Christ Leaning is not a forced action Indeed as I said before Christ first works this willingnes he it is that gives us power to will and it is by his power that we are willing as it is written They shall be Psa 110. 3. willing in the day of my power But he doth not let us leane before we are willing Leaning is an action proceeds from the will Who is this cometh up leaning Thirdly leaning doth argue love who leans upon his enemies I will not leane upon one whom I cannot trust I must have some good thoughts of his love The soul that leans upon the Lord Jesus Christ loves Christ that Faith that pretended dependancy of any upon Christ that proceedeth not out of a principle of love groweth out of a false root the loving soule is only the truly beleeving soule Leaning is a loving posture that is the third Fourthly It doth argue fiduciam a resting a trusting the soule upon Christ he that leans upon another reposeth his whole weight trusteth his whole strength upon him He doth as much as say well I know I cannot goe alone I cannot stand but I will trust my self upon thy strength will I leane if I fall I fall So the soule that comes up out of the wildernesse of sinne to the Lord Jesus Christ doth repose it's whole weight upon the Lord Christ it sayes O Lord I am a great and grievous sinner I am not able to stand upon mine owne legges but I trust my soule upon thy armes thou hast mercies and great mercies and free mercies if I fall I fall if be damned I am damned here I will leane And here you have the second thing plaine viz Secondly The soules hand with which she leanes upon Jesus Christ for salvation and these 4. things which I have hinted from this expression leaning are as the foure fingers of the hand of Faith And we may thus give a description of it Faith is the hand of a soule which God hath humbled whereby the soule being not able to stand alone nor daring to trust to any thing else and being made willing by God out of a principle of love layes hold upon Jesus Christ and trusts and rests it selfe upon him for her salvation And that leads me to the third thing I propounded the Person upon whom she leanes the text renders it Her beloved or as I conceive the old Translation better Her welbeloved The Latine dilectum suum him that is her conjugally beloved This is the last Branch of the doctrine That though the beleeving soule comes up from the wildernesse leaning yet she will onely leane upon her beloved and he only can and will beare her We know that whosoever leanes must have a person to leane upon Secondly There must be a capacity in this arme to beare her some strength yea there had need to be a great deale to hold up the weight of a soule First let us enquire who the Person is rendred in the Text dilectum Her welbeloved in plaine termes her Husband one that hath more than an ordinary portion of her love Here are five things hinted in this Expression 1. It is one whom she loves The word signifies a speciall sort of love and every greater includes a lesse 2. One that she is married to he is welbeloved her dearest love not charum but dilectum one that hath a title to her 3. Her Beloved not anothers Beloved 4. Her Beloved He that is her Beloved not who was her Beloved 5. Her Beloved not her Beloveds First It is one whom she loves This I hinted at before it is a principle of love that drawes the Soule to leane upon the Lord Jesus Christ The hatred of her selfe hath bred the love of her Saviour in it And no Soul loves Christ more than that wich loaths it self most When the soule shall consider what a Brand for Hell it was in its originall how worthlesse a worme it is how basely it hath dealt by God trampling upon his rich offers of Grace scorning his Invitations And again consider that God hath no need at all of it But if it were burning in hell could be as glorious as in its Salvation and yet would be pleased to powre out his precious bloud for it yet so unworthy To wooe the Soule that hath need of him and yet never praies to him nor ever was a sutor for mercy This breeds love in the Soule And the more the Soule fadomes her owne misery the more yet she loves and admires the Lords mercy and loving thus she leanes upon him Secondly It is one that she pleades some title to and interest in she cals him hers Christ is the Bridegroome of the Soule and the Soule is Christs Bride Beloved in all this Song is taken for the highest degree of love and nearest relation conjugall love therefore Christ elsewhere calls her his Sister his Spouse she hath a title to and interest in him possession of him and in another place I am my welbeloved◠and my welbeloved is mine She is his and he is hers they have a propriety each in other But suppose we should put the Spouse to prove her title to him What is thy Beloved more than anothers Beloved Or why is he thy Beloved O beleeving soule more than the Beloved of another shew thy title to him And againe why is she Christs more than another Why should the beleever monopolize Christ and how came Christ to be hers she is his and he is hers by right of gift her heavenly Father hath given her unto him hence is that Phrase of her Saviours Prayer John 17. 9. All that the Father hath given me and I pray for them that thou hast given me She hath given her selfe to him Cant. 1. 2. Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine She hath said Draw me and I will run after thee ay and he hath given himselfe to her he hath given his grace unher Gal. 1. 6. And his glory unto her The glory which thou hast givē me I have given them Her Beloved by right of gift 2. She is his and he is hers by right of bargaine and sale The Ancients had three waies to get themselves wives by gift purchase or desert The Fathers sold their Daughters and the Bridegroome bought his Bride he gave a Dowry for her Hence when Sechem had a mind to Dinah the daughter of Jacob he sayes Aske me what Dowry thou wilt and I will give it thee Christ hath bought his Beloved hence saith the Apostle He hath paid a price for us A bloudy price more than all the world was worth But he would have her because he delighted in her and so she is his and he is hers by right of purchase 3. She is his Beloved and he is hers by right of desert she deserved not him but he deserved her This was a third way by which the Ancients got them wives by some
so he hath no company The paths in the Wildernesse are not trodden no beaten high wayes are there no company but the Owles and the Ostriches the beasts of the field and creeping things of the earth Nothing fit to be a companion for man No it is a Wildernesse 5. The Wildernesse is a disconsolate place no curiosities of nature to refresh his spirits with Terror is round about him no pleasure to delight him 6. Lastly the Wildernesse is a place voyd of all provisions There is neither bread for the hungry nor water for the thirsty soule no necessaries much lesse superfluities The expression is very apt such a Wildernesse yea many a such Wildernesse the Spouse of Christ hath had and may have her dwelling in 1. A Wildernesse of Sinne. 2. A Wildernesse of Sorrow 3. A Wildernesse of Affliction 4. A Wildernesse of Temptation 5. A Wildernesse of Desertion Nay lastly This whole life is but a wildernesse to her Shee hath been in some of these and may be in all of them but out of all Shee cometh up leaning Every one of these is the soules Wildernesse and as they come up to Christ they come up from some of them and in their walking with the Lord Christ they goe through some of them and some goe through all of them The first is Eremus peccati The Wildernesse of sinne and every soule is born in this Wildernesse Man at first created dwelt in Paradise but alas he threw himselfe out into the Wildernesse and God lockt the Garden gate against him Sinfull man perferr'd the Wildernesse before Paradise and God allots him his dwelling there There was man thrown all mankind born in it We are all Wildernesse brats by nature Ephes 2. 3. You were children of wrath by nature even as others And sinne may well be call'd a Wildernesse it is status naturalis our naturall condition We are in a Wildernesse habit when we are clothed with the raggs of iniquity Ay and it is a state as dangerous as the Wildernesse The Lion claims him in the Wildernesse as his prey and if he scapes his teeth it will be hard to escape the Cockatrice and young Lion and Adder the lesser fry of destroyers If in this sinfull naturall condition we do escape the mouth of the roaring Lion the Devill it is greatly to be feared that the Beare and the Wolfe and the Cockatrice the lesser judgments of God will swallow us up we are children of wrath as well passively as actively in a dangerous condition Lastly as the Wildernesse is a place void of all necessary provisions for the body so is sinne a state voyd of all necessary provisions for the soule We are hungry and naked and bloudy and filthy in our sinnes it is a wildernesse dresse Ezek. 16. As for thy nativity in the day that thou wert born thy navell was not cut neither wert thou washed in water to supple thee thou wert cast out in the open field Verse 5. Every spouse of the Lord Christ hath been in this Wildernesse Who is this that cometh up of this I have spoke before and therefore passe it over The second Wildernesse is Eremus contritionis The wildernesse of contrition or sorrow for sinne Every soul is naturally in the Wildernesse but every one that is in it seeth not that it is there Every soul is born blind though most think they see When God opens the soules eyes and shewes it the hell that it treads over every houre and makes the soule apprehensive of its danger it conceives it selfe in a worse Wildernesse than before the physick works the Patient thinks it is nearer death than before it took it Here it cryes out Oh I am a lost undone creature Oh whither should I goe on one side behold terror on the other side despaire If it lookes up to heaven there is an angry God if downward there is a gaping hell Oh! whither should it goe Now it cryes out with the Iaylor O what shall I doe to be saved I am lost in my sinnes I am lost in my owne righteousnesse I know not what to doe If I stay in my sinnes I perish if I go out of the world I perish Here stands the soule turning it selfe every way and seeing comfort no way till the Lord Christ bowes the heavens and thrusts out his arme of salvation his shoulder of merits and takes the soule by the hand saying Come my Beloved I will tell thee what thou shalt doe I am the way out of this wildernesse come out leaning leane thy arme of faith upon the shoulder of my merits Free grace is able to beare thee I am thy Welbeloved and thy Welbeloved is thine And ordinarily the soule when it comes to the Lord Christ comes through this wildernesse this losing place of conviction and contrition and weeps her selfe a path where she would drown in the waters of Marah if Christ did not hold her up Indeed God could have brought the Israelites a shorter Journey than through the wildernesse to Canaan and sometimes God miraculously drawes a soul to himselfe onely by the cords of mercy God is not tyed alwayes to bring a soule the same road to heaven Elijah was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot but the more ordinary way is by Jacobs ladder The common way to heaven is by the gates of hell the way to life is through the chambers of death through a wildernesse Who is this that commeth up out of the wildernesse The third Wildernesse in which Christ's Spouse may somtimes have her dwelling in is the Wildernesse of affliction bodily afflictions I meane A Wildernesse is a place full of bryars and thornes and through such a wildernesse the holy Ghost tells us lies the Saints way to heaven By much tribulation much pricking of thrones thornes in the flesh somtimes must we enter into the kingdome of God The Spouse hath a dirty way to go to marrying in and when shee is marryed she hath a dirty way home too A wildernesse on either side The Apostle speakes plain Heb. 11. 37 38. They wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skines being destitute afflicted tormented they wandred in deserts and in mountaines and in dens and in caves of the earth And who were these that wandred thus in the wildernesse They were such of whom the world was not worthy the Spouses of the Lord Christ And truely afflictions may be called a wildernesse for the disconsolacy of them too they are times of sorrow no delights please the spouse in affliction is in a wildernes 4. A fourth wildernesse that the Spouse sometimes dwells in is the wildernesse of temptations The Bridegroom himself was in this wildernesse He was led into the wildernesse to be tempted of the Devill The spirit took him thither Matth. 4. vers 1. and Paul was in this wildernesse troubled on every side this is Satans wildernesse that he leads many a poore soule into and it had been a sad wildernesse had not our
a Rule one president makes not a law It is no rule for thee or me to trust in that no more then the saving of the thiefe upon the Crosse might be a safe president for us to deferre repentance till our dying day Let thee and I learne to be humbled to get broken hearts to loath our selves see our owne misery Sorrow is the ordinary doore to joy Humiliation the ordinary step to exaltation Mourning for sinne the onely preface to Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in Gods ordinary way of dealing out grace The Latine is full Quae est illa quae ascendit that ascends from the wildernesse Our Translation commeth up implying an ascensive motion t is her running up an hil They that run up a mountaine if they run too fast they may quickly run themselves out of breath it is bad jumpping over a broad ditch especially if it be drowning depth for feare if wee jumpe short we jumpe our last It is a great jump from the bottome of Hell to Heaven to take it at one leape I wish those that dare take it doe not fall short and drowne themselves eternally I had rather goe up Gods steps then make such a hasty motion God give me grace to ascend up the Saints staires to the chambers of glory Elijah was such a favourite to heaven that God sent a coach for him But those that will expect till that fiery Chariot be sent downe for them too I suppose may waite something a longer time then they desire O beg of God to humble you to powre out his spirit of mourning and supplications upon you this will learne you to beleeve friends It is the humbled soule only that construe that word Faith it is Hebrew to others it poseth the impenitent heart Faith is a riddle to them Christ findes his Spouse in the wildernesse and there he gives her his shoulder to leane upon But Thirdly She commeth up leaning out of the wildernesse Is it the duty of a soul that is in a wildernesse of affliction or temptation or desertion to leane upon the Lord Christ Then this may reprove those that are in these wildernesses and yet cannot be perswaded to leane upon the Lord Christ hence they cry out O faith is impossible is it possible to beleeve that Christ will save me me that have scorned his salvation and slighted his mercies And because thou hast slighted mercy wilt thou therefore still slight mercy still refuse his offer of grace Thou sinnest as much now in not beleeving there is mercy for thee that hast dispised mercy as thou didst sinne in dispising that mercy O why is it harder to rise up then to cast downe a soule Why wilt thou not beleeve O thou of little faith Is the mole-hill of thy sinnes like the mountaine of his mercies doth the voice of thy sinnes roare like the voice of his loving kindnesse Is there any humbled soule before the Lord O doe not provoke God by thy infidelity now he hath made thee capable of faith You that are Christians for shame in your severall wildernesses of afflictions temptations and desertions doe not O do not cast downe your heads and say who shall shew us any good or if you doe say againe with the Saint in the ensuing words Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Beleeve in your depths of sorrow beleeve in your most trying afflictions most sadding temptations most killing desertions beleeve me it is the greatest honour you can put upon the Lord Christ And it is the greatest dishonour you can put upon your God to have any diffidence in the Lords armes any distruct in the Lords free grace It is the property nay it is the duty of the Spouse to come out of wildernesses leaning Fourthly Doth she leane upon God before shee can come must he worke the first motion to make her willing before she can beleeve in him Then how are those to be here reproved that would make mans will to be the Author of its first motions unto God Pelagius was a great defender of it First he would hold That the grace of God was not necessary but by the law of nature we might be saved 2. That the grace of God which the Apostle speaks of was only in giving the law of nature 3. Driven from this he would maintaine that the faculties of the soule and their naturall Actions was the grace of God understood by the Apostle Yet here is no leaning upon our Beloved Afterwards he would maintaine * Si quaeratur an ex suis Naturalibus viribus anima aliquid afferat ad suam conversionē vel renovationem vel aliquam facultatē vel actionē quae vel partiatis causa vel quocunque alio modo appelletur vere respondetur quod habet se merè passivè Chemni in loc de lib. Arbitr 4. That the grace of God was necessary for sinnes past but it was in the power of mans free-will to avoid or commit sinnes for the time to come and to resist rebellious corruptions 5. After this he would maintaine That some men indeed were weake and must doe all by the grace of God others that were stronger might act good by their owne will But still only some Spouses leane Lastly he would maintaine and the Arminians still from him That grace did indeed helpe a good worke but it had its first motion from our wils or at least might have and the will had a negative voice and might resist and crosse grace which did not work irresistably in the soule to force the soule to him * Quae de gratia Dei praeveniente praeparente operante traduntur hunc habent sensum quod non nostrae partes priores sunt in conversione sed quod Deus per afflatum divinum praeveniat post hunc autem motum voluntatis divinae factum voluntas humana non habet se mere passivè sed mota adjuta à spiritu sancto non repugnat sed assentitur Ib a Cassianus Monachus Pelagii Doctrinam amplexus est Faustus Hormisda Ben. I would not rake up these graves did not these ghosts walke in these our dayes when every grave of Heresie is unbowelled and no one takes care to throw the dirt upon them againe Nay and the Papists having beene tainted with this Leven the Sententiaries now tell us b Hominis est preparare cor Aqui. in Sum. Theo. Acquiescre assentiri est nostrûm That a man without grace meerly by the strength of his free will may avoid any mortall sinne and prepare himselfe for Gods free grace and fulfill the Commandements of God Quoad substantiam actus for the substance of the Act c Quibus de congruo mereatur gratiam facientem Scotus And another more impudently maintains That a man without any grace of God by the meere strength of nature may doe workes morally good yea even such as God shall be bound to concur with and give
his speciall grace for Even thus going back from their owne great Rabbies one of which was pleased to confesse d Homo sine gratiâ Dei non potest non peccare mortaliter venialiter Lom That a man without the grace of God could not but sinne both mortally and venially What is become here of the Beloveds leaning but no more of these only if you heare such Doctrines as you may heare any thing in these dayes beleeve them not Doth God move the will attendding him in duties first secondly 5. Spiritus Sāctus praevenit move◠impellit voluntatem in conversione non otiosam sed attendeniem verbo Chemnit Vel per speculationem somniorum vel per simulationem oration is illabi efficaciam Spiritus Sancti Vid. D. Featly Dippers dipt when the will is thus moved doth it then come when it is drawne doth it runne Then this reproves the Enthusiasts of old the Anabaptists Antinomians Seekers of our dayes that hold first there is no need of duties Enthusiasts of old affirmed That for the receiving of the Spirit of Promise and saving grace the Spirit of God was either infused to them in a dreame Vel per simulationem orationis Ay and the motions of the Spirit were as sensible in their flesh as the beating of the pulse so blasphemous were they growne and thence they would lye and gape for Revelations and so indeed they may have a suggestion from the Devill but scarse a Revelation from God Oh! How in these dayes are men tainted with these lazie Opinions slighting duties vilifying Sabbaths neglecting Ordinances that if poore people would truely now give account of their growth in grace and of their learning godlinesse many of them might truly As the child that ye have heard a story in the learning of its Primmer boasted to the father that it had learned past grace Is not this the miserable learning of our dayes that men are grown past grace past Prayer past Ordinances past all duties 6. Againe what you have heard that after the soule is drawne then it comes may shew us the falsenesse of another Doctrine of Enthusiasme too briefe even in these dayes also that the soule is meerly passive even after the worke of conversion also and is even then a meere stone Draw me saith See the Booke set out from the Ministers of New-England of the Hereticks c. Post conversionem concurrit voluntas non tamen quasi suis viribus adjuvet spirituales actiones Semper addendum est non esse plenam libertatem in sancto renato sed virtutem in infirmitate perfici Chemnit Intelligant si filii Dei sint spiritu Dei se agi ut quod agendum est agant cum egerint illi à quo aguntur gratias agant Aguntur enim ut agant non at ipsi nihil agant Aug. the Spouse and then I will runne after thee Indeed after our conversion the will is but in part sanctified and the Image of God in us will want of his first integrity after it is renewed but Christs strength is perfected in our weaknesse we must understand if we be the children of God that God hath therefore wrought in us that we might also worke something and when we have wrought it give thankes to God who hath made us to worke for God hath wrought in us that we might worke not that we should be idle Thus I have laboured to you to divide the Truth from Errour Now you have heard of the leaven of these Pharisees take heed of it In the next place what you have heard that the soule that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ leanes upon a new Beloved not upon her old beloveds may serve to reprove those that would faine plead a title to Christ and have a portion in Christ but they will not take Christ alone two sorts there are of these The one cannot leave their old beloveds and the other cannot trust this Beloved O the wicked man would have his portion in Christ if he might but have his lusts too his pleasures his profit but to take Christ alone O this is such a hard saying that they cannot beare by any meanes If Christ and his lusts would lye both in one bed Christ at the feet and his lusts at the head then Christ should be as welcome as any thing to him but he is loath to sue a divorce from this Beloved he is loth to part with his old love for a new till he seeth how he can love him but at a venture he will take him in partem amoris O wretch flatter not thy selfe if Christ be thy Beloved he will endure no Polygamy you must leave your sinnes or be without Christ The true Spouse leanes upon her Beloved not upon her Beloveds upon her now Beloved she forsakes her old Lastly this may serve to reproove 1. Those that would leane upon Christ but they dare not trust their soules upon Christ alone Forsooth he will be the Spouse of Christ but he must leane upon Christ with one hand and his good works with the other The whore of Babylon commits adultery with her selfe 2. Under this lash comes a better ranke of people that when God hath shewed them their owne sinfull sad condition they doe not only performe duties pray and mourne and repent and be humbled all which they ought to doe but they are ready to rest in them and make them their Beloved It is naturall to the soule that God hath made to loath its sinnes to love its duties it finds duties almost as consentaneous to its nature as sinnes were before and it is too ready to thinke that its saving or damning depends upon such a quantity of teares and humiliation Hence you heare soules in this condition often complaining Oh! I could beleeve if I were humbled enough if I could but mourne enough This soule doth well to be sensible of the hardnesse of its owne heart and it is too true it can never mourne it can never be humbled enough But it doth ill to think that free grace stints its operation and blessed influence to such a quantity of teares if it be humbled enough to see its want of Christ The water runs through the river that is the way to the Sea but it doth not rest in the river but with a swift and continued motion runs betwixt the banks till it comes and is swallowed up in the Sea Even so the soul ought to run through duties but not to rest betwixt the banks of duties but to run through till it come to the Sea of free grace where it will be swallowed up of infinite mercy and our imperfections will be drowned in his infinite perfection we ought to take duties in our way to Christ but not to make duties our Jesus God hath ordained that they should fit us for him but it is written My glory will I not give to another The glory of the Lords free grace is his greatest glory
I Have delightfully read over this following Treatise intituled Five Lessons for a Christian to learne being the summe of five Sermons and finding them to be sound solid zealous pious powerfull and very profitably seasonable I judge them well worthy to be printed and published John Downame FIVE LESSONS FOR A Christian to learne OR The summe of severall Sermons Setting out 1. The state of the Elect by Nature 2. The way of their Restauration and Redemption by Jesus Christ 3. The great duty of the Saints to leane upon Christ by faith in every condition 4. The Saints duty of Self-denyall or the way to desirable Beauty 5. The Right way to true peace discovering where the troubled Christian may find Peace and the Nature of true Peace By John Collings M. A. And Preacher of Gods word in Norwich London Printed for Rich Tomlins and are to be sold at his house at thâ— Sun and Bible in Pye-corner 1650. THE SPOUSE UNDER The APPLE-TREE OR The state of the Elect by Nature Wherein is discovered The distance that the highest Saints by grace stand at by Nature from the Lord Iesus Christ by which they may know they have nothing to boast of but what they have received By JOHN COLLINGS M. A. Psa 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me LONDON Printed for Rich Tomlins 1649. TO THE Right HONOURABLE the LADY St John Grace Mercy and Peace Madam THe deep sense that I have had of those Engagements by which it hath pleased your Honour to oblige me to your service hath imboldned me to command these Papers to wait upon your Ladiship to pay a debt by incurring â— further one if your Ladiship shall please to honour them with Acceptation These Sermons Madam were but ordinary labours and very unfit for a publicke view in this extraordinary time It was only a Sermon before published upon the Text that tempted out these to beare it companie yet did I not part with them without some parly The world is full of Writers and the Presse as much overgrowne with Authors as the Age we live in is with Professors But as the appearing spiritualnesse of many carries with it too much suspition that they would have the spiritualnesse of a Christian meerly to consist with a luxuriant wit and the superbiency of fancy so too many Writings seeme to have forgot the plainnesse of the Gospell which they so much pretend to and would make it the worke of a Christian meerly to gape for Notions and turne Religion into speculation To be able to speake high Notions of Christ and to wrap up the mysteries of truth in Parables of wit and expression is almost growne to be thought the All of a Saint And we may sadly feare lest wee should be about to study more to admire Christ than understand him more to contemplate Saints dignity than remember the Saints duty lest we should make it all our worke as Kings and Priests to be so taken with our Honour that we should forget that we are thus of Grace Humilitie is the Saint in Great If any one thinks he knowes any thing he knowes nothing as he ought to know it The high spirit is infinitely more below Christ than he thinks himselfe above others Lest in these priviledged daies whiles so many are proclaiming before the Saints Thus shall it be done to the persons whom Christ delighteth to honour Christians should so farre admire their beautie that they should forget their dust I have been content to let these unpolished Sermons goe out to follow their Triumphs with Christiane memento quid fueris Christian remember what thou wer't It is as much a duty and will one day be found as Beneficiall to keep a Saint humble as to make him thankfull to learne him to abase himselfe as well as to admire his fellowes to shew him that all he hath is of Grace as well as to tell him what he hath in the possessions of grace and the Reversions of glory I wish professors carriages spake not too much heart-Popery as if they thought their dignity were earnings not Almes and I am sure no soule is truely thankfull that is not throughly humble This for the subject of the Sermons For the phrase Madam I remember it was Pauls glory that he came not 1 Cor. 2. 1 2 4. to the Corinthians with excellency of speech or wisdome to declare unto them the testimony of God And his speech and preaching was not in entising words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the spirit and in power Gospell Misteries had not need be darkened with a misterious phrase It doth not please me to see Religion in a Lantskip Christ crucified was plaine English Seneca-Sermons are for the most part but like the superfluous dishes of the table that serve meerly for sight but must not be tasted Preaching surely was never ordained to tickle the eare it 's businesse lies deeper then scratching an humour Wit is the soules worst carver and pieces of wit are no better than peices of selfe Christ never intended us an interpreter for every Sermon Madam as they were preached so they are humbly presented to your Honours hands I know your Ladiships humility to bee such that it will spare an eye to look upon them though not commended by any novelty of matter or excellency of Phrase I trust thus far the meannesse of their worth will advantage the worthlesse author viz. By letting your Honour know how much that weak nothing of a preacher stands in need of an improved interest in your Ladiships prayers who so much as he is truly is Madam Your Honours most humbly obliged servant in the Lord Jesus John Collings Chaplyfield house May 21. 1649. To the Courteous and Conscientious Reader of these SERMONS Reader SOme two yeares since some friends prevailed with me to let the last of these Sermons slip out of my hands into thine What was done then was in hast which hath put me to the charge of correcting some slighty mistakes Thy courtesie to the first hath troubled thee with the second impression in which thou art againer and a loser Thou hast lost the Sermon that was then its partner the narrow handling of the subject of it not pleasing my second thoughts but thou hast gained a further addition of some more Sermons since preached upon the same Text. I have made thee a gainer in thy hand and eye the Lord make thee a gainer in thy heart If thou pleasest to read these Sermons The first part may make thee humble The second may make thee thankfull The third may make the carefull If thou learnest humility from the first thankfulnesse from the second and thy great duty of beleeving from the third I am sure thou wilt learne from all the weak nesse of a poore creature and if thy selfe beest in ought a gainer if thou wilt let the author also be a gainer of thy prayers thou hast rewarded
him and engaged him still to be The servant of thy soule in the work of his Master John Collings Chaplyfield house May 21. 1649. THE LOST SHEEP brought home c. Solomons Song Ch. 8. v. 5. Who is this that commeth out of the wildernesse leaning upon her weld beloved I raised thee up under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there shee brought thee forth that bare thee THis book is called the Song of Songs that is Canticunt excellentissimum the most excellent song so Vatablus and Estius gives the reason because it containes a discourse between Christ the most glorious Bridegrome and his Church or the beleeving soule the Bride The song of songs as a note of Quia sermocinationem cōtinet Christi Sponsi Ecclesiae spōsae Estius eminency Mr. Brightman will have it as well Nota distinctionis quam eminentiae a note of distinction as well as of eminency A song more excellent than any of those that Solomon made the song that sounded sweetest to Canticum excellentius omnibus quae Salomon composuit Brightman Solomons penitent heart whose pen-man was Son and heire to the sweet singer of Israel Whose every note is a note of free grace where every straine is breathed by the spirit of the most high and every close sounds the beleevers close with Christ an union with him who is the head of the Church A song finally wherein every line breathes the perfume of the Rose of Sharon and is beautified with the colour of the Lilly of the Vallies It is a song of love sung in parts by the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of his Fathers love and the wife of his bosome whether the society of beleevers his Church in generall or every beleeving soule in particular It beginns with love Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine and it ends with love Make hast my Beloved and come away The fountaine from whence it ariseth is a spring of love and the Sea into which it falls is an ocean of love where the soule that enters is swallowed up of love and drowned in sweetnesse The whole streame of the book is a streame of love running betwixt two precious bankes Jesus Christ and the beleeving soule sometimes it is an higher sometimes a lower water it is alwayes some though the flood-gate be not alwayes open The two lovers spend their long in feasting themselves with each others embraces One while the Bridegroome courts his bride with ravishing straines of grace another while she is emptying her soule into her beloveds bosome In the whole there is nothing but a sweet enterchange of delightfull expressions while both seeme to be ravished with each others embraces I shall in handling of the text first open it to you 2 Raise some propositions of Doctrine from it and 3. Handle them by explication confirmation and application For the finding out the meaning of the words it is necessary we should consider them in a double Notion 1. Relatively 2. Absolutely 1. Relatively as they stand in a necessary connexion with the former verses It was now the spouses course to powre out her soul into her beloved's bosome her part began at the 10. ver of the former Chapt. and continues to this verse My text in the former part of it seemeth to be a Parenthesis and the voice of a third person considering the great love exprest by the spouse and her following of him through the most rugged wildernes-ways and even then leaning upon him or considering the great glory and happinesse of the Spouse from the influence of Christ love upon her either in admiration of Christs condiscention that will admit a worm to leane upon him and will stoop to lead it and uphold it in darkest saddest conditions and fill it with light in peace at such times or in admiration of the Spouses glory and beauty by the reflection of her Beloveds countenance or of her constancy and secret power of grace in her that in the wildernesse saddest condition she could leane that the briars and thornes would not seperate her Beloved her quos Deus conjunxit c. or out of an ignorance of her and the secret power of grace in her carrying her out in darkest times and in a wildernesse condition to such an affiance cryes out Qua est illa What manner of creature is this that she should leane Or who is this so glorious a creature that comes up leaning Or what manner of love is this that makes her follow a Beloved through such uncoth rugged dangerous wayes as these 2. But to consider the words Absolutely now in themselves Who is this that commeth up The first question is whose words these are The second what the meaning of them is Expositors differ upon the first Some would have them to bee the continued speech of the Church and say They are an expression of the great love beleeving soules beare to Expositio summi amoris quo Ecclesia prosequitur Sponsum an suit ulla unquam Ecclesia quae tot ac tantos labores perferret tantaque pericula susciperet ad consequendum dilectum suum Haec igitur sunt pignora voluntat is meae quod fide difficultates omnes superavi Tremell ad locum the Lord JESUS CHRIST by comparison What Church or what person ever saith she would undertake so many and so great labours to obtaine her Beloved These are pledges of my good will that by faith I have overcome all difficulties leaning upon him in the wildernesse I shall neither wholly embrace nor altogether reject this sense I am inclinable to thinke the words may be the Spouses but not spoken in Tremelius his sense as from her selfe boasting of her selfe but spoken by a Prosopopeia the Spouse speaking what she conceived others would say concerning her and rather incline to thinke the words should be a Parenthesis than otherwise Beda and M. Brightman with the rest that would have this whole Booke to be a Prophecye of the calling of the Church of the Gentiles will have the words to be the voice of the Jewish Church admiring at the calling of the Church of the Gentiles Who is this What wildernesse-creature is this that she should have any thing to doe with the promised Messias Quem me solum deligere caeteris autem Nationibus rebar esse ignotum Cujus nominis sit haec gens quae ascendit ex deserto Institui videtur haec questio de grandioribus natu sororibus quae stupescent hoc novo inaudito spectaculo Bright ad loc Beda ad locum And therfore those Expositors read it Dilectum meum my Beloved who I thought only had loved and chosen me and should have been unknowne to any other Churches But I see no reason why the words should be only restrained to the Jewish Church nor why illa this should only be understood of the Church in generall whiles that which
Mercer inclineth Sort. 3 A third sort of expositors are such as would make this whole book a prophesy of the conversion of the Gentiles they understand it thus I that is Christ raised thee that is the Church of the Gentiles under the Apple-tree out of a low estate say some by the help of some inferiour Magistrate saith M. Cotton But I want an instance of the Metaphor so used to patronize that opinion I have shewed you now the severall opinions which I shall reject for these reasons For the Popish opinion If we understand the sence of the words to be this That the Spouse raised Christ upon the Crosse what shall become of the next words there thy mother brought thee forth Did Christs mother bring him forth there if so either his personall mother or his mysticall and metaphoricall mother for his personall mother in respect of his divine Nature he had none for his humane Nature Mary was his mother But how can we say concerning the Crosse There Christs mother brought him forth If it be understood of Christs mysticall or metaphoricall mother which say some is the Church 1. Besides that I never read the Church called Christs mother though his wife and sister And I doe not like creating senses without we be put to great straights I say besides that it is to me very harsh sense which I scarce understand viz. how the Church is said to have brought forth Christ under the Crosse For holy M. Ainsworth's and learned Mercer's opinions my reason or objection is the same If we doe understand the sense of the words thus I that is thy Spouse raised thee up by earnest prayer under the Apple-tree in thine Ordinances I doe not know how to make sence of the next words There thy mother brought thee forth c. How can we say that Christs mother whether his naturall mother Mary or his metaphoricall mother the Church as some would have it painfully brought forth Christ for so the word is under the tree of free grace of life To me it almost sounds a making of Christ the object of free grace and life who is indeed the subject of it For the third sort I reject their opinion 1. Because I see no reason why we should turne this whole book into a Prophecye 2. And for M. Cottons single opinion I gave my reason against it before I shall now propound my owne opinion and rather seeke for company than follow any 1. I lay it downe for a ground that the words are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking concerning the beleeving soule 2. I take it for granted that the designe of Christs speech to the beleeving soule his Spouse is to mind her of some notable engaging mercy he had bestowed upon her a deliverance 1. Out of some low estate that methinks is plaine both from the word used raised which presupposeth a fallen estate 2. Out of some estate in which it was naturally that me thinks is plainly hinted in those words There thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee Now to give you the sence of the words I the Lord Jesus Christ thy husband The words opened thy Redeemer raised thee up exalted thee by the great worke of my redemption under the Apple-tree The Apple-tree is Christ Cant. 2. ver 3. Under my selfe by the use of mine Ordinances which are the fruit of the Apple-tree Christ or I raised thee up under the Apple-tree when thou wert not ingrafted in me but in a state of disunion indeed under the Apple-tree in respect of eternall ordination but not in the Apple-tree by an actuall implantation and union When thou wert in that sad estate I raised thee up by the great worke of my redemption It followes there thy mother brought thee forth c. there where in a lost condition in a state of disunion a stranger to me There under the Tree of forbidden fruit involved in Adams first guilt weltring in bloud c. There she brought thee forth that bare thee So the sence of the words is this Dost thou think much to leane upon me in the wildernesse O my Spouse remember thou wert in a poor lost undone Condition in such an estate thy naturall mother brought thee forth it is true thou wert under an eternall ordination to obtaine Salvation by me but thou wert far from such an vnion there thy mother left thee and could not help thee and then I raised thee I by the great worke of my redemption covenanting coming dying c. for thee raised thee from this misery to eternall life and all the privileges of it and this I did when all other meanes failed There thy mother brought thee forth by the use of my ordinances thou wert raised under the apple-tree so that the designe of the Lord Jesus Christ in the speech Is to shew the beleeving soule what cause she had in all estates to cleave to him more than all the world besides and this he demonstrates 1. By letting her see her miserable estate by nature 1. She had need of raising 2. She was in a state of disunion not united to the apple-tree 2. By letting of her see the hopelesnesse of any remedy from any thing in the world any friend in the world surely the mother is the best friend and yet sayes he this estate she left you in yea she that bare you 3. By letting of her see the Honourable condition that she was now in expressed in that word raised which containes as much as can be spoken even all the fruits and privileges of Redemption 4. By letting of her know the Author of this happinesse and redemption That is I saith he all the world could not I did 5. By letting of her know the meanes were his for so also the words under the apple-tree may be understood I raised thee The soule may say why the word raised me yes it is true but still thou art raised under Christ For Christ is the apple-tree The ordinances are the apples and they also grow out of Christ even as naturally as the Apples growe out of the apple-tree The text being thus opened holds out to us many pretious truths In generall it is the description of a Saint à primo ad ultimum from first to last In particular you have here the Spouse described 1. In her naturall Condition where you are told 1. What she is originally so she is in a state of disunion to Christ in such a condition that she hath need of raising so her mother brought her forth so she brought her forth that bare her 2. What she is then virtually though not implanted into Christ yet within a reach of him under the applee-tree though not implanted in it under an eternail ordination to life though for the present a Child of wrath in a wildernesse yet comming out or to come out 2. She is described in her gratious condition and there we have these
the Apostle told the beleeving Ephesians that they were Children of wrath by nature even as others Eph. 2. 3. Besides that Christ useth not to pay any debts by halves it were as good as nothing for Iesus Christ to pardon a reprobates Originall sin to whom he never intends to pardon all sinne yea Originall sinne doth not only remaine upon elected ones as an offence to God and laying upon them an obligation to death since Christ dyed untill their Iustification but even after Iustification there is a body of death it hath lost its condemning power and its raigning power but it yet cleaves to our flesh as Ivy to the tree so deep an impression it hath upon all our natures But this openeth a way to another question whether originall sin remaines in any of the elect after Justification the affirmative is truth but in regard that my text strikes not directly against the errour I shall passe it by and refer you to those that have defended the truth in it as Zanchi c. and leaving this first use shall proceed to some further application which shall be more Particular 1. By way of Instruction 2. By way of Examination and Tryall 3. By way of Exhortation 4. By way of Consolation Of all these in their order By way of Instruction We may hence learne first what a sad condition the most men of the world are in Ah! Lord how few are they whom thou hast chosen ever to obtaine eternall life and yet these are children of wrath by nature as well as others Poore creatures my heart trembles to thinke of you How many in this Congregation yet lye in a condition low enough and the Lord knowes whether ever to be raised yea or no. If a child should be borne with some naturall weaknesse in its armes or leggs and it should live six or ten or twenty years and yet not be able to use its limbs you would say it would be a very great hazard if ever that child did recover its limbs so as to have the strength and exercise of it it would be almost a miracle It was such a miracle that in the ninth of John when Jesus Christ had restored sight to one that was borne blind the Jewes would not beleeve it possible and ver 32. we find a positive determination upon the question Since the world began it was never heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was borne blind How many poore wretches that are come here into the presence of the Lord that were all borne blind deafe dead and have lived some ten some twenty some thirty yeares some more and all this time have continually had all the meanes that could be applyed to them for recovery and yet are in the same lost undone condition Ah my friends what can you neither stretch out hand nor foot nor tongue nor any member notwithstanding all the meanes of grace astoorded you for quickning Let me tell you it is ten thousand to one if you doe not perish for ever My friends It is a miracle a great miracle of mercy that any one poore wretch considering in what condition it is borne should ever come out of it The Jewes would hardly beleeve the report therefore they say Joh. 9. 19. Is this your sonne that was borne blind how then doth he now see We may say so concerning every one that hath any thing of God in him Was not this poore creature borne blind how doth he now see was not he borne lost How is he now raised but for those that in stead of growing better are growne ten times worse that have hardened their hearts and gone on in riot and wantonnesse and are yet in their bloud it is ten to one if ever the Lord say to them live they are growne to such a shamelesse impudence in wickednesse I dare not say there is no hope But let me sadly say there is small hope that ever the Lord should raise such wretches And if he doth not better ten thousand times better sinner had it been for thy soule that thou hadst never seen the light of the morning nor heard the voice of the Gospell in thine eares This is your condition the Lord awaken you Secondly From hence we may be instructed Whom we have cause to thanke that any of us are this day out of hell Who art thou O man that boasts thou art of good parentage or of a great birth harke in what language my Text speaks thy birth Thou wert borne under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee If thy heavenly Father doth no more for thee than thy earthly mother woe to thee that ever thou wert borne What a boasting we have of pedegrees and great descents What a great word it is in the world I was better borne than you My father was such a Gentleman so great so rich c. My mother was of such or such an ancient Family O vanity vanity of vanities Poore creature thy mother brought thee forth under an Apple-tree The very heathen out of a meere rationall principle could scoffe at such brags Genus proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco Tully could retort to the Roman bragging of his descent Domus mea à me incipiet tua verò in te desinet My house shall have its Originall from me my Nobility and worth thy Noble Family shall have an end in thy Basenesse Christian what is thy birth consider it but in a spirituall notion the poorest wretch in the world is borne in as good a condition as thou art and thou in no better an estate towards God than he Suppose a man were borne of some great parentage and had no Lands no estate left him but could only boast of fumos nomina vana Catonum his fathers name and the smoake of his chimney Possibly he hath some gorgeous suit of apparell left him this he weares and glisters in for a while yet a little while and these teare and then he hath not a rag left him nor a penny to buy one to cover his nakednesse how contemptible would such a poore wretch be in every mans eyes And is not this the condition of the most of the great men gallants of the world they glister with an outside a little in the world their names are great their persons admired yet a little while and these weare out the men dye and lye downe in hell Ah! that those that glory would glory in this that God is their Father and Jesus Christ their portion Thus your Houses would have a beginning of Glory from you and their Glory should not end with you 2. Nor is the boasting of those much better that can boast of their Religious Parents I confesse it is the better of the two an heire of Glory being farre more noble than the greatest worldling and in regard that the Election of God runs much in a
Brother a Sister a Friend that hath no grace Lord what shall I doe for her in the day when she shall be spoken for Remember your owne misery and you will pitty their poor soules Thirdly and lastly Were you all borne out of Christ in a sad undone condition by Nature Then let mee perswade you to keep humble hearts Remember but what you were It is enough to tame the swellings of your spirits to thinke that you were not borne worth a ragge to cover your nakednesse you were cast out into the open field to the loathing of your person It was that which the Apostle urged to bring downe the swellings of pride in the Corinthians 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Let mee apply those very words to thy soule Christian Art thou proud of thy gifts and proud of thy graces that thou differest from another and excellest another others are nothing to thee c. I beseech thee to consider who maketh thee to differ How came there to be such a difference betwixt thee and other Christians I am sure you were once both under the Apple-tree together there your mothers brought you forth there she brought you forth that bare you Hath Christ made thee to differ What hast thou then that thou diddest not receive Now if thou diddest receive it why diddest thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Wilt thou boast boast of thy owne then Christian boast of thy workes not of thy gifts give Christ his owne and thou art not worth a farthing yea the Lord knowes ten thousand times worse than a begger Wee say and truely too that one that hath been very scandalous if ever the Lord brings him in he had need bee very circumspect and humble And so concerning one that hath been of a verie low and meane condition and by the meere favour of the Prince is raised up to some great dignity wee say it will be a great deale of policy in him to carry himselfe humbly in his place Truely Christian I know no actuall difference by Nature betwixt thee and the vildest damned Reprobate in Hell Indeed there was a difference in God the Fathers Book of Election and in Christs Book of Redemption which is but a transcript of the other but a Creature difference there was none no selfe-difference at all Hath the Lord brought thee in thou hadst need walke humbly and circumspectly Philip would have the Boy to cry at his Chamber doore Philippe memento mortalis es Philip thou art a mortall man remember it be not proud of thy Empire thy Diadem must lye downe in the dust I would have the Christian that the Lord hath given great gifts and parts to be minded of his first estate I would have my Text written in his heart repeated in his eares O remember Christian who it was that Raised thee up under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee And now I have done with my Use of Exhortation in its several Branches Use 4 I have but one word more and that is Consolation Is it so that we are borne under the Apple-tree though under out of Christ yet under not out of sight or hope The Apple-tree is over us though by Nature we have no hand to reach up to it Here 's then a word of comfort and hope 1. To those that upon serious examination the Lord hath made seriously sensible that to this houre they are out of the Lord Jesus Christ if yet they be willing to get into him 2. To those of Gods people that walke with sad hearts for the spirituall estate of their children husbands wives friends c. considering that they were all borne out of Christ and for ought they can yet see they have yet no portion in him For the first Is there any whose hearts the Lord hath smitten with the sad apprehensions of this Truth that they are all borne out of the Lord Jesus Christ that begin to say what shall we doe to be saved Loe here is some comfort yet though thou beest borne for the present out of Christ yet possibly thou mayest be borne under the Apple-tree yea for ought thou knowest thou art Christ is the Apple-tree Christ exhibited in his Gospell in the preaching of the Word c. is a glorious Apple-tree full of ripe Apples dropping into the hands of every soule that doth but lift up his beleeving hand to take and eat This is certaine whomsoever Gods secret will shuts out of heaven his revealed will shuts out none who doth not shut out himselfe Come therefore Turne turne why wilt thou dye O thou sinfull creature For ought thou knowest thou art in no worse condition than Manasses and Paul and Mary Magdalene all of them were borne such as thou art Christ cals Hoe every one that thirsteth come c. Come then let not thy sinnes hinder thee there 's merit enough and mercy enough in him O let not faith be awanting in thee Behold it is now Autumne with us Autumne indeed for Gospell-dispensations have been but as green Apples formerly to the times wherein the Lord hath cast our lot never was there such a plenty of soule-enlightening powerfull preaching plenty enough the Lord grant we surfeit not with it O reach out an hand take eat live To encourage consider how the Lord pleads with you Some Apple-trees are so loaden with fruit that when the Apples grow once to their full quantity the boughes bend even to the hand of the gatherer such my friends are our dayes the boughes loaden with Apples of free Grace even bend again to your soules O take eat and your soules shall live The Autumne is plenteous The Gospell is free you may take what you will it shall cost you nothing Christ even bends to you loaden with Apples of Love Ah! how he reacheth out himselfe to your soules despaire not only plucke and eat you are under the Apple-tree Secondly Is there any one here that hath a child husband wife friend brother sister c. that he can have no comfort concerning in regard that they can see no sigues of grace in them let this comfort them yet they may be under the Apple-tree though the Lord hath not discovered himselfe yet to their soules yet he may doe it All the Apples are not gathered off the Tree of Life it is laden yet pray cry for them mourne for them the Lord may yet give them an heart to repent I thinke it was Ambrose told Saint Austines mother being sadly lamenting the condition of her sonne then a Manichee Be of good comfort saith he it is impossible that a sonne of so many teares should perish I will not say so concerning any one but I will say vix probabile est it is scarse probable
did it freely we buy without money or money-worth Isa 55. 1 2. 2. If you aske to what end hee did it It was his own glorie that he might get himselfe glory from poore dust and ashes that little thanke him for all this mercy declared to their souls He Predestinated Redeemed and Adopted us meerely to the praise of the glorie of his grace Ephes 1. verse 6. The end which he aimed at in Calling us was his glory Rom. 9. 23 24 25 26. If you aske me why God that could as well have been glorified in the damnation of poore wretches would chuse rather to be glorified in their salvation and bringing them to life I must run back again to the Fountaine againe meerly because so it pleased him because it was his will There wee must rest I shall now proceed to the Application of this mysterious sweet and precious Doctrine and it might be applyed severall wayes But I shall onely apply the consideration of it as offering you ground and matter First of Humiliation Secondly of Instruction Thirdly of Examination Fourthly of Exhortation Fiftly of Consolation Use 1 First of all for Humiliation Harke Christians is it so that thou wert so lost and undone that none but Jesus Christ could raise thee and hee hath done it when none else could and wil raise thee higher yet and this hee could not have done without taking thy flesh dying upon the Crosse suffering the bitternesse of his Fathers wrath consider then what cause thou hast to be humbled for thy sins 1. Considering that these were they put Christ to death 2 that by these since that time thou hast crucified the Lord of life 1. Consider that thy sins were those that put Christ to death Rom. 4. 25. He was delivered to death for our sinnes Me thinks every one when they heare of Christs Agony and bloudy Sweat of his Whippings Buffetings of his bitter Sufferings c. should be ready to cry out with Pilate Quid mali fecit What evill I pray hath he done Ah none Christian it was to raise thee thou wert dead lost undone he dyed to raise thee thou stolest the fruit he climbed the tree thou enjoyedst the sweetnesse of sinning and he for that was acquainted with the bitternesse of suffering He bore thy iniquity even thine and mine too if we be elected Certainly it was a great griefe of heart to David to remember that he had an hand in the bloud of Uriah that was surely the great transgression that hee complained of to be sure that heart-troubling sinne for which hee puts up that particular Petition Deliver mee from bloud-guiltinesse O God And questionlesse it was no small Trouble of Spirit to Paul afterwards to consider that he was one of them that were consenting to Stephens death Acts 7. 59 60. Chap. 8. verse 1. he afterwards repeats it with shame I was a persecuter Christian here is one murdered by cruell hands not an Uriah not a Stephen but hee that is worth ten thousand of these not an Abell yet his bloud troubled Cain all his life time but one whose bloud cries for better things than the bloud of Abell did here 's the Lambe of God slaine slaine by thy hands he was bruised for thine iniquities and his soule was made an Offering for thy sinnes Is it nothing to thee O Christian when Pilate was but about to condemne him his wife came startled in and cries Have nothing to doe with that just man and when Stephen charged the Jewes Acts 7. 52. for being the betrayers and murtherers of the Lord Jesus they apprehended it as a thing so hainous that they would not endure him beyond that word but were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth verse 54. Christians there is none of you here but your sinnes were the betrayers and murtheres of the Lord Jesus that Christ that had such eternall sure and unchangeable thoughts of love to your soules Ah! how great were those sins which could not be remitted without the bloud of the immaculate Lamb of God Me thinks every one of you should sit downe and say Ah Lord that ever I should be such a wretch so farre to provoke the fire of thy wrath that nothing could quench it but the bloud of thy Sonne that I should throw my selfe so deep into Hell that nothing could raise mee but the bloud-shedding of the deare Sonne of Gods love You have had to doe with that just man Christians not to doe with condemning him but even with the vildest acts of Barbarisme were done unto him your hypocrisie was the kisse that betrayed him the sinnes of your hands and feet were the nailes that fastened his hands and feet to the Crosse the sinnes of your body were the Spears that pierced his sacred side the sinnes of your soules were they that made his soule heavy to the death that caused the with-drawings of his Fathers love from him and made him in the heavinesse of his panged soule to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me O sit downe goe alone weep and weep bitterly for him whom you have pierced for those stripes by which you are healed 2. But secondly if any thing will move your soules to make your head a Fountaine of water and your eyes Rivers of teares Consider That this Christ you have crucified even since his death upon the Crosse for you When the Apostle St. Peter Acts 2. had made a long Sermon of Christs love shewing the Auditors what Christ had done and what he was he summeth up all verse 36. God hath made that same Jesus whom yee have crucified both Lord and Christ Now saith the Text verse 37. When they heard this viz. that they had crucified this Christ they were pricked at the heart This Christ my beloved whom you have crucified by your youth sinnes and life sins this was he that was crucified for you O be pricked at the hearts at this saying Was it not enough that he once was pierced scoffed wounded crucified for you but must you againe crucifie him and which of you doe it not daily Causinus tels us a story of Clodoveyus one of the Kings of France that when he was converted from Paganisme to Christianity while Remigius the Bishop was reading in the Gospell concerning the Passion of our Saviour and the abuses he suffered from Judas and the rest of the Jewes he brake out into these words If I had been there with my Frenchmen I would have cut all their throats In the meane time not considering that by his daily sins he did as much as they had done Which of us is not condemning the crucifiers of Christ for their cruelty and in the meane time we condemne not our selves who by our daily sinnes make him to bleed againe afresh Ah let us judge our selves and sit downe and mourne we are they that have added to Christs bonds that have increased his wounds and the pangs of his grieved soule
which is now glorified with our renewing lusts and corruptions I shall conclude this use with a prayer that God would fulfill to all our soules that gracious promise Zach. 12. 10. That he would poure out the spirit of grace and of supplications upon us and make us to look upon him whom we have pierced and doe pierce daily and mourn as a man mournes for his only Son And be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternes for his first-borne I passe on to a second way of Application viz. by way of Instruction Hath Christ and Christ alone raised us 1. Let us hence be instructed How Instruction much the Lord Jesus Christ loved us And here let my soule be drowned in sweetnesse and in sinking cry out O the depth of unfadomable love What tongue what Saint what Angell can speake out this unspeakable love Pray O pray Christians That Christ Eph. 3. 17 18. may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints What is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Is it love in a friend to passe his word for his friend arrested and ready to be haled to gaole and to take the debt upon himselfe and is it no love in Christ yea is it not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unspeakable of loves for Jesus Christ when a writ of eternal vengeance was Ready to issue out against you to be your surety and beare the blow off to the breaking of his own armes Was it love in the Roman to personate his friend and upon the Scaffold and after to suffer for him and is it not infinite love for Jesus Christ to take the raggs of your flesh upon him and indeed to dye a death upon the crosse for you for you deare friends for you he was smitten despised rejected of men he dyed to make you live he was content to fall so you might rise Let your thoughts sinke in this ocean and spend your lives in spelling the letters of love that must be joyned in this one word or sentence I Raised thee From hence Secondly be Instructed What a perfect Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ is he leaves nothing for thee to doe but to thanke him hee makes the plaister and layes it on hee trod the Wine-presse alone and there is none with him he hath left thee nothing to do but to believe his last words All is finished he conquered sinne upon the Crosse and death and hell in the grave He will have none to be a sharer with him either in his worke of Merit or Application get but hands he will deliver thee thy pardon ready written granted sealed nay he will help thee with hands too He was made perfect through sufferings Hebr. 2. 10. Heb. 5. 9. Being made perfect hee became the author of salvation to them that obey him 3. From hence againe bee instructed Christian What need thou and every poore soule hath of the Lord Iesus Christ Thou wert fallen and layest as unable to helpe thy selfe as an Infant throwne into an open field Men and Angels were at their wits ends to answer to this question How then can any be saved The Heavens said Salvation was not in them and Earth sayes Salvation is not in us nothing but God-man can doe this great work There is no other name but onely the Name of Iesus by which thou or I or any of the children of men can be saved If thou hast him thou hast enough if thou hast not him it is not all the righteousnesse of Saints and Angels that will make a garment which will not bee too short to cover thy nakednesse O cry Lord give mee Christ Lord give mee Christ or else I dye Thinke not of thy owne merits thy righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloth and as a filthy ragge Christs Righteousnesse is sufficient for thee 4. Let all the redeemed ones of the Lord be instrushed How much they owe and shall for ever owe to him that is become their Saviour It is no slight mercy Sirs to be saved out of everlasting burnings It is a piece of love which as wee can never comprehend so we can never walke up to O let us all say What shall wee render unto the Lord for his mereies wee will take the cup of salvation and praise the Name of the Lord. You would thinke you owed a great deale to him that should exalt you from a Dungeon to a Throne Mephibosheth thought he was mightily honoured to be admitted to eate bread at the Kings Table How much Ah! How much Christians is every of your soules indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ who remembred you in your low estate For his mercy endureth for ever But I passe on further Use 3 From hence may every one try himselfe whether he be raised out of that lost undone condition wherein he was by Nature I have spoke to this in the former Doctrine but because I here meet it so fit again take two Notes of Triall from this Doctrine 1. If you be raised you are raised by Christs merits 2. You are raised according to Christs method 1. If you be raised It is by Christs merits all the Abana and Parphars of thy owne merits would not doe it One drop of that fountaine that was set open for Iudah and Ierusalem for sinne and for uncleanenesse is worth all the waters of thine own Damascus What trusts thou in Christian Is it what thou hast done Alas thou art so far from having any naturall strength as Pelagians and Arminians dreame or any other strength of merits either of thy owne or thy friends which Papists dreame of that if all the Saints in the earth and all the Angels of heaven could unite their forces in one arme and to one act they could as little have lifted thee up out of the pit into which thou wert fallen as thou couldst lift up an house with the palme of thy hand if it were fallen downe It was onely this mighty one this Prince of glory this King of power that could doe it Say therefore as they say that great Papist concluded Tutissimum est Christi merit is confidere it is most safe onely to rest upon him believe it all other trusts are as the bruised Reed of Egypt and as the broken staffe of Assyria which if thou trusteth too they run into thy hand and pierce thee they will cause thee to fall many strides short of heaven when they have carried thee to their furthest their Nil ultra O trust not in them if there be all thy confidence thou art not yet raised 2. If Christ hath raised you it hath been in his method of Application Christ saves none but whom he sanctifies and sanctifies none but whom he justifies and justifieth none but whom he calls Some men are justified they think but they know not which way and
What wilt thou And he answered Lord that I might receive my sight Goe thou and doe likewise beg Lord that I might be washed with thy bloud Lord that my sinnes might be pardoned though thou meetest with discouragements and thou thinkest that thou art one that art a dog to whom the childrens bread must not be given yet leave not beg againe but for a crumme of mercy a drop of bloud verily thou shalt not goe away without comfort 4. There is but one Querie more What Rules must I observe in the using of his physicke To this Christ hath shaped an answer for me Goe thy way sinne no more lest a worse thing befall thee Thou must take heed that thou dost not returne againe with the dog to the vomit and the swine to the wallowing in the mire He that is borne of God sinneth not sayes the Apostle not constantly nor wilfully but weakly This for direction And remember this last which I shall conclude with that of the Prophet Ez. 18. 24. If the Righteous man turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespasse that he hath trespassed and in his sinne that he hath sinned shall he dye saith the Lord. Shall I need adde any thing for motive I should thinke not but only call upon you to get eyes to see your sad and undone condition in which you are It is no wonder that you should say we have need of nothing when you thinke you are rich Get but a true understanding 1. Of your owne vile and undone condition what an hell you carry about with you 2. What an hell you tread over every day and it will be enough to pricke on your soules to seeke a portion in the Lord Jesus Christ especially if yee well consider what I have sufficiently proved to you that it is impossible that in Heaven and earth there should be found any way of salvation for your poore soules but in himselfe Now the Lord worke these things upon your hearts 2. Give me leave now to speake a word of Exhortation to you my Brethren to whom the Lord hath of his free grace given a portion in the Lord Jesus Christ and you are become his raised redeemed ones The duty which I shall in generall presse upon you is thankfulnesse O give thanks unto the Lord he remembred you in your low estate for his mercy endureth for ever O what shall ye render Christians what can ye render to the Lord for this mercy For Motives Consider but every word of the Text apart and methinks it should be Motive enough to prevaile with those that have any thing tasted of this heavenly gift First I. To open this word a little and shew you what there is in it to melt your hearts into obedience 1. I that was infinitely above thee Christ was the brightnesse of his Fathers Image God blest for ever even from all Eternity He was from Eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unice dilectus the only beloved of his Father in whom his Father tooke infinite delight he was the Prince of glory God blest for ever Now for an Eternall God to stoop to a poore worme O mercy for a King to visit an Hospitall to come with his owne hands and dresse the putrified wounds of his meanest subject it is a condescention scarse found amongst the sons of men and yet if you could find it it should come infinitely short of this condescention 2. I that did not at all need thee The Lord stood not in need of a worme the Father was pleased with the Sonne from all Eternity and taken up with delighting himselfe in him and the Sonne was againe pleased with the Father They had an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-sufficiency of glory and were enough each of them to other had it not been his bowels of mercy that had yerned towards thee for thy good he had never been moved towards thee from any other principle 3. I whom thou hadst offended Greater love than this is not found amongst men than for one to dye for his friend yet greater love than this hath Christ shewne that he dyed for his enemy Rom. 5. 8. Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some will dare to dye But God commendeth his love to us-ward in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us O love infinite unfadomable love Secondly consider the Act with its circumstances I raised thee 1. Out of a low condition What lower than hell that was thy portion Christian thou wert a child of wrath by nature even as others He remembred thee in thy low estate his mercy endureth for ever 2. To a glorious condition It is an estate more glorious than thy naturall estate was or could be miserable to be free men in Jesus Christ Rom. 6. 18. into marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. to to be children and if children then heirs of God and joynt-heires with the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 8. 17. Heires of salvation Heb. 1. 14. Heires of the Promises Heb. 11. 9. Heires of the Kingdome Jam. 2. 5. Ye which in times past were not a people are now the people of God you that had not obtained mercy have now obtained mercy and are become 1 Pet. 2. 10 11. A chosen Generation a royall Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people wherefore is it but that you should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darknesse into marvellous light 3. He raised you by his owne falling yes nothing else could doe it Without bloud there had been no remission Heb 9. 22. His owne soule must be grieved to the death that your soules might be comforted He must be smitten despised rejected of men that the chastisement of your peace might be upon him and by his stripes you might be healed Was ever love like his Thirdly Consider it further in the object of this Act I raised thee 1. Thee not others Thee not Angels Thee not many other men 1. Not Angels yet the Angels were far more glorious creatures which if raised had sinned no more but spent their time in singing forth his glory and serving him with cheerfull readinesse all their dayes yet Heb. 2. 16. He in no wise took upon him the Nature of Angels but he tooke on him the seed of Abraham 2. If the Lord would have chosen men might not he have chosen ten thousand more great more noble more wise that in a carnall eye were by Nature cut out far more fit to have made vessels of glory of than thou art yet the Lord hath passed them by he hath passed by Eliab and Shammah that were sonnes of the same Father with thee and hath chosen thee that wert the least of all Ishmael and Esau that were thy elder brethren and hath chosen
in the Text And forget thine owne people and thy Fathers house Here are two things to be enquired into 1. What is meant by her owne People and her Fathers House 2. What is meant by forgetting of them For the first we must be guided by the Knowledge of the Spouse to whom these words are spoken if you look upon 1. The Church of the Jewes as the Spouse meant here to be married to Christ without question it is meant of the Jewish Worship the Ceremoniall Law and Worship and their Traditions they were to hee forgotten and the Gospell-worship to be embraced the worship of Christs Institution consonant to that of Christ to the Woman of Samaria John 4. 21 22 23. 2. If you understond by the Spouse the Church of the Gentiles then the Fathers house is all the Gentile worship and Paganish Idolatry which must all be left upon their turning to Christ 3. If you understand by the Spouse the particular beleeving soule the Fathers house is old Adams house all sinnne and wickednesse all traditionall worshipping Renounce the Per patris domum intelligo quicquid corruptionis ex utero afferimus aut quaecunque ex prava institutione nobis adhaerent quasi ad nos haereditario jure aut educatione transfusa Rivet ad loc World saith Deodate and cleave to Christ It is a Lesson of Selfe-Denyall consonant to that of Christ Matth. 10. 37. By Fathers house saith Doctor Rivet wee may understand whatever corruption wee either brought out of the wombe with us or have contracted by ill education or custome so that they cleave to us as our inheritance And by People saith he I understand ea quae ex mala consustudine conversatione cum impiis acquisita nos a Deo abducunt quae omnia nobis sunt deponenda all those Corruptions and whatever they be which we have contracted by ill acquaintance and conversing amongst the wicked which estrange us from God these must all bee laid downe Luke 9. 23. Luke 14. 26. I shall anon in the opening of the Doctrine open this tearm more fully I now proceed So shall the King desire thy Beauty Some read it Quia concupivit because the King hath desired thy beauty making it a motive to induce her to forget her fathers house So August Cyprian c. Others read it according to our Translation The King The King of Glory the King of Peace Christ that King I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion Hee is the King Greatly desire Out of his love to thee his great love to thee he shall desire it not onely love thee but desire thee yea not onely desire thee but greatly desire thee He speaks after the manner of men whose desire is to the women they love Gen. 4. 7. Vnto thee shall be his desire And so Deut. 21. 11. If thou seest amongst the Captives a beautifull woman and thou hast a desire to her to make her thy wife Christs Love is such to the soule that he hath a desire to her yea not a desire barely but a passionate desire he shall greatly desire he shall be in love with the soule He shall greatly desire thy Beauty What Beauty Pulchritudo est in mente credentium saith Musculus it is meant not of a face Beauty but an heart Beauty Decor Ecclesiae saith Mollerus est in fide obedientia dilectione In the graces of the soule it is a Beauty that the Lord Christ puts upon the soule it is not a Beauty of nature but of grace that is the Saints Beauty Sanctitas Ecclesiae est pulchritudo Eeclesiae saith Piscator the holinesse of the Church is the Churches beauty and so the holines of the soul is the souls beauty This is the fairenes this the Beauty that is meant in those places of Solomons Song Cant. 1. 10 11. Cant. 4. 1. Cant. 6. 1. Cant. 7. 1. This is the Beauty that the Lord Jesus Christ the great King shall so desire in the soule this is the comelinesse that shall make any poore soule desireable in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ This is the Beauty which will make the King of Glory rest and content himselfe in his Love to the soule that hath it and make him bee delighted with the acquaintance of the soule and in conversing and having Communion with the soule This is it that which where it is found will so ravish Christs heart that he will never part from the soule as Mollerus expounds that phrase greatly desire Thus as shortly as I could dispatch it you have the sense of the Text. Now in it there lyes these truths 1. That the gracious soule by marriage to Jesus Christ becomes his Daughter as well as his Spouse Hee will not onely love her as a Wife but care for her as a Daughter 2 Cor. 6. 16. 2. That it is a great piece of the Daughters worke to hearken to Christ in his Word It is no height of Saintship to be beyond Ordinances if wee be out of Heaven It is a note of a Reprobate being once enlightned to fall back but it is a new degree of Saintship they are deafe Adders that have lived thus long no Saints Children of the Devill not of God his Daughters must hearken Hearken O Daughter 3. Christs Daughter must and shall see as well as heare Hearing is not enough the soule must be open to receive Christ as well as the eare to heare his voice and if they will heare they shall see Hearken O Daughter and see 4. Christs Daughters must incline their eare as well as heare and see Obedience must bee joyn'd to Faith and Worship Inward affection and intention of minde must bee joyned with outward hearing 5. Which is the Doctrine I will Insist upon Doct. That soule that would have the Lord Jesus Christ desire its beauty must forget its owne people and its Fathers House And whosoever doth that shall bee beautifull And the Lord-Jesus shall desire its Beauty In the handling of this Doctrine I shall doe these 5 things 1. I shall shew you what it is for a soule to forget its owne people and its Fathers house 2. I shall shew you how and in what sense the soule that doth it shall be beautifull 3. I shall shew what is meant by the Lord Christs desiring such a soules beauty 4. I shall give you some reasons why it is requisite that the soule that would endeare it selfe to Christ and make it selfe desireable should forget its Fathers house 5. Lastly I shall apply the whole Doctrine suitably First what is meant by the soules owne people and Fathers house and secondly by forgetting of them What was meant in generall I shewed before Our Fathers house is old Adams house the world and all therein I shall now shew you in some particulars First What of our Eathers must bee forgot Secondly how and in what sense we must forget it The first I shall dispatch in these few following
or draw away the heart too much from God take up our Church-time or family duty-time or secret duty-time c. in such case they must bee forgot too 4. Comparatively they must be forgot God must be greater than they in the throne of our heart wee must not love father nor mother nor daughter nor wife nor child more than Christ So Mathew expounds that place Luk. 14. 26. in Matth. 10. 37. wee must not be lovers of any pleasures more than of Christ nor of house or lands or honour or any piece of vanity under the Sunne This is plaine for we must love Christ with all our heart and soule and though the second commandment bee thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe yet it doth not say Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy Christ 5. Lastly In effect they must be forgot Christians must doe as if they had no relations they may rejoyce and buy and sell and purchase and use the world but marke how it is in a forgetting manner 1 Cor. 7. 30. they that rejoyce must be as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as if they possest not and they that use the world as if they used it not Christians may be called by their titles of Rabbi and my Lord and Madam but while they are so they must have a scornfull low slight esteeme of these swelling words of vanity not despising the meanest of Gods Saints but ready in honour to preferre them above themselves and accounting the title of Christian of a servant of God to be a greater title of honour than worldly dignities can invest them with And now I have finished my first taske in the explication of the doctrine in which I have shewed you what of our fathers house must be forgotten 2. How farre we must forget it The second thing I propounded was to shew you how that soule is beautifull with what beauty the soule is beautifull that thus forgets its owne people and its fathers house This I shall shew you 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Not with a corporall beauty this makes not the flesh beautifull It ads no lustre to flesh and blood possibly it may discolour that 2. Not by a native beauty no naturall beauty The beauty that will appeare in the soule upon this selfe deniall is not like the beauty of the face which appears after washing off dirt which clouded natures colours 3. Not in the eye of the vaine creature nor in its owne eyes Aske a vaine creature he will tell you that the leaving of vaine dresses and patches and plaitinge of the haire is the way to make the creature look like no body to make it despised in the world c. and such a one perhaps lothes and abhors it selfe as a vile creature Jo. 42. 6. Thus it shall not be beautifull and it is no matter whether it be or no. But secondly such a soule shall bee beautifull these three wayes 1. Imputatione By the beauty of Christ put upon it see for this that notable place Ezech. 16. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Then wast thou decked with silver and gold and thy rayment was of fine linnen and silke and broidered worke and thou wert exceeding beautifull And thy renowne went forth amongst the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through the comelinesse which I had put uppon thee saith the Lord God Christ makes the reflexion of his beauty to bee cast upon such a soule and it becomes beautifull through his comelinesse the soules doing these things doth not make it spiritually any more than corporally beautifull but they being done it becomes comely through Christs comelinesse comely through a comelinesse that is put upon it that 's the first way Secondly It is beautifull 2. Through Christs Acceptation Of free grace Christ said to the young man in the 19 of Matth. Sell all thou hast c. and thou shalt have treasure in heaven not thou shalt earne it but thou shalt have it Christ accepts the soule as beautifull and accounts the soule as beautifull that for his sake will forget its owne people and its fathers house Cant. 4. 1. Behold thou art faire my love behold thou art faire thou hast doves eyes c. 3. Such a soule is beautifull though not in the worlds eyes yet in the Saints eyes The world will hate and despise them but the Saints will love and value them Cant. 6. 1. the Daughters of Hierusalem say unto the spouse whither is thy beloved gone O thou Fairest amongst women the daughters of Hierusalem the Saints account such a soule beautifull It may bee that shee may call her selfe black the greatest of sinners and the least of Saints yea and the world may so call her but those that are godly shall esteeme her comely and the King shall desire her beauty And that leads me to the last particular in the explication of the Doctrine 3. What is the meaning of that phrase The King shall desire thy beauty 1. Generally It is a speech according to the manner of men Gen. 4. 7. it is said of the husband toward the wise Vnto thee shall be his desire And wee meet with that phrase Deut. 21. 11. when thou seest amongst the Captives a beautifull woman and thy desire shall be towards her to make her thy wife 2. But more particularly I think the true meaning of the phrase may bee understood in these particulars First of all it implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall discover and see an excellency in such a soule we can desire nothing but we shall first discover some excellency in it Now the Lord discovers an excellency in such a soule hee shall eye such a soule as an excelling soule as a lovely soule worthy of him though not through its owne worthinesse and suitable for him 2. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall love such a soule discovering in it a suitable excellency he shall love it his heart will be ravished with it Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart Christs affections will be drawne out to a soule that so forgets it selfe his heart will bee melting towards it and on fire for it there must first bee a love in the soule to the object before the heart bee drawne forth to covet an union with it 3. It implies That the Lord Christ will in his heart preferre such a soule when a mans desire is towards a particular woman to make her his wife he preferres her above other women his desire is not to her sex but to her to her rather than ten thousand others The Lords desire shall bee towards such a soule As you have heard described to you that hee will preferre her above ten thousand of his creatures though the Lord sees thousands of his creatures hundreds in a congregation that the world dotes upon some for their faire faces and on others for their brave parts this Eliab and the
love to them you have heard of killing with kindnesse let the kind of death be never so sweet yet the death will be bitter Take heed not of killing the bodies alas that were nothing but of damning your childrens soules and your owne too with miscalled kindnesse 3 Obj. But wil another Christian say I have not forgot my honour and glory I am not low enough I feare to get in at heavens gate I answer first 1. This is like the melancholy conceit of her that a Divine of our owne speaks of of a woman that conceited she was so fat shee could not get to heaven it is the lownesse of mind that God looks at Lords and Ladies if their hearts be not as high as their titles may sit in heaven as well as meaner persons I doe not say they shall have chaires of state set for them but they may have a roome there it may be one or two may sit above them if there bee degrees in glory that gave them place here but as Master Rutherford sayes the least place in Heaven is Heaven though it bee behind the doore But secondly 2. Is not thy outward Pompe and glory that which thou affectest and delightest in it and huntest after Does not thy title tickle thy eare nor swell thy heart if not it can doe thee no hurt all the feare of those swelling things is lest they should breed tympanies in the soule 3. Doe you look upon the title of the servant of Jesus Christ the title of Christian as the farre more honourable title Are you of Theodosius his temper which would you rather chuse to be call'd my Lord or Madam or to be called the servant of Christ which doe you preferre if the latter it is a signe you have forgot the former though you retaine it 4. Is your outward greatnesse and pompe no snare to your soule in the wayes of God Great persons are too ready to think they are above prayers above hearing above meane Saints should such ones as they pray in their families no let their boy do it should they pray in secret and runne up and downe to lectures O no forsooth it is a dishononour to them Heaven was made I confesse for the most part for people of lesser quality 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. James 2. 5. should such as they go to private meetings no better go to a taverne there they shall only foule their soules but keep their clothes cleane But now hath the Lord given thee another spirit it is true thou art great but thy greatnesse is no such snare to thy soule thou canst pray for all thy greatnesse and heare sermons and kneele in a duty for all thy silk stockings and entertain communion with the meanest Saint yea and for a need preferre a lether dublet in honour before thy selfe Though thou beest great it seemes thou hast forgot it 4 Obj. Ah but will a Christian say I am so addicted to mirth and pleasure I must have my vagary and tickle my sense sometimes c. 1 Answ Christian dost thou love thy pleasures more than thy God that indeed were something art thou more pleased with hearing a song than hearing a sermon this sounds high But love God best and for ought I know thy eye for thy recreation may bee delighted in seeing and thy care with hearing too 2 Answ Wilt thou baulk an opportunity of communion with Christ or with his Saints for a vaine pleasure Wilt thou bee a loser in thy heart to gaine a little pleasure for thine eye or eare or any sense wilt thou misse a family duty an opportunity of hearing Gods word privatly or publiquely thy time of secret duty a time of communion with the Saints to wait upon thy pleasure In such a case I would have thee suspect thy heart otherwise thou mayest recreate thy selfe with them and yet have forgotten them 3 Answ Suppose thy pleasures have been such and are such as are in themselves sinfull as wantonnesse drunkennesse c. Dost thou love them so that thou wilt have them whether God will or no thou wilt break with God to enjoy thy lust this is an ill and a very ill signe But possibly thy pleasures are such as God allowes thee temperately used if such thou mayest so use them and yet the King desire thy beauty I have finished this branch of application I have but one word more to adde It shall be of Use 4 Exhortation Let mee now perswade with you Christians And oh that the Lord would help mee to perswade 1. with you who have not at all yet forgate your fathers house and so consequently your beauty is not at all desirable to Christ 2. With you that have begun to doe well I have a word to both sorts 1 Br. Is there alas is there any poore soule before me this day whose heart smites him and tells him that his soule is not at all yet desirable in the eyes of Jesus Christ is there any poore creature so sadly miserable possibly the world dotes on you for beauty wit parts behaviour c. but in the meane time doe your soules tell you in plaine English that you are despised in Christs eyes As though God did beseech you by mee I pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God Ah poore soule wouldst thou be desired of Jesus Christ Hearken then O daughter and consider and incline your eare forget thy owne people and thy fathers house I know I am pleading with you for an hard thing especially for you that have all the world at will But I beseech you by the love you bear to your precious soules which shall last for ever doe it ah doe it I had need now have the Rhethorick of an Angell yea if I had yet God must perswade Japhet to come and dwell in the tents of Shem. Let mee offer but a few considerations and venture at a perswading of you and leave the issue with God 1. Consider How will you live when your fathers house failes you for the present it is a full house and you live as wee say as well as a carnall heart would wish you have pleasures and honours and riches even what you would aske the colour is in your cheeks and the marrow in your bones But will this last alwayes doth not the fashion of this world passe away and will not the fashion of your bodies passe away what will you doe in that day of your visitation These things may last a while till God comes to keep a Court in your Conscience or hee summons you to a particular judgement or layes you upon your back in a bed of affliction or comes to his last judgement But in any of these dayes poore creature what wilt thou doe when thy perfumed body shall come to stinke in the nostrils of men thy soule shall be more loathed of God a future livelihood would be thought of This will perswade a virgin to marry sometimes But besides 2. Christian Dost
thou know the joyes of a married life to Christ dost thou put no difference betwixt being a bondslave to hell and one free in Jesus Christ betwixt the enjoying the communion of the children of the Devill and enjoying the communion of Saints no difference betwixt enjoying the communion of devils in everlasting torments and the communion of God Angells and Saints in the highest Heavens where eye hath not seen nor hath eare heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for them that love him now if thy conscience bee not seared thou hast ever and anon some flashes of hell in thy face The merriest sinner of you all I believe is not alwayes free Is there no difference betwixt that condition think you and a peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost Now you never lie downe in your beds but if you dare look back and consider how you have spent the day your soule is stricken with terrour and there is a dart almost struck through your liver and you dare not let your soules feed upon the thoughts but are glad to shusfle it over for feare you runne madde but if your soules would but forget these vanities ah how sweetly would you sleep and when you had spent a day in duties of hearing or praying how sweetly would your soules look back upon it Now if you were not rock't into a sleep of damnation you would scarce lie downe to sleep but you would feare lest you should wake in the morning with hell flames about your eares nor walke in the day but like the selfe-accused murtherer your eye would be over your shoulder for feare the devill should be laying hold of you then you would lie downe in peace and rise up in peace and nothing would make you afraid Is this world nothing Christian ah that the Lord would perswade you of this Besides 3. Consider Christian there is nothing in your fathers house but you shall find in Christ by a way of eminency Must you forsake your sinnes you shall be filled with the graces of the spirit of God Must you forsake a little idle vaine company you shall have the communion of Saints yea a fellowship with the father and the sonne the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1. 3. Must you forget your pompe and glory c. you shall bee called the sonnes and daughters of God heires coheires with Christ Rom. 8. Must you forget worldly riches you shall have the riches of grace Must you forget a few vaine pleasures you shall have a fulnesse of pleasures at Christs right hand and that for ever more Psal 16. 11. Must you forget your owne righteousnesse you shall bee clothed with the righteousnesse of Josus Christ what 's lost by the exchange Christian 4. Consider againe Christ forgot his fathers house for you and yet it was worth many of yours hee forgot the glory the company the pleasures of his fathers house for you he was content for you to be a companion of fishermen yea of sinners yea of theeves when he died upon the crosse for you this he did freely he made himselfe of no reputation hee nothinged himselfe for you Hark what the Apostle sayes 2 Cor. 8. 9. you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for your sake bee became poore that you through his poverty might be made rich Let that melting love winne you Besides 5. It is the way to be beautifull what abundance of paines poor vaine wretches take to be beautifull surely this must move Beauty is a desirable thing the vaine creatures of the earth would never else set nature with the heeles upward doe any thing to obtaine it wee should never else have so much precious time lost and so many precious soules undone with paintings and trimmings patchings and perfumings and a thousand such apish tricks but beauty is the idoll of the world to which the very soule shall be offered up in sacrifice and when all this is done the soule is amisse and the way to adorne that is to undresse all againe Hark you that desire beauty here 's the way of beauty which you have not known it is to deny your selves in all these things and whatsoever else is contrary to the law of Christ or short of him yea and this 6. Shall make you desirably beauteous that Christ shall desire you and the Saints shall desire you this is the way to ravish his heart But no more by way of motive God must doe all I know when I have spake my utmost I might tell you who it is will desire your beauty It is the King of heaven of glory and peace the King shall desire your beauty If this all this will not doe the Lord open your eyes and then I am sure it will But this is an hard work and young ones especially had need of a great deale of helpe to it and truly nature affords none all is laid up in Christ onely In order to the getting of it from Christ let me advise you Dir. 1 First With a serious eye to look upon your fathers house and see what there is in it desirable that should so bewitch one that hath not outlawed his or her reason to it Look seriously upon your sinnes will you not see a filthinesse in them Look upon your vaine company bee they what they will will you not discerne some sordidnesse or basenesse in their actions upon your honours and greatnesse will they not appeare bubbles upon your pleasures will they not appeare shaddowes You look upon these things as pictures side-wayes or at a distance that makes you admire them and runne after them come neerer to them will they not look dawbed with some uncomelinesse or other Will not the colours that look'd so sweetly afarre off stink if you bring them neere your nose Let that bee the first piece of advice Dir. 2 While you enjoy these things take heed of letting out your heart to them rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as if you used it not be not too much intent upon your fathers house converse not too much with any thing there things of the world have a glutinous quality the heart will cleave to them if you let it lie very long amongst them and if it once cleaves there will bee no wayes but either your heart must be soundly rent upon the severing or hell-fire must part them Dir. 3 Thirdly Ah Learne to live from your fathers house betimes take the wise mans counsell it was after a large survey and discourse of every roome and the vanity of every roome in our fathers house Eccl. 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth if rottennesse enter into the bones it will hardly ever â—ut You that are young for the Lords sake think of this Ah come off your youthfull vanities before they can plead custome with your soules live from home
but especially Puritanes Ride on Gallants but take heed of breaking your necks in hell what will you doe in the day of the Lords visitation when the reckoning day comes friends what will you have to pay when the showre of divine vengeance comes will your huffled suit of worldly vanities cloath you will your sack cheare your heart when it is wounded with an arrow of divine vengeance drawne by the strength of an Almighty arme and let flie at the very eye of your pleasures Nay suppose on this side of such a time you should meet with a showre of worldly crosses two or three as Job a better man than any of you did Job 1. Suppose the Lord should take away the delight of your eyes with a stroke as from Ezechiel your deare children as from Eli and Aaron your husband as from Phinehas his wife all your pleasures riches comforts al your castles of greatnesse riches Suppose you should be throwne into prison and have nothing given you but the bread of affliction to eat and the water of affliction to drink What shall beare up your spirits in such a day what will you doe ah what can you doe in the day of the Lords visitation The conie if it be started and pursued by a dog it hath a burrow in the rock thither it runnes and is safe But the Hare and such like beasts of sport that have no burrowes no holes if once they bee found out in their covert and be pursued by dogges they are wurried down why alas they have no places of security The poore wretch that hath no part in Christ if a day of trouble comes he hath no place of security but hee is like a poore manslayer pursued by the avenger of the blood and either knowes not where a City of refuge was or at best is at such a distance from it as hee could not possibly have hopes of reaching it before the pursuer and avenger of bloud overtook him and he died without mercy Poor creatures this is your condition the Lord give you an heart to consider it you have no way of peace that you will be able to find in a day of trouble Br. 4 Thirdly from hence wee may bee instructed in the happy condition of all those that have a true interest in the Lord Jesus Christ they are provided for Winter and Summer if in the world they meet with trouble they may retire to Christ and be at peace if they be pursued by the dogges of the world they have a burrow in the rocke of ages What Iob sayes of the grave wee may say of that hiding place There the wicked cease from troubling there the weary be at rest they can never be so tost never be in such a deep of troubles but they can cast anchor in the Lord Iesus Christ when the kitchin of the world is on fire they have an upper-roome that they can go sit and sleep in and the heat shall never trouble them No totus si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum feriant ruinae They can but runne up the staires and sit with Jesus Christ and they are at peace they are at any time within a reach of peace and may in any condition say to their soules as David Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soule why art thou disquieted within mee trust still in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God See a notable experiment of this in David 1 Sam. 30. 6. It was a sad day with him his City was burnt with fire and his and his mens wives his sons and their daughters were taken captives and to none of the kind'st enemies neither the Amalekites had done it David was greatly distressed v. 6. and to adde affliction to affliction when hee was almost dead of griefe the people were almost of the mind to have helpt him on to his grave for they also spake of stoning him What doth David doe doth not his back breake with all this load upon it doth not his heart sink to the very bottome of dispaire with all this weight of lead hung upon it marke the latter end of the sixth vers But David encouraged himselfe in the Lord his God for all this hee encouraged himselfe in his God In the world he met with trouble in his Christ hee finds peace Thus may all that feare the Lord why is there a disturbed sad heart amongst them Happy is the people that have the Lord for their God Happy are those creatures that have an hole in the rock But to proceed Br. 5 Lastly from hence may all that fear the Lord be instructed what is the onely way to find true peace in a day of trouble it is to look for it only in the Lord Jesus Christ Acquaint thy selfe now with Christ and be at peace thereby shall good come unto you fetch peace from Christ O yee Saints and be at peace thereby shall good come unto you There bee many courses which men use to gain peace in a day of trouble whether outward or inward many wayes by which men wring their spirits out of trouble and patch up peace to their owne spirits but the right way of peace few have known 1. Some let nature worke out peace like some foolish countrey people that conceive nature will work out all distemperatures and they need no Physick Some of them are confuted by their grave others of them that are of more stout iron natures possibly recover their health but their diseases make a truce onely not a peace with their bodies the latent cause remains and watcheth its advantage of the next heat or cold the body takes or the next intemperate season comes And thus many deale with their soules never regarding when their spirits are troubled to heale up the wound with the balme of Gilead but go on in their worldly way at last their wiled spirits are quiet againe so they get their peace of course but alas the latent cause of their trouble watcheth but the next advantage their soule festers within and within a while they are ready to hang themselves againe 2. Other wretches in a time of trouble are like those that upon that principle Satanas per Sathanam expellitur one Devill drives out another If they be in an ague or the like will drinke hot-waters or store of sack to prevent their cold-fit and out burn nature but alas all the good comes is they fall into a burning-feaver and perhaps burne their dust to ashes So there are such profane wretches that if their conscience alarum's them if their spirit troubles them or if they meet with crosses c. think there is no way to wind out of the Devils fingers but by going into his armes and making themselves twice more the children of the Devill than they were before they must runne to the alehouse seek out drunken company drink away melancholy c. But
you have learn'd of Christ for hee is meek and lowly see Luk. 14. 26 33. concerning this note Christ in plaine English saith whosoever hath it not cannot be his Disciple it is the first lesson of Grace Deny your selves But are you humble and selfe-denying ones selfe-loathing and abhorring creatures doe you even loath your naturall selfe and hate your righteous selfe and forsake all your selfe then are you Christs Disciples doth the spirit of Christ which is the spirit of meeknesse dwell in you and rest upon you then have you learnd of him 5. If you beare the crosse with that faith and patience which you should bear it then you may know you are Christ's Disciples Luk. 14. 27. without this you cannot be Christ's Disciple there is nothing shall more evidence a Christian to himselfe and to others to bee Christ's Disciple than his religious bearing of the crosse his religious carriage under trialls and burthens of spirit this is a great peece of the way in which Christ will be followed of all those that are his Disciples Lastly If you love one another then you may know and all men may know concerning you that you are Christs Disciples Joh. 13. 35 By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you love one another Saint John in his Epistles beates much upon this to love the Saints meerly because they are Saints not for their good nature or wit or parts or greatnesse or any respect but impartially because they are Saints It is a good note By these things you shall know your selves whether you be Christs Disciples or no if you be you have a title to his peace And from what you have heard that true peace for the soule in the midst of this worlds troubles is only to be found in Christ and onely that which is drawne from Christ Every Christian hath ground to bring the peace of his spirit the comming of his spirit after trouble to the touchstone that he may be able to know whether it be Christs peace or his owne I shall give you five or six notes for that 1. If it be drawne from some word of God it is true peace Thy soule hath been troubled thy spirit hath been burthened now it is quieted I pray how came your spirit off trouble what was it that helpt thy spirit out of the miry clay what didst thou close with some Gospell-promises didst thou bosome a promise and was that peace to thee this is Christs peace such a peace was Davids Psal 119. 50. This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickened mee so v. 81. My soule fainteth for thy salvation but I hope in thy word so v. 114. Thou art my hiding place and my shield I hope in thy word so v. 147. Davids peace was drawne from the word of God from what God had spoken in reference to him in particular or at least in generall to one in such a condition Jer. 15. 16. Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto mee the joy and rejoycing of my heart Many a poore soule before me I doubt not but hath known this way of getting peace when his spirit hath beene full of trouble that he hath not known what to doe perhaps hath not been able to eat or drink or sleep through anguish of heart perhaps a Minister hath been made the sweet messenger of peace to the soule and God hath used him as an instrument to mind the soule of some promise or other which at such a time hath come into the soule as water to the thirsty ground and hath been even as an apple of gold in a picture of silver perhaps the spirit of God according to that promise Joh. 14. 26. Brings to remembrance something that Christ hath spoken some generall promise or some particular promise which proves as the balme of Gilead to the soule to heale its wounds This is a Gospell-peace a sweetly made peace a peace of Christs making in the soule according to the text 2. If thy peace ariseth from a due consideration and application of some thing in the nature of God as hee hath revealed his nature to us whether it be from Gods will or 2. from the meditation of Gods mercy and goodnesse or 3. from a meditation of Gods faithfulnesse the consideration of many things in Gods nature may command peace in a soule but especially these three are fountaines out of which the Saint drawes peace The consideration of the stroke that Gods will had in Davids affliction brought him peace Psal 39. 9. I was dumbe I opened not my mouth because I knew it was thy doing hence was Elie's peace 1 Sam. 3. 18. when his eares amongst the rest could not but tingle at Samuels news hee said It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good Hence was Hezekiah's peace when he could not but bee troubled to heare what should become of his sons and daughters 2 Kin. 20. 17 18. yet hee had peace v. 19. he said good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken Hence was those good peoples peace Acts 21. 13 14. They were troubled at Pauls departure considering what Agabus had prophesied concerning him v. 11. At last they quieted themselves and their minds stood upon this bottom v. 14. They said The will of the Lord be done now if thy peace be concluded upon this account the Lord hath sent a grievous crosse a grievous affliction upon thee and thou wert troubled but thou begannest to think why this was the will of the Lord concerning mee this is the Lords doing and upon the due meditation of this thy spirit growes quiet out of a meere submission and obedience to Gods dispensation This is true peace it was the Saints peace 2. Or perhaps it is from a due meditation of the Lords mercy and goodnesse thou hast a crosse and triall befallen thee but thou beginnest to think well yet the Lord is good to my soule yet the mercy of the Lord indureth for ever and upon this consideration thy soule hath peace this is true peace upon this account was the Churches peace Lam. 3. 21. This I recall to mind therefore have I hope It is of the Lords mercies that wee are not consumed because his compassions faile not they are new every morning c. v. 25. The Lord is good to them that wait upon him even to the soule that seeketh him c. Hence shee concludes peace in sad troubles 3. Or is it from a consideration of the nature of God in his faithfulnesse Lam. 3. 23. Great is thy faithfulnesse Thou sittest down with thy selfe and considerest why am I troubled the Lord hath promised that joy shall be to the upright of heart and that light shall arise out of darknesse to the upright and that though sorrow be for a night yet joy shall come in the morning This God is a faithfull God hee hath said it and shall hee not
trouble under every crosse whence is it then that their spirits are sometimes so much down so much sunk whence is it that assoone as ever a Saint is troubled he doth not presently without any more adoe runne to Christ and secure himselfe and be at rest but wee heare day after day that the Spirit of the Saint is under the same burthens overwhelmed in the same manner as if there were no balme in Gilead no Physician there Truly there may bee many causes possibly there may be a sullennesse in the soule that it will not out of the cave it is angry with God and will refuse comfort Possibly God may please to deny a present application of a comfort by the hand of the spirit which can alone make a plaster stick upon a wounded spirit bee it never so well made and spread But I perswade my selfe two great and very usuall causes yea most usuall are Ignorance and negligence Either the soule is a stranger to the Rock or else it doth not put forth its legges in running to it 1. A Christian may have a great interest in Christ a great portion in the rock of ages and yet be in a great manner ignorant of him and this partiall ignorance though it shall not hinder their finall salvation for our high-priest hath compassion on the ignorant saith the Apostle to the Hebrewes yet it may hinder their present comfort It may be the soule is not so acquainted with the word of God that when it is in trouble it can turne to a promise presently that shall relate to its condition it may be it may not bee so acquainted with all the corners of Christs gracious heart that it can presently consider Christ in a sutable notion to comfort it under its present burthen Now this very ignorance and not being acquainted with Jesus Christ may a great deale hinder the soules comfort and make him go with a sad heart a great deale longer than that soule that is more growne in the knowledge of Christ more acquainted with every piece of his nature more experienced in his wayes Indeed secondly a great cause may be the soules negligence a knowledge may lie dormant in the soule a man may have legges and not use them so a Christian may have a sufficient acquaintance with Christ in his words of promise and wayes of mercy and yet for all this if it will sit still in an houre of trouble and never set it selfe to meditate upon these things never put forth it selfe to trie if it can close with the promise that it knowes never trie whether its faith will efficaciously worke upon the mercifull nature of Jesus Christ though it knowes it A soule may walk troubled long enough but this I have nothing to doe with here Christians ah you that feare the Lord in the dayes of your peace be every day gaining more and more knowledge of God in his wayes of mercy be every day gaining more and more knowledge of God in his precious promises learne to know every hole of the rock that so you may readily flie to it in an houre of straits readily run to it in an houre of trouble That your spirits may no sooner be troubled but you shall being so acquainted with the book of God presently turne to a good word of promise that shall make it better or presently fix your eye upon Christ and consider him in some sutable notion of love or other from which your soules shall gather peace This shall be your wisdome Br. 3 Lastly you that are believers have you heard that there is peace laid up for the Saints against the dayes of trouble Then learne if ever you meet with trouble in the world whether outward or inward Not only to look after peace and a quietment and settling of your spirits againe but look to draw your peace from the Lord Jesus Christ in the day of trouble to quiet your spirits in him and to heale your spirits with something drawne from him some word of his some meditation concerning him c. Fetch out your peace and quietment in all troubles from the bosome of the Lord Jesus Christ Let mee for this exhortation onely give you some few directions and then I shall conclude with two or three motives I know every child of God is listning after this and apprehends a great deale of sweetnesse in this fully conceiving that it would be a very sweet thing if he could bring this about that his soule should come out of every disturbance Walking upon Christs hand you cannot but say this would be a sweet comming off indeed Ah but will some say how should this bee what course should we take to worke this about what would you advise a poore creature to doe that it might come out of troubles on this fashion To this I shall answer in a few directions and that briefely Dir. 1 First Let it be thy first work when thou art overwhelmed with a rrouble be it from what cause it will to sit downe and think what is now a bitter dispensation that doth not please mee I am troubled at it but let me think is there nothing of God in this dispensation commeth this affliction out of the dust see if thou canst see nothing of Gods power or soveraignty wisdome or justice providence love and goodnesse c. I dare say there is scarce any affliction befals thee but if thou studiest it well thou wilt see all of these yea more of God than these come to in it thou wilt be brought at last to conclude surely God was in this crosse in this losse of a friend in this losse of estate and I was not aware of it surely it is the will of the Lord concerning me and shall I not submit God might doe what he hath done he is my Lord and soveraigne why then doth my spirit rise up in armes against him this is the ordering of a wise Providence If what I would have had had come to passe then surely I could not have mended it it would have been worse for me surely here is love in this dispensation for that God is all love that measured it out to mee Thus by understanding what of God there is in thy triall thou wilt gaine a true peace The truth is it is the usuall course of men and women holy men and women as well as others if a trouble come upon them to sit downe and conceit what of man there is in it and say This was such a ones malice to mee now hee hath done me an ill turne c. whereas this instead of bringing the soule off trouble in a sanctified manner doth nothing else but involve the soule in an inextricable Labyrinth of afflictions and if ever it comes out it is at the back-doore too Dir. 2 When thou hast considered what there is of God in it then mediate a little what there is in God to mend it Sit downe and think with thy selfe is