the Lord made me to understand by his hand upon me in writing If you would know what that was v. 12 13. The Pattern of all that he had by the Spirit of the Courts of the House of the Lord and of all the Chambers round about of the Treasuries of the House of God and of the Treasuries of the dedicate things also for the courses of the Priests and Levites and for all the work of the Service of the House of the Lord Texts of Scripture which they are not aware of who bring in David as an instance of a Prince who added new Acts or Modes or Rites and Ceremonies in the Worship of God David ordered no more than the Lord had made him to understand in writing by his Spirit and by his hand upon him One would think that mens common reason should judge it safest to keep to the Divine Rule and that it should be the easiest thing But so vain hath man been in all Ages that you shall find they could never content themselves with that Rule but as if they had had a mind to pull down the Vengeance of God upon them they were continually devising new waies and methods after the example of other Nations and copying out their Idolatries and Superstitions The Jews must make a golden Calf in imitation of the Egyptians then they fall in with the Idols of the Moabites Micah must have an Image Jeroboam must set up Calves at Dan and Bethel In short this was the constant vanity of the Jews to all reasonable mens just admiration Christ left us a perfect Rule for Worship under the New Testament But how soon was the Primitive Church in matter of Worship turned aside from the simplicity of the Gospel It kept Doctrine in good degrees of Purity for five hundred years after Christ but the Purity of Worship was abated in many places within less than three hundred years and every Age still grew worse and worse till the Pope got into the Saddle and then that Pope was no body who could not think upon one trifle or other to be added to the Rituals of Worship Till the Popish Worship came up to be what it is at this day a mixture of Paganish Jewish and Christian Rites And it is a very hard thing for any who readeth the Gospel and observeth Christ's Rules and the Apostles Practice and Rules for Worship and Ordinances to find any thing amongst them which hath upon it Christ and the Apostles Stamp and Impression 8. In all times this hath been a temptation to sincere Professors and many both Ministers and People individual Believers and Churches to deviate from the Divine Rule Either the Commands of Superiours have prevailed as in Jeroboam's time it is laid to the charge of the Israelites Hos 5. 11. That they willingly followed the Commandment It is like some not very willingly neither but the more of their will was in it the greater the guilt was and they are chiefly blamed so Micah 6. 16. The Statutes of Omri are kept Or else the Example of their Leaders in Church or State have had the force of a Law upon them Or the gaudry or specious pretences made for things introduced have had a force upon them Many things having as the Apostle saith a shew of Wisdom and Will worship and a neglecting of the body 8. And lastly When these things have happened they have been the blackness and pollution of those Souls and those Churches that have been so far prevailed upon Black and white in this case must be determined and adjudged from a strict adherence to or a deviation from the Divine Rule Those that are brought over to such compliances have discoloured themselves more or less according to the degree wherein they have offended They have kept others Vineyards but their own they have not kept The trust which their Lord and Master committed to them as to the Ordinances of Worship they have not kept 1. These things bring a blackness and unloveliness upon the Soul or upon a Church in the Eyes of God and of Jesus Christ He may not presently give them a Bill of Divorce and say unto them they are not his People but he looks upon them with an ill Eye as a speckled Bird Jer. 12. 9. Mine Inheritance saith God is become unto me as a speckled Bird they kept something of Divine impressions and institutions but they were speckled they had some colours fetched from the Moabites and Ammonites and Philistins c. It is his will that those who worship him should worship him according to his will in Spirit and in Truth such the Father seeketh to worship him now these things spoil the truth of Divine Worship which must be measured from a Divine Institution And they spoil the spirituality of it reducing Carnal Ordinances and setting them up instead of the Spiritual Worship of God Such indeed the Jews had for a time as you read Heb. 9. 10. but they were to hold no longer than until the time of Reformation The Gospel-worship was to be exclusive not only of Ordinances that were typical prefiguring a better and most excellent Sacrifice and Service which were fulfilled the Antitypes being come but it was also exclusive of Carnal Ordinances such as were pleasing and gratifying to the flesh and outward man The Worship of God according to Christ's Institution was to be more reasonable plain and spiritual 2. Nay Errours in the matters of the Worship of God do not only defile and make the Soul guilty but exceeding guilty Errours of Worship look like controulments of the Divine Wisdom who sent his Son and his Apostles to establish a Rule of Worship These additaments speak the Establisht Rule imperfect for otherwise they must be idle and superfluous nothing of which nature is to be admitted in so grave and sacred an action The Assertion of the Divine Rule as not perfect in the matter of Worship reflecteth upon our Saviour either as not knowing what it is that in worship would be most acceptable to his Father or as not faithful in the House of God Or finally as carelesly leaving things of that nature to the wills and fancies of men as whose wildness even from the beginning of the world to that time had shewed it self in nothing more But besides how can we better measure the greatness of any guilt than by the Revelations of God's will and wrath against it and in reference to it If you observe the Old Testament throughout from the time of the Israelites coming out of Egypt to their coming out of Babylon you fhall find the will of God fully revealed against no one sin or kind of sin like this of corruption and faileurs in the matter of his Worship so as such Souls must needs be black in the Eyes of Christ because guilty and that not in an ordinary degree 2. Hence also these things have made them black in the Eyes of the sincerer part of Christians Thus
every good Christian what Soul is there that knoweth any thing of God or of the nature and end of Ordinances that can be satisfied with meer reading of a Chapter of hearing of a Sermon without finding his heart at all affected with what he reads or hears any operation of it at all upon his heart and conscience Formalists indeed who think that God is pleased with noises and empty sounds and with meer bodily labour which profiteth nothing may be satisfied with going to Church and hearing a discourse from a Pulpit and that too of small or no tendency to do good to a Soul but it is impossible that a conscientious Christian that looks upon Ordinances as opportunities under a Divine appointment wherein God hath promised to meet the Souls of people and bless them wherein God hath appointed to come and to speak unto peoples Souls should be satisfied with the meer external action or homage but he must thirst after that blessing which God hath promised to his people when he meets them in places or duties wherein he hath recorded his Name to dwell But I shall shew you further how highly reasonable this is upon this Hypothesis That there is such an inward communion of God with his People in his Institutions One reason may be because a meer outward Communion with God is not distinguishing mercy and this is known to every Soul who knoweth any thing of God Pariter adeunt pariter audiunt said Augustine Hypocrites as well Saints go to Church hear Sermons read Chapters This is a favour God gives to all within the pale of his Church which is a field hath Tares in it as well as Wheat a Drag-net whose swallow hath in it good Fish as well as bad Every Hypocrite may yield God the homage of his Eye and Ear and some thoughts I shewed you before that it is of the nature of a Child of God to thirst after distinguishing mercies This is that which such Souls long after to have some tokens of good from God which may speak God's loving-kindness to them They are awakened to a sense of their lost condition by nature and to a fense of Eternity and they know nothing but the Adoption of Sons nothing but an Union with Christ can do their Souls any good with reference to their greatest wants Besides such Souls as they thirst after what is best suited to their Souls greatest wants so they have learned to value the Love and Favour of God above all earthly things They know that all within the pale of the Church are not in the favour of God many are called and few are chosen Strait is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth to eternal life and few there be that find it Many shall seek to enter and shall not enter Secondly A meer external Communion with God is upon the point no Communion with him It is indeed improperly called a Communion with him God saith our Saviour is a Spirit and from thence a Christian concludeth that those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth I told you before That in all Communion there must be a mutual communication In our Communion with God God communicateth something of himself to the Soul and the Soul must communicate it self in some degrees unto God Now in our meer external Communion with God in the hearing of his Word or reading of it what doth God communicate to us nothing but the revelation of his Will to our exteriour senses or common sense and understanding and the last but in an imperfect degree What doth man communicate of himself to God he lends him his Eye to gather up the Letters of a Book to present them to his understanding he lends him his Ear to hear sounds which may carry some notions of God to the understanding he lends him a little bodily presence and labour to do for a little time what he hath commanded him to do but all this while the man communicateth not his heart and soul his will and affections to God nor doth God communicate any thing of his power and goodness unto the Soul So that if we consider God as a Spirit and who requireth of us the homage of the Soul and inward man it is upon the point no fellowship and communion with God at all Thirdly A meer external fellowship and communion with God in his Word if it may be so called wants those two adjuncts which most allure and inflame the Soul with desires they are pleasure and profit There is no true pleasure in it no true profit and advantage to a Soul arising from it I noted to you before that one reason of the Soul's thirst after communion with God in his Word is the pleasure and sweetness which every pious Soul findeth in it David saith the Word was sweeter to his tast than the Honey and the Honey-comb and he saith That one day in the Lord's Courts is better than a thousand elsewhere But let us a little wistly consider wherein the sweetness of the Word lieth what maketh the Bible to be sweeter than another Book or a Sermon to be a more pleasant discourse than any other The sweetness cannot lie in the gratifying of our exteriour senfes or of our fancy much reading is a weariness to the flesh so is much hearing much study The sweetness of the Word of God and discourses out of it lies in the fittedness of the revelations there and of such discourses to the distresses and spiritual necessities of the Soul and the insight the Word gives us into the great things of God the great Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Now no pleasure no delight no sweetness of this nature ariseth to or in any Soul from a meer external communion with God in it Hence it is that carnal unregenerate men had rather spend four or five hours at a Play or a Musick-meeting or Ball than one at a Sermon they find no sweetness no pleasure at all in the Word The Preacher indeed may be as one that hath the voice of a pleasant lovely Song and have some witty sentences this may please them or if they be persons that are prophane and hate all Religion and Godliness he may use his wit in some jeers and squibs at Religion and this may tickle their lusts a little but a discourse out of Scripture tending to the true ends of Preaching informing the Judgment in the Doctrines of Faith or persuading the practice of Godliness are the most unpleasant sounds in the world to such mens Ears There is no Soul breathing that takes or can take any pleasure from or find any sweetness in reading or hearing that experienceth no inward communion with God in the action or at least that desires none 2. A second great Attractive and mover of our desires is profit and advantage and in this case it must be the profit and advantage of our Souls for they are actions from which no worldly profit and
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
our thoughts upon God admiring him c. But that which the Scripture calleth Worship most ordinarily is some external acts testifying that inward homage and submission of the heart 3. These acts are either such as the Light of Nature directeth and the Law of Nature obligeth us unto or such as God hath prescribed us in his Word Worship being in the general nature of it nothing but an external homage done to God in testification of the inward and more secret homage and subjection of our Soul It is the most reasonable thing imaginable that God should prescribe it this he hath done as the God of Nature imprinting a Law in our hearts obliging us to call upon him for good things we want and to praise him for good things received partly in his holy Writ There is no natural Worship but is also instituted but there is much instituted Worship which the Light of Nature doth not shew nor the Law of Nature oblige us to such as Reading the Scriptures hearing the Word Preached communicating in the holy Sacraments 4. External acts of Worship that depend meerly upon Institution must be either instituted by Christ or by our own wills or the wills of others Col. 2. 23. there is a Will-worship mentioned 5. All true Divine Worship must have a Divine Institution Whatsoever is pretended as an immediate act of homage to the Divine Being and is not directed by Nature and directed also and confirmed and regulated by the Revelation of the Divine Will in the Word of God is what we call False Worship or Will-Worship As the first Commandment directeth our homage to God as the alone true Object so the second directeth the manner of it to be according to his revealed Will for certainly that Commandment must not be interpreted as meerly prohibiting the Worship of God by or before a graven Image or the similitude of a thing on purpose set before us either as representative of the Divine Being or as a Medium by which we worship God but as prohibiting all other Modes Acts and Methods which have no more of a Divine Institution than that hath only that one instance is given and under it the other included So that a graven Image is but species pro genere and those that worship God before a painted Image or any other way which God hath not prescribed are also transgressors of that second Commandment Hence it is observable that God directed the Jews not only every Act by which an homage was paid to him but also every Rite and Ceremony and it was guilt enough for the Jews in his Worship to do that which he commanded them not Uzziah must not offer Incense nor Saul Sacrifice nor Nadab and Abihu make use of ordinary fire nor Uzzah carry the Ark upon a Cart nor touch it The same we conceive to be the will of God in the New Testament God being a Spirit and to be worshipped by us in Spirit and in Truth as well as by the Jews and it seemeth the most reasonable thing imaginable 1. Considering that our Worship in its self is a pitiful thing infinitely disproportioned to the perfection and excellency of God so as it deriveth all its value from the Divine Institution 2. And being an homage done to God it is most reasonable that God himself should direct what he will accept 3. Nor is it to be imagined had God left man in the case to his own conduct and direction how vain and various man would have been 4. Besides it is not reasonable to think that the holy Scriptures should be a less perfect Rule in matters of Worship than it is in matters of Doctrine or that concern our ordinary course of conversation or that acts of Worship as to which it appeareth in all the Scripture that God had a special jealousie and in which we are said to draw nigh to God should be none of those good works as to which the holy Scriptures are sufficient to furnish every good man 6. Divine Worship being an humane act and that of the most noble nature as it must have such circumstances as are necessary to all humane acts such are Time and Place so it is reasonable that it should have such circumstances as suit such acts so as they may be performed in such manner as the Light of Nature and common guise and custom of Countries shall not determine sordid filthy or indecent and such as may render it useful and more profitable and advantageous and answering to their ends which circumstances being necessary to the acts as humane acts or at least plainly expedient to avoid the indecent and sordid performance of the acts or for the more profit and advantage of the acts and such as in regard of the variety of Countries the Customs and Usages of them c. could not be determined by the Word of God must be determined by the Governours of Churches Nations or Kingdoms but still with respect to the general ends of the action But for any things used in the Worship of God neither directed by Nature nor yet by holy Writ and appropriated to the Worship of God as a Religious act out of a respect to the excellency of the Divine Being and as an homage to it I cannot see how they can be lawful they must have something of the nature of Worship in them and having so they ought to have a Divine Institution without which I cannot see how they should avoid the guilt of Idolatry or Superstition which differ thus If the faileur respect the Object either terminatively where the creature is made the term and ultimate Object as in Ahab's Idolatry and the Papists Adoration of the Bread in the Eucharist or mediately as in Jeroboam's case and the Jews relating to the golden Calf or Micab's all which worshipped the true God though by an Image and using an Image as a mean of their Worship as the Papists now do in their Veneration of their Images This is Idolatry called in Scripture Whoredom spiritual Whoredom and as Adultery in marriage so this is the highest sin can be committed in Worship and which God hath more severely punished at all times than any other sins People have been guilty of If the faileur respect the Acts or the manner if it be only internal it is Hypocrisie if in the external Acts or Manner it is Superstition such are the Papists Salt Oil Cream Spittle superadded to the Institution for Baptism and an hundred other Rites and Ceremonies used in all parts of their Worship 7. It is very observable that from the beginning of the Church there hath been a strange Itch in men to be adding and mixing their own fancies inventions and Will-worship with the true Worship of God God gave unto Moses the particular Rule and Law of his Worship he communicated it to the People David added to it but no more than God by his Spirit directed as appeareth 1 Chron. 28. 19. All this said David
guilt of sin and cries out if I pine away in my iniquities how can I then live And faints at the apprehension of the wrath of God due to it for every single sin and much more for the numberless number of the sins which it hath committed It smells that of the Prophet Isa Ch. 53. v. 5 6. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities the Chastisement of our peace lay upon him and with his stripes we are healed v. 10. His Soul was made an offering for sin Or that of the Apostle Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us and this refresheth it I have deserved to dye saith the Soul but Christ hath died for me I have deserved to tread the wine press of my Fathers wrath but he hath trode the winepress of his Fathers wrath alone I was born a slave to lusts and corruptions but Christ by dying hath made me free Ah! what a bundle of Myrrh is a crucified Christ to the Soul Hence it smells Spiritual life even from his death for we have Remission of sins through his blood It smells Spiritual peace Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that died Ro. 8. 38. It smells an access unto God The holy of holies being Sprinkled with his blood and Heaven itself by it Sanctified and made accessible It smells Spiritual liberty For the blood of Christ saith the Apostle purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God It smells Spiritual strength For through the cross of Christ saith the Apostle my heart is crucified to the World Thus you see that in this action or suffering rather Christ is to the Soul a bundle of Myrrh 4. Look upon Christ as rising up from the dead He is a bundle of Myrrh there too the Soul from hence again smells Spiritual life Rom. 4. 25. He rose again for our justification Spiritual peace Rom. 8. 38. It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Spiritual strength and quickening Rom. 6. 4. 5. We shall rise with him to newness of life Col. 3. 1. If you be risen with Christ seek the things that are above It smells life from the dead This the Apostle proves 1 Cor. 15 Rom. 8. 11. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies Nay it smells Eternal life from hence Joh. 14. 19. Because I live you shall live also 5. Look upon Christ as the men of Galilee Acts 1. 11. Ascending up to Heaven Thus he is also a bundle of Myrrh he lives and from hence Job smelt that he should see him with his Eyes the Angels that stood to wait upon his ascension told the men of Galilee so much that as they had seen him ascend so they should see him coming again Hence the believing Soul smells that he shall ascend too for where Christ is there he must be The body is there the Eagles shall flee to it one day He is lifted up and every believer shall be drawn after him Our flesh and blood shall inherit the Kingdom of God For 't is in part there already Heaven is the place whither our forerunner is entred Heaven was an open City before the fall Adam and all his Posterity might have entred presently upon the fall it's gates were lockt up the flaming sword of divine Vengeance kept it but the Captain of our Salvation hath now entred and he keeps the gates from shutting any more till every believer be come In 6. Look upon Christ as sitting one the right hand of the Majesty on high So he is a bundle of Myrrh too Is it so saith the Soul Then he hath favour with God and power with God and what need I any more then for my God my Saviour he in whom I have believed to be in favour with the King of Kings and to have power with the Almighty Nay saith the Soul then I am half in Heaven For Eph. 2. 6. We sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Christ and I are one if he sits there I sit there too For he is flesh of my flesh 7. Lastly look upon Christ as interceding for us Rom. 8. Heb. 7. He is not there Idle his work is to plead for us to sollicit our business to act our part to do our work And thus he is a bundle of Myrrh to every believing Soul When the poor Soul sinks in the thoughts of its sins renewing after justification Christ is a bundle of Myrrh to it 1 Joh. 2 1. If we sin we have an advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous When the Soul again sinks at the thoughts of its imperfect duties to think that it cannot do a duty but with so many faults that it may fear the wrath of God for it What a bundle of Myrrh it is to the Soul to think well Christ is in Heaven and he will pick out every fault out of this Prayer this duty c. And so present it in the golden censer Incensed with his merits Thus now I have shewed you how Christ is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh Considered as to his actions as our Redeemer It remains further to shew you that he is so also as to his Spiritual influeuces And Lastly in his Gospel institutions and Ordinances And then I shall come to the Application Sermon LIV. Canticles 1. 13. A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved unto me he shall lie all night betwixt my Breasts I Proceed in opening the bundle or bag or box of Myrrh which makes my Text give a fragrant smell I have shewed that it is Christ who is thus resembled and have propounded to shew you the aptness of the comparison in five things I am yet upon the 4th He is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh for sweetness I proposed to open this in three particulars shewing you that Christ is so 1. In his mediatory actions 2. In his Spiritual influences 3. In his Gospel Institutions and Ordinances I have done with the first and now proceed to the second To shew you the sweetness of Christ to the believing Soul 2. In his Spiritual influences When he ascended upon high saith the Apostle Eph. 4. he gave gifts unto men he gave gifts to his Church his Ordinances Of those the Apostle speaks but he gives other gifts likewise gifts even to the Rebellious Psal 68. All these are summed up under one head The gift of the Spirit This is that which he calls the promise of the Father He was the promise of the Father of old Ezek. 36. 27. It was his promise John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comforter and he shall abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth He is sent in Christs name 26. v. he is called the Spirit of Christ hence the
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
and Christ himself speaking to me him of whom God hath said This is my well beloved Son hear ye him For though it be a man that speaketh yet it is a man sent of God cloathed with the Authority of Jesus Christ and speaking to me his Words and in his Name nor am I to regard any thing I hear but what agreeth with what he hath spoken or his holy Prophets and Apostles who were immediately inspired by him The setting right of a Persons first end design and intention gives a mighty conduct to his Actions And as I before said it is very unreasonable to expect Gods presence and Blessing with and upon us where the Heart is not set right with reference to its Intention and Design It is true as to the first Grace God is found of those that seek him not and of those who do not enquire after him No Soul would ever be converted and brought home to God if God did not meet it in his Word before it had thus rightly fixed its design and intention in coming to hear the word of God but what God may do and sometimes doth out of his abounding and preventing Grace is one thing what a Soul may expect from God upon the account of any promise is another thing the Archer may possibly hit the mark though he hath never by his Eye levelled his Arrow at it but he cannot promise himself that good hap No Soul that setteth not his heart aright to seek God in any Ordinance particularly this of hearing his word who doth not before he go set his Face towards Jerusalem set this as a mark in his Eye as the thing which he proposeth to himself Secondly It doth not only comprehend the end of Intention and Design but also the manner and certainly none can pretend to hear the word as the word of God but he must go to it without any levity and with all manner of Seriousness and composure of Spirit No Reverence and Submission of Spirit can be imagined too much for the great Majesty of Heaven We ought not to go to hear the word as if we were going to hear an Oration much less as if we were going to a Play Thirdly We cannot be thought to hear it as the word of God without some previous lookings up to God for a Blessing upon it We go for the Teachings of the Spirit Our Saviour tells us Luk. 11. 14. He gives his holy Spirit to them that ask him Christ first begg'd the Spirit for us John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter That comforting Spirit is the Teaching Spirit v. 26. The Comforter which the Father shall send in my Name shall teach you all things As Christ at first prayed to the Father to send the Comforter the Spirit that should teach us all things So he expecteth that we should pray for him for our selves The holy Spirit is given to those that ask him this is a piece of our Houshold Preparation Attend particularly to those Impulses which at some times thou mayest have to hear A Christian shall sometimes find some particular impulses upon him to hear I would not be hear I would not be here mistaken I know there is a dangerous Opinion imbibed and promoved by some Enthusiasts that Christians should never go to perform a Duty whether praying or hearing but upon some particular Impulse or Motion I call this a dangerous Principle because it is the first step to casting off all Duties and Ordinances But yet let no Christian neglect such special Impulses Impulses to Actions that are contrary to our Duty in the revealed Will of God ought to be rejected contemned and abhorred they must come from the boilings of corruption in our own hearts or from the evil Spirit Impulses to Actions which are not expresly commanded nor yet forbidden must be considered and we ought to obey or not obey them as Circumstances pro hic nunc at this or that time may determine it lawful or not lawful expedient or not expedient with Reference to the General rules which God in his word hath given us to guide all our Actions by Impulses to the Performance of our Duty under due Circumstances ought never to be neglected It may be well presumed that God hath something to say to the Soul in particular at such a time when he gives it a special item and monition to go to hear Thirdly be sure thou goest to hear with an humble Heart and with as much of a poor broken and contrite Spirit as thou canst There is a Promise Psal 25. 9. The humble he will teach and another Isa 57. v. 15. Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity and whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the hearts of the contrite ones And Isa 66. v. 2. To the man will I look even to him that is of a poor and contrite Spirit and that trembleth at my word God sendeth the proud Soul empty away take heed of going to hear with a proud Heart self-opinionated as to Knowledge or self-conceited God teacheth the humble dwelleth with the humble looketh upon the humble The Rain that dasheth off and runneth down the Mountains resteth in the Valleys the Instructions Reproofs Convictions of the word which fall upon Men of proud and high Conceits and Opinions of themselves rest and are drunk in by low and humble Souls The broken and contrite Heart is like the plowed ground which is in itself more apt to receive and drink in the word than that ground where the surface is not at all broken but there is besides particular Promises made to Broken Hearts The word you know is compared to Seed in the Parable of the Sower Matth. 13. and in several other Texts the Husbandman useth not to sow his Seed in the whole but in the broken ground Fourthly Be sure you go to hear with unprejudised Hearts willing and desirous to learn Prejudice naturally barreth the Ear to Instruction Ahab's prejudice against Micajah stopt his Ears against the word of the Lord to him and proved his fatal Ruine and Destruction I should never advise Christians to sit under the Ministry of any person they are prejudised against it much contributeth to a prejudice against the word of the Lord spoken by them if therefore in that case I could not remove my Prejudice I would chuse another Preacher but I further added that you should go with Hearts willing and desirous to know the Will of God It is the chapt thirsty ground that most drinks in the Rain and is made most fruitful by it it is the Soul that hungers and thirsteth after the word that profiteth by it and hath a communion with God in it though the Word be Gods and he breatheth upon the Soul according to his own
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
wants but it deriveth from Christ Good things suited to the more external wants of our Body derive from God as the great preserver of man and flow from that common providence of his which dayly worketh in the upholding and preservation of created Beings but good things for our Souls derive from Christ as Mediator and as they are purchased by his blood so they are dispensed out by his Spirit This now can appear to a Soul from no other light but that of Revelation study therefore the holy Scriptures meditate therein night and day they testify all this concerning Christ A full persuasion of these two things 1. That we have immortal Souls ordained to an eternity either of happiness or misery 2. That nothing but the love of Christ can furnish them with those good things which are proper and necessary for them with respect to their Eternal Happiness are enough to convince Men and Women that the loves of Christ are as much better than Wine and to be preferred to it as the Soul is better than the Body and the things suited to its wants better than those things which are only suited to the wants of the outward man But still I say and every days experience maketh it good Non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris you shall not persuade Men and Women tho you say enough to persuade them though you shut up their mouths and they having nothing to say such a power hath lust in the heart of man into such a debauchery is the nature of man degenerated Admitting men to believe that they have immortal Souls and that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God there is nothing in nature hath a fuller evidence than this truth that the loves of Christ are preferrible to all things in the world and a man cannot act like a reasonable creature in preferring any thing unto them yet who believes it who lives up to this demonstration It is God must persuade the Soul of this and till the Soul hath this written and ingraven upon it by the finger of his Spirit it will never so Judge Lastly therefore Pray mightily that God would open your Ears to see this and persuade your Souls of the truth of it for till he doth it in vain are mens persuasions To move you to it consider 1. This will bear some proportion to the love of Christ to mankind Christ loved us more than these more than all the Kingdoms and pleasures and profits and honours of the world yea more than his own life yea he preferred us to the Angels the fallen Angels for he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of man 2. This will speak the Soul to be a wise and understanding Soul Certain it is as I have already shewed you that the loves of Christ are good before Wine The wisdom of a Soul lyeth much in a right discerning betwixt good and evil and betwixt that which is good and that which is more good or better The excellency of a Soul lyeth in its conformity to God he is an Atheist who owneth not God to be the first Being and to be of all Beings the most excellent and perfect Being So as necessarily that Soul that comes nearest in conformity to God must be the most excellent Soul now that Soul which acteth most up to the principles of improved and pure reason and to the rule of that holy Writ which we all confess to be the revealed Will of God and liveth most up to the Divine Pattern doing what God doth that must needs be the most wise excellent understanding Soul Now will not a little reason serve to convince us that Christ is the most excelling Object and therefore to be preferred to all sublunary enjoyments Doth not the Scripture represent him to us as altogether desires as the chiefest of ten thousand as the well beloved of the Father in whom he is well pleased as he whom we ought to love with all our heart all our Soul all our Strength Doth not the Father the Heavenly Father love him above all other objects To which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day I have begotten thee and again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son He was brought up with the Father and daily his delight rejoycing alwaies before him 3. This will speak an heavenly sublimated Soul purged from the dregs of sensuality and from an earthly mind a Soul risen with Christ and seeking the things which are above Col. 3. 1. The preference of Wine any sensual satisfactions or any sensible enjoyments to the loves of Christ speaks a dirty Soul that feedeth upon carrion and can be filled with wind Lastly You have heard what an argument this will supply a Soul with in all its addresses and applications to God for any grace or favour no argument can be more moving more prevailing with God none that layeth hold upon more promises or that toucheth God more as a tender Father O therefore labour for this frame of Spirit and give your Souls no rest until you find that they indeed do prefer the love of Christ before all other things in Heaven and Earth Secondly This notion calleth to all you who profess Godliness and to any thing of the Spirit of Adoption which teacheth to cry Abba Father to take heed of a Carnal mind an heart cleaving to any created comforts in excessive degrees so as for the enjoyment of them or any of them to run the hazard of the loves of Christ you will by it prejudice your souls in a great argument which you might use at the Throne of Grace There are amongst others three distempers of heart which those that would do much with God in Prayer must take heed of 1. A revengeful not forgiving frame of Spirit It is a dreadful Text Mat. 6. 15. But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you Our Saviour hath taught us to pray Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors 2. A doubting and unbelieving frame of Spirit He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him he that lifts up his hands unto God must lift up pure hands and that without doubting 3. Thirdly A Carnal heart cleaving to the world preferring the things of the world to the loves of Christ the good things of Grace Lastly Is this such an argument of force with God Let then such as can use it in truth make use of it I doubt not but I speak to many who can in truth say that they value the loves of Christ the tokens of his special and distinguishing love above all earthly contentments when you go to God plead this take unto you words and say Lord let me be made a partaker of thy special distinguishing love thou knowest that my Soul valueth it above mountains of Gold
Christ is so sweet to the Soul I answer 1. Because it signifieth him to be the fountain of the greatest spiritual good to us his name Messiah and Christ signify him to be separated and set apart of God for the accomplishment of the great business of our Salvation his name Emanuel signifies him to have Hypostatically united in one Person the Divine and Humane Nature that he might be a fit Mediator that he might die and merit salvation for us by dying his name Jesus signifies that he is a Saviour his name Shiloh speaketh him to be a Peace-maker his name of an Advocate signifies him to transact our business in Heaven for us his name of High Priest signifies him to have offered for us a propitiatory Sacrifice to have made an atonement for us to bless us to interceed for us the like I might say of his other names Now if the name of a friend who hath done some great kindness for us be oft-times sweet like an Oil poured forth unto us how much sweeter must be his name by whom we are blessed with all Spiritual blessings Secondly Because by his Name or in his name our greatest blessings are obtained How sweet must that name be to the begger upon the use of which all its wants are supplied Is salvation worth any thing There is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved but only the name of Jesus do our Souls want any thing Whatsoever you shall ask in my Name that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son John 14. 13. Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you ch 16. v. 23. Is the Soul trembling under the sense of its guilt doth horrour surprize it do the terrors of the Lord distract it a wounded Spirit who can bear by the discovery of the Lord Christs name to it in the Gospel promises in the mercy truth and faithfulness of Christ it is freed from these The discovery the least discovery of Christ to the troubled Soul is like the Sun beam to the weather beaten and be-wildered Traveller like the shadow to him whom the heat maketh faint like light to him that fitteth in darkness like life to him that fitteth in the shadow of death How sweet is the discovery of Christs truth in his promises the sealing of a promise to a poor doubting Soul Every Soul that hath experienced it will say It is like Oil poured forth I come to the application of this discourse Is the name of the Lord Jesus so exceeding sweet like an Oil poured forth Oh then what is Christ himself It is Origens application Si solo nomine Quid ejus faciet substantia How sweet is the Oil upon the Crown of the head when that which runs down to the skirts of the garment is so sweet Open all created boxes admit that all their sweet qualities would unite and conspire to make one compounded fragrant smell distill all the odoriferous herbs that the Earth bringeth forth mix all the sweet gums and odoriferous spices of Arabia and the whole Eastern part of the world let them all make one body and contribute all their delicious qualities to the composition of one Oil or Ointment to please the wanton sense of a Creature what would they all signify to one Christ Oh blessed Jesus thou that art altogether delights clear the Nostrils of vain Creatures stopt with their own lusts and the vanities of pitiful creature satisfactions and contentments that they may take the air of thy delicious names and follow thee in the savour of thy most precious Ointments Secondly Is the name of Christ in this life so exceeding sweet Oh what will the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven be When the Saints shall see him as he is when they shall be ever with the Lord beholding his face rejoycing in his presence when they shall be at his right hand where are and shall be Pleasures and fulness of Pleasures and that for evermore here we know in part and see in part and the greatest part of that we know of Christ amounteth not to the least part of what we do not know then the Saint shall see him face to face and know him as he is known by him Surely we should cry out with the Psalmist Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts Here we sit but under the shadow of the Apple tree yet it is with great delight and his fruit is pleasant unto our tast how sweet will it be to be within the arms of it If a Garden of Flowers or a Bed of Spices casteth aâ—sweet smell at a 1000 miles distance what will it do when we come near it O you to whom the name of Christ is as an Ointment poured forth follow the savour of it it will bring you to that place of delights where your Souls shall be ever satiated but never nauseated Thirdly Observe from hence the difference betwixt a natural carnal man and a spiritual man The name of Christ is published in all our parts of the world The Gospel is published that is Christs name saith Gencbrard upon my Text but the natural man discerneth no sweetness in it he can smell sweetness in a perfume but in the name of Christ he can smell nothing sweet Nay what is more unpleasing to a carnal heart than the name of Christ and there is reason for it for to him Christs name is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah his name is a Judge an Enemy c. In the second place what an argument is here to persuade those that hear it to labour for a discovery of Christs name to their Souls To persuade sick and fainting Souls to make application of Christs name to themselves To all to study Christs name more to wear it upon their hearts to meditate of it c. 1. To persuade those who know little or nothing of Christ as yet to get a knowledge of Christs name sweetness naturally enticeth the sense and attracts the Soul shall the incomparable sweetness of Christ draw no Souls unto him shall the air of Solomons name bring the Q of the South from the furthest parts of the Earth and shall Christs name draw never a Sinner invite never a Soul to come and tast and see how sweet how good the Lord is You that are enticed with the smell of a flower that lay out your mony for persumes of no value will you have no value for these sweet Ointments Alexander the great was said to have had such a rare temper of his body that it cast forth a natural sweetness I am sure there is an infinite a transcendent sweetness in the Lord Jesus O let the Virgins love him Men and Women that are in a state of Nature are in one sense Virgins not for purity but as not married to Christ O do you love Christ for the
be something of that mind but that the words are not draw me to thee but draw me after thee So that he thinks she rather desires the drawings of Grace that she might follow him in an holy conversation walking as she had him for an example The sum then of this petition considered as the language of the Church the collective Spouse is this Lord I have in my Bosom many that are indeed drawn to thee in an outward profession in that sense in which thou sayest When I am lifted up I will draw all men after me they are flocked like Doves to the Windows Oh let them yet be drawn more effectually to an hearty embracing of thee for none so comes to thee but he whom the Father draws Lord draw that part of my Members by thy efficacious grace Considered as the voice of a believer the sense is this Lord thou hast made me thine thou hast by thy mighty powerful work of thy Spirit drawn me to thee but I am weak and feeble and not able to follow thee in a course of holiness nor to watch with thee thou who at first hast put forth thy powerful effectual Grace in changing my heart in bringing me to thy self continue the same power of thy Grace commanding me to keep my heart close with thee so as I may never depart from thee I proceed to the next words We will run after thee The former word contained the Spouses Petition this her promise what wilt thou do O thou fairest if the Lord will bestow upon thee the daily influences of his drawing Grace she here answereth and preventeth that question saith she we will run after thee These words may also be conceived to have the force of an argument enforcing her Petition Lord If thou wilt draw me I will not hold back no We will run after thee Here is considerable 1. The Persons promising We where the change of the number is very considerable she had spoken before in the singular Number draw me here she promiseth in the plural We will run 2. The promise itself or thing promised Will run The answering of two questions will open these words 1. What is meant by running 2. Why she saith we will run when before she had only said draw me Qu. 1. What is here meant by Running what doth the Spouse promise under this term of running after Christ 1. The word in the Hebrew doth properly signify a bodily motion and you easily understand what it is to run it is more than to go and walk It is here by a metaphor applied to the Soul or indeed to the whole man for although some of the Hebrew Doctors and some others according to their different notion of the Spouse which I before hinted understand it of Abrahams bodily motion out of his Country or the Israelites motions out of Aegypt and Babylon or the Peoples going to the Temple in Solomons time to worship God yet their notions are doubtless much too low and not at all agreeing to that notion of the Spouse which we have fixed I do therefore fully agree with the most and the most eminent interpreters who acknowledge here a metaphor and that by running some motion of the mind is signified analogous to the motion of the body which we call running now what that is we must further enquire 2. Running doth not only signify motion but some strength in the body so moving The sick and feeble person can hardly stand or go much less run The person running may want some degrees of strength but he must have legs and some strength in his legs or he cannot run The Soul that runneth after Christ must first be possessed of some Spiritual strength The strength of the Soul is an effect of Christs drawing Behold saith the Prophet thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee First God calls then we run first he putteth strength into them and then they use the strength which he hath given them Isa 0. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength like the Eagle they shall run and not be weary first they shall renew their strength then they shall run 3. Thirdly Running importeth speed and celerity in motion Festinant em significat actionem is De Dieu his note on the Text. David saith I will run the way of thy Commandments Psal 119. 32. which he expoundeth v. 60. I made hast and delayed not to keep thy precepts Buxtorf in his Hebrew Lexicon noteth that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to run hastily comes from this Hebrew word and others fancy that the latine word Rota that signifies a Wheel hath its Original from this word also Delrio interpreteth it here by festinabimus we will make hast and indeed it is the obvious and ordinary notion of the word thus you know running is distinguished from those flower motions of creeping going walking c. Running argueth a quick and speedy motion the Soul having received from Christ the powerful influences of Divine Grace stands not still creeps not moveth not slowly but makes hast in the ways of God 4. Running argues a free and chearful motion The man that runs hath as we say good will in his way it implies a prompt inclination and readiness of mind Thus Forster an Hebrew Lexicographer notes a great cognation betwixt this word and two other Hebrew words the one of which signifieth to bring forth in plenty and abundance the other to be willing or have a good will to a thing Buxtorf also observeth its affinity to the latter Avendrius also observeth that it signifieth to move readily as the false Prophets ran Jer. 12. 5. Jer. 23. 21. I have not sent these Prophets and yet they ran as Gehazi ran for his bride 2 King 5. 20. Thus the believing Soul that is once drawn by the Spirit of Grace moves in the way of holiness not dragged on to duty by a Foreign Principle It is its meat and drink to do the Will of God It delighteth in the Law of God as to the inward man it was before unwilling but now it is made willing as it is said My People shall be a willing people in the day of my power Grace giveth wheels to the Soul and it oileth the wheels when given Buxtorf noteth that this word is used only to signifie the running of Men not of Beasts Men move not like Beasts rashly and giddily and meerly when they are whipped on or out of wantonness but men propose and know their end and move toward it out of a Principle of Reason and Affection The believing Soul knoweth its end and moveth towards it from a conduct of reason so it moveth speedily and freely after Christ 5. I find some Interpreters judging that the term likewise implyeth a promise of Perseverance There is one Text of Scripture which seemeth to advantage this
David saith before he was afflicted he went astray but his affliction had learned him to keep Gods Statutes Psal 119. But it is said of Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. In the time of his distress he trespassed more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz and I am sure the same is said of the body of Israelites Amos 4. 6 7 8 9 10 11. God followed them with judgment after judgment yet they returned not unto him Afflictions are good remembrancers to them who have learned their duty before but they must be some particular afflictions that give leisure for Instructions to be then first given or time for the digestion of them if they can be given I conclude in short whatever use God may sometimes make of Afflictions it is not the drawing by them which the Spouse here prays for Secondly There is a drawing by liberal distributions of mercies of common Providence Thus God saith Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with the Cords of a man with bands of love So Jer. 31. 3. With loving kindness have I drawn thee Love is of a drawing nature it is like the hook in the intrails of a Creature which draweth more forcibly than Cords fastened to the flesh and outward part But experience teacheth us that this is not a sufficient Cord to draw Sinners Souls to God God in his parable of the Vineyard Isaiah 5. repeats what he had done for the Israelites and concludes v. 4. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Yet when he looked it should bring forth Grapes it brought forth wild Grapes Oppression instead of Judgment and a cry instead of righteousness How many thousands are there in the world that are incompassed with Mercies of this nature they have healthy bodies pleasing relations full barns plentiful estates they want nothing yet are they Enemies to God and to the Cross of Christ nor do the People of God ordinarily run most after or walk most close with God when they most abound with the good things of this life Gods People Jer. 2. that followed him in a Wilderness and in a land of droughts forsook him when they came into a land that flowed with Milk and Hony whence Agur prayed as much against Riches left he should being full blaspheme God as against poverty And even the man according to Gods own heart offended more when he was come to sit upon his Throne in Hierusalem than when he was hunted like a Partridge in the Wilderness and knew not where to rest and this is seen in our ordinary experience 3. God draweth us thirdly by the potent arguments of the Gospel as it lieth before us to be read or as it is opened and applied to us by the Ministry of the Word Man hath a tunable ear and is a reasonable Creature so as arguments have a great force upon humane nature and the more as any of us are more knowing and rational and able to raise conclusions from Principles Into this sense Interpreters do interpret those words of our Saviour John 12. 42. When I shall be lifted up I will draw all men after me after my death upon the Cross I will send my Apostles up and down the world to be witnesses of my death resurrection and ascension and to persuade men to receive me in my true notion as the true Messias and Saviour of the world Accordingly the Apostle tells the Corinthians that Christ had committed to them the word of Reconciliation Now then saith he 2 Cor. 5. 20. We as Embassadours for Christ as tho God did beseech you by us we pâ—ay you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God and this must be the meaning of that command to the Servants Luke 14 23. Compel them to come in Christ is not there speaking to Magistrates or of their duty but of the duty of Ministers who have no power from him to compel any but by a lively and powerful Preaching the Gospel the potent arguments of which set home upon reasonable and ingenuous Souls by the gifts God hath given to his Ministers have a kind of compulsory force and power in them and the Apostle tells us that Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10. and as men are by it drawn to Christ so they are also by it drawn after him and therefore Peter exhorts Christians 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes to desire the sincere milk of the Word that they might grow thereby The believing Soul followeth Christ in the scent or favour of his precious Ointments It is the publishing of the Gospel that makes the name of Christ an Ointment poured out Fourthly God may be said to draw men by the common motions of his Spirit impressing good thoughts upon us either upon occasion of his Providential dispensations or while we read or hear the word some say that there is a common Ministration of the Spirit attending the preaching of the word sufficient to assist every Soul that will to repent and believe and to do what God requires of us in order to Salvation that the holy Spirit doth ordinarily attend the preaching of the word and suggest to and imprint upon the hearts of those that hear it some good thoughts is what will not be denied I believe there are but few who have used to attend the preaching of the Gospel where it hath been faithfully and livelily preach'd but must own that he hath heard the Lord standing at his door and knocking But still the question is whether this be all the drawing which the Spouse here begs No doubt but she begs such a cause such operations of a cause as should be productive of the effect The effects are coming unto Christ running after Christ Coming is not expresly mentioned in this Text but it is Joh. 6. 44. No man cometh unto me except the Father who hath sent me draw him and it is included in the term running The question therefore must be whether such a drawing as is by common mercies by the preaching of the Gospel or by the common work of the Holy Spirit all which reprobates may have is sufficient to innable a Soul yet a stranger to God to come to Christ or to innable any Soul already come to Christ to run after him I think not and therefore I conclude in the last place 5. That both in the Souls first motions to Christ and its further motions after him the Lord putteth forth a powerful influence of his Spirit of grace beyond the arguments of the word the suasion of his Minister and the common work of the Spirit attending all faithful preaching of the Gospel This I take to be that drawing the Spouse here prayeth for and which our Saviour mentions John 6. 44. as some think with an allusion to the phrase of this Text nay some bring that Text John 6 44. to prove this Book quoted in the New Testament This I firmly believe because I am convinced there is such a work
hast not an inch of time at thy command nor canst command thy Sun to go back or to stand still for an hour If James instruct us not to say To morrow we will go to such a Fair or Market without adding If God will surely vain man should not say at such a time I will repent I will believe I will turn to God without saying If God will let me live to such a time and poor creature what if God will not What if he will say unto thee Thou dilatory fool This night thy Soul shall be taken from thee this year this month thou shalt die O the most unrea sonable vanity of men in venturing Eternity upon such incertain contingencies yet this is the usual delusion Augustine confesseth that his foot was once in this snare he resisted motions for his turning to God with cras cras to morrow to morrow I will do it till at length through the power of grace he brake the snare crying out Cras Domine cur non hodie to morrow Lord and why to morrow why not to day This is but the first thing I would say to these procrastinating Souls and not that which properly resulteth from my former Discourse 2. But though there be an obvious contingency in that yet we may admit that thou shalt live unto the time thou hast prefixed to thy self for thy coming and returning unto God supposing yet that no man cometh to the Son unless the Father draweth how vain are the promises that thou makest to thy self Admit thou dost live to that time and that before that time thy heart shall not be more inamoured upon thy lusts and hardened in thy sinful courses but that then thou shalt have as good and fair convictions as now thou hast Yet art thou sure that God will then draw thee Art thou sure thou shalt then be drawn by the Preaching of the Gospel Admit that Art thou sure of the motions impressions and breathings of the holy Spirit of God The Preaching of the Gospel beareth the same proportion to the healing of the Soul that the Pool of Bethesda bare to the healing of bodily infirmities Men might lie there many years the Gospel tells you of one that lay 36 years yet was not healed the Angel indeed came often down and stirred the waters but none thrust him in There is an healing virtue in the Gospel it is the word of Reconciliation the word of the Kingdom The Spirit of the Lord attends the ministration of it it stirreth the Pool but admit this if there be none to help the poor Soul that is impotent into it it is not healed What knowest thou whether the holy Spirit which breatheth where it listeth will breathe upon thee at thy leisure God said of the Old World My Spirit shall not alwaies strive with man If it be not perfectly in thy own power to turn to God when thou pleasest it is the most unaccountable folly imaginable for any to resist the holy Spirit and to vex it yet promising himself the operations and effects of it when he will be pleased to call for and to admit them But I hear some saying Do not you determine that the grace of God cannot be resisted what need your exhortations then not to resist it 1. I have told you that the grace of God may be opposed and resisted but that Grace by which the heart is changed is powerful and finally cannot be resisted but certainly the common grace of God which the Apostle saith hath appeared to all men may be opposed and resisted and finally rejected and is so by the most of those that sit under it and certain it is that mens opposing and resisting of that common grace may provoke him to deny special grace to the Soul that doth it and will justifie God in the denial of it For we have no reason to complain of God's not doing what was truly and purely his part whiles we have not done what is our part and in our power Now though the change of the heart be an act of Divine Power yet acts of moral Discipline and the avoiding gross and scandalous sins and the performance of some religious Duties which God hath prescribed as means though not in themselves sufficient and effectual are things within our power with the assistance only of that common grace which God denieth to none to whom he doth not deny the Gospel And in these the holy Spirit may be opposed and finally resisted though he shall not be finally resisted by any Soul that is ordained to life and eternal Salvation and it is certainly the duty and wisdom of every Soul to take heed of this Resisting this Vexing the holy Spirit because as I said before God shall for ever be justified in the with-holding his gracious acts of power until man hath done what is in his power To which I think I may add that in the day of Judgment there will be wanting a President so much as of one Soul who hath followed the drawings of his Gospel so far as he had power to whom God hath denied the more powerful drawings of his Spirit making a change in the Soul and subduing it to the obedience of Faith and also because God will not have his Spirit alwaies strive with man because he is but flesh 2. But secondly Even the People of God also fall under this reproof though not for such vexings and resistings of the Spirit as natural and unregenerate men are guilty of yet for Quenching the Spirit in its motions and resistances of it in his operations whence the Apostle saw need of those Precepts 1 Thes 5. 19. Ephes 5. 30. We are prone 1. To Quench the Spirit in its motions to duty and to put them off 2. And to promise our selves if we fall we shall rise again When we find some motions to duty which we have reason to conclude to be from the holy Spirit dwelling in us and sometimes from some more than ordinary suggestions to and impressions made upon us we are too ready to put them off to some other time promising to our selves that we then will obey them and hearken to them not considering that as our first coming to Christ dependeth upon the Father's drawing so our running after him depends upon Christ's and his Spirit 's drawing Now though the Lord never forsaketh the Soul that is his as to necessary grace yet he often deserts it as to gradual manifestations in strengthening and quickening influences See that famous instance Cant. 2. The Lord called at the door of his Spouse saying Open my Love my Dove my Undefiled The Spouse grieveth her Beloved's Spirit she would open in the morning when she should have had her fill of sleep when she should be up and drest she had put off her Coat and how should she put it on she had washed her feet and how should she defile them At length v. 5. She rose to open to her Beloved but
he had withdrawn himself and was gone She sought him but she could not find him she called him but he gave her no answer It is the case of many good and pious Soul The holy Spirit moves it to some evident piece of spiritual duty for I am not speaking for extravagant impulses to things no where prescribed or directed in the Word of God the Soul is under some spiritual Torpor and listlesness it agrees the thing ought to be done and disputes nothing but the necessity of doing it presently it neglecteth it it may be when it would open to it s Beloved it finds that he hath withdrawn himself and is gone It seeketh him but it cannot find him 2. Secondly We are as prone also vainly to think within our selves If we sin we will repent if we fall we will rise Or though we run into temptation yet we will not fall by it All this while forgetting that although we live yet it is not we but Christ lives in us and we shall stand in need of drawing grace to run after God It is true that if the Believer sinneth he hath an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the Righteous If he falls he shall rise God will succour him when he is tempted but all this proceeds from an influence forreign to him God is able to make him to stand and faithful so as he shall stand But yet his own endeavours are necessary to his standing and Divine Grace is necessary if he be lapsed to his recovery and though he may know if he knows that he is Elected and effectually called and justified that he shall not perish for ever yet this can by no means encourage his presumptuous sinning for these two Reasons 1. Because while he lies under the guilt of sin not repented of he can have no knowledge of his Election or Effectual Calling but hath reason to suspect he hath all this while mistaken the case and state of his own Soul 2. Because he may be saved as through fire and go with an aking conscience even to the gate of the City of God Now it is impossible that in the Judgment of any Soul under the conduct and command of reason the pleasure of sin should appear compensative of the rack of Conscience and the feeling the terrours of God upon the Soul but for a few days If indeed man having fallen from his integrity had a power to rise again at pleasure by the help alone of his own hands he might have from hence a motive to indulge his corruptions but if he hath no such power but what he derives from drawing grace certainly it is the vainest thing imaginable for man to sin upon a presumption of what is not in his power and though he be certain of it in the issue yet he may want it so long as may leave him little pleasure of his sinning little fruit of those things for which he hath been so long ashamed Thirdly From this representation of the state the present state of Man We may observe the difference betwixt our present state and the state of our Pro-parent Adam in the state of Innocency It is a point not half enough thought of and the want of a due consideration of it causeth so many swellings against and blasphemings of the Truth of God in this point They will not understand that although God made Man upright and in Honour yet he abode not in Honour but by seeking out inventions became like unto the Beast that perisheth The state of Man at first was such 1. That he needed not have come to Christ for life he had his liâ—e in his hands There needed no Saviour before we were lost no Mediator or Intercessor before man had offended and consequently no applications of our Souls unto him for life and Salvation and this by the way may shew you the weakness of their reply who when they are told that it is no more injustice with God to call to us for those exercises of Grace in order to our salvation which in our lapsed state we have no power to perform than it is in man to call to him to whom he hath lent a great sum which he by his debauchery hath spent to pay him what he oweth him and to lay him in Prison though he hath nothing to pay for God in creation gave unto man a power to do whatsoever in that state was necessary to his Salvation I say when they are told this they usually tell us That Adam never had a power to repent and believe in Christ Nor was repentance or faith in Christ necessary in that state wherein Adam was created nor would it ever have been necessary either to him or us had he stood in that estate God gave unto Adam and to us in him whatsoever was necessary in that state and if our Fore-fafather and we who dyed in him and fell with him have made a Mediator necessary and repentance and faith in the Mediator necessary and we have no power to these acts nor ever had no not in Adam how yet is God unrighteous in requiring those acts of us though we have no power to perform them Secondly As in that state there was no need of a Christ of a Saviour a Redeemer nor consequently of a being drawn or a coming to him So neither was there need of any such potent drawing in order to our running after him Adam had a perfect power connatural to him to walk with God in the obedience of his will It was the fall that lamed us in our feet and introduced this necessity of Christs drawings in order to our running Let us in a word or two take a view of man now in this that he stands in need of these divine drawings 1. He now stands in need of a Mediator and there is no name given under Heaven by which any Soul can be saved but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ no Salvation by any other 2. He stands in need of drawing to this Mediator not only of a Child to be born a Son again a Saviour prepared but of the work of the Father and the holy Spirit to draw us to and after this Mediator 1. Drawing as I have shewed you imports a fair treating intreating alluring Souls to what is their great and only happiness this speaks man 1. In a state of aversion from God and his only felicity Mans supreme happiness lies in his union and communion with God as the supreme and greatest good yet he must be drawn to it drawn with the cords of a man allured by mans Rhetorick persuaded to it by mans Logick and ratiocination we as the Embassadours of Christ must beseech and intreat men to be happy in being reconciled to God and thus much is granted to us by those who make themeanest and most jejune interpretation of this drawing 2. Drawing secondly signifieth an act of power This speaketh us not only averse but impotent
acts of special powerful Grace but yet in a different kind and degree 2. Secondly Betwixt a real drawing after him and a gradual drawing I told you before that all Divine drawing signifieth a sweet and powerful influence of the Spirit upon the Soul by which it is allured changed and melted into that duty which the Soul oweth to God in obedience to the Gospel now as it is in our drawing of a thing or person to us we may put forth more or less power as we please So in the divine drawings though divine drawing be a mercy of that nature that it shall and will follow the Soul all the days of its life God will never depart from the Soul to which he is thus united to do it good and he will put his fear into its heart that it shall never depart from him yet he puts forth more or less of his power according to the good pleasure of his own will and the conduct of his own infinite wisdom and according also to our behaviour toward him let me for the relief of such a Soul lay down three conclusions 1. First I say there is no Soul by the Father drawn to Christ but that Soul is also and shall be by the Spirit drawn after him Upon the Souls being drawn to Christ there followeth an Vnion between Christ and the Spirit of Christ and the Soul that is so drawn Christ after that time is in the Soul and the Soul is in Christ hence his Spirit is put into their hearts and dwelleth in them a multitude of phrases of that nature are to be found in holy writ It is called an ingrasting into Christ Now it is not possible that the Soul should be ingrasted into such a stock but it must partake of the fatness of the stock and grow up in him the seed of God abiding in the Soul it cannot but grow and spring up in it Some Communion with Christ alwaies follows this union So that unless the union with Christ could be wholly broken and dissolved its communion with Christ cannot be wholly interrupted interrupted it may be but I say not wholly interrupted Secondly 2. The least influence of special Grace keeps the Soul moving for and towards God and in a willingness to sorve and obey him and preserveth it from a total falling away Papists say that we may fall away both totally and finally Lutherans say we may fall away totally but not finally but we say the justified Soul can neither fall away totally nor yet finally if he could fall away totally the union betwixt Christ and the Soul must be dissolved or the union remaining the communion consequent to that union might be wholly interrupted neither of which can be 3. But Thirdly The holy Spirit dwelling in the Souls of Believers and working in them putteth forth its power sometimes more sometimes less as a free agent and according to the good pleasure of his own will as is the drawing so is the running Hence the Soul moveth sometimes with more sometimes with lesser strength sometimes with more promptness and readiness sometimes with less as the holy Spirit is pleased more or less to exert and put forth his power in and upon the Soul Now from this discourse it appeareth that a Soul that findeth that God hath renewed and changed it so far that to will is present with it and it hath an heart to do though it wanteth such a strength such a freedom to and chearfulness in duty as others rejoice in and itself hath sometimes found yet hath no reason to conclude that it was never truly drawn to Christ because as it apprehendeth it is not drawn after him all the evidence of which that it hath is because it doth not run as at other times all this may be yet the Soul may be truly drawn to him and also drawn after him though not so powerfully as it may be it hath felt itself at other times or seen others drawn In the second place This notion may inform us That a running after Christ is the duty of a Christian The life of a Child of God is in Scripture ordinarily expressed under the notion of a walking with God a phrase that some in this age would scoff at but one of the ancientest by which in Scripture a course of holiness is expressed Gen. 5. 24. Enoch walked with God and was not but now if walking be taken in opposition to running there is something more than walking with God the duty of a believer even this running after Christ which I have been describing to you Hence it is also expressed under this notion So the Spouse here expresseth it we will run after thee So David I will run the ways of thy Commandments So St. Paul so run that you may obtain we are not only under an obligation to serve God but to serve him with all our might all our strength to serve him with readiness and freedom of Spirit this is that which elsewhere is called a growing in Grace and corresponds with the Israelites motion and pace to Hierusalem mentioned Psal 84. a going from strength to strength It is a long journey that we have to go from the minimum quodsic the least degree of Grace to the maximum quodsic the fulness of stature which is in Jesus Christ and therefore we had need run sinners run in their sinful courses Lusts get strength and discover their activity daily men make hast to be compleat in sinning to fill up the measure of their iniquities Men make hast to be rich in the world and shall the Children of God make no hast to be rich in Grace David saith My Soul followeth hard after thee Psal 63. 8 St. Paul tells us that he pressed forward toward the Mark Phil. 3. 14. Ah! where are those Souls of whom we can say they run after Christ How few are those Souls that follow hard after God that go as fast as they can though it may be they cannot go as fast as they would 1. How many are there in the world that appear to us as if they were moving after God but move meerly as Machines and Ingines they are rather moved from some forreign principle without them than move from any intrinsick principle all hypocrites all formal professors do so they follow Christ for the Loaves or are drawn from the consideration of their own credit and reputation some are drawn to some degrees of duty from the reflections of their natural conscience this is now no running after God they may do many things which God requires but it is from no internal principle 2. How manẠare there that instead of running halt We dare not say that they do not move at all we hope their hearts are right we hope they are the Children of Jonathan but they are lame of their feet with one foot they seem to go right with another they fail they are like Naaman the Syrian who pretended that he would serve
may have a need of and they would be good to us at another time we have no need of but they would be hurtful and pernicious to us and this is the reason why our supplications for some things may be absolute and peremptory for other things they ought to be limited conditioned and put up with a reference of our selves to the will and wisdom of God God cannot give evil things unto his Children though they ask them never so importunately never so frequently This our Saviour hath taught us Luke 11. 11. 12. If a Son shall ask Bread of any of you that is a Father will he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a Serpent Or if he shall ask an Egg will he offer him a Scorpion if therefore you being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that ask him Mat. 7. 11. it is give good things to them that ask him It is most certain that no one would ask things that are or would be hurtful to him wittingly Children through ignorance may but if they do their parents that have more wisdom will not give them such things No more will our Heavenly Father who knows it is nothing but ignorance that causeth us to ask any thing of that nature And this may help us to understand Gods dispensations and satisfy the people of God though they have not all those things they ask of God if they be such things as are not absolutely and perfectly good they may be such things as the Lord knoweth under our circumstances would be evil and pernicious to us and we are answered by being denied them for though through our weakness and ignorance we asked them as believing them to be good yet had we known them as indeed they were we would have prayed against them The things we ask must be good and such things as we stand in need of indeed therein lies the nature of goodness or they are no matter of a promise and consequently ought to be made no matter of prayer nor would be but for our infirmity and weakness and consequently they may be denied us and we may never have an answer by receiving the things which we ask but are answered in having them denied to us 2. What we ask must be according to the will of God 1 Joh. 5. 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to the will of God he heareth us The Spirit maketh intercession for us according to the will of God Indeed this doth very little differ from the other for whatsoever is good for us is doubtless according to the will of God It is Gods will that no good thing should be with-held from them who live uprightly But there is yet something further that I shall add under this head which is necessary in order to the receiving of a present answer from God If we would have a present answer we must ask for such things not only as it is the will of God we should have but as it is according to the will of God we should have at such a time as we ask and under such circumstances as we then are Solomon telleth us there is a time for all things God hath appointed times and seasons for all his dispensations of providence he had not only promised Canaan to the seed of Abraham but he had set the time after four hundred and thirty years he had not only promised a deliverance out of the Captivity of Babylon but he had also set the time seventy years Hence Daniel was presently heard when he prayed the Text telleth you that he understood by Books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Hierusalem Then he set his face to the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with â—asting c. Dan. 9. 2 3. and while he was speaking God gave him an answer To Habakkuk it fell out otherwise he put up a prayer to to God ch 1. his answer was ch 3. v. 3. The Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak it shall not lie tho it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Had the believing Jews prayed never so often never so seriously for the coming of the seed of Abrahams out of Aegypt and going into Canaan before the four hundred years were expired they could have neither expected nor received any present answer other than according to the tenor of that to Habakkuk because Gen. 15. 16 17. Though God had promised Abraham that he would give unto his Seed the land of Canaan yet he had also told him that they should be strangers in a land that was not theirs and they should serve them and they should afflict them 400 years but afterwards they should come out with great substance and v. 16. In the fourth generation his Seed should come again into Canaan All things are seen by an Omniscient Eye and ordered by an eternal thought Now where the believing prayer meets with an eternal thought as to the time of the mercy there the answer is alwaies present See therefore how confidently the Psalmist prayeth Psal 202. 12. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come when the time the set time for God to favour a Nation or a particular Soul is come then the answer is alwaies present It is therefore the great wisdom of a Christian before he sets himself to pray to inquire so far as he may whether Gods set time for the collation of the mercy is come But will a good Christian say How shall I ever find out this how shall I knows when Gods set time to favour his Church or to favour my or anothers particular Soul is come Times and seasons are not in our hands nor within the compass of our knowledge The case indeed was plain as to the Jews with reference to their servitude in Aegypt and Captivity in Babylon God had then revealed it to and by his Prophets but we have no such revelations now concerning Nations or Churches much less concerning particular Souls It may be my Soul is under the power of some violent and impetuous temptations under the pressure of some strong lusts 〈◊〉 corruptions in some dark hour of desertion I find 〈◊〉 in the case in Holy Writ these promises are sufficient grounds for me to pray but if my prayer must be suited to Gods will as to the time how shall I ever know how to perform my duty how shall I ever pray in faith 1. As we say in our law When in any contract for payment of any sum of money no particular time is exprest for the payment the
to the King There 's no Faith in Christ nor pure Love to God and Christ to be got at Athens Flesh and Blood will not convey these things into a Soul Lastly Observe how the whole Trinity is concerned in the dispensations of grace It is the note of the Learned Mercer That the Mystery of the Trinity is here held out to us in the Plural Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I touched upon this before though indeed the works of the Trinity within it self be divided The Father begetteth and is not begotten The Son is begotten but doth not beget The Holy Ghost proceedeth from both and doth neither beget nor is begotten and although to denote the order of working in the holy Trinity Creation is made the work of the Father Redemption the work of the Son and Sanctification the work of the Holy Spirit yet it is most certain that all the works of the Trinity out of it self are individed what one person doth all do All that grace of which the Believer is made partaker floweth from the whole Trinity it is from the Father through the merits of the Son and by the Holy Ghost In the second place Will Christ go on in giving to his Saints more grace Let not then those of little Faith be discouraged Let not those that are strong despise the weak nor those who are weak be discouraged and despond in themselves If the Child of God hath Faith but as a grain of Mustard seed it shall increase If it hath but a stock of grace like the Widdows Meal in the Barrel and Oil in the Cruise yet the Meal shall not fail from the Barrel nor the Oil from the Cruise If the Child of a rich and indulgent Parent be despised by another that hath finer Clothes and richer Ornaments than the Wisdom of its Parent thinks fit at present to allow it it will comfort its self that its Father is able to do as much for it that he wants no love to prompt him to it that it hath a large Inheritance that is made sure unto it Shall not the Child of God thus comfort himself from its hopes of glory though it as yet hath but a small earnest of it from that fulness of grace which is in Christ He shall be holden up saith the Apostle speaking of the weak Brethren for God is able to make him stand Rom. 14. 4. And from that readiness that is in Christ and his Promise to give to him that hath so that he shall have more abundantly from the Promise of Christ to the Soul whose cheeks are already comely with Rows of Jewels and Chains of Gold that he will make for it Borders of Gold with spots or badges or studs of Silver Let true grace in the Soul be never so faint and weak it is the Seed of God it shall abide yea it shall grow and increase Hypocrisie is alwaies withering the Hypocrite groweth worse and worse his fair shews and appearances daily decay but true grace is alwaies growing Christ is alwaies adding to it And indeed this is one thing which distinguisheth a sincerity and truth of grace from all the counterfeits of it A Child of God is alwaies growing better and better the Lord is adding to his spiritual habits Wicked men and Hypocrites are growing worse and worse In the last place This Notion calls to all the People of God 1. For an admiration of the Love of God towards them what a God do we serve what a Saviour what a Friend what a Beloved hath every Soul whose Soul sincerely loveth the Lord Jesus Christ The Beloved of your Souls is not like anothers Beloved in himself he is not he is the chiefest of ten thousand he is altogether desires He is not to you as anothers Beloved he is unweariable in his acts of grace and dispensations of goodness Are there any Souls here whose iniquities are forgiven whose sins are covered whose Souls are regenerated renewed through the Sanctification of the Spirit might not these Souls go into their Closets with David and sit down and say Who are we O Lord God! and what were our Souls that the Lord should bring us hitherto that God should wash our Souls white in the Blood of the Lamb and give us another Spirit than we had by Nature a new Heart a new Nature that he should make us partakers of the Divine Nature But this was yet a small thing in the sight of God he hath spoken also of his Servants for a great while yet to come he hath spoken of more grace of making for us Borders of Gold with Badges of Silver A faithful man shall abound with blessings The beginnings of saving grace in the Soul in the Justification of the Soul and the first change and renovation of our Natures are blessings of that nature as Eternity will be too short a time to admire the Love of God in and for but will the Lord also add to his Servants stock and increase their heap will he be still making and preparing new Ornaments for them and giving further grace to them till all their wants shall be supplied all their emptinesses filled up what manner of Love is this Let our Souls be swallowed up in the admiration of this Love Let our Souls and all that is within us bless his holy Name 2. How doth this Notion call to us for all manner of holiness Holiness lyeth in two things 1. The mortification of lusts and sinful habits with the eschewing and declining of sinful acts which are the fruit of those trees 2. The exercises of Godliness Let me shortly press both from this notion of out beloved's being preparing still and making for us Chains of Gold and spots of Silver I will begin with the 2d 1. The exercises of our selves unto Godliness in all those positive duties which God requireth of us Whether they may be more internal such as faith hope Love or more external in our more external communion with God in Prayer reading hearing his word receiving his holy Sacrament Or in our conversation before and towards men I shall press these from this notion upon a twofold consideration 1. These exercises are the way to keep Christ still at work making for us these further Ornaments 2. They are the wearing and using of these Ornaments I say first these exercises will keep our Lords hand continually at work so as he will never be weary but be still adding to our Ornaments of grace I have had occasion often in my former discourses to hint to you that although God be ingaged by his covenant and faithfulness to bring the Souls of believers to glory and consequently to give out to them such necessary supplies of grace as shall make them meet for that inheritance yet he is at liberty as to the gradual manifestations of his grace to dispense them according to his own infinite wisdom and his Peoples behaviour toward him And the promises of that
is incomparable and incomprehensible but it is impossible fully to delineate his glory to you yet something we may speak more particularly 2. Therefore Christs Beauty is a Primitive Beauty The Beauty of the most eminent Saint is no more than a derivative Beauty we are clean through Christ's cleanness and we are comely through Christ's comeliness Take the Saint out of Christ he hath nothing in him but blackness ugliness and deformity all his Beauty is derived from Christ he is but like the Star that hath its Light from the Sun being of it self but a thicker part of coelestial matter yea he is in a lower degree than a Star which the Philosopher saith hath some though a very small Light of his own The Child of God of himself is not only dark but darkness You were once darkness saith the Apostle but now you are light in the Lord. But now Christ is not only lightsom but light it self I am the true Light Job 1. 9. Joh. 8. 12. Yea and his Light his Beauty is from himself Consider him as God equal with the Father and coaevous with him all the Divine Perfections were in him The whole Beauty of the Godhead was in Christ Consider him indeed as to his Humane Nature so his Beauty was derivative the Spirit was given to him though not by measure Joh. 3. 34 Col. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell But consider now the Lord Jesus Christ personally as God and Man and so all his Beauty was Primitive and from himself His Divine Nature being the Fountain of all Perfections and his Humane Nature receiving the fulness of the Godhead from that Nature to which it was joyned in the fellowship of the same Person Now look what difference there is betwixt the Original Light of the Sun and the borrowed Light of a Star betwixt the Primitive Light of the Fire and the Derivative Light of a Taper such a transcendent difference there is between the Beauty of Christ and the Beauty of a Christian 3. Christ's Beauty is an Essential Beauty When I discoursed to you concerning the Beauty of Christians I told you that their Beauty was accidental and adventitious all those gracious dispositions which are found in the Souls of Saints which make them lovely and beautiful either in the Eyes of Christ or of their Brethren are but adventitious qualities and accidents no part of their Essence But Christ's Beauty is Essential to him It is certainly true that there are no accidents in God all that love and goodness and mercy which is in Jesus Christ that slowness to conceive a wrath and readiness to forgive it is all Essential unto him Essentia Divina identificat sibi omnia quae sunt in Divinis say the Schoolmen Christ is from his Essence wise good gracious holy c. Now every ones Reason will easily apprehend a transcendent difference between Essential and Substantial Beauty and Adventitious and Accidental Beauty But 4. Christ's Beauty is a spotless Beauty He is called the Sun of Righteousness The Sun hath no spots in it it is all beautiful all glorious The Saints Beauty is a spotted Beauty or at least a Beauty attended with spots it is like the Beauty of the Moon the Moon is a glorious creature but the Moon hath its spots Take the fairest Saint in the World he hath some blemishes much grace but some corruption much rectitude but some crookedness yea he is in nothing perfect He believeth but crieth out Lord help my unbelief He loveth God this is his Beauty Oh! but he wants some degrees of love he bewails his want of love to God and begs of God to teach him to love him there 's his spot in his Beauty He doth direct his waies towards God there 's his Beauty But he cries out Oh that my waies were directed to keep thy Statutes there 's his spot there 's his deformity But now look upon Christ there was no spot found in him no defect of Beauty no mixture of deformity no guile was found in his mouth no deceit in his heart no crookedness in his actions 5. Christ's Beauty is a never fading Beauty I remember that I told you concerning the Beauty of the Saints that it is a durable Beauty it is never wholly lost and it is true in the Eyes of Christ but what 's the reason because the Providence of God continually upholds that state of Beauty which is once conferred Nor hath God so ordered the upholding of the Saints Beauty but that it may fade and decay as to degrees yea and be wholly lost as to humane Judgment 'T is true the Beauty of Justification can never be lost can never decay but the Beauty of Holiness may Now Holiness is a great part of the Saints Beauty both in the Eyes of God and also of men But Christ's Beauty can never fade the Rose of Sharon cannot wither this is proved from the third thing If Beauty could fail from Christ the Divine Essence might be extinguished 6. In the last place Christs beauty is a communicative Beauty The loveliest face in the World cannot procreate such another the most vertuous ingenuous mind cannot communicate its vertue and ingenuity so as to possess another Soul with it You have many a Child of God that is exceeding beautiful both by justifying and regenerating grace but what they have is to themselves The wisest Virgins can lend no Oil to the foolish if they do there will not be enough for them both But now Christs Beauty is communicative he is in himself comely and he can put his comeliness upon others yea which is more he can communicate without loss to himself as the Fire gives heat to all in the Room and yet hath no less heat in itself or as the Sun inlightneth the Moon and all the Stars yea and all the World and yet hath as much light still as it had before that communication So doth the Lord Jesus Christ he hath communicated Beauty to ten thousand thousand Saints even to all that have lived since Adams fall to this day They were all comely through his comeliness put upon them yet hath he in himself the same Beauty he ever had But I have spoke enough to the opening of this point I come to the application in three or four words 1. In the first place This calleth to all the Children of God for that great duty mentioned Rom. 12. 3. Not to think of himself more highly then he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith The want of this Spiritual Sobriety hath been one great cause of the Drunkenness of this later age 1. Professors have been too apt to think of themselves above others forgetting that of the Apostle in that Chap. v. 10. In honour preferring one before another ah how vile have Brethren seemed in one anothers Eyes How ready have the
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
Bridegroom whose it is to bless us with all spiritual blessings in and through him Supposing the latter the believing Soul directeth her request as her beloved directeth when he commands us to pray saying Our Father If the petition be understood as directed to the Lord Jesus Christ Let him kiss me is as much as Do thou kiss me Vicem nominis supplet vis amoris the force of her love supplyeth the omission of his name saith Lud. de Ponte It is a very usual dialect of Scripture to put the 3d Person for the 2d so the Psalmist God be merciful unto us and bless â—us But 3. Qu. What doth the Spouse mean by Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Some read it He did kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Thus the ancient Chaldee Paraphrast Blessed be the name of the Lord who gave us his Law written by the hand of Moses his Scribe who wrote it in two Tables of Stone and spake with us face to face as a man who kisseth his Companions through the greatness of his love wherewith he loved us more than threescore and ten Nations But the stile of the Song is rather pathetical and optative than historical and narrative and it is rather referred to Christ as Mediator than to God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ considered only as God over all blessed for ever besides that the Hebrew word being in the future tense referrs rather to the time to come than to the time past and I see no need of inventing a figure There is a threefold kiss of which you read in Scripture 1. The kiss of the feet Thus the penitent Woman Luk. 7. 38. kissed her Saviours feet 2. The kiss of the hand Job 31. 27. If my mouth hath kissed my hand 3. The kiss of the lips Prov. 24. 26. and so in many other Texts The Schoolmen tell us of a seven-fold kiss a kiss of 1. Love 2. Union 3. Reverence and Honour 4. Adoration 5. Reconciliation and Peace 6. Treachery as Joab kissed Abner and Amasa and Judas kissed Christ 7. Wantonness According to the usages of several Nations there were several sorts of kisses distinguished by their objects and ends they were wont to kiss the head lips cheek shoulders hands backs feet of their superiours inferiours and equals and that for several testimonies which yet I think are reducible to two heads For a testimony of honour reverence and subjection Thus Parents were kissed by their Children Jacob came near and kissed Isaac Gen. 50. 1. Joseph fell upon his Fathers face and kissed him Thus Exod. 18. 7. Moses went out to meet his Father in Law and did obeysance and kissed him and Orpah kissed her Mother in Law Thus the Persians were wont according to the differences of Persons in respect of quality to give differing kisses Equals kissed one anothers lips the Person who was but a little inferiour kissed his superiours Cheek The lower sort fell at their superiours feet and kissed them Thus Idolaters shewed their reverence to their Idols and the true Worshipers of God were by this distinguished They had not kissed Baal 1 Kings 19. 28. and the Idolaters in Israel said Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves Hos 13. 2. Thus also we are commanded to kiss the Son least he be angry Psal 2. 12. which Jerome translates Purely worship the Son This is now a kiss wherewith we ought to kiss Christ but this is not the kiss of the Text. Secondly Kisses were used for a testimony of love which sometimes was hypocritical and so the kissing deceitful such were the kisses of Joab and Judas ordinarily real which might be considered either as continued or interrupted Kisses were 1. Used in token of continuing love As appears by the several precepts of the Apostles regulating the use of them by a law of holiness and chastity Rom. 16. 16. 1 Cor. 16. 20 c. Or 2. In token of renewed love and reconciliation Thus Laban kissed Jacob upon their reconciliation Esau kissed Jacob and David kissed Absalom Beza thus gives the propriety of this testimony in affection Whereas our life lies in the breath which goeth out of our lips and our Soul goes away when our breath at last goes the joining of the friends lips and mouths signifies that they are so dear each to other that they could willingly unite Souls if it could be and bestow their lives each upon other The kiss of the text must needs be this In testimonium amoris for a testimony of love But still here remains a question whether she desires the kiss of Reconciliation 2. Or that which is a pledge of continuing love Those who understand the first confess a breach betwixt God and his Creatures which indeed there was made in the beginning of the world which breach is as to the meritorious part made up by the incarnation death and passion of Christ Indeed there was an ancient Covenant of Grace concerning it Gen. 3. revealed immediately but I say it was done quoad pretium by the incarnation and death of Christ according to those Texts 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. Col. 1. 21. Eph. 2. 16. according to the prophecy Dan. 9. 24. And as to the particular application of that purchase it is daily done by the Spirit of God working faith in us by which we are united to Christ Now the question is whether the Spouse here beggeth 1. Christs coming in the flesh being incarnate and dying for us for the fulfilling of the eternal Covenant of Reconciliation to which some encline 2. Or the kiss of Justification the actual reconciliation of the Soul unto Christ and application of Christ to the Soul by fâ—rth 3. Or The further influences of â— Love as pledges of that first Grace and Seals of that Original love of his to the Souls of his People Indeed the Eternal Son of God kissed us and he stooped much to kiss us when he took upon him our nature uniting finite and infinite corruptible and incorruptible when he nothinged himself for us and this was foreseen and so might be desired Abraham saw the day and rejoyced Joh. 10. 48. and not only Origen and Bernard of old but many modern interpreters think that the Spouse here hath a great respect to this matchless testimony of Divine Love which being granted the Text is no other than the breathings and pantings of the Church of God then living or the particular members of it after the Incarnation of Christ which doubtless was a great object of their desires Kings and Prophets and Righteous men desired to see the things which the Disciples saw and did not see them c. Others understand the text of those testimonies of Divine Love which followed the death of Christ particularly The sending of the Spirit It is true this is called The promise of the Father and was so under the old Testament Ezech. 36.
c. and it proceeds from Christ as the great testimony of his love nor indeed doth Christ otherwise testify his special love than by the influences of his Spirit but I cannot tell why we should restrain it to the particular dispensation in the days of Pentecost I think Piscator expresseth the sense well by suum erga me amorem patefaciat let him manifest to me his love let me know that he loveth me yet supposing it the Reconciled Believing Soul that speaks it seems rather to be understood of further grace than the first grace of regeneration and reconciliation unto God the desire seems to be a desire of free familiar communion with Christ This seems to be the main of her request the great sum of her desires the uppermost of her Souls concernments But observe yet further She begs but a kiss not let him imbrace me but let him kiss me She asketh modestly if saith the woman in the Gospel I might but touch the Hem of his Garment Thus the woman of Canaan also Truth Lord but the Dogs eat the crums Thus the Spouse If he would but kiss me Oh! how precious is the least of Christ to a gracious Soul It is better to be kissed by him than to lie in the worlds arms to be a Door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness But thirdly The word is plural One kiss will not serve the turn she is not a stranger but a Spouse The plural number either imports 1. Various dispensations of Grace Or 2dly Repeated influences of the same Grace 1. It may be understood as denoting various dispensations of Grace Beza saith the Lord kissed the Soul thrice 1. In this life when he is by faith united to it 2. In the day of death when the Soul is taken up into the enjoyment of God 3. In the Resurrection when Body and Soul shall be united and together glorified Another reckons up 7 kisses with which the Lord kisseth his Peoples Souls The Grace of 1. Incarnation 2. The descending of the Holy Ghost 3. The preaching of the Gospel 4. Reconciliation to God 5. Sanctification 6. Divine Consolations 7. The kiss of Glory And the same Author makes the Spouses petition comprehensive of all these certain it is there are various dispensations of Grace there is quickning strengthening comforting Grace and there may be frequent repetitions of these to the Soul according to its particular wants and Gods favour towards it and you may indifferently understand the Text in either sense Fourthly The Spouse here doth not only desire kisses but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kisses of Christs mouth concerning which observe these 2 things 1. The kiss of the mouth was the highest kiss This was the kiss of Love the kiss of Reconciliation Osculum pacis the kiss of the Hand Feet c. was a kiss of honour and reverence and subjection the kiss of the mouth was the kiss of love and friendship of peace and reconciliation 2. I find most Interpreters hinting by this expression something yet more special viz. Communion with Christ in his word The word indeed is the fruit of the lips and cometh out of the mouth and God may seem in some propriety of speech to kiss the Soul with the kisses of his mouth when he speaks to it in his word The Lord will speak peace to his people saith the Psalmist and I create the fruit of the lips peace peace saith the Lord by his Prophet Isaiah some expositors to further this notion have observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes to instruct but I cannot find that usage of it in holy writ Grace is poured forth upon Christs lips she desires those kisses some drive the notion higher observing the difference between the Doctrine of the Law and that of the Gospel the first is terrible the second sweet and comfortable holding forth nothing but the love of God in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins hence the Gospel is called The word of reconciliation Lastly She saith Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth She desires not only to hear the Doctrine of the gospel but that Christ should speak it to her The Preacher speaks to the Ear Christ to the heart Quoties ergo in corde nostro quod de divinis dogmatibus sensibusque quaerimus absque monitoribers invenimus toties oscula nobis á Sponso esse data verbo Dei credimus saith Origen so often as we find God by his word Speaking to our hearts so often doth our beloved kiss us with the kisses of his mouth This is sufficient to have spoken for the Explication of the matter of the Text. There onely remains something more circumstantial to be observed The words are Vox Sponsae The Voice of the Spouse According to the civil usage of our Country and I think most others the Lover speaks first Here the Spouse begins It is so betwixt God and the soul Christ speaks first He is found of those that seek him not and of those that enquire not after him He first loves us and our Love to him proceedeth from his Love first manifested to us But you must not understand her that speaks as one that is a stranger and in a state of disunion with her beloved but as one that is already espoused and made a Spiritual Bride not desiring first grace but further grace which she needeth as well as the first grace for he giveth both to will and to do he is both the author and the finisher of faith and other grace Secondly The words are Vox Volentis The Language of a willing Soul Willing that Christ should come near unto it and take it up into fellowship and communion with himself God's people are a willing people They are indeed made so by a divine power Psal 101. 2. But Certum est nos velle cum volumus saith Aug. It is God who makes us of unwilling Willing When he hath had his first work upon our wills and subdued that strong hold unto himself Then we are willing Nay more Thirdly They are Vox cupientis The voice of a panting Soul not barely content that Christ should kiss it but passionately desiring his kisses They are as much as Oh! that he would kiss me Every gracious Soul passionately desireth fellowship and Communion with Jesus Christ Oh! saith holy David when wilt thou come to me Neither is this all the words are not onely to be considered as a good wish or passionate desire but as a fervent prayer Lastly therefore they are Vox supplicantis the Language of a praying soul where observe What she beggs Not riches not honour not pleasures not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the good things of fortune but the riches of grace her Petition is like that of David Lord lift thou up