condescension beyond the grasp of our faith The greatness of it causeth in us a difficulty to believe it Who is a God like our God a Saviour a Redeemer an Husband like our Saviour our Redeemer our Spiritual Husband When they told David that he should have Michal the Daughter of Saul to Wife and persuaded him to it Seemeth it to you saith he a small thing to be a Son-in-law to a King If there be any of you not affected with this Love this transcendent Love give me leave to speak to you in the language of David Seemeth it to you a small thing to be the beloved the friends the companions of the Lord Jesus Christ Ah! That I could send you away this day admiring the divine Love that he should take the fellowship of our nature upon him that he should make us his fellow Citizens admit us to a fellowship with him both in grace here and in glory hereafter that he should be our Companion in tribulation our Companion in labour and follow Soldier But I leave this to be further improved by you in your more private meditations 2. Secondly This notion is of wonderful use to relieve and comfort the People of God under all their present afflictions or fears of greater The face of things as to Gods People hath been a long time gathering blackness and there is this day a great blackness Prisons in the Primitive times were more the habitations of Gods People then Palaces God grant we may not see them to be so again we have been so used to beds of Feathers Down that the thoughts of a bed of straw make us shrink so wedded to our own Country that a strange land appeareth to us a strange thing The Providence of God looketh as if it were preparing Prisons and Fetters and banishments for his People and the hearts of Gods People are every where as sad as the times What a wonderful comfort and relief to the People of God at such a time is it for them to hear the Lord Jesus Christ calling them his Companions His Companions in tribulation and to call himself their fellow Souldier and fellow Prisoner There are a great many arguments with which the suffering Servants of God may be relieved Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer said the Angel to the Church at Smyrna Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison that you may be tryed and you shall have tribulation that you might be tryed and you shall have tribulation for ten days Rev. 2. 10. There are several arguments 1. It is the Devil that cast Saints into Prison He doth it by men as his instruments but he filleth them with their rage and malice 2. It is that they may be tryed God permits it the Devil could have no power against a believer more then against Christ if God did not permit it The Devil and his instruments design is to ruin and to destroy them Gods end is to try them 3. It shall be but a tribulation for ten days a short time The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous Well but how shall they hold out these ten days See Isaiah 43. 1 2. Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have Redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee When thou walkest through the fires thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee In the ten days of tribulation the Child of God shall not be alone he that Redeemed them will be with them This was made good to the three Children in the fiery fornace in Babylon Dan. 3. 24. Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire saith Nebuchadnezzar lo I see four men loose walking in the middest of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God He was with Daniel Daniel 9. 22. With Paul and Silâ—s Acts. 16. They could never else have sang in the Prison at midnight Let the People of God lift up their heads as Moses seeing him who is invisible Only take the caution of Peter 1. Pet 4. Let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief or as an Evil doer or as a busy body in other mens matters But if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God one this behalf Let men look that they suffer for righteousness sake that is to avoid sinning against God all such suffering is for righteousness sake then they shall never be alone Saul Saul why saith Christ persecutest thou me calling out of Heaven to Paul when he was in his full carreer of persecution of the Church No man can expect that Christ should be a companion to him in his tribulation while he suffereth meetly for his stomach or out of humour much less if he suffereth for doing that which is plainly sinful and which he ought not to have done but if he suffereth to avoid sin against God to keep himself unspotted from the World as he is made a partaker of Christs sufferings so Christ will be a partaker of his sufferings his Companion in suffering and whensoever Christs glory shall be revealed he shall be glad with exceeding joy It is a marvelous sweet notion to suffering Christians to hear that Jesus Christ is and will be their Companion in sufferings fear not therefore Christians in despight of evil men and evil times to keep a good Conscience but Jam. 1. 2. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations A good Conscience was yet never in Prison alone Nor will this be strange to us if we consider that even death it self though it makes Soul and Body part Company yet it doth not make Christ and a believer part Company Our Bodies shall be raised from the Grave by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us Rom. 8. 11. There are two great arguments amongst others to comfort the People of God in all their noons of Afflictions 1. That even then they are Christs fellows They then are in the fellowship of his death Phil. 4. 10 11. They suffer with him Rom. 8. 17. They are made conformable to his death Christ is magnified in their body They make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ 2. That Christ will then be their fellow it is to the Spouse at Noon that he saith here O My Love My Fellow c. When the World is spitting their Venom shewing their utmost Malice and hatred even then Christ is calling to them and saying My Love When the World is casting them out as Pestilent fellows then is Christ saying unto them My Companions Then will he be with them and manifest himself as a friendly Companion to them In
not be to her a meer sound much less the savour of death unto death but the savour of life unto life Prop. The great desire of a gracious Soul is after an inward spiritual Communion with Christ in his Word ȧnd Ordinances This is a Point not so well generally understood by the croud of Professors suffer me therefore to spend a few words in the Explication of it All Communion importeth mutual and reciprocal Communication It is an action wherein two Persons do communicate themselves each to other Communion with God implieth God's communication of himself to his creature and the creature's communication of it self unto God To restrain my discourse to the present Subject I am about There is a more external Communion we have with God with reference to his Word in the reading it or hearing it read or Preacht or meditating in it God then communicates his Will to us by the help of Letters Words and Syllables by which we understand things or by the voice of his Ministers sent in his Name to open his mind and will unto us and we communicate with God giving him the homage of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and imaginations this I call a more external Communion And there is a more spiritual internal Communion which a Soul hath with God in it I call it a Communion because God in it doth communicate himself to the Soul and the Soul communicateth it self to God God speaketh by his Word to the heart and the heart receiveth the Divine Impressions and surrendreth up it self to the Will of God In the other there is no more than a communication of the Divine Will on God's part nor any more than the homage of our exterior senses our faculty of reading and hearing the service of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and power of Imagination and of our understanding receiving the notions of Truth In this Communion with God in his Word there is not only on God's part a communication of God's Will but also of God's Power by which the Soul is 1. Irradiated as to the understanding inabled to see things in another light more fully and clearly 2. Subdued as to the Will so as the man is made willing and obedient to the heavenly Revelation transformed into the likeness of the Word so convinced of the truth of it that it can no longer withstand it whether it be a word of Instruction which is the Object of our Faith or a word of Reproof for conviction of Sin or a word of Consolation for refreshing the Soul the Soul can no longer deny or dispute or doubt of the Proposition no longer stand out against the Precept no longer refuse to be comforted The Word of the Lord comes here to the inward part of the Soul 2. There is a further Communication on man's part of himself to God In the former Communion he only lends God his Eye to read his Will his Ear to hear it his imaginative power to think upon it his Passive Intellect or Power to receive Notions of Truth Here he communicates his whole Soul to God his Will and Affections his whole Man It is true here God speaks first we do only velle quum volumus agere quum agimur as Augustine expresseth it that is we only will when we are made willing and act when we are first moved and acted There are some who are great Patrons for the Power of Man's Will as to things spiritual that would elude those Texts about the Teachings of the Spirit and the Teachings of the Anointing spoken of by St. John by asserting That there is such a constant concomitancy of the holy Spirit with the Preaching of the Gospel that whosoever will may be willing and obedient and believe and repent and be obedient I should hearken much to this Notion if the Authors of it could give me a good account how it is then that of two persons hearing the same Sermon and sitting under the same ministration of the Spirit one man only hears it thinks upon it a little and receiveth some notions of it to fit his Tongue with discourse another hath his heart changed by it and transformed into the Image of God and wholly changed as to his Will and Affections and his whole Conversation That it is so is demonstrably true I would know whence it is unless they will make man a God unto himself that is the first cause of truly good and spiritual motions Now this internal Communion with God in his Word which in Scripture is called the Teaching of the Spirit and the Teaching of the Anointing being such as few are acquainted with is little known in the world and therefore some count it Canting and so unwarily blaspheme the Teacher and cannot understand any thing else by it than Ministerial Teaching Others again can understand no Teaching of the Spirit in and by Ordinances but dream that Souls under the Teachings of the Spirit must live above Duties and Ordinances and so turn it into meer Enthusiasm immediate impressions which they pretend to from the holy Spirit of God It may be therefore worth our while to understand it a little You read of it prophesied of old Isa 54. 17. That the Children of the Church should be all taught of the Lord. You read in the New Testament of words which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2. 14. Yea it teacheth us not words only but things 1 John 2. 27. But the Anointing which you have received in him abideth in you and you need not that any man should teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lye Yea it was Christ's own Promise Joh. 14. 26. But the Comforter which the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance whatsoever you have heard from me So as that there is a Teaching of the Spirit is out of all doubt The only Questions are 1. Whether this be concomitant with Ministerial Teachings and superadded to them which we maintain against those who are for immediate Teachings in raptures and by immediate impressions or a thing separate from them and to which Ministerial Teachings are rather hinderances than any furtherance which is what we deny For though we limit not the Holy One of Israel but say that as he did of Old thus teach his Prophets and Apostles so he may by more immediate Impressions and Revelations teach his People still what they are to do or to avoid Yet we say that the Book of Scripture being finished and sealed no such Revelations are by any to be expected and if any man think he hath any such Impressions Revelations or extraordinary Teachings they must be proved by the Word with which if they do not agree they proceed not from the holy Spirit of God neither have they any Light in them Secondly 2. Whether the Teachings of the Spirit be any thing more than Ministerial Teachings in
us to be reconciled unto God If the Lord had only sent to us to give us warning of a wrath to come and timely notice to flee from it leaving us meerly to our own wills whether we would hear or forbear accept or refuse This had been love above the usual mercy of men who do not usually spend much time in treating and intreating those enemies whom they can easily crush and tread under foot Yet had God done no more for our Souls though in this he had shewed great love yet we through the natural stubborness and perverseness of our hearts had been undone for ever How many are in a high Road to ruine and eternal destruction whom God hath been thus intreating and beseeching many years 2. But now that the Lord should not only do this but put forth an act of power though not saving them against their wills yet making them willing to be saved and in order to it not verbally but really willing to receive Christ as tendred to them in the Gospel so as not only to be saved by him but to submit to those Laws and Rules in the observance of which they shall obtain Salvation and not only so but that God should assist the Soul in the performance of these acts not only giving it to will but to do also This certainly must transcendently commend the love and goodness of God to those Souls that have experienced such grace That God doth not so much for all speaks indeed severity to them but that he doth it for any speaks his unspeakable goodness and good will to their Souls I say that he doth not this for all speaks to them severity but yet justice and that not only in regard of that stock of sufficient grace wherewith our Pro-parent was intrusted which being lost God is under no obligation to restore but also in regard that God never denieth his special Grace until the Soul hath abused his common Grace 3. Nay lastly That the Lord should take care of our Souls after that we are once brought to Christ that he should put his fear into our hearts to keep us from departing from him and never depart from us to do us good that drawing Grace should follow us all the days of our life This certainly is the heighth of Divine Love more than this God could not have done for any Soul those for whom he hath done this must be highly beloved What now is left for such a Soul to do but to strive after perfection to live in a constant eying this All-sufficient God this Fountain of all Fulness and living in dependance upon him To live in a continual thanksgiving to and love for that God who hath dealt thus graciously with it and in a daily care not to grieve that holy Spirit by which it was first drawn to Christ and by which it is sealed to the day of Redemption and guided and kept that it doth not slip fatally O love you the Lord all ye his Saints Let drawing Grace find no renitency no resistance from any of your Souls God hath done for you more than others what will you do for God nay what can you do for that God who hath not only called but pluckt you out of the horrible Pit Take the Cup of Salvation and be for ever praising the Lord. Again we may from hence learn though not the proximate yet a true and remoter cause why the Gospel is preached to many so ineffectually Our Saviour tells us Many are called but few are chosen Isaiah cried out Who hath believed our report to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed Paul in his Preaching was to some the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death When Christ himself Preached some believed others were hardened Whence so great a difference when the Word was the same the Preachers the same both to those that believed to those who were hardened They had all reasonable Souls those Souls had all the same powers the same faculties I mean powers and faculties that had the same virtues We see the same in the experience of every day Indeed there may be some Preaching that may bear no better proportion to the instruction of the ignorant or the conviction of a sinner and turning him from his sinful courses than the Clay and Spittle had to cure the blind man's eyes from which no such effect could have flowed but by a miracle but where there is the same Scriptural spiritual lively powerful Preaching we see this effect Two sit in the same seat one's heart is changed the other 's is not one goes on in his leud courses and perisheth for ever the other is converted his heart changed whence is this difference Is it from him that willeth or him that runneth think you or from him that calleth from him that sheweth mercy because and on whom he will shew mercy We will grant that the one doth not make that use of God's common Grace which he might and therefore the Lord righteously with-holds his special Grace But could not the Lord if he pleased influence the one Soul as well as the other to make a good use of his common Grace Hath God think we no influence upon men inclining their hearts to make a due use of his common Grace When men have said what they can the conversion of every Soul is the effect of the Lord 's drawing and when the Lord doth not draw the Soul doth not cannot come or run The natural man hath many things which draw him another way and God is not pleased to put forth his power upon the Soul Indeed properly nothing but our own lusts draw us another way but our natural passions are inflamed several waies You have an instance of the principal of them in the Parable of the Marriage-Feast which the King made for his Son recorded by Luke c. 14. 18 19 20. Matth. 22. v. 5 c. A certain great man Matthew calls him a King made a great Supper Matthew calls it a Marriage for his Son he bade many saith Luke he sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding saith Matthew They would not come saith Matthew They all with one consent began saith Luke to make excuse They were invited by potent Arguments I have prepared my Dinner my Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready come you to the Marriage Matth. 22. 4. In general it is said They would not come they made light of it they made excuse What drew them another way Lu. 14. 18. The first said I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it I pray thee have me excused And another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them And another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come who is this King Even the King of Kings the Lord of Lords who is his Son but the Lord
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
Confession of our sins one to another called for Jam. 5. 16 17. is one of those holy things which must not be cast before Dogs one of those Pearls which must not be thrown before Swine Thus you shall observe in St. Paul that in that part of his Epistles where he writeth with reference to the Saints he openeth himself and layeth himself naked but where he speaketh of himself with relation to the false Apostles there he magnifieth his Office 4. A fourth case is where a Child of God can probably judge that by his confession of his sin and owning of his blackness before men he may be advantaged by their counsels or by their prayers There are two ways by which a Christian may be advantaged by the confession of his sins unto men 1. With respect to the obtaining of his pardon 2. With respect to his peace or the obtaining a sense of his pardon 1. I say with respect to his obtaining pardon Not that it is in the power of man to pardon sin he only can discharge a debt to whom it is owing Sin is a debt to the justice of God and who but God can remit this debt It is not in the power of Pope or Priest or Minister to pardon sins or grant absolution to any but declaratively he can indeed declare the will of God to pardon the sins of those that truly repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but that is all the Minister can do in the remission of sin the Act is Gods the Ministers absolution is valid or invalid as the Person doth or doth not truly repent and truly believe But yet I say the confession of sins not only to Ministers but to private Christians may be of great use and effect in order to the obtaining of our pardon by vertue of that promise 1 Joh. 5. 16. If a man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and give him life who hath not sinned unto death Now unless we know that our Brother hath sinned how shall we ask for him and unless we have seen him how shall we know it without his own confession of it us 2. But secondly It must also be of great advantage to us with respect to our peace or sense of pardon and that is not only as the other by obtaining their prayers for us but also by obtaining their advice and counsel thus oft-times a Christians owning and confessing some particular sins either to a judicious and faithful Minister or to some judicious and well experienced Christians proveth a great ease and relief to his mind by their speaking of some word in season or by some seasonable advice and counsel Now in such a case as this a Christian may be under the same obligation to confess his sins unto men that every one is to do what is of most proper Spiritual advantage to his Soul 3. Lastly There are some cases wherein a Child of God will own his blackness even bâ—fore the world 1 When he cannot conceal it without denying the truth A Christian is not bound to proclaim his Sin to the men of the world when it may tend to the reproach and blaspheming of the name of God but if the case be so that he hath failed in their sight and they come to the knowledge of it and charge him with it they must not tell a lie to cover their own shame When Tamar Gen. 38. 25. sent to her Father in law the Signet and Bracelets and Staff with that message By the man whose these are I am with Child Discern I pray thee whose are thâ—se Judah acknowledged them and said she hath been more righteous than I. 2. When the sin is known and is an eminent injury to our Neighbour In case of all injuries to men which are capable of reparation and satisfaction satisfaction is necessary in order to Gods pardon if we be able to make it but not confession in all cases As now suppose a Servant hath stolen from his Master during his service with him and his Master be one that is an Enemy to Religion and Godliness afterwards God changeth this Servants heart he is certainly bound to his ability to make his Master reparation full satisfaction but I do not know that he is bound to come to confess it unto him who probably would make no other use of it then to reproach and blaspheme the name of God and that way and course of Religion in which he is ingaged But in case the thing be known then confession even to man may be our duty to take shame to our own Souls and give glory unto God 3. Lastly a Child of God will confess his sin even before Men of the World where he sees a probable opportunity to do other sinners good by it And this most commonly happeneth when men have been companions in sin one to and with another When men have been companions one to another in Drunkenness These Sabbath-breaking or any other course of sinning A good man may sometimes probably judge that his owniâ—g and confessing with tears to his old Companions his fellowship with them in sinning may probably invite them to a fellowship with him in a consideration of his or their ways in a sense of and godly sorrow for their sins and if he hath any such hopes any such prospect he will confess his blackness even to them Thus I find some Divines interpreting that Jam. 5. 15. Confess your sins one to another That those who have been colleagues and companions in sin one to another should confess and bewail their sins each to other tho I must confess I rather think that Text is to be understood of intimate serious Christians confessing their sins freely one to another in order to the obtaining of the benefit of each others prayers because of what follows And pray one for another These now are those cases and times in and under which the Spouse of Christ will confess and acknowledge that she is black black through the prevailings of sin and corruption Of this Confession of sins we have plentiful instances in Scripture both of such as were more publick and such as were more pâ—ivate it is brought as one argument to prove the Holy Scriptures to be no humane Writings but the Word of God and that holy men wrote as they were inspired by God that they have published their own failings and made their own sins to stand upon Record to Posterity which is not the way of ordinary Writers who commonly write for their own honour and praise Besides the Scripture instances we have it in the daily practice of Gods people not only in their dayly prayers they put up to Almighty God but in their more private converses with Ministers and with fellow Christians which are very full of these confessions and abasements of themselves This freedom of Gods People in owning and acknowledging their blackness proceedeth from several causes 1. The Souls
the faileurs of some sincerer 〈◊〉 of God 〈◊〉 too far to the corruptions of others too many instances of which we have had The opposition which Christians have met with having been a continual dropping upon them and overpowered them to do many things against the dictates of their own consciences thus losing their beauty it is no great wonder if they appear black Indeed from hence almost are all those things which render Christians and Churches black I now come to the application Let not then Christians think it strange if their habits of grace find opposition from within and the actings of their grace meet with opposition from without There is no Child of God but findeth upon experience that his Mothers Children are angry with him his flesh is many times lusting against the Spirit and he findeth a War in his Members As Rebekah was troubled because she found Twins strugling together in her Womb so is many a good Christian when as indeed there is no greater note of Grace then this Combate of the Flesh and the Spirit if thou hadst not two parties within there would be none of these conflicts the unregenerate man hath nothing of them he hath motions to sin but no contrary habits to oppose no lustings of the Spirit against the Flesh such a man may indeed from natural light and the obligation under which the law of nature layeth him sometimes resist motions to more gross and flagitious sins but this combate is rare and in very rare cases and those such where the law of nature is offended or his honour and reputation and profit and advantage is concerned as to his avoiding of them nor is the Battel ever very hot The true Christian hath a double principle the one natural this inclineth and moveth him to sin the other supernatural and infused Both these principles are active and operative and these spiritual conflicts must be expected the discovery of the truth of Grace in thy Soul doth much depend upon thy behaviour in the Spiritual Fight and thy managery of it if thou findest this conflict if thou maintainest it with thy might if thou criest unto God for help and strength if ordinarily thou beest a conquerour Thy opposition is so far from being an evidence against thee that it is a great evidence for thee Nor let good Christians wonder if the exercise of their grace meets with opposition from without and that from their Mothers Children too As there are two parties in every gracious heart so there are and ever were two Parties in the Church of God There were some and those the greater number on whose behalf Paul saith he could wish himself accursed from Christ they were his Brethren and not only his Kinsmen according to the Flesh but Israelites to whom belonged the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the promises yet Rom. 9. 6. they were not Israel though they were of Israel neither were they all Children because they were the Seed of Abraham v. 8. They which are the Children of the flesh are not the Children of the promise God in one place promiseth to make his Seed as the Stars of Heaven Gen 22. 17. in another place Gen. 13. 16. As the Dust of the Earth He had a Starry Seed these were a great number for he was the Father of the Faithful the Father of Believers the Father of all Holy Men that do the works of Abraham He had also a dusty Seed this was greater thus it is said he should be the Father of many Nations and he was the Father of the whole Jewish Nation the oâ—â—y visible Church God had for many years upon the Earth but these saith the Apostle are not all Children T is the same case with the Church under the New Testament it is made up partly of presumptive equivocal Members partly of real univocal Members such as glory not in appearance only but in reality that are not as Jews only outwardly nor of that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but they are Jews inwardly Christians indeed and that circumcision which is of the heart in the Spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of Men but of God There is a Baptism in the name of Christ and a Baptism into Christ a Baptism with Water and a Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with Fire all that are Baptized with a Ministerial Baptism with Water are not Baptized with the Spiritual Baptism of Regeneration These two parties in the Church never did never will agree there is in them a different Seed they are acted from different principles and they act to quite different ends Let not therefore good Christians wonder and think it strange if they find still that their Mothers Children are angry with them it is no more then ever was the lot of the true Spouse of Christ and will be her lot until Christ shall come and with his Fan throughly purge his floor Nor do you wonder if these things make you appear b ack The Papists think they make us appear very black when they can tell us of Errors and Heresies Factions Divisions and Schisms amongst us and indeed it is a reproach to us they are spots and blemishes in the Assemblies of Protestants But 1. Are they then so well agreed amongst themselves what mean then the differences betwixt their Dominicans and Franciscans to say nothing of their other Orders What means their Secular Priests and Jesuits so bespattering one another in their Books Though it is very probable that if Protestants could dispense with their consciences to with-hold from the People the sight and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures the rule both of their faith and life so as they know no more to differ about then their Priests tell them or to set up a Judge of all controversies that should be infallible and from whose decrees none must vary And finally to set up an Inquisition to force all mens Obedience to the decrees of that infallible Judge under pain of death I say could Protestants in these things dispense with their consciences to take such methods for unity they might probably arrive at as great if not a greater unity then they can glory in who have been so far from it that themselves reckon 30 or 32 Schisms and those of that nature as according to their principles destroy all unity for so many times some of which lasted a great many years too they have been at a loss for to find the true visible head of the Church We know that the Apostolical and purest Churches that ever Christ had upon the Earth had some that were indeed Mothers Children Members of the visible Church but no Children of our Heavenly Father and that these have constantly been angry with and given opposition to those that have been the true and sincere Members of the Church and have brought in Errors and caused Schisms and
footsteps of the flock 2. Feed thy Kids by the Shepherds Tents O thou whom my Soul loveth or hath loved The Chaldee Paraphrast would have us believe that this seventh verse was Moses his Petition to God when he was about to die for direction from him how the People should be governed when he should be gone and how they should dwell amongst the Heathen whose laws would be more grievous to the sincere part of them then the Sun is to the Traveller at noon day and asking why she should live amongst the Edomites and Moabites who made Idols the companions of the true God and v. 8. the same Paraphrast makes this to be the Lords answer telling his Prophet Moses that if they would not live under the power of the Heathen they must walk in his Commandments and be obedient to the guides he had set over them But doubtless this is a strained sense proceeding from the overgreat fondness of that Interpreter to apply all that is said in this Song to the Jewish Church There are others who according to their different notions of these betwixt whom this Dialogue is instituted carry these words in other senses you know the sense which I have all along followed is that of those and they are the most and the best who make it a Dialogue betwixt the believing Soul or the Church and the Lord Jesus Christ It is then the believing Soul that speaks in this language of a lover O thou whom my Soul loveth Christ is the primary object of the believers love a believer loveth him and none else in a degree to be compared with him or with a love any thing like that love wherewith she loveth him But if she loveth him must she tell him so Modesty maketh the Virgin ordinarily to conceal her passion sinful modesty oft-times maketh her that is a spiritual Virgin to conceal her love to Christ She that may while she is doubting her own sincerity conceal her love to Christ will not conceal it when she lives in any view of it and can say with Peter Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that I love thee Nor when she is to use it as an argument to obtain any favour from him Nor when she is doubting of his love to her how unreasonably soever Nor is the Virgin that is too modest to publish her love to the world so modest as not to own it to him whom she hath resolved upon and chosen for her Husband Bernard hath I think too critical a note upon these words mark saith he she doth not say whom I love but whom my Soul loveth Spiritualem designans dilectionem intimating a spiritual love But yet it is well noted by the learned Mercer that the phrase signifieth more then if she had said Omy Beloved it is as much as if she had said In quem omnes meos affectus effudi saith Beza upon whom I have bestowed my whole heart Tell me where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at Noon Thus she expresseth the thing that she would have under a metaphorical expression the sense of which we are to enquire keeping of Sheep and Goats was a very ancient and in those times a noble employment Abel was the first Shepheard you read of Gen. 4. 2. Rachel was a keeper of Sheep Gen. 29. 6. So was Jacob and David as you know before he came to be King over Israel God called him from the Sheepfold Christ takes unto himself the notion of a Shepheard he calleth himself the good Shepheard John 10. 1 2. c. It was prophecied of him that he should feed his flock like a Shepheard Isaiah 45. 11. and his death was prophecied of under the notion of smiting the Shepheard Zech. 13. 7. Mat. 26. 11. The Apostle calls him the great Shepheard and the chief Shepheard In this dialect here the Spouse speaks to him It was not unusual for the Heathens to discourse matters of carnal and sensual love as transactions between Shepheards and some whom they loved The Holy Ghost doth the same here he by Solomon discourseth this matter of Spiritual and Divine love as a transaction betwixt a Shepheard and one who dearly loved him But what would she have she would know where he fed that is where he fed his flocks where he made them to rest at noon the noon as you know is the hottest time of the day and so by the noon I find some understanding a time of affliction To this I find Mercer and Beza inclining Beza thinketh that the Church here beggeth to know how Christ would have his Church governed and ordered in the middest of temptations and persecutions and beggeth for Christs fullest and clearest manifestations of himself to her at such a time so saith Bernard Mercer thinks it is as much as if she had said Lord I am burnt with the Sun shew me that shadow in and with which thou usest to refresh thy Saints in the hour of affliction There is a promise made to the Church Isaiah 49. 10. They shall not hanger nor thirst neither shall the heat or the Sun smite them for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of waters shall he guide them Now the Spouse here in the opinion of these Interpreters begs to know these shadows where the flocks rested at noon I must confess I more incline to another sense The noon was the hottest time of the day and as in our Country where the power of the Sun is nothing so much as in those hot Countries Cattel seek shadows and resting places where they are a little free from the heat of the weather so they were wont to drive their flocks of Sheep into such shadowy places where both the Shepheard and the Sheep were more quiet and at rest which time was the most free time of the day for the Shepheard when any might more freely discourse him according to that of the Poet Fauste precor gelidâ quando pecus omne sub umbrâ ruminet antiquos paulum recitemus amores So that the Spouse desireth to know where he fed where he made his flocks to rest at noon That is where she might have the most free and uninterrupted communion with him For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions She here implieth that without her Lords direction she was like enough to turn aside She beggeth she might not so turn aside The word in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate it as one turning aside or that turneth aside and so Pagnine interpreteth it Arias Montanus translates it sicut operiens se as one that covereth her self and indeed so the Hebrew word most commonly signifieth Now this covering themselves was either in token of shame or of sorrow or modesty Mourners were wont to cover their faces Ezech. 24. 17. Forbear to cry make no mourning for the dead bind the tire of thy head upon thee and
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
green pastures for his flock in the day time and a secure fold for them at night yea and a fitting shadow for them at noon Christ doth so for his little flock to whom it 's his his Fathers and his will to give a Kingdom There shall be no want of those that fear him In the day time of their lives he feeds and protects them by his providence he nourisheth them by his ordinances and daily influences of grace In the night of death he folds their Bodies in the grave their Souls in Abrahams bosom It is the work of a Shepherd to provide and look out pasture for his sheep when that ordinary pasture is burnt up like a wilderness It is our great Shepherds work to provide feeding and resting places when either publick trials afflictions and persecutions debar them of their ordinary subsistence upon common providence or ordinary and more publick dispensations of publick ordinances and institutions the common food of their Souls But you will say to me what are these shadows from the heat these feeding and resting places which Christ hath provided wherein to feed and rest his flock at such a Noon 1. First he feedeth them upon the promises either more general or more specially suited to their particular trials Jeremiah saith Jer. 15. 16. I found thy words and did eat them and they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart Jeremy possibly there speaketh of the word of Prophecy which was as welcome to him as his meat But what was the word of Prophecy but the revelation of the will of God to him which when it was foretelling some judgment to come upon the People is more ordinarily called The Burden of the Lord The Believing Soul also in the Noon time of his Affliction and tryal finds the word of the Lord this he digesteth by faith and they become the joy and rejoycing of his heart By these things men live said Hezekiah some understand his affliction Others the promises of God made to him in the day of his Affliction The carnal heart understands not this food it is to him all one with feeding upon the air The promises are onely yea and Amen in Christ they are as shew bread of which none but the Royal Priest-hood can eat when the Child of God hath nothing else to eat he will yet feed upon a promise I had perisht saith David in my affliction if thy word had not been my delight Psal 119. v. 92. Latimer is said to have made his last meal upon that promise 1 Cor. 10. 13. Faithful is God who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able It is also reported of one Mr. Midgely a Minister in Yorkshire that being under horrid temptations to destroy himself and going once to the water side with design to do it carrying in his pocket the New Testament he paused a while to read a little and happily fell upon that text Mat. 1. 28. 29. Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you upon the reading of which he said to himself or to God rather sayest thou so I will not then drown my self yet The large field of the promises is one of those green pastures Where Christ at Noon feedeth his flock and maketh them to rest It is a feeding place which is at all times green the promises contain the Sure mercies of God He that liveth upon meer Sensible enjoyments feedeth but upon Grass and Flowers The Grass will wither and Flowers will fade But the word of the Lord abideth for Ever and there are some promises or others which sute the Soul in all its states and circumstances of Tryal and affliction 2. Secondly Christ sometimes feeds his flock at noon upon Special Providences And these are also of several sorts either of Protection from the Evil or Sustentation in and under trouble or deliverances out of trouble sometimes when thousands and ten thousands fall on their right and left hand The Plague shall not come nigh their dwellings according to the promise Psal 91. v. 7. In a time of famine Corn shall be fetched out of Egypt for Jacobs Family the Prophet shall be fed by a raven or the multiplying of the little meal in the widows barrel and the little Oyl in the cruse Sometimes they shall by some miraculous or at least inexpected waies and means be delivered out of trouble so were the three Children in the fiery fornace Daniel in the den of Lions of these there are multitudes of instances in Ecclesiastical History 3. Thirdly He sometimes feeds his People by Special influences either of strengthening or comforting grace In the multitude of my perplexing thoughts saith David thy comforts delight my Soul Psal 34. v. 19. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us saith the Apostle so our consolations abound by Christ 2 Corinth 1. 5. He will saith Job put strength into me Hence the Servants of God are inabled to rejoyce in tribulation under sicknesses have professed that they were never better and in great trials have rejoiced with a joy unspeakable Rejoycing in tribulation floweth not from the Tribulation For no affliction is joyous but grievous but from the influences of God upon the Soul in and under its tribulation Some one or other of these waies and means Christ feedeth his flock in a time of Trial and maketh them to rest in the Noon time of Trials and afflictions I proceed to the application of this discourse This in the first place commendeth the love of Christ to his little flock They say the Devil leaves the Witch when she is once in Gaol or upon trial for her life how true that is I cannot tell but certain it is that his Servants have no great help from him in an hour of straits and adversity this indeed speaks no love which never so much or so clearly shineth as through a Cloud of sad Providences Solomon tells us that a friend is made for an hour of adversity But herein is the Love of Christ manifested to those that have relation to him my Soul saith Mary Luk. 1. 4647. doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden Christ regardeth the low estate of his People he leaveth them not when they are in distress Isaiah 43. 1 2. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee For I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour This lets us see the wonderful difference betwixt the state and condition of believers and unbelievers The world hath no places where to make their flocks to rest at Noon The Devil takes no care for his flock at
God be vile in your Eyes who are so highly esteemed by him who is your Lord and Master and by whom you pretend to hope to be saved But to shut up this discourse You that will not conform your judgment to the Judgment of Christ concerning such People and behave your selves towards them accordingly shall certainly be forced to submit to his Judgment spoken of Jude 14. and 15. 2d Branch I would willingly improve this notion a little further not onely to reconcile your judgments to the judgment of Christ concerning the People of God but to reconcile you also to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the ways of God The effecting of the former if I could do it though it might produce some more quiet and peace in the World and reduce men to the rule of reason yet as to your own Souls if that be all all the effect it would have would be to save you from a deeper place in Hell It is not a good opinion of Gods People or a peaceable or kind behaviour to them will bring any man to Heaven I could wish that all who hear me this day to use Saint Paul's words to Agrippa were as the People of God are excepting that reproach and obloquy which they suffer those bonds and imprisonments to which they are exposed that they also would come into the number of those whom the Lord judgeth the best Souls in the World the fairest amongst women 1. Is it nothing to you to come into this reputation Leud profane debaucht Persons let their quality in the World be what it will in Scripture come under the notions of Children of Belial Vain Persons What an object of desire doth corporeal beauty appear to the World What will not a vain woman do to get it to preserve it to dissemble it what time what mony she spends to set it out What care she takes if as to it she be under any defects to hide them to correct them c. Quantum est in rebus inane All this it may be is spent in painting a Sepulcher a rotten post Possibly look into this Masquerade there 's nothing but what is rational filthiness and deformity An understanding void of any valuable knowledge A Perverse and stubborn will against what is rationally good beastly affections her Soul it may be is full of lasciviousness Pride Malice Envy All unlovely things Turbulent Passions Is Spiritual beauty worth nothing Shall Heathens judge a Soul that is knowing subdued to the rule of reason chast good just sober meek modest beautiful and worth a thousand Souls otherwise disposed and qualified and shall Christians judge otherwise shall they think Soul-beauty not valuable Or shall they not judge it worth any thing to be comely with Christs comeliness and in the Eyes of an all seeing heart searching God to be without spot or wrinkle consider Sirs how much this is beneath the name or profession of Christians how we are condemned by wanton gallants desiring corporeal beauty and Heathens valuing the rational beauty of the mind which commends it self to all rational minds before they be debauched 2. Consider what it is to have the King of Kings to desire and to predicate our beauty Psal 45. 11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty The King this King is God whose throne is for ever and ever and whose Scepter is a righteous Scepter v. 6. Beauty is in it self attractive but who is there that will not covet a beauty that a King should desire But what are all the Kings of the Earth compared with him who is the King of glory So shall the King saith the Psalmist desire thy beauty How great a thing is this for the great God to have a desire to the Sons of men and a delight in them And further for this King to predicate our beauty as the Lord doth in the Text and did concerning Job Job 2. v. 3. And the Lord said unto Satan hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause For this great King to desire a Souls beauty signifieth to be the Spouse of Christ to be in favour with God in this life and it promiseth an eternal communion with God in glory in the life which is to come when the Marriage of the Lamb shall be consummate and the Bride the Lambs Wife shal follow him wheresoever he goes 3. Lastly consider The consequent of not being of the number of those whom Christ here calleth the fairest amongst Women Amongst men their is a medium betwixt mens looking upon a woman as the fairest and such a one whose beauty they desire and being abominable and odious in their Eyes But as to Christ there is no medium betwixt these two The unbelieving and the abominable are put together Rev. 21. 8. A man may not love a woman so well as to make her his Wife and yet have a kindness for her not hate and abhor her The case is not so betwixt God and the Soul He or she whose beauty the Lord doth not desire is by God hated and abhorred that Soul is abominable in his fight The abominable Rev. 21. 8. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the Second death These arguments are enough to those who believe there is an Heaven and an Hell who believe there is a God and a Christ and that all mankind are under the favour or disfavour of this great and terrible God To persuade them to get into the number of these whom God judgeth the fairest amongst women Will any say to me but what can we contribute towards it Love is a free thing It is true Love is free and the Love of none amongst the creatures is or can be so free as the Love of God who is the freest Agent but yet hearken to the direction of the Psalmist who doubtless is an infallible guide in this matter Psal 45. v. 10. Hearken O Daughter and consider and incline thine Ear forget also thine own People and thy Fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty What is our Fathers house but the house of old Adam What are our own People but our own sinful courses our old sinful company How shall we forget them but by hearkening to the Counsels of God considering our state and condition what we are Whither we are hastening what will become of us in the latter end Giving and inclining our Ears to what To the reproofs corrections admonitions instructions of Gods Word to the knocking 's and motions of his blessed Spirit so shall the Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings the Lord of Lords desire and greatly desire your beauty To those who what ever they are called and go for in the World are Atheists in heart and
at Peace with God All that can be said to relieve the Child of God under this complaint to ease him under this burden is this That this misery which befalleth him is but what is common to the very best of men it is a priviledge reserved for the Saints in glory to live in a not interrupted communion with God To be ever with the Lord beholding his face to live in the sense of such a constant communion with Christ as doth afford the Soul a perfect Satisfaction The sublunary Saint is often crying out Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where tho u feedest This dispensation indeed will speak thee sensibly miserable and sad but it will not speak thee to have no relation to Christ I shall shut up this discourse with a Word or two of exhortation Pleading with you to do what in you lies to avoid such a state and to keep your selves within the knowledg where Christ feedeth where he makes his flocks to rest at noon 1. Consider first That as the Spiritual life of any Soul lyes in its union and communion with Christ So the comfort of his life lyeth in his sense of this communion and knowledge how at all times and in all conditions to Support and to maintain it Our Saviour tells us that As the branch cannot bring forth fruit unless it abide in the Vine so neither can we except we abide in him John 15. 4. That Soul which hath no communion with Christ is as certainly dead as the body is that hath no communion with the head or the branch that hath no communion with the stock Now it is true Sense is not necessary to Spiritual life We live saith the Apostle by faith not by sight But the comfort of the Soul doth depend upon sense and knowledge it is true as to a Christians comfort not to live and not to know that we live are much the same thing as to its happiness it is not but I say as to his comfort it is What quiet can a Christian have in his breast what Peace in his conscience What joy in the Holy Ghost that feeleth no intercourses is sensible of no inward communion betwixt his Soul and Christ 2. Hence consider Secondly That to the waky Christian there is no greater misery upon the Earth then what ariseth from his apprehensions of his having no communion with Christ All the enjoyments of the World will be nothing of Satisfaction to such a Soul it is an evil Nullis medicabilis herbis I say with a waky soul it will be thus some Souls are in a profound sleep they never think of Eternity never consider their latter end they are ignorant and know not the relation that Christ hath to a State of Eternal happiness that as Eternal life is the gift of God so it is through Christ for that the Father hath given into his hands the Power of Eternal life and he giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth Now these Souls though they have no fellowship no communion at all yet they have no misery no grief from it But I say to the Soul that is awake to consider the Grave the Eternity to which he is hastening 't is the greatest burden imaginable to lye under apprehensions that his fellowship is not with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ 3. Thirdly consider that of all evils those lye heaviest and most sadly upon the Soul concerning which the man or woman is conscious that he himself hath been accessary to them and a cause of them Let a good Christian be at loss for his communion with God let the cause of it be what it will he is sad enough but if his heart smites him that he himself hath been the cause of it Oh! insupportable burden of that reflection he cannot bear the thoughts of his destroying his Soul by his own hands of this you may make an easy judgment by considering the frame of your Spirit under such accidents though of a much lighter nature it is sad enough for a man to lose his estate for a Mother to lose her Child but for the man to think that he lost his estate through his own supine negligence or for a Mother to think she hath been the death of her Child These are wounds healed usually with great difficulty So for a Soul to think it hath lost its communion with its dear Lord by its own supine negligence or any voluntary act of its own which it might have avoided This maketh a deep wound in the Soul But will some say what should what can we do to uphold our communion with Christ and to maintain a sense of it Let me here speak two words The first to such as have their beloved in view and do yet injoy desired communion with him 2. To such as have lost this view in order to their recovery of it To the first I say 1. Be much with him whom your Soul loveth What the Prophet said of Gods presence of Providence is as true concerning the presence of God in gracious influences 2. Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while you are with him if you seek him he will be found of you Souls that are much with God seldom lose their sight of him ordinarily the Souls of men and women first withdraw the communications of themselves unto him through levity and wantonness then Christ withdraweth both in justice to punish in them that levity and in wisdom to make them to seek after him Hos 5. 15. I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early That Soul is seldom or never at a loss to know where Christ feedeth his flocks that keepeth a constant correspondence with him Be much in Prayer especially secret Prayer much in Heavenly meditation and contemplation when the Spouse after her loss Cant. 3. 1 2 had found her beloved I held him saith she and would not let him go How doth the Soul hold Christ so as she will not let him go but by faith and constant and frequent acts of fellowship and communion with him 2. Secondly Take heed of grieving the holy Spirit It is the Apostles Counsel Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption We maintain our fellowship with Christ by the Spirit That takes of Christs and giveth to us and again it takes of ours and giveth to Christ by the Spirit we Pray by its assistance we exercise faith Love c. Christ by his Spirit communicateth himself to us and we by the Spirit do communicate our Souls to him Take heed therefore you grieve not this Spirit either by any presumptuous sinnings or by quenching its motions or resisting its operations Let every Knock every motion and impulse every impression of the holy Spirit be very valuable to and regardable in the Eyes of your Souls 3. Thirdly Maintain in
Bridegroom whose it is to bless us with all spiritual blessings in and through him Supposing the latter the believing Soul directeth her request as her beloved directeth when he commands us to pray saying Our Father If the petition be understood as directed to the Lord Jesus Christ Let him kiss me is as much as Do thou kiss me Vicem nominis supplet vis amoris the force of her love supplyeth the omission of his name saith Lud. de Ponte It is a very usual dialect of Scripture to put the 3d Person for the 2d so the Psalmist God be merciful unto us and bless â—us But 3. Qu. What doth the Spouse mean by Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Some read it He did kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Thus the ancient Chaldee Paraphrast Blessed be the name of the Lord who gave us his Law written by the hand of Moses his Scribe who wrote it in two Tables of Stone and spake with us face to face as a man who kisseth his Companions through the greatness of his love wherewith he loved us more than threescore and ten Nations But the stile of the Song is rather pathetical and optative than historical and narrative and it is rather referred to Christ as Mediator than to God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ considered only as God over all blessed for ever besides that the Hebrew word being in the future tense referrs rather to the time to come than to the time past and I see no need of inventing a figure There is a threefold kiss of which you read in Scripture 1. The kiss of the feet Thus the penitent Woman Luk. 7. 38. kissed her Saviours feet 2. The kiss of the hand Job 31. 27. If my mouth hath kissed my hand 3. The kiss of the lips Prov. 24. 26. and so in many other Texts The Schoolmen tell us of a seven-fold kiss a kiss of 1. Love 2. Union 3. Reverence and Honour 4. Adoration 5. Reconciliation and Peace 6. Treachery as Joab kissed Abner and Amasa and Judas kissed Christ 7. Wantonness According to the usages of several Nations there were several sorts of kisses distinguished by their objects and ends they were wont to kiss the head lips cheek shoulders hands backs feet of their superiours inferiours and equals and that for several testimonies which yet I think are reducible to two heads For a testimony of honour reverence and subjection Thus Parents were kissed by their Children Jacob came near and kissed Isaac Gen. 50. 1. Joseph fell upon his Fathers face and kissed him Thus Exod. 18. 7. Moses went out to meet his Father in Law and did obeysance and kissed him and Orpah kissed her Mother in Law Thus the Persians were wont according to the differences of Persons in respect of quality to give differing kisses Equals kissed one anothers lips the Person who was but a little inferiour kissed his superiours Cheek The lower sort fell at their superiours feet and kissed them Thus Idolaters shewed their reverence to their Idols and the true Worshipers of God were by this distinguished They had not kissed Baal 1 Kings 19. 28. and the Idolaters in Israel said Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves Hos 13. 2. Thus also we are commanded to kiss the Son least he be angry Psal 2. 12. which Jerome translates Purely worship the Son This is now a kiss wherewith we ought to kiss Christ but this is not the kiss of the Text. Secondly Kisses were used for a testimony of love which sometimes was hypocritical and so the kissing deceitful such were the kisses of Joab and Judas ordinarily real which might be considered either as continued or interrupted Kisses were 1. Used in token of continuing love As appears by the several precepts of the Apostles regulating the use of them by a law of holiness and chastity Rom. 16. 16. 1 Cor. 16. 20 c. Or 2. In token of renewed love and reconciliation Thus Laban kissed Jacob upon their reconciliation Esau kissed Jacob and David kissed Absalom Beza thus gives the propriety of this testimony in affection Whereas our life lies in the breath which goeth out of our lips and our Soul goes away when our breath at last goes the joining of the friends lips and mouths signifies that they are so dear each to other that they could willingly unite Souls if it could be and bestow their lives each upon other The kiss of the text must needs be this In testimonium amoris for a testimony of love But still here remains a question whether she desires the kiss of Reconciliation 2. Or that which is a pledge of continuing love Those who understand the first confess a breach betwixt God and his Creatures which indeed there was made in the beginning of the world which breach is as to the meritorious part made up by the incarnation death and passion of Christ Indeed there was an ancient Covenant of Grace concerning it Gen. 3. revealed immediately but I say it was done quoad pretium by the incarnation and death of Christ according to those Texts 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. Col. 1. 21. Eph. 2. 16. according to the prophecy Dan. 9. 24. And as to the particular application of that purchase it is daily done by the Spirit of God working faith in us by which we are united to Christ Now the question is whether the Spouse here beggeth 1. Christs coming in the flesh being incarnate and dying for us for the fulfilling of the eternal Covenant of Reconciliation to which some encline 2. Or the kiss of Justification the actual reconciliation of the Soul unto Christ and application of Christ to the Soul by fâ—rth 3. Or The further influences of â— Love as pledges of that first Grace and Seals of that Original love of his to the Souls of his People Indeed the Eternal Son of God kissed us and he stooped much to kiss us when he took upon him our nature uniting finite and infinite corruptible and incorruptible when he nothinged himself for us and this was foreseen and so might be desired Abraham saw the day and rejoyced Joh. 10. 48. and not only Origen and Bernard of old but many modern interpreters think that the Spouse here hath a great respect to this matchless testimony of Divine Love which being granted the Text is no other than the breathings and pantings of the Church of God then living or the particular members of it after the Incarnation of Christ which doubtless was a great object of their desires Kings and Prophets and Righteous men desired to see the things which the Disciples saw and did not see them c. Others understand the text of those testimonies of Divine Love which followed the death of Christ particularly The sending of the Spirit It is true this is called The promise of the Father and was so under the old Testament Ezech. 36.
c. and it proceeds from Christ as the great testimony of his love nor indeed doth Christ otherwise testify his special love than by the influences of his Spirit but I cannot tell why we should restrain it to the particular dispensation in the days of Pentecost I think Piscator expresseth the sense well by suum erga me amorem patefaciat let him manifest to me his love let me know that he loveth me yet supposing it the Reconciled Believing Soul that speaks it seems rather to be understood of further grace than the first grace of regeneration and reconciliation unto God the desire seems to be a desire of free familiar communion with Christ This seems to be the main of her request the great sum of her desires the uppermost of her Souls concernments But observe yet further She begs but a kiss not let him imbrace me but let him kiss me She asketh modestly if saith the woman in the Gospel I might but touch the Hem of his Garment Thus the woman of Canaan also Truth Lord but the Dogs eat the crums Thus the Spouse If he would but kiss me Oh! how precious is the least of Christ to a gracious Soul It is better to be kissed by him than to lie in the worlds arms to be a Door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness But thirdly The word is plural One kiss will not serve the turn she is not a stranger but a Spouse The plural number either imports 1. Various dispensations of Grace Or 2dly Repeated influences of the same Grace 1. It may be understood as denoting various dispensations of Grace Beza saith the Lord kissed the Soul thrice 1. In this life when he is by faith united to it 2. In the day of death when the Soul is taken up into the enjoyment of God 3. In the Resurrection when Body and Soul shall be united and together glorified Another reckons up 7 kisses with which the Lord kisseth his Peoples Souls The Grace of 1. Incarnation 2. The descending of the Holy Ghost 3. The preaching of the Gospel 4. Reconciliation to God 5. Sanctification 6. Divine Consolations 7. The kiss of Glory And the same Author makes the Spouses petition comprehensive of all these certain it is there are various dispensations of Grace there is quickning strengthening comforting Grace and there may be frequent repetitions of these to the Soul according to its particular wants and Gods favour towards it and you may indifferently understand the Text in either sense Fourthly The Spouse here doth not only desire kisses but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kisses of Christs mouth concerning which observe these 2 things 1. The kiss of the mouth was the highest kiss This was the kiss of Love the kiss of Reconciliation Osculum pacis the kiss of the Hand Feet c. was a kiss of honour and reverence and subjection the kiss of the mouth was the kiss of love and friendship of peace and reconciliation 2. I find most Interpreters hinting by this expression something yet more special viz. Communion with Christ in his word The word indeed is the fruit of the lips and cometh out of the mouth and God may seem in some propriety of speech to kiss the Soul with the kisses of his mouth when he speaks to it in his word The Lord will speak peace to his people saith the Psalmist and I create the fruit of the lips peace peace saith the Lord by his Prophet Isaiah some expositors to further this notion have observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes to instruct but I cannot find that usage of it in holy writ Grace is poured forth upon Christs lips she desires those kisses some drive the notion higher observing the difference between the Doctrine of the Law and that of the Gospel the first is terrible the second sweet and comfortable holding forth nothing but the love of God in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins hence the Gospel is called The word of reconciliation Lastly She saith Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth She desires not only to hear the Doctrine of the gospel but that Christ should speak it to her The Preacher speaks to the Ear Christ to the heart Quoties ergo in corde nostro quod de divinis dogmatibus sensibusque quaerimus absque monitoribers invenimus toties oscula nobis á Sponso esse data verbo Dei credimus saith Origen so often as we find God by his word Speaking to our hearts so often doth our beloved kiss us with the kisses of his mouth This is sufficient to have spoken for the Explication of the matter of the Text. There onely remains something more circumstantial to be observed The words are Vox Sponsae The Voice of the Spouse According to the civil usage of our Country and I think most others the Lover speaks first Here the Spouse begins It is so betwixt God and the soul Christ speaks first He is found of those that seek him not and of those that enquire not after him He first loves us and our Love to him proceedeth from his Love first manifested to us But you must not understand her that speaks as one that is a stranger and in a state of disunion with her beloved but as one that is already espoused and made a Spiritual Bride not desiring first grace but further grace which she needeth as well as the first grace for he giveth both to will and to do he is both the author and the finisher of faith and other grace Secondly The words are Vox Volentis The Language of a willing Soul Willing that Christ should come near unto it and take it up into fellowship and communion with himself God's people are a willing people They are indeed made so by a divine power Psal 101. 2. But Certum est nos velle cum volumus saith Aug. It is God who makes us of unwilling Willing When he hath had his first work upon our wills and subdued that strong hold unto himself Then we are willing Nay more Thirdly They are Vox cupientis The voice of a panting Soul not barely content that Christ should kiss it but passionately desiring his kisses They are as much as Oh! that he would kiss me Every gracious Soul passionately desireth fellowship and Communion with Jesus Christ Oh! saith holy David when wilt thou come to me Neither is this all the words are not onely to be considered as a good wish or passionate desire but as a fervent prayer Lastly therefore they are Vox supplicantis the Language of a praying soul where observe What she beggs Not riches not honour not pleasures not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the good things of fortune but the riches of grace her Petition is like that of David Lord lift thou up