the Image of him that created him The Child of God is transformed by the renewing of his mind Rom. 12. 2. Regenerated and born again Joh. 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God born again of Water and of the Spirit as our Saviour expoundeth it v. 5. Now this change this renevation respecteth not the substantial power and faculties of the Soul The same powers and faculties the same understanding will and affections I mean the same powers which we call so remain but they are changed as to their quality and aspect unto Objects The same wheels of the Soul remain but they are set right and move more regularly towards what are indeed their true and proper Objects The natural man's understanding is blind and dark and weak and impotent he calleth good evil and evil good bitter things sweet and sweet things bitter his pallate is vitiated so as he neither doth nor can discern things truly and spiritually good Until his nature be cultivated by moral Discipline and some ingenious Education he is like the Beast that perisheth and judgeth of good and evil meerly by sense When it is cultivated he judgeth of it by reason and determines good and evil according to rational Principles and in that riseth no higher than to the perfection of an Heathen Philosopher who knew nothing of any such thing as Union and Communion with God and either believed nothing of the Immortality of the Soul and so took not himself concerned to care for that or at least had a faint belief and an imperfect notion of it But the renewed man hath his understanding opened to discern more excellent things He easily seeth That God is the chiefest Good and thence concludes as rationally that the happiness of man must needs consist in the enjoyment of God in Union and Communion with him as the Heathens determined that the happiness of a man must necessarily lye in the fâ—uition of and an union with the summum bonum the greatest good This being determined by the understanding by that new light and power of discerning given it by God The will of whose nature it is to follow the Dictates of the Understanding ordinarily chuseth and embraceth it by as natural and rational a working as that wretched Soul that knoweth no be tter things than good Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Estates chooseth them and embraceth them before other things Or the more cultivated Soul chooseth Learning and Knowledge and moral Habits Only in rega rd there is a particular Debauchery and Corruption of the Will of man there is a particular work of God upon the Will changing and altering that or else in Spiritual things it would not follow the Dictate of the Understanding and this may be seen in things benea th this Order We indeed usually say the Will is a blind faculty and follows the dictate of the Understanding but since the Fall man is so much mancipated and enslaved to his sensual Appetite that we see in daily experience it doth not The drunkard the unclean persons are daily proofs of it who know well enough that the prosecution of their Lusts in those things doth not only destroy their contrary moral Habits but ruine their Lives Health Reputation yet cannot forbear the pursuit of them But the Will being thus renewed to chuse the best spiritual good the affections move in a natural Order after it and the outward man is commanded to all actions pursuant to it So that I say this Renovation of the whole Man according to the Image of God is the true cause of the Souls willingness and earnest desire after these nearest degrees of Communion with God The understanding being thus fully enlightened to discern that God is the chiefest good and that mans greatest happiness must lie in an Union with him and enjoyment of him 2. To which I know nothing can be added but those measures of experience which every renewed Soul hath how good the Lord is The experience of any good adds much to our Souls value of it as it confirmeth to us our notion and apprehension of it Many things appear better to us in contemplation than in fruition But there can be nothing in nature conceived more effectual to inflame our affections after any Object than when besides the goodness our Understandings have discerned in it upon which our Wills have made their Election of it a superadded experience confirmeth our noton of the goodness of it There is no justified Soul but hath in some measure tasted how good the Lord is and how good a Fellowship and Communion with God is so as it doth but move rationally in willing and desiring the nearest and most intimate degrees of it I added further That this Soul as a mean to obtain it will use rightly ordered Prayer The Reason and ground of this evidently appears if we consider 1. That Prayer is the means to obtain it No man can be so much as presumed truly to will and to desire any thing which he useth no means to obtain or as to which he doth not use the proper means to obtain it if he knows it the good is here is not sensible or rational to be acquired by natural or moral means but is truly and highly spiritual the Communication of the Divine Influences to the Soul and most inward part of man the means must be somthing of Divine Institution somthing which God hath appointed as a mean in order to so great and blessed an end Prayer is one mean of this Nature He gives his holy Spirit to them that ask him saith our Saviour This is a Divine Means under a Divine Ordination and Institution with reference to such an end This the Believer knoweth and it is a means within his Power God hath sent forth the Spirit of Adoption into his Heart teaching him to cry Abba Father The Spirit helpeth his Infirmities with strong cries and groans which cannot be uttered 2. He also knoweth that it is not all Prayer will be effective of this but Prayer according to the Will of God effectual fervent Prayer A man may ask amiss and not receive Though therefore an Hypocrite that takes up with a form of Godliness and aims at no right end in his acts of Homage but drives a by Design for himself in all his duties and seeketh himself more than God may content himself with such performances as answer the low mark which he levells his Arrows at Yet the pious Soul that hath a true aim and design in his Actions must mind such a performance of them as shall bear a proportion to the true end he aimeth at but this is enough to have spoken for the Explication and Confirmation of this Proposition what this rightly ordered Prayer is God willing I shall further open to you in the Application of this Discourse From hence in the first place we may take some measures of our State with reference unto
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
which the Soul apprehends of obtaining all grace Let a thing appear to us never so beautiful never so useful yet if we lye under an apprehension of its impossibility to obtain it this moderateth its desires after if nay extinguisheth them for our Reason forbids our Wills to move after things which we apprehend not possible to be obtained But such is the goodness of God towards us that there is no dispensation of his love but he hath somewhere or other promised and revealed to us as possible to be obtained by us Now good apprehended possible to be obtained by us is the proper object of the desires of our Souls we are told that it hath pleased the father that in Christ all fulness should dwell And that the fulness of the God-Head dwelt in him bodily 1 Col. 19. 2 Col. 12. and of his fulness saith the Evangelist Joh. 1. 16. We have all received grace for grace To pass by other interpretations of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some understand Grace suited to all that Grace which is in Christ There is no habit of Grace in Christ suited to our human nature and state but believers may receive something from him in proportion to it There is no love of God to Christ which fitteth us or may fit us in our proportions but we may receive Nay there is no love of God which floweth from the fulness of the Divine Nature of which we are capable but the believer may receive For saith the Apostle the Fulness of the God-Head dwelt in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily In him as our mediator that he might communicate to those that are the members of his body and that I take to be the properest sense of those words Of his fulness that is of the fulness of the God-Head which dwelt in him as Mediator and dwelt in him so as that he could communicate it to those that believed in him Hence he tells us that all power was given unto him both in Heaven and Earth and that the Son of Man had power upon Earth to forgive Sins and that God had given unto him Eternal life that he might give it to whomsoever he pleased so as the Soul apprehends all grace not only beautiful and lovely but also as possible to be obtained by it from Christ and having such apprehensions of it conjoined with its before-mentioned apprehensions of the beauty and excellency of it and the usefulness of it with respect to the various and renewing wants of the Soul it must necessarily desire it This notion may as the other which I have handled shew you 〈◊〉 difference betwixt the desires of the Hypocrite and those of the true Child of God after Grace There may be some desires after Grace in Souls in whom there is no true and real change of heart but they are either terminated 1. In the common gifts and graces of the Spirit Or 2. in the Comfortable manifestations of it 3. Or at furthest in some particular dispensations of it The common gifts and graces of the Spirit of God may be desired by those in whom the love of God doth not dwell By common gifts I mean knowledge utterance an ability to pray to discourse of the things of God c. And the reason is because these may serve a double end which an Hypocrite may have 1. His honour and credit and reputation in the world Common gifts and graces may give Men and Women a great name in the Church of God though they will give a Man no place in the Kingdom of God They may especially as times may go much serve a man both as to his lust of gain and covetousness and also as to his lust of Ambition and seeking after the honour which is from men and serve him to appear as some body in the world and to make him pass for a great Professor and help him to preferments also in the Church and so serve his Belly You have an eminent instance of this in Simon Magus Acts 8. 9. of whom it is said That he used Sorcery and bewitched the People of Samaria giving out himself to be some great one v. 13. He beheld the signs and miracles that were done this Man now to augment his reputation and probably that he might be in a capacity to get more mony than he had been able to get by his tricks of Hocus Pocus and diabolical Arts seeing the Apostles conveying the Holy Ghost to their Disciples by their laying on of hands he did not only desire the graces of the Spirit thus far but offered them mony for that power that upon whomsoever he laid his hands they also might receive the Holy Ghost There is no doubt but whatsoever may promove the lusts of an Hypocrites heart may be the object of his desire Now as a National knowledge of the things of God or the common practical gifts and graces of the Spirit may serve a man as to his profit and advantage or as to his honour and reputation so they mightily gratify the lusts of an Hypocrites heart who doth all to be seen of Men and whose utmost design is but to glory in appearance and in the praise of Men. Besides this they may also serve him very far in the quieting of his natural conscience Natural light discovering to us that there is a God doth also shew us that there is some homage due to him and hence ariseth a natural obligation upon men to be doing something in discharge of this homage to which these common gifts are subservient The like might be said of moral habits which are but common grace men that are 〈◊〉 touched with the love of God or desire to please him may yet see a beauty and a profit too in a moral just and righteous conversation and desire so much grace as may keep him from the scandal and reproach of the world and from the ruining of himself and Family or Relations Nay Secondly his desires may extend to the consolatory manifestations of the love of God the pardon of his sins and the sense of that pardon what should hinder In a time when a Prince is free of his pardons it is not impossible that some of his Subjects may take out their pardons that it may be have no great sense or apprehension that they stand in need of them Hypocrites that live within the compass of the Church of God are often hearing of sin and the wrath of God due to sin to Original sin to Actual Sins to Sins of Omission and Negligence as well as those of Commission and Presumption they also hear daily proclamations of Gods grace and readiness to forgive what should hinder but that they ex abundanti cautela tho they be not touched with any great sense of sin tho they have some good opinion of their own Righteousness may yet earnestly desire to know their iniquities are forgiven and that the Righteousness of Christ might be imputed to them
in none of your bosoms Is there not amongst some of you a sad neglect of Reading the Scripture Let me tell you it speaks you to have tasted very little if at all how good the Lord is Secondly How sadly doth this reflect upon those who despise Prophecyings It is a dreadful Text 1. Joh. 4. 6. We are of God He that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us It is true no Minister of Christ can say He is of God in that strict sense as the Apostles did whose Calling was not of men nor by men but immediately from God It is also true that every one who talks out of a Pulpit is not of God Many run whom God never sends and you shall easily know them by the message they bring But every faithful Minister of Christ that faithfully openeth and conscienciously applieth the Word of God to Peoples understandings hearts and consciences is of God that is he is sent of God he is the Ordinance of God and he that knoweth God that hath â—â—y saving experimental knowledge of God will hear such a one If there be any that despiseth such Prophecying he is not of God Now this men may do from looseness and prophaneness and this too many are guilty of and by it proclaim to the world that they were never born again of the uncorruptible Seed of the Word that they never yet tasted the goodness of God in an Ordinance There is another generation that despise Prophecyings pretending to the immediate Teachings of the Spirit of God I shall in my next Discou se God willing shew you that no pious Soul can undervalue the Teachings of the Holy Spirit nor think them needless but he that looks for them in opposition to the Teachings of the Word of God or otherwise than by and in the Teachings of the Word is ignoranr knowing nothing The Spirit brings to our remembrance the things which we have heard of God I never yet knew a pious Soul that duâ—st slight Reading or powerful Preaching I have indeed known Religious Souls neglect and despise some mens little jinglings of words in Pulpits flaunts of Rhetorick and playing with words or disgorging their malice and passion and they deserve to be despised and abhorred of all but I never yet knew that pious Soul that did not hunger after the Preaching of Jesus Christ in a plain Scriptural powerful manner I would say to any that pretend to despise Sermons pretending to the Teachings of the Spirit immediately as Paul spoke to the Galatians Gal. 3. 2. This would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith So say I you pretend to some change of heart to a Receiving of the Spirit Received you the Spirit by an immediate afflatus or impression or by the Hearing of the Word Besides how shall the impressions of the Spirit be known tryed or judged but by the Word for St. John hath taught us 1 Joh 4. 1. That every Spirit is not to be believed And the Apostle warns the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2. 2. not to be shaken in mind troubled or deceived by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter I shall shut up this Discourse with a word of Exhortation Which of us is there who hath not an ambition to be the Lamb's Wife and to be thought the Spouse of Christ Evidence then your selves to be such by your hunger after a communion with God in his Word by your much Reading much Hearing by your meditating in the Law of the Lord night and day For the written Word you have no plea to the contrary no excuse for the Word Preached I wish Christians had more general incouragement We have too much of of the word of man in Pulpits too little of the Word of God and as it is in Trade the false and corrupt making of Wares depretiates the Commodity and brings it out of esteem with such as abhor to be cheated So the abundance of false Preaching by which I mean not only Preaching of unsound Notions but Preaching vain Philosophy idle Speculations turning Sermons into Harangues of Oratory In short whatsoever is not intelligible Scriptural Preaching with a true design to shew men the way of Salvation and to direct them into it and in it I call this false Preaching We have so much of this that it hath brought a discredit upon the Ordinance I would have you as our Saviour directs Take heed what you hear and how you hear and that will oblige you to take heed whom you hear But withal Take heed that you hear for God hath told you that Faith cometh by hearing He hath said Hear and your Souls shall live And blessed be God he hath not left us without some that Preach Jesus Christ and him crucified and desire to know nothing else amongst people I cannot tell you how long you shall have any of the daies of the Son of Man work while it is day when the night comes no man can work We have had faithful powerful Preaching a long time possibly Christ never had a Church on Earth had such handling the Word of God so long a time doth not the Candle begin to fail and burn in the Socket We have an Ezra's Temple but is not Solomon's destroyed 2. There 's no such way to recover your Light and keep it with you as to cry after it and to make use of it while you have it God will not take away his Word from hungry Children Where are our Rogers Sheppard Hooker Fenner Preston Sibbs Burroughs and others It 's time to recover your Appetites that you may recover your Bread 3. Consider you that love the Lord will be the first that want it Prodigals of their Souls can feed upon any Husks though they fill their Bellies with nothing but wind and crudities That you may recover your Appetite to the Word Purge your selves of your lusts I shall conclude with that of James Jam. 1. 21 22. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your Souls But be you doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Sermon VI. Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth IT is not Let me hear the words of his mouth though that be intended the words of God's mouth may be brought to us by men like unto our selves as they were spoken to the Israelites of old by the Prophets the Spouse begs not only the Words of her Lord but that they might be spoken from himself She beggeth his words but so that they may be kisses tokens of his love and favour to her Soul She beggeth not only a more external Communion with God by which God communicates his Will to our exteriour senses but an inward Communion that God by his Word and Gospel would speak unto her heart that the Word might
not be to her a meer sound much less the savour of death unto death but the savour of life unto life Prop. The great desire of a gracious Soul is after an inward spiritual Communion with Christ in his Word ȧnd Ordinances This is a Point not so well generally understood by the croud of Professors suffer me therefore to spend a few words in the Explication of it All Communion importeth mutual and reciprocal Communication It is an action wherein two Persons do communicate themselves each to other Communion with God implieth God's communication of himself to his creature and the creature's communication of it self unto God To restrain my discourse to the present Subject I am about There is a more external Communion we have with God with reference to his Word in the reading it or hearing it read or Preacht or meditating in it God then communicates his Will to us by the help of Letters Words and Syllables by which we understand things or by the voice of his Ministers sent in his Name to open his mind and will unto us and we communicate with God giving him the homage of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and imaginations this I call a more external Communion And there is a more spiritual internal Communion which a Soul hath with God in it I call it a Communion because God in it doth communicate himself to the Soul and the Soul communicateth it self to God God speaketh by his Word to the heart and the heart receiveth the Divine Impressions and surrendreth up it self to the Will of God In the other there is no more than a communication of the Divine Will on God's part nor any more than the homage of our exterior senses our faculty of reading and hearing the service of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and power of Imagination and of our understanding receiving the notions of Truth In this Communion with God in his Word there is not only on God's part a communication of God's Will but also of God's Power by which the Soul is 1. Irradiated as to the understanding inabled to see things in another light more fully and clearly 2. Subdued as to the Will so as the man is made willing and obedient to the heavenly Revelation transformed into the likeness of the Word so convinced of the truth of it that it can no longer withstand it whether it be a word of Instruction which is the Object of our Faith or a word of Reproof for conviction of Sin or a word of Consolation for refreshing the Soul the Soul can no longer deny or dispute or doubt of the Proposition no longer stand out against the Precept no longer refuse to be comforted The Word of the Lord comes here to the inward part of the Soul 2. There is a further Communication on man's part of himself to God In the former Communion he only lends God his Eye to read his Will his Ear to hear it his imaginative power to think upon it his Passive Intellect or Power to receive Notions of Truth Here he communicates his whole Soul to God his Will and Affections his whole Man It is true here God speaks first we do only velle quum volumus agere quum agimur as Augustine expresseth it that is we only will when we are made willing and act when we are first moved and acted There are some who are great Patrons for the Power of Man's Will as to things spiritual that would elude those Texts about the Teachings of the Spirit and the Teachings of the Anointing spoken of by St. John by asserting That there is such a constant concomitancy of the holy Spirit with the Preaching of the Gospel that whosoever will may be willing and obedient and believe and repent and be obedient I should hearken much to this Notion if the Authors of it could give me a good account how it is then that of two persons hearing the same Sermon and sitting under the same ministration of the Spirit one man only hears it thinks upon it a little and receiveth some notions of it to fit his Tongue with discourse another hath his heart changed by it and transformed into the Image of God and wholly changed as to his Will and Affections and his whole Conversation That it is so is demonstrably true I would know whence it is unless they will make man a God unto himself that is the first cause of truly good and spiritual motions Now this internal Communion with God in his Word which in Scripture is called the Teaching of the Spirit and the Teaching of the Anointing being such as few are acquainted with is little known in the world and therefore some count it Canting and so unwarily blaspheme the Teacher and cannot understand any thing else by it than Ministerial Teaching Others again can understand no Teaching of the Spirit in and by Ordinances but dream that Souls under the Teachings of the Spirit must live above Duties and Ordinances and so turn it into meer Enthusiasm immediate impressions which they pretend to from the holy Spirit of God It may be therefore worth our while to understand it a little You read of it prophesied of old Isa 54. 17. That the Children of the Church should be all taught of the Lord. You read in the New Testament of words which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2. 14. Yea it teacheth us not words only but things 1 John 2. 27. But the Anointing which you have received in him abideth in you and you need not that any man should teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lye Yea it was Christ's own Promise Joh. 14. 26. But the Comforter which the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance whatsoever you have heard from me So as that there is a Teaching of the Spirit is out of all doubt The only Questions are 1. Whether this be concomitant with Ministerial Teachings and superadded to them which we maintain against those who are for immediate Teachings in raptures and by immediate impressions or a thing separate from them and to which Ministerial Teachings are rather hinderances than any furtherance which is what we deny For though we limit not the Holy One of Israel but say that as he did of Old thus teach his Prophets and Apostles so he may by more immediate Impressions and Revelations teach his People still what they are to do or to avoid Yet we say that the Book of Scripture being finished and sealed no such Revelations are by any to be expected and if any man think he hath any such Impressions Revelations or extraordinary Teachings they must be proved by the Word with which if they do not agree they proceed not from the holy Spirit of God neither have they any Light in them Secondly 2. Whether the Teachings of the Spirit be any thing more than Ministerial Teachings in
the Preachings of the Gospel which Teachings have such a constant presence of the Spirit of Grace with them that if a man will he may with those Aids and Assistances do what God requireth of him in order to his Eternal Salvation and avoid what God would have him to avoid We affirm they are and that there is no such power in the Will of Man in the use of those common Aids and Assistances and that there is a Teaching of the Spirit in the use of the Word far beyond the power and virtue of the Word The Object of this Teaching we make to be the Elect of God Reprobates as well as chosen Vessels may be taught by the Ministerial Teaching of the Word and have that external Communion with God in his Word which I before mentioned but the Elect of God and such as shall be eternally saved only know any thing of these Teachings and to such are restricted throughout all Scripture in such places as make any mention of them The more immediate Object is the Understanding Will and Affections The Ministerial Teaching reacheth the Eyes and Ears and exteriour senses and thence cometh into the thoughts and into the understanding more confusedly and imperfectly it reacheth not the more inward part of the Soul The things of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 10 12. are revealed to those who have received the Spirit V. 14. The Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned I therefore call it an internal spiritual Communion with God in his Word But yet for the fuller understanding of this it is reasonable that I should shew you how the Spirit Teacheth the Elect Soul in and by the Ordinance that you may see and understand what there is more in this Spiritual Teaching in this internal Communion with God in his Word and Ordinances than in the meer Teaching of the Letter meer Ministerial Teaching separated from this I told you before these Teachings were not by immediate Enthusiasms Impressions or Revelations of new things for I pray observe there is a twofold Revelation the one I may call A simple immediate first Revelation Thus God of old taught the Patriarchs and Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles All Scripture was by inspiration from God and holy men spake as they were inspired by God Thus God was pleased to teach the Guides of his Church before the holy Scripture was written at least fully written and a Curse annexed as a Seal to that Book to them that should add any thing to it This is a Teaching some would be at but what need of it if the Scriptures as the Apostle tells us are able to make the man of God wise to salvation furnished to every good work Secondly There is another kind of Revelation which we may for distinction sake call a compounded mediate Revelation it is the further Revelation of what God hath revealed in his Word but we wanted a proper medium to see it in we were blind and dark and our Eyes stuck in the bark and surface of Scripture Thus it is yet true 1 Cor. 2. 10. That God revealeth to his People by his Spirit the deep things of God the things which Eye hath not seen nor hath Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But of this I shall speak more by and by That I may therefore give you at least my apprehension concerning the due notion of the Spirit 's Teaching so as it shall not be confounded with bare Ministerial Teachings which I take to be a great debasing of the notion of it on the one hand nor be made opposite to Ministerial Teaching and that made useless on the other hand I shall shew you that in order to the Salvation of a Soul there is a Teaching of the Spirit necessary added to or over and above Ministerial Teachings I shall open it in four or five particulars 1. The Spirit teacheth by special Illumination There is a common Illumination which is the Effect of the Spirit also but of the Spirit working in a way of common grace by which men receive the common notions of Religious Truths There are two diseases or faults in the Soul of a Christian which hinder its learning spiritual things 1. The first is a listlesness or indisposition to learn or hear any thing of that nature You may see this in mens slighting of the Word of God till God hath wrought some saving work in their hearts they have no mind to read the holy Scriptures nor yet to hear them faithfully opened and applied And could you but enter into peoples hearts which yet you may know by what was the temper of your own hearts before God wrought a change on them you would see this yet further confirmed unto you this God in conversion removes but this is not that which I have here to do with 2. There is besides this a natural blindness and deafness that a poor creature cannot see nor hear In Jer. 5. 21. you find these words Hear now this O you foolish people and void of understanding who have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Every natural man is one of these who have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not The mysteries of the Kingdom of God are foolishness to the natural Soul what a notion of Regeneration had Nicodemus Joh. 3. what notions of Justification Union with Christ the indwelling of the Spirit Faith c. have some others discovered Natural men have rational Souls as well as others and by the workings of them understand many Propositions in Religion which shine in the light of Natural Reason but there are Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Doctrines that shine only in the light of Scripture of these they understand little or nothing Nay for the more common notions of Religion concerning the Immortality of the Soul the Nature of God the Doctrines of Faith Repentance Good works when once the heart is changed the Soul seeth them in quite another light and hath quite another notion of them than it had before while it was only under the instruction of Reason and the Ministerial instruction of Men. Paul prayeth for the Ephesians Ephes 1. 17 18. That the God of Glory would give them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him the Eyes of their understanding being inlightened c. It is the Spirit that inlighteneth the understanding and inableth it to a fuller and further comprehension of and insight into the Spiritual Mysteries of the Kingdom of God When the Disciples came to our Saviour Matth. 13. 10. and asked him why he spake to the multitude in Parables he tells them v. 11. because it was given to his Disciples to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God but to the multitude it was not given From hence have proceeded the vain speculations and
vilest thing in the world that there is no way of Salvation but by Jesus Christ In short any Gospel Proposition may easily be made probable either by reason working from connate natural Principles or at least to those Souls that own the Scriptures to be the Word of God from Propositions of holy Writ but still I say till the holy Spirit of God comes to teach the Soul the Soul will not be fully persuaded indeed not at all persuaded but have this and the other thing to say against it Nothing silenceth the Soul to the revelation of any Spiritual Truth so as it disputeth it no more unless it be perhaps in a fit or under some great temptation but this Demonstration of the Spirit Fourthly The Spirit teacheth by Recapitulation or bringing to remembrance I have my ground for this from that of our Saviour Joh. 14. 6. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you This Teaching by way of bringing to remembrance is an excellent way of Teaching It is one reason why Christians profit no more by hearing because they never meditate they seldom or never call to remembrance what they have heard If a Schoolmaster should learn a Child his Grammar Rules once and never make him bring them again to his remembrance he would learn but little An improvement in notional knowledge of spiritual things doth depend upon often calling to remembrance what we have heard But the Spirits bringing to remembrance is yet a more excellent thing and there is the same disproportion betwixt our own bringing to remembrance something we have read of the Word of God or heard out of it and the holy Spirit 's bringing to remembrance that there is betwixt Ministerial Instruction and the Instruction of the Spirit of God at the first As man's instruction and first teaching reacheth no further than that power of man's Soul by which he receiveth the bare notion of a thing and that imperfectly too but the holy Spirit instructeth the heart and reins and teacheth the secret and inward parts of the Soul So man's bringing to remembrance things which we have heard from God doth no more than revive the notion of them in our understandings making the first prints of them more deep plain and legible But the holy Spirit 's bringing things to remembrance is a bringing them to the remembrance of the whole Soul renewing those motions of the will and affections which it taught the Soul with reference to those Propositions which by Ministerial Teaching or by reading the Word were first by the help of our Eyes and Ears brought into our Souls and carried by the holy Spirit of God further into the understanding the will and affections by which the Soul is anew instructed convinced comforted strengthened c. to which our repetitions of and discourses of what we have read and heard serve but as means to so noble an end and without the attaining of that indeed is of very little significancy to our Souls real profit and advantage Lastly The Spirit 's Teaching is by strengthening and quickening the Soul to practice We call upon men not to be hearers of the Word but doers of it also but we cannot make them so we cannot give them an inward Principle of Life either strengthening or quickening them to do what we call to them for and this is the reason why we oft-times labour in vain and spend our strength for nothing and in vain Old Adam is too hard for young Melancthon We see this in the experience of every School-Boy The best Teaching is by practice Let a Child learn his Rules never so well he understands them not till he comes to reduce them to practice therefore the best Teachers put Children upon practice as soon as they can Solomon tells us Pro 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge The end of all Knowledge is practice We therefore desire to know that we might practice he that hath not been taught to practice in the things of God hath indeed learned nothing By this time I hope I have shewed you that admitting the teaching of the Letter and of the Ministers there is none left for the teaching of the Spirit and that there is a vast difference betwixt a meer external Communion with God in his Word and an internal Communion with him in and by the Word so as we have no reason either to despise Ordinances or to rest in that external homage which we pay unto God in the observance of them and sufficient reason why the Soul of an understanding Christian should not be satisfied with the reading and hearing the words of Christ's mouth without the kisses of his mouth For the proof of the Proposition I shall give you first the instance of holy David take it as it lieth before you Ps 63. 1 2. 3. O God saith he thou art my God early will I seek thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is he means no waters of the Sanctuary The title of that Psalm tells you that Psalm was composed when David was in the wilderness of Judah in the time of his persecution by Saul when he had not the liberty of God's Publick Ordinances In this condition he thirsteth he longeth for what for thee saith he Further yet v. 2. To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Because thy loving-kindness is better than life You see David's desires are not terminated in a coming into the Sanctuary but a seeing the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary in an understanding the loving-kindness of God revealed in his Sanctuary And in the expression of the same passion Psal 42. 1. 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 God It is manifest by the last words that the thing which David thirsted after was a communion with God in the Ordinances of his Worship but yet not after a meer external communion with him My Soul panteth after thee O God for God the living God So in Psal 119. v. 18. Open my Eyes O Lord that I might discern the wonders of the Law not my Ears only to hear thy Law or my Eyes that I may read the Doctrine of the Law but that I may discern the wonders of thy Law Paul did not think it enough that the Ephesians and Colossians had the Word of God amongst them and Preach'd to them by Apostles and men immediately deriving from them but for the former he prayes that the Eyes of their understanding might be opened and for the latter That the Word of God might dwell in them richly but what need have we of any Scripture in the case I appeal to the experience of
and desireth the continuance of it The Ignorant bold presumptuous Sinner desireth not the Love of God the pardon of Sins he thinks he is sure of all Hence now it is that the believer desires the Loves of Christ it apprehendeth them good possible and what its Soul doth stand indaily and further need of which apprehension is the reason why our Souls desire any thing be it of what nature soever we can desire nothing but what we must apprehend good sutable to us in some of our circumstances possible to be attained and such as either wholly or in some degree at least we need 2. According to the degree of our knowledge or apprehension of the goodness of any object so are our desires after it This will justify itself upon experience in all other things we do not desire them according to the degree of goodness in them for then every man must desire the favour of God Union and Communion with him but according to the degree of our knowledge or apprehension of such a good as such Now there are various degrees of knowledge 1. The first and meanest is the meer act of our Understanding which by the help of our Eyes and Ears gaineth the knowledge of things And thus the vilest of men may know that the Loves of Christ are good yea good before wine that is they may have so read in the Bible so heard from Ministers of the Gospel And even this knowledge may produce in a bad man a desire after these things proportioned to his apprehension Hence such a man may faintly will and lazily desire these things 2. A Second degree of Knowledge is Opinion This riseth a little higher the man who thus knows that the Loves of Christ are good doth not onely know it from reading or hearing but from probable Arguments Nor is it difficult for a wicked man thus also to know that the Loves of Christ are good Assoon as he can be made to believe that there is a God and that he is the Fountain of Good and that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God and Equal with the Father both in Essence and all Divine Perfections his Reason will persuade him that there must be a Goodness yea a transcendent Goodness in Christs Loves But while Flesh and Blood only revealeth this thing unto him his Knowledge is incertain and faint and he is subject to thoughts that he may be mistaken and therefore though he may sometimes desire Christs Love yet it is but by fits and with incertainties according to the Nature of the Knowledge and Apprehension he hath of the truth of the things 3. A Third degree of Knowledge is Persuasion arising from Demonstration Now there is 1. A Demonstration of Sense thus we know the Sun shines the Fire burneth c. 2. A Demonstration of Reason when we can conclude a thing from infallible Principles of natural Reason 3. A Demonstration of Faith which is the Demonstration of the Spirit When men know things from the holy Spirits fully persuading them of the truth of this or that from a Divine Revelation This is the Demonstration of faith 4. There is yet a further and higher degree of Knowledg that ariseth from Experience being a sensible Evidence of the truth of what the Soul had before received a little of from the sight of the Eye and hearing of the Ear and more from the persuasion of the Spirit and some Argumentations within itself I say now that according to the degree of the Souls knowledge and apprehension so are the workings of the Affections This of desire in particular Hence the desires of Believers to the Loves of Christ must necessarily be the strongest For the degree of the Knowledge and Apprehension the Believer hath of the goodness of them is higher than it is possible any other Souls should have Other Souls may have read Books discoursing the Loves of Christ or heard Discourses of that tendency or judge so from Arguments of Scripture which may make such a thing probable to them But none but these have any persuasion wrought in their Souls by the Spirit of God of the Excellency of them none else have had any real Tasts and Experience of them Knowledge and Experience of the Goodness of any Objects being those things which move the Soul to desire them and the degree of the Souls apprehension of such Goodness and Excellency in Objects the ground of the Souls Intention in such desires it must necessarily follow that a good Christians Knowledge and Experience of that Goodness which is in Christs Loves must be the grounds of their desires after them There needeth no Scripture to prove this it is evident to our Reason Yet take the Instance of David Psal 4. 6. David desires of God to lift up the light of his Countenance upon him Observe now v. 7. what made him prefer the light of Gods Countenance to the Worldlings Corn and Wine and Oil Thou hast put gladness into my Heart Accordingly he tells us Psal 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee Hence you shall observe that David concludeth many of his Psalms of Praise with Prayer But will some say If they have had experience of the Loves of Christ why should they yet desire them None desires what they have This is true if our Enjoyments were perfect but there is an heighth and depth and length and breadth of the Love of God in Jesus Christ an heighth which the Soul hath not taken a depth which the Soul hath not fathomed a length and breadth which the Soul hath not measured from end to end It is true we desire nothing but what we want either in whole or in part therefore in Heaven will be no desire That which is perfect will be come and all that which is in part only will be done away But we shall never be filled with the Loves of Christ till our Mortality be swallowed up in Life I come now to the Application We may learn from hence That God must shew some act of Love to us before we can shew any Love to him Desires after the Loves of Christ though sincere are the least and first and lowest motions of our Souls toward God These you have heard must arise from a Knowledge and Experience of the goodness of those Loves Now this Knowledge this Experience must be the Gift of God to and the work of God in and upon the Soul yea and that not in a way of common Grace and Illumination but in a way of special Grace for though a common Illumination may produce some faint desires yet it will produce no sincere and effectual desires because the Knowledge begot by them will be flitting and incertain and attended with Doubts Fears and Incertainties So as till the Lord by his Spirit hath wrought in the Soul a persuasion of Faith commanding the Soul without dispute to give credit to what he hath revealed in his Word
there will be no sincere desires in the Soul after these things The Schoolmen tell us there are three ways by which we gain the Knowledge of a thing By Signs Conjectures and Effects as some Causes are known 2. By the enquiry of our Reason into the nature of it 3. By Divine Revelation The Excellency of the Loves of Christ is a spiritual thing and to be judged upon Spiritual accounts and in a Spiritual manner The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. So as the natural Reason of a Man will serve him very little to the gaining of this Knowledge by the Effects having never experienced it he cannot know it so as there is no other way to know it but by Divine Revelation God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 10. hath revealed them to us by his Spirit And v. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God So as that I say God must shew some special token of his Love to our Souls for good before we can shew any Love to him or make so much as one step toward him Observe from hence That a Believers Soul moves rationally and accountably enough in all its desires after the Loves of Christ The Souls of Believers are not so unintelligible as some prophane Persons would make them in their Passions for and Motions towards Christs Loves The Knowledge a Soul hath or the Experience which it hath had of the Goodness and Excellency of any Object moves the reasonable Soul to the desires of it Admitting the Believer to see things in another Light than a natural Man hath or can see in to have other Notions of Good and Evil and to take the measures of them from their subserviency to the Spiritual and eternal good of the Soul the Passions and Desires of his Soul after Christs Love are as natural Motions of the reasonable Souls as the Worldlings Desires after Riches or the sensual Mans Passions for such things as gratifie the sensitive Appetite The Reason why every Soul moveth not after these Spiritual Things is because every Soul seeth not the Good and Excellency in them Multitudes hardly know that is believe they have immortal Souls that shall outlive their Bodies in a state of Happiness or Misery or if they know or believe that yet they do not believe that there is no other name under Heaven by which they can be saved but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Nor ever had any experience of the Love of God to Souls Their deriding of Religious Passions and the Breathings of pious Souls after the Manifestations of Divine Love flows from their ignorance of them and their unreasonable Rudeness in speaking evil of the things which they know not The original difference betwixt a person truly pious and panting after the Love of Christ and others lies here These Creatures know that they have Souls Souls ordained to an eternal existence either in HÄ—ll or Heaven in eternal Happiness or in eternal Misery They believe what God hath said that there is no other Name under Heaven by which Men and Women can be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ neither is there Salvation in any other That he that believeth on him is not condemned and he that believeth not is damned already the Wrath of God abideth on him and he shall never see Life they do not only read these things in their Bibles and hear them from their Preachers but the Holy Spirit of God hath firmly persuaded them that they do as fixedly believe them as they do any thing of sensible or rational Demonstration they have more waky thoughts with reference to Death Mortality and Eternity are things more in their Eyes than in the Eyes of others Again they have tasted and experienced more of the Love of Christ Allow the Souls of others to be in the same Circumstances they would have alike Motions but because they are ignorant knowing nothing of Spiritual Things or at least nothing as they ought to know it thence it is that their Souls move not this is now but the natural working of reasonable Souls in other cases nor is there any such unaccountable or unintelligible thing in it And indeed this gives us the true Reason why every unregenerate Soul is so cold in its motions toward Christ and also may inform us how far it is possible such a Soul may go in motions of this nature The Reason why such a Soul moves no more is want of Evidence which such a Soul hath of the Goodness of his Loves Simple Goodness and Excellency in an Object is not attractive of the Soul but Goodness apprehended by evidenced and appearing to us All the apprehension that it is possible a natural man should have of the Loves of Christ must be from Reading Hearing or its own Reasoning and concluding from what it hath so heard or read for it wants both the demonstrative persuasion of the Holy Spirit and also any experimental Tasts or sensible Evidence All Knowledge which hath no better Foundation will arise no higher than to beget in the Soul an Opinion and leaves the Soul at some Incertainties and unfixed and hence its Motions towards an Object of which it hath no better Evidence are also incertain and faint and fluctuating Knowledge being the Foundation of Desire Reason will tell us that the Desire must bear proportion with the Knowledge The unregenerate man having no Knowledge of Spiritual things that is productive of more than an Opinion the desire must be incertain and faint according to the nature of the Opinion that causeth it By this also Christians may be able to take some Measures and make up some Judgments of themselves whether the desires they find in their Souls after Christ and his Loves be such as are peculiar to the Souls of Believers yea or no. We usually say that Desires after Grace are Evidences of it and there is a truth in it but all desires are not so for as I have said there may be desires after Christ and his Loves in an unregenerate Man commensurate to that knowledge which he hath of the Goodness of them but this will speak nothing of good to the Soul only such Desires as flow from a Christians Knowledge of Faith and from Experience He that hath only a knowledge of Christ and his Loves from Reading the word or from the Report of Ministers may so far desire Christs Loves as may serve him for his own ends nay though he hath no great Faith as to that eternal State of Happiness to which Christ brings the Soul but hath only received Notions of such ablessed State to which he gives no great credit yet for his own Security because his notions may be true though he hath no great fixed persuasion of them he may yet desire the Loves of Christ so far as to bring him to
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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 〈…〉 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
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
and be dejected and conclude against themselves as if they had no share in the love of God much less to repine and murmur against God Against murmuring I offered you some considerations under the first branch of application Against condemning your selves or concluding against the goodness of your spiritual state I shall offer something now There is no ground at all for any such conclusion from these providences The Child 's right to the Father is not to be determined from the portion much less from any particular expression of the Fathers affection if the Child be begotten by the Father if owned by him as his Child this is enough tho some other Child may have more smiles and some particular expressions of kindness which it wanteth If a Christian hath any evidence that he is born again not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God born again of the Spirit by the incorruptible Seed of the Word this is enough to entitle him to a Sonship if he hath received the Lord Jesus Christ this John 1. 12. gives him a right to be called the Child of God and this new birth is discoverable by the new features in the Souls face the Souls assimilation to God in holiness If these things be found it is a most unreasonable conclusion to conclude against thy Sonship for want of some special favours bestowed upon others and not upon thee so as there is no ground for thy reprobating thy self upon this account and concluding against thy spiritual state because of thy want of some degrees of spiritual priviledges by others enjoyed nor hast thou more ground to despond and to deject thy self as if thou never shouldst attain what thou hast not as yet attained David sets us a rare example in this case Psal 42. 5. Why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance The longest night hath a morning following there commonly is a circulation in Divine Providence and as to the Soul of man day and night Summer and Winter follow one another as by a Covenant he that doth not grieve willingly nor willingly afflict the Children of men will not be alwaies crushing the Prisoners of the Earth nor suffer the Souls which he hath made to fail before him 2. As thy condition will prompt thee to endeavour to amend it and to make the case of thy Soul more easy so I would have thee look upon it as thy duty St. Paul had not attained but he forgetting what was behind pressed forward to what was before unto the price of the high calling It is the state of our Souls that we are not perfect neither as to action nor as to fruition but it is all our duty to strive after perfection both after a perfection with respect to action which the Apostle calls a perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord and a perfection as to fruition as to the enioyment of God you have heard that the King of Glory hath Chambers in which he entertaineth some of his peoples Souls admitting them to a fuller further and sweeter enjoyment of himself then others have Let therefore no Christian sit down fully satisfied till he get up into these Chambers I have shewed you a Christian ought to be so far satisfied as if God pleaseth to chain him for a time in a lower room my meaning is to lay a necessity upon him to live beneath these Mountains not to repine murmur against God not to conclude against his spiritual state and interest in God not to despond and defect himself and conclude that because it is now dark it shall never be light with him but yet he ought not to be so far satisfied as not to look after higher degrees of enjoyment of and communion with God There are all the arguments imaginable to be pleaded in this case Whether from profit or pleasure or honour c. But those are so obvious that I shall but wast time to inlarge upon them Every Soul that hath any spiritual sense will acknowledge the desirableness of this But will some Souls say what shall we do that we may attain them I have but four things to offer in this case with which I will conclude 1. Study to abound in active grace The grace I am speaking of is that grace wherein man is partly passive Active grace is that by which we are inabled to our duty in obedience to the will of God the Stairs by which Souls ascend to the Kings Chambers mentioned in the Text as I have interpreted it are the steps of universal holiness which the Apostle calls an holiness in all manner of conversation The promise of Gods shewing his Salvation Psal 50. 21. is made to him that ordereth his conversation aright and the promise of Gods manisesting himself to his peoples Souls is made to them that love Christ and keep his Commandments It is true God sometimes useth his prerogative and hides his face from the most pious and holy Souls for a time and shutteth out their supplications from him you have instances in holy writ as well as in our daily converse but it is past all controversy that those enjoy most of God who walk most with God and the closest walking is the most sweet and comfortable walking Study therefore to excell in holiness that 's the first 2. Behave thy self well in the lower Rooms Look to thy self while God keeps thee in a dark condition that thou dost not add to thine own Chains and lengthen the hours of thy darkness affliction is Gods School by which he fits us for consolation Dost thou ask me what I mean by behaving thy self well I answer short 1 Being watchful and striving against sin those corruptions especially which thou shalt discern most busie in such an hour such as murmuring unbelief impatience c. 2. Keeping up thy hope and saith in God so did David as I shewed you Psal 42. 5. Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believed 3. Humbly acknowledging thine iniquities thy unworthiness to receive the least mercy or look of grace from God 4. Panting thirsting after fuller degrees of communion with God thus David Psal 63. 1 2. My Soul longeth my flesh thirsteth for thee to see thy power and thy glory c. 3. Abstract thy self as much as thou canst from the world You shall observe that the Servants of God have chosen Mountains places of solitude and removed from the noise of the world when they designed any acts of more special communion with God so Christ often went into a Mountain to pray And God oft chose such places more specially to communicate his mind to his people It was in the Mount God talkt with Moses face to face as a man talks with his friend Divines have observed that those Persons who have enjoyed
not to desire or to be willing to remember the kindness of a friend whose kindness we have abused Sin puts the tast of Christs love out of the Soul A remembrance of Christs love so as to be in any measure duly affected with it is incompetent with wilful and presumptuous sinning None but the holy and heavenly Soul remembreth the loves of Christ 5. Lastly Wait upon God in ordinances in hearing the Word in the Holy Sacrament of his Supper The ordinances of the Gospel are not only means of grace but great helps to Christians memory as to Christs loves we preach a Christ crucified there his loves come to our ears in the Supper you have a representation of a Christ crucified there his loves his dying love is set before your Eyes both are helps to the mind of that man or woman who desireth to feed his thoughts upon the loves of Christ But to shut up all Pray that is a general prescription in order to the obtaining of any mercy from the hand of God amongst other blessed effects of the holy Spirit of God promised by Christ to his Disciples this was one John 14. 26. He shall bring to your remembrance the things which you have heard of me it is the influence of the Spirit of grace that quickneth and inableth us to bring Christs love to our remembrance our Saviour hath taught us how to obtain this blessed remembrancer Luke 11. 13. He giveth his holy Spirit to them that ask him Sermon XXX Cant. 1. 4. The Vpright love thee Or Heb. Vprightnesses love thee STill it is the Spouse that speaketh She had prayed Draw me and promised that being drawn both she and others would run after Christ She had received a gracious answer to her prayer The King had brought her into his Chambers In this she hath Triumphed We will be glad and rejoice in thee For this she hath covenanted that she would remember the Loves of her Beloved more then all the pleasant or profitable things in the world Which she expresseth under the Metaphoricall notion of Wine Now lest any should say to her Why so fond O thou fairest amongst women to justify her self in this rapture of Joy this extacy of love she may be conceived to add these words The upright love thee or as the Hebrew is Uprightnesses love thee the words may be variously rendred with consistency enough to the Grammar of the Hebrew text 1. Uprightnesses or right things love thee The Same word is used Psal 17. 2. Thine eyes shall behold right things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be right or to appear so The word is used in the form that it is here Psal 9. 9. He shall judge the World in righteousness and the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in uprightnesses It is used Prov. 1. 3. Is 33. 15. Prov. 2. 9. Psal 75. 2. If we expound the phrase as it is literally according to the abstract Righteousnesses or Right things the Question will be whether it should be read as in the Nominative case Uprightnesses love thee or as in the Oblique case which the Heb. prefix seems to import In Uprightnesses they love thee accordingly the sense will be very different for if we read it as in the Nominative case the import of it seems to be to set out the Excellency of her beloved as he who was the very seat of all excellent things in whom did all fulness dwell even the fulness of the God-head all righteousness all Equity whatsoever is good If we read it as in the Ablative case as the prefix in the Hebrew seemeth to guide us The import of it seems to be to express to us the nature of the Saints love to God which is not in word or in tongue onely but in deed and in truth in uprightnesses that is as Buxtorf expoundeth it Rectissime fortiter most intirely intensely sincerely thus I say it denoteth the truth and reality of the believing Souls love to Christ 2. But our translators have thought fit to translate it otherwise conceiving the abstract here put for the concrete Uprightnesses for upright men possessed of uprightness this is very usual in the Hebrew dialect and indeed in most languages so the sense is this Do not wonder that I love Christ and am so affected with the injoyment of him there is never an upright Soul in the world but loves him all upright Souls love him Thus the Proposition is plain Propos Upright Souls love Christ To this I shall Speak in my ordinary method by Explication Confirmation Application Under the first I shall give you the true notion of Uprightness and an üpright soul shew you in what sense the Proposition is true The Question may well be propounded Who is the upright who is the righteous man For the Psalmist tells us the Apostle Rom. 3. confirmeth it There is none righteous no not one and although God at first made man upright Eccles 7. 29. Yet the world is so warped by men seeking out to themselves inventions that the prophet Micah 7. 2. Tells us there is none upright amongst men To resolve this difficulty I shall first give you two or three distinctions concerning righteousness or uprightness without which we shall hardly understand the true notion of an upright man 1. There is an uprightness of heart Psal 32. 11. Shout for joy all you upright in heart so Psal 94. 11. Judgment shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it And there is an uprightness of way or conversation Prov. 29. 27. The upright in his way is an abomination so◠Psal 37. 14. The wicked man seeketh to slay such as be of upright conversation Indeed it is true there is no man who is upright in his heart but he will also be upright in his way for the upright directeth his way Prov. 21. 29. but there is a seeming uprightness of way when the heart is not upright with God Prov. 14. 12. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death The Proposition must be understood of such as are upright not in their way only seemingly but both in heart and in way 2. Secondly there is a Legal and there is an Evangelical righteousness or uprightness The legal righteousness or uprightness lyeth in a full and perfect conformity to the Law of God In this sense it is as true That there is none righteous no not one none upright amongst men as that there is none who liveth and sinneth not against God for the least Flye maketh this box of ointment to stink all Sin is crookedness and the least crookedness spoileth this rightness But then there is an Evangelical righteousness and uprightness and thus every Soul that is justified by grace through the imputation of Christs righteousness is a righteous Soul and every Soul that is Sanctifyed and renewed the bent of which is towards
bracelets upon thy hands and a chain about thy neck and I put a jewel upon thy forehead and ear-rings in thine ears and a beautiful crown upon thy head What do all these metaphorical expressions signify but the various habits of grace with which Christ adorneth the new creature in the day of its new birth in the day when he removeth from it the guilt of its iniquity he doth not only wash and cleanse it with his blood from the guilt of its Sin but he reneweth and sanctifieth it and furnisheth it with all habits of grace This is also Christs comeliness for as the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily so himself received the Spirit without measure that he might measure it out by measures to his people and they might of his fulness receive grace for grace The holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and all its operations are his Christ tells his Spouse in this Song that she had ravished his heart with the chains about her neck but there is not a jewel in those chains but cometh out of Christs cabinet he giveth those chains with which himself is ravished though these divine powers and habits be his yet being once given and by us produced into Acts they are truely and inherently ours Our Faith Love Patience Meekness Joy c. Our stock of grace upon which our souls live yet not without the daily influence of Christ and assistance of his spirit and this stock is capable of augmentation or diminution as it pleaseth God to let out upon us or to withdraw from us and as we more or less improve it tho indeed Christ hath a constant inspection upon his Spouses treasury and will take care that it shall never so fail but there shall be a seed of God abiding in the soul continually and the grace of Regeneration in it shall be like a spring of water whose waters fail not This now is the Spouses real beauty and comliness which makes her inwardly comely tho she be externally black comely in Christs eyes and comely in the eyes of judicious Christians tho black in the Worlds eyes who judg from external accidents or in the eyes of less judicious Christians either judging from outward accidents or particular acts or from some corrupt passion in themselves 3. They must be comely in Christs eyes because he judgeth not of comeliness from the outward appearance nor yet from single spots and defects but according to the heart the scope and intention of that and from the more constant tenour of the Souls actions The speaking of a few words to this will prevent an objection How Christ can judg a soul comely that is yet full of spots infirmities and defects for even the best of men sinneth seven times a day and who can tell how often he offendeth I say Christ judgeth not from the outward appearance man judgeth so but God judgeth from the heart he looketh at the inward man how that is nor doth he there judg from every particular motion any more then from any particular act in our conversation but from the sincerity and uprightness of the heart If there be a willing mind it is accepted The World judgeth from the outward appearance and indeed that is one disadvantage with reference to the World that the spouse of Christ is under she is Nigra extrinsecus formosa intrinsecus Black outwardly but comely inwardly The Kings Daughter saith the Psalmist Psal 45. is all glorious within A good Christian is like a Merchants warehouse which is full of rich wares and commodities tho little appeareth without The hypocrite is lâ—ke a Pedlars stall where all is exposed and perhaps much more then the pretended owner is worth There is a double judgment of the comeliness of Virgins the one is sensuall from the lines and colour of the face the Symmetry of parts the other is rational from the complexion of the soul Knowledg Ingenuity Modesty Sobriety c. Those who judg the former way may be deceived that which the Vulgar calleth beauty is deceitful and vain and fading the person that is possessed of it is very often unlovely enough through a crooked and froward disposition and badness of humour the latter maketh the true judgment men judg of the comeliness and beauty of persons meerly from the visage and outside so the children of God are by them judged unlovely and black as Ravens If they see the Church or Child of God tossed with tempests and afflâ—cted groaning under the sense of sin they presently judg them according to the outward appearance black Christ looketh upon the heart the bent and scope of that its sincerity and uprightness its purity and holiness The World again judgeth of men by single acts tho Philosophy teacheth us that from them none is to be denominated either virtuous or vicious God doth not so which is remarkable in the two famous instances of Job and David Job you know had great fits of impatience yet saith God Behold the patience of Job David was a man of very great failings his defiling of Bathsheba his murder of Uria his numbring of the People were three to name no more yet God doth not onely mention him as a man whose heart was perfect a man according to Gods own heart But in all the following story of the Kings of Judah God mentions him as a Pattern telling us that such a one did walk according to David or such a one did not do according as David had done The Apostle also tells us that we have an high Priest that can have compassion on our Infirmities upon the ignorant and those that are out of the way All which makes it appear that Christs judgment of the Beauty and comliness of persons is not from single acts but from a constant and general course of life and conversation Now every true believer sets his heart to seek the Lord and to walk before God with a true and perfect heart and tho he faileth in many particulars yet the Lord overlooketh them and judgeth of the Soul only from its â—â—ope and intention and the general course of his actions hence it is that the spouse of Christ tho in some respects she be black and in the Worlds eyès she appeareth black yet in truth and in the Judgment of Jesus Christ she is comely Sermon XXXIII Canticles 1. 5. I am black but comely O you daughters of Jerusalem as the tents of Kedar as the Curtaines of Solomon My business in this exercise is but to apply my last discourse Where I shewed you how and in what sense the Spouse of Christ is Black and yet comely black in her own eyes in the worlds eyes and somtimes so in the eyes of her weaker Brethren but comely in Christs eyes and in the eyes of her more judicious Brethren Having a great comliness in some of her blackness and a comeliness besides her blacknes Black through remaining Just and corruption through Afflictions
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 shâ—â— 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 traâ—slated from death to life because we love the brethren Hezâ—kiah 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
it listeth May not the King sit or rise up from his Table when he pleaseth I answer It is true that our God as to his manifestative presence with the Souls of his People governeth himself according to the good pleasure of his will and his own infinite and unsearchable wisdom The King oft-times riseth up from his Table when the Soul of his Child is able to give it self no account what distaste he hath taken nor what hath made him to go away from it and not to give out his influence as at other times but yet it is as true that at other times he withdraweth for the punishment of his Peoples sins either of Omission or Commission and there are some means to be used in order to the keeping of his presence with us upon the Omission or neglect of which he withdraweth and hideth his face and he ordinarily departech not from the Soul but upon some distast given to him I shall therefore conclude this discourse with a few directions given in order to the keeping ofhis presence with us To keep to the Metaphor here used there are four or five things which will make a serious and ingenuous Person make hast from a Table or depart from a place where he might have made a longer stay or abode 1. The frowardness or ill humour of his host 2. A discerned want of love or attendance 3. An ill intertainment 4. The dulness or unpleasantness of the company 5. A discerned slight or carelesness of his presence To avoid these 1. Take heed of grieving his holy Spirit quenching the motions of it Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man will open I will come in and sup with him and he shall sup with me O Christs coming in and supping with the Soul and allowing the Soul to sup with him signifies what is here in the Text expressed by the Kings sitting at his Table And the Spouses Spikenard sending forth the smell thereof now this dependeth upon the Souls opening when Christ stands at the door and knocketh he knocketh by the motions of his holy Spirit the Soul openeth by its willingness to receive imbrace and obey such motions the reason why this great King riseth up from his Table is because when he knocketh the Soul is not obedient to his motions he pipeth to the Soul and it doth not dance He mourneth to it and it doth not weep it doth not answer his motions to it according to the nature of them but denyeth delayeth or disputeth God telleth the presumptuous sinner Prov. 1. 24. That Because he hath called and he refused because he stretcheth out his hand and he doth not regard but he sets at nought all his Counsel and would none of his reproof he would laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh c. As a Child of God cannot be guilty of sinning to such a degree as setting at nought all the Lords Counsel and refusing all his reproof So he cannot be under such a severe threatning as is there mentioned But as the Child of God may in some degrees be guilty of such sinning not hearkening to and obeying all the motions of Gods holy Spirit not receiving all its reproof So for this he may be punished in his measure by Gods withdrawings of his manifestative presence take therefore the Apostles Counsel Eph. 4. 30. And grieve not the holy Spirit whereby you are sealed unto the day of Redemption 2. Let this great King want no love no attendance no reverence nor obedience while he sits with you When Christ was at meat in the house of Simon the leper Mary brought a box of Spikenard and poured it on his head Mar. 14. 3. Christ sits still while the Ointment was poured out it was not the smell of the Spikenard but the love of her that brought it which made the room pleasant to him He stirred not from the Table at Marthas house so long as Mary sate at his feet and Martha served him Hear what he saith Job 14 23 If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Say you to all the powers and faculties of your Souls to all the members of your bodies as the Virgin Mary said to the Servants at the wedding in Cana of Galilee where Christ was present Joh. 2. 5. Whatsoever he saith unto you do it That is the way to keep him still sitting at his Table in your Soul 3. Take heed there come nothing to your Table that shall distast him Every ill smell of lnsts and corruptions will disturb him this made him to hate the Jewish feast days and not to smell in their Solemn assemblies Amos 5. 21. If you look into Isaiah 1. 11 12 13. Ch. 66. v. 3. Jer. 7. 8 9 10. You will see what sins will make him to rise up from his Table All formality and hypocrisy in your behaviour toward him all gross and Scandalous sinnings c. When in stead of wine he meets with the poison of Dragons instead of sweet grapes he meeteth with grapes of gall and clusters of wormwood he will not long sit at his Table in that Soul 4. Not only the apparent badness and rudeness but the dulness and unpleasantness of a company makes an ingenuous man rise up from his Table Take heed of heaviness and dulness inactivity and want of delight in your communion with God 5. Lastly As a discerned carelesness and slighting of a friends Company makes the stay of an ingenuous Person with his friend much shorter then it otherwise would have been So any careless slighty behaviour toward this great King may make his stay and abode with your Souls in the sensible manifestations of his love much shorter then it otherwise might have been He will be a welcome guest where-ever he abideth on the other side he doth not easily rise up or depart from a Table where the Soul inlargeth it self in testifying the gratefulness of his presence to it by offering him all the entertainment it can afford him giving up of it self to him daily importuning him not to leave him Thus you shall find our Spouse doing Cant. 3. 4. I found him whom my Soul loveth I held him and would not let him go untill I had brought him into my Mothers house and into the Chamber of her that conceived me Sermon LIII Canticles 1. 12. A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved unto me he shall lie all night betwixt my Breasts YOU may by the Language spoken understand who it is that speaks it is the Spouse for she talks of her breasts Our business is to consider what she saith She hath already exprest her grateful sense of her beloveds presence with her and the advantage she had by it her graces cast a precious savour By the advantage of his company and influence She goes on still in the Language of one that loveth
of the outward man or the Ornament of the inward man A man or woman may have a sweet complexion a lovely Countenance a beautiful personage and yet have a debauched Soul and so be far from pleasantness yea a man may have a mental beauty and yet not pleasant no good Companion for ones life There are many men who are wise and just and learned and yet possibly through pride morosity or surliness or reservedness not pleasant Pleasantness doth much refer to the conversation and if we allow this sense of the term by which As our own Annotators observe the Spouse doth elegantly correct and raise the sense of what she had before said Then this is that which the Spouse saith My Dear Saviour is not only beautiful in the Eye of my mind both in respect of his Maj sty and glory and of that Grace which was poured forth upon his lips in respect of the eminent perfections both of his Divine and humane Nature but he is also lovely and amiable and so I have sound him in all his dispensations to me and also in all my converse with him Thus it denoteth the pleasantness of the Souls Communion with Christ and may comprehend both his Communication of himself to the Souls of his People in and through his Ordinances and also his Communication of himself to them by way of more immediate Spiritual influences and it importeth thus much That a Christians walking with God is a pleasant walking you know that the life of a Child of God in Scripture is expressed under several Notions it is sometimes called a walking with God It is said of Enoch he walked with God Gen. 5. 22. 24. the like of Noah Gen. 6. 9. it is called a walking in Gods ways And after Gods Commandments A walking with Christ Col. 2. 6. A walking in the Spirit Gal. 5. 16. 25. Christ is he who maintaineth and influenceth and upholdeth a Christians life he is the Companion of his life now that which the Spouse asserts is that Christ is not a sour Companion to make use of the similitude of the Text. Many a Woman hath an Husband who it may be is a comely Person learned sober wise but yet possibly of a morose reserved temper or of a proud and surly disposition he is fair but he is not pleasant Jesus Christ the Husband to a gracious heart is not only beautiful so as a Soul may please it self in beholding of him and looking upon him but he is also pleasant all his dealings and converse with the Souls of his People are sweet and delightful And thus much may serve to have spoken to the first question and for the more general explication of the term the second follows viz. 2. Qu. How is the Lord Jesus Christ pleasant And in what particulars doth his pleasantness appear 1. Pleasantness implies a general sweetness and loveliness in conversation 2 Sam. 1. 26. I am distressed for thee my Brother Jonathan very pleasant wert thou to me David apprehended a loveliness in his converse with Jonathan as a man delights to be in the Company of his friend and hath much Satisfaction in it so it is with the gracious Soul The life of a Christian is a pleasant life because Christ is pleasant to it I told you before that a Christian hath in this life a double converse with Christ 1. In Ordinances and duties 2. By the immediate influences of his Spirit in all his conversation As to both Christ is pleasant 1. It is a pleasant thing for the Soul of a Christian to enjoy Christ in his Ordinances Psal 84. 1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord it is a pleasant thing to a Christian to hear of Christ in a Sermon to look up to Christ in Prayer to praise the name of God David upon this argument engageth the Children of God to praise him for it is pleasant Psal 135. 3. Psal 147. 1. 2. It is a pleasant thing to a gracious Soul from the influences of the Spirit of grace to direct his life according to the rule of Gods Word As it was the meat and drink of our Saviour to do the will of his Heavenly Father so it is the meat of a disciple of Christ to do the will of Christ especially when he findeth his Soul advantaged to it from the influences of the Spirit of Christ Rom 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Observe two things St. Paul doth not say I delight in the Love of God who could do otherwise then so But I delight in the Law of God an holy heart delights in the Law of God but secondly Observe the restriction as to the inward man This may prevent an objection Will some poor Soul say I cannot say that I delight in strictness the Lord Pardon it to me I even force my self upon any close walking But doost thou not delight in the Law of God as to thy inward man If thou doest Christ is pleasant to thee he is not pleasant to thy flesh but he is pleasant to thy Spirit 2. you will further understand how Christ is pleasant to the Soul and receive a further confirmation of it if you but consider what is requisite to make one pleasant as a pleasant Husband or a pleasant Companion of ones life c. I conceive there are three things 1. Some real positive worth A man or woman that hath no worth is pleasant to none but such as are fools or sots Christ hath an infinite worth in him nay you will observe that although a man have much worth in him yet he is pleasant to none but such as may have an advantage from his worth the most learned man in the World hath no pleasantness in him to the apprehension of a Clown that is not in a capacity to partake of his worth so that to make a man pleasant he must not only have a real worth in him but a worth of such a Nature as he to whom he is pleasant may be advantaged such is Christ such are the excellencies of Christ 2. To make a Person pleasant besides a real worth there is required some sutableness of nature and disposition to the party which so judgeth of him take now an eminently learned man in any science though he hath a worth in him and such a worth as might to a novice be advantageous yet all this doth not make him pleasant that which makes the Husband pleasant to the Wife and the Superior pleasant to the inferiour is some congruity of disposition And such a congruity there is betwixt Christ and a believing Soul Christ notwithstanding all that perfection of grace and excellency which is in him and notwithstanding the aptitude and fitness of his grace to the wants of a Soul yet is not pleasant to a natural man he is not beautiful to him because he wanteth Spiritual Eyes to discern