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
Children of men Psal 89. I will visit his transgression with a rod and his iniquity with stripes 4. My mercy shall not depart from him as from Saul Psal 89. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail 1. God covenants that although Solomon should sin yet he would not take his mercy from him The very term of Mercy signifies more than the continuance of the Crown to him for as Tychonius observes David would have understood little mercy for his Son to have enjoyed a temporal Kingdom and lost an eternal inheritance 2. The punishment which God threatens to him in case of sinning was but a Rod. The Rod of Men for if we should allow nothing to Pineda's Criticisme upon the term used Enosh to signify men here which properly signifies a weak old man who cannot lay on strokes hard but chastiseth his Child gently so as the Rod of Men here mentioned should be opposed to the grounded staff mentioned Isaiah 30. 32. which God makes to rest upon others yet certainly the termof a Rod with the adjunct of Men speaks a very gentle chastning with which eternal punishment is no way consistent 3. Add to this That the Holy Ghost the most certain Interpreter of Scripture 1 Cor. 6. 18. Applies the very promise here made to the Children of God I will be a Father unto you and you shall be my Sons and Daughters I say who so considereth these things must certainly conclude that Gods obligation by this Covenant extended further than the continuance of the temporal dominion in his line which is also advantaged by the consideration that Solomon in his life time was chastened with the Rods of Men 1 Kings 11. God stirred up against him Hadad Rezin and Jeroboam He was doubtless chastened of the Lord that he might not be condemned with the world Nor can any reasonably think to avoid the dint of the Argument drawn from these Texts by telling us That a greater than Solomon is understood in them even he of whom Solomon was but a Type For although it be true that divers of the Ancients favoured that notion amongst whom was Augustine Ambrose Tertullian and Theodoret and that some passages in the aforementioned Texts seem to be by the Holy Ghost himself applied to Christ amongst which that eminent part of this Covenant I will be to him a Father c. besides that others seem applicable to no other as where he promiseth to establish his Kingdom for ever yet it is as true that the promise I will be to him a Father as I shewed before is also by the Holy Ghost applied to believers 1 Cor. 6. 18. and those who understand the Hebrew Idiome know that the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth often signify less than Eternity strictly so called and it is as certain that Hierome and divers others of the Ancients apply these Texts literally to Solomon Possibly they compound the business better who considering Solomon as a Type of Christ divide the Covenant made with David betwixt Solomon and Christ thinking that part concerneth Solomon and part concerneth Christ Sure it is that Solomon built the material Temple not Christ and Solomon alone not Christ was in a capacity to forsake the Commandments of God and for the promissory part if we say it concerned Solomon in the letter and Christ in the Mystery and Antitype I think we shall not much err nor will this interpretation at all weaken the strength of our argument I find a 4th Argument for this eminent Person brought from 2 Sam. 12. 24 25. compared with Neb. 13. 26. and 1 Kings 3. 3. from whence De-La Champius observeth 3 things 1. That it is said God loved him 2 Sam. 12. 24. And the Lord loved him Neh. 13. 26. He was beloved of his God 2. In token of this love God gave him his name Jedidiah i. e. beloved of God 3. The Scripture saith he loved the Lord. The consideration of the latter makes the plea vain of those who to avoid the dint of this Argument would interpret Gods love of that general favour which he extends to every Creature distinguished from that by which he elevates the Creature to a participation of the Divine Nature for that love is not so efficacious as to produce a reciprocal love in the Creature to God again we therefore love him because he loved us first which being granted unless we grant God as mutable as man and deny what he hath said that whom he loves he loves to the End We must allow that Solomon notwithstanding his great miscarriages was yet beloved of God and died in a state of Grace Now to these Arguments might further be added as strong presumptions in the case yielding at least some auxiliary strength That no Text speaketh so desperȧtely concerning Solomon that the Scripture 1 Kings 11. 4. speaking of his falling seems to hint it a sin of infirmity in his old age and through the great temptation of his Wives That he did only tolerate Idolatry not make it the Religion of the Nation That he after this as is at least probably and generally concluded wrote in testimony of his repentance the book of Ecclesiastes That he was the Sacred Penman of Scripture These things may much confirm our charitable opinion in the case for although it be true that I know no reason to the contrary but that God who made use of the Son of Perdition to preach his everlasting Gospel might also with consistency enough to the wisdom of his Providence make use of a Child of Perdition to write and ingross what his holy Spirit first dictated nor saith Augustine hath God less consulted his own glory in it for now all the good and glory of the truth revealed in those books will be given to God Beside it is said that Balaams Song is also recorded in Scripture and a piece of holy writ yet considering that no one book of holy writ was wrote by such a withered hand as that of a reprobates and that the Scripture fixeth no such mark upon this great Person who was the Author of three Books there and that one of these Books at least appears let Bellarmine say what he will to be wrote after the days of his Vanity and hath in it evident marks of his nauseating his lusts and former vanities of pleasure love riches c. Nor have there been wanting some who have thought so of the other two Books also viz. the Proverbs and the Canticles And to these if we add that he was an eminent Type of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I say if we lay all these things together we shall I think neither stand in need of the Rabbinical figments who tell us formal stories of Solomons repentance Nor yet of that auxiliary help in which Pineda much triumpheth which Petrus de Castro affords from that Sculpture in leaden Plates wrote in ancient Arabick Characters and
By the Beloved speaking in this Song you are to understand the Lord Jesus Christ By the Spouse whom he sometimes calleth his love you may understand the Church and more particularly every truly believing Soul By the Watchmen the Ministers of the Church whom God hath set to watch for Souls By the Daughters of Hierusalem sometimes mentioned either the Members of the Church or the Neighbours of it The two first have the greatest share in the Song the others sometimes speak and are sometime spoken to But this is enough to have spoken by way of preface 'T is time to leave the threshold and to enter in to this pleasant House Only give me leave as an Epilogue to this discourse to subjoin the Judgment of Ludovicus de Ponte though a Papist yet a learned Man who hath copiously interpreted this Spiritual Song and allowing him the Popish Devotion for the Sacred Virgin which makes them all think they see her in every Text hath done much in it well It is prefix'd to his Latine Commentary To this purpose The Book of Solomon which from the nobleness of the Argument is called the Song of Songs is a spiritual conference betwixt that God who is three and yet one or betwixt Christ who is true God and Man and his Church whether ancient or modern and every gracious Soul which is a Member of that Church In which discourse God hath a double part and personateth two several Persons The person of a most wise Instructer or Master delivering to his Disciple the sublime Doctrine of Faith and Holiness 2. The Person of a most endeared lover extolling and courting his most beloved Spouse with wonderful praises and enriching her with great gifts and favours The Church also represents a double Person 1. The Person of a Disciple or Spouse towards God or the Person of a Mistress or companion towards other Souls which she calls the Daughters of Hierusalem The Argument of this Conference as well became such Persons is sublime pleasant profitable and abundantly copious for whatsoever the ancient Prophets sang whatsoever the Evangelists afterwards related or the Apostles Preached whether relating to the mysteries of faith or to holiness and Gospel perfection it is all in this Song comprehended in the style of lovers the style being Spiritual not Carnal But because the Metaphors and Similitudes which fill this whole Book are taken from Carnal Marriages We must pill off the bark that the letter might not kill That being once taken off the spiritual part lying within will enlighten the Soul and quicken and inflame and perfect it For according to our Saviours words it is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing and the words of this Song are Spirit and life to those who do sincerely consider them For as the Ancient Priests of the Jews as we read in the Book of Macchabees when they looked for the sacred fire which they had hidden found nothing but thick water which water to the admiration of all when the Sun shined out of the Cloud again was turned into fire so he who looks upon the Book of Canticles with carnal Eyes will only find the puddle-water of words which the outside letter seemeth to shew which will fill his heart with darkness instead of light with a carnal chilling instead of spiritual heat But if the divine Sun inlightens that which seemed puddle water will become coelestial fire wonderfully inlightning the understanding and inflaming the will But although the whole Book of Canticles containeth 8 Chapters and by Interpreters be divided into three five or more parts yet I believe the first and second Chapters are a sum or breviary of all those mysteries of Faith which are contained in the six other Chapters which is evidenced from this that the close of the second and of the last Chap. are much the same to shew us that the narration of matter is finished in the second Chapter and that from the third Chapter beginneth a new discourse of the same mysteries under new Metaphors and Similitudes Discourses of Divine Love BETWEEN CHRIST and the CHURCH From the first Chap. of the Song of Solomon Sermon I. Cant. 1. 2 3. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth for his loves are better then Wine V. 3. Because of the savour of thy good Ointments Thy name is as an Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee I Have observed in my prefatory discourse that some have fancied that this Book is called The Song of Songs because it contains several Songs in it It is in our Bibles divided into 8 Chapters and by Interpreters into several periods according to their particular fancies Ludovicus De Ponte conceives as I shewed you that the two first Chapters contain a Breviary of all the rest and as an evidence of it alledgeth the same close both of the second and eighth Chapter and from the third Chapter he thinks there begins a repetition of the same spiritual mysteries under new Metaphors whether that notion in the extent of it be true or no doubtless the two first Chapters contain much spiritual Doctrine informing us in the near communion betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ and the believing Soul A learned Interpreter distributes this Chapter into two parts the first he calls Prooemium a Preface the second Colloquium a Conference betwixt the two great Interlocutors in this spiritual discourse In the former you have two things 1. A Prayer 2. An Apology The first in v. 1 2 3 4 7. The second as a Parenthesis v 5 6. The Prayer consisteth of three Petitions each of which is urged by suitable arguments The first petition is v. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Month. The second v. 4. Draw me The 3d is v. 7. Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth c. where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon The further distribution of the Chapter and the several verses in it I shall leave until I come in order to them My Text containeth the first Petition with an argument annexed The petition in those words Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth The argument in the latter words for his love is better then Wine For the just understanding of the words we must consider 1. Who it is that speaketh 2. To whom the Speech is directed 3. what the import of the Petition is As to the first our Translation puts it out of doubt and it is as universally agreed amongst Interpreters that the Person speaking is she who throughout the whole Song bears the Person of the Spouse by which having already rejected the notions of those who understand Pharaohs Daughter or the Shulamite as also of those who restrain it to the Jewish Church must be understood either the Church in the general or the believing Soul in particular who here speaketh Either to the Bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ or to God the Father of this
Therefore do the Virgins love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This seemeth to be in our dialect an harsh sense and the connexion is not clear To help it therefore Piscator translateth it Quod attinet ad odorem c. As to what belongs to the savour of thy good Ointments c. The Tigurine Version make the middle words as a Parenthesis and translate it thus For the smell of thy good Ointments for thy name is as an Ointment poured out Therefore do the Virgins love thee The only question is whether the Spouses design in these words be to give a reason why her beloved had such an excellent name viz. because of the savour of his good Ointments Or to give a reason why the Virgins loved him or of both these together I think of both The words will bear it But let us come to enquire the import of the words more particularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The thing spoken of is Ointments these are said to be 1. Good and 2. to have a Smell The Hebrew word from which the word here translated Ointments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cometh signifies to be fat Deut. 32. 15. Jeshurun waxed fat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 5. 4. This word properly signifieth fatness and usually signifieth Oil or Ointment because of the pinguid nature of those things so Prov. 21. 20. Hos 2. 5. The word signifieth any kind of fatness whether caused by Nature or Art But it is not here to be taken literally he needs no Oils nor sweet Ointments to make him sweet But you must know that those Eastern Countries abounded with plenty of Spices and other sweet ingredients of which several compounds were made Oils and Ointments which were exceedingly grateful to the outward senses of which they made both a Religious and a Civil use They made a Religious use of them 1. In Sacrifices 2. In Consecrations Oil was used in Sacrifices Especially in such as were Eucharistical Hence you read of the Oil of gladness for it testified joy and gladness The first use of it in this kind of which you read in Scripture was Gen 28. 18. When God had preserved Jacob in the Night in token of his thankfulness he took the stone upon which he had slept and set it up for a pillar and powred Oil upon it he did the like again Gen. 35. 14 whether it were done as a note of the consecration of the place to the service of God or an Eucharistical Sacrifice may possibly be questioned by some but the latter seemeth to me most probable considering the subsequent use of Oil under the law to this purpose of which you may read in Leviticus Ch. 2. v. 1. 3. 4. It was not lawful in offerings which were to bring iniquity to remembrance Numb 5. 15. No testimony of Joy might there be shewn It was also used in Consecrations of persons and that either to the Kingly Priestly or Prophetical Office Samuel used Oil in the anointing both of Saul David to the Kingly Office The same you read also in the anointing of Jehu 2 King 10. 3. Elisha the Prophet was anointed So was the High Priest You have a description of the Oil and a particular Precept and direction for the composition of it Exod. 30. 22. This was called the holy anointing Oil with which Aaron and his Sons were anointed The Tabernacle also and the Ark with all things belonging to them were to be anointed with it as you will find in that Chapter Besides this Sacred use of Oil there was also a civil and ordinary use of it Thus they used it either for bodily nourishment the widow 1 Kings 17. 12. Told the Prophet that she had but a little Oil in the cruse Or 2. For delight and pleasure as we now use our sweet powders our dry and liquid perfumes Joab chargeth the woman of Tekoah being to personate a mourner not to anoint her self with Oil. Esther and the other Maids that were to be brought before Ahashuerus were for 6 months to be perfumed with Oils Christ complains of Simon that he had not anointed his head with Oil. Mary anointed Christ with Oil or Ointment Joh. 11. 2. and the Woman poured out a Box of Ointment Spikenard upon his head Now from this civil and sacred use of Oil and the effects the terms of Oil and Ointment and Anointing are also used metaphâ—rically in Scripture Thus Oil and Ointments in Scripture signify the graces of Gods Spirit and Anointing signifies that gracious Divine Act by which we are made partakers of those graces To this sense the Psalmist speaketh God hath anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness above thy fellows Psal 45. 7. which the Apostle applieth to Christ Heb. 1. 9. and St. John expoundeth saying The Spirit was not given unto him by measure which is plainly expressed Acts 10. 38. God hath anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power And as the holy anointing Oil under the old Law wetted not Aarons head alone but ran down upon the Skirts of his Garment so this holy metaphorical Oil doth also Hence as David said Psal 92. 10. Thou hast anointed me with fresh Oil and the People of God then were called the Lords anointed So under the New Testament the Children of God are said to have an unction it is said that this Anointing abideth in them Thus that of St. John is made good Of his fulness we have received grace for grace By Christs Ointments we understand then the Grace that was poured out upon him and which dwelleth in him and in this sense I find the generality of sober Expositors agreed Now these Ointments are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good the signification of which term I opened to you before and when I come to the propositions of Doctrine I shall more particularly shew you the goodness of them in every notion of good But these Ointments are also said to cast a Savour At the savour of thy good Ointments A smell or savour is Qualitas olfactu sensibilis some quality of a thing which we discern by our external sense of smelling being conveyed to us by the mediation of the Air By the smell of Christs Graces we can understand nothing else than the Spiritual sense of the love of Christ which by the mediation and breathing of the holy Spirit of God is discerned by the Soul The word in the Hebrew signifies any perception of a thing it is used Is 11. v. 3. where it is said of Christ that the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him shall make him as we translate it of a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord the Hebrew is he shall be smelled in the fear of the Lord. And Judg. 16. 9. we translate it when it toucheth the fire the Hebrew word is the same when it smelleth the fire that is when the fire cometh to it when
say some interpreters desires his manifestation in the Flesh the publication of the Doctrine of the Gospel together with the comfortable application of those Doctrines to her conscience I am sure there is a truth in that Let me therefore a little make use of their notion Take this for the Proposition Prop. It is of the nature of a believing Soul to thirst after a communion with Christ in his Word his Gospel especially and the teachings of his Spirit in and by that I here join two of those propositions together which I distinguished upon the opening of the words She desires the kisses of his Mouth 2. That he should kiss her with the kisses of his Mouth This Proposition will offer me an opportunity to discourse to you the affection of the believing Soul to the words of Christ both in the more external and more spiritual and internal teachings and ministrations of it The words of the Gospel are the words of Christ the kisses of his mouth whether they be applied and set home to the particular conscience yea or no. The ministration of the Gospel is in itself exceeding glorious Therein saith the Apostle is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. Therein in Gods way of Salvation revealed to lost sinners and by it life and immortality are brought to light Now this word of God is to be considered As written for our Instruction For saith the Apostle Rom. 15. 4. whatsoever things were written before were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope As preached So it is the Ordinance of God for our faith and therefore called The word of Faith Sanctification Consolation and Eternal Salvation for indeed the supply of all the spiritual wants and necessities of our Souls Hence there are three ways by which our Souls have a communion with God in his Word Reading Hearing and Meditation Reading is one means by which we come to the knowledg of the will of God in his Word The King of Israel was commanded to read in the Book of Gods Law all the days of his life that he might learn to keep the Law of his God and there is a blessing pronounced to him that readeth Indeed he that readeth the word as it lyeth before us in our Bibles hath this advantage that he is sure what is there plain to his understanding is the undoubted pure Word of God and while a man readeth the Scriptures he is but repeating of Gods Word to his own soul or hearing God immediately speaking to him Hearing the word preached is another means of communion with God in his Word This is an Ordinance of God and such a one as he honoureth with being the great means of calling and saving such as he hath ordained to life So as in that ordinance a soul hath an opportunity to meet God to draw nigh unto him to hear him speak unto it We must take heed that we do not think that all which we hear out of pulpits is spoken by God God no further speaketh by the Minister than the Minister keepeth unto his Text speaketh according to the Scriptures either by way of interpretation or application And therefore every good Christian is to search the Scriptures whether what their Preachers deliver be consonant to them Those noble Bereans mentioned Acts. 17. did so when St. Paul was the Preacher and are commended for it The Scriptures are to be judged by no other rule but Sermons are to be measured by the holy Scriptures No man hath communion with God by hearing further than so far as that is consonant to the will of God which he heareth But admitting the Minister of Christ answereth his name and Office and faithfully revealeth and applieth the will of God while we hear we have communion with God God communicateth his holy will unto us and we communicate with him by an obedient Ear who hath comanded us to hear that our souls may live A third way is by Meditation This is an act of our inward man standing upon the things which we have read or heard as necessary to the souls spiritual nourishment as Digestion is to the nourishment of our bodies by what is their proper food a duty much practised by David Psal 119. 97 99. And a good man is described by it Psal 1. 3. He meditateth in the law of the Lord night and day By this the soul doth not only fasten the word of God upon it self but it also dives deeper into the depths of it I say this communion with God in his word is very desirable to the spouse of Christ I added his gospel especially The Word of God in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is made up of several parts There is in it sacred history no unuseful part of holy Writ it being that which more than any other acquainteth us with Gods way of of providence with his people of old You have in it many Moral Instructions and Precepts of Christianity and Godliness an admirable part of Scripture that which makes the holy Scriptures to be what no other book in the world is a light to our feet and lanthorn to our paths Shewing us what we are to do what to decline and avoid but yet these are not properly called Gospel doctrines You have in it many Prophesies or predictions of what God intended to do in the world most of which are fulfilled some we yet live in the expectations of You have also in it many terrible threats and curses and many woes denounced against the violaters of the law of God these are excellent portions of holy Writ to keep your souls in awe and make us afraid of sinning against God but these are not properly Gospel Doctrines but properly belong to the Law which declareth and worketh wrath You have also in those sacred books many declarations of the good will and love of God to poor lost Sinners declared in and through Jesus Christ You have an historical part of the Gospel declaring what Christ hath done and Suffered for us a declarative and promissory part proclaiming Salvation to poor lost creatures and promising life and Salvation and all grace to some poor undone sinners promises for the conferring and increase of grace These and such like I principally understand by Gospel Doctrines The Doctrine of Gods free grace in the pardoning of sin and the imputation of Christs Righteousness to the soul Doctrines that reveal Christ and tend to bring the soul to Christ or direct the soul in walking with him Now I say tho the believing soul values every line of holy Writ and hath a reverence for the whole Word of God and desires a communion with God in reading and hearing and meditating in every part of his revealed will yet it hath a special thirst after those portions of it which contain these Revelations Other parts are
sweet but these are sweeter than the Hony and the Hony-comb No portions of Scripture are like these to the believer Every verse in the book of God is a Star but as Stars differ one from another in glory so do the Revelations of the will of God in our apprehensionsa s more suited to our necessities For the proof of the proposition There is so much reason for it that were it not that it is fit your Faith for the help of which the Ministry is ordained should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God I might for bear the use of any Scripture texts in the case The World was many hundred years old before there was any written Word of God of which we have any record The first that we read of was the Book of the Law which the King of Israel was commanded to have alwayes before him and to read therein all the daies of his life Saul was the first King of Israel he was a wicked man and regarded not the divine Law The next was David the man according to Gods own heart See his Affection to the word Superlatively exprest Psal 19. 7 8 9 10. 11. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the Statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the Eyes The Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than the hony and the Hony-comb Psal 119. 14 15 16. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy statutes v. 97. Oh! how I love thy law it is my meditation night and day Read over that excellent Psalm at your leisure you will find in it a strange variety of expressions setting out David's value of and thirst after the Word of the Lord. I had saith he in one passage perished in my affliction if thy Word had not been my delight For the Word of God as delivered by Ministers you shall all along the History of the Scripture observe you read not of one good King of Judah and Israel but they were very desircus in all cases of consulting with the Prophets of the Lord and no doubt but the reading the Law and the Exposition of it in the Sanctuary was the reason why David Psal 42. Psal 63. and Psal 84 so passionately bewailed his being banished from it In short look through all the New Testament you shall find no company of Believers but by some Expressions or other declaring their Zeal for and fondness of the Word of God And the same Spirit continued in gracious Souls after the times that the Scripture makes mention of I remember Hierom tells us of a good woman whom he saith he could never find without a Bible in her hand aud Mr. Fox in his Martyrology tells us a story of Three Maids in Lincolnshire if I remember right who sold their Estates in a time of Persecution to buy a few Leaves of the Bible It were infinite to tell you the instances we have in Ecclesiastical History of the great thirst after and delight in the Word of God which good people have expressed What need we any further Instance than what the Experience of our own Age doâ—h afford How naturally do Souls born again as new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word of God It is true some Hypocrites especially in times when Religion is in credit and reputation may lay hold of the Skirts of a Jew and say We will go with you I mean may shew some fondness of hearing and reading the Word but no Child of God no regenerate man but is indeed thirsty of it So that as it was said of Paul as soon as he was converted Behold he prayeth so it may be said of every man and woman let them before have been never so loose and vain and careless as to reading and hearing the Word Behold he readeth or Behold he heareth Nor indeed is it possible it should be otherwise If we consider first That this is the Will of God concerning every Soul The Soul is unchanged till it be in some degree willing and obed ent So as what St. Paul spake more openly he saith to God though more privately Lord what wilt thou have me to do Now this is one of the first things that God calleth such a Soul to do Hear saith God and your Souls shall live As God said to Paul Go into the City and it shall be told thee what thou shouldst do So God saith unto the changed Soul Go to Church and hear my Word and go and read in my Word and there it shall be told thee what thou shouldst do Augustin tells us a story that being in a great Agony of Spirit and not knowing what to do he heard a voice as out of an inward Room saying Tolle lege Take up and read The Soul in this doth but conform himself to an impression that is made by the Spirit upon his heart and is coaevous to the hour of his New Birth and this you shall see exemplified not in this or that particular Soul but in every Soul born of God The Infant is not more naturally disposed to suck the breasts of the Mother or Nurse than such a Soul is disposed to read and hear the Word of God from the impression of the holy Spirit of God upon it in the first hour of its Conversion Nor is any thing more reasonable than such an impression if we consider God's Ordination of his Word as the pabulum animae the food and nourishment of the new born Soul 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that you may grow thereby And for this very reason this thirst after and delight in the Word of God never goeth out of a sanctified heart for the Word is the proper nourishment of the Soul in all states it is not only Milk for Babes but Meat for stronger ones By these things men live saith Hezekiah The just shall live by Faith saith the Prophet The Word is the object of this Faith You shall observe that the God of Nature hath planted in most sensitive creatures a knowledge of their proper food and an appetite or desire to it The God of Grace hath given the renewed Soul a knowledge of its proper food too and created in it an appetite to it so as no soul is born again without a knowledge of the Word as that by which it is to live or an appetite to it Nay it is not only necessary to uphold the Spiritual Being of the the Soul but to all the purposes of its well-being Such a Soul findeth the Word an inexhaustible Fountain a large
in none of your bosoms Is there not amongst some of you a sad neglect of Reading the Scripture Let me tell you it speaks you to have tasted very little if at all how good the Lord is Secondly How sadly doth this reflect upon those who despise Prophecyings It is a dreadful Text 1. Joh. 4. 6. We are of God He that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us It is true no Minister of Christ can say He is of God in that strict sense as the Apostles did whose Calling was not of men nor by men but immediately from God It is also true that every one who talks out of a Pulpit is not of God Many run whom God never sends and you shall easily know them by the message they bring But every faithful Minister of Christ that faithfully openeth and conscienciously applieth the Word of God to Peoples understandings hearts and consciences is of God that is he is sent of God he is the Ordinance of God and he that knoweth God that hath â—â—y saving experimental knowledge of God will hear such a one If there be any that despiseth such Prophecying he is not of God Now this men may do from looseness and prophaneness and this too many are guilty of and by it proclaim to the world that they were never born again of the uncorruptible Seed of the Word that they never yet tasted the goodness of God in an Ordinance There is another generation that despise Prophecyings pretending to the immediate Teachings of the Spirit of God I shall in my next Discou se God willing shew you that no pious Soul can undervalue the Teachings of the Holy Spirit nor think them needless but he that looks for them in opposition to the Teachings of the Word of God or otherwise than by and in the Teachings of the Word is ignoranr knowing nothing The Spirit brings to our remembrance the things which we have heard of God I never yet knew a pious Soul that duâ—st slight Reading or powerful Preaching I have indeed known Religious Souls neglect and despise some mens little jinglings of words in Pulpits flaunts of Rhetorick and playing with words or disgorging their malice and passion and they deserve to be despised and abhorred of all but I never yet knew that pious Soul that did not hunger after the Preaching of Jesus Christ in a plain Scriptural powerful manner I would say to any that pretend to despise Sermons pretending to the Teachings of the Spirit immediately as Paul spoke to the Galatians Gal. 3. 2. This would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith So say I you pretend to some change of heart to a Receiving of the Spirit Received you the Spirit by an immediate afflatus or impression or by the Hearing of the Word Besides how shall the impressions of the Spirit be known tryed or judged but by the Word for St. John hath taught us 1 Joh 4. 1. That every Spirit is not to be believed And the Apostle warns the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2. 2. not to be shaken in mind troubled or deceived by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter I shall shut up this Discourse with a word of Exhortation Which of us is there who hath not an ambition to be the Lamb's Wife and to be thought the Spouse of Christ Evidence then your selves to be such by your hunger after a communion with God in his Word by your much Reading much Hearing by your meditating in the Law of the Lord night and day For the written Word you have no plea to the contrary no excuse for the Word Preached I wish Christians had more general incouragement We have too much of of the word of man in Pulpits too little of the Word of God and as it is in Trade the false and corrupt making of Wares depretiates the Commodity and brings it out of esteem with such as abhor to be cheated So the abundance of false Preaching by which I mean not only Preaching of unsound Notions but Preaching vain Philosophy idle Speculations turning Sermons into Harangues of Oratory In short whatsoever is not intelligible Scriptural Preaching with a true design to shew men the way of Salvation and to direct them into it and in it I call this false Preaching We have so much of this that it hath brought a discredit upon the Ordinance I would have you as our Saviour directs Take heed what you hear and how you hear and that will oblige you to take heed whom you hear But withal Take heed that you hear for God hath told you that Faith cometh by hearing He hath said Hear and your Souls shall live And blessed be God he hath not left us without some that Preach Jesus Christ and him crucified and desire to know nothing else amongst people I cannot tell you how long you shall have any of the daies of the Son of Man work while it is day when the night comes no man can work We have had faithful powerful Preaching a long time possibly Christ never had a Church on Earth had such handling the Word of God so long a time doth not the Candle begin to fail and burn in the Socket We have an Ezra's Temple but is not Solomon's destroyed 2. There 's no such way to recover your Light and keep it with you as to cry after it and to make use of it while you have it God will not take away his Word from hungry Children Where are our Rogers Sheppard Hooker Fenner Preston Sibbs Burroughs and others It 's time to recover your Appetites that you may recover your Bread 3. Consider you that love the Lord will be the first that want it Prodigals of their Souls can feed upon any Husks though they fill their Bellies with nothing but wind and crudities That you may recover your Appetite to the Word Purge your selves of your lusts I shall conclude with that of James Jam. 1. 21 22. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your Souls But be you doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Sermon VI. Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth IT is not Let me hear the words of his mouth though that be intended the words of God's mouth may be brought to us by men like unto our selves as they were spoken to the Israelites of old by the Prophets the Spouse begs not only the Words of her Lord but that they might be spoken from himself She beggeth his words but so that they may be kisses tokens of his love and favour to her Soul She beggeth not only a more external Communion with God by which God communicates his Will to our exteriour senses but an inward Communion that God by his Word and Gospel would speak unto her heart that the Word might
not be to her a meer sound much less the savour of death unto death but the savour of life unto life Prop. The great desire of a gracious Soul is after an inward spiritual Communion with Christ in his Word ȧnd Ordinances This is a Point not so well generally understood by the croud of Professors suffer me therefore to spend a few words in the Explication of it All Communion importeth mutual and reciprocal Communication It is an action wherein two Persons do communicate themselves each to other Communion with God implieth God's communication of himself to his creature and the creature's communication of it self unto God To restrain my discourse to the present Subject I am about There is a more external Communion we have with God with reference to his Word in the reading it or hearing it read or Preacht or meditating in it God then communicates his Will to us by the help of Letters Words and Syllables by which we understand things or by the voice of his Ministers sent in his Name to open his mind and will unto us and we communicate with God giving him the homage of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and imaginations this I call a more external Communion And there is a more spiritual internal Communion which a Soul hath with God in it I call it a Communion because God in it doth communicate himself to the Soul and the Soul communicateth it self to God God speaketh by his Word to the heart and the heart receiveth the Divine Impressions and surrendreth up it self to the Will of God In the other there is no more than a communication of the Divine Will on God's part nor any more than the homage of our exterior senses our faculty of reading and hearing the service of our Eyes and Ears our common sense and power of Imagination and of our understanding receiving the notions of Truth In this Communion with God in his Word there is not only on God's part a communication of God's Will but also of God's Power by which the Soul is 1. Irradiated as to the understanding inabled to see things in another light more fully and clearly 2. Subdued as to the Will so as the man is made willing and obedient to the heavenly Revelation transformed into the likeness of the Word so convinced of the truth of it that it can no longer withstand it whether it be a word of Instruction which is the Object of our Faith or a word of Reproof for conviction of Sin or a word of Consolation for refreshing the Soul the Soul can no longer deny or dispute or doubt of the Proposition no longer stand out against the Precept no longer refuse to be comforted The Word of the Lord comes here to the inward part of the Soul 2. There is a further Communication on man's part of himself to God In the former Communion he only lends God his Eye to read his Will his Ear to hear it his imaginative power to think upon it his Passive Intellect or Power to receive Notions of Truth Here he communicates his whole Soul to God his Will and Affections his whole Man It is true here God speaks first we do only velle quum volumus agere quum agimur as Augustine expresseth it that is we only will when we are made willing and act when we are first moved and acted There are some who are great Patrons for the Power of Man's Will as to things spiritual that would elude those Texts about the Teachings of the Spirit and the Teachings of the Anointing spoken of by St. John by asserting That there is such a constant concomitancy of the holy Spirit with the Preaching of the Gospel that whosoever will may be willing and obedient and believe and repent and be obedient I should hearken much to this Notion if the Authors of it could give me a good account how it is then that of two persons hearing the same Sermon and sitting under the same ministration of the Spirit one man only hears it thinks upon it a little and receiveth some notions of it to fit his Tongue with discourse another hath his heart changed by it and transformed into the Image of God and wholly changed as to his Will and Affections and his whole Conversation That it is so is demonstrably true I would know whence it is unless they will make man a God unto himself that is the first cause of truly good and spiritual motions Now this internal Communion with God in his Word which in Scripture is called the Teaching of the Spirit and the Teaching of the Anointing being such as few are acquainted with is little known in the world and therefore some count it Canting and so unwarily blaspheme the Teacher and cannot understand any thing else by it than Ministerial Teaching Others again can understand no Teaching of the Spirit in and by Ordinances but dream that Souls under the Teachings of the Spirit must live above Duties and Ordinances and so turn it into meer Enthusiasm immediate impressions which they pretend to from the holy Spirit of God It may be therefore worth our while to understand it a little You read of it prophesied of old Isa 54. 17. That the Children of the Church should be all taught of the Lord. You read in the New Testament of words which the Holy Ghost teacheth 1 Cor. 2. 14. Yea it teacheth us not words only but things 1 John 2. 27. But the Anointing which you have received in him abideth in you and you need not that any man should teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lye Yea it was Christ's own Promise Joh. 14. 26. But the Comforter which the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance whatsoever you have heard from me So as that there is a Teaching of the Spirit is out of all doubt The only Questions are 1. Whether this be concomitant with Ministerial Teachings and superadded to them which we maintain against those who are for immediate Teachings in raptures and by immediate impressions or a thing separate from them and to which Ministerial Teachings are rather hinderances than any furtherance which is what we deny For though we limit not the Holy One of Israel but say that as he did of Old thus teach his Prophets and Apostles so he may by more immediate Impressions and Revelations teach his People still what they are to do or to avoid Yet we say that the Book of Scripture being finished and sealed no such Revelations are by any to be expected and if any man think he hath any such Impressions Revelations or extraordinary Teachings they must be proved by the Word with which if they do not agree they proceed not from the holy Spirit of God neither have they any Light in them Secondly 2. Whether the Teachings of the Spirit be any thing more than Ministerial Teachings in
the Preachings of the Gospel which Teachings have such a constant presence of the Spirit of Grace with them that if a man will he may with those Aids and Assistances do what God requireth of him in order to his Eternal Salvation and avoid what God would have him to avoid We affirm they are and that there is no such power in the Will of Man in the use of those common Aids and Assistances and that there is a Teaching of the Spirit in the use of the Word far beyond the power and virtue of the Word The Object of this Teaching we make to be the Elect of God Reprobates as well as chosen Vessels may be taught by the Ministerial Teaching of the Word and have that external Communion with God in his Word which I before mentioned but the Elect of God and such as shall be eternally saved only know any thing of these Teachings and to such are restricted throughout all Scripture in such places as make any mention of them The more immediate Object is the Understanding Will and Affections The Ministerial Teaching reacheth the Eyes and Ears and exteriour senses and thence cometh into the thoughts and into the understanding more confusedly and imperfectly it reacheth not the more inward part of the Soul The things of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 10 12. are revealed to those who have received the Spirit V. 14. The Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned I therefore call it an internal spiritual Communion with God in his Word But yet for the fuller understanding of this it is reasonable that I should shew you how the Spirit Teacheth the Elect Soul in and by the Ordinance that you may see and understand what there is more in this Spiritual Teaching in this internal Communion with God in his Word and Ordinances than in the meer Teaching of the Letter meer Ministerial Teaching separated from this I told you before these Teachings were not by immediate Enthusiasms Impressions or Revelations of new things for I pray observe there is a twofold Revelation the one I may call A simple immediate first Revelation Thus God of old taught the Patriarchs and Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles All Scripture was by inspiration from God and holy men spake as they were inspired by God Thus God was pleased to teach the Guides of his Church before the holy Scripture was written at least fully written and a Curse annexed as a Seal to that Book to them that should add any thing to it This is a Teaching some would be at but what need of it if the Scriptures as the Apostle tells us are able to make the man of God wise to salvation furnished to every good work Secondly There is another kind of Revelation which we may for distinction sake call a compounded mediate Revelation it is the further Revelation of what God hath revealed in his Word but we wanted a proper medium to see it in we were blind and dark and our Eyes stuck in the bark and surface of Scripture Thus it is yet true 1 Cor. 2. 10. That God revealeth to his People by his Spirit the deep things of God the things which Eye hath not seen nor hath Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But of this I shall speak more by and by That I may therefore give you at least my apprehension concerning the due notion of the Spirit 's Teaching so as it shall not be confounded with bare Ministerial Teachings which I take to be a great debasing of the notion of it on the one hand nor be made opposite to Ministerial Teaching and that made useless on the other hand I shall shew you that in order to the Salvation of a Soul there is a Teaching of the Spirit necessary added to or over and above Ministerial Teachings I shall open it in four or five particulars 1. The Spirit teacheth by special Illumination There is a common Illumination which is the Effect of the Spirit also but of the Spirit working in a way of common grace by which men receive the common notions of Religious Truths There are two diseases or faults in the Soul of a Christian which hinder its learning spiritual things 1. The first is a listlesness or indisposition to learn or hear any thing of that nature You may see this in mens slighting of the Word of God till God hath wrought some saving work in their hearts they have no mind to read the holy Scriptures nor yet to hear them faithfully opened and applied And could you but enter into peoples hearts which yet you may know by what was the temper of your own hearts before God wrought a change on them you would see this yet further confirmed unto you this God in conversion removes but this is not that which I have here to do with 2. There is besides this a natural blindness and deafness that a poor creature cannot see nor hear In Jer. 5. 21. you find these words Hear now this O you foolish people and void of understanding who have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Every natural man is one of these who have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not The mysteries of the Kingdom of God are foolishness to the natural Soul what a notion of Regeneration had Nicodemus Joh. 3. what notions of Justification Union with Christ the indwelling of the Spirit Faith c. have some others discovered Natural men have rational Souls as well as others and by the workings of them understand many Propositions in Religion which shine in the light of Natural Reason but there are Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Doctrines that shine only in the light of Scripture of these they understand little or nothing Nay for the more common notions of Religion concerning the Immortality of the Soul the Nature of God the Doctrines of Faith Repentance Good works when once the heart is changed the Soul seeth them in quite another light and hath quite another notion of them than it had before while it was only under the instruction of Reason and the Ministerial instruction of Men. Paul prayeth for the Ephesians Ephes 1. 17 18. That the God of Glory would give them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him the Eyes of their understanding being inlightened c. It is the Spirit that inlighteneth the understanding and inableth it to a fuller and further comprehension of and insight into the Spiritual Mysteries of the Kingdom of God When the Disciples came to our Saviour Matth. 13. 10. and asked him why he spake to the multitude in Parables he tells them v. 11. because it was given to his Disciples to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God but to the multitude it was not given From hence have proceeded the vain speculations and
reasonings of one part of the world that have pretended to more Learning and Knowledge than others and the prophane scoffs and mockings of a more silly part of it at the greatest Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Some by Wisdom know not God being under the meer conduct of reason and tying up themselves to the meer informations of that natural Eye Some knowing less have blasphemed God and the holy things of God counting their own Ignorance a sufficient excuse for their Blasphemy None knoweth the things of God aright but he that is under the Teaching of the Spirit Take the first Principle of all Religion viz. That the holy Scriptures are the Word of God no Soul knoweth this as he ought to know it but he that is under a further Teaching than that of the Church or of Reason much less doth it know the momentous Propositions that are contained in those holy Writings To all knowledge there is required 1. A sufficient Revelation 2. A sufficiency in our faculty to receive and comprehend the Revelation The holy Scriptures are a sufficient Revelation of all Truth There are no Mysteries of the Kingdom of God to be admitted but what are there revealed But we want a visive faculty a sufficiency in our understandings to apprehend and to conceive them till the Lord by the finger of his Spirit toucheth our Ears and saith Ephatha be opened When Peter made his confession of Christ for which Christ blessed him Christ addeth Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to him Secondly The Spirit teacheth by a special Application of the Word to the Conscience The Word as written is no more directed to one man than to another it equally concerneth all men When we Preach we are like Benhadad's Archers we draw Bows at adventures and let the Lord's Arrows fly who is it that directs them betwixt the joints of one harness more than another that when we reprove sin and denounce the Judgments of God against it saith to this or that sinner Thou art the man or when we display the grace of the Gospel and open the Promises of God teacheth one Soul to apply them while another refuseth the comfort of them All special Application of the Word to the Soul which indeed is the true Teaching is from the holy Spirit of God It is the Spirit that was promised Joh. 16. 8. to convince the world of Sin Righteousness and Judgment It is the Spirit which convinceth the Soul of Truth of Wrath of Love indeed of any thing of Spiritual Revelation It is the Spirit that makes the Word stick to the Soul All the Ministers on Earth cannot make a threatning to stick to the heart of an hard and impenitent sinner nor a Promise stick to a broken and contrite heart until the Spirit comes and joyneth with the Ministration of the Word We sometimes meditate of the Lord's terrours and compose Discourses with the best Art we are able and in the vanity of our hearts are it may be sometimes saying within our selves Surely this Sermon will alarum some sinners open some blind Eyes Another time we study the Grace of the Gospel and with the best Art we can compose Discourses to affect Souls with the sense of the love of God in Jesus Christ and are ready to think surely this Discourse will affect some Souls and bring them to love and admire Jesus Christ to seek to him for pardon and forgiveness to receive him as the Saviour of man as their Saviour We go about our work and when we have done we see cause to return unto the Lord that sent us mourning and saying We have laboured in vain and spent our strength for nothing and in vain The Spirit of the Lord moves not upon the face of our waters there 's not one Soul washed from its filthiness The Angel comes not and troubles the waters though our people lye from year to year at the Pool yet possible not a Soul is cured of its infirmity The Word is but a dead letter it is the Spirit that quickeneth whom he pleaseth The Word the Minister teacheth us by communicating notions but the Spirit only teacheth by particular and effectual Application of notions to our Souls advantage Thirdly The Spirit teacheth by evident Demonstration There is a threefold Demonstration of things 1. The Demonstration of Sense Thus it is demonstrable that the Fire burneth that Snow is white all know that spiritual things come under no such Demonstration 2. The Demonstration of Reason thus a proper effect is a demonstration of the cause Some Propositions in Religion are indeed capable of this demonstration The Creation demonstrateth a Creator c. But alas there are very few things in Religion that fall under the demonstration of Reason most Propositions of that nature depend upon Revelation and theâ—truth of them is to be judged from thence That Christ is the eternal Son of God That he took upon him our Nature died for Sinners In short all the main Propositions of Religion all Propositions immediately concerning our Salvation all Articles of Faith are things which fall not under the demonstration of Reason 3. There is therefore Thirdly a Demonstration of the Spirit St. Paul tells us his Preaching was in the Demonstration of the Spirit that is attended with the Demonstration of the Spirit and let Scoffers say what they will if this Demonstration of the Spirit attendeth not all our Preaching we do but beat the Air and labour in vain Logicians rightly tell us of two sorts of Arguments The one they call Topicks the other Demonstrations The difference of them lies in the effects they have upon our minds The former make a thing only probable to us the other make it certain If a notion appears only probable to us we have some doubts and fears and suspicions about the truth of it Nothing is demonstrated to us but that of the truth of which we have no further doubts against which we can make no Objections Now nothing but the Spirit of God thus teacheth The Gifts of Ministers are various the discourses of some may be meer words oratorial discourses these of all others have least influence upon any but airy Souls others more mind their work and knowing that nothing but the Word of God layeth hold on the Conscience endeavour to prove what they say by holy Writ and some in this are more happy than others as they are more skilled in the Scriptures and the true sense of them others are more rational in their discourses men of great parts good reason though the second sort of these best discharge their Office yet the effect of the best is to make a thing but probable to the Soul The Soul will find out some distinctions excuses and evasions until it comes under this Teaching of the Spirit it is an easie thing to make it probable to the Soul that it is in a road and high-way to Hell and eternal destruction that sin is the
vilest thing in the world that there is no way of Salvation but by Jesus Christ In short any Gospel Proposition may easily be made probable either by reason working from connate natural Principles or at least to those Souls that own the Scriptures to be the Word of God from Propositions of holy Writ but still I say till the holy Spirit of God comes to teach the Soul the Soul will not be fully persuaded indeed not at all persuaded but have this and the other thing to say against it Nothing silenceth the Soul to the revelation of any Spiritual Truth so as it disputeth it no more unless it be perhaps in a fit or under some great temptation but this Demonstration of the Spirit Fourthly The Spirit teacheth by Recapitulation or bringing to remembrance I have my ground for this from that of our Saviour Joh. 14. 6. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you This Teaching by way of bringing to remembrance is an excellent way of Teaching It is one reason why Christians profit no more by hearing because they never meditate they seldom or never call to remembrance what they have heard If a Schoolmaster should learn a Child his Grammar Rules once and never make him bring them again to his remembrance he would learn but little An improvement in notional knowledge of spiritual things doth depend upon often calling to remembrance what we have heard But the Spirits bringing to remembrance is yet a more excellent thing and there is the same disproportion betwixt our own bringing to remembrance something we have read of the Word of God or heard out of it and the holy Spirit 's bringing to remembrance that there is betwixt Ministerial Instruction and the Instruction of the Spirit of God at the first As man's instruction and first teaching reacheth no further than that power of man's Soul by which he receiveth the bare notion of a thing and that imperfectly too but the holy Spirit instructeth the heart and reins and teacheth the secret and inward parts of the Soul So man's bringing to remembrance things which we have heard from God doth no more than revive the notion of them in our understandings making the first prints of them more deep plain and legible But the holy Spirit 's bringing things to remembrance is a bringing them to the remembrance of the whole Soul renewing those motions of the will and affections which it taught the Soul with reference to those Propositions which by Ministerial Teaching or by reading the Word were first by the help of our Eyes and Ears brought into our Souls and carried by the holy Spirit of God further into the understanding the will and affections by which the Soul is anew instructed convinced comforted strengthened c. to which our repetitions of and discourses of what we have read and heard serve but as means to so noble an end and without the attaining of that indeed is of very little significancy to our Souls real profit and advantage Lastly The Spirit 's Teaching is by strengthening and quickening the Soul to practice We call upon men not to be hearers of the Word but doers of it also but we cannot make them so we cannot give them an inward Principle of Life either strengthening or quickening them to do what we call to them for and this is the reason why we oft-times labour in vain and spend our strength for nothing and in vain Old Adam is too hard for young Melancthon We see this in the experience of every School-Boy The best Teaching is by practice Let a Child learn his Rules never so well he understands them not till he comes to reduce them to practice therefore the best Teachers put Children upon practice as soon as they can Solomon tells us Pro 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge The end of all Knowledge is practice We therefore desire to know that we might practice he that hath not been taught to practice in the things of God hath indeed learned nothing By this time I hope I have shewed you that admitting the teaching of the Letter and of the Ministers there is none left for the teaching of the Spirit and that there is a vast difference betwixt a meer external Communion with God in his Word and an internal Communion with him in and by the Word so as we have no reason either to despise Ordinances or to rest in that external homage which we pay unto God in the observance of them and sufficient reason why the Soul of an understanding Christian should not be satisfied with the reading and hearing the words of Christ's mouth without the kisses of his mouth For the proof of the Proposition I shall give you first the instance of holy David take it as it lieth before you Ps 63. 1 2. 3. O God saith he thou art my God early will I seek thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is he means no waters of the Sanctuary The title of that Psalm tells you that Psalm was composed when David was in the wilderness of Judah in the time of his persecution by Saul when he had not the liberty of God's Publick Ordinances In this condition he thirsteth he longeth for what for thee saith he Further yet v. 2. To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Because thy loving-kindness is better than life You see David's desires are not terminated in a coming into the Sanctuary but a seeing the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary in an understanding the loving-kindness of God revealed in his Sanctuary And in the expression of the same passion Psal 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God the living God when shall I come and appear before God It is manifest by the last words that the thing which David thirsted after was a communion with God in the Ordinances of his Worship but yet not after a meer external communion with him My Soul panteth after thee O God for God the living God So in Psal 119. v. 18. Open my Eyes O Lord that I might discern the wonders of the Law not my Ears only to hear thy Law or my Eyes that I may read the Doctrine of the Law but that I may discern the wonders of thy Law Paul did not think it enough that the Ephesians and Colossians had the Word of God amongst them and Preach'd to them by Apostles and men immediately deriving from them but for the former he prayes that the Eyes of their understanding might be opened and for the latter That the Word of God might dwell in them richly but what need have we of any Scripture in the case I appeal to the experience of
gain doth arise ordinarily Now all the profit that can be so much as imagined to arise from the world as meerly read in our Bibles or heard opened from the Ministers of the Gospel or meditated upon can be nothing but some superficial notional knowledge in the things of God Knowledge indeed is an excellent thing and as pleasant to an ingenuous Soul as Light is to the Eye and such a Soul counts it amongst his gains and this may and doth draw out not only true and good and pious Souls to read and hear Sermons and study the Scriptures but it may and doth entice and allure others But the pious Soul feeth a profit beyond this he hath read 1 Tim. 3. 15. That the holy Scriptures are able to make a man wise to salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ V. 17. To make the man of God perfect throughly furnished to every good work He hath heard that good words from thence have made Souls better when sorrow hath made the heart to stoop this is the profit this the advantage which he promiseth unto himself from the Word of God this makes him thirst after a real inward spiritual communion with God in his Word he knows nothing less than this can answer the ends which his Soul aimeth at That it is not being in the Sanctuary but his seeing the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary which must effect this Hence it is that though a more External communion with God in his word be sweet and desirable to him yet he cannot take up with it but he thirsteth after the Teachings of his Spirit in and by the Word But I see I must leave much of this discourse to other opportunities Sermon VII Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth 4. THere is yet another Reason to be assigned and added to what you have already heard why an understanding pious Soul cannot be satisfied with a bare external Communion with God in his Word That is the danger which it apprehends from such a performance when the Soul resteth in it and takes up with it Heb. 4. 12. The Apostle telleth us The word of God is quick and powerful Whatsoever means are used in order to an end if it be of a quick and operative Nature if it reacheth not the end it certainly doth harm Pbysick that is quick and operative if it conduceth not to the healing of the Body usually impairs it and doth it harm The hearing and reading of the word are means in order to the Salvation of our Souls by the working of Faith in us changing our hearts and transforming us into its own likeness if they profit not in order to that end they certainly prejudice the Soul Isa 55. 10. As the rain cometh down from Heaven and the Snow and returneth not thither but watereth the Earth So shall my word be that goeth out of my Mouth The Apostle lets us know that Ministers in preaching the Gospel are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are savea and in them that perish V. 16. To the one they are the savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life We read in the Gospel of two effects of the Word Preached by Christ and the Apostles some believed others were hardened This must necessarily make a pious thinking Soul that considereth reading and hearing the Word as they indeed are not as ends but as means in order to a more noble end that it cannot but long after this spiritual inward communion with God in these Institutions There 's nothing more to be dreaded than an hardened heart and without this inward Teaching of the Spirit of God in and by the Word the Soul certainly hardeneth and groweth worse by and under it I shall now come to make some Application of this discourse From it you may learn That there is a more internal communion with God in his Word than the most of common hearers are aware of God's speaking to our Eyes and Ears our common sense and understanding is one thing his speaking to our hearts to our will and affections is another thing It is one thing for a man or woman to give God his bodily presence his Eyes and his Ears in an Ordinance another thing for the Soul to give up his will in it to comply with the will of God in what he shall reveal unto it I am afraid this is a notion is little either understood or attended to Men and women think they have done their work and fulfilled their duty if they have but read a little in their Bibles and come to Church to hear a Sermon never regarding what inward communion they have had with God either in the one or the other and look at no further Communication of God unto them than to let them know his will nor at any further communicating themselves unto God than in lending him the presence of their outward man and the more out-parts and powers of their Souls This apprehension of men makes them stand amazed at God's Peoples being so fond of Sermons and running after them Indeed were this all that good men and women expected they might possibly not be so exceedingly thirsty after them though even a notional knowledge of the will of God is no contemptible thing but they have further expectations upon Ordinances than this amounteth to They said Isa 2. 3. Come you let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths They know that God promised of old That wheresoever he recorded his name to dwell there he would meet his people and bless them And that the same Promise extendeth to the New Testament and that there the Lord hath promised where two or three are gathered together in his Name he will be in the midst amongst them which Promise being not of his Essential presence for so he is never absent from us but concerning the presence of his grace it is a promise of blessing so as they are not satisfied without some token of God's favour and blessing From this discourse also may be concluded in what communion with God through the Spirit lieth Some would have it to lie in meer Enthusiastical raptures impressions and revelations and that the way to enjoy it is to cast off all Forms all Duties and Ordinances these are the things they make to be the things that are above mentioned in Col. 3. 1. Certainly there is a form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle Paul commendeth the Romans for yielding obedience to Rom. 6. 17. A form of sound words which he commandeth Timothy to hold fast 2 Tim. 1. 13. These are not that form of Godliness in men that deny the power of it which the Apostle speaks of in that Epistle There are Duties and Ordinances to be above which is to be above
shewed much love but their hearts went after their covetousness And v. 32. the Prophet was to them as a very lovely Song of one that had a pleasant voice and could play well on an Instrument they heard his words but they did not do them And in the time of the Propher Isaiah there was a generation that sought the Lord daily and delighted to know the Lord's waies as a Nation that forsook not the Ordinances of God and took delight in approaching to God Isa 58. 2. yet the Lord sent his Prophet to cry aloud against them not to spare to lift up his voice like a Trumpet to shew them their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins And doubtless there is such a generation still as a generation of prophane persons that despise the Word and Ordinances of God and blaspheme God and his Word so another generation that must read and must go and hear and may take some delight in it They may delight in the stile and phrase and wit of the Preacher or in the Learning that is mixed up with the discourse or in the Notion of the Sermon and desire to hear especially some kind of Preachers upon these accounts or to furnish their minds with some notional knowledge of the things of God that may serve them as to their credit and reputation in the world or furnish their tongues with discourse in religious company all this will speak nothing to prove a man a Christian indeed one whose heart is changed and transformed into the likeness of the Word All this may be without any desire after the kisses of Christ's mouth but a desire after the feeling the power of the Word upon our hearts and a dissatisfaction of spirit until a man findeth something of this upon his Soul this will speak a man or woman not to rest in a form of godliness without the power of it yet even this dissatisfaction may be too much and this happeneth when it proceedeth from some mistake and misapprehension of Religious Souls This principally happeneth in two cases 1. The Soul 's judging it self from its sensible experiences not from its direct motions toward God and its desires The motions of our Souls towards God must be warily distinguished from the sensible returns of God upon our Soul The first will speak the Soul beloved The latter speaks it highly favoured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much graced by God A pious Soul is not to judge it self so much from God's returns to it in this particular as from God's workings in it kindling in it those holy desires which move it after what it may be it doth not yet seem meet to the wisdom of God that it should attain I have not told you that the Spouse of Christ doth at all times find that Christ hath kissed it with the kisses of his mouth but that such a Soul's desires will be steady and constant after such a thing and will not be satisfied with a meer bodily labour and external performance of a duty The 2d mistake may be from the Soul 's not considering the variety of those kisses by which our blessed Lord may kiss the Souls of Believers in and by the Word but keeping its Eye upon some particular influence of grace which it passionately desireth and not finding that God satisfieth it as to that it concludeth it hath had no influence from God at all As now supposing a Soul sad and troubled it is exceedingly desirous of comfort and satisfaction and saith Lord when wilt thou comfort me In expectation of meeting God in this way it goeth out to hear the Word and not meeting with that peace and comfort which it wanted it is ready to conclude that it hath met with nothing and hath had no near inward spiritual communion with God As to this the Soul must rectifie its mistake the profit of the Word is not limited to one thing it is saith the Apostle profitable for reproof and correction and instruction in righteousness There is a kiss of instruction in righteousness It may be thou canst not find that God by the Word which thou hast heard hath spoken or sealed peace to thy Soul but thou art still full of troubles and fears doubts and dejections well but if thou findest that God hath more sealed and confirmed some Truth to thee that he hath made thee to see further into the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God to see some Truths of concernment to thy Soul in a clearer and fuller light do not say that thou hast not met with God in the Ordinance The opening of the Eyes especially to discern the Mysteries of the Gospel is one of the kisses of Christ's mouth If thy love be not so far as thou canst see further influenced yet if thy Faith be promoved this is a great thing It may be thou camest to hear hoping for strength against the temptation God possibly hath met thee and hath given thee a further light to discern the temptation the methods and depth of Satan's subtilties in it this is a kiss There is an instruction in Duty as well as Doctrine which deserveth this name Thou comest to the Word hoping God will speak peace to thee and take the thorn out of thy flesh that buffeteth thee It seems not good to God to do this but thou goest home from hearing more submitting to the Will of God more resolved to wait upon God more convinced that it is thy duty to lie at the foot of God and to wait his will and good pleasure This also is a kiss of his mouth There is a kiss of Reproof and Correction When God by his Word reproves and corrects a Soul when he reproves the Soul and the Soul is reproved as is said of Abraham when the Pagan King reproved him this is a kiss of his mouth Reproof and correction are things for which God hath told us that his Word is profitable for and a Soul ought to look upon it self as having had a communion with God in his Word when a wise reproof hath met with an obedient Ear. In short if a Soul after hearing though it hath not the desired mercy yet findeth it self more prepared to want it more quieted in the present want of it more patient under the afflicting hand of God that the grace of God is more sufficient for it than it was this is an excellent kiss of Christ's mouth a certain token that God in the Word communicated himself to the Soul though it may be it hath not been just in that way and method and particular dispensation that the Soul expected I shall finish my Discourse upon this Proposition with a Word of Exhortation If this be the frame of one that is the Spouse of Christ let us labour to find our hearts in this frame I remember the words of Absolom What saith he do I at Hierusalem if I may not see the King's face Hierusalem is called the City of
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
good pleasure yet he breatheth upon he teacheth no Souls but those Souls that are willing and desirous to learn and to be instructed It is true it is he who first maketh them willing who first enclineth their Ears to hear but he first prepareth the Heart and then causeth his Ear to hear as to Prayer so in hearing he first circumciseth the Ear of a man and enclineth him to hear his Statutes and then he teacheth them He dealeth not with us as with Stocks and Stones but as with rational Creatures in a rational way Attend unto the word which thou goest to hear No teaching no good is to be expected from any teaching where the person only lends an Ear but suffers his Mind extravagantly to wander here and there The Schoolmaster hath no Patience for such a Scholar I am sure God hath no Blessing for such a Soul as in hearing doth not hear nor encline his Ear to Understanding The Scholar gets little by his Master or Tutors reading upon an Author if the Scholar attendeth not to the Text of the Author The Spirits teaching is but a Commentary upon the word it bringeth to remembrance the things which we have heard from God The Soul that attends not to the word which he reads or heareth can expect nothing of the Spirits teaching the word is not like to dwell in that Soul that will not suffer it to come so much as over the Threshold into it I mean into its memory or notion Take heed of Vexing the Spirit in its Teachings It was laid to the charge of the Israelites Isa 53. 10. that they vexed his holy Spirit They vexed the Spirit by an afterwork rebelling against his word not being obedient to what they were taught But men may in hearing vex the Spirit in its Teaching either by Non-Attendency suffering their hearts to be wandring elsewhere when God in his word is teaching the Soul this vexeth any Father or Master in teaching a Child but of this I spake before And not only so but by not giving a special regard to its special Instructions Scarce any of us but in hearing shall find some notions of truth some particular passages that God sets more particularly home and do in a special manner affect the Soul The not observing them or quick forgetting of them is a special vexing of the holy Spirit in its Teachings of our Souls Work together with the Spirit in calling to remembrance what you have heard Talk of the Law of the Lord when thou liest down and when thou risest up when thou sittest by the walls of thy House when thou goest out and when thou comest in The Jews had Phylacteries Rolls of the Law fastened to their Garments to keep the Law in their mind perpetually Our Saviour blamed them for their broad Phylacteries and narrow Practice but he blamed not the means to keep the Law of God in their minds only they used them to a wrong and false â—nâ— used them not to the end for which they made them Follow the word with Prayer Do not only pray for the Spirit before thou hearest but pray for the abidings ofâ— it after thou hast heard to bring to thy remembrance what thou hast heard from God Labour to practise what thou hearest The Master or Tutor is weary of teaching the Scholar to whom he hath read Lecture after Lecture but yet he will do nothing but on the contrary how chearfully doth an ingenuous Master teach that Scholar that to his utmost pâ—tteth in practice what he hath read to him and then cometh to his Tatâ—r begging to be further taught and instructed The Spirit of God will give over that Soul that pretends to be ever learning and yet never comes to any practical Knowledge of the Truth He that is not a meer hearer but a doer of the Word also is the man that shall be blessed indeed Sermon VIII Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his Loves are better than Wine I Have done now with the matter of the Spouses that is the Churches or the particular believing Souls prayer in this her first Petition I have nothing as to the petition it self to consider but the form of it As to the matter we have found that the thing she would have is Some Special distinguishing favour Some token of God for good to her which might speak him to love her with the Love of a bridegroom to a bride a Husband to his Wife I have shewed you that she asketh modestly but a kiss thereby letting us know how precious the least of Christs Special distinguishing love is to the truly believing Soul Not that the least dispensations and measures of grace will satisfy the Spiritual hunger and thirst of a pious Soul it is one thing for a pious Soul to prize and value the least another thing to be satisfied and fully contented with it she therefore mentions Kisses in the Plural Number as well to signifie the variety of gracious Influences as their frequent Emanations I have further taken notice of her particular desire after a communion with God in his word especially Gospel Doctrines and that not only a more external Communion with God in reading hearing and thinking upon it But the more reall internal Spiritual communion with God in his word which the Soul hath by the teachings of the Spirit She desires not onely to hear the words of his mouth but to be kissed with the kisses of his mouth I have now nothing to do but to consider the form of her words and see if from thence we can gain any further Spiritual Instruction The words are first Vox volentis the Language of a Soul that was willing to receive these impressions if she were not willing she would not have made them the matter of her request Secondly They are Vox cupientis not onely the Language of one that was willing but of one inflamed with a desire after the object willed and proposed They do not express a bare velleity with an indifferency as to the thing They sound a great deal more then He may if he will kiss me with the kisses of his mouth Lastly They are Vox petentis the language of one upon her knees begging it of God as the great thing which she sought after And as I observed to you in the opening of the words she begs reverently modestly humbly boldly fervently The form of her Petition speaketh a well ordered Prayer a Prayer according to the Rules which God hath given us for putting up our Supplications Hence results the Proposition Prop. That believing Souls are not only very willing but exceedingly desirous of a near spiritual communion with Christ and to obtain it will use rightly ordered Prayer In the Proposition here are three things predicated of such a Soul as is the Spouse to this glorious Bridegroom 1. It s willingness that the Lord should have a near and spiritual
Loves which are much our duty upon this view of our great Lord and Master 1. Love to him 2 Love to our Neighbours especially those in whom any thing of Christs appears 1. It calls to us for Loves to Christ This in point of gratitude If Saith our Saviour you love them which love you what reward have you Do not even the Publicanes the same Our Love to Christ is but a Love to him who hath Loves for us and indeed this speaketh to all men for Love to him but more especially O Love ye the Lord all you his Saints It is the opinion of great Divines that all the world is beholden to Christ as Mediator that from his Mediation there issueth some good to the worst of men But he hath eminently extended his Love to his Saints he hath loved them with a singular Love If there should be Love wanting in their hearts to Christ they should be of all men and women in the world most inexcusable what could he have done for any of the Sons of Men which he hath not done for them What greater thing could they have asked of him then he hath prevented them in asking O Love you the Lord all you they that believe Do you ask me how you should shew your Love to him The first motions of Love are in the heart Love there is seen in delighting in him breathing after him It next shews itself by the lips Speaking well of him to others defending his interest and concern in the world If we come to more external acts That of David Ps 16. 2. 3. is true here O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my goodness extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth to the excellent on whom is all my delight Our Love to Christ must be seen in our actings in our stations for the honour glory and concern of Christ in the world In our kindness to the poor flock of Christ Christ calls a want of Love to them a want of Love to himself 25. Math. But that brings me to the Second with a short discourse upon which I shall shut up this discourse 2. It calls you for Love to men especially to those in whom you see any thing of Christ The argument for this ariseth from our duty to study a Conformity to Christ he had a kindness for all when he was born good will towards men was proclaimed by the multitude of the Heavenly host Luke 2. 14. There also lyeth an obligation upon usfrom the law of Christ and from this great Example to be kindly affectionate toward all There lyeth also a Precept upon us to do good to all And again saith the Apostle Owe nothing to any but this That you love one another Indeed there is not the same degree of affection nor the same acts of Love due to all as to that we must be ruled by the Word of God but Love is a debt upon us which is due to all men Therefore wrath hatred anger strife malice are 〈◊〉 where reckoned up by the Apostle as the fruits not of the Spirit but of the flesh In a kind Child of God there should be a general love and kindness to all mankind though to be expressed in a Scriptural order as to the degrees and acts of it So it was in Christ 2. But secondly it calls to you for a more Special distinguishing Love to all those in whom you see any thing of Christ Do good to all saith the Apostle but especially to the houshold of Faith The Soul of every Member of Christ should cleave to these with whom he is united not onely by a common nature being the same flesh and blood with him but by a common faith by the ligament of Members of the same body whereof Christ is the head Give me leave to press this the more upon this argument because I find the Apostle St. John pressing it upon the same Topick 1. John 4. 11. If God so loved us we ought also to Love one another v. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us v. 16. He tells us that God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelling in God Every good Christian may see much more in the meanest poorest true Christian to ingage him to Love him or her than Christ could ever see in the highest Saint to oblige or move Christ to love him or her When thou wallowedst in thy blood when thou hadst nothing of the lineament of a Saint in thy Soul not so much as a line of any Spiritual Goodness he passed by thee and it was with him a time of Love as to thy Soul there is not a child of God in the world but there is somthing of holiness and righteousness something of the image and Superscription of Christ to be seen in his Soul something of the Divine nature resplendent in his Soul It may be there is more in some less in others but there is in all some When thou hast a temptation upon thee to aversate thy brother or to turn away thy heart or head or hand from him O remember Christ hath loves and and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in him And that it is he whose heart is full of of Loves for thee who hath commanded thee to Love thy Brother But I have spoken e nough to this first Proposition Sermon X. Canticles 1. 2. For thy Loves are better than Wine IN my last discourse I shewed you that Christ hath Loves kind affections and inclinations to the Children of men and more especially to the Souls of his Saints which he is ready to declare and express yea hath already expressed in acts of kindness and these not of one but various kinds suted to the respective necessities of his people a salve for every Sore a Supply for every want I come now to shew you the quality of his Loves which in my Text is set down positively and comparatively In our translation according to our Idioms or propriety of Speech the positive is to be understood in the comparative particle A thing cannot be called better than another unless it hath some positive absolute goodness in it self but in the Hebrew it is more plainly expressed That saith Are good before Wine It is their way of expressing comparatives It makes no difference in the sense Good before Wine And better than wine are phrases of the same sense In the Explication of the Text I told you that though Wine strictly signifies the juice of the Grape yet by a Synechdoche here it signifyeth all created goods whatsoever can be sweet or profitable or advantageous to us The Proposition is plainly this Prop. The Loves of Christ are good befo e or better than all created comforts and enjoyments whatever I have already shewed you what the Loves of Christ signify viz. His good will his kind affections and inclinations to the Souls of men
Rocks of Pearl or ten thousand Rivers of Oil. But possibly some may say This is to plead my own merit I answer no for consider who it is that hath wrought in thy heart this value and esteem Is it not God Did flesh and blood reveal any such thing unto thee thou dost not then plead thy own merit thou only pleadest with God from what he hath already wrought and begun in thee 2. It is but the pleading of the promise which God hath made to them that love him and keep his Commandments 3. Neither dost thou plead thy esteem and value for the loves of Christ as meritorious as thinking that thy prizing the loves of Christ meriteth the further manifestations of them to thy Soul thou only pleadest it as a gracious habit wrought in thy Soul by which God hath fulfilled in thy Soul the condition of the promise thou only beggest of God that he who hath wrought in thy Soul that condition to which he hath annexed his promise would now fulfil also that promise to thy Soul which is annexed to that condition Thus I have finished the discourses I designed upon the first Petition of the Spouse as pressed by her first Argument Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth For thy Loves are better than Wine Sermon XIII Canticles 1. 3. Because of the savour of thy good Ointments Thy name is as an Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee I Proceed to the next Proposition which I at first observed from these words which I then largely opened Christ hath good Ointments which cast a savour my meaning is according to my former explication of the words That the Lord Jesus Christ is filled with the graces of the blessed Spirit which in themselves are as good Ointments and whose excellency is discerned by every true Believer by every Soul that is espoused to the Lord Jesus Christ to use the Apostles phrase I have espoused you to one Husband For a further discourse upon this Proposition let me first shew you 1. What I mean by Christs Grace and when I say he is full of the Graces of the holy Spirit 2. In what respects these graces are like to good Ointments 3. What particular graces of the Spirit are thus like to good Ointments 4. Whence it is that they are discerned and more effectually discerned by a gracious heart than another We read in the Psalmist that Christ was anointed mith the Oil of gladness above his fellows Heb. 1. 3. That he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10. 38. That phrase in the Epistle to the Hebrews borrowed out of Psal 45. as I shewed you is excellently interpreted by John God gave not the Spirit unto him by measure Joh. 3. 34. The Grace of God was said to be upon him Luk. 2. 40. and he is said to be full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Grace in Scripture as it relateth unto God is usually taken in one of these two senses 1. For the favour and free love of God by which a Person is accepted of God and so Grace is in St. Pauls Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and in his other Epistles opposed to works thus we are said to be justified by Grace saved by Grace In this sense it is also in Scripture applied to Creatures Esther obtained Grace that is favour in the sight of the King Esther 2. 17. and so in many other Texts Or 2dly it is taken For some holy and virtuous qualities and dispositions by which our Persons being first accepted in Christ we are acceptable unto God Thus it is said Joh. 1. 16. Of his fulness we have all received Grace for Grace thus Love is called a Grace 2 Cor. 8. 6. and in this sense the Apostle telleth the Corinthians God is able to make all Grace to abound to them 2 Cor. 8. 9. In this sense we are commanded to grow in Grace that is in holy virtuous dispositions or habits 2 Pet. 3. 18. It is expounded by 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your 〈◊〉 virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly-kindness charity The Grace of Christ is taken in a double sense 1. Subjectively For that free love and favour which is subjected in Christ and being in him as its Fountain floweth from him to cur Souls In this sense Christ is said to be sail of Grace and truth full of love free love towards his Peoples Souls and truly in this sense Grace comes by Jesus Christ for out of him God loveth no Soul In this sense the Apostle wisheth to the Romans Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ Take Grace in this sense Christ is the Subject of it and the medium by whom it floweth from the Eternal Father to the Children of men he himself was from Eternity beloved of God and that both necessarily and freely being his Fathers Son begotten from Eternity the Father loved him delighted in him and indeed in this sense Christ may be said to have been the object of Grace but he was not anointed with this in time he had it from before all times only as to the Grace of Vnion the humane Nature until Christ assumed it was not beloved of God Christ assuming it it became the object of this Grace 2. But secondly the Grace of Christ is also taken objectively for that Grace which was poured out on Christ as Mediator and this is either 1. The Grace of Vnion which is the free love of God assuming the humane nature into a personal union with the Divine Nature in which thing God put a great deal of dignity upon and shewed a great deal of love unto our Nature 2. The grace of Sanctification by which I understand not the same which the Children of God receive upon Regeneration when of unholy they are made holy of impure they are made pure of proud they are made humble c. But those holy dispositions and qualifications which were found in Christ considered as the Son of Man by vertue of the union of the Divine Nature with the Humane Nature and his anointing with the Holy Ghost not given by measure unto him by which he was not only acceptable to his Father as Mediator but he is also exceeding lovely to his Saints So that when I say Christ hath good Ointments abundance of Grace I understand 1. Abundance of free love which dwelt in him as God over all blessed for ever to be dispensed out according to the particular exigencies of all his Peoples Souls 2. Many gracious dispositions which eminently dwelling in the God-Head from all Eternity were also by the Spirit poured out upon the Humane Nature in his Incarnation These are here called by a Metaphor Ointments and good Ointments 1. Because by the communication of these from the Divine
contain three Petitions which the Spouse by which we understand the Church or the believing Soul maketh to her Beloved the Lord Jesus Christ The first I have done with together with the Arguments ments which she used to enforce it I am now come to the second comprehended in this Verse with the Arguments by which she presseth it Her first Petition was in those words Let him kiss me 〈◊〉 the kisses of his mouth Here she saith Draw me Our English Annotations make the connexion thus Lord do not only invite and call me by the Preaching of thy Gospel which are the kisses of thy mouth but command me by the Power of thy Spirit Or thus Let me not only be passively happy in receiving tokens of love from thee but make me active in maintaining communion with thee Let me run after thee and to this purpose do thou draw me Thus the coherence of her Petitions seemeth to lie Some there are that do not make this a new Petition but adjoyn the beginning of this Verse to the latter end of the former and read it thus The Virgins love thee and have drawn thee after them thus the Seventy read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and after them Origen and Greg. Nyssen expounding it of the Faith of the Saints by which they draw Christ after them according to his Promise Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst amongst them But though there be something of truth in this yet this Interpretation is I think justly slighted by Lud. de Ponte and others even of the Papists the greatest Admirers of the Fathers And although the Copies of the Seventy which we have indeed thus read it yet Symmachus and Aquila the two other Antient Greek Translators read it as we translate it And I am sure that is the true Translation of the Hebrew where the Verb is in the Imperative Mood though there be a little change of the Vowels in regard of the Affix according to the Rules of Grammarians For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so I conclude they are clearly a Petition and thus the Vulg. Lat. reads them with the Tigurine Translators Pagnine Montanus Piscator Junius and indeed almost all others Agreeing therefore in that let me consider 1. The parts of the Text 2. Then open the terms And thirdly and lastly Raise and handle such Propositions as it will afford and may be useful to us You may in the Text please to consider 1. The Spouse's Petition Draw me 2. The Argument by which she enforceth this Petition We will run after thee Where 't is observable 1. The parties promising We. 2. The thing promised A running after Christ 3. The Spouse's Acknowledgment of her Beloved's speedy Answer to her Prayers The King hath brought me into his Chambers 4. And lastly The Effects this Answer had upon her they are three 1. We will rejoyce 2. We will be glad in thee 3. We will remember thy Loves more than Wine Then you have the Spouse's Justification of her self in this passion The upright love thee Let me now come to open the terms This word for it is but one in the Hebrew contains the Spouse's Petition It is agreed by all that it is the Spouse that speaks by which the Jews who understand nothing of the Gospel-Church in this Song understand Abraham and the Church of the Jews Aben-Ezra a Jewish Doctor would have these the words of Abraham speaking to God to draw him out of his own Country into Ur of the Chaldees according to that hard Precept to flesh and blood Gen. 12. Solomon Jarchi another of them makes it the voice of the Jewish Church speaking to God to bring them back again to Hierusalem out of Captivity The old Chaldee Paraphrast and Lira with him make it the voice of the Church of the Jews coming out of Egypt speaking unto God that he would go before them as he did by the Cloud and the Pillar The Righteous of that Generation then said Draw us after thee O thou Lord of the whole world We will follow thee in the way of thy goodness Mr. Cotton makes the Spouse to be either Solomon himself desiring to be drawn to Christ or the Church of the Jews desiring Solomon by Laws and Edicts and Proclamations to draw them to their duty Rupertus his notion applying the words to Elizabeth John Baptist's Mother and of some Popish Writers making them the words of the blessed Virgin are hardly worth mentioning any more than theirs who would make them the words of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon We have fixed the Spouse with the most and best Interpreters to be the true Church of God and every individual believing Soul and then it is easie to know to whom the words are directed viz. unto God and whether we understand the first or second Person in the Trinity is not at all material For besides that they are both but one in their operations respecting the creature Drawing is made in Scripture the act both of the Father and the Son No man saith Christ cometh unto me unless the Father draweth him And again When I am lifted up I will draw all men after me But drawing is a term of motion there must be a term to which Whither would the Spouse be drawn This is not so plainly exprest in the English as in the Hebrew I shall speak more to it by and by but I shall first open the term Draw and shew you what the Spouse desireth of her Beloved in this term I find the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew signifying four things 1. It sometimes signifies no more than to go to go on and forward so Jud. 4. 6. Go and draw toward Mount Tabor Exod. 12. 21. Draw out and take you a Lamb that is go out Job 21. 33. Every man shall draw after him that is by little and little follow him to the Grave But it would spoil the sense to interpret it so in this place The Me following makes this sense inconsistent 2. Sometimes it signifieth the pulling of a thing or person to a place by some violence or force Thus you read of the Heifer that had not drawn in the yoke Deut. 21. 3. So it is said God draweth the mighty with his power Job 24. 22. And you read of the man that drew a Bow at adventure That is an act of strength and power you know 1 King 22. 34. So they drew Joseph out of the Pit and Jeremy out of the Dungeon Gen. 37. 28. Jer 38. 13. And David prayeth that he might not be drawn away with the wicked Psa 28. 3. In all which places this word is used 3. Because in love and fair persuasion there is a kind of force compelling a reasonable and ingenuous person The word is sometimes used to express also such an action It is said of the wicked Psal 109. v. 12. He draweth the poor into
his Net i. e. he slattereth him and under pretence of friendship enticeth them into ruine God saith He will draw his people with the Cords of a man with the Bands of Lovâ— Hos 11. 4. and that he had drawn them with loving kindness Jer. 31. 3. thus Deborah promised to draw the Israelites to Tabor that is to persuade and to conduct them thither Judg. 4. 7. Solomon saith he sought to draw his flesh with Wine so it is in the Hebrew Eccles 2. 3. his meaning is he would entice and please his flesh 4. Sometimes in Scripture it signifieth to lengthen out and to continue Thus it is used to signifie the sound of a Trumpet lengthened out It is translated prolonged Isa 13. 22. d ferred Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferred in the Hebrew drawn out maketh the heart sick Psal 109. 12. Let none draw out mercy We translate it extend mercy unto him None of my words shall be prolonged The same word is there again used O continue thy loving-kindness Psal 36. 10. This sense methinks seemeth not much forreign to this place as the Petition refers not only to first but following grace We need the prolongings and continuances of Divine Influences to make us to run after Christ The word as the Learnedest Lexicographers in that Language tell us signifies with a secret force to compel one whitheâ— we would have him It sometimes signifies with fair words Reasons and persuasions to draw one to our side Forster tells us that Christ without doubt had respect to this place in those Gospel expressions No man cometh to the Son but he whom the Father draweth And when I shall be lifted up I will draw all men after me And Lud. de Ponte expounds this Text by that in the Gospel Compel them to come in So then when the Spouse saith Draw me this is that she means Lord Put forth thy secret Power thy irresistible and effectual Grace and compel me to come unto thee and to run after thee move me sweetly but yet powerfully Draw me by thy Word and Spirit and by the sweetness of thy grace open my heart saith Mr Ainsworth I am weak Lord add thy strength so Tâ—emellius glosseth Divine grace must prevent and must follow he that is not drawn will be hindered by his own corruption Lust draws every heart backward from Christ The Soul must by Grace be drawn to him Bernard understands it of an act of power and thus glosseth Lord it is better that thou should'st draw me by any force than that thou shouldest spare me and leave me secure in my deadness But let us weigh it yet a little further It is the Spouse that here speaketh The Church of God the believing Soul hath the Spouse need to be drawn to Christ Is she not already come to him doth she not willingly follow after him how then doth she say draw me doth the Child of God follow him unwillingly To this I answer 1. The Church doth not consist of all true believers there may be some in the bosom of that that have but a name to live and which had need be drawn unto Christ For these the Church may be understood to pray that there may not be any in it strangers unto Christ but that as some are drawn so all may be drawn 2. But Secondly Bernard who starts this question answereth it otherwise Non omnis qui trahitur invitus trahiâ—ur Every one who is drawn is not drawn unwillingly The Bear is drawn to the Stake unwillingly so is the Malefactor to the place of Execution but an hungry man may be drawn to his Meat and the Cripple to the Bath and both willingly besides if the Spouse were not willing she would never make it her request to be drawn nor yet were she able of her self to go would she ask to be drawn Those who are weak as well as those that are unwilling had need to be drawn How perfect soever the Soul be saith Bernard while it sigheth under the body of death and is kept in the Prison of mortality being full of wants and full of sin it goeth slowly and dully after Christ and is not at liberty to follow him but must be drawn to its Spiritual duty I know saith the Spouse that I cannot come to thee in Heaven but by going after thee while I live here upon the Earth and I know I cannot go after thee unless thou drawest unless thou helpest me She confesseth here that she standeth in daily need of preventing Grace of drawing and quickning Grace from God 'T is true she prayeth and so seemeth to prevent the Grace of God but in that she prayeth it is plain that the Grace of God had prevented her otherwise she would not have said Draw me She here desireth that Grace of God which might have a divine sweet efficacious power and force with it to constrain her Soul to run after Christ The Kingdom of Heaven within the Child of God suffâ—reth violence and force through the power of Lust and Corruption She beggeth of God to oppose the power of his Grace to the power of her Lusts and vile Affections She useth this word therefore to acknowledge her weakness and to shew that without the help of grace she could not run after Christ according to that John 15. 4 Withâ—ut me you can do nothing Genebrard saith that by this Phrase she teacheth us that the beginning of our Justification is from God Bernard Beza Lud. de Ponte and others conclude that she teacheth that further Grace is from God By the word draw she begs not only first grace but the prolongings and continuances of Divine Grace according to that Psal 36. 10. O continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee and thy righteousness to the upright in heart The Soul doth not only stand in need of the sweet and powerful influences of Divine Grace to bring it to Christ but to keep it and to carry it on its state and exercises of Grace For whether would the Spouse be drawn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after thee saith the Text. Our translation puts these words after the next Verb we will run after thee in the Heb they follow draw me and so may indifferently be read with either The matter is not much they must be understood here as well as there the term of either motion was the same Surely 't is thither she would be drawn whither she had a mind to run The Spouse is drawn and comes to Christ By faith it runs and follows after Christ by holiness and is drawn so by a power inabling it to perfect holiness it is drawn to Christ by Death say some so Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ 1 Phil. With reference to this Bernard puts this question An hoc dicit cupiens dissolvi Doth saith he the Spouse speak this desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ He saith he should
of the Spirit necessary and that both as to the Souls first coming to God and further walking with God tho as to the latter the Soul being renewed and sanctâ—fied there be a far less influence necessary than as to the former yet even after sanctification the Apostle tells us that we are kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation and Christ tells his Disciples that without him they could do nothing Joh. 15. 3. And St. Paul saith 2 Gal. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God But indeed the great question is upon the first Arminians will grant special grace to believers but no more than common grace to all men in astate of unbelief Let us therefore first enquire 1. Whither there be not something of a divine power and influence necessary to cause any Soul to come to Christ beyond the Preaching of the Word and that common concurrence of the Spirit with the word Preached and all the suasions and arguments can be used by Ministers and of what nature this pâ—wer is We affirm it Jesuites and Arminians deny it let me shew you upon what arguments we assert it I shall not instance in all or the 4th part of what hath been or might be said only speak something to satisfy you remembring that I am now preaching a Sermon not writing a controversy 1. Those who assert that there needeth no such act of the divine power must necessarily make man a God to himself I mean the Author of the greatest Spiritual and Eternal good both in respect of action and fruition whatsoever is moved is moved from a living principle within self or from another Either man is moved to Christ as drawn by the Father or from a principle of life within himself I know they will say it is from his own power of willing now besides the multitude of Scriptures which this is opposed to Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in Trespasses and Sins Psal 110. 3. The People shall be a willing People in the day of thy Power Phil. 2. 13. For it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure I say besides these This opinion makes man the author of the greatest good to himself 1. In point of action it makes him the author of th se gracious acts and habits by which a Soul is made meet for the inheritance of the Saints of life repentance faith and new obedience expresly contrary to those Scriptures which tell us that it is given to us to believe Phil. 1. 29. That Faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. God gives repentance unto life and a multitude of other Scriptures 2. And in point of fruition too man by this Doctrine is his own Saviour for Eternal life is every where promised to repentanâ—e faith and new obedience which according to this principle are all works proceeding from our selves so man is become a Saviour to himself by this new Divinity and the author of the highest good to himself and hath nothing to bless God for but only making him a Man not a Beast for being indued with a reasonable Soul and living under the Gospel he hath a power of himself to repent to believe in Christ to do whatsoever Eternal life is promised to in the Gospel unless they will say he is beholden to God for the Covenant of Grace annexing eternal life to these performances and accepting sincerity instead of perfect obedience which yet leaves the regenerate Soul no more to bless God for than the vilest and most profane Sinner that liveth where the Gospel is preach'd for he also hath a reasonable Soul a will equal with others there is a covenant of grace equally established for Judas as well as Peter according to this Doctrine One is under the means of Grace and the common aids and assistances of the Spirit as well as the other for the good inclination of his will to accept the terms of the Gospel which the profane person hath not the regenerate Soul hath no body to thank but himself and to applaud himself for the principle of goodness of which it seems he is an author to himself Secondly This Doctrine leaves the Soul something to glory in before God The Apostle treating of Justification by faith in opposition to that of works argueth thus Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God The Proposition of that Text which alone in this case I will make use of is That God hath so ordered the causes in the Salvation of Man that man hath no cause of glorying before God to that purpose he speaks Rom. 3. 27. Where is boasting then it is excluded but admitting that there needed no power to change the heart but what is in mans will boasting is not excluded a man hath wherein to glory and that before God he shall say Lord it is true thou fixedst an eternal Covenant of Grace thou madest me a man thou gavest me the Gospel and the preaching of it but notwithstanding all that thou ever didst for me I might have gone to Hell as well as a thousand more for whom the same Covenant was made as well as me to whom thou gavest a Soul of the same species with mine the same Gospel the same Preaching the same common grace if I had not had a principle of goodness in my own will of which my self was the cause I had been damn'd notwithstanding all thou didst for me as many others shall be for whom thou didst as much as for me Is not here glorying before God Is boasting excluded by this Divinity The main parts here as to mans Salvation are given to a mans self For I pray observe a man cannot repent truly and believe and obey the Gospel and perish for ever now all these it seems a man may do from himself without any act of Divine power inabling him more than a reprobate to do them but he may have a common Covenant of Grace establish'd for him as well as others he may have a reasonable Soul he may have the Gospel preach'd to him and the common aids and assistances of the Spirit and yet perish for ever So as plainly all that necessarily brings Salvation makes the Soul meet for it and accompanieth it all this is from man nothing is from God but that notwithstanding which he might have perished for ever Thirdly This Doctrine most absurdly ascribes unequal vertues to Souls that are equal as to their species faculties and vertues All reasonable Souls are equal their faculties are the same their vertues and powers the same their Souls are under equal means motives aids assistances whence is it that one mans will is enclined to believe to receive Christ to obey his laws the others not Are not here inequal vertues ascribed to
righteousness but his spiritual strength and ability also His fall causing the need of a Mediator and a coming unto him that we might have life caused also the need of the influence of the Holy Spirit upon us to quicken and innable us to com◠unto him and to walk with him Hence there was a need of such a Covenant for God to make as that mentioned Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn from them to do them good but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from me Thirdly That body of death which remains in the best of Gods People evinceth a necessity of a continued powerful influence of grace to keep the Soul in any motion especially in any quickness of motion after God That we have weights that pressus down a sin which easily besets us a body of death as St. Paul calls it proper lufts lustings of the flesh against the Spirit is evident in holy writ we are indeed at last more than conquerours over this inteftine adversary but it is through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 7. For lust is so connatural to us the lustings of the flesh so strong in us that our regenerate part could never else maintain the Spiritual fight Besides as I shall shew you as we have an impotency so as we cannot so much as will the thing which is good so we have also a natural dulness and aversion to it and this also remaineth in part in the regenerate Soul nor to be conquered without the influence of the holy Spirit Lastly The many hinderances which the Soul hath from its Enemies without will also hinder it from running James tells us that every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed This is a temptation from within à carne this would be too hardfor a Soul in its own strength But it hath also Enemies from without both from its grand adversary the Devil and also from the world I must confess I have met with one never but one that would pretend to maintain a power in man to resist the strongest Temptations without any extraordinary assistance of the Spirit of grace this he would impose upon the world to believe because that Joseph resisted the temptation from his Mistriss That Joseph did resist that temptation is plain in Scripture but that he did it by no further assistance of Grace than Reuben had who defiled his Fathers Bed or Absolom who went in to his Fathers Concubines will want better proof than any I find in his discourse I cannot but think that if man without the assistance of special grace had a power as he boldly saith to resist the strongest temptations we should have none destroy themselves upon temptations to self murder Atbeistical thoughts and Despair It is an inaccountable thing why any should destroy themselves if this Doctrine were true especially if they be persons not before possest of atheistical principles believing there is neither God nor Devil Heaven or Hell who can give an account suppose it in the power of the best of men to resist the strongest temptations without any special grace how David the man according to Gods own heart came to fall into the sin first of Adultery then of Murther To will was certainly present with him as well as with Paul how came he to want a strength to perform but from Gods withdrawing his special influence of grace from him and leaving him to his own strength which though the strength of a renewed man yet is too little to grapple with a strong temptation If even the best of men without the powerful influence of special grace can resist strong temptations how came Peter to fall by denying his Master by swearing and cursing that he did not know him he manifested that to will was present with him by his telling our Saviour that altho all men should forsake him yet he would not God was pleased to with-hold his powerful influence and to leave Peter to the ordinary strength even of a renewed man he was not able to grapple with the temptation It is so far from being true that man hath a power to resist the strongest temptations that without Christs influence assisting he hath not a power to resist any temptation whether from the World the Flesh or the Devil It is Musculus his observation upon John 15. 3 Our Saviour doth not fay without me you cannot do much or all but you can do nothing Nor if it be a strong temptation such as the fear of life c. can a Christian resist and overcome it without a more than ordinary assistance of Divine Grace proportioned to the degree of temptation But vain man would be wise though he be but as an Asses Colt he would be strong though in very deed he is weaker than water he would be all to himself though he be nothing in himself 5. But for a further proof of this Proposition concerning the necessity of drawing powerful influences of Divine Grace both with reference to the Souls first motions and coming to Christ and further motions in following Christ and running after him I shall but appeal to the experience of all converted Souls If there be an heart before me which God hath truly changed any one that is not only converted from one opinion to another or one profession to another from Paganism to Christianity but indeed converted from the love of sin and lusts to the love of God and the hatred of all sin and an endeavour to walk close with God from an opinion and confidence of and in any righteousness in itself wherein it can hope to stand before God to a trusting and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Righteousness I appeal to that Soul what was it thinkest thou that inclined thy heart to accept of Jesus Christ for thy Saviour to commit all the concerns of thy Soul unto him and to alter thy course of life from a principle of love to God and obedience to his will more than anothers who sate in the same Seat with thee or lived in the same House and sate under the same Ministry heard the same Sermons how camest thou to be taken thy Neighbour left how came thy will to move regularly whiles thy Neighbour under the same circumstances still retained his stiff neck and iron sinews and hard heart and continued in the same lewd and sinful courses who made thee to differ Didst thou make thy self to differ How came it that he did not also make himself to differ I know there is no Soul whose heart is truly changed but will say if almighty power had not changed me I had been as bad as any other And so since thy Soul hath been changed thou hast met with Temptations to sin thou hast resisted them overcome them triumphed over them others possibly some very good men have fallen by and under them who
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
particular is in letting us know 1. That that faith which will do the Soul any good as to Eternal Salvation must be as the Apostle stiles it Col. 2. 12. a faith of the operation of God The work of Faith with power as the Apostle speaks 2 Thessal 1. v. 11. It is call'd the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. The work of God Joh. 6. 29. This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent It is not only the Commandment of God 1 Joh. 3. 23. and the gift of God but the work the operation of God a work with power such a faith as is an effect of the Fathers drawing This if duly observed will go a great way to guide us in this inquiry it will let us seeâ— that that believing which is the mere product of natural powers is not that coming to Christ to which the promise of life and Salvation is annexed Two things men ordinarily deceive themselves with as to this business of Faith 1. Judging any kind of blind and languid assent to the proposition of the Gospel to be that believing to which the Holy Ghost in Scripture annexeth the promise of Salvation A great many know no more by believing but their agreement that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that he was made man and died for us All which and much more the Devils believe and yet tremble I do not think that an assent to the Proposition of the Gospel be the assent what it will is that Faith which justifieth It is not the Proposition of the Gospel but the Person of the Mediator that is the object of that Faith some indeed tell us that Faith is an operative assent and by that they have mended the matter but if the Person of the Mediator not the Proposition of the Word be the formal and proper object of true Faith no assent can be the justifying act of Faith for the Proposition must be the object of that There are several kinds of assent according to the light in which we see a Proposition We assent to things oft-times meerly upon report and hear-say so as the assent is a meer humane Faith Thus most Englishmen assent to this that there was such a Person as William the Conquerour A thing they can see in no other light than that of humane reports in History of all other assents this is the weakest and most invaluable and before we give it there must appear to us a probability in the thing upon this account none but those who judge themselves obliged to believe what the Church saith and that those Books were written by the order of the Church believeth or assenteth to the strange stories in the Popish Legends because their reason tells them the things are improbable yea impossible without a miraculous operation which they see no reason God should work in such a case nor will men give their assents in such cases but where they are not much concerned whether the thing be true or false so as it is equal to them to agree the thing or to deny it 2. Men assent to things upon the evidence of ratiocinations they form conclusions from principles and then assent to them Now in regard our reason is not infallible this assent likewise though more strong than the other yet is but saint and incertain and alters as we see better reason for the contrary 3. There is an assent which is given to a Proposition upon the account of a divine revelation Now this assent is stronger or weaker as the Revelation is more fully or imperfectly incertainly agreed A man by a natural power may assent to the Proposition of the Gospel as delivered to him by men he that thus assenteth doth no more assent to what the Gospel saith of Christ than to what Histories tell him of what was done by the Saxon or Norman Kings many hundred years ago Reason working upon its own principles sheweth us nothing of Christ The Scriptures are by all Christians generally lookt upon as the Word of God but no man hath any certain and firm persuasion that they are so but he who is persuaded of it by the Holy Spirit of God all arguments from tradition and reason have their incertainties and though they are useful to make it probable to others yet they do not produce a certainty of persuasion in our own Souls hence the assent to such Propositions as are only revealed in Scripture must also be faint and incertain and consequently not operative or very incertainly operative so that although it may produce something of practice whiles the fit of assent is upon the Soul yet it produceth no steady certain constant practice so as though it should be granted that a practical assent to the Proposition of the Gospel be true justifying faith to which is annexed the pardon of sin yet if by it we mean such an agreement of our minds to the truth as produceth a certain steady constant or ordinary practice and course of life conformable to the propositions of truth which we agree as this will imply trusting and relying on Christ for life and salvation so it is such as is the operation of God in the Soul and that not in a way of common providence as our abilities to speak or move are but in a way of special favour and working for mans agreeing to the holy Scriptures to be the Word of God firmly and steadily being the reason why he agrees the truth of the propositions which are revealed in it alone and that being the special work of God in Souls that shall be saved of necessity such also must be the assent to the Propositions that are revealed in it and which can be seen by the Soul in no other light So as indeed I do not think there is much in it more than a strife about words or at least a very great nicety whether true justifying Faith be a practical assent to the Propositions of the Gospel or a reliance on the Person of the Mediator or rather both for a practical assent doth necessarily infer a reliance on the Person of the Mediator Admitting that this is one Proposition of the Gospel Acts 4. 12. That there is no Salvation in any other for there is no other name given under Heaven amongst men whereby we must be saved and that the Soul in its practice of holiness hath any Eye to the recompence of reward it is impossible there should be any practical assent to use the term of some that is any assent to the Proposition that shall produce any truth or constancy of practice without a reliance upon and trusting to the Person of the Mediator and this must be the special work and powerful operation of God in and upon the Soul But now if men make any kind of languid weak and incertain assent to the Gospel Faith and think that they have true Faith
Assemblies I cannot away with even the Solemn Meetings Your New Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble to me God had appointed all these things he had commanded they should tread his Courts bring Oblations offer Incense keep New Moons and Sabbaths but all these things ought to have been done out of love to God with a Faith in Christ and with pure hearts not being so performed they were no Godliness but meer abomination unto God The case with us under the Gospel is the same though our Acts of homage there prescribed be of another more reasonable and spiritual nature God hath required of us to pray to praise to hear his Word to partake of his Supper He hath also prescribed us the manner in which we ought to do these acts in Faith in Obedience with the intention of our minds attention of our thoughts fervency of spirit Separate the more external acts from these they are no better than formal performances bodily exercises neither acceptable to God nor profitable to our selves If men will call these Godliness or Holiness it is a great mistake The external acts are indeed such as men that live under the Gospel may be excited to perform and may perform without any special influence of Grace by vertue of his natural powers and abilities and the common Grace of God not denied to any But when they are done without due affections and principles and inward motions of the heart correspondent to the nature of the actions according to the revelation of the Divine Will they are no Holiness but Hypocrisie and thus they cannot be performed without the assistance and influence of special Grace Thus from this notion of the necessity of Christ's drawing both with reference to our first coming to Christ for life and further following him walking with him and running after him Christians may be able to judge both concerning the Truth of their Faith and also of their Holiness If either be true they must be the effect of Divine special Grace and more than any can do from the powers of Nature even the best educated Nature not renewed changed and influenced by special and distinguishing grace I am fully of their mind who think that those Souls who are no further changed and reformed or converted than might be from the power of Nature rationally improving Moral Principles and Gospel Motives and Arguments cannot be saved But yet I am so charitable as to think that many may be saved who think they have no other conversion than this the workings of the Spirit of God upon our Souls are so indiscernable and internal that we may possibly mistake them for the workings of meerly our own powers and faculties under the advantages of the Gospel but they must be more than such or else as I have before said man is the first Author of all spiritual good both with respect to action and fruition to himself and clearly his own Saviour and must make himself to differ from another and that by the highest and most spiritual difference and one man's Soul must have different and inequal vertues from the Soul of his Brother whose Soul is of the same species and hath the same faculties But I have dwelt long enough upon this branch of Application Let every one now by this Examine himself whether the Faith that he thinks he hath be a meer Assent to the Proposition of the Gospel upon the Evidence of it he hath had from the Church or from men or a meer languid incertain Assent from probable Arguments of Reason or a meer presumption bottomed upon no Promise Or whether it be a firm and fixed Assent to the Truths of the Gospel understood by him conjoyned with a reliance upon the Person of the Mediator clearly revealed in the Gospel as the only Saviour of Man and producing an endeavour in all things to live up to the condition of the Promise Whether the Holiness which he thinketh his Soul hath arrived at lieth in a meer Moral Righteousness a forbearance of gross and scandalous courses of sin and a doing such acts of Justice and Charity as a man may do from the meer improvement and conduct of reason and a meer Formality of Godliness a performance of such acts of homage as God hath prescribed without respect to the manner in which God hath willed them to be performed If your pretended Faith and Holiness be no more trust not to them as Evidences that you are come to Christ all this may be without any thing of this drawing your Faith is no more than that mentioned Matth. 7. 22. where our Saviour tells you that many pretendedly trusting in and relying upon him as may appear by what they said should say to him in that day Lord Lord Have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works to whom he would say I never knew you depart from me you workers of iniquity God had never promised Heaven Salvation to a prophesying in his Name nor to a casting out of Devils so as their confidence or reliance on or in Christ was the growing up of a Rush without Mire a trusting without a ground or bottom Your Holiness and Righteousness is no more than that of the Pharisee who gloried Luk. 18. 11 12. That he was not as other men were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers he fasted twice a week and gave Alms of all that he possessed Our Saviour saith he went away not justified And Matth. 5. 20. Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you can never enter into the Kingdom of God Say to your selves severally My Soul thou must one day come before the Judgment Seat of Christ and begging for admittance into Heaven thou wouldest be loth to hear the Lord in that day say to thee Depart from me I know thee not My Soul what hast thou more to trust to than they had Canst thou say any more than Lord I am not as other men I am no Swearer no Drunkard no Reviler no Extortioner no Whoremonger Lord I fast often I go to prayers often and to Church often to hear the Word if thou hast no more to say the Pharisee had as much The interest of a man 's own body or estate the examples of other men the credit and applause of the world may move a reasonable Soul under no other power than that of reason nor other influence than that which all within the compass of the Church where the Gospel is Preached may carry thee thus far without any influence of powerful special Grace Further yet this notion of Truth may help to relieve many good Souls who are discouraged either because they seem to themselves to stick in the New Birth Or because they find in themselves a great weakness to spiritual duties Or impotency in the resistance of their own intrinsick motions to sin or forein
so far from opposing or hindering the drawings of Divine Grace as to do what in them lies in order to the obtaining of them you will say unto me what is that what can we do either as to the hindering or obtaining them 1. First As you may hinder these influences by omitting your attendance upon hearing the word so you may by your conscientious attendance upon it do something in order to the obtaining of it I observe that the blind men in the Gospel observed and placed themselves in Christs walks the way wherein he was to go He that conscientiously waiteth upon the preaching of the Word placeth himself in the way wherein Christ useth to go He that walks to the Ale-house or to his worldly business or abideth in his House when he should walk to a Sermon is out of Christs walk and as this is in his own power to avoid so by not avoiding he hindereth divine drawings The Preaching of the Word is the ordinance of God for the Salvation of the Elect when Christ was lifted up he by this drew all those Gentiles that were converted to the faith of Christ you know in the drawing of a thing by a Cord there is necessary a Cord to draw with which must de fastned to the thing we would draw when it is fastned he that draweth must put to his strength it is not the Cord that draweth but the power and strength of the mans arm that useth the Cord. That which is drawn here is the Soul of man a poor dead Soul that hath in it no principle of Spiritual life and of itself cannot come to Christ He that draweth is God the holy Spirit of God and that by the power of an everlasting arm but now the Cord is the word of God so God hath ordained either some terrible word of threatning or some comfortable word of promise some word of God is by the holy Spirit fastned upon the Soul by this the Soul is drawn yet not by the force of the Word but by the power of the Spirit making use of the Word now he who neglects the reading or hearing of the word hinders his own drawing he rejecteth and refuseth the Cord which though alone it would not draw the Soul yet is the mean the Cord in the hand of the Spirit by which ordinarily Souls are drawn that do come to Christ On the other side those Souls that are diligent and careful to read and hear the Word of God where it is interpreted and applied with most tendency to the conversion of Souls though he doth nothing ultimately and efficiently yet he doth much in a way of means in order to his drawing unto Christ This is the first way 2. As a man may hinder the drawings of God by quenching the motions of the holy Spirit and giving a deaf ear to the knocks of it or delaying its obedience to them suffering vain company or worldly cares to choke the motions of the Spirit and wear out the impressions of the word so he may further them by favouring them retaining such impressions and whetting the word upon his heart There is scarce any person who is a constant attender upon the Preaching of the word but at some time ot other will find some discourse more than ordinarily affecting him and making some more than ordinary impressions upon him now if when a man findeth this he endeavoureth to stifle this conviction or wear off this impression and to work his Soul out of the trouble of it he hereby opposeth and resisteth the drawings of Divine Grace 〈…〉 the other side if he withdraws himself fits alone meditateth upon what he hath heard searcheth the Scriptures to see if it be according to what is revealed there and when worldly business would put it out of his thoughts if he endeavours again to bring it to his remembrance and setcheth it again into his thoughts desiring it may have its perfect work This man now doth what in him lieth to promove divine drawings Thirdly As a man or woman may hinder God's drawings by walking contrary to his or her Light So they may promove them by walking up to their Light and Power The Soul that is drawn to Christ is alive and yet dead Alive as a natural rational Soul dead as to God and Goodness And this answereth an obvious and ordinary Objection viz. What can a dead Soul do The Answer is easie it can do nothing so far as it is dead but though the natural man be spiritually dead yet considered as a man a rational creature he is alive and though he can do nothing that is spiritually good because he is dead in sin yet he may do something that is morally and rationally good because he is rationally alive and under the power and conduct of reason in a great measure He hath some Natural Light he hath a further revealed Light by and in the Gospel and though he hath not a power to live up to all the Light which the Gospel shews him yet he hath a power to sin against that Light to which he might walk up and of which â—he might make a better improvement It is very possible and too too ordinary for men when God draws one way to suffer their passions their vile affections and lusts to draw another and in doing it to triumph over their reason This is highly provocative of God There is a great question about the power and freedom of man's will by nature Sober Divines say the unregenerate man hath no power no freedom to what is truly and spiritually good If any power or freedom may be allowed to the unrenewed will certainly it is most proper to assert it at such a time when the Holy Spirit moveth most strongly by its impulses and convictions The unregenerate man at such a time more than another hath in his power to resist his lusts and motions to sin and give up himself to God if he will now resist this Light and not to his power use this help he thereby hindereth God's drawings Suppose a man in a Pir and weak and not able to get out some strength he hath while he lies still to hold back but none to raise himself upward to get out When a Cord is fastened about him if instead of yielding himself he holds back what he can this man now hinders the charitable drawing that others more strong would lend him Fourthly and lastly Pray to God that he would draw you out of the horrible Pit and miry Clay It is the Holy Spirit that draweth and Christ tells us that he giveth the Holy Spirit to those that ask him But I shall turn my discourse to the Children of God and shew them what is their duty upon the consideration of this truth That no Soul unless drawn by God either comes to or runneth after Christ I shall open it in several particulars First This Doctrine calleth to all who apprehend themselves to be come to Christ
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
now if we rise higher and enquire how some come to use common Grace better than others when all have an equal Natural power to do those acts of Moral discipline and of Religion also which extend no further then to a bodily labour how it comes to pass that some get leave of themselves of their Lusts and Passions to do them others do not We must say there is an influence of God's Spirit of Grace more upon the one than the other inclining them thereto but so long as others have a Natural power thus far which they do not use God is acquitted of their Blood and their Damnation is of themselves though his abounding grace be more seen as to others whom he doth further incline to a better use of common Grace and their natural abilities but of this I have spoken before and do now little more than repeat 2. The same account must be given of the uneven pace which is discernable in such as are Christians indeed The running of God's own People is not alike though they have all the same renewed Nature and inward principle of life To will is present with them all yet they have not all an equal strength to perform Nor an equal life liveliness freedom and chearfulness in their walkings with God there may be much blame to be laid upon themselves for not using the Grace of God as they ought to do not keeping their Watch as they ought to keep it but the Original cause is the want of Divine drawings which are sometimes with-held as a punishment to some loose and careless walking sometimes as the product of Divine Wisdom for the exercise of some habits of Grace which are not so well tryed and exercised under the full influences of divine grace upon them as under the partial withdrawings of it There might be other uses made of this point but they would be mostly such as were proper to the former Doctrine and there inlarged upon So as I shall proceed no further in Application of this Discourse Serman XXIII Canticles 1. 4. Draw me and We will run after thee YOu have heard the Spouses Petition opened what she means when she saith to her Beloved Draw me you have heard her Promise or Argument opened We will run after thee She prayeth for drawing she promiseth her running Drawing was the act of her beloved Running was her own Act though in force of his drawing But here is as I before observed an alteration of the Number She saith Draw me She addeth We will run She begs but for one she promiseth for more she prayeth for her self she promiseth for others How is this 1. I told you when I opened thé words that some by We understand The Spouse and the Spirit of God in conjunction I and thy Grace This is a Sense hinted by Genebrard and De Ponte upon the Text and it may seem to have some colour from that of Christ Without me you can do nothing and that of Paul Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God It is a great truth that when ever the Soul runs after Christ the holy Spirit assists its motion but yet it is drawing that is Christ's and his Spirits work running is ours Grace works together with the Child of God but it worketh by drawing the Soul works by running it is not Christ or the Spirit of Christ that is in us that runneth the way of God's Commandments but it is the Soul of the Christian in and with the strength and power of Christ Grace is the Principle of our Spiritual life like the Spirit within Ezechiels Wheels without which the Wheels move not but they are the Wheels that move I cannot therefore agree this sence 2. Bernard hath another Notion She begs saith he The sowre part for her self the sweeter part for others but this is an interpretation which to me seemeth to have many faults 1. It maketh the drawing here prayed for to be a drawing by Afflictions which are indeed the Lord's Cords but such as he seldom draweth Souls to Christ by not are they the proper matter of our Prayer Secondly It turneth the Promise into a Prayer and makes the Sense to be to this purpose Lord for me Draw me with the Cords of Affliction Let others run after thee but I see no ground at all for such an Interpretation It is not others but We she includeth her self It is not let others run but we will run 3. Thirdly If by the Spouse we here understand the Church speaking The Church being many yet make but one Body So the Spouse prayeth for her whole Body which is but one and saith properly draw me and then promiseth for every part Rom. 12. 5. We being many are one Body She prayeth for Grace she promiseth not only action and obedience but unity in her obedience and action God's Kingdom is not divided against its self not different from it self especially in the Fundamentals of Faith and Holiness They are an Army in order and fighting together against the World the Flesh and the Devil but this still is more than I will run 4. I rather choose another sence of this Promise A promise of an endeavour to cause others to run after Christ or a Prophecy that others would run so as the sense should be this Lord draw me and I will endeavour to be a cause of more than my own running after thee others seeing or hearing of thy Grace and Goodness to me shall also by my example be provoked to run after thee In this sence I shall carry it The Proposition resulting from hence is this Prop. That God's sweet and powerful drawing of one Soul to or after himself will be a means of causing others also to run after him God's drawing of John 1 John 26. draweth first two other Disciples who when they heard him followed Jesus and Andrew drew Simon Peter v. 40 Christ's drawing of Philip was the occasion of Nathaniel 's running v. 45. Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Christ draweth the Woman of Samaria John 4. v. 28. She leaves her Water pot and goes her way into the City and saith to the men of the City Come see a Man which told me all things that I ever did is not this the Christ Then they went out of the City and came unto him and v. 41. Many more believed because of his own word There are two main grounds upon which the truth of this Proposition depends 1. The first is the alluring nature of Divine Grace 2. The Second is The exceeding Charity of every pious Soul I will alittle enlarge upon them 1. I say first Divine Grace in the effects of it is exceedingly attractive The love of God saith the Apostle constraineth nor doth it only constrain the
most of God have been such as have been I will not say most but much in contemplation which brought contemplation afterward into a superstition and a contemplative life to be cried up beyond all sense or reason 4. Lastly Be much in prayer But I have spoke enough upon this argument Sermon XXVII Canticles 1. 4. We will be glad and rejoyce in thee We will remember thy loves more then Wine The upright love thee I Am now come to the Fourth thing considerable in this Second Petition of the Spouse I have done with the Petition Draw me 2. With the Argument by which she inforced her Petition We will run after thee 3. With the Spouse's Attestation of the quick acceptance of her Petition The King hath brought me into his Chambers I have only to consider the Effect that this Love had upon her that is exprest in the words I have now read We will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy Loves more than Wine I have opened the words before We I and all Believers we who being many are yet one body united by one Spirit Members under the Government of one Head we who have tasted and experienced thy goodness will be glad The word in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expressive of the largest dilatation of the heart upon union with its object It is used Isa 65. v. 19. Prov. 24. 23. Psal 21. 1. Psal 2. 11. 13. 11. Zech. 9. 9. and rejoyce in thee The word again here used is often used in the Old Testament Exod. 4. 14. Jer. 31. 13 c. I shall not undertake to justifie the Critical distinction some make betwixt these two words as if one were restrained to the more inward motion of the heart the other more expressive of the more external gestures or actions signifying that affection in thee in Christ as the principal object and in the significations of thy love to us The Proposition is shortly this Jesus Christ and the manifestations of his love to believers Souls particularly in answering prayers are the singular objects of their joy and rejoycing In order both to the explication and confirmation of this Proposition I will guide you a little into the understanding of the nature of Joy 2. Consider how Christ can be the object of the believers joy and is more the object of his joy then of another mans 3. How he is the special singular object of their joy Take joy considered in itself it is but a natural plant a power God hath given to every reasonable Soul the object of it is some good to which it is in some degree united and it is greater or lesser according to the nature of the good or the degree of the apprehension There is in all joy satisfaction and rest and something of musick or melody 1. There is in all joy a Soul satisfying suln ss desire speaks some emptiness in the Soul and is the Souls motion in order to a satisfaction the like might be said of hope but all joy speaketh a Soul satisfaction according to the measure of the joy the rejoycing Soul hath alwaies in it a fulness and a pleasing fulness that is the first thing in the nature of it 2. There is in all joy a rest that quieteth the Soul the desiring thirsty hoping Soul is still in motion being in the pursuit of something which it hath not attained but the rejoycing Soul is at rest David in the hour of his joy saith Return unto thy rest O my Soul For God hath dealt graciously with thee That is a second thing in joy 3. There is in all joy something of musick and melody hence that phrase of leaping for joy hence singing and shouting are the natural expressions of joy thus joy may be described to be a natural power or inclination of the Soul by which having more perfectly or imperfectly obtained an union with the object which it desired or hoped for it is in proportion satisfied and well pleased at rest and keeps as it were a festival within it self Two things are required to make an adequate obiect of this joy 1. The thing must be good 2. We must have some apprehension both of the goodness of it and our union with and interest in it 1. The object that our Souls rejoice in must be something which either is good or which at least we apprehend to be so the nature of good lieth in a suitableness and conveniency of a thing for us and whatsoever we apprehend suited to any of our wants or convenient for us in any of our circumstances that we call good and whatsoever we apprehend under that notion whether it indeed be so or no we love and if we want it we desire it if we apprehend it probable to be our portion we hope for it if we have it or apprehend we have it we delight and take a complacency and rejoice in it 2. So that secondly to make an adequate object of our joy There must be some apprehended union betwixt our Souls and the object we rejoice in For although we can love and take a secret complacency in an object which appeareth to us as good yet it is propriety in it that causeth our joy and rejoycings Thus far now I have only considered and discoursed of joy philosophically as it is a natural affection working upon its proper object Let us now consider it as a grace or sanctified affection Grace doth not plant new powers in the Soul of man it only turns the natural powers to their proper objects Our Saviour tells us there is none good but God God is the Summum Bonum the first and chiefest good nor is any thing good but what deriveth from him Christ is good supremely good as in him there is found what is suited to the greatest wants and emptinesses that the nature of man is exposed and subject to And that the believer more valueth Christ then another man ariseth only 1. From his different apprehension 2. From his different relation to him and interest in him 1. From the different apprehensions of good which the believer hath from those which are in other men I told you before that the nature of good lieth in the suitableness or conveniency of a thing to our wants and emptinesses Man is a creature made up of two essential parts the Body and the Soul that which suiteth the one or the other we call good The Soul is considerable with respect to a present or future state the first is that which alone the most men are sensible of or concerned for We have a threefold perception of an object according to which we judge of the goodness or badness of it 1. The first is by the Eye of sense according to which we judge that good which gratifieth the exteriour senses this of all is the most unmanly judgment of it thus the man of pleasure judgeth those things good which gratify his eyes ears tast sinell
that understand you have Souls under an ordination to an eternal Existence that know the state of the Soul by nature and have tasted also how good the Lord is to you to whom Christ is precious and whom you will easily acknowledge your chief Joy I am calling to you but for the exercise of an habit with which God hath indeed indued you the exerting of a power with which God hath blessed you the using of a right which God hath given you There are amongst others two great causes why Christians do not so rejoyce in Christ as they ought to do 1. The first is Their giving too much way to unbelief and despondency Though we cannot increase our own Faith without special grace assisting yet we may promove our unbelief favouring our despondency and cherishing our doubts and giving way to our groundless fears and forgetting the Covenant of Grace not saying often enough to our Souls Why art thou cast down O my Soul c. 2. The second is Their too much carnality or worldliness Where almost is the man to be found that cannot rejoyce in his worldly Affluences although he wants the sense of the Love of God in Christ or that if he were tried would not find it an hard matter to rejoyce in God if the Fig-tree did not blossom and there were no fruit on the Vine How ready are we to rejoyce in our creature-comforts when we have them more than in the Love of Christ to our Souls whence is this but from our too much savouring minding and living upon Earth and earthly things Is the hearing of Prayers such a matter of joy to a gracious man how should this engage us 1. So to pray that we may receive an answer of them from the Lord 2. To look after our Prayers and the answers of them that the sense of such an answer may excite our joy in Christ As to the first I have spoken so fully to it under the first Doctrine I handled from this Text that I shall not need again to inlarge upon it here I shall only inlarge upon the second Foolish Children that shoot Arrows and never look after them lose that pleasure and content in their game which those have who observe what becomes of their Arrows and how near they come to the mark to which they are directed and levelled Formal Christians who send up Prayers to Heaven and never look after them never consider whether the Lord answereth them yea or no lose that pleasure and satisfaction which the Soul hath that watcheth his Prayers and with David when early in the morning he hath directed his Prayers to God as Psal 5. 3. looketh up You read of the Prophet Habakkuk when chap. 1. he had been putting up his Prayer to God he resolveth chap. 2. v. 1. to stand upon his watch and to set himself upon the Tower watching to see what God would say unto him Here now comes in a considerable question viz. How a Christian shall know whether God hath heard and answered his prayers yea or no The difficulty lies upon two things 1. Vpon God's different ways of answering 2. In regard we may receive the good things we receive from God meerly from him as a God full of pity and tender compassion seeing and pitying the misery and needs of his creatures as our Saviour saith He hears the young Ravens when they cry unto him Not as from a God in Christ reconciled and hearing us upon the account of his Truth and Promise and the Intercession of Christ Now the answer of those Prayers only which are answered upon the account of Christ and testifications of the Love of God in Christ can bring the Soul to a gladness and rejoycing in Christ upon that occasion and motive As to the first 1. I see no reason for a Soul that hath been importunate with God for some good thing which it hath not yet received if it finds it self satisfied under the want of it and content to submit to the Will of God in the denial of it and to resign up it self to his good pleasure as to the collation of it upon him I say in such cases as these I see no reason for a Christian to question whether this answer be from God as a God of Truth and Faithfulness fulfilling his promise to the Soul His promise to his people is to with-hold from them no good thing that is nothing which shall be truly and really good for them considered in their circumstances Now where a sensible good is with-held and denied that a real good may be bestowed and the Soul is also brought to see its own mistake in the desire of that sensible good and to acquiesce in the good pleasure of God in not giving it nay to acknowledge that it is better for it not to have it and is quiet and satisfied certainly this is one of the clearest answers of our prayers and no Soul ought to question but this is a return of prayers Let us put a case Suppose a Christian lying under the power of some mortal disease under which he hath often prayed that if it were possible God would make the bitter Cup of Death to pass from him Still he or she groweth weaker and weaker worse and worse as to his or her bodily state but they find within themselves a further contentedness with the good pleasure of God a power to glory in their tribulation and to rejoyce in the hopes of that glory of God to which its affliction is bringing it a desire not to be unclothed meerly and free from its pain but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up in life What reason now hath a Christian to suspect whether this be in answer to its prayers and slowing from God as a God of Truth fulfilling his Word seeing as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit It is a good thing here that is given the Soul it is given it by God it is he who hath wrought the heart into this frame It is given in upon and after earnest prayer and though it be not the very thing in specie which we asked yet it is in value more abundantly compensating the things we asked and finally the thing which we did ask we asked with submission to the Will and Wisdom of God so that as to these kinds of answers I take the case to be clear 2. As to the giving in of such spiritual mercies as we have begg'd of God in their kind whether they be peace of Conscience strength against temptations power against corruptions sensible consolations more freedom and liveliness unto and in duty there is as little reason to doubt because they are the very good things we a kt 2. Of such a spiritual nature as God doth not use to give them to Souls that are strangers to him 3. The matter of
so appear and the more goodness or sutableness to a Souls necessities is in any object and appears to the Soul the stronger must be the Souls motions to and towards it Now there is nothing in the World can possibly appear to a pious Soul to have that degree of goodness in it that an Vnion and communion with God hath they being things suited to the Souls highest wants Our communion with God is the great testimony of our union with him and that Soul that hath no evidence of a communion with God will find it self at as great a loss to evidence its union with him Besides good is generally valued and adjudged either by profit or pleasure The pious Soul knoweth that the more full or free and less interrupted its communion with God is the more sweet and pleasant it is duties are more our tasks and burdens then our delight and pleasure when the Soul hath but a broken interrupted and distracted communion with him And as to profit nothing can be more considerable to the Soul considering that the peace of the Soul and the increase of its grace are both much advantaged by it David cryeth out Psal 73. v. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee The desire of God upon Earth mentioned by the Psalmist must be a desire of fellowship and communion with God which being in it self desirable the more the Soul hath of it the more full and free and less interrupted that communion is the more still it must be the object of every pious Souls desire This in the first place will shew us a certain difference betwixt the Child of God and an hypocrite The profane man despiseth communion with God and looks upon all discourses concerning union and communion with Christ as mere canting The hypocrite pretends to something of communion with God but any slight degrees of it any acts by which he can but fancy he hath any such communion serve his turn and satisfy him A formal hypocrite possibly cannot stop the mouth of his natural conscience nor save his reputation with the World without the performance of some duties which God hath instituted wherein the People of God have a communion with God he must sometimes pray and hear a Sermon but whether his heart be united to God in Prayer whether he attends to the Words of the Prayer whether he finds any fervency of Spirit or any freedom of Spirit to or in the duty whether his Soul performeth it with any exercise of faith in God these are things he looks not after neither are they the objects of his desires or indeavours Hence therefore conscientious Christians may take some just measures of themselves A Christian indeed is not to be judged from his praying or hearing but from his hungring and thirsting after a communion with God in the duties he performeth unto him and after such a communion with God as I have been describing unto you and if there be such desires in your Souls they will be evidenced 1. By the trouble of your Souls when you find you come short of it Desire not obtained as well as hope deferred will make the heart sick no true Christian but at some times will find his thoughts more wandring his Affections more cold his Spirit more straitned his Faith more languid to find this and not to be concerned for it or troubled at it is a very ill evidence against the Soul that it hath no such desires as I have been discoursing of 2. Secondly Such desires will be attended with indeavours to avoid whatsoever may hinder such a communion with God Real desires are always attended with proportionable indeavours He that desires a more free and full communion with his friend will go out of a croud of company where he knows he cannot injoy it He that desires such a communion with Christ will find some time to get out of the crouds of Worldly business and company where he knows he cannot have it 3. And Lastly The truth of such desires will be evidenced by the use of all probable means that may conduce to it He vainly pretends to desire a thing who will use no means within his reach and power to obtain it And that brings me in the last place to a Word of exhortation to the use of such means For though it must be by an influence a great influence of grace that any Soul comes up to this yet that is to be obtained by the use of due means on our part I shall briefly hint some probable means of this nature 1. Make Religion as much your business as you can I know it cannot be all our business while we are in the world But the more it is our business the more our communion with God will be When a Boy is first bound Apprentice he knoweth not how to keep his mind to his business it is much running after his idle diversions and recreations but when he hath once been habituated to his work by degrees he grows more serious and fixed So will the Soul as to its great business of communion with God 2. Prepare your hearts to seek the Lord by prayer by sequestring your selves sometime from your secular concerns There lyes much in this for want of it we are much accessary to our own distractions and that interrupted broken communion with God of which we complain 3. Vse your indeavours to lift up your hearts to God in duties and to keep off such things as would hinder it Frown upon your hinderances If a man frowns upon one that would come to disturb him in any serious discourse with his friend he must be very impudent that should continue such interruptions or repeat them 4. Lastly Beg of God to make up what thou canst not do Hitherto I have only discoursed a notion of my own as to the Sense of my Text. I told you that the generality of Interpreters take notice of the Noon as the hottest time of the day when the Sun emits its most direct beams so by it understand a time of Affliction and trial for which interpretation they have that of our Saviour Math. 13. 6. 21. This will afford us two notions the one more implyed the other more plainly expressed I shall speak something onely to the first of them at this time Prop. That Christ hath feeding and resting places and shades wherewith and wherein to refresh his Saints in the most scorching times of trial and affliction I shall onely open the Proposition by shewing you what these shades these feeding resting places are then shortly apply my discourse As to the first I shall instance only in three particulars David in his 23 Psal maketh use of this very Metaphor The Lord saith he is my Shepherd v. 2. He maketh me to lye down in green pastures he leadeth me besides the still Waters It is the work of a Shepherd to find out
God be vile in your Eyes who are so highly esteemed by him who is your Lord and Master and by whom you pretend to hope to be saved But to shut up this discourse You that will not conform your judgment to the Judgment of Christ concerning such People and behave your selves towards them accordingly shall certainly be forced to submit to his Judgment spoken of Jude 14. and 15. 2d Branch I would willingly improve this notion a little further not onely to reconcile your judgments to the judgment of Christ concerning the People of God but to reconcile you also to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the ways of God The effecting of the former if I could do it though it might produce some more quiet and peace in the World and reduce men to the rule of reason yet as to your own Souls if that be all all the effect it would have would be to save you from a deeper place in Hell It is not a good opinion of Gods People or a peaceable or kind behaviour to them will bring any man to Heaven I could wish that all who hear me this day to use Saint Paul's words to Agrippa were as the People of God are excepting that reproach and obloquy which they suffer those bonds and imprisonments to which they are exposed that they also would come into the number of those whom the Lord judgeth the best Souls in the World the fairest amongst women 1. Is it nothing to you to come into this reputation Leud profane debaucht Persons let their quality in the World be what it will in Scripture come under the notions of Children of Belial Vain Persons What an object of desire doth corporeal beauty appear to the World What will not a vain woman do to get it to preserve it to dissemble it what time what mony she spends to set it out What care she takes if as to it she be under any defects to hide them to correct them c. Quantum est in rebus inane All this it may be is spent in painting a Sepulcher a rotten post Possibly look into this Masquerade there 's nothing but what is rational filthiness and deformity An understanding void of any valuable knowledge A Perverse and stubborn will against what is rationally good beastly affections her Soul it may be is full of lasciviousness Pride Malice Envy All unlovely things Turbulent Passions Is Spiritual beauty worth nothing Shall Heathens judge a Soul that is knowing subdued to the rule of reason chast good just sober meek modest beautiful and worth a thousand Souls otherwise disposed and qualified and shall Christians judge otherwise shall they think Soul-beauty not valuable Or shall they not judge it worth any thing to be comely with Christs comeliness and in the Eyes of an all seeing heart searching God to be without spot or wrinkle consider Sirs how much this is beneath the name or profession of Christians how we are condemned by wanton gallants desiring corporeal beauty and Heathens valuing the rational beauty of the mind which commends it self to all rational minds before they be debauched 2. Consider what it is to have the King of Kings to desire and to predicate our beauty Psal 45. 11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty The King this King is God whose throne is for ever and ever and whose Scepter is a righteous Scepter v. 6. Beauty is in it self attractive but who is there that will not covet a beauty that a King should desire But what are all the Kings of the Earth compared with him who is the King of glory So shall the King saith the Psalmist desire thy beauty How great a thing is this for the great God to have a desire to the Sons of men and a delight in them And further for this King to predicate our beauty as the Lord doth in the Text and did concerning Job Job 2. v. 3. And the Lord said unto Satan hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause For this great King to desire a Souls beauty signifieth to be the Spouse of Christ to be in favour with God in this life and it promiseth an eternal communion with God in glory in the life which is to come when the Marriage of the Lamb shall be consummate and the Bride the Lambs Wife shal follow him wheresoever he goes 3. Lastly consider The consequent of not being of the number of those whom Christ here calleth the fairest amongst Women Amongst men their is a medium betwixt mens looking upon a woman as the fairest and such a one whose beauty they desire and being abominable and odious in their Eyes But as to Christ there is no medium betwixt these two The unbelieving and the abominable are put together Rev. 21. 8. A man may not love a woman so well as to make her his Wife and yet have a kindness for her not hate and abhor her The case is not so betwixt God and the Soul He or she whose beauty the Lord doth not desire is by God hated and abhorred that Soul is abominable in his fight The abominable Rev. 21. 8. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the Second death These arguments are enough to those who believe there is an Heaven and an Hell who believe there is a God and a Christ and that all mankind are under the favour or disfavour of this great and terrible God To persuade them to get into the number of these whom God judgeth the fairest amongst women Will any say to me but what can we contribute towards it Love is a free thing It is true Love is free and the Love of none amongst the creatures is or can be so free as the Love of God who is the freest Agent but yet hearken to the direction of the Psalmist who doubtless is an infallible guide in this matter Psal 45. v. 10. Hearken O Daughter and consider and incline thine Ear forget also thine own People and thy Fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty What is our Fathers house but the house of old Adam What are our own People but our own sinful courses our old sinful company How shall we forget them but by hearkening to the Counsels of God considering our state and condition what we are Whither we are hastening what will become of us in the latter end Giving and inclining our Ears to what To the reproofs corrections admonitions instructions of Gods Word to the knocking 's and motions of his blessed Spirit so shall the Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings the Lord of Lords desire and greatly desire your beauty To those who what ever they are called and go for in the World are Atheists in heart and
absurd and false are supposed in order to the forming of a true conclusion But in the Text it is certain that it doth Our Lord in saying If thou knowest not Supposeth that the Spouse might not know and therefore he directeth her in the latter part of the Text. It is certain that the term know in Scripture doth not alwaies signify the comprehending the thing spoken of in our understanding it sometimes signifieth to approve sometimes to attend to what we know sometimes to Experience I take here the first and most natural signification of the term to be the Sense If If thou knowest not that is if thou beest ignorant If thou beest at a loss At a loss for what I told you that to perfect the Sense we must supply something from the foregoing verse from the matter of the Spouses Petition She had desired him to tell her where he fed his flock where he made them to rest at noon Where she might have the best freest and least interrupted fellowship and communion with him especially in a time of great distress and affliction To this he answereth O thou fairest amongst Women If thou knowest not that is if thou knowest not where I feed my flocks nor where I make them to rest at noon Go thy way c. The words might lead me to a more general discourse of the imperfection of a believers state in this life Or to a more particular discourse concerning those grains of ignorance which may be allowed a gracious Soul But as the first is too general so the latter is too hard a task until the world be better agreed then it yet is about the number of fundamental truths necessary to be known and believed in order to Eternal life and Salvation Besides I think my Text considered as an answer to the preceding petition guides me to another thing The Spouses request was to be instructed how she might enjoy a full and free communion with her Lord especially in a time of trial and distress with reference to this petition her Lord answereth her If thou knowest not Supposing she might as to this at some times be ignorant and at a loss The Proposition is plain Prop. That even the best of Gods People the fairest amongst Women may sometimes be at a great loss where and how to maintain their desired communion with Christ I shall open the Proposition in three conclusions Then confirm and apply it 1. The Souls communion with Christ lyes in their reciprocal communications of themselves each to other All communion is made up of a mutual communication of two or more Persons I have discoursed the nature of communion largely in some of my former discourses and therefore shall say little of it now Onely I say all communion lyes in a mutual and reciprocal communication Thus two friends have communion each with other by frequent meetings together mutual discourses and communications of the Secrets of each others hearts one to another The Subjects in this communion are Souls clothed with bodies and their communion is bodily But now the Soul considered with Christ as its correlate in this communion are Spirits and their communion is more Spiritual The Soul performeth its part in it by the secret exercise of the powers God hath given it upon Christ as the object By Spiritual Meditations the exercise of faith love hope desire joy and delight c. By giving up its will to his will assenting to what he dictateth in his word consenting to what he there commandeth c. Christ communicates himself to the Soul by the secret influences of his Spirit opening and inlightening the understanding bowing and inclining the will influencing the affections convincing strengthening quickening comforting the Soul Indeed there is a more external communion with God but separated from this it signifieth nothing to the Souls advantage so we are said to have communion with God in reading and hearing his word praying receiving the Sacraments the Soul hath in these no further fellowship communion with God then it in them exerciseth these more inward powers in more external acts by the advantage of the bodily members so far as it poureth out itself to God in prayer by the words of the lips or opens its heart to God in hearing the word receiveth it with faith and love and meekness c. So far and no further hath the Soul in these duties any communion with God Nor doth God communicate himself to the Soul that is not made to believe and obey what it heareth further then to let it know his will with the advantage of such arguments as his Ministers are inabled to use by vertue of those gifts which he hath given them to fit them for their ministration 2. There can be no union between Christ and that Soul with whom Christ hath not a constant communion communion is the Daughter of union according to the nature of the union Wherever communion wholly ceaseth the union is dissolved Indeed where the communion is voluntary not from a natural cause there may be great differences in the degrees of it but wholly interrupted it cannot be hence God and Christ have a constant communion with the believing Soul this is by the Spirit of God given to them and dwelling and working in them and the seed of God abiding in them Our union with Christ is preserved by the same means by which it was at first made which was by Gods first communication of his power and goodness to the Soul and the Souls communication of itself by faith to him Thus the Vnion was first made between God and the Soul thus it is and must be maintained and upheld The reason why we say the Soul once in a state of grace cannot fall from it either finally or totally is not from the ability and certainty of their own wills however renewed and sanctified but from the more constant and certain influences of the Spirit of Grace which is given to the Soul dwelleth in it and worketh in it Christ hath not only promised to come to them that love him and keep his Commandments but to make his abode with him hence the union between Christ the Soul is not only compared to the moral union between the Husband and Wife Eph. 5. 30. but to the natural union between the Vine and the Branches John 15. 1. betwixt which while they remain united there is a constant communication and in very deed did not the Soul of a believer daily receive divine influences and communications it must wither and die as naturally as the Branch doth when the union is broken betwixt it and the Vine and this our Saviour teacheth us John 15. 4. As the Branch cannot bring forth fruit unless it abideth in the Vine so no more can you except you abide in me 3. Although the Souls communion with Christ can never be wholly interrupted and broken yet it may be more of less and sometimes indiscerned by the Soul I
communion with Christ 1. Some will pretend to the Spirit as their rule They have an anointing they tell us which teacheth them all things and so pretend to follow the motions and impressions of the holy Spirit But there is no certainty in this pretended Rule for all Spirits are not of God The Spirit hath given us the Rule of the word for you heard before That all Scripture is given us by divine inspiration and that it is able to make the man of God wise to Salvation The Spirit teacheth nothing contrary to the Word The Word directs us to follow the footsteps of the Flock There can be no certainty in pretended impressions from the Spirit which are contrary to the Word of God no nor any security For all such pretences must Issue in the deceit of our own hearts we following our own lusts and imaginations in stead of the holy Spirit or which is worse the impressions of the evil Spirit Yet this is the rule of all Enthusiasts 2. Others call out to us to follow the Church the practice of the Church in all ages And indeed if they could make appear to us what that was they would say something but what certainty can there be in this rule while they that talk of it can neither make that Church appear to us nor yet what their practice was we know who were the Church in the Apostles age and we know what their practice was by the records of holy Writ but who the Church were and what their practice was in latter ages we cannot tell and by consequence there is no certainty in this rule we may follow the steps of the Synagogue of Sat an instead of the steps of the flock of Christ 3. The Papists call to us to follow Traditions and indeed for the Traditions delivered us by the Apostles we see reason to follow them and if they could by an unquestionable record make out any thing to us which had been received as an Vniversal Tradition of the Vniversal Church we should have a great respect and reverence for it but for unwritten Traditions which the Papists put into an equal ballance with the Word of God for Christians rule being as they pretend delivered as rules by the Apostles to the Church of God as we know no need we have of such so we have no certainty that any such things were ever so delivered and therefore can see no security in receiving them or giving any ear unto them 4. There is a 4th sort that in distresses are much for seeking God and walking according to the impressions we have upon such seeking this practice is founded upon an excellent bottom 1. A Precept for the owning and acknowledging of God in all our ways 2. A Promise that he will direct our steps Prov. 3. v. 6. Seeking of God at all times at such times especially is the great duty of Christians and if rightly done cannot be in vain but for the right performance of it a Christian must have respect both to the matter of his Prayer and also to the manner of it It is to the matter of our Prayers onely that I am here concerned to speak As to this our rule is that it must be something consonant to the will of God I mean his will revealed in his Word Hence it followeth 1. That when God hath revealed his will in his Word for or against a thing which we are about to do for us to seek God whether we should do it or no forbear it or no is to tempt and provoke God This is like Balaams going to inquire of God whether he should go with the Messengers of Balak after that God had plainly told him he should not go We ought to acquiesce in the determination of Gods will in his Word whether in the Precepts or the examples of the Servants of God recorded there and for things forbidden to avoid them for things commanded to do them here 's no place for seeking God as to the doing or forbearing so that although for things of this nature as to what God hath commanded us to do we may and ought to seek God for direction help and assistance in the doing of them And as to things forbidden we may seek God for strength to avoid them and all temptations to them yet we may not seek God whether we should do the things so commanded and forbear the things so forbidden yea or no. Such seeking of God is but asking leave to sin against him 2. In particular actions as to which Gods Word hath not particularly directed us it is our duty to seek God for direction and having first well considered the general rules of the Word of God if we find the action neither commanded nor forbidden according to them we may for ought I know attend the impressions we find upon our Spirits after such sincere and serious seeking of God And take them to be the will of God concerning us as to such actions But this is but a digression from my subject This is enough to shew you there is no such security or certainty in any direction we can have as in following the footsteps of the flock of Christ the prints of whose feet we find in the Word of God 2. It is as reasonable that we should feed by the Shepherds Tents that is attend upon Divine institutions if we would enjoy any fellowship and communion with God for it is unreasonable to expect the influences of Divine Grace in any way but such only as God hath promised he will give them in much less in the neglect or contempt of any such means as he hath appointed The promise is Exod. 20. 24. In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and bless thee Our communion with God depends upon his coming to us and blessing us Where God will come unto us and bless us there we may there we shall have communion with him Now where will God come unto us and bless us In all places where he recordeth his Name to dwell what doth that signify but in all his sacred ordinances and institutions Conformable to this is his promise in the New Testament Mat. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my name that is at my command or by my order there am I in the midst amongst them and to his Ministers his promise is made Mat. 28. 19 Go you therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you alway to the end of the world Where can we expect communion with God but where he hath promised to be with his People to meet them and to bless them Observe from hence how unreasonable they are that talk of a communion with God or expect any such thing who make not the Word of God a light to their Feet who go not
so it is a creature of a great spirit and courage He rusheth into the Battel and is not afraid Jer. 8. 6. God speaking to Job concerning the Horse giveth an excellent and elegant description of him Job 39. 19 20. where God asketh Job Hast thou clothed his neck with Thunder Canst thou make him afraid at a Grashopper The glory of his Nostrils is terrible He paweth in the Valley and rejoyceth in his strength He goeth on to meet the armed man he mocketh at fear and is not affrighted neither turneth he back from the Sword The Quiverrattleth against him the glittering Spear and the Shield he swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage neither believeth he that it is the sound of the Trumpet He saith amongst the Trumpets Ha Ha and he smelleth the Battel afar off the Thunder of the Captains and the shoutings With respect of this Quality of the Horse I conceive it is that the Spouse is here compared to Horses War-like Horses full of spirit and courage I have likened thee to a company of Horses That is I have made thee bold couragious full of resolution to make a spiritual resistance to thy Enemies to bid a defiance to them no more to regard the reproaches and revilings the threats and rage and violences of wicked men that oppose thee and cause thy trouble than the Horse regardeth the ratlings of the Quiver or the sound of the Trumpet or the glittering Spear or Shield Fear not the rage and madness of thy Enemies I have made thee like to the Horses in Pharaoh's Chariots which are so bred and so spirited that they mock at fear and the more their Enemies rage and make a noise the more couragiously and with the more mettle they go on This I take to be the most proper and likely sense of the Metaphor in this Text accordingly I shall handle it 2. But it is not said To an Horse only but to a company of Horses Why to a company of Horses The term company denotes Multitude and Unity 1. It denotes Multitude The Church of Christ consists of many Individual Believers who in respect of their Innocency and feeding in the same Pastures are compared sometimes to a Flock of Sheep here in respect of that spirit of valour courage and fortitude which animates them all to a company of Horses 2. It is a term which denotes Unity not a numerical Unity but an Unity in some common work and in some accidents common to them all Thus the Apostle saith We being many are one body There is saith the Apostle Eph. 4. 4 5. one Body one Spirit they are called in one Hope of their Calling they have one Lord one Faith one Baptism they have one God and Father of all The Spouse is not compared to a company of Horses in a field or in the streets but to a company of Horses in a Chariot where they draw together run together upon the Enemy Every Believer also hath a Company within himself the several powers and faculties of his Soul armed with the whole Armour of God These are like a company of Horses in Pharaoh 's Chariots 3. But why in Pharaoh's Chariots Pharaoh was a common name to the Kings of Egypt and a company of Horses in Pharaoh 's Chariots signifieth no more than a company of the best Egyptian Horses-Egypt at that time was one of the most famous places for Horses in the world Hence you read that Solomon had Horses brought out of Egypt 1 King 10. 28. And the King of Judah sent his Embassadors into Egypt that they might give him Horses Ezek. 17. 15. So Isa 31. 1. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on Horses v. 3. Their Horses are flesh and not spirit So as I think they have but a feeble support from this Text who would make advantage of this Text to justify their notion that this Divine portion of holy Writ is no more but a Love-song betwixt Solomon and Pharaohs Daughter To all this I might add one thing more that the Horse by reason of those excellent qualities which the God of nature hath endued it with hath in all ages been in a very high esteem with men The vanity of some Persons in the expression of this hath been very great Historians tell us the Persians made solemn funerals for their Horses in other places they builded Pyramids over their Sepulchers Alexander the great built a City to the memory of his Horse Julius Caesar set up his Horse a marble effigies The Emperour Commodus would have his Horse buried in the Vatican Our age is more rational then to allow these vanities but yet it is vain enough many a man takes more care for the mangery of his Horse then for the Education of his Child and alloweth his Horses more attendance then his wife Which lets us see what a value men yet put upon this creature So as this sense may be put upon the Words of this Text thou art as dear to me and in as high esteem with me as the Horses in Pharaohs Chariots are to and with him The Proposition then of the Text amounteth to this Prop. That the Church of Christ and every particular believer in it is in Christs Eyes exceeding lovely and highly esteemed of by him and knowing that she is in the midst of Enemies he hath cloathed her with strength for the victory sufficient if she will make use of it he hath made her like to a Company of Horses in Pharaohs Charrots The proof of the Proposition then lyeth in the proof of these two things 1. That the Spouse of Christ is in his Eyes exceeding goodly and beautiful and highly esteemed of by him 2. That she is cloathed with sufficient strength and might to overcome her Enemies For the proof of the former I shall not insist upon it for besides the large discourse I have already spent upon that when I handled that phrase O thou fairest amongst women The expressions of Scripture are so obvious to every Eye where Christ setteth out his Love to and esteem of his Church and every particular believer that I need not spend time in giving you an account of them The latter is no less plain Immediately upon the fall God gave out this promise Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the woman shall break thine head and thou shalt bruise his heel The seed of the woman was Christ and his seed those that believe in him Conformable to this is that promise Rom. 16. 20. God shall bruise Sathan under your feet shortly It was an ancient promise made to Abraham and in him to all that walk in the steps of his faith Thy seed shall possess the gates of its Enemies God saith Zech. 10. 3. That he made his flock as a goodly Horse in the day of battel v. 5. And they shall be as mighty men which tread down the Enemies as mire in the streets in the battel they shall fight because the Lord
is with them I come to the Application I shall only apply it by Exhortation to two great duties Fortitude and unity I begin with the first upon which I shall most inlarge as to which I shall shew you 1. Wherein it lies and discourse it to you as it stands distinguished from a natural Spirit and stomack 2. From a moral fortitude 2. I shall offer you some directions in order to the promoving of it 3. Lastly I shall press it by some arguments It is agreed on all hands that the object of it is dangers and sufferings That the nature of it lyeth in a bold encountring and going through them That the vices opposed to it are 1 Cowardise 2. Rashness or fool hardiness as we call it There is a courage or fortitude which ariseth only from the natural Spirit and courage of the creature Now this is to be found in beasts as much as in men yea and more then in men the reflections of whose reason makes them less Spiritful then Horses or Dogs or Lions c. This commendeth no man for no man hath more of this then many Beasts have So it removeth not man at any distance from a Brute Creature Secondly There is a moral fortitude Which though it must have some foundation in nature for none that is naturally fearful and cowardly will by reason be improved to any degree of valour yet differeth from the other As it ariseth from knowledge and some just improvement of reason and is governed by the dictates of reason and directed to some noble and rational end such now as the preservation of our honour or Country c. But now Christian fortitude is quite another thing as it ariseth 1. From a threefold principle of grace 2. As it is directed by the rule of the Word 3. As it is exercised upon and against sin As lastly it works for a more noble end the glory of God and the Salvation of the Soul you may take this Description of it It is an habit infused into the Soul by the holy Spirit of God inabling the Soul from the dread of the Eternal God a Love to him and a faith in him and his promises to despise the prospect or presence of any danger in a resistance and fighting against sin and all temptations to it governing it self by the rule of Gods Word in order to the glory of God and the Salvation of a mans Soul From hence may easily be gathered both how it differeth from Natural Spirit and stomackfulness which is under no government either of reason or Religion and is a mere natural quality and found in beasts as much and more then in man It also differeth from Moral sortitude both in the Principle the rule and manner of its exercise and the End All which I shall open I shall begin with the first of these 1. The first Principle of Christian Fortitude is the holy Spirit Fear not saith God I will strengthen thee and uphold thee with the hand of my righteousness It is indeed God as the God of Nature that puts the natural Spirit and courage into the Horse or other beasts Job 32. 19. Hast thou saith God given strength to the Horse Hast thou clothed his neck with Thunder But here God acts as the Author of saving grace The holy Spirit is the Author of all gracious habits now there is a threefold Spiritual habit from which this fortitude or Christian courage proceeds they are as it were the Parents of it 1. The first is the fear of God No man is valiant against sin when temptations to it lye from great dangers but he that hath a true dread of God in and upon his heart It is said of Moses Hebr. 11. 27. That by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he indured as seeing him who is invisible He forsook Egypt in obedience to the command of God he feared not the wrath of the King When he saw he must either incur the Kings wrath or Gods displeasure he feared not the wrath of the King though as Solomon saith The wrath of the King is as the Messenger of death Yet he feared not the wrath of the King here now was courage here was Christian Fortitude Whence was it that he was so courageous The Text tells you He indured as seeing him who was invisible he had the dread of the King of Kings upon his Soul agnovit imperatorem coeli he knew there was one that was higher then the highest mortal and this is necessary and that too in a very good degree to every Soul that is valiant for God Every Person that feareth not God will be a coward in the Spiritual fight 2. A Second habit contributing to this fortitude or Christian courage is The Love of God The Apostle tells you it constrains we see in daily experience the lover will indure no difhonour to be done unto no affront to be put upon the woman that he loveth The vain Gentleman is ready to fight upon any such account The Soul which truly loveth God will fuffer no affront no dishonour which he can help to be done unto and put upon God much less can he allow his own Soul in any such thing what ever be the consequent of it 3. A third habit from which this Christian courage or fortitude ariseth is Faith Faith respecting both the Proposition of the Word and the promise of the Gospel and Person of the Mediatour Faith agreeing to all which the holy Scripture revealeth concerning the wrath of God his power justice greatness concerning the reward of those who well fight the good fight who overcome c. And also hoping and trusting in God for the fulfilling of those promises Natural courage is much from Nature and derives much from the Blood Moral Fortitude deriveth much from Education and Reason Christian Fortitude in encountring dangers ariseth from quite different principles The Christian is stout and valiant in the resistance of sin because he feareth the great and living God whose wrath is a thousand times more formidable then the wrath of the greatest man who when he hath killed the body can do no more God can cast both body and Soul into Hell-Fire Because he loveth God and will suffer any thing rather than grieve and offend him and because he believeth whatsoever God hath revealed in his holy Word concerning the greatness power wrath and justice of God against sin and concerning those who strive in the resistance of it Hence you read in that martyrology which you have Heb. 11. 33. That they through faith subdued Kingdoms v. 34. quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword waxed valiant in the fight v. 35. they were tortured not accepting deliverance v. 36. they had Trials of cruel mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment c. The principles of the Christian valour are not meer Natural Spirit and stomackfulness nor meer principles of honour and
from expressing exuberant affection to it lest the Child by it take advantage to go on in courses of disobedience Christ dearly loves many a poor Soul that hath its wanton tricks and is full of failings but he will not say to such a Soul Behold thou art fair my Love I will add but one thing more 4. Lastly Possibly Christ hath spoke and spoke it to thee often Behold thou art fair my Love Behold thou art fair but thou hast not heard him I have already told you that many of God's People are very deaf of that Ear. I was about to say there is no better sign of a gracious Soul than not to be too ready to hear such messages of peace God sometimes speaks so as the Soul cannot but hear when he pleaseth to set the Broad Seal of his Spirit unto the poor Soul this indeed is an audible voice and distinguishable enough But God in every Sermon speaks to the Believer Thou art fair my Love thou art fair We never Preach those great Truths of God That whosoever believes shall be saved and whosoever is justified by Faith hath peace with God and such like but God to every Believer that hears us speak Thou art fair my Love thou art fair But alas not one of many hath an Ear to hear no not those who truly believe It is in this case as with Samuel 1 Sam. 3. 4 5. Samuel was young and had not been used to the voice of God God calls him once away he goes to Eli the Lord calls a second time Samuel runs to Eli again and so a third time till Eli instructed and assured him it was the voice of God Till the Spirit of God brings the voice of God in the Gospel to the Ear to the inward Ear of a Christian he will not understand God speaking peace to him when indeed he doth speak it In very deed it is for want of Spiritual Logick The Word of God hath the Proposition He that believes is fair Though a man hath been a Thief a Drunkard a Covetous person c. yet if he be washed if he be justified if he be sanctified in the Name of our God and through the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ he is fair Thus much is plain in the Word 1 Cor. 6. 11. But now when the Soul should come to assume But I am washed I am justified I am sanctified there it fails and these may be the Reasons of a gracious Soul's complaint in this case But I have spoke enough to the first of the five Circumstances which I mentioned I proceed now to a second The Spouse had been admiring Christ comparing him to a bundle of Myrrh to a cluster of Camphire or Copher Now Christ adds Behold thou art fair my Love Behold thou art fair Obs High out-goings of a Soul toward Christ are ordinarily productive of great returns of the Love of Christ upon the Soul Duty in us is not the Father of Grace for who hath given first unto God and it shall be repaid to him again but extraordinary influences of Grace are commonly the wages of great duty It is very seldom that any Soul lets Christ know that he is exceeding dear to it but by the next Post the Soul shall know that it is very dear to Christ Doth God hear Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God c. Ephraim shall presently hear God saying Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Is the Spouse sick of love Cant. 5. 8. Doth she indeed think her Beloved the chiefest amongst ten thousand c. She shall presently hear him saying Thou art beautiful O my Love as Tirzah c. Turn away thine Eyes from me c. ch 6. v. 4 5. I might instance in many Texts of Scripture but I forbear Will you know the reason of this Take it 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Negatively It is not because there 's any merit in duty Christ is no Merchant of Grace he gives it but he sells it not Indeed it is a contradiction to speak of meritorious duty if it be duty it is the payment of a debt on our part and can be no purchase-mony The compass of that Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy Soul and with all thy strength is of an exceeding latitude there 's no finishing of it by any creature in this life It was from the jejune Interpretation that the Pharisees of old and the Papists of late have put upon the Law of God that they ever dreamt that man was able to perform it much less do any thing of supererogation The foundation-stone of man's Salvation is laid in Grace and the top-stone is Grace too To the whole Building you must cry Grace Grace But Positively 2. It is from the overflowings of Divine Grace in him who is our Fountain-head the Lord Jesus Christ The Eye that weeps for its sin till it can weep no more doth not by its tears make it self an Handkerchief to dry its Eyes but a tender-hearted Saviour moved from his own bowels cannot but afford it one and say unto it why weepest thou The Soul that for Christs sake parts with Father Mother Children Brethren Sisters all doth not by this purchase to it self peace of Conscience or eternal life Alas what proportion is there betwixt things temporal and such as are Spiritual and eternal But he who hath both these to give gives them upon the Souls performing its duty in this particular Matth. 19. 29. The Soul that casts up many a long look to the Lord Jesus Christ and earnestly wisheth for his presence with it and valueth it above the World and seeks for it more then for Gold or hid treasure doth not by this earn Christs Love to it but Christ from the fulness of his grace makes choice of this Soul to reveal himself unto The Prophet Isaiah Ch. 30. v. 18. hath such an expression as this The Lord will wait that he may be gracious unto you Christ is a fountain of Grace a full fountain now when the fountain is brim full of water the water waiteth for an opportunity to diffuse it self it may be there is a bank that hinders the full river that it cannot diffuse its water the water therefore works secretly and softens the bank first till a breach be made and then it emptieth it self by it Christ is a sea a full sea of Grace but sinful man casts up a bank against this sea a bank of unbelief A bank of stone hardning his heart a bank of earth favouring an earthly mind a bank of mud delights in sensual lusts and
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
the fruitfulness of the Church lies in its bringing forth many Sons unto God The more Souls are converted the more fruitful the Church is but without Christ's conjunction with it it bringeth forth none If Christ's presence be in his Church it brings forth many Souls If he be not present it brings forth no Children This will easily appear by considering how the Church of God is Instrumental to the conversion of Souls and by making it appear to you that these causes are not principally efficient sole causes nor can be so but are only instrumental causes 2. That upon experience it is made evident that where Christ doth not concur they do nothing For the first 1. The Church is to be considered as to its parts and as to its priviledges as to what God hath planted in it and what God hath betrusted to it As to its parts So it is made up of Officers and members As to its priviledges so there is committed to it the Oracles of God the Mysteries of God the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven there is none of all these but have or may have for ought I know an instrumental causation in bringing forth Children unto God or in bringing of them up but none of them have a Principal efficiency none of them have a sole efficiency nor can produce the effect without Christs conjunction let us look upon them severally 1. Look first upon the Officers of the Church these were extraordinary such as Apostles Evangelists Prophets Ordinary Pastors and Teachers That these have an instrumental causation in the conversion of Souls is plain they were set in the Church for the perfecting of the Saints Eph. 4. 12. for the perfecting their number and for the perfecting of their graces Paul calls them Fathers 1 Cor. 4. 15. and saith he begat the Corinthians He saith the same of Onesimus but alas as the Apostles of old so Ministers now have no more then an instrumentality in this production Paul planted and Apollos watered but God gave the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6. God was all he that planted nothing he that watered was nothing but God that gave the increase was all v. 7. v. 9 They are but waterers together with God workers together with him Hence though Paul Preached the same Doctrine to all yet he was to some the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death And though his earnest desire was to convert his own Nation it was his hearts desire and Prayer to God that they might be saved Rom. 10. 1. yet he could not effect it And if the Officers of the Church who are under a special ordination of God for the great end of conversion could do no more it will easily be granted of private members whose indeavours in quickening others though they may be sometimes blessed of God to such an end yet doubtless are not more efficient to it then the labours of Ministers nor yet in an equal tendency with their's unto so great an end 2. As to the priviledges granted to the Church The Oracles of God are committed to the Church Rom. 3. 2. it is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the mysteries of God are committed to it 1 Cor. 4. 1. The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are Committed to it Mat. 16. 19. I understand ever by the first term the Word of God and the dispensation of it in the Preaching of the Gospel by the second the Sacraments of the Gospel by the third the Censures of the Church I know the terms are more generical and not so to be restrained I only for distinction sake so restrain them at present nor do I meddle here with the disputes whether the dispensation of these or any of these belong to the whole Church or only to Officers nor yet to which of the Officers I shall only assert two things 1. That the Scripture seemeth to assign to all these some instrumentality as to the bringing forth of Children unto God this is plain 1. Concerning the Word 1 Cor. 4. 15. I have begotten you through the Gospel James 1. 18. of his own will begat he us by the word of truth As to the Sacraments for the Sacrament of Baptism we are said to be Baptized into Christ Rom. 6. 3. Gal. 3. 27. and again Acts 2. 38. to be Baptized for the Remission of sins For the Sacrament of the Lords Supper though I dare not assert it a converting Ordinance yet unquestionably it hath its instrumentality to the Salvation of Souls For Censures they have also their instrumentality 1 Cor. 5. 5. the end of their administration is for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of Christ But now 2. It is as plain that they have but an instrumental causation and separated from the influences of Christ and his concurrence with them they do nothing hence James 2. 18. of his own will begat he us with the word of truth John 1. 13. we are born again not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God John 3. 5. except you be born again of water and of the Spirit you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Thus the truth is evidenced from Scripture And Scriptural reason 2. In the second place Consider all experience where-ever the Word of God hath been Preached the Sacraments administred Church Censures duly executed so long as Christ hath granted his presence with the administrations they have been made mighty in order to the bringing home of Souls unto God Where the Lord hath withdrawn his presence either as to the generality of Persons under the external administrations or as to any particular Souls they have signified nothing Isaiah doth but make the heart of the People fat and their Ears heavy and shuts their Eyes Ch. 6. 10. he complains that he laboureth in vain and spendeth his strength for nothing and in vain Saint Pauls Gospel is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness 3000 are converted at St. Peters Sermon while Christ is in his Bed with his Church but few or none of the Jews in their Synagogues Acts 19. they were hardened Christ was gone out of his Bed and it was now no longer green and flourished no more But this is enough to have spoken as to the proof of the Doctrine come we now to the Application The Proposition might be applied variously 1. For the confutation of the errors of those who either deny the necessity of any conjunction of Christ with the Soul as to the production of the fruits of grace or at least of such a conjunction as is unquestionably necessary and of those who think that there is a power in mans will ad bonum Spirituale to produce that which is Spiritually good and that a moral suasion is sufficient to the conversion of a Soul 2. We might from hence observe the
then Persons yet here again they are divided some understanding by the Beams and Rafters The Word and Ordinances of God Thus the Dutch Annotat. By the Beams is understood the Doctrine of the Prophets Apostles 2. Others understand the grace of the holy Spirit of God There are other particular fancies But I shall chuse to follow those who interpret the Rafters and Beams to be the Word and Ordinances of God for these like the Beams of an house keep up the Church and are as it were the Common Soul that running through the whole Church keeps it together and indeed makes it one and so much shall serve for the second question the third follows 3. Qu. Why the Spouse here compares the Word and Ordinances to Cedar and Fir or Cypress or Brutine There are four or five things which these trees and sorts of wood are more famous for viz. 1. Duration 2. Beauty 3. strength 4. Talness 5. Smell 1. It is observed of the Cedar that it is a beautiful goodly tree I shall add the 4th Talness indeed its talness is a great part of its beauty hence you read of the goodly Cedar Ezech. 17. 23. Psal 80. 10. and the tall Cedar Isa 37. 24. 2. As these are tall trees so they are strong and therefore ordinarily used in buildings strong and yet light Hence when the Holy Ghost sometimes would express the great power of God he expresseth it under this Notion The voice of the Lord breaketh the Cedars in Lebanon Psal 29. v. 5. Firs and Cedars are apt to bear great weights and yet without any great loading of the building 3. It is observed of them that they are very durable Naturalists say that they are not as other wood subject to worms nor so soon to rottenness and decay as other wood is Pliny saith that it is commonly thought they will never decay and gives an instance of the Temple of Diana whose Beams Rafters and Spars were made of Cedar The leaves and doors of Cypress And after 400 years they not only continued sound but the doors especially shining and as it were polished They report of the Temple of Apollo whose Beams and main pieces were made of Numidian Cedars that it continued entire and sound 1188 years How true these stories are I cannot assert but certain it is these sorts of wood were very durable 4. A 4th thing observed of the Cedar and Cypress trees is their odoriferous smell According to this interpretation of the Text the scope of it is to Commend unto us the Word of God and the Gospel Ordinances 1. For their Beauty 2. Continuance 3. Power and and Efficacy 4. And lastly For their exceeding sweetness From the Text thus far opened you may observe three Propositions 1. Prop. That the Church of God is the house of God 2. Prop. That the word and Ordinances of God are the Beams and Rafters of this house 3. Prop. That there is a Beauty sweetness power and efficacy and an incorruptible nature in the Word of God and Ordinances of the Gospel I begin with these in their order 1. Prop. The Church of God is Jesus Christ's and the believers house Our house saith the Text. We will first enquire 1. What is meant by the Church 2. How it appears that the Church is the house of the Lord Jesus Christ 3. How it is the believers house 4. What may be inferred from hence for our profit in matter of knowledge and holiness 1. Qu. What is meant by the Church This hath in this latter age of the World been found an hard matter to agree amongst Persons of different Notions That the term Church is a name of multitude and that a Church must be an aggregate body is generally agreed that it is a body of People called by God out of the World is also as freely consented to But whether only called by a general call outwardly accepted by them so far at least that they do own the Doctrine of the Gospel or by a more special and effectual calling not only out of the Pagan World but also out of the unbelieving World These things have been matters of great dispute amongst us yet all acknowledge the distribution of the Church into that which is Triumphant and that which is militant The Triumphant part of the Church is that part of it who God having in the time of their life called them out of the Paganish and unbelieving World and they afterward finished their course are called also by God out of this sensible sinful elementary World to the enjoyment of himself in glory These are thrice called 1. Out of the Pagan World to the acknowledgment of the Doctrine of the Gospel 2. Out of the unbelieving World to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Grace by true and lively Faith 3. Out of the sensible sinful World to the Inheritance of glory The other part of the Church is that which is usually called Militant and is the whole number of those whom God hath called out of the Paganish World to the acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine of the Gospel This is again distinguished into that which is Invisible and that which is Visible The Invisible part is that whole number of men and women in the World which the Lord by his Gospel hath called out of darkness into marvelous light out of a state of Nature into a state of Grace The Matter of this Church are men and women the Form their Union in and with the Lord Jesus Christ The Visible Church is that about which the great quarrels have been Some agreeing it to be the whole number of People over the face of the whole Earth called out from a state of Paganism to the embracing of the Doctrine of the Gospel The Matter of it are men and women professing to Christ Jesus the Form is their Union in the same Profession acknowledgment of the same Truth and Waies and Means of Worship Now as the Sea is but one though as it passeth by several Coasts it receives several denominations as the Irish Sea the English Sea the Mediterranean Sea the Baltick Sea c. so as this great body is divided into several Countries it receives several denominations as The Church of England Scotland France c. And as again in a particular Nation suppose England it is impossible that the whole body of Professors should meet in one place and therefore there are several places of Publick Worship and several Precincts of People who meet together in several places to worship God yet all agreeing in the same Doctrine of Faith and order of serving God so there are in the World thousands of such Bodies which are called particular Churches and are under the inspection of several Officers all which yet together make but one Church of God For their Notion who think that the Church of God must needs be such an even number as can meet together in the
though the trimming were more costly the cloth was not so good They were all but shadows of things to come The substance is ours What sober Person lives in a Congregation where the Sabbaths of God are strictly observed where the Pastor powerfully plainly clearly gravely Preacheth the wholesome Doctrines of the Gospel Prays powerfully and Spiritually where the Word of God is read and the Sacraments duly and orderly administred where Psalms are daily sung in a Spiritual manner and the Ordinances of discipline are prudently and faithfully executed and doth not see a great comeliness in them at which his Soul is pleased and with which it is delighted 2. As they are exceeding pleasing to a Spiritual heart so there is a lovely Majesty in them and also a great Symmetry and proportion God hath stamped a certain secret Majesty upon every holy institution of his which Commandeth love and reverence for it from all sober Persons who have not outlawed both their reason and Religion too and here again the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel administrations gives advantage to them besides there is a great Symmetry in them the word Preached is verbum audible an audible word the Sacrament is verbum visible a visible word When the Gospel is Preached what is Preached but Christ crucified and what is that which is represented in the Sacrament but a Christ crucified The whole Gospel administration is a goodly thing and doth shine nativa luca in a certain native light of its own and hath such a loveliness attends the pure dispensation of it that the superadding of any humane inventions is but like adding black patches to a lovely face without which it was far more beautiful 3. But lastly the Beauty of the Word and Ordinances of the Gospel lies in this that the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ is upon them This is that which gives them lustre Observe holy David Psal 27. v. 4. one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord to enquire in his holy Temple The gracious Soul sees the Face of God in his Word and the Image of Christ in Ordinances this makes them lovely Look as it is with the body let it be never so goodly a structure the lineaments of it never so proportioned yet if the Soul informs it not there is no beauty in it So it is with Ordinances Christ is the Soul of Ordinances and it is only his stamp upon them his presence in them which makes them lovely and beautiful Take the Word of God as Christ is wrapt up in it the Ordinances of God as they are the institutions of Christ and sacred conduit pipes and means by which Christ conveys himself and the influences of his grace unto Peoples Souls so they are exceeding beautiful they are those performances in which the Soul seeth Christ and meets with Christ and this makes them goodly things 2. The 2d thing which the Proposition praedicates concerning the word and Ordinances is power and Efficacy and usefulness I observed to you concerning Cedars that as they had much beauty and goodliness in them so they had much strength in them which made them very useful for Beams and Rafters fit to bear the weight of materials in building laid upon them and to uphold the building There is a wonderful power and vertue in the Word and Ordinances of God 1. There is a supporting power in them 2. There is a working power in them 1. There is in them a supporting power They support a Church The Apostle saith that the Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2. the Church cannot stand without them they support a particular Soul The weight of poor Souls all lies upon the Word of God how often doth holy David speak to this in that excellent Psalm Psal 119. v. 49. Remember thy Word into thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope v. 15. This is my comfort in my affliction for thy Word hath quickened me 81. My Soul fainteth for thy Salvation but I hope in thy word v. 92. unless thy love had been my delight I should have perished in my affliction Nay herein doth the wonderful power of the Word of God appear above the strength of Cedars you must Imagine a Cedar Beam of some proportionable bigness to bear the great weight of a building every stick of Cedar will not do it But now not the whole Word of God only but a particular promise will strangely support and bear up the whole weight of a Soul sinking into despair I have heretofore given you strange instances in this case and I doubt not but many of your Souls can verify this from a particular experience 2. But further there is a working power likewise in the Word and Ordinances this is now more than is in a Cedar beam that hath in it a great strength but it hath no life it is an inanimate thing and so worketh nothing it beareth much but hath no activity in it The words which I speak saith our Saviour are Spirit and life Indeed the life and Spirit which they have is Christs life Christs Spirit without which they are but dead letters and weak things but from Christs concurrence with them they have not only the forementioned power to uphold and bear up a sinking Soul but they have an active working power to cast down the strong holds of the Soul according to that of the Apostle 2. Cor. 10. 4 The Weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ But I shall not inlarge upon this being something beyond my Metaphor 3. The third thing which my Proposition predicateth of the Word Ordinances of God is sweetness This is one thing which I observed to you concerning the Câ—dar wood and the pine Tree they were of a grateful and delightful smell The sweetness of the Cedar is a gratefulness to the exterior senses But the sweetness of the Word and Ordinances of God is intellectual they are sweet to the inward man Which intellectual sweetness is yet set out by similitudes of sensible things Psal 119. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast What is sweeter then honey saith Sampson Judg. 14. 18. Holy David â—elleth him Psal 19. 10. The word of God is sweeter then the hony or the hony comb and Psal 119. 104. He doubleth the Expression for the further confirmation of it They are the words of God that are the pleasant words of which Solomon saith Prov. 16. 24. Pleasant words are as an hony comb Sweet to the Soul and health to the bones The sweetness that resulteth to the Spiritual sense from
the word of God ariseth from two things 1. The first is that sweet joy and peace which God Ordinarily brings into the Soul from them God will speak peace to his People saith the Psalmist and he creates the fruit of the lips peace peace saith the Prophet this joy is indeed of different degrees there is the rejoicing of hope for hope growing from a true Root bringeth forth some fruit of joy in the Soul though it indeed be not so fair and pleasant a fruit as that joy which is the fruit of assurance because the Union which hope gives the Soul with its beloved object is of the lowest fort But yet even this joy hath a great deal of sweetness but Oh! How great is that sweetness which is the riper fruit of assurance that peace which passeth all understanding A sweetness which oft times overcomes the Soul and is too great for it to bear Both which the Soul reaps from the word of God and from the Ordinances of God 2. But secondly this sweetness in the Word and Ordinances of God ariseth not from this alone but from other usefulness of them to the Soul That is not only sweet but that also which is profitable David saies that the Law of the Lord doth convert the Soul makes wise the simple enlightens the Eyes that they are useful to warn us and that in keeping them there is great reward By the word and the Ordinances of God the Soul hath wherewithal to answer the tempter in that it finds arguments to help it in repelling a secret motion to sin c. This makes the Word and Ordinances of God exceeding sweet to gracious Souls as they are those things by which the Soul is profited 3. But thirdly there is a further sweetness that the Word and Ordinances of God have to a gracious Soul as they are pure and holy Psal 119. v. 140. Thy word is very pure therefore doth thy servant love it The heart of man naturally doth not love purity but the Spiritual heart that is conformed to the image of God loves it It is turned into the likeness of the word and made to love whatsoever is holy and Spiritual and pure This makes the Rafters and beams of the Church to the true Christian to be like Cedar and Fir sweet smelling because of that purity and holiness which cleaveth to them 4. A fourth thing which the Proposition predicateth of the Word and Ordinances of God is their duration they are of an incorruptible Nature as Cedar and Fir or Pine Not subject to corruption and putrefaction as other sorts of wood are Isa 40. v. 8. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth but the Word of God shall stand for ever Our Saviour speaketh to this purpose Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of the Law shall not pass away until all these be fulfilled I will open this a little 1. The Ordinances of the Gospel endure for ever Herein the excellency of the Gospel dispensation appeareth above the legal dispensation The Law brought nothing to perfection faith the Apostle to the Hâ—brews the Ordinances of worship under the Law were but shadows and types which ceased when Christ who was the substance of those shadows and the Antitype to those types once appeared in the World or at least when he dyed but the Ordinances which are as the beams and Rafters of the Gospel Church are durable and do not pass away The Jewish Priesthood ceased But the Gospel Ministry continues Christ hath promised to be with them to the End of the World God hath given Apastles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints until we all come in the Unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ The passover was but for a time until the Messiah who was the true paschal Lamb should he slain for the sins of his People but the Ordinance of the Lords Supper which comes instead of this is an Ordinance by which we shew the death of Christ until his coming again 1 Cor. 11. 2. The word of God in particular indureth for ever I will open this in two things 1. The Propositions of the word indure for ever They are Propositions of Eternal truth whether they be Dogmatical Propositions which assert the truth of God concerning the Nature or will of God or concerning the state of man or any thing relating to his duty or whether they be such as are promisory they are of an immortal Nature the reason is because God is a God that changeth not he is not Yea and Nay but Yea and Amen a God that cannot lye to his People nor repent of what he hath said unto them The truth of the word abideth for ever 2. The vertue of the word abideth and is immortal The same vertue which the word of God ever had in it to convince convert to enlighten quicken support comfort the same is in it still and indeed the proof of this dependeth partly upon the former for the vertue of the word whether it be the word of precept or the word of promise doth much depend upon the truth of it Now the truth of it being perpetual the vertue of it must also be so supposing the same concurrence of that holy Spirit which must be to make the Word of any use or vertue at any time I have spoken enough to the Explication of the point I come now to the Application of it which I shall dispatch by drawing some speculative and practical Inferences from what you have heard Hence in the first place you may observe a great difference betwixt the Legal and the Gospel Ministry And consequently the excellency of the latter above the former The Apostle to the Hebrews insisteth much upon this and by this argument proves the excellency of the Gospel above the Law The Beams and Rafters of the Church under the law they were not of Cedar they lasted no longer then until the timeof reformation The Evangelist St. John saith The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Two things commend the Gospel above the law Grace came by it truth came by it The law brought wrath the Doctrine of it tended to curse men and women and to conclude all under wrath but the Doctrine of the Gospel brought grace the news of the free pardon and remission of sins through the blood of Christ the acceptance of the Soul upon the account of his merits Truth also came by Christ Whether you take Truth for Substance and Realities opposed to types and shadows that came by Christ who was the End of the Law Or whether you take Trutâ— for Certainty and that which hath in it porpetuity and durâ—bleness that also came by Christ who put an end to the Ceâ—emonial law which consisted of temporary Ordinances for worship
nor fail for ever Nor indeed 5. Is that Assurance of things not seen which God gives to any Soul any thing more than the sealing and particular application of the Word In the mean time it is the Word that supports and upholds the Soul The sealing of the Spirit adds no new strength to the Word only helps me to bear my self upon it 3. Is there such a Beauty Sweetness Strength and Power and such an incorruptible and immortal Nature in the Word of God and in the Ordinances of God Oh that these things might commend them more to all you that hear me this day Under this head let me plead with you for these things 1. For a knowledge and understanding of and an acquaintance with the Word of God Let the beauty of an Object be never so perfect it pleaseth not me if I look not upon it or looking upon it do not observe and understand it Let the sweetness of an Object be never so great it affords me no pleasure unless I tast it Let the power and efficacy of a thing be never so much it is nothing to me if I make no application of my self to it or it to me And in very deed this is the reason why the most poor Souls see no beauty understand no sweetness in the Word of God why they feel nothing of the power and strength of it because they seldom look into it or if they read in it and attend upon it they observe not what they read and hear they understand not the Mysteries of the Gospel they make no appplications of the Word of God to their Souls nor of their Souls to the Word and try not the strength of it Oh let the Word of God be precious to you Read it and read it over and over again thou wilt every time discern some sweetness in it which before thou didst not discern hear it and hear it often observe what thou readest and what thou hearest get understanding in the Lord's Statutes make application of the Word to thy Soul and of thy Soul to the Word When thou art in straights as to thy outward condition or as to thy spiritual condition thou wilt then find this sweetness beauty power and efficacy in the Word which till that time affords but matter of discourse to thee 2. Let this plead with you for a due Attendance upon Ordinances The Word the Sacraments every Ordinance of the Gospel they are the Beams and Rafters of the Church which deserve all your care and diligence to uphold and maintain and to keep up in their perfect strength glory and beauty They are Beams of Cedar and Raferes of Fir they have a sweetness beauty and excellency in them and this beauty and excellency which is in them will not be discerned by the Soul that neglects its Attendance upon them FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for or to be sold by Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place SEveral Discourses concerning Actual Providence A Word in Season Denfensative Armour against four of Satan's most fiery Darts Sermons upon the whole first and second Chapters of the Canticles All Published by John Collinges D. D. Allen's Way of the Spirit in bringing Souls to Christ The Glories of Christ set forth with the Necessity of Faith in several Sermons By Mr. Thomas Allen late Minister in Norwich Several Sermons of Mr. Timothy Armitage late Minister in Norwich Lougher's Precious Promises the Portion of Overcommers The Saint's Ebenezer By Mr. Francis English late Minister in Norwich Directions for Learners to Spell English right The History of the Protestant Reformation as it was begun by Luther The Dead Saints Speaking Being a Sermon Preached upon the Death of Mr. Newcomen English Presbytery The Ordinary matter of Prayer drawn into Questions and Answers Good Reader THough the Printer hath acquitted himself in the Printing this Book as well as we can reasonably expect in a Book of this bulk yet the Author must beg thy charity as for some misplacing of stops or letters which might be the Authors fault as well as the Printers so for correcting the following Errata's which if not all are yet the most considerable that will trouble thee Page 9. line 13. read should me p. 18. l. 26. r. we call p. 29. l. 26. r. quarrel the p. 31. l. 34. r. Christ by that of p. 47. l. 18. r. such subitam c p. 74. l. 2. r. nothing more than that p. 79. l. 1. r. can find p. 85. l 23. r. from us by p. 87. l. 40. r. keep them p. 88. l. 1. r of themselves and l. 22 r. expose us p. 105. l. 9. r. excuse For p. 116. l. 9. r. room left p. 117. l. 7. r. chapter or p. 129. l. 24. r. when that is p. 130. l. 28. after himself add can promise himself to meet him p. 144. l. 3. r. to such p 147. l. 1. r. only so far p. 154. l. 32. r. it fareth l. 35. r more hated p. 150. l. 26. r. you that l. 39. r. to you p. 169. l. 13. r. abate a cup p. 185. l. 24. r. It is desire p. 136. l. 19 r. is the use l. 36. r. is observable p. 248. l. 22. r. exult p. 268 l. 34. r. out of God p. 289. l. 12. blot out For altho p. 307. l 7. r. make peace p. 341. l. 20. r. they are p 351. l. 4. r. not know p. 438. l. 36. r. signifie p. 472. l. 29. r. the Rod of God p. 479. l. 33 r. the fruit p. 487. l. 7. r. is much p. 491. l. 21. r. Ezâ—k 16 8. p. 498. l. 4. r. he must not tell a lye to cover his own p. 506. l. 4. r. in it lyes p. 513 l. 36 37. blot out For one to come to him p. 516. l. 16. r. a Christian to consider his p. 550. l. 27. r. it getteth p. 566. l. 31. r. its ends p. 614. l. 6. r. their ordinary p. 618. l. 11. r. then others p. 626. l. 1. r. understand p. 628. l. 2. r. God cannot p. 629. l. 13. r. command On l. 16. r. not lawful l. 32. r. St. Paul saith l. 33. r. But I observe p. 630. l. 17. r. every good Soul p. 631. l. 10. r. aedificans l. 14. r. not lay p. 636. l. 18. r. of such p. 657. l. 28. r. is so is evident p. 659. l. 39. r. Ezek. 16. 30. p. 680. l. 40 r. we must own p. 734. l. 31. r. not so much p. 768. l. 29. r. respecteth p. 780. l. 27. r. as men love natural p. 802. l. 23. r. or a woman l. 27. r. and so p. 812. l. 21. r. them reasonably p. 813. l. 38. r. being rational p. 816 l 8. r. meerly reasonable p. 832. l. 1. r. evidenced from p. 841. l. 9. r. take them p. 849. l. 27. r. to us p. 871. l 23. r. internal cause p 873. l. 39. r. a power upon him but p. 882. l. 40. r. Prophet foretelling
p. 886. l. 36. r. not exclusive p. 888. l. 19. r. were added p. 901. l. 3. r. verbum audibile p. 903. l. 34. r. which is pleasant AN Alphabetical TABLE Containing Directions to find the Principal things opened and discoursed in the Book A. A Biding of Christ with the Soul and the Soul with Christ what it signifies 799 800. The Souls advantages by it 804 805. How Christs abidings with the Soul may fail 805 806. How to know if we be willing that Christ should abide with us 806 807. Adam's state and ours how different what power he had 276 277. Afflictions the lot of Christ and of the believing Soul 536 537. Whence they are so How they make Christs Spouse black 539 540 541. What use we ought to make of it 542 543. Arminians Opinion of grace with the absurdities of it 263 264 265 266 267 268. B. BEauty of believers of what Nature 638 639 640. Whence it is 657 658. How it renders them to Christ lovely 642 643. what use to make of it 648 649 650. Beauty of Christ in what it excelleth the beauty of Saints 852 853 854. Beams and rafters of Christs house what why of Cedar and fir 890 892 893. Bed of Christ what 870 871. Behold what it signifieth 832 833. Believers thirst after distinguisâ—â—ing â—ercies 59. Whence it is 61 62 63. Arguments to 〈◊〉 it 64 65 66. Their thirst after all manifestations of grace and â—hy 83 84. Arguments persuading â—ach a thâ—â—st 90 91. 〈…〉 93 94. Their thirst after Christ in his word and Ordinances especially in the Gospel and the teachings of his Spirit 95 96 97. Their earnest desire after communion with Christ 136 137 138. Why 138 139. Their duty in the Noon of trials 618 619 620. Their more special need of the presence of Christ at such a time and why 622 623. What use they should make of that 624 625. They may be at loss sometimes how to maintain Communion with Christ 653 654 655 656. Blackness of Christs Spouse what and whence 465 466. Breasts of Christ what they import or signifie 47. 48. C. CAmphire or Copher what 811 812. Causes of Persons not coming to Christ 285 286 287. Chambers of Christ what 172 173 174. Chains about the Spouses neck what 721. Christ the Souls beloved 598 599. What are his feeding and resting places for his flock at noon 615 616 617. How the Spouses companion fellow and friend 687 688 689. 691 692 What duty ariseth from those notions of Christ 698 6â—9 How he is beautiful transcendently 852 853. How he is to be used as a bundle of myrrh 79â— 796 797. Why he is the peculiar object of the Spouses love 816 817 818. How he is fair 852 853. How he is pleasant 861 862 863. How he is the cause of the Spouses fruitfulness 870 871. Cheeks of the Spouse what they sign sie 717 718. Cedar or Cypress famous for what 884. Church of Christ what how it is Christs and the believers house 885 886 887 What this speaks of dignity or duty 888 889 890. Communion with God what 106 107. In his word how many ways 94. why desirable by believers 97 98 99. The nature of more external communion with God in his word and of more internal communion with God by his word and Spirit 107 108 109 Why believers cannot be satisfied in a more external communion with God 118 119 120. What Châ—istians should do that they may have such communion 129 130 131. Where Christians may have the freest communion with Christ 606 607. In what the Julness and freedom of a Souls communion with God lyeth 609 610. What may be done by us to obtain or maintain it 612 613 666 667. Comeliness of the Spouse what 470. How she is comely in her blackness and in whose Eyes she is so 472 473. Whence it is 473 474 475. Confession of sins to be made to whom and in what cases 494 495. Before men in what cases 497 498. Whence the Spouse is so free to it 501 502 503. Directions as to it 504 405 506. Conflicts of Christians with their lusts 550 551. Of the Church with corrâ—pt members make Christians appear black 552 553. Reasons of it 553 554 555. Conversation of Christians must be holy 721 722. D. DAnger of thinking we have our life in our hands 305 306. Defires the true object of them 176 177. What desires will evidence a truth of grace 182 183 184. Of Christs abiding with us how manifested 800. Drawing what it signifieth how many ways God draweth us 251 252 253. A powerful drawing necessary to conversion 255 256 257. The Nature of Gods drawing 257 258. Why necessary 260 261 262. The absurdity of those who deny any need of such powerful influence of God 265 266 267 268. How such powerful influences may be promoved or hindred 311 312 313. What may draw men to some degrees of reformation who yet are not drawn to Christ 313 314. Gods drawing of some is a means to make others run 333 334 335 336. Drunkards reflected on as preferring wine before Christs Loves Doubting a term or phrase what it signifieth 834 835. Doves Eyes What the commendable qualities of them are 837 838 839. why the Spouse is said to have them 839 840. Persons persuaded to get Dovos Eyes 845 846 847. E. ENgedi what it signifies 810 811. Eyes of the Spouse of Christ why they are commended 835 836. F. FAith saving what 292 293. How it worketh in Prayer 349 350. Flock why the Church is compared to it what that flock of Christ which the Spouse of Christ is obliged to follow the footsteps of 671 672 673 668 669. Folly of resisting vexing or quenching or grieving the holy Spirit 271 272 273. Fortitude in Christians how distinguishable from a natural stomack and a moral courage 705 706. Means to promove it 709. Arguments to persuade it 710 711 712. Fruitfulness of a Church or a particular Soul floweth from Christs conjunction with and influence upon it proved 871 872 873. what use to make of it 879 880. G. GRace of God what various several distinctions of it 81 82 83. All the Emanations of it desired by believers 83 84. why 85 86. Graces of Christ what and in what respects like to good Ointments 201 202 203. The Nature of special saving grace as in its operation powerful and yet sweet 280 281. Grace to be owned to others and in what cases and to whom and in what cases 508 509 510. The reasonableness of it 512 513. Christians persuaded to it directed in it 514 515 516 517. more grace to whom given 732 733 734. Grace in the Soul gives a smell what contributes to its smell 750 751 75â— 753. It s smell much dependeth upon Christs presence with the Soul 761 762. Greenness of Christs bed what it signifieth 874 875. H. HIerusalem what 456 457. Holiness mistakes about it 297 298. How distinguished from mere moral vertue 298.