climb up those steps which God hath made for us by which we may ascend into these Chambers we must blame our selves if we abide below But this is not alwaies the cause in some cases we must have recourse to Gods prerogative and must rest in this Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee Some Souls are dignified with a special communion and familiarity with God so was Abraham Moses David yet possibly if we look into the records we have of their lives we shall find more blots in some of them then in some others who we do not read were taken up into such eminent degrees of favour We cannot give just reasons and accounts of all Gods acts of Grace it is enough that God wills them In the mean time if we find but a good hope through grace an heart changed and cleaving to God if we can say with Peter Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that we love thee though we cannot boast of such special providences as others nor of such visions of peace nor of so quick an hearing of our prayers tho we dare not pretend to be such favourites of Heaven yet let us not be discouraged possibly as to us the Lords time is not yet come possibly it never will come God is a great Soveraign and unquestionably free as to these things he knows what is best for us he will deny no good thing to us We may say of the whole Family of God as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons 1 Kings 10. 8. Happy are thy Men happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and heaá¹™ thy wisdom There are some of Gods Servants that as to these enjoyments are more happy then others but there are none but are happy none but have reason for ever to admire the difference which God hath made betwixt them and others to admire what God hath done for their Souls bringing them out of the horrible Pit if they have not if they cannot see reason to rejoice in such a prospect of Heaven as othershave yet they have reason to rejoice in an equal deliverance from Hell I will shut up this discourse with two words of exhortation 1. The first directed to those who can say with the Spouse The King hath brought us into his Chambers 2. The second to those who walk with God but have not yet arrived at this Are there any who can speak the language of the Spouse and glory in this not only that they are brought home to Christ but that the King hath brought them into his Chambers the Lord hath dignified them with some special favours and manifested himself more to them then unto others the following words of this Text will let them know what is their duty I will saith the Spouse be glad and rejoice in thee and remember thy loves more then Wine 1. Be glad and rejoice in God we are often called to for this rejoycing in the Lord Psal 33. 1. Psal 97. 12. Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. and in many other Texts Such is the portion of Gods Children such their state and condition that they have a continual cause of rejoycing and giving of thanks be they under what circumstances they can there is ground enough for them in all things to give thanks but they are more eminently obliged to it when they are under the highest manifestations of Divine Love This rejoycing in the Lord is I conceive opposed both to a carnal joy in sensual objects and also to a rejoycing meerly in that ease and satisfaction which the good thing giveth us for which we rejoice As now suppose a rich man giveth a poor man 20 s. it is one thing for the poor man to rejoice in the gift as suited to to â—his necessitous circumstances another thing to rejoice in the love and favour of the giver This is now the duty of the spiritual man he ought not only under the manifestations of divine love to rejoyce in the Lord more then in all the world and all the affluences and contentments of it which is expressed in the next phrase we will remember thy loves more then Wine and is commensurate to what David saith Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me for thou shalt thereby make my heart more glad then in the day when their Corn and Wine increased I say this is not enough for a Soul thus dignified he ought more to rejoice in the favour of God shewed him in these specialties of his favour then in the ease and satiâ—faction which the mercy received giveth unto his Soul And herein lieth the purity of the spiritual mans joy nor is his joy genuine and perfect till it come to this pitch 2. The second phrase in the Text expressive of this dignified Souls duty is We will remember thy loves more then Wine The term remember is taken in Scripture in a great latitude and expressive both of all that affection which is due to the remembrance of the object and of all that practical duty which is consequent to it I shall touch a little upon both these and that very shortly for I shall God willing speak to both these expressions in order more fully 1. Remember Christs loves with the remembrance of the heart I shall instance but in one fruit of this and that is faith Remember his loves so as for them to trust in God more and to cast the care of thy Soul in an hour of distress the better upon him upon consideration of thy past and present experience We are too ready both to forget our sorrows and to forget our comforts to forget our sorrows by giving our selves a liberty to the same sins for which we have smarted and to forget our comforts by giving liberty to the same dejections and despondencies again after the experiences of Gods favour 2. Remember Christs loves practically so as to make them obligations upon your Souls to a close walking with God See the example of David Psal 116. 1 9 12 18. But I shall speak all this over again when I come to handle the next words and shall therefore add no more My second Branch of this Exhortation shall respect those whom God hath not thus far dignified the Lord hath as they hope admitted them into his family but he hath not yet brought them into his Chambers Some communion with God they hope they have and an heart that panteth after a more full and near communion with him but this they have not yet attained to they walk in the dark and see no light the Lord giveth them an heart to pray but they cannot glory in such a full and quick return of prayers as others have they have not that inward joy and peace which as to some Souls is consequential to believing the question is now what they should do what their duty is under their present circumstances I will open it in two particulars 1. Certainly they ought not to despond
Man 's but a shadow and a Picture is That shadow's shadow yet don't judge amiss Though here you onely on the shadow look What followes read The Substance is i' th' book THE INTERCOURSES OF DIVINE LOVE BETWIXT Christ and his Church OR The Particular Believing Soul Metaphorically expressed by Solomon in the first Chapter of the Canticles or Song of Songs Opened and Applied in several Sermons upon that whole Chapter In which the Excellencies of Christ the yernings of his bowels towards Believers under various circumstances the workings of their hearts towards and in communion with him with many other Gospel Propositions of great import to Souls are handled By John Collinges D. D. Solomon divinitus inspiratus Christi Ecclesiae laudes aeterni Connubii cecinit Sacramenta simulque expressit sanctae desiderium animae Epithalamii carmen exultans in spiritu jucundo composuit Elogio figurato tamen Nimirum velabat ipse instar Moysis faciem suam non minus forsitan in hâc parte fulgentem to quod illo adhuc in tempore nemo aut rarus erat qui revelatà facie gloriam illam speculari sufficeret Bernardus 1 Serm. in Cantica London Printed by T. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. To the Lady Ann Knightley Madam AMongst the many Spiritual mercies by which within these fifty years last past England hath been exalted to heaven as our Saviour said of Capernaum the plenty of good Books hath not been the least so as there is hardly any point in Divinity which hath not been judiciously handled both dogmatically polemically and practically and discourses upon it published in our own Tongue The things hid in times of Popery yea and for many years in the beginning of our Reformation have been made known the things covered have been revealed what was at first spoken in darkness hath been told in the light preached upon the house tops and so published that all those who would might read and understand Certainly no Nation under Heaven of which we have any record was ever blessed with the Means of Grace to that degree none ever had more judicious Interpretations of the Word of God nor more serious and faithful Applications of it to the Consciences of men and women so as if either the Doctrine or Duty of the Gospel be yet hid to any it is much to be feared that it is to such only who shall perish But of all good Books we have been exalted in none more than those which have bin wrote on practical Subjects Books of all others to be most highly valued as more immediately serving the great end of man in shewing him the way of Salvation directing his coming to Christ and walking with him of which we have had such plenty as indeed there would be no more need of writing on such Subjects if the Vanity of our Natures did not more incline us to a discourse upon the same Argument newly wrote than to what hath been written as well some years since by which means the multiplying of good Books doth not a little contribute to the much reading of good Books and that I am sure contributes much both to knowledge and practice the two great ends that every Preacher ought to aim at so as I cannot be of their mind who would have no more written of this nature because so much hath been already wrote any more than I can be of theirs who think there is now no such need of Preaching because formerly there hath been so much So long as there are any Souls in the World who know not Christ and live not up to the Rules of his Gospel there will be need both of the one and of the other nay were there none such there would be need of it to keep up the Grace of God bestowed upon men in its warm exercise Nor me thinks should there be one Preacher of the Gospel who should not publish the glad tidings of it and leave some Record to the Ages to come of his faithfulness in that work The Riches of Divine Grace can never be too much published we can never enough declare his love who for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich Such like thoughts as these Madam have brought these Discourses into a more publick light They were composed many years since soon after my entrance into the publick Ministry I am willing they should be a Testimony to the world what Doctrine I then Preached and see no cause yet to be ashamed of and what scope or design I have alwaies propounded to my self The Gospel of the Kingdom Christ The faithsul saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesâ—â— came into the world to save sinners 1. Tim. 1. 15. The Apostle Doctrine Acts 4. 12. That there is no Salvation in any other then in Christ for there is no other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved were the great things I took my self concerned as a Preacher to publish to the world Together with what our Saviour hath taught us That he who believeth him i not condemned But he that believeth not is condemned already shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 18. 36 and that Faith without works is dead These were the greaâ— things I had in my eye to open explain and apply to people My apprehension that I saw much of these things revealed in the Song of Solomon though clouded under Metaphorical expressions was that which led me to the study of that difficult portion of holy Writ than which undoubtedly there is no portion of the Old Testament more Evangelical according to the common Hypothesis agreed by the most valuable Divines in all Ages viz. That it contains a Dialogue between Christ and his Church or particular believing Souls in it If any think I might have chosen plainer Texts from which to discourse these things I freely yield it as to many of them But shall this excellent Book alwaies acknowledged a sacred portion of holy Writ by the wisest man upon earth stiled the Song os Songs that is the most excellent Song lie by us as the Vision of a Book that is sealed or be bound up in our Bibles for nothing Or can there be any work more worthy of a Divine than to attempt the clearing of so incomparable a piece of Divine Revelation from that darkness which it pleased God to cloath it with in a time when the most which he spake concerning Christ was in Types 〈◊〉 Prophecies or Metaphors Time together with the Sermons of â—hrist and his Apostles have expounded the Types and Prophecies of Christ Is it not a work worthy of us to explain the Metaphors that we might have a Christ wholly unveiled There 's no great fear of any dangerous erring in the case if he that explaineth taketh care that his Explication agreeth with plainer Revelations Madam I think I may
further say that there is no portion of holy Writ so copiously as this expressing the infinite love and transcendent excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ None that more copiously instructs us what he will be to us or what we should be toward him and consequently none more worthy of the pains of any who desires to Preach Christ My Meditations upon the second Chapâ—â—r composed in my maturer years were published some years â—â—nce Those upon this Chapter have being done in my younger time staid till I could get some leisure to peruse them my self and correct some things in the stile especially our juvenile fancies seldom pleasing us in our maturer years You will I hope Madam pardon my Dedication of them to your Ladyship Your â—â—lf knows how great Obligations you have laid upon me I cannot answer them These are all the Requitals we can make our Friends for their kindnesses Silver and gold I have none but what I have I humbly present your Ladyship with nor shall I have been wholly unserviceable to your Ladyship in your highest concerns if any thing in these Discourses shall help further to inflame your Soul with love to him who is the chiefest of ten thousand and contribute to the sending of your Soul to Heaven in the admiration of your Beloved where you shall see him as he is whom these Discourses will but shew you as in a glass darkly Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen April 3. 1683. Your Ladiships most humble Servant JOHN COLLINGES TO THE READER SOme few years since I was prevailed with to publish some discourses upon the Second Chapter of this excellent Song I had then by me these upon the first Chapter but they being composed in my younger years I was desirous first to peruse them before I suffered them to come forth into the World since which time I have had so little rest that the perusal of them hath taken up much longer time than I then thought upon The publishing of my discourses upon the Second Chapter first obliged me to take something out of these discourses to make those as intelligible as I could concerning the Penman of the Book and the Nature form and stile of it which I have here restored to their due place with some advantage all those things falling in to the handling of the first verse I am not upon the persual of notes composed so many years since my self much pleased with the largeness of my discourses upon the five or six first verses occasioned from the variety of Propositions raised from them but there are couched in those verses some very great points and my consulting so many expositors as I did together with my proneness to suspect my own judgment rather then those whom I had reason to prefer before my self was the cause of that Nor did I think it much material if I saw a Proposition offered me by any valuable interpreter as feunded on one of those verses which I saw was a Proposition of truth and justifiable from other Scripture whether it were certainly there founded or no for he pretends to too much skill that will be too positive in giving the sense of a metaphor in this or that Text. It is enough for a modest Interpreter to give a probable sense of such expressions and to prove it from a plainer Revelation I hope thou wilt be so charitable to me as to think that I troubled not a Popular auditory with all that thou wilt find here in the opening of the several verses I bless God I was never so idle as to make up discourses to people of what I knew they did not understand What I found in my notes put in for my own Satisfaction I have let go not knowing but my book might fall into the hands of some Scholar who might be able to judge from what Satisfied me upon what grounds I formed such Propositions of truth as I did from the several verses so preparing the matter of more Popular and practical discourse I bless God I always looked upon the work of the ministry as the most grave and serious employment under Heaven whether the Minister speaks with reference to explication or application In the first he acts as an Interpreter making the words of the eternal God more plain and intelligible to the infirm capacityes of his people How great is that work to be the Lords Interpreter In the latter he acts as an Ambassador persuading and offering terms of peace between God and man and using all his art in intreating men to be reconciled to God Who is sufficient for these things As to the former we have no more accommodate means then searching the Original texts comparing the usage of words in one Text with the usage of them in others consulting Interpreters who have gone before us then using our own judgments as to what they have said or our own thoughts shall further suggest to us thou wilt discern that this is the method I have used and if in any thing I have been mistaken I have erred neither wilfully nor singly When I had examined the several verses my work was to raise Propositions from them so interpreted to open them to justify them to be divine truths from other places of plainer Revelation For my method and stile it is what I judged most accommodate to the end of my work No man discourseth to any length upon a subject without a method some use a Cryptick method which is only for their own conduct others a plainer method for the advantage of others the former may do well enough in the Schools where the end is only to raise some subitaneous affections I never thought it proper for the Pulpit where the Preachers end is or should be to inform his People in the great things of God and to affect their hearts and in order to it he is bound to speak with the best advantage both for their memories and understandings thou wilt find I have kept to the ordinary plain method of explication confirmation and application No man having drank old wine desireth new for he saith the old is better In the proof of Propositions I have rather studied the evidence of holy writ and Scriptural reason then other more incertain Topicks knowing it the duty of Ministers to take care that the faith of their people may not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God One plain Text of holy Writ more confirms a Proposition of Divine truth to an understanding Christian then an hundred rational arguments For my stile it was the least of my study my Opinion always was that what Augustine calls diligens negligentia was
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
he may go to God or no whether he hath one good Argument to use which may be of avail with God We have many words to say many Arguments to use and when it is a clear day with the Soul it can easily discern it and fill its mouth with words of several natures but in a dark day under the prevailings of Melancholy or boisterous Temptations it can find many Arguments to deter it from Addresses to God it s own vileness and unworthiness considered with God's purity and holiness the multitude of its sins its former Prayers as it fancieth lying by not answered but it cannot find one Argument to incourage it But every Christian hath at all times many Arguments if he could discern them David made his vileness and unworthiness an Argument Psal 25. Pardon mine iniquity saith he for it is great That 's an Argument all have and at all times Ah! but saith the Soul this is no other than the vilest person hath He may plead the freeness of Divine Grace The Soul that goeth to God for Free Grace can never want an Argument but still this is common and no more encouraging a Believer than another man We may plead our own misery and sad state misery is the object of Grace and Mercy but still this is common The vilest sinner may go and plead with God for mercy because his state is miserable A true Christian would have an Argument of a more special nature and such a one as in the use of he could go boldly and with confidence to the Throne of Grace Admitting this Proposition every good Christian hath such an Argument such an Argument as no unregenerate man hath such an Argument as he may go to God with with boldness and confidence God was never yet wanting to the truly hungring and thirsty Soul after his Love such an Argument as if pleaded with God and being in truth alwaies prevailed with God I shall shut up this Discourse with some few words of Exhortation 1. To all To labour to bring up their hearts to this to prize the favour of God above all other things whatsoever How you shall know whether your hearts be brought up to it or no I have before shewed you but suffer me here to give you some Directions in the case and to press it with some Arguments Until we do find that our Souls do set such an estimate upon the Loves of Christ we can never use it as an Argument with God This is therefore the first thing which we have to do to be restless till we find that we can say it in truth that we value Christ's Loves above all earthly things Nor will this ever be effectually done till the holy Spirit of God comes upon our hearts with its impressions and demonstrations all that we can do will bear no more than the notion of means in order to that blessed end Of that nature much may be directed First Let thy Soul and its immortal state with its condition referring to that state be much in thy thoughts It is one great reason why men neglect and are careless as to the Loves of Christ because they do not remember they have immortal Souls nor consider any future state or their own circumstances relating to it Men know that they have bodies and experience hunger and thirst and cold and so are very busie in taking care what they shall eat and drink and put on but they do not know at least they do not attend to their knowledge of it and have no certain knowledge and persuasion that they have immortal Souls that can no more die with the body than eat drink or sleep with it so as they take no further care than for their outward man Neither do they attend to the consideration of the condition of their Souls with respect to an eternal existence but run away with presumptuous fancies that God will not suffer them to perish for ever determining concerning their Souls according to their fancies and the dictates of their own vitiated reason not according to the revelations of the Divine Will would men think more of their Souls and consider the immortality of them would they determine concerning them according to Divine Revelation it were impossible they should so far as generally they do neglect the care of them They would quickly see that all the good things of the world could not affect the Soul with any good and therefore must needs be invaluable things compared with those things that will secure the Souls happiness both here and for ever If men believed they had immortal Souls their reason would teach them quickly to conclude that they are better than the body which is but earth and which must return to dust and consequently whatsoever is good for the Soul must be infinitely more good than what only serveth the necessities of our earthly part and that neither but for a little time But the truth is as the Fool hath said in his heart there is no God So he hath also said in his Heart I have no Soul no such immortal substance as Preachers talk of there is no such thing as Heaven or Hell most unregenerate men are in their Hearts Atheists The natural reason of all men teacheth them to look after their concerns and interests and to prefer greater before lesser interests and to value what makes for their greatest interests above what is only subservient to an interest of lesser value Mens preference of created comforts before the loves of Christ proceedeth meerly from their ignorance that they have Souls to look after or at least unbelief of it if they notionally know it their not understanding the nature and spiritual concerns of their Souls or at least their erronious fancies and conceptions of an universal Salvation of all or all at least that are baptized the first thing to be done rationally to possess Men and Women of the excellency of Christs loves above Wine above all sensual things or any sensible things is to possess men of this knowledge and to keep their Eyes waking to the consideration of it and to engage them to take their measures of these things from the revelation of the will of God in his word not from their own wild fancies and ratiocinations Secondly Possess your Souls of the impossibility of their receiving of any good any thing suited to their necessities but only from Christ There is no other name given under Heaven there is no Salvation in any other The power over all Souls is committed unto Christ The Father forgives Sins but it is for Christ's sake as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you saith the Apostle we have Redemption forgiveness of Sin through his blood In him we have righteousness peace through him we have access an entrance into the holâ—est of all the Father hath given unto him Eternal life that he should give it to whomsoever he pleaseth There is no good thing suited to a Souls
Christ is so sweet to the Soul I answer 1. Because it signifieth him to be the fountain of the greatest spiritual good to us his name Messiah and Christ signify him to be separated and set apart of God for the accomplishment of the great business of our Salvation his name Emanuel signifies him to have Hypostatically united in one Person the Divine and Humane Nature that he might be a fit Mediator that he might die and merit salvation for us by dying his name Jesus signifies that he is a Saviour his name Shiloh speaketh him to be a Peace-maker his name of an Advocate signifies him to transact our business in Heaven for us his name of High Priest signifies him to have offered for us a propitiatory Sacrifice to have made an atonement for us to bless us to interceed for us the like I might say of his other names Now if the name of a friend who hath done some great kindness for us be oft-times sweet like an Oil poured forth unto us how much sweeter must be his name by whom we are blessed with all Spiritual blessings Secondly Because by his Name or in his name our greatest blessings are obtained How sweet must that name be to the begger upon the use of which all its wants are supplied Is salvation worth any thing There is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved but only the name of Jesus do our Souls want any thing Whatsoever you shall ask in my Name that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son John 14. 13. Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you ch 16. v. 23. Is the Soul trembling under the sense of its guilt doth horrour surprize it do the terrors of the Lord distract it a wounded Spirit who can bear by the discovery of the Lord Christs name to it in the Gospel promises in the mercy truth and faithfulness of Christ it is freed from these The discovery the least discovery of Christ to the troubled Soul is like the Sun beam to the weather beaten and be-wildered Traveller like the shadow to him whom the heat maketh faint like light to him that fitteth in darkness like life to him that fitteth in the shadow of death How sweet is the discovery of Christs truth in his promises the sealing of a promise to a poor doubting Soul Every Soul that hath experienced it will say It is like Oil poured forth I come to the application of this discourse Is the name of the Lord Jesus so exceeding sweet like an Oil poured forth Oh then what is Christ himself It is Origens application Si solo nomine Quid ejus faciet substantia How sweet is the Oil upon the Crown of the head when that which runs down to the skirts of the garment is so sweet Open all created boxes admit that all their sweet qualities would unite and conspire to make one compounded fragrant smell distill all the odoriferous herbs that the Earth bringeth forth mix all the sweet gums and odoriferous spices of Arabia and the whole Eastern part of the world let them all make one body and contribute all their delicious qualities to the composition of one Oil or Ointment to please the wanton sense of a Creature what would they all signify to one Christ Oh blessed Jesus thou that art altogether delights clear the Nostrils of vain Creatures stopt with their own lusts and the vanities of pitiful creature satisfactions and contentments that they may take the air of thy delicious names and follow thee in the savour of thy most precious Ointments Secondly Is the name of Christ in this life so exceeding sweet Oh what will the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven be When the Saints shall see him as he is when they shall be ever with the Lord beholding his face rejoycing in his presence when they shall be at his right hand where are and shall be Pleasures and fulness of Pleasures and that for evermore here we know in part and see in part and the greatest part of that we know of Christ amounteth not to the least part of what we do not know then the Saint shall see him face to face and know him as he is known by him Surely we should cry out with the Psalmist Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts Here we sit but under the shadow of the Apple tree yet it is with great delight and his fruit is pleasant unto our tast how sweet will it be to be within the arms of it If a Garden of Flowers or a Bed of Spices casteth aâ—sweet smell at a 1000 miles distance what will it do when we come near it O you to whom the name of Christ is as an Ointment poured forth follow the savour of it it will bring you to that place of delights where your Souls shall be ever satiated but never nauseated Thirdly Observe from hence the difference betwixt a natural carnal man and a spiritual man The name of Christ is published in all our parts of the world The Gospel is published that is Christs name saith Gencbrard upon my Text but the natural man discerneth no sweetness in it he can smell sweetness in a perfume but in the name of Christ he can smell nothing sweet Nay what is more unpleasing to a carnal heart than the name of Christ and there is reason for it for to him Christs name is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah his name is a Judge an Enemy c. In the second place what an argument is here to persuade those that hear it to labour for a discovery of Christs name to their Souls To persuade sick and fainting Souls to make application of Christs name to themselves To all to study Christs name more to wear it upon their hearts to meditate of it c. 1. To persuade those who know little or nothing of Christ as yet to get a knowledge of Christs name sweetness naturally enticeth the sense and attracts the Soul shall the incomparable sweetness of Christ draw no Souls unto him shall the air of Solomons name bring the Q of the South from the furthest parts of the Earth and shall Christs name draw never a Sinner invite never a Soul to come and tast and see how sweet how good the Lord is You that are enticed with the smell of a flower that lay out your mony for persumes of no value will you have no value for these sweet Ointments Alexander the great was said to have had such a rare temper of his body that it cast forth a natural sweetness I am sure there is an infinite a transcendent sweetness in the Lord Jesus O let the Virgins love him Men and Women that are in a state of Nature are in one sense Virgins not for purity but as not married to Christ O do you love Christ for the
Jesus Christ Of whom he said This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased What are the fatlings kill'd how are all things ready the Lord Jesus Christ hath dyed there is in his blood a sufficiency of merit The Gospel is Preached the Ministers of Christ are sent out to offer reconciliation with God union with Christ to all those to whom the Gospel is Preached a great part of them will not come they make light of the tender of Grace and Salvation what is the matter that they find any difficulty to make hast to their own happiness The three great causes are mentioned and they fall under these three heads 1. Worldly enjoyments 2. Worldly imployments 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions these have all a power upon man by reason of that lust which is in them either the lust of the Eye or the lust of the flesh or the pride of life 1. Wordly enjoyments hinder some The first said I have bought a Farm I must go and see it The young man Mat. 19. seems to have a good mind to follow Christ Christ bids him first go and sell all that he had and he should have riches in Heaven The Text saith he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions Mat 19. 22. Our Saviour upon it saith to his Disciples Verily I say unto you a rich man shalt hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle then for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Another Evangelist expounds this by one that trusteth in his riches The desire of getting riches and the over-much complacency and delight of the Soul in them together with mens valuing themselves upon them are three great drawers of the Soul from Christ The first as it over-ruleth the Soul to an evil covetousness oppression and unjust methods and measures of gain and so brings him into the herd of those that shall never come into Heaven The Second as it melteth the Soul into sensuality and hindereth those acts of Self-denial and Mortification without which a man cannot be Christs Disciple nor ever come into Heaven The 3d As it swells the Soul with pride and lifts it above religious Duties which it judgeth too mean for it suited to poor people but not to Persons of its degree and quality in the world 2. Worldly Employments hinder others Alass That Men and Women should be too busie to attend the making their calling and election sure but so it is The second said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I must go and prove them Some Men and Women are not at leasure to be saved as they are not at leasure to pray that the thoughts of their heart might be forgiven them or to hear that their Souls might live Licitis perimus As many perish by the ill uses of lawful things as by reaching their hands to absolutely forbidden fruit more die by meat then by poison Though the Drunkard cannot keep the narrow path that leads to Eternal life yet what hindereth but that a sober Person should what more lawful then to buy five yoke of Oxen and to try and use them when we have them It is the command of God that In the sweat of our Face we should eat our Bread Ah! But if the Cart draws to the Market when God calls to the Solemn Assemblies of his People the five yoke of Oxen prove of fatal consequence O cupide negotiator saith De-Ponte when a man hath so much business about his body that he hath no leasure to attend the business of his Soul he is over-busy and makes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when his Trading is so much in the world as is inconsistent with having his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his conversation in Heaven then much business makes him mad and his time is but like Domitians spent in catching of flies instead of attending the concerns of the Roman Empire the concerns I mean of his immortal Soul I would have the active men of the world sometimes think whether they have not too much business to manage and go to Heaven too This made our holy Mr. Palmer bless God who had call'd him to the work of the Ministry which drew mens minds towards God whereas most other imployments divert the Soul from God 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions are another kind of things which potently seduce and draw off the Soul from God Another said I have married a Wise and cannot come Never yet any mist of Heaven but had some impediments or other the others prayed to be excused this guest saith I cannot come Riches draw hard so do worldly business and imployments but ah Pleasures pleasures are the bane of Souls like the silly Bee they are drowned in their own Hony Gods voice grates upon the Ears accustomed to Musick and all manner of delightful sounds A bleeding crucified Christ is a most ingrateful object to the wanton Eye that hath been used only to behold pleasant things Yet it is to be observed that he doth not say I am going to an Harlot but I have married a Wife cannot come Still Licitis perimus These are those potent Seducers which suiting with the strong natural byass inclinations of our hearts draw off from Christ Man is too weak to withstand the force of them God doth not please upon every Soul to whom the Gospel is Preached to put forth his power Hence Souls of the same species under the same means and assistances yet incline and move diversely There is there can be nothing in man that makes him in practice to differ from his Neighbour Let not therefore he who is thus drawn glory for it is God who hath drawn him Nor let any murmur on the behalf of those who are not thus drawn Grace is the Lords own he may do with it what he pleaseth Augustine saith well concerning Grace the cause why it is given to one not to another may be hidden and secret but unjust it cannot be In the mean time as I said before I believe at the great day there will be not be found so much as one Soul that shall be able to accuse God for the denial of this Grace this powerful and effectual Grace who hath not voluntarily resisted and vexed the holy Spirit of God in the use of that common Grace for the want of which he hath no reason to complain and shall not the Lord be justified in refusing to draw those who have first suffered a base lust which was in their power to have resisted to draw them away from him Shall not this powerful Grace be righteously denied to them who have suffered themselves by a revel to be drawn from a Sermon 2. Further yet we may from hence have an account of those many startings aside from God of which his own People are guilty and the inequality of gracious motions and actions Some seem to us to stand still
Hypocrite would seem to be somthing but is nothing he doth nothing he is inconcerned in the good of others Souls whereas if he were a true Plant of righteousness he would cast his Seed Prov. 10. 21. The Lips of the Righteous feed many It is an iâ—l sign that there is a truth of grace wanting in that Soul in which are found no endeavours to propagate the knowledge fear of God But I shall shut up my Discourse upon this Argument with a word of Exhortation to all those who profess themselves to have received the special grace of God So to manage their conversation that others by their examples or by their means may be provoked to run after Christ Christ tells his Disciples Mat. 5. 13. That they were the Salt of the Earth and v. 14. The light of the World a City set upon an Hill that God had not lighted up a light in their Souls to be hid for no Man lighteth a Candle to put to it under a Bushel saith he but to be set on a Candlestick that it might give light to all them that are in the House Upon this he foundeth an Exhortation v. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven I see no reason to restrain those Texts unto those that are the Ministers of the Gospel they are true of all true Christians the Children of God in the World are the Salt of the World and it is their duty to season others They are the light of the World and to shew light to the World they are obliged so to live that being themselves drawn others also by their means may run after Christ You will say to me how shall this be How should a Christian so live as to draw others to run after Christ I answer It will very much depend upon 1. The Seriousness of his pious behaviour towards God 2. The Humility and Inn cency and quietness of his behaviour toward men 3. His abounding in good works 4. His Communicativeness both of his Gifts and of his Experiences I will a little inlarge upon all these 1. I sav First It will much depend upon the Evenness and Seriousness of a Christians pious behaviour toward God Religion is in it self a lovely thing and many who cannot get leave of themselves to be pious and devout yet are constrained to commend it in others where they see the Practitioners in it serious and even in their practice for nothing is more odious even to common Eyes than to see men act a part in Religion but for a Christian in praying to pray in hearing to hear to be serious and in earnest in his acts of devotion so to demean himself that he shall appear to others to mind what he is about to be fervent in Spirit while he is serving the Lord is lovely in all mens account to see men gaping about the Church whiles they are pretending to pray sleeping or talking when they are pretending to hear the Word of God winneth none but rather estrangeth the World from God and makes them think there is nothing in Religion but a vain shew But to see a Christian serious and servent in prayer diligent and attentive in hearing hanging as it were upon the Preachers Lips as it is said of those who heard Christ Luke 19. 48. we translate it they were very attentive to hear him the Greek is they did hang upon him this makes People think there is something in Godliness Especially when men are even in their pious conversation that their warmth in Piety is not by fits but there are the same at all times having to do with the same God and being in the same service of God 2. A second thing upon which the inciting others to come to and to run after Christ doth much depend is Christians behavior towards men so three things much commend the grace of God to the World 1. Humility Pride and self exalting are generally odious to all men and men as it were by a natural instinct conclude there is nothing of God in those in whom they see much of Pride discovered by an immoderate boasting uncharitable judging and censuring superciliousness a scorn and contempt of others but now where men have the advantage of the Word of God which commands men to deny themselves to be cloathed with humility in honour to prefer others before themselves to learn of Christ for he is meek and lowly c. they are much more confirmed in this and any thing of pride in Christians doth rather estrange men from God and Christ then cause them to run after him 2. Innocency in Christians is another thing which much commends the ways of God to others Christ commanded his Disciples to be wise as Serpents innocent as Doves Paul exhorteth the Philippians 2. Phil. 15. to be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke Most People have a natural Notion of God that he is full of goodness and doth no Man harm and those who are in any measure acquainted with the Scriptures observe that Christ's conversation on Earth was an innocent harmless conversation the Apostle Heb. 7. 26. calleth him not only undefiled and separate from Sinners but holy and harmless Now an innocent conversation implieth righteousness in all injustice there must be harm done to others 3. A third thing that makes an honest and winning Conversation towards men is quietness and peaceableness in opposition to Tumultuousness Sedition and quaâ—reling The Apostle commands us to study to be Qâ—iet 1 Thess 4. 11. I need not enlarge upon this Experience tells you how much a quietness and peaceableness of behaviour obligeth the World and how much a contrary temper disobligeth it from Men and Women professing to Religion and Godliness God is the God of Peace and delighteth not in confusion 3. A third thing upon which much depends the winning and gaining of others to run after Christ is abounding in good works I here restrain the Notion of good works understanding by them acts of Mercy and Charity towards men Our Saviour bids us make our selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness and by it teacheth us that good works of this Nature are not unprofitable as to our own Souls though they are no fit price to purchase Heaven with But they are also of great use to save the Souls of others as they have a tendency to commend the grace and ways of God unto other men On the other side acts of Oppression Cruelty and uncharitableness have a great malignity to estrange Souls from Religion and Godliness It is a sad story I have somewhere met with upon the Cruelty shewed by the Spaniards to the Indians upon their pretended converting them to the Faith of the Gospel A great Person of the Indians would know whither the Souls of the Spaniards went when they died to Heaven or to Hell and being told they went to Heaven replied Then
world so sweet and pleasant to their thoughts as to think of Jesus of Nazareth him that was incarnate of the Virgin that died upon the cross for sinners all their contemplations and meditations of him are exceeding sweet and their hearts exercised about them melt in them 4. They love whatsoever bears the image and superscription of Christ The Gospel that gives them the history of Christ and revealeth to them his will the ordinances of Christ in which the loves of Christ are set forth represented opened applied to the Souls of people The members of Christ even every Soul in which they can but see aliquid Christâ— as Bucer speaks any thing of the features of Christ This is enough to have spoken for the explication of the Proposition For the proof of it 1. Look into the Word of God see if you can find an instance either of an upright man who did not love Christ or of an bypocrite or unregenerate man that did love him Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for righteousness he was one that walked with God and was perfect that is upright he loved Christ Our Lord saith of him Abraham saw my day and rejoyced Simon and Anna and Peter and Mary Magdâ—lene all were upright Persons they all loved Christ On the other side there is not so much as one instance of an unjustified unregenerate Soul that had any real love for Christ no not when they saw him here in the flesh It is said of the young Pharisee who came to our Saviour Mat. 19. that when Christ saw him he loved him but he had no love for Christ for when he bid him go sell all that he had and he should have treasures in Heaven it is said he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions Judas followed Christ and so did the Capernaites but Judas carried the bag and the Capernaites followed him for the loaves None of them loved Christ in sincerity and truth We need no other instances then what our own age affordeth us But we need no Scripture in this case Reason will evince the necessary truth of this Proposition if we consider that all love is founded either 1. In the apprehended goodness and excellency of the object beloved Or 2. In some similitude and likeness c. Or â—loweth 3. From some instinct of which we can give no very just account I will begin with the last first 1. Love to another often proceeds from some inaccountable instinct we see this very ordinary amongst us the heart of a woman cleaveth to a man or of a man to a woman â—o the heart of one friend is knit to another and we are able to give our selves no great account of it the man loveth the woman to whom he had a former aversion and the woman loveth and chuseth the man for her Husband that she did never think of and they can give themselves no account of the change which they find in themselves this is undoubtedly a providential instinct or influence of which we can give no account The Souls love to Christ also floweth from an instinct of God an influence of special grace for certainly if we must be taught of God to love one another to love the brethren whom we have seen and daily do see and much that is lovely in them we have much more need to be taught of God to love Christ whom we have not seen and whose excellency and amiableness is only matter of faith to us Hence it appeareth that no unrenewed no unsanctified heart none but the upright Soul can possibly love the Lord Jesus Christ for this love is no natural habit no man by nature loveth Christ nor is it any acquired habit but an infused habit and indeed a piece of regeneration 2. Love to an object is founded in an apprehension of some goodness and excellency in that object we cannot love any object that appeareth to us evil or unlovely Now none but the renewed and regenerate Soul can possibly see any goodness and excellency in Christ for it is spiritually discerned besides the reason of love in us to any object is not so much the abstracted goodness and excellency of the object as its relative goodness unto us now none but the Soul that is justified and regenerate Soul hath in any thing tasted of the love of God or hath found him in any degree good as to it 3. Lastly Whereas love is founded in likeness in some similitude of nature or disposition and qualities there is such a dissimilitude between a natural man whether he be one that is profane and flagitious or meerly moral and formal and hypocriticaâ— that this Soul cannot love the Lord Jesus Christ who is holy and harmless and separate from sinners and the very same reasons make it necessary for every Soul to love Christ for every such Soul is renewed and regenerate and taught of God to love the Lord Jesus Christ every such Soul is beloved of him and under some apprehensions and experience of the love of God in Christ unto it every such Soul finally hath the Image of God renewed in it in righteousness and holiness and by grace wrought up into a conformity to Christ and the more upright the Soul is the more is the image of God renewed in it the more it hath tasted the special love of Christ the more it hath received of the potent influences of Divine Grace hence it must needs love Christ more I now come to the application In the first place This may let us know That Christ is a most excelling object and the non-adherence of our hearts to him is a piece of the natural crookedness and defection of the Soul of man The goodness or excellency of an object is not to be determined from a vulgar judgment Learning is an excellent thing the foolish ignorant person doth not so judge it nor look after it this detracts nothing from the excellency of it Wise men value it It hath no enemies but the ignorant man Now the judgment of the best and wiser part of the world their value and prizing of it is enough to commend it though fools hate knowledge So the upright mans loving Christ is a sufficient evidence of the transcendent goodness and excellency that is in him tho the loose and profane man the formal hypocritical man hath no love at all for him There are thousands in the world in the Christian world whose conversations testify that they can see no beauty no excellency in Christ at all to them he grows up as a root out of a dry ground in their Eyes he hath no beauty no comeliness at all They stand and admire what sweetness Gods people have in their meditations and contemplations of him what is that sometimes makes them so sick of love for him so breaking with longings after him as holy David expresseth it The business is not what fools judge of Wisdom in the mean time Wisdom is
presently after his death and troubled the Church for 300 years together the root of them was doubtless the worlds hatred this our Saviour hath learned us and in some measure armed his people against it John 15. 8. If the world hate you you know it hated me before it hated you If you were of the world the world would love his own But because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you God hath put an enmity betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent Christ and his Seed the Devil and his Children but in regard we must not so understand that Text Gen. 3. 15. as if God infused those evil habits of malice and envy and hatred of God and goodness but only that God would infuse such Spiritual gracious habits into the Souls of his People as through that native malice envy and corruption which is in the hearts of such as God pleaseth not to change by his special grace would provoke such an enmity in them we must inquire into the root and grounds of that hatred which produceth this enmity and hostility and that is 1. Their natural aversion to all piety and goodness And 2. That Pride which is in their hearts which suffereth them not to be patient of the preference of godly men in the favour of God nor of being excelled by them before men in such a conversation as their lusts will not suffer them to lead much less to be condemned by their Doctrines and reproofs hence they both hate such as will reprove them either in the Gate or from the Pulpit and because the Ministers of Christ are those to whose Office especially the latter belongeth hence they have in all times been made the buts and objects of their fury But though these afflictions come immediately and proximately from men yet they are also the appointments of God the counsels of God executed by his permissive Providence not restraining the malice and lusts of wicked mens hearts but suffering them to exert and put it forth the same account must be given of this sort as of other sorts of Gods afflictive dispensations 1. The punishment of his peoples sins 2. The trial exercise and manifestations of his peoples graces 1. The punishment of his peoples sins and this is for the most part evident in such Persecutions as fall upon whole Churches I say for the most part it is rare that God lets loose Enemies upon a setled Church to disturb its quiet till it hath losts its first love and admitted sinful mixtures Thus it fell out to the famous Churches of Asia to whom the Epistles were written in the Revelations and it may be the obvious decays of Religion in the Primitive Churches were no small cause of the Persecutions which vexed and destroyed them for three hundred years together 2. The trial exercise and manifestation of his peoples graces was also another cause this we are often told in the Epistles of the Apostles nor did the Church of Christ receive a small augmentation and increase by the courage and constancy the faith and patience of the Martyrs 3. Lastly God also by this means obtaineth another end viz. Wicked mens filling up the measures of their iniquities That upon them might come as our Saviour speaks all the righteous blood that hath been shed by their Fore-fathers But all this is a digression from the principal thing in the Proposition which is to shew you how these blacken the Spouse of Christ That is either 1. Really by drawing out corruption Or 2. Appearingly in the Eyes of the world 1. Afflictions often really blacken the Spouse of Christ as they draw out that latent Corruption which is in their Hearts This is true both concerning the Church and concerning the particular Soul 1. As to the Church which is by our Saviour compared to a Field of Wheat in which are Tares as well as Wheat and to a Net which within the swallow of it hath bad as well as good fish Now Persecution makes a great discovery of Hypocrites they that received the Seed into stony ground having no root in themselves fall away enduring but a while and when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth for the Word are immediately offended the Dragons Tail Revel 12. 4. drew down the third part of the Stars of Heaven and did cast them down to the Earth Thus it is seen in all Persecutions they alwaies discover a great number of Hypocrites false Brethren yea and often many of Gods People at first shrink and fall under the greatness of the temptation so you know it sell out as to Peter in the High Priests Hall and so it hath been with many of such as have at last dyed in the testimony of the truths of God These things make the Church black when the Sun looketh upon it though in the issue the melting of the Church proveth the purifying of it and making it exceeding white as you know it is with many things purified by fire though the fire maketh them at last more bright and pure yet at first till their dross be cleansed they look more black so it is with the Church of God in the day of its fiery trial So it is also as to Particular Christians Tribulation in them at last worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope Even such an hope as will not make ashamed but this is after some excercise therein Hence saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 11. Now no chastening for the present seeâ—oth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby How black did holy Job look Chap. 3. When he Cursed the day of his birth Who afterward being exercised with a long affliction came out white Till by Tribulation the Soul cometh to be humbled and tamed to the will of God and to have his will melted into a resignation to the will of God till his faith and patience come to be both tryed and to have their perfect work Tribulation and Persecution maketh the Spouse really black like the Person that hath taken Physick to purge out some ill humours so long as his Physick is working and strugling with the peccant humours he is sicker and appeareth worse then before he took it 2. But secondly Tho Persecution and Tribulation may at first make the Spouse really black yet they make her appear much more black then she is in the Eyes of the world and the generality of men and women in it of which a various account may be given I will instance but in two or three things 1. The first is the impressions which the calumnies and slanders of Enemies thrown upon the Church and upon believers have upon many people There is nothing more ordinary then when the Enemies of God are in their highest rage against his People to have their mouths fullest of obloquy and slander
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
mouths they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Christ in the Parable of the Sower compareth some hearers of the Word to the ground that received the Seed amongst Thorns the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choked the Word and made it become unfruitful It is a great blackness of a Christian not to have his heart with God in Religious Services so as the Lord as the Prophet expresseth it is nigh in his mouth and far from his reins and it is a blackness that will cover the face of every man and woman that converseth too much with the world Paul therefore rightly adviseth the Corinthians that they should use the world in a careless manner that those that rejoyced in the affluences of it should be as if they rejoyced not and those that bought as if they possessed not and those that used the world as not abusing it But saith he I would have you without carefulness 1 Cor. 7. 30 31 32. 4. Worldly imployments have often an ill influence upon Christians to intice and allure them to sin not only by omissions of duty but by the commissions of things which are contrary to their duty there is a sensible sweetness in worldly enjoyments and those are the product of worldly business and imployment The Devil baiteth all his Hooks with some piece of the World or other Some with the sensibly sweet part of it some with the gay and splendid part of it some with the richer and more profitable part of it It is an hard thing for Christians to keep Vineyards and not drink some of that intoxicating Wine which is the fruit of them When Samuel gave up his account as a Judge in 1 Sam. 12. 3. Behold saith he here I am witness against me before the Lord whose Ox have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe Paul in like manner thus acquitteth himself to the Church of Ephesus Acts 20. 33. I have coveted no Mans Silver or Gold or Apparel But shew me the Man or Woman that hath been much incumbred with worldly affairs and can say I have coveted no Mans House or Land or Silver or Gold or that can say To whom have I told a lie for my gain or said it hath cost me so much when indeed it did not Or whom have I done injustice to in a bargain Commonly the best of the Market which such Christians have is that of Zacheus Luke 19. If I have taken any thing from any man by unjust dealings I restore him fourfold 5. Lastly A too great incumbrance with the world leaves a blot upon Christians in the common repute of the world if they escape real blots from it Holy Men in the Greek are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is men who are not Earthly and the world expects it of such as profess to Religion and Godliness that they should be persons looking for better Houses then those made of Clay even an House in the Heavens not made with hands and for a better Country and a more induring substance Hence a too great pursuit of the world becometh a greater blot to Persons professing to an heavenly conversation then unto others Our conversation is in Heaven saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our trading and business is in Heaven I shall only add two or three words for application of this discourse This in the first place giveth us all an opportunity to bewail the disadvantage we have all received from the fall of Adam It was a curse which upon the fall fell upon all the Posterity of Adam Gen. 3. 19. In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy Bread till thou return to the ground I do not think that if man had continued in innocency he should have lived idly but Mercers opinion is very probable his labour should rather have been for delight then for necessity or rather his labour should not have been so great as now it is the Thorns and Thistles which the ground now naturally brings forth and in the prevention and extirpation of which the labour of the Husbandman is so much were clearly the effect of the curse upon the Earth Gen. 3. 18. a lively-hood for the Sons of Men had doubtless been got at a cheaper rate with lesser labour and man had been at a great deal more liberty and leisure for a communion with God and have had more time for his immortal Soul then his worldly occasions will now permit or allow This may be a profitable meditation for the poorer sort of Christians whom the need of Bread for themselves and the want of a just provision for their Families restrain from spending so much time in communion with God as they would to sit down and think of the woful effect and fruit of the sin of Adam that first sin of man which reduced the Sons and Daughters of men to these miserable necessities Secondly Observe from hence what an advantage those have whom the liberal hand of Divine Providence hath delivered from such a miserable servitude to secular affairs If they will make themselves slaves and drudges to the World they may but the Providence of God hath not put them upon any necessity so to do God hath given them Estates to live upon Servants to toil for them I will but offer two things to the consideration of these 1. How inexcusable will you be if you do not keep your own Vineyards well Your own Vineyards are your Souls those immortal Substances ordained to an Eternity ennobled with Reason and many gifts and faculties by which if you will you may bring forth much fruit to the honour and glory of God if now you be not found mighty in the Scriptures much in reading hearing prayer close in your walking with God c. You cannot plead that you want leisure A morning and evening Service God under the Law required and in the same proportion doubtless under the Gospel though not by way of Sacrifice properly so called I observe of David and Daniel that they prayed thrice in a day Psal 55. 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud saith David Of Daniel we read Dan. 6. 10. that he kneeled three times a day and prayed and gave thanks unto God as he did before-time They were both great men and at more leisure than ordinary Jews they considered this and as God had doubled their portions so they thought it reasonable in some measure to proportion their duties to their circumstances 2. Secondly Consider how little you will have to say if you so far intangle your selves in the world as it becometh a snare to your Souls Who pitieth him that is burned who for meer wantonness puts his finger in the fire Hath God given us food and rayment Jacob begged no more The Apostle commandeth us if we have so
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
the Harvest but then the Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth Matth. 13. 40 41 42. Some telling them that there is no communion with Christ but by joining with the Prayers of the Church and receiving the Sacrament with the Church as if an external communion with Christ which Judas a Son of perdition had were all that men and women need look after These different notions and instructions sometimes puzzle the minds of Gods own People and make them to be at a great loss I now come to the Application This in the first Place lets us see what a perpetual use and need there will be of an able standing Gospel Ministry and the goodness of God in providing such an ordinance for his Church The interest of Souls lyeth in two things 1. In an union with Christ and reconciliation to God 2. In a fellowship and communion with him The Ministry of the Gospel is and will be useful to the end of the World on both these accounts 1. For procuring promoving Souls reconciliation to God and union with Christ 2 Cor. 5. 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be you reconciled to God So long as there are any sinners in the World any Souls in such a state as living and dying in it they cannot be saved So long will be need of Gospel Ministers and such too as are both able and faithful There are some in the World that think a Conversion to an opinion from Paganism to the outward profession of Christ is all the Conversion necessary and Baptism all the regeneration necessary according to whose Doctrine all Drunkards Whoremongers Men-stealers Lyers Thieves Extortioners Covetous Persons Sorcerers if Baptized must be saved directly contrary to what the Apostle affirms these indeed may think the Ministry of the Gospel needless Preaching needless amongst Christians and only of use amongst Heathens or count no more need of Ministers then of Philosophers from Athens to read men lectures of a good life and any Ministers any kind of Preaching will serve the turn A lecture out of Aristotle or Plato is as good a Sermon as they see any need of But those who will believe what Paul saith 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. That there are multitudes amongst Baptized Persons not reconciled to God and who shall never come into Heaven which is confirmed also by Saint John Rev. 21. 8. They must see a need of this Ordinance and acknowledge the great mercy in this gift to the Church 2. Nay indeed this Doctrine may convince you That if all within the Church were Christians not in name onely but indeed washed with the blood of Christ Justified and Sanctified yet there would be need of such an Ordinance For the best of Christians are oft times at loss how to uphold maintain their communion with Christ Here now lye th the work of the Ministry of the Gospel as the hand in the way to direct Christians which way to go that they may come to the journies end which they aim at the end of their hopes and the Salvation of their Souls This was the end of Christs institution of them Eph. 4. 12. For the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying the body of Christ If there be such a thing as Christians fellowship and communion with Christ if they may be and often are at loss how to maintain this communion they had need of some to be helpers of their faith and of their joy Which is the Notion of Ministers given by the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 14. Yea and they had need be able Ministers too How various are the cases of Christians how different one from another This work is to be done publickly which indeed serveth for the most of Christians and privately also for those who cannot receive Satisfaction from publick instructions Alas who is sufficient for these things and how slighty a business is ordinarily made of the greatest work the most weighty imployment under Heaven How many watchmen are there that like those mentioned in the 3d Chapter of this Song When the Spouse of Christ comes to them complaining as v. 6. That her beloved hath withdrawn himself and is gone when their Souls fail when they come and tell them that they have sought their beloved and cannot find him they have called but he hath given them no answer instead of relieving of them they smite them wound them take away their vails from them they wound them with cruel and envenomed Words mock and jeer and revile them and know not how to speak a word to the weary indeed not understanding what a wearied Soul means the most they are able to say is what is thy beloved more then anothers beloved The Lord pity his flock and give them Pastors according to his own heart who can feed them with wisdom and understanding and will be faithful in doing of it men to whom the Lord God hath given the tongue of the learned that they may speak a Word in season to those that are weary as he promised Isaiah 50. 4. There are no more pestilent enemies to the People of God then those that would have the flock of Christ without Shepherds or which it may be is worse Supplied with Idol Shepherds as the Prophet calls them Zech. 11. 17. And indeed are like Idols that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not the name of Shepherds but nothing of the skill and faithfulness required in such a place This Notion Secondly may give some relief to Souls whose condition this may be Here may be some before the Lord this day who are crying out where is my God become Lord when wilt thou strengthen me Quicken me Comfort me I confess the case of these Christians is sad communion with Christ is the life of a good Christians life All the comfort and Satisfaction of his life is bound up in this one thing let him want this he wants all if he be at a loss as to this he is quite lost this is that which differenceth the true Child of God from an Hypocrite the profane man lives without a God in the World all talk of communion with God is but canting the thing it self a Chimera The Hypocrites ends cannot be obtained by this course of life he taketh up with meer external acts of communion never regarding whether he hath any communion with God in and by those acts he can live without any presence of God without any influence of God upon his Soul A Child of God cannot if he wanteth communion with God he calls all into question doubteth of his union and whether he hath not been all this while mistaken whether his Soul be yet actually reconciled and
your Souls an high estimate of Jesus Christ and the influences of his grace If saith Christ any man loveth me I will come to him and make my abode with him John 14. 21. The Soul that truly loveth Christ shall never be ignorant where to find him 4. Lastly Study holiness in all manner of conversation The Spouse saith that he feedeth among the Lillies the Lillies are white and fruitful Let your apprehension of Christs withdrawing the communications of himself to your Souls be no temptation to you to withhold the communications of your selves to him though you may find it more hard and difficult and that you cannot do your duty with so much ease yet do it If you cannot do what you would yet do what you can if as you think you do not you cannot overtake God yet let your Souls press hard after him But what shall be said to that Soul that is at loss and in such a state as that it doth not know where it s Beloved feedeth where he maketh his flocks to rest at Noon 1. Let such Souls look for him in the promise where it wants the sight of him in his Providences There David found him when he cryed out Remember thy Word in which thou hast caused me to hope The promises are Christs place when he returneth from a Soul he retreateth no further All the punishment that our tender Lord putteth his Spouse to suffer is to live by faith not by sight Christ in his Providences may appear to a Soul yea and nay sometimes a friend sometimes an Enemy But in his promises he is always yea and Amen the true and faithful one I have already shewed you that the Promises are those green pastures were Christ feeds his flocks in the Noon of trials and afflictions 2. Look for him in supporting influences when you cannot see him in comforting and quickening influences Christ communicateth himself variously to the Souls of his People not always in the same methods or influences see if thou doest not feel his strength when thou doest not find his consolatory manifestations you have heard that the communion of the believing Soul with Christ never ceaseth it is only our sense that fails or some particular Manifestations or the degrees of them may abate We ought therefore to look narrowly to see if we cannot find any influences of Christ upon our Souls when it may be we cannot discern those which our Eye is most upon 3. Thirdly Be as free as you can in your part of this communion when you cannot discern your Lord so free in his part You may rest upon this That Christ will never be in your debt nor be long wanting in his communications of his grace to that Soul that is ready to communicate it self unto him It may be I or another Soul may not see and discern it but Christ is never behind hand with the Soul as to acts of love Nay we could not be free in communication of our Souls to him without his first influencing our Souls with strength to such a liberty 4. Lastly take the advice of your beloved in the text Go your way by the footsteps of the flock And feed your kids by the Shepherds tents But that leadeth me to the last part of the Text which I called the Direction in answer to the petition Of that if God please in my next exercise Sermon XLVI Cant. 1. 8. If thou knowest not O thou fairest amongst Women Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the Flock and feed thy Kids by the Shepher ds Tents I am now come to the last part of the Text The Beloved's Direction What to do that she might find where her beloved fed his flocks where he made them to rest at Noon It is expressed in these words Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and seed thy kids by the Shepherds tents By the flocks when I opened the words more largely I told you was meant the Church the People of God often in Scripture compared to a flock I will gather the remnant of the flock Jer. 23. 2. The Lord hath visited his flock Zech. 10. 3. Fear not little flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom Luke 12. 32. Feed the flock of God 1 Pet. 5 2. So in many other Texts The word in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferently signifieth any company of lesser Cattel whether Sheep or Goats though it be most ordinarily applied to sheep as in 1 Sam. 15. 2. Jer 50. 6. Jer. 31. 19 c. The People of God are ordinarily the lesser sort of men and women in the world Not many noble not many wise but the poor of the World hath the Lord Chosen The great ones of the World for the most part are of the Herd not of the flock 1 A flock is a term of multitude Gods People are not the greatest number of the World but yet they are a great number God in the worst times which were those of Ahab had 7000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him with their lips St. John saw 144000 sealed Rev. 7. 4. There were two great breeders of Gods antient Flock Leah and Rachel these two did build up the house of God from these came threescore and ten Souls whom God sent to pasture in Egypt there they were killed up apace yet they multiplyed to an exceeding great number from thence they were led like a Flock through the Wilderness by the conduct of Moses and Aaron in Canaan they also increased till for their sins God let in Wolves upon them to destroy them It is true all were not Israel that were of Israel but yet they all constituted the visible Church of the Jews and doubtless there were a great number of them who were of the invisible Church of that little Flock to whom it was the Fathers will to give a Kingdom In Christs time the flock of God began to be gathered together in one and soon after his ascension into Heaven those other sheep mentioned John 10. who were not of the Jewish fold began to be added by vertue of his commission granted to 12 principal Shepherds under the great Shepherd and multitudes were added to this flock since that time the wild beasts of the field and forrest have broken in upon it seeding in several Countries and places But yet they are many 2. A flock is a term of unity The Church of Christ is many yet but one body united by one common faith and under on head All the true Members of it have one Shepherd one law and rule The true Church therefore is doubtless the flock which is here mentioned By the footsteps of the flock The footsteps you all know is the Print of the feet The course of boliness is in Scripture called The way of the Righteous The footsteps of the flock can signify nothing but the Examples of the holy Servants of God which have gone before
grace are made to the exercises of grace Christ will be alwaies giving to those who are alwaies working out their Salvation with fear and trembling exercising themselves to Godliness These exercises are those sacred means in the use and not without the use of which he hath promised the influences of further grace Men mistake the promises of further grace if they apprehend them made to any who do not their duty as to the fulfilling of them when God had made those large promises of which you read Ezek. 36. He concludeth v. 37. Thus faith the Lord God I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them I will do it faith God but yet I will be inquired of to do it for them And for that promise Matth. 13. 12. Whosoever hath to him it shall be given and he shall have more abundance though by the foregoing verse where our Saviour giveth a reason why he soake to his disciples more plainly then to others Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given It seems to be a promise of further grace to those to whom the first grace is given Yet in Matth. 25. 29. where the same promise is repeated and annexed to the parable of the talents it is plainly to be understood of those who have and use and improve what they have so as take those two Texts together they are a promise indeed of further grace to be given but to such as make a just improvement of what grace God hath first bestowed upon them 2. Secondly Our exercises of Godliness are indeed the wearing of these Jewels God gives men and women grace for their uses exercise is the use of the habit and the end for which the Lord giveth it What man will be continually buying clothes and Ornaments for his Wife who when she hath them will not wear them They are no Ornaments if they do not adorn us how shall they adorn us in the sight of the World which cannot look into our hearts unless we use and wear them How can we wear and exercise our grace but by works of piety towards God and goodness towards men I will add yet one thing more 3. It is but ingenuity in us when our Lord is never weary of giving out to us never satisfied never thinking that he hath done enough for us to be thinking we have not done enough nor can ever do enough for him when we hear Christ saying to us I will make them borders of Gold and Ornaments of Silver Should not we be saying We will take some new steps in the ways of God do some further acts of obedience then we have yet done forget what is behind and press on to what is before unto the price of the high calling Shall my beloved never think me fine enough Adorned enough And shall I ever think my self holy and Spiritual enough Serviceable enough to him in my generation Shall not I be ever trying some new ways to advance Christ in the World in my family in my own Soul Christ asks his disciples what do you do more then others Matth. 5. You receive more but what do you do more Every good Christian should ask himself these two questions 1. What do I more then others I have more mercy then others what do I more than they It is a shame for a Christian to do no more than a Publican a poor wretch that never tasted how good the Lord is yea it is a shame for him to do no more than he who hath not received the measures of grace which he hath received The 2d Question I would have him propound to himself is What do I do more than I was wont to do Wherein do I go on from strength to strength Wherein do I exceed my self Christ is preparing new measures of grace for giving out new measures of grace to me What new affections have I for Jesus Christ What new performances do I do for him The second thing in which I told you Holiness lay was in mortification of lusts and vitious habits in eschewing evil c. Is our Lord making and preparing new Ornaments for Believers How should they be afraid to grieve and dishonour him This Notion affords a double Argument whereby to press this second part of Holiness 1. From Ingenuity It is no way ingenous and becoming Christians to be pulling Jewels as it were out of Christ's Crown while he is adding Jewels to our Crown to be spoiling Christ of his Honour and Glory while he is consulting our honour and satisfaction O therefore grieve not his holy Spirit 2. There will by it arise a disadvantage to your Immortal Souls What Husband will still be bringing new Ornaments to a froward and disobedient Wife that taketh no care to please him Duty may oblige him to see that she shall not want necessaries but he will certainly cut her short of superfluities God in this as I have shewed you deals after the manner of men God's Cove nant his Truth and Faithfulness to that will oblige him notwithstanding his Peoples frowardness to give them what grace is necessary to bring them to Heaven but they must look to be cut short of that more grace which they otherwise might receive from him The Soul of a Christian who giveth himself too much liberty may be saved but it will be as through fire When David had fallen into those two great sins of Adultery and Murder I remember God sent Nathan to him with this Message 2. Sam. 12. 7 8. I anointed thee King over Israel and delivered thee out of the hands of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters Houses and thy Masters Wives into thy bosom and gave thee the House of Israel and Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight c. God there aggravaâ—eth 〈…〉 not only from those mercies which he had already received from God but from that Love which was yet in his heart for him and his readiness to do much more for him than he had yet done Think when you have any temptations to sin against the Lord that you hear Christ saying to you I died upon the Cross for you I washed you in my Blood I have pardoned thy sins clothed thee with my Righteousness changed thy heart put my 〈◊〉 into thee and if that had been too little I was ready to do for thee such and such things to make for thee Borders of Gold and Studs of Silver and shouldst thou now favour thy lusts which are the Enemies of Christ shouldst thou now despise the Commandments of the Lord and do evil in his sight Let this ingage all of us to fulfil the Precept of the Apostle 2 â—et 1. 5. Giving all diligence To add to our faith
Would you have your Spikenard send forth the smell thereof Take heed then of Dead Flies The Wise man tells us That one Dead Fly will make the Apothecary's whole Box of Ointment to stink What are Dead Flies in this case but scandalous sips proceeding from our extravagant lusts and passions One open scandalous sin will make a Christian 's whole Box of Spikenard cast forth an unpleasant smell in the World One sinful act will not lose us Heaven but it will in a great measure spoil our scent How many have we known who I hope are gone to Heaven who yet by their scandalous actions like David made the Enemies of God to blaspheme I hope they are some of them gone with Spikenard I mean with a truth of grace to their graves but their Spikenard had wofully lost its scent It 's a sad thing when a man of whom we can hardly presume that he was in favour with God and in a state of Grace yet leaves the World with a better report for justice and charity for mercy and bounty and liberality than one who professed higher and went for a Child of God 2. Take heed of exposing thy conversation to too much Air I speak in this Dialect to keep to the Metaphor a little Too much of Air spoileth the scent of the most precious Ointment Take heed of too much needless converse with the World Things that keep their scent must be kept close It is true at all times much more in such debauched times as we live in the more recluse and private from the World a Christian keepeth himself the better he will keep his scent 3. Keep thy self from actions as to which though thou art satisfied thou mayest do them but they are not of good report either amongst Christians or men of the World It is too much the Errour of Christians that in matters of offence and scandal they only have a respect to Brethren It is true we ought to have a first and principal respect to them I am sure our Rule is more extensive 1 Cor. 10. 32. Give none offence either to the Jews or Gentiles or to the Churches of Christ The Apostle puts the Churches of Christ last as if it ought to be the least of our care not to offend the Churches of Christ I know no such thing can be concluded from the order of the Apostle's words Yet one would think if in actions of this nature any might be neglected it should be Believers whom we might presume to be of more knowledge and judgment than to take any such offences and if they did so as they should reprove us for it yet to have more love for God than for any such actions in any persons to cause Religion and the holy Name of God to be evil spoken of our great care should be to have a good report of those who are without and Christians carelesness as to this is without doubt their great Errour we ought not only to follow things that are just and honest and pure but things also that are lovely and of a good report Phil. 4. 8. and to provide things honest in the sight of all men Rom. 12. 17. 4. You must live in the practice and exercise of Grace if you will have it send forth the smell thereof It is the rubbed Pomander that is sweet The Ointment poured out which sendeth out a savour It is not Grace talked of but acted and in its full exercise that sendeth forth its pleasant smell 5. Lastly Be as much in communion with Christ as thou canst The King must be at his Table when our Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof Be much with him in Prayer Meditation Hearing the Word The Preaching of the Gospel is the feast of fat things upon the Mountains and here because it is a time when some of you are preparing for your duty of communion with Christ in the Ordinance of his Supper let me mind you of your duty as to that the rather because I find our own Annotators and divers other Expositors of my Text touching upon it in their Notes That Table is the King's Table It is called the Lord's Table he is the Master of that Feast as well as the Provision It is an Ordinance which the Lord hath instituted for our Soul's fellowship and communion with him Our Souls draw out from the Fountain of his Fulness by this Conduit-pipe Neglect not that sacred Ordinance that your Spikenard may send forth the smell thereof And Remember while you sit there that you do not restrain your Souls from God but give out your Souls in the exercise of the graces of Faith Love Repentance Thanksgiving proper for that holy communion with this King of Glory Sermon LII Cant. 1. 12. While the King sitteth at his Table my Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof I Proceed to the 2d Proposition which in my last discourse I observed from these words Prop. That the smell of the Spouses Spikenard doth much depend upon Christs presence with her and influence upon her I have already told you that the believers gracious habits are the Spikenard here mentioned That the sending forth the smell thereof signifieth the exercise of these habits to the pleasing of God and the honour of God in the sight and face of the World This I say doth very much depend upon Christs presence with and influence upon the Souls which is the thing here expressed by the Kings sitting at his table I shall prove this proposition by proving these four things 1. That all exercise of gracious habits dependeth upon Christs influence upon and communion with the Soul 2. That degrees of gracious exercises depend upon degrees of such communion and influence 3. That as is the exercise of grace So is the smell thereof 4. That in deserted Souls grace doth not give out its smell Or at least very little 1. I say 1. All exercise of gracious habits dependeth upon Christs influence upon and communion with the Soul God doth not only infuse habits of grace but he also eliciteth the acts of grace Hence our Saviour tells us Joh. 15. 3. That without him we can do nothing And the Apostle tells us That he giveth to will and to do of his own good pleasure It is Musculus his observation upon Joh. 15. 3. our Saviour doth not say that without me you can do no great thing or without me you cannot do any great thing but without me you can do nothing And the Apostle calleth Christ not only the author but the finisher of our saith Heb. 12 â— and 1 Phil. 29. It is given to you on the behalf of Christ to believe a power to believe that is the habit but the Lord doth not only give us a power to believe but to believe actually Acts of faith and holiness are our fruit The habits of either are the seed the Acts are the fruit and so are often called in holy writ Joh. 15. 2 3 4.
it is wholesome against insection helpeth women in travel cureth consumptions quickeneth the appetite c. I shall not dwell upon this because I do not think it chiefly intended But Christ in this sense is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh healing all the Soul's diseases Ps 103. 3. He is that tree Rev. 22. 2. Whose leaves are for the healing of the Nations He healâ—th the broken in heart Psal 147. 3. What he did while he was upon the Earth by his miraculous power as to mens bodies Mat. 4. 23. Healing all manner of Sickness that he doth now in Heaven for the Soul by his saving efficacy 3. Myrrh is as I told you a great preservative against putresaction Which was the cause of their using of it about dead bodies either putting it into the body after the Egyptian Method or outwardly anointing or embalming the body with it after the Jewish Method Christ is the same to the Soul where he dwells he preserveth the Soul against the putrifaction of lusts and corruptions The Apostle speaks this Rom. 6. 3. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Where he argues that the Souls Interest in Christ arising from its justification preserveth the Soul against putrifying lusts that sin cannot have dominion over it because it is not under the law but under grace But I hasten to the 4th which in the Judgment of Interpreters is chiefly intended here 4. Myrrh whether in the Herb Spice or Gum is exceeding sweet Hence you read of beds and garments persumed with Myrrh Now the greater quantity there is the stronger the odour must be Christ is a heap of sweets exceeding sweet to the Soul his mouth is most sweet Cant. 5. 16. his Cheeks are as sweet Flowers his lips drop sweet smelling Myrrh Cant. 5. 13. Sweetness to the nostrils is nothing else but a smell that arising from some hidden quality in the thing that emits it and conveyed to the nostrils by the air gratifies that outward sense There is a sweetness that is mental too A Notion is as sweet to the Scholar as a perfume is to a Lady Prov. 13. 19. Desire accomplished is sweet to the Soul Christs sweetness is mental sweetness he is sweetness not to the nostrils but to the Soul and so he is a bundle of sweets Let me unty this bundle of Myrrh a little And shew you how Christ is sweet I will open it to you in three things 1. He is exceeding sweet in his actions as our Redeemer As to these he is a bundle of Myrrh there were many of them His Vniting of the Divine nature to the Humane nature in his Incarnation his fulfilling the law his death upon the cross His resurrection ascending sitting at his Fathers right hand making intercession for us The Soul smells of all these by Meditation and faith and the smell is like that of a bundle of Myrrh shall I shew you how 1. For his Incarnation with the manner of it he united the divine and humane nature by an hypostatical union was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a Virgin without the help of man Mr. Ainsworth and others think this Text hath a special referenee to this this is Christ now considered as wrapt in swadling clothes and laid in a manger The Soul smells of this by a firm and stedfast divine faith believing the thing because God hath said it in his word though it cannot see it by the evidence of reason and sense And the Souls smells of it continually by meditation And O how sweet it is to a believing Soul Then saith the Soul first he that Sanctifieth and I that am Sanctified are both one I see Christ is not ashamed to call me Brother 2. Then faith the Soul I see I have a merciful high-Priest that knoweth how to pity a poor piece of flesh hungring and thirsting and full of infirmities 3. Again here 's comfort saith the poor Soul to me I was born a leper under the imputed guilt of Adams sin I was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity But my Saviour was born without sin the vessel was made pure by the overshadowings of the Holy Ghost and no impure hand contributed to his conveyance into the World I was born a Child of wrath indebted to justice before I knew what I did but he was born a Child of Love He was born with a knowledge of humane infirmities to know how to pity me but without sinful infirmities That he might be in a capacity to save and help me Again saith the Soul Then I see a perfect and sufficient Saviour One meâ—rly God considering the justice of God that could give no remission without blood could not have saved me because he could not have died for me and so have destroyed him that had the power of death One meerly man could not have saved me for he could not have merited But a Person that was God and man God and man in one Person must needs be in a perfect capacity as man he died as God he merited nay the Person that was God-man both died and merited How sweet is this to the Soul torturing it self with thoughts for the filthiness of its nature troubled with humane infirmities perplexed with thoughts how Christ should be able to save it c. This is but one of his actions 2. He fulfilled the law for us I am not of their mind that think that Christs active obedience is not imputed I think the Apostle speaks plain enough to the contrary Rom. 8. 3 4. And if not he yet the Prophet By his knowledge he shall justifie many You read that he was made righteousness for us And doubtless whatever some may fancy the obedience of the Person which was God-man could not be an homage due from the humane nature of Christ which was indeed but a creature Christ fulfilling the Law is exceeding sweet to the gracicious Soul This poor Soul when renewed is but renewed in part in many things offendeth and the sense of its daily backslidings makes it tremble How sweet is it now to the Soul to be able to conclude thus to its self Though there be much guile found in my heart and in my mouth yet in his mouth there was no guile found though I have been an Absolom rebelling against my Heavenly Father from my youth upward yet he was an Adonijah a Son that never displeased his Father 3. Look upon him in the laying down of his life How sweet is the meditation of it to a poor Soul Christ crucified is a bundle of Myrrh indeed from hence the Soul draweth many pretious smells hence it is that the Soul smelis Spiritual life with all the consequences and dependencies upon it Hence it smells Spiritual liberty with all the sweet fruits of it I say from hence it smells Spiritual life to itself when it is almost suffocated with the apprehension of the
he woula go to Hell Being it seems naturally persuaded that cruel bloody and uncharitable men could never be happy in another life 4. I will add a fourth thing though not beforementioned which experience hath constantly shewed us to be of very great force to draw others viz. A bold and couragious Suffering for the Name of Christ It hath been a constant Observation that the Blood of Martyrs hath been the seed of the Church Men naturally are inclined to think there is a great deal in that Religion which will make men so Valiant as to die in the defence and asserting of it There is yet one thing more upon which this much depends that is 5. A Christians communicativeness both of his gifts and of his experiences 1. Of his gifts his knowledge and other gifts by which he informs Christians of the Truth and persuades and argues them out of their sinful courses Come saith David I will teach you the sear of the Lord O that there were more of this in the World than there is how few are those Christians that have either grace or confidence enough to mind others of their conditions and to call upon them to look after Eternity We can call upon our Children and Friends to mind their Worldly concerns we are communicative euough to them of what we know which may help them as to them but how little do we call upon them to strive to enter in at the strait Gate to make their Calling and Election sure What should the reason of this be Is it unbelief or is it carelesness Is it unbelief do we not then believe an Immortal Eternal state of Souls into which no Souls can come but bv and through Christ as the way It cannot be this is the Object of our Hope it is the great thing we have in expectation if we had hope only in this Life we were of all men most miserable Are we confident that our Children our Friends or Neighbours are in the road to this blessed state Certainly there are many of them of whom we can have no such hopes How are we then silent if we know better things then they know why do we not instruct them St. John saith He that hath of this Worlds goods and seeth his Brother in want and releives him not how dwells the love of God in h m 1 Jo. 3. 17. What shall we say of those who have of the goods that relate to another World the Treasures of Spiritual knowledge and seeth his Child his Friend in want and to his power relieves him not how dwells the love of God or of his Childs or Friends Soul in him Dalilah asked Sampson how he could say to her that he loved her when he kept his secrets from her which she was not concerned to know but how canst thou say thou lovest thy Yoke-fellow thy Child thy Friend and concealest from them what thou knowest with reference to their Spiritual and Eternal good and which it is as much their concern to know as it is thine I remember Christ doth thus prove himself his Disciples friend John 15. 15. I have called you Friends for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you that is all things which my Father hath let me know and which are of concern for you to know Thus Christ hath discharged the Office of a Friend to our Souls and should not we do likewise Do we know any thing concerns our near Friends Souls with reference to their Eternals happiness and do we conceal our knowledge from them how do we discharge the Office of Friends to them how dwells either the love of God or the love of them in our Souls 2. Nor is the communicativeness of our own Experiences What we have seen as well as what we have heard of less use or less our duty I know it is a thing which profane Persons may mock at but let them mock on Wisdom shall be justified of her Children I am sure we meet with David and Paul and others of the Servants of God of whom we have a sacred Record very frequent in it Come saith David and I will tell you what God hath done for my Soul I know Men may boast beyond their line or measure they may boast of experiences they never had experiences must be fulfillings of Promises But certainly there can be nothing as a mean more powerful to draw others to a running after Christ in the ways of Holiness then the knowledge of what others have found and experienced in them I am sure it was the practice of the Woman of Samaria of Andrew and Peter and that with great success O let every one of us who have in our hearts any love for God any zeal for the glory of God any kindness for the Souls of others being our selves drawn so behave our selves that others allured by our examples persuaded by our arguments may also run after Christ Let those that cannot as yet discern the Savour of his good Oyntments be helped to discern them at second hand while our Lips feed many and our Garments smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia Sermon XXIV Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his Chambers I Have done with the Spouses Petition Draw me and with the argument by which she impleaded her Petition She would then run after him and of the alteration of the number in the promise we will run not I but we I come now to the third thing which I took notice of in the verse which I called The Spouses attestation of her beloveds favour in the answer of her Petition That is in the words I have now read The King hath brought me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto his in Ward-Rooms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Closet His Chambers so we translate it What is necessary for the opening of the words you have heard before It was but even now that we heard the Spouse praying draw me and promising that if the Lord would hear and answer her Prayers both she and others would run after him How presently is her tone altered and her prayer turned into praise Hence I observed Prop. That God is pleased sometimes to make a very quick return to his Peoples Prayers But before I handle this I shall take a little notice of the name she here giveth to her Beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King The word is the same that is every where used to express the sole dominion of a Person over others a term very properly given to Christ and that not only as he is God over all blessed for ever and so the Psalmist telleth us that his Throne is established in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all but in respect of his Mediatory Kingdom as he is the Lords King whom he hath set upon his holy Hill of Sion Psal 2. 6. to whom he hath given the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost part of the Earth for