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
c. It is true the Doctrine of the Law and Gospel the Propositions of truth contained in both are much one and the same The moral precepts the same and the promises the same c. Yet that great Proposition of truth De Mâ—ssia venturo concerning the star that should come forth out of Jacob the coming of Shiloh The raising of the great Prophet like to Moses c. This Proposition was perfected in the Gospel and turned into another of far more comfort to us viz. That Christ is come and hath dyed for our siâ—s c. But all the Propositions of the Gospel are of eternal truth and all the Ordinances of the Gospel are like Beams of Cedar that shall never decay That 's the first Inference 2. Observe from hence The blindness of many Peoples Eyes and the hardness of our hearts together with the unreasonableness of unbelief You have heard that there is a Beauty and a sweetness in the Word and Ordinances of God they are beautiful to the Eye and they are sweet unto the tast and to the smell the lips of Christ drop sweet smelling Myrrh what is the reason then that the most of People can tast no sweetness in them nor see any beauty in them Alas the most men and women in the World have no more savour of a Sermon or Sacrament then in the white of an Egg They see more beauty in a play-book or an history then they can see in the holy Word of God the reason is this they are void of Spiritudl senses they have their exteriour carnal senses they can tast sweetness in an Hony-Comb but they have not any Spiritual sense they can tast no sweetness in the Word of God which to Davids tast was sweeter then the Hony-comb They must needs want Spiritual sense for they want Spiritual life they are dead in trespasses and sins no sooner doth the Lord quicken a dead Soul but it savoureth the things of God and tasts that sweetness and sees that beauty in the Word of God and in the Ordinances of God of which I have been discoursing 2. As it discovers the want of Spiritual sense in an unbelievers Soul so it also discovers the hardness of mens hearts The Word and Ordinances of God have a power and Efficacy in them but alas how few do they make any impression upon But I shall not insist upon this as not so proper to the resemblance of the Text. Let me rather 3. Infer the unreasonableness of unbelief from what you have heard of the supporting power of the Word of God The Word of God is the greet supporter of Souls under all afflictions temtations in all distresses and agonies c. God is indeed pleased as to some of his People to give them in sensible evidences of his love sealing them up by way of assurance of his love unto the day of redemption and blessed are they who are in such a case but this is not the portion of all the People of God the most of Christians have nothing but the royal Word of God to trust to and upon this all their hopes hang as to Eternity And we are so carnal that we find it an hard thing oft-times to keep up the building of grace faith and hope upon this foundation but are ready to sway and sink through distrust and doubtings through unbelief and anxiety of thoughts c. This is that which we call unbelief The unreasonableness of which is sufficiently evidenced from the stability of the Word of God it is a Beam of Cedar Thou that thinkest it an hard thing to have nothing but a bare Word of God to trust to unless thou hast some sensible evidence that canst not believe without a sign consider 1. That the Word is the Beam of the Church The whole Church of God is built upon the Word it is that which God hath judged sufficient at all times for his People God the Father had no more than Christ's word for the price of all the Souls that were saved from the beginning of the World until the time of Christ's Death and Passion when the price was actually paid into God's hand All the Believers that were saved from Adam till Christ's coming in the Flesh had no more to trust to for their Salvation than the Royal Word of God That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head That a Messiah should come and be slain to make reconciliation for iniquity c. They all trusted on these words of God and were saved 2. Consiâ—er This Beam is a Beam of Cedar it is an incorruptible thing The Apostle calls the Word and Oath of God two immutable things It must needs be so because of the immutable Nature of God he is a God that cannot lye that cannot speak that which is false he is a God that cannot repent he cannot like man eat his word or recede from it David saith That the Word of the Lord is settled in the Heavens The Grass may wither and the Flower may fade but the Word of the Lord must stand for ever Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle thereof cannot fail Hath he said it and shall he not do it Hath he spoken it and shall not he bring it to pass The Apostle calls the word of Prophecy a sure Word The word of Prophecy is sure and the word of Promise is sure therefore trust to it 3. It is a Beam that never yet brake never Soul miscarried that trusted its whole weight upon it What greater Arguments can any have to persuade his Soul to trust to the Word of God than these two First That the Nature of the word is such that it cannot fail The truth of God cannot be turned into a lye Secondly That no instance can be produced of any Soul that miscarried in its confidence Look over all the Book of God and find me Gods Word given to any Soul for anything whether temporal or spiritual and it was not made good unto him indeed the Visions have sometime tarried beyond the patience of God's People but they have alwaies been fulfilled in their seasons 4. Consider how unreasonable a thing it is that thou shouldest trust to the word of a man and distrust the Word of a God You think your selves concerned to trust in the Royal word of a King in the serious word of a Noble Person in the word of an ordinary Friend who is but accounted morally honest how unreasonable a thing then is it that thou shouldest not take the word of a God the word of him who cannot lye To sum up this then Christian what though thou hast nothing but the word of God to trust to either for those things which concern thee as to this Life or for those things which concern thee as to another Life yet the Word of God is enough it is the Beam of Christ's House and it is a Beam of Cedar which cannot corrupt or putrifie
knowledge convictions and faith and proceedeth upon the same reason upon which any reasonable creature valueth a greater and more comprehensive good above what is of an inferiour vertue and more insignificant Nor is this other than according to the workings of our Souls in other cases towards Creatures which we have made the objects of our love The good look and smile of an Husband a letter from him a small token be it never so small how welcome and acceptable is it to the Wife The reason lies in her love to her Husbands Person To you that believe saith the Apostle he is precious It is impossible indeed rationally impossible that a Soul should believe take it in what sense you will but it must love the Lord Jesus Christ Take believing as it signifies no more than a firm and steady assent to the proposition of the word revealing Christ to us as he is the eternal Son of God the brightness of his Fathers glory the express image of his Person full of kindness to the Sons of Men pitying them taking a delight in them willing to save them and to communicate of his fulness to them and to this end coming from Heaven to Earth clothing himself with out flesh encompassing himself with creature infirmities then dying upon the Cross that he might purchase us unto himself c. I say it is not possible that a Soul should firmly and steadily assent and agree to these things but he must love Christ But if you take believing in the second sense as it signifieth the Souls receiving of him as its Lord and Saviour its resting and relying upon him and trusting him with all its Spiritual and Eternal Concerns it is impossible but that the Soul should have a love for him above all created Objects and having so it cannot but naturally desire to be mutually beloved and be passionately desirous of some evidences of it and the least evidences of the reciprocations of love on his part who is so exceeding dear in the Eyes of the Soul must needs be exceedingly desirable to and valuable by that Soul This is yet further advantaged from the consideration of the exceeding low Opinion and Estimate which grace teacheth every soul upon whom it hath shined to have and make of it self The proud man valueth nothing but great things from his friend nay he scarcely thinks any thing great enough for him to put any value upon The reason lies in the high opinion which he hath of his own worth and merit but the humble man puts a value upon the least kindness because he hath a low and mean opinion of himself so he looketh upon every thing as more than he could merit or challenge Naaman huffs when the Prophet sends to him to go and wash in the waters of Jordan he expected the Prophet should have come out and stroked him and he thought the Waters of Abana and Parphar were as wholsome as those of Jordan were The Centurion desireth but a good word from Christ when Christ spake of coming to his House Mat. 8. 8. Lord saith he I am not worthy thou shouldst come under my roof The Woman of Canaan knowing her self to be a Dog challengeth no more than Crums Every gracious Soul is sensible that it deserveth nothing but Hell and Wrath this makes the least tokens of Divine love highly valuable in its Eyes who am I said Elizabeth that the Mother of my Lord should come to me who am I saith an humble Soul that the Lord should look upon me that the Sun of righteousness should shine so much as with one healing beam upon my Soul Hence it valueth the least tokens of special love It valueth nothing less than that this proceedeth from its knowledge and spiritual judgment of things that differ It valueth the least of this This proceedeth partly from its knowledge partly from that humility with which it is clothed as with a Garment 7. Lastly This Soul knoweth that Christs Love will not terminate and be bounded with little things The least tokens of distinguishing Love are but the Earnests of a greater bargain they are but the first-fruits to a larger Harvest Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God Psal 92. 13. God at first gives the soul but a good hope a glimpse of his glory but it shall go on from faith to faith and strength to strength Are the least tokens of Christs distinguishing Love so valuable so desirable what should then his fullest and largest tokens be the things which God hath prepared for them that love him which Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive The Assurance of his Love The Manifestations of himself to his Saints in glory If it be so sweet so desirable to see him in a glass darkly what will it be to see him face to face If his kisses be so desirable what will his imbraces be If the Hem of his Garment be so full of vertue and a touch of that so desirable what is his long white Robe which is the white linnen of his Saints If a good word a good look be so good what will it be to be set as a seal upon his Heart and upon his arm Surely that love will be as strong as death as the coales of that fire which send forth a vehement flame Let this notion of truth and the experience which any of your souls have had of the truth of it kindle in you further flames of desire after the further enjoyments of Christ in this life Imperfect tasts of desirable things use to do so in other things Quo plus sunt potae plus sitiuntur aquae Yet in all created goods there is ordinarily more in expectation than fruition but it is not so in Spiritual things The Apostle prayeth for the Ephesians That they might be able with all Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that they might be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 13. 18 19. It is most certain that there are many holy and gracious Souls that want assurance they may live they may die without it but that Soul hath nothing of grace that doth not desire it that doth not thirst and pant after it 2. What will it be to be ever with the Lord what an object of spiritual thirst and desire is a fulness of communion with our Lord in his Fathers House when we shall know as we are known see Face to Face How should this fill all our hearts with desires to be dissolved that we might be with Christ which is best of all The least of Christ is good but that full fruition is best Let this discourse leave some strong pantings in your hearts 1. After the assurance of Gods love 2. After the further manifestations of Christs strength
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
that understand you have Souls under an ordination to an eternal Existence that know the state of the Soul by nature and have tasted also how good the Lord is to you to whom Christ is precious and whom you will easily acknowledge your chief Joy I am calling to you but for the exercise of an habit with which God hath indeed indued you the exerting of a power with which God hath blessed you the using of a right which God hath given you There are amongst others two great causes why Christians do not so rejoyce in Christ as they ought to do 1. The first is Their giving too much way to unbelief and despondency Though we cannot increase our own Faith without special grace assisting yet we may promove our unbelief favouring our despondency and cherishing our doubts and giving way to our groundless fears and forgetting the Covenant of Grace not saying often enough to our Souls Why art thou cast down O my Soul c. 2. The second is Their too much carnality or worldliness Where almost is the man to be found that cannot rejoyce in his worldly Affluences although he wants the sense of the Love of God in Christ or that if he were tried would not find it an hard matter to rejoyce in God if the Fig-tree did not blossom and there were no fruit on the Vine How ready are we to rejoyce in our creature-comforts when we have them more than in the Love of Christ to our Souls whence is this but from our too much savouring minding and living upon Earth and earthly things Is the hearing of Prayers such a matter of joy to a gracious man how should this engage us 1. So to pray that we may receive an answer of them from the Lord 2. To look after our Prayers and the answers of them that the sense of such an answer may excite our joy in Christ As to the first I have spoken so fully to it under the first Doctrine I handled from this Text that I shall not need again to inlarge upon it here I shall only inlarge upon the second Foolish Children that shoot Arrows and never look after them lose that pleasure and content in their game which those have who observe what becomes of their Arrows and how near they come to the mark to which they are directed and levelled Formal Christians who send up Prayers to Heaven and never look after them never consider whether the Lord answereth them yea or no lose that pleasure and satisfaction which the Soul hath that watcheth his Prayers and with David when early in the morning he hath directed his Prayers to God as Psal 5. 3. looketh up You read of the Prophet Habakkuk when chap. 1. he had been putting up his Prayer to God he resolveth chap. 2. v. 1. to stand upon his watch and to set himself upon the Tower watching to see what God would say unto him Here now comes in a considerable question viz. How a Christian shall know whether God hath heard and answered his prayers yea or no The difficulty lies upon two things 1. Vpon God's different ways of answering 2. In regard we may receive the good things we receive from God meerly from him as a God full of pity and tender compassion seeing and pitying the misery and needs of his creatures as our Saviour saith He hears the young Ravens when they cry unto him Not as from a God in Christ reconciled and hearing us upon the account of his Truth and Promise and the Intercession of Christ Now the answer of those Prayers only which are answered upon the account of Christ and testifications of the Love of God in Christ can bring the Soul to a gladness and rejoycing in Christ upon that occasion and motive As to the first 1. I see no reason for a Soul that hath been importunate with God for some good thing which it hath not yet received if it finds it self satisfied under the want of it and content to submit to the Will of God in the denial of it and to resign up it self to his good pleasure as to the collation of it upon him I say in such cases as these I see no reason for a Christian to question whether this answer be from God as a God of Truth and Faithfulness fulfilling his promise to the Soul His promise to his people is to with-hold from them no good thing that is nothing which shall be truly and really good for them considered in their circumstances Now where a sensible good is with-held and denied that a real good may be bestowed and the Soul is also brought to see its own mistake in the desire of that sensible good and to acquiesce in the good pleasure of God in not giving it nay to acknowledge that it is better for it not to have it and is quiet and satisfied certainly this is one of the clearest answers of our prayers and no Soul ought to question but this is a return of prayers Let us put a case Suppose a Christian lying under the power of some mortal disease under which he hath often prayed that if it were possible God would make the bitter Cup of Death to pass from him Still he or she groweth weaker and weaker worse and worse as to his or her bodily state but they find within themselves a further contentedness with the good pleasure of God a power to glory in their tribulation and to rejoyce in the hopes of that glory of God to which its affliction is bringing it a desire not to be unclothed meerly and free from its pain but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up in life What reason now hath a Christian to suspect whether this be in answer to its prayers and slowing from God as a God of Truth fulfilling his Word seeing as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit It is a good thing here that is given the Soul it is given it by God it is he who hath wrought the heart into this frame It is given in upon and after earnest prayer and though it be not the very thing in specie which we asked yet it is in value more abundantly compensating the things we asked and finally the thing which we did ask we asked with submission to the Will and Wisdom of God so that as to these kinds of answers I take the case to be clear 2. As to the giving in of such spiritual mercies as we have begg'd of God in their kind whether they be peace of Conscience strength against temptations power against corruptions sensible consolations more freedom and liveliness unto and in duty there is as little reason to doubt because they are the very good things we a kt 2. Of such a spiritual nature as God doth not use to give them to Souls that are strangers to him 3. The matter of
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
in none of your bosoms Is there not amongst some of you a sad neglect of Reading the Scripture Let me tell you it speaks you to have tasted very little if at all how good the Lord is Secondly How sadly doth this reflect upon those who despise Prophecyings It is a dreadful Text 1. Joh. 4. 6. We are of God He that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us It is true no Minister of Christ can say He is of God in that strict sense as the Apostles did whose Calling was not of men nor by men but immediately from God It is also true that every one who talks out of a Pulpit is not of God Many run whom God never sends and you shall easily know them by the message they bring But every faithful Minister of Christ that faithfully openeth and conscienciously applieth the Word of God to Peoples understandings hearts and consciences is of God that is he is sent of God he is the Ordinance of God and he that knoweth God that hath â—â—y saving experimental knowledge of God will hear such a one If there be any that despiseth such Prophecying he is not of God Now this men may do from looseness and prophaneness and this too many are guilty of and by it proclaim to the world that they were never born again of the uncorruptible Seed of the Word that they never yet tasted the goodness of God in an Ordinance There is another generation that despise Prophecyings pretending to the immediate Teachings of the Spirit of God I shall in my next Discou se God willing shew you that no pious Soul can undervalue the Teachings of the Holy Spirit nor think them needless but he that looks for them in opposition to the Teachings of the Word of God or otherwise than by and in the Teachings of the Word is ignoranr knowing nothing The Spirit brings to our remembrance the things which we have heard of God I never yet knew a pious Soul that duâ—st slight Reading or powerful Preaching I have indeed known Religious Souls neglect and despise some mens little jinglings of words in Pulpits flaunts of Rhetorick and playing with words or disgorging their malice and passion and they deserve to be despised and abhorred of all but I never yet knew that pious Soul that did not hunger after the Preaching of Jesus Christ in a plain Scriptural powerful manner I would say to any that pretend to despise Sermons pretending to the Teachings of the Spirit immediately as Paul spoke to the Galatians Gal. 3. 2. This would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith So say I you pretend to some change of heart to a Receiving of the Spirit Received you the Spirit by an immediate afflatus or impression or by the Hearing of the Word Besides how shall the impressions of the Spirit be known tryed or judged but by the Word for St. John hath taught us 1 Joh 4. 1. That every Spirit is not to be believed And the Apostle warns the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2. 2. not to be shaken in mind troubled or deceived by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter I shall shut up this Discourse with a word of Exhortation Which of us is there who hath not an ambition to be the Lamb's Wife and to be thought the Spouse of Christ Evidence then your selves to be such by your hunger after a communion with God in his Word by your much Reading much Hearing by your meditating in the Law of the Lord night and day For the written Word you have no plea to the contrary no excuse for the Word Preached I wish Christians had more general incouragement We have too much of of the word of man in Pulpits too little of the Word of God and as it is in Trade the false and corrupt making of Wares depretiates the Commodity and brings it out of esteem with such as abhor to be cheated So the abundance of false Preaching by which I mean not only Preaching of unsound Notions but Preaching vain Philosophy idle Speculations turning Sermons into Harangues of Oratory In short whatsoever is not intelligible Scriptural Preaching with a true design to shew men the way of Salvation and to direct them into it and in it I call this false Preaching We have so much of this that it hath brought a discredit upon the Ordinance I would have you as our Saviour directs Take heed what you hear and how you hear and that will oblige you to take heed whom you hear But withal Take heed that you hear for God hath told you that Faith cometh by hearing He hath said Hear and your Souls shall live And blessed be God he hath not left us without some that Preach Jesus Christ and him crucified and desire to know nothing else amongst people I cannot tell you how long you shall have any of the daies of the Son of Man work while it is day when the night comes no man can work We have had faithful powerful Preaching a long time possibly Christ never had a Church on Earth had such handling the Word of God so long a time doth not the Candle begin to fail and burn in the Socket We have an Ezra's Temple but is not Solomon's destroyed 2. There 's no such way to recover your Light and keep it with you as to cry after it and to make use of it while you have it God will not take away his Word from hungry Children Where are our Rogers Sheppard Hooker Fenner Preston Sibbs Burroughs and others It 's time to recover your Appetites that you may recover your Bread 3. Consider you that love the Lord will be the first that want it Prodigals of their Souls can feed upon any Husks though they fill their Bellies with nothing but wind and crudities That you may recover your Appetite to the Word Purge your selves of your lusts I shall conclude with that of James Jam. 1. 21 22. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your Souls But be you doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Sermon VI. Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth IT is not Let me hear the words of his mouth though that be intended the words of God's mouth may be brought to us by men like unto our selves as they were spoken to the Israelites of old by the Prophets the Spouse begs not only the Words of her Lord but that they might be spoken from himself She beggeth his words but so that they may be kisses tokens of his love and favour to her Soul She beggeth not only a more external Communion with God by which God communicates his Will to our exteriour senses but an inward Communion that God by his Word and Gospel would speak unto her heart that the Word might
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