Christ having both a fellowship with the death of Christ in dying to sin and with the life of Christ in living unto newness of life Upon these accounts and these only is the Believing Soul fair in the Eyes of Christ Before I part with this Observation Let every gracious Soul make a stand upon it and consider what it affords him for Consolation while he looks over his Soul and sees it full of spots and taking a review of his life he can find no ground of hope to his Soul that Christ should cast an Eye of love and pity upon him he sees there 's no proportion between his duties or any actions of his conversation and the holy Law of God Well yet the comfort lies here that the Lord hath not said Blessed is the man that hath no sin for who liveth and sinneth not against God but Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered and to whom the Lord imputeth no sin Psal 32. 1. If we once lose this great Truth of the Justification of a poor Soul by the Righteousness of Christ we have cut up a Bridge which we shall see a need of to go over as often as we enter into any serious thoughts of our own state the weight of all our Souls and all the comfort of them hangs upon this one pin That what the law could not do because it was weak through our flesh that God hath done sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for fin condemning fin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us We have lost all that day that we forsake that desire of St. Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the law but that which is of God Even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ But you will say How shall we know that Christ hath thus loved us That must be known by our loving him and so the matter will return to the same point We freely grant that our Justification is to be evidenced for our Sanctification and that even the witness of Gods Spirit is not a single but a joint Testimony together with our Spirits But yet there is a great difference as to Christians comfort in these things That Soul that looks to be made fair with his own works if he rightly understand himself shall never be Satisfied concerning his Spiritual beauty because his works must necessarily be compleatly perfect otherwise the law accuseth and curseth him But he who acknowledgeth that his beauty is meerly from grace freely justifying but yet his receiving of this grace is to be evidenced by his works stands concerned no further to enquire concerning the perfection of his works in order to this end then only to see if they be perfect according to Gospel allowances not according to lawstrictness And such are the Gospel terms that if there be a willing mind a presence to will a delight in the Law of God as to the inward man it is accepted of God Here 's a bottom for him I proceed to the 4th Circumstance which I observed relating to the first Proposition of the Text and that was the term Behold which is prefixed Behold thou art fair and doubled Behold Behold There is a threefold use of this particle in Scripture it denotes 1. presence of a thing 2. Certainty 3. Eminency It may in this Text denote all three 1. It may denote the present state of a believing Soul to be a beautiful state Behold thou art fair now in this life while thou art black with infirmities and corruptions black through afflictions and temptations yet even now thou art fair 1 Joh 3. 2. Beloved Now we are the Sons of God It doth not yet appear what we shall be This particle is often thus used in holy Writ Gen. 29. 2 25. and it is capable enough of this sense in this Text. Behold thou art fair thou shalt not only be hereafter beautiful when the Crown of glory shall be set upon thy head but thou art now beautiful thou doest not apprehend thy self so thou art bewailing thy spots and thy infirmities but I look upon thee as fair with all thy spots I look upon thee as beautiful even now 2. It denotes the certainty of a thing Behold is a particle of Demonstration and is often so used in Scripture There is nothing more certain then what we can behold Thus the particle is used Gen. 16. 2. Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing they are the words of Sarah that is the Lord hath certainly restrained me see Gen. 18. 27. The believing Soul is certainly a beauteous Soul The Beauty of that Soul which truly believes in Jesus Christ is not an imaginary thing it is a true and real thing it is a certainty's Behold thou art fair c. 3. Lastly this particle Behold doth very often denote eminency and excellency When something is wonderful in Nature or otherwise the Scripture useth to make mention of it by prefixing this particle Behold to it So James 3. 3 4. It is a wonderful thing that the strength of an Horse should be ruled by a bit and that so great a bulk as a ship driven about with fierce winds should be turned about with a very small helm and thus it is a very often used in Scripture and it may have that use here Behold thou art fair My Love Behold thou art fair and so it may hint to us these two things 1. That the beauty of a believer is no ordinary beauty but a rare and eminent beauty not like the beauty of Woman not like that vain thing which we call beauty in a natural fense which is only the object of the lust of the Eye no it is a Spiritual beauty which age will not deface diseases will not spoil no outward accidents will hurt a beauty that is not exposed to wind and weather The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and yet so great is her glory that the King of Kings desires her beauty Or secondly it may denote this 2. That it is a wonderful thing that Christ should account a Child of Adam a poor believing Soul beauteous When David considered the Heavens and the Earth he cries out What is man O Lord that thou shouldest remember him or the Son of man that thou shouldest be mindful of him It is a matter of high admiration to any ingenuous Soul to sit down and think that Jesus Christ should account it beautiful But I hasten to the last Circumstance I observed to you that the phrase is doubled Christ doth not only say thou art fair my Love but he doubles the phrase Thou art fair thou art fair There is doubtless nothing superfluous in holy Writ though possibly there may be something both in the matter and stile of which we can give no Satisfactory account almost in all languages these repetitions and
By the Beloved speaking in this Song you are to understand the Lord Jesus Christ By the Spouse whom he sometimes calleth his love you may understand the Church and more particularly every truly believing Soul By the Watchmen the Ministers of the Church whom God hath set to watch for Souls By the Daughters of Hierusalem sometimes mentioned either the Members of the Church or the Neighbours of it The two first have the greatest share in the Song the others sometimes speak and are sometime spoken to But this is enough to have spoken by way of preface 'T is time to leave the threshold and to enter in to this pleasant House Only give me leave as an Epilogue to this discourse to subjoin the Judgment of Ludovicus de Ponte though a Papist yet a learned Man who hath copiously interpreted this Spiritual Song and allowing him the Popish Devotion for the Sacred Virgin which makes them all think they see her in every Text hath done much in it well It is prefix'd to his Latine Commentary To this purpose The Book of Solomon which from the nobleness of the Argument is called the Song of Songs is a spiritual conference betwixt that God who is three and yet one or betwixt Christ who is true God and Man and his Church whether ancient or modern and every gracious Soul which is a Member of that Church In which discourse God hath a double part and personateth two several Persons The person of a most wise Instructer or Master delivering to his Disciple the sublime Doctrine of Faith and Holiness 2. The Person of a most endeared lover extolling and courting his most beloved Spouse with wonderful praises and enriching her with great gifts and favours The Church also represents a double Person 1. The Person of a Disciple or Spouse towards God or the Person of a Mistress or companion towards other Souls which she calls the Daughters of Hierusalem The Argument of this Conference as well became such Persons is sublime pleasant profitable and abundantly copious for whatsoever the ancient Prophets sang whatsoever the Evangelists afterwards related or the Apostles Preached whether relating to the mysteries of faith or to holiness and Gospel perfection it is all in this Song comprehended in the style of lovers the style being Spiritual not Carnal But because the Metaphors and Similitudes which fill this whole Book are taken from Carnal Marriages We must pill off the bark that the letter might not kill That being once taken off the spiritual part lying within will enlighten the Soul and quicken and inflame and perfect it For according to our Saviours words it is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing and the words of this Song are Spirit and life to those who do sincerely consider them For as the Ancient Priests of the Jews as we read in the Book of Macchabees when they looked for the sacred fire which they had hidden found nothing but thick water which water to the admiration of all when the Sun shined out of the Cloud again was turned into fire so he who looks upon the Book of Canticles with carnal Eyes will only find the puddle-water of words which the outside letter seemeth to shew which will fill his heart with darkness instead of light with a carnal chilling instead of spiritual heat But if the divine Sun inlightens that which seemed puddle water will become coelestial fire wonderfully inlightning the understanding and inflaming the will But although the whole Book of Canticles containeth 8 Chapters and by Interpreters be divided into three five or more parts yet I believe the first and second Chapters are a sum or breviary of all those mysteries of Faith which are contained in the six other Chapters which is evidenced from this that the close of the second and of the last Chap. are much the same to shew us that the narration of matter is finished in the second Chapter and that from the third Chapter beginneth a new discourse of the same mysteries under new Metaphors and Similitudes Discourses of Divine Love BETWEEN CHRIST and the CHURCH From the first Chap. of the Song of Solomon Sermon I. Cant. 1. 2 3. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth for his loves are better then Wine V. 3. Because of the savour of thy good Ointments Thy name is as an Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee I Have observed in my prefatory discourse that some have fancied that this Book is called The Song of Songs because it contains several Songs in it It is in our Bibles divided into 8 Chapters and by Interpreters into several periods according to their particular fancies Ludovicus De Ponte conceives as I shewed you that the two first Chapters contain a Breviary of all the rest and as an evidence of it alledgeth the same close both of the second and eighth Chapter and from the third Chapter he thinks there begins a repetition of the same spiritual mysteries under new Metaphors whether that notion in the extent of it be true or no doubtless the two first Chapters contain much spiritual Doctrine informing us in the near communion betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ and the believing Soul A learned Interpreter distributes this Chapter into two parts the first he calls Prooemium a Preface the second Colloquium a Conference betwixt the two great Interlocutors in this spiritual discourse In the former you have two things 1. A Prayer 2. An Apology The first in v. 1 2 3 4 7. The second as a Parenthesis v 5 6. The Prayer consisteth of three Petitions each of which is urged by suitable arguments The first petition is v. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Month. The second v. 4. Draw me The 3d is v. 7. Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth c. where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon The further distribution of the Chapter and the several verses in it I shall leave until I come in order to them My Text containeth the first Petition with an argument annexed The petition in those words Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth The argument in the latter words for his love is better then Wine For the just understanding of the words we must consider 1. Who it is that speaketh 2. To whom the Speech is directed 3. what the import of the Petition is As to the first our Translation puts it out of doubt and it is as universally agreed amongst Interpreters that the Person speaking is she who throughout the whole Song bears the Person of the Spouse by which having already rejected the notions of those who understand Pharaohs Daughter or the Shulamite as also of those who restrain it to the Jewish Church must be understood either the Church in the general or the believing Soul in particular who here speaketh Either to the Bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ or to God the Father of this
inlarged in my discourses upon some former propositions Sermon XII Canticles 1. 2. For thy Loves are better than Wine I Am now come to the last proposition I observed from these words which I told you might be either considered As a Reason why she desired the tokens of Christs distinguishing loves a reason drawn from her knowledge and experience of the goodness the transcendent goodness of them In this notion I have already spoken to the proposition arising from them Or 2. As an argument of her petition by which she pleadeth with God for the thing which she desired An argument drawn from the value she set upon his love From whence results this proposition Prop. 10. That our value and estimate of the love of Christ above all other things is an excellent argument for a Soul to use with God for the obtaining of it An argument is a mean brought either to prove a proposition or to move the Affections The Logicians bring arguments to prove the just connexion of Subjects and Predicates in propositions The Orator useth them to move mens wills and affections the business of the Soul with God in any prayer is the business of an Orator the Arguments he hath to use are such as may move God to bestow the good things upon him which he desireth If you observe all the prayers of the Servants of God upon Sacred Record you shall find them much to consist of Requests or Petitions and arguments backing or inforcing those requests These arguments you will observe drawn from several heads Sometimes from the Nature of God Sometimes from their relation unto him Sometimes from the promises made in the case Sometimes from the greatness of their misery Sometimes from Gods Power and the freeness of his Grace Psal 25. 7. According to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness sake O Lord. Sometimes from their faith alliance to and dependance upon God Psal 25. 2. O my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed So from various other heads I say amongst others A Souls just prizing and valuing of the loves of Christ is an excellent argument for a Soul to use to inforce a petition for them 2. The goodness or badness the strength or weakness of an argument derives wholly from its subserviency to its end its cogency or no cogency The End here aimed at is by prayer to obtain the loves of Christ so as the goodness of the arguments to be used in this case depends upon the force they have with God to move him to grant the requests of our lips 3. Persuasive arguments have their force either upon a natural account and that is mostly from the infirmity of our Natures which renders them subject to be affected with fine words passionate expressions we must not imagine that God can be moved with any such thing and therefore fine phrases in prayer are very insignificant things Or else upon a moral and rational account As now amongst men if one can come to another requesting a favour from him and say Sir you promised it me there is a force in this argument upon a moral and rational account such an argument is this in this case If a Soul can go to God pleading for the manifestations of his love unto it and truly tell him that it valueth his love and favour above all created comforts tho the bare naming of this and delivering it in fine significant words will do nothing with God in order to the obtaining of it nay though this affection and temper of our Souls can merit no influence of grace from God yet considering the persections of the Divine Nature and the obligations which God hath laid upon himself It will have a great moral vertue and efficacy and be of great force with him for the obtaining the influences of Divine Grace and the communications of his love Hence I shall desire you in the first place to observe what frequent use the People of God have made of it in their applications to the Throne of Grace David especially Psal 42. 1 2 3. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God the Living God when shall I come and appear before thee O God His Request there lies in the last words That he might come and appear before God the Argument he useth is from the value he had for such a mercy so as the Hart did not more pant after the water-brooks The same Argument he useth and much in the same case Psal 84. 1 2. The great Petition of that Psalm was for a liberty again to enjoy God in his Ordinances what is the Argument he useth to enforce this Petition How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts V. 1. My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the Living God So he goes on in a variety of Phrases all expressing but his great value and estimate of such a mercy to that degree that he preferreth the condition of a poor Sparrow or Swallow to his own in the want of it You have him using the same Argument again Psal 63. 1 2 3. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is To see thy Power and thy Glory as I have seen Thee in the Sanctuary Because thy loving kindness is better than life The Petition is much the same and the Argument the same I might instance in many other places of the Psalms but this is sufficient And certainly this were enough if no more could be said to justifie this Proposition That Argument which the man according to God's own heart used and so often used is certainly a good Argument and of due force and efficacy but this was an Argument he often made use of But I shall further shew you the value of this Argument from Reason First This Argument speaketh Christ in the Soul What the Apostle saith in another case No man calleth Jesus Christ Lord but from the Spirit may be applied in this No man can truly say that he prizeth the Loves of Christ above Wine above all created comforts whatsoever but from the Spirit none but the true Christian the truly spiritual man sets any considerable value upon Christ's Loves To you that believe saith the Apostle he is precious Now what Joseph said to his Brethren of Benjamin Bring your Brother Benjamin or see my face no more God hath said to every one of us Bring Christ with you or see not my face We are all transgressors from the womb and God heareth not sinners for their own sakes but for Christ's sake therefore we are commanded to ask in Christ's Name God indeed as our Father by Creation may hear us crying for temporal good things in the day of our wants so he heareth the young Ravens when they cry
in Pharaoh 's Chariots The Text affords us two Propositions 1 Prop. The Believing Soul is Christ's Associate or Companion his intimate Friend 2 Prop. That Christ hath likened such a Soul to a company of Horses in Pharaoh's Chariots I shall begin with the first of these The Believing Soul is Christ's Love his Friend his Fellow or intimate Associate The word signifieth all these There is a great deariness and friendly fellowship betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spouse whether by the Spouse we understand the Believing Soul or the Church which is made up of such Souls The word almost in this Form from the same root is translated fellow Judg. 11. 37. I and my fellows Psal 45. 14. The Virgins her Companions He had before called her the fairest amongst Women v. 8. to shew his value and estimate of her he here calls her his Love his Friend his Fellow or Companion It is a very sweet meditation a pleasant voice surely to hear him whom God calleth his fellow and who thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father stooping to Dust and Ashes and to the Worms of the Earth and calling them his Love his Friends his Fellows Surely it is good for us to stand here a little and understand the significancy and meaning of this expression inquiring 1. How Christ approveth himself his Spouses Companion and Fellow 2. How he who knoweth not how to complement like vain man by his influence upon and by his Communion with his Church and with the Believer declares her to be indeed his Love and himself to be her near and most intimate friend 1. Christ hath made himself our Fellow by his taking of our Nature upon him He was from all Eternity God the Father's Fellow God himself calleth him so Zech. 13. 7. Awake O Shepherd Awake O Sword against the Shepherd and against the man that is my Fellow Christ applieth that Text to himself Mat. 26. 31. The wise man telleth us Prov. 8. 30. that from Eternity He was by him as one brought up with him and was daily his delight And the Apostle tells us he thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father By his Incarnation he made himself our Fellow Heb. 2. 14. Forasmuch as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also took part with them And v. 11. Both he who sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of one wherefore he is not ashamed to call them Brethren But I shall not insist on this which amounteth to no more than a Fellowship in one and the same common Nature and thus though there be this peculiar in it that it was for the Spouse's sake that he took upon him Humane Nature for I take that to be a Romantick Fancy for which there is neither any Scripture or found Reason That if the World had not been to have been Redeemed yet God would have sent his Son to be Incarnate yet in this sense he is in a sense a Fellow to all the Sons and Daughters of Men. I shall therefore pass over this and come to shew you how Christ approveth himself as a Fellow or Companion to all those who are true Believers You read in holy Writ of Fellow-Citizens and Fellow-Heirs Eph. 2. 19. Eph. 3. 6. of Fellow-helpers and fellow-labourers 2 Cor. 8. 23. 1 Thes 3. 2. of fellow prisoners and fellow souldiers Col. 4. 10. Philemon 23. Phil. 2. 25. I think under one of these Heads I may reduce whatsoever I need say for the opening of this Notion 1. Christ is with his Saints a Fellow-Citizen in the City of their God The City of God signifieth either the Church of God or Heaven Take it in either Notion Christ is our Fellow-Citizen he is the Head of the Church Believers are the Members The Head of the Body and the other Members make up but one Body they are fellow-members of the same Body The Mayor of your City thô the most dignified Citizen yet is a Fellow-Citizen The Saints are all Fellow-Citizens Eph. 3. 6. Christ though their Head is their Fellow-Citizen he calls them Brethren Heb. 2. 11 12. saying I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren in the midst of the Church I will sing praise unto thee Do Fellow-Citizens dwell in a City compacted together Christ dwells in his Church He walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks He dwelleth in the Believing Soul his dwelling-place is in Zion in his holy Mountain Zech. 2. 11. I will dwell in the midst of thee He saith He will make his abode with the Soul that loveth him and keepeth his Commandments I in you and you in me saith he Joh. 15. He dwelleth in their hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. His Spirit dwells in them Rom. 8. 9. But the Notion of a Fellow-Citizen speaketh more than Cohabitation A Partnership in the same Rights and Priviledges So doth a Co-heirship speak a Partnership in the same Enjoyments Thus Christ is their Fellow-Citizen their Fellow-Heir they are Partners with Christ in the same Priviledges in the same Enjoyments Of his fulness they receive grace for grace And for the New Jerusalem the City of God which is above he hath willed them a Partnership with him in his glory Joh. 17. 22. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one Only there is this observable difference Fellow-Citizens and Fellow-Heirs amongst men are Notions which denote an equality in Priviledges and Enjoyments but not so between Christ and us They are Heirs of the same Grace with Christ 1 Joh. 16. Of his fulness they receive grace for grace But with this difference the People of God have the Spirit given by measure to them To him the Spirit is not given by measure Joh. 3. 34. The People of God have different measures they have different measures of Faith Rom. 12. 3. There is a measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 13. This they ought to aim at but none in this life attains it they are Heirs of the same glory with Christ Joh. 17. 22. but not of the same degrees of glory His glory shall be the glory of the Sun their 's but as the glory of the Stars they shall be where he is they shall Reign with him but in the Throne he shall be greater than they are his glory shall be an excelling glory The Apostle calls them Heirs and Co-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 8. 17. In this sense the Lord approveth himself their Companion their Fellow 2. Christ and his Spouse are fellow-servants fellows in the same work What is the work of Believers but to glorifie God This is their great business Whether saith the Apostle you eat or drink or whatsoever you do let all be done to the glory of God What was the work of Christ while he was upon the Earth Joh. 17. 4. I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the
c. or he shall stay as others chuse to read it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Between my Breasts this term hath no difficulty The Metaphor is either drawn from Lovers which delight to lodge in each others Arms or else as our own Annotations from Mothers giving suck to their Infants who use to give them their Breasts and to lodge them betwixt their Breasts or from Women who use to wear Posies and sweet smelling things upon or betwixt their Breasts for the words all night are not in the Heb. but put in by our Interpreters The meaning is Christ shall have of me what he pleaseth I will do what I can to get him to stay and make his abode with me Some lay some stress upon the term night as if her sense should be in the time of persecution I will keep my communion with the Lord Jesus Christ close But in regard the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth not necessarily import the abode of a night only but a stay for some time I cannot lay any stress upon it Some by the breasts understand the heart Whose place is under the left breast The Hebrews understand by the Spouses breasts the two bars of the Ark or the 2 Cherubims Others the 2 Testaments But in Mammis amoris signum There is nothing else meant then that the Spouse would entertain her beloved with the most cordial affectionate expressions and demonstrations of Love that she might keep him the longer with her Mercer observes That the Spouse had before commended her Spikenard for a sweet smell but she here riseth up higher Though saith she my grace be sweet yet my Christ is more sweet for he is as a bundle of Myrrh c. You have by the Apostle Peter a succinct and plain exposition of this Text To you therefore who believe he is precious The Propositions of the Text are plainly these 1. Prop. That the Lord Jesus Christ is the Church's and the believing Souls beloved 2. Prop. That the Lord Jesus Christ is to his Spouse a hundle of Myrrh 3. Prop. That the Spouse of Christ will be very covetons that Christ shall abide with her 4. Prop. That in order to Christs abiding with the gracious Soul it will allow him a Room betwixt its breasts 1. Prop. That the Lord Jesus Christ is the beloved of the believing Soul I do not intend to dwell upon this Proposition because I spake to what must be the substance of this discourse when I opened the 7th verse where the Spouse had spake the same thing though by another term There she called him O thou whom my Soul loveth Here she calleth him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã My beloved I will only note to you two or three things about this term which learned Interpteters have observed before me 1. That the same letters in the Heb. make up David My David Davids name signifieth beloved and Christ himself was Davids Antitype He was the Son of David Matth. 13. 2. David was a type of Christ 3. Christ is called David Hos 3. 5 c. 2. As the word it self is a term of Love so the Affix makes it to be Vox Fidei the Language of Faith My Beloved The believing Soul fiducially applies Christ and cries with Thomas My Lord My God The natural man upon the common Illumination of the Gospel may discern Christ a lovely Object but the Believer only can call him My Beloved Faith only gives an Interest in Christ 3. I noted to you that the word also signifies a near natural Relation as that of an Uncle or Aunt c. Christ is near akin to the believing Soul he is flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone he took flesh that he might take part with them he loves them as natural Relations but by nature he is not akin to them he is the Well-beloved of God they are Children of wrath but by the Grace of Redemption they are of kin The Kindred arose from the Marriage of the Divine Nature to the Humane Nature and from their marriage to him in Justification Both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one wherefore he is not ashamed to call them Brethren But I shall conclude all I shall say to this Proposition with that of the Apostle If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha I proceed to the second Prop. 2. That the Lord Jesus Christ is to his Spouse a bundle of Myrrh I shall speak to this Proposition 1. By Explication of the term and Confirmation 2. By Application Qu. 1. In what sense is Christ to his Spouse a bundle of Myrrh I noted to you four things concerning Myrrh and two concerning a bundle of Myrrh I shall pursue them alittle and by them give you the sense of the Proposition 1. I told you Myrrh true Myrrh was an exceeding scarce thing and therefore very precious and of great value it grows but in some Countries few have it it is the best thing of the Country a Present for a Prince I proved this Christ is of great value to a poor Soul 1. Not easily procured 2. When procured of inflnite worth He is the Gist of God and God giveth as a King No man comes to the Son but he whom the Father draws In the Country where Myrrh grew but few got it In a Country where Christ is Preached but few get a portion in him One of a City and two of a Tribe God brings to Sion Judas sate under the Myrrh-tree and yet got no Myrrh Many are called but few are chosen If they did not make their Incision into the Myrrh-tree and that in a seasonable time of the year too even the inhabitants of Arabia got no Myrrh Even those that live where Christ is preacht without laying hold upon him and receiving the drops of his blood and that in a seasonable time too in the acceptable time as the Holy Ghost terms it while he may be sound as the Prophet Isaiah speaketh they get no part in Christ The foolish Virgins may come when the Door is shut And our Saviour saith Many shall seek and shall not enter 2. Myrrh when procured was of high value Especially a great quantity a bundle of Myrrh So is Christ Witness the Apostle who counts all things dross and dung that he may win Christ who desires to have nothing but Christ to know nothing but Christ to be nothing but interested in Christ Nay let the Evidence of the thing witness By his name alone we can be saved Acts 4. 12. By him we have remission of sins justification peace with God indeed all spiritual blessings Eph. 1. 3. He is All in all Thus you see in the first sense he is a bundle of Myrrh 2. I told you Myrrh was very medicinal of this the Scripture speaks nothing but Dioscorides and Pliny and other Naturalists tell us large stories of its usefulness They tell us
the full understanding of our Saviours meaning in this Text is 3 Qu. What these rare and remarkable properties are in Doves or in the Eyes of Doves more then in other creatures for which our Saviour resembleth his Spouse to them either to shew us what true believers are or ought to be The Dove is a creature sufficiently known to us a creature which of old God made use of in Sacrifices rejecting others It was the creature sent out of the Ark by Noah which brought the olive branch Naturalists observe many remarkable things of the Dove Give me leave to open to you the aptness of the similitude in nine or ten particulars 1. The Doves Eyes are meek and harmless Eyes Hence Naturalists observe that the Dove presently forgets an injury and builds her nest and lays her eggs and hatcheth her young where her nest was newly destroyed and her young ones taken away Matth. 10. 16. Be harmless as Doves The cruelty and revenge of the mind is much seen in the Eye Prov. 23. 6. you read of him that hath an evil Eye there is a bewitching Eye and a flaming sparkling Eye in which you may see the sparks of that rage and envy and anger which flame in the Soul you may read rapine and cruelty and mischief in an Hawks Eye but in a Doves Eye nothing but meekness the old verse saith Felle Columba caret rostro non-laedit ungues Possidet innocuos A Dove wants gall and though it hath nails and claws yet it gripes none with them The Dove doth not wholly want gall but Naturalists say it hath but very little compared with other creatures and hence it is that it is very gentle peaceable fearful and doth no other bird hurt Believers are compared to Sheep and to Doves Sheep have horns but they hurt none with them Doves have claws but they hurt none with them and as I faid before this may be read in their Eyes in which you do not see such a sharpness and sparkling as it were of fire as in the Eyes of birds of prey Believers have or should have Doves Eyes Samuel is able to stand up and say whose Ox have I taken Or whose Ass have I taken Or whom have I defrauded Our Saviour commands us that we should be innocent as Doves in malice they are Children 1 Cor. 14. it is the Apostles Command Eph. 4 31. Let all bitterness and wrath anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice Believers when unregenerate lived in malice and envy hateful and hating one another Tit. 3. 3. But Col. 3. 8. They have put off all these anger wrath malice c. And it is their business to be still laying them aside every true Believer hath something of a Doves Eye and it is his work to be daily getting his heart up to it more and more 2. A Doves Eye secondly is a satisfied Eye The satisfaction of the sensible and reasonable Soul is much discerned in the Eye You shall discern a greediness in the Eye of an Hawk to let you know that if it were loose it would be tearing And you shall ordinarily know a man of a covetous spirit and a discontented spirit by his Eye Prov. 28. 22. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil Eye You shall discern a gladness in a Doves Eye which speaks it a contented satisfied creature Such should a Believer be such is a true Believer Heb. 13. 5. Let your conveâsation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have I have learned saith Saint Paul in all estates to be content Faith teacheth a Soul to cast its care upon God believing that he careth for it Faith teacheth him to depend upon the Promise which Godliness hath to trust to a Providebit Deus This now is a Doves Eye an Eye which is not greedy of gain which doth not covet its Neighbours House nor Ground nor Wife nor Oxe nor Ass nor any thing which is his 3. The Dove's Eye is a Benign Eye You do not only not discern any thing of rage and fury or cruelty and greediness in a Dove's Eye but you discern a certain kindness and as it were a good will in it Hence it is very friendly amongst its fellows and it loves an habitation near dwelling-houses of men Doves Eyes are Benign Eyes Believers have and should have Doves Eyes Eph. 4. 32. Be you kind one to another they are commanded to Godliness to add Brotherly kindness and Col. 3. 12. to put on kindness What Solomon saith of the good woman Prov. 31. 26. is true of a Believer in a Believer's Tongue is the Law of kindness they know the grace of the Lord Jesus and the great kindness of their Saviour to them Grace takes away that currishness and doggedness which makes men rugged in their speeches and behaviour and churlish in their spirits and if ought of this remains upon their hearts it is because their Faith is but in part and they have yet a body of death some unmortified corruption that yet remains in them which is in the fault for Grace is of a benign kind nature the Believer hath Doves Eyes Look as it is with a Dove let a Cock be feeding that 's a churlish creature and will endure none to be near it The Dove is kind and allows room to all commers such a kindness there is now in a Believer's heart where Grace hath taken its full hold 4. Doves Eyes are lowly Eyes The pride and haughtiness of the Natural disposition both in sensible and rational creatures is much seen in the Eyes You discern a proud and lofty Bird by the surliness of its Eye and so it is in a reasonable creature Hence you read of a proud look Prov. 6. 17. one of the things which God hateth and Prov. 21. 4. an high look and a proud heart are put together And in brute creatures the height of the Natural disposition is seen in the scornful Eye of Lions Hawks Parrots c. But a Dove hath lowly Eyes Now a Believer hath Doves Eyes Take carnal natural men they are proud and scornful they are sometimes in Scripture described under the Notion of the scornful Psal 1. 1. Isa 28. 14. But the believing Soul is an humble Soul It is the Law of their Profession Micah 6. 8. They must walk humbly with their God They cannot serve the Lord but with all humility of mind Acts 20. 19. It is their clothing 1 Pet. 5. 5. and they duly put it on Col. 3. 12. They talk not high things they affect not they seek not high things that is of this World indeed they seâk the things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God but this they do with all humility of mind confessing with the Prodigal that they are not worthy to be called the Sons of God 5. Doves Eyes are simple Eyes As other vertues
further say that there is no portion of holy Writ so copiously as this expressing the infinite love and transcendent excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ None that more copiously instructs us what he will be to us or what we should be toward him and consequently none more worthy of the pains of any who desires to Preach Christ My Meditations upon the second Chapââr composed in my maturer years were published some years âânce Those upon this Chapter have being done in my younger time staid till I could get some leisure to peruse them my self and correct some things in the stile especially our juvenile fancies seldom pleasing us in our maturer years You will I hope Madam pardon my Dedication of them to your Ladyship Your ââlf knows how great Obligations you have laid upon me I cannot answer them These are all the Requitals we can make our Friends for their kindnesses Silver and gold I have none but what I have I humbly present your Ladyship with nor shall I have been wholly unserviceable to your Ladyship in your highest concerns if any thing in these Discourses shall help further to inflame your Soul with love to him who is the chiefest of ten thousand and contribute to the sending of your Soul to Heaven in the admiration of your Beloved where you shall see him as he is whom these Discourses will but shew you as in a glass darkly Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen April 3. 1683. Your Ladiships most humble Servant JOHN COLLINGES TO THE READER SOme few years since I was prevailed with to publish some discourses upon the Second Chapter of this excellent Song I had then by me these upon the first Chapter but they being composed in my younger years I was desirous first to peruse them before I suffered them to come forth into the World since which time I have had so little rest that the perusal of them hath taken up much longer time than I then thought upon The publishing of my discourses upon the Second Chapter first obliged me to take something out of these discourses to make those as intelligible as I could concerning the Penman of the Book and the Nature form and stile of it which I have here restored to their due place with some advantage all those things falling in to the handling of the first verse I am not upon the persual of notes composed so many years since my self much pleased with the largeness of my discourses upon the five or six first verses occasioned from the variety of Propositions raised from them but there are couched in those verses some very great points and my consulting so many expositors as I did together with my proneness to suspect my own judgment rather then those whom I had reason to prefer before my self was the cause of that Nor did I think it much material if I saw a Proposition offered me by any valuable interpreter as feunded on one of those verses which I saw was a Proposition of truth and justifiable from other Scripture whether it were certainly there founded or no for he pretends to too much skill that will be too positive in giving the sense of a metaphor in this or that Text. It is enough for a modest Interpreter to give a probable sense of such expressions and to prove it from a plainer Revelation I hope thou wilt be so charitable to me as to think that I troubled not a Popular auditory with all that thou wilt find here in the opening of the several verses I bless God I was never so idle as to make up discourses to people of what I knew they did not understand What I found in my notes put in for my own Satisfaction I have let go not knowing but my book might fall into the hands of some Scholar who might be able to judge from what Satisfied me upon what grounds I formed such Propositions of truth as I did from the several verses so preparing the matter of more Popular and practical discourse I bless God I always looked upon the work of the ministry as the most grave and serious employment under Heaven whether the Minister speaks with reference to explication or application In the first he acts as an Interpreter making the words of the eternal God more plain and intelligible to the infirm capacityes of his people How great is that work to be the Lords Interpreter In the latter he acts as an Ambassador persuading and offering terms of peace between God and man and using all his art in intreating men to be reconciled to God Who is sufficient for these things As to the former we have no more accommodate means then searching the Original texts comparing the usage of words in one Text with the usage of them in others consulting Interpreters who have gone before us then using our own judgments as to what they have said or our own thoughts shall further suggest to us thou wilt discern that this is the method I have used and if in any thing I have been mistaken I have erred neither wilfully nor singly When I had examined the several verses my work was to raise Propositions from them so interpreted to open them to justify them to be divine truths from other places of plainer Revelation For my method and stile it is what I judged most accommodate to the end of my work No man discourseth to any length upon a subject without a method some use a Cryptick method which is only for their own conduct others a plainer method for the advantage of others the former may do well enough in the Schools where the end is only to raise some subitaneous affections I never thought it proper for the Pulpit where the Preachers end is or should be to inform his People in the great things of God and to affect their hearts and in order to it he is bound to speak with the best advantage both for their memories and understandings thou wilt find I have kept to the ordinary plain method of explication confirmation and application No man having drank old wine desireth new for he saith the old is better In the proof of Propositions I have rather studied the evidence of holy writ and Scriptural reason then other more incertain Topicks knowing it the duty of Ministers to take care that the faith of their people may not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God One plain Text of holy Writ more confirms a Proposition of Divine truth to an understanding Christian then an hundred rational arguments For my stile it was the least of my study my Opinion always was that what Augustine calls diligens negligentia was
the best diligence as to that while I was yet a very young man I had learn'd out of him that it was no Solecism in a Preacher to use ossum for os for saith he an Iron key is better then one made of gold if it will better open the door for that is all the use of the key I had learn'd out of Hierom that a gaudry of phrases and words in a Pulpit is but Signum insipientiae The words of a Preacher saith he ought pungere non palpare to prick the heart not to smooth and coax The work of an Orator is too precarious for a Minister of the Gospel Gregory observed that our Saviour hath not stiled us the sugar but the salt of the Earth and Augustine observeth that though Cyprian in one Epistle shewed much of a florid Orator to shew he could do it yet he never would do so any more to shew he would not The study of words the right placing of them for their better chiming c. I always thought a puerile and pedantick thing fitter for a School boy then a minister of the Gospel Honest Souls when they come to hear the word do not come to see Reeds shaken with the wind of Ostentation and Vain-glory nor yet to see men clothed with the soft rayment of fine expressions and phrases which for the most part like such clothes have least efficacy to warm a Soul or to keep it in any Religious heat they come to hear a Prophet yea more then a Prophet a man that shall reveal the mind and will of God to them To me the most tunable tongues in Pulpits always ring most awke It is beneath the gravity of a Preacher to tickle a wanton Ear. The end of all words is but to convey to our minds the knowledg of things and those are the best words that do that best grandia granditer dicenda I never thought my self further concern'd as to words then to speak intelligibly and so as through no rudeness or indecency of phrase to make Persons nauseate my discourse who had a just Reverence for divine things Words will always follow matter but matter doth not always attend words I bless God I early discerned and avoided this trifling rather desiring to humble that stile which was at my tongues end then to strain my tongue to a dialect which I either thought my People understood not or was beneath the greatness of the subjects of my discourse If any think the portion of Scripture undertaken in these discourses not fit for a Preacher they should do well to consider whether it be not a portion of holy writ and such a portion as the eminentest Divines in all ages and of all persuasions have thought worthy their pains to inquire the sense of Having thus far Apologized for the following discourses I leave them to thy candor and judgment begging Gods blessing upon them to thy Souls advantage April 3. 1683. JOHN COLLINGES The First Chapter of the Song of Solomon paraphrased and turned into English Meeter so as it may be Sung in the Ordinary Tunes in which the English Psalms are sung I. THE Kisses of thy Mouth Dear Lord Let my Soul only have No Earthly thing I do desire No worlds fine things I crave Let me thy Gospel Doctrines have By them O speak to me So by thy Grace that I in them Thy special Love may see II. A Kiss Lord is but a small thing But a Love-token 't is The Least of that is Sweet to me Lord grant me but a kiss One Kiss is sweet but not enough Let me more kisses have My wants are more than one therefore More Kisses I do crave III. Thou hast varieties of Grace My Soul of wants as much As are my wants my dearest Lord O Let thy Loves be such Drunkards are pleas'd with wine but I In it no tast can find O Let me only know that thou To my poor soul art kind IV. The knowledge thou hast given my soul How much thy Loves are worth Above created things is that Alone which draws it forth In breathings after Thee Thy Name Is Ointment poured out Which with its fragrant smell perfumes The places it about V. Therefore the Virgins do thee love The undefiled mind Can satisfaction no where else But in thee only find Every such Virgin will thee love And thee alone desire Thy sweetest Ointments fuel are To feed that sacred fire VI. Lord I should come to thee thou art The term to which I move I should O Lord run after thee In the scent of thy love But I can neither run nor come Unless thou first me draw Either my lusts do me seduce Or Satan doth me aw VII O put forth thine Almighty hand Let power and love constrain My feeble Soul to follow thee And with thee to remain Lay hand O Lord upon my will Then I shall willing be Put strength into my legs and I Shall then run after thee VIII Lord move me first then I shall move And stand no longer still Yea I shall move with strength to do What is thy sacred will I shall not only move but run Make hast and not delay To keep thy precepts if that thou Wilt help me in my way IX It shall be then my meat and drink To do what thou requirest Thou Lord shall then of me receive Whatever thou desirest I shall nor faint nor weary be But persevering run Until the race be finished Which my soul hath begun X. My Lord not I alone but mine Shall also follow thee I shall make known thy ways to all That shall converse with me Sinners by my example shall Be turned to thy Grace When they shall hear how thou to me Hast shewn thy pleasant face XI My Soul melts I did speak but now The King hath answered And me into his Chambers brought Unto his Royal Bed How doth my heart now leap for joy How is my countenance glad My soul can now despond no more It can no more be sad XII In thee O Lord I will be glad Thou art my only joy Thy Loves I will remember when New troubles me annoy The savour of the worlds sweet wines Is a poor transient thing But I shall ne're I trust forget The Love of Christ my King XIII In him all things excelling dwell They 've chosen him their throne The Saints will him sincerely love And will love him alone The more upright the greater love They to the Lord shall bring Who loves them with the greatest love And is the Lord their King XIV You Daughters of Hierusalem The City of my God You who in the same Church with me Have taken your abode Upbrard me not that I am like The Coverings upon Black Kedars Tents I 'm also like Curtains of Solomon XV. I black am from my self but am By Imputation white By th' first birth I am black and dark But by a
Children of men Psal 89. I will visit his transgression with a rod and his iniquity with stripes 4. My mercy shall not depart from him as from Saul Psal 89. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail 1. God covenants that although Solomon should sin yet he would not take his mercy from him The very term of Mercy signifies more than the continuance of the Crown to him for as Tychonius observes David would have understood little mercy for his Son to have enjoyed a temporal Kingdom and lost an eternal inheritance 2. The punishment which God threatens to him in case of sinning was but a Rod. The Rod of Men for if we should allow nothing to Pineda's Criticisme upon the term used Enosh to signify men here which properly signifies a weak old man who cannot lay on strokes hard but chastiseth his Child gently so as the Rod of Men here mentioned should be opposed to the grounded staff mentioned Isaiah 30. 32. which God makes to rest upon others yet certainly the termof a Rod with the adjunct of Men speaks a very gentle chastning with which eternal punishment is no way consistent 3. Add to this That the Holy Ghost the most certain Interpreter of Scripture 1 Cor. 6. 18. Applies the very promise here made to the Children of God I will be a Father unto you and you shall be my Sons and Daughters I say who so considereth these things must certainly conclude that Gods obligation by this Covenant extended further than the continuance of the temporal dominion in his line which is also advantaged by the consideration that Solomon in his life time was chastened with the Rods of Men 1 Kings 11. God stirred up against him Hadad Rezin and Jeroboam He was doubtless chastened of the Lord that he might not be condemned with the world Nor can any reasonably think to avoid the dint of the Argument drawn from these Texts by telling us That a greater than Solomon is understood in them even he of whom Solomon was but a Type For although it be true that divers of the Ancients favoured that notion amongst whom was Augustine Ambrose Tertullian and Theodoret and that some passages in the aforementioned Texts seem to be by the Holy Ghost himself applied to Christ amongst which that eminent part of this Covenant I will be to him a Father c. besides that others seem applicable to no other as where he promiseth to establish his Kingdom for ever yet it is as true that the promise I will be to him a Father as I shewed before is also by the Holy Ghost applied to believers 1 Cor. 6. 18. and those who understand the Hebrew Idiome know that the term ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth often signify less than Eternity strictly so called and it is as certain that Hierome and divers others of the Ancients apply these Texts literally to Solomon Possibly they compound the business better who considering Solomon as a Type of Christ divide the Covenant made with David betwixt Solomon and Christ thinking that part concerneth Solomon and part concerneth Christ Sure it is that Solomon built the material Temple not Christ and Solomon alone not Christ was in a capacity to forsake the Commandments of God and for the promissory part if we say it concerned Solomon in the letter and Christ in the Mystery and Antitype I think we shall not much err nor will this interpretation at all weaken the strength of our argument I find a 4th Argument for this eminent Person brought from 2 Sam. 12. 24 25. compared with Neb. 13. 26. and 1 Kings 3. 3. from whence De-La Champius observeth 3 things 1. That it is said God loved him 2 Sam. 12. 24. And the Lord loved him Neh. 13. 26. He was beloved of his God 2. In token of this love God gave him his name Jedidiah i. e. beloved of God 3. The Scripture saith he loved the Lord. The consideration of the latter makes the plea vain of those who to avoid the dint of this Argument would interpret Gods love of that general favour which he extends to every Creature distinguished from that by which he elevates the Creature to a participation of the Divine Nature for that love is not so efficacious as to produce a reciprocal love in the Creature to God again we therefore love him because he loved us first which being granted unless we grant God as mutable as man and deny what he hath said that whom he loves he loves to the End We must allow that Solomon notwithstanding his great miscarriages was yet beloved of God and died in a state of Grace Now to these Arguments might further be added as strong presumptions in the case yielding at least some auxiliary strength That no Text speaketh so desperȧtely concerning Solomon that the Scripture 1 Kings 11. 4. speaking of his falling seems to hint it a sin of infirmity in his old age and through the great temptation of his Wives That he did only tolerate Idolatry not make it the Religion of the Nation That he after this as is at least probably and generally concluded wrote in testimony of his repentance the book of Ecclesiastes That he was the Sacred Penman of Scripture These things may much confirm our charitable opinion in the case for although it be true that I know no reason to the contrary but that God who made use of the Son of Perdition to preach his everlasting Gospel might also with consistency enough to the wisdom of his Providence make use of a Child of Perdition to write and ingross what his holy Spirit first dictated nor saith Augustine hath God less consulted his own glory in it for now all the good and glory of the truth revealed in those books will be given to God Beside it is said that Balaams Song is also recorded in Scripture and a piece of holy writ yet considering that no one book of holy writ was wrote by such a withered hand as that of a reprobates and that the Scripture fixeth no such mark upon this great Person who was the Author of three Books there and that one of these Books at least appears let Bellarmine say what he will to be wrote after the days of his Vanity and hath in it evident marks of his nauseating his lusts and former vanities of pleasure love riches c. Nor have there been wanting some who have thought so of the other two Books also viz. the Proverbs and the Canticles And to these if we add that he was an eminent Type of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I say if we lay all these things together we shall I think neither stand in need of the Rabbinical figments who tell us formal stories of Solomons repentance Nor yet of that auxiliary help in which Pineda much triumpheth which Petrus de Castro affords from that Sculpture in leaden Plates wrote in ancient Arabick Characters and
first discovered to James the Apostle afterward to the aforementioned Bishop of Granada who sought for them and found them saith Pineda per altos Granatensis montis cuniculos latebras in which leaden Plates there should be ingraven in Arabick so much concerning Solomon as in English sounds thus And he bewailed his sin with a great lamentation and it was forgiven him and he died faithful and in peace I say there will be no need of these Apocryphal helps we have a more sure word of Prophecy and stronger Scripture arguments engaging us to conclude Solomon's repentance and Salvation against some of the Ancients speaking doubtfully and the more modern Papists speaking both peremptorily and impudently in the case and must conclude that Emanuel Thesaurus speaks like a profane Poet when he tells us concerning Solomon Primu è Christi Proavis Stygem coluit Et Primus intravit Indubio Argumento nam Idola posuit non sustulit Et Flenda leguntur non fletus Having thus far given you a Character of this great Person who wrote this sacred Book and by this digression served my design a little in shewing you that there is no ground from his miscarriages to conclude against his being the Penman either of this or the other pieces of Sacred Writ to which the Hebrew Text entituleth him and which the Ecclesiastical Juries in all ages have found his The next thing we have to enquire is the time and occasion of his writing it concerning which the Scriptures silence hath given Writers the greater liberty to abound in their several senses I see no great prejudice either to Solomon himself or to the Divine Authority of this Sacred Book from the opinion of those who think that Solomon wrote this Song in the beginning of his Reign when he first Married Pharaohs Daughter first proselyted to the Jewish Religion at which time it is said 1 Kings 3. 3. Solomon loved the Lord walking in the Statutes of David his Father and that his Marriage with Pharaohs Daughter gave him the occasion of this Heavenly Meditation for which the greatest ground they have is that passage ch 1. v. 9. I have compared thee to a company of Horses in Pharaohs Chariots Nor yet from the opinion of those who think that he wrote it in the close of his life after his return to fellowship and communion with God If therefore any shall contend that he wrote the Book of Proverbs first this Book next and Ecclesiastes last of all grounding their conjecture upon 1 Kings 4. 32. where iâ is said that he wrote 3000 Proverbs and his Songs were 1005. Or if others think that he first wrote this Book of Canticles which being Poetry they think best suited his younger years then the Book of Proverbs and last of all that of Ecclesiastes the matter contained in the Book of Proverbs seeming to be the mature issue of years and the matter of Ecclesiastes speaking a contempt of worldly Vanities like that which is found with gray hairs that have learned righteousness I shall not contend with either There are some who make an observation upon Solomon's calling himself in Ecclesiastes King of Hierusalem In the Book of Proverbs King of Israel In this Book only Solomon whence they conclude that he wrote this Book in the first of his years before he was come to the Kingdom The Book of Proverbs next before he came to dwell in Hierusalem and that of Ecclesiastes last in his more perfect state but possibly their conjecture is better who think that Solomons spiritual contemplation of Christ with which his heart seemeth in this Book to be ravished was the cause why forgetting his Titles of Honour he calls himself by no other name than that of Solomon and as through all the Book he speaks to and of Christ under no other notion than that of a Beloved and a friend so he mentions not himself under any higher notion than Solomon and a Love a Spouse c. glorying more in being the Spouse and Friend of Christ than a great King in Hierusalem Or finally if any will assert that he wrote this Book last of all which seems to be the opinion of Bernard Delrio Hierome Bachiarius Cyrill c. I am indifferent to close with either party only abhorring the opinion which was anciently condemned in Theodorus Mopsuesta by the Council of Constantinople saith Delrio and which Philastrius mentions amongst the Heresies whose Author he knew not viz. That it is but a Love-Song made by Solomon having relation to Pharaohs Daughter or the Shulamite to which opinion also Castalio and Grotius seem to encline and the Anabaptists in Germany are charged with it by Sixtus Senensis which opinion indeed is deservedly rejected and justly to be abhorred of all sober Christians and there needs no other witness in the case against it than the great reverence of this Book which the Church of the Jews had to whom saith the Apostle were committed the Oracles of God and who were sufficiently cautelous what they stamped with that sacred stamp of Scripture Canon who did not only constantly own this Book as much as any other making it a Dialogue between God and their Church or betwixt their Church and some of their Patriarchs but also barred any from reading of it until they arrived at their sacerdotal year whether for fear of a vain interpretation of it or in regard of the difficulty they justly conceived as to the expounding the metaphors with which as with so many Stars it is adorned or fathoming the mysteries which they conceived lay couched in it I shall not in this place determine Sure I am as the Authors of the aforementioned gross and unhandsome conceptions have nothing to give countenance to their wanton fancies besides the comparison of the Love here mentioned to a company of Horses in Pharaohs Chariots and the mention of the Shulamite Caat 6. 13. with another or two expressions of that Nature upon which expressions the Vanity of their hearts only hath hindred them from putting a spiritual interpretation so even some of these expressions with divers others in this Sacred Song make their impure conceptions highly improbable for if the Dialect of times be not strangely altered it was certainly a strange commendation for so learned and wise a man as Solomon to give of a Woman whom he loved to compare her to a company of Horses her Head to Mount Carmel and her Eyes to Fish Pools her Nose to a Tower her Teeth to a flock of Sheep c. all which with divers such seemingly uncouth expressions we have in this Song After all this we shall find it no difficult thing to determine the Divine Authority of this Book The Apostle saith that Holy Men wrote the Scriptures as inspired by God we have evinced that the Penman of this Book was an Holy Man both in the former and latter part of his life That he wrote this Book is
Bridegroom whose it is to bless us with all spiritual blessings in and through him Supposing the latter the believing Soul directeth her request as her beloved directeth when he commands us to pray saying Our Father If the petition be understood as directed to the Lord Jesus Christ Let him kiss me is as much as Do thou kiss me Vicem nominis supplet vis amoris the force of her love supplyeth the omission of his name saith Lud. de Ponte It is a very usual dialect of Scripture to put the 3d Person for the 2d so the Psalmist God be merciful unto us and bless âus But 3. Qu. What doth the Spouse mean by Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Some read it He did kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Thus the ancient Chaldee Paraphrast Blessed be the name of the Lord who gave us his Law written by the hand of Moses his Scribe who wrote it in two Tables of Stone and spake with us face to face as a man who kisseth his Companions through the greatness of his love wherewith he loved us more than threescore and ten Nations But the stile of the Song is rather pathetical and optative than historical and narrative and it is rather referred to Christ as Mediator than to God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ considered only as God over all blessed for ever besides that the Hebrew word being in the future tense referrs rather to the time to come than to the time past and I see no need of inventing a figure There is a threefold kiss of which you read in Scripture 1. The kiss of the feet Thus the penitent Woman Luk. 7. 38. kissed her Saviours feet 2. The kiss of the hand Job 31. 27. If my mouth hath kissed my hand 3. The kiss of the lips Prov. 24. 26. and so in many other Texts The Schoolmen tell us of a seven-fold kiss a kiss of 1. Love 2. Union 3. Reverence and Honour 4. Adoration 5. Reconciliation and Peace 6. Treachery as Joab kissed Abner and Amasa and Judas kissed Christ 7. Wantonness According to the usages of several Nations there were several sorts of kisses distinguished by their objects and ends they were wont to kiss the head lips cheek shoulders hands backs feet of their superiours inferiours and equals and that for several testimonies which yet I think are reducible to two heads For a testimony of honour reverence and subjection Thus Parents were kissed by their Children Jacob came near and kissed Isaac Gen. 50. 1. Joseph fell upon his Fathers face and kissed him Thus Exod. 18. 7. Moses went out to meet his Father in Law and did obeysance and kissed him and Orpah kissed her Mother in Law Thus the Persians were wont according to the differences of Persons in respect of quality to give differing kisses Equals kissed one anothers lips the Person who was but a little inferiour kissed his superiours Cheek The lower sort fell at their superiours feet and kissed them Thus Idolaters shewed their reverence to their Idols and the true Worshipers of God were by this distinguished They had not kissed Baal 1 Kings 19. 28. and the Idolaters in Israel said Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves Hos 13. 2. Thus also we are commanded to kiss the Son least he be angry Psal 2. 12. which Jerome translates Purely worship the Son This is now a kiss wherewith we ought to kiss Christ but this is not the kiss of the Text. Secondly Kisses were used for a testimony of love which sometimes was hypocritical and so the kissing deceitful such were the kisses of Joab and Judas ordinarily real which might be considered either as continued or interrupted Kisses were 1. Used in token of continuing love As appears by the several precepts of the Apostles regulating the use of them by a law of holiness and chastity Rom. 16. 16. 1 Cor. 16. 20 c. Or 2. In token of renewed love and reconciliation Thus Laban kissed Jacob upon their reconciliation Esau kissed Jacob and David kissed Absalom Beza thus gives the propriety of this testimony in affection Whereas our life lies in the breath which goeth out of our lips and our Soul goes away when our breath at last goes the joining of the friends lips and mouths signifies that they are so dear each to other that they could willingly unite Souls if it could be and bestow their lives each upon other The kiss of the text must needs be this In testimonium amoris for a testimony of love But still here remains a question whether she desires the kiss of Reconciliation 2. Or that which is a pledge of continuing love Those who understand the first confess a breach betwixt God and his Creatures which indeed there was made in the beginning of the world which breach is as to the meritorious part made up by the incarnation death and passion of Christ Indeed there was an ancient Covenant of Grace concerning it Gen. 3. revealed immediately but I say it was done quoad pretium by the incarnation and death of Christ according to those Texts 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. Col. 1. 21. Eph. 2. 16. according to the prophecy Dan. 9. 24. And as to the particular application of that purchase it is daily done by the Spirit of God working faith in us by which we are united to Christ Now the question is whether the Spouse here beggeth 1. Christs coming in the flesh being incarnate and dying for us for the fulfilling of the eternal Covenant of Reconciliation to which some encline 2. Or the kiss of Justification the actual reconciliation of the Soul unto Christ and application of Christ to the Soul by fârth 3. Or The further influences of â Love as pledges of that first Grace and Seals of that Original love of his to the Souls of his People Indeed the Eternal Son of God kissed us and he stooped much to kiss us when he took upon him our nature uniting finite and infinite corruptible and incorruptible when he nothinged himself for us and this was foreseen and so might be desired Abraham saw the day and rejoyced Joh. 10. 48. and not only Origen and Bernard of old but many modern interpreters think that the Spouse here hath a great respect to this matchless testimony of Divine Love which being granted the Text is no other than the breathings and pantings of the Church of God then living or the particular members of it after the Incarnation of Christ which doubtless was a great object of their desires Kings and Prophets and Righteous men desired to see the things which the Disciples saw and did not see them c. Others understand the text of those testimonies of Divine Love which followed the death of Christ particularly The sending of the Spirit It is true this is called The promise of the Father and was so under the old Testament Ezech. 36.
the light of thy Countenance upon me Psal 4. 6. Let others take the ring let her have but the kiss and it is sufficient for her but single influences of Grace will not serve her turn every look of grace is sweet and frequent influences of Grace are necessary for her Secondly Observe How she begs 1. Reverently Let him kiss me Thus we ought to draw nigh to God with Reverence and Godly fear Reverence becomes the great Majesty of Heaven and Earth those that come without it towards God understand not his greatness 2. She begs humbly But a kiss The crumbs that fall from the Lords Table the touch of the Hem of his Garment any thing of Jesus Christ that may but argue distinguishing love 3. She asketh boldly not rudely but boldly Thus we ought to come to the Throne of Grace with an holy boldness the boldness of faith the word is in the future tense and may be translated He shall kiss me or he will kiss me His Majesty requires reverence His promise gives boldness and confidence 4. Lastly she asketh fervently There is a bluntness discernable in the form Let him kiss me which speaketh the Souls fervency Besides the trina repetitio repeating the same thing by three terms denotes as Lud. de Ponte observes flagrantissimum cordis affectum The most flagrant earnest desire of the Spouses heart I have thus far opened to you the Spouses first Petition in which the believing Soul with a Reverent holy humble boldness yet with all possible fervency begs of the Lord Jesus Christ her Spiritual Husband some special distinguishing token of his love more especially a near fellowship with him in his ordinances and the sealing up of his love to her soul in Gospel Doctrines This first petition she presseth with a double Argument 1. The first drawn from the Excellency of his love This she sets out per modum comparationis comparing it with Wine and preferring it before it 2. Comparing the name of Christ with Ointment and that not shut up in a box but poured out Thy name is as an Ointment poured forth v. 3. Her 2d Argument is drawn from her Love to her Beloved in the close of the third v. The Virgins love thee and the cause of this love is expressed to be the savour of his good Ointments Because of the savour c. Let me open the terms by which these Arguments are expressed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We translate it because thy loves are better than Wine what we translate Loves the Septuagint translate ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whom the Vulg. Lat. and the Arab. Interp. follow Thy Breasts the Syriack translate it Bowels otherwise there is no difference in the Translations Delrio tells us that Alanus an Ancient Interpreter makes these words not the continued speech of the Spouse pressing her Petition by an Argument but the reply of her beloved to her assuring her of his love and that he valued her Breasts above all things That which probably led him into this mistake was his interpreting the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as if it were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Breasts and not understanding how in any propriety of Speech the Spouse could commend the Breasts of her beloved they being parts from which usually the woman not the man is commended in ordinary Speech but as the whole stream of Interpreters runs another way so this seemeth to be no constraining argument to enforce us to acknowledge such a sudden and a subitam abruptam verborum commutationem as Delrio calls it abrupt change of words as this interpretaâioâ must necessarily infer For â Though it be true that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies a breast Ezek. 23. 3. v. 21. yet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies beloved And loves in the Abstract and so it is translated Ezek. 16. 8. it was a time of love Suppose we should allow more authority to the Septuagint than to our Hebrew Text for which there is no reason yet it is not improper to assert these the words of the Spouse speaking to her beloved for although the God of Nature intending the woman for the Nurse hath provided that sex with larger breasts yet the man hath breasts also and such if you will believe the Philosopher as may have milk in them However he who runs may read the expression figurative Amoris sedes est in corde in uberibus quae cordi adhaerescunt The heart is the seat of love and the Breasts are nigh to the heart and this evidenceth the difference of Interpreters as to the translation of the word as to this Text to be but a word-bate for Ubera tua and Amorestui Thy Breasts or thy loves are much the same thing in signification Neither lastly is this the only Text in Scripture where the breasts of men are mentioned if we should be constrained to that sense Isaiah 60. 16. Thou shalt suck the Breast of Kings so also God is said to bear his People from the Belly and to carry them from the Womb. They are Metaphorical expressions and it is granted on all hands that if our Interpreters with whom concur most modern Interpreters have not hit the literal signification of the word yet they have not missed the sense in translating it Thy Loves By which Interpreters generally understand either the private influences of Grace with which God refresheth the particular Souls of his Saints or The publick ordinances and institutions of the Gospel by which God expresseth his love to his Church in general and every believing Soul in particular 1. Some understand Divine institutions Ordinances are indeed the Breasts at which Christ suckleth his Children those means by and through which he conveyeth the streams of his love to them and there is a great excellency in them David prefers a day in Christ's Courts before a 1000 elsewhere Origen observes that in some copies instead of quia ubera tua c. it was quia loquelae tuae thy Speeches are better than Wine which also excellently suits with the former expression The kisses of his mouth This sense in the general notion of it much pleaseth many Interpreters though something divided in their more particular notions Origen interprets it Dogmata tua thy Doctrines and seems indifferently to understand it of the Doctrine of the Law or of the Gospel The Popish Interpreters reading it Breasts expound it concerning the two Testaments so Genebrard c. Others interpret it more strictly concerning the sweet Doctrine of the Gospel which Saint Peter 1 Pet. 2. 2. compareth unto Milk which as new born Babes we ought to desire and concerning the Apostles and Prophets which were the first Instruments which God made use of to convey that Doctrine to us The sweetness of the Gospel saith Aquinas is meant here by which as with Milk those who are Babes in Christ are nourished Mr. Brightman making this the Speech of the Jewish
discover it and to manifest himself unto his people As the Sun in the Firmament whose Light in it self is alwaies the same and which hath alwaies the same ability and aptitude to illuminate the Air and to refresh the Earth with its Beams yet gives out its Light variously according to its position in the Firmament or aspect upon the Hemisphere its nearness to or distance from the Object to be inlightened or refreshed or as it is more or less hindered by the interposition of Clouds or Vapours so doth the Sun of Righteousness also diffuse his Beams variously Or as indeed a prudent Father though at all times his heart be full of love to his Children yet in the discoveries and manifestations of it he governeth himself by his own prudence relating to the Child 's good and with respect to the Child's behaviour and demeanour towards him So though whom God loveth he loveth with a great love and to the end yet as to the discoveries and manifestations of it he governs himself by his own Infinite Wisdom and with a great respect to his Peoples carriage and demeanour towards him Hence it is that though every Child of God be beloved of God with the same special and distinguishing Love yet every one lives not under the same manifestations and emanations of it He sheweth to some more to some less to some scarcely any according to the Wisdom of his Counsel and the good pleasure of his own will One soul shall have just light enough to discern that the day is broke in his soul that the Sun is arisen with healing in his wings upon him another shall hardly have so much light as to discern that but shall walk in the dark and see no light Another shall have the Sun of Righteousness more fully shining upon him and be able to say with Job I know my Redeemer lives and that I shall see him with these Eyes and though Worms shall destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God Or with Paul Rom. 8. 38. I know and am persuaded that neither life nor death nor any thing shall separate me from the Love of God in Jesus Christ Yea the same soul shall sometimes see its Beloved standing as it were behind the wall and looking in upon it through the Lattice see him in a Glass darkly another time it shall see him with a fuller sight as in the house with it face to face One while it shall only see as by a Wicket of hope open and possibly but imperfectly open neither another while its vision shall be as it were of the Heavens opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for it 2. The more or less of special and distinguishing grace is often measured by the soul's apprehension and particular fancy which judgment possibly is not alwaies according to Truth but yet such as we ordinarily make Thus we commonly judge the comfortable reflections of Divine Love to be the greatest tokens of it The sweetest indeed they are but possibly the strengthening Influences of Divine Grace by which the soul is inabled to perform its spiritual duties and to fight the good fight both against motions to sin from within and temptations to sin from without may be no less manifestations of special and distinguishing grace But take your measures how you will the gracious soul valueth at an high rate the least manifestations of such grace as may evidence to it that it is beloved of God with a special and distinguishing love I do not say the least of these will satisfie such a soul That it will not for the soul in which God hath caused by his Spirit a spiritual thirst after himself is continually crying out Give Give The soul will not be satisfied until in the Resurrection it awakes with God's likeness but in the mean time the least influences of this nature will be to it very precious and desirable The truth of this Proposition will appear to you from the petitions of several of the Servants of God in holy Writ more eminently those which we read of concerning David Psal 4. 6. There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord saith he lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and in the following words he declares that it should be more to him than the worldlings Harvest or Vintage greater matter of gladness than their increase of Corn Wine or Oil And Psal 84. 9. he asks no more than that the Lord would look upon the face of his Anointed What can be less than Beholding and giving the soul a good look The liberty that the Birds of the Air the Swallow and the Sparrow had to make their Nests about the Lord's Altars one would think argued but a small favour yet David prefers their condition before his One would think the Office of a Door-keeper in the Lord's House were but a small preferment yet David valueth it above a Mansion in the Tents of wickedness The several expressions which David maketh use of in the Psalms to testifie his desires after God such as Beholding Looking upon him Remembring him c. are all evident proofs of this The Woman Luk. 7. 38. counts it honour enough to sit at Christ's feet to wash his feet with her tears and then to wipe them with the hairs of her head The Woman of Canaan is called a Dog and contented with it so she may but lick up the Crumbs under her Master's Table You read of another Woman that cried out If I may but touch the Hem of his Garment The Prophet Zechariah foretold of a time when men should take hold of the Skirt of a Jew saying We will go with you for we have heard God is with you Any thing of Christ is precious to a soul that hath once tasted how good he is Joseph of Arimathea must have his dead body and the Disciples must run to the Sepulchre where he was laid The People of God of old had a favour for the dust of Zion and the stones thereof But much more precious must the least emanations of that virtue be which is in him suited to the wants the spiritual wants of poor souls What can be less than a look a smile a word yet we find these have been very precious to the People of God What can we think of less than the hearing of a Prayer yet David esteemeth this ar an high rate Psal 116. 1 2. For this he professeth his love to God and his resolution to call upon him so long as he lived One would think that of all other Fellowship and Communion with Christ a Fellowship with him in his Sufferings were least desirable St. Paul glorieth in this and speaks of it as a thing desirable Phil. 1. 10. ch 3. 11. And we read of the Apostles praising God that they were thought worthy to suffer for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ The same Spirit that was in all these
to and in your soul to inable you further to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. After the beatifical visions of God in another life Learn hence the great difference there is betwixt earthly and spiritual objects of our desires and delights The worlds Crums are little valuable tho some are fond of its Loaves The good things of the world derive much of their value from the quantity of them that it throws into our laps The minimum quod sic the least portions of the pleasures profits or honours of it have little of value in them but the least of Christ is exceeding precious the things of the world affect not the Soul or or its necessities they are not certain pledges of greater measures they will go but a little way to fill the creatures emptinesses but it is otherwise with Spiritual blessings in and through Christ Thirdly You may from hence observe the difference betwixt the Hypocrites and the Saints desires after Christ An Hypocrite may pretend some desires after Christ nay he may really desire something of his love consider Christ as a Saviour as one that brings the Soul to life and immortality so he must necessarily be the object of the desire of every man that hath any view of his own mortality and that Eternal State to which man is ordained Even Balaam saith Oh that I might dye the death of the Righteous that my latter end might he like his But mark ye these are the fullest manifestations of Divine Love these are more than the kisses of his Mouth but for those tokens of love which are below these for such manifestations of the love of Christ as tend to the inabling of the Soul to serve and glorify God by the subduing of Mans will to the will of God the mortification of lusts and corrupt affections these are not at all valuable to a sensual man not indeed to any but to the changed and renewed Soul I do not know any one thing from which a Man may take better measure of himself and a good Christian may better distinguish himself from one that walketh in a vain shew and meerly glorifieth in appearance than this To a good Christian the least of Christs distinguisâiâg love is exceeding precious and more precious than the greatest portions of the worlds goods The workings of the Spirit of Christ within and upon the Soul subduing the will of Man to the will of God mortifying our Members and the deeds of the Body Taking the affections off the Earth and Earthly things and fixing them on more sublime and spiritual objects the giving of the Soul a good hope through grace these are things which we usually count some of the least tokens of special and distinguishing love Really they are great things nothing of Christ is little but we judge ordinarily according to sense we ordinarily esteem a sense or assurance or full persuasion of the love of God a much greater thing than these But now for a Soul to set an high price and value upon these to be more satisfied more to triumph and rejoice in the conquest of a lust the victory over a temptation than in the conquest of all our Enemies More to desire that our hearts may be filled with love to God desires after God delight in God than to have our Barns filled with Corn or our Purses with Gold and Silver this I take to be such a difference between a Christian indeed and a Christian in a meer Name Title and outward Profession as a Christian may rest in when he is inquiring into his Soul for evidences of the truth of grace Other manifestations of the love of God may be desired for our selves and with a respect only to our selves and the quiet relief and peace of our own Spirits a Christian can desire these only for the glory of God Try your selves therefore Christians by this Touchstone An Hypocrite may desire to know that his Sins are forgiven and that God would not impute Sin to his Soul or that he would impute a righteousness without works an Hypocrite may desire to live with God in glory but these lesser tokens of love he valueth not But alas even the best of Gods People must I fear be here reproved not for their no valuing of these kisses of Christ that is incompetent with a Child of God but for their not enough valuing of them and being too passionate and unsatisfied for want of the comforting manifestations of Divine Love I have before told you that these sensible manifestations of Divine Love are exceedingly desirable and there is no Child of God but is concerned to wish to pray to labour for them But we must take heed that we be not like our little Children whom we shall sometimes see too much slighting and undervaluing and ready to throw away what good things they have because they want some particular thing which they have a mind to which it may be we that are their Parents do not see so proper for them especially under their present circumstances It was lawful for Rachel to wish for to pray for Children but she sinned in saying to her Husband give me Children or else I die Hannah was much in the same error 1 Sam. 1. 8. weeping not eating and vexing her self because she had no Child and in the mean time forgetting that God had given her an Husband who was better to her than ten Sons So it is lawful nay the duty of a good Christian to pray to endeavour for the sweetest and fullest manifestations of Gods love But I have often thought that though these be good things of a Spiritual nature and so vastly differing from the good things of this life yet in this they agree with them that they must be asked with submission to the will of God because they are not de necessariis ad salutem things that are necessary to life and eternal Salvation but such which a Soul may want without any breach of Gods Covenant with the Soul 2. But for a Soul not only too passionately to desire these things which speaketh its not submitting to the will of God in his not dispensing them to it but to over-look deny or undervalue all the tokens for good which it hath received from God meerly because it hath not these and to conclude that it hath nothing of Christs love this is certainly what doth no become a Christian Certainly a Christian ought as much to value himself upon those emanations of grace by which he is inabled to serve and honour God as upon those by which his Soul is rendred more at ease more refreshed and comforted Every kiss of Christ every measure of special distinguishing love is and ought to be precious to a believing Soul Let me in the last place bottom upon this discourse a double word of exhortation The first respecting the Men of the world those I would persuade to leave off their pursuit of
our God is towards him a consuming Fire We are in that state as Stubble dry Stubble he is a consuming Fire But the Apostle tells us 2. Cor. 5. 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself God in Christ is Love toward poor Creatures There are Loves in him Let me a little open the Term. I desire you to take notice of Two things 1. That it is Spoken in the Abstract 2. In the plural number not Love but Loves First Love in the strict and proper Notion of it signifieth the Persons or the Creatures Propension and Inclination to some Object and its Complacency in it And in this Abstract and purer Notion of it it agreeth to the Divine Being and Christ is the Subject of Love There is in the eternal Son of God strong Propensions and Inclinations to do good to the Sons of men To love the Philosopher saith is Velle bonum to will good to another There is in Christ a Propension a strong Inclination to will good to the Sons of Men He hath a Complacency in some of the Sons of Men. Love is a Term that signifies Affections and all our Affections are but the motions of our Wills towards their Objects We say there are no Affections in God That is true But there is something in the Divine Being which is proportionable to what in us we call Affectiions In us Affections are extravagant Motions mutable Passions there are no such things in God In us somthing out of our selves draws out our Love There is no such Passions and Affections in God But if we consider Love in its pure Nature as it is the kind motion of the VVill to an Object so Christ is Love and he hath Loves that is there is in him pure and admirable Propensions and Inclinations of his Will to do good to the Children of Men especially to some particular Souls amongst the Sons of Men. These indeed are not kindled in the Divine Being from any thing in us or out of itself as Flames of Love in the Creature usually are Yet even in Creatures Love oftentimes is an inaccountable thing but in God it is always so he sheweth Mercy because he will shew Mercy and loveth freely That 's the first thing But Secondly The word is plural not Love but Loves God is one and his Love is one Christs Love is one in himself but as the River that went out of Eden to water the Garden of Paradise Gen. 2. 10. was one in its Original and Source but from thence it was parted and became into four Heads So that Oâeness of the Divine Propension and Inclination to do good to poor Creatures being out of the Divine Being it divides itself into many Heads and as the Sea which is one in itself yet as it passeth by several Lands and washeth upon various Shoaâs receives several Names and so admits of a plural number so the Love of Christ which in him is but one Good-will to poor Creatures yet as it sheweth itself in Serving the necessities of various Souls or the various necessities of the same Soul so it becomes Loves and admits of plurality there is in Christ pardoning Love and an healing Love a strengthening Love and a comforting Love therefore the Spouse saith Thy Loves There is but One Love in Christ but it becomes many when it washeth upon various Shoars and toucheth our diverse wants Thirdly The plural Number speaketh the Dimensions of that Love which is in Christ or rather the want of Dârensions in it The plural number hath no bounds the singular is bounded by Unity but the plural hath no bounds if you be to express Millions of Millions of Millions 't is all still but the plural number Loves reacheth infiniteness When the Spouse saith Thy Loves it is as much as thine infinite unmeasurable Love Christ hath not only a good Will a kind Inclination and Propension to the Sons of Men but an infinite unmeasurable unfathomable Propension and Inclination to do good to the Souls of his Saints The Apostle prayeth for the Ephesians Eph. 3. 17 18. That Christ might dwell in their Hearts by Faith that they being rooted and grounded in Love might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and beighth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge heighth and depth and length and bredth are the boundaries of our knowledge but the Love of Christ passeth knowledge Fourthly Love signifies some Specialties of Affection A good man hath Love for many Women but Love's only for the Wife of his Bosom Loves signifie both a common and a singular and special Love Christ hath a Philanthropy or common Love for all the Sons of Men but he hath an ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a special Love and Kindness for some Joseph caused all his Brethren to have a Mess set them but for Benjamin a double Mess God gave Esau the Mountains of Edom. There was Love but Jacob had the Blessing Esau had his Love Jacob had his Loves That the Gospel is preached to every Creature is from Christs Love but that any by the Gospel are made New creatures this is from his Loves It is kindness to them that they have the Gospel but a far greater kindness a kindness of another nature to the Soul that it is inabled to receive the Gospel and is turned into the likness of it 5. Loves may signify the Effects and indications of Love and indeed Terms of Affection applyed unto God do very ordinarily in Scripture signify this Et affectum effectum Both the Motion of the Divine Will within itself and the effect of it upon the Creature So it is true that Christ hath Loves his Good-Will to poor Creatures doth not exhaust itself in one or another Emanation in one or another Stream but in various Emanations in a multitude of Streams and thus you see there are two things in the Proposition asserted 1st That in the Lord Jesus Christ there is an infinite unmeasurable Good-Will to the Childr of Men ãâ¦ã such of them as are by Faith united to him 2dly That this Good-will of Christ toward them declareth itself in a great variety of Indications and Effects Suted to their various necessities It is not a Love that evaporates in Air as the Love of some impotent persons whose Love towards us terminates within their own Souls These are the two Points I have to prove and they are of exceeding easy demonstration to those who believe the History of the Gospel or the Matter and Propositions of the whole Word of God Solomon tells us of Christ under the notion of Wisdom the Apostle calls Christ The VVisdom of God 1. Cor. 1. 24. that before ever the Earth was when there were no Depths nor Fountains abounding with VVater when God prepared the Heavens and set a compass upon the face of the Deep when he established the Clouds Prov. 8. 24. 25. 31. He was Rejoycing
there praying to be delivered from those that are unreasonable upon many accounts but eminently in this that they hate do all the despight mischief they can to him who is full of Loves to them We shall sometimes find in men and women a strange aversion from such as truly Love them they cannot get up their hearts to love a man or woman that Loves them but it is very brutish very unreasonable for any of us to hate and malign and to seek to destroy one that Loves us Such brutes are all those that are Enemies to Christ and his Gospel Christ hath Loves for us these Loves are declared in his Gospel that declareth God in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins the publication of the Gospel is a great act of this Love the faithful Ministers of the Gospel are the Messengers to publish this Love what an unreasonable thing it is now for men to make them the But of their malice I remember when the Jews cryed out concerning Christ Crucify him Crucify him and Pilate asked them why What evil hath he done They like a company of unreasonable bruits could give him no answer but still they cryed out the more Crucify him Crucify him Doth not the same brutish cry hold up even at this day in some wretches mouths They can give no reasonable account why they should oppose the publication of the Love of Christ to poor lost Sinners yet they do it with a rage reaching up to Heaven This is now to be unreasonable men why should you persecute him who loveth you Yet verily as St. Paul said of himself The more he loved the Galathians the less he was beloved of them So it feareth with Christ and all that hath relation to him the more faithful the Minister of Christ is in preaching the Gospel the more diligent and zealous he is to gain Souls to Christ the most hated he is and the reason is because it thus fared with Christ Joh. 15. 18. If the world hateth you you know it hated me before it hated you But Oh let this reconcile your hearts unto Christ That he hath Loves No ingenuous man but will repay Love for Love He who repayeth hatred for Love is of the Devil eminently he doth Evil without a provocation because he Loves to do Evil. Secondly What an Invitation doth this Notion afford to the most miserable forlorn Souls to Kiss the Son to receive and close with the Lord Jesus Christ Whilest our Lord was upon the Earth he told the people That when he was lifted up he should draw all men after him Alas that this word All in that Text must be englished by Many Christ is lifted up upon the Cross and therein he hath shewed us that he hath Loves Infinite Loves For Greater Love than this hath no man shewn than that a man lay down his Life for his Friends Yet this is greater Love while we were Enemies he dyed for us Yet how few are drawn after him How few can be persuaded to accept him as their Lord and Saviour What is the reason one man is drawn after his sensual Appetites after his Lusts and those draw quite from Christ Men cannot be his Disciples except they deny themselves mortify their Members Others are drawn after the World and are not at leasure to come to Christ and besides the friendship of the World is enmity with God! Others have some thoughts of coming to Christ but they are afraid Christ should not receive them I shall have occasion to Speak to the 2 d sort when I come to the next Proposition to shew you that Christs Loves are better then Wine Indeed both to the first and Second I might Speak as Saul once to his Courtyers will the Son of Jesse give you Vine-Yards c. Can the World can your Lusts give you Peace of Conscience and joy in the holy Ghost Will they bring you to the favour of God and to eternal Life But they are onely the 3 d Sort whom I would here Speak to Is there a Soul here that is almost persuaded to be a Christian A Christian not in Name but in Deed and is afraid Christ should not be willing to receive it Hear what God saith 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from amongst them and be you separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you Observe what I have bin discoursing Christ hath Loves an Inclination and Propension to do good to the Sons of Men He hath declared it in a variety of gracious Acts from before the Foundation of the World It encouraged the Servants of Benhadad to go to Ahab to beg their Masters Life that they had heard that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings Let this be an incouragement to you to come to Christ to hear that Christ is a merciful High Priest who casteth away none that cometh unto him Certainly it would incourage the greatest malefactor to go to a Prince to beg his pardon and to thâoâ himself into the arms of his grace and mercy if he could but be persuaded that the Prince were full of Love and had a particular propension and inclination of kindness to the family from which he derived This you have heard particularly made good to you concerning Christ You that have been the greatest trangressors the oldest Sinners yet return and come I remember when Isaac told Esau that Jacob had come before him and got the blessing he replyed Father thou hast many blessings bless me also It may be you may be thinking so in your hearts such and such persons they have obtained the blessing they had not been so vile so prosane as I have been O but yet remember the Lord Jesus Christ hath many blessings not Love but Loves come unto him and he shall bless thee also When thy thoughts are overwhelm'd in the thoughts of thy sins sink them again into the thoughts of Christs Loves thou wilt find that is as great a depth as the other is Yea thou will find the same difference as betwixt the Shore and the main Sea Near the Shore the Mariner may find it several fathom water enough to drown a man But off at Sea he finds himself out of the soundings all the lines he hath will find no bottom So a Soul in the thoughts of his sins may find himself beyond his depth he is drowned in the thoughts of them Ah but yet there is a Sounding his Sins are not Infinite so there is a sounding but if he lancheth his thoughts into the depths of Gods grace and Christs Loves there is no soundings let therefore no Soul be discouraged from coming unto Christ Fourthly Hath Christ Loves How sutable a Saviour hath God provided for poor sinful creatures The Apostle to the Hebrews Heb. 7. 26. having said of Christ v. 25. That he is able to the uttermost to Save them that come unto God by him addeth For such an
Loves which are much our duty upon this view of our great Lord and Master 1. Love to him 2 Love to our Neighbours especially those in whom any thing of Christs appears 1. It calls to us for Loves to Christ This in point of gratitude If Saith our Saviour you love them which love you what reward have you Do not even the Publicanes the same Our Love to Christ is but a Love to him who hath Loves for us and indeed this speaketh to all men for Love to him but more especially O Love ye the Lord all you his Saints It is the opinion of great Divines that all the world is beholden to Christ as Mediator that from his Mediation there issueth some good to the worst of men But he hath eminently extended his Love to his Saints he hath loved them with a singular Love If there should be Love wanting in their hearts to Christ they should be of all men and women in the world most inexcusable what could he have done for any of the Sons of Men which he hath not done for them What greater thing could they have asked of him then he hath prevented them in asking O Love you the Lord all you they that believe Do you ask me how you should shew your Love to him The first motions of Love are in the heart Love there is seen in delighting in him breathing after him It next shews itself by the lips Speaking well of him to others defending his interest and concern in the world If we come to more external acts That of David Ps 16. 2. 3. is true here O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my goodness extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth to the excellent on whom is all my delight Our Love to Christ must be seen in our actings in our stations for the honour glory and concern of Christ in the world In our kindness to the poor flock of Christ Christ calls a want of Love to them a want of Love to himself 25. Math. But that brings me to the Second with a short discourse upon which I shall shut up this discourse 2. It calls you for Love to men especially to those in whom you see any thing of Christ The argument for this ariseth from our duty to study a Conformity to Christ he had a kindness for all when he was born good will towards men was proclaimed by the multitude of the Heavenly host Luke 2. 14. There also lyeth an obligation upon usfrom the law of Christ and from this great Example to be kindly affectionate toward all There lyeth also a Precept upon us to do good to all And again saith the Apostle Owe nothing to any but this That you love one another Indeed there is not the same degree of affection nor the same acts of Love due to all as to that we must be ruled by the Word of God but Love is a debt upon us which is due to all men Therefore wrath hatred anger strife malice are ãâã where reckoned up by the Apostle as the fruits not of the Spirit but of the flesh In a kind Child of God there should be a general love and kindness to all mankind though to be expressed in a Scriptural order as to the degrees and acts of it So it was in Christ 2. But secondly it calls to you for a more Special distinguishing Love to all those in whom you see any thing of Christ Do good to all saith the Apostle but especially to the houshold of Faith The Soul of every Member of Christ should cleave to these with whom he is united not onely by a common nature being the same flesh and blood with him but by a common faith by the ligament of Members of the same body whereof Christ is the head Give me leave to press this the more upon this argument because I find the Apostle St. John pressing it upon the same Topick 1. John 4. 11. If God so loved us we ought also to Love one another v. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us v. 16. He tells us that God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelling in God Every good Christian may see much more in the meanest poorest true Christian to ingage him to Love him or her than Christ could ever see in the highest Saint to oblige or move Christ to love him or her When thou wallowedst in thy blood when thou hadst nothing of the lineament of a Saint in thy Soul not so much as a line of any Spiritual Goodness he passed by thee and it was with him a time of Love as to thy Soul there is not a child of God in the world but there is somthing of holiness and righteousness something of the image and Superscription of Christ to be seen in his Soul something of the Divine nature resplendent in his Soul It may be there is more in some less in others but there is in all some When thou hast a temptation upon thee to aversate thy brother or to turn away thy heart or head or hand from him O remember Christ hath loves and and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in him And that it is he whose heart is full of of Loves for thee who hath commanded thee to Love thy Brother But I have spoken e nough to this first Proposition Sermon X. Canticles 1. 2. For thy Loves are better than Wine IN my last discourse I shewed you that Christ hath Loves kind affections and inclinations to the Children of men and more especially to the Souls of his Saints which he is ready to declare and express yea hath already expressed in acts of kindness and these not of one but various kinds suted to the respective necessities of his people a salve for every Sore a Supply for every want I come now to shew you the quality of his Loves which in my Text is set down positively and comparatively In our translation according to our Idioms or propriety of Speech the positive is to be understood in the comparative particle A thing cannot be called better than another unless it hath some positive absolute goodness in it self but in the Hebrew it is more plainly expressed That saith Are good before Wine It is their way of expressing comparatives It makes no difference in the sense Good before Wine And better than wine are phrases of the same sense In the Explication of the Text I told you that though Wine strictly signifies the juice of the Grape yet by a Synechdoche here it signifyeth all created goods whatsoever can be sweet or profitable or advantageous to us The Proposition is plainly this Prop. The Loves of Christ are good befo e or better than all created comforts and enjoyments whatever I have already shewed you what the Loves of Christ signify viz. His good will his kind affections and inclinations to the Souls of men
Of these here the Spouses predicates 1. A goodness 2. A transcendent and excelling goodness My work must be to demonstrate both 1. That they are good 2. That they are good before wine before all Sublunary goods all created comforts of what nature soever 1. That they are good The true nature of all good lyes in the conveniency and Sutableness of things which we so call to some wants and necessities that we have and lye under Hence the Philosopher describes Good to be the Object of our desires what all men desire for we desire nothing but in order to the supply of some want or other that we are sensible and apprehensive of A man may indeed desire what is not good but he must apprehend some goodness in the thing which he desireth So that to demonstrate the loves of Christ to be good there needs no more than to prove them convenient and admirably Suited to some thing which we want to Supply us in that want That I may restrain my discourse to the Loves of Christ as mediator I shall only premise what I hope you all believe That we have Souls as well as Bodies the Soul is an essential part of man and as much excelling and better than the Body as the body is better than rayment This admitted whatsoever suiteth the Soules wants must necessarily be good and eminently good The Souls wants are many but its principal wants are reducible to five heads 1. Pardon Righteousness Peace Purity Hopes or assurance of Eternal life and Glory 1. It wanteth pardon of Sin This is a want which the Soul brought into the world with it it was by nature dead in trespasses and Sins conceived in Sin brought forth in iniquity a Child of wrath by nature Eph. 2 3. This want hath grown upon the Soul from the day of its birth It s Child-hood and youth were altogether vanity who knows the Errours of his life The righteous falls seven times a day who can tell how often he offendeth It is true not one of many is sensible of this want but that only increaseth their misery It is certain this is a great want of a Soul Christ else had never directed us to pray Forgive us our debts There is a debt of ten thousand Talents upon every Soul that hath not tasted of Christs pardoning grace That it is not arrested for it proceeds only from Gods patience who sometimes beareth long with vessels of wrath fitted for destruction The Love of Christ is Suited to this want It is he that forgiveth Sins and washeth the Soul from the guilt of sin with his blood He dyed for our sins saith the Apostle He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities saith the Prophet Isaiah Ch. 53. 5. We have Redemption and forgiveness of Sins through his blood This Love of his is so suited to this want of the Soul that it can be supplyed no other way God forgiveth sin and none but he who but the creditor can discharge the debtor but it is for Christs sake that God forgiveth us Eph. 4. 32. Without blood there is no remission this was tipyfyed as the Apostle teacheth us by the Beasts of old slain for Sacrifices of Expiation and Atonement and without his Blood we could have had no Remission for it is very vain as the same Apostle instructs us for any to think that the blood of Bulls and Lambs and Goats could de away Sin 2. Secondly The Soul wants Righteousness A righteousness wherein it should stand before God as if it had never sinned against him For the righteous Lord saith the Psalmist loveth righteousness and the Apostle tells us Rom. 3. 15. That God declareth his righteousness for the remission of Sins Such is the nature or at least such is the will of God that he remits no sins but upon a first declaration of his righteousness Neither doth God accept any Soul but the righteous Soul we have no righteousness our works will not make this Web. God therefore imputeth Righteousness without works Rom. 4. 6. In the Gospel God hath revealed his righteousness from faithto Faith Rom. 1. 17. This is the righteousness of Christ Rom. 8. 3. For what the law could not do because it was weak through our flesh that God himself hath done sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemning sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Hence Christ is by the Prophet called the Lord our Righteousness and the Apostle saith he was made of God for us wisdom righteousness And hence the Apostle Prayeth Philip. 3. 8 9. That he might win Christ which he expounds v. 9. And be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith It is called the Righteousness of God because it is that which God accepteth us for the righteousness of Christ because it is his perfect Satisfaction to and obedience to the law and the righteousness of faith because it is by faith by us received and applyed and made ours But in Christ and from Christ the Soul must find and have that righteousness in which alone it can stand before God 3. A third great want of the Soul is Peace Peace with God Peace with itself Rom. 8. 7. The Carnalmind is Enmity to God Take a man in his natural state he is an Enemy to God and God is an Enemy to him He hath no peace with God and if he hath any quiet in his own mind it is but a Truce not a Peace the product of Gods silence not the product of his favour Now in Christ and in him alone the Soul hath peace In the world saith our Saviour to his disciples you shall have trouble but in me you shall have pcace My peace saith he I give unto you I leave with you It is he that hath reconciled the whole number of the elect to God by his death and it is he who doth by his Spirit and the word of reconciliation committed to his Ministers actually reconcile Souls unto himself He is therefore called our Peace we have Peace with God through him Rom. 5. 1. And therefore the Apostle in all his Salutations prefixed to his Epistles prayeth Mercy and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ 4. A fourth great want of the Soul is Purity No unclean thing shall enter into the new Jerusalem Take the Soul of a Christian Naturally it is an impure filthy Soul what can be clean that is born of a Woman Or how can that which is clean come from that which is unclean The connate proneness of our hearts to whatsoever is evil and the natural aversion of our hearts to any thing that is good is a sufficient proof of this The promise of the clean heart and of the new heart in Ezek. 36. as you know are both
of relation hath taken to him that of a Father to let us know there is in his gracious nature something analogous or proportionable to the heart and bowels of Earthly Parents to their Children and accordingly our Saviour argues that if any of our Children ask of us bread we will not give them a Stone nor a Scorpion instead of Fish and thence concludeth that if we being evil know how to give good things to our Children much more will our Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him You many of you know the heart of a Father To which of you would it not be a great argument to draw you out to any acts by which you could manifest your loves to a Child for your Child to come and beg your love to it telling you that it valueth your love above all things in the world that it had rather have your love your heart towards it than have all the estate you can give it Shall there not be something in the heart of God proportionated to this affection in your hearts Is it possible that a Child of God should come to God and in sincerity say to him Father I beg some tokens of thy special distinguishing love to my Soul thou that knowest all things knowest that I love thee and that my Soul doth value thy loves above all that the world affords and Gods heart should not yearn and his bowels melt towards such a Soul God must say of the voice of such a Soul as Isaac sometimes said It is the voice of my Son Jacob None but a Child can speak such a language 4. Finally No arguments can be of more force to use with God than such wherein the Interest of his own glory is concerned The Glory of God being his own great end which he pursueth in all his actions he useth a great argument to God that saith unto him Father glorify thy self So gracious is God that he gives us leave to fetch arguments from our selves our own wants and the misery we are in which arguments affect God as he is a God full of pity and tender compassion But those arguments which we can fetch from the Interest of his own glory seem to have a greater force as complying with what is the Lords great and chiefest end He that sets an high value and estimate upon the love of Christ giveth God a great deal of Glory preferring him to all things in the world for God cannot be more glorified by the Creature than to be in heart esteemed above and preferred to the whole Creation So as that Soul that goeth to God with this argument doth in effect say Father my Soul hath glorified thee upon the Earth and doth give thee the glory of being the most excellent object and more desirable than all the world besides Now therefore glorify thy self in manifesting of thy love to me that I may further exalt thee in thy rich and free Grace I now come to the application By way of Instruction first we may observe That the meanest Child of God is furnished with a better argument to encourage his hopes in his addresses to the throne of Grace than the greatest and proudest Sinner in the world hath There are arguments which Sinners may use from the infiniteness and freeness of the divine bounty and goodness from their relation to God as his Creatures from the greatness of their misery c. and they may obtain something from God upon these pleas from that infinite goodness and compassion that is in the Divine Nature but no unregenerate man can use this argument which hath in it a much greater force On the other side there is no the meanest child of God not the meanest believer that is in the world but hath this argument to use with God Other arguments may be of avail with God for the obtaining some good things of this life this is of force for the obtaining those of highest consequence relating to the internal and eternal happiness of the Soul Secondly This offers us a great incouragement to examine our selves upon this point Whether we have a due estimate of the loves of Christ Whether we can truly say to our blessed Lord That his loves are better than Wine and that we value them not only above all sensual satisfactions which the profane scandalous Sinner doeth not but above all sensible satisfactions which no unregenerate carnal man doth I remember when our Saviour examined Peter about his love to him he propounded to him this question Joh. 21. 15. Simon Peter lovest thou me more than these I do know that many Interpreters by these in that Text understand his other Disciples standing by There was a time when Peter preferred himself as to his love towards his Master to all the other Disciples Tho saith he all should deny thee yet I would not deny thee Peter since that time was humbled our Saviour had a mind that his humility should be manifested and therefore say some he propoundeth that question to him but I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles puts another sense upon the words Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these and so it may be referred either to the company with whom he was or to the diversion of fishing they were employed in or to the great draught of fish which they had taken I do but allude to the text who so truly loveth the Lord Jesus Christ if all the persons and things in the world were before him must be able to say I love Christ more than these Admit his friends and nearest relations to be in his Eye all the pleasant and delectable things in the world all the Crowns and Scepters and honours in the world all the Gold and Silver and Houses and Lands in the world in his Eye He must be able to say I love the Lord Jesus Christ more than these yea if his own life be set before him not to be enjoyed without the loss of Christs love he must be able to say that he loves Christ more than that Mat. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me Lu. 14. 26. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple But I have formerly given you some directions how to try your selves whether the loves of Christ in the apprehension of your Souls are good before Wine and shall therefore add no more on this argument In the third place This notion may be of great use to relieve Christians doubting whether they have any one good Argument to use with God in their applications to him 2. Whether any of their Prayers have at any time pierced the Heavens and been accepted of God A good Christian is often doubting whether
to the Humane Nature in the personal union of both Natures in the Lord Jesus Christ Christ was sanctified and set apart and constituted as a person fit to be our High Priest and King This as I told you in my last discourse was one of the sacred uses of Oil which the Jews made there was a sweet anointing Oil made by Gods special prescript for the consecration of the High Priest the Tabernacle and their holy Utensils with this also they anointed their Kings This did but typify the anointing of the Holy Ghost and by the receiving of this Vnction Christ was constituted our High-Priest and the King upon the Holy Hill of Sion By the Grace of Hypostatical Vnion he was made so I mean by the union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the one Person of Christ Christ indeed had an Essential Kingdom equal with the Father by his Eternal Generation but he obtained his Mediatory Kingdom by vertue of his Incarnation and Vnction The new and living way was consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh Thus he was made our High-Priest our King our Prophet and by his gracious dispositions and qualifications he was made fit for a Mediator For such an High Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners and made higher than the Heavens who needed not daily as those High Priests under the law to offer up Sacrifice first for his own Sins then for the People c. Heb. 7. 26. 27. 2. The Graces of Christ were like good Oils or Ointments as they were used in Sacrifice they cannot indeed so properly be called a Sacrifice but they were as the Oyl poured upon the meat offering There is a dispute whether the Passive Obedience of Christ only or his Active obedience also be imputed to us and be our righteousness not to meddle with that supposing his passive obedience to have alone been the Sacrifice yet his Active obedience must be allowed as the Oyl poured upon it The meat offering was usually some Beast or Bird slain but then they were to come and pour Oyl upon it Christs death upon the Cross was his offering That was the Sacrifice but his Graces were as the Oyl poured upon this offering had not he that died been pure and holy righteous and separate from sinners meek obedient c. he could not have been accepted for others for he must have offered for himself as the Apostle teacheth us Heb. 7. 26 27. Thus his personal graces and perfections were like good Oils with respect to the use of Oil in Sacrifice upon the account of them it was that he offered up to his Father a Sacrifice for the Sins of his People which was acceptable Thirdly The Personal Graces and perfections of Christ were like good Oils for their sweet savour These perfections are those things which make the name and person of Christ as a sweet smelling savour in the Nostrils of every understanding gracious Soul what is it which maketh any Soul love Christ what maketh its own private meditations of him or the report which it receiveth of him so exceeding sweet to the Soul but these excellencies and perfections which are in him His free and infinite love to the Sons and Daughters of Men his pity and compassion his slowness to conceive a wrath and readiness to forgive his freeness to heal his Peoples backslidings his purity and holiness his patience and meekness These are those things which make Christ appear so lovely and amiable to gracious Souls Lastly like good Oils they serve the Soul for food What doth a Soul that hungereth and thirsteth after Righteousness seed upon but the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ some indeed have found a Righteousness of their own to feed upon but I doubt whether those Souls that feed on nothing else will appear fair and well liking in the great day of the Lord Suppose a Soul pined away in the sense of its iniquities what doth it live upon but only the free Grace and mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ As Hezekiah said in another case By these things men live so doth every Spiritual Soul make use of the Grace of Christ and may say By the Righteousness of Christ I live by thelove pity and tender mercies of Lord Jesus Christ I live By his fulness of grace I live for of his fulness we receive Grace for Grace Thus you see how upon all accounts The grace of Christ is like good Ointments But thus much generally We are upon a Bed of Spices it is good for us to be here let me therefore speak a little more particularly shewing you particularly What these Graces of our Lord Jesus Christ are which are upon all these accounts as good Oils or good Ointments I shall answer this in several particulars 1. The Grace of Vnion is as a good Oâl There is a three-fold Union considerable with reference to Christ 1. His Eternal Vnion with his Father This is what he saith in the Gospel once and again I and my Father are one but it is not proper to call this Grace It was natural his Generation who can declare 2. The second is the Hypostatical Vnion of the Divine and Humane Nature in the One Person of the Mediator This was Grace the assumption of our Nature to make one Person with the Divine Nature this was an act of Grace it was not Natural not Eternal but the product of Divine and free ãâ¦ã time It was the Grace both of the first and of the second Person in the Trinity to assume humane nature into an Union with the second Person 3. There is an Vnion of Christ with Believers I in you saith Christ and you in me These are mysteries the two latter I mean not to be fully known and understood until Christs second coming At that day saith our Blessed Lord Joh. 14. 20. You shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and Lin you That there is such a thing we know how it is we do not know but in the mean time this is also of Grace This in the second sense is terminated in Christ in the last it is terminated in the truly believing Soul I am sure both are as good Oils That Grace which was both from the Father and himself considered as God by which our Nature was assumed into a oneness with the Second Person in the God-Head This is like a good Oil this was the sweet anointing Oil of his Consecration by this he Was constituted out High-Priest capacitated to offer a Sacrifice to his Father both meritorious and acceptable As God he could not die as meerly the Son of man he could not merit as God-man he could do both O this makes Christ exceeding lovely in the Eyes of a Spiritual intelligent Soul Christ as God is full of Glory and Majesty but his Glory is invisible his Majesty is incomprehensible but now when the Word was made flesh
Name I will mention but three things First His Word is his Name The Gospel of Christ is his Name that expresseth to us what Christ is Christ saith that he had manifested his Father's Name unto the men whom he had given him out of the world Joh. 17. 6. that is his Fathers Truths the Doctrine of his Gospel The Lord Jesus is made known by his Gospel That doth the same thing for Christ that our Name doth for us it lets the World know whose Son Christ is what he is what he hath done and suffered for Sinners and this is to the Soul exceeding sweet as an Oil that is poured forth Secondly His Mercy is his Name All those declarations of his love and good will towards his Peoples Souls of which his Gospel is full All the Emanations of his Love When the Lord telleth Moses his Name he thus proclaimeth it The Lord The Lord merciful slow to anger As God gets him a great Name upon Pharaoh and the wicked of the Earth by executing Justice and Judgment so he gets himself a great Name amongst his Saints by shewing meâcy His Name is I even I am he that blotteth out transgressions for my own Names sake I will heal your backslidings and love you freely Lastly His Truth is his Name By Truth I mean his Faithfulness in fulfilling his Word Thy Truth reacheth unto the Clouds saith David Psal 108. 4. David Psal 138. 2. resolveth to praise God's Name for his Loving-kindness and for his Truth Jesus Christ is much known to us by his Truth and Faithfulness to his Promises making good to his Peoples Souls what he hath said hence he is called the Amen the Faithful and the true Witness Rev. 3. 14. Pareus upon that Text saith that Christ is called the Amen for that reason which the Apostle giveth 2 Cor. 1. 19 20. because he is not Yea and Nay but he is Yea and because all the Promises of God in him are Yea and Amen Thus I have opened to you what that Name of Christ is which the Spouse compareth to an Oil or to an Ointment poured forth 2 Qu. But why to an Oil poured forth Certainly for the usefulness of it under that circumstance Ointment in the Box Oil inclosed and kept up in the Vessel is no way so useful as when it is poured out If we use it for food it must be poured out if for Medicine if for Ornament which way soever we use Oil or Ointment it must be poured out then it becomes useful to us But that which I take to be what is principally intended is Thy Name is exceedingly infinitely sweet Oil is sweet in the Vessel where it is kept it is sweet if but dropped out by drops But saith the Spouse of Christ Thy Name is as an Oil or Ointment poured forth Thou hast not only a sweetness and excellency in thy self but all the grace and mercy in thee is communicated and that not in drops or little measures but as Oil poured forth that hath scope of Air enough to diffuse it self in and by If Christ had No Name by which he could be made known to us yet there would be in him as God blessed for ever infinite goodness as well as Majesty and Glory the fulness of the God-Head would be in him he would be full of Grace and Truth but now his Name makes him to be as an Oil poured forth by that we behold his glory the glory as of the begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. When the invisible incomprehensible excellency love and grace of Christ is made known unto us either by the Gospel or by the emanations of his grace and mercy or the demonstrations of his truth and faithfulness by any of his personal names or names of Office wâich are given to him then like Oil or Ointment poured out he appears to the Soul transcendently incomparably sweet This now appears both from Scripture and from experience 1. From Scripture how sweet are thy words unto my tast faith David Psal 119. 103. More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than Honey and the Hony-comb Psal 19. 10. In his name shall the Gentiles trust Mat. 12. 21. Adam had a little of Christ made known unto him One promise we read of no more The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. It was like Oil poured forth and kept him from a deliquium in the sense of the first sin and his being turned out of Paradise Abraham heard a little of Christs name it was to him like Oil poured forth he saw my day and rejoiced saith Christ John 8. he saw the day star arise afar off he saw but the morning the dawning of the morning too of Christs day and at a great distance how sweet was it to him He saw my day saith Christ and he rejoiced I might give you very many instances of the sweetness which the Saints of God perceived upon the several discoveries of Christ made to them But what needs any further demonstration than what ariseth from the consideration of the thing and from the experience of any Child of God to whom Christ is or hath been made known how sweet must rest be to one that is weary ease to one that is heavy laden both these are promised from Christ Mat. 11. 29. how sweet must the name of a Saviour be to one that is lost and undone the name of Redeemeâ to one that is a Captive The name of a Mediator to one that hath offended a potent adversary able to crush him every moment 2. I appeal further to the experience of every Child of God even every Soul who hath tasted any thing of Christ and who hath heard any thing of his Name when a Soul is troubled to think how often how heinously it hath offended God how sweet is the name of a Mediator when it is brought to a sense of its sin and apprehends itself lost and undone how sweet is it to remember the name of Jesus given unto Christ because he was to save his People from their sins when a Soul considereth that without Blood without a Sacrifice there is no remission of Sin how sweet then is the name of an High Priest over the House of God who offered up himself once for our Sins and having done so ascended up into Heaven and ever sitteth at the Right Hand of God to make intercession for the Sins of his People How sweet to the Soul that is afraid lest its lusts should have dominion over him is the name of Christ as a King given unto him because he is to rule in the hearts of those who are once subjected and subdued unto him How sweet are his mercy his truth his promises when at any time the latter are applied to the Soul and the former any way made known in the Soul Doth any one ask whence it is that the name of
Christ is so sweet to the Soul I answer 1. Because it signifieth him to be the fountain of the greatest spiritual good to us his name Messiah and Christ signify him to be separated and set apart of God for the accomplishment of the great business of our Salvation his name Emanuel signifies him to have Hypostatically united in one Person the Divine and Humane Nature that he might be a fit Mediator that he might die and merit salvation for us by dying his name Jesus signifies that he is a Saviour his name Shiloh speaketh him to be a Peace-maker his name of an Advocate signifies him to transact our business in Heaven for us his name of High Priest signifies him to have offered for us a propitiatory Sacrifice to have made an atonement for us to bless us to interceed for us the like I might say of his other names Now if the name of a friend who hath done some great kindness for us be oft-times sweet like an Oil poured forth unto us how much sweeter must be his name by whom we are blessed with all Spiritual blessings Secondly Because by his Name or in his name our greatest blessings are obtained How sweet must that name be to the begger upon the use of which all its wants are supplied Is salvation worth any thing There is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved but only the name of Jesus do our Souls want any thing Whatsoever you shall ask in my Name that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son John 14. 13. Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you ch 16. v. 23. Is the Soul trembling under the sense of its guilt doth horrour surprize it do the terrors of the Lord distract it a wounded Spirit who can bear by the discovery of the Lord Christs name to it in the Gospel promises in the mercy truth and faithfulness of Christ it is freed from these The discovery the least discovery of Christ to the troubled Soul is like the Sun beam to the weather beaten and be-wildered Traveller like the shadow to him whom the heat maketh faint like light to him that fitteth in darkness like life to him that fitteth in the shadow of death How sweet is the discovery of Christs truth in his promises the sealing of a promise to a poor doubting Soul Every Soul that hath experienced it will say It is like Oil poured forth I come to the application of this discourse Is the name of the Lord Jesus so exceeding sweet like an Oil poured forth Oh then what is Christ himself It is Origens application Si solo nomine Quid ejus faciet substantia How sweet is the Oil upon the Crown of the head when that which runs down to the skirts of the garment is so sweet Open all created boxes admit that all their sweet qualities would unite and conspire to make one compounded fragrant smell distill all the odoriferous herbs that the Earth bringeth forth mix all the sweet gums and odoriferous spices of Arabia and the whole Eastern part of the world let them all make one body and contribute all their delicious qualities to the composition of one Oil or Ointment to please the wanton sense of a Creature what would they all signify to one Christ Oh blessed Jesus thou that art altogether delights clear the Nostrils of vain Creatures stopt with their own lusts and the vanities of pitiful creature satisfactions and contentments that they may take the air of thy delicious names and follow thee in the savour of thy most precious Ointments Secondly Is the name of Christ in this life so exceeding sweet Oh what will the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven be When the Saints shall see him as he is when they shall be ever with the Lord beholding his face rejoycing in his presence when they shall be at his right hand where are and shall be Pleasures and fulness of Pleasures and that for evermore here we know in part and see in part and the greatest part of that we know of Christ amounteth not to the least part of what we do not know then the Saint shall see him face to face and know him as he is known by him Surely we should cry out with the Psalmist Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts Here we sit but under the shadow of the Apple tree yet it is with great delight and his fruit is pleasant unto our tast how sweet will it be to be within the arms of it If a Garden of Flowers or a Bed of Spices casteth aâsweet smell at a 1000 miles distance what will it do when we come near it O you to whom the name of Christ is as an Ointment poured forth follow the savour of it it will bring you to that place of delights where your Souls shall be ever satiated but never nauseated Thirdly Observe from hence the difference betwixt a natural carnal man and a spiritual man The name of Christ is published in all our parts of the world The Gospel is published that is Christs name saith Gencbrard upon my Text but the natural man discerneth no sweetness in it he can smell sweetness in a perfume but in the name of Christ he can smell nothing sweet Nay what is more unpleasing to a carnal heart than the name of Christ and there is reason for it for to him Christs name is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah his name is a Judge an Enemy c. In the second place what an argument is here to persuade those that hear it to labour for a discovery of Christs name to their Souls To persuade sick and fainting Souls to make application of Christs name to themselves To all to study Christs name more to wear it upon their hearts to meditate of it c. 1. To persuade those who know little or nothing of Christ as yet to get a knowledge of Christs name sweetness naturally enticeth the sense and attracts the Soul shall the incomparable sweetness of Christ draw no Souls unto him shall the air of Solomons name bring the Q of the South from the furthest parts of the Earth and shall Christs name draw never a Sinner invite never a Soul to come and tast and see how sweet how good the Lord is You that are enticed with the smell of a flower that lay out your mony for persumes of no value will you have no value for these sweet Ointments Alexander the great was said to have had such a rare temper of his body that it cast forth a natural sweetness I am sure there is an infinite a transcendent sweetness in the Lord Jesus O let the Virgins love him Men and Women that are in a state of Nature are in one sense Virgins not for purity but as not married to Christ O do you love Christ for the
or set upon and in which they take a chief pleasure and delight For their lusts and corruptions they are not free from them but their hearts are dead to them Thus they are Virgins with respect to their state which is not a state of absolute independency from the world or absolute freedom from lusts and corruptions but such a freedom from the one and the other that they have no constant fellowship and communion with either 2. Their Life is like the Life of a Virgin an hidden Life The Virgin hath her name in the Hebrew from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifieth to hide because she lived an hidden kind of life Virgins antiently lay hid in their Fathers house and there they spent their time not in Markets and Fairs and places of publick concourse Dinah made an escape and there was you know a sad consequent of it The Virgins life is most in her Closet or in her Fathers house Such is the life of a Child of God they are called God's hidden ones and the Apostle saith of them Our life is hid with Christ in God The Spiritual Soul spends most of its time at home in its Closet or in his Fathers house where two or three are met together in the Lord's Name this is their Fathers house on Earth or else in Heaven Our conversation is in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. The world saith the Apostle knoweth us not The Children of God live but the World understands not how they live they walk with God They live in Christ the life which they live in this state is by Faith in the Son of God 3. The Life of Virgins is a free Life free from that care and sollicitude which attendeth the House-wife The Apostle telleth us 1 Cor. 7. The unmarried woman seeketh to please the Lord but she that is married seeketh to please her Husband The married woman hath upon her a great deal of care and trouble she hath an Husband she hath Children she hath Servants she hath a Family to take care for the Virgin hath nothing to trouble her nothing to take care about but how to please her Father who provideth for her what she hath need of In this respect the Disciples of Christ are Virgins God hath bidden them be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and Supplications let your requests be made known unto God Philip. 4. 6. He hath commanded them to cast their care upon him assuring them that he careth for them 1 Pet. 5. 7. As the Father taketh the care of his Virgin Daughters upon himself so as they need not be sollicitous or trouble themselves with cares what they should eat or what they should drink or what they should put on so hath the Lord taken care for his Children and every Child of God that walks up to his Principles and liveth up to his holy Calling leadeth a life as void of sollicitous care and anxiety as the Virgin in her Fathers house whose only care is to please her Father He is indeed careful to maintain good works but for nothing else and thus as with respect to their state so with respect to the way and condition of their lives the Saintsare Virgins But further yet they are or should be Virgins with respect to their Qualifications 4. Virgins are chast and undefiled Thus the Children of God are usually described in holy Writ I have espoused you to one Husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ 2 Cor. 11. 2. They are called pure in heart undefiled in the way they have not defiled their garments Rev. 3. 4. Indeed every married woman is not an unclean woman there is a marriage-bed undefiled as the Apostle speaks and indeed as there is a matrimonial Virginity or Chastity so the Saints are such for though they be Virgins yet they are espoused to one Husband they are married unto Christ Though their hearts cleave not to Objects which indeed cannot be the proper Husbands of a reasonable spiritual and immortal Soul 5. Finally Virgins are or should be modest in all their behaviour She that hath lost her Modesty hath exposed her Virginity to great jealousies and suspicions The Children of God are so in their hearts in their discourses in their hehaviour But I have opened this Metaphor sufficiently Now these Virgins love Christ for the savor of his Name because his Name is an Oil or Ointment poured forth All these things are spoken in a figure that figure which we usually call a Metaphor Sweet things entice and allure our senses Sweet savours are grateful to our smell Thence it is that it hath been an antient practice for Men and Women to use sweet Oil or Powder that they might be more amiable and delightful to their Lovers This you may know was an old practice by that instance of the lewd Woman in the Proverbs who to invite the young man to her Adulterous Bed tells him She had perfumed her Bed with Myrrh Aloes and Cinamon The Spouse making use of this vain and wanton practice to express how pleasant and delightful Christ was to her fancieth him as one perfumed with sweet Odours anointed with odoriferous Oil or Ointment Thy Name saith she is as an Oil or Ointment poured forth Therefore do the Virgins love thee That is thou art possessed of many noble rich and excellent habits of grace which make thee to my Soul appear infinitely more sweet and lovely than all the good Oils and Perfumes in the World can make one appear to the wanton sense of another and for those excellent graces of the Spirit by thee not received by measure and for the pourings out and discoveries of these upon the Souls of the Saints and the discovery of them unto their Souls it is That Souls freed from the pollutions of the world through lust Souls that are holy spiritual heavenly minded desire after delights and take an infinite complacency in the Lord Jesus Christ What these excellent habits are what this same unctuous sweet-smelling Name of Christ is I have already opened in my former Discourse Let me now a little further shew you Qu. 2. What there is in the excellent Graces or precious Discoveries of Christ which make Christ so amiable to the Soul 1. There is in them an infinite inexhaustible real goodness All good is attractive Who will shew us any good is you know Vox Populi and it is impossible a Soul should apprehend any thing fixedly as really and transcendently good but it must be pleasing to it Light is not more grateful to the Eye than Good is to the reasonable Soul And as our Eye is proportionably pleased with the glimmerings of Light from a Candle or the counterfeit of it in a Glow-worm so the Soul of man falls into the imbracings of good when it doth but glimmer in a piece of Silver or dissemble in a perishing pleasure Nay we are not altogether selfish in this motion of our will which we
and then think to put off God with the bone O desperate folly and presumption offer this now to thy Prince will he accept it canst thou expect Sinner that Christ should freely love thee when thou art grown old who refusedst him when thou wert young canst thou reasonably think that God will be put off with the fag end of thy life dost thou not know how hardly an old sinner is brought to repentance sin is bred and sed in his bones and it will not out art thou aware how acceptable to God the sacrifice of thy youth is under the old law no Sacrifice was admitted that was above three years old Dost not thou remember how kindly God accepted his young Samuel Abijam Josiah Timothy c. who in their youth inclined their hearts unto him doth the good nature and handsome features and sweet perfumes of the young man please thee and is there no excellency in the Graces of him who is full of Grace and Truth is there no savour in Christs Ointments no sweet Odour from his name poured forth O come you that are Virgins behold your Husband an Husband who if you be poor is able to enrich you if you be mean and base is able to honour and to ennoble you who what ever you want is able to supply you O that upon the pouring forth of his name amongst you in this Sermon this day some of your souls this day might be allured to love the Lord Jesus Christ Secondly This notion obligeth all those that be Saints or profess themselves such to approve themselves to be Virgins the holy Spirit hath so called them certainly it should be their great care to answer their name To keep themselves unspotted from the world undefiled in the way free from the pollution of the world through lust I have toldyou that there are many who go for Virgins but are not they are wedded to some filthy lust or other wedded to the world defloured by entertainnig some corrupt dangerous principles or declining to a corrupt conversation we live in a debauched a debauching age you that stand take heed lest you fall 1. If you lose your Virginity you lose your honour The young Womans Virginity is her honour your freedom from idolatry and superstition your soundness in the faith your purity integrity and holiness of life is your honour Hold fast that thou hast saith Christ to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 11. that no man take thy Crown he who despoileth you of your purity of Doctrine and Worship or who seduceth you to any licentious practices takes away your Crown yea not only your Crown in respect of reputation but your Crown of Glory also John Rev. 14. 1. Saw a Lamb standing upon Mount Sion and with him 144000 having his Fathers name written upon their foreheaas and v. 2. heard a voice from Heaven c. and they the 144000 sang as it were a new Song before the Throne and the four Beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that Song but the 144000. which were redeemed from the Earth v. 4. It followeth These are they which were not defiled with Women for they are Virgins these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these were redeemed from amongst men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without sault before the Throne of God not defiled with Women Non polluti idololatriá quae est scortat io spiritualis sed virgines fide spiritu saith Pareus not defiled by idolatry which is a spiritual Adultery but Virgins in Spirit and Faith Secondly Consider if you lose your chastity It will be an hard matter to reconcile you to your first Husband If the Virgin be known to have lost her Virginity it is no easy matter to procure her an Husband of any reputation if the Wife hath lost her Virginity that is her chastity it is an hard matter to reconcile her to her Husband If a man put away his Wife and she go from him shall he return to her again Jer. 3. 1. It is true the mercies of God are above the mercies of men it follows there yet return unto me saith the Lord but it is no easy matter for a lapsed Saint to recover his peace many a Bone must be first broken and if such be saved it must be as through fire It is a dreadful Text which you have Heb. 6. 5 6. O keep your integrity and behave your selves like Virgins live an hidden life more and more to God and Christ more and more reserved from the world learn what this meaneth Our life is hid with Christ in God Be like Virgins careful in nothing save only to please Christ who is your spiritual Husband let your behaviour speak your Virgin-modesty and that you may keep your Virgin State and behaviour 1. Take heed of Books that will principle you to a Spiritual Fornication There are 2 sorts of Books in the world which help much to debauch it 1. Amorous Books full of lascivious Songs and filthy stories 2. Heretical Books The first debauch People as to their bodies the latter as to their faith and immortal Souls 2. Take heed of Whorish Company The Chast Virgin is often spoiled by unchast Society Dinah went abroad into wanton company and was deflowred If she had kept her Fathers house she had probably kept her honour How many Christians are defiled both in Judgment and Practice by keeping company with Papists Quakers Socinians c. Lastly O love the Lord all his Saints for the savour of his Ointments for the sweetness of his Name which is as an Ointment poured forth The best are prone to love Christ only for the Peace of Conscience which they have upon their Justification by his blood and for the Heaven they shall have hereafter for his sake His Glory is exceeding sweet This Love is not to be faulted but I would work my own heart and have you study to work up your hearts to an higher pitch Labour to be like Angels The Angels were never Redeemed with the Blood of Christ never knew what trouble of Conscience meant They have a natural right to Heaven yet they love admire adore Christ they are rational though spiritual Subsistences What maketh them to love Christ but the perfections and excellencies which they see in him Let us study to be like Angels to get up our hearts to such a spiritual pitch as this to love Christ for the excellency of his person for the savour of his good Ointments I shall add no more to this Discourse I have now done with this third Verse Sermon XVI Cant. 1. 4. Draw me we will run after thee The King hath brought me into his Chambers we will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine The upright love thee I Have told you that the eight first Verses of this Chapter
contain three Petitions which the Spouse by which we understand the Church or the believing Soul maketh to her Beloved the Lord Jesus Christ The first I have done with together with the Arguments ments which she used to enforce it I am now come to the second comprehended in this Verse with the Arguments by which she presseth it Her first Petition was in those words Let him kiss me ãâã the kisses of his mouth Here she saith Draw me Our English Annotations make the connexion thus Lord do not only invite and call me by the Preaching of thy Gospel which are the kisses of thy mouth but command me by the Power of thy Spirit Or thus Let me not only be passively happy in receiving tokens of love from thee but make me active in maintaining communion with thee Let me run after thee and to this purpose do thou draw me Thus the coherence of her Petitions seemeth to lie Some there are that do not make this a new Petition but adjoyn the beginning of this Verse to the latter end of the former and read it thus The Virgins love thee and have drawn thee after them thus the Seventy read it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and after them Origen and Greg. Nyssen expounding it of the Faith of the Saints by which they draw Christ after them according to his Promise Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst amongst them But though there be something of truth in this yet this Interpretation is I think justly slighted by Lud. de Ponte and others even of the Papists the greatest Admirers of the Fathers And although the Copies of the Seventy which we have indeed thus read it yet Symmachus and Aquila the two other Antient Greek Translators read it as we translate it And I am sure that is the true Translation of the Hebrew where the Verb is in the Imperative Mood though there be a little change of the Vowels in regard of the Affix according to the Rules of Grammarians For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so I conclude they are clearly a Petition and thus the Vulg. Lat. reads them with the Tigurine Translators Pagnine Montanus Piscator Junius and indeed almost all others Agreeing therefore in that let me consider 1. The parts of the Text 2. Then open the terms And thirdly and lastly Raise and handle such Propositions as it will afford and may be useful to us You may in the Text please to consider 1. The Spouse's Petition Draw me 2. The Argument by which she enforceth this Petition We will run after thee Where 't is observable 1. The parties promising We. 2. The thing promised A running after Christ 3. The Spouse's Acknowledgment of her Beloved's speedy Answer to her Prayers The King hath brought me into his Chambers 4. And lastly The Effects this Answer had upon her they are three 1. We will rejoyce 2. We will be glad in thee 3. We will remember thy Loves more than Wine Then you have the Spouse's Justification of her self in this passion The upright love thee Let me now come to open the terms This word for it is but one in the Hebrew contains the Spouse's Petition It is agreed by all that it is the Spouse that speaks by which the Jews who understand nothing of the Gospel-Church in this Song understand Abraham and the Church of the Jews Aben-Ezra a Jewish Doctor would have these the words of Abraham speaking to God to draw him out of his own Country into Ur of the Chaldees according to that hard Precept to flesh and blood Gen. 12. Solomon Jarchi another of them makes it the voice of the Jewish Church speaking to God to bring them back again to Hierusalem out of Captivity The old Chaldee Paraphrast and Lira with him make it the voice of the Church of the Jews coming out of Egypt speaking unto God that he would go before them as he did by the Cloud and the Pillar The Righteous of that Generation then said Draw us after thee O thou Lord of the whole world We will follow thee in the way of thy goodness Mr. Cotton makes the Spouse to be either Solomon himself desiring to be drawn to Christ or the Church of the Jews desiring Solomon by Laws and Edicts and Proclamations to draw them to their duty Rupertus his notion applying the words to Elizabeth John Baptist's Mother and of some Popish Writers making them the words of the blessed Virgin are hardly worth mentioning any more than theirs who would make them the words of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon We have fixed the Spouse with the most and best Interpreters to be the true Church of God and every individual believing Soul and then it is easie to know to whom the words are directed viz. unto God and whether we understand the first or second Person in the Trinity is not at all material For besides that they are both but one in their operations respecting the creature Drawing is made in Scripture the act both of the Father and the Son No man saith Christ cometh unto me unless the Father draweth him And again When I am lifted up I will draw all men after me But drawing is a term of motion there must be a term to which Whither would the Spouse be drawn This is not so plainly exprest in the English as in the Hebrew I shall speak more to it by and by but I shall first open the term Draw and shew you what the Spouse desireth of her Beloved in this term I find the Verb ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Hebrew signifying four things 1. It sometimes signifies no more than to go to go on and forward so Jud. 4. 6. Go and draw toward Mount Tabor Exod. 12. 21. Draw out and take you a Lamb that is go out Job 21. 33. Every man shall draw after him that is by little and little follow him to the Grave But it would spoil the sense to interpret it so in this place The Me following makes this sense inconsistent 2. Sometimes it signifieth the pulling of a thing or person to a place by some violence or force Thus you read of the Heifer that had not drawn in the yoke Deut. 21. 3. So it is said God draweth the mighty with his power Job 24. 22. And you read of the man that drew a Bow at adventure That is an act of strength and power you know 1 King 22. 34. So they drew Joseph out of the Pit and Jeremy out of the Dungeon Gen. 37. 28. Jer 38. 13. And David prayeth that he might not be drawn away with the wicked Psa 28. 3. In all which places this word is used 3. Because in love and fair persuasion there is a kind of force compelling a reasonable and ingenuous person The word is sometimes used to express also such an action It is said of the wicked Psal 109. v. 12. He draweth the poor into
Bed-chamber 2 Kings 6. 12. An inward Chamber Judg. 3. 24. A Bridegrooms Chamber Joel 2. 16. A Summer Chamber Judg. 3. 24. It is also used Prov. 24. 4. Prov. 7. 27. Job 9. 9. and in many other Texts It plainly signifieth the more inner secret retired part of the house where Persons can be most private and most secure The King hath brought me into his Chambers that is into the places of most private secret communion with him where I can be most private free and secure but yet for the clearer explication of the words we will more strictly enquire upon two things Qu. 1. What is here meant by the Kings Chambers Doubtless it is spoken in a figure The House in the Heavens not made with hands is not as our Earthly Houses divided into rooms and stories by partitions let us therefore rightly comprehend the notion of a Chamber and we shall without much difficulty understand the priviledge in which the Spouse doth glory Three things will give us the notion of a Chamber 1. It is a lofty place elevated from the Earth you know that you ordinarily call those rooms in your Houses Chambers which are above the lower floor 2. It is a place of privacy any one is admitted into your lower rooms but very familiar friends only into your Chambers when those of the same family would be more retired and private they chuse Chambers for that privacy our more hidden private fellowship with our friends or near relations is in our Chambers 3. A Chamber is a resting place we eat and drink and have our ordinary converse with our neighbours in other rooms we lie down and rest in our Chambers These three things I should think may make us to understand the Spouses meaning in this metaphorical expression and what it is that she glorieth in The Lord my King hath heard me and taken me up into the nearest degrees of close private communion with him where my Soul enjoyeth him in the most heavenly free and most familiar manner Qu. 2. But how cometh the Spouse thus soon to glory who but now was praying that the Lord would draw her and facitly complained for the want of the manifestations of his Divine Grace how soon is her tone altered she but now groaned as one that could not get up the Stairs now she glories that she was brought into the Kings Chambers To which I answer two things 1. Possibly she speaketh but in the dialect of Faith you know the Apostle calleth Faith the Evidence of things not seen It like God calls the things that are not as if they were and often forgets the future tense and speaks in the Present or Praeterperfect Tense The believing Soul while it is in the dungeon of a desertion being assured the Lord will do it can say The Lord hath brought me into his Chambers And thus those must necessarily understand it who with Piscator by the Chambers understand Heaven and Glory 2. But I rather think the words are to be understood as they lie before us She is heard while she is speaking while she prayeth Lord draw me she is drawn and is in Heaven e're she is aware of it thus the learned Mercer expounds it If you understand the words in the first sense They speak the vertue and efficacy of faith the believer by vertue of it can look upon things as done which yet are to be done why because the Soul eyeth the promise and knoweth that he who hath promised is both able and faithful If a debt be owing to you from an able and an honest man you say it is as good mony as any in your purse you count you have so much as that debt maketh addition to your estate Gods hand is an able hand and he is faithful the Soul may count upon it that it hath so much either in Grace or glory as the Lord hath promised it If you take the words in the latter sense as I shall do they inform you of the efficacy of Prayer spiritual fervent prayer it availeth much while the believer is speaking God is answering I proceed to the latter part of the Text. We will be glad and rejoice in thee and remember thy loves more than Wine we have heard the Spouses petition Draw me she prayed for Divine Grace that might both sweetly and powerfully draw her Soul after Christ We have heard her promise which I told you might be considered as an argument to enforce her Petition an argument drawn from the glory of God and the concern of it in the answer we will run after thee A prayer for the best things and to receive them for the best end to make her more holy We have heard how well pleasing her petition was she had no sooner prayed but God answereth and she recognizeth her answer My Lord the King saith she hath brought me into his Chambers now she cometh to shew the effects this quick and gracious answer had and would have upon her She mentioneth three The first as some if not too critically distinguish respecting her heart We will be glad 2. The second respecting the action of the whole man We will rejoice in thee 3. The third respecting the record of it We will remember thy loves more than Wine This now distinguished her spiritual affection from a foolish transient passion We will exalt or be glad the Radix ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is very often used in Scripture I will point you to 3 or 4 other Texts from whence you may gather the sense of it Is 65. 19. And I will rejoice in Hierusalem and joy in my People Pro. 23. 24. The Father of the Righteous shall greatly rejoice Psal 21. 5. The King shall joy in thy strength So Psal 2. 11. Psal 13. 11. My heart shall rejoice in thy Salvation Psal 16. 9. Zech. 9. 9. Forster thinks it rather signifieth the expression of the Joy of the heart by some outward gesture than the meer internal affection It doubtless signifies the highest affection of the heart upon its union with its desired object We will be glad the Radical word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifieth to rejoice and to be merry and is very often in the old Testament used to express the gladness of the heart Exod. 4. 14. The rejoicing of a Virgin in a dance Jer. 31. 13. I shall not insist upon that critical distinction which some make betwixt these words restraining the one to the inward affection the other to the more outward expression nor do I think it will hold but clearly both these are expressed by these two words whither distinctly or jointly I shall not determine and the sense is this O Lord thou hast heard my prayer thou hast granted the request of my lips thou hast brought me into thy Royal Chambers admitted me to Spiritual secret and most sweet communion with thee Our hearts shall be most highly affected with thee and our outward man most
highly expressive of our inward affections It follows We will remember thy Loves more then Wine This is the third thing she promiseth I shall be very short in the explication of this phrase more fully opening the terms when I come to handle the Proposition I shall raise from them Only this the Heb. word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã we met with it before v. 2. the Septuagint translate it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the difference is founded I conceive in the cognation of the two words signifying Loves and Breasts they differ only in the points but suppose it were thy Breasts a figure must still be acknowledged because the breasts are near the heart and that is the seat of love so that the sense still must be thy loves thy gracious influences More then Wine that is more then those things which are most pleasant and delightful to us but I opened this v. 2. It follows The upright love thee in the Hebrew it is Vprightnesses or Vpright things love thee so the Hebrew word properly signifieth The same word is used Psal 17. 2. Thy Eyes shall behold upright things The word is found in this form Psal 9. 9. He shall judge the world in righteousness and the people in uprightnesses so Prov. 1. 3. Is 33. 15. Prov. 2. 9. Psal 58. â2 Psal 75. 3. If we expound it as the letter of the Text is in the abstract the question will be whether it should be read in the Nominative case uprightnesses love thee or in the Ablative in uprightnesses they that is the Virgins love thee If in the first sense the meaning is this Whatsoever is good and right is to be found in thee all the graces love thee that is cleave and are united unto thee The fulness of grace dwelled in him and all vertues and graces were made perfect in him But although this be a truth yet I do not take it to be the sense of the Text and in my further discourses on this Song I shall have occasion once and again to discourse that subject Secondly It may be read in the Ablative case In uprightnesses they love thee that is as Buxtorf expounds it Rectissimè fortiter The Saints love thee most intirely sincerely strongly thus it will afford us this lesson That the Saints love to Christ is a most strong sincere and entire love The Virgins love Christ in uprightnesses not in word and in tongue only but in deed and in truth as St. John expoundeth it they love him with a true and perfect heart But this will fall in the handling of the Doctrine which will arise from the third sense which is more generally accepted and which I shall embrace Thirdly Therefore I agree with those who think the Abstract is here put for the Concrete uprightnesses for the most upright persons The quality for the persons indued with that excellent quality a very ordinary way of speaking in the Hebrew and indeed most languages No wonder my beloved that I should love thee for there is not an upright Soul in the world but loves thee and the more there is of uprightness in any Soul the more that Soul loves thee Uprightnesses love thee Thus now I have largely opened this excellent Text. The Propositions I shall observe from it and handle them if God please in their order are these that follow Souls must first be drawn by God before they will come to Christ or run after him and it is their duty to pray that they may be so drawn The Soul being drawn shall and will run after Christ That Gods drawing one Soul will be a means to make many run after him That God is often very quick in answering his Peoples Prayers That Jesus Christ hath Chambers into which he sometimes brings his Peoples Souls That Jesus Christ is the singular object of the Saints joy in the middest of its mâst excellent enjoyments The Gâace receiving Soul will remember his loves more than Wine The upright Soul will love the Lord Jesus Christ and the more upright a Soul is the more it will love him Sermon XâVII Canticles 1. 4. Drawme and We will run after thee I Come to handle more largely those Propositions from this second Petition of the Spouse which in my last discourse I had no more time but to name the first of which was this Prop. Souls must first be drawn by God before they can come to or run after the Lord Jesus Christ I noted to you in my explication of this Petition that there are two principal usages of this word Draw in Holy Writ it sometimes signifieth an alluring by fair carriage and persuasions 2. Sometimes a constraining by force and power both ways the Lord draweth those Souls that come to Christ or that run after him he draweth them suaviter and fortiter sweetly and yet powerfully 1. There is a drawing by Afflictions and Chastisements Afflictions are the Lords Cords If saith Job ch 36. 8 9. they be bound in Fetters and be holden in Cords of Affliction Then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions wherein they have exceeded he openeth their Ear to discipline and commandeth them that they return from iniquity Thus the Lord drew Manasses he was bound by Fetters and carried into Babylon and when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication It is added v. 13. Then Manasses knew that the Lord he was God I know that Bernard thus interpreteth this Text tho he restrains it not to that sense but I must crave leave to dissent from so great a Person not only because I find scarce any Interpreters agreeing with him but because then the thing here prayed for must be Afflictions which I do not know we are commanded to pray for and I am sure nature restraineth us in such a Petition neither are afflictions in their own tendency drawing Cords they are rather called Cords and Fetters to signify their pinching effects than that God ordinarily useth them to draw Souls by unto himself we read of one Thief upon the Cross converted at his last hour and of one Manasses converted by Festers but you have but a single instance of each in Holy Writ and let me further add Manasses his affliction was but Fetters and Imprisonment nothing that affected his head and made him unfit to do any thing but to attend the distempers of his Body nor indeed is there any drawing vertue in an affliction it rather naturally alienateth the Soul from God in my experience in the work of the Ministry I have known many good Men and Women bettered by Affliction but I never knew a bad man or woman by affliction brought home to God it is a fire that so softens the wax and hardeneth the clay and this agreeth with what we have in Scripture
us to be reconciled unto God If the Lord had only sent to us to give us warning of a wrath to come and timely notice to flee from it leaving us meerly to our own wills whether we would hear or forbear accept or refuse This had been love above the usual mercy of men who do not usually spend much time in treating and intreating those enemies whom they can easily crush and tread under foot Yet had God done no more for our Souls though in this he had shewed great love yet we through the natural stubborness and perverseness of our hearts had been undone for ever How many are in a high Road to ruine and eternal destruction whom God hath been thus intreating and beseeching many years 2. But now that the Lord should not only do this but put forth an act of power though not saving them against their wills yet making them willing to be saved and in order to it not verbally but really willing to receive Christ as tendred to them in the Gospel so as not only to be saved by him but to submit to those Laws and Rules in the observance of which they shall obtain Salvation and not only so but that God should assist the Soul in the performance of these acts not only giving it to will but to do also This certainly must transcendently commend the love and goodness of God to those Souls that have experienced such grace That God doth not so much for all speaks indeed severity to them but that he doth it for any speaks his unspeakable goodness and good will to their Souls I say that he doth not this for all speaks to them severity but yet justice and that not only in regard of that stock of sufficient grace wherewith our Pro-parent was intrusted which being lost God is under no obligation to restore but also in regard that God never denieth his special Grace until the Soul hath abused his common Grace 3. Nay lastly That the Lord should take care of our Souls after that we are once brought to Christ that he should put his fear into our hearts to keep us from departing from him and never depart from us to do us good that drawing Grace should follow us all the days of our life This certainly is the heighth of Divine Love more than this God could not have done for any Soul those for whom he hath done this must be highly beloved What now is left for such a Soul to do but to strive after perfection to live in a constant eying this All-sufficient God this Fountain of all Fulness and living in dependance upon him To live in a continual thanksgiving to and love for that God who hath dealt thus graciously with it and in a daily care not to grieve that holy Spirit by which it was first drawn to Christ and by which it is sealed to the day of Redemption and guided and kept that it doth not slip fatally O love you the Lord all ye his Saints Let drawing Grace find no renitency no resistance from any of your Souls God hath done for you more than others what will you do for God nay what can you do for that God who hath not only called but pluckt you out of the horrible Pit Take the Cup of Salvation and be for ever praising the Lord. Again we may from hence learn though not the proximate yet a true and remoter cause why the Gospel is preached to many so ineffectually Our Saviour tells us Many are called but few are chosen Isaiah cried out Who hath believed our report to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed Paul in his Preaching was to some the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death When Christ himself Preached some believed others were hardened Whence so great a difference when the Word was the same the Preachers the same both to those that believed to those who were hardened They had all reasonable Souls those Souls had all the same powers the same faculties I mean powers and faculties that had the same virtues We see the same in the experience of every day Indeed there may be some Preaching that may bear no better proportion to the instruction of the ignorant or the conviction of a sinner and turning him from his sinful courses than the Clay and Spittle had to cure the blind man's eyes from which no such effect could have flowed but by a miracle but where there is the same Scriptural spiritual lively powerful Preaching we see this effect Two sit in the same seat one's heart is changed the other 's is not one goes on in his leud courses and perisheth for ever the other is converted his heart changed whence is this difference Is it from him that willeth or him that runneth think you or from him that calleth from him that sheweth mercy because and on whom he will shew mercy We will grant that the one doth not make that use of God's common Grace which he might and therefore the Lord righteously with-holds his special Grace But could not the Lord if he pleased influence the one Soul as well as the other to make a good use of his common Grace Hath God think we no influence upon men inclining their hearts to make a due use of his common Grace When men have said what they can the conversion of every Soul is the effect of the Lord 's drawing and when the Lord doth not draw the Soul doth not cannot come or run The natural man hath many things which draw him another way and God is not pleased to put forth his power upon the Soul Indeed properly nothing but our own lusts draw us another way but our natural passions are inflamed several waies You have an instance of the principal of them in the Parable of the Marriage-Feast which the King made for his Son recorded by Luke c. 14. 18 19 20. Matth. 22. v. 5 c. A certain great man Matthew calls him a King made a great Supper Matthew calls it a Marriage for his Son he bade many saith Luke he sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the Wedding saith Matthew They would not come saith Matthew They all with one consent began saith Luke to make excuse They were invited by potent Arguments I have prepared my Dinner my Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready come you to the Marriage Matth. 22. 4. In general it is said They would not come they made light of it they made excuse What drew them another way Lu. 14. 18. The first said I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it I pray thee have me excused And another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them And another said I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come who is this King Even the King of Kings the Lord of Lords who is his Son but the Lord
Jesus Christ Of whom he said This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased What are the fatlings kill'd how are all things ready the Lord Jesus Christ hath dyed there is in his blood a sufficiency of merit The Gospel is Preached the Ministers of Christ are sent out to offer reconciliation with God union with Christ to all those to whom the Gospel is Preached a great part of them will not come they make light of the tender of Grace and Salvation what is the matter that they find any difficulty to make hast to their own happiness The three great causes are mentioned and they fall under these three heads 1. Worldly enjoyments 2. Worldly imployments 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions these have all a power upon man by reason of that lust which is in them either the lust of the Eye or the lust of the flesh or the pride of life 1. Wordly enjoyments hinder some The first said I have bought a Farm I must go and see it The young man Mat. 19. seems to have a good mind to follow Christ Christ bids him first go and sell all that he had and he should have riches in Heaven The Text saith he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions Mat 19. 22. Our Saviour upon it saith to his Disciples Verily I say unto you a rich man shalt hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle then for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Another Evangelist expounds this by one that trusteth in his riches The desire of getting riches and the over-much complacency and delight of the Soul in them together with mens valuing themselves upon them are three great drawers of the Soul from Christ The first as it over-ruleth the Soul to an evil covetousness oppression and unjust methods and measures of gain and so brings him into the herd of those that shall never come into Heaven The Second as it melteth the Soul into sensuality and hindereth those acts of Self-denial and Mortification without which a man cannot be Christs Disciple nor ever come into Heaven The 3d As it swells the Soul with pride and lifts it above religious Duties which it judgeth too mean for it suited to poor people but not to Persons of its degree and quality in the world 2. Worldly Employments hinder others Alass That Men and Women should be too busie to attend the making their calling and election sure but so it is The second said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I must go and prove them Some Men and Women are not at leasure to be saved as they are not at leasure to pray that the thoughts of their heart might be forgiven them or to hear that their Souls might live Licitis perimus As many perish by the ill uses of lawful things as by reaching their hands to absolutely forbidden fruit more die by meat then by poison Though the Drunkard cannot keep the narrow path that leads to Eternal life yet what hindereth but that a sober Person should what more lawful then to buy five yoke of Oxen and to try and use them when we have them It is the command of God that In the sweat of our Face we should eat our Bread Ah! But if the Cart draws to the Market when God calls to the Solemn Assemblies of his People the five yoke of Oxen prove of fatal consequence O cupide negotiator saith De-Ponte when a man hath so much business about his body that he hath no leasure to attend the business of his Soul he is over-busy and makes his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when his Trading is so much in the world as is inconsistent with having his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his conversation in Heaven then much business makes him mad and his time is but like Domitians spent in catching of flies instead of attending the concerns of the Roman Empire the concerns I mean of his immortal Soul I would have the active men of the world sometimes think whether they have not too much business to manage and go to Heaven too This made our holy Mr. Palmer bless God who had call'd him to the work of the Ministry which drew mens minds towards God whereas most other imployments divert the Soul from God 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions are another kind of things which potently seduce and draw off the Soul from God Another said I have married a Wise and cannot come Never yet any mist of Heaven but had some impediments or other the others prayed to be excused this guest saith I cannot come Riches draw hard so do worldly business and imployments but ah Pleasures pleasures are the bane of Souls like the silly Bee they are drowned in their own Hony Gods voice grates upon the Ears accustomed to Musick and all manner of delightful sounds A bleeding crucified Christ is a most ingrateful object to the wanton Eye that hath been used only to behold pleasant things Yet it is to be observed that he doth not say I am going to an Harlot but I have married a Wife cannot come Still Licitis perimus These are those potent Seducers which suiting with the strong natural byass inclinations of our hearts draw off from Christ Man is too weak to withstand the force of them God doth not please upon every Soul to whom the Gospel is Preached to put forth his power Hence Souls of the same species under the same means and assistances yet incline and move diversely There is there can be nothing in man that makes him in practice to differ from his Neighbour Let not therefore he who is thus drawn glory for it is God who hath drawn him Nor let any murmur on the behalf of those who are not thus drawn Grace is the Lords own he may do with it what he pleaseth Augustine saith well concerning Grace the cause why it is given to one not to another may be hidden and secret but unjust it cannot be In the mean time as I said before I believe at the great day there will be not be found so much as one Soul that shall be able to accuse God for the denial of this Grace this powerful and effectual Grace who hath not voluntarily resisted and vexed the holy Spirit of God in the use of that common Grace for the want of which he hath no reason to complain and shall not the Lord be justified in refusing to draw those who have first suffered a base lust which was in their power to have resisted to draw them away from him Shall not this powerful Grace be righteously denied to them who have suffered themselves by a revel to be drawn from a Sermon 2. Further yet we may from hence have an account of those many startings aside from God of which his own People are guilty and the inequality of gracious motions and actions Some seem to us to stand still
the worst of all upon the opinion of some conceited righteousness in our selves or some spiritual power and abilities we have or judge our selves to have the latter is Spiritual Pride nor is any thing more opposite to the truth and Grace of the Gospel the whole design of the Gospel is to exalt Christ as the Lord our righteousness and our strength and our great duty is to accept him in that notion nor indeed can he be truly received in any other notion now can it be reasonably imagined that he whose arm useth to bring Salvation when he looketh and seeth there is none to save should bring Salvation to a Soul that apprehends it hath no need at all of him he hath done enough for it in giving it a reasonable Soul and the Preaching of the Gospel These are now some of those great Evils that are consequential to this error imbibed by the Soul but you will say to me what can a Man or Woman in his or her natural state do in order to his being drawn by Divine Grace To this I answer 1. He may not oppose or set himself against the workings of this Divine Grace 2. He may do some things that may be conducive 1. In the first place do not resist the Grace of God nor set your selves in opposition to it You will say then can Grace be resisted did not you tell us it is powerful and shall be obeyed I answer I did tell you that Grace is powerful and cannot be finally resisted but it may be a long time resisted and opposed The holy Spirit is the most potent agent and must at last overcome but it may be vexed and grieved I know what some will say what if I do resist if I do oppose it if God hath determined me to lise and to Grace as the means it shall at last overcome I answer that is true but yet it is no vain counsel to give any to advise them to take heed of such resistings and vexings of the Spirit of God as it is capable of and that upon a threefold account 1. Because he who thus resisteth the Holy Spirit justifieth God in his condemnation and not putting forth such a power of Grace as shall be effectual of its Salvation those who plead so highly for a power in man to what is Spiritually good lay a great stress upon their fancy that if we do not allow this we make the destruction of a Sinner to be from God not from himself but they do not consider two things 1. That whatsoever destruction we derive from Adam is from our selves for in Adam all died saith the Apostle God is neither bound to restore unto us the Grace he once gave us and we lost nor yet unjust in requiring of us the exercise of that power which we once had of his gift and have lost through our own default for the default of our first Parent in whom we all sinned and dyed was our own 2. That the resistance of the holy Spirit in its more common Grace and operations is a sufficient clearing of God in the condemnation of Sinners though he doth not give out his effectual Grace he hath said that to him that hath shall be given The sense of which tho Mat. 13. and in the parallel Text it may be to him that hath any thing of special distinguishing grace shall be more given of the same nature and kind yet is plainly Mat. 25. 29. where it is used in the exposition of the parable of the Talents To him that improveth what he hath and may very well be interpreted into a promise of further Grace to him that makes a good improvement of common Grace The justice of Gods judgment upon those of Hierusalem was from this manifested to the world That Christ would oft-times have gathered them as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but they would not If a man must be ruined yet surely he should not ruine himself 2. Secondly Tho if thou beest one ordained to life the Grace of God towards thee shall not be finally resisted yet thy resistances and opposition may make the new birth much harder and more full of pain to thee It is a most certain truth that the foundation of God standeth sure the Lord knoweth who are his and not one of those whom the Father hath by his Eternal gift given to Christ shall be lost they may for a time oppose and resist the motions and knocking 's of his Spirit but it shall at last overcome them but the Soul in its coming unto Christ usually meets with the Spirit of bondage making it to fear before it receiveth the Spirit of adoption teaching it to cry Abba Father Now thy opposition and resistances to the Spirit of Grace may keep thee much longer under the Spirit of bondage and for this I appeal to the experiences of all those who have been brought home to Christ whether they have not found the oppositions and resistances which they have made to the knocks and motions of the Holy Spirit have not lain heavy upon them before they have been able to discern a gracious acceptation whether when their faith in Christ hath got above their other sins the follies and vanities of their youth they have not found it stick here They could hope in Christ and in the free and infinite Grace of God through him were it not that they remember how often they refused the tenders of Grace and put off the holy Spirit knocking at the door of their hearts Now what knowest thou O Christian but that thou art an elect vessel one ordained to eternal life and salvation if so thou shalt certainly be brought home to Christ and be saved notwithstanding thy present resistance and opposition but it may be as through fire why shouldest thou make thy new birth more painful and difficult 3. Thirdly When thy Soul is brought home to God if ever thou seest that happy hour it will while thou livest he a grief of heart unto thee to think how long thou didst oppose and resist the Grace of God bringing Salvation in the tenders of it to thy Soul The People of God have their sad and dark hours as well as their hours of light and comfort they will tell you from their own experience that when they reflect a sad Eye upon their former ways they find nothing lying more sad and heavy upon their Souls than their so long resisting and opposing the Grace of God before they submitted to it to all their sins they have added this great iniquity that when the Lord said to them yet Believe and you shall be saved they to go on in their sinful courses put off the Spirit of God from day to day and sent him sad away from their Souls and why should Christians make themselves matter of trouble and sorrow hereafter how graciously soever God will deal with their Souls O therefore let all that wish well to their own Souls be
present time is to be understood So God having made promises to his people which shall most certainly in their Season be fulfilled and having not expressed the particular time when God will fulfill them to this or that particular Soul The Soul is warranted at all times to ask them of God for we may certainly pray for any thing which is not contrary to Gods revealed will 2. But secondly We knowing that God in his secret purpose hath determined not only the beings but the circumstances of all things cannot infallibly expect present answers of our prayers by giving us the very things which we ask of God Suppose now a Christian under the power of some strong and impetuous temptation whether from his flesh or from his grand adversary he may pray for deliverance from it because God hath promised an happy issue of temptations he may pray in faith Eying Gods power his goodness his truth and faithfulness and being fully persuaded that God will deliver him nay he may pray for a speedy issue and deliverance with submission to the will and wisdom of God you have it in the case of Paul 2 Cor. 12. 9. When the Lord had given him a thorn in his flesh to buffet him what that thorn in the flesh was whether some impetuous motion to sin from within or without we know not be it what it will it was a great burthen a great affliction Paul prays to be delivered and prayeth thrice and no doubt prayed in faith but his desires met not with Gods set time his answer was My grace shall be sufficient for thee Suppose a Soul walking in the dark and seeing no light it prayeth with David when wilt thou comfort me possibly God is not pleased yet to visit it with his consolation yet its prayer is warranted from the promise God hath promised us the manifestations of the Spirit Joh. 14. 21. It prayeth in faith believing that God is able to do it believing that he is full of goodness a rewarder of them that seek him believing that it shall receive even that particular mercy from God in Gods time but it cannot pray in faith believing that it shall presently be comforted Because as to this ãâ¦ã hath no bottom no promise to lay hold upon but yet even as to this it may pray in faith having confidence in God that if it be truly good for it it shall be presently answered Thirdly When a Soul findeth that Gods ends in the affliction are obtained and that it is in such a frame as God hath required a people or a soul to be to whom such promises are made it may then conclude that Gods time his set time is come Here are now two rules to guide an inquisitive Christian in the knowledge of Gods set time for the collation of any mercy which he hath promised whether more publick and national or more private or personal 1. When Gods ends in afflicting are obtained and satisfied We say that God and nature do nothing in vain indeed every rational agent propounds to himself an end of all his or her actions Brute Creatures and such as are not indued with reason move and act for some end or other but their end is set them by another But rational agents propound an end to themselves and their ends being obtained their action ceaseth God is the highest rational agent and propoundeth to himself an end in all his actions and his end is alwaies good his supreme end is his own glory that is the best end and he cannot act for one more ignoble but his mediate ends that is by which he proposeth to get himself glory they are several you shall see much of them expressed in that one text Hosea 5. 15. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offences and seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early There are also other texts of Scripture which let us know Gods ends in the affliction of his people such as those Jer. 9. 7. I will melt them and try them for how shall I do for the Daughter of my people Zech. 13 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire I will refine them as Silver is refined and will try them as Gold is tryed they shall call on my name and I will hear them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God From these Scriptures now appear three great ends the obtaining of which he aimeth at that thereby he might be glorified 1. The first is a bringing them to the acknowledgment of their transgressions and an humbling of them in the apprehension ef them God by punishing us whether in our flesh or with more internal troubles in our minds brings our iniquities to our remembrance saies to us in every affliction Know therefore see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast done in that thou hast departed from the living God that his fear hath not been within thee and this is one thing which he aimeth at to bring his people to be vile low in their own Eyes when this is done Gods end is ordinarily fulfilled Hence you shall observe that before Gods promise of a gracious return to his People Jer. 3. 14 15. there is put in v. 13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God so that if our affliction hath brought us to this acknowledgment of our iniquities and a lying low before God it may give us encouragement to hope that Gods time his set time is come for though he hath not particularly told us the day and hour when he will return unto his people either in a way of special providence or in a way of special grace yet he having annexed the promise of his gracious returns to his peoples acknowledgment of their offences and humbling themselves he hath effectually told them that when that is done is the time when they may expect to seek his face with a speedy success and gracious issues 2. A second end which God aimeth at in the afflictions of his people whether by with holding some desired mercies from them or making them to feel some sensible smart is the exciting of his Peoples Grace This is plainly expressed in the before-mentioned text Hos 5. 15. I will return saith God unto my place till they ackuowledge their offences and seek my face There are two gracious exercises which the Lord by affliction extiteth 1. The first is the grace of prayer This is most properly signified by the term seek my sace though I know it is a phrase more comprehensive yet that is most ordinarily expressed by it this is not only expressed in that text but in many others Is any man afflicted saith James let him pray so Psal 50. 12. Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Hence it is an excellent sign
hurt God denieth it because he would do us good and not hurt In this case if the Lord giveth us an heart content to be without the thing we ask he abundantly answereth our prayers and giveth us the general and true desire of our Souls God sometimes answereth our prayers by giving us idem the same thing which we ask but this he never doth but where he seeth it is for our good and that under our present circumstances sometimes he answereth us by giving us tantundem the value of the mercy though not the particular thing which we ask of God thus he answered Paul as to the thorn in his flesh and this is a real answer and with this every Child of God ought to be fully satisfied and contented But this is enough to have said to this point how Christians may know whether Gods time his set time to favour his Church or the Souls of his people is come a point of great concern in order to the satisfaction of Christians why they have not a present answer to their prayers to abate their dissatisfaction as to the inequal motions of Divine Providence in this answer of prayers 3. Lastly Something is necessary with reference to the manner of our prayers if we would so pray as to receive a present answer So two things are necessary 1. That we pray Believingly 2. Fervently 1. Believingly I opened this before under the first head and therefore shall say nothing to it here 2. Fervently That is that which alone I shall here speak to This is much mistaken if it be thought to lie in the vehemency of our tone and expression it lyeth much deeper in the intension of the mind and the Souls secret affection to and in the duty James tells us ch 5. v. 16. The effectual servent prayer of the righteous availeth much The word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which properly signifieth operative and working and so working as it produceth the effect The Prophet speaking of God Isaiah 41. 4. useth this expression who hath wrought and done it the Septuagint translate the Hebrew word there by this word the Apostle useth it to express such a working as that by which God bringeth about his decrees Eph. 1. 11. Who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will and again he useth it to express the working of the Devil in wicked men whom he calleth Children of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. In the primitive times those who were acted by the Devil were called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because of the great power and force which the evil Spirit put forth upon and shewed in those miserable creatures that were possessed Piscator upon the Text Jam. 5. 16. translates it Ardens the burning flaming prayer Beza translateth it Efficax the efficacious prayer ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doubtless signifies that prayer which setteth the whole Soul on work There is a cold dead lazy prayer where the tongue only is set on work or only the tongue and the head or the fancy the one to invent and compose matter the other to utter it but neither of these is that fervent prayer which St. James speaketh of but that prayer which setteth the whole Soul in motion towards God where not only the fancy and imagination and understanding are imployed to invent and suggest matter the will to will it but the affections which indeed in a reasonable creature are but the motions of the will towards its object with the utmost intension to desire it to exercise an hope in God for it c. this is the fervent working prayer mentioned by St. James this prayer doth much with God Jacobs prayer was such a prayer Moses saith he wrestled with God until the morning he said unto God I will not let thee go until thou blessest me the Prophet expounds it Hosea 12. 4. He wept and made supplications unto him by this prayer he had power over the Angel and prevailed as it is there in the words immediately preceding yea and he had a present answer God blessed him before he parted with him as you read in his History Such a prayer was Daniels to which he received also a present answer Dan. 9. v. 3. I saith he set my face to the Lord God to seek by Prayer and Supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes such was Elijahs prayer 1 Kings 18. 42. The text saith He put his face betwixt his knees a posture signifying the great intension of his mind and spirit It is a praying with strong cries and groans which cannot be uttered which is the Apostles phrase Rom. 8. 26. This praying comes up to the first and great commandment Yhou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul and all thy strength This is like the drawing the arrow to the head which sendeth it with more force to the mark nor indeed is there a better sign of a sudden answer than when the Lord hath thus prepared the heart A man seldom finds his Soul more then ordinarily fervent and importunate with God for a mercy but when the Lord hath determined suddenly to give it in to him Thus now I have shewed you in what cases God ordinarily gives in speedy answers to his peoples prayer But God doth not do this alwaies David himself complaineth Psal 22. 2. O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent The Church crieth out Psal 80. 4. O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry with the prayers of thy people And again he shutteth out my prayer Lam. 3. 8. What should be the reason of these inequal dispensations from the hand of the same God and gracious Father I answer 1 Why may not God do it that we may not track him in his ways He will be known to be a free agent He will sometimes give present answer that his people may be confirmed in their faith that God is a God hearing prayer The God that never said to the seed of Jacob seek my face in vain he will not alwaies give a present answer that we may not ascribe too much unto prayer nor will he alwaies delay that we may not ascribe too little to it If God should alwaies give a present answer we should ascribe too much to prayer and make an idol of a duty That the Lord might secure his own glory and be owned as the God of our mercies the object of our faith and dependence the free fountain of all our good things God is pleased sometimes sooner sometimes later to give in answer to his peoples prayer 2. But there may be reason enough for it fetched from the prayers themselves One prayer may be made more in faith than another more fervent than another more fitted to Gods set time for the bestowing of a mercy than another it is true nothing of these can render the prayer more meritorious our prayers take them at the best are too
poor things to be the price of the least mercies when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants but where one prayer is more conformable to the will of God than another it may move God further and may obtain a more speedy answer from Gods hand 3. Finally there may be some reason given on the account of the parties praying Some of Gods people may be greater favourites with God then others God loves all his Saints with an equal elective and redeeming love but there may be differences as to the manifestations of his love Samuel and Moses Noah Daniel and Job are mentioned by the Prophets as Persons that had a mighty power with God above others God therefore in the expression of his anger against Israel saith if they stood before him they should only save their own Souls God sent Abimelech to Abraham and Jobs Friends to Job to pray for them assuring them that those he would accept God had a David whom he calls the man according to Gods own heart and Christ had a John who was called the beloved Disciple all the Disciples were beloved but he was loved with a more special signal love this the Disciples knew and therefore when he had told them that one of them should betray him Simon Peter beckned to John that he should ask him of whom he spake Now it is no wonder if the prayer of him who is highly beloved in some singular degree of favour with God should receive a quicker answer then anothers this is but after the manner of men 2. The state of Gods people may be such as will admit of no delay If the Lord doth not come in with some present help they must be lost and undone their Spirits must fail and the Souls which he hath made now in such cases as these it is no wonder if the Lord gratifies his people with quicker answers and returns to their prayers but who is he that can pretend to give a reason of Gods differing dispensations of his grace all that we can do in this case is but to shew you that the ways of the Lord are reasonable though the reason of them be a depth past our finding out We should not sufficiently adore and admire God if we did perfectly understand him but I shall add no more doctrinally to this discourse much of which though it may look like something of a digression yet I hope it will not be altogether unprofitable This notion wonderfully commendeth the love of God to the Sons and Daughters of Men. There is not any one name of God that more commendeth the love of God to us or which we have more reason to glory in than that he is a God that heareth prayers It is true God needeth not our tongues to tell him what we have need of he knoweth what things we need before we ask him nor do our prayers merit any favour It is the goodness the free goodness of God that relieveth us in any streight in any distress but you know it is very natural to us when we are in any misery in any distress or streight to cry for help and a wonderful relief to our thoughts to know that our sighs and cries and groans are not lost in the air Oh! 't is a sad and uncomfortable thing to cry and to have none to help none to deliver What a comfortable thing it is to cry in hope nay in confidence for we have this confidence saith the Apostle that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Now that the great and mighty God who needeth not our supplications should lend an ear to them and give us an assurance of his hearing and answering them what a mighty thing is this to set up God high in our thoughts for the Majesty of Heaven to stoop to the worms of the Earth when they but turn up their heads to him What a condescension is this what an humbling of the Divine Majesty what a relief to poor creatures infirmities to know that not a sigh not a groan not a prayer shall be lost But this is yet something beyond this That the Lord should oft-times give a present answer and prevent our impatience by an answer so swift as gives our Eyes no leave to fail through a frustrated expectation this is yet a great deal more In receiving our petitions and promising us an answer God shews himself a gracious King though we wait some time for an answer but in his present answers he shews himself a gracious Father that is not patient that his Child should be one hour in distress and misery Nor is the love of our Heavenly Father alone commended in this particular but the love of Jesus Christ also is remarkably commended for it is through him that we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh and he is the High Priest over the House of God O let every quick return of prayers which God makes to our Souls bring us more in love with Christ more into the admiration of his love and raise up our hearts more in thankfulness for the death resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ Secondly How should this incourage us to prayer and to such a performance of that duty as we may have a quick return and answer Prayer is not so slighty a duty as the most of people do make it it ought not to be made such a formal performance It is one of our great priviledges to have an access a freedom of access to the Throne of Grace to ask of God such things as we stand in need of it is that which bringeth down the Protection and influences of common providence and the influences of his special grace it openeth and shutteth up Heaven By prayer Elijah brought down rain and fire from Heaven Samuels Prayer brought thunder and lightning Hezekiahs prayer brought down an Angel that destroyed the Host of Sennacherib it obtained a blessing for Jacob and turned his name into the name of Israel because as a Prince he had power and prevailed with God nay it often brings down the mercy we want in a very short time while the Child of God is speaking God answereth here am I. This should make us value the duty of prayer and not to think it a mere thing of course and turn it into a formality And what you have heard concerning the nature of that prayer which is of such power and prevalency with God should also mind you to take heed how you pray Prayer doth not lie in a meer uttering or repeating of words expressive of our minds unto God men may call this prayer but they will find it a bodily labour of a little efficacy and avail with God it is true you will hardly find any thing called Prayer in Scripture where words were not
used it seemeth to be something more then the secret desire of the Soul the desires of our Souls expressed by the words of our lips is what is generally called prayer in holy writs but words without inward affections words not thrust out from the force of our internal desires and affections are the least thing in prayer which lieth not in the pouring forth of words but in the pourings out of our Souls before God Labour Christians to understand the nature of prayer both as to the matter you should pray for and as to the right manner of the performance of it you all know what you would have what you have need of what is truly good for you under your present circumstances this you know not some things are absolutely good universally necessary such things as all Souls at all times have need of such are pardon of sins sanctification further grace to honour and glorify God in your circumstances and relations an heart to honour and glorify God in whatsoever state and condition you are these and such like things you may beg importunately and absolutely and that at all times But there are other things which are not so absolutely and universally good but are good or evil as they are well used or abused These must be asked of God with a submission to his will and a reference to his wisdom It is of mighty concern for a Christian rightly to understand the matter of prayer what he may or may not ask of God what he may ask absolutely what but conditionally and with limitation an ignorance of this may make Christians too bold too importunate with God in asking some things and to sin by impatience and murmuring because they do not receive presently what they ask when as the reason is because they ask amiss James tells those to whom he wrote Jam. 4. 3. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss he instanceth but in one way wherein they asked amiss that you might consume it upon your lusts That indeed is one way by which men may miscarry in prayer not directing their prayer to the honour and glory of God but meerly to a self-satisfaction and indeed taking the words in that sense as spending upon their lusts signifies a gratifying our selves and giving our selves a pleasure and satisfaction so all asking amiss will fall under it and such asking amiss is the cause of all our not receiving no man can ask any thing for the honour and glory of God who doth not ask according to the will of God God is glorified by the fulfilling of his will and whosoever prays and the sum of his prayer is not let the Lord be glorified let the will of the Lord be done doth but ask that he may consume upon his lust and give himself a satisfaction now all this is asking amiss which is the cause of our not receiving It is therefore I say of a very great concernment for a Christian to know what he may pray for what he may pray for absolutely and peremptorily what but limitedly and conditionally with submission to the Divine will and with a reference to the Divine wisdom how else is it possible that he should pray in faith or how else will he be able to command his Spirit into a due silence and patience if he doth not presently receive what he asketh of God Nay the servency of a Soul in prayer doth much depend upon this knowledge no prayer can be fervent but the prayer of faith No prayer receiveth a present answer but the prayer of faith Study therefore Christian the due matter and manner of prayer There may be many prayers put up and yet God not hear Isa 1. 15. Though saith God you spread forth your hands I will hide my Eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear the reason there assigned is because their hands were full of blood which amounts to that of David If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my Prayer and to that of Solomon The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight He that lifteth up hands unto God must lift up pure hands But a man may lift up pure hands yet not be heard David complaineth that he did so Psal 22. therefore the Apostle adds 1 Tim. 2. 8. Holy hands without wrath or doubting for saith James ch 1. v. 7. Let not him that wavereth think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Now it is impossible that a man should pray without doubting for any thing of which he is not fully persuaded that it is the will of God that he should receive it this therefore is of very great concern that a Soul should know that he asks according to the will of God and that must be when he knows that God hath somewhere in Scripture promised it Be not therefore only much in prayer but see that you do not ask amiss that you ask so that you may receive yea that while you are speaking God may give you a gracious answer Thirdly This Doctrine calls to you for an holy and close walking with God A loose liver may receive some good things from God as he is a God of compassion full of pity and tender compassion that hears even the young Ravens when they cry unto him for their food thus did Ahab thus did the King of Nineveth and this was a ground for Simon Magus to pray though he was in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity but he can receive nothing from God as he is a God of truth and faithfulness there is not in all the Book of God one promise made to a wicked mans prayer God hath said though they make many prayers he will not hear them Isaiah 1. 15. he hath said They shall call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Prov. 1. 28. For Hypocrites he hath said Job 27. 9. Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him but a close walking with God is not only commendable to us upon this account that our prayers may not be wholly shut out from God that we may not only in our distresses go to God as a fountain of mercy and goodness as a God of pity and tender compassion but as unto a God of truth and faithfulness with an hope and a confidence in him and an expectation upon him and with an holy boldness but also that we may have a present answer we are naturally hasty as to the supply of our wants and the satisfaction of our desires hence we say Bis dat qui cito dat and count that kindness double which is done for us quickly Now they are the favourites of Heaven that gain the quickest answers from God There 's nothing makes one Soul more the favourite of God then another but a more ardent love for God and a
more strict and close walking with God Let this ingage us to perfect holivess in the fear of the Lord. Study therefore the closest degrees of fellowship and communion with God the strictest course of an holy conversation There is a great deal of difference even in good mens communion with God some are more upon the mountwith God then others are more in holy meditation and contemplation more in secret duties more in prayer more in watchfulness more warm and zealous for God David had many worthies but he had a first three to which the others did not come up though they did worthily God hath many Souls that he loveth that are dear and precious in his Eyes but he hath also his first threes some that excel and out-run others these are they that have most of Gods Ear for tho the first grace be not given because men keep his Commandments yet further grace the manifestations and signal tokens of Divine love are given out according to the promise Jo. 14. 21. as men love and keep the Commandments of God you therefore that would excel in the favour of God that would have Gods ear fully and presently open to your supplications study to excel in holiness Doth a poor Courtier in the Courts of Earthly Princes bless himself in having the Ear of his Prince that if he hath a Petition to put up unto his Prince he can go immediately into his presence and have his Petition presently signed whereas the Petitions of others are rejected or at least deferred so as he is constrained to wait months or years And is this no priviledge no happiness at all that a poor Soul can immediately go unto the Lord of Heaven and Earth to him who is the Fountain of all grace and goodness and if he wants any thing freely present his Petition to him and have it signed presently not let the Lord go until he hath blessed him when as a wicked man tho he maketh many prayers yet is not heard yea those that may have some interest in God yet walking more loosely and more imperfectly may cry a long time and yet not be answered if we had nothing more then this to commend to us holiness in all manner of conversation and the strictest degrees of walking with God yet this certainly should be enough I shall add but one word more in application of this discourse I put into the Proposition the term sometimes God doth not alwaies but sometimes give in a quick answer to his peoples prayers Let not the people of God therefore think it strange if they have not presently an answer to their prayers God is not alwaies alike quick in his returns to the prayers of his people He always heareth them he will be certain to answer them but he is not alwaies equally quick in the answer of them This is many times the trouble of Souls that belong to God it was Davids trouble expressed Psal 22. 2 3. It was Asaphs trouble though God did at last hear him as you read v. 1. yet he had first spake as in v. 7. 8 9. Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever Doth his promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies yet because the not hearing of prayers is threatned as a judgment and punishment upon wicked men and mentioned in holy writ as the reward of mens regarding iniquity in their hearts This often causeth a great deal of trouble in the Spirits of Gods People Let me therefore shut up this discourse in advising alittle what that man or woman should do that lieth at least under some apprehensions that God doth not hear or hath not heard their prayers they cry in the day time and are not silent in the night season yet God heareth not 1. In the first place Let such a Christian examine whether it be not his own mistake Thou thinkest God hath not heard nor answered thy prayers art thou not in a mistake All answers of prayers are not discernable to our sense It may be God hath answered thee by denying thee the particular thing that thou askedst of him thus he answered Paul by denying him as to the thing he asked which was the taking the thorn out of his flesh He better knoweth what we have need of then we our selves know it the general desire of thy Soul was for some good thou didst therefore desire health riches c. because thou didst apprehend them suitable and convenient and so good for thee God who knoweth thy Soul the frame and temper of it he seeth that these things would be for thy hurt he therefore with-holdeth them and so in not answering answereth thee in not answering thy particular request he doth answer the general desire of thy Soul and only correcteth thy ignorance in thy request 2. You have heard that God sometimes answereth by giving though not the thing yet the value of the thing which thou askest i. e. that which is every way as sutable and convenient and as profitable for thee as that which thou didst desire Hath not God according to thy prayer removed thy affliction yet hath he supported thee under it hath he filled thee with inward consolations hath he told thee as he did Paul that his grace should be sufficient for thee Dost thou call this no answer God answers the prayer of that Soul to whom he giveth the full value of the thing it asketh though he doth not give the thing itself 2. If thou canst not find that God hath answered thee neither in kind nor in value Review thy prayer and see if thou canst not find some failure in that for which God with-holds his answer I suppose thee a person reconciled to God through the blood of Christ other Souls either pray not at all or if at all they make a meer formality of the duty and put up prayers as Children shoot arrows never regarding whither they flie or what becometh of them but even in a good mans prayer there may be such failures as may give God a just cause to with-hold an answer without any breach of Gods truth or faithfulness thou mayest not have prayed in faith but too much doubting thou mayest have prayed for something which thy wise Father saw was not good for thee or at least not good for thee under some present circumstances under which thou art if thou findest any thing of this nature thy work is to correct thy prayers if thou wouldst receive an answer 3. If thou dost not find this if thou canst not charge thy want of an answer upon some defect or failure in thy prayers nor yet find that God hath answered thee either giving thee the thing which thou didst ask of him or the value of it in a quiet and contented frame of Spirit in the want of it or in the supportations or consolations of
dependeth upon the will of God He sheweth mercy where he will shew mercy Thus God is said to be present where he sheweth mercy and kindness and to be absent where he with-holdeth his acts of kindness Thus the Saints in Heaven are said to be ever with the Lord in Heaven because they shall be ever under the fullest manifestations of his glory and goodness and the damned are said to depart from God because they are never like more to see him or feel him in any manifestations of his mercy and goodness the shewing of mercy and goodness is so natural to God so much his proper work and delight that he is said to be wholly absent from them to whom he will never more shew kindness and mercy So as to this life God is said to be present with a people when he sheweth them goodness and mercy to be departed and to be absent from them when he with-holdeth from them such dispensations as they have formerly enjoyed and are suited and proper to their wants or desires Now these mercies or good things being such as are suited to the necessities of our bodies here in this life or of our Souls the first of which we usually call the good things of common providence The latter the good things of special grace God is said to be present with or absent from his people with respect to the one or to the other with respect to the good things of common providence God is present with a people when he goeth forth with their Armies gives them peace and plenty success in business prosperity in their tradings and commerce and on the other side he is said to be absent from them and to be departed from them when he goeth not forth with their Armies but makes them to fall before their enemies when he sends amongst them famine and pestilence c. Thus as to particular persons as God is said to be present with persons when he upholdeth their Souls in life their bodies in health when he blesseth them in their businesses and relations and maketh the works of their hands to prosper so he is said to have forsaken them and to be departed from them when he leaves them to sicknesses blasts them in their Estates c. thus Gods presence and being with his people his absence forsaking of and departing from a people or person are often taken in holy writ Thus God may be present with the very worst of men thus he may be absent and depart from the very best of his people But then there is a presence of God with men and women with respect to the good things of special grace Now these things again are such as are either absolutely necessary to salvation Or 2. Such influences as though they be not absolutely necessary to the salvation of the Soul yet do highly accommodate the Soul in its way to Heaven Of the first sort are the graces of justification and of Regeneration Sanctification without these the Soul can never enter into the Kingdom as to these therefore God is always present with never absent from the Souls of any whom he hath chosen and called out of darkness into light in that sense the promise doth and ever shall hold true He will never leave his people nor forsakethem But now there are other influences of grace exceeding pleasant of high advantage accomodation to the Soul in its way to Heaven such are further degrees of strength and ability further freedom lâfe and activity and chearfulneâs in the service of God pâace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost these are not absolutely necessary unto eternal life and salvation nor to the upholding of spiritual life in the Soul the want of them is only afflictive to the Soul and incumbers it in its spiritual life without a total destruction of it as to these God giveth more or less to the Souls of his people and to the same Souls more or less at one time then at another and so is said to be present or absent from them according to the greater or lesser degrees of these influences which he vouchsafeth unto them and those Souls may be said to be brought into the Lords Chambers to whom he vouchsafeth greater degrees of these gracious influences and those Souls may be said to be under desertions forsaken of God to whom the Lord denieth such degrees of these influences as either themselves have before enjoyed or others do enjoy As to these God is very various in his dispensations they being such dispensations as God upon the covenant of grace is left at liberty to dispense out to the Souls of his people or to with-hold from them according to his own good pleasure and wisdom and which accordingly he doth dispense out in pursute of the design of his own glory and as according to his infinite knowledge and wisdom he seeth will be most for the good of his people when God dispenseth out more of these he is said to be more present with the Souls of his people when he more with-holdeth them he is said to be absent not that at any time he is wholly absent from the Souls of his people as to his gracious presence for without that they were able to do nothing the seed of God abiding in the Soul must be upheld in its life and cherished by the influence of the Sun of righteousness upon the Soul but as God though he be alwaies present in the world by his essential presence yet doth not alwaies shew forth his power in upholding and preserving this or that part of it no not the same parts of it which is the reason of that sickness and mortality with which some parts of it are affected more than others and the same parts of it are affected at some times more than others So as to spiritual influences though he alwaies vouchsafeth such a presence of his gracious influences as shall keep up spiritual life in the Soul yet for further gradual influences the want of which is yet consistent with spiritual life in the Soul the Lord granteth or with holdeth them according to his own will guided by his infinite wisdom with respect to the great ends of his own glory and his peoples good And the Lords withdrawings of this nature are the cause of all the Souls sickness and spiritual distempers upon this are the grievous complaints of the people of God of the strength of their corruptions the violence of temptations their deadness and inactivity to in the operations of the spiritual llfe their heaviness sadness and want of comfort When the Lord granteth out to any of the Souls of his people more of these influences then he may be said to bring them into his Chambers when they find more internal strength to the performance of their duties that their meditation of God is more sweet to them they can believe with less doubting pray with more faith more fervour less distraction
treated in Gods Chambers 2. But Secondly There being no merit in any thing we do or suffer at Gods command why should we think God obliged thus to reward the highest degrees of faith or holiness What if God will hear one believers prayers sooner then anothers what if he will give one such Soul more peace then another who shall say unto him what doest thou or why am I thus and others are otherwise we certainly ought to allow the freest and most sovereign agent what priviledge we every one claim for our selves with reference to our Children Servants Friends whiles every of us receives more then we deserve what reason have we to repine because others have more then we 4. I beseech you consider whether this fruit floweth not from a root of Pride Why should my Eye be evil because anothers is good Why should I repine because God is kinder as I think to another Soul then to me if I did not secretly think that I had deserved as much and as well as those if not better The humble Soul looks upon itself as meriting nothing and therefore prizeth every influence of Divine love The Dogs eat the crums said the poor Woman I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof saith the Centurion therefore speak the word only Now if this be thy root of thy complaint be assured there is not a more bitter one in all the wilderness of nature There is no Soul at further distance from obtaining at the hand of God then that Soul that challengeth God as a debtor to his Creature if thy Soul saith as Haman to whom should the King more delight to honour then me thou art like enough to meet with as great disappointment as he did God sets himself to pull down the Soul that exalts itself above measure God will keep Souls swell'd with this tumor with Thorns in their flesh for their buffetings it is enough if they find his grace sufficient for them 5. If it doth not argue this yet it speaketh a discontent at and dissatisfaction with Gods methods in the conduct and government of thy Soul in order to that end to which he hath appointed thee This frame of spirit is sinful enough it is indeed a branch that groweth out of the root of pride Gods general promise is that he will with-hold no good thing from them that live uprightly and that all things shall work together for the good of them that love God but we must leave the judgment of good to the wisdom of God who knoweth what is good for us while we repine at Gods dispensations we either shew our distrust and unbelief in these promises or assume the judgment of good to our selves paramount to the judgment of God No sin more provokes God then this of murmuring and repining It was the great sin of the Israelites which at last provoked God to swear in his wrath they should never enter into his rest Let us therefore learn thankfully to acknowledge what grace we have received and with silence and patience to wait for what further manifestations of it we desire and judge our Souls to stand in need of 2. Hath the King of glory whom we serve Chambers wherein he treateth the Souls of his Subjects not only Mansions but Chambers further degrees of gracious influxes manifestations Let us then learn from hence That no man serves God in any degrees of service for nothing some indeed shall have greater degrees of reward then others none shall serve him for nothing there is a reward for every righteous Soul He that serveth God in truth and sincerity though with a great deal of weakness and imperfection though he comes into his Service at the last hour yet he shall have his penny he shall have Heaven and Glory If any will come in to Gods Service in the morning and work in the heat of the day and labour for God more abundantly he shall not lose his reward nay he shall be rewarded according to his work as there are degrees of active working Grace so there are degrees of manifestative love and this by the way 1. It is a great encouragement to those that are young to turn into the ways of the Lord betimes Josiah and Timothy and Enoch were all of them such as began early to walk with God Of Josiah it is said Chron. 2. 34. That when he was but eight years old he began to seek after the God of David his Father what special favour he had from God his story will tell you he was early taken into the Chambers of glory and while he was upon the Earth God treated him in his Chambers he would not in his days bring the intended evil upon Judah Enoch walked with God the Text saith he was not for God took him Timothy was a great Favourite used as a great instrument for God and doubtless these three and so those others who have early given up themselves to God and continued to the end will hereafter be found in some degrees of glory above others 2. It is a great incouragement to men and women to put out themselves mightily for God to love the Lord according to the tenour of the first and great Commandment with all their Soul and all their strength all their might God hath degrees of love to reward degrees of holiness service though possibly there may be some rare instances wherein the wisdom of God as unsearchable is to be adored and not to be found out and we may see some who appear to us more exemplary in holiness then others yet clouded under darker dispensations walking in the dark and seeing no light yet ordinarily it is otherwise those who walk most in the light of holiness have more of the light of Gods countenance enjoy most peace and have most manifestations of Gods special love and this now lets us see what a difference there is betwixt the service of God and the service of the Devil or the service of the world many a one serves the world and gets little and those that make themselves least drudges to it get most of it he that serves the Devil in serving corruption the more he toils in that service the more torment he hath But the more a man serves God the more peace the more inward rest and sweetness he hath 3. This discourse may give some relief to such Christians whose hearts are right with God but yet their attainments are not proportionable to others The King hath not brought them into his Chambers indeed the fault of this may be in our selves and where it is so we have reason to blame our selves and to sit down in silence and endeavour for the time to come to mend our pace in the ways of holiness there are Stairs by which Christians usually ascend into these Chambers come up I mean into this near degree of communion with God if we will not do what in us lies to
climb up those steps which God hath made for us by which we may ascend into these Chambers we must blame our selves if we abide below But this is not alwaies the cause in some cases we must have recourse to Gods prerogative and must rest in this Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee Some Souls are dignified with a special communion and familiarity with God so was Abraham Moses David yet possibly if we look into the records we have of their lives we shall find more blots in some of them then in some others who we do not read were taken up into such eminent degrees of favour We cannot give just reasons and accounts of all Gods acts of Grace it is enough that God wills them In the mean time if we find but a good hope through grace an heart changed and cleaving to God if we can say with Peter Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that we love thee though we cannot boast of such special providences as others nor of such visions of peace nor of so quick an hearing of our prayers tho we dare not pretend to be such favourites of Heaven yet let us not be discouraged possibly as to us the Lords time is not yet come possibly it never will come God is a great Soveraign and unquestionably free as to these things he knows what is best for us he will deny no good thing to us We may say of the whole Family of God as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons 1 Kings 10. 8. Happy are thy Men happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and heaá¹ thy wisdom There are some of Gods Servants that as to these enjoyments are more happy then others but there are none but are happy none but have reason for ever to admire the difference which God hath made betwixt them and others to admire what God hath done for their Souls bringing them out of the horrible Pit if they have not if they cannot see reason to rejoice in such a prospect of Heaven as othershave yet they have reason to rejoice in an equal deliverance from Hell I will shut up this discourse with two words of exhortation 1. The first directed to those who can say with the Spouse The King hath brought us into his Chambers 2. The second to those who walk with God but have not yet arrived at this Are there any who can speak the language of the Spouse and glory in this not only that they are brought home to Christ but that the King hath brought them into his Chambers the Lord hath dignified them with some special favours and manifested himself more to them then unto others the following words of this Text will let them know what is their duty I will saith the Spouse be glad and rejoice in thee and remember thy loves more then Wine 1. Be glad and rejoice in God we are often called to for this rejoycing in the Lord Psal 33. 1. Psal 97. 12. Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. and in many other Texts Such is the portion of Gods Children such their state and condition that they have a continual cause of rejoycing and giving of thanks be they under what circumstances they can there is ground enough for them in all things to give thanks but they are more eminently obliged to it when they are under the highest manifestations of Divine Love This rejoycing in the Lord is I conceive opposed both to a carnal joy in sensual objects and also to a rejoycing meerly in that ease and satisfaction which the good thing giveth us for which we rejoice As now suppose a rich man giveth a poor man 20 s. it is one thing for the poor man to rejoice in the gift as suited to to âhis necessitous circumstances another thing to rejoice in the love and favour of the giver This is now the duty of the spiritual man he ought not only under the manifestations of divine love to rejoyce in the Lord more then in all the world and all the affluences and contentments of it which is expressed in the next phrase we will remember thy loves more then Wine and is commensurate to what David saith Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me for thou shalt thereby make my heart more glad then in the day when their Corn and Wine increased I say this is not enough for a Soul thus dignified he ought more to rejoice in the favour of God shewed him in these specialties of his favour then in the ease and satiâfaction which the mercy received giveth unto his Soul And herein lieth the purity of the spiritual mans joy nor is his joy genuine and perfect till it come to this pitch 2. The second phrase in the Text expressive of this dignified Souls duty is We will remember thy loves more then Wine The term remember is taken in Scripture in a great latitude and expressive both of all that affection which is due to the remembrance of the object and of all that practical duty which is consequent to it I shall touch a little upon both these and that very shortly for I shall God willing speak to both these expressions in order more fully 1. Remember Christs loves with the remembrance of the heart I shall instance but in one fruit of this and that is faith Remember his loves so as for them to trust in God more and to cast the care of thy Soul in an hour of distress the better upon him upon consideration of thy past and present experience We are too ready both to forget our sorrows and to forget our comforts to forget our sorrows by giving our selves a liberty to the same sins for which we have smarted and to forget our comforts by giving liberty to the same dejections and despondencies again after the experiences of Gods favour 2. Remember Christs loves practically so as to make them obligations upon your Souls to a close walking with God See the example of David Psal 116. 1 9 12 18. But I shall speak all this over again when I come to handle the next words and shall therefore add no more My second Branch of this Exhortation shall respect those whom God hath not thus far dignified the Lord hath as they hope admitted them into his family but he hath not yet brought them into his Chambers Some communion with God they hope they have and an heart that panteth after a more full and near communion with him but this they have not yet attained to they walk in the dark and see no light the Lord giveth them an heart to pray but they cannot glory in such a full and quick return of prayers as others have they have not that inward joy and peace which as to some Souls is consequential to believing the question is now what they should do what their duty is under their present circumstances I will open it in two particulars 1. Certainly they ought not to despond
meat the Flock shall be cut off from the sold and there shall be no Herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my Salvation The believing Soul can rejoyce in nothing without Christ and it can rejoyce in Christ when it hath nothing more to rejoyce in Let a gracious Soul have but the sense of God's Love in Christ to his Soul he can say to all the world as Esau though not upon such a consideration said to his Brother Jacob I have enough my Brother I have enough keep what thou haft unto thy self Am I justified and regenerated have I peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ have I the pardon of my sin and a righteousness wherein I can stand before God it is enough If the Lord will not give me Bread to eat nor Children to continue my name if I die Childless so I do not die Christless it is enough If I have not Raggs to cloth me nor an Estate to leave Portions to six and also to seven yet I have said to the Lord Thou art my Portion it is enough Hence ariseth a good Christian's contentment in all Estates I have learned saith Paul in all estates to be content content to want content to abound content to have little or much as the Lord pleaseth If the Lord will take away such a man's Children Estate c. he saith with Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the Name of the Lord. If I have my part in Christ saith he I have yet enough Omnia mea mecum porto I have my All as the Philosopher is reported to have said when his City was on fire and his Neighbours reflected on him going out and carrying nothing along with him nor concerning himself for the share of Estate he had in it If the Believer considereth his body he seeth a crazy constitution diseases growing upon him if he looks into his Family and seeth it empty of Children if into his Grounds and seeth them bring forth nothing but Weeds and Thistles if into his Stalls and seeth them empty of Cattel yet if he looks into his Soul and finds any evidences of the Love of Christ he can rejoyce in them this must be understood when he seeth himself stript naked not by his own wicked hands but as Job was by the effective Providence of God for the loss of the things of this life the good things of the common Providence of God caused by our own sinful hands and miscarriages oft-times hinder this Joy as they make it difficult to us to see the Love of God in and under them 4. And lastly This Soul rejoyceth in Christ Primarily Emphatically Supremely The Child of God is a parta ker of flesh and blood and hath a sensitive appetite which when gratified necessarily causeth a joy proportionate to the good which it receiveth hence he rejoyceth in the good things of common Providence as well as another man but not as much as another man not upon the same account that another man doth Christ is the Believer's chief Joy and as his title to the good things of this life differs from the title of another so his joy in them differeth from the joy of another All men may have a natural legal title to the good things of this life Dominion and Title is not founded in grace but it is mended by grace Another man derives from God as the Lord of the whole Earth who by his common Providence distributeth portions to the Sons of men as he pleaseth but the believer doth not only derive from God as the supreme Lord but from Christ all is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods saith the Apostle so that while he rejoiceth in the gifts of common Providence he rejoiceth in Christ because he rejoyceth in these things as coming from the hand of a Father reconciled to him by the blood of Christ he rejoiceth in the good things of this life as the loving Wife reioiceth in some present made her by her Husband not so much in the fineness or costliness of it though that may also please her humor as in the kindness and love of her Husband shewed in giving it her So the believer more rejoyceth in the goodness of God shewen to him in any dispensation of Providence then in the thing which God hath given him or her and he supremely rejoiceth in Christ whiles he rejoiceth in a lower comfort Let me shew you this in the instance of Hannah whose story you have 1 Sam. ch 1 2. She was the Wife of Elkanah she had no Children and was passionately desirous of the blessing of Children an affection common to all of that sex especially and for which there was some more special reason in that Age and Nation partly because of the promise of a numerous issue to Abraham so as the Women that were Barren lookt upon themselves as hardly the genuine Children of Abraham at least not sharers in his blessing partly because they knew the Messias was to be born of a Jewish Woman and every Child-bearing Woman might have an expectation to be his Mother Under this great affliction she applies her self to God by prayer the Key of the Womb is one of those Keys which the Jewish Doctors say God keepeth in his hand God hears her prayer she conceiveth and brings forth Samuel as in the first Chapter she names him Samuel to testify her joy in receiving him as an answer of her Prayer upon which she dedicates him to the Lord 1 Sam. 1. 28. So in the second Chapter she sings a Song of praise mark the phrase of it 1 Sam. 2. 1. Mine heart rejoyceth in the Lord my Horn is exalted in the Lord. Her Child was the next object of her joy but how doth she rejoice in him the primary object of her joy was the Lord her great joy in Samuel was as God by giving him to her shewed her his love and that he had not shut out her supplications from him She rejoyced in God Supremely in Samuel Subordinately in God Emphatically in her Child more remissly Thus doth a good Christian rejoice in Christ thus is he the singular object of a believers joy David calleth God the gladness of his joy we translate it his exceeding joy Psal 43. 4. The Prophet Isaiah faith Isaiah 29. 19. The meek shall encrease their joy in the Lord and the poor amongst men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel Yet the proximate cause was v. 20 Because the terrible one was brought to nought and the scorner consumed and all those that watched for iniquity cut off Hence Christ commandeth his Disciples not to rejoice in this that the Devils were subject to them but that their names were written in the Book of Life Doubtless the subjection of Devils to them was true matter of joy ah but it was no primary object no supreme object of their joy no
is full either of such as are excessive drinkers of Wine or Merchants for it but how thin is it of such as have any remembrance of Christs love who as the Apostle tells us died to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish who can be said to remember Christs love more then Wine that lives in those sins which crucified him who was the Lord of life Yet is not this the course of the most Men and Women who never think of their dying Saviour to restrain them in their drunkennesses debaucheries in their greatest excesses of Riot Nay how many are there that seldom take the love of Christ into their thoughts the love of their cups and of their Harlots hath made Christs loves to be utterly forgotten by their Souls for how can they say that they remember Christs loves above their lusts that will not quench one lust for his sake they in whom the remembrance of Christs death will not extinguish one vile affection one spark of pleasing lust will not the most of men and women yea such in whose ears the loves of Christ are published every Lords day be found perishing for preferring the very lees and dregs of Wine before the loves of Christ I mean for preferring the basest and most sordid kind of pleasures and satisfactions of the flesh for such are those pleasures which are no more than the gratifying of the sensitive appetite 2. Do not most mens discourses and practice betray them to remember Wine I mean their profitable things before the loves of Christ How much is the world and the things of the world the discourse of all companies upon all occasions how few are the discourses concerning Christ and what he hath done for us an hours discourse of Christs loves in a Pulpit upon the Lords day is thought proportionable to six days discourse about our earthly occasions do we not even grudge the Lord a seventh part of our time for the remembrances of his loves the Lords day is a day to call to remembrance Christs loves It was the day of his resurrection by which he compleated mans redemption the Ministers work is to help us in our remembrance of his loves We have besides our attendance upon the publick ministry a private duty this day incumbent upon us viz. To remember him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification I beseech you consider whether your remembrings of Christs loves upon the Sabbath day bear any proportion to your remembrance of your worldly interests other days I mean not for the proportion of time spent in the one and the other God hath indulged our infirmity in that he hath set apart a seventh day only to himself but examine this whether you remember the loves of Christ on the Lords day as you remember your worldly concerns on any of the other six days do the loves of Christ come into your thoughts as much on the week day as the world comes into your thoughts on the Lords days I sear there is none of us all can say that in this thing our hearts are clean I hope I speak to many who remember the loves of Christ and will never suffer his dying love to go off their thoughts But when we come to these comparative examinations to enquire whether we remember his loves more then we remember our sensual or sensible objects ah how short do we come of the duty of Christians yea of what our selves will own and consess to be our duty Happy is that man that doth not condemn himself even in the thing which he alloweth to be his duty But I had rather spend my time in persuading my self and you to our duty which according to my explication of the text and this propositionwill lye much in two things 1. In a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ 2. In a remembrance of them proportionable to that degree of goodness and excellency in them I say first in a Scriptual remembrance a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ I am afraid that we satisfy our selves too much in a Notional formal remembrance of Christs Loves and so please our selves in hearing the Gospel read opened and applyed to our Souls in a formal keeping of the Lords day the day which God hath set apart for us to call to our minds all the acts of our redemption compleated in his resurrection some Churches aware of Peoples awkness to this Spiritual duty have thought fit to appoint other days for a more solemn remembrance of his incarnation and death Nor have I any thing to say against any Christians that will set apart any Special times to remember any Loves of Christ though I do not know that Christ hath left any power to his Church to impose particular times of this nature But alas this is the least part of our duty in the remembrance of his Love We may have a day to remember it in we have such a day every week we may have helps to remember it by The holy Scriptures the Ministers of the Gospel that Preach Christ to their People are such helps But if in these days if with these helps we do not set our selves to meditate of the Loves of Christ to turn our thoughts from other things to the contemplation of and meditation upon the Love of a Christ incarnate the Love of a Christ dying and riseing again from the dead if we do not study to get our hearts affected suitably to such Love with love faith hope c. we do not so live as a People that remember Christ died for our Sins declining whatsoever is contrary to his will and Law in the Gospel do what in us lyeth to promove his honour Glory we are so far from Satisfying our Duty by this formal remembrance of his Love that we are the greatest forgetters of his Love The Jews who never owned him as their Redeemer the Heathen who never heard of his name nor of what he was or did for Sinners can in no propriety of Speech be said to forget his Loves The Christian only the loose Christian the formal Christian he who hears every day of the dying Love of Christ yet goes on to defy him to crucify him afresh and to put him to open shame or he who every Lords day hears the sound of the Loves of Christ and reads of it yet never meditates upon it never suffers his soul by contemplation to pierce into the heights or sound the depths of it whose heart is never truly affected with it so as he hath any Love kindled in his soul towards Christ no breathings after him who exerciseth no faith no hope in him he that lives not in his measure up to it leaving his vain conversation worshiping God in the Spirit
rejoycing in him living up in a close obedience to his Law this is the man that forgetteth the Loves of Christ But yet if there be a Soul that hath experienced the Loves of Christ in a particular application to it self that hath given it self a liberty to the flesh and walked in a contrary course to what the Law of Christ requireth this Soul yet more forgets his Loves because he had a deeper impression of them upon his heart the Love of Christ made an impression only upon the others Ears but it hath entred into this man's Soul He is the greatest forgetter of his Love You shall observe in holy Writ that all sin is exprest under the notion of forgetting God Psal 50. 22. and in a multitude of other Texts and this not only because a forgetting of God is the cause of all the Violations of his Law which we could not violate if we remembred God as we ought to do but because indeed all sin in God's account is an actual ' forgetting of him God accounts us to know to remember no more than we are affected with and live up unto Therefore Christians let us make it our business not only to call to mind the Loves of Christ but to remember them in that sense which God calleth a remembrance of them 2. Let us not satisfie our selves with a bare remembrance of his Loves but labour to remember them more than Wine more than the most sweet and pleasant the most gainful and profitable things which this world affords Think that you hear Christ speaking in your Ears in the language in which he once spake to Peter setting all the pleasant and gainful things in the world before you and then saying to you Christians Love you me more than these Let me shew you the reasonableness of this 1. Consider if thou canst not say so Thou dost not answer the Loves of Christ in any degree I am now speaking to such as are Christians not in name and profession only but in deed and in truth Such a one may suppose all the fallen Angels under Christ's Eye even those Legions in the Air and in the bottomless Pit Creatures in their Original more perfect and glorious than man but fallen from their first Integrity and think he heareth Christ saying to him Poor Soul I have loved thee more than all these I died not for these I died for thee I took not upon me the Nature of Angels but the Nature of the seed of Abraham 2. He may suppose all the Heathen Nations under Christ's Eye The great Emperours of Turkey Persia China and other parts of the world with the millions of Souls under their jurisdiction and think that he heareth Christ again saying to him Poor Soul I have loved thee more than these Thou hearest my Gospel Read and Preached every Lord's Day hast thou not seen hast thou not heard These great Nations of the world and all the great Rulers of them never heard the joyful sound I was never Preached in their Streets they were never wooed never intreated to come to me that they might have life I have loved thee more than these Further yet thou mayest fancy all the prophane men all the sensual and carnal men all Hypocrites all unregenerate men whose hearts are yet locked up under unbelief under Christ's and thy Eye and suppose that thou hearest thy great Lord and Saviour saying to thee Poor Christian I have loved thee more than all these They are yet wallowing in their native blood as thou wert before I passed by thee in my time of love and said unto thee live they are yet Children of wrath in an hourly danger of having it come upon them to the utmost I have plucked thee out of Sodom Thy heart by nature was as hard as theirs as much prejudiced against thy own salvation I have made thee to differ I have loved thee more than all these May I rise one step higher to commend the Love of Christ to thy remembrance thou mayest fancy all that glory which Christ had with his Father from before the beginning of the world all the blessed company of Heaven all the riches of Christ's glory and felicity before his and thy Eye and fancy that thou hearest Christ say to thee My poor creature I have in a sense and for a time loved thee more than these I left my Father's Throne and right Hand him whom I was alwaies before brought up with him I left all to come down from Heaven to Earth to take thy flesh to be born of a Virgin and to be laid in a Manger to live a poor and contemned life in the world to die a shameful and ignominious death and all this to purchase for thee Eternal Life and Salvation and to redeem thee from thy vain conversation Have I not loved thee more than these What doth the Apostle say less than this when he saith 2 Cor. 8. 9. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor that you through his poverty might be made rich In what degree then canst thou be said to answer the Loves of Christ if when there is set before thee no more than the pleasures of sin which are but for a season the profits and enjoyments of this life which thou canst have no more than a Lease for Life of if thou canst not say Yea Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that I remember thy Love more than these Either this intoxicating Wine of sinful lusts and pleasures how gratifying soever they be to my fleshly appetite or this pleasant and gainful Wine of worldly Riches Estate Honour Preferment c. Oh that Christians would think of this 2. The second Consideration is yet more dreadful viz. He is not worthy of the Loves of Christ who doth not remember them more than Wine What Christ sometimes said of Love is as true concerning this remembrance of his Loves which is an act of Love Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son dâ Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And what he saith there of natural Relations is doubtless as true concerning sensible Enjoyments in this world Riches and Honours c. which are objects of your love much beneath reasonable creatures in nearest relation to uâ It is certainly as true That man or woman that remembers any sensible Enjoyment and is more affected with it than the Loves of Christ is not worthy of his Loves Certainly nothing more becometh us who pretend to be creatures endued with reason than to value things according to their measure and their true and just valuation You will say he is not worthy of a Jewel of great price that valueth a Pebble before it And by the way this will be enough to convince us all that we are saved by Grace and have what Love we have from Christ freely
God and whose heart is sincere before God is an upright and righteous Soul In this Sense the upright heart is the Sincere heart Thus David saith of himself I was upright before him 2 Sam. 22. 24. And God saith of Job He is a perfect and an upright man The Proposition must be understood of the latter he that is Evangelically righteous or upright for there are none of the former upon the Earth none that are legally righteous 3. Thirdly As there are degrees of Sanctification so there are degrees of uprightness The text seems to speak of the highest degrees Uprightnesses It is very ordinary with the Hebrew to express the Superlative degree by the plural number besides this is Signified by putting the Abstract for the Concrete we usually call men notoriously vile and wicked by the Abstract names of vice and persons eminently good and virtuous by the Abstract Names of virtue and goodness Those that are highest in grace who do most excel in holiness are fullest of love to Christ Love teacheth every Child of God the weakest babe in grace to cry after Christ and the grown Christian to delight in him and to walk up and down in his name Every righteous every upright Soul loveth Christ and that with a true sincere love though not in an equal degree she saith our Saviour who hath much forgiven will love much Having premised these distinctions let me a little further inquire into the true Notion of these upright men upright by this Evangelical rectitude In short they are such as are justified and Sanctified made righteous through Christs righteousness imputed to them holy through the Sanctification of his Spirit 1. Such as are justified This is the first thing requisite to an upright right man let the unjustified Soul be what it will do what it can it cannot be upright either in heart or way Suppose a stick naturally crooked you may pare it and paint and colour it and cover its crookedness alittle but until it hath been in the fire and bended right it will be crooked still the natural man the Soul not justified by grace not washed with the blood of Christ may be pared by education and brought off from some flagitious and enormous practices he may be coloured and painted over by some acts of moral vertue and some formal performances of religious duties but still in Gods Eye the Soul is a crooked Soul until the Lord hath made it right till it be justified by faith 2. To this uprightness is required not only justification or the removal of the Souls guilt and imputation of a righteousness a perfect righteousness but the sanctification of the heart God never sanctifieth any whom he doth not justify hence no Soul can be said to be an upright Soul that is not justified nor doth the Lord at any time justify a Soul but he at the same time also reneweth and sanctifieth it hence the upright Soul must be a renewed Sanctified Soul But yet in regard our regeneration and sanctification is not as to degrees perfect though as to parts Divines say it is that is the whole man is renewed it may be yet worthy to be inquired from what degrees of Regeneration and Sanctification a man may be denominated an upright man the rectitude of any thing is to be judged from its conformity to some rule The rule of mans uprightness is the Lords Statutes which are right saith the Psalmist Psal 19. 8. holy and spiritual and just and good Rom. 7. Thy judgments are right saith David Psal 119. 75. 128. It is said so of nothing else so as from a conformity to this rule must rightness or uprightness be judged And thus 1. There is an uprightness of judgment when the Soul judgeth according to truth both concerning notions and practices when it judgeth aright concerning truth and is not warped by error and when it judgeth aright concerning the ways of God then the Soul is upright with respect to the understanding and judgment 2. There is an uprightness of the whole Soul with respect to the scope and bent of it when the heart of man doth not stand inclined and bent to sin but the Soul can say with David I hate vain thoughts but thy law do I love I hate every false way c. The man that in all his actions designeth and intendeth the honour and glory of God and obedience to his will though in many things he cometh short and offendeth yet this man is an upright man his end and general scope is right 3. There is an uprightness of will in this the uprightness of a mans intention discovereth itself when to will is present with the Soul as St. Paul saith Rom. 7. Though he wanteth a strength to perform the man or woman in heart willeth the honour and glory of God and this not by fits but steadily and certainly and is really unwilling to do any thing by which God may be dishonoured though through ignorance he may offend and through a natural impotency not being able to love the Lord with all his heart and strength yea and through moral impotency and a mixt infirmity through the great power of temptations whether from the seduction of lust or the violent motions and impressions of Satan 4. There is an uprightness of action which lieth in a true and sincere endeavour to do the will of God and by this both the uprightness of intention and will also is to be judged This is the upright man though he may stumble and fall and oft doth fail who liveth and sinneth not against God And as these holy dispositions are found in the Soul in more remiss or intense degrees so the Soul is more or less upright and the man deserves this honourable denomination less or more These now are the Souls that love Christ To love any object whether person or thing signifieth to take a delight and complacency in it Whether in the thoughts of it if absent as the Apostle saith whom we having not seen yet love or in the contemplation and fruition in converse and communion with it if more present This Praedicate concerning the upright that they love Christ is to be understood exclusively and inclusively concerning the Person of Christ and whatsoever beareth his image and superscription 1. Exclusively these and none but these love him Others may talk of loving Christ but it is but a talk and pretence they love but in word and tongue only not in deed and truth there is something else either lust or the world something or other that hath more of their affection more of their heart then Christ hath 2. Inclusively These and all these love Christ there is not an upright Soul in the world but loves Christ and takes a pleasure complacency in him and preferreth him before his chief joy 3. They love the person of Christ He is in their Eyes altogether desires the chiefest of ten thousand there is nothing in the
justified of her Children It is enough that the upright love him The upright men are the best men in the world But you will say were there such a beauty such an excellency in Christ why should not every rational man enquire after him and love him The answer is easy Because his beauty his excellency is not obvious to the Eye of sense or to the Eye of reason working from its own principles but only to the Eye of faith that of reason working upon revealed principles The goodness excellency of Christ considered as Mediator doth not lie in a suitableness to our bodily wants no nor to the wants of our Souls considered only as rational and spiritual Beings but in his suitableness to our Souls considered as lapsed and fallen from the happy state wherein they were at first created and by that fall exposed to the wrath of God here and hereafter Now this is revealed only in Holy Writ and is to be discerned only by the Eye of faith So as those who do not by a firm and steady assent agree to the revelation of the word cannot possibly see any excellency in Christ as a Saviour and Mediator between God and Man Secondly Every gracious Soul is from this Proposition justified in all their pangs of love for and toward Christ and in all their actions and sufferings in evidence of this love That there is such a thing as a spiritual love sickness is evident to all those who know any thing of the ways of God with the Soul or the motions of the Soul toward God Let persons of atheistical and profane hearts mock so long as they please no Soul that I know of expresseth more of this nature then his who is stiled by God the man according to Gods own heart Psal 119. 20. My heart breaketh with the longings which it hath to thy judgments at all times Psal 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God for the living God Psal 63. 1. My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Our Saviour I am sure blesseth those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5. what work would the unhallowed wits of our Age have made with such metaphors as these in their Books of drollery c. they are all expressive of those pangs of love that sometimes affect good Christians in the several states of their Souls and besides these more inward motions the Souls of good Christians cannot but express their love by a zeal for his glory a love to his institutions a regard to all his commandments and durst not do many things as to which their Neighbours find no difficulty because they love the Lord Jesus Christ who hath said If you love me keep my Commandments For Christ that they may shew their love by their obedience unto him they are ready to suffer the loss of all things yea and do count them but dung that they may win Christ for this the men of the world mock them let them mock on The upright love him I remember in the story of David we read 2 Sam. 6. 20. That Michal his Wife the Daughter of Saul mocked him for his dancing before the Ark in a linnen Ephod How glorious saith she was the King of Israel to day who uncovered himself to day in the Eyes of the handmaids of his Servants as one of the vain fellows shamelesly uncovereth himself The holy man gives her a very smart answer saith he It was before the Lord which chose me before thy Father to appoint me to be a ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel therefore will I play before the Lord. And I will yet be more vile then thus c. Whiles carnal men mock at the secret sighings and groanings of Gods people at their frequency and strictness at in or to religious duties and call it all whining and canting and what comes next to the end of their lewd Tongues the Child of God is justified in this that the upright love Christ and all these their expressions of love are for and towards him who hath chosen their Souls to Eternal life and the use of all means which he hath made necessary in order to that Salvation and who for ought yet appeareth hath passed over the Souls of these Scoffers and left them to perish in their gainsayings When ch 5. of this Song the Spouse chargeth the Daughters of Hierusalem that if they found her beloved they should tell him she was sick of love They reply What is thy beloved more then another beloved O thou fairest among Women what is thy beloved more then another beloved that thou dost so charge us Cant. 5. 8. 9. See into what an elogy of her beloved she breaks out to the end of that Chap. My beloved saith she is white and reddy the chiefest of ten thousand c. when the men of the world see a gracious Soul panting sighting and breathing after Christ they are ready to speak to the same sense tho in ruder language what is the beloved of this Soul more then anothers beloved what makes these people so full of prayers and tears so full of duty so fond of the ordinances of Christ This justifies such Souls in all their pantings after Christ in all the passions of their Souls for him The upright love him Thirdly From hence Christians may take measures of themselves and make up a judgment of their Souls whether they be upright Souls yea or no very much lieth upon this many are the promises that in Holy Writ we shall find made to upright Souls Perfection of degrees is our mark but what in this life we cannot attain unto all perfection we are capable of is uprightness this may be attained we are therefore highly concerned to inquire upon our uprightness By this we shall know it The Soul that truly loveth Christ that is an upright Soul so as that which we have to examine is the truth of our love to Christ This inquiry also is considerable in respect of the Apostolical Anathema 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha It is a great point how a Christian shall certainly know his spiritual state he shall know it by his uprightness how shall he know his uprightness that is to be known by his love to Christ But will some say is not this as hard to be discerned as any thing else I answer surely no. If it be no hard thing for a man to know whether he loves such a woman or a woman to know that she loveth such a man or for any to know they love such a friend such a companion why should it be so hard for a Soul to know whether it loveth Christ or no love will work much in the same manner towards all its objects and though the visibility and sensibility of some objects may draw out
keep my Commandments No Soul can so much as pretend to a love to Christ that makes no conscience of keeping the Commandments of Christ 9. The Soul lastly that hath a love for Christ will suffer any thing for his sake it will rather suffer the loss of all things then the loss of Christs favour By these and such like questions and notes as these it will be no hard matter for a Soul to judge of its love to Christ and by that it will be able to judge and determine concerning its uprightness In the last place doth every Soul that is upright love Christ and are the degrees of the Souls uprightness according to the degrees of the Souls love How do we then all stand concerned to love Christ In order to it 1. The Soul must be dispossest of other loves inconsistent and incompetent with the love of Christ Such is the love of all lust of any thing that is contrary to the will of God Such is the excessive and immoderate love of the world Love not the world nor the things that are in the world saith John 1. Joh. 2. 25. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him in like manner we may say If any man love the world the love of Jesus Christ is not in him 2. Do what in thee lies to persuade thy self of the suitableness of Christ to the staâe and needs of thy Soul we love nothing but what appeareth good that is some way suitable to and convenient for us All we can do as to this is to read the Scriptures which alone give a true account of the state of Souls To hear them opened and applied to our consciences by able and faithful Ministers to meditate upon what we read and hear Christ must appear to our Souls an amiable object before we can love him 3. Lastly Pray for the Spirit of Grace both effectually to discover Christs loveliness to you and also to draw out your hearts to love him if we must be taught of God to love our Brethren whom we have seen we must much more be taught of God to love Jesus Christ whom we have not seen Those that think man hath a power in his own will to love God do not consider that we have not a power in and of our selves as we often find upon experience to love a creature whom yet it were our great interest to love O pray pray without ceasing that you may love the Lord Jesus Christ remember that the upright love him there is no upright Soul in the World but loves him 2. Thus thou shalt shew thy self to be upright Nothing more discovereth an upright heart then a sincere Love to Christ Now of how great moment it is for a Christian to discern his uprightness I need not tell you I shall conclude with a bare naming of some Scriptures containing promises made to uprightness leaving them to you at your leisure to meditate upon them Psal 7. 10. The Lord saveth the upright in heart Gods Righteousness belongeth to the upright in heart Psal 36. 10. The End of the upright man is Peace Psal 37. v. 37. Gladness belongeth to the upright in heart Psal 97. v. 11. The Generation of the upright shall be blessed Psal 112. v. 2. Light shall arise upon them in obscurity v. 4. They shall dwell in Gods presence Psal 140. 13. They shall dwell in the land Prov. 2. 21. The way of the Lord is strength unto them Prov. 10. 29. The integrity of the upright shall guide him Prov. 11. 3. His Righteousness shall deliver him v. 6. The upright in the way are the Lords delight v. 20. Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way but wickedness overthroweth the Sinner Prov. 13 6. Sermon XXXI Cant. 1. 5. I am black but comely O you Daughter of Hierusalem as the tânts of Kedar as the Curtaines of Solomon v. 6. Look not upon me because I am black because the Sun hath looked upon me my Mothers Children were angry with me they made me the keeper of the Vineyards but my own Vineyard I have not kept IT is the Spouse in this excellent Song of Love that yet Speaks Twice we have heard her Speaking to her Beloved Once Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth begging some distinguishing token of his Special love Her heart suggesting to her that her beloved was far more ready to imbrace her then she was to run after him She spake a Second time Draw me and we will run after thee begging the sweet and powerfull influences of divine grace Here now she interrupteth her applications to her beloved with an Apostrophe to her companions whom she here calleth The Daughters of Hierusalem The verse contains a modest apology which the maketh for her self In which are considerable 1. The persons to whom she maketh it here stiled The Daughters of Jerusalem 2. The Apology it self I am black saith she as the tents of Kedar as the Curtains of Solomon c. In the latter is considerable 1. The thing which she apologizeth for That is her Blackness which she confesseth I am black saith she and illustrateth as the teints of Kedar c. 2. The arguments of her Apology or head from whence it is drawn They are four or five 1. The mixture of comeliness with her blackness I am black but comely 2. The Influence of heaven upon her The Sun saith she hath looked upon me 3. The oppositions she had met with on earth My mothers children were angry with me 4. Her worldly diversions and imployments They made me the Keeper of the Vineyards 5. Her own neglect But my own I have not kept Finally She pleadeth with them that they would not look upon her because she was black But what needed this Apology who faulted the Spouses blackness who questioned her comeliness This is not expressed in the letter of the Text but easily understood Patet quod dett axer ant ei nigredinem improper antes It is apparent saith Bernard that they did detract from her charging her with blackness Neither did the true Church of Christ nor any truely believing Soul ever want those that reproached them The man according to Gods own heart heard some telling him There was no help for him in God We must therefore Suppose our Spouse to have heard some saying to her to this purpose Canst thou think that Christ who is the fairest of ten thousand should kiss the with the kisses of his mouth Thee That art by nature an Ethiopian and by thy renewing actuall Sins hast made thy self much more black and ugly Surely when the King of glory humbleth himself to make love to his Subjects he will chuse one much fairer then thou art Did Aaron and Miriam wonder at reproach Moses because he had married an Ethiopian Num. 12. 1. And should not Christ be the wonderment of the whole creation if he should love one so black as thou art
poured out upon me The reason of this interpretation is their dream that they are the only Church of God in the World But the text is not to be so restrained The true Church of Christ or the truly believing Soul here speaks unto any others That they would not look asquint upon her because she was black Ne torvum intueamini nec velut per contemptum despiciatis so Mercer glosseth upon the words do not look upon me with an Eye of despight scorn or contempt As the Leviat han beholdeth all things Job 41. 34. so Mr. Ainsworth interpreteth it or as he addeth not with a rejoycing pleased or Satisfyed Eye according to that Obadiah v. 12. Edom should not have Looked upon the affliction of his brethren Or not with an astonishing admiring look As the Apostle commandeth us not to think it strange concerning the fiery tryal and 1. Thessal 2. 3. that none should be moved by the Churches afflictions knowing that God had appointed them thereunto The English Annotators add not with a partial eye beholding my blackness and not my comeliness no nor yet with a dull deâjected or despendent Eye Nor yet so as to take a Copy from me for your imitation Do not thus look upon me because I am black ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There is a little difference in the form of the word from the word as used before ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is the observation of some critical Interpreters that this change of the form of the word maketh a diminution in the sense So as it should be read because I am something black a little black duskish subnigra fusca thus Arias Montanus translates it Nunâ se corrigit saith Genebrard here she correcteth her self She had said before she was black Now she altereth her phrase and speaks to this sense I am indeed something brown but not so black as you take me to be thus I said critical Interpreters in the Hebr. carry it Mercer also and Mr. Ainsworth our English Annotators take some notice of it And Mr. Ainsworth quotes a text where another word much of the same form is translated something red We have now probably the sense of the words O you that are the People of God do not look upon me with a scornful abominating Eye to flee from me and avoid me Nor yet to take out a Sinful Copy from me you men of the world do not scorn do not clap your hands at me do not stand amazed because you see me full of trouble and affliction do not look upon me on one side partially I am indeed something black but not coal black not wholly black The Sun hath looked upon me The Arabick version reads it The Sun hath declined me but Avenarius tells us the Hebrew word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifyeth to look wistly and directly upon an Object in that first Conjugation it is used but thrice in holy Writ Job 20 9. The Eye also that saw him shall see him no more Job 28. 7. There is a path which the Vultures Eye hath not seen The third is this text So as the ordinary reading is not to be declined But concerning the Sun mentioned in this text there is a great Variety amongst Interpreters 1. some understand bY the Sun here the Sun of Righteousness the Lord Jesus Christ who is so called Malachy 4. 2. and according to this sense I find Delrio giving a singular sense of these words which he calleth the Tropological sense As if these words were not brought in by the spouse as a reason of her blackness but only as a reason why they should not despise her by reason of her blackness Tho I am black saith she yet the Sun of righteousness the Lord Jesus Christ hath looked on me and hath clothed me with his Righteousness therefore you ought not to despise me There is a great truth in this If we can Charitably judge concerning any soul that God hath received it if we see any Person so living so aright ordering his conversation that we cannot but think he or she is one whom the Lord loves and who is accepted of him we ought not to despise them because we see them guâley of some failings or altho we find them made black through a pressure of trials and afflictions But this seemeth not to be the sense of the words 2. Others understanding by Sun here the Sun of Righteousness make another improvement of the Notion Christ The Sun of Righteousness hath lookt upon me and I am become black that is Vile in my own Eyes This is truth the more the Lord looketh upon any Soul the more mean and low and vile it is in its own Eyes When our Lord looked upon Peter he went out and wept bitterly Isaiah cryeth out Woe is me I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst a People of unclean lips for my Eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts The more the Lord looketh upon any Soul or the more a Soul looketh up to and upon God the more vile it iudgeth its self but tho this be true yet I cannot judge it the truth of this place where I take the Spouse to be apologizing for her blackness in her outward appearance to others tho it be also true That Exercises of repentance and mortification do not commend Souls to the Eye of the world tho they highly commend them unto God Bernard hath yet a 3d improvement of this notion Ejus amore langâeo God by casting an Eye upon my Soul hath so drawn out my heart after him that I faint and am broken with longings for and after him this maketh me so unlovely and black in your Eyes I find both these last mentioned notions in Bernard Thus the Souls blackness had only been occasioned accidentally from the Sun 's looking upon her 2. I find that some by the Sun in the Text understand the fruits of the Spirit such as zeal which inflameth the Soul where it is and as it were burns it up as it is written The zeal of thy house hath Eaten me up Brotherly Love which teacheth the Soul to weep with those that weep from which ariseth what the world miscalleth a blackness 3. But I find the generality of Interpreters by the Sun in the Text understanding Persecutions and Afflictions Delrio and Bernard after the mentioning some other notions yet fix upon this as the most probable sense of this phrase and we have in the Gospels a Text of Scripture which justifieth this Metaphorical acception of the term It is that Maâth 13. 6. in the Parable of the sower In the parable our Saviour telleth them that the seed which sell upon the Stony ground when the Sun was up was scorched which he interpreteth v. 21. when Tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word they fall away In this sense I shall fix so the sense is this It is true I am black but be not offended do not contemn
besides the blot which these eruptions of corruption leave upon the particular Souls they leave also a blackness in the Church which is made up of them Besides that there is no Church but hath in it some of unsanctified hearts who as Jude tells us are spots in our feasts of charity and where they prevail in number they bring in also another blackness upon the Church by admission of corruptions in Doctrine Worship and Discipline c. 2. Particular Souls are also black through acts of mortification The people of God live a dying life I die daily saith Paul they keep under their Bodies that they may keep them in subjection to their Spirits Now though there is nothing makes a Soul to look more white and beautiful in the Eyes of God yet nothing makes them appear more black and unlovely in the Eyes of the world The world looks upon Christians chastising themselves with fasting and tears in their dejections and humiliations as very black but this is indeed no real but an appearing blackness to such as understand no loveliness in any thing but sensuality 3. The People of God are often black through afflictions Job speaking of affliction saith Job 30. 30. My skin is black upon me and my bones are burnt with heat Hence the afflicted faces are said to gather blackness Joel 1. 6. Nahum 2. 10. The skin of the Church in the hour of her affliction is said to have been as black as a Raven Lam. 5. 10. and it is said of the afflicted Nazarites Lam. 4. 8. That their visage was more black then a Coal So that you see Affliction is every where in Scripture called Blackness Now there is no Child of God in this life exempted from afflictions such as are from the hand of God immediately of which nature are desertions terrors and Soul troubles of several sorts bodily distempers c. or from Satan more immediately of which nature are temptations Or from the world in persecutions and injuries by it done unto them and the Spouse seemeth to have a particular respect to these for she adds my Mothers Children were angry with me And as the particular Soul is subject to these blacknesses so is the Church 1. Through a mixture of ill members such as to use Judes phrase are spots in the Churches feasts of charity Such no Church of God hath been free from in any age some that are corrupt in their tenets and principles others that are so in their conversations God denominates his Church from the sincere and better part of it but the world alwaies denominates it from the worser part and cries Crimine ab uno disce omnes they are all alike hence there is no man causeth the name of God to be so reproached and evil spoken of as persons professing to religion and membership in Churches and living loosely oâgrowing corrupt in their Doctrines and Principles 2. The Church becomes black Through the admission of corruption in Doctrine Worship or Discipline All deviation from the Divine Rule where it is a sufficient rule in the case is the blackness of any Church it is a wonderful thing to observe how prone the heart of man is to this Though the Church of the Jews had a more infallible rule and more plain in this case then any other Church can pretend to Yet I cannot find that ever the Worship of God continued in it in purity fourscore years The longest was the time of David and Solomon who each of them reigned forty years but in the latter part of Solomons time it admitted of much corruption there was a great toleration of Idolatry as you read in the story and you shall observe in the whole History of that Church in how few Kings Reigns the high places and the groves were taken away and when they were taken away in one Kings Reign how soon they grew in fashion again in the next though there were no sins for which the Jews so severely smarted nor against which the wrath of God was more severely declared by the Prophets God sent amongst them If in the New Testament you look over the Epistles wrote to the Church of Corinth and Galatia and the seven Churches of Asia you will again find the same thing it is true every deviation from truth or from the purity of Worship or discipline will not unchurch a Church the Lord hateth putting away concerning Idolatry I know not what to say that is a Spiritual Adultery and every where in Scripture is call'd Whoredom and going a Whoring and as divorce was lawful in case of carnal adultery so possibly it may be presumed as to spiritual adultery that God hath said to a People Lo-ammi you are not my people who are lapsed to idolatry but for other failings tho the Lord liketh them not but hath something against every Church that admits any corruptions of this nature yet they are but spots and blemishes and how far a separation from such a Church may be lawful or is sinful is a great question I think a total separation is not But that is not my task at present to discourse 3. The Church also may be black through persecutions The afflicted state of the Church is called a lying amongst the pots Psal 68. 13. Probably there may be a time towards the end of the World when the true Church of Christ may enioy some tranquillity and enjoy a more serene quiet and fixed state then it hath yet enjoyed or doth at this day enjoy when it shall not be so incumbred by the Cross and those tribulations by which Christians have hitherto entred into the Kingdom of God there have been some both more ancient and modern Divines who have inclined to think that yet before the end of the World Christ shall reign upon the Earth a thousand years but whether that time which we call the day of Judgment shall last so long or those thousand years shall be a space of time preceding the last judgment whether those Scriptures which are usually interpreted in favour of that opinion signifying Christs being heve in Person or only a quiet and more tranquil estate of the Church are questions which I shall not undertake to determine But as the history of the Gospel Church hitherto justifieth that it hath been a state of affliction and blackness so most Divines are pretty well agreed that we are not to expect any other until those thousand years do begin so as in this respect we must look to see the Church of Christ black however white she be upon other accounts Now thus the Spouse is black not in Gods Eyes who judgeth not according to outward appearance but according to the heart and in his judgment of men counteth none the worse for what happeneth to them from the World or from the Devil and though he cannot look upon iniquity in the best so as to approve of it yet doth he not judge of them according to their failings but
to it without works and not imputing sin as the Apostle expounds the whole business of justification Rom. 4. 5 8. Thus now every believing Soul becomes a righteous Soul in the Eye of God through the righteousness of Christ put upon it This is indeed what some modern wits laugh at But as we say in other cases let them laugh that win so every serious Soul will think it hath cause of rejoycing if it hath thus won Christ to use the Apostles expression Phil. 3. 8. which he expoundeth in the very next words v. 9. And be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith and I would have all that love their own Souls look to be one of that circumcision which the Apostle speaketh of in that Chapter v. 3. Which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Some trust in Chariots faith the Psalmist some in Horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God Psal 20. 7. I do but allude to that Text. There are some that trust to a righteousness of other Saints so do the Papists some trust in a righteousness of their own so do they also amongst others some trust to the meer free grace of God without any regard to a perfect righteousness but we will trust alone in Jesus Christ and in his righteousness I fear what follows in the Psalmist v. 8. will be found true in the day of Judgment Those will be brought down and fall but those that trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness will rise and stand upright Those that trust in the good works of other Saints will find at that day they will have none to spare there will not be enough for themselves and much less to lend to others as the wife Virgins told the foolish Virgins in the Parable wanting Oâl and offering to borrow of them and those who trust to a righteousness of their own will find that they do but trust to a Spiders webb and which hath these two qualities analogous to a Spiders web 1. That it is a thing spun out of their own bowels 2. That the least touch of it sweeps it away it is what upon examination when judgment is laid to the line and this righteousness to the plummet will be found to be no such thing as will cover the Souls nakedness a bed too short for a Soul to stretch it self in Gods sight upon They say the great Cardinal Bellarmine dying confessed that it was safest to trust to the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ whether he said so or no I am sure it will be found so There is an original blackness which cleaveth to every Soul the not belief of which is possibly the foundation error as to this great point 1. A blackness of imputation The Apostle tells us that in Adam all died we were all in the loins of that our first Parent what he lost he lost for us we in him plucked a fruit of the Tree of forbidden fruit and so loft that Original Righteousness in which God at first made man and became black and unrighteous 2. An inherent blackness for having lost the image of the heavenly we were born with the Image of the Earthly which lay in a Native aversion from God and a Native proneness and aptitude to sin against God This is seen in our native ignorance and blindness stubborness and perverseness in our naturally vile affections turbulent and impetuous passions things very far from the Image of God and hence we are all by nature saith the Apostle Eph. 2. 3. Children of Wrath. To say nothing of those actual sins which are consequent to this native blackness all our thoughts words and deeds contrary to the law of God Divines think the natural blackness of the Soul is well set out by the Prophet Ezek. 16. Thy birth is of the land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite thy Mother an Hittite In the day wherein thou wert born thy Navel was not cut neither wert thou washed in water to supple thee thou wert not salted at all nor swadled at all none Eye pitied thee to do any of these things for thee but thou wert cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day wherein thou wert born All this while here is no appearance of any thing but filthiness and blackness Now how cometh this black and most filthy creature to be made clean and comely see v. 6. I said unto thee while thou wert in thy blood live There is what we call effectual calling v. 7. I have caused thee to multiply and thou art increased and waxed great and come to excellent Ornaments v. 8. When I passed by thee it was a time of Love yea I spread my skirt over thee and I covered thy nakedness yea I sware unto thee and entred into a covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Then washed I thee with water there the Spouses blackness began first to wear off yea I thoroughly washed thy blood off thee and I anointed thee with Oil. the Psalmist tells us Oil makes the face to shine I clothed thee also v. 14. And thy renown went forth among the Nations for thy beauty for it was persect through my comeliness put upon thee saith the Lord thy God God there under the similitude of a wretched new born Infant and the care of a Parent for it setteth out the woful state of the Jews and Gods care for them and as Divines judge the wretched state of every Soul by nature till washed by Christs blood and made comely by Christs comeliness is also by that similitude excellently expressed but it is plain enough from other texts that our comeliness of righteousness that righteousness wherein we must stand righteous before God is put upon us by Christ and his comeliness though by imputation made ours 2. Christ makes us righteous by putting his Spirit into us Hence he promiseth to put his Spirit into his people and you read of the holy Spirit dwelling in believers and working in them This is the comeliness of Regeneration and Sanctification which is called the Sanctification of the Spirit the Spirit of Christ in us whose fruits Gal. 5. 22. are love joy meekness c. Indeed whatsoever rendreth a soul comely and beautiful in the eye of reason upon the union of which holy Spirit with the soul the soul becomes a new creature old things are passed away and all things are become new In the same hour wherein Christ saith to the soul I will be thou clean he also saith I will be thou pure and holy an habitation for God through the Spirit undefiled in the heart and in the way This is also metaphorically set out by the same Prophet Ezekiel 16. 10 11 12. I decked thee also with ornaments and I put
not only no need of such a publick confession but it may be of a greater mischief and ill consequence then good by reason of a wicked world which watcheth for Gods Peoples haltings to reproach profession and the holy name of God Though therefore in such cases private Confession even of more private sins may be necessary and expedient yet it ought to be managed with prudence as to the manner that is in the best consistency with the end to which it is directed and for the avoiding such things as may tend to the dishonour of God and disadvantage of the more publick interest and cause of God and therefore much wisdom is to be used in the choice of a friend in this case for though Solomon hath advised us Pro. 25. 9 To debate our case with our Neighbour yet in the next words he hath added discover not thy secret to another thereby informing us that Neighbour in that Text is not to be expounded in that latitude as in the Parable concerning him who fell amongst Thieves Every one no not every good man is to be trusted with the Secrets of Souls Considering the end of this action and the great thing that is to be avoided in the performance of it Three things seem requisite in the choice of a private Christian to whom a prudent Christian may thus unbosom himself 1. Silence and Secrecy 2. Knowledge and Wisdom 3. One of whom we may presume that he hath some more then ordinary interest in God 1. I say first Silence and Secrecy Your ordinary experience telleth you that even amongst good men some have a much better command and government of their tongue then others and as it is observable that such fall into more errors themselves then others for in a multitude of words there wanteth not sin so such persons are least to be trusted with the Secrets of Souls 2. Secondly he that confesseth his faults to another doth it in order to his advice and counsel this maketh knowledge and spiritual wisdom requisite in the person whom we chuse to unbosom our selves in this manner unto every man who hath knowledge enough to guide his own Soul in the ways of God yet hath not knowledge judgment or experience enough to give spiritual advice and counsel to his Brother 3. If this Confession be made in order to obtaining the benefit of prayers the same wisdom will direct us to make choice of such as we can reasonably judge to be persons likely to prevail with God in prayer there are some that are more mighty in the Scriptures more exercised in the ways of God then others these are most fit for advice and counsel There are some that are more exercised in prayer then others and more prevailing with God these are fittest to hear our Confessions in order to our advantage by their prayers and these generally are such as walk most uprightly and closely with God The Lord heareth not sinners but if any man be a Worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth John 9. 31. The prayer of the upright saith Solomon is his delight Secondly As there is a great deal of prudence to be observed in the choice of Persons to whom we own and acknowledge our blackness so there is a great deal of piety and charity to be shewed in the manner of the doing of it That which of charity is to be shewen in it is to do it where the Soul of our Brother may be advantaged by the performance of it That of piety which is to be shewed in its Eyes 1. In a right sixing of our end which ought to be the glory of God the general end of all our actions When Joshua exhorted Achan to confess his sin My Son saith he confess and give glory unto God you read in Scripture of a confession of the Lords name a confession of truth and a confession of sin The glory of God is the end of all that is the praedication of his glory for that is all the way we have to glorify God A man by confession of his sins either unto God or men may give glory to God for in confeffing himself a sinner he owned the Lords Power and Soveraignty over him the Holiness and Righteousness of his Law and his patience long-suffering and goodness that he is not cut off and thrown into Hell and indeed there is no confession of sin our duty where this end cannot be attained some way or other God doth not delight in the shame and confusion of our faces but he doth delight in the exalting of his own name and in the praedication of his own praise and glory 2. Secondly Piety is concerned in the manner of the action So it must be doá¹
e with tenderness of heart brokenness and contrition of Spirit indeed without this the enumeration and recital of our sins is but either a glorying in sin or at best but a formaltty and shell of duty A glorying in sin is but a glorying in our shame and what will be far from the Soul of a Child of God A formality of duty is but hypocrisy It is a great vanity for any Soul to think that God should be pleased with a meer empty noise of words which are not expressive of any inward disposition of the heart in which he hath declared himself pleas'd Words in prayer and confession of sins are our duty but they must be such words as are thrust out of our lips by the force of the inward affections of our hearts If a man confesseth his sin unto God either publickly or privately this is requisite Therefore you shall observe that the main thing which God requires is our humbling our selves that signifieth the affection of the heart A man cannot humble himself by the words of his lips without the inward shame and brokenness of his Soul The same thing is necessary in our confessions unto men Under the old law there was Oyl and Frankincense to be poured upon the Meat Offering Lev. 2. 2. and several other Offerings as you will read in that Book but upon the Sin Offering there was no Oyl nor Frankincense to be put Lev. 5. 11. Oyl signified Gladness hence you read that they used it when they would make their Face to Shine and you read of the Oyl of Gladness the Confession of Sin under the Gospel is a Sin Offering to God and must not be offered without a sutable sense and Sorrow of Heart This is a requisite in all Confessions of Sin Lastly We ought with the acknowledgment of our Blackness whether to God or Man to join also the acknowledgment of our Comeliness so far as God hath made any discovery of it to our Souls we ought not indeed to Glory beyond our line and measure but we ought not to conceal what God hath done for our Souls In this both the Glory and Honour of God and the good and incouragement of our dejected and disconsolate Brethren are both concerned nor
know it by the more ordinary influence of the Spirit of grace supporting the Soul in the view of its own habits of grace And certainly a good Christian is highly concerned to labour after this knowledge as for the Quiet Peace and Satisfaction of his own Spirit so for the glory of God the good of others and the upholding of our selves against the calumnies and reproaches of evil men How shall a Christian that is full of fears and continually doubting whether God hath done any thing for his Soul or no ever give God the honour and glory of what he hath done for him and wrought in him A sad and dejected Spirit can never walk thankfully and praise God for what he hath done for him how shall such a Soul be serviceable to his Brother in distress The Apostle adviseth working with our hands that we may have something to give to those that need and tells us It is more noble to give then to receive the despondent doubting Christian is always a receiver he cannot be a giver of advice and counsel to others How shall such a Christian bear up against the suggestions of the Devil or against the reproaches Scandals and calumnies of the men of the World Upon all these and many more accounts Christians are highly concerned to look for such evidences as may Satisfy them that altho they have been black and are black through the frequent renewings of corruption yet they are comely through grace If any ask what they should do that they may know I know no better way then the studying the perfection of the new creature to perfect holiness in the Lords fear for tho it be true that we may be deceived in our judgments of the true features of the new creature yet it is also true that the true testimony of the Spirit is in concurrence with the witness of our Spirits and where there is a faileur of that Testimony there can be no certainty of the other We may learn from hence that it is not the sole work of a Christian to be complaining of himself and loading himself with accusations and charges of blackness Solomon saith there s a time for all things A time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance Eccles 3. 2. 4. I would have Christians to consider their season There is a time for him to consider his blackness and to weep for it And there is also a time for him to own and acknowledge his comliness There is a time for him to sit alone and keep silence and put his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope But he ought also to find a time to lift up his head to bless God that he lives tho yet it is not he but the grace of God in him to acknowledge that by Grace he is what he is and that the grace of God hath not been bestowed on him in vain The time for the former should be the time of his Solitude chiefly when he sitteth alone before God Except in some other particular cases which I instanced in while I was handling the former part of this Proposition God is indeed honoured by our humiliations confessions of sin shamings of our own Souls but not so much as by the predication of the riches of his grace Thankfulness and rejocing in the Lord and in his Salvation are great pieces of duty The weeping dejected Christian doth not so much predicate the Lords glory nor so much commend the ways of God to men as the rejoicing chearful Christian provided his rejoycing be not carnal and sensual but Spiritual and in the Lord. That is the conversation which most commendeth God and his ways and most inviteth Souls into a walking in them Suffer therefore a word of Exhortation and with that I shall shut up this discourse it must be to a declaration of what God hath done for your Souls A declaration of it I mean where God calleth to you for it When that is may easily be concluded from my former discourse It is alwaies your duty unto God when you are alone in your Closets ãâ¦ã never unseasonable It is as you have heard oft-times yoââ duty to do it unto men to the Church of whichyou are Memberts to particular Christians whoare your Companions sometimes before the world Fou r thingsare usually pleaded as hinderances of it 1. Christians uncertainty 2. Modesty 3. Pride 4. Novelty of such a practice 1. I will endeavour to shew you the vanity of these pleas in bar to this duty 2. I shall give you some directions in order to the performance of it with which I shall conclude this discourse 1. The first plea is Christians own incertainty and this is indeed a great plea for no man ought to boast beyond his line or to arrogate that to himself which he doth not find in himself we ought therefore to labour to bring our Souls to a certainty and the doubting Christian hath this advantage that the greatest certainty is that which followeth doubting but though it may be thou hast not an infallible certainty yet possibly thou hast a moral certainty though not a certainty free from all doubts and fears yet not incumbred with strong doubts and tormenting fears though not an assurance yet a good hope through grace yea such an hope as shall not make ashamed Thou mayest declare how it is with thy Soul though thou canst not declare what is not in thy Soul I am not pressing any Christian to arrogate to himself what there is no ground for but only to own in himself what God hath wrought in him and for him Fears and doubts though they alwaies argue a weakness in faith yet they ordinarily argue a truth of grace and faith it may be because of thy clouds and doubts thou canst see no beauty and comeliness in thy self yet others may see a great beauty and comeliness in thee 2. A second plea is Modesty a vertue which excellently becometh the Children of God who are called Virgins It is the duty of the Children of God not to think of themselves above what they ought to think it is pity that so comely an habit should be turned into sin and that Christians under pretence of avoiding Pride and Ostentation should run upon another Rock and neglect a duty of so much tendency as I have shewed this to be to the glory of God and the good of others Let me therefore examine this a little strictly Pride saith the Philosopher is a vice by which we judge our selves worthy of more honour then indeed we are and slight or despise others who indeed have or whom at least we judge to have ãâã of this or that perfection then we have The Schoolmen tell us there are three ways by which we may discover this sinful tumor or swelling in an opinion of our selves 1 When we judge those good things to be from our selves which we indeed have but
from above 2 When we boast our selves to have some good or some measures of good and perfection which we have not 3 When we slight and despise others whom we judge to come short of our perfections They likewise prescribe a threefold remedy for this distemper 1. The consideration of our native weakness and infirmity 2. The consideration of the infinite greatness and perfection of God 3. The consideration of our own gifts and graces in the shortness and imperfections of them In short therefore there is no need to fear the discovery of any Pride in the acknowledgment of what God hath done for us provided 1. That we do not play the Hypocrites boasting beyond our line of what we never experienced what God never wrought in us The proud man arrogateth more to himself then doth belong unto him 2. Provided that thou doest intitle God to all that thou hast of good in thee It is truly said by the Schoolmen Cum aliquis aestimate bonum quod habet ab alio ac si haberet a seipso fertur per consequens appetitus ejus supra modum in propriam excellentiam That is If a man judgeth that that good which he hath from another proceedeth from himself his desire is immoderately carried out after his own excellency and this is Pride They are therefore highly concerned to look to themselves as to this that attribute so much to the power of mans will without any influence of special and distinguishing grace you shall observe how careful St. Paul was against this upon all occasions where he mentioneth his grace I live saith he but yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God I was a Persecutor a Blasphemer Injurious but I obtained mercy and the grace of the Lord was exceedingly abundant in me with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus I am the least of the Apostles not worthy to be called an Apostle But by the Grace of God I am what I am It is no pride to acknowledge what God hath given us and done for us but to arrogate it to our selves as done by our own power this is pride 3. Provided 3dly That thou dost not despise the day of small things in the Souls of others Scorning contemning and despising those for whom God hath done or we think that he hath done less then he hath done for us This will speak Pride the proud Soul as he alwaies arrogateth too much to himself so he alwaies giveth too little to his Brother and haughtily over-looketh what he hath so that his Brother alwaies seems low and vile in his Eyes 4. Lastly Provided That with the acknowledgment of thy perfections and graces thou conjoynest an admiration of Gods goodness an acknowledgment of thy unworthiness and of thy sinful failings and imperfections Thus you see the Spouse doth in this Text. I am black saith she but comely So did Paul in the places I before quoted 3. A third Bar to this is Novelty This can only be pleaded with reference to our acknowledgments to the Church or the Officers of it with respect to our either being admitted into a full communion with it in all Ordinances or being restored to it after some lapse for the more private practice of it to our Brethren it is as old as David as may be seen from Psal 66. v. 16 17. As to the former it was from the beginning certainly thus None were admitted into the Gospel Church without a profession of repentance and faith in Christ None after a lapse or Apostacy was restored to the Church without it Indeed through the corruption of times both the one and the other practice hath degenerated into a meer formality and now it seemeth new to us But as it is but a reduction of an Apostolical and Primitive Practice so there certainly is nothing more reasonable both for the comfort of the particular Soul from whom this declaration is desired and for the satisfaction of the Minister of Christ who is but a Steward of the mysteries of Christ and ought to be faithful and also for the mutual satisfaction of such as are to be Members of the same Body 4. But lastly whatever is pretended it is much to be feared that Pride is the true hinderance of this Christian and Spiritual duty 1. Either we think it beneath us to discourse of spiritual things and to acknowledge all to the free grace of God Or 2. We think we come short of some perfections which others have attained and we are ashamed to let others know how short we are But O that Christians would grow more familiar with spiritual things We think that it is a piece of Charity if we hear of a Neighbour that is full of pain or very sick ofsuch adistemper as we have formerly laboured under to goand tell him how we were what we did what effect and issue it had but we find an awkness to relate to fellow Christians how we lay labouring under the guilt of sin and perplexities of conscience and burthens of temptations and what our applications to God were and what relief we found from his free grace and mercy But in the performance of this as well as other duties there may be miscarriages Let me therefore conclude with offering some directions for the better management of this duty They shall be three 1. Take heed to the principle moving thee to such actions That must be love to God the principle of all religious actions without which we do nothing acceptably this is determined by the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 1 2. It is love that is the fulfilling of the law and indeed we can no otherwise in any point fulfil it Take heed that self-love be not the principle if by it thou seekest thy honour and praise self love only principleth thee but if thou dost it that God may have the glory of his Grace that the Souls of others may be profited and advantaged That offences may be prevented or removed That the dirt may be wiped off which the world throweth upon profession In these cases the love of God is thy principle 2. Take heed to the manner of thy doing it As to that I shall only hint 2 things 1. See that God hath all the glory It is lawful for thee to boast of the Grace of God but you must be sure to boast in the Lord and in all thy acknowledgments of any spiritual good thou oughtest to sing with David Psal 115. 1. Not unot us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name be given the Glory for thy mercy and for thy truth sake 2. Do it with all the greatest lowliness and humility of mind and expression that thou art able so as nonw may for what thou hast received of grace think of thee above what he ought to think Paul forbare to speak what he could have spake after his rapture into the third Heavens
of God Let us take heed that we be not made black by afflictions of this nature which we shall be if by them we be moved from our good opinion of the ways of God from our profession or practice of them there is no sinner more black then the Apostate See 2 Pet 2. 20. 21. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it is better sor them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them Indeed failings in a time of Persecution are caused from a double cause Sometimes meerly from the fear of life or some great danger that will befall to men if they adhere to their former profession failings of this nature make a Soul look black but many such recover themselves and the Lord who can have compassion upon our insirmities pities them and recovers them out of the snare of the Devil this is a blackness we ought to avoid by putting on the whole Armour of God that we may be able to stand in the day of the Lords Battel But there is another defection which is occasioned by Persecutions and Afflictions of this nature That is when men out of a greater love to other ways in a time of tryal renounce the truths of God they have formerly owned and forsake the ways of God in which they have formerly walked to these now Persecutions and Afflictions of this nature are but a slight occasion of their defection and Apostacy and this eminent difference you will find betwixt the others and these The others though they may be prevailed withal to warp and start aside because of the greatness of the temptation it was Peters case in the High Priests Hall yet will never be prevailed with to speak evil of and to revile the truths of God which they have owned nor the ways of God in which they have formerly walked and others yet walk The others being prevailed upon to their Apostacy meerly from the lusts of their hearts and the greater love they have alwaies had tho like Hypocrites they have concealed it to looser principles and a looser way of living take themselves concerned to reproach their former ways and those who yet walk in them This is a dreadful blackness not a tincture upon the face only but a tincture of the heart which by occasion of Persecution for the Gospel breaketh out into the more exteriour conversation To enforce this caution I shall only mention three things 1. That this is the affection only of the stony ground Mat. 13. 6 21. It is a certain sign that those never received the Seed of the Word into honest and good hearts that they never had any root in themselves who when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word by and by they are offended He that receiveth the truth in the Love of it cannot so easily abandon the profession of it 1 John 2. 19. They went out from us they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us The day of Persecution and tribulation for the Gospel sake is the day of the manifestation and discovery of hypocrites I do not think that all shrinking in a time of persecution is a note of hypocrisy there is a shrinking through fear in the time of great temptation so Peter shrank But for men to make a defection out of a principle of lust and greater Love to other ways and to reproach and speak Evil of the ways of God which by the way is a certain indication of such a defection this speaketh the man or woman to be no better then an hypocrite nor ever to have been other tho to serve his lusts he disguised himself with a mask of holiness and Religion 2. Secondly consider That no sinner so reproacheth the good and holy ways of God as such a sinner doth He tells the World that he hath tryed them that there is nothing in them that nothing but the ignorance prejudices of his education youth led him into them that the ways of sin profaneness of Formality and Superstition are better and therefore he is at last grown wiser then to take such pains to go to heaven If I would pick out a wretch out of the whole herd of sinners to reproach God to blaspheme the Gospel and the ways of holiness I would pick out onethat had been formerly a professor and had turned away from his profession this wretch pretendeth from experience to justify what others do but loosely discourse 3. Thirdly no sinners must expect a more dreadful Vengeance The reason is evident because none sin against more light There is no man who hath made a profession and lived in any practice of Religion but knows that there is no iniquity in it nothing but what suteth the common reason of mankind not debauched through lust and that those who in any measure live up to the profession of the Gospel are if sober heathens were to be judges the best of men with respect to all duty which the light of Nature teacheth toward the Divine Being and all good offices towards men I say there is none who hath made any profession but knows this and in all his Evil speaking of them doth not sin like an heathen nor like a profane man who speaketh ill of the things he knoweth not but speaketh contrary to the dictate of his own conscience I would not have this understood of those who are made black through these afflictions from the temporary prevailing of a strong temptation these with Pâter tho they fall yet go out and weep bitterly and are recovered and made stronger by their fall but of those others before mentioned to whom Affliction and Persecution are but the externall occasions to draw out the lusts of their hearts which waited but for an opportunity to discover its self 2. Finally to shut up this discourse let this caution us from Judging the Spouse of Christ black because the Sun hath looked upon her You have heard that this is but the Worlds judgment not according to any measures of truth or righteousness To this End 1. Root your selves in this truth That none can judge of Gods Love or hatred from what happeneth to him in this life It is Solomons Maxime and a great truth God governeth the World according to the just Oeconomy of his Providence with respects unto his own wife Ends and no spiritual judgment can be made of the state of any from those administrations oft-times he maketh Princes to go on foot when servants ride on horse back and the wicked to devour those that are more righteous then they 2.
doubtless were the Israelites in Jeroboam's time not only to the men of Judah who adhered to the true Worship of God and the sincerer part of the Ten Tribes who left them and came to Hierusalem to worship But the generality of the Israelites in Ahab's times in the sight of Elijah and those seven thousand whom God told Elijah he had at that time in Israel who had not bowed their knee to Baal nor kissed him with their lips The Use of this will be very short only warning us to be very tender in this point very careful of having to do with these Vineyards It is inconsistent with the keeping of our own the things which God hath committed to our trust It renders Churches and particular Souls also black It is an abatement to our beauty and comeliness These things are spots in our beauty shadows to our glory Nothing more offendeth the Eyes of the Divine Glory nothing more provoketh the Lord to jealousie To those who consideringly read the History of the Jewish Church recorded in the Old Testament nothing need be added upon this Argument I come now to the second sense of these words to which I told you I more inclined to From whence the Proposition is this Prop. That great intanglements in secular affairs will make the Spouse of Christ to appear black Demas did once appear white twice you have an honourable mention of him Col. 4. 14. Luke the beloved Physician and Demas salute you He is reckoned amongst Paul's fellow-labourers Philemon v. 24. but the world made him black 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas saith the Apostle hath forsaken us and imbraced the present world Martha was doubtless white in her Lord's Eyes yet being cumbred about many things she appeared something black Mary had chosen the better part Luk. 38. 40 41. The Apostles left their Nets when they followed Christ When therefore one askt leave of our Saviour before he followed him to go and bury his dead Christ replied Let the dead bury the dead follow thou me You know the excuses those made Matth. 22. that were invited to the Marriage Feast one had bought a Farm another had bought five yoke of Oxen. Our Saviour hath determined Matth. 6. 24. No man can serve two Masters but either he will cleave to the one and neglect the other or neglect the one and be overcareful for the other What need we any Scripture in the case shew me that man or woman that is intangled in a multitude of worldly affairs and hath not lost something of his beauty if he or she ever had any as to the power and practice of Religion Holiness But it will be demonstratively clear to us if we consider either how much of our time the world will take up or how much of our strength and spirits how it will distract and divide us how much it will allure and intice us or to how many scandals it will expose us Of all these I shall speak a word or two 1. I say first if we consider how much of our time worldly occasions take up All humane actions require time as well as place There is no religious action but requireth time and the more time is spent in our worldly employments the less must or can be spent in religious duties the more our intanglements are in secular affairs the less time we must spend in the acts of our more immediate homage to God Alass how little time hath he who is much imployed in the world for reading hearing praying for any religious service and this is the ordinary plea that men make for the non-performance of them they have no time to read the Scriptures or to pray in their Families or to instruct them or to hear the Word or to imploy their thoughts upon spiritual things Solomon saith of the covetous man that the multitude of his riches will not let him sleep It may be said of others the multitude of their businesses will not let them pray or keep up any course of Religion in their Families it suffers but a few to spend the Lords Sabbath as they ought to do they are so far from sparing God any of their own time that they are more ready to steal his time though it be but one day of seven 2. Secondly Worldly businesses do not only take up much of our time but also much of ãâã spirits and strength God doth not only require our love and such acts of homage in testification of our love as he hath prescribed but also that we should love him and do those acts with all our hearts with all our might and strength and excess of worldly labour and business wasts our Spirits takes away that might and strength which we fhould spend in the service of God Ah what heartless lifeless prayers and religious duties are performed by men and women taken up with an undue proportion of secular imployments 3. Thirdly They fill the head with a multitude of distractions 1 Cor. 7. 35. The Apostle upon this account v. 34. commendeth a single life to those to whom God had given that gift for saith he The unmarried Woman careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in Body and Spirit but the married Woman careth for the things of the World that she may please her Husband And this saith he I speak to you for your own profit not that I might cast a snare upon you but for that which is comely and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction Distractions in religious services though they appear not to the world yet really are the blackness of the Soul and it is our duty as much as in us lyeth to serve the Lord with the greatest attention of our thoughts and with as few distractions as we can now the more we are incumbred with secular affairs the greater we shall find our distractions in the service of God For as it is upon the ringing of a Bell though the man's hand be off the Rope and the Bell begins to be still yet for some time we shall discern a din in the sides of the Bell caused from its former motion and agitation So will every observing Christian find that when his hand is off his secular business yet his head will for some time be working upon it and this more especially sheweth a preparation of heart necessary for those in particular who are much imployed in worldly business before they draw nigh to God in the Solemn Duties of his Worship that the noise of their secular affairs may be out of their heads and they may serve the Lord without distractions and not be like to the People whom God complaineth of Ezek. 33. 31. They said come and let us go and hear the Word of the Lord. And saith God they come unto thee as the People cometh and sit before thee as my People and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their
he could do nothing against him because he found nothing in him If the Devil found nothing in our Souls he could do nothing against them but only disturb them The like may be said for the corruptions of Churches If the husbandmen did not sleep the Enemy could not sow so many tares All corruptions in the Doctrine of faith in matters of Worship and discipline have crept in by the Officers of Churches not keeping their own Vineyards The man of sin the Western Antichrist had never so hacknyed the Western Churches if they had not like Issachar Couched under the burden and bowed their necks down to the Yoke I shall shut up this discourse with a few Words of Exhortation to all to keep their own Vineyards I shall not here speak to the duty of husbandmen Spiritual husbandmen to keep the Vineyard of the Church it were a Proper discourse from the Doctrine but I am not in a proper auditory And besides would every particular Christian but keep the Vineyard of his own Soul the care of Magistrates and Ministers who are the keepers of Christs Vineyard might be less Christians woful remissness and neglect in keeping the more particular Vineyards of their own Souls is that which makes the work of the keepers of the more publick Vineyard of the Church so difficult and almost unpracticable to them Let me therefore only lay a little stress here as we say if every man would sweep his own door the street would be clean So it is true if every one would look to the Vineyard of his own particular Soul or his particular family the Church of God would be clean for that is made up but of particular families and particular Souls When these Vineyards are kept the more publick Vineyard which is made up of these must also be kept Wherein the keeping of our Vineyards lyeth you have heard viz. 1. In the keeping of it clear of weeds and noxious plants 2. In the cultivation and manuring such plants as are fit for it In these two things lyeth the keeping of Gardens and Vineyards amongst men in these two things lyeth the keeping of our Vineyards in a metaphorical more spiritual sense you whom God hath trusted with the care of others have a larger Vineyard then those that are solute The Wife is a part of the Husbands Vineyard Children are their parents Vineyard Servants are their Masters Vineyard Every mans family is his Vineyard If any be single his Soul is his Vineyard The keeping of your Vineyards lyeth in a keeping of them free from Scandal not suffering sin upon any that stand in any relation to you we ought not to do it as to our neighbour much less as to any that are our neighbours in thenearest and strictest sense and who stand in nearest concernment to us David resolved to walk within his house with a perfect heart that the faithful in the land should dwell with him and that he that walked in a perfect way should serve him that he that wrought deceit should not dwell within his house he that telleth lyes should not abide in his sight Psal 101. 2 7 8. Abraham commanded his Children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment Gen. 18. 19. For you that have only the Vineyards of your own Souls to keep neglect them not I will press this upon you with 2 considerations which I shall recommend to you 1. The first shall be The value of the Vineyards with which God hath betrusted to you The Vineyards are Souls either your own Souls or the Souls of others or both Which way soever you consider a Soul whether as a Spiritual being or as a reasonable being indued with noble faculties or as an immortal being that cannot perish with the body as that part of man which beareth the most lively impress of the image of God as that which was purchased by the blood of Christ and which is the habitation of God through the Spirit in which the holy Spirit may dwell that which is ordained to an Eternity either of happiness or misery which way soever you look upon your own Souls or the Souls of those who are committed to your trusts they are noble Vineyards Reason teacheth us to take the best care of our best and most excellent things I have thought it often a most unreasonable vanity of some Gentlemen to take a great deal more care of the managery of an horse or hawk then of their Sons It is every whit as great if not a much greater vanity to take a greater care of the bodies and outward concerns of their relations then of their Souls What can be laid in ballance with a Soul which will not be found too light for it what shall be offered in exchange for it and not rejected as of too low a consideration Of what value think you that must be which was bought with the blood of him who was the Son of God Consider of what value the profession of your faith and the practice of holiness is your faith is called precious faith and of holiness it is said that without it none shall see the Lord. 2. Secondly Consider who it is that hath betrusted you with them Behold saith God All Souls are mine It is God that hath given unto us the trust of our own Souls and the trusts of others Souls for all Souls are originally Gods He breaths the Soul into the body of a man he puts Souls into mens families I beseech you consider here these particulars 1. That every Person of reputation and honour valueth a trust and thinks it beneath a man not to discharge a trust he undertakes with some degrees of faithfulness We see in our daily experience that as men naturally Love to be trusted so they have a kind of natural religion for the keeping and discharging of it This is what makes men consciencious as to the wills of Persons that are dead All Souls are trusts our particular Souls are trusts the Souls of our relations are trusts to us The property of all Souls is Gods the trust of them is in us I wish this were but well thought on the wicked men mentioned by the Psalmist said our lips are our own who is Lord over us Psal 12. 4. men think that they may do what they will with what they have a full propriety in This is a great cause of mens neglect of their Souls they dream too much of an absolute property they have in them they say their Souls are their own Who is Lord over them would men consider their Souls a little more as trusts they would take a stricter care of them 2. Tho we naturally value all trusts yet such as our Superiours or near friends commit to us we yet value more A dread of our Superiours makes us to value and take care of what they have committed to our trust a love to our friends makes us value theirs
footsteps of the flock 2. Feed thy Kids by the Shepherds Tents O thou whom my Soul loveth or hath loved The Chaldee Paraphrast would have us believe that this seventh verse was Moses his Petition to God when he was about to die for direction from him how the People should be governed when he should be gone and how they should dwell amongst the Heathen whose laws would be more grievous to the sincere part of them then the Sun is to the Traveller at noon day and asking why she should live amongst the Edomites and Moabites who made Idols the companions of the true God and v. 8. the same Paraphrast makes this to be the Lords answer telling his Prophet Moses that if they would not live under the power of the Heathen they must walk in his Commandments and be obedient to the guides he had set over them But doubtless this is a strained sense proceeding from the overgreat fondness of that Interpreter to apply all that is said in this Song to the Jewish Church There are others who according to their different notions of these betwixt whom this Dialogue is instituted carry these words in other senses you know the sense which I have all along followed is that of those and they are the most and the best who make it a Dialogue betwixt the believing Soul or the Church and the Lord Jesus Christ It is then the believing Soul that speaks in this language of a lover O thou whom my Soul loveth Christ is the primary object of the believers love a believer loveth him and none else in a degree to be compared with him or with a love any thing like that love wherewith she loveth him But if she loveth him must she tell him so Modesty maketh the Virgin ordinarily to conceal her passion sinful modesty oft-times maketh her that is a spiritual Virgin to conceal her love to Christ She that may while she is doubting her own sincerity conceal her love to Christ will not conceal it when she lives in any view of it and can say with Peter Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that I love thee Nor when she is to use it as an argument to obtain any favour from him Nor when she is doubting of his love to her how unreasonably soever Nor is the Virgin that is too modest to publish her love to the world so modest as not to own it to him whom she hath resolved upon and chosen for her Husband Bernard hath I think too critical a note upon these words mark saith he she doth not say whom I love but whom my Soul loveth Spiritualem designans dilectionem intimating a spiritual love But yet it is well noted by the learned Mercer that the phrase signifieth more then if she had said Omy Beloved it is as much as if she had said In quem omnes meos affectus effudi saith Beza upon whom I have bestowed my whole heart Tell me where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at Noon Thus she expresseth the thing that she would have under a metaphorical expression the sense of which we are to enquire keeping of Sheep and Goats was a very ancient and in those times a noble employment Abel was the first Shepheard you read of Gen. 4. 2. Rachel was a keeper of Sheep Gen. 29. 6. So was Jacob and David as you know before he came to be King over Israel God called him from the Sheepfold Christ takes unto himself the notion of a Shepheard he calleth himself the good Shepheard John 10. 1 2. c. It was prophecied of him that he should feed his flock like a Shepheard Isaiah 45. 11. and his death was prophecied of under the notion of smiting the Shepheard Zech. 13. 7. Mat. 26. 11. The Apostle calls him the great Shepheard and the chief Shepheard In this dialect here the Spouse speaks to him It was not unusual for the Heathens to discourse matters of carnal and sensual love as transactions between Shepheards and some whom they loved The Holy Ghost doth the same here he by Solomon discourseth this matter of Spiritual and Divine love as a transaction betwixt a Shepheard and one who dearly loved him But what would she have she would know where he fed that is where he fed his flocks where he made them to rest at noon the noon as you know is the hottest time of the day and so by the noon I find some understanding a time of affliction To this I find Mercer and Beza inclining Beza thinketh that the Church here beggeth to know how Christ would have his Church governed and ordered in the middest of temptations and persecutions and beggeth for Christs fullest and clearest manifestations of himself to her at such a time so saith Bernard Mercer thinks it is as much as if she had said Lord I am burnt with the Sun shew me that shadow in and with which thou usest to refresh thy Saints in the hour of affliction There is a promise made to the Church Isaiah 49. 10. They shall not hanger nor thirst neither shall the heat or the Sun smite them for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of waters shall he guide them Now the Spouse here in the opinion of these Interpreters begs to know these shadows where the flocks rested at noon I must confess I more incline to another sense The noon was the hottest time of the day and as in our Country where the power of the Sun is nothing so much as in those hot Countries Cattel seek shadows and resting places where they are a little free from the heat of the weather so they were wont to drive their flocks of Sheep into such shadowy places where both the Shepheard and the Sheep were more quiet and at rest which time was the most free time of the day for the Shepheard when any might more freely discourse him according to that of the Poet Fauste precor gelidâ quando pecus omne sub umbrâ ruminet antiquos paulum recitemus amores So that the Spouse desireth to know where he fed where he made his flocks to rest at noon That is where she might have the most free and uninterrupted communion with him For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions She here implieth that without her Lords direction she was like enough to turn aside She beggeth she might not so turn aside The word in the Hebrew is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã we translate it as one turning aside or that turneth aside and so Pagnine interpreteth it Arias Montanus translates it sicut operiens se as one that covereth her self and indeed so the Hebrew word most commonly signifieth Now this covering themselves was either in token of shame or of sorrow or modesty Mourners were wont to cover their faces Ezech. 24. 17. Forbear to cry make no mourning for the dead bind the tire of thy head upon thee and
is this Thou believing Soul who in my Eyes art more beautiful and lovely then any other Soul in the world if thou beest in any thing ignorant of my will and where to meet me and how to enjoy fellowship and communion with me do not stray from the rule of my word nor vary from the examples of those whom I gave for Shepherds to my People keep close to them to their Doctrine and to my Ordinances administred by them There thou shalt find me There I rest at noon These two verses thus opened afford us several Propositions of Doctrine as matter of further discourse Prop. 1. Christ is he and only he whom the believing Soul loveth Prop. 2. Though there may be a time when such a Soul may conceal and disown its love to Christ yet there will be a time when it will break forth and she will acknowledge it Prop. 3. A gracious Soul desireth nothing more then a quiet full and sweet communion with Christ Prop. 4. Christ hath shades where he resteth and feedeth his flock under the greatest and most scorching Afflictions Prop. 5. Though a pious Soul never slighteth a communion with Christ yet she never prizeth it at an higher rate then in an hour of greatest trials and temptations Prop. 6. Gods People will especially in times of trial and great temptation be prone to fall into sin and error to the scandal of their profession Prop. 7. Sin and Scandal are the two great things which a gracious Soulfears Prop. 8. The Believing Soul is of all other Souls the most beautiful in Christs Eyes Prop. 9. The Beauty of this Soul is not perfect it may in some things be ignorant Prop. 10. The surest way for a Soul to get a perfect instruction in the things that concern its spiritual good and to keep and to enjoy communion with Christ is to feed its self by the Tents of Christs Shepherds and to live according to the examples and directions of his holy Servants recorded in Holy Writ I begin with the first of which I shall speak but briefly Prop. 1. Jesus Christ is he whom the Soul loveth with a singular love I put in the term singular because as I told you the phrase imports it Love is nothing else but the adhaesion or cleaving of the Soul to an object out of a goodness and suitableness which it hath discerned in it with a complacency which the Soul taketh in it which is such as if the Soul wants it it desires it if it enjoyeth it it is glad and rejoyceth in it which being first considered it followeth that look how many objects as there are that have in them any goodness or suitableness to our state so many objects of our love there are in the world And 2. That look how much goodness and suitableness to us we apprehend in one object more than in another so much we love one thing more than another or one person more than another 2. There is also a love that floweth from Union and Relation of which we are not able to give a perfect account the Parent loves the Child and the Husband loves the Wife and the Wife the Husband not alwaies out of Judgment The Husband discerning in the Wife a suitableness to him is not alwaies the cause of love Nor is the Child's love to the Mother or Father alwaies rational flowing from an apprehension of the suitableness of the Parent to it but rather from an impetus of nature an unaccountable complacency in those whom God hath made correlates caused by the God of Nature who hath made them one flesh who so deliberately considereth this will easily understand a double reason of the Believers Love to Christ 1. The first is That Union which is betwixt the believing Soul and the Lord Jesus Christ which is wrought by Faith this produceth this second Union which is that of Love By Faith Christ is united to the Soul and becometh a member of his body and that is followed by this Union of Love The Soul in the same hour wherein it is united by Faith to Christ being taught of God to love the Lord Jesus Christ It 's a piece of its Regeneration which continually followeth Justification and is indeed coaevous with it so that as in the natural Union the same day the man becomes a Father or the Woman a Mother there is a new Emanation of affection and love the Man or Woman that before knew nothing of the heart of a Parent now begins to feel it and in the moral Union betwixt the Husband and Wife the same day that they are married to each other there floweth a reciprocal Affection each to other so as they then begin to know the heart of an Husband and a Wife of which they knew little or nothing before So it is upon the Spiritual Union as the God of Nature influenceth the Souls of persons whom he hath given one to another in natural and moral Relations ordinarily for a reciprocal usefulness one to another So the God of Grace influenceth the Soul put into a spiritual Relation to Christ That the Believer upon his Union with Christ doth find his heart cleaving to and taking a complacency in the Lord Jesus Christ and begins thus to know the heart of a Believer And look as it is in the moral Relation betwixt the Wife and the Husband though the Man may have heard such reports of the virtues and excellencies of the Woman before he hath married her as hath inforced from him a complacency in her yet this bears no proportion to that delight and complacency he taketh in her when she is once married to him So although a Soul upon the large discourses he hath heard of Christ and of his love to Mankind and what he hath done and is ready to do for the Souls of men may have some good thoughts of him and some kind of complacency in his thoughts of him yet there is a vast difference betwixt this and that complacency which the Soul taketh in Christ when it is once by Faith united to him and amongst other habits of grace hath that of Love to God infused into his Soul according to that Rom. 5. 5. The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us I know there is a Dispute raised by some whether the natural man's love to God differeth from the Believer's love to God specifically or only gradually I do not think that these spiritual habits fall under those logical measures I am sure it is a love flowing quite from another cause The natural man's love is no more than a natural Plant cultivated by reason the other 's is a fruit of the Spirit so as they differ further than gradually but whether we should call it specifically or no or want a Logical term to express the difference I shall not think it worth my time to enquire 2. A second Reason of the Believer's love and so
was a 2d which I also observed from that viz. That as there is a time when such a Soul will conceal its Love to Christ and will not be brought to own its Love to him So there is a time when it will own and acknowledge it This now would lead me to a discourse of those times when a believer is free to own and acknowledge its grace particularly its love to Christ And those times when it findeth a difficulty and will not be brought to do it But I remember I handled that point when I discoursed the forgoing words I am black but comely I shall therefore here pass it over and come to the matter of the petition or thing wherein she desireth to be instructed viz. Where he fed his flock Where he made his flocks to rest at Noon In the explication of the terms of the Text. I considered the Noon time 1. As the time when Shepherds having driven their flocks into some shady places to lye down and rest were themselves most at leisure and one might have the most private free and full communion with them with the least interruptions At other times of the day till night again comes the Shepherd must have a constant Eye upon his flock According to which sense the phrase is expressive of believing Souls desires of all occasions and opportunities when it may have the most private free and full communion with Christ with the least interruptions 2. Secondly As the time when the Sun shines out hottest So it may be understood of the Churches Noon or the Believers Noon When they were most scorched with Trials and Persecutions So there are 3 Propositions which I before observed The first of which I shall begin with Prop. That a believing Soul is very covetous of such occasions and opportunities when it may injoy the most private free and full communion with Christ with the least interruptions Whiles the Shepherd is driving his flock to their pastures he is in motion one may exchange some few words with him but he cannot have much serious discourse with him when he cometh to his feeding place still his Eye must be after his flock which in their feeding may be prone to straggle but at Noon when his flocks are in the shadow that is the fairest opportunity of converse with the Shepherd It is true it is the infirmity of our humane natures that we cannot at the same time duly attend two different things God is not under the Law of it God cannot be so taken up with one business of providence as to neglect another because of it But while Christ is set out to us under imperfect and infirm comparisons he is set out as one compassed about with our infirmities And certain it is that our communion with him in this life admitteth of many interruptions on our part and there are times and places wherein a good Christian may and doth injoy a more perfect free and full communion with his God then he doth or can do at other times and places The Spouse here desireth to know the times places and opportunities of most free full and perfect communion with God and this I say is the object of every believing Souls desire As to times of this nature they are easily discerned by considering what those things are which most interrupt and hinder our communion with God those are either 1. Worldly cares businesses and distractions or 2. Temptations whether from the stirrings of lusts in our own heart for every man saith James is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed Or from his Grand adversary the Devil So that times of freest communion with God are times when we are likely to be most free from the incumbrances of the World or the âââlestations of our own lusts or Satans Suggestions As to the two latter there are indeed no times as to which which we can promise our selves an absolute immunity As to the former there are two times The morning or the night season 2. The Sabbath day 1. The morning or night season That is a time for rest and when the greatest part of the World are at their natural rest hence you shall observe that the Servants of God have often made choice of these times for their more private and free communion with God Psal 5. 3. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning in the morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 59. 16. I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning Psal 63. 1. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee v. 6. When I remember thee on my bed and meditate on the in the night watches Times of least business in the World and greatest silence from the noises businesses of the World are the times for freest communion with God not that God is not as ready to hear our Prayers and to communicate himself at other times but because the Souls of Gods People are not so free in themselves for whereas the life of our communion with God lyeth in the attention of our thoughts and fervency of our Spirits And the latter of these hath also a great dependence on the former it is impossible for us to keep our thoughts so intent upon our duty when the noises and businesses of the World distract us as when we have nothing of that nature from the World to disturb or divert us 2. The Sabbath day is likewise such another time and so are other times which we have voluntarily set apart for the Solemn seeking of God but the former especially For tho the Law of the Lord for the Sanctification of the Sabbath hath not such an influence upon the World as were highly to be desired yet in the places especially where we live it hath some influence so that the most of men and women cease from all servile labour and there is a great silence in the World that day in comparison of other days and that law taketh a great hold upon the hearts of all such as truly fear God so as none of them durst ingage themselves in wordly businesses as on other dayes and tho this be not the case as to such solemn days as Christians set apart for religious duties yet we having laid our selves under a private law tho the time at first was our own and we needed not to have dedicated it to the Lord yet having done it we think our selves justly to be more ingaged and concerned to lay the World out of our sight and thoughts and and this doubtless much commendeth the practice of Christians in setting some times of this nature apart for the solemn service of God As to places under the Gospel we have no such place as the Temple at Hierusalem none to which any such promise is made our Rule is Every where to Worship the Father Every where to list up pure hands But yet though there be no particular place concerning which we
green pastures for his flock in the day time and a secure fold for them at night yea and a fitting shadow for them at noon Christ doth so for his little flock to whom it 's his his Fathers and his will to give a Kingdom There shall be no want of those that fear him In the day time of their lives he feeds and protects them by his providence he nourisheth them by his ordinances and daily influences of grace In the night of death he folds their Bodies in the grave their Souls in Abrahams bosom It is the work of a Shepherd to provide and look out pasture for his sheep when that ordinary pasture is burnt up like a wilderness It is our great Shepherds work to provide feeding and resting places when either publick trials afflictions and persecutions debar them of their ordinary subsistence upon common providence or ordinary and more publick dispensations of publick ordinances and institutions the common food of their Souls But you will say to me what are these shadows from the heat these feeding and resting places which Christ hath provided wherein to feed and rest his flock at such a Noon 1. First he feedeth them upon the promises either more general or more specially suited to their particular trials Jeremiah saith Jer. 15. 16. I found thy words and did eat them and they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart Jeremy possibly there speaketh of the word of Prophecy which was as welcome to him as his meat But what was the word of Prophecy but the revelation of the will of God to him which when it was foretelling some judgment to come upon the People is more ordinarily called The Burden of the Lord The Believing Soul also in the Noon time of his Affliction and tryal finds the word of the Lord this he digesteth by faith and they become the joy and rejoycing of his heart By these things men live said Hezekiah some understand his affliction Others the promises of God made to him in the day of his Affliction The carnal heart understands not this food it is to him all one with feeding upon the air The promises are onely yea and Amen in Christ they are as shew bread of which none but the Royal Priest-hood can eat when the Child of God hath nothing else to eat he will yet feed upon a promise I had perisht saith David in my affliction if thy word had not been my delight Psal 119. v. 92. Latimer is said to have made his last meal upon that promise 1 Cor. 10. 13. Faithful is God who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able It is also reported of one Mr. Midgely a Minister in Yorkshire that being under horrid temptations to destroy himself and going once to the water side with design to do it carrying in his pocket the New Testament he paused a while to read a little and happily fell upon that text Mat. 1. 28. 29. Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you upon the reading of which he said to himself or to God rather sayest thou so I will not then drown my self yet The large field of the promises is one of those green pastures Where Christ at Noon feedeth his flock and maketh them to rest It is a feeding place which is at all times green the promises contain the Sure mercies of God He that liveth upon meer Sensible enjoyments feedeth but upon Grass and Flowers The Grass will wither and Flowers will fade But the word of the Lord abideth for Ever and there are some promises or others which sute the Soul in all its states and circumstances of Tryal and affliction 2. Secondly Christ sometimes feeds his flock at noon upon Special Providences And these are also of several sorts either of Protection from the Evil or Sustentation in and under trouble or deliverances out of trouble sometimes when thousands and ten thousands fall on their right and left hand The Plague shall not come nigh their dwellings according to the promise Psal 91. v. 7. In a time of famine Corn shall be fetched out of Egypt for Jacobs Family the Prophet shall be fed by a raven or the multiplying of the little meal in the widows barrel and the little Oyl in the cruse Sometimes they shall by some miraculous or at least inexpected waies and means be delivered out of trouble so were the three Children in the fiery fornace Daniel in the den of Lions of these there are multitudes of instances in Ecclesiastical History 3. Thirdly He sometimes feeds his People by Special influences either of strengthening or comforting grace In the multitude of my perplexing thoughts saith David thy comforts delight my Soul Psal 34. v. 19. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us saith the Apostle so our consolations abound by Christ 2 Corinth 1. 5. He will saith Job put strength into me Hence the Servants of God are inabled to rejoyce in tribulation under sicknesses have professed that they were never better and in great trials have rejoiced with a joy unspeakable Rejoycing in tribulation floweth not from the Tribulation For no affliction is joyous but grievous but from the influences of God upon the Soul in and under its tribulation Some one or other of these waies and means Christ feedeth his flock in a time of Trial and maketh them to rest in the Noon time of Trials and afflictions I proceed to the application of this discourse This in the first place commendeth the love of Christ to his little flock They say the Devil leaves the Witch when she is once in Gaol or upon trial for her life how true that is I cannot tell but certain it is that his Servants have no great help from him in an hour of straits and adversity this indeed speaks no love which never so much or so clearly shineth as through a Cloud of sad Providences Solomon tells us that a friend is made for an hour of adversity But herein is the Love of Christ manifested to those that have relation to him my Soul saith Mary Luk. 1. 4647. doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden Christ regardeth the low estate of his People he leaveth them not when they are in distress Isaiah 43. 1 2. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee For I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour This lets us see the wonderful difference betwixt the state and condition of believers and unbelievers The world hath no places where to make their flocks to rest at Noon The Devil takes no care for his flock at
such a time Other men may seem to do well enough so long as they have rest and ease and prosperity But what will they do in the day of their visitation God takes another care for his People when David can incourage himself in nothing else he can incourage himself in his God When the Fig-tree doth not blossom and there is no fruit in the vine when the fields yield no meat and the flock are cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stall yet even then they can rejoyce in the Lord and be glad in the God of their Salvation Habak 3. 17 18 19. Vnder his shades we shall live saith the Afflicted Church Lam. 4. 20. I state under his shadow with great delight saith the Spouse Cant. 2. 3. There are many promises which God hath made to his People to be their hiding place their rock their Covert their shadow from the storm and from the tempest To which I refer you In the next place What cause of rejoycing and lifting up of the head is here to the People of God whether such as lie under the present pressures of Tryals or Afflictions or such as have these storms in prospect though they be not already fallen upon them Is the noon of Tryals and Afflictions come upon any of you Hath the Lord taken away those gourds which heretofore were a shade to you your health friends estate your outward comforts of what kind soever yet be of good cheer God is only changing your Souls Pastures Hitherto you have lived more immediately upon the creature you shall only now live more immediately upon God hitherto you have lived by sight God is now calling you to live by Faith hitherto your great Shepherd hath fed you in the fields of sensible comforts and enjoyments things that are seen he is now calling you to live upon things that are invisible but every way as sufficient for the support and sustenance of the Soul he that hath fed thee in the morning will not leave thee at noon time Psal 37. v. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good and so shalt thou dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed David saith He never saw the righteous forsaken The Believer shall be fed either with that bread which the world knoweth and calleth so or with that bread which the world knoweth and calleth so or with that bread which the world knoweth not of There is a revolution of time a vicissitude of Providences but there is no change of the Word and Promises of God Verily they shall be fed There shall be no want to those that fear the Lord. A noon may come but Christ hath a shadow a feeding a resting place for his flocks at noon That God who hath kept thee in health will also keep thee in sickness He that hath hitherto kept thee from the malice of a most malicious world will keep thee under the pressures of their malice Only take care to Trust in the Lord and to do good Is not this thy case Hast thou the storm only in prospect but it is not yet fallen upon thee and art thou only tormented with the fears of what is likely to come upon thee oft-times slavish fear proves a great evil and an evil in prospect is greater than when it is fallen upon a person Let this incourage you to hear that Christ hath shades for his People at noon God hath said I will never leave you nor forsake you Let me only commend one Promise to you it is made to the Church and to every Believer as a Member of it it is that Isa 4. 5 6. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her Assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence and there shall be a Tabernacle in the day-time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from Storm and from Rain I will shut up this Discourse with a word or two of Exhortation First To such as are yet none of the Inhabitants of Mount Zion None of those I mean who are the true Members of the Church of Christ Those who have no title or are able to make out no title to the dwelling-places upon Mount Zion or any of them what a motive should this be to all such to indeavour what in them lieth to get into Christ's little Flock A noon must come Possibly it is now morning with you and you are more careless but man is born to trouble and it is as natural to humane nature as it is for sparks to fly upward as Job tells us The Children of God in respect to the world's hatred are more exposed to others but there is none who liveth and shall not see death none that lives but must look to be in deaths often of one nature or another It is certainly the highest prudence to be prepared for all Assayes Thou hast no way for this but to get an interest in Christ Whilst thou art an Egyptian thou canst not look for the Priviledges of one that is an Inhabitant in Goshen Doest thou ask me how can this be How should I who am a Goat be transformed into a Sheep Our Saviour answers thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God he can be none of that little Flock to whom it is God's will to give that Kingdom Regeneration a new Birth from the holy Spirit can only make this Spiritual Metamorphosis Thy work in order to it lyeth only in some external actions such as refraining what thou canst from sin waiting upon God in Ordinances calling upon God in Prayer not resisting the motions of his holy Spirit 2d Branch Secondly This Discourse ought to quicken such as are of the Flock of Christ in all their Noons of Affliction and Trial to betake themselves to Christ's shades to the places where Christ useth to feed and to make his Flocks to rest at Noon What those shades are I have shewed you our work is to betake our selves unto them It is natural to us when we are pursued to look for a covert for some refuge or shelter where we may hide our selves till the storm be passed over and to flee to such places where we think that we may be secure There is no true shelter but in Christ's shades Let us then inquire what is the duty of a good Christian in an evil day that he may bring his Soul to a rest and quiet 1. The first and great thing is to look out our Evidences to make out our title to and interest in the Lord Jesus Christ We must intitle our selves to the great Shepherd of our Souls as our Shepherd before we can expect that he should in a scorching time make us to lie down in green Pastures and lead us besides the still waters and encourage our selves as David Psal
23. 4. Though I walk through the shadow of death I shall fear none evill for thou art with me thy Rod and thy Staff comfort me 2. That done a Christian's next work is to look out the Promises which God hath made either such as are more general and respect his People under any Trial or such as are more special and relate to the People under any Trial or such as are more special and relate to the People of God under such particular pressures of Affliction that they lie under The Book of holy Scriptures is a great Store-house there is scarce any condition of Christians to which some Promises are not suited It is of great use for a Christian to know and understand and be acquainted with the Promises They are as the Jointure to the Wife all that she hath to live upon only with this difference the Woman liveth not upon the Jointure which her earthly Husband hath made her till he be dead Christ died once he dieth no more but ever lives but the Promises are what the Soul liveth upon when God seems as dead withdrawing himself from the support and protection of his People A good Christian ought not therefore to be a stranger to them 3. It is the duty of a Christian to betake himself to these shades to eye the Promises to commit himself unto them to hope in them these are acts and exercises of Faith Come my People saith God by his Prophet Isaiah Enter into the Chambers and hide thy self for a little time till the indignation be overpast Our coming is by Faith committing our selves unto God and trusting in him 1 Pet. 4. 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their Souls unto him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator Christ is the primary object of our Faith the Promises are the proximate objects In such a time therefore let every good Christian call the Promises to his mind whet them upon his Soul offer his Soul to them call upon it to trust in them 4. It is the duty of a Christian at such a time to wait upon God with patience God ought to be trusted in regard of his Truth and Faithfulness his Power and Goodness He ought to be waited upon in regard of his Majesty and Greatness and Wisdom The Promises are oft-times made in general for help deliverance strength and the like without specifying the particular way and method which God will use and without limitations of time He that believeth maketh not hast 5. There must be a close walking with God though we be sore broken in the place of Dragons and covered with the shadow of death yet we must not forget the Name of our God our heart must not turn back from him we must not deal falsly in our Covenant with him nor suffer our steps to decline from his way Psal 44. The Promise Psal 37. 4. that we shall dwell in the Land and be certainly fed is prefaced with a Precept to trust in the Lord and to do good And the advice of the Apostle Peter is to commit our Souls in well doing unto God as to a faithful Creator 6. Lastly Prayer must be added the promises are Gods bonds by which he hath made himself a Debtor to his Creature Prayer is an action of ours by which we put these bonds in suit Sermon XLIII Cant. 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at Noon for why should I be like one of them that turneth aside by the flocks of thy Companions I Am still upon the Spouses third Petition to her Beloved Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon Methinks I could say with Peter when he was with his Master upon the Mount of Transfiguration It is good for us to be here let us build here two Tabernacles one for the Spouse another for her Beloved What she would have in this Petition clouded with Metaphors I have more fully before opened either a more full communion with Christ most free from interruptions Or his more special influence upon her in her hours of affliction and persecution I have spake something already to it in both these senses I have but one thing to add before I come to the words which are the reason of her Petition that is from the form of the words considered as a prayer so expressive both of her wants and desires a supply The Proposition I shall shortly speak to is this Prop. That though a Believer at all times fees a need of the presence and influence of the grace of Christ yet more especially in the time of afflictions and tryals Return unto me for I am married unto you saith the Lord was Gods language of old to his ancient Spouse the People of the Jews The Apostle largely pursueth the same metaphor Eph. 5. 32. This is a great mystery I speak concerning Christ and the Church so he concludeth his discourse the Wife desireth her Husbands presence at all times God hath made the Woman the weaker sex and the Wife stands in daily need of her Husband whom God hath made her head to guide and conduct her she is not only as a Vine for fruitfulness but for weakness and dependency also so is every believing Soul it hath alwaies need of that promise I will never leave you nor forsake you But as the Wife hath more especial need of the Influence and assistance of her Husband in times and matters of difficulty and distress so hath the believing Soul so that he at all times prayeth with David Psal 27. 9. Hide not thy face from me put not away thy Servant in anger thou hast been my help leave me not neither forsake me O God of my Salvation The Child of God knoweth what will follow at any time if the Sun of Righteousness doth not shine upon him all his protection strength life healing is in the shadow of his Wings But yet I say he or she seeth a more especial need of his presence and influence in the noon of sharp Trials and Afflictions Hence you shall observe that though the Servants of God have kept their daily courses of prayer yet at such times they have used themselves to more solemn addresses and applications to God of which you have plentiful instances in Scriptures in the solemn fasts and prayers put up to God in such times and their more special Petitions put up with reference to such times and dispensations of Providence Hence David cryeth out Psal 22. 11. Be not far from me for trouble is near for there is none to help me and again v. 19. Be not thou far from me O God make hast to help me so again Psal 35. 22. It was a time of great outward straights with David as you may see by reading all the former part of that Psalm v. 22.
This saith he thou hast seen O God keep not silence O Lord be not thou far from me so Psal 38. 21 22. Psal 71. 12. Every Christians experience is a full proof of this so as the Proposition needeth no further proof only let me shew you the reason of it The great Reason is Because we are all of us more prone to live by sight then by faith The Apostle saith we live by faith not by sight He tells you what he himself and other Christians then did and what all good Christians should do The just saith the Prophet shall live by faith But through our infirmity we do live more by sight then we do by faith It is a lesson very hard to flesh and blood could we live more by faith there would be these two consequents to such a life 1. In the day of our sensible contentments we should live more upon the word and promises of God then upon any sensible comforts and enjoyments But it is hard for us to have a staff lent us and not to lean upon it so when it breaketh we come to see our errors and see more need of the influences of Divine Grace at such then at other times 2. We should see as much in God and in Christ to uphold and maintain our selves in an evil day as at any other times for the promises are the same and Christ in whom all the promises are yea and Amen is the same and Gods all-sufficiency is the same he is at all times the God that changeth not This being premised as the great and original cause we may conceive some further and more particular reasons 2. Because in this Noon all creature comforts fail yea and in some afflictions sensible spiritual comforts sometimes fail also In trials that are more external such as bodily afflictions persecutions c. outward comforts fail when the Sun shineth upon our Tabernacles and the rod of God is not upon us we are then ready to forget God when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked up the heel when these outward consolations are taken away then the Soul beginneth to see that it stands in need of some other supports If the Affliction be some divine desertion then the sensible consolations of the Holy Spirit fail also what Daviá said in his prosperity Psal 30. 6. I shall never be moved we are all of us too prone to say in the day of our prosperity but as it fared him with v. 7. so it fareth with us when the Lord hideth his face we are troubled It is too natural even to the best of men not to know the God of our mercies in the day of our mercies It was Israels sin Hosea 2. 8. For she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oil. We do not so duly attend to that which we profess to know that our Soul strength and Soul comforts are from the Lord and hence it is that in the day when they are withdrawn we see a more special need of the presence and influence of Christ upon us It is the unhappiness and infirmity of humane nature that we seldom either understand our mercies or the Author and Fountain of them till we come to want them while we have health and peace and liberty while we have inward strength and quiet we neither understand the value of these mercies nor Eye God as we should do as the Author of them but in the noon time of our tryals and afflictions whether more immediately from God in bodily afflictions or divine desertions or more immediately from men then we both understand the value of our mercies and also what need we have of the presence of God with us and the influences of God upon us At other times we live very much upon our more sensible enjoyments now we have not them to live upon and so see a more need of a God and a Christ to live upon 3. Ordinarily at such a time Our lusts and corruptions move very impetuously A man never so well knows the lusts and corruptions of his own heart as in an evil day Natura vexata prodit Sâipsam Anger a man we say and you will see his temper when God by his providence vexeth a poor creature as others will see something so he will see more what lusts and corruptions are in his heart The Devil knew this well enough when he replyed to God commending his servant Job Put forth now thine hand and touch him and he will eurse thee to thy face Now as every good Soul keepeth a watch upon his heart and observeth the motions of sin and lust in his Soul so he never seeth more of the need of the presence and influence of God upon his Soul then when Iniquities prevail against him When Paul cries out of the body of death he presently cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me 4. Lastly His Grand Adversary the Devil is never more busy then at such a time Times of afflictions are not only times of divine temptations when God proveth and tryeth his People whether they will adhere and keep close to him but of Diabolical Suggestions and temptations also When the Devil is making tryal whether he can pluck a Soul out of Christs hand and out of his Fathers hand The Psalmist calls the Devil The fowler and he knows hard weather is the best time for his purpose he first gets a commission against Job to take away all that he had saving his life onely and then his Wife cometh and persuadeth him to curse God and dye and he followeth him with many other Suggestions and temptations This was the reason of Saint Pauls writing to the Church of Corinth to restore the incestuous Person who by his order was cast out of their communion lest saith he he should be swallowed up of too much grief and Satan should have advantage against him for we are not ignorant of his devices We are never so sensible what need we have of our friends as when our enemies appear most busy most strong and active Hence it is that although a believer seeth a need of the presence and influence of Christ at all times yet he never seeth so great a need of him as in a time of great and sharp trials and afflictions when trouble is hard at hand I shall shut up this discourse with a Word or two of exhortation shortly This should ingage all of us so to behave our selves towards our Lord in the morning of our prosperity that we may not want his presence and influence in the noon of our trials afflictions and adversity It is a mighty folly in any of us to live as we had no Prospect of the ordinary or necessary contingencies of humane life Prudence quasi providence Solomon saith The wise man hath his Eyes in his head And these Eyes are imployed in looking forward as well as round about him at the present It is a great folly in
a man to spend as if it were not possible he should ever come to want or to live as if he should never see death The wise man lives in a constant view of what may be or what is likely to be and in some kind of provision for it It were mighty madness for any in a morning though it be never so cool to conclude it would never be Noon or Night Man is born to trouble saith Job as the sparks flie upward Good men seem to be more particularly designed for it if not from the appointment of God who hath ordered their portion in another life yet from that hatred and enmity which the world hath to them and to the waies wherein they walk It is therefore an high point of wisdom in all men to have them in prospect and be preparing for them this can be done no better way than by taking heed to our conversations in times of health peace and liberty We must not think to abuse or to live in the neglect and contempt of a friend in the time of our prosperity and liberty and to have him at our beck ready to help us in the time of our straits and adversity God had often delievered the Jews in their distresses when they cryed unto him Judg. 10. 6. They did evilâagain in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam and Ashtaroth the gods of Syria and Moab v. 7. God sold them into the hands of the Philistins and into the hands of the Children of Ammon V. 10. They again cryed unto the Lord observe what answer God gave them v. 11 12. Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites from the Children of Ammon and from the Philistins The Zidonians also and the Amalekites and the Moabites did oppress you and you cried to me and I delivered you out of their hands yet you have forsaken me and served other gods Wherefore I will deliver you no more Go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation If as we have a need of the presence and influence of Christ at all times so we shall have a more special apprehension of that need in any time of affliction and distress we stand highly concerned to take heed how we carry our selves to him in the time of our health peace liberty prosperity As we use him in the daies of our health peace and liberty so we shall find him in the daies of our sickness distress or other adversity So as considering our subjections to trials and afflictions here is a potent Argument to persuade our keeping close to the Laws of Christ while we are at liberty But I shall add no more to my discourse upon this Proposition and have done with the Spouse's Petition and come to that Argument by which she presseth this Petition For why should I be as one who turneth aside by the flocks of thy Companions When I opened the words I noted to you That the 70 Interpreters Montanus and some others translate the words as one that covereth her self ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so the Dutch Annotators Junius and Tremellius as one that stretcheth out a Tent by the flocks of thy Companions The Syriack and the Ethiopick Versions and the Vulg. Lat. who is also followed by Pagnine translate it as one that wandreth or one that turneth aside The Radical word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which primarily signifieth to cover in a secondary sense to wander or turn aside I before noted that covering denoted three things amongst the Eastern Nations 1. Modesty Virgins therefore went vailed into the company of men especially 2. Shame Harlots therefore covered themselves as you read Gen. 38. 14. 3. Sorrow Ezek. 24. 17. So as the sense of the words seemeth to be this Why should I that am married to thee be taken for one not married to thee or for one that goeth on whoring from thee or for one that is a mourner through great grief and heaviness Or if you take it in the second sense she plainly hints her aptness to wander without the conduct and guidance of the Lord Jesus Christ and accordingly she deprecateth it By wandring or turning aside must be understood a deviation from the statutes and Commandments of God By that term the flocks of thy Companions I told you some understanding Idolaters some Hereticks the Idolater makes his Idol Christs Companion giving it the same worship that is due to him The heretick maketh some creature his leader Christs Companion taking his Instruction from him But I told you I should rather understand it of true Christians whom the Apostle saith Christ is not ashamed to call Brethren but yet the former sense being imbraced by grave and reverend Authors I shall not pass it over without a few words relating to it Observe then 1. Here are two things which the Spouse seemeth to fear and so deprecateth Sin and Scandal Sin especially those two great Sins of Idolatry and Heresie Scandal lest she should be any ways a reproach to the Gospel and give occasion to any to speak evil of the waies of God and to reproach the Gospel 2. The Spouse in this reason that she gives for her Petition doth suggest that without the influence and support of her Lord she should never be able in an hour of great temptation to make straight steps to her feet and to keep her self upright she should be ready to wander and turn aside 3. That which the Spouse expresseth is an earnest desire to be kept from sin and from scandal She doth therefore use this as an Argument to plead with her Lord for his presence and influence that she might not sin against the Lord nor being overcome with temptations or swallowed up with grief become a scandal to her Profession Here are two things which offer themselves as matter for my Discourse 1. The insufficiency of a. Soul to avoid sin and scandal without the presence and influence of Christ upon it This the Spouse owneth and acknowledgeth It is as much as if she should say Lord if thou doest not help and assist me in the Noon of my trials and afflictions if thou dost not shew me where at such times thou feedest thy flocks and makest them to rest at Noon I shall wander I shall turn aside by the flocks of those that are set up for thy Companions I shall go a whoring from thee and upon that account walk as one covered for shame amongst those who are thy People But this is a subject which I have before handled when I discoursed upon those words Draw me and we will run after thee 2. The second thing is The two great objects of a believing Soul's fear are sin and scandal Why should I wander or turn aside or walk as one covered for shame like an Harlot All these senses speak her fear of sin Or why should I walk as a mourner covered and dejected or as an
absurd and false are supposed in order to the forming of a true conclusion But in the Text it is certain that it doth Our Lord in saying If thou knowest not Supposeth that the Spouse might not know and therefore he directeth her in the latter part of the Text. It is certain that the term know in Scripture doth not alwaies signify the comprehending the thing spoken of in our understanding it sometimes signifieth to approve sometimes to attend to what we know sometimes to Experience I take here the first and most natural signification of the term to be the Sense If If thou knowest not that is if thou beest ignorant If thou beest at a loss At a loss for what I told you that to perfect the Sense we must supply something from the foregoing verse from the matter of the Spouses Petition She had desired him to tell her where he fed his flock where he made them to rest at noon Where she might have the best freest and least interrupted fellowship and communion with him especially in a time of great distress and affliction To this he answereth O thou fairest amongst Women If thou knowest not that is if thou knowest not where I feed my flocks nor where I make them to rest at noon Go thy way c. The words might lead me to a more general discourse of the imperfection of a believers state in this life Or to a more particular discourse concerning those grains of ignorance which may be allowed a gracious Soul But as the first is too general so the latter is too hard a task until the world be better agreed then it yet is about the number of fundamental truths necessary to be known and believed in order to Eternal life and Salvation Besides I think my Text considered as an answer to the preceding petition guides me to another thing The Spouses request was to be instructed how she might enjoy a full and free communion with her Lord especially in a time of trial and distress with reference to this petition her Lord answereth her If thou knowest not Supposing she might as to this at some times be ignorant and at a loss The Proposition is plain Prop. That even the best of Gods People the fairest amongst Women may sometimes be at a great loss where and how to maintain their desired communion with Christ I shall open the Proposition in three conclusions Then confirm and apply it 1. The Souls communion with Christ lyes in their reciprocal communications of themselves each to other All communion is made up of a mutual communication of two or more Persons I have discoursed the nature of communion largely in some of my former discourses and therefore shall say little of it now Onely I say all communion lyes in a mutual and reciprocal communication Thus two friends have communion each with other by frequent meetings together mutual discourses and communications of the Secrets of each others hearts one to another The Subjects in this communion are Souls clothed with bodies and their communion is bodily But now the Soul considered with Christ as its correlate in this communion are Spirits and their communion is more Spiritual The Soul performeth its part in it by the secret exercise of the powers God hath given it upon Christ as the object By Spiritual Meditations the exercise of faith love hope desire joy and delight c. By giving up its will to his will assenting to what he dictateth in his word consenting to what he there commandeth c. Christ communicates himself to the Soul by the secret influences of his Spirit opening and inlightening the understanding bowing and inclining the will influencing the affections convincing strengthening quickening comforting the Soul Indeed there is a more external communion with God but separated from this it signifieth nothing to the Souls advantage so we are said to have communion with God in reading and hearing his word praying receiving the Sacraments the Soul hath in these no further fellowship communion with God then it in them exerciseth these more inward powers in more external acts by the advantage of the bodily members so far as it poureth out itself to God in prayer by the words of the lips or opens its heart to God in hearing the word receiveth it with faith and love and meekness c. So far and no further hath the Soul in these duties any communion with God Nor doth God communicate himself to the Soul that is not made to believe and obey what it heareth further then to let it know his will with the advantage of such arguments as his Ministers are inabled to use by vertue of those gifts which he hath given them to fit them for their ministration 2. There can be no union between Christ and that Soul with whom Christ hath not a constant communion communion is the Daughter of union according to the nature of the union Wherever communion wholly ceaseth the union is dissolved Indeed where the communion is voluntary not from a natural cause there may be great differences in the degrees of it but wholly interrupted it cannot be hence God and Christ have a constant communion with the believing Soul this is by the Spirit of God given to them and dwelling and working in them and the seed of God abiding in them Our union with Christ is preserved by the same means by which it was at first made which was by Gods first communication of his power and goodness to the Soul and the Souls communication of itself by faith to him Thus the Vnion was first made between God and the Soul thus it is and must be maintained and upheld The reason why we say the Soul once in a state of grace cannot fall from it either finally or totally is not from the ability and certainty of their own wills however renewed and sanctified but from the more constant and certain influences of the Spirit of Grace which is given to the Soul dwelleth in it and worketh in it Christ hath not only promised to come to them that love him and keep his Commandments but to make his abode with him hence the union between Christ the Soul is not only compared to the moral union between the Husband and Wife Eph. 5. 30. but to the natural union between the Vine and the Branches John 15. 1. betwixt which while they remain united there is a constant communication and in very deed did not the Soul of a believer daily receive divine influences and communications it must wither and die as naturally as the Branch doth when the union is broken betwixt it and the Vine and this our Saviour teacheth us John 15. 4. As the Branch cannot bring forth fruit unless it abideth in the Vine so no more can you except you abide in me 3. Although the Souls communion with Christ can never be wholly interrupted and broken yet it may be more of less and sometimes indiscerned by the Soul I
your Souls an high estimate of Jesus Christ and the influences of his grace If saith Christ any man loveth me I will come to him and make my abode with him John 14. 21. The Soul that truly loveth Christ shall never be ignorant where to find him 4. Lastly Study holiness in all manner of conversation The Spouse saith that he feedeth among the Lillies the Lillies are white and fruitful Let your apprehension of Christs withdrawing the communications of himself to your Souls be no temptation to you to withhold the communications of your selves to him though you may find it more hard and difficult and that you cannot do your duty with so much ease yet do it If you cannot do what you would yet do what you can if as you think you do not you cannot overtake God yet let your Souls press hard after him But what shall be said to that Soul that is at loss and in such a state as that it doth not know where it s Beloved feedeth where he maketh his flocks to rest at Noon 1. Let such Souls look for him in the promise where it wants the sight of him in his Providences There David found him when he cryed out Remember thy Word in which thou hast caused me to hope The promises are Christs place when he returneth from a Soul he retreateth no further All the punishment that our tender Lord putteth his Spouse to suffer is to live by faith not by sight Christ in his Providences may appear to a Soul yea and nay sometimes a friend sometimes an Enemy But in his promises he is always yea and Amen the true and faithful one I have already shewed you that the Promises are those green pastures were Christ feeds his flocks in the Noon of trials and afflictions 2. Look for him in supporting influences when you cannot see him in comforting and quickening influences Christ communicateth himself variously to the Souls of his People not always in the same methods or influences see if thou doest not feel his strength when thou doest not find his consolatory manifestations you have heard that the communion of the believing Soul with Christ never ceaseth it is only our sense that fails or some particular Manifestations or the degrees of them may abate We ought therefore to look narrowly to see if we cannot find any influences of Christ upon our Souls when it may be we cannot discern those which our Eye is most upon 3. Thirdly Be as free as you can in your part of this communion when you cannot discern your Lord so free in his part You may rest upon this That Christ will never be in your debt nor be long wanting in his communications of his grace to that Soul that is ready to communicate it self unto him It may be I or another Soul may not see and discern it but Christ is never behind hand with the Soul as to acts of love Nay we could not be free in communication of our Souls to him without his first influencing our Souls with strength to such a liberty 4. Lastly take the advice of your beloved in the text Go your way by the footsteps of the flock And feed your kids by the Shepherds tents But that leadeth me to the last part of the Text which I called the Direction in answer to the petition Of that if God please in my next exercise Sermon XLVI Cant. 1. 8. If thou knowest not O thou fairest amongst Women Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the Flock and feed thy Kids by the Shepher ds Tents I am now come to the last part of the Text The Beloved's Direction What to do that she might find where her beloved fed his flocks where he made them to rest at Noon It is expressed in these words Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and seed thy kids by the Shepherds tents By the flocks when I opened the words more largely I told you was meant the Church the People of God often in Scripture compared to a flock I will gather the remnant of the flock Jer. 23. 2. The Lord hath visited his flock Zech. 10. 3. Fear not little flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom Luke 12. 32. Feed the flock of God 1 Pet. 5 2. So in many other Texts The word in the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã indifferently signifieth any company of lesser Cattel whether Sheep or Goats though it be most ordinarily applied to sheep as in 1 Sam. 15. 2. Jer 50. 6. Jer. 31. 19 c. The People of God are ordinarily the lesser sort of men and women in the world Not many noble not many wise but the poor of the World hath the Lord Chosen The great ones of the World for the most part are of the Herd not of the flock 1 A flock is a term of multitude Gods People are not the greatest number of the World but yet they are a great number God in the worst times which were those of Ahab had 7000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him with their lips St. John saw 144000 sealed Rev. 7. 4. There were two great breeders of Gods antient Flock Leah and Rachel these two did build up the house of God from these came threescore and ten Souls whom God sent to pasture in Egypt there they were killed up apace yet they multiplyed to an exceeding great number from thence they were led like a Flock through the Wilderness by the conduct of Moses and Aaron in Canaan they also increased till for their sins God let in Wolves upon them to destroy them It is true all were not Israel that were of Israel but yet they all constituted the visible Church of the Jews and doubtless there were a great number of them who were of the invisible Church of that little Flock to whom it was the Fathers will to give a Kingdom In Christs time the flock of God began to be gathered together in one and soon after his ascension into Heaven those other sheep mentioned John 10. who were not of the Jewish fold began to be added by vertue of his commission granted to 12 principal Shepherds under the great Shepherd and multitudes were added to this flock since that time the wild beasts of the field and forrest have broken in upon it seeding in several Countries and places But yet they are many 2. A flock is a term of unity The Church of Christ is many yet but one body united by one common faith and under on head All the true Members of it have one Shepherd one law and rule The true Church therefore is doubtless the flock which is here mentioned By the footsteps of the flock The footsteps you all know is the Print of the feet The course of boliness is in Scripture called The way of the Righteous The footsteps of the flock can signify nothing but the Examples of the holy Servants of God which have gone before
work thou gavest me to do Christ and his Disciples have in the general one and the same work to glorifie God Though if we come to speak of the particular actions by which God is glorified by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Believer there is a great deal of difference Christ glorified his Father by performance of the acts of our Redemption according to his Fathers Will we by those good works which he hath commanded yet in the general scope viz. the glorifying of God and the more general mean by which this general End is attained viz. obedience to the Will of God they are both the same Christ glorified his Father by obedience to his Will The Child of God glorifieth God by obedience to his Will both of them glorified God by the praedication of his Name by praising him c. Christ took upon him the form of a Servant and became obedient Phil. 2. 7 8. The Child of God is by Birth a Servant and by Covenant a Servant there is that difference betwixt them but they are both Servants both obedient to the Will of God and both by that obedience serve the great End of glorifying God which justifieth the Notion though the Acts of their obedience differ according to their several spheres and stations In a great Family you know they are all fellow-servants though some of them have a more some a less noble Imployment 3. Christ is their Fellow-worker their Fellow-helper not only with reference to the Father as they both work to the same End and by the same general Means viz. obedience to the Will of God but as he worketh in them and excites their habits of grace and strengtheneth them in the exercise of them Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4. 13. Without me you can do nothing Joh. 15. 3. His Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8. 26. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it lifts over against them The Child of God without the presence and assistance of Christ cannot pray a prayer nor hear a Sermon nor perform any spiritual duty so as that Christ is not only to the Believer a Fellow labourer and Fellow-servant doing the same work that they do or at least having done the same work but he is their Fellow-helper as to all their own spiritual Motions and Actions 4. You in holy Scripture read of a Fellow-Prisoner Aristarchus and Epaphras are both of them called Paul's Fellow-prisoners Coloss 4. 14. You read also of a Fellow-Souldier Philip. 2. v. 25. Philemon 2. This Notion signifieth one that is a Partner and Fellow to another in Conflicts Combates c. a common Partnership in hazards and sufferings In this sense our Lord properly calleth his Spouse the Believing Soul his Fellow He fought and overcame the same Enemies with whom they daily fight The Christian hath three great Enemies the World the Flesh and the Devil It is true Christ had none of the second to incounter he was born without sin he lived without sin he had no body of death But yet he had to die for our sins all our sins were set in Battel Array against him they were those which nailed him to the Cross but he conquered and declared his Conquest by his Resurrection from the dead The World is our Enemy one of those Enemies against which we are to maintain the Spiritual Fight It was also his Enemy he fought against it and overcame it Joh. 16. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the World The Devil is another of our great Enemies against whom we are commanded to put on the whole Armour of God Christ overcame him also Heb. 2. 14 15. Through death he destroyed him who had the power of death even the Devil And the same Apostle in the same Epistle tells us that he was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour those that are tempted The Apostle mentioneth Christ in this Notion when he calleth him The Captain of our Salvation It is long since that he let his People know by his Prophet Isaiah that In all their afflictions he was afflicted He took himself concerned in the persecution of his Church and therefore calleth from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Indeed it is not easie to determine what kind of Sympathy the most perfect Nature of Christ is capable of but that he is their Fellow-sufferer the Scripture plainly determineth Thus you see that it is not in a complement that Jesus Christ speaking to his Saints speaks to them in this dialect Thou that art my Fellow But our Translation reads it O my Love and the word as I before shewed you is also so translated properly enough A Friend hath this name in the Hebrew because he is alwaies the companion and associate of his correlated Friend Hence we translate it My Loves and conformably to this our Lord speaketh Joh. 15. 14. You are my Friends if you do whatsoever I have commanded you And again v. 15. Henceforth I call you not Servants I call you Friends Let us a little inquire how Christ approveth himself a Believers Friend Friendship speaketh 4 things 1. Love 2. Free and ingenuous love 3. Mutual and reciprocal Love 4. Mutual communion and converse each with other 1. It Speaketh Love Amicus ab amando This is so obvious to every one that either understandeth any thing of the Revelation or History of holy Writ that it will need very few words to demonstrate Besides the frequent friendly compellations which Christ hath given his People whoso considereth his conjuction with his Father in the Eternal Purposes for their Salvation and all those means by which they are made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light his concern in the Eternal Covenant of Redemption and of Grace in which he became a Surety for them his taking upon him humane Nature walking up and down in our flesh Dying upon the Cross for us sinners his resurrection from the dead for their justification his ascending up into Heaven and giving Gifts unto men Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints his sending his Spirit to convince the World of sin righteousness and Judgment his daily influence upon his People strengthening quickening and comforting of them his being their advocate with the Father in case both of Sins and duties his passionate expressions while he was on the Earth for the conversion of Souls his intreating them by his Ministers as his Embassadors that they would be reconciled to God the charge that he hath given the World against offending them his declarations of his coming to judge the World to render tribulation to them that trouble them and to them Rest and Peace I say he that considereth any of these things much less all of them together must say that he loved them with an Everlasting unchangeable Love alone suted to all the necessities of his poor Creatures and that he hath willed them good sutable to all
condescension beyond the grasp of our faith The greatness of it causeth in us a difficulty to believe it Who is a God like our God a Saviour a Redeemer an Husband like our Saviour our Redeemer our Spiritual Husband When they told David that he should have Michal the Daughter of Saul to Wife and persuaded him to it Seemeth it to you saith he a small thing to be a Son-in-law to a King If there be any of you not affected with this Love this transcendent Love give me leave to speak to you in the language of David Seemeth it to you a small thing to be the beloved the friends the companions of the Lord Jesus Christ Ah! That I could send you away this day admiring the divine Love that he should take the fellowship of our nature upon him that he should make us his fellow Citizens admit us to a fellowship with him both in grace here and in glory hereafter that he should be our Companion in tribulation our Companion in labour and follow Soldier But I leave this to be further improved by you in your more private meditations 2. Secondly This notion is of wonderful use to relieve and comfort the People of God under all their present afflictions or fears of greater The face of things as to Gods People hath been a long time gathering blackness and there is this day a great blackness Prisons in the Primitive times were more the habitations of Gods People then Palaces God grant we may not see them to be so again we have been so used to beds of Feathers Down that the thoughts of a bed of straw make us shrink so wedded to our own Country that a strange land appeareth to us a strange thing The Providence of God looketh as if it were preparing Prisons and Fetters and banishments for his People and the hearts of Gods People are every where as sad as the times What a wonderful comfort and relief to the People of God at such a time is it for them to hear the Lord Jesus Christ calling them his Companions His Companions in tribulation and to call himself their fellow Souldier and fellow Prisoner There are a great many arguments with which the suffering Servants of God may be relieved Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer said the Angel to the Church at Smyrna Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison that you may be tryed and you shall have tribulation that you might be tryed and you shall have tribulation for ten days Rev. 2. 10. There are several arguments 1. It is the Devil that cast Saints into Prison He doth it by men as his instruments but he filleth them with their rage and malice 2. It is that they may be tryed God permits it the Devil could have no power against a believer more then against Christ if God did not permit it The Devil and his instruments design is to ruin and to destroy them Gods end is to try them 3. It shall be but a tribulation for ten days a short time The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous Well but how shall they hold out these ten days See Isaiah 43. 1 2. Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have Redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee When thou walkest through the fires thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee In the ten days of tribulation the Child of God shall not be alone he that Redeemed them will be with them This was made good to the three Children in the fiery fornace in Babylon Dan. 3. 24. Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire saith Nebuchadnezzar lo I see four men loose walking in the middest of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God He was with Daniel Daniel 9. 22. With Paul and Silâs Acts. 16. They could never else have sang in the Prison at midnight Let the People of God lift up their heads as Moses seeing him who is invisible Only take the caution of Peter 1. Pet 4. Let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief or as an Evil doer or as a busy body in other mens matters But if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God one this behalf Let men look that they suffer for righteousness sake that is to avoid sinning against God all such suffering is for righteousness sake then they shall never be alone Saul Saul why saith Christ persecutest thou me calling out of Heaven to Paul when he was in his full carreer of persecution of the Church No man can expect that Christ should be a companion to him in his tribulation while he suffereth meetly for his stomach or out of humour much less if he suffereth for doing that which is plainly sinful and which he ought not to have done but if he suffereth to avoid sin against God to keep himself unspotted from the World as he is made a partaker of Christs sufferings so Christ will be a partaker of his sufferings his Companion in suffering and whensoever Christs glory shall be revealed he shall be glad with exceeding joy It is a marvelous sweet notion to suffering Christians to hear that Jesus Christ is and will be their Companion in sufferings fear not therefore Christians in despight of evil men and evil times to keep a good Conscience but Jam. 1. 2. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations A good Conscience was yet never in Prison alone Nor will this be strange to us if we consider that even death it self though it makes Soul and Body part Company yet it doth not make Christ and a believer part Company Our Bodies shall be raised from the Grave by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us Rom. 8. 11. There are two great arguments amongst others to comfort the People of God in all their noons of Afflictions 1. That even then they are Christs fellows They then are in the fellowship of his death Phil. 4. 10 11. They suffer with him Rom. 8. 17. They are made conformable to his death Christ is magnified in their body They make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ 2. That Christ will then be their fellow it is to the Spouse at Noon that he saith here O My Love My Fellow c. When the World is spitting their Venom shewing their utmost Malice and hatred even then Christ is calling to them and saying My Love When the World is casting them out as Pestilent fellows then is Christ saying unto them My Companions Then will he be with them and manifest himself as a friendly Companion to them In
the third place How should this raise up the hearts of Christians above all discouragements as to hard and difficult duties O saith a Christian This is an hard saying who can hear it a difficult duty how shall I ever perform it how shall I ever get up my heart to it Put to thy hand Christian thou canst do nothing of thy self but thou mayest do all things through Christ that strengtheneth thee what cannot Christ and thou do together I live saith Paul Gal. 2. 20. yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Remember Christ hath called thee fellow and why Because he is thy fellow helper in duty as well as thy fellow Prisoner and fellow Souldier in all thy sufferings Only do not like a Sluggard lye down and stand still and cry there is a lion in the way Isa 41. 10. Saith God Fear not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness v. 13. I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee fear not for I will help thee It is Christians great fault they pore upon themselves and discourage themselves from their own natural impotencies and insufficiencies and do not consider that their fruit is found in Christ and all their strength also laid up and found in him and to be derived from him Fourthly Doth Christ say to us My Love And shall not we say to him My Beloved shall not we Love the Lord Jesus Christ and compleat this Love of friendship It is said that when Christ was going with his disciples to Emaus their hearts burn'd within them while they heard him talking by the way Have not your hearts burned within you while you have heard Jesus Christ speaking to you in this dialect My Love My Fellow If you Love them that Love you saith our Lord Matth. 5. What reward have you even the Publicans do so O Love the Lord Jesus Christ all you his Saints for he loveth you and that too with the greatest and most unmeasurable love Is Christ our Companion let us not grudg then to be his Companions and let us behave our selves towards him as towards a Companion and such a Companion This learneth us several things 1. It learneth us what is our constant work and duty viz To Glorify God by doing the work which God hath given us to do by manifesting his name to those whom God hath given us This was Christs work he went up and down doing good saith the Evangelist This was Christs work this should be our work we should be thinking every morning how should I glorify Christ this day How may I shew my self this day a Companion in labour to my great Lord and Master this we cannot do by making our selves Companions of fools nor meer Companions of worldly men but by being the Companions of those that fear the Lord. 2. It learneth us our duty to be couragious valiant in fight striving against sin confident of Victory over all our Spiritual Enemies Of these I have spake before We should also in consideration of this use Christ as our Companion and behave our selves towards him as to our Companion and as to such a Companion as he is I shall direct in that in two or three particulars 1. Be no Companion to Christs Enemies David saith Psal 119. 63. I am a Companion of all them that fear thee Psal 119. 63. Solomon telleth us That a Companion of fools shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 20. Who those fools are you may read 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Revel 21. 8. All such as shall never enter into the Kingdom of God such as shall be destroyed in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone are fools with a witness No Companion to these can shew himself a Companion to Jesus Christ Solomon saith Prov. 28. 7. A Companion of riotous men shameth his Father He that is a Companion an ordinary Company to loose and profane men Drunkards Swearers Blasphemers profane Swearers and cursers and professeth to be a Companion of Christ shameth Christ to whom he pretendeth to be a Companion Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness Eph. 5. 11. If you have see what the same Apostle saith 2 Cor. 6. 14. What fellowship can righteousness and light have with you The Gentleman abhorreth his Mistriss that makes herself a Companion to ever Tapster and Porter 2. Be you much in company with Christ Fellows and lovers use to be so they are never well but when they are so Frequent Communion with God is like the frequent meetings and converses of lovers which ripen things apace for the wedding day The Soul that is much with Christ in Soliloquies and meditations much in Prayer ripeneth apace for glory for the great marriage of the Lamb. Much communion with God hath these two eminent advantages God is by it much indeared to the Soul and the Soul is again reciprocally much endeared to God by it 2. When thou art in communion with Christ be not Idle A man may be in his study and do nothing of moment a Child may truant in the School Domitian may be killing flyes in his Councel-Chamber A Soul may lose that time that it pretends to spend with Christ Spend this hallowed part of your time as Lovers and Companions use to do 1. In imparting your secrets unto Christ Your secret wants doubts fears desires not concealing your most secret thoughts from the Lord. 2. In wooing of your beloved Begging his love and favour crying out to him with the Spouse Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth Draw me and we will run after thee Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at Noon 3. In mutual embraces The embraces of faith and love I held him saith the Spouse and would not let him go Put the hand of faith about the neck of your beloved it is a Chain from which he cannot from which he will not get loose But I have dwelt long enough upon the compellation in the Text my Love or my Fellow I should now come to the matter of my text I have compared thee to a company of Horses in Pharaoh's Chariots But of that hereafter Sermon XLVIII Canticles 1. 9. I have likened thee O my Love to a company of Horses in Pharaoh's Chariots I Am come to the second Proposition I observed from these words I have done with the first raised from the Compellation Prop. Christ hath likened his Spouse to a company of Horses in Pharaoh's Chariots I shall speak to this Proposition in my usual method by way of Explication Confirmation and Application By way of Explication I shall shew you 1. In what sense that term I have likened or I have compared
instructive Corollary from this discourse Secondly observe The Laws of Christ are both rows of Jewels and also Chains 1. They are Chains of Restraint As Chains about creatures necks restrain their natural Liberty and keep them in due obedience and subjection to their Governours So doth the Law of the Lord. Man is like an unâamed Heifer which would run wildly this and that way Christ therefore puts a Chain upon him when he intendeth any Soul for his use I will faith God write my Laws in their inward parts There now is the Chain about the Spouse's Neck Joseph had this Chain about his neck How shall I do this evil saith he and sin against God Do this and live saith he for I fear God and so durst not take any revenge upon you The Children of God have in them lust and corruption but it is chained The Law of God written in their hearts is a Chain upon their lusts and this may mind us to take heed how we abuse that sweet Notion of Christian Liberty Christians are free but they must take heed that they use not their Liberty for a Cloak to maliciousness 1 Pet. 2. 16. that being the Lord's Free-men they do not make themselves Servants of corraption It is not a Liberty to the Devil's Chains but from them not a Liberty to the Flesh but to serve the Lord without fear 2. As the Precepts of the Lord are Chains of Restraint so they are also Chains Indicative of the greatest liberty and honour they are Chains but they are Chains of Gold Chains of Pearl such Chains speak both the liberty and dignity of those that wear them The Law is spiritual and just and good saith Paul But further yet the Precepts of God are also Rows of Jewels It speaks two things 1. Rows of Jewels are things as to which a great Art is seen in the orderly disposing of them There is a strange orderliness to be observed in the Divine Precepts Could you imagine a Family a Church a Common-wealth any Society of men in which the several persons both in their single and relative capacities lived up to the strictness of the Divine Rule respecting them how orderly would they appear even in the Eye of humane Reason All the ugliness and disorder that we see in mens Lives in Families Churches Cities Kingdoms if you observe it arifeth from mens deviations from the Divine Rule through the impetuousness of unmortified passions Hence sinful walking is by the Apostle called properly disorderly walking 2 Thes 3. 6 7 11. And the holy man is called one who ordereth his conversation aright in the last verse of the 50th Psalm 2. Rows of Jewels are Ornaments There is something of beauty and comeliness resulteth from them and it resulteth much from the orderly setting and wearing of them There is a great comeliness in Holiness But of this more in the third Corollary Observe thirdly That Holiness is the only Ornament of a man or woman in the Eyes of Christ The World is at this day full of gawdry Rings and Jewels Bracelets and Necklaces of Pearl Patches and Paintings Solomon hath told us that favour is deceitful and beauty is vain But a woman that seareth the Lord she shall be praised As a Jewel saith he in a Swines Snout So is a fair woman without descretion Prov. 11. 21. Christ accounts holiness the only beauty of a man or woman Our acts of holiness are in his Eyes the only ropes of Pearl and Chains of gold and rows of Jewels We live in an age of great vanity as to Artificial beauty and it would make the heart of a Christian to bleed to see even to what excesses of this nature Persons professing to Religion and Godliness run Let me therefore close this discourse with a word or two of Exhortation 1. To neglect other beauty 2. To study this beauty more and more 3. Not to Satisfy your selves with mere pretences of inward purity whiles your more exteriour conversation gives no evidence to it 1. I say first to neglect other beauty whether natural though that be a great gift of God where it is found Or Artificial which is borrowed from Gold and Silver and Precious Stones and Jewels and fine Cloaths and Linnen c. 1. Consider This is not your beauty That 's our beauty which Commends us to our Husband Jesus Christ He regards not a fine face nor well proportioned limbs he regards not Jewels and Ornaments nor fine Clothes and Linnen They are in his Eyes poor vile things Leave these things to the men and women of the world that have nothing else to Commend them to the wantons of the world The beauty of a Christian lyeth not in these things nay they are his shame and deformity as I shall by and by shew you 2. Secondly let me urge the Precept of the Apostle 1 Tim. 2. 9 Let women saith he adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered Hair or Gold or Pearls or costly aray but which becometh women professing Godliness with good works Mark that phrase which becometh women prosessing Godliness as if he should say these vanities of broidered Hair Gold Pearl costly aray may become men and women of the world and commend them to the world but they do not become men and Women professing Godliness they are not to approve themselves to the vain Persons of the World but to Christ alone these things Commend no Soul to Christ good works an holy life and conversation according to the rule of the Gospel that and nothing but that will Commend a Soul to God that is the only adorning which becometh women that profess to Godliness You have the like in Peter 1 Pet. 3. 3. Speaking of good women whose adorning saith he let it not be the outward adorning of playting the hair and of wearing Gold and putting on of apparel but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which before God is of great price for after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves I do know the Common Interpretation which some put upon these Texts as if the Apostle did not wholly forbid these Ornaments but only forbad Christians to look upon these things as their only Ornaments so as to neglect the adorning of the hidden man of the heart Nor indeed do I think these Texts to contain an absolute prohibition of these things to all women that are Christians and at all times I do know that our Saviour seemeth to allow sost rayment to those that are in Kings houses Reason alloweth an aray to Persons according to the Station and quality they take up and are in in the World Religion doth not contradict it But when I consider 1. What of men and womens estates which God hath given them to Cloth the naked to feed the hungry c.
The necessities of their families being first provided for is spent on these things 2. The difference between habits for distinction of Persons in magistracy and habits for vanity where there is no such distinction 3. The time that is spent in the dressing up worms in this manner 4. The proneness of our hearts to value our selves upon these accoutrements I cannot but think that there is more forbidden in those Texts then that Christians should look upon these as their only or Principal Ornaments Especially when I also consider that as God in the old Testament forbad his People the habits of Heathens So he hath commanded his People Rom. 12. 2. Not to be conformed to this World Rom. 12. 2. 3. Thirdly Consider the sinfulness of some of these things Where these adornings are beyond the quality of Persons and beyond what their estates will bear in consistency with that Proportion of good works which God requireth of them where they are temptations to draw out the lusts of others Where they are offences and Scandals to such as fear God they are doubtless âinful Cyprian in his Book de Virginum disciplina hath several arguments against the new arts of the World for Ornaments especially that of painting God saith he made us after his own Image it is the Devil who maketh the alteration O the vile presumption of those who dare attempt to alter the workmanship of God! Art not thou afraid saith he that God in the resurrection should not own thee and say opus meum hoc non est This is none of my workmanship Again saith he is not this poor wretch alwaies a torment to her self She hath her Eyes alwaies in her glass and is never pleased with her self Consider lastly how inconsistent these things are with that Ministring to the necessity of Saints That richness in good works that mortification The declaration of our sense of Gods dispensations to us which are the duties of Christians God requires that we should labour with our hands that we may have to give to him that needeth Eph. 4. 28. And should not we think you leave off a Silk garment or a little Silver or Gold lace a Ring a Jewel a costly dress that we might have more abundantly to give to those that need Are you rich in the World and will your estate bear such expences and hath not God charged such 1 Tim. 6. 18. To do good to be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to Communicate laying up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come that you may lay hold on Eternal life Can you be rich in clothes and habits and rich in good works also If you could doth not the Apostle tell you That those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Gal. 5. 24. Is this your crucifixion of the flesh with its affections and lusts What is a gratifying and pleasing the flesh what is a making provision for the affections and lusts of it if this be not To what other use or end can these things be Doth adorning our selves with Jewels and Silks and Ribbands patchings and paintings speak a mortified heart to the World a Crucified heart to the flesh They speak nothing less then this surely they speak flesh that is wanton and proud and puffed up It is the Observation of a learned Author That heretofore Christians wounded their flesh for mortification we wound it for pride folly and vanity the Ears are boared to hang Jewels in But how much better is that boaring of the Ear mentioned Psal 40. 6. A boaring of the E ars in Testimony that we will be the Lords Servants for ever Besides look throughout all the Scripture you shall find Gods People conformed their habits to Gods dispensations towards them This was done by Gods direction Exod. 33. 5. I will come up saith God into the midst of you in a moment and consume you therefore now put off thy Ornaments from thee that I may know what to do unto thee They did so v. 6. Accordingly you shall observe Gods People all along in holy Writ under sad dispensations putting on Sackclot h throwing ashes on their heads rending their garments Behold faith God to ââruâh Jer. 45. 4. What I have built I will break down and that which I have planted I will plack up even this whole land And seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not I beseech you look about see what God looks as if he were doing with us doth not he look as if he would come into the midst of us in a moment and consume us As if he would strip us all naked and make us all bare Is this a time to seek fine and gay things for our selves How little do we consider what God is about to do in all appearance in the midst of us 2. Secondly Study holiness If you will look after beauty study the true the inward beauty that which commendeth the Soul to God your labour for the other many times destroys your Souls it consumes the time which should be spent in reading in praying fasting It devours your estates which should be spent in good works The beauty vain Persons labour for is but Jezebels beauty study the beauty of Sarah of which you read in 1 Pet. 3. 5. The Ornaments with which holy Women of old adorned themselves Ornaments which become such as do not profess Pride and vanity but Godliness Put Christs Chains about your Necks his rows upon your Cheeks The Pharisees prided themselves in their Phylatteries They did ill to adorn themselves with those Scrowls of the law in their Skirts while they lived not up to the rule and true sense of it in their lives but there are no such rows of Jewels as those of Gods Precepts 3. Lastly with which I shall conclude this discourse Satisfy not your selves with dreams and fancies of meer inward Spiritual beauty I again tell you it must be a counterfeit There may be an external appearing beauty without any inward beauty but that is but a counterfeit there can be no inward beauty without an external beauty Faith and Love too must be shewed by works where holiness to the Lord is ingraven in any man or Womans heart it will also be written to use the phrase of the Prophet Zechariah Ch. 14. 20. upon the very bells of the Horses yea every pot in Hierusalem shall be holiness to the Lord. We have a great cry of Religion and for Religion in these days We hear a bundance talking as if there were no Saints in the World but themselves but wherein doth their Religion lye In a fine tongue they can as Luther said Crepare Christum make a crack and boast of Christ But where are the rows of Jewels upon their Cheeks The Chains of Gold about their Necks Where is their strict and consciencious waiting upon God in Ordinances Where 's the fear of God to be seen in
the Savour of the dead body when putrefied Lusts are like Solomons dead flyes which send forth a stinking Savour Eccles 10. 1. The Drunkard hath a smell of drink The unclean Person hath a smell but it is a stinking Savour the Covetous Worlding hath an earthy Savour and smell But the Savour of the Saints grace is a sweet smelling Savour his garments smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia His smell is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blest as Isaac said of his Son Gen. 27. 27. like the smell of Labanon mentioned Hosea 14. 6. All the Children of Gods garments smell of Myrrh Psal 45. 8. The Lord smelleth a sweet Savour from them He tells us he will not smell in the assemblies of wicked men Amos 5. 1. But Paul was a sweet Savour to God 2. Cor. 2. 15. And the Apostle calls the alms of the Saints an odor of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable unto God Eph. 4. 18. Their grace sends forth a sweet smell amongst the People of God who are partakers of the same grace yea even into the World that even those who know little of God or of the mysteries of his Kingdom yet many times will speak well of them and stand up in their defence Though grace at all times sends forth a smell yet it doth not give a like smell in all times and in all Persons Things you know that are most odoriferous give out a smell according to the quantity of them and according to the heat which cometh to them a dram of Musk doth not give out such a smell as a pound giveth nor doth the most Aromatick Ointment in the Winter or when it is kept in the cold give out such a smell as when it is kept in a warm hand or influenced by the warm beams of the Sun or brought near to a warm fire it is so with our habits of grace they have in them a sweet smelling Savour but exert it variously 1. According to the different degrees of grace in the Soul Every Child of God hath his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his measure of grace but every one hath not a like measure the faith of one is weak and little like a grane of mustard seed which is the least of all seeds yet groweth up to a great tree the faith of another may be so strong as to remove mountains according to the degrees of our infused habits of grace so will the smell of them be 2. According to the influence of Christ who is the Sun of Righteousness so also will the smell of our grace be weaker or stronger Three things contribute much to the smell of any odoriferous thing 1. Heat 2. Air 3. Motion Heat eliciteth and draweth out the odoriferous quality air conveyeth it to the sense motion rarifieth the parts Three things also much contribute to the sweet smell of the Saints grace 1. The influence of the Sun of righteousness upon the Soul Therefore our Spouse here saith Whiles the King sitteth at his table my Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof 2. The Breathings of the holy Spirit which our Saviour compareth to the wind blowing where it listeth 3. Motion the exercise of grace As the Ointment doth not smell so sweet in the box as when it is poured out so it is grace in motion and exercise that causeth the sweet smell thereof When Mary poured out her Ointment the house was filled with the Odour of it John 12. 3. and Christs name is compared in this Chapter to Ointment poured out which is exceeding sweet Doth any now further ask whence it is that true grace where-ever it resides will send forth its smell I answer 1. It is from the Nature of it It is some peculiar quality in the nature of a thing which makes it to send forth a pleasant smell what that is in natural things is not easy to determine The Philosopher faith it is a quality which ariseth from a due temperament of something that is dry and Savoury and something which is moist It is an account of it which will hardly bear a strict Examen that it is a peculiar quality is most certain So it is from the peculiar quality of gracious habits that they send forth their pleasant smell and of that I think a more easy and certain account may be given what it is 1. It s conformity to the Holy Nature of God 2. It s proportion and conformity to the reason of man 3. It s life and activity 1. In gracious habits there is a conformity to the Holy Nature of God Hence gracious Souls are said to be partakers of the Divine Nature conformable to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ The light of Nature shews the greatest part of mankind that there is a God Reason tells us this God must be the Supreme first and most perfect Being from hence it followeth that the excellency of every thing lyeth in a conformity to God who himself is the most perfect Being and the Pattern of all perfection This must make it the most amiable flower in the creation and causeth it to give out a sweet smell to all who have not lost their smelling debauching their reason by their most sordid lusts and passions 2. In all gracious habits and exercises there is also a conformity to humane reason There are in man some reliques of that reason in which much of the Original image of God wherein man was created lay for Right reason which Socinians so much talk of it existeth in no man or Woman perfectly by nature but some judgment remains of what is good and filthy some notions of good and Evil though very imperfect now all gracious habits will approve themselves and all gracious acts do approve themselves to these notions Hence all truly moral acts are materially gracious acts That is the same acts which grace teacheth the good man to do though from nobleâ Principles in a better manner and to a more pure and noble End So that so long as there are any men in the World who have not outlawed their natural reason and almost extinguished it by their brutish lusts and passions grace will give a smell and a good report And the great hatred which good and holy men meet with from the men of the World is from this that grace carrieth out the Saint beyond the measures of the man of reason So that in some acts especially of Religion he cannot be bounded by his limits The man of the World commendeth the Child of God for his justice and Charity for his Sobriety and temperance his readiness to forgive his Enemies his meekness humility his serving of God c. He is only angry at him that he will offer up to God more and more excellent Sacrifices that his measures of praying hearing fasting c. Will not serve his turn c. 3. Lastly Grace is of a nimble active nature It is the Fire with which the Holy Ghost baptizeth
of Spiritual Life so he must be led by the Spirit If God did not excite the Grace bestowed on him it would be choaked by that body of death that lust and corruption which is in the best mens hearts What can the creature do when the Holy Spirit hath quickened his habits of Grace he cannot act and exercise them and put forth spiritual acts but doth he no more need the Influence of the Holy Spirit yes without Christ he can do nothing he must still have the Grace of God with him 1 Cor. 15. 10. Not I saith Paul but the Grace of God which was with me This is now cooperative and assisting Grace He cannot make the Wheel which must carry him in the waies of God working Grace must do that when it is made he cannot set it upon motion Exciting Grace must oil it Assisting Grace must keep it up move with it or he will never come to issue any good action A Believer indeed acteth for the habits of Grace from which he acteth are inherent in him he is not moved like a Machine or dead Engine but yet he is acted that is assisted and helped in his action He is nothing but what he hath received he doth nothing but while he is receiving Let not then the Natural man glory in the power and good inclinations of his own will he neither hath nor can have any power to do that which in a spiritual sense is good until it be given him from above Let not the renewed man glory in his infused habits of Grace for as he did not merit it nor any way purchase them so of himself he cannot use or exercise them But let him who glorieth glory in this that to him Christ is all in all that he liveth he acteth and bringeth a good action to an issue but yet not he but Christ that liveth in him acteth with him and worketh in him what he accepteth from him It is Christ who layeth the foundation-stone and then layeth the corner-stone who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith we have nothing to do but to cry Grace Grace when we see the work done In the mean time nothing hindereth but that the Soul may rejoyce and boast in the Lord while it walketh humbly with God mourning over the infirmity of its lapsed Nature for certainly man did not come out of God's hands in the day of Creation in this impotent state Let no man therefore despise those that labour under greater degrees of this impotency than he possibly doth but let him bless the Lord who hath further excited strengthened and assisted him to the operations of his Spiritual Life I shall shut up this discourse with a word or two of Exhortation to every Child of God to use his utmost diligence to keep the King sitting at his Table I mean to keep the presence of Christ as much as he can in and with his Soul that so his Spikenard may send forth the smell thereof I shall urge this by one argument and then offer you my advice in the case and so shââ up this discourse 1. My argument shall be drawn from the high concerns of the Soul in its Spikenard sending forth its smell every Soul is concerned in it three ways 1. In point of duty as God thereby is glorifyed 2. In point of comfort as it will evidence its Spikenard to be such indeed 3. In point of honour as it brings the Soul to a repute in the World 1. I say first in point of duty as God is thereby glorifyed For this cause we are born for this cause is every man come into the World that he may bring honour and glory to his great Creator Herein saith our Saviour John 15. Is my Father glorifyed if you bring forth mach fruit and as the Lord is glorifyed by the vigorous exercise of its grace So is he also honoured by the predication of his grace by the sweet smell which our habits and exercises of grace have in the World That they may see your good works saith our Saviour Matth. 5. And glorify your Father which is in Heaven That they may see your good works saith the Apostle and glorify God in the day of their visitation no man so glorifyeth God as he who vigorously exerciseth his habits of grace The barren field is not that field which crediteth the husbandman the barren and unfruitful Soul is not that Soul which bringeth honour and glory to God It is the fruitful Soul whose smell is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed that bringeth honour to God and so eminently serveth the great end of his Creation 2. The Soul is not only concerned in it in point of duty but also as to its peace and comfort Indeed it cannot be but that comfort should result from the Souls performance of its duty for the fruit of righteousness shall be peace but yet first as he or she that hath a box of Spikenard or any other odoriferous unguent or perfume which casteth out a sweet savour to delight or refresh others doth first partake of it him or her self so it is with the Spouses Spikenard ordinarily its fruits of righteousness do not only affect others but first affect the Soul in which they are found hereby saith St. John we know that we are traâslated from death to life because we love the brethren Hezâkiah upon a message of death sent by God to him was refreshed with the smell of his own Spikenard 2 Kings 20. 3. I beseech thee O Lord saith he remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done what is right in thy fight When a Christian comes to lye upon a sick bed or a death-bed it will be no grief of heart unto him but a great pleasure and Satisfaction to consider that he hath with his Spirit served God and indeavoured by holiness in all manner of conversation to shew forth the grace of God bestowed on him not to have been received in vain 3. Lastly a Christian is concerned in point of honour A true Christian is an honourable Person born of God and he is bound to consult his honour and repute in the World It is the smell of a Christians grace that giveth him a name and honour a repute before men The World taketh no notice of our habits of grace while they lye dormant in the Soul but when they shew themselves in our conversations in the exercises of faith humility patience meekness obedience then hath a Christian honour before men Thus you see how a Christian is concerned to have his Spikenard send forth the smell thereof Now seeing so much dependeth upon this that a Christian should keep this glorious King sitting at his Table it followeth that this is of high concernment to every Soul But you will say what can we do toward it is not the Spirit of Christ free as the wind which bloweth where
influences of the Spirit are the influences of Christ I shall instance in a sixfold influence of the Spirit of Christ upon the Soul as to all which he is a bundle of Myrrh to his beloved 1. The first is his convincing influence Joh. 16. 8. When he is come he will reprove the World of sin In respect of this influence the Spirit of Christ is called the Spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. They say of Myrrh that in the gathering it makes the hands of the gatherers exceeding bitter but gathered it becomes incomparably sweet Thus it is with the Lord Christ as to this influence of the Spirit upon us the Soul for the time that it is under this influence is full of bitterness but it turneth to an exceeding great sweetness The Book which St. John did Eat was in the Mouth as sweet as hony but in the belly more bitter than wormwood A fit emblem of sin The convictions of the Spirit of Christ are of a quite contrary nature in the mouth they are as bitter as wormwood but in the belly they are exceeding sweet the Soul in the hour of conviction is exceedingly sad and troubled but when convinced how it blesseth God who was pleased to convince it of sin Like the woman who in an hard labour is full of pain and wisheth she had never bred a Child but being once delivered forgets her pain and remembers her throws with pleasure 2. A second influence of the Spirit of Christ is Illumination The Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge Isaiah 11. 2. It teacheth us all things Joh. 14. 26. 1. Joh. 2. 27. That is all things necessary to Salvation The things which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive even these things are revealed to us by the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. Concerning the manner of the Spirits teaching how consistent with the teachings of Ordinances and yet distinct from it I have else where shewed you my business now is to shew you that Christ in this influence is a bundle of Myrrh Light is sweet to the Eye saith Solomon knowledge is that about which the understanding which is the Eye of the mind is exercised and is every whit as pleasant unto the Soul as light is unto the bodily Eye Now as all knowledge is sweet to the Soul so especially the knowledge 1. Of things hidden from others 2. Of such things as are of nearest concernment to us especially if the knowledge be certain 1. I say the knowledge of such things as are hidden from others such knowledge we upon experience find to be very sweet and such a knowledge the Spirit of Christ gives to the Soul The Gospel of Christ is it self called a mystery a thing hidden from ages and hidden from the wise and prudent This indeed is more generally revealed to all but more especially and fully and clearly to the believing Souls But further the Spirit of God reveals the secrets of God to the Souls of the Saints 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. Even the deep things of God its particular election and the truth of its graces c. Now this knowledge is sweet to the Soul 2. The knowledge of such things as are of nearest concernment to us is most sweet Such is the teaching of the Spirit it teacheth us to cry abba Father it teacheth us to see the things that are freely given us of God Add to this that by how much any knowledge is more certain by so much it is more sweet the understanding is not so pleased with probable notions as what is matter of demonstration and assured to the Soul such is the teaching of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 4. It teacheth by demonstration leaving no doubting in the Soul This is a second influence of the Spirit of Christ upon the Soul in respect of which he is a bundle of Myrrh unto the Soul 3. A third influence of the Spirit of Christ is its Sanctifying influence Rom. 15. 16. being Sanctified by the Holy Ghost It is Christ that Sanctifieth Heb. 2. 11. Sanctification is expressed under the Notion of being conformed to the Image of Christ Now as to this influence of grace Christ is a bundle of Myrrh to the believing Soul The unbeliever hates holiness but the Child of God Loves it and desires further degrees of it Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man saith Paul Rom. 7. 22. He his highly pleased when he finds the power of grace in his heart overpowering lusts and corruptions and his Soul every day growing more and more like God and like Christ more full of Spiritual desires Spiritual affections his heart more willing to deny it self to be under the plenary power and Command of Jesus Christ when he finds that it is not he that liveth but it is Christ that liveth in him Christ in respect of this influence is to the Souls of his Saints as a bundle of Myrrh 4. A fourth influence of Christ upon the Soul is his strengthening influence Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me He strengtheneth the Soul 1. In doing Spiritual duties 2. In resisting Corruptions 3. In suffering sharpest trials The Lord stood by me saith Paul But it is not my present business to discourse either of the several sorts of Spiritual strengthening influences Nor yet of the ways and methods by and in which Christ meeteth the Soul with strength and Communicates strength unto it My work is only to shew you that this influence of his is as a bundle of Myrrh to the Soul Now that Christ in this influence is exceeding sweet to the Soul needs no other proof then the daily experience of the Souls of Gods People how refreshed do they rise up from Prayer when they have found the Spirit of Christ in it helping their infirmities with strong cryes and groans It is said of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. That she rose up and her Countenance was no more sad This was that which made the holy Martyrs take joyfully the spoiling of their goods the burning of their bodies And made them feel no more pain to use the expression of one of them then if they had been upon a bed of Roses So that their Persecutors cursed them saying they had a delight to burn 5 A fifth sort of influences are the Quickening influences of the Spirit of Christ I have formerly told you that the Scripture mentioneth a threefold quickening All of them from Christ and by the Spirit 1. The quickening of the dead body mentioned Rom. 8. 11. This will be as a bundle of Myrrh exceeding sweet when it comes when in the resurrection we shall be like Angels And the thoughts of this are exceeding sweet while we live here 2. The quickening of the dead Soul mentioned Eph. 2. 1. This is exceeding sweet to the Soul when done Oh how pleasant it is to a Soul to remember
night betwixt my breasts There are two Propositions which I named from these words and which yet remain to be discoursed 1. That the believing Soul is wonderfully desirous of Christ's abiding with it 2. That to engage him to such an abode she will allow him a room betwixt her breasts The latter will be a proof to the former come in collaterally while I handle the former Prop. That a gracious heart will be exceeding desirous of Christ's abiding with it I shall speak to this Proposition in this Method 1. Shewing you what are those lodgings and abidings of Christ with and upon the Soul of which the gracious heart is so exceedingly desirous 2. How it doth appear that a believing Soul is so fond of Christ's abidings with it 3 Whence it is that she is thus exceeding fond of Christ's lodgings and abidings with it 4. I shall apply the whole Qu. 1. What is to be understood by the lodging or abiding of Christ with the Soul You read in Scripture of Christ's abiding with the Soul and the Soul 's abiding with Christ The first is mentioned as our priviledge the second as our duty Of the first you read John 14. 23. My Father and I will come unto him and we will make our abode with him Of the second John 15. 6. If a man aâide not in me he is cut off c. So again v. 6. each depending upon the other for it is God's Covenant I will never depart from you to do you good and I will put my fear into your hearts that you shall never depart from me Abiding or lodging in the primary Notion signifieth the continuance of some corporeal presence transferred to spiritual things it signifies The continuance of a priviledge or perseverance in a duty Christ's abode with us signifies the first our abiding with him signifies the latter each of them expressed in Scripture by various expressions Christ's abiding with us is expressed John 14. 16. By the abidings of the Comforter by the abiding of the anointing Oil 1 Joh. 2. 26. It is opposed to the momentany and short refreshings of grace when to use that other phrase of Scripture God is to the Soul but as a wayfaring man that tarries but for a night Our abidings with and in Christ are also variously expressed by the abidings of that in us which we have received 1. Joh. 2. 24. by abiding in light 1 Joh. 2. 10. and the Word of God abiding in us v. 14. by abiding in the Doctrine of Christ Joh. 2. ep v. 9. But I have nothing to do save only with the former Notion In short The abidings of Christ with the Soul import two things 1. The permanency of his Union with the Soul continuing the state of Justification 1 Joh. 3. 24. Hereby we know he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given to us 2. The constancy of his gracious Influences upon us which Joh. 14. v. 21. he calls A manifesting of himself unto us and v. 22. his abode with us This is also the abiding of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Comforter mentioned v. 16. This is the lodging of Christ betwixt the Soul's breasts This it is of which the gracious Soul is so exceeding fond and covetous And so much shall serve for the first Question I come to the second Qu. 2. How doth it appear that a gracious Soul is so desirous of Christ's abidings with it There are three waies by which the Earnest desire of our friends abode with us are discernable to others 1. By Verbal Expressions 2. Real Actions 3. Vehement Passions By all these the believing Soul's desires that Christ should lodge with it have been and are discernable 1. Verbal Expressions before the World was so far debaucht as now that none knows by the Index of the Tongue what the Clock strikes in the heart were sufficient Evidences of cordial desires The Children of God cannot lye unto him we may therefore from their words conclude still If you look upon the Saints or Church in former times see what the Church saith Jer. 14. 8. O thou hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in times of trouble why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the Land as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night The expressions of David in the Psalms this way are very many this is it which he means by the lifting up of God's Countenance upon him which he so passionately desires above Corn Wine and Oil Psal 4. for which he prefers the place of a door-keeper in the house of God before dwelling in the Tents of wickedness Psal 84. Indeed if you look upon the whole sum of the desires both of David and other Saints who stand upon sacred Record you will find that as to spiritual things all their desires are comprehended in this one that God would abide with them lodge all night betwixt their breasts And the same Spirit yet breatheth in the Souls of all that fear the Lord. I need do no more for the proof of this than appeal to the experience of all such who have in the least degree tasted how good the Lord is what 's the sum of all their prayers what 's their language to one another and to all the Ministers of God to whom at any time they address themselves but oh that they might find the Abidings of the Comforter with their Souls the abidings of the strengthening and quickening Spirit of God with them Oh that Christ would not be as a stranger in their Souls nor as a wayfaring man that turneth in to their Souls for a night 2. The Earnest desires of gracious Souls for the abidings of Christ with them are evident also upon the consideration of what they will be ready to do for the continuance of them This is in part hinted in the Text He shall lodge or stay or lie all night betwixt my breasts which metaphorical expression signifies by interpretation these two things 1. I will deny him nothing which he shall desire of me so I may but keep his company 2. I will entertain him with the highest demonstrations of cordial Affection 1. I will deny him nothing which he shall desire of me The Mother will deny nothing to that Child nor the Wife to that Husband which either of them allow to lodge betwixt their breasts The believing Soul will deny Christ nothing so it may keep his presence with her Will he have the man do for him Lord saith Paul Act. 9. 6. What wilt thou have me to do Will he have the man to die for him I am ready saith Paul Act. 21. 11. not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord JÄsus Will he have it deny it self distribute and give to the poor make satisfaction where he hath done injury No sooner is Zacheus told that Christ was come to his house but he cries Luk. 19. 5 8. Lord the half of my goods I
reduplications of words and phrases are usual The Hebr. is very full of them they are of several uses I shall note such of them as may be properly applied to this Text. 1. Sometimes the doubling of a word or phrase denotes the certainty of the thing or action Gen. 15. 13. Know of a surety thy seed shall be a stranger c. In the Heb. it is knowing thou mayest know And thus frequently in the new Testament verily verily denotes the exceeding certainty of the Proposition spoken and thus it may do in this Text thou art fair my Love thou art fair That is thou art certainly very fair 2. Sometimes it is to note the exceeding earnestness and intention of him who speaketh Bis dictum magis dicitur Thus it is often used in Scripture Gen. 14. 10. The valley of Siddim was full of slimepits so we translate it in the Hebr. A valley of pits of pits So in many Texts other Writers amongst whom Julius Scaliger c. much Commend this form of speaking as having in it a great kind of force and vehemency according to this usage the sense is thou art exceeding sair my Love which comporteth with what he had said before v. 8. where he had called the Spouse thou sairest amongst Women Christ hath his delight amongst the Sons of men He takes no such delight in the Angels as in believers 3. Repetitions thirdly of the same word or phrase in Scripture sometimes note a distribution And so the sense may be this thou art fair my Love thou art fair Thou art justified by my grace and so thou art fair thou art Sanctified in my name so thou art fair thou art fair without and thou art fair within thou art fair in this part and fair in that part fair in every part 4. Lastly to mention no more Repetltions are often used by Orators not only to express a vehemency of intention in him that speaketh and the certainty of the thing that is spoken but to beget a vehemency and earnestness of attention in him that heareth and Interpreters of holy Writ do assign this as one reason of the use of them in several places of Scripture when the Holy-Ghost designeth earnestly to inculcate the thing spoken and to beget in us a belief of it hence now we may learn these things which I will but name and conclude what I have to say from the consideration of the Circumstances of the first Proposition of the Text. 1. The beauty of a believing Soul is unquestionable it is not in a complement that Christ saith the believing Soul is beautiful it is not a seeming beauty but a certain beauty 2. The beauty which grace gives the Soul is an eminent beauty not an ordinary but an eminent beauty The phrase is doubled to denote eminency 3. The Beauty of a believing Soul is a manifold beauty A beauty in every part 4. It is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ that a believing Soul should know and believe it self to be a beauteous Soul A Gracious Soul may debase it self too much and often err as much in having too mean thoughts of it self as the hypocrite doth in having too high thoughts of himself thinking of himself above what be ought to think But I intend not to enlarge a discourse upon these things having spoken to them or at least to some of them before thus much is sufficient to have noted concerning the Circumstances I proceed to the second part of the Text Thou hast Doves Eyes The Proposition of this Text is plain enough The true Spouse of Christ hath Doves Eyes I before observed to you that some read it thy Eyes are like the Eyes of a Dove others thy Eyes are as a pair of Doves but as the difference is not much so I see no reason to deviate from our English translation For the explication and confirmation of the Proposition for I will join both together we will enquire these three things 1. Qu. Why Our Saviour in commending his Spouse begins with her Eyes and only Commends her for them 2. Qu. What is here meant by the Spouses Eyes 3. Qu. Why the Spouse is said to have the Eyes of Doves rather then of any other creature 1. Qu. Why doth our Saviour here Commend the Spouse only for her Eyes 1. The general account which Interpreters give of it is this That it is a Synechdoche and by a figure according to which a considerable part is often put for the whole our Saviour doth here speak his whole Spouse to be like a Dove like a Doves Eye Indeed we are commanded to be harmless as Doves Matth. 10. 16. And the Church is called Gods Turtle Dove Psal 74. 19. And David wisheth that he had the wings of a Dove Psal 55. 6. The shape of a Dove was that shape which the Spirit of God chose when it descended upon Christ And the coming in of the Gentiles to Christ is set out by the flockings of Doves to the Windows Isa 60. 8. And the Eye of all the members is the most considerable as to beauty a good Eye much commendeth an ill complexion and a bad Eye much blemisheth any other Symmetry of parts And this may be allowed for one reason But 2. The Soul doth much discover it self at the Eye It is the casement at which it shews it self many of the Vertues and Vices of the mind are read in the Eye wantonness discovers it self at the Eye hence you read in Scripture of Eyes full of adultery 2. Pet. 2. 14. So doth rage pride malice envy and many other vices and as the evil so the good dispositions and vertues of the Soul are much discovered by the Eye too so that indeed when our Saviour commendeth his Spouse for her Eyes he commendeth her whole Soul and it is but a proof of what he had before said Thou art fair my beloved thou art fair Thou hast Doves Eyes proves that 2. Qu. What is here meant by the Spouses Eyes After such a resolution as I gave to the first question this might seem needless if Interpreters had not led me the way who are in doubt whether our Saviours design here be to commend those bodily parts of his Spouse or some inward parts called Eyes by a Metaphor the difference is not much for supposing him to resemble the Eyes of her body to Doves Eyes the reason is because of those gracious dispositions in her Soul which by her Eyes discover themselves and are like the natural inclinations of Doves if he speaks of the Eyes of her mind and his meaning be that his Spouses understanding which is the Eye of the Soul is like a Doves Eyes the thing is much the same Unquestionably that which our Saviour here designs to Commend believers for is the gracious dispositions of their Souls discovered in their outward conversation much resembling the natural dispositions and behaviours of Doves But the chief thing we have to enquire into for
hath it that walks with God and hath a fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ By way of Argument let me but plead with you 1. To observe the difference between sensual and intellectual pleasures And again betwixt rational and spiritual pleasures Who is there that observes not how much the satisfaction of the mind in the possession of Learning and Vertue excels all that satisfaction which the Eye hath in seeing or the Ear in hearing Christ is pleasant to the Soul not to the outward but to the inward man The pleasures of the mind are rational or spiritual The proportion which knowledge beareth to the understanding of man and which moral Vertue bears to his Reason makes them pleasant and creates an intellectual rational pleasure But alas it must be imperfect for as the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing so neither is it possible that the Soul should be satisfied with knowledge or moral accomplishments especially when it is awakened to consider Eternity Hence the Learned man that before took pleasure in his knowledge being awakened cries out I with my Learning may go to Hell when one that knows much less may go to Heaven where 's the pleasure But now the Soul that is possessed of Christ hath its heart perfectly at rest because it sees its eternal Interest provided for and cannot discern it self in danger of future misery Furthermore the things in which it takes pleasure are above the rank of all sublimary contentments even such things as Eye hath not seen nor hath Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive Besides Conscience is quiet Conscience is that which spoils much of the Worlds pleasure for as a good Conscience is a continual feast so an evil Conscience is more or less a continual torment Now Christ is he alone that quieteth the Conscience Many a poor Christless Soul drinks Wine in Bowls and boast in their outwardly happy condition but by and by a finger of a mans hand appears their Conscience begins to stir and to tell them they are damned undone sinners what becomes of their pleasure But now the Soul that is in Christ his Conscience speaks peace to him he hath peace without trouble And to give you a demonstration of this pleasantness of a Christian's life as I remember Christ said of the Lillies they neither spin nor sow yet Solomon in all his glory is not like one of them So give me leave to say Step unto the poor Cottages of Christians who have searce Bread to eat no Silken Rayments to put on no Musick to make them merry no Money to spend no Orchards or Gardens to delight them and yet there 's many a Nobleman many a Gentleman who have all these in abundance yet in all their glory are not like one of these Lillies these poor Souls have more true content and pleasure in one day than they have in all their life nor would they change conditions with them So true is that of Solomon Prov. 15. 16 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great Treasures and trouble therewith Better is a dinner of Herbs where love is than a stalled Oxe and hatred therewith I dare warrant you that the Philosopher could have dined more sweetly at home with Bread and Water than at the Tyrants Table of Dainties in view of a sharp Sword hanging over his head by a thred There 's many a poor Christian in this like a true spiritual Diogenes that satisfieth himself with the influence of the Sun upon his Tub better than an Alexander could do himself with a whole World subdued to his feet 2. Observe from hence the difference between Christ and lusts Christ and the World The Soul of man cannot be alone it is either espoused to lusts and to the World or else to the Lord Jesus There 's many a one whose Soul is united to it's lusts Lust is its beloved Can this Soul say Behold thou art fair my Beloved yea pleasant Doubtless nothing less Reason tells the Drunkard that his Drunkenness is a foul thing and Reason tells the Unclean person that his Soul is united to a filthy thing Take him that is united to the World to the Riches of it or to the Honours of it Reason tells him they have no beauty in them nor are they more pleasant than beautiful Ah! what racks of Conscience have prophane sinners oft-times The Wine tickles the throat as it passeth but it maketh the stomach sick The lusts of the flesh leave a Thorn in the Conscience which abides when the pleasure of them is vanished The World pleaseth the Eye while the figure of it passeth before it but it is no more than ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a great fancy and vexation of spirit spoils the pleasure of it But Christ is pleasant never any Soul that followed him repented of it yea those that follow him weeping never repent of their repentings Bring me that Soul which ever said I would I had never known or never walkt with Christ Let this therefore prevail with every Soul that hears me this day to get acquaintance with Christ And 2. With those who have interest in him to labour to grow up in him 1. The former Because he is pleasant 2. The latter Because they have not tasted the bottom of that pleasantness which attends him and the full Enjoyment of him Pleasantness is an alluring thing When Eve saw that the Apple was pleasant to the Eye she took it Gen. 3. 6. When Issachar in Jacob's Prophecy Gen. 49. 15. saw that the Land was pleasant he bowed his shoulder to bear Were you but possessed of this one Truth that Christ is pleasant that the way of Christ is a way of pleasantness it would go a great way to persuade men into it Hearken to the Wise man speaking of Wisdom of Christ indeed and his Grace under the notion of Wisdom Prov. 3. 17. Her waies are waies of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her Hearken you that are at ease in Zion that drink away care and spend your time in singing away the Evil day you that lie upon Beds of Ivory and stretch your selves upon Couches and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and Calves out of the midst of the stall you that chant to the sound of the Viol and invent to your selves Instruments of Musick you that drink Wine in Bowls and fare deliciously every day and dress your selves in gorgeous Apparel I tell you there 's many a poor Soul that hath Christ and is clothed with Rags and feeds upon Roots and drinks Water whose Soul is more at ease and enjoys more pleasure than yours doth O! therefore return you Shulamites return and understand aright the waies of true pleasure from those things that are meer empty shadows of vanity 2. Let this engage you that have received Christ to grow
up in him to study him more to converse with him more to keep to closer communion with Christ you yet know not the pleasantness that is in him there is a breadth of sweetness you have not measured and a depth of pleasure which you have not fathomed In the last place Is Christ not only fair but pleasant not only beautiful through Grace but pleasant lovely gentle sweet in his converse with the Souls of his Saints Let this commend pleasantness to every true Christian Labour not only to be gracious but to be pleasant I will name but two Arguments in the case 1. Consider Thus you shall be like unto the Lord Jesus Christ 2. Thus shall you honour your Profession An unpleasant Conversation in a Christian dishonours the Lord Christ it makes men think that he is an hard Master that Christianity is an odd thing which metamorphoseth men and women into strange kind of creatures unfit any longer for converse with the World Take off this scandal from the Gospel You may be pleasant yet not profane your conversation toward the World may be winning though you do not give your selves up to such a liberty as to hazard the ruine and loss of your own Souls It was a piece of Paul's pleasantness He became all things to all men that he might win some 1 Cor. 9. v. 22. 2 Cor. 10. 33. Sermon LX. Canticles 1. 16. Our Bed is Green I Am come to the Second Proposition of the Text in those words Our bed is Green The Chaldee Paraphrast making the Congregation of Israel the Spouse in this Song thus glosseth upon these words In the time when thou dwellest in our Beloved Bed our Children are many and multiplyed upon the Earth we grow and multiply like a Tree planted by the Rivers of Waters whose leaf is beautiful and whose fruit is much Possibly that antient Interpretation hath led the generality of Interpreters to expound the Text concerning the flourishing condition of the Soul and of the Church while it is in Spiritual conjunction with the Lord Jesus Christ it is not My Bed but Our Bed is Green and flourishing for so the word may be translated So that not to enlarge in further discourses about the Exposition of the Text taking it for granted that the Holy Ghost in this Text respecteth the Bed as it is the place for procreation or as it was the place where they did eat their meat in those Countries we may from it observe this plain Proposition Prop. That the fruitfulness of the Soul and of the Church doth depend upon Christs conjunction with them I shall speak to this Proposition by way of Explication confirmation and Application By way of Explication we will only enquire what is the gracious Souls fruitfulness or the Gospel Churches fruitfulness 1. The particular Souls fruitfulness lyes in its bringing forth of good works You read in Scripture of the fruit of the Body Deut. 28. 4. And of the fruit of the Land Deut. 7. 13. The Children of God are said to be Married unto Christ And as the fruit of the Womb is the consequent of carnall Marriage so the fruit of holiness is the consequent of Spiritual Marriage Rom. 7. 4. You are become dead to the law by the Body of Christ that you should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God This fruit unto God is called fruit unto holiness Rom. 6. 22. Christ is also compared unto a vine John 15. 2. We are the Branches and therefore purged that we may bring forth fruit ib. 5. 16. Whether therefore the gracious Soul be looked upon as the Spouse of Christ and Married to him by faith its fruit is holiness or whether it be looked upon as a branch in Christ still its fruit is holiness our works considering us as men are our fruit Now look as several Plants according to their different natures bring forth different fruit some bring forth pleasant some bitter fruit some wholsom some again noxious fruit so it is with men and women who are the Plants of the World by Nature they are all wild Plants and are corrupt and bring forth corrupt fruit called by the Apostle the fruit of sin unto death But having a new Nature given them by God they bring forth fruit unto life the fruits of righteousness which are also called the fruits of the Spirit Eph. 5. 9. Gal. 5. 22. the fruit of righteousness to shew the species or kind of them fruit unto life shewing the consequent of them the fruit of the Spirit shewing the more external cause of them Now as these fruits more or less abound in the Soul the Soul is more or less fruitful This is the particular Saints fruit 2. The Churches fruitfulness is its bringing forth many Sons unto God Children are the fruit of the body caused by generation Gods Children are the fruit of the Church caused by Regeneration Conversion is called a begetting 2 Pet. 1. 3. We are said to be begotten of God 1 Job 5. 1. God is our Father but the Church is our Mother It is the Church which bears us which travels and brings forth Children unto God And the Saints are called the Churches Children Isa 54. 13. All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy Children The thriving of the Church lies in this when many Souls are in it converted and brought home unto God This is the Souls fruitfulness and thriving and this is also the Churches fruitfulness and thriving This is that which my Doctrine speaketh of and saith that i t dependeth upon Christs conjuncton with the Soul and with the Church Look as the fruitfulness of the Woman depends upon the conjunction of her Husband with her as the fruitfulness of the plant depends upon its conjunction with the Earth as the thriving of the Body by its meat dependeth upon the blessing of God Man liveth not by bread only but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God And as the thriving of the plant dependeth upon the influence of the Heavens the shinings of the Sun and the distillations of the Clouds so yea much more then so doth the thriving of a Church and of a Soul depend upon the influence of Christs grace I will prove it first concerning the particular Soul 2. Concerning the Church 1. Concerning the particular Soul 1. It is Christ that giveth the Soul a prolifick vertue The fruitful Woman must have a prolifick vertue so must the plant of the field otherwise the Woman is barren and the plant is barren That power which is in any Soul to bring forth the fruit of holiness that is its prolifick vertue and this is from the Lord this is that which the Apostle calleth to will in Philip 2. 13. The will is the root of all humane actions and the power in the Soul to do
then Persons yet here again they are divided some understanding by the Beams and Rafters The Word and Ordinances of God Thus the Dutch Annotat. By the Beams is understood the Doctrine of the Prophets Apostles 2. Others understand the grace of the holy Spirit of God There are other particular fancies But I shall chuse to follow those who interpret the Rafters and Beams to be the Word and Ordinances of God for these like the Beams of an house keep up the Church and are as it were the Common Soul that running through the whole Church keeps it together and indeed makes it one and so much shall serve for the second question the third follows 3. Qu. Why the Spouse here compares the Word and Ordinances to Cedar and Fir or Cypress or Brutine There are four or five things which these trees and sorts of wood are more famous for viz. 1. Duration 2. Beauty 3. strength 4. Talness 5. Smell 1. It is observed of the Cedar that it is a beautiful goodly tree I shall add the 4th Talness indeed its talness is a great part of its beauty hence you read of the goodly Cedar Ezech. 17. 23. Psal 80. 10. and the tall Cedar Isa 37. 24. 2. As these are tall trees so they are strong and therefore ordinarily used in buildings strong and yet light Hence when the Holy Ghost sometimes would express the great power of God he expresseth it under this Notion The voice of the Lord breaketh the Cedars in Lebanon Psal 29. v. 5. Firs and Cedars are apt to bear great weights and yet without any great loading of the building 3. It is observed of them that they are very durable Naturalists say that they are not as other wood subject to worms nor so soon to rottenness and decay as other wood is Pliny saith that it is commonly thought they will never decay and gives an instance of the Temple of Diana whose Beams Rafters and Spars were made of Cedar The leaves and doors of Cypress And after 400 years they not only continued sound but the doors especially shining and as it were polished They report of the Temple of Apollo whose Beams and main pieces were made of Numidian Cedars that it continued entire and sound 1188 years How true these stories are I cannot assert but certain it is these sorts of wood were very durable 4. A 4th thing observed of the Cedar and Cypress trees is their odoriferous smell According to this interpretation of the Text the scope of it is to Commend unto us the Word of God and the Gospel Ordinances 1. For their Beauty 2. Continuance 3. Power and and Efficacy 4. And lastly For their exceeding sweetness From the Text thus far opened you may observe three Propositions 1. Prop. That the Church of God is the house of God 2. Prop. That the word and Ordinances of God are the Beams and Rafters of this house 3. Prop. That there is a Beauty sweetness power and efficacy and an incorruptible nature in the Word of God and Ordinances of the Gospel I begin with these in their order 1. Prop. The Church of God is Jesus Christ's and the believers house Our house saith the Text. We will first enquire 1. What is meant by the Church 2. How it appears that the Church is the house of the Lord Jesus Christ 3. How it is the believers house 4. What may be inferred from hence for our profit in matter of knowledge and holiness 1. Qu. What is meant by the Church This hath in this latter age of the World been found an hard matter to agree amongst Persons of different Notions That the term Church is a name of multitude and that a Church must be an aggregate body is generally agreed that it is a body of People called by God out of the World is also as freely consented to But whether only called by a general call outwardly accepted by them so far at least that they do own the Doctrine of the Gospel or by a more special and effectual calling not only out of the Pagan World but also out of the unbelieving World These things have been matters of great dispute amongst us yet all acknowledge the distribution of the Church into that which is Triumphant and that which is militant The Triumphant part of the Church is that part of it who God having in the time of their life called them out of the Paganish and unbelieving World and they afterward finished their course are called also by God out of this sensible sinful elementary World to the enjoyment of himself in glory These are thrice called 1. Out of the Pagan World to the acknowledgment of the Doctrine of the Gospel 2. Out of the unbelieving World to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Grace by true and lively Faith 3. Out of the sensible sinful World to the Inheritance of glory The other part of the Church is that which is usually called Militant and is the whole number of those whom God hath called out of the Paganish World to the acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine of the Gospel This is again distinguished into that which is Invisible and that which is Visible The Invisible part is that whole number of men and women in the World which the Lord by his Gospel hath called out of darkness into marvelous light out of a state of Nature into a state of Grace The Matter of this Church are men and women the Form their Union in and with the Lord Jesus Christ The Visible Church is that about which the great quarrels have been Some agreeing it to be the whole number of People over the face of the whole Earth called out from a state of Paganism to the embracing of the Doctrine of the Gospel The Matter of it are men and women professing to Christ Jesus the Form is their Union in the same Profession acknowledgment of the same Truth and Waies and Means of Worship Now as the Sea is but one though as it passeth by several Coasts it receives several denominations as the Irish Sea the English Sea the Mediterranean Sea the Baltick Sea c. so as this great body is divided into several Countries it receives several denominations as The Church of England Scotland France c. And as again in a particular Nation suppose England it is impossible that the whole body of Professors should meet in one place and therefore there are several places of Publick Worship and several Precincts of People who meet together in several places to worship God yet all agreeing in the same Doctrine of Faith and order of serving God so there are in the World thousands of such Bodies which are called particular Churches and are under the inspection of several Officers all which yet together make but one Church of God For their Notion who think that the Church of God must needs be such an even number as can meet together in the
same numerical acts of Worship in one place we conceive it stands upon no such bottom that it deserves any pains in the confutation of it it may be a good Notion of a particular Church but not an exclusive of the Application of the term to more Now this Visible Church of God is that which is Christ's House The Invisible Church is so and the Visible Church is so He walketh in the midst of the golden Candlesticks 2. That this is Christ's House appears 1. From the letter of Scripture 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou mayess know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God Timothy's charge was not the Invisible Church but the Visible Church this is called the House of God Heb. 3. 6. Christ is said to be faithful as a Son over his own house whose house saith he we are c. I shall not here dispute the Question whether the hypocritical part of the Visible Church be aequivocal or univocal Members sure I am take those together with the sincere Professors and they make up but one Church which is his House But secondly Look which way you will upon the Church it is Christ's House he hath the dominion of it and he useth it as his House he hath bought it Act. 20. 28. he hath redeemed it with his own precious blood It is given him It is his House by right of donation The Members of it are given him by his Father The Stones of it are his the Saints are the lively Stones built up into this Spiritual House 1 Pet. 2. 5. and they are built upon the foundation of his Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone they are sanctified in and through Jesus Christ his blood is as the Mortar and Cement by that they are united to God and made one each with other The Builder is his Spirit Eph. 2. 22. Consider an House as to the use of it and upon that account they are also his House Is an House the place where a man abideth and dwelleth so is the Church to the Lord Jesus Christ that 's the place where he dwelleth He dwelt of old in Mount Zion Isa 8. 18. there he abideth Is the House a man's resting place so is Zion to God 2 Chron. 6. 41. Psal 132. 8 13 14. The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Is the House a man's feeding place where he dineth and suppeth and feedeth so is the Church Cant. 2. 16. He feedeth amongst the Lillies When the Spouse desired to be informed where Christ fed her answer was Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the Flock Cant. 1. 7. Is that a man's House where he keeps his Wife his Children his Servants such is the Church there Christ keeps his Children his Servants his Spouse Is a man's House the place where he spends what he hath such is the Church there it is that Christ gives out grace and glory yea and every good thing Lastly Is a man's House the place where he is protected and defended such is the Church to Christ there he expeââs protection for his great Name his Ordinances c. But this is enough to have shewed you the propriety of the Metaphor But 3. The Church is not only Christ's House but it is the Believer's House too not the Believer's House as to dominion and title but as to use No man but Jesus Christ alone hath a dominion and Lordship over the Church of God even the Apostles themselves were but Ministers to it But yet I say The Church is the Believer's House it is the place where he dwells He chuseth rather to be a Door-keeper in the House of the Lord than to dwell in the Tents of wickedness Psal 84. 10. Hear David expressing himself Psal 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple A man cannot be a Believer but he must forthwith be a Member of the Church Invisible None is a true Believer but he immediately by his Profession of that Faith makes himself a Member of the Catholick Visible Church and he will desire to unite himself to the particular Assemblies which are parts of that Catholick Body No sooner were the three thousand converted at St. Peter's Sermon Act. 2. 41. But they added to the Church and there they dwell v. 42. They continue stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayers No sooner was Paul converted Act. 9. 26. but he assayeth to joyn himself unto the Disciples And v. 28. he was with them going out and coming in at Hierusalem But this is enough to have spoken to the Explication of the Point I come to the Application which shall be in four words This Notion speaks the Churches 1. Dignity 2. Duty 3. Security 4. Probability of Reformation In the first place This Notion speaks the Church's Dignity It is the Habitation of the King of Kings When Jacob in his Journey to Padan-Aram had had that notable Vision he breaketh out in the morning into this expression v. 17. How dreadful is this place This is none other but the House of God this is the Gate of Heaven I am not speaking of the Church in a local notion but of the true Church The number of true Believers or the number of Visible Professors let the World vilifie them as much as they please they are a Noble Society Those who have clean hands and pure hearts who have not lift up their Souls unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully they shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of their Salvation This is the generation of them that seek thy face O Jacob Psal 24. 4 5 6. Believers may have their infirmities and a Professing People may have their great failings the Lord be merciful to the Professors of England for theirs but yet take them notwithstanding all and they are the best People in the World they are the Lord's Habitation he hath pitched his Tents among them and manifests his presence with them Secondly As it speaks the Dignity of the Church so it speaks the Duty of those who are the Members of the Church Psal 93. 5. Holiness becomes thine House O Lord. The Wise man commands us to keep our feet when we go into the House of God Eccles 5. And God bid Moses put off the shoes from off his feet upon this account because he was upon holy ground he was near the burning Bush where God made himself a temporary Habitation Those that take upon them the Profession of Religion stand concerned to be holy and those that are entred into the Profession of it stand concerned
particular Soul is But God himself supplieth that place Now The Word and Ordinances of the Gospel though they be not Anima Mundi the Soul of the World Yet they are Anima Eâclesiae as it were the Soul of the Church of God without which the Church would be no such thing as the Church of the Living God They are those things which make the Church to be a Church and the whole Church to be but one Church Let this therefore engage every Christian to prize the Word and to prize the Ordinances of the Gospel That 's the first Branch Hence in the second place you may observe what is a sad Symptom of a decaying Church and by this you may also discern a lame and imperfect Church Look as in a Building there are some more principal Beams and pieces of Timber without which there can be no House no Building Others that are integral parts without which the Building is not compleat yet the House may be an House though lame and imperfect So it is in this case without the Doctrine of Faith and some Ordinances of Worship the Church is no Church If any part of the Doctrine of Faith be wanting or corrupted in a Church the Church is however true yet lame and imperfect Suppose a Church wholly want some Ordinances as some do the Ordinances of Ecclesiastical Censures yet they are not by this made no Church if they have the Doctrine of Faith and some Ordinances of Worship much less ought a Church to be so censured for the temporary want or suspension of the Exercise of some Ordinances which was the case of the Jewish Church in the Wilderness as to Circumcision but yet the Church that wanteth such Ordinances is imperfect and lame And again I say this is a sad Symptom of a decaying Church when either the Doctrine of Faith or Ordinances of Worship are denied or corrupted in it for these are the Beams and Rafters of the House and every one grants that House to be a decaying declining House where the Beams and Rafters are rotten We need no further Evidence of this than what we have in God's Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia recorded by St. John in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation The Church of Smyrna was a decaying Church The Doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans was holden in it The Church of Thyatira was a decaying Church for the Woman Jezebel taught and seduced the Servants of God in it And but a while after these Rafters and Beams being decayed these Houses of God fell and to this very day lie in their rubbish From that time that Jeroboam set up the Calves at Dan and Bethel and the Kings of Judah set up Altars in Groves the Church of the Jews was a declining decaying Church and the Rulers of it and Members of it having no heart timely to repair and reform it the House fell It is true God raised it again after the Captivity but it decaying the second time fell and lies buried in its Ruines this day Thirdly From this Notion may be drawn a great argument both for unity and uniformity Vnity in matters of faith Vniformity in matters of practice The Doctrine of unity in the Church of the Gospel is exceedingly pressed in Scripture scarce is there any one of the Epistles of the Apostles in which it is not again and again pressed Be of one mind there is a double union which is our duty to labour after The first is unit as fidei the unity of faith as to the understanding The second is unit as Charit at is quoad affectum the unity of Love and Charity as to the affections The latter of these hath been highly pleaded for in these sinful and wofully divided times and indeed never more need of it but it hath not been duly considered that considering the corrupt state of man The former union must be the Mother of the latter For as all love is founded in some similitude so this love and affection where it hath any where grown up to its due heighth we shall find hath been founded in the similitude of understanding and de facto it is evident that amongst Christians of different persuasions in the things of God there hath seldom been an intireness of cordial affection Indeed these things ought not to be therefore I do not Commend them nor yet blame the exhortation of brethren of divided Principles to an union in affection forbearing one another where all things have not been alike revealed to all but such is the corruption of our natures that this is rather optandum then sperandum to be wished for rather than hoped for if there could be unity in Judgment and uniformity in practice which the Apostle calls a thinking and a speaking the same things the other union of affection would follow more readily O let us labour for this There is but one truth but one true rule of Worship This Doctrine these rules are contained in the Word of God these are the Beams and Rafters of the Church and if the same Beams and Rafters run through the whole Church and be upon every part of the roof we may expect that the building should be strong and durable on the other side the difference of these Beams and Rafters whiles one Church holds one thing in maâter of faith another Church holdeth another thing nay whiles one particular Christian believes one thing another Christian believes another thing whiles this Church or this Christian Worships God after one way and order another Church or other Christians they Worship God after another way though indeed it is possible their differences may not be so great but they may yet agree in one and the same head the Lord Jesus Christ and so both parties differing may at lest be saved yea it may be their differences are not so great but there may be a just forbearing one of another provided all Christians were of equal understandings or that they rightly understood each other yet doubtless this breach of unity as to matters of Judgment in things relating to the Doctrine of Faith and breach of Vniformity as to matters of practice is a great weakening of the Church of God and much spoileth the beauty and glory of it O therefore study unity and study uniformity you strengthen the building by both these you weaken it by dividing or disagreeing at least to open notice It is to me very remarkable that St. Paul almost in every Epistle presseth these things and Phil. 4. 2. when but two women dissented he thought it worthy of his pains to persuade them to it I beseech Euodias and I beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. Doest thou therefore O Christian differ from other Christians amongst whom thou livest in any matter of faith or in any matter of practice as to fellowship in Ordinances sit not down Satisfied but labour for this unity for
the word of God ariseth from two things 1. The first is that sweet joy and peace which God Ordinarily brings into the Soul from them God will speak peace to his People saith the Psalmist and he creates the fruit of the lips peace peace saith the Prophet this joy is indeed of different degrees there is the rejoicing of hope for hope growing from a true Root bringeth forth some fruit of joy in the Soul though it indeed be not so fair and pleasant a fruit as that joy which is the fruit of assurance because the Union which hope gives the Soul with its beloved object is of the lowest fort But yet even this joy hath a great deal of sweetness but Oh! How great is that sweetness which is the riper fruit of assurance that peace which passeth all understanding A sweetness which oft times overcomes the Soul and is too great for it to bear Both which the Soul reaps from the word of God and from the Ordinances of God 2. But secondly this sweetness in the Word and Ordinances of God ariseth not from this alone but from other usefulness of them to the Soul That is not only sweet but that also which is profitable David saies that the Law of the Lord doth convert the Soul makes wise the simple enlightens the Eyes that they are useful to warn us and that in keeping them there is great reward By the word and the Ordinances of God the Soul hath wherewithal to answer the tempter in that it finds arguments to help it in repelling a secret motion to sin c. This makes the Word and Ordinances of God exceeding sweet to gracious Souls as they are those things by which the Soul is profited 3. But thirdly there is a further sweetness that the Word and Ordinances of God have to a gracious Soul as they are pure and holy Psal 119. v. 140. Thy word is very pure therefore doth thy servant love it The heart of man naturally doth not love purity but the Spiritual heart that is conformed to the image of God loves it It is turned into the likeness of the word and made to love whatsoever is holy and Spiritual and pure This makes the Rafters and beams of the Church to the true Christian to be like Cedar and Fir sweet smelling because of that purity and holiness which cleaveth to them 4. A fourth thing which the Proposition predicateth of the Word and Ordinances of God is their duration they are of an incorruptible Nature as Cedar and Fir or Pine Not subject to corruption and putrefaction as other sorts of wood are Isa 40. v. 8. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth but the Word of God shall stand for ever Our Saviour speaketh to this purpose Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of the Law shall not pass away until all these be fulfilled I will open this a little 1. The Ordinances of the Gospel endure for ever Herein the excellency of the Gospel dispensation appeareth above the legal dispensation The Law brought nothing to perfection faith the Apostle to the Hâbrews the Ordinances of worship under the Law were but shadows and types which ceased when Christ who was the substance of those shadows and the Antitype to those types once appeared in the World or at least when he dyed but the Ordinances which are as the beams and Rafters of the Gospel Church are durable and do not pass away The Jewish Priesthood ceased But the Gospel Ministry continues Christ hath promised to be with them to the End of the World God hath given Apastles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints until we all come in the Unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ The passover was but for a time until the Messiah who was the true paschal Lamb should he slain for the sins of his People but the Ordinance of the Lords Supper which comes instead of this is an Ordinance by which we shew the death of Christ until his coming again 1 Cor. 11. 2. The word of God in particular indureth for ever I will open this in two things 1. The Propositions of the word indure for ever They are Propositions of Eternal truth whether they be Dogmatical Propositions which assert the truth of God concerning the Nature or will of God or concerning the state of man or any thing relating to his duty or whether they be such as are promisory they are of an immortal Nature the reason is because God is a God that changeth not he is not Yea and Nay but Yea and Amen a God that cannot lye to his People nor repent of what he hath said unto them The truth of the word abideth for ever 2. The vertue of the word abideth and is immortal The same vertue which the word of God ever had in it to convince convert to enlighten quicken support comfort the same is in it still and indeed the proof of this dependeth partly upon the former for the vertue of the word whether it be the word of precept or the word of promise doth much depend upon the truth of it Now the truth of it being perpetual the vertue of it must also be so supposing the same concurrence of that holy Spirit which must be to make the Word of any use or vertue at any time I have spoken enough to the Explication of the point I come now to the Application of it which I shall dispatch by drawing some speculative and practical Inferences from what you have heard Hence in the first place you may observe a great difference betwixt the Legal and the Gospel Ministry And consequently the excellency of the latter above the former The Apostle to the Hebrews insisteth much upon this and by this argument proves the excellency of the Gospel above the Law The Beams and Rafters of the Church under the law they were not of Cedar they lasted no longer then until the timeof reformation The Evangelist St. John saith The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Two things commend the Gospel above the law Grace came by it truth came by it The law brought wrath the Doctrine of it tended to curse men and women and to conclude all under wrath but the Doctrine of the Gospel brought grace the news of the free pardon and remission of sins through the blood of Christ the acceptance of the Soul upon the account of his merits Truth also came by Christ Whether you take Truth for Substance and Realities opposed to types and shadows that came by Christ who was the End of the Law Or whether you take Trutâ for Certainty and that which hath in it porpetuity and durâbleness that also came by Christ who put an end to the Ceâemonial law which consisted of temporary Ordinances for worship
so it is a creature of a great spirit and courage He rusheth into the Battel and is not afraid Jer. 8. 6. God speaking to Job concerning the Horse giveth an excellent and elegant description of him Job 39. 19 20. where God asketh Job Hast thou clothed his neck with Thunder Canst thou make him afraid at a Grashopper The glory of his Nostrils is terrible He paweth in the Valley and rejoyceth in his strength He goeth on to meet the armed man he mocketh at fear and is not affrighted neither turneth he back from the Sword The Quiverrattleth against him the glittering Spear and the Shield he swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage neither believeth he that it is the sound of the Trumpet He saith amongst the Trumpets Ha Ha and he smelleth the Battel afar off the Thunder of the Captains and the shoutings With respect of this Quality of the Horse I conceive it is that the Spouse is here compared to Horses War-like Horses full of spirit and courage I have likened thee to a company of Horses That is I have made thee bold couragious full of resolution to make a spiritual resistance to thy Enemies to bid a defiance to them no more to regard the reproaches and revilings the threats and rage and violences of wicked men that oppose thee and cause thy trouble than the Horse regardeth the ratlings of the Quiver or the sound of the Trumpet or the glittering Spear or Shield Fear not the rage and madness of thy Enemies I have made thee like to the Horses in Pharaoh's Chariots which are so bred and so spirited that they mock at fear and the more their Enemies rage and make a noise the more couragiously and with the more mettle they go on This I take to be the most proper and likely sense of the Metaphor in this Text accordingly I shall handle it 2. But it is not said To an Horse only but to a company of Horses Why to a company of Horses The term company denotes Multitude and Unity 1. It denotes Multitude The Church of Christ consists of many Individual Believers who in respect of their Innocency and feeding in the same Pastures are compared sometimes to a Flock of Sheep here in respect of that spirit of valour courage and fortitude which animates them all to a company of Horses 2. It is a term which denotes Unity not a numerical Unity but an Unity in some common work and in some accidents common to them all Thus the Apostle saith We being many are one body There is saith the Apostle Eph. 4. 4 5. one Body one Spirit they are called in one Hope of their Calling they have one Lord one Faith one Baptism they have one God and Father of all The Spouse is not compared to a company of Horses in a field or in the streets but to a company of Horses in a Chariot where they draw together run together upon the Enemy Every Believer also hath a Company within himself the several powers and faculties of his Soul armed with the whole Armour of God These are like a company of Horses in Pharaoh 's Chariots 3. But why in Pharaoh's Chariots Pharaoh was a common name to the Kings of Egypt and a company of Horses in Pharaoh 's Chariots signifieth no more than a company of the best Egyptian Horses-Egypt at that time was one of the most famous places for Horses in the world Hence you read that Solomon had Horses brought out of Egypt 1 King 10. 28. And the King of Judah sent his Embassadors into Egypt that they might give him Horses Ezek. 17. 15. So Isa 31. 1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on Horses v. 3. Their Horses are flesh and not spirit So as I think they have but a feeble support from this Text who would make advantage of this Text to justify their notion that this Divine portion of holy Writ is no more but a Love-song betwixt Solomon and Pharaohs Daughter To all this I might add one thing more that the Horse by reason of those excellent qualities which the God of nature hath endued it with hath in all ages been in a very high esteem with men The vanity of some Persons in the expression of this hath been very great Historians tell us the Persians made solemn funerals for their Horses in other places they builded Pyramids over their Sepulchers Alexander the great built a City to the memory of his Horse Julius Caesar set up his Horse a marble effigies The Emperour Commodus would have his Horse buried in the Vatican Our age is more rational then to allow these vanities but yet it is vain enough many a man takes more care for the mangery of his Horse then for the Education of his Child and alloweth his Horses more attendance then his wife Which lets us see what a value men yet put upon this creature So as this sense may be put upon the Words of this Text thou art as dear to me and in as high esteem with me as the Horses in Pharaohs Chariots are to and with him The Proposition then of the Text amounteth to this Prop. That the Church of Christ and every particular believer in it is in Christs Eyes exceeding lovely and highly esteemed of by him and knowing that she is in the midst of Enemies he hath cloathed her with strength for the victory sufficient if she will make use of it he hath made her like to a Company of Horses in Pharaohs Charrots The proof of the Proposition then lyeth in the proof of these two things 1. That the Spouse of Christ is in his Eyes exceeding goodly and beautiful and highly esteemed of by him 2. That she is cloathed with sufficient strength and might to overcome her Enemies For the proof of the former I shall not insist upon it for besides the large discourse I have already spent upon that when I handled that phrase O thou fairest amongst women The expressions of Scripture are so obvious to every Eye where Christ setteth out his Love to and esteem of his Church and every particular believer that I need not spend time in giving you an account of them The latter is no less plain Immediately upon the fall God gave out this promise Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the woman shall break thine head and thou shalt bruise his heel The seed of the woman was Christ and his seed those that believe in him Conformable to this is that promise Rom. 16. 20. God shall bruise Sathan under your feet shortly It was an ancient promise made to Abraham and in him to all that walk in the steps of his faith Thy seed shall possess the gates of its Enemies God saith Zech. 10. 3. That he made his flock as a goodly Horse in the day of battel v. 5. And they shall be as mighty men which tread down the Enemies as mire in the streets in the battel they shall fight because the Lord
is with them I come to the Application I shall only apply it by Exhortation to two great duties Fortitude and unity I begin with the first upon which I shall most inlarge as to which I shall shew you 1. Wherein it lies and discourse it to you as it stands distinguished from a natural Spirit and stomack 2. From a moral fortitude 2. I shall offer you some directions in order to the promoving of it 3. Lastly I shall press it by some arguments It is agreed on all hands that the object of it is dangers and sufferings That the nature of it lyeth in a bold encountring and going through them That the vices opposed to it are 1 Cowardise 2. Rashness or fool hardiness as we call it There is a courage or fortitude which ariseth only from the natural Spirit and courage of the creature Now this is to be found in beasts as much as in men yea and more then in men the reflections of whose reason makes them less Spiritful then Horses or Dogs or Lions c. This commendeth no man for no man hath more of this then many Beasts have So it removeth not man at any distance from a Brute Creature Secondly There is a moral fortitude Which though it must have some foundation in nature for none that is naturally fearful and cowardly will by reason be improved to any degree of valour yet differeth from the other As it ariseth from knowledge and some just improvement of reason and is governed by the dictates of reason and directed to some noble and rational end such now as the preservation of our honour or Country c. But now Christian fortitude is quite another thing as it ariseth 1. From a threefold principle of grace 2. As it is directed by the rule of the Word 3. As it is exercised upon and against sin As lastly it works for a more noble end the glory of God and the Salvation of the Soul you may take this Description of it It is an habit infused into the Soul by the holy Spirit of God inabling the Soul from the dread of the Eternal God a Love to him and a faith in him and his promises to despise the prospect or presence of any danger in a resistance and fighting against sin and all temptations to it governing it self by the rule of Gods Word in order to the glory of God and the Salvation of a mans Soul From hence may easily be gathered both how it differeth from Natural Spirit and stomackfulness which is under no government either of reason or Religion and is a mere natural quality and found in beasts as much and more then in man It also differeth from Moral sortitude both in the Principle the rule and manner of its exercise and the End All which I shall open I shall begin with the first of these 1. The first Principle of Christian Fortitude is the holy Spirit Fear not saith God I will strengthen thee and uphold thee with the hand of my righteousness It is indeed God as the God of Nature that puts the natural Spirit and courage into the Horse or other beasts Job 32. 19. Hast thou saith God given strength to the Horse Hast thou clothed his neck with Thunder But here God acts as the Author of saving grace The holy Spirit is the Author of all gracious habits now there is a threefold Spiritual habit from which this fortitude or Christian courage proceeds they are as it were the Parents of it 1. The first is the fear of God No man is valiant against sin when temptations to it lye from great dangers but he that hath a true dread of God in and upon his heart It is said of Moses Hebr. 11. 27. That by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he indured as seeing him who is invisible He forsook Egypt in obedience to the command of God he feared not the wrath of the King When he saw he must either incur the Kings wrath or Gods displeasure he feared not the wrath of the King though as Solomon saith The wrath of the King is as the Messenger of death Yet he feared not the wrath of the King here now was courage here was Christian Fortitude Whence was it that he was so courageous The Text tells you He indured as seeing him who was invisible he had the dread of the King of Kings upon his Soul agnovit imperatorem coeli he knew there was one that was higher then the highest mortal and this is necessary and that too in a very good degree to every Soul that is valiant for God Every Person that feareth not God will be a coward in the Spiritual fight 2. A Second habit contributing to this fortitude or Christian courage is The Love of God The Apostle tells you it constrains we see in daily experience the lover will indure no difhonour to be done unto no affront to be put upon the woman that he loveth The vain Gentleman is ready to fight upon any such account The Soul which truly loveth God will fuffer no affront no dishonour which he can help to be done unto and put upon God much less can he allow his own Soul in any such thing what ever be the consequent of it 3. A third habit from which this Christian courage or fortitude ariseth is Faith Faith respecting both the Proposition of the Word and the promise of the Gospel and Person of the Mediatour Faith agreeing to all which the holy Scripture revealeth concerning the wrath of God his power justice greatness concerning the reward of those who well fight the good fight who overcome c. And also hoping and trusting in God for the fulfilling of those promises Natural courage is much from Nature and derives much from the Blood Moral Fortitude deriveth much from Education and Reason Christian Fortitude in encountring dangers ariseth from quite different principles The Christian is stout and valiant in the resistance of sin because he feareth the great and living God whose wrath is a thousand times more formidable then the wrath of the greatest man who when he hath killed the body can do no more God can cast both body and Soul into Hell-Fire Because he loveth God and will suffer any thing rather than grieve and offend him and because he believeth whatsoever God hath revealed in his holy Word concerning the greatness power wrath and justice of God against sin and concerning those who strive in the resistance of it Hence you read in that martyrology which you have Heb. 11. 33. That they through faith subdued Kingdoms v. 34. quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword waxed valiant in the fight v. 35. they were tortured not accepting deliverance v. 36. they had Trials of cruel mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment c. The principles of the Christian valour are not meer Natural Spirit and stomackfulness nor meer principles of honour and