his Minister and the common work of the Spirit attending all faithful preaching of the Gospel This I take to be that drawing the Spouse here prayeth for and which our Saviour mentions John 6. 44. as some think with an allusion to the phrase of this Text nay some bring that Text John 6 44. to prove this Book quoted in the New Testament This I firmly believe because I am convinced there is such a work
us to be reconciled unto God If the Lord had only sent to us to give us warning of a wrath to come and timely notice to flee from it leaving us meerly to our own wills whether we would hear or forbear accept or refuse This had been love above the usual mercy of men who do not usually spend much time in treating and intreating those enemies whom they can easily crush and tread under foot Yet had God done no more for our Souls though in this he had shewed great love yet we through the natural stubborness and perverseness of our hearts had been undone for ever How many are in a high Road to ruine and eternal destruction whom God hath been thus intreating and beseeching many years 2. But now that the Lord should not only do this but put forth an act of power though not saving them against their wills yet making them willing to be saved and in order to it not verbally but really willing to receive Christ as tendred to them in the Gospel so as not only to be saved by him but to submit to those Laws and Rules in the observance of which they shall obtain Salvation and not only so but that God should assist the Soul in the performance of these acts not only giving it to will but to do also This certainly must transcendently commend the love and goodness of God to those Souls that have experienced such grace That God doth not so much for all speaks indeed severity to them but that he doth it for any speaks his unspeakable goodness and good will to their Souls I say that he doth not this for all speaks to them severity but yet justice and that not only in regard of that stock of sufficient grace wherewith our Pro-parent was intrusted which being lost God is under no obligation to restore but also in regard that God never denieth his special Grace until the Soul hath abused his common Grace 3. Nay lastly That the Lord should take care of our Souls after that we are once brought to Christ that he should put his fear into our hearts to keep us from departing from him and never depart from us to do us good that drawing Grace should follow us all the days of our life This certainly is the heighth of Divine Love more than this God could not have done for any Soul those for whom he hath done this must be highly beloved What now is left for such a Soul to do but to strive after perfection to live in a constant eying this All-sufficient God this Fountain of all Fulness and living in dependance upon him To live in a continual thanksgiving to and love for that God who hath dealt thus graciously with it and in a daily care not to grieve that holy Spirit by which it was first drawn to Christ and by which it is sealed to the day of Redemption and guided and kept that it doth not slip fatally O love you the Lord all ye his Saints Let drawing Grace find no renitency no resistance from any of your Souls God hath done for you more than others what will you do for God nay what can you do for that God who hath not only called but pluckt you out of the horrible Pit Take the Cup of Salvation and be for ever praising the Lord. Again we may from hence learn though not the proximate yet a true and remoter cause why the Gospel is preached to many so ineffectually Our Saviour tells us Many are called but few are chosen Isaiah cried out Who hath believed our report to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed Paul in his Preaching was to some the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death When Christ himself Preached some believed others were hardened Whence so great a difference when the Word was the same the Preachers the same both to those that believed to those who were hardened They had all reasonable Souls those Souls had all the same powers the same faculties I mean powers and faculties that had the same virtues We see the same in the experience of every day Indeed there may be some Preaching that may bear no better proportion to the instruction of the ignorant or the conviction of a sinner and turning him from his sinful courses than the Clay and Spittle had to cure the blind man's eyes from which no such effect could have flowed but by a miracle but where there is the same Scriptural spiritual lively powerful Preaching we see this effect Two sit in the same seat one's heart is changed the other 's is not one goes on in his leud courses and perisheth for ever the other is converted his heart changed whence is this difference Is it from him that willeth or him that runneth think you or from him that calleth from him that sheweth mercy because and on whom he will shew mercy We will grant that the one doth not make that use of God's common Grace which he might and therefore the Lord righteously with-holds his special Grace But could not the Lord if he pleased influence the one Soul as well as the other to make a good use of his common Grace Hath God think we no influence upon men inclining their hearts to make a due use of his common Grace When men have said what they can the conversion of every Soul is the effect of the Lord 's drawing and when the Lord doth not draw the Soul doth not cannot come or run The natural man hath many things which draw him another way and God is not pleased to put forth his power upon the Soul Indeed properly nothing but our own lusts draw us another way but our natural passions are inflamed several waies You have an instance of the principal of them in the Parable of the Marriage-Feast which the King made for his Son recorded by Luke c. 14. 18 19 20. Matth. 22. v. 5 c. A certain great man Matthew calls him a King made a great Supper Matthew calls it a Marriage for his Son he bade many saith Luke he sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding saith Matthew They would not come saith Matthew They all with one consent began saith Luke to make excuse They were invited by potent Arguments I have prepared my Dinner my Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready come you to the Marriage Matth. 22. 4. In general it is said They would not come they made light of it they made excuse What drew them another way Lu. 14. 18. The first said I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it I pray thee have me excused And another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them And another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come who is this King Even the King of Kings the Lord of Lords who is his Son but the Lord
Jesus Christ Of whom he said This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased What are the fatlings kill'd how are all things ready the Lord Jesus Christ hath dyed there is in his blood a sufficiency of merit The Gospel is Preached the Ministers of Christ are sent out to offer reconciliation with God union with Christ to all those to whom the Gospel is Preached a great part of them will not come they make light of the tender of Grace and Salvation what is the matter that they find any difficulty to make hast to their own happiness The three great causes are mentioned and they fall under these three heads 1. Worldly enjoyments 2. Worldly imployments 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions these have all a power upon man by reason of that lust which is in them either the lust of the Eye or the lust of the flesh or the pride of life 1. Wordly enjoyments hinder some The first said I have bought a Farm I must go and see it The young man Mat. 19. seems to have a good mind to follow Christ Christ bids him first go and sell all that he had and he should have riches in Heaven The Text saith he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions Mat 19. 22. Our Saviour upon it saith to his Disciples Verily I say unto you a rich man shalt hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle then for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Another Evangelist expounds this by one that trusteth in his riches The desire of getting riches and the over-much complacency and delight of the Soul in them together with mens valuing themselves upon them are three great drawers of the Soul from Christ The first as it over-ruleth the Soul to an evil covetousness oppression and unjust methods and measures of gain and so brings him into the herd of those that shall never come into Heaven The Second as it melteth the Soul into sensuality and hindereth those acts of Self-denial and Mortification without which a man cannot be Christs Disciple nor ever come into Heaven The 3d As it swells the Soul with pride and lifts it above religious Duties which it judgeth too mean for it suited to poor people but not to Persons of its degree and quality in the world 2. Worldly Employments hinder others Alass That Men and Women should be too busie to attend the making their calling and election sure but so it is The second said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I must go and prove them Some Men and Women are not at leasure to be saved as they are not at leasure to pray that the thoughts of their heart might be forgiven them or to hear that their Souls might live Licitis perimus As many perish by the ill uses of lawful things as by reaching their hands to absolutely forbidden fruit more die by meat then by poison Though the Drunkard cannot keep the narrow path that leads to Eternal life yet what hindereth but that a sober Person should what more lawful then to buy five yoke of Oxen and to try and use them when we have them It is the command of God that In the sweat of our Face we should eat our Bread Ah! But if the Cart draws to the Market when God calls to the Solemn Assemblies of his People the five yoke of Oxen prove of fatal consequence O cupide negotiator saith De-Ponte when a man hath so much business about his body that he hath no leasure to attend the business of his Soul he is over-busy and makes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when his Trading is so much in the world as is inconsistent with having his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his conversation in Heaven then much business makes him mad and his time is but like Domitians spent in catching of flies instead of attending the concerns of the Roman Empire the concerns I mean of his immortal Soul I would have the active men of the world sometimes think whether they have not too much business to manage and go to Heaven too This made our holy Mr. Palmer bless God who had call'd him to the work of the Ministry which drew mens minds towards God whereas most other imployments divert the Soul from God 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions are another kind of things which potently seduce and draw off the Soul from God Another said I have married a Wise and cannot come Never yet any mist of Heaven but had some impediments or other the others prayed to be excused this guest saith I cannot come Riches draw hard so do worldly business and imployments but ah Pleasures pleasures are the bane of Souls like the silly Bee they are drowned in their own Hony Gods voice grates upon the Ears accustomed to Musick and all manner of delightful sounds A bleeding crucified Christ is a most ingrateful object to the wanton Eye that hath been used only to behold pleasant things Yet it is to be observed that he doth not say I am going to an Harlot but I have married a Wife cannot come Still Licitis perimus These are those potent Seducers which suiting with the strong natural byass inclinations of our hearts draw off from Christ Man is too weak to withstand the force of them God doth not please upon every Soul to whom the Gospel is Preached to put forth his power Hence Souls of the same species under the same means and assistances yet incline and move diversely There is there can be nothing in man that makes him in practice to differ from his Neighbour Let not therefore he who is thus drawn glory for it is God who hath drawn him Nor let any murmur on the behalf of those who are not thus drawn Grace is the Lords own he may do with it what he pleaseth Augustine saith well concerning Grace the cause why it is given to one not to another may be hidden and secret but unjust it cannot be In the mean time as I said before I believe at the great day there will be not be found so much as one Soul that shall be able to accuse God for the denial of this Grace this powerful and effectual Grace who hath not voluntarily resisted and vexed the holy Spirit of God in the use of that common Grace for the want of which he hath no reason to complain and shall not the Lord be justified in refusing to draw those who have first suffered a base lust which was in their power to have resisted to draw them away from him Shall not this powerful Grace be righteously denied to them who have suffered themselves by a revel to be drawn from a Sermon 2. Further yet we may from hence have an account of those many startings aside from God of which his own People are guilty and the inequality of gracious motions and actions Some seem to us to stand still
others to move very slowly others with great heaviness and difficulty All this difference depends upon the inequal distributions of Divine Grace for although when this Oil is once in the Cruise it shall not fail from it till Grace shall be swallowed up in glory but so much influence of Grace shall be continued as to justify the Lord in his promise that he will never depart from the Soul to do it good and he will put his fear into the heart that it shall never depart from him and the Soul shall be preserved by the power of God through faith to Salvation yet there may be and are great differences as to the degrees of Gods Administrations Nor yet possibly must the blame of these Souls not running rest upon God for not drawing For although the Lord may sometimes do it upon his prerogative and soveraignty 1. To shew the freeness of his Grace in all the emanations of it and that he is under no obligations to measure out to every Child an equal portion of the riches of his Grace but as in the disposal of his other talents of Riches common gifts he may if he please make inequal distributions as it pleaseth him giving out to some 10 to others 5 to others but one so he may do as to his Talents of distinguishing Grace whiles yet every one hath enough to conduct and preserve his Soul unto eternal life and happiness 2. Secondly He may do it to lay his people under the potent conviction of this truth That their running depends upon his drawing God himself sometimes assigns this as the reason of his substraction of worldly enjoyments that they might know who it is that gave them Hosea 2. 8. 9. For she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oil and multiplied her Silver and Gold which they prepared for Baal Therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and will recover my Wool and my Flax c. Thus also the Lord may do as to the dispensations of his Grace that Grace I mean which is not necessary to Salvation did we alwaies find an equal strength against our lusts and to our Spiritual duties an equal readiness to and chearfulness in the Service of God we should attribute too much to our renewed nature and not know in what a daily derivation from and dependance upon God even the best Souls live and that all our fresh springs are from him Did we Sail to Heaven through the Sea of this world alwaies with a Trade wind we should not understand that the wind of Divine Grace which is the breathing of the holy Spirit bloweth where it listeth But when we are becalmed in our voyage for the new Hierusalem and forced to lie at Anchor then we learn that without Christ we can do nothing But though this must be said to aver the Soveraignty of God and to assert his wisdom yet most ordinarily these withdrawings are upon some provocations on our parts the Clouds in the Heavens are caused from the Vapours which arise from the Earth God can never be so provoked against a justified Soul as to withdraw himself wholly but he may be and is oft-time so far provoked as to withdraw his gradual influences so as the Soul shall feel that it is not with it as at former times and cryeth out where is my God become When the Lord offereth a wind and the Soul refuseth to open its Sails when he moveth and the Soul quencheth its motions and grieveth him in his operations he many times hides his face from it it is troubled the Soul that hath grieved the quickning Spirit shall smart alittle for the want of quickning Grace complain of dulness heaviness listlessness to its Spiritual Duty I say this oft-times yea most ordinarily is the cause So as though it wants these divine drawings yet its want of them is the punishment of its iniquity I shall conclude this discourse with a word of advice what such Souls should do under such dispensations 1. Search and see whether some late sin hath not provoked God to these withdrawings See if thy conscience which in this case is thy best informer doth not tell thee that such a time thou hadst an impulse or motion to prayer or such a duty and that under convenient circumstances and thou neglectedst it or offered thee some help and thou neglectedst it And now the righteous Lord hath left thee to thy own strength and thou feest what thou art and humble thy Soul before God and renew thy covenant with him 2. If thou canst not find that any such blot hath clave to thy Soul yet acknowledge the Lords wisdom the freeness of his grace and his righteousness in his dispensations We must allow God to do many things in infinite wisdom and righteousness though we cannot see or understand it we must not look in this life to understand the reason of Gods works It is enough for us to know that he hath done it and that all his works are done in wisdom and righteousness 3. Take heed of lowing thy Sails when thou thinkest the wind abates This you know is contrary to the methods of Mariners I am sure it is contrary to the wisdom of Christians keep thy heart at such a time with the most diligence working and striving against sin Tow thy Ship if thou canst not Sail as at other times Go if thou canst not run and keep thy Soul ready for a wind whenever God will please to send it 4. Fourthly Beg the returns of the blessed Spirit Tell God of thy Souls weakness or the strength of thy corruptions or temptations say unto God as Jehosaphat said in another case Lord I have a mighty host coming against me I know not what to do I have no strength against it but my Eyes are unto thee 5. After this I know nothing more to be done but a patient waiting for God according to the resolution of the Church Isaiah 8. 17. I will wait upon him that hides his face from the house of Jacob I will look for him Sermon XX. Canticles 1. 4. Drawme and We will run after thee I Am dwelling yet upon the first Proposition of Doctrine I observed from these words That the Soul must be drawn to and after Christ before it will run after him It is a great point and I am willing to make the utmost improvement of it that I can The improveableness of it for our instruction is all you have yet heard In the next place certainly there may be made some improvement of this notion to assist to judge concerning our spiritual state concerning faith and holiness These being from the ordination of God so necessary to Salvation that without them we cannot see God mistakes about them are like diseases that affect the vital parts exceeding dangerous All that this Doctrine will help us in as to this
now if we rise higher and enquire how some come to use common Grace better than others when all have an equal Natural power to do those acts of Moral discipline and of Religion also which extend no further then to a bodily labour how it comes to pass that some get leave of themselves of their Lusts and Passions to do them others do not We must say there is an influence of God's Spirit of Grace more upon the one than the other inclining them thereto but so long as others have a Natural power thus far which they do not use God is acquitted of their Blood and their Damnation is of themselves though his abounding grace be more seen as to others whom he doth further incline to a better use of common Grace and their natural abilities but of this I have spoken before and do now little more than repeat 2. The same account must be given of the uneven pace which is discernable in such as are Christians indeed The running of God's own People is not alike though they have all the same renewed Nature and inward principle of life To will is present with them all yet they have not all an equal strength to perform Nor an equal life liveliness freedom and chearfulness in their walkings with God there may be much blame to be laid upon themselves for not using the Grace of God as they ought to do not keeping their Watch as they ought to keep it but the Original cause is the want of Divine drawings which are sometimes with-held as a punishment to some loose and careless walking sometimes as the product of Divine Wisdom for the exercise of some habits of Grace which are not so well tryed and exercised under the full influences of divine grace upon them as under the partial withdrawings of it There might be other uses made of this point but they would be mostly such as were proper to the former Doctrine and there inlarged upon So as I shall proceed no further in Application of this Discourse Serman XXIII Canticles 1. 4. Draw me and We will run after thee YOu have heard the Spouses Petition opened what she means when she saith to her Beloved Draw me you have heard her Promise or Argument opened We will run after thee She prayeth for drawing she promiseth her running Drawing was the act of her beloved Running was her own Act though in force of his drawing But here is as I before observed an alteration of the Number She saith Draw me She addeth We will run She begs but for one she promiseth for more she prayeth for her self she promiseth for others How is this 1. I told you when I opened thé words that some by We understand The Spouse and the Spirit of God in conjunction I and thy Grace This is a Sense hinted by Genebrard and De Ponte upon the Text and it may seem to have some colour from that of Christ Without me you can do nothing and that of Paul Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God It is a great truth that when ever the Soul runs after Christ the holy Spirit assists its motion but yet it is drawing that is Christ's and his Spirits work running is ours Grace works together with the Child of God but it worketh by drawing the Soul works by running it is not Christ or the Spirit of Christ that is in us that runneth the way of God's Commandments but it is the Soul of the Christian in and with the strength and power of Christ Grace is the Principle of our Spiritual life like the Spirit within Ezechiels Wheels without which the Wheels move not but they are the Wheels that move I cannot therefore agree this sence 2. Bernard hath another Notion She begs saith he The sowre part for her self the sweeter part for others but this is an interpretation which to me seemeth to have many faults 1. It maketh the drawing here prayed for to be a drawing by Afflictions which are indeed the Lord's Cords but such as he seldom draweth Souls to Christ by not are they the proper matter of our Prayer Secondly It turneth the Promise into a Prayer and makes the Sense to be to this purpose Lord for me Draw me with the Cords of Affliction Let others run after thee but I see no ground at all for such an Interpretation It is not others but We she includeth her self It is not let others run but we will run 3. Thirdly If by the Spouse we here understand the Church speaking The Church being many yet make but one Body So the Spouse prayeth for her whole Body which is but one and saith properly draw me and then promiseth for every part Rom. 12. 5. We being many are one Body She prayeth for Grace she promiseth not only action and obedience but unity in her obedience and action God's Kingdom is not divided against its self not different from it self especially in the Fundamentals of Faith and Holiness They are an Army in order and fighting together against the World the Flesh and the Devil but this still is more than I will run 4. I rather choose another sence of this Promise A promise of an endeavour to cause others to run after Christ or a Prophecy that others would run so as the sense should be this Lord draw me and I will endeavour to be a cause of more than my own running after thee others seeing or hearing of thy Grace and Goodness to me shall also by my example be provoked to run after thee In this sence I shall carry it The Proposition resulting from hence is this Prop. That God's sweet and powerful drawing of one Soul to or after himself will be a means of causing others also to run after him God's drawing of John 1 John 26. draweth first two other Disciples who when they heard him followed Jesus and Andrew drew Simon Peter v. 40 Christ's drawing of Philip was the occasion of Nathaniel 's running v. 45. Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Christ draweth the Woman of Samaria John 4. v. 28. She leaves her Water pot and goes her way into the City and saith to the men of the City Come see a Man which told me all things that I ever did is not this the Christ Then they went out of the City and came unto him and v. 41. Many more believed because of his own word There are two main grounds upon which the truth of this Proposition depends 1. The first is the alluring nature of Divine Grace 2. The Second is The exceeding Charity of every pious Soul I will alittle enlarge upon them 1. I say first Divine Grace in the effects of it is exceedingly attractive The love of God saith the Apostle constraineth nor doth it only constrain the
his possession v. 8. which Kingdom he doth not only exercise over all in order to the gathering of his Church subduing the hearts of people unto himself and then over his Church gathered by giving laws to it and setting Officers over it but more particularly in the hearts of all believers in whom he ruleth by his Spirit But why doth the Spouse here speak to her beloved or of hÄ—r beloved in this lofty stile and not rather in that familiar stile which she generally useth in this Song What if we should say 1. That in other places of this Divine Song she is speaking to him here she is speaking of him God is the King of Kings the Lord of Lords yet when we pray unto him we are licensed and commanded to say unto him Our Father when she speaks of him to others she useth another stile and saith the King though we are allowed an holy boldness in our accesses and addresses to the Throne of Grace yet this is not exclusive of that holy fear and reverence which we owe unto God as our King we ought to remember that he who is our Beloved our Father is also our King 2. What if we should say that this lofty compellation is used to enhance the favour that she had received She was not admitted into ordinary Chambers but into Royal Chambers the King hath brought me into his Chambers No words are too big to express the singular favour of God to our Souls 3. What finally if we should say that she changeth her stile to intimate the persons who must expect signal favour from God and to remember her self of her duty in consideration of such favours I say first to intimate to us who those Persons must be that expect any singular favours from God they must be such as apprehend and receive Christ not for a Saviour as a Priest only but such as own and acknowledge him as a King as their Lord to command and to rule over them according to that promise John 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he who loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him It might also remember her of the duty she owed unto God in consideration of his favour to her she resolveth to own and to acknowledge him as her Lord her King But these things being premised I come to that Propesition which I raised from the connexion of these words testifying the Lords hearing of her Prayers the words are immediately annexed to her Petition Whence I observed That it pleaseth God sometimes to make very quick returns to his Peoples Prayers That it is so appears 1. By the Lords answering his People sometimes before they speak or while they are speaking Isaiah 65. 24. It shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear Nothing can be quicker then that for God to take notice of what his people have in their hearts to ask and to give it before they can form it by their lips into words or while they are speaking to give an answer you have the first exemplified in David Psal 32. 5. I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord he had not confessed he had only said in his heart that he would confess his transgression to the Lord and saith he thou sorgavest the inquity of my sin you have an instance of the latter in Hannah the Wife of Elkanah 1 Sam 1. She was praying her lips moved but her voice was not heard yet the Lord heard her and though the time must be fulfilled before she could have a Son yet 1 Sam 1. 18. It is said of her at present that she went away and did eat and her countenance was no more sad She had a present answer of peace her mind was quieted her countenance was no more sad you have another instance in Daniel to name no more Dan. 9. 20. Daniel with the rest of the Jews had been in the captivity of Babylon near 70 years the time was almost expired as to which God had promised they should come out Daniel sets himself to pray and you have a copy of his prayer from Dan. 9. v. 4. to v. 20. Observe now v. 20. And while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my People Israel yea v. 21. While I was speaking in prayer the man Gabriel whom I had seen in a vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly touched me about the time of the evening oblation and he informed me and talked with me and said O Daniel I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding at the beginning of thy supplication the Commandment came forth and I am come to shew thee for thou art greatly beloved c. Here now the Lord made a very quick return to Daniels prayer while he was speaking the Lord answered him But a return of prayers may be quick though it be not thus quick but after the interval of some few months days or years Abraham was thus answered as to his Prayer mentioned Gen. 17. and David glorieth in the assurance of this Psal 4. 3. The Lord will hear when I call upon him But now because on the one hand this is a very desirable mercy and many times the Souls of Gods people are discouraged and flagg in duty because the vision is yet for an appointed time It will not be out of our way to inquire what prayers these are that meet with so quick an audience from God God doth not this at all times nor for all persons no not for those who are most beloved of him David himself complaineth Psal 22. 2. O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent The Church complains of some times when God is angry with the prayers of his people Psal 80. 4 Gods own People sometimes shoot arrow after arrow to find what they shot first hence you so often meet with it as a piece of the Saints Prayer Hear my prayer O God give ear to my Supplications Let us a little enquire from whence this variety of Providence proceeds as to this hearing and answering of prayers God is the Lord that changeth not therefore we are not consumed we must therefore find the cause in the persons praying or in the prayers which maketh this difference as to Gods answers That so quick and gracious answers may be obtained something is necessary on the party praying Something with respect to the matter prayed for Something as to the manner of putting up the prayer 1. As to the Person praying 1. No Soul can expect such an answer unless persons in special favour with God this the Angel told Daniel Dan. 9. 23. At the beginning of thy supplication the commandment came forth and I am come to shew thee c. for
used it seemeth to be something more then the secret desire of the Soul the desires of our Souls expressed by the words of our lips is what is generally called prayer in holy writs but words without inward affections words not thrust out from the force of our internal desires and affections are the least thing in prayer which lieth not in the pouring forth of words but in the pourings out of our Souls before God Labour Christians to understand the nature of prayer both as to the matter you should pray for and as to the right manner of the performance of it you all know what you would have what you have need of what is truly good for you under your present circumstances this you know not some things are absolutely good universally necessary such things as all Souls at all times have need of such are pardon of sins sanctification further grace to honour and glorify God in your circumstances and relations an heart to honour and glorify God in whatsoever state and condition you are these and such like things you may beg importunately and absolutely and that at all times But there are other things which are not so absolutely and universally good but are good or evil as they are well used or abused These must be asked of God with a submission to his will and a reference to his wisdom It is of mighty concern for a Christian rightly to understand the matter of prayer what he may or may not ask of God what he may ask absolutely what but conditionally and with limitation an ignorance of this may make Christians too bold too importunate with God in asking some things and to sin by impatience and murmuring because they do not receive presently what they ask when as the reason is because they ask amiss James tells those to whom he wrote Jam. 4. 3. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss he instanceth but in one way wherein they asked amiss that you might consume it upon your lusts That indeed is one way by which men may miscarry in prayer not directing their prayer to the honour and glory of God but meerly to a self-satisfaction and indeed taking the words in that sense as spending upon their lusts signifies a gratifying our selves and giving our selves a pleasure and satisfaction so all asking amiss will fall under it and such asking amiss is the cause of all our not receiving no man can ask any thing for the honour and glory of God who doth not ask according to the will of God God is glorified by the fulfilling of his will and whosoever prays and the sum of his prayer is not let the Lord be glorified let the will of the Lord be done doth but ask that he may consume upon his lust and give himself a satisfaction now all this is asking amiss which is the cause of our not receiving It is therefore I say of a very great concernment for a Christian to know what he may pray for what he may pray for absolutely and peremptorily what but limitedly and conditionally with submission to the Divine will and with a reference to the Divine wisdom how else is it possible that he should pray in faith or how else will he be able to command his Spirit into a due silence and patience if he doth not presently receive what he asketh of God Nay the servency of a Soul in prayer doth much depend upon this knowledge no prayer can be fervent but the prayer of faith No prayer receiveth a present answer but the prayer of faith Study therefore Christian the due matter and manner of prayer There may be many prayers put up and yet God not hear Isa 1. 15. Though saith God you spread forth your hands I will hide my Eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear the reason there assigned is because their hands were full of blood which amounts to that of David If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my Prayer and to that of Solomon The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight He that lifteth up hands unto God must lift up pure hands But a man may lift up pure hands yet not be heard David complaineth that he did so Psal 22. therefore the Apostle adds 1 Tim. 2. 8. Holy hands without wrath or doubting for saith James ch 1. v. 7. Let not him that wavereth think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Now it is impossible that a man should pray without doubting for any thing of which he is not fully persuaded that it is the will of God that he should receive it this therefore is of very great concern that a Soul should know that he asks according to the will of God and that must be when he knows that God hath somewhere in Scripture promised it Be not therefore only much in prayer but see that you do not ask amiss that you ask so that you may receive yea that while you are speaking God may give you a gracious answer Thirdly This Doctrine calls to you for an holy and close walking with God A loose liver may receive some good things from God as he is a God of compassion full of pity and tender compassion that hears even the young Ravens when they cry unto him for their food thus did Ahab thus did the King of Nineveth and this was a ground for Simon Magus to pray though he was in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity but he can receive nothing from God as he is a God of truth and faithfulness there is not in all the Book of God one promise made to a wicked mans prayer God hath said though they make many prayers he will not hear them Isaiah 1. 15. he hath said They shall call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Prov. 1. 28. For Hypocrites he hath said Job 27. 9. Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him but a close walking with God is not only commendable to us upon this account that our prayers may not be wholly shut out from God that we may not only in our distresses go to God as a fountain of mercy and goodness as a God of pity and tender compassion but as unto a God of truth and faithfulness with an hope and a confidence in him and an expectation upon him and with an holy boldness but also that we may have a present answer we are naturally hasty as to the supply of our wants and the satisfaction of our desires hence we say Bis dat qui cito dat and count that kindness double which is done for us quickly Now they are the favourites of Heaven that gain the quickest answers from God There 's nothing makes one Soul more the favourite of God then another but a more ardent love for God and a
uneven towards us that in the darkness of our Spirits we might sometimes read the darkness of our loose and sinful conversation God thus punisheth our pride our hypocrify our neglect of duty our wilful yielding to temptations to which we might have made a better opposition And upon the withdrawing of these influences we have all just reason to search and try our own hearts and to reflect upon our own ways to search out if we can the cause why when others are in the Mount with God we are still kept in the valley while they are in the Chambers we are kept in the lower Rooms this is certain that though possibly the punishment of sin be not alwaies the next cause moving God to such dispensations yet we have alwaies reason to suspect it having our Souls never so free from sin but we may find enough to justify God in them 2. It may be reasonable that God should thus deal with us that we might know as I told you in handling the other Doctrine that his grace is free and he a free agent in the dispensation of it Not only first grace but further grace also in God is free indeed else it could not be grace we should never understand the freeness of grace if it were equally dispensed We in our little manifestations of our love to our fellow creatures challenge to our selves a liberty and think our selves free to shew it where we will God certainly must in justice be allowed the same which we should not be brought to see and acknowledge if we saw God treating all his Servants and at all times to the same rate and in the same degree 3. It may be the mind of God to make a trial of his peoples grace to draw forth some habits into acts which would not be so exercised if some of his people were not under different dispensations and the same Souls sometimes variously exercised The Soul that is with the Lord in his Chambers is more a receiver from God then a giver to him It gives him the exercise of its saith in its reflex act which indeed is not very properly an act of faith It offereth up unto God the sacrifice of joy of praise and thanksgiving it followeth here in the next words we will be glad and rejoice in thee It may exercise its love of complacency and delight in God But all this while where is the exercise of the Souls panting and breathing after God of its faith of adherence unto and dependence upon God of its hope in God and patient expectation of and waiting for God where is the exercise of its patience and submission to God under severer providences It is reasonable that God should see all those blessed habits which he hath infused into the Soul drawn forth into act 4. The good Judas asked Christ John 14. 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not to the world Christ told him because they loved him more and kept his Commandments better There is the same reason to be assigned why Christ will manifest himself to some of his Saints more then to others because at some times the love of his people more manifesteth itself to him by a stricter keeping of his Commandments and the love of some good men is greater for God Now to encourage men as I before said to perfect holiness in his fear though he will give them all glory yet some shall in this life have Gods goodness made to pass before them more then others that others may see what it is to be much with God 5. Lastly God often doth it for the good of others And indeed this generally is the reason of that more special communion with God which some have more then others as to the Revelation of his mind and will unto them thus God would not hide from Abraham the thing which he had to do against Sodom because Abraham had a Family to instruct God taketh Moses up into the Mount and revealeth his mind and will unto him that he might teach the People over whom God had set him his Statutes and Judgments the same reason is to be given of Gods special communications to the Prophets under the Old and the Apostles under the New Testament and doubtless the same reason is to be assigned for Gods more full revelation of his mind and will already revealed in the Scripture to his faithful Servants in the Ministry who generally know more of the sense of Scriptures and the mind and will of God revealed in them then other Christians do because God designeth that the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and the people should enquire at them and there is the same reason to be given for some more then ordinary influences of grace upon some Christians Souls See 2 Cor. 1. 4. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforteth us in all tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God God hath made us one for another and in the dispensings out of his own gifts and graces he hath respect unto the serviceableness both of Ministers and others one to another But this is sufficient for the Doctrinal part of this discourse Sermon XXVI Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his Chambers YOU have heard the Proposition raised from these words God hath Chambers in which he sometimes entertains the Souls of his people As there are specialties of common Providence so there are specialties of special and distinguishing grace He takes some of those who love and fear him into nearer degrees of fellowship and communion with him then he doth others Man will claim himself a prerogative in this the Parent will be more fond of more kind to one Child then another though he owns them both as his Children and will give to them both a portion The Prince who hath a tender love for all his Subjects yet will be allowed his favourites Let us not then accuse God in such dispensations of partiality or injustice let us not murmur that we have lesser shares in his manifestative love This is a thing we are very prone to Christ taught it us in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15. The Son that was alwaies at home with the Father v. 28 29. was angry and would not go into his Fathers House no not though his Father intreated him because the Father had killed a satted Calf to entertain his Prodigal Brother returning our Saviour doubtless intended in that parable to check the Jews envy at the kindness Christ was about to shew to the Gentiles or did at that time shew to Harlots to Publicans and Sinners but it reacheth further we shall find all our hearts too prone to this to repine at the further manifestations of the love of God to others Souls then unto ours If
climb up those steps which God hath made for us by which we may ascend into these Chambers we must blame our selves if we abide below But this is not alwaies the cause in some cases we must have recourse to Gods prerogative and must rest in this Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee Some Souls are dignified with a special communion and familiarity with God so was Abraham Moses David yet possibly if we look into the records we have of their lives we shall find more blots in some of them then in some others who we do not read were taken up into such eminent degrees of favour We cannot give just reasons and accounts of all Gods acts of Grace it is enough that God wills them In the mean time if we find but a good hope through grace an heart changed and cleaving to God if we can say with Peter Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that we love thee though we cannot boast of such special providences as others nor of such visions of peace nor of so quick an hearing of our prayers tho we dare not pretend to be such favourites of Heaven yet let us not be discouraged possibly as to us the Lords time is not yet come possibly it never will come God is a great Soveraign and unquestionably free as to these things he knows what is best for us he will deny no good thing to us We may say of the whole Family of God as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons 1 Kings 10. 8. Happy are thy Men happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and heaá¹™ thy wisdom There are some of Gods Servants that as to these enjoyments are more happy then others but there are none but are happy none but have reason for ever to admire the difference which God hath made betwixt them and others to admire what God hath done for their Souls bringing them out of the horrible Pit if they have not if they cannot see reason to rejoice in such a prospect of Heaven as othershave yet they have reason to rejoice in an equal deliverance from Hell I will shut up this discourse with two words of exhortation 1. The first directed to those who can say with the Spouse The King hath brought us into his Chambers 2. The second to those who walk with God but have not yet arrived at this Are there any who can speak the language of the Spouse and glory in this not only that they are brought home to Christ but that the King hath brought them into his Chambers the Lord hath dignified them with some special favours and manifested himself more to them then unto others the following words of this Text will let them know what is their duty I will saith the Spouse be glad and rejoice in thee and remember thy loves more then Wine 1. Be glad and rejoice in God we are often called to for this rejoycing in the Lord Psal 33. 1. Psal 97. 12. Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. and in many other Texts Such is the portion of Gods Children such their state and condition that they have a continual cause of rejoycing and giving of thanks be they under what circumstances they can there is ground enough for them in all things to give thanks but they are more eminently obliged to it when they are under the highest manifestations of Divine Love This rejoycing in the Lord is I conceive opposed both to a carnal joy in sensual objects and also to a rejoycing meerly in that ease and satisfaction which the good thing giveth us for which we rejoice As now suppose a rich man giveth a poor man 20 s. it is one thing for the poor man to rejoice in the gift as suited to to â—his necessitous circumstances another thing to rejoice in the love and favour of the giver This is now the duty of the spiritual man he ought not only under the manifestations of divine love to rejoyce in the Lord more then in all the world and all the affluences and contentments of it which is expressed in the next phrase we will remember thy loves more then Wine and is commensurate to what David saith Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me for thou shalt thereby make my heart more glad then in the day when their Corn and Wine increased I say this is not enough for a Soul thus dignified he ought more to rejoice in the favour of God shewed him in these specialties of his favour then in the ease and satiâ—faction which the mercy received giveth unto his Soul And herein lieth the purity of the spiritual mans joy nor is his joy genuine and perfect till it come to this pitch 2. The second phrase in the Text expressive of this dignified Souls duty is We will remember thy loves more then Wine The term remember is taken in Scripture in a great latitude and expressive both of all that affection which is due to the remembrance of the object and of all that practical duty which is consequent to it I shall touch a little upon both these and that very shortly for I shall God willing speak to both these expressions in order more fully 1. Remember Christs loves with the remembrance of the heart I shall instance but in one fruit of this and that is faith Remember his loves so as for them to trust in God more and to cast the care of thy Soul in an hour of distress the better upon him upon consideration of thy past and present experience We are too ready both to forget our sorrows and to forget our comforts to forget our sorrows by giving our selves a liberty to the same sins for which we have smarted and to forget our comforts by giving liberty to the same dejections and despondencies again after the experiences of Gods favour 2. Remember Christs loves practically so as to make them obligations upon your Souls to a close walking with God See the example of David Psal 116. 1 9 12 18. But I shall speak all this over again when I come to handle the next words and shall therefore add no more My second Branch of this Exhortation shall respect those whom God hath not thus far dignified the Lord hath as they hope admitted them into his family but he hath not yet brought them into his Chambers Some communion with God they hope they have and an heart that panteth after a more full and near communion with him but this they have not yet attained to they walk in the dark and see no light the Lord giveth them an heart to pray but they cannot glory in such a full and quick return of prayers as others have they have not that inward joy and peace which as to some Souls is consequential to believing the question is now what they should do what their duty is under their present circumstances I will open it in two particulars 1. Certainly they ought not to despond
meat the Flock shall be cut off from the sold and there shall be no Herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my Salvation The believing Soul can rejoyce in nothing without Christ and it can rejoyce in Christ when it hath nothing more to rejoyce in Let a gracious Soul have but the sense of God's Love in Christ to his Soul he can say to all the world as Esau though not upon such a consideration said to his Brother Jacob I have enough my Brother I have enough keep what thou haft unto thy self Am I justified and regenerated have I peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ have I the pardon of my sin and a righteousness wherein I can stand before God it is enough If the Lord will not give me Bread to eat nor Children to continue my name if I die Childless so I do not die Christless it is enough If I have not Raggs to cloth me nor an Estate to leave Portions to six and also to seven yet I have said to the Lord Thou art my Portion it is enough Hence ariseth a good Christian's contentment in all Estates I have learned saith Paul in all estates to be content content to want content to abound content to have little or much as the Lord pleaseth If the Lord will take away such a man's Children Estate c. he saith with Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the Name of the Lord. If I have my part in Christ saith he I have yet enough Omnia mea mecum porto I have my All as the Philosopher is reported to have said when his City was on fire and his Neighbours reflected on him going out and carrying nothing along with him nor concerning himself for the share of Estate he had in it If the Believer considereth his body he seeth a crazy constitution diseases growing upon him if he looks into his Family and seeth it empty of Children if into his Grounds and seeth them bring forth nothing but Weeds and Thistles if into his Stalls and seeth them empty of Cattel yet if he looks into his Soul and finds any evidences of the Love of Christ he can rejoyce in them this must be understood when he seeth himself stript naked not by his own wicked hands but as Job was by the effective Providence of God for the loss of the things of this life the good things of the common Providence of God caused by our own sinful hands and miscarriages oft-times hinder this Joy as they make it difficult to us to see the Love of God in and under them 4. And lastly This Soul rejoyceth in Christ Primarily Emphatically Supremely The Child of God is a parta ker of flesh and blood and hath a sensitive appetite which when gratified necessarily causeth a joy proportionate to the good which it receiveth hence he rejoyceth in the good things of common Providence as well as another man but not as much as another man not upon the same account that another man doth Christ is the Believer's chief Joy and as his title to the good things of this life differs from the title of another so his joy in them differeth from the joy of another All men may have a natural legal title to the good things of this life Dominion and Title is not founded in grace but it is mended by grace Another man derives from God as the Lord of the whole Earth who by his common Providence distributeth portions to the Sons of men as he pleaseth but the believer doth not only derive from God as the supreme Lord but from Christ all is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods saith the Apostle so that while he rejoiceth in the gifts of common Providence he rejoiceth in Christ because he rejoyceth in these things as coming from the hand of a Father reconciled to him by the blood of Christ he rejoiceth in the good things of this life as the loving Wife reioiceth in some present made her by her Husband not so much in the fineness or costliness of it though that may also please her humor as in the kindness and love of her Husband shewed in giving it her So the believer more rejoyceth in the goodness of God shewen to him in any dispensation of Providence then in the thing which God hath given him or her and he supremely rejoiceth in Christ whiles he rejoiceth in a lower comfort Let me shew you this in the instance of Hannah whose story you have 1 Sam. ch 1 2. She was the Wife of Elkanah she had no Children and was passionately desirous of the blessing of Children an affection common to all of that sex especially and for which there was some more special reason in that Age and Nation partly because of the promise of a numerous issue to Abraham so as the Women that were Barren lookt upon themselves as hardly the genuine Children of Abraham at least not sharers in his blessing partly because they knew the Messias was to be born of a Jewish Woman and every Child-bearing Woman might have an expectation to be his Mother Under this great affliction she applies her self to God by prayer the Key of the Womb is one of those Keys which the Jewish Doctors say God keepeth in his hand God hears her prayer she conceiveth and brings forth Samuel as in the first Chapter she names him Samuel to testify her joy in receiving him as an answer of her Prayer upon which she dedicates him to the Lord 1 Sam. 1. 28. So in the second Chapter she sings a Song of praise mark the phrase of it 1 Sam. 2. 1. Mine heart rejoyceth in the Lord my Horn is exalted in the Lord. Her Child was the next object of her joy but how doth she rejoice in him the primary object of her joy was the Lord her great joy in Samuel was as God by giving him to her shewed her his love and that he had not shut out her supplications from him She rejoyced in God Supremely in Samuel Subordinately in God Emphatically in her Child more remissly Thus doth a good Christian rejoice in Christ thus is he the singular object of a believers joy David calleth God the gladness of his joy we translate it his exceeding joy Psal 43. 4. The Prophet Isaiah faith Isaiah 29. 19. The meek shall encrease their joy in the Lord and the poor amongst men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel Yet the proximate cause was v. 20 Because the terrible one was brought to nought and the scorner consumed and all those that watched for iniquity cut off Hence Christ commandeth his Disciples not to rejoice in this that the Devils were subject to them but that their names were written in the Book of Life Doubtless the subjection of Devils to them was true matter of joy ah but it was no primary object no supreme object of their joy no
rejoycing in him living up in a close obedience to his Law this is the man that forgetteth the Loves of Christ But yet if there be a Soul that hath experienced the Loves of Christ in a particular application to it self that hath given it self a liberty to the flesh and walked in a contrary course to what the Law of Christ requireth this Soul yet more forgets his Loves because he had a deeper impression of them upon his heart the Love of Christ made an impression only upon the others Ears but it hath entred into this man's Soul He is the greatest forgetter of his Love You shall observe in holy Writ that all sin is exprest under the notion of forgetting God Psal 50. 22. and in a multitude of other Texts and this not only because a forgetting of God is the cause of all the Violations of his Law which we could not violate if we remembred God as we ought to do but because indeed all sin in God's account is an actual ' forgetting of him God accounts us to know to remember no more than we are affected with and live up unto Therefore Christians let us make it our business not only to call to mind the Loves of Christ but to remember them in that sense which God calleth a remembrance of them 2. Let us not satisfie our selves with a bare remembrance of his Loves but labour to remember them more than Wine more than the most sweet and pleasant the most gainful and profitable things which this world affords Think that you hear Christ speaking in your Ears in the language in which he once spake to Peter setting all the pleasant and gainful things in the world before you and then saying to you Christians Love you me more than these Let me shew you the reasonableness of this 1. Consider if thou canst not say so Thou dost not answer the Loves of Christ in any degree I am now speaking to such as are Christians not in name and profession only but in deed and in truth Such a one may suppose all the fallen Angels under Christ's Eye even those Legions in the Air and in the bottomless Pit Creatures in their Original more perfect and glorious than man but fallen from their first Integrity and think he heareth Christ saying to him Poor Soul I have loved thee more than all these I died not for these I died for thee I took not upon me the Nature of Angels but the Nature of the seed of Abraham 2. He may suppose all the Heathen Nations under Christ's Eye The great Emperours of Turkey Persia China and other parts of the world with the millions of Souls under their jurisdiction and think that he heareth Christ again saying to him Poor Soul I have loved thee more than these Thou hearest my Gospel Read and Preached every Lord's Day hast thou not seen hast thou not heard These great Nations of the world and all the great Rulers of them never heard the joyful sound I was never Preached in their Streets they were never wooed never intreated to come to me that they might have life I have loved thee more than these Further yet thou mayest fancy all the prophane men all the sensual and carnal men all Hypocrites all unregenerate men whose hearts are yet locked up under unbelief under Christ's and thy Eye and suppose that thou hearest thy great Lord and Saviour saying to thee Poor Christian I have loved thee more than all these They are yet wallowing in their native blood as thou wert before I passed by thee in my time of love and said unto thee live they are yet Children of wrath in an hourly danger of having it come upon them to the utmost I have plucked thee out of Sodom Thy heart by nature was as hard as theirs as much prejudiced against thy own salvation I have made thee to differ I have loved thee more than all these May I rise one step higher to commend the Love of Christ to thy remembrance thou mayest fancy all that glory which Christ had with his Father from before the beginning of the world all the blessed company of Heaven all the riches of Christ's glory and felicity before his and thy Eye and fancy that thou hearest Christ say to thee My poor creature I have in a sense and for a time loved thee more than these I left my Father's Throne and right Hand him whom I was alwaies before brought up with him I left all to come down from Heaven to Earth to take thy flesh to be born of a Virgin and to be laid in a Manger to live a poor and contemned life in the world to die a shameful and ignominious death and all this to purchase for thee Eternal Life and Salvation and to redeem thee from thy vain conversation Have I not loved thee more than these What doth the Apostle say less than this when he saith 2 Cor. 8. 9. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor that you through his poverty might be made rich In what degree then canst thou be said to answer the Loves of Christ if when there is set before thee no more than the pleasures of sin which are but for a season the profits and enjoyments of this life which thou canst have no more than a Lease for Life of if thou canst not say Yea Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that I remember thy Love more than these Either this intoxicating Wine of sinful lusts and pleasures how gratifying soever they be to my fleshly appetite or this pleasant and gainful Wine of worldly Riches Estate Honour Preferment c. Oh that Christians would think of this 2. The second Consideration is yet more dreadful viz. He is not worthy of the Loves of Christ who doth not remember them more than Wine What Christ sometimes said of Love is as true concerning this remembrance of his Loves which is an act of Love Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son dâ— Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And what he saith there of natural Relations is doubtless as true concerning sensible Enjoyments in this world Riches and Honours c. which are objects of your love much beneath reasonable creatures in nearest relation to uâ— It is certainly as true That man or woman that remembers any sensible Enjoyment and is more affected with it than the Loves of Christ is not worthy of his Loves Certainly nothing more becometh us who pretend to be creatures endued with reason than to value things according to their measure and their true and just valuation You will say he is not worthy of a Jewel of great price that valueth a Pebble before it And by the way this will be enough to convince us all that we are saved by Grace and have what Love we have from Christ freely
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
giveth an allowance both for their infirmimities and temptations upon which account he calleth to us to behold the patience of Job though Job had his fits of frowardness and impatience and often calleth his Spouse fair and undefiled though she hath many defilements But. 1. The Spouse upon these accounts is black in her own Eyes 2. In the Eyes of others 1. In her own Eyes she is black two things make her so 1. Her Humility 2. Her Love jealousy The Child of God is alwaies vile in his own Eyes and hath a very low and mean opinion of himself and therefore condemneth himself for every motion and prevailing of corruption I am a worm saith David and no man a reproach of men and despised of the peoplâ— Psal 22. 6. O wretched man that I am saith St. Paul who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. in another place he calleth himself the greatest of sinners and the least of Saints Woe is me saith the Prophet I am a man of unclean lips the sense of former sins makes them call themselves black I am saith Paul not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of Christ The sense of present corruptions also makes them so judge Iniquities saith David prevail against me Hence is the ordinary dialect of pious Souls There was never any had such unbelieving hearts such proud dead false hypocritical hearts as ours are Those who are most eminently comely in the Eyes of Christ are usually most black in their own Eyes 2. Their Love-jealousy is another cause Their love for God is so great that they suspect every frown of Providence as speaking God out of favour with them for their sins Hence it often proveth as great a matter of difficulty to persuade the Child of God that God hath any favour for him as it is to persuade a sinner that God hath any displeasure to him 2. Secondly which possibly is here chiefly intended She is black in the Eyes of others The World dealeth by the Disciples of Christ as it dealt with him nor is it reasonable to expect that the Disciple should be above his Master or the Servant above his Lord they saw Christ despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs they hid their faces from him and esteemed him not The men of the world see the people of God men of sorrows and acquainted with griefs they despise them and esteem them not yea for the most part their business is to blacken them loading them with reproach and calumny and laying to their charge things which they know not and all this through an implacable enmity put betwixt the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent or because they see themselves condemned by the more righteous conversation of such as fear God Nay it often so falls out that the People of God are black in the Eyes of their Brethren through mistakes as Eli mistook Hannah or through envy or prejudice c. But this is enough to have spoken concerning the Spouses blackness 2. Let me now come to shew you how and in what sense she is comely 1. She hath a comeliness besides her blackness 2. In some of her blackness there is a comeliness 1. The Spouse is not wholly black besides her blackness she hath a great beauty and comeliness Every believer hath something of unbelief in him but he is not an unbeliever he hath a truth of faith in him there is his comeliness Paul had a law in his members that was his blackness but he had also a law of his mind that was his comeliness All sin and lust is blackness all gracious habits are the Souls beauty and comeliness The unbeliever the natural man is wholly black the godly man is not so there is a mixture in his Soul he is come into Canaan tho some Canaanites yet dwell in the Land the faith and love and obedience of a good man his pantings and breathings after God his complacency delight and rejoycing in God these are all his comeliness The Church of God may have spots in her assemblies these are her blackness but she keepeth up her assemblâ—es and hath the Ordinances of God in them that is her comeliness she may have several hypocrites meer seeming professors these are her spots from these is her blackness but she hath many that love the Lord Jesus Christ in truth and sincerity these are her comeliness she may-suffer some erroneous principles to be published in her that is her blackness but she keepeth the foundation doctrines of faith and holiness pure and incorrupt that is her comeliness 2. In much of her blackness there is a beauty and a comeliness It is Bernards note whatsoever is black is not therefore uncomely The Eye is black yet comely Marble is black but yet it is comely Christ is black but yet he was comely Look upon him saith that devout man clothed with raggs blew with Stripes daubed with his Enemies Spittle pale with death you will say he was black but yet he was comely yea the Chiefest of ten thousand The Apostles saw him comely when upon the mountain they beheld his glory at his transfiguration Nay in his blackness there was comliness to see him under all this becoming obedient to his Fathers will even unto death the bitter death upon the Cross working out the redemption and Salvation of all those whom the Father had given him this was comely When the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us saith St. John we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth Look upon the Child of God as daubed and besmeared with the filth and obloquy which the men of the World cast upon him Scorched with Afflictions followed with dark and hellish temptations so indeed he looketh black in our carnal Eyes but in other respects he is comely even in this blackness 1. As by these afflictions Christ is magnified in his body and he is made conformable unto Christ and filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ So he is comely All conformity to Christ is beauty Paul desired no more then that he might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and be made comformable unto his death Philip. 3. 11. This is what our Saviour told his disciples John 15. to comfort them under the Worlds hatred which he knew would make them to appear black If the World hateth you it hated me first The suffering child of God lookes black but as Christ is by his sufferings magnified in his body as he is by his sufferings made more like to Christ so he is comely 2. Secondly As a believers afflictions perfect him for glory so even in his blackness there is a comeliness The Captain of our Salvation was made perfect as the Apostle tells us through suffering Heb. 2. 10. and so must the Souldiers
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
Look under the vail of Religious Persons in the day of their afflictions The Vail may be black and yet the face White You may possibly see the People of God glorifying him in the Fires eminent faith adherence to God constancy patience shining forth in the People of God in the hour of their tryals you may possibly hear Paul and Silas singing praises unto God at midnight and the Apostles going away from their place of punishment rejoicing that the Lord hath thought them worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ and here a Job resolving that Tho the Lord slayeth him yet he will trust in him These things speak a Lilly tho amongst thorns Sermon XXXVIII Cant. 1. 6. My mothers Children were angry with me I am now come to the 2d cause which the Spouse of Christ here assigneth of her appearing blackness The Anger of her Mothers Children My Mothers Children saith she were angry with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They fought in me or they fought against me In my explication of the verse I told you that some by Mothers Children understand those lusts and corruptions which are members of that body of death which yet remain in the best of Gods People those members mentioned by the Apostle Col. 3. 5. which we have while we live upon the Earth for our exercise to mortify these lye in the womb of the same Soul together with our habits of grace these are those which the Apostle calls the flesh which lusteth against the Spirit These cause that war in our members mentioned James 4. 1. they war against the Soul 1. Pet. 2. 11. Others 2. understand by the Mothers Children mentioned in the text False brethren such members of the Church as are indeed the Children of the Church our visible Mother but not the Children of our heavenly Father Tho in my own judgment I rather incline to the latter as the sense of the Text yet I shall give that deference to those worthy Interpreters that have mentioned the former that there being a truth in that I shall take both senses into the Proposition which I shall law down thus The conflict which particular believers have with their own inbred lusts and corruptions and which the Church hath with false brethren will often make them appear black to the Eye of the World Here are two propositions wrapped up together 1. That true Christians will have conflicts with their own lusts and corruptions and the true members of the Church with such as are false brethren 2. That both the particular Christians and the Church of Christ in these conflicts will appear black 1. True Christians will have conflicts with their lusts and corruptions This is so great a truth that this Spiritual conflict is a note of the truth of grace in the Soul It is indeed as wars use to be sometimes hotter sometimes cooler and more remiss and the Soul is in it sometimes more sometimes less a conquerour as God will please to afford the Soul more or less of his strength but it is always something When God did bring the Israelites into Canaan he was not pleased at once to drive them cut but by little and little Exod. 23. 28 29. neither were they faultless for many of the Tribes did not drive them out Judah could not drive them out Judg. 1. 19. It is said of several of the other Tribes that they did not drive them out Upon which God resolveth that he would not drive them out but they should be as thorns in their sides God in bringing Souls out of a state of nature into a state of grace doth not wholly drive out lust and corruption he bringeth sin out of its Dominion Rom 6. 13. So as it reigneth not in the mortal Bodies of the Saints sin like the tree in Nebuchadnezzars vision Dan. 4. 14. is hewed down many of its branches are cut off and its leaves and its fruit is scattered and the Soul is got from under it but yet the stump of its roots are in the Earth tho bound with a band of Iron and Brass kept under by the law of the Christians mind that he getteth no dominion the Soul is not under the power of it Now as there was a continual war betwixt the Canaanites left in the land and the Israelites so there is a continual war and spiritual combate betwixt those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these passions of sin these lustings of the flesh and the Spiritual part of the Spiritual man Paul doth excellently describe this conflict Rom. 7. 21. I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the law of God as to my inward man But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. Saint Paul sets forth himself there as a man in a battel and sometimes taken Prisoner So again Gal 5. â—7 For the 〈…〉 Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contr ary the one to the other And indeed in the last words lyes the reason of this war and conflict It is of the nature of contraries to expell one another not to indure one another in the same subject but to be in a continual combate till the one or the other hath got the Victory Grace in Scripture is compared to light sin to darkness light and darkness mutually expell one another so doth Grace and lust Now both these being in the Soul of the regenerate man who is but Sanctified in part and neither of them being lazy and inactive but active and operative principles there must be this conflict which I have mentioned this war in our members which makes the People of God look black 2. And as it fares with individual Christians with respect to their lusts and corruptions so it also fareth with the Collective Spouse the Church of Christ with respect to false Brethren who are the presumptive but not the true members of it 1. such will be in the Church while it is upon the Earth 2. And these will be angry with the true members of it 1. while the Church is upon the Earth it will be like a field of Wheat which hath tares in it the Gospel and the preaching of it is like a drag-net which draweth unto the Church as its shore Fish both good and bad there will come a time when the Lord will take his fan and throughly purge his floor but that will be in the day of judgment if we look upon Gods ancient Church the Congregation of Israel there was a Jannes and a Jambnes that resisted Moses a Corah Dathan and Abiram that rose up against Moses Aaron many false Prophets to mislead People many more false hearts that were easily misled the Chaldee
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
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
he could do nothing against him because he found nothing in him If the Devil found nothing in our Souls he could do nothing against them but only disturb them The like may be said for the corruptions of Churches If the husbandmen did not sleep the Enemy could not sow so many tares All corruptions in the Doctrine of faith in matters of Worship and discipline have crept in by the Officers of Churches not keeping their own Vineyards The man of sin the Western Antichrist had never so hacknyed the Western Churches if they had not like Issachar Couched under the burden and bowed their necks down to the Yoke I shall shut up this discourse with a few Words of Exhortation to all to keep their own Vineyards I shall not here speak to the duty of husbandmen Spiritual husbandmen to keep the Vineyard of the Church it were a Proper discourse from the Doctrine but I am not in a proper auditory And besides would every particular Christian but keep the Vineyard of his own Soul the care of Magistrates and Ministers who are the keepers of Christs Vineyard might be less Christians woful remissness and neglect in keeping the more particular Vineyards of their own Souls is that which makes the work of the keepers of the more publick Vineyard of the Church so difficult and almost unpracticable to them Let me therefore only lay a little stress here as we say if every man would sweep his own door the street would be clean So it is true if every one would look to the Vineyard of his own particular Soul or his particular family the Church of God would be clean for that is made up but of particular families and particular Souls When these Vineyards are kept the more publick Vineyard which is made up of these must also be kept Wherein the keeping of our Vineyards lyeth you have heard viz. 1. In the keeping of it clear of weeds and noxious plants 2. In the cultivation and manuring such plants as are fit for it In these two things lyeth the keeping of Gardens and Vineyards amongst men in these two things lyeth the keeping of our Vineyards in a metaphorical more spiritual sense you whom God hath trusted with the care of others have a larger Vineyard then those that are solute The Wife is a part of the Husbands Vineyard Children are their parents Vineyard Servants are their Masters Vineyard Every mans family is his Vineyard If any be single his Soul is his Vineyard The keeping of your Vineyards lyeth in a keeping of them free from Scandal not suffering sin upon any that stand in any relation to you we ought not to do it as to our neighbour much less as to any that are our neighbours in thenearest and strictest sense and who stand in nearest concernment to us David resolved to walk within his house with a perfect heart that the faithful in the land should dwell with him and that he that walked in a perfect way should serve him that he that wrought deceit should not dwell within his house he that telleth lyes should not abide in his sight Psal 101. 2 7 8. Abraham commanded his Children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment Gen. 18. 19. For you that have only the Vineyards of your own Souls to keep neglect them not I will press this upon you with 2 considerations which I shall recommend to you 1. The first shall be The value of the Vineyards with which God hath betrusted to you The Vineyards are Souls either your own Souls or the Souls of others or both Which way soever you consider a Soul whether as a Spiritual being or as a reasonable being indued with noble faculties or as an immortal being that cannot perish with the body as that part of man which beareth the most lively impress of the image of God as that which was purchased by the blood of Christ and which is the habitation of God through the Spirit in which the holy Spirit may dwell that which is ordained to an Eternity either of happiness or misery which way soever you look upon your own Souls or the Souls of those who are committed to your trusts they are noble Vineyards Reason teacheth us to take the best care of our best and most excellent things I have thought it often a most unreasonable vanity of some Gentlemen to take a great deal more care of the managery of an horse or hawk then of their Sons It is every whit as great if not a much greater vanity to take a greater care of the bodies and outward concerns of their relations then of their Souls What can be laid in ballance with a Soul which will not be found too light for it what shall be offered in exchange for it and not rejected as of too low a consideration Of what value think you that must be which was bought with the blood of him who was the Son of God Consider of what value the profession of your faith and the practice of holiness is your faith is called precious faith and of holiness it is said that without it none shall see the Lord. 2. Secondly Consider who it is that hath betrusted you with them Behold saith God All Souls are mine It is God that hath given unto us the trust of our own Souls and the trusts of others Souls for all Souls are originally Gods He breaths the Soul into the body of a man he puts Souls into mens families I beseech you consider here these particulars 1. That every Person of reputation and honour valueth a trust and thinks it beneath a man not to discharge a trust he undertakes with some degrees of faithfulness We see in our daily experience that as men naturally Love to be trusted so they have a kind of natural religion for the keeping and discharging of it This is what makes men consciencious as to the wills of Persons that are dead All Souls are trusts our particular Souls are trusts the Souls of our relations are trusts to us The property of all Souls is Gods the trust of them is in us I wish this were but well thought on the wicked men mentioned by the Psalmist said our lips are our own who is Lord over us Psal 12. 4. men think that they may do what they will with what they have a full propriety in This is a great cause of mens neglect of their Souls they dream too much of an absolute property they have in them they say their Souls are their own Who is Lord over them would men consider their Souls a little more as trusts they would take a stricter care of them 2. Tho we naturally value all trusts yet such as our Superiours or near friends commit to us we yet value more A dread of our Superiours makes us to value and take care of what they have committed to our trust a love to our friends makes us value theirs
God be vile in your Eyes who are so highly esteemed by him who is your Lord and Master and by whom you pretend to hope to be saved But to shut up this discourse You that will not conform your judgment to the Judgment of Christ concerning such People and behave your selves towards them accordingly shall certainly be forced to submit to his Judgment spoken of Jude 14. and 15. 2d Branch I would willingly improve this notion a little further not onely to reconcile your judgments to the judgment of Christ concerning the People of God but to reconcile you also to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the ways of God The effecting of the former if I could do it though it might produce some more quiet and peace in the World and reduce men to the rule of reason yet as to your own Souls if that be all all the effect it would have would be to save you from a deeper place in Hell It is not a good opinion of Gods People or a peaceable or kind behaviour to them will bring any man to Heaven I could wish that all who hear me this day to use Saint Paul's words to Agrippa were as the People of God are excepting that reproach and obloquy which they suffer those bonds and imprisonments to which they are exposed that they also would come into the number of those whom the Lord judgeth the best Souls in the World the fairest amongst women 1. Is it nothing to you to come into this reputation Leud profane debaucht Persons let their quality in the World be what it will in Scripture come under the notions of Children of Belial Vain Persons What an object of desire doth corporeal beauty appear to the World What will not a vain woman do to get it to preserve it to dissemble it what time what mony she spends to set it out What care she takes if as to it she be under any defects to hide them to correct them c. Quantum est in rebus inane All this it may be is spent in painting a Sepulcher a rotten post Possibly look into this Masquerade there 's nothing but what is rational filthiness and deformity An understanding void of any valuable knowledge A Perverse and stubborn will against what is rationally good beastly affections her Soul it may be is full of lasciviousness Pride Malice Envy All unlovely things Turbulent Passions Is Spiritual beauty worth nothing Shall Heathens judge a Soul that is knowing subdued to the rule of reason chast good just sober meek modest beautiful and worth a thousand Souls otherwise disposed and qualified and shall Christians judge otherwise shall they think Soul-beauty not valuable Or shall they not judge it worth any thing to be comely with Christs comeliness and in the Eyes of an all seeing heart searching God to be without spot or wrinkle consider Sirs how much this is beneath the name or profession of Christians how we are condemned by wanton gallants desiring corporeal beauty and Heathens valuing the rational beauty of the mind which commends it self to all rational minds before they be debauched 2. Consider what it is to have the King of Kings to desire and to predicate our beauty Psal 45. 11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty The King this King is God whose throne is for ever and ever and whose Scepter is a righteous Scepter v. 6. Beauty is in it self attractive but who is there that will not covet a beauty that a King should desire But what are all the Kings of the Earth compared with him who is the King of glory So shall the King saith the Psalmist desire thy beauty How great a thing is this for the great God to have a desire to the Sons of men and a delight in them And further for this King to predicate our beauty as the Lord doth in the Text and did concerning Job Job 2. v. 3. And the Lord said unto Satan hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause For this great King to desire a Souls beauty signifieth to be the Spouse of Christ to be in favour with God in this life and it promiseth an eternal communion with God in glory in the life which is to come when the Marriage of the Lamb shall be consummate and the Bride the Lambs Wife shal follow him wheresoever he goes 3. Lastly consider The consequent of not being of the number of those whom Christ here calleth the fairest amongst Women Amongst men their is a medium betwixt mens looking upon a woman as the fairest and such a one whose beauty they desire and being abominable and odious in their Eyes But as to Christ there is no medium betwixt these two The unbelieving and the abominable are put together Rev. 21. 8. A man may not love a woman so well as to make her his Wife and yet have a kindness for her not hate and abhor her The case is not so betwixt God and the Soul He or she whose beauty the Lord doth not desire is by God hated and abhorred that Soul is abominable in his fight The abominable Rev. 21. 8. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the Second death These arguments are enough to those who believe there is an Heaven and an Hell who believe there is a God and a Christ and that all mankind are under the favour or disfavour of this great and terrible God To persuade them to get into the number of these whom God judgeth the fairest amongst women Will any say to me but what can we contribute towards it Love is a free thing It is true Love is free and the Love of none amongst the creatures is or can be so free as the Love of God who is the freest Agent but yet hearken to the direction of the Psalmist who doubtless is an infallible guide in this matter Psal 45. v. 10. Hearken O Daughter and consider and incline thine Ear forget also thine own People and thy Fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty What is our Fathers house but the house of old Adam What are our own People but our own sinful courses our old sinful company How shall we forget them but by hearkening to the Counsels of God considering our state and condition what we are Whither we are hastening what will become of us in the latter end Giving and inclining our Ears to what To the reproofs corrections admonitions instructions of Gods Word to the knocking 's and motions of his blessed Spirit so shall the Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings the Lord of Lords desire and greatly desire your beauty To those who what ever they are called and go for in the World are Atheists in heart and
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