Canticles and the 7th it is said Much water cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it that is All the evils in the world of afflictions for so commonly they are shaddowed out in the Scripture So Matth. 7. 27. affliction by rain persecution by flouds as temptations by winds by waters and persecutions which ordinarily are tearmed flouds cannot drown or overwhelm this love not wash it away or bear it down Afflictions cannot do it though they if any thing be as waters to quench it and which quench the love of many false Spouses But as the stone Asbestus being once fired can never be put out by any force though it consume it self so is it with this Marriage-knot this heating of the soul by the love of Christ when once it is hot by love throw whole Buckets of afflictions poverty sicknesse shame let fall whole showres of evils continued afflictions plunge it into a Sea of sorrows the longest and greatest pressures and trials and this love will not out but burn in the midst of the waters This fire of Heaven is like the other fire of destruction that never goes out Nor yet can the flouds drown it flouds are both deep waters and violent waters for those two things are included in a floud beside water namely depth and violence of water Some things cannot be drown'd because the water is not deep enough Other things because the water is not strong enough by its force of running to bear them down But when these two depth and force meet in one water that water of all others is most likely to drown So is it with evils some evils are not deep enough to swallow up those that lye under them and therefore they hazard not their love much or if they be deep yet not violent enough but creep on men insensibly and soe they keep some strength against them that they are not overcome by them as sicknesse coming more insensibly and slowly because not deeply rooted is oftentimes wrought out by the naturall strength or at least not so troublesome to nature Whereas those that are deep and strong to overthrow the body and lay it in the Dust so is it with some men they can endure afflictions and many but if deep and violent evils as persecutions if not by the length yet by the soarnesse and violence they make the love of men to moulder away to nothing Continuall shame it may be by ordinary men fellowes does but shake it but the deep reproach and violent injuries of great one drownes all by taking away their footing that hold they had of Christ because it was not deeply rooted so that they which are not able to stand against the flouds but their love is drowned quite and overwhelmed in them that it rises no more are no true but false Spouses of Christ And therefore to shut these two up together we may see it in that of our Saviour of the stony ground which when Matth. 13. 21. tribulations or persecutions come are offended The meaning of the words is this That there are two sorts of men which seem Spouses to Christ and are not Some that take him for better only and not for worse for when the worser tribulations or persecutions come they fall away Others that have a little faster hold on him but not in the right Spouse-like affection for when persecutions come though tribulations did not shake their love they fall away for so the words are to be understood that one of the two either tribulations or afflictions divide them from their supposed Husbands that they cannot stand against the flouds Whether then if thou canst stand against the Waters yet canst thou stand against the flouds Art thou so deep and strong in love as not to be covered and borne down by the depth and violence of persecution for they that are rightly espoused to Christ will hold him for better for worse yea in the worst that can come Lastly The last signe of a right conjugall love is to deny all affection to any other that would unjustly have it She that is a Wife tyed to her Husband in a right choice and affection so as to take him not by constraint but purely from love will let her love stirre to no other than to him which is her Husband So that soule which is rightly espoused to Jesus Luke 9. 23. Christ denyes her selfe of every Whorish affection to the world For that is to deny our selves when natural corruption would faine move too and askes leave to go out to the world for the satisfying of that old selfe But Spouse-like affection sayes no you shall not move to pleasure you shall not goe to credit you shall not run to profit again no I am espoused to Jesus Christ he it is that hath my love I dare not give it to any other besides Him have I given my heart and I will keep it for him As a Spouse may have such motions rising up to the beauty and excellencies of others which otherwise she could like well enough but because she hath given him her love she rejects such motions as not fit for her condition so the soul that is espoused to Christ may have such unchast motions rising up to the excellency of the creature which she otherwise could like but because she hath given Christ her heart she cast out such motions as the Sea doth dirt Doest thou then give way to false affections rising in thy heart to prevent the love of Christ thou hast no Spouselike affection and so art no true Spouse On the contrary doest thou beat down all false loves such affections as naturally boyle up in thy heart to the satisfying of the flesh that old self Doest thou give sin a peremtory denial when it would carry thee away from Christ to the creature it is then a sign the knot is tyed between thee and Christ and thou maist take comfort in it Other signs from the other degrees of nearnesse might here be added but these are the main If this unworthy Tractate may beget profit or acceptance it is that I wish The Lord Jesus Christ who is our nearnesse joyn our spirits nearer daily to his Father by his holy Spirit in faith and holinesse and preserve us all to his eternal Kingdome and glory Fare well FINIS
the Parable of those that were bidden to the Marriage Supper Luk. 14. 18. God there offered his Sonne if they would have him But they liked him not so well as the world else would they have taken him when God made them the motion of Marriage If thou then art Married to Jesus Christ thou likest him and his love better than all the world Therefore Cant. Cant. 1. 2. 1. 2. 'T is said His love is better than Wine that is than all the excellency of the creature that there is not any other Grape that yields such sweetnesse and comfort as his love no Grape of pleasure or credit or profit in all the Vyneard of the world that is like it to her Spouse-like-taste but Jesus Christ is better than all even as Wine exceeds all other liquors whatsoever What then is it that fills up thy heart that takes up the chiefest place and room there What is it sits highest and possesses the first room of thy liking the top of thy love Is it the world or is it Jesus Christ Is every pleasure or profit a thing that takes thee up from Jesus Christ that shuts him out of doores or makes him stand at the doore when they have easie entrance Does the world stay and lodge and walk in thy heart when Christ can have no room there or if he get in is he not admitted onely into some common outward room when the world hath the Parlour or chief room Does he not stay a while only when the world is intreated and forced to stay Is not the world as the chief of the house when Christ comes only as a servant for thy own good and safety If the world gets thus all away from Jesus Christ art not thou Married to it and not to him And therefore if thou pretendest never so much love to him and yet preferrest any thing before him thou art much mistaken if thou thinkest Christ thy Husband But Secondly If thou art 2. Sign of a Spouse near unto Christ as the Wife to the Husband then thou takest him for better for worse and thou keepest him for better for worse every Spouse does so if a right Spouse 1. Thou takest Christ for better for worse that is not only for his Crown but also for his Crosse not only for health and wealth and good report but for sicknesse and poverty and evil report not onely for what he hath but for what he wants to share with him alike in all conditions That which our Saviour Christ required of his Disciples to Take Matth. 10. 38. up his Crosse he requires also of every soul that espouses it self to him to take his Crosse is to take him with afflictions and not only so but with persecutions and death too And herein he deals as a man coming a Suiter to a woman tells her this I am worth and such and such like benefits you shall enjoy by me but withall you must take me with such an imperfection want of a legge or limbe with such a weaknesse and the like So God deals with men tells them of a Mark 10. 29 30. Kingdom and the Prerogatives of his Crown if they espouse themselves to him but withall they must take him with afflictions sicknesse poverty losses and crosses yea with persecution and death to take all into the bargain and so the match is made up not otherwise Every one is willing to take Christ as a Saviour to take him with peace and riches and a Kingdome But art thou willing to take him if he should not prove worth a Groate of worldly content If thou shouldest never see any thing but a rough Sea of troubles storm after storm poverty after sicknesse disgrace after poverty imprisonment and banishment after them and so as to faile all thy life time in this Sea that all Gods waves should passe over thee Art thou willing to take him though as many tempests of wrath should fall upon thee as did upon patient Job and keep thee to him It may be thou couldst take him with some one affliction but canst not endure to hear of another But canst thou take him or hast thou taken him with a willingnesse to loose that which is most dear to thee In thy wealth it may be thou likest such a match as Jesus Christ to have him with house and land with a full stock a gainfull trade But what doest thou or wouldst thou do to think on Cattle stolne or dying thy House spoiled thy Seed buried and rotten in the ground all cast away thy Trade decayed and worth nothing Couldst thou now keep thee to thy Husband when these things come by him and not seek to raise thy self by unlawfull courses of deceiving and stealing Or if these were not so much canst thou take him with losse of friends most endeared to thee losse of Parents Children yea the Wife of thy bosome Couldst thou be willing to have Job's boyles and to scrape thee with a Potsheard to loose all thy credit and good opinion of near friends and others and so to be left without any staffe of worldly comfort to rest on But this is not all canst thou take Christ with persecutions to be mockt and scorn'd for righteousnesse sake willingly bearing the worst of reproaches which the men of the world so warily avoid and to bear the utmost the malice and wit of men can impose If thou art rightly espoused to Jesus Christ thou takest him for this and more to endure the utmost rigour of torture that makes men by the only thought of it to tremble Thou wilt take Christ with this willingnesse to endure any thing and not make any exception Even as a Wife which takes a man for love takes him to endure any thing with him And as thou takest 2. Hold Christ him for better for worse so thou holdest him for better for worse A Wife that takes a man out of love to him she is not only willing to endure with him but she does it indeed She forsakes him not because he proves poor or sickly which are no causes of forsaking or that men speak against him but she holds against all such storms Many go so far as to take Christ for better for worse till the evill comes but in the time of affliction or persecution because their match proves full of crosses and because men speak against the match because they revile and slander the wayes of God they break away and divorce themselves from their Husband Christ Which is for a Wife because her Husband and she find crosses in their match to forsake her Husband whereas if the knot were tyed in a right choice and affection it would work of on such grounds all thought of forsaking So if the knot be rightly tyed between the soul and Jesus Christ it would hold against all the crosses and evils persecutions and deaths in the world And therefore in the Cant. 8. 7. 8th of the
near him in any relations more than stones and trees or little more having no faith to spread these relations over them so having no faith they have nothing of holinesse nothing but sinne which turns them away from God that they come not near him so much as to give him a look so as to give him a word if unawares they meet him in his Ordinances But Holinesse what it is Gods people are near him in holinesse which is the new casting of the whole man in the mould of faith to the mind of God And this is the greatest nearnesse of all other for this more properly concerns God Faiths nearnesse is a nearnesse to God for our selves to make us safe but holinesse is a nearnesse to God for himself first and then for our selves Faith sets us under the covert of Gods love to shelter of wrath But holinesse makes us like unto God to restore our first perfection we lost in Adam and this is the thing God intends in the working of faith to restore us by holinesse Now Gods people are near in a double respect in holinesse 1. In the holinesse of Heart 2. In the holinesse of Life First They are near him in the holinesse of heart which is a breaking down the partition wall of sinne or taking away the distance made by sin and a partaking of the like nature with God himself 1. Hence first they Nearnesse of similitude are said to be like God near him by the nearnesse of similitude The holinesse of the heart being the new Coyning or Stamping of the Image of God upon the heart or the new drawing of the Image of God in the colours of holinesse upon the heart That as we say such a picture is very near meaning the man it represents look on him and the picture together and they are very like so look on that tablet of the heart wherein the Pencil of faith in the Hand of God hath Drawn in the colours of holinesse the Image of God and they are very near very like On the contrary a man on whose heart faith hath not stampt this holinesse is no liker God than darknesse the Sun there is not so much as the first draught of his Image And therefore you see no more of the Image of God in his heart than of the image of a man in a beast But faith bringing holinesse into the heart makes Gods people of his Image face answering to face by wiping out the draught of Satan Therefore 1 Joh. 3. 3. Whosoever hath this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure that is faith draws a Coppy of holinesse in the heart like to that which is in God faith boiles up to such a holinesse as he hath When faith comes it sweeps the heart of the dirty corners of sinne which made God before to be a farre off but when sin is swept then comes in another nearnesse 2. The nearnesse secondly of a Temple and house then the heart is consecrated Gods Chappel when the rubbish and dirt of sin is first purged away And therefore 't is said The Temple of God is holy 1 Cor. 3. 17. whose Temple ye are that is when once ye come to be holy then ye are made Temples of God So also Gods house Eph. 3. 17. the place of his continual nearnesse to them that look as a man is near his house and nearer that than any thing else so God and a holy heart are near and nearer than any other Nay the holy heart is all the dwelling God hath below He hath Esay Rom. 8. 9. no other house than his people no other rooms in his house than their several hearts no other parlour or room of delight than that heart which is best adorned and hanged with grace that is most holy And this is not a house which stands empty of the inhabitant but 't is a house whereof he saith as he said of the Temple Here will I dwel for ever for I have a delight in it But farther as they are near to God in the holinesse of heart so also Secondly In the holinesse Near in holiness of life of life whereby they live to him Gal. 2. 19. and so they are said to live with him and to walk with him that is they are such whose lives reach to him and end in him And so they live with him that is they make him their acquaintance indeed as before we shewed they had the title of friends They be not only called friends but they live as friends once friends and ever so such as are never parted or severed Therefore this nearnesse of life is exprest by walking with God Enock walked with Gen. 5. 24. God that is he was as near God in his life as a man is to him with whom he walks he went even with him walkt not a farre off from God but close to him side by side as we may so say Other men that have no faith live a farre off from God as men of another Country as acquainted only with sinne and the world to whom and with whom they life But Gods people are a people near him in their lives They are near him first in their thoughts so near him therein that their thoughts are said to be upon him Mal. 3. 16. Those that thought upon his name So David nothing more ordinary than thoughts on God so that he was his Meditation Psal 63. which is the staying and continuance of the thought on the thing So again in their will and affections their Love Hope Joy Fear is said to be of him and in him In desire they follow hard after him Psal 63. 8. yea getting once near him they cleave to him Deut. 4. 4. which cleaving is chiefly by love and joy so all their words and deeds are to him Lastly They are near Nearnesse in their lives by serving him him in their services for faith makes them not only Officers in his Court but to wait and attend upon him to follow the Court and attend in their courses of service in all the times of worship yea to be such as stand continually before him to be of his Presence-Chamber and at his elbow Whereas others either live from his Court or are banisht the Court serving Sin the World and Satan or if they come to Court to tender their service they set their hearts another way as false servants which do homage in heart to other Lords than their own when they are in the Court. So these when they stand in Gods Courts seeming to serve him their hearts attend in the Court of Satan the Prince of this world Therefore they are said to honour him with their bodies their hearts being farre from him Isai 29. 13. farre from him in the word farre from him in prayer or any other service of his But Gods people are near unto him in all their service they are near unto him in the Word as the Apostle