into him and sup with him Revel 20. and he shall sup with him O let mee intreat you to pittie the yerning of your Saviours bowels toward you pittie the groanings of his tender heart for you pittie your selves if not your Christ and O come come out of the wildernesse of sinne into this wildernesse of sorrow that of a drunken profane creature thou mayest be a mourning pious soule of a proud carelesse sinner become a poore humbled poenitent that the world may admire Saul amongst the Prophets and Paul amongst the Apostles and thee amongst the Saints of Christ and say of thee who art now a profane Swearer and Blasphemer Behold hee Prayeth Of thee that wert a filthy Wanton Behold hee Mournes Of thee that wert a filthy Drunkard and Glutton Behold hee Fasts And may in time say of thee Who is this that commeth up from the wildernesse leaning upon her Beloved But Secondly Is there any before the Lord this day that is in any other wildernesse of Sorrow Affliction Temptation Desertion c. O leane Come out of your wildernesse leaning upon your Beloved First Is there any one here to whom the Lord hath shewen their owne sad condition too and yet hath not revealed the fulnesse of his free grace to them O leane upon the Lord Jesus Christ and leaning come out of thy wildernesse Beleeve and thou shalt be saved But here 's the hard taske to perswade such a soule to beleeve Consider but these few things 1. That now thou art in a capacitie of beleeving Povertie of spirit is the nearest capacitie of faith Blessed are thâ—y that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse Now thou art weary Christ hath promised to ease thee now thou art heavie laden he hath promised to helpe thee Secondly Consider that thou hast ground enough to build thy faith upon Christs power and love are two Pillars able to hold up the weakest faith First Beleeve leane upon Christ for he is able to pardon thy sinnes thou shouldest blaspheme in thy thoughts if thou shouldest not thinke this Can infinite mercy be fadomed thinkest thou Can any one plead his undeservings against free grace Were thy burthen farre heavier then it is cast it upon Christ for he is able to beare it Art thou thick darkenesse he is infinite light Art thou all sinne he is all pardon Art thou altogether lovely why Christ is altogether lovely Secondly Beleeve because Christ is as much love as he is power he is not onely able but he is willing to pardon thee free grace thirsts after thee Nay beleeve me thou canst give Christ no greater satisfaction then to receive his mercies Christ is withchild of free grace to speake it with reverence and he desires nothing more then to be delivered in thine heart He is a Sea of mercy and he would rejoyce to emptie himselfe by drops into his peoples hearts But why did I say emptie Can the Sunne loose any light by communicating his light to others When the creature speakes of God he must speake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would fill thee and yet continue full himselfe He is satisfied when thou art full He shall see of the travell of his soule and shall be satisfied Thou art not so willing to receive as he is to bestow free grace O then leane upon him Thirdly Consider thou canst not dishonour thy God more then when thou art humbled by him for thy sinnes and cast downe in thine owne thoughts and cal'd to beleeve in his mercies and secured upon his word if thou wilt but trust him If thou wilt not then beleeve in him Surely then thou art of a little faith if not an Infidell Thou couldst not beleeve when thou wert an impaenitent hard-hearted creature Why because thou knewest no need thou hadst of faith Neither couldst thou heare Christs invitation because thou wert not weary and heavie loaden but now that the Lord hath humbled thee now the promises belong unto thee what darest thou not take Christs word Suppose a Traytour were condemned to dye and the King should send a Pardon by the hand of his owne Sonne to this forlorne wretch and hee should refuse it saying The King cannot pardon me what hath hee to doe to send me a Pardon I know hee doth but mocke mee he meanes nothing lesse c. Were not this a piece of unworthinesse by which he should dishonour his Prince as much as with his Treason before O take heed of provoking the Lord still it is enough that thou hast provoked him once yet he will pardon thee And on the contrary thou canst not honour Christ more then in beleeving for thou acknowledgest the unfadomable depth of his free love and mercy Thou proclaimest God to be a God gracious long-suffering a God that may bee trusted by the creature which hath deserved nothing at his hand that he is so pure an Essence of love that he will create himselfe a cause of love where is none And though he could find nothing in thee to pardon thee for thy sake yet he would pardon thee for his owne Name sake So likewise you that are in any wildernesse or shall be of Affliction Desertion Temptation c. O leane leane 'T is that which God requires at your hand 't is that which will ease you when you are weary helpe you when you are heavie laden Beleeving will ease you when complaining will not 't is that which honours God and honours Christ It gives him the glory of his Power and Providence and Dominion and free Grace and mercy Christ beleeve me will take it kindly at your hands that you will try him in need and trust him even in despaire though he kills you yet you will trust in him Those that venture upon Death with such a faith cannot dye Those that have such a Spirit must live eternally The way to live is to dye beleeving and the way to stand is to leane falling O come all yee that love the Lord â— and trust in his mercies I have done only I conclude with my Text. O you that are falling as you thinke into the pit of despaire that are lost in the wildernesse of sorrow Beleeve beleeve and you shall be saved Come out trusting upon God resting upon the fulnesse of his mercy and the freenesse of his grace come out come out leaning upon your Beloved O you that are in a wildernesse of afflictions leane upon Gods staffe let his rod comfort you beleeve that he smileth while he smiteth thee beleeve in affliction you shall have no more then you are able to beare he will let his grace bee sufficient for you all shall worke for your good And come you out of your wildernesse leaning upon your Beloved O you that are in the wildernesse of temptations in the snare of the Divell beleeve and leane your Christ was tempted and he knowes how to succour those that are tempted leane upon him to beare you up in and to give you an happy issue out of your temptations in which you are in for the triall of your faith and come you out likewise leaning upon your Beloved You that are in the sad wildernesse of Desertion cry My God! though you be forsaken keepe your faith retaine your Interest O leane loose not your hold you have upon the Almighty leane in and come out of this your wildernesse leaning upon your Beloved Finally All you that are in the wildernesse of sin the worst wildernesse of all Let me conclude with you And once more as the Embaâ—â—adour of Jesus Christ in my Masters name as if he himselfe were here I beseech you by the many and tender mercies of him whose bowels yerne towards you by his precious bloud which was powred out upon the Crosse for sinners and who knowes whether not for you as well as others as you tender the life and happinesse of your owne soules the joy of your faithfull pastours nay which is most of all as you tender the honour of God come out ô come out of your sad wildernesse be humbled and mourne sit down in dust and ashes that you may rise up adorned with grace and be crowned with glory that you may leane upon your Beloved and O that my first or last words might prevaile with some great sinner this day for whom we might all rejoyce concerning whom we might all say who is this that comes out of the wildernesse leaning upon her welbeloved FINIS
after a naturall manner till the quickning grace of God come A man may in a wildernesse conceive himselfe lost look about for the way out call for help be willing to be out yet not be one step in the way that will lead him out and this the soule must doe so far as it can Negamus etenim hanc gratiam regenerantem infundi homnibus mertibus sed animis per verbum Dei erectis subactis per praedictas actiones quodammodo dispositis viz. We deny that regenerating grace is infused into sloathfull men but into soules subdued by Gods word and law and after a manner disposed by the foregoing actions yet wee say that even these forgoing actions have their first motions from God and the question is whither God doth not first work a sight and sense of sinne and an humiliation for it by his exciting grace before he comes with his regenerating quickning and saving grace into the soule we say he doth in his ordinary course of his dispensations Only I must here be safely understood that I speak according to mans apprehension for in respect of God nothing is first or last hee works all in an instant all graces together in the soule but the question lies not whether God works the habit of Repentance before the habit of Faith or no for without question he works together all his works but whether God makes humiliation act before faith which wee say hee doth Esau and Iacob may be in their mothers wombe together but Esau may come out and be seene in the world before Iacob yet not tying up the Almighty to this method who can and will work any way even which way it pleaseth him Nor doe we say that any such previous action can be performed by the Creature ut de merito congrui teneatur Gratiam dare That God is bound for the desert of any such previous action to give his inward and regenerating quickning grace But yet this we say Davenant ibid. that in the church of God where men are dayly stirr'd up by the word and spirit to repent and beleeve savingly God will give though not for any of these previous or dispository actions yet freely regenerating grace to all such as are capable of it unlesse they have resisted the Spirit of God in the preceding operations and rejected his quickning grace but yet we deny that any man can performe these actions so but he will offend and resist the Spirit of God in them Now why when as all resist God should reject some as they have rejected him and leave them to the hardnesse of their own hearts and work irresistibly on others who have resisted their God as much and break open their hearts though lock'd and barr'd against him and fill them with quickning grace and pull a Lot out of Sodom by force and draw a soule out of the wildernesse by head and shoulders I say why he should doe it when two are grinding at the same mill take one and leave the other when two are in the same field why the one should bee taken the other left when two soules are equall in duties fasting mourning in the way that God hath appointed why hee should baulk this and take the other when perhaps that which is taken hath beene the least penitent too I will conclude with Dr. Davenant is Sacrum Misterium divinae voluntati reliquendum A sacred and secret mystery to be left to the divine pleasure and the reason lies in the agents own breast It is because he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and whom he wills he hardeneth God is his own reason and his free grace it s owne cause So then wee conclude that the soule cannot move one foot to a spirituall action spiritually not by any common grace it must be onely by Gods regenerating and saving grace So that to answer yet more distinctly to the Question In respect of Gods exciting and preventing grace if wee looke so farre wee cannot come but that preventeth us Wee are as clay in the hands of the Potter wee are all dead in sinnes But when the Lord hath changed the soule then it commeth The first motion upon the will is from God before there is any motion of the will unto God but when the will is healed of God then the soule commeth then the soule which was meerly passive before is active wil endeavor to do something for that God that hath done so much for her It followes the drawing of God most holy Spirit Draw me saith the Spouse and I will runne after thee First I must be drawne but then I will runne In the same moment God makes us to will and wee will and yet all the efficacy of the Action comes from Gods most holy Spirit It is certaine saith Augustine That wee are willing when wee are willing but he makes us willing certum est no velle quum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus qui operatur in nobis velle that workes in us to will and to performe Phil. 2.13 And so he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God drawes but he drawes the soule that is willing Ay but first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes it willing So I have shewed what proprietie the soule hath in the Action how she commeth and how willing she is to the motion She is drawne but she is willing to be drawne to Jesus Christ But first she is made willing before she is willing ay and in her life after she is come to Christ in her walking with Christ Non suis confidit viribus she trusts not her owne strength she even then commeth leaning which is the next Branch of the Doctrine I have to handle Though she comes up from the wildernesse yet she comes up not of her owne strength but leaning First Let us enquire what the expression holds out to us Secondly What is the soules hand Thirdly Who it is she leanes upon Fourthly What in him she hath to trust to and how in every wildernesse she leanes and out of every wildernesse comes up leaning I conceive here are foure things hinted in this expression leaning which I may terme the foure fingers of the Spouses hand which she layes upon her Saviours shoulders First It doth argue that the soule is weary otherwise she would not leane Secondly It is a willing posture I am not forced to leane I doe it willingly The soule that comes up with Christ is willing Thirdly It is a posture of love Otherwise she would not leane Fourthly It doth argue a confidence that the soule hath in the Lord that he is able to boare her Otherwise she would not trust the weight of her soule upon him First It doth argue wearinesse If she were not weary she would not leane Humiliation is a preface to faith and the way to be found is to be lost It is not a leaning of wantonnesse but a leaning of wearinesse O Lord I
Bridegroome These sermons are but a Record of your Honours practice and yet they are a prophecy of your Honours life too The Bride of Christ is not past all her dirty way when shee is espoused to her Bridegroome She walks with him through dirty paths also It is the way of heaven not the way to heaven that is strewed with flowers and roses He knew that told us By much tribulation wee must enter into the Kingdome of God Mortality is but the Christians wildernesse For why should the disciple bee above his Master or the servant above his Lord the Crowne of thorns was not made for Christs head only and if there be written over our heads in letters of glory These are the heirs of heaven what need wee care to hang here nailed to a crosse The nailes of the crosse are sanctified ever since they pierced his sacred Limbs A meditation of Christs agony may bee a cordiall draught for a soule sick with afflictions If Christ walkt upon the Sea to us let us gird our coats and walk also Though Christ seemes to sleepe yet our groanings will awaken him for he taketh care that we perrish not Though Christ shakes himself as if hee intended to shake off our hand sometimes yet let us consider it is because our hands are dirty and not be so foolish to let go our hold Christ may duck but hee will not drowne us He knowes the way out of the wildernesse and will lead us right if we will but leane Though wee sit in darknesse and see no light yet let us trust in the Name of the Lord and stay our selves upon our God we may be persecuted wee shall never bee forsaken we shall come out of the wildernesse leaning upon our Beloved I presume Madam to present these sermons naked to your Honours hands trusting your Ladyship will cover the imperfections with charity they were buried but if the Ghosts must walk I thought it no wayes proper to put them on gayer clothes let them walk in their winding-sheet If they will but tell a story of heaven to any they meet and shew them the way and learn them Christ I will promise them to give them an acquittance for any other debt they owe mee If they will but procure mee the Brides prayers my reward is greater then my desert If God will honour them to win a soule his free grace shall have the honour of it for here is nothing but I have received from his Grace and to it I owe all that I am Madam were not my discourse of heaven and Christ my Epistle might be tedious but I am confident your Honour could be content to hear of your Bridegroome all the day long The Lord grant your Honour yet more sweetnesse in his enjoyments and fill you yet more full of his grace till you shall come out of the wildernesse of mortality leaning upon your beloved into the pleasant Paradise of Glory which is and shall be Madam the prayer of Your Honours obliged Chaplain Iohn Collins THE SPOUSES HIDDEN GLORY SOLOMONS SONG Chap. 8. vers 5. Who is this that commeth out of the Wildernesse leaning upon her beloved THis Booke is called the Song of Songs Canticum Canticorum that is Canticum Excellentissimum the most excellent Song so Vatablus and Estius Quâ—a sermocinationem continet Christi sponsi Ecclesiae sponsae Estius gives the reason because it contains a discourse betwixt Christ the Bridegroome and his Church the Bride The Song of Songs as a note of Eminency thinks hee Mr Brightman will have it as well Nota distinctionis quam Eminentiae a note of distinction as of eminency Canticum excellentius omnibus quae Solomon composuit A Song more excellent then all those which Solomon made The Song that sounded sweetest to Solomons penitent heart But truly well may that be called the Song of Songs where every straine is breathed by the Spirit of the most High whose pen man was Sonne and Heir to the sweet Singer of Israel and had the most wise understanding heart that ever blest a creature whose every note is a note of Free grace and every close a close with Christ an union with him who is the head of his Church Finally where every line breaths the perfume of the Rose of Sharon and is beautified with the colour of the Lilly of the Valleys It is a Song of Love sung in parts by the Sonne of his fathers Love The Lord Christ and the wife of his bosome The Church in generall and every beleeving soule in particular It beginâ— with Love Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then wine Osculum est Symbolum amoris And it ends with love Make hast my beloved and come away The fountain from whence it ariseth is a spring of love and the sea into which it falls is an Ocean of love where the soule that enters is swallowed up of love and drowned in sweetnesse The whole streame of the booke is a streame of love running betwixt two pretious banks Iesus Christ and the beleeving soule Sometimes it runnes an higher sometimes a lower water it is alwayes some though the Flood-gates be not alwayes open The two lovers spend their song in feasting themselves with each others beauties One while the Bridegroome is courting his Bride with ravishing strains of grace another while she is emptying her soule into her beloveds bosome The whole song is but a sweet enterchange of delightfull expressions while both seeme to be ravished with each others mutuall embraces I shall not study the coherence of the Text it being a straine of the Song that stands in small dependency to the other The spouse had now her bridegroome by the hand it was her turne to poure her love into her beloveds bosome from the 10. verse of the former chapter My text seemeth to be a parenthesis standing in small relation to the antecedent or subsequent words but seemes to be rhe voice of some third person viewing this blessed pair sweetly embracing one another and the beloved following her love through most rugged places and wildernesse wayes in those wayes leaning upon Christ either in admiration of Christs condiscention that he would please through wildernesses to lead his beloved or in admiration of the spouse so worthlesse a creature that she should leane or of her beauty by the reflâ—xion of her beloveds countenance or of her constancy that the briaâ—s and thorns of the wildernesse could not separate her beloved and her Quos Deus conjunxit c. cries out Quae est illa quae ascendit ex deserto What manner of creature is this that she should leane or what so glorious creature is this that leans What manner of love is this that makes her follow her Beloved through such uncoth rugged dangerous wayes as these Learned â—remellius would have these words to bee no Parenthesis at all but the continued speech of the Church and sayes
of the soule and their naturall Actions was the grace of God understood by the Apostle Yet here is no leaning upon our Beloved Afterwards he would maintaine * Si quaeratur an ex suis Naturalibus viribus anima aliquid afferat ad suam conversionem vel renovationem vel aliquam facultatem vel actionem quae vel partialis causa vel quocunque alio modo appelletur vere respondetur quod habet se mere passive Chemnit in loc de l. b. A bit 4. That the grace of God was necessary for sins past but it was in the power of mans free-will to avoid or commit sins for the time to come and to resist rebellious corruptions 5. After this he would maintaine That some men indeed were weake and must do all by the grace of God others that were stronger might act good by their owne will But still only some Spouses leane Lastly he would maintaine and the Arminiams still from him * Quae de gratia dei praveni nte praeparante operante traduntur hunc habent sensum quod non nostrae partes priores sunt in conversione sed quod deus per afflatum divinum praeveniat post hunc autem motum voluntatis divinae factum voluntas humona non habet se merè passivè sed mota adjuta espiritu sancto non repugnat sed assentitur Ib. That grace did indeed helpe a good worke but it had its first motion from our wils or at least might have and the will had a negative voice and might resist and crosse grace which did not worke irresistably in the soule to force the soule to him a Cassianus Monachus Pelagis Doctrinam amplexus est Faustus Hormisda Ben. I would not rake up these graves did not these ghosts walke in these our dayes when every grave of Heresie is unbowelled and no one takes care to throw the dirt upon them againe Nay and the Papists having beene tainted with this Leven the Sententiaries now tell us b Hominis est preparare cor Aquin. in Sum. Theol. Aquiescere assentiri est nostrúm That a man without grace meerly by the strength of his free will may avoid any mortall sinne and prepare himselfe for Gods free grace and fulfill the Commandements of God Quoad substantiam actus for the substance of the Act. c Quibus de coÌ„gruo mereatur gratiam gratum facientem Scotus And another more impudently maintains That a man without any grace of God by the meere strength of nature may doe workes morally good yea even such as God shall be bound to concur with and give his speciall grace for Even thus going back from their owne great Rabbies one of which was pleased to confesse d Homo sinegratiâ Dei non potest non peccare mortaliter venialiter Lomb. That a man without the grace of God could not but sinne both mortally and venially What is become here of the Beloveds Leaning But no more of these onely if you heare such Doctrines as you may heare any thing in these dayes beleeve them not Doth God move the will attending him in duties first secondly when the will is thus moved doth it then come 5. Spiritus Sanctus pravenit movet impellit voluntatem in conversione non â—tiosam sed attendentem verbo Chemnit Vel per speculationem somniorum vel per simulationem orationis illabi efficaciam Spiritus Saâ—cti Vide D. Featly Dippers Dipâ— when it is drawne doth it runne Then this reproves the Enthusiasts of old the Anabaptists Antinâ—mians Seekers of our dayes that hold first there is no need of duties The Enthusiasts of old affirmed That for the receiving of the Spirit of Promise and saving grace the Spirit of God was either infused to them in a dreame Vel per simulationem orationis Ay and the motions of the Spirit were as sensible in their flesh as the beating of the pulse so blasphemous were they growne and thence they would lye and gape for Revelations and so indeed they may have a suggestion from the Devill but scarce a Revelation from God Oh! How in these dayes are mentainted with these lazie Opinions slighting duties vilifying Sabbaths neglecting ordinances that if poore people would truely now give account of their growth in grace and of their learning godlinesse many of them might truly As the child that ye have heard a story in the learning of its primer boasted to the fatheâ— that it had learned past Grace Is not this the miserable learning of our dayes that men are growne past grace past Prayer past Ordinances past all duties 6. Again what you have heard that after the soule is drawn then it comes may shew us the falsenesse of another Doctrine of Enthusiasme too briefe even in these dayes also that the soule is meerly passive even after the worke of conversion also and is even then a meere stone Draw me saith the Spouse and then See the Booke set out from the Ministers of New-England of the hereticks c. Post conversionem concurrit voluntas non tamen quasi suis viriâ—us adjuvet spirituales actiones Semper addendum est non esse plenam libertatem in sancto renato sed virtutem in infirmitate perfici Chemnit Intelligant si filij Dei sint spiritu Dei se agi ut quod agendum est agant cum egerint illi a quo aguntur gratias aganâ— Aguntur enim ut agant non ut ipsi nihil agant Aug. I will run after thee Indeed after our conversion the will is but in part sanctified and the Image of God in us will want of his first integrity after it is renewed but Christs strength is perfected in our weakenesse we must understand if we be the children of God that God hath therefore wrought in us that we might also worke something and when we have wrought it give thankes to God who hath made us to worke for God hath wrought in us that we might worke not that we should be idle Thus I have laboured to you to divide the Truth from Errour Now you have heard of the leaven of these Pharisees take heed of it In the next place what you have heard that the soule that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ leanes upon a new Beloved not upon her old beloveds may serve to reprove those that would faine plead a title to Christ and have a portion in Christ but they will not take Christ alone two sorts there are of these The one cannot leave their old beloveds and the other cannot trust this Beloved O the wicked man would have his portion in Christ if he might but have his lusts too his pleasures his profiâ— but to take Christ Christ alone ô this is such a hard saying that they cannot beare by any meanes If Christ and his lusts would lye both in one bed Christ at the feet and his lusts at the head then Christ should be