up in him to study him more to converse with him more to keep to closer communion with Christ you yet know not the pleasantness that is in him there is a breadth of sweetness you have not measured and a depth of pleasure which you have not fathomed In the last place Is Christ not only fair but pleasant not only beautiful through Grace but pleasant lovely gentle sweet in his converse with the Souls of his Saints Let this commend pleasantness to every true Christian Labour not only to be gracious but to be pleasant I will name but two Arguments in the case 1. Consider Thus you shall be like unto the Lord Jesus Christ 2. Thus shall you honour your Profession An unpleasant Conversation in a Christian dishonours the Lord Christ it makes men think that he is an hard Master that Christianity is an odd thing which metamorphoseth men and women into strange kind of creatures unfit any longer for converse with the World Take off this scandal from the Gospel You may be pleasant yet not profane your conversation toward the World may be winning though you do not give your selves up to such a liberty as to hazard the ruine and loss of your own Souls It was a piece of Paul's pleasantness He became all things to all men that he might win some 1 Cor. 9. v. 22. 2 Cor. 10. 33. Sermon LX. Canticles 1. 16. Our Bed is Green I Am come to the Second Proposition of the Text in those words Our bed is Green The Chaldee Paraphrast making the Congregation of Israel the Spouse in this Song thus glosseth upon these words In the time when thou dwellest in our Beloved Bed our Children are many and multiplyed upon the Earth we grow and multiply like a Tree planted by the Rivers of Waters whose leaf is beautiful and whose fruit is much Possibly that antient Interpretation hath led the generality of Interpreters to expound the Text concerning the flourishing condition of the Soul and of the Church while it is in Spiritual conjunction with the Lord Jesus Christ it is not My Bed but Our Bed is Green and flourishing for so the word may be translated So that not to enlarge in further discourses about the Exposition of the Text taking it for granted that the Holy Ghost in this Text respecteth the Bed as it is the place for procreation or as it was the place where they did eat their meat in those Countries we may from it observe this plain Proposition Prop. That the fruitfulness of the Soul and of the Church doth depend upon Christs conjunction with them I shall speak to this Proposition by way of Explication confirmation and Application By way of Explication we will only enquire what is the gracious Souls fruitfulness or the Gospel Churches fruitfulness 1. The particular Souls fruitfulness lyes in its bringing forth of good works You read in Scripture of the fruit of the Body Deut. 28. 4. And of the fruit of the Land Deut. 7. 13. The Children of God are said to be Married unto Christ And as the fruit of the Womb is the consequent of carnall Marriage so the fruit of holiness is the consequent of Spiritual Marriage Rom. 7. 4. You are become dead to the law by the Body of Christ that you should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God This fruit unto God is called fruit unto holiness Rom. 6. 22. Christ is also compared unto a vine John 15. 2. We are the Branches and therefore purged that we may bring forth fruit ib. 5. 16. Whether therefore the gracious Soul be looked upon as the Spouse of Christ and Married to him by faith its fruit is holiness or whether it be looked upon as a branch in Christ still its fruit is holiness our works considering us as men are our fruit Now look as several Plants according to their different natures bring forth different fruit some bring forth pleasant some bitter fruit some wholsom some again noxious fruit so it is with men and women who are the Plants of the World by Nature they are all wild Plants and are corrupt and bring forth corrupt fruit called by the Apostle the fruit of sin unto death But having a new Nature given them by God they bring forth fruit unto life the fruits of righteousness which are also called the fruits of the Spirit Eph. 5. 9. Gal. 5. 22. the fruit of righteousness to shew the species or kind of them fruit unto life shewing the consequent of them the fruit of the Spirit shewing the more external cause of them Now as these fruits more or less abound in the Soul the Soul is more or less fruitful This is the particular Saints fruit 2. The Churches fruitfulness is its bringing forth many Sons unto God Children are the fruit of the body caused by generation Gods Children are the fruit of the Church caused by Regeneration Conversion is called a begetting 2 Pet. 1. 3. We are said to be begotten of God 1 Job 5. 1. God is our Father but the Church is our Mother It is the Church which bears us which travels and brings forth Children unto God And the Saints are called the Churches Children Isa 54. 13. All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy Children The thriving of the Church lies in this when many Souls are in it converted and brought home unto God This is the Souls fruitfulness and thriving and this is also the Churches fruitfulness and thriving This is that which my Doctrine speaketh of and saith that i t dependeth upon Christs conjuncton with the Soul and with the Church Look as the fruitfulness of the Woman depends upon the conjunction of her Husband with her as the fruitfulness of the plant depends upon its conjunction with the Earth as the thriving of the Body by its meat dependeth upon the blessing of God Man liveth not by bread only but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God And as the thriving of the plant dependeth upon the influence of the Heavens the shinings of the Sun and the distillations of the Clouds so yea much more then so doth the thriving of a Church and of a Soul depend upon the influence of Christs grace I will prove it first concerning the particular Soul 2. Concerning the Church 1. Concerning the particular Soul 1. It is Christ that giveth the Soul a prolifick vertue The fruitful Woman must have a prolifick vertue so must the plant of the field otherwise the Woman is barren and the plant is barren That power which is in any Soul to bring forth the fruit of holiness that is its prolifick vertue and this is from the Lord this is that which the Apostle calleth to will in Philip 2. 13. The will is the root of all humane actions and the power in the Soul to do
and weak without strength We are like Lot in Sodom though we daily hear that the wicked shall be turned into Hell with all those that forget God though the Lord useth all intreaties with his poor Creatures and the love of God be displayed before us in the fullest measure yet till the Lord doth by us as the Angel did by Lot lay hold upon us and pull us out of our sinful state we move not a jot Yea verily man in his best estate man regenerate and brought home to God must also be drawn or he will not run he must be kept by the power of God through faith to Salvation or he will never come into Heaven when to will is present with us we have no strength to perform The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak O miserable men that we are who shall deliver us from our bodies of death I need say no more it being what is justified by the experience of the best of men and their prayers directed to God accordingly Sermon XIX Cant. 1. 4. Draw me and we will run after thee I Have formerly discoursed from this Text this Proposition That the Soul till drawn doth not run after Christ I am in the application of that discourse and that by way of Instruction This may inform us in the true nature of special saving Grace It is a drawing to and after Christ Grace in its general notion signifieth nothing but free love and favour Let me find grace or I have found grace signifies no more in Scripture than though I have no worth no merit yet shew me love and favour when applied to God it signifieth no more in the general notion whether this love be shewed in the collation of the good things which concern this life or those which concern that life which is to come they are all grace in a large sense because emanations of divine love not merited by Creatures But words taking their significancy more from use than etymology Grace in a more strict and usual notion hath been taken to signify The emanations of Divine love concerning the Souls and Eternal Salvation of the Children of men which is called the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Now these divine emanations having different effects this Grace of God is also distinguished into Common and special ineffectual and effectual under the notion of common grace we comprehend all those effluxes of divine goodness by which God sheweth his kindness to the Souls of men in order to their Salvation whether they prove effective of their Salvation yea or no under this head some will bring both Election and Redemption owning no other Election than the eternal counsel of God to save such as should believe so denying all eternal Election of persons and making Christs intention in dying to extend to all either equally or at least so far as to put all in a possibility of Salvation if their own perverse wills do not hinder The Publication and proposal of the Gospel with the common influences of the Spirit attending the preaching of it certainly come under this notion for though all hear not that joyful sound yet it is granted on all hands that of those that do hear it to some it is the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death And this is all the grace which some will acknowledge antecedent to the pardon of sins and regeneration But we affirm a further special grace than this is which we call special because it is not equally administred to all no not to all that hear the Gospel saving because it brings salvation not only in a general tender and offer unto all but to that particular Soul upon whom it shineth and so is effectual because effective of the blessed end to which it is levelled and aimed and doth not evaporate in a meer tender and proposal of the will of God This is that which we conceive expressed here and in John 6. 44. under the notion of drawing Which term is fully expressive of the Nature of it as it signifieth both 1. An act of power 2. An act of sweetness and love 1. An act of power The converted Soul is made willing in the day of the Lords power Psal 110. 3 4. The holy Scripture describes us in our natural state as dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. 1. Enemies to God Col. 1. 21. and alienated from the life of God Having hearts harder then rocks then nether milstones iron sinews stiff necks Let those that think a meer intreaty of a Soul to come to Christ that it might have life a meer moral suasion or persuading a Soul to Spiritual duty will change it and renew it and beget in it spiritual habits try what their Rhetorick will do to melt a rock or to raise a dead body If the disadvantage of an ill education and a customary course of debauchery added to our vitiated nature hath such a power to beget in us a moral impotency that the drunkard and the unclean person cannot obtain of himself notwithstanding the advantage of his own ratiocination and the potent arguments drawn from the health of his body the upholding his reputation amongst men the preservation of his estate the pleasing of his sober friends to turn from an Alehouse and Tavern and from the house of the strange Woman no not tho his own experience and the daily experience of others verifieth these arguments and the acts are but such as by the force of reason supposing the common grace of God denied to none may be declined How shall we ever think that a man hath a natural power to the most sublime and spiritual acts and that the power of God must not be put forth upon a Soul causing it to love God and to hate sin and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Two things evince this grace to be an act of divine power 1. The invisibility of Christ and his excellencies 2. The natural alienation of our Souls from him If indeed our need of Christ or the suitableness which is in him to the lapsed state of Souls were either evident to sense or demonstrable to reason or the excellencies of Christ were demonstrable to either something might be said for the sufficiency of rational arguments to persuade the Soul to Christ yet not enough in that case for the sensibility of the goodness of temperance and sobriety and chastity their suitableness to the frail state of our bodies ready to be destroyed by debaucheries opposite to these vertuous habits we see by experience are not enough to keep Souls within the circle and bounds of morality But the other things being neither subject to the demonstration of sense or reason it is most irrational to plead for a power in the will of man to chuse them The sweetness of what the lapsed Soul in its state of alienation from God tasteth in sensible satisfactions is a thing evident to sense and it is
Spouse the particular Christian she complaineth here of her own voluntary neglect and carelessness as to her own Soul suffering the weeds of lusts and corruptions to grow up and to prevail according to that of Solomon I passed by the Vineyard of him who was vaid of understanding and to it was overgrown with thorns Nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone-wall thereof was broken down Prov. 24. 30 31. This now is the fourth cause which the Spouse here assigneth of her blackness thus I have given you the best account I have been able of the sense of these words which if you take them as the words of the Church the collective Spouse of Christ sound thus O you that are my Brethren members of other Churches you that are my Neighbours the men of the World I must confess I am something black yet not wholly black not inwardly black not without some comeliness I may be a little black yet let not me be the object of your contempt despight or scorn let not my blackness make you decline be afraid or ashamed of the ways of God let it not cause you to err as I have erred I have been under great temptations long and sharp trials of persecution these have a little tanned me and made me to look something unlovely I have had some Neighbours and false Brethren who have allured intiâ—ed and betrayed me my Enemies have imposed upon me a superstitious Worship superstâ—tious Rites and Ceremonies and have prevailed with me something to comply with them Nor am I as to my self to be wholly excused I must own that through my own voluntary omission and neglect I have not kept the Truths and Ordinances of Worship nor any of the Laws of God concerning me so as I ought to have done or might have done If we take the words as the words of the particular believing Soul they sound thus O my Brethren I am I confess black but let not my blackness cause you to trâ—umph over me nor yet for my sake to decline the holy ways of God I have been under many sore and great temptations in great heats of affliction the Sun hath looked upon me others have too much seduced me and I have been misled by them I have been too much intangled in secular concerns so as I have been too negligent as to the concerns of my own Soul From the words thus opened several Propositions may be raised of which I shall discourse in their order I shall only name them at this time That even the Spouse of Christ on this side of Heaven hath her blacknesses which will expose her to the reproach and obloquy of her Brethren and the men of the world Though the Spouse of Christ be black yet she is also comely As the Spouse of Christ ought to know that she is black so she also ought to understand she is comely As the Spouse of Christ ought to own and acknowledge her infirmity and desormities so it is also her duty at sometimes to own and acknowledge her beauty and graces and to justify her self against those who would upbraid her for her blackness It is our duty to take heed how we look upon the Spouses blackness Affliction and persecution from the world will make the Church and people of God look black especially in the Eyes of the men of the world Corruptions within and false Brethren in the bosom of the Church will make both the Church and the particular Soul appear black Great intanglements in worldly affairs will make Gods people look black The yieldings of a Church or of particular Souls to impositions of false and corrupt worship are a great cause of their appearing blackness Nothing makes a Church or particular Soul so black as their own neglect in keeping their own Vineyards the trust which God hath betrusted them with I shall speak something to all or the most of these in their order hereafter Sermon XXXII Cant. 1. 5. I am black but comely O you Daughters of Hierusalem as the Tents of Kedar as the Curtains of Solomon I Shall now begin a larger discourse upon those Propositions which I did but name the last time after my explication of this and the next verses I will join the two first and handle them severally then apply them jointly The Spouse of Christ on this side of Heaven hath her blackness exposing her to the reproach and obloquy of others but she is also comely and therefore ought not to be looked upon because she is black My business in the handling of this Proposition will chiefly lie in these two things 1. First Shewing you wherein lies the Spouses blackness exposing her to the obloquy of others 2. Secondly Shewing you wherein her comeliness lieth The confirmation I shall mix with the explication By the Spouse here I have all along understood the believing Soul the Church of Christ which is a body made up of these as its Members they have both their blackness for which they are exposed to the obloquy of others 1. First Sins and Corruptions make them black The best of men are but as white Swans with black feet they have in them a body of death a law in their members rebelling against the law of their mind the flesh lusting against the Spirit and they are many times brought into a captivity to the law of their members and though these motions to sin be ordinarily suppressed yet they sometimes break out The Pride of one and the ssionate anger and wrath of another and other lusts in others often break out unseemly and make even the best of Gods People appear black the habituated Sinner is all black there is in him no whiteness no comeliness at all The glorified Saint is all white there is in him no blackness at all The militant Saint is partly white and in part black All sin is black Christ therefore in justification makes the Soul white through his blood Rev. 7. 14. They are made white in the blood of the Lamb. In regeneration they are made white cleansed through the washing of water Eph. 5. 21. Hence Christ tells his Disciples except I wash you you can never be made clean they are clean but yet had need wash their seet John 13. 10. If there be in us any thing of faith yet there is also much of unbelief who liveth and sinneth not the righteous man falleth seven times in a day and who can tell how often he offendeth and though indeed the lust and corruption that is in a good mans heart doth not commonly break out into scandalous acts which standers by take notice of yet sometimes they do Lot and Noah were both overtaken with Wine David was overcoâ—e by the stranger that came to his House Peter denied his Master Solomon Asa Jehosaphat all the good Kings of Judah had their great Errors which are as black spots upon their memories to this day And
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
gain doth arise ordinarily Now all the profit that can be so much as imagined to arise from the world as meerly read in our Bibles or heard opened from the Ministers of the Gospel or meditated upon can be nothing but some superficial notional knowledge in the things of God Knowledge indeed is an excellent thing and as pleasant to an ingenuous Soul as Light is to the Eye and such a Soul counts it amongst his gains and this may and doth draw out not only true and good and pious Souls to read and hear Sermons and study the Scriptures but it may and doth entice and allure others But the pious Soul feeth a profit beyond this he hath read 1 Tim. 3. 15. That the holy Scriptures are able to make a man wise to salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ V. 17. To make the man of God perfect throughly furnished to every good work He hath heard that good words from thence have made Souls better when sorrow hath made the heart to stoop this is the profit this the advantage which he promiseth unto himself from the Word of God this makes him thirst after a real inward spiritual communion with God in his Word he knows nothing less than this can answer the ends which his Soul aimeth at That it is not being in the Sanctuary but his seeing the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary which must effect this Hence it is that though a more External communion with God in his word be sweet and desirable to him yet he cannot take up with it but he thirsteth after the Teachings of his Spirit in and by the Word But I see I must leave much of this discourse to other opportunities Sermon VII Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth 4. THere is yet another Reason to be assigned and added to what you have already heard why an understanding pious Soul cannot be satisfied with a bare external Communion with God in his Word That is the danger which it apprehends from such a performance when the Soul resteth in it and takes up with it Heb. 4. 12. The Apostle telleth us The word of God is quick and powerful Whatsoever means are used in order to an end if it be of a quick and operative Nature if it reacheth not the end it certainly doth harm Pbysick that is quick and operative if it conduceth not to the healing of the Body usually impairs it and doth it harm The hearing and reading of the word are means in order to the Salvation of our Souls by the working of Faith in us changing our hearts and transforming us into its own likeness if they profit not in order to that end they certainly prejudice the Soul Isa 55. 10. As the rain cometh down from Heaven and the Snow and returneth not thither but watereth the Earth So shall my word be that goeth out of my Mouth The Apostle lets us know that Ministers in preaching the Gospel are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are savea and in them that perish V. 16. To the one they are the savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life We read in the Gospel of two effects of the Word Preached by Christ and the Apostles some believed others were hardened This must necessarily make a pious thinking Soul that considereth reading and hearing the Word as they indeed are not as ends but as means in order to a more noble end that it cannot but long after this spiritual inward communion with God in these Institutions There 's nothing more to be dreaded than an hardened heart and without this inward Teaching of the Spirit of God in and by the Word the Soul certainly hardeneth and groweth worse by and under it I shall now come to make some Application of this discourse From it you may learn That there is a more internal communion with God in his Word than the most of common hearers are aware of God's speaking to our Eyes and Ears our common sense and understanding is one thing his speaking to our hearts to our will and affections is another thing It is one thing for a man or woman to give God his bodily presence his Eyes and his Ears in an Ordinance another thing for the Soul to give up his will in it to comply with the will of God in what he shall reveal unto it I am afraid this is a notion is little either understood or attended to Men and women think they have done their work and fulfilled their duty if they have but read a little in their Bibles and come to Church to hear a Sermon never regarding what inward communion they have had with God either in the one or the other and look at no further Communication of God unto them than to let them know his will nor at any further communicating themselves unto God than in lending him the presence of their outward man and the more out-parts and powers of their Souls This apprehension of men makes them stand amazed at God's Peoples being so fond of Sermons and running after them Indeed were this all that good men and women expected they might possibly not be so exceedingly thirsty after them though even a notional knowledge of the will of God is no contemptible thing but they have further expectations upon Ordinances than this amounteth to They said Isa 2. 3. Come you let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths They know that God promised of old That wheresoever he recorded his name to dwell there he would meet his people and bless them And that the same Promise extendeth to the New Testament and that there the Lord hath promised where two or three are gathered together in his Name he will be in the midst amongst them which Promise being not of his Essential presence for so he is never absent from us but concerning the presence of his grace it is a promise of blessing so as they are not satisfied without some token of God's favour and blessing From this discourse also may be concluded in what communion with God through the Spirit lieth Some would have it to lie in meer Enthusiastical raptures impressions and revelations and that the way to enjoy it is to cast off all Forms all Duties and Ordinances these are the things they make to be the things that are above mentioned in Col. 3. 1. Certainly there is a form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle Paul commendeth the Romans for yielding obedience to Rom. 6. 17. A form of sound words which he commandeth Timothy to hold fast 2 Tim. 1. 13. These are not that form of Godliness in men that deny the power of it which the Apostle speaks of in that Epistle There are Duties and Ordinances to be above which is to be above
high Priest became us c. Give me leave upon this argument to make use of the same words Christ hath Loves such a Saviour became the Sons of men and that upon a three fold account 1. As love stands opposed to hatred and wrath and Enmity Considering man as Gods Creature he was not hated of God God hâ—teth not the work of his own hand but considering him as a lapsed creature as degenerated into the Plant of a strange Vine after that God had created him a generous noble plant so he became the object of Gods wrath hatred and Enmity We were Children of wrath by nature saith the Apostle E ph 2. 3. God is angry with the wicked every day How Sutable to us now is it to have a Saviour That is Love and who hath Loves considering the aversion in the holy Divine Beeing from Mankind as rebellious Seed a Seed of Evil doers Who could have suited us to have become a Saviour unto us but one who had akind propension and inclination to us inclining him to the great work of mans Redemption and Reconciliation to God especially also considering that there could be no remission of sins without blood no reconciliation without the reconcilers Death he had need have loves that should dye for his Friend and he much more who should dye for Enemies that were by his death to be made friends 2. As Loves signifies multitude and infinitness of Love We have all a multitude of sins and there is a kind of infiniteness in sin indeed our Acts of Sin are not infinite we cannot number them we cannot measure them but they are to be numbred that is our comfort so that the ballance is on Gods side he hath infinite Mercies But there is an infiniteness of a will to sin in every Sinners heart if a Sinner were let alone he hath such a depth of vileness in his heart that if he were to live infinitely he would sin without limits without bounds infinitely there is an infiniteness in the guilt of Sin we had need of a Saviour that should have Loves an infinite of Love a multitude of Mercies for our multitude of Sins numberless pardons for numberless Sinnings we Sinned yesterday we sin this day and we shall sin to morrow If Christ had not Loves we could have no hopes 3. Thirdly such a Saviour became us As Loves signifyes a Variety of gracious inclinations We have a variety of wants Our wants are not all of one nature we have need of Love to pardon us and to bring us into a state of favour Love to preserve us and uphold us when we are in such a state of favour One or another gracious aspect and inclination of Christ would not have been enough for our Souls which are not onely miserable and stand in need of mercy but poor and stand in need of the riches of divine grace and naked and stand in need of the long White robe of Christs righteousness and blind and stand in need of his Eye Salve We are all Emptiness and stand in need of his fulness that we might receive of his fulness Grace for Grace Less than infinite Loves and variety of gracious inclinations a readiness to serve our Souls in a variety of distresses with a sutable Supply of grace grace suited to every necessity of our Souls could not have fitted our Souls which have not only wants and infirmities but are incompassed about with wants and infirmities Fifthly Let this report of Christ to your Souls ingage you to indeavour to be made the Objects of these Loves I have observed to you before that this text doth not speak of the Love of Christ with respect to his Father but with respect to us to the Sons of men they are the objects of the Loves of Christ here mentioned How should we all study and indeavour that we may be the Beloved the objects of these Loves not of his Love onely but of his Loves Arminians keep a great deal of stir with a Philanthropy in Christ a common Love which he hath for all the Sons and daughters of men Nor is the question betwixt them and other Divines so much about the thing as the extent of it Sober Divines will many of them grant in Christ a common Love to all mankind and speak of some things which they take to be the effects and products of it but admit it yet it is certain he hath also an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good pleasure of his will or Special kindness to some Souls So he hath Loves that is the benignity and kindness of his inclinations is more to Some than to others Let none of us satisfy our selves to be the Object of Christs Love unless we be the object of his Loves I shall press this onely with One Argument It is this Nothing but the Loves of Christ can serve our Souls as to their true Spiritual and eternal Concernment There is a great stir made in the world about a common Love which Christ should have for all the Sons and daughters of men and there are many that would make the Death of Christ to be the Effect of this Common Love And so conclude that he intentionally dyed for all and Every man Others are not of that mind but yet will allow all men and women in the world to receive some good from Christ and that not onely considered as God over all blessed for ever and one with his Father and so in him we live move and have our Being But as Mediator It is from him they say that the world yet stands that the Gospel is preached to the worst of men I see little in this worth the contending for I would gladly know what real advantage accrueth to any Soul from being the common object of Divine Love Admitting that all shal not be saved for whom Christ dyed which they must hold who hold that Christ dyed for all and every man unless they hold universal Salvation I would fain know what relief any Soul can have from this notion of Christs dying for all which some so much contend for Supposing that all men shall not be saved but those onely whom Christ hath loved with a Special Love Nothing can possibly revive a Soul troubled as to its Spiritual and eternal concerns but some evidence of that It is said of the young man who came to Christ so hopefully Mar. 10. 21. kneeling to him saying Master what good thing may I do that I may obtain everlasting Life that he loved him With that general Love which he hath for all his Creatures especially such as have any seeds of goodness in them yet the Text saith he went away Sorrowful Let us labour for the Special Love of Christ Such tokens of his Love as may distinguish betwixt us and those who shall perish But to shut up this Discourse This notion calleth upon all of us who would be like Christ to have Loves also There are two
his Net i. e. he slattereth him and under pretence of friendship enticeth them into ruine God saith He will draw his people with the Cords of a man with the Bands of Lovâ— Hos 11. 4. and that he had drawn them with loving kindness Jer. 31. 3. thus Deborah promised to draw the Israelites to Tabor that is to persuade and to conduct them thither Judg. 4. 7. Solomon saith he sought to draw his flesh with Wine so it is in the Hebrew Eccles 2. 3. his meaning is he would entice and please his flesh 4. Sometimes in Scripture it signifieth to lengthen out and to continue Thus it is used to signifie the sound of a Trumpet lengthened out It is translated prolonged Isa 13. 22. d ferred Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferred in the Hebrew drawn out maketh the heart sick Psal 109. 12. Let none draw out mercy We translate it extend mercy unto him None of my words shall be prolonged The same word is there again used O continue thy loving-kindness Psal 36. 10. This sense methinks seemeth not much forreign to this place as the Petition refers not only to first but following grace We need the prolongings and continuances of Divine Influences to make us to run after Christ The word as the Learnedest Lexicographers in that Language tell us signifies with a secret force to compel one whitheâ— we would have him It sometimes signifies with fair words Reasons and persuasions to draw one to our side Forster tells us that Christ without doubt had respect to this place in those Gospel expressions No man cometh to the Son but he whom the Father draweth And when I shall be lifted up I will draw all men after me And Lud. de Ponte expounds this Text by that in the Gospel Compel them to come in So then when the Spouse saith Draw me this is that she means Lord Put forth thy secret Power thy irresistible and effectual Grace and compel me to come unto thee and to run after thee move me sweetly but yet powerfully Draw me by thy Word and Spirit and by the sweetness of thy grace open my heart saith Mr Ainsworth I am weak Lord add thy strength so Tâ—emellius glosseth Divine grace must prevent and must follow he that is not drawn will be hindered by his own corruption Lust draws every heart backward from Christ The Soul must by Grace be drawn to him Bernard understands it of an act of power and thus glosseth Lord it is better that thou should'st draw me by any force than that thou shouldest spare me and leave me secure in my deadness But let us weigh it yet a little further It is the Spouse that here speaketh The Church of God the believing Soul hath the Spouse need to be drawn to Christ Is she not already come to him doth she not willingly follow after him how then doth she say draw me doth the Child of God follow him unwillingly To this I answer 1. The Church doth not consist of all true believers there may be some in the bosom of that that have but a name to live and which had need be drawn unto Christ For these the Church may be understood to pray that there may not be any in it strangers unto Christ but that as some are drawn so all may be drawn 2. But Secondly Bernard who starts this question answereth it otherwise Non omnis qui trahitur invitus trahiâ—ur Every one who is drawn is not drawn unwillingly The Bear is drawn to the Stake unwillingly so is the Malefactor to the place of Execution but an hungry man may be drawn to his Meat and the Cripple to the Bath and both willingly besides if the Spouse were not willing she would never make it her request to be drawn nor yet were she able of her self to go would she ask to be drawn Those who are weak as well as those that are unwilling had need to be drawn How perfect soever the Soul be saith Bernard while it sigheth under the body of death and is kept in the Prison of mortality being full of wants and full of sin it goeth slowly and dully after Christ and is not at liberty to follow him but must be drawn to its Spiritual duty I know saith the Spouse that I cannot come to thee in Heaven but by going after thee while I live here upon the Earth and I know I cannot go after thee unless thou drawest unless thou helpest me She confesseth here that she standeth in daily need of preventing Grace of drawing and quickning Grace from God 'T is true she prayeth and so seemeth to prevent the Grace of God but in that she prayeth it is plain that the Grace of God had prevented her otherwise she would not have said Draw me She here desireth that Grace of God which might have a divine sweet efficacious power and force with it to constrain her Soul to run after Christ The Kingdom of Heaven within the Child of God suffâ—reth violence and force through the power of Lust and Corruption She beggeth of God to oppose the power of his Grace to the power of her Lusts and vile Affections She useth this word therefore to acknowledge her weakness and to shew that without the help of grace she could not run after Christ according to that John 15. 4 Withâ—ut me you can do nothing Genebrard saith that by this Phrase she teacheth us that the beginning of our Justification is from God Bernard Beza Lud. de Ponte and others conclude that she teacheth that further Grace is from God By the word draw she begs not only first grace but the prolongings and continuances of Divine Grace according to that Psal 36. 10. O continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee and thy righteousness to the upright in heart The Soul doth not only stand in need of the sweet and powerful influences of Divine Grace to bring it to Christ but to keep it and to carry it on its state and exercises of Grace For whether would the Spouse be drawn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after thee saith the Text. Our translation puts these words after the next Verb we will run after thee in the Heb they follow draw me and so may indifferently be read with either The matter is not much they must be understood here as well as there the term of either motion was the same Surely 't is thither she would be drawn whither she had a mind to run The Spouse is drawn and comes to Christ By faith it runs and follows after Christ by holiness and is drawn so by a power inabling it to perfect holiness it is drawn to Christ by Death say some so Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ 1 Phil. With reference to this Bernard puts this question An hoc dicit cupiens dissolvi Doth saith he the Spouse speak this desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ He saith he should
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
Christ told the Inhabitants of Hierâ—salem that he would have gathered them but they would not And hence appears that it is no wonder that Arminians who will allow none but common grace before conversion should contend that it may be finally resisted for there is no doubt but all common grace may be finally resisted 2. But secondly We say there is a working drawing grace which may be for a while opposed but cannot be finally resisted By this the Soul is regenerate and born again and that not after the will of the flesh or the will of Man but the will of God This we say cannot be finally resisted the reasons are 1. Because by this God gives a new heart and a new spirit and causeth the Soul to walk in his statutes as you will find Jer. 31. 18. ch 36. v 26. Now grace cannot be resisted but from an old heart and indeed it is a contradiction to say God may be resisted by a new heart 2. Again if this grace might finally be resisted the whole business of mans Salvation must depend upon his own goed nature and the power of his own will and the proximate cause of a mans repentance faith holiness must be in himself Thirdly We say there is a co-working Grace by which as Augustine saith being first drawn we move being acted we act this is that grace which God followeth converted Souls with that Grace which followeth the Child of God all the days of his life without which he can do nothing Job 1â— 3. through which strengthening and assisting him he can do all things through which he lives and moves in his spiritual sphere this is resistible in part through that law in our members which rebelleth against the law of our mind and brings us into captivity to the law of sin Hence is the spiritual combate the lustings of the flesh against the Spirit Yet this is but a partial resistance not from the whole of the regenerate Soul but from the flesh in it which lusteth against the Spirit from that part which is yet unregenerate Nor shall this resistance be victorious but the same Soul that crieth out O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of Death shall in the next words say I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ Thus I have shewed you how God in the drawing of a Soul to Christ worketh powerfully But 2dly As he works powerfully so he works sweetly powerfully so that he will be obeyed sweetly so that he is freely obeyed the conversion of a sinner is an act of power but not of violence the mystery of this lieth here Because the effect of grace is upon the will of man Violence is then offered to us when we are compelled to actions contrary to our wills The will is not indeed capable of violence the will may be changed renewed otherwise inclined but not forced force can only be offered to the outward man and why those who contend for a power in man so renew change alter otherwise incline his own will should find a difficulty to allow God as much power as they claim for man who is but a creature I cannot understand Thus far I have shewed you that a Soul must be drawn before it come to Christ I have yet further to shew you that it must be drawn or it will not run after Christ In this drawing indeed there needeth not such a power as in the former the reason is because now to will is present with the Soul as St. Paul saith it only wanteth strength to perform But an influence a powerful influence there must be I believe said he in the Gospel Lord help my unbelief Lord increase our faith said the Apostles without me you can do nothing saith our Saviour Joh. 15. 3. and again saith he as the branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the Vine so no more can you except you abide in me and 2 Cor. 3. 5. Our sufficiency is of God we are not able of our selves so much as to think any thing Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me we are kept by the power of God to Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. The Apostle speaking of the weak Brother saith God is able to make him to stand We stand in grace Rom. 5. 3. Christ prayeth that Peters faith might not fail while Satan winnowed him like wheat God giveth both to will and to do both of his own good pleasure but I shall not need heap up Scriptures in so plain a case I shall have advantage enough to prove it from Reason concluding from Scripture principles 1. In the first place the Scripturé speaketh of the Children of God in this life as in a state of imperfection Not saith the Apostle as though we were perfect or had already attained Phil. 3. 12. To have no further need of Grace speaketh a self-sufficiency and a state of perfection which is every where in holy writ denyed to man in this life nothing needs be added to that man who stands in no need of the power and assistance of Divine Grace but the holy Scripture every where speaketh of the state of man while on this side Heaven as a state in which something is lacking to him of Heaven only as that state wherein just Souls are made perfect wherein that which is perfect shall be come and that which is in part shall be done away Secondly As the Child of God before he comes to Christ is in Scripture represented in a state of death Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickned Eph. 2. 1. Who were dead in trespasses and sins So when come to Christ it represents him in a state of weakness Ro. 5. 6. When we were yet without strength Christ died for us Not only life but strength was a piece of the purchase of Christ for us Christ saith as to his Sheep John 10. 10. I am come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly The Children of God are all as Mephibosheth the Sons of Jonathan and so beloved of David united to Christ and so beloved of God and must eat bread at his Table but they are all of them like him lame of their Feet Now those that are without strength cannot run running doth not only require life as the principle of motion but strength also to assist the motion what the Apostle saith of their knowledge and prophecying they know in part and prophecy in part is as true concerning all their other gracious habits and acts they are all but in part they are in this like Nebuchadnezzars Image part of Iron and part of Clay Adam indeed had both his legs a full strength and could of himself without any need of the assistance of a Mediator have done all that God required of him in that state as necessary to his Salvation but he fell and did not only for his posterity as well as for himself lose his innocency and
righteousness but his spiritual strength and ability also His fall causing the need of a Mediator and a coming unto him that we might have life caused also the need of the influence of the Holy Spirit upon us to quicken and innable us to com◠unto him and to walk with him Hence there was a need of such a Covenant for God to make as that mentioned Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn from them to do them good but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from me Thirdly That body of death which remains in the best of Gods People evinceth a necessity of a continued powerful influence of grace to keep the Soul in any motion especially in any quickness of motion after God That we have weights that pressus down a sin which easily besets us a body of death as St. Paul calls it proper lufts lustings of the flesh against the Spirit is evident in holy writ we are indeed at last more than conquerours over this inteftine adversary but it is through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 7. For lust is so connatural to us the lustings of the flesh so strong in us that our regenerate part could never else maintain the Spiritual fight Besides as I shall shew you as we have an impotency so as we cannot so much as will the thing which is good so we have also a natural dulness and aversion to it and this also remaineth in part in the regenerate Soul nor to be conquered without the influence of the holy Spirit Lastly The many hinderances which the Soul hath from its Enemies without will also hinder it from running James tells us that every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed This is a temptation from within à carne this would be too hardfor a Soul in its own strength But it hath also Enemies from without both from its grand adversary the Devil and also from the world I must confess I have met with one never but one that would pretend to maintain a power in man to resist the strongest Temptations without any extraordinary assistance of the Spirit of grace this he would impose upon the world to believe because that Joseph resisted the temptation from his Mistriss That Joseph did resist that temptation is plain in Scripture but that he did it by no further assistance of Grace than Reuben had who defiled his Fathers Bed or Absolom who went in to his Fathers Concubines will want better proof than any I find in his discourse I cannot but think that if man without the assistance of special grace had a power as he boldly saith to resist the strongest temptations we should have none destroy themselves upon temptations to self murder Atbeistical thoughts and Despair It is an inaccountable thing why any should destroy themselves if this Doctrine were true especially if they be persons not before possest of atheistical principles believing there is neither God nor Devil Heaven or Hell who can give an account suppose it in the power of the best of men to resist the strongest temptations without any special grace how David the man according to Gods own heart came to fall into the sin first of Adultery then of Murther To will was certainly present with him as well as with Paul how came he to want a strength to perform but from Gods withdrawing his special influence of grace from him and leaving him to his own strength which though the strength of a renewed man yet is too little to grapple with a strong temptation If even the best of men without the powerful influence of special grace can resist strong temptations how came Peter to fall by denying his Master by swearing and cursing that he did not know him he manifested that to will was present with him by his telling our Saviour that altho all men should forsake him yet he would not God was pleased to with-hold his powerful influence and to leave Peter to the ordinary strength even of a renewed man he was not able to grapple with the temptation It is so far from being true that man hath a power to resist the strongest temptations that without Christs influence assisting he hath not a power to resist any temptation whether from the World the Flesh or the Devil It is Musculus his observation upon John 15. 3 Our Saviour doth not fay without me you cannot do much or all but you can do nothing Nor if it be a strong temptation such as the fear of life c. can a Christian resist and overcome it without a more than ordinary assistance of Divine Grace proportioned to the degree of temptation But vain man would be wise though he be but as an Asses Colt he would be strong though in very deed he is weaker than water he would be all to himself though he be nothing in himself 5. But for a further proof of this Proposition concerning the necessity of drawing powerful influences of Divine Grace both with reference to the Souls first motions and coming to Christ and further motions in following Christ and running after him I shall but appeal to the experience of all converted Souls If there be an heart before me which God hath truly changed any one that is not only converted from one opinion to another or one profession to another from Paganism to Christianity but indeed converted from the love of sin and lusts to the love of God and the hatred of all sin and an endeavour to walk close with God from an opinion and confidence of and in any righteousness in itself wherein it can hope to stand before God to a trusting and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Righteousness I appeal to that Soul what was it thinkest thou that inclined thy heart to accept of Jesus Christ for thy Saviour to commit all the concerns of thy Soul unto him and to alter thy course of life from a principle of love to God and obedience to his will more than anothers who sate in the same Seat with thee or lived in the same House and sate under the same Ministry heard the same Sermons how camest thou to be taken thy Neighbour left how came thy will to move regularly whiles thy Neighbour under the same circumstances still retained his stiff neck and iron sinews and hard heart and continued in the same lewd and sinful courses who made thee to differ Didst thou make thy self to differ How came it that he did not also make himself to differ I know there is no Soul whose heart is truly changed but will say if almighty power had not changed me I had been as bad as any other And so since thy Soul hath been changed thou hast met with Temptations to sin thou hast resisted them overcome them triumphed over them others possibly some very good men have fallen by and under them who
was in my blood live he hath fixed his Love upon me who was by birth an Ethiopian he hath hung a Chain about my neck I am black but I am comely I have met with a story of a Minister who going to visit and pray with a poor creatureâ— possessed by the Devil the Devil thought to have stopt his mouth by objecting to him some sins committed by him in his youth The holy man answered confessing the charge but Satan saith he upon my repentance Christ hath since that washed me with his blood Another story I have met with of a worthy Person who lying upon his sick bed and being alone one opens the door and comes in in the habit of a Scrivener with a Pen and Inkhorn and Paper andsetting himself down at the table in the Chapter called the sick man by name and told him he was sent from God to take account of him of all the sins he had done for which he must presently go and answer to God before his Judgment seat The good man rightly apprehending that it was the Devil had assumed an habit to tempt and distrub him bid him go on and write first Gen. 3. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Upon which the evil Spirit presently disappeared Speaking only from my memory I may forget some circumstances but this is the substance of the story What the Devil in these cases did by a more audible voice he doth yet every day by impressions made more secretly upon the Spirits of some or other that fear God For tho conscience will of it self often bring sin to remembrance and reflect sins upon the Soul committed long before yet they are some times reflected with such violence and degrees of terror and attended with such strong motions and sollicitations to despair of Divine mercy and to self murder that it is but reasonable to judge there is more in them then the ordinary workings of conscience In such a dark hour as this it will be a great relief to a Soul to think that the Spouse of Christ is black but comely Doth the Devil then object thy blackness whether by reason of past or present sins in bar to thy trust and confidence in God for the forgiveness of them through the blood of Christ Reply to him Satan I have been black I confess it I am black but I am comely also having my Garments washed and rouled in the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World I am as the Tents of Kedar they are black but I am also as the Curtains of Solomon they are exceeding beautiful 3. It also relieveth a Christian under Persecutions and afflictions and against the Worlds upbraidings because of them The Barbarians concluded Paul a Murtherer because they saw a Viper cleaving to his hand and the men of the World are very prone to judge and condemn the People of God for what happeneth to them in this life they see the blackness of Gods Peoples visages under affliction and persecution but the love of God in chastening them that they might not be condemned with the World the exercises of their faith and trial of it and its appearing more precious then that of Gold their patience its perfect worâ— hâ—se are things in which their comeliness appeareth in and under afflictions these are things which they do not see Gods People are also ready to conclude against themselves because of their tryals but there is no just reason for it afflictions are but a blackness of the skin the Child of God may notwithstanding them be within exceeding beautiful and comely The tents of Kedar though they had black and unlovely coverings and outsides yet within might be fill'd with Spices and Riches I shall shut up this discourse with some few words of exhortation to that duty which this notion of truth calls to us for 1. It calleth to all the People of God for humility a mean and low opinion of themselves beauty is often a great temptation to Pride whether it be natural or artificial The Daughters of Sion were haughty and walked with stretched forth Necks and wanton Eyes Isaiah 3. 16. Spiritual beauty gives no advantage to a Soul to think of it self above what it ought to think In all reason we should have been some cause to our selves of that whereof we glory we should have some propriety in it and there should be in it some perfection The comeliness of Gods People is neither natural nor any acquest of their own There are three things which may keep the most comely of Gods Children humble First The consideration of their former blackness Let but any of them look back to the rock out of which they are hewen and to the hole of the Pit out of which they were digged and they will see no reason to be exalted above measure their Father was a Syrian their birth was of the land of Canaan their Father was an Amorite their Mother an Hittite and in the day wherein they were born they were cast out to the loathing of their persons not salted not swadled at all Nor was this all there is none of them but had their conversation in times past according to the Prince of the power of the Air fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind Children of Wrath by nature c There is none of them but hath reason to pray that the Lord would not remember the sins of their youth against them and to beg of God that for them he would not write against them bitter things nor make them to possess their years of vanity None of them but before Christs comeliness was put upon them had been guilty of sin enough to make them to walk softly all the days of their lives Secondly The consideration of their present blackness is enough though they are comely yet they are black still they have a body of death a law of their members the lustings of the flesh against the Spirit sins that easily beset them weights that often press them down the beauty of the best of Gods People is but like the beauty of the Moon which is full of spots hath a dark part and often suffers great Eclipses and all whose light is borrowed He observeth not his own heart that doth not see enough in the imperfect and extravagant motions of it to keep him humble Thirdly The third is the consideration from whence he deriveth his beauty If men and women would but debate a little with their own reason they would see no reason to be proud of a comeliness arising from any external Ornament it is something beneath a Reasonable Being to be beholden to a Stone Jewels are no more or a little Earth such are Gold and Silver a Plant or a Fly or a Silkworm or a Sheep a little Wool or Flax for
miserable blind and naked On the other side Paul complained that he was the least of the Apostles not worthy to be called an Apostle c. Yet so false are our hearts that there may be hypocrisy even in our confessions of our sin and blackness whether to God or to man we must therefore take heed both to our design and end in these confessions and also to the truth and manner of them The hypocrite never confesseth his blackness but in hopes that for his confession he shall be reputed white and the praise of men is all that he seeks after Hence 2. he doth it without any serious sense of the sin which he confesseth or heart contrition for it A confession of sins which is but a bare recitation and Enumeration of them is not that confession which God requireth or accepteth Secondly This calleth to us all for the practice of this duty I have shewed you that there is a threefold confession of our sin which is our duty 1. A confession unto God 2. Uâ—to the faithfull Ministers and Servants of God 3. Vnto the men of the World The first is our duty at all times and under all circumstances and we have nothing to regard as to that but knowing the matter of confession keeping a watch upon our hearts and ways that we may know our errors and the plague of our own hearts that we do it in such a manner as God hath directed and prescribed confession must not be the meer Sacrifice of the Calves of our lips but the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart But this is not that of the Text where the Spouse is not speaking to God but to the daughters of Hierusalem it is to them the Spouse faith I am black In what cases this confession to men is our duty I have largely shewed you as also what advantage may arise from it both with reference to Gods glory and the good of our own and others Souls I shall onely offer you some few directions for the more advantageous performance of it 1. There is a great deal of prudence to be used in the choice of that friend to whom thou doest thus unbosom thy self 1. Conceal not thy self from that able and faithful Minister of Christ whom thou hast intrusted with the charge of thy Soul I am very far from pleading for that auricular confession in the Ear of the Priest which the Papists make such a stir about Amongst other supernumerary Sacraments which they have added to those 2 which alone were instituted by Christ they have one which they call the Sacrament of Penance In order to which they require in Lent especially but at other times also a circumstantiated confession of all men and womens particular sins which being so confessed to the Priest who is therefore called their confessor he appointeth them a penance to be done for them and so absolveth them from the guilt of them as they pretend As we know of no Satisfaction to be given for sin but what is given by the death of Christ excepting only in cases of wrong done unto men capable of reparation Nor of any power in any to forgive sins but only in God only the Minister may declare what God hath done or will do in cafe of our true repentance and faith so we know of no incumbent duty upon any Christian to make a particular confession of sin to the Priest and only judge such particular confession necessary in some particular cases for the disburthening and easing of Christians consciences pressed under the guilt of some particular sins and in such a case an able and faithful Minister of Christ is doubtless the most proper Person to make confession to both because as by his office he is both an Interpreter of the mind and will of God and to pray for the People so he is or ought to be one of a thousand like Saul taller then his Brethren by the head and shoulders in knowledge gifts of greater knowledge judgment in the things of God and so more able to minister a word in season It is sad that it cannot be said of all they are so but it is to be presumed that the same wisdom which teacheth every man and woman to commit the business of his bodily health to the ablest most faithful Physitian he can chuse and the concern of his Estate to the most able faithful Lawyer he can will also direct a Christian to commit the far more weighty concerns of his Soul to the most able and faithfull Minister that he can nor ought any Christian to be more abridged in his liberty with reference to the latter of far more concernment then with referenceto the former of far more minute concernment to him But I say a good Christian having made choice of such a Person he is undoubtedly the fittest Person to confess our sins unto when they lye heavy upon our conscience and we cannot recover our Peace and that with respect to both the ends of such confession whether Prayers for us or Counsel and advice and that both with respect to the abilityes of such a person which cannot but be presumed greater in order to the revealing the mind and will of God to us and so giving us advice and counsel and with reference to his Office he being one whom God hath set over us and gifted with reference unto us But set aside the case of a disturbed conscience not able otherwise to gain peace or some particular cases upon which cases of conscience and perplexing questions may arise too hard for a private Christian to answer without some help I see no need of any particular Confession unto Ministers more then others 2. As to more private Christians I have also shewed you several cases wherein some particular Confessions of sin may be highly expedient if not necessary It must be the care of a good Christian so to manage this duty that he may attain the ends which he aimeth at in it without dashing upon such Rocks as every good and prudent Christian ought to avoid To that end 1. Christians ought to use so much wisdom as may protect their profession from reproach and scandal which may prejudice the repuâ—e either of themselves or others walking in the holy ways of God The honour of the Gospel and profession of it is a great thing and though we must not commit the least sin that any such good may come of iâ— yet whatsoever prudence we can use to prevent any thing of this nature is doubtless our duty This evil ariseth from the needless publication of the sinful failings of professors He that hath sinned openly ought to be rebuked openly and openly to confess his sin that the Church of God offended by his fall may be satisfied in the truth of his repentance and recovery out of the snare of the Devil but where the sin is of another nature and hath been committed secretly there is
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
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
great and singular love to Christ floweth from his Experimental discerning of that admirable suitableness that is in Christ to his Soul and the exceeding love which he hath shewn to him 1. A Believer hath another kind of persuasion of the Love of Christ and the excellency that is in him than it is possible another should have 1. A persuasion flowing from Faith And 2. Confirmed by Experience I say first flowing from Faith We know a thing by Sense Reason or Revelation the Excellency of Christ falleth not under the demonstration of Sense Reason indeed working upon Principles of Revelation I mean concluding from the Revelation of holy Writ will shew even a natural man much goodness much excellency in Christ But this Knowledge is very far from that certainty which Faith begetteth in the Soul which is a certainty against which the Soul hath nothing to oppose ordinarily Faith is an Evidence and the strongest Evidence to the Soul of what it doth not see by the Eye of Sense and seeth very imperfectly by the Eye of Reason 2. A Believer's Knowledge is confirmed by Experience as he hath heard from the Word of God so he hath seen in the dispensations of God to his Soul His Soul is sprinkled with the Blood of Christ it was lost it is now found It lay under the guilt of sin and through Christ's satisfaction it is acquitted Though every Believer hath not a full persuasion of this yet he hath a good hope through grace and this cannot but kindle in his Soul a vehement flame of love to Christ Bless the Lord O my Soul saith the Psalmist Psal 103. 3 4. and all that is within me bless his holy Name Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction Nor hath he only some experience of the suitableness of Christ to his Soul considered as a lost undone Soul but he hath as firm a persuasion of Christ's readiness as well as ability to supply all his wants to hear all his prayers to supply all its necessities to bless it with all spiritual blessings there is no Soul that lives in such a view as a Believing Soul of its daily renewing sins and so standing in need of daily repeated acts of pardon daily renewings of spiritual strength c. It knows it is in the power of none to help it but Christ alone he alone sitteth at the right hand of God to make Intercession for the Soul he is he alone who can be its Advocate at the Throne of Grace It is the Spirit of Christ through which he must mortifie the deeds of the body and who must strengthen it with might to all the operations of the spiritual life It is so natural to the Soul to love those that love it that our Saviour saith if you do it what reward have you The Soul thus apprehending Christ its love towards him proceedeth in a natural order and riseth higher as it knoweth that the love which he hath shewed it and doth shew it is the greatest love For greater love than this can no man shew than that a man should die for his friend Christ hath died for it while it was an Enemy We saith the Apostle being Enemies to God were reconciled unto him through the death of his Son The evil from which he delivered it was the greatest evil The reason why the natural man loveth not Christ is because though he hath indeed heard much of Christ and of his love to the Sons of men yet he believeth not or giveth only a faint and careless Assent unto what he readeth and heareth concerning him He hath experienced nothing concerning the evil of sin nor feeleth any need of pardon and so cannot possibly discern or apprehend that goodness and excellency that is in Christ nor that suitableness to a Soul's state that a Believer is apprehensive of And in regard the wants of the body are no way to be compared with the wants of the Soul and the wants of the Soul cannot be supplied from any except only Ministerially but from Christ alone the Soul must necessarily love Christ with a singular love and all other things in subordination unto him so as they must stand in no competition for the Soul's Affection with him much less can such a Soul love any thing that offers it self in opposition to him I might inlarge fuurther in giving you Reasons for such a Soul 's singular love to Christ but I have touched upon this Argument before and these are the two main Reasons of their singular love unto him Their pourings out of their whole hearts their intire Affections into his bosom I shall only add a short Application of this Discourse Let us all by this try our selves whether we be the Spouse of Christ yea or no that is whether we be true believers yea or no and true Members of the Church of Christ by this we shall know it If we can look up to Heaven and say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth There are many who go into the number of those who make up the visible Church who are not the Spouse of Christ or at least shall not be of the number of those hereafter who shall make up the Lambs Wife mentioned Rev. 21. 9. They are not that Spouse mentioned Rev. 19. 7. To whom it is granted that she shall be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white or of those blessed ones who shall be called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The contract betwixt the Soul and Christ is made in secret In that contract as in others Christ consents to receive the Soul and the Soul consenteth to receive Christ The former of these indeed is sufficiently in the general declared in the more general call and invitation of the Gospel wherein Christ calleth to all to whom the Gospel is preached to come unto him promising that he will receive them and that he will by no means cast them away yet he hath not there spoken this to any particular person by name only in general to all those who are weary and heavy laden and who come unto him and the Soul is often at a loss in determining concerning the truth of its own acts in coming to and receiving of Christ tendred in the Gospel On the other side the presumptuous man is like the foolish young man in the world that thinks that every young woman who smileth on him or speaketh kindly to him will presently take him for her Husband and concludeth good to himself from every smile of providence but to satisfy the true Christian and to convince others of their folly let every Soul know that there is no Soul can take any comfort of this nature but that Soul only that can truly say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth and certainly would men and women be true to themselves they might from hence determine their Spiritual state But yet as there is a common
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
work thou gavest me to do Christ and his Disciples have in the general one and the same work to glorifie God Though if we come to speak of the particular actions by which God is glorified by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Believer there is a great deal of difference Christ glorified his Father by performance of the acts of our Redemption according to his Fathers Will we by those good works which he hath commanded yet in the general scope viz. the glorifying of God and the more general mean by which this general End is attained viz. obedience to the Will of God they are both the same Christ glorified his Father by obedience to his Will The Child of God glorifieth God by obedience to his Will both of them glorified God by the praedication of his Name by praising him c. Christ took upon him the form of a Servant and became obedient Phil. 2. 7 8. The Child of God is by Birth a Servant and by Covenant a Servant there is that difference betwixt them but they are both Servants both obedient to the Will of God and both by that obedience serve the great End of glorifying God which justifieth the Notion though the Acts of their obedience differ according to their several spheres and stations In a great Family you know they are all fellow-servants though some of them have a more some a less noble Imployment 3. Christ is their Fellow-worker their Fellow-helper not only with reference to the Father as they both work to the same End and by the same general Means viz. obedience to the Will of God but as he worketh in them and excites their habits of grace and strengtheneth them in the exercise of them Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4. 13. Without me you can do nothing Joh. 15. 3. His Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it lifts over against them The Child of God without the presence and assistance of Christ cannot pray a prayer nor hear a Sermon nor perform any spiritual duty so as that Christ is not only to the Believer a Fellow labourer and Fellow-servant doing the same work that they do or at least having done the same work but he is their Fellow-helper as to all their own spiritual Motions and Actions 4. You in holy Scripture read of a Fellow-Prisoner Aristarchus and Epaphras are both of them called Paul's Fellow-prisoners Coloss 4. 14. You read also of a Fellow-Souldier Philip. 2. v. 25. Philemon 2. This Notion signifieth one that is a Partner and Fellow to another in Conflicts Combates c. a common Partnership in hazards and sufferings In this sense our Lord properly calleth his Spouse the Believing Soul his Fellow He fought and overcame the same Enemies with whom they daily fight The Christian hath three great Enemies the World the Flesh and the Devil It is true Christ had none of the second to incounter he was born without sin he lived without sin he had no body of death But yet he had to die for our sins all our sins were set in Battel Array against him they were those which nailed him to the Cross but he conquered and declared his Conquest by his Resurrection from the dead The World is our Enemy one of those Enemies against which we are to maintain the Spiritual Fight It was also his Enemy he fought against it and overcame it Joh. 16. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the World The Devil is another of our great Enemies against whom we are commanded to put on the whole Armour of God Christ overcame him also Heb. 2. 14 15. Through death he destroyed him who had the power of death even the Devil And the same Apostle in the same Epistle tells us that he was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour those that are tempted The Apostle mentioneth Christ in this Notion when he calleth him The Captain of our Salvation It is long since that he let his People know by his Prophet Isaiah that In all their afflictions he was afflicted He took himself concerned in the persecution of his Church and therefore calleth from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Indeed it is not easie to determine what kind of Sympathy the most perfect Nature of Christ is capable of but that he is their Fellow-sufferer the Scripture plainly determineth Thus you see that it is not in a complement that Jesus Christ speaking to his Saints speaks to them in this dialect Thou that art my Fellow But our Translation reads it O my Love and the word as I before shewed you is also so translated properly enough A Friend hath this name in the Hebrew because he is alwaies the companion and associate of his correlated Friend Hence we translate it My Loves and conformably to this our Lord speaketh Joh. 15. 14. You are my Friends if you do whatsoever I have commanded you And again v. 15. Henceforth I call you not Servants I call you Friends Let us a little inquire how Christ approveth himself a Believers Friend Friendship speaketh 4 things 1. Love 2. Free and ingenuous love 3. Mutual and reciprocal Love 4. Mutual communion and converse each with other 1. It Speaketh Love Amicus ab amando This is so obvious to every one that either understandeth any thing of the Revelation or History of holy Writ that it will need very few words to demonstrate Besides the frequent friendly compellations which Christ hath given his People whoso considereth his conjuction with his Father in the Eternal Purposes for their Salvation and all those means by which they are made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light his concern in the Eternal Covenant of Redemption and of Grace in which he became a Surety for them his taking upon him humane Nature walking up and down in our flesh Dying upon the Cross for us sinners his resurrection from the dead for their justification his ascending up into Heaven and giving Gifts unto men Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints his sending his Spirit to convince the World of sin righteousness and Judgment his daily influence upon his People strengthening quickening and comforting of them his being their advocate with the Father in case both of Sins and duties his passionate expressions while he was on the Earth for the conversion of Souls his intreating them by his Ministers as his Embassadors that they would be reconciled to God the charge that he hath given the World against offending them his declarations of his coming to judge the World to render tribulation to them that trouble them and to them Rest and Peace I say he that considereth any of these things much less all of them together must say that he loved them with an Everlasting unchangeable Love alone suted to all the necessities of his poor Creatures and that he hath willed them good sutable to all
guilt of sin and cries out if I pine away in my iniquities how can I then live And faints at the apprehension of the wrath of God due to it for every single sin and much more for the numberless number of the sins which it hath committed It smells that of the Prophet Isa Ch. 53. v. 5 6. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities the Chastisement of our peace lay upon him and with his stripes we are healed v. 10. His Soul was made an offering for sin Or that of the Apostle Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us and this refresheth it I have deserved to dye saith the Soul but Christ hath died for me I have deserved to tread the wine press of my Fathers wrath but he hath trode the winepress of his Fathers wrath alone I was born a slave to lusts and corruptions but Christ by dying hath made me free Ah! what a bundle of Myrrh is a crucified Christ to the Soul Hence it smells Spiritual life even from his death for we have Remission of sins through his blood It smells Spiritual peace Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that died Ro. 8. 38. It smells an access unto God The holy of holies being Sprinkled with his blood and Heaven itself by it Sanctified and made accessible It smells Spiritual liberty For the blood of Christ saith the Apostle purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God It smells Spiritual strength For through the cross of Christ saith the Apostle my heart is crucified to the World Thus you see that in this action or suffering rather Christ is to the Soul a bundle of Myrrh 4. Look upon Christ as rising up from the dead He is a bundle of Myrrh there too the Soul from hence again smells Spiritual life Rom. 4. 25. He rose again for our justification Spiritual peace Rom. 8. 38. It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Spiritual strength and quickening Rom. 6. 4. 5. We shall rise with him to newness of life Col. 3. 1. If you be risen with Christ seek the things that are above It smells life from the dead This the Apostle proves 1 Cor. 15 Rom. 8. 11. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies Nay it smells Eternal life from hence Joh. 14. 19. Because I live you shall live also 5. Look upon Christ as the men of Galilee Acts 1. 11. Ascending up to Heaven Thus he is also a bundle of Myrrh he lives and from hence Job smelt that he should see him with his Eyes the Angels that stood to wait upon his ascension told the men of Galilee so much that as they had seen him ascend so they should see him coming again Hence the believing Soul smells that he shall ascend too for where Christ is there he must be The body is there the Eagles shall flee to it one day He is lifted up and every believer shall be drawn after him Our flesh and blood shall inherit the Kingdom of God For 't is in part there already Heaven is the place whither our forerunner is entred Heaven was an open City before the fall Adam and all his Posterity might have entred presently upon the fall it's gates were lockt up the flaming sword of divine Vengeance kept it but the Captain of our Salvation hath now entred and he keeps the gates from shutting any more till every believer be come In 6. Look upon Christ as sitting one the right hand of the Majesty on high So he is a bundle of Myrrh too Is it so saith the Soul Then he hath favour with God and power with God and what need I any more then for my God my Saviour he in whom I have believed to be in favour with the King of Kings and to have power with the Almighty Nay saith the Soul then I am half in Heaven For Eph. 2. 6. We sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Christ and I are one if he sits there I sit there too For he is flesh of my flesh 7. Lastly look upon Christ as interceding for us Rom. 8. Heb. 7. He is not there Idle his work is to plead for us to sollicit our business to act our part to do our work And thus he is a bundle of Myrrh to every believing Soul When the poor Soul sinks in the thoughts of its sins renewing after justification Christ is a bundle of Myrrh to it 1 Joh. 2 1. If we sin we have an advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous When the Soul again sinks at the thoughts of its imperfect duties to think that it cannot do a duty but with so many faults that it may fear the wrath of God for it What a bundle of Myrrh it is to the Soul to think well Christ is in Heaven and he will pick out every fault out of this Prayer this duty c. And so present it in the golden censer Incensed with his merits Thus now I have shewed you how Christ is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh Considered as to his actions as our Redeemer It remains further to shew you that he is so also as to his Spiritual influeuces And Lastly in his Gospel institutions and Ordinances And then I shall come to the Application Sermon LIV. Canticles 1. 13. A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved unto me he shall lie all night betwixt my Breasts I Proceed in opening the bundle or bag or box of Myrrh which makes my Text give a fragrant smell I have shewed that it is Christ who is thus resembled and have propounded to shew you the aptness of the comparison in five things I am yet upon the 4th He is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh for sweetness I proposed to open this in three particulars shewing you that Christ is so 1. In his mediatory actions 2. In his Spiritual influences 3. In his Gospel Institutions and Ordinances I have done with the first and now proceed to the second To shew you the sweetness of Christ to the believing Soul 2. In his Spiritual influences When he ascended upon high saith the Apostle Eph. 4. he gave gifts unto men he gave gifts to his Church his Ordinances Of those the Apostle speaks but he gives other gifts likewise gifts even to the Rebellious Psal 68. All these are summed up under one head The gift of the Spirit This is that which he calls the promise of the Father He was the promise of the Father of old Ezek. 36. 27. It was his promise John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comforter and he shall abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth He is sent in Christs name 26. v. he is called the Spirit of Christ hence the
Christ having both a fellowship with the death of Christ in dying to sin and with the life of Christ in living unto newness of life Upon these accounts and these only is the Believing Soul fair in the Eyes of Christ Before I part with this Observation Let every gracious Soul make a stand upon it and consider what it affords him for Consolation while he looks over his Soul and sees it full of spots and taking a review of his life he can find no ground of hope to his Soul that Christ should cast an Eye of love and pity upon him he sees there 's no proportion between his duties or any actions of his conversation and the holy Law of God Well yet the comfort lies here that the Lord hath not said Blessed is the man that hath no sin for who liveth and sinneth not against God but Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered and to whom the Lord imputeth no sin Psal 32. 1. If we once lose this great Truth of the Justification of a poor Soul by the Righteousness of Christ we have cut up a Bridge which we shall see a need of to go over as often as we enter into any serious thoughts of our own state the weight of all our Souls and all the comfort of them hangs upon this one pin That what the law could not do because it was weak through our flesh that God hath done sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for fin condemning fin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us We have lost all that day that we forsake that desire of St. Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the law but that which is of God Even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ But you will say How shall we know that Christ hath thus loved us That must be known by our loving him and so the matter will return to the same point We freely grant that our Justification is to be evidenced for our Sanctification and that even the witness of Gods Spirit is not a single but a joint Testimony together with our Spirits But yet there is a great difference as to Christians comfort in these things That Soul that looks to be made fair with his own works if he rightly understand himself shall never be Satisfied concerning his Spiritual beauty because his works must necessarily be compleatly perfect otherwise the law accuseth and curseth him But he who acknowledgeth that his beauty is meerly from grace freely justifying but yet his receiving of this grace is to be evidenced by his works stands concerned no further to enquire concerning the perfection of his works in order to this end then only to see if they be perfect according to Gospel allowances not according to lawstrictness And such are the Gospel terms that if there be a willing mind a presence to will a delight in the Law of God as to the inward man it is accepted of God Here 's a bottom for him I proceed to the 4th Circumstance which I observed relating to the first Proposition of the Text and that was the term Behold which is prefixed Behold thou art fair and doubled Behold Behold There is a threefold use of this particle in Scripture it denotes 1. presence of a thing 2. Certainty 3. Eminency It may in this Text denote all three 1. It may denote the present state of a believing Soul to be a beautiful state Behold thou art fair now in this life while thou art black with infirmities and corruptions black through afflictions and temptations yet even now thou art fair 1 Joh 3. 2. Beloved Now we are the Sons of God It doth not yet appear what we shall be This particle is often thus used in holy Writ Gen. 29. 2 25. and it is capable enough of this sense in this Text. Behold thou art fair thou shalt not only be hereafter beautiful when the Crown of glory shall be set upon thy head but thou art now beautiful thou doest not apprehend thy self so thou art bewailing thy spots and thy infirmities but I look upon thee as fair with all thy spots I look upon thee as beautiful even now 2. It denotes the certainty of a thing Behold is a particle of Demonstration and is often so used in Scripture There is nothing more certain then what we can behold Thus the particle is used Gen. 16. 2. Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing they are the words of Sarah that is the Lord hath certainly restrained me see Gen. 18. 27. The believing Soul is certainly a beauteous Soul The Beauty of that Soul which truly believes in Jesus Christ is not an imaginary thing it is a true and real thing it is a certainty's Behold thou art fair c. 3. Lastly this particle Behold doth very often denote eminency and excellency When something is wonderful in Nature or otherwise the Scripture useth to make mention of it by prefixing this particle Behold to it So James 3. 3 4. It is a wonderful thing that the strength of an Horse should be ruled by a bit and that so great a bulk as a ship driven about with fierce winds should be turned about with a very small helm and thus it is a very often used in Scripture and it may have that use here Behold thou art fair My Love Behold thou art fair and so it may hint to us these two things 1. That the beauty of a believer is no ordinary beauty but a rare and eminent beauty not like the beauty of Woman not like that vain thing which we call beauty in a natural fense which is only the object of the lust of the Eye no it is a Spiritual beauty which age will not deface diseases will not spoil no outward accidents will hurt a beauty that is not exposed to wind and weather The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and yet so great is her glory that the King of Kings desires her beauty Or secondly it may denote this 2. That it is a wonderful thing that Christ should account a Child of Adam a poor believing Soul beauteous When David considered the Heavens and the Earth he cries out What is man O Lord that thou shouldest remember him or the Son of man that thou shouldest be mindful of him It is a matter of high admiration to any ingenuous Soul to sit down and think that Jesus Christ should account it beautiful But I hasten to the last Circumstance I observed to you that the phrase is doubled Christ doth not only say thou art fair my Love but he doubles the phrase Thou art fair thou art fair There is doubtless nothing superfluous in holy Writ though possibly there may be something both in the matter and stile of which we can give no Satisfactory account almost in all languages these repetitions and