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
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
the Rule which God hath given us Our Souls communion with God through the Spirit is not out of Ordinances but in and by them The Teaching of the Letter is not opposed but subordinated to the Teaching of the Spirit There is room enough for the Teaching of the holy Spirit after the Minister hath done what he can to teach us nor is it to be blasphemed by ill tongued men because themselves do not understand what it means they only speak evil of the things they know not The Power of God upon the heart fastening the words we read and hear upon our hearts and consciences as a Nail in a sure place is a thing only known unto the Souls that have had experience of it But the great thing I desire you might be instructed in from this discourse is The difference betwixt a prophane person and hypocrites and the true Children of God which may be discerned from their affections to the Word of God The prophane person wholly despiseth and slighteth the Word of God both the written Word and the Word Preached it serveth him for nothing but a subject to exercise his prophane wit upon The Hypocrite driving another design glorying in shew and appearance he must have some pretended respect at least to the Word of God but he rests meerly in reading or in hearing and regardeth not either how far God in the Word communicates himself to him nor yet how far he communicates his Soul unto God in the Ordinance Let an Hypocrite go with a multitude and hear a Sermon he hath enough if he can but say I have been at the Ordinance whether his Soul hath been at all instructed or affected whether any Word of God hath come nigh to his heart laid any hold upon his conscience yea or no he hath no true thirst after any communion with God in the Ordinance if he hath been but seen in the Lord's Courts or at most be furnished with matter of discourse to talk of amongst Christians so as they may take him to be a Disciple his ends are satisfied But it is otherwise with a Child of God he is troubled when he cometh from an Ordinance if he doth not find he hath had some communion with God in the Ordinance That God hath either more sealed and further confirmed some Truth to his Soul or convinced him of some sin or comforted him with some Promise some way or other spoken unto his heart Methinks the difference betwixt an Hypocrite and a Child of God in this case may be resembled by the going of a Child with another companion who is no Child to a Father's house where they find themselves splendidly entertained but the Child seeth not his Father's face the Child's companion is pleased and comes home talking and boasting of his entertainment but the Child's heart is sad the end of the Child's Journey was to see his Father's face and to have his Father's blessing without this the good chear doth him no good The formal Hypocrite comes home from Ordinances pleasing himself that he hath been at Church that he hath heard a quaint learned discourse and his tongue may run great descants upon such things as these The Child of God is satisfied with none of these things he went to his Father's house that he might see his Father's face if he can find no evidence of that his Soul is discontented and unsatisfied he cries I have laboured in vain I have lost another day of grace and opportunity of salvation I have been seeking the Lord in vain and waiting upon him for nothing And this is the very reason why a pious Soul cannot hear every body nor take up with all Sermons or discourses he doth not go to Church to hear the voice of a man but the Word of God and goeth with an expectation to meet with a blessing from God and therefore he will hear where the Word of God is so opened so applied as he can expect God's blessing upon it He cannot expect that God's blessing should go along with any to whom he hath said Psal 50. 16 17. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee He will not therefore sit under the Ministry of one that is openly prophane and wicked and of a scandalous life Nor one that teacheth other Doctrine than what is according to sound Doctrine and godliness and the form of sound words delivered in the Word of God or him that giveth heed to Fables and endless Genealogies which minister Questions rather than godly Edifying which is in Faith 1 Tim. 1. 4. When he goes â—o an Ordinance he goeth not to hear the words of men puffed up but the words of God and expecteth that God should meet him and bless him and therefore governs himself accordingly in hearing so as he may probably meet with a blessing from God which he cannot expect from one who so dischargeth his work as he proclaimeth to all that God never sent him though he runs In the next place this will give us another advantage to try our state with reference to God's favour An earnest desire after an inward spiritual communion with God in any Ordinance or Duty and the dissatisfaction of a Soul without it will very much argue a man or woman to be a Christian indeed whereas a bare going to an Ordinance a bare fancy or desire to hear or a meer hearing will speak a man no more than a nominal titular Christian and be an evidence that the Soul resteth in a meer bodily labour and exercise which profiteth nothing This is a great point the being in the Sanctuary will satisfie an Hypocrite nothing but the seeing the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary will satisfie David the man according to God's own heart But it is hard for us to keep a medium in any thing almost As in the heart of a Formalist there is nothing of this desire nothing of this dissatisfaction so many times in the heart of a good Christian there may be too much of this dissatisfaction and a discontent and dissatisfaction founded in some mistake let me therefore a little enlarge upon this so useful a Subject 1. A satisfaction with a bare reading or hearing the Word speaks nothing above formality nothing above what an Hypocrite may arrive at It is said that Herod heard John Baptist gladly yet he was not got up to the Hypocrite's Form There was a people in Ezekiel's time of whom God complained Ezek 33. v. 30 31 32. that talked against the Prophet by the walls and in the doors of their houses yet spake every one to his Brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And came as the people came and sate before the Prophet as the Lord's people and heard his words but would not do them with their mouths theâ—
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
further to consider the relation they stand in to the Petition considered as an argument used by the Spouse to inforce it I have already shewed you they are brought in by the Spouse 1. Partly to shew us the reason why the Spouse so earnestly desired these tokens of Christs distinguishing love viz. because she had found them good yea good before Wine as is the Hebrew Idiom 2. Partly as an argument she inforceth her Petition drawn from the value she set upon the love of Christ Each of these will afford us a distinct Proposition That the ground of Believers earnest desire after the tokens of Christs distinguishing love and nearest communion with him is their knowledge and experience of the goodness and transcendent excellency of it That it is a good argument for Christians to use in pleading with God for the choicest dispensations of his grace if they can truly tell him that his Grace is very precious to them These 2 propositions remain yet to be handled I begin with the first of them 1 Prop. The ground of Believers earnest desires after the tokens of Christs distinguishing love is their knowledge and experience of the goodness and transcendent excellency that is in it I say their knowledge of the goodness and transcendent goodness of those tokens of Divine Love By knowledge I here mean no more then their believing apprehension God hath in his word revealed the excellency of them this revelation they have read and heard and God hath wrought in their hearts a firm and steady assent to the Divine Revelation This indeed is Gods first work in the Soul the motion of the will and affections follow it I added and experience Experience is a sensible evidence Knowledge is gained by reading and hearing experience by seeing and enjoying knowledge conduceth something to move the Will and Affections experience more The reason is because good things in the fruition and enjoyment of them do not alwaies answer our first apprehensions of them and expectations from them but nothing can be imagined more potent to incline the whole Soul to any thing than knowledge in conjunction with experience justifying our apprehension As we have heard saith the Psalmist Psal 48. 8. so have we seen in the City of our God when a Soul hath not only heard of the Loves of Christ but its Eyes hath seen them the Soul hath tasted how good the Lord is this mightily engageth the Affections Especially if we further consider that whereas in all sensible objects called good the fruition or enjoyment rarely answers the report of them or the apprehension of them which the Soul first entertained and apprehended it is quite contrary here the enjoyment infinitely transcends the notion and apprehension so that as the Queen of Sheba said to Solomon It was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy Acts and of thy wisdom howbeit I believed I eved not their words until I came and mine Eyes had seen it and behold the half was not told me thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard 1 Kings 10. 6. 7. So saith the Soul that being justified by faith hath arrived to a peace with God Lord it was a true report that I read in thy word and heard from thy Ministers while I was yet in my natural state and condition of thy loves and the infinite sweetness that is in them how beit I believed not the words until my Soul came to tast something of it and behold the half of that quiet and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost the half of that serenity of conscience and satisfaction which the Soul hath from a peace with God was not told me thy loves far exceed the fame which I heard I shall lay the proof of this Doctrine upon these 2 Propositions which have a natural rational evidence to every reasonable Soul 1. The Soul of man naturally and necessarily knowing an object to be good and wanting it in whole or in part to any considerable degree doth desire it and without such knowledge it desires it not It is a rule in Philosophy we will nothing but what to us appeareth good It is our misery in our lapsed state that many things to us appear so which are not so but they must so appear or we cannot will them Three things must concur to make any thing the object of a reasonable Souls desires 1. An apprehended goodness in it That is an apprehended Sutableness in it to our state or circumstances if there be never so much goodness in a thing if we have no knowledge of it no apprehension of such goodness in it our will moveth not by desire toward it Hence it is that the Clown desires no learning and the man of learning and knowledge desireth no excess of gold or Silver Though there be a goodness in learning and knowledge Yet the Clown apprehends it not so doth not desire it and though there be some degrees of goodness in a great estate yet the Philosopher and man of contemplation apprehends it no further than as it serveth for a Viaticum a Travelling Penny to pay for food rayment whiles he passeth through the world And indeed this is the true reason why the sensual profane man saith to the Almighty depart from me and to Christ what do I care for thee for being under no conviction of his lost and miserable estate and possibly hardly believing that he hath an immortal Soul or shall have any existence beyond this Life he seeth nothing in Christ or the loves of Christ that any way suteth the necessities and wants of his Soul and Ignot i nulla cupido what good a man doth not know he never longeth for 2. A Second thing concurring to make the Object of desire is an apprehended possibility of attaining to or enjoying what he apprehends so sutable for the reason of man will not suffer his Soul to move towards what he apprehends impossible to be attained Hence as no Schollar ever heartily desired all kinds degrees of learning knowledge so no worldling ever desired all the Gold and Silver in it Hence it is also impossible that a Soul under an habituated despair should heartily desire the Love and favour of God which it apprehends not possible for it to obtain 3. The object of it must be somthing which the Soul wanteth either in whole or in part either as to the thing it self or as to some degrees of it or at least what it apprehendeth itself to want Still apprehension is necessary for De non Entibus non apparentibus eadem est ratio It is the same thing as to this motion of the Soul not to have a good and not to apprehend that it hath it for our Souls move according to their apprehensions and this is the reason none desires being though they may desire the continuance of it the healthy man desireth not health though he may bless God for it
diligent in the use of means to have its desires accomplished that Soul shall be made fat That Souls desires shall be accomplished tho it may see it falls short of its duty in the use of means and tho it may be God is not pleased to give the Soul the sensible manifestations of its love so that its desire is deferred and while it is so differred the heart is pained and it meets with some trouble and uneasiness through the not accomplishing of its desires to its sense yet it shall be made fat The hope of the righteous saith Solomon shall be gladness so the desire of such a Soul the diligent Soul shall be satisfaction This is according to the words of our Saviour Mat. 5. 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Thus much I have thought fit to add in this place in answer to that question which we sometimes meet with Whether the desire of grace be grace A true resolution of it is of mighty use sometimes to Souls under melancholick distempers or in an hour of temptation to relieve them where they both want sensible manifestations and a just view of the sincerity of their own actions I shall shut up this discourse with a word of exhortation 1. To all to look to their desires their pretended desires after Christ and his loves That of the Apostle 1 Cor. 16. 22. is a dreadful Curse If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha accursed till the Lord come Love is the complacency of the Soul in an object the first fruit of its desire None hath a true complacency in an object but he desireth an union with it in such a degree as he is capable of Hence every one that liveth under the preaching of the Gospel and hath heard of Christ will pretend to desire him But one desires him from a knowledge by hearsay of the goodness of his loves another desires him from a knowledge of faith a setled persuasion of it wrought in his heart by the Spirit of God and some tasts and experience of it you have heard that the desires of the Soul which arise from a knowledge of report and hearsay are weak and faint and cold and lazy and will speak nothing of good for the Soul that hath them you have heard the other desires are strong and intense vehement and fervent active and diligent Nothing more relieveth a Soul sometimes than to find in itself that though it wanteth a strength to perform yet to will is present with it tho it cannot yet rejoice and delight in the apprehension of his loves yet for these are its desires Nothing more killeth and destroyeth a Soul than to trust to desires of grace as indications of it which indeed are not so O therefore look to your desires after Christ See that they proceed from knowledge and experience For experience indeed it dependeth upon Divine influence and breathing upon the Soul and the holy Spirit of God like the wind breatheth where it pleaseth But see that your knowledge of the goodness of these loves be a knowledge of faith not a meer knowledge from report and hearsay as we may know many things of which we believe nothing that is we know such things are written reported talkt of rake heed this be not all the knowledge your Souls have of the loves of Christ I have shewed you that the Knowledge of Faith is a knowledge of persuasion of the excellency of the loves of Christ in themselves for I am not now discoursing of the persuasion that you have a particular interest in them a firm setled constant persuasion of the Soul that the love of Christ is the most desirable good in Heaven or Earth better then Wine yea better than life itself This is the work of the Spirit of God in the Soul A man can by no study persuade himself of this we can by no art no words no arguments of ours persuade Souls of this All that you can do or which we can advise you to do in this case in the use of such means to the use of which God hath promised his blessing or in the use of which God ordinarily concurreth with his blessing These means are reducible to a few heads 1. His Word 2. His Sacrament 3. Prayer 4. A reformed holy life and Conversation 1. The Word is the great means he hath given you it in writing that you may exercise your selves in it by reading he hath appointed the Ordinance of Preaching that you may receive it by your ears neither reading nor hearing will beget in your Souls such a knowledge of Christs love as will be productive of this knowledge which I call the knowledge of faith but they are both means means within our own power and with the use of which God useth to concur and in the neglect of which noâ—e can expect that the holy Spirit of God should work such a knowledge of the excellency of Christ and his loves as will be productive of these desires after them The Word of God is therefore called the Word of faith not only because it containeth the substance of what we are to believe but because it is that with the use of which God ordinarily concurreth in giving the Soul a power to believe therefore the Apostle tells us That faith cometh by hearing If you would know Christ and his loves read hear the Word of God and that in a conscientious manner but I have had occasion to speak of this under a former proposition 2. The holy Sacrament is another means at least for a further knowledge of Christ and his loves I am not of their minds who think that the Lords Supper is a means for conveighing the first knowledge of faith concerning Christ and his Loves to the Soul if it had Christ doubtless would have given it in commission to his Apostles not only to go and preach to and Baptize all Nations but also to Administer the Supper to them which he did not if any will say both Sacraments are intended I shall not contend but the Apostles practice expoundeth our Saviours precept who baptized none till they believed and made a profession of their true faith in Christ the Sacrament is not a means for ignorant persons and unbelievers to come to the first knowledge of Faith but an excellent means in order to the getting a further knowledge of Faith that is a confirmation of their Faith in the love of Christ 3. A third means is Prayer He gives his holy Spirit in all the manifestations of it to those that ask him 4. The last I mentioned was a reformed holy life and Conversation None know the loves of Christ more fully and effectually then those Souls who walk with him most closely You know the promise of Christs manifestation of himself is to those that love him and keep his commandments but of these things I have before
great and singular love to Christ floweth from his Experimental discerning of that admirable suitableness that is in Christ to his Soul and the exceeding love which he hath shewn to him 1. A Believer hath another kind of persuasion of the Love of Christ and the excellency that is in him than it is possible another should have 1. A persuasion flowing from Faith And 2. Confirmed by Experience I say first flowing from Faith We know a thing by Sense Reason or Revelation the Excellency of Christ falleth not under the demonstration of Sense Reason indeed working upon Principles of Revelation I mean concluding from the Revelation of holy Writ will shew even a natural man much goodness much excellency in Christ But this Knowledge is very far from that certainty which Faith begetteth in the Soul which is a certainty against which the Soul hath nothing to oppose ordinarily Faith is an Evidence and the strongest Evidence to the Soul of what it doth not see by the Eye of Sense and seeth very imperfectly by the Eye of Reason 2. A Believer's Knowledge is confirmed by Experience as he hath heard from the Word of God so he hath seen in the dispensations of God to his Soul His Soul is sprinkled with the Blood of Christ it was lost it is now found It lay under the guilt of sin and through Christ's satisfaction it is acquitted Though every Believer hath not a full persuasion of this yet he hath a good hope through grace and this cannot but kindle in his Soul a vehement flame of love to Christ Bless the Lord O my Soul saith the Psalmist Psal 103. 3 4. and all that is within me bless his holy Name Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction Nor hath he only some experience of the suitableness of Christ to his Soul considered as a lost undone Soul but he hath as firm a persuasion of Christ's readiness as well as ability to supply all his wants to hear all his prayers to supply all its necessities to bless it with all spiritual blessings there is no Soul that lives in such a view as a Believing Soul of its daily renewing sins and so standing in need of daily repeated acts of pardon daily renewings of spiritual strength c. It knows it is in the power of none to help it but Christ alone he alone sitteth at the right hand of God to make Intercession for the Soul he is he alone who can be its Advocate at the Throne of Grace It is the Spirit of Christ through which he must mortifie the deeds of the body and who must strengthen it with might to all the operations of the spiritual life It is so natural to the Soul to love those that love it that our Saviour saith if you do it what reward have you The Soul thus apprehending Christ its love towards him proceedeth in a natural order and riseth higher as it knoweth that the love which he hath shewed it and doth shew it is the greatest love For greater love than this can no man shew than that a man should die for his friend Christ hath died for it while it was an Enemy We saith the Apostle being Enemies to God were reconciled unto him through the death of his Son The evil from which he delivered it was the greatest evil The reason why the natural man loveth not Christ is because though he hath indeed heard much of Christ and of his love to the Sons of men yet he believeth not or giveth only a faint and careless Assent unto what he readeth and heareth concerning him He hath experienced nothing concerning the evil of sin nor feeleth any need of pardon and so cannot possibly discern or apprehend that goodness and excellency that is in Christ nor that suitableness to a Soul's state that a Believer is apprehensive of And in regard the wants of the body are no way to be compared with the wants of the Soul and the wants of the Soul cannot be supplied from any except only Ministerially but from Christ alone the Soul must necessarily love Christ with a singular love and all other things in subordination unto him so as they must stand in no competition for the Soul's Affection with him much less can such a Soul love any thing that offers it self in opposition to him I might inlarge fuurther in giving you Reasons for such a Soul 's singular love to Christ but I have touched upon this Argument before and these are the two main Reasons of their singular love unto him Their pourings out of their whole hearts their intire Affections into his bosom I shall only add a short Application of this Discourse Let us all by this try our selves whether we be the Spouse of Christ yea or no that is whether we be true believers yea or no and true Members of the Church of Christ by this we shall know it If we can look up to Heaven and say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth There are many who go into the number of those who make up the visible Church who are not the Spouse of Christ or at least shall not be of the number of those hereafter who shall make up the Lambs Wife mentioned Rev. 21. 9. They are not that Spouse mentioned Rev. 19. 7. To whom it is granted that she shall be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white or of those blessed ones who shall be called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The contract betwixt the Soul and Christ is made in secret In that contract as in others Christ consents to receive the Soul and the Soul consenteth to receive Christ The former of these indeed is sufficiently in the general declared in the more general call and invitation of the Gospel wherein Christ calleth to all to whom the Gospel is preached to come unto him promising that he will receive them and that he will by no means cast them away yet he hath not there spoken this to any particular person by name only in general to all those who are weary and heavy laden and who come unto him and the Soul is often at a loss in determining concerning the truth of its own acts in coming to and receiving of Christ tendred in the Gospel On the other side the presumptuous man is like the foolish young man in the world that thinks that every young woman who smileth on him or speaketh kindly to him will presently take him for her Husband and concludeth good to himself from every smile of providence but to satisfy the true Christian and to convince others of their folly let every Soul know that there is no Soul can take any comfort of this nature but that Soul only that can truly say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth and certainly would men and women be true to themselves they might from hence determine their Spiritual state But yet as there is a common
see your good works Shew me thy saith by thy works faith James Faith without works is dead It were endless to reckon up the several Texts of Scripture by which God hath directed the Government of our Tongues our Eyes our Ears our Hands our Feet In short the several Precepts for good works are all proofs of this 2. It must be so if we consider what influence the heart and will affections have upon our whole outward man commanding all the outward members out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh from the dictates of the heart the Eye looketh the hand moveth the mouth speaketh the Feet turn this or that way So that if the Tree be good the fruit must be good also the Fig-tree brings not forth thistles nor the Vine thorns A naughty tongue eye hand foot is a certain indication of a corrupt and naughty heart 3. The â—â—liever is made conformable to Christ He went up and down doing good finishing the work which his Father had given him to do glorifying his Father on Earth doing his will manifesting his name no guile was found in his mouth no iniquity in his hand No iniquity towards God no unrighteousness towards men 4. See the Patterns of holy men upon Scriptural record Abraham and David all the holy Servants of God you will find their holiness did not lye only in the obedience of their heart but of their whole external converse a strict walking with God in obedience to his will 5. Observe the promises of God they are not onely made to Faith and Love and the more inward habits of the mind but to external acts such as Prayer hearing the Word Sanctification of the Sabbath shewing mercy to the poor doing justly walking righteously 6. The descriptions of holy men also make out this They are described to be men fearing God and eschewing evil walking in the Commandments of God Working righteousness all which expressions signify that a believer must not only be internally holy but externally so also Lastly the end which they serve shews also a necessity of it they are lights to inlighten the World and therefore they must not be hid under bushels They are Salt to season the World and therefore must be exposed to their use their end is to glorify God before men which cannot be without an external as well as an internal holiness thus the first thing appeareth I have passed over these things easy enough to have been extended into a much larger discourse Because it is a point so exceeding obvious and indeed agreed by all men The 2d thing is that holiness is a believers beauty it is so in the Eyes of Christ which is here spoken of Nor is this of any thing more difficult demonstration then the other What is that which we call beauty but an amiable external appearance of a Person arising from a Symmetry of parts a due mixture and Proportion of colours in conformity to some Original Pattern or Idea A Christians Original Pattern is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be you holy at your Heavenly Father is holy As I am holy saith the holy Writ What can be a Christians beauty but his conformity to God and that amiableness which ariseth from that All Spiritual beauty is to be measured from the symmetry of the Soul to the divine law That which makes the Soul amiable to God and to all those who are like God This is holiness But I shall sum up all in some few Words of application I shall first observe from hence two or three Corollaries for our instruction then close all with a few words of exhortation Observe then That it is not enough for one that owneth the name of a believer to glory in a good inside There goeth a good outside as well as a good inside to make up a good Christian There are 2 Sorts of hypocrites and I am at loss with my self to determine which is worst The first sort glory in appearance but not in reality The Pharisees were of this Sort they were painted Sepulchers they made clean the outside of the platter of this Sort are men that pretend much to acts of devotion praying fasting hearing and acts of righteousness toward men and perhaps charity but are without any true faith in God or love to God full of malice and envy and cruelty and covetousness these are Pharisaical Hypocrites The 2d are such as will pretend to a good inside but they have a bad outside These men bite and devour their brethren lye and cheat and defraud and oppress neglect duties of Religion c. And yet tell you they have a good heart they have faith in God Love to God c. Thou Hypocrite shew me thy faith by thy works thy pretended Love to God by thy keeping his commandments Truly of the two these are the worst they pretend to holiness but which way will you look for it What notion of holiness have these men taken up Will you look for it in their conscientious constant attendance upon duties of publick Worship there you see their places empty or if they be filled observe their behaviour they are prating or sleeping or sporting or with their Eyes compassing the whole congregation Will you look for it in their private families There it may be you may hear the voice of Cursing or Swearing or reviling but the voice of Praying of reading the Word of those that sing praise unto God is seldom or never heard in their Houses Will you look for their holiness in their behaviour toward men you shall there find neither Justice nor Charity cheating defrauding Oppression cruelty hard-hearted behaviour c. Yet they will tell you they have good hearts Either now these men have Souls not like other mens Souls that have no command of their tongues and hands c. Or else they speak falsely I say these are of all others the Vilest Hypoerites 1. Because they have nothing good the first mentioned do some good things materially good they read fast pray walk justly give alms But these wretches have nothing do nothing at all that is good There is nothing good in their lives and that assureth us there 's nothing good in their hearts 2. These men do much more hurt then others do these are they that cause the name of God to be Blaâ—â—â—emed and evil spoken of Brethren be not deceived they are fifty men that you can impose upon but you cannot impose upon that God who searcheth the heart tryeth the reins Let none be deceived by the pretences of these Hypocrites The Spouse of Christ hath beautifull Cheeks and a beautiful Neck as well as a beautiful inside her Cheeks are comely betwixt rows of Jewels She hath a Chain of gold upon her Neck The laws and instructions of her Heavenly Father are an Ornament to her head and a Chain upon her Neck She durst not before men dishonour God Let this be the first
to the King There 's no Faith in Christ nor pure Love to God and Christ to be got at Athens Flesh and Blood will not convey these things into a Soul Lastly Observe how the whole Trinity is concerned in the dispensations of grace It is the note of the Learned Mercer That the Mystery of the Trinity is here held out to us in the Plural Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I touched upon this before though indeed the works of the Trinity within it self be divided The Father begetteth and is not begotten The Son is begotten but doth not beget The Holy Ghost proceedeth from both and doth neither beget nor is begotten and although to denote the order of working in the holy Trinity Creation is made the work of the Father Redemption the work of the Son and Sanctification the work of the Holy Spirit yet it is most certain that all the works of the Trinity out of it self are individed what one person doth all do All that grace of which the Believer is made partaker floweth from the whole Trinity it is from the Father through the merits of the Son and by the Holy Ghost In the second place Will Christ go on in giving to his Saints more grace Let not then those of little Faith be discouraged Let not those that are strong despise the weak nor those who are weak be discouraged and despond in themselves If the Child of God hath Faith but as a grain of Mustard seed it shall increase If it hath but a stock of grace like the Widdows Meal in the Barrel and Oil in the Cruise yet the Meal shall not fail from the Barrel nor the Oil from the Cruise If the Child of a rich and indulgent Parent be despised by another that hath finer Clothes and richer Ornaments than the Wisdom of its Parent thinks fit at present to allow it it will comfort its self that its Father is able to do as much for it that he wants no love to prompt him to it that it hath a large Inheritance that is made sure unto it Shall not the Child of God thus comfort himself from its hopes of glory though it as yet hath but a small earnest of it from that fulness of grace which is in Christ He shall be holden up saith the Apostle speaking of the weak Brethren for God is able to make him stand Rom. 14. 4. And from that readiness that is in Christ and his Promise to give to him that hath so that he shall have more abundantly from the Promise of Christ to the Soul whose cheeks are already comely with Rows of Jewels and Chains of Gold that he will make for it Borders of Gold with spots or badges or studs of Silver Let true grace in the Soul be never so faint and weak it is the Seed of God it shall abide yea it shall grow and increase Hypocrisie is alwaies withering the Hypocrite groweth worse and worse his fair shews and appearances daily decay but true grace is alwaies growing Christ is alwaies adding to it And indeed this is one thing which distinguisheth a sincerity and truth of grace from all the counterfeits of it A Child of God is alwaies growing better and better the Lord is adding to his spiritual habits Wicked men and Hypocrites are growing worse and worse In the last place This Notion calls to all the People of God 1. For an admiration of the Love of God towards them what a God do we serve what a Saviour what a Friend what a Beloved hath every Soul whose Soul sincerely loveth the Lord Jesus Christ The Beloved of your Souls is not like anothers Beloved in himself he is not he is the chiefest of ten thousand he is altogether desires He is not to you as anothers Beloved he is unweariable in his acts of grace and dispensations of goodness Are there any Souls here whose iniquities are forgiven whose sins are covered whose Souls are regenerated renewed through the Sanctification of the Spirit might not these Souls go into their Closets with David and sit down and say Who are we O Lord God! and what were our Souls that the Lord should bring us hitherto that God should wash our Souls white in the Blood of the Lamb and give us another Spirit than we had by Nature a new Heart a new Nature that he should make us partakers of the Divine Nature But this was yet a small thing in the sight of God he hath spoken also of his Servants for a great while yet to come he hath spoken of more grace of making for us Borders of Gold with Badges of Silver A faithful man shall abound with blessings The beginnings of saving grace in the Soul in the Justification of the Soul and the first change and renovation of our Natures are blessings of that nature as Eternity will be too short a time to admire the Love of God in and for but will the Lord also add to his Servants stock and increase their heap will he be still making and preparing new Ornaments for them and giving further grace to them till all their wants shall be supplied all their emptinesses filled up what manner of Love is this Let our Souls be swallowed up in the admiration of this Love Let our Souls and all that is within us bless his holy Name 2. How doth this Notion call to us for all manner of holiness Holiness lyeth in two things 1. The mortification of lusts and sinful habits with the eschewing and declining of sinful acts which are the fruit of those trees 2. The exercises of Godliness Let me shortly press both from this notion of out beloved's being preparing still and making for us Chains of Gold and spots of Silver I will begin with the 2d 1. The exercises of our selves unto Godliness in all those positive duties which God requireth of us Whether they may be more internal such as faith hope Love or more external in our more external communion with God in Prayer reading hearing his word receiving his holy Sacrament Or in our conversation before and towards men I shall press these from this notion upon a twofold consideration 1. These exercises are the way to keep Christ still at work making for us these further Ornaments 2. They are the wearing and using of these Ornaments I say first these exercises will keep our Lords hand continually at work so as he will never be weary but be still adding to our Ornaments of grace I have had occasion often in my former discourses to hint to you that although God be ingaged by his covenant and faithfulness to bring the Souls of believers to glory and consequently to give out to them such necessary supplies of grace as shall make them meet for that inheritance yet he is at liberty as to the gradual manifestations of his grace to dispense them according to his own infinite wisdom and his Peoples behaviour toward him And the promises of that
c. and it proceeds from Christ as the great testimony of his love nor indeed doth Christ otherwise testify his special love than by the influences of his Spirit but I cannot tell why we should restrain it to the particular dispensation in the days of Pentecost I think Piscator expresseth the sense well by suum erga me amorem patefaciat let him manifest to me his love let me know that he loveth me yet supposing it the Reconciled Believing Soul that speaks it seems rather to be understood of further grace than the first grace of regeneration and reconciliation unto God the desire seems to be a desire of free familiar communion with Christ This seems to be the main of her request the great sum of her desires the uppermost of her Souls concernments But observe yet further She begs but a kiss not let him imbrace me but let him kiss me She asketh modestly if saith the woman in the Gospel I might but touch the Hem of his Garment Thus the woman of Canaan also Truth Lord but the Dogs eat the crums Thus the Spouse If he would but kiss me Oh! how precious is the least of Christ to a gracious Soul It is better to be kissed by him than to lie in the worlds arms to be a Door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness But thirdly The word is plural One kiss will not serve the turn she is not a stranger but a Spouse The plural number either imports 1. Various dispensations of Grace Or 2dly Repeated influences of the same Grace 1. It may be understood as denoting various dispensations of Grace Beza saith the Lord kissed the Soul thrice 1. In this life when he is by faith united to it 2. In the day of death when the Soul is taken up into the enjoyment of God 3. In the Resurrection when Body and Soul shall be united and together glorified Another reckons up 7 kisses with which the Lord kisseth his Peoples Souls The Grace of 1. Incarnation 2. The descending of the Holy Ghost 3. The preaching of the Gospel 4. Reconciliation to God 5. Sanctification 6. Divine Consolations 7. The kiss of Glory And the same Author makes the Spouses petition comprehensive of all these certain it is there are various dispensations of Grace there is quickning strengthening comforting Grace and there may be frequent repetitions of these to the Soul according to its particular wants and Gods favour towards it and you may indifferently understand the Text in either sense Fourthly The Spouse here doth not only desire kisses but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kisses of Christs mouth concerning which observe these 2 things 1. The kiss of the mouth was the highest kiss This was the kiss of Love the kiss of Reconciliation Osculum pacis the kiss of the Hand Feet c. was a kiss of honour and reverence and subjection the kiss of the mouth was the kiss of love and friendship of peace and reconciliation 2. I find most Interpreters hinting by this expression something yet more special viz. Communion with Christ in his word The word indeed is the fruit of the lips and cometh out of the mouth and God may seem in some propriety of speech to kiss the Soul with the kisses of his mouth when he speaks to it in his word The Lord will speak peace to his people saith the Psalmist and I create the fruit of the lips peace peace saith the Lord by his Prophet Isaiah some expositors to further this notion have observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes to instruct but I cannot find that usage of it in holy writ Grace is poured forth upon Christs lips she desires those kisses some drive the notion higher observing the difference between the Doctrine of the Law and that of the Gospel the first is terrible the second sweet and comfortable holding forth nothing but the love of God in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins hence the Gospel is called The word of reconciliation Lastly She saith Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth She desires not only to hear the Doctrine of the gospel but that Christ should speak it to her The Preacher speaks to the Ear Christ to the heart Quoties ergo in corde nostro quod de divinis dogmatibus sensibusque quaerimus absque monitoribers invenimus toties oscula nobis á Sponso esse data verbo Dei credimus saith Origen so often as we find God by his word Speaking to our hearts so often doth our beloved kiss us with the kisses of his mouth This is sufficient to have spoken for the Explication of the matter of the Text. There onely remains something more circumstantial to be observed The words are Vox Sponsae The Voice of the Spouse According to the civil usage of our Country and I think most others the Lover speaks first Here the Spouse begins It is so betwixt God and the soul Christ speaks first He is found of those that seek him not and of those that enquire not after him He first loves us and our Love to him proceedeth from his Love first manifested to us But you must not understand her that speaks as one that is a stranger and in a state of disunion with her beloved but as one that is already espoused and made a Spiritual Bride not desiring first grace but further grace which she needeth as well as the first grace for he giveth both to will and to do he is both the author and the finisher of faith and other grace Secondly The words are Vox Volentis The Language of a willing Soul Willing that Christ should come near unto it and take it up into fellowship and communion with himself God's people are a willing people They are indeed made so by a divine power Psal 101. 2. But Certum est nos velle cum volumus saith Aug. It is God who makes us of unwilling Willing When he hath had his first work upon our wills and subdued that strong hold unto himself Then we are willing Nay more Thirdly They are Vox cupientis The voice of a panting Soul not barely content that Christ should kiss it but passionately desiring his kisses They are as much as Oh! that he would kiss me Every gracious Soul passionately desireth fellowship and Communion with Jesus Christ Oh! saith holy David when wilt thou come to me Neither is this all the words are not onely to be considered as a good wish or passionate desire but as a fervent prayer Lastly therefore they are Vox supplicantis the Language of a praying soul where observe What she beggs Not riches not honour not pleasures not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the good things of fortune but the riches of grace her Petition is like that of David Lord lift thou up
the light of thy Countenance upon me Psal 4. 6. Let others take the ring let her have but the kiss and it is sufficient for her but single influences of Grace will not serve her turn every look of grace is sweet and frequent influences of Grace are necessary for her Secondly Observe How she begs 1. Reverently Let him kiss me Thus we ought to draw nigh to God with Reverence and Godly fear Reverence becomes the great Majesty of Heaven and Earth those that come without it towards God understand not his greatness 2. She begs humbly But a kiss The crumbs that fall from the Lords Table the touch of the Hem of his Garment any thing of Jesus Christ that may but argue distinguishing love 3. She asketh boldly not rudely but boldly Thus we ought to come to the Throne of Grace with an holy boldness the boldness of faith the word is in the future tense and may be translated He shall kiss me or he will kiss me His Majesty requires reverence His promise gives boldness and confidence 4. Lastly she asketh fervently There is a bluntness discernable in the form Let him kiss me which speaketh the Souls fervency Besides the trina repetitio repeating the same thing by three terms denotes as Lud. de Ponte observes flagrantissimum cordis affectum The most flagrant earnest desire of the Spouses heart I have thus far opened to you the Spouses first Petition in which the believing Soul with a Reverent holy humble boldness yet with all possible fervency begs of the Lord Jesus Christ her Spiritual Husband some special distinguishing token of his love more especially a near fellowship with him in his ordinances and the sealing up of his love to her soul in Gospel Doctrines This first petition she presseth with a double Argument 1. The first drawn from the Excellency of his love This she sets out per modum comparationis comparing it with Wine and preferring it before it 2. Comparing the name of Christ with Ointment and that not shut up in a box but poured out Thy name is as an Ointment poured forth v. 3. Her 2d Argument is drawn from her Love to her Beloved in the close of the third v. The Virgins love thee and the cause of this love is expressed to be the savour of his good Ointments Because of the savour c. Let me open the terms by which these Arguments are expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We translate it because thy loves are better than Wine what we translate Loves the Septuagint translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom the Vulg. Lat. and the Arab. Interp. follow Thy Breasts the Syriack translate it Bowels otherwise there is no difference in the Translations Delrio tells us that Alanus an Ancient Interpreter makes these words not the continued speech of the Spouse pressing her Petition by an Argument but the reply of her beloved to her assuring her of his love and that he valued her Breasts above all things That which probably led him into this mistake was his interpreting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Breasts and not understanding how in any propriety of Speech the Spouse could commend the Breasts of her beloved they being parts from which usually the woman not the man is commended in ordinary Speech but as the whole stream of Interpreters runs another way so this seemeth to be no constraining argument to enforce us to acknowledge such a sudden and a subitam abruptam verborum commutationem as Delrio calls it abrupt change of words as this interpretaâ—ioâ— must necessarily infer For â— Though it be true that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a breast Ezek. 23. 3. v. 21. yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies beloved And loves in the Abstract and so it is translated Ezek. 16. 8. it was a time of love Suppose we should allow more authority to the Septuagint than to our Hebrew Text for which there is no reason yet it is not improper to assert these the words of the Spouse speaking to her beloved for although the God of Nature intending the woman for the Nurse hath provided that sex with larger breasts yet the man hath breasts also and such if you will believe the Philosopher as may have milk in them However he who runs may read the expression figurative Amoris sedes est in corde in uberibus quae cordi adhaerescunt The heart is the seat of love and the Breasts are nigh to the heart and this evidenceth the difference of Interpreters as to the translation of the word as to this Text to be but a word-bate for Ubera tua and Amorestui Thy Breasts or thy loves are much the same thing in signification Neither lastly is this the only Text in Scripture where the breasts of men are mentioned if we should be constrained to that sense Isaiah 60. 16. Thou shalt suck the Breast of Kings so also God is said to bear his People from the Belly and to carry them from the Womb. They are Metaphorical expressions and it is granted on all hands that if our Interpreters with whom concur most modern Interpreters have not hit the literal signification of the word yet they have not missed the sense in translating it Thy Loves By which Interpreters generally understand either the private influences of Grace with which God refresheth the particular Souls of his Saints or The publick ordinances and institutions of the Gospel by which God expresseth his love to his Church in general and every believing Soul in particular 1. Some understand Divine institutions Ordinances are indeed the Breasts at which Christ suckleth his Children those means by and through which he conveyeth the streams of his love to them and there is a great excellency in them David prefers a day in Christ's Courts before a 1000 elsewhere Origen observes that in some copies instead of quia ubera tua c. it was quia loquelae tuae thy Speeches are better than Wine which also excellently suits with the former expression The kisses of his mouth This sense in the general notion of it much pleaseth many Interpreters though something divided in their more particular notions Origen interprets it Dogmata tua thy Doctrines and seems indifferently to understand it of the Doctrine of the Law or of the Gospel The Popish Interpreters reading it Breasts expound it concerning the two Testaments so Genebrard c. Others interpret it more strictly concerning the sweet Doctrine of the Gospel which Saint Peter 1 Pet. 2. 2. compareth unto Milk which as new born Babes we ought to desire and concerning the Apostles and Prophets which were the first Instruments which God made use of to convey that Doctrine to us The sweetness of the Gospel saith Aquinas is meant here by which as with Milk those who are Babes in Christ are nourished Mr. Brightman making this the Speech of the Jewish
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
and desireth the continuance of it The Ignorant bold presumptuous Sinner desireth not the Love of God the pardon of Sins he thinks he is sure of all Hence now it is that the believer desires the Loves of Christ it apprehendeth them good possible and what its Soul doth stand indaily and further need of which apprehension is the reason why our Souls desire any thing be it of what nature soever we can desire nothing but what we must apprehend good sutable to us in some of our circumstances possible to be attained and such as either wholly or in some degree at least we need 2. According to the degree of our knowledge or apprehension of the goodness of any object so are our desires after it This will justify itself upon experience in all other things we do not desire them according to the degree of goodness in them for then every man must desire the favour of God Union and Communion with him but according to the degree of our knowledge or apprehension of such a good as such Now there are various degrees of knowledge 1. The first and meanest is the meer act of our Understanding which by the help of our Eyes and Ears gaineth the knowledge of things And thus the vilest of men may know that the Loves of Christ are good yea good before wine that is they may have so read in the Bible so heard from Ministers of the Gospel And even this knowledge may produce in a bad man a desire after these things proportioned to his apprehension Hence such a man may faintly will and lazily desire these things 2. A Second degree of Knowledge is Opinion This riseth a little higher the man who thus knows that the Loves of Christ are good doth not onely know it from reading or hearing but from probable Arguments Nor is it difficult for a wicked man thus also to know that the Loves of Christ are good Assoon as he can be made to believe that there is a God and that he is the Fountain of Good and that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God and Equal with the Father both in Essence and all Divine Perfections his Reason will persuade him that there must be a Goodness yea a transcendent Goodness in Christs Loves But while Flesh and Blood only revealeth this thing unto him his Knowledge is incertain and faint and he is subject to thoughts that he may be mistaken and therefore though he may sometimes desire Christs Love yet it is but by fits and with incertainties according to the Nature of the Knowledge and Apprehension he hath of the truth of the things 3. A Third degree of Knowledge is Persuasion arising from Demonstration Now there is 1. A Demonstration of Sense thus we know the Sun shines the Fire burneth c. 2. A Demonstration of Reason when we can conclude a thing from infallible Principles of natural Reason 3. A Demonstration of Faith which is the Demonstration of the Spirit When men know things from the holy Spirits fully persuading them of the truth of this or that from a Divine Revelation This is the Demonstration of faith 4. There is yet a further and higher degree of Knowledg that ariseth from Experience being a sensible Evidence of the truth of what the Soul had before received a little of from the sight of the Eye and hearing of the Ear and more from the persuasion of the Spirit and some Argumentations within itself I say now that according to the degree of the Souls knowledge and apprehension so are the workings of the Affections This of desire in particular Hence the desires of Believers to the Loves of Christ must necessarily be the strongest For the degree of the Knowledge and Apprehension the Believer hath of the goodness of them is higher than it is possible any other Souls should have Other Souls may have read Books discoursing the Loves of Christ or heard Discourses of that tendency or judge so from Arguments of Scripture which may make such a thing probable to them But none but these have any persuasion wrought in their Souls by the Spirit of God of the Excellency of them none else have had any real Tasts and Experience of them Knowledge and Experience of the Goodness of any Objects being those things which move the Soul to desire them and the degree of the Souls apprehension of such Goodness and Excellency in Objects the ground of the Souls Intention in such desires it must necessarily follow that a good Christians Knowledge and Experience of that Goodness which is in Christs Loves must be the grounds of their desires after them There needeth no Scripture to prove this it is evident to our Reason Yet take the Instance of David Psal 4. 6. David desires of God to lift up the light of his Countenance upon him Observe now v. 7. what made him prefer the light of Gods Countenance to the Worldlings Corn and Wine and Oil Thou hast put gladness into my Heart Accordingly he tells us Psal 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee Hence you shall observe that David concludeth many of his Psalms of Praise with Prayer But will some say If they have had experience of the Loves of Christ why should they yet desire them None desires what they have This is true if our Enjoyments were perfect but there is an heighth and depth and length and breadth of the Love of God in Jesus Christ an heighth which the Soul hath not taken a depth which the Soul hath not fathomed a length and breadth which the Soul hath not measured from end to end It is true we desire nothing but what we want either in whole or in part therefore in Heaven will be no desire That which is perfect will be come and all that which is in part only will be done away But we shall never be filled with the Loves of Christ till our Mortality be swallowed up in Life I come now to the Application We may learn from hence That God must shew some act of Love to us before we can shew any Love to him Desires after the Loves of Christ though sincere are the least and first and lowest motions of our Souls toward God These you have heard must arise from a Knowledge and Experience of the goodness of those Loves Now this Knowledge this Experience must be the Gift of God to and the work of God in and upon the Soul yea and that not in a way of common Grace and Illumination but in a way of special Grace for though a common Illumination may produce some faint desires yet it will produce no sincere and effectual desires because the Knowledge begot by them will be flitting and incertain and attended with Doubts Fears and Incertainties So as till the Lord by his Spirit hath wrought in the Soul a persuasion of Faith commanding the Soul without dispute to give credit to what he hath revealed in his Word
there will be no sincere desires in the Soul after these things The Schoolmen tell us there are three ways by which we gain the Knowledge of a thing By Signs Conjectures and Effects as some Causes are known 2. By the enquiry of our Reason into the nature of it 3. By Divine Revelation The Excellency of the Loves of Christ is a spiritual thing and to be judged upon Spiritual accounts and in a Spiritual manner The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. So as the natural Reason of a Man will serve him very little to the gaining of this Knowledge by the Effects having never experienced it he cannot know it so as there is no other way to know it but by Divine Revelation God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 10. hath revealed them to us by his Spirit And v. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God So as that I say God must shew some special token of his Love to our Souls for good before we can shew any Love to him or make so much as one step toward him Observe from hence That a Believers Soul moves rationally and accountably enough in all its desires after the Loves of Christ The Souls of Believers are not so unintelligible as some prophane Persons would make them in their Passions for and Motions towards Christs Loves The Knowledge a Soul hath or the Experience which it hath had of the Goodness and Excellency of any Object moves the reasonable Soul to the desires of it Admitting the Believer to see things in another Light than a natural Man hath or can see in to have other Notions of Good and Evil and to take the measures of them from their subserviency to the Spiritual and eternal good of the Soul the Passions and Desires of his Soul after Christs Love are as natural Motions of the reasonable Souls as the Worldlings Desires after Riches or the sensual Mans Passions for such things as gratifie the sensitive Appetite The Reason why every Soul moveth not after these Spiritual Things is because every Soul seeth not the Good and Excellency in them Multitudes hardly know that is believe they have immortal Souls that shall outlive their Bodies in a state of Happiness or Misery or if they know or believe that yet they do not believe that there is no other name under Heaven by which they can be saved but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Nor ever had any experience of the Love of God to Souls Their deriding of Religious Passions and the Breathings of pious Souls after the Manifestations of Divine Love flows from their ignorance of them and their unreasonable Rudeness in speaking evil of the things which they know not The original difference betwixt a person truly pious and panting after the Love of Christ and others lies here These Creatures know that they have Souls Souls ordained to an eternal existence either in HÄ—ll or Heaven in eternal Happiness or in eternal Misery They believe what God hath said that there is no other Name under Heaven by which Men and Women can be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ neither is there Salvation in any other That he that believeth on him is not condemned and he that believeth not is damned already the Wrath of God abideth on him and he shall never see Life they do not only read these things in their Bibles and hear them from their Preachers but the Holy Spirit of God hath firmly persuaded them that they do as fixedly believe them as they do any thing of sensible or rational Demonstration they have more waky thoughts with reference to Death Mortality and Eternity are things more in their Eyes than in the Eyes of others Again they have tasted and experienced more of the Love of Christ Allow the Souls of others to be in the same Circumstances they would have alike Motions but because they are ignorant knowing nothing of Spiritual Things or at least nothing as they ought to know it thence it is that their Souls move not this is now but the natural working of reasonable Souls in other cases nor is there any such unaccountable or unintelligible thing in it And indeed this gives us the true Reason why every unregenerate Soul is so cold in its motions toward Christ and also may inform us how far it is possible such a Soul may go in motions of this nature The Reason why such a Soul moves no more is want of Evidence which such a Soul hath of the Goodness of his Loves Simple Goodness and Excellency in an Object is not attractive of the Soul but Goodness apprehended by evidenced and appearing to us All the apprehension that it is possible a natural man should have of the Loves of Christ must be from Reading Hearing or its own Reasoning and concluding from what it hath so heard or read for it wants both the demonstrative persuasion of the Holy Spirit and also any experimental Tasts or sensible Evidence All Knowledge which hath no better Foundation will arise no higher than to beget in the Soul an Opinion and leaves the Soul at some Incertainties and unfixed and hence its Motions towards an Object of which it hath no better Evidence are also incertain and faint and fluctuating Knowledge being the Foundation of Desire Reason will tell us that the Desire must bear proportion with the Knowledge The unregenerate man having no Knowledge of Spiritual things that is productive of more than an Opinion the desire must be incertain and faint according to the nature of the Opinion that causeth it By this also Christians may be able to take some Measures and make up some Judgments of themselves whether the desires they find in their Souls after Christ and his Loves be such as are peculiar to the Souls of Believers yea or no. We usually say that Desires after Grace are Evidences of it and there is a truth in it but all desires are not so for as I have said there may be desires after Christ and his Loves in an unregenerate Man commensurate to that knowledge which he hath of the Goodness of them but this will speak nothing of good to the Soul only such Desires as flow from a Christians Knowledge of Faith and from Experience He that hath only a knowledge of Christ and his Loves from Reading the word or from the Report of Ministers may so far desire Christs Loves as may serve him for his own ends nay though he hath no great Faith as to that eternal State of Happiness to which Christ brings the Soul but hath only received Notions of such ablessed State to which he gives no great credit yet for his own Security because his notions may be true though he hath no great fixed persuasion of them he may yet desire the Loves of Christ so far as to bring him to
and came and dwelt amongst us then as the Evangelist saith we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father full of Grace and Truth All the comfort of a Soul dependeth upon Christs Incarnation and what he did and suffered as manifested in the fl sh Oh! how sweet this is to the Soul to think of this together with the satisfaction which by vertue of this he gave to Divine Justice and the daily intercession which he makes together with the consideration that in this Capacity he entred into the Heavens as our forerunner and we sit together with and in him in heavenly places as the Apostle speaks are matters of exceeding sweet Meditation upon these the Soul liveth and supporteth its faith The Grace of Vnion also considered in the last notion is exceeding sweet This Grace is rooted in Christ and terminated in the Soul By this the Soul is consecrated to God by vertue of this it is consecrated a Priest to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices to God acceptable through the beloved by this it is comforted and refreshed when it is terrified with the thoughts of the disunion with God occasioned by the fall of Adam and that separation which its daily sins make betwixt God and it By this the Soul liveth its Spiritual life for Spiritual life lies in the union of the Soul with God which is made by and in Christ Secondly The Grace of Love in Christ is as a sweet Oil or Ointment That holy disposition which is in him by which he takes delight in the Sons of Men willeth them good with respect to their several capacities God is love saith the Apostle Christ is Love as he is God but as Mediator he is infinitely full of love his pardoning Grace is nothing but free love respecting a guilty creature his healing restoring Grace is free love respecting a backsliding Soul I will heal your backslidings and love you freely He hath in him comfort for them that are sad strength for them that are weak now is not this an Ointment that giveth a good savour I appeal to any Soul that hath been pricked at the heart for sin and felt the load and burthen of it How sweet hath it been to a Soul to apprehend the Lord Jesus Christ as one who pardoneth its iniquities How sweet hath it been to a Soul smitten with the sense of its backslidings to apprehend Christ as one who healeth backslidings and hath mercy even for the rebellious also When a Soul is discouraged at the apprehended difficulty of duty the strength and prevailings of sin and corruption how sweet is it to the Soul to think of Christ's strengthening grace the Promises against the Dominion of sin and the over-powering of temptation c. That we who of our selves can do nothing yet can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us Thirdly The Righteousness of Christ is a good Oil or Ointment There is a threefold Righteousness may be conceived in the Lord Jesus Christ 1. Considering him as God so there was in him an universal rectitude and perfection of nature What is essentially good pure and perfect is the object of Love Thy Word is pure saith David therefore doth thy Servant love it 2. Considering him as Mediator so his Righteousness was his Active and Passive Obedience Whether both be imputed to us for Righteousness that is another question as to which I shall only say this That the usual Objection That his Active Obedience was but the debt of his humane Nature which was a Creature and therefore could not be imputed is of no value for his Righteousness was the Righteousness and Obedience of a person that was God Man so had a surplusage infinitely beyond the debt of the humane Nature considered as a creature Most certain it is he had a Righteousness yea and a Righteousness which is reckoned to us for Righteousness his Name is The Lord our Righteousness and he was made of God for us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and this is a sweet Ointment for by this the Soul knows that God hath said to it Take away that Soul 's filthy garments and clothe it with a change of garments By this it knows under the utmost sense of its own unrighteousness that it hath a Righteousness wherein it shall stand before God and its Sins shall be as if they never had been by this the Soul knows that its imperfect duties and short performances of the Divine Law shall be made up through the more perfect performance of the Lord Jesus 3. There is also a Righteousness of the humane Nature of Christ which was the conformity of his Soul to the whole Will and Law of God There is no holy disposition required of any humane Soul but was to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ Holiness Meekness Patience universal Obedience now this also is a sweet smelling Ointment 1. As these dispositions render any Subject lovely any creature though found in it more imperfectly much more Christ in whom they are found most eminently There is none but naturally loves one who behaveth himself blamelesly in whose heart we can discern no guile one who is in his behaviour humble meek lowly gentle patient full of goodness now these and all other excellent Virtues being in Christ eminently make him the excelling Object of our Love Christ was meek and lowly Matth. 11. 29. he was humble condescending to those of low degree He made himself of no reputation Phil. 2. 7. Though he was rich yet for our sake saith the Apostle he became poor For his patience he was led as a Lamb to the Slaughter and as a Sheep before the Shearers so opened he not his mouth What should I speak of his readiness to forgive his praying to his Father that he would forgive those that crucified him all these made Christ an exceeding lovely Object 2. But now Christ as Mediator hath not only these excellent habits as Ornaments for himself but as the Fountain of Grace to distribute to us Of his fulness we have received Grace for Grace 1 Joh. v. 16. These are now Christ's good Ointments for the savour of which the Spiritual Virgins love him And that they may do so it is necessary they should receive the savour of them At the savour of thy good Ointments So then they must not only cast a savour but the Soul that loveth Christ for them must receive the savour of them The last Question is How a Soul receiveth the savour of them I answer two waies 1. By Faith I mean not here Justifying Faith that brings in experience to the Soul of which more by and by I mean here only Faith of Assent whose Object is the Proposition of the Word to which the Soul fixedly and steadily subscribeth So as the Revelation which is there becomes as certain to it as matter of sensible demonstration For Faith is as the Apostle telleth us the Evidence of things not
seen Secondly The Soul receiveth the savour of these good Ointments By Experience it hath tasted how good the Lord is What it bath heard of God in his Word it hath seen in the communications of his Grace There is no knowledge like to this and there is no Spiritual Virgin but hath had less or more some experience of the Lord 's good Ointments But I come to the Application In the first place this may inform us of the Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ what an adequate Object he is for every Soul to take a delight and pleasure in It may be worth your observation how the Language of the Scripture concerning Christ is such as seems to court the humour of every Soul to a seeking after a propriety and interest in him by shewing him to have something in him suitable to it that so it might take our hearts off beguiling Objects Every Sinner naturally saith Who will shew us any good Good is the common Mistress of the World Every one courts it They only differ in their fancies and apprehensions of what is so and court shadows and Chimera's One saith Who will shew us any good That is some way to get a penny How shall we heap up Silver as the Dust and Riches as the Sand and joyn house to house and field to field until there be no room left in the Earth Come unto me saith Christ I will give you the Riches of Grace the Riches of Glory Rev. 3. 18. I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white Rayment that thou mayest be clothed and the shame of thy nakedness may not appear What shall it profit thee saith he to gain the whole world and lose thy own Soul Another man he cares not for money but for his necessary uses but he hunts after honour that is his good he would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great person in the World he would be led about the Streets and hear men cry out Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour This man now looks upon Silver and Gold but as white and yellow Earth and Sand Idolized a little by a relative value some put upon it He snuffs up the Air and desires no more than a great Name in the world Christ to take them off this pitiful pursuit of the Wind and Chaff of the Air the empty Air of Court Favour or popular Applause tells them he hath honour for them To as many as receive him he gave a p wer to become the Sons of God And if Sons then Heirs Joynt-Heirs with Christ They shall Reign with him They shall judge the World They shall be Kings and Priests to the most High God c. There is a third sort that crys Who will shew us any good Their good is the tickling of their Senses delicious Fare and Drink for their tast fine Rayment for their touch sweet Odours for their smells Musick for their Ears c. Give them but enough of Wine and Strong Drink and Dancings and dainty Food costly Apparel Perfumes sweet Ointments for their Hair c. and a few such trifling vanities which perish with the using and they have enough let who will take Silver and Gold and Honours c. Now that the Lord might draw off these sensual Hearts he proponndeth himself as the object of Pleasure he at whose right hand is pleasure a fulness of pleasure for evermore one who hath Oils and sweet Ointments Wine c. Thus he allureth the appetite of every sinner propounding himself as an object proportioned to it In the second place This Notion will afford every one of us a Note by which we may try our interest in and acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ The Note is this If thou beest a Spouse of Christ thou hast a savour of his good Ointments Do the excelling graces of Christ make him appear pretions to thy Soul 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you that believe he is pretious To an unbeliever Christ is vile every unbeliever doth not speak vilely of Christ but he hath a vile estimate of him he judgeth vilely concerning Christ he hath no esteem for him he seeth no excellency in him for which he is to be desired he can understand the value of any Gold but that which Christ calleth Gold tried in the fire Rev. 3. 18. He can fancy the value of any honour except that of being called the Sons of God he can tast any pleasure but that which ariseth from a Souls Vnion and communion with Christ By this we may try our selves what relation we have to Christ In the last place this Notion of Christs good Ointments offers me a fair opportunity to persuade Men and Women of pleasure Vain Christless careless Souls to endeavour an acquaintance with Christ There is a generation in the world whom pleasure enticeth from God and his ways their temptation lies not in their Chests they value not riches if they have mony they throw it away as dirt it lies not in honours they have no itch after great places no but it lies in the cravings of their external senses Their senses itch they must scratch them this is their undoing must be so so long as the practice of Religion lies in self-denyal and a mortification of our members They must drink Wine in Bowls and stretch themselves upon their couches of Ivory and anoint themselves with chief Ointments and chant to the sound of the Viol and invent to themselves instruments of Musick Give them but a few glasses of brisk and generous Wine and a lesson or two upon some instrument of Musick with a foolish wanton Song Give them but gay cloths and a powdered Perriwig a few patches or a little paint for their faces they regard not whether they have a peny in their Purses yea or no and verily Pleasure is the undoing of many a Soul the Woman saith the Apostle it is as true of the man that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth As there are pleasures the meer use of which is sinful so there is scarce any kind of pleasures I mean such gratifications of the outward senses as come under the name of Voluptates but expose Souls to temptations to greater sins and indispose the Soul to the greatest duties they are Snares in which the Devil catcheth many a poor Soul Now how shall these poor Souls be drawn off from this that it may not dance itself into Hell fire Certainly by no means so effectual as the discovering to it that as these pleasures are pernicious and dangerous to the Soul so there are far greater pleasures to be found with Christ Perfumes often are but like paint to a Sepulcher the body the cloaths by a little art smell sweet the mind and Soul the more noble part of man stinks it may be through sordid conditions but most certainly in the Nostrils of God
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
because they agree the truth of the Propositions of Scripture they may miserably deceive their own Souls a Man by a mere natural power may as well agree that there was such a one as Jesus of Nazareth once in the world who went about doing good exhorting men to a good life and was Crucified c. as that there was in England a William the Conqueror or any thing else that is to be found in other Books of tolerable credit and reputation in the World Or if men think that they do truly believe because they agree many propositions of the Gospel which are evident in the light of Reason they again deceive themselves here may be nothing of the operation of God in this faith Nay if they agree the Propositions of the Gospel because they are revealed there and in the mean time do not agree the Scriptures to be the Word of God but look upon them in the same rank with human writings or only by an human saith agree them to be the Word of God because the Church hath so deliver'd and transmitted them here is all this while no thing of the special operation of God Nor will this agreement produce any steadiness and firmness of practice commensurate to the Revelation but only commensurate to the nature of the Assent which being not fixed constant nor it may be not universal but to some part only of the revelation must necessarily bring forth no more than a saint partial and incertain practice Hence it is that Hypocrites may do many things contained in the law and at one time be more warm than at other times But if thy Assent be the special operation thou assentest to the whole revelation because God hath fixed in thy Soul a persuasion that it is from him who cannot lie it is also steady and fixed and tho some doubts may possibly incumber thee sometimes yet they hold not long and thou firmly and generally with allowance for the frailty and infirmity of human nature endeavourest to live up to the whole of that duty which the revelation imposeth upon thee which thou canst not do without relying on Christ and him alone for Salvation and having a respect to all the Commandments of God And indeed herein that agreement or assent which is the special work of God in the Soul differs from that which is but a meer natural action 1. In that it is more fixed certain and universal and this must be so for our assent is according to our light we must first see before we agree the truth of a proposition now the light of the holy Spirit is without doubt the clearest and brightest light Our natural reason gives us but a dim light as to matters of Faith 2. In that it layeth a stronger obligation to practice Reason will tell us that the more firmly we believe the truth of Propositions holding forth rewards and punishments relating to our practice the stronger we shall find our obligation to practice in order to the obtaining such rewards or avoiding such punishments 3. In that it layeth an obligation to a more universal practice The obligation to practice riseth no higher than the assent so as if there be any duty to which we do not agree our assent obligeth to no practice of that Now the holy Spirit persuades us of the truth of the whole revelation and that in the fullest and truest sense Hence it is that the true believer is more warm and universal in his obedience than it is possible another should be because his assent unto the truth is from a quite differing light and a quite differing work of God the assent of the former proceeding but from a common work of God in nature the latter from a work of special grace by the Spirit of God upon the Soul I will not much contend with those who will have true Faith to be a practical Assent to the Proposition of the Gospel if they by Assent mean a firm and steady Assent and by practical such an Assent as obligeth strongly to an universal practice of whatsoever is revealed as our Duty 1. Because I know a reliance upon Christ for eternal Salvation must be the effect of such an Assent 2. Because I know there can be no reliance on Christ without such a praevious Assent to the Proposition of the Gospel 3. Because I know there can be no such thing without the mighty Power of God upon the Soul So that in this sense the Soul must be drawn by the Father before it come to Christ Only let none deceive themselves as to this point of true Believing by fancying such an Assent to the Doctrine of the Gospel true Faith wherein God hath no further concern than as he influenceth acts of Humane Nature flowing from that order of operations which he hath set in all rational Souls True Faith must be more than this 2. As to Faith men are also prone to cheat themselves by calling their Natural presumption Faith we say Faith lies in a resting and reliance on Christ Now many will tell us they rest and rely on Christ and yet it is no difficulty to evince they do but presume and not believe Resting and relying on Christ for Salvation must be the Father's drawing Natural presumptions are meerly from our selves Every man is willing to hope well for and to prophesie good unto himself Hence living under the publication of the Gospel and having heard of an eternal Life and Salvation and this to be had through Christ and by resting on him many naturally cry they rest on Christ and trust in him and him alone And our Saviour lets us know that men may die with such confidences Matth. 7. 22 23. Now there is a resting and reliance on Christ which is the Operation of God yea and the mighty work of God upon the Soul and this many a poor Soul finds that lives months and years under the Spirit of bondage before it can rest on Christ and quietly commit it self unto him and there is a resting which is no more than a natural hope or confidence arising either from the Souls natural desire of good to it self or from its ignorance of the true grounds of a true resting and reliance And indeed by this may these two be distinguished and known asunder That resting and reliance upon Christ for any spiritual and eternal blessing which is the Operation of God is alwaâ—es bottomed on a Promise and testified by a life suitable to the condition upon which that Promise is made These two things are alwaies in it 1. I say first it is founded upon a Promise for all Grace and Eternal Life being the gift of God it is as vain a thing for any to be confident they shall have it without God's revelation of his Will as to it with reference to them as it is for any man to pretend a confidence and trust in another for the making him rich with a great part of his Estate
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
makes of Christ hath a great influence upon others If a Physicians Name be up if but two or three Neighbours make a report what wonderful Cures he hath done in and for them all in like Circumstances will be running to him See what David saith Psal 34. 2. My Soul shall make her boast in the Lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad v. 6. This poor Man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his Troubles When a gracious Soul makes its boast in the Lord relates with joy and thankfulness what God hath done for it The humble that is those that are in poor afflicted conditions they hear of it and are glad and are encouraged to go to God They say Here 's a poor Soul that cried and the Lord heard it and saved it out of all its troubles This is the first way by which Souls once drawn are a means to make others run by making a good report of God unto them But this is not all 2. Secondly Such a Souls Charity extendeth further viz. To an exciting exhorting and quickening of others to labour to be made partakers of the same grace Come saith the Woman of Samaria and see the Man that hath told me all things that I ever did Is not this the Christ Come saith the Soul and taste of that love which hath so refreshed me my Soul was as sad as yours God hath comforted me as dead as yours The Lord hath quickned me I had once as much prejudice against the ways of God as you I once thought them as difficult I now delight in them I find now the Yoke of Christ is casis his burden is light Come let us go up together to the Mountain of the Lora's House he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths I will shew you in two or three words from whence it is that a Soul that hath tasted the special grace of God will be so busie with others to bring them into the same circumstances with it self 1. It knoweth that it shall lose nothing by others running Nature makes us all in the first place to secure our own Interest but that being first secured good nature obligeth all Men to wish the best they can to others and the Moralists give it us for a Rule That those kindnesses ought to be denied to none which we can do them without any prejudice to our selves There is no Soul that hath received any thing of the special grace of God but knoweth somthing of the value of it and that no so great kindness can be done for another as to be an Instrument to bring men and Women acquainted with that grace of God which bringeth Salvation Acts 26. 29. I would to God saith Paul to Agrippa that not only thou but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these Bonds This Soul knoweth that it should be never the poorer if all others were inriched with the riches of Grace All Envy which maketh us pine at the good of others is taken out of the heart of a Child of God it is one of those lusts that are mortified in it 2. Nay further It knows that the more Souls it can be a means to bring to Heaven the more welcome it self shall be Those who win Souls are wise and those who win many to Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. 3. It was Christs work to bring many Sons unto Glory It was David's Language and he spoke in the Person of Christ I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren in the midst of the Congregation I will praise thee The Propagation of its Species is one of the most perfect acts of the Creature It is a great piece of the perfection of a Christian to propagate his Species The Romans designed rewards for the Father of such a number of Children God hath prepared great rewards for those that are co-workers with him in bringing Souls unto Christ 3. Lastly Such a Soul knows the Price of a Soul and the sad condition of those who want Christ either in the first or further influences of his special grace and so doth it out of mere pity and commiseration None knows the misery of a Christless Soul so well as that Soul that hath been lost and is now found hath been dead and is now alive None so well knows the misery of that poor Creature whose Conscience is upon a Rack or whose Soul is under a Divine desertion crying out Where is my God become We never well understand the misery of others nor throughly pity them under any misery till our selves have felt it Nor on the other side do we ever understand the riches of Grace the consolations of the Spirit or the Soul satisfaction which a Christian hath in God and in his ways till we have in some measures had experience of them Hence it is that a natural man is so unconcerned in the natural state of his Relations it is because his own Eyes are not open he wants Faith he doth not see the misery of a Soul that is without Christ nor doth he believe what God hath in his Word revealed as to the state of such Souls But the Spiritual Man whose Eyes God hath opened knowing God's terrors persuades with others to get out of the horrible Pit the believing Soul giving a firm and steady assent to what God hath revealed in his Word about the Eternal State of Souls and the only way to happiness cannot but Night and Day persuade with others those especially in whom it is most nearly concerned that they would be reconciled to God and flee from that Wrath which is to come In the first place This puts an argument into our Mouths to use with God whâ—n we go unto him for any influences of special grace Say unto God Draw me and we will run after thee Tell him that his drawing thy Soul will-not only ingage thee but be a means also to make others to run after God It was David's argument Psal 51. 12 13. Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit then will I teach Transgressors thy way and Sinners shall be converted unto thee An Argument which he often made use of The humble shall hear thereof and be glad Psal 34. 2. An Argument whose force lyeth in the concern of Gods glory The glory of God is the great end of all his actions he doth all that he doth for his own glory and he useth a great argument with God that tells him that if he doth such a thing for him there will a great deal of glory by it accrue to his holy Name God is glorified by nothing more than by our and others running after him Secondly This discourse will let us see a difference between one who is a Christian indeed and one who is only a Christian in name An
thou art greatly beloved Ordinary subjects may have their petitions answered but they must be favourites that have the Kings ear presently those Souls to whom God gives present answers of prayers are ordinarily such as are beloved greatly beloved A good natured Mother may help a Child that is another persons being in any ill circumstances and crying to her aloud and fiercely but it is a sign the Child is her own when her bowels yern towards it as soon as it begins to cry yet I find two instances at least in Scripture of Gods present answering the cries of persons in no such state of favour with God Ahab and the King of Nineveh 1 Kin. 21. 27 28 29. Jonas 3. 4. But besides that those instances relate meerly to temporal mercies and such wherein not those Persons alone but great bodies of people were concerned and in such cases as nothing but a present answer could have done them good as to the thing wherein they were heard Nineveh was within forty days of ruine and it was only a deferring of that judgment which God had threatned as to which they were heard I say besides these things it is one thing what God may do out of the abundance of his goodness and mercy and another thing what they may with any confidence expect It is most certain that persons who are strangers and enemies to God and so under a threatning That although they make many prayers God will not hear them and of whom God hath said that their sacrifices are abomination cannot hope that the Lord should answer much less presently answer their prayers 2. As to a present answer of prayers it is necessary not only that the persons praying be believers persons in favour with God but that their prayers be prayers of faith that they exercise faith in their prayers James 1. 5. If any of you want wisdom let him ask of God But v. 6. Let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the Sea driven of the wind and tossed and James 5. 15. The prayer of faith shall save the sick Prayers for Persons sick ordinarily require present answers now saith the Apostle the prayer which saveth the sick must be the prayer of faith This is a point not well understood viz. how to pray in faith and what exercise of faith is required in prayer I shall therefore shortly open it and shew you what exercises of faith are necessary to that Soul that would have his prayers at all answered at least who can expect a present answer 1. Faith in prayer must respect Gods being and goodness This the Apostle informeth us Heb. 11. 6. He who cometh unto God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him That God is and that he is able to give what we ask of him Believe you saith Christ to the blind man that I am able to do this If God be if he be God he is able to do whatsoever we ask of him But this is not all we must also believe the goodness of God That he is a rewarder of them that seek him one who hath said to the Children of Men seek ye my face and who never said to the seed of Jacob seek ye my face in vain This is the first act of faith in prayer whosoever cometh to seek God for any mercy must steadily agree to this That God is and is able to grant the thing he asks of him and that he is infinitely good and a rewarder of those Souls that obey his will in that precept seek ye my face 2. Faith must respect that promise which God hath made for that mercy or good thing which we come to God for There is hardly any particular good thing for which God hath not somewhere in his word made a particular promise now this promise is Gods bond which faith laies hold on and prayer puts in suit if we want a particular promise respecting the specifical mercy yet there are general promises within the latitude of which those particular good things fall such as those Psal 84. 11. He will give grace and glory and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Psal 34. 10. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Rom. 8. 24. We know that all things work together for them that love God 1 Cor. 3. 22. 23. All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods Now I say that he that prayeth in faith must have his Eye either upon some of these more general words in which God hath promised all good things or those particular promises wherein God hath promised that specifical mercy which he comes to ask of God Mar. 11. 24 What things soever you desire when you pray believe that you shall receive them and you shall have them It is not only necessary that when we go unto God in prayer we should Eye him as the fountain of power so able to grant what we ask of him and as the fountain of goodness so willing to relieve all the streights and supply all the necessities of poor creatures but 3. As a God of truth and faithfulness that he believe that he shall receive what he asketh of God and to this end he must see the good thing either generally or particularly promised 3. There is yet a third act of faith necessary which is a casting of our Souls upon God in the promise a trusting in him for the receit of the thing we have asked of him James saith we must ask in faith nothing wavering the Soul must not doubt within itself whether God hears or will give in a gracious answer yea or no but commit itself wholly to God upon the credit of his promise believing that he who hath promised is able to perform and trusting in him for a performance This is now praying in faith and the truth is all other praying is but praying in formality of which we can expect no more profit then ariseth from a meer bodily labour This now is necessary with reference to an answer especially a quick and a present answer on the part of the person praying 2. But something also is necessary to be observed with respect to the matter that we pray for 1. It must be something which is truly and really good for us and of which we stand in need Our need of a thing and the goodness of it for us is not to be measured from our sense and apprehension for we are often mistaken and do not keep what is good for our selves and therefore must refer our selves to the wisdom of God who knoweth what things we have need of It is true that there are some things so perfectly and absolutely good as they can never be evil such are the pardon of our sins the love and favour of God c. But there are other things that are not so which at some time we
uneven towards us that in the darkness of our Spirits we might sometimes read the darkness of our loose and sinful conversation God thus punisheth our pride our hypocrify our neglect of duty our wilful yielding to temptations to which we might have made a better opposition And upon the withdrawing of these influences we have all just reason to search and try our own hearts and to reflect upon our own ways to search out if we can the cause why when others are in the Mount with God we are still kept in the valley while they are in the Chambers we are kept in the lower Rooms this is certain that though possibly the punishment of sin be not alwaies the next cause moving God to such dispensations yet we have alwaies reason to suspect it having our Souls never so free from sin but we may find enough to justify God in them 2. It may be reasonable that God should thus deal with us that we might know as I told you in handling the other Doctrine that his grace is free and he a free agent in the dispensation of it Not only first grace but further grace also in God is free indeed else it could not be grace we should never understand the freeness of grace if it were equally dispensed We in our little manifestations of our love to our fellow creatures challenge to our selves a liberty and think our selves free to shew it where we will God certainly must in justice be allowed the same which we should not be brought to see and acknowledge if we saw God treating all his Servants and at all times to the same rate and in the same degree 3. It may be the mind of God to make a trial of his peoples grace to draw forth some habits into acts which would not be so exercised if some of his people were not under different dispensations and the same Souls sometimes variously exercised The Soul that is with the Lord in his Chambers is more a receiver from God then a giver to him It gives him the exercise of its saith in its reflex act which indeed is not very properly an act of faith It offereth up unto God the sacrifice of joy of praise and thanksgiving it followeth here in the next words we will be glad and rejoice in thee It may exercise its love of complacency and delight in God But all this while where is the exercise of the Souls panting and breathing after God of its faith of adherence unto and dependence upon God of its hope in God and patient expectation of and waiting for God where is the exercise of its patience and submission to God under severer providences It is reasonable that God should see all those blessed habits which he hath infused into the Soul drawn forth into act 4. The good Judas asked Christ John 14. 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not to the world Christ told him because they loved him more and kept his Commandments better There is the same reason to be assigned why Christ will manifest himself to some of his Saints more then to others because at some times the love of his people more manifesteth itself to him by a stricter keeping of his Commandments and the love of some good men is greater for God Now to encourage men as I before said to perfect holiness in his fear though he will give them all glory yet some shall in this life have Gods goodness made to pass before them more then others that others may see what it is to be much with God 5. Lastly God often doth it for the good of others And indeed this generally is the reason of that more special communion with God which some have more then others as to the Revelation of his mind and will unto them thus God would not hide from Abraham the thing which he had to do against Sodom because Abraham had a Family to instruct God taketh Moses up into the Mount and revealeth his mind and will unto him that he might teach the People over whom God had set him his Statutes and Judgments the same reason is to be given of Gods special communications to the Prophets under the Old and the Apostles under the New Testament and doubtless the same reason is to be assigned for Gods more full revelation of his mind and will already revealed in the Scripture to his faithful Servants in the Ministry who generally know more of the sense of Scriptures and the mind and will of God revealed in them then other Christians do because God designeth that the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and the people should enquire at them and there is the same reason to be given for some more then ordinary influences of grace upon some Christians Souls See 2 Cor. 1. 4. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforteth us in all tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God God hath made us one for another and in the dispensings out of his own gifts and graces he hath respect unto the serviceableness both of Ministers and others one to another But this is sufficient for the Doctrinal part of this discourse Sermon XXVI Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his Chambers YOU have heard the Proposition raised from these words God hath Chambers in which he sometimes entertains the Souls of his people As there are specialties of common Providence so there are specialties of special and distinguishing grace He takes some of those who love and fear him into nearer degrees of fellowship and communion with him then he doth others Man will claim himself a prerogative in this the Parent will be more fond of more kind to one Child then another though he owns them both as his Children and will give to them both a portion The Prince who hath a tender love for all his Subjects yet will be allowed his favourites Let us not then accuse God in such dispensations of partiality or injustice let us not murmur that we have lesser shares in his manifestative love This is a thing we are very prone to Christ taught it us in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15. The Son that was alwaies at home with the Father v. 28 29. was angry and would not go into his Fathers House no not though his Father intreated him because the Father had killed a satted Calf to entertain his Prodigal Brother returning our Saviour doubtless intended in that parable to check the Jews envy at the kindness Christ was about to shew to the Gentiles or did at that time shew to Harlots to Publicans and Sinners but it reacheth further we shall find all our hearts too prone to this to repine at the further manifestations of the love of God to others Souls then unto ours If
justified of her Children It is enough that the upright love him The upright men are the best men in the world But you will say were there such a beauty such an excellency in Christ why should not every rational man enquire after him and love him The answer is easy Because his beauty his excellency is not obvious to the Eye of sense or to the Eye of reason working from its own principles but only to the Eye of faith that of reason working upon revealed principles The goodness excellency of Christ considered as Mediator doth not lie in a suitableness to our bodily wants no nor to the wants of our Souls considered only as rational and spiritual Beings but in his suitableness to our Souls considered as lapsed and fallen from the happy state wherein they were at first created and by that fall exposed to the wrath of God here and hereafter Now this is revealed only in Holy Writ and is to be discerned only by the Eye of faith So as those who do not by a firm and steady assent agree to the revelation of the word cannot possibly see any excellency in Christ as a Saviour and Mediator between God and Man Secondly Every gracious Soul is from this Proposition justified in all their pangs of love for and toward Christ and in all their actions and sufferings in evidence of this love That there is such a thing as a spiritual love sickness is evident to all those who know any thing of the ways of God with the Soul or the motions of the Soul toward God Let persons of atheistical and profane hearts mock so long as they please no Soul that I know of expresseth more of this nature then his who is stiled by God the man according to Gods own heart Psal 119. 20. My heart breaketh with the longings which it hath to thy judgments at all times Psal 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God for the living God Psal 63. 1. My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Our Saviour I am sure blesseth those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5. what work would the unhallowed wits of our Age have made with such metaphors as these in their Books of drollery c. they are all expressive of those pangs of love that sometimes affect good Christians in the several states of their Souls and besides these more inward motions the Souls of good Christians cannot but express their love by a zeal for his glory a love to his institutions a regard to all his commandments and durst not do many things as to which their Neighbours find no difficulty because they love the Lord Jesus Christ who hath said If you love me keep my Commandments For Christ that they may shew their love by their obedience unto him they are ready to suffer the loss of all things yea and do count them but dung that they may win Christ for this the men of the world mock them let them mock on The upright love him I remember in the story of David we read 2 Sam. 6. 20. That Michal his Wife the Daughter of Saul mocked him for his dancing before the Ark in a linnen Ephod How glorious saith she was the King of Israel to day who uncovered himself to day in the Eyes of the handmaids of his Servants as one of the vain fellows shamelesly uncovereth himself The holy man gives her a very smart answer saith he It was before the Lord which chose me before thy Father to appoint me to be a ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel therefore will I play before the Lord. And I will yet be more vile then thus c. Whiles carnal men mock at the secret sighings and groanings of Gods people at their frequency and strictness at in or to religious duties and call it all whining and canting and what comes next to the end of their lewd Tongues the Child of God is justified in this that the upright love Christ and all these their expressions of love are for and towards him who hath chosen their Souls to Eternal life and the use of all means which he hath made necessary in order to that Salvation and who for ought yet appeareth hath passed over the Souls of these Scoffers and left them to perish in their gainsayings When ch 5. of this Song the Spouse chargeth the Daughters of Hierusalem that if they found her beloved they should tell him she was sick of love They reply What is thy beloved more then another beloved O thou fairest among Women what is thy beloved more then another beloved that thou dost so charge us Cant. 5. 8. 9. See into what an elogy of her beloved she breaks out to the end of that Chap. My beloved saith she is white and reddy the chiefest of ten thousand c. when the men of the world see a gracious Soul panting sighting and breathing after Christ they are ready to speak to the same sense tho in ruder language what is the beloved of this Soul more then anothers beloved what makes these people so full of prayers and tears so full of duty so fond of the ordinances of Christ This justifies such Souls in all their pantings after Christ in all the passions of their Souls for him The upright love him Thirdly From hence Christians may take measures of themselves and make up a judgment of their Souls whether they be upright Souls yea or no very much lieth upon this many are the promises that in Holy Writ we shall find made to upright Souls Perfection of degrees is our mark but what in this life we cannot attain unto all perfection we are capable of is uprightness this may be attained we are therefore highly concerned to inquire upon our uprightness By this we shall know it The Soul that truly loveth Christ that is an upright Soul so as that which we have to examine is the truth of our love to Christ This inquiry also is considerable in respect of the Apostolical Anathema 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha It is a great point how a Christian shall certainly know his spiritual state he shall know it by his uprightness how shall he know his uprightness that is to be known by his love to Christ But will some say is not this as hard to be discerned as any thing else I answer surely no. If it be no hard thing for a man to know whether he loves such a woman or a woman to know that she loveth such a man or for any to know they love such a friend such a companion why should it be so hard for a Soul to know whether it loveth Christ or no love will work much in the same manner towards all its objects and though the visibility and sensibility of some objects may draw out
but from that faith in the Precepts Promises and Threatnings of the Word from that love fear and obedience to God which ought to have principled those acts and if they had been so would have made those acts more intense certain steddy and uniform if these be wanting the Life-colours are wanting to the Picture Other things make but up the Skeleton of the duty and are but as a draught of the lines of the Face without the Life-colours which seldom have much beauty in them and the Soul notwithstanding all this fair and splendid outside is in his eyes but as a painted Sepulcher within which is nothing but a stench and rottenness and the bones of dead men So that no Soul that is without Faith without the fear and love of God and that acteth not out of obedience to Christ in what it doth but is black wholly black in the Lords eyes how fair soever in its own eyes or the eyes of the men of the world and what Augustine said of old of the best and most vertuous actions of the Heathens is true of the best actions of these titular Christians they are but Splendida Peccata Splendid Sinnings Thus now I say the true Christian standeth distinguished from unbelievers of all sizes whatsoever none of them are comely but wholly black in the eyes of Christ because they have none of his comeliness put upon them The glorified Saint is altogether whitehe hath not onely washed his garments in the Blood of the Lamb but he is also delivered from the infirmities of humane nature from the Sin that easily besetts him the weight that presseth him down the war in his members from the lustings of the flesh against the Spirit the law of his members so often rebelling against the law of his mind and bringing him into a captivity oft times to the law of Sin and is now presented before Christ without spot or wrinkle This is the felicity of his State The Apostle saith that we are now the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be Sin here maketh us black affliction and sorrow make us appear more black then we are the translated Soul neither sinneth nor yet suffereth or sorroweth any more the state of the Child of God differeth from these because he is black it differeth from the state of the unbeliever in this life because he is not onely black but also comely hence you may understand the error of those who dream of a state of perfection which the People of God may and do attain in this life some go very high in blasphemy telleng us that we are Christed and Godded and that the believer is as spotless as Christ c. The Apostle indeed tells us we are made partakers of the Divine Nature but it is one thing to be made partakers of another thing to be transformed into the Divine Nature Christ is the chief of ten thousand altogether desires there is no spot no blemish in him The best of Gods people is black as well as comely black through inherent corruption and unrighteousness tho comely in respect of imputed righteousness and inherent habits of grace and holiness The Apostle tells us that by one mans disobedience many were made Sinners and that we are all by nature children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. Those who would have Christ to die for every man being pinched with that question What did Christ then purchase for those that shall never be saved some of them answer he purchased for all a totall freedom from Adams Sin I know no line in Scripture to justify that it was after Christ had dyed that the Apostle tells us we are all by nature children of wrath but he that can fancy that he liveth and sinneth not against God and so is not black through actual sin doth yet more foully deceive himself certainly he must not look into the perfect law of God or else is not able to distinguish white from black If he looked into the divine law he would quickly with Saint Paul see that the law is Holy and Spiritual and Just and Good and that the best of men is but carnal sold under Sin Let not then any glory in a fancyed perfection it is but a glorying in appearance not in reality All that the Spouse gloryeth in is that she was not altogether black It is a true saying of Mr. Calvin that it is the greatest piece of our perfection to be sensible of our imperfections As vain is the glorying also of them who glory in an exemption from afflictions that this Sun hath not lookt upon them afflictions have not scorched them as they have scorched others the Apostle tells us that if we be without chastening then are we Bastards and not Sons It is not our glory to be free from them but to indure them not to be wholly exempted from them but under them to exercise our faith and patience and to glorify God in the Fires The motto of a Child of God is Black but Comely black through remaining lusts and coruptions comely through imputed righteousness and inherent habits of grace and holiness Black through Affliction and Persecution Comely in and under them glorifying God in the Fires by the exercises of Faith and Patience From hence every inquisitive Christian may take just measures of himself he is not to judg of himself by his blackness whether it be the blackness of renewing sin and corruption or the blackness of Affliction and Worldly Opposition and Persecutions Let him examine himself 1. Whether he hath not a mixture of grace with corruption Sin in dominion is not indeed consistent with grace but Sin in being is there are Twins which struggle one with another in every good Soul Every Christian will find he hath a flesh to be crucified members to be mortified and a law in his members some impetuous motions of lust at some times but let him examine whether he doth not find also a Spiritual part and a law in his mind the flesh indeed lusteth against the Spirit that is a Christians blackness but doest thou not also find the Spirit lusting against thy flesh that is thy comliness A true Christian is not to judge himself from the freedom of his Soul from sin but from the war and combate of his Soul with sin He in the Gospel that said I believe Lord help my unbelief expressed the lively Image of every true Christian So doth St. Paul more largely Rom. 7. 18 19 20. For I know in me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but kow to perform that which is good I find not For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do now if I do that which I would not it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me
Word strict in their walking ready to exhort to reprove and admonish such as walk disorderly and not as becometh the Gospel Hypocrites and false Brethren are no more able to bear this then they are able to obtain of themselves to do like them Hence are their censures of them as Persons that are righteous overmuch needlesly strict and severe hence their envy and reproaches and their watchings for their haltings and taking all advantages to blazon their infirmities and to make them as odious and to look as black as they can 3. Another reason of it lyeth in the looseness of their principles both their principles of Doctrine and Faith and their practical principles directing their lives and conversations False brethren are alwaies looser in one or both these sorts of principles then the sincere Christian is The study of the Hypocrite is to form his faith and to interpret the law of God into a consistency with his lusts that he may keep his lusts and yet protect himself from the checks and reverberations of his conscience and flatter himself with hopes of Eternal Salvation and also keep up his credit and reputation with the world The sincere Christian hath no other design then to form his faith according to the revelations of truth in the Word and his conversation to the rule of life in the Word of God the Word is a lamp to his feet and a lanthorn to his paths and from that he dares not start when the false Prophets told Micajah that the Prophets had all with one mouth prophesied good to Ahab and suited his humour Micajah answers them As the Lord liveth whatsoever the Lord bids me speak that will I speak The same is the language of every true Christian whatsoever Propositions of truth I find spoken by Holy Men that were inspired by God in his Word that â—nd nothing but that shall be an article of my faith What way soeâ—â—r God hath prescribed me in his Word to Worship him in and by that will I do neither adding thereunto nor yet diminishing therefrom whatsoever rules God hath given me for the order of his Church to them I will adhere whatsoever laws God hath given me to guide my conversation to the observation of them I will keep thus he is in all things tied up to a divine rule But now the false Professor hath looser principles He dare allow the judgment of his own natural reason in determining of truth as the object of his faith and of the Traditions and Practice and Precepts of men as the rule of his Worship and the will of men as to the order and government of the Church and from one of these three causes most ordinarily proceeds that opposition which is given to the strict Servants of God from the anger of their Mothers Children I come to the second Member of the Proposition 2. This opposition is one great cause of the Spouses appearing black Both the opposition which the particular Christian hath from his own impetuous lusts and motions to sin and which that part of the Church which is alone the Spouse of Christ hath from false Brethren and the opposition given her by them are a great cause of the Churches blackness or appearing blackness The grounds of it are 1. Partly that trouble and sadness which usually attends those conflicts in the Spirits of Christians The time of War is a time of sadness in that part of the world which is the seat of it and the hour of this Spiritual War and Conflict is a sad time in the Soul Paul cryeth out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Hence are Christians sad and heavy walkings which the World counteth blackness 2. Partly from the prevailings of sin sometimes in the Soul David complained under the Old Testament that Iniquities prevailed against him and Paul complaineth under the New Testament not only of a War but of a Victory in some Skirmishes that the law of his Members got against the law of his Mind so that he was brought into a captivity to the law of Sin which was in his Members Rom. 7. 23 Now sin is that which maketh the Soul really black and where any of the People of God in the view of the world so discoloureth himself the world needeth no provocation to call them black The Eye that is directed by a Soul full of malice envy and hatred spies the least miscarriages in the Soul that is hated and aggravates them with the highest aggravations And as this is true concerning that opposition which the particular Soul findeth from its inbred lusts and corruptions that makes the believer black so it is as true that the opposition which that part of the Church which is the true Spouse of Christ meets with from false Brethren will make the Church appear black This will appear from the several unlovely consequences of such opposition 1. From hence are Errors and Heresies Schisms and Contentions in the Church of Christ of these you read in the Episties to the Romans Carinthians Galatians then which nothing make a Church appear more black in the Eyes of the World and they are more especially the reproaches of the Church of Christ by how much the Gospel which is their rule in which they are instructed and to the rules of which they profess a submission is a Gospel of peace and Christ Jesus which is their head and the Author of the Gospel is the Prince of Peace Errors rise up in the Church from men of corrupt principles The Apostle tells us of perverse disputingâ— by men of corrupt minds 1 Tim. 6. 5. and 2 Tim. 3. 8. you have it again men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith Hence also are Schisms and Contentions Only by Pride saith Solomon cometh contention The cause of 〈◊〉 is generally some corruption in Churches and deviation from that Order which Christ hath set and established which that part of the Church which keeps close to the Word as its rule cannot bear with Indeed sometimes they are caused from mens corrupt principles as to the faith and love of preheminâ—â—ce their rashness and want of Judgment how far Christians ought to preserve unity but I say generally they are caused by such as are â—â—lse Brethren who if they be not those who divide yet are those who give the cause of the division 2. From hence are â—â—srepresentations of the Servants of God 〈◊〉 Pharâ—â—â—â—ical generation that say unto others stand far from us we are 〈◊〉 then you such as would be too pure and righteous ovâ—â— much that make a shew of more then indeed thâ—yâ—ard Hypocrites Precisions that are over-nice c. Such kind of charges and imputations as these proceed ordinarily from Mothers Children saâ—e Professors and Brethren such as have a form of Godliness and deny the power of it such as are Mâ—mbers oâ— the Church but their hearts are not perfect with God 3. From hence Thirdly are
Churches or particular Christians negligence in keeping of their own Vineyard is one main cause of their appearing blackness This includeth the other I shall therefore discourse them together I shall handle this by inquiring 1. What is the Spouses own Vineyard 2. Wherein the keeping of this Vineyard doth lye 3. I shall shew you That even the Spouse of Christ is aâ—t to neglect her own Vineyard 4. I shall shew you what the Ordinary causes of this negligence are 5. Then I shall shew you how this doth cause her to appear black After which I shall make some application of the discourse 1. There is no man that liveth be he believer or unbeliever but were he sensible of it hath a Vineyard committed to him by God to keep It is his Soul Nor is this interpretation of the Metaphor without some foundation in holy Writ The Lord expressing the sinful works of the Jews saith Deut. 32. 32. Their Vine is of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah Their grapes are grapes of gâ—ll their clusters are bitter Their Wine is the poison of Dragons and the cruel venom of Asps Works you know are the fruit of the Soul as Wine and Grapes are the fruits of the Vine As God when he first created man trusted him with a garden to keep so he never breaths into man the breath of life so as he becomes a living Soul but he gives him a Soul to till cultivate and take care of The Soul of man is a Soil naturally prone to bring forth weeds briars and thorns yet capable also to admit plantations of grace and vertue for grace grows not naturally in the Soul more then the Vine doth in the Vineyard I might shew you many other particulars by which this sense of the Metaphor might be justifyed but I forbear that discourse 2. Secondly You may here by Vineyard understand whatsoever God hath committed to a mans trust to be kept maintained and looked after by him Now all this considering man singly personally is summed up in two things The profession of faith and the Profession of holiness 1. A profession of faith both of the Doctrine of faith and of the grace or habit of saith It lyeth upon a Christian to keep both 2. The profession of holiness which is indeed but the practice of faith for that worketh by Love and the fruits of holiness must proceed from the root of faith This is every Christians Vineyard and indeed the Vineyard of his Soul is not kept without the keeping of these Hence David glorieth that he kept the ways of the Lord Psal 18. 21. Paul kept the faith 2 Tim. 4. 7. David kept the Lords testimonies his Law his Precepts his Word Psal 11. 9. 22 55 56 67. The Church of Philadelphia is commended for keeping the Lords Word Revel 3. 8. The word of his patience v. 20. This is the Vineyard of every Christian according to the more publick or private station which he hath in the Church of God 2. The Church of Christ hath a Vineyard also Indeed the Church is her self compared to a Vineyard Isa 5. and in the parable of him who let out his Vineyards to husbandmen but in that sense Christ is himself the Keeper of it Onely he lets it out to husbandmen intrusting certain Officers of his own appointment with the managery of the affairs of it but himself hath such a Superintendency upon it and so keepeth it that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The Church hath a Vineyard to keep what is this Vineyard but the Doctrine of faith The Ordinances of our great Lord for worship and for discipline These are the Churches Vineyard Paul speaking of the Church of the Jews saith that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. Paul saith the dispensation of the Gospel was committed unto him 1 Cor. 9 17. The word of reconciliation is said to be committed to the Ministers of the Gospel 2 Cor. 1. 19. The Gospel was committed to Pauls trust 1 Tim. 1. 11. Hence Timothy is spoken to to keep that which was committed to his trust 1 Tim. 6. 20. The Church is therefore called The pillar and ground of truth and is fitly compared to the Ark in which was laid up the Pot of Manna signifying the word and truths of God The two Tables containing the Laws for Worship and our more ordinary conversation and the rod of Aaron signifying the Government and discipline of the Church The rules for these are laid up in the Church being part of those Oracles of God which are committed to it It is a task which God hath layed upon his Church to keep this Vineyard What it is to keep it we may easily gather from an understanding what it is to keep a Vineyard or nursery or garden c. It signifies the keeping it clean from Weeds which would hinder the growth and flourishing of the plants and return the place into its former incultivated state and condition To keep it with digging planting manuring dressing and cultivating that it may yield that fruit and profit to the Owner which he expects from it and for which he at first planted it Hence then may easily be concluded what it is both for a particular Christian and for a Church to keep its own Vineyard The whole business lyeth in these 2 things 1. It signifieth a Christians keeping of his Soul from Errors and from lusts and corruptions All motions and inclinations to sin are the Souls Weeds and what the Souls of the best of men are too prone to its natural fruit and Quod Sponte prodit laetiâ—â— prodit naturally Weeds grow faster then induced plants A particular Christians care in keeping the Vineyard of his Soul lies in keeping his understanding and judgment untainted with Errour as to Doctrine in keeping his will from closing with motions to sin whether from within or without and his conscience sprinkled from Evil works So for the Church of Christ her keeping her Vineyard lies in preserving in all her members a purity of Doctrine in opposition to the impurity of corrupt opinions and errors A purity of Worship in opposition to all Superstition and Will-Worship and a purity of discipline 2. Secondly it implieth the Souls filling and furnishing it self with knowledge and Spiritual habits the plants which the Lord would have to stand and to grow in all parts of his inheritance and in every Soul that pretendeth any relation unto him As the Gardiner who is intrusted with the keeping of any of your Gardens doth not keep them as he ought unless beside the weeding of them and purging them of Weeds and nettles he also furnisheth them with useful plants and herbs and keeps them duly cut and pruned c. So neither doth that man or woman keep the Vineyard of his own Soul that doth not take care to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and in all other
This saith he thou hast seen O God keep not silence O Lord be not thou far from me so Psal 38. 21 22. Psal 71. 12. Every Christians experience is a full proof of this so as the Proposition needeth no further proof only let me shew you the reason of it The great Reason is Because we are all of us more prone to live by sight then by faith The Apostle saith we live by faith not by sight He tells you what he himself and other Christians then did and what all good Christians should do The just saith the Prophet shall live by faith But through our infirmity we do live more by sight then we do by faith It is a lesson very hard to flesh and blood could we live more by faith there would be these two consequents to such a life 1. In the day of our sensible contentments we should live more upon the word and promises of God then upon any sensible comforts and enjoyments But it is hard for us to have a staff lent us and not to lean upon it so when it breaketh we come to see our errors and see more need of the influences of Divine Grace at such then at other times 2. We should see as much in God and in Christ to uphold and maintain our selves in an evil day as at any other times for the promises are the same and Christ in whom all the promises are yea and Amen is the same and Gods all-sufficiency is the same he is at all times the God that changeth not This being premised as the great and original cause we may conceive some further and more particular reasons 2. Because in this Noon all creature comforts fail yea and in some afflictions sensible spiritual comforts sometimes fail also In trials that are more external such as bodily afflictions persecutions c. outward comforts fail when the Sun shineth upon our Tabernacles and the rod of God is not upon us we are then ready to forget God when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked up the heel when these outward consolations are taken away then the Soul beginneth to see that it stands in need of some other supports If the Affliction be some divine desertion then the sensible consolations of the Holy Spirit fail also what Daviá said in his prosperity Psal 30. 6. I shall never be moved we are all of us too prone to say in the day of our prosperity but as it fared him with v. 7. so it fareth with us when the Lord hideth his face we are troubled It is too natural even to the best of men not to know the God of our mercies in the day of our mercies It was Israels sin Hosea 2. 8. For she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oil. We do not so duly attend to that which we profess to know that our Soul strength and Soul comforts are from the Lord and hence it is that in the day when they are withdrawn we see a more special need of the presence and influence of Christ upon us It is the unhappiness and infirmity of humane nature that we seldom either understand our mercies or the Author and Fountain of them till we come to want them while we have health and peace and liberty while we have inward strength and quiet we neither understand the value of these mercies nor Eye God as we should do as the Author of them but in the noon time of our tryals and afflictions whether more immediately from God in bodily afflictions or divine desertions or more immediately from men then we both understand the value of our mercies and also what need we have of the presence of God with us and the influences of God upon us At other times we live very much upon our more sensible enjoyments now we have not them to live upon and so see a more need of a God and a Christ to live upon 3. Ordinarily at such a time Our lusts and corruptions move very impetuously A man never so well knows the lusts and corruptions of his own heart as in an evil day Natura vexata prodit Sâ—ipsam Anger a man we say and you will see his temper when God by his providence vexeth a poor creature as others will see something so he will see more what lusts and corruptions are in his heart The Devil knew this well enough when he replyed to God commending his servant Job Put forth now thine hand and touch him and he will eurse thee to thy face Now as every good Soul keepeth a watch upon his heart and observeth the motions of sin and lust in his Soul so he never seeth more of the need of the presence and influence of God upon his Soul then when Iniquities prevail against him When Paul cries out of the body of death he presently cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me 4. Lastly His Grand Adversary the Devil is never more busy then at such a time Times of afflictions are not only times of divine temptations when God proveth and tryeth his People whether they will adhere and keep close to him but of Diabolical Suggestions and temptations also When the Devil is making tryal whether he can pluck a Soul out of Christs hand and out of his Fathers hand The Psalmist calls the Devil The fowler and he knows hard weather is the best time for his purpose he first gets a commission against Job to take away all that he had saving his life onely and then his Wife cometh and persuadeth him to curse God and dye and he followeth him with many other Suggestions and temptations This was the reason of Saint Pauls writing to the Church of Corinth to restore the incestuous Person who by his order was cast out of their communion lest saith he he should be swallowed up of too much grief and Satan should have advantage against him for we are not ignorant of his devices We are never so sensible what need we have of our friends as when our enemies appear most busy most strong and active Hence it is that although a believer seeth a need of the presence and influence of Christ at all times yet he never seeth so great a need of him as in a time of great and sharp trials and afflictions when trouble is hard at hand I shall shut up this discourse with a Word or two of exhortation shortly This should ingage all of us so to behave our selves towards our Lord in the morning of our prosperity that we may not want his presence and influence in the noon of our trials afflictions and adversity It is a mighty folly in any of us to live as we had no Prospect of the ordinary or necessary contingencies of humane life Prudence quasi providence Solomon saith The wise man hath his Eyes in his head And these Eyes are imployed in looking forward as well as round about him at the present It is a great folly in
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
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
their lives These times make me often to think of that saying of Hierom Grande est Christianum esse non dici To be a Christian that is a great and difficult thing to be called so that is a poor and mean and very easy thing Look abroad and see how few serious and uniform Christians are to be found in the World how few who in any measure answer that great name by any severity of life and conversation If Luxuriousness in meats and drinks if excess in apparel and dresses if griping the poor if cruelty towards Persons in distress and oppression and covetousness and adding house to house speak Christians we have too much of these things even amongst Professors But if a true believer must shew forth his faith by works of piety towards God and works of righteousness and charity towards men if they must abound in good works and their light must shine before men so as they may see their good works and glorify their Father which is in Heaven how small is the number of Christians in this age wherein there is so much talk of it We must say of many Professors to Religion as once Isaac said of Jacob Gen. 27. 22. The voice is Jacobs voice but the hands are Esaus hands There are many whose voice indeed is Jacobs voice they talk like Saints O but their hands are Esau's hands Let them come unto you that you may feel them Their habits are Esau's habit they eat and drink like Esau they deal in the World like Esau They are Virgins upward beasts downward monsters in Religion Oh let not this be any of your Character Know it to be your duty as much to abound in Prayer hearing fasting exercises of repentance and mortification as others make it their vanity to abound in good words costly apparel in Pride and Luxury You must have Christs rows upon your Cheeks his Chains about your Necks I shall conclude with that of the Apostle to the Philippians Philip. 4. 8. 9. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things These things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do And the God of peace shall be with you Sermon L. Canticles 1. 11. We will make thee Borders of Gold with Studs of Silver THE Chaldee Paraphrast out of his unreasonable fondness to make this whole Song to be nothing else but a discourse betwixt God and the Congregation of Israel thus glosseth upon these words It was then said unto Moses go up to the firmament and I will give thee there two Tables of stone cut out of the Sapphire of the throne of Glory shining like the best Gold ordered with lines written with my own Fingers in which are ingraven the Ten commandments which are more pure then Silver purified seven times c. I should hardly mention this ancient Jewish Paraphrast so often but to convince the Atheistical Spirits of latter ages that the Jews did not understand this excellent Song as a meer wanton Love Song between Solomon and the Daughter of Pharaoh Neither did Gregory Nyssen Gregory the great nor Bernard who with others of the Ancients have wrote Commentaries upon it so understand it though they agreed not with this Paraphrast concerning the Persons in it The Paraphrast you see makes the law given on mount Sinai to be the Borders of Gold and studs of Silver I am not much satisfied with the translation of the words by our interpreters because I find no other Interpreters agreeing with them The 70 interpreters who are followed by those who made the Arabick Version interpret it images or pictures The Syriack Interpreters translate it Chains Arias Montanus and the Vulgar Latine translate it Collars Junius and Tremellius translate it Golden threds Pagnine translateth it Golden Jewels Besides the word here used is the same with a small alteration of the form which we had in the foregoing Verse and there we translated it Rows why we should here translate it Borders I cannot tell I think the Tigurine Version translateth it best They translate it Ornament a convenientia Convenient Ornaments It is certain the word signifieth some such Ornaments as Women used in those times and Countries Ornaments differ both in several Countries and in several Ages in the same Country so that it is no wonder if Interpreters are at a loss so many hundreds of years since exactly to translate words signifying things so variable after such a distance of time and in another country The more general translation of Ornaments suitable Ornaments is doubtless the best I am as little satisfyed with the translation of the other word studs others translate it Points the Sepeuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marks It is granted by all that the word is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyeth to point This word is not that I can find used any where in holy Writ except in this Text â—and Gen. 30. 31. in those chapters it signifyedâ— the spots which were upon the lambs after the sheep had conceived upon the sight of the pilled and straked rods which Jacob had laid before them in the troughs The Dutch translators interpret the Term Buttons or knobs of Silver doubtless the truest translation were with Badges or spots of Silver Mercer faith the Phrase doth signify the highest and most excellent Ornaments But the difference about the words maketh no difference in Interpreters as to the sense so that it is but a light difference The sense is we will give thee yet more and more excellent Ornaments Let me only note to you four or five things which will much conduce to clear up the sense and lead us to that Proposition of truth and point in Divinity which the Text holds forth 1. I conceive first That you will all here understand a Metaphor drawn from Women who delight much in Ornaments of Gold and Silver and other precious things Christ here speaketh to his Spouse as to a delicate Woman which Loves such Ornaments and promiseth her such My Spouse faith Christ shall have her Ornaments too answerable to though infinitely excelling Ornaments of Gold and Silver Most excellent Ornaments tho Spiritual and of a far other Nature 2. He had before said That her Cheeks were comely between the Rows of Jewels and her Neck with Chains of Gold she was richly adorned but saith Christ she shall have more also Habenti daâ—itâ—â— To her that hath shall be given and she shall have more abundantly I will not cease to adorn her 3. Thirdly He doth not say Thou shalt buy thee Borders of Gold with thy mony No not yet I will give the some mony which thou shalt improve and with the improvement buy thee more Grace is not merited Nor is the first grace given
Would you have your Spikenard send forth the smell thereof Take heed then of Dead Flies The Wise man tells us That one Dead Fly will make the Apothecary's whole Box of Ointment to stink What are Dead Flies in this case but scandalous sips proceeding from our extravagant lusts and passions One open scandalous sin will make a Christian 's whole Box of Spikenard cast forth an unpleasant smell in the World One sinful act will not lose us Heaven but it will in a great measure spoil our scent How many have we known who I hope are gone to Heaven who yet by their scandalous actions like David made the Enemies of God to blaspheme I hope they are some of them gone with Spikenard I mean with a truth of grace to their graves but their Spikenard had wofully lost its scent It 's a sad thing when a man of whom we can hardly presume that he was in favour with God and in a state of Grace yet leaves the World with a better report for justice and charity for mercy and bounty and liberality than one who professed higher and went for a Child of God 2. Take heed of exposing thy conversation to too much Air I speak in this Dialect to keep to the Metaphor a little Too much of Air spoileth the scent of the most precious Ointment Take heed of too much needless converse with the World Things that keep their scent must be kept close It is true at all times much more in such debauched times as we live in the more recluse and private from the World a Christian keepeth himself the better he will keep his scent 3. Keep thy self from actions as to which though thou art satisfied thou mayest do them but they are not of good report either amongst Christians or men of the World It is too much the Errour of Christians that in matters of offence and scandal they only have a respect to Brethren It is true we ought to have a first and principal respect to them I am sure our Rule is more extensive 1 Cor. 10. 32. Give none offence either to the Jews or Gentiles or to the Churches of Christ The Apostle puts the Churches of Christ last as if it ought to be the least of our care not to offend the Churches of Christ I know no such thing can be concluded from the order of the Apostle's words Yet one would think if in actions of this nature any might be neglected it should be Believers whom we might presume to be of more knowledge and judgment than to take any such offences and if they did so as they should reprove us for it yet to have more love for God than for any such actions in any persons to cause Religion and the holy Name of God to be evil spoken of our great care should be to have a good report of those who are without and Christians carelesness as to this is without doubt their great Errour we ought not only to follow things that are just and honest and pure but things also that are lovely and of a good report Phil. 4. 8. and to provide things honest in the sight of all men Rom. 12. 17. 4. You must live in the practice and exercise of Grace if you will have it send forth the smell thereof It is the rubbed Pomander that is sweet The Ointment poured out which sendeth out a savour It is not Grace talked of but acted and in its full exercise that sendeth forth its pleasant smell 5. Lastly Be as much in communion with Christ as thou canst The King must be at his Table when our Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof Be much with him in Prayer Meditation Hearing the Word The Preaching of the Gospel is the feast of fat things upon the Mountains and here because it is a time when some of you are preparing for your duty of communion with Christ in the Ordinance of his Supper let me mind you of your duty as to that the rather because I find our own Annotators and divers other Expositors of my Text touching upon it in their Notes That Table is the King's Table It is called the Lord's Table he is the Master of that Feast as well as the Provision It is an Ordinance which the Lord hath instituted for our Soul's fellowship and communion with him Our Souls draw out from the Fountain of his Fulness by this Conduit-pipe Neglect not that sacred Ordinance that your Spikenard may send forth the smell thereof And Remember while you sit there that you do not restrain your Souls from God but give out your Souls in the exercise of the graces of Faith Love Repentance Thanksgiving proper for that holy communion with this King of Glory Sermon LII Cant. 1. 12. While the King sitteth at his Table my Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof I Proceed to the 2d Proposition which in my last discourse I observed from these words Prop. That the smell of the Spouses Spikenard doth much depend upon Christs presence with her and influence upon her I have already told you that the believers gracious habits are the Spikenard here mentioned That the sending forth the smell thereof signifieth the exercise of these habits to the pleasing of God and the honour of God in the sight and face of the World This I say doth very much depend upon Christs presence with and influence upon the Souls which is the thing here expressed by the Kings sitting at his table I shall prove this proposition by proving these four things 1. That all exercise of gracious habits dependeth upon Christs influence upon and communion with the Soul 2. That degrees of gracious exercises depend upon degrees of such communion and influence 3. That as is the exercise of grace So is the smell thereof 4. That in deserted Souls grace doth not give out its smell Or at least very little 1. I say 1. All exercise of gracious habits dependeth upon Christs influence upon and communion with the Soul God doth not only infuse habits of grace but he also eliciteth the acts of grace Hence our Saviour tells us Joh. 15. 3. That without him we can do nothing And the Apostle tells us That he giveth to will and to do of his own good pleasure It is Musculus his observation upon Joh. 15. 3. our Saviour doth not say that without me you can do no great thing or without me you cannot do any great thing but without me you can do nothing And the Apostle calleth Christ not only the author but the finisher of our saith Heb. 12 â— and 1 Phil. 29. It is given to you on the behalf of Christ to believe a power to believe that is the habit but the Lord doth not only give us a power to believe but to believe actually Acts of faith and holiness are our fruit The habits of either are the seed the Acts are the fruit and so are often called in holy writ Joh. 15. 2 3 4.
it is wholesome against insection helpeth women in travel cureth consumptions quickeneth the appetite c. I shall not dwell upon this because I do not think it chiefly intended But Christ in this sense is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh healing all the Soul's diseases Ps 103. 3. He is that tree Rev. 22. 2. Whose leaves are for the healing of the Nations He healâ—th the broken in heart Psal 147. 3. What he did while he was upon the Earth by his miraculous power as to mens bodies Mat. 4. 23. Healing all manner of Sickness that he doth now in Heaven for the Soul by his saving efficacy 3. Myrrh is as I told you a great preservative against putresaction Which was the cause of their using of it about dead bodies either putting it into the body after the Egyptian Method or outwardly anointing or embalming the body with it after the Jewish Method Christ is the same to the Soul where he dwells he preserveth the Soul against the putrifaction of lusts and corruptions The Apostle speaks this Rom. 6. 3. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Where he argues that the Souls Interest in Christ arising from its justification preserveth the Soul against putrifying lusts that sin cannot have dominion over it because it is not under the law but under grace But I hasten to the 4th which in the Judgment of Interpreters is chiefly intended here 4. Myrrh whether in the Herb Spice or Gum is exceeding sweet Hence you read of beds and garments persumed with Myrrh Now the greater quantity there is the stronger the odour must be Christ is a heap of sweets exceeding sweet to the Soul his mouth is most sweet Cant. 5. 16. his Cheeks are as sweet Flowers his lips drop sweet smelling Myrrh Cant. 5. 13. Sweetness to the nostrils is nothing else but a smell that arising from some hidden quality in the thing that emits it and conveyed to the nostrils by the air gratifies that outward sense There is a sweetness that is mental too A Notion is as sweet to the Scholar as a perfume is to a Lady Prov. 13. 19. Desire accomplished is sweet to the Soul Christs sweetness is mental sweetness he is sweetness not to the nostrils but to the Soul and so he is a bundle of sweets Let me unty this bundle of Myrrh a little And shew you how Christ is sweet I will open it to you in three things 1. He is exceeding sweet in his actions as our Redeemer As to these he is a bundle of Myrrh there were many of them His Vniting of the Divine nature to the Humane nature in his Incarnation his fulfilling the law his death upon the cross His resurrection ascending sitting at his Fathers right hand making intercession for us The Soul smells of all these by Meditation and faith and the smell is like that of a bundle of Myrrh shall I shew you how 1. For his Incarnation with the manner of it he united the divine and humane nature by an hypostatical union was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a Virgin without the help of man Mr. Ainsworth and others think this Text hath a special referenee to this this is Christ now considered as wrapt in swadling clothes and laid in a manger The Soul smells of this by a firm and stedfast divine faith believing the thing because God hath said it in his word though it cannot see it by the evidence of reason and sense And the Souls smells of it continually by meditation And O how sweet it is to a believing Soul Then saith the Soul first he that Sanctifieth and I that am Sanctified are both one I see Christ is not ashamed to call me Brother 2. Then faith the Soul I see I have a merciful high-Priest that knoweth how to pity a poor piece of flesh hungring and thirsting and full of infirmities 3. Again here 's comfort saith the poor Soul to me I was born a leper under the imputed guilt of Adams sin I was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity But my Saviour was born without sin the vessel was made pure by the overshadowings of the Holy Ghost and no impure hand contributed to his conveyance into the World I was born a Child of wrath indebted to justice before I knew what I did but he was born a Child of Love He was born with a knowledge of humane infirmities to know how to pity me but without sinful infirmities That he might be in a capacity to save and help me Again saith the Soul Then I see a perfect and sufficient Saviour One meâ—rly God considering the justice of God that could give no remission without blood could not have saved me because he could not have died for me and so have destroyed him that had the power of death One meerly man could not have saved me for he could not have merited But a Person that was God and man God and man in one Person must needs be in a perfect capacity as man he died as God he merited nay the Person that was God-man both died and merited How sweet is this to the Soul torturing it self with thoughts for the filthiness of its nature troubled with humane infirmities perplexed with thoughts how Christ should be able to save it c. This is but one of his actions 2. He fulfilled the law for us I am not of their mind that think that Christs active obedience is not imputed I think the Apostle speaks plain enough to the contrary Rom. 8. 3 4. And if not he yet the Prophet By his knowledge he shall justifie many You read that he was made righteousness for us And doubtless whatever some may fancy the obedience of the Person which was God-man could not be an homage due from the humane nature of Christ which was indeed but a creature Christ fulfilling the Law is exceeding sweet to the gracicious Soul This poor Soul when renewed is but renewed in part in many things offendeth and the sense of its daily backslidings makes it tremble How sweet is it now to the Soul to be able to conclude thus to its self Though there be much guile found in my heart and in my mouth yet in his mouth there was no guile found though I have been an Absolom rebelling against my Heavenly Father from my youth upward yet he was an Adonijah a Son that never displeased his Father 3. Look upon him in the laying down of his life How sweet is the meditation of it to a poor Soul Christ crucified is a bundle of Myrrh indeed from hence the Soul draweth many pretious smells hence it is that the Soul smelis Spiritual life with all the consequences and dependencies upon it Hence it smells Spiritual liberty with all the sweet fruits of it I say from hence it smells Spiritual life to itself when it is almost suffocated with the apprehension of the
to be holy they are in the House of God and God is an holy God There is in this Notion a double Argument for this from 1. God's Holiness 2. God's Jealousie 1. God is an holy God Hence those who are unholy are not like to please him nor he likely to continue long with them Look as it is with a Neat man who hath a large House the filth and nastiness of this or that Room will not make him leave his whole House but it may make him leave this or that part of it and seldom or never be seen in this or that Room the dirty filthy Room shall not be his Lodging-chamber nor the place where he will rest or feed So it is betwixt God and the Church The prophaneness or looseness of a particular Church or particular Person in the Church shall not make God forsake his whole Church but it may cause God to leave this or that Church or this or that Member of the Church 2. God's Jealousie engageth Members of his Church to be holy Hence it is that he is more severe to a Professing People living contrary to their Profession than to any others Judgment begins at the House of God Hence that in Jer. 7. 9 10. Will you steal murther and commit Adultery and swear falsly and burn Incense to Baal and walk after other Gods whom you know not and come and stand before me in this House which is called by my Name Is this House which is called by my Name become a Den of Robbers c. And that Amos 3. 2. You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefor I will punish you for all your iniquities O therefore you that profess to God be holy for he is an holy God and a jealous God and you are his House 3. I may add a third Argument it is that of the Apostle Heb. 3. 6. Whose House we are if we hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of hope firm to the end The unholy man disclaims God and God disclaims him he hath but the name of a stone in the Lord's House if he be not a lively stone Thirdly This Notion of the Church's being the House of God speaks protection and security to it Every man stands obliged to defend his House God stands obliged by his Nature and by his Word to protect and defend his Church Hence those many Promises for its protection Psal 46. 5. God is in the midst of her therefore she shall not fall Psal 125. 2. As the Mountains are round about Hierusalem so the Lord is round about his People The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Matth. 16. 18. with many others of the like nature particular Churches may be destroyed and rooted out But God will have a dwelling place upon the Earth let Satan and his Instruments do what they can Fourthly It speaks to us hopes of Reformation No man will suffer his House to fall down but will repair it if there be any breaches and if he be able he will make it his business to adorn and beautifie it and make it fit for him to dwell in it God will not let his House run to ruine but will seasonably repair it and make it a dwelling-place fit for his Holiness Lastly Is the Church Christ's House and the Saints House what cause have we to bless God who hath cast our Lot within the Pales of the Church And how do we all stand concerned not to forsake her Assemblies But I shall not inlarge further upon this first Proposition Sermon LXII Cantieles 1. 17. The Beams of our House are Cedar and our Rafters are of Fir. I Come to the second Proposition which I have observed out of these words Prop. 2. That the Word and Ordinances of God are the Beams and Rafters of his House which is his Church So I chose rather to interpret these metaphorical terms than as some concerning Persons I shall shew you the propriety of the Metaphor in a few particulars 1. Beams and Rafters are integral parts of an House indeed part of the substance of it without which there can be no House An House may want a due proportion of Beams and Rafters and yet be an House but some there must be some more principal Beams and Rafters or there can be no House Without the Word and Ordinances of God there can be no Church of God Every company of men make not a Church but a company owning the Word of God and walking in the Fellowship of Ordinances these make an House of God A Church may for a time it may be for some long time want some particular Ordinances and yet be a true Church of God but its state must be lame and imperfect But if it want all the Ordinances if it wants the Word and Sacraments which are the Church's Beams it cannot be a Church of God It is lame if it wants any Ordinance of God but it loseth the nature of a Church if it wants all Ordinances That which makes a Church to be a Church is Union and Fellowship now the Word of God and the Doctrine of Faith contained in the Word and the Ordinances for Worship and Order are those things in which the Church hath its Fellowship by which the Members of the Church have Fellowship both with God and also one with another 2. The House is built upon Beams and Rafters and they bear up the weight of the other materials The weight of every Tile in the House lies upon the Rafters and the whole Building is laid upon the groundsel and dormans and wall plates and studds all which come under these two Notions of Beams and Rafters The Church of God also is builded upon the Word of God this is that which the Apostle Eph. 2. 20. calls the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets the Faith and Obedience of every particular Member of the Church is builded upon the Word of Promise and the Word of Precept Our Faith is built upon the Promises of the Word our Obedience upon the Precepts they are the Foundations and Rule of all Holiness The whole weight of every particular Soul is laid upon the Word and the weight of the whole Church lies upon the Word of God Look as it is in an earthly house builded with the hands of men if the Beams prove false or untrusty or the Foundations prove unsure the whole Building either sinks and falls or at least sways this or that way So it is with the Church as to the Word of God yea so it is as to every particular Soul the security of the particular Soul and the whole Fabrick of the Church depends upon the truth and sureness and permanency of the Word of God If the Word of God should not hold sure if the Truth of God could be found a Lye all our Faith and Hope is in vain The very notion of a Church is a Chimaera and the greatest concernments of
it are buried up in ruines It is the Word of God that is the Basis of the Church and the Basis of every individual Soul that is a Member of that Church 3. The Beams and Rafters of an House as they support the burthen and bear the weight of the Building so they also unite the parts and sides of it they are the Mediums of Union to it so is the Word and Ordinances to the Church The Word is the Foundation upon which the Church and every particular Soul is builded and the Doctrine of Faith and the Ordinances of God are the means of Union in it I do not think that an Explicit Covenant-Union is necessary to the constitution of a Church I think that Union which the whole Church hath in the Profession of the same Doctrine of Faith and in the practice of the same Ordinances Rules of Worship is sufficient to make up such an Union amongst all Gospel Professors as may justifie the denomination of a Catholick Church And again an agreement in the Profession of the same Faith and the practice of the same Ordinances in the same place is enough to make up a particular Church of God Look as in a Building let the walls be at never so many foot distance one from another yet the beams or dormans that go across the Building unite them together and make them all but one and the same Building So it is with the whole number of Professors scattered over the face of the whole Earth though part of them be in England part in France part in Germany part in other parts of the World yet the same Doctrine and Profession of Faith and the practice of the same Ordinances of Worship running through them all makes the whole but one Body one Church the House of the Living God 4. Look as it is with the Beams and Rafters the purer and stronger and more substantial they are and the more intire and homogeneous they are the stronger the House is So it is as to the Word and Ordinances of God the purer the Doctrine of Faith and Ordinances for Worship are the stronger and better the Church is If the Beams of an House be sappy or rotten or patched up of several heterogeneous pieces the weaker the House is and more subject to fall and to decay So it is with the Church which is the House of the Living God If the Doctrine of Faith owned and professed in it be as it were heart of Oke pure Doctrine taken out of the heart of the Written Word not sappy through the additions of Humane Inventions nor heterogeneous part of it the pure Word of God part of it the meer Fancies and Doctrines of men if the Ordinances for Worship practised in it be pure Ordinances if the Tabernacle be according to the Pattern of the Mount according to the form of sound words and pure Rule of the Gospel the Church is fair and glorious and strong the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it but if otherwise if the Doctrine of Faith professed in it be mingled with the Clay of Humane Fancies and Errours if the Ordinances of Worship practised in it be full of the sap of Traditions and Ceremonies the Church is a declining decaying Church and hath no strength in her The reason is because God will not continue with such a Church The Psalmist saith of the Church God is in the midst of her therefore she shall not fall now they must be golden Candlesticks in the midst of which God walketh But thus much may be sufficient to shew you the propriety of the Metaphor Let me shortly Apply this before I pass on to the other Proposition This in the first place commends unto us the Excellency of the Word of God and the Doctrine of Faith contained in it and the Excellency of Gospel Ordinances they are the Beams and Rafters of the House of God hewed out framed and fitted to the Building by him who was the Master-builder the Lord Jesus Christ and laid by him The Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 10 11. saith that as a wise Master-builder he had laid the Foundation and another builded thereon v. 11. Other Foundation could no man lay than that already laid which is Jesus Christ Christ is called the Church's Fundamentum its Foundation and he is the lapis angularis the corner stone as is contained in the Scripture Saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2. 6. Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone eleâ—t and precious the head of the body Col. 1. 18. He from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part Eph. 4. 16. Our Divines say that Christ is the Foundation of the Church in a double sense 1. He is Fundamentum Salutis the Foundation of Salvation in the Church The Salvation of every Soul lieth upon his shoulders Act. 4. 12. Neither is there Salvation in any other 2. He is Fundamentum Fidei Cultus the Foundation of Faith and Doctrine of Worship and Order the Foundation of Doctrine and Ordinances I say And as no man can lay any other Foundation of Salvation than Christ so neither can any lay any other Beams of Doctrine or Institutions for Worship but what Jesus Christ hath laid Christ by himself and by his Apostles laid these Foundations and Beams of Doctrine and Worship from the Gospel of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles must be drawn the Articles for the first and the Canons for the latter And the whole Building of the Church depends upon these Foundations and Beams Let the Word of Faith or the Purity of Worship fail from the Church or any part thereof it presently ceaseth to be a Church of God and turns into an Antichristian Synagogue Now I say this commends to every Christian the Doctrine of Faith and the Ordinances of God There is an Excellency in Entity or Being Hence whatsoever it be which gives Being to a thing and without which it would not be at least not such hath a great Excellency in it and the more noble the thing is to which Being is given the more Excellent is the Form by which it hath such Being The Soul of man gives Being to a man The Body without the Soul is but a lump of flesh a piece of Clay the Soul informeth and inliveneth and giveth an Humane Being to it separate that from it and the man is no more Some Philosophers have vainly dreamed of an Amma Mundi a general Soul of the World which should give Form Life Motion to every part of the World Now as the Soul of a man is more excellent than any Souls of Beasts because it is the Principle of a more Noble Being so doubtless if there were any such Universal Soul which gave Life Being Motion Form Union to all the World it would be a more excellent substance than any
this uniformity And as means to it let me but offer you my thoughts 1. I would have Christians open hearted and free in the discovery of their dissents It is one of the great plagues of our times that Christians are not free one with another but lock up their private opinions and make it a great piece of their art to conceal themselves and to lurk under ambiguous phrases c. It is true some are too open the Apostle Commands him that in an indifferent thing hath a particular faith to have it to himself before God Rom. 14. 22. that is to be understood as to the open publishing of it to the disturbance of others and the offence of the weak but in the mean time doubtless a prudent discovery of such dissents to able and faithful Persons of a differing Judgment would much contribute to the unity of Christians 2. Especially 2dly If they would be willing to be convinced and to hear arguments against themselves to bring forth their strong reasons and to hear others bring forth theirs also I know not how it comes to pass that Christians who have Spiritual sores in their understandings and Judgments are very loth to discover them and are impatient of having them touched at least at first would Christians be willing to take Satisfaction and give Satisfaction each to other many of our differences in Doctrine and practice would easily be composed especially if to their mutual discourses to this purpose they would but bring humble hearts and pietatem discendi rather then discutiendi acumen a pious mind to learn rather then a defire to shew their quaintness in arguing their own cause which Augustine lamented that he did not do in his reading the Scriptures whiles he was a young man 3. And 3dly If to all this Christians would add Prayer unto that God who revealeth truth to his People it would highly contribute to this unity I am pleading for it is a piece of Christs intercession for us that we might be one 4. And lastly Would Christians as becomes such as are humble if after all due means used for mutual Satisfaction and attaining to this happiness but learn that piety and prudence which the Apostle Commands and reason dictateth viz. To keep the things wherein they dissent to themselves and walk together so far forth as they have mutually attained and are mutually agreed certainly this would go very far and if this course did not fully contribute to preserve the strength and beauty of the Beams and Rafters of Gods house amongst us yet the weakness of them or rather indeed our weakness would not be so manifest to our enemies nor our nakedness so much discovered unto them that hate us Is the Doctrine of faith And are the Ordinances of God the Beams and Rafters of the Church How much are we then all concerned to keep them in their strength and purity and beauty We are Commanded to contend earnestly for the faith which was delivered once to the Saints Jude 3. and to strive together for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 2. 7. there is a striving about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers which the Apostle warns Timothy against 2 Tim. 2. 14. and there is a striving about things that are indifferent and it may be granted on both sides to be so These are vain janglings and unprofitable strivings But there is a striving for the Doctrine of faith against Haereticks and erroneous Persons and there is a striving for a true Worship of God and a pure administration of Ordinances according to the rule of the word without the mixture of Ceremonies and humane Inventions In these things Christians that are members of the Church stand highly concerned to strive To strive to maintain the Word of God and the Doctrines of faith contained in them that they be not corrupted with the leaven of errour And to maintain the Worship of God in its perfection that no part of it be loft and in its purity that the administration of it be not mixed up with humane inventions now to strive for these things is a noble striving and worthy of Christians for the Ordinances of God and the Word of God they are the Beams and Rafters of the house of God and what man is there that doth not take himself concerned to take care of the Beams and Rafters of hishouse that nothing comes to them which may expose them to a sudden putrefaction and rotenness and indanger the whole building to fall If a Church defends the Doctrine of the Word and the Ordinances of God and maintains them in their strength beauty purity they will defend it There can be no instance given of Gods leaving any Church so long as the Doctrine of faith remained in it incorrupted and the Ordinances of God abode in it and were administred in their power strength and purity But this is enough to have spoken to the 2d Proposition the 3d yet remains Sermon LXIII Cant. 1. 17. The Beams of our house are Cedar and our Rafters are of Fir. I Am now come to the last Proposition which I observed out of these Words with which I shall close my discourses both upon this verse and upon this whole Chapter The point is this Prop. 3. There is a Beauty Sweetness Power and Efficacy and an incorruptible nature in the Word and Ordinances of God These four things I noted to you concerning these two sorts of wood to which the Spouse here likeneth the Beams and Rafters of the Church which is her and her beloveds house Here are four things in the Proposition praedicated of these Spiritual Rafters 1. The first is Beauty Cedars and Fir trees are tall and goodly trees the latter lose not their beauty in the Winter time Zion of old was called the perfection of beauty Psal 50. 2. strength and beauty were said to be in the Sanctuary Psal 96. 6. the feet of them who bring glad tidings of peace are called beautiful Rom. 10. 15. the Sanctuary indeed of old had an external beauty it was full of Gold and of rare work which much pleased the carnal Eyes of the beholders This beauty is ceased with the Jewish Worship But there is a greater beauty still remaining the beauty of Solomons Temple in all its glory was not like the beauty of Gospel administration 1. Beauty is a pleasing thing That which Satisfieth the lust of the Eye is that which we call carnal beauty the orderly administration of Gospel institutions is a comely thing in the Eyes of a Spiritual Soul the simplicity of the Gospel administrations hinders not the beauty at all The sober grown Person thinks a suit of plain Spanish cloth as beautiful as the Child thinks its gay coat whose colours it may be are more diverse and the ribbands about it of several colours but the substance of it not of half so much value 'T is true the legal administrations were more gay but
c. It is true the Doctrine of the Law and Gospel the Propositions of truth contained in both are much one and the same The moral precepts the same and the promises the same c. Yet that great Proposition of truth De Mâ—ssia venturo concerning the star that should come forth out of Jacob the coming of Shiloh The raising of the great Prophet like to Moses c. This Proposition was perfected in the Gospel and turned into another of far more comfort to us viz. That Christ is come and hath dyed for our siâ—s c. But all the Propositions of the Gospel are of eternal truth and all the Ordinances of the Gospel are like Beams of Cedar that shall never decay That 's the first Inference 2. Observe from hence The blindness of many Peoples Eyes and the hardness of our hearts together with the unreasonableness of unbelief You have heard that there is a Beauty and a sweetness in the Word and Ordinances of God they are beautiful to the Eye and they are sweet unto the tast and to the smell the lips of Christ drop sweet smelling Myrrh what is the reason then that the most of People can tast no sweetness in them nor see any beauty in them Alas the most men and women in the World have no more savour of a Sermon or Sacrament then in the white of an Egg They see more beauty in a play-book or an history then they can see in the holy Word of God the reason is this they are void of Spiritudl senses they have their exteriour carnal senses they can tast sweetness in an Hony-Comb but they have not any Spiritual sense they can tast no sweetness in the Word of God which to Davids tast was sweeter then the Hony-comb They must needs want Spiritual sense for they want Spiritual life they are dead in trespasses and sins no sooner doth the Lord quicken a dead Soul but it savoureth the things of God and tasts that sweetness and sees that beauty in the Word of God and in the Ordinances of God of which I have been discoursing 2. As it discovers the want of Spiritual sense in an unbelievers Soul so it also discovers the hardness of mens hearts The Word and Ordinances of God have a power and Efficacy in them but alas how few do they make any impression upon But I shall not insist upon this as not so proper to the resemblance of the Text. Let me rather 3. Infer the unreasonableness of unbelief from what you have heard of the supporting power of the Word of God The Word of God is the greet supporter of Souls under all afflictions temtations in all distresses and agonies c. God is indeed pleased as to some of his People to give them in sensible evidences of his love sealing them up by way of assurance of his love unto the day of redemption and blessed are they who are in such a case but this is not the portion of all the People of God the most of Christians have nothing but the royal Word of God to trust to and upon this all their hopes hang as to Eternity And we are so carnal that we find it an hard thing oft-times to keep up the building of grace faith and hope upon this foundation but are ready to sway and sink through distrust and doubtings through unbelief and anxiety of thoughts c. This is that which we call unbelief The unreasonableness of which is sufficiently evidenced from the stability of the Word of God it is a Beam of Cedar Thou that thinkest it an hard thing to have nothing but a bare Word of God to trust to unless thou hast some sensible evidence that canst not believe without a sign consider 1. That the Word is the Beam of the Church The whole Church of God is built upon the Word it is that which God hath judged sufficient at all times for his People God the Father had no more than Christ's word for the price of all the Souls that were saved from the beginning of the World until the time of Christ's Death and Passion when the price was actually paid into God's hand All the Believers that were saved from Adam till Christ's coming in the Flesh had no more to trust to for their Salvation than the Royal Word of God That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head That a Messiah should come and be slain to make reconciliation for iniquity c. They all trusted on these words of God and were saved 2. Consiâ—er This Beam is a Beam of Cedar it is an incorruptible thing The Apostle calls the Word and Oath of God two immutable things It must needs be so because of the immutable Nature of God he is a God that cannot lye that cannot speak that which is false he is a God that cannot repent he cannot like man eat his word or recede from it David saith That the Word of the Lord is settled in the Heavens The Grass may wither and the Flower may fade but the Word of the Lord must stand for ever Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle thereof cannot fail Hath he said it and shall he not do it Hath he spoken it and shall not he bring it to pass The Apostle calls the word of Prophecy a sure Word The word of Prophecy is sure and the word of Promise is sure therefore trust to it 3. It is a Beam that never yet brake never Soul miscarried that trusted its whole weight upon it What greater Arguments can any have to persuade his Soul to trust to the Word of God than these two First That the Nature of the word is such that it cannot fail The truth of God cannot be turned into a lye Secondly That no instance can be produced of any Soul that miscarried in its confidence Look over all the Book of God and find me Gods Word given to any Soul for anything whether temporal or spiritual and it was not made good unto him indeed the Visions have sometime tarried beyond the patience of God's People but they have alwaies been fulfilled in their seasons 4. Consider how unreasonable a thing it is that thou shouldest trust to the word of a man and distrust the Word of a God You think your selves concerned to trust in the Royal word of a King in the serious word of a Noble Person in the word of an ordinary Friend who is but accounted morally honest how unreasonable a thing then is it that thou shouldest not take the word of a God the word of him who cannot lye To sum up this then Christian what though thou hast nothing but the word of God to trust to either for those things which concern thee as to this Life or for those things which concern thee as to another Life yet the Word of God is enough it is the Beam of Christ's House and it is a Beam of Cedar which cannot corrupt or putrifie
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
and persecutions But comely hrough an imputed righteousness and through the habits of grace with which God hath adorned her I come now to apply that discourse and First We may from hence gather the true notion of a child of God and understand how he stands distinguished from one that is a natural man and yet an unbeliever The true notion of a child of God is this He is one who is imperfectly perfect Black but comely you shall observe in Scripture that perfection is both predicated and denied concerning the People of God Not as if I had attained or were already perfect saith Paul Phil. 3. 12. We are commanded to strive after perfection to endeavour to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord but it is a mark which no man hitteth Heaven is the only place where just Souls are made perfect both as to their fruitions and as to their Actions A thing is then said to be perfect and so a person when there is nothing wanting to it or him nothing that can be added and in this sense no man can be said to be perfect on the other side we are not only commanded to study perfection but it is said of many in holy Writ that they were perfect Noah was a just and perfect man Gen. 6. 9. Job was perfect and upright Job 1. 1. Paul saith he spake wisdom amongst them that are perfect 1 Cor. 3. 6. Phil. 3. 15. Let us as many as be perfect A Christian is perfect in the same sense that he is comely In short there is a threefold perfection may be predicated of a Christian 1. A Perfection of Justification In this sense every believer is comely through Christs righteousness put upon him and reckoned to him and he is perfect for the state of justification is a state that admits not of degrees thus we are as the Apostle speaketh to the Colossions compleat in Christ 2. There is a Perfection of Regeneration and Sanctification this is threefold 1. Of degrees thus none is perfect no not one none liveth and Sinneth not against God there is something to be added to the best mans habits and Acts of Grace 2. Of Parts thus again every believer is perfect Sanctified as the Apostle speaketh in body and mind and spirit the man is made a new creature all the faculties and powers of his Soul are renewed and Sanctified 3. Of scope design and intention This is uprightness this is called perfectness because God upon the covenant of grace accepteth the Soul upon the account of Christ as if it had fulfilled the whole Law of God Rom. 8. 3 4. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through our flesh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin or by a Sacrifice for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit God accounteth the righteousness of the Law fulfilled by those who walk after the Spirit tho personally it is not because Christ condemned sin in the flesh Thus Noah is said to be a perfect man Gen. 6. 9. and Job a perfect man and upright this is expounded v. 8. one that feareth God and escheweth Evil. For in the strict sense of perfection Job saith chap. 9. v. 20. If he justified himself his own mouth should condemn him if he should say he were perfect that should prove him perverse 3. There is a comparative perfection in this sense the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 3. 6. That he spake wisdom amongst them that were perfect and Phil. 3 15. Let us as many as be perfect be thus minded that is as many of us as are comparatively perfect whose attainments as to knowledg and faith are higher than others The State of the Saints is in no other sense a State of perfection So as I say they are imperfectly perfect which is the same with that of the Text Black but comely And this sufficiently distinguisheth the believer from the unbeliever whether the profane person or the hypocrite The unbeliever may say he is black but he cannot say he is comely What beauty can there be in any Soul not reconciled to God they are all blackness all deformity It is true there is a great deal of difference in these men some of them are black and filthy in the eyes of the rational and more orderly part of the World such is the Atheist the profane Curser and Swearer the Blasphemer the Drunkard the Thief the Oppressor the unrighteous and intemperate man these are the fots of the Earth the spots of the World the shame and reproach of the Nation or City in which they live Beasts walking in humane shapes But there are many others who have much beauty in them in the eyes of the World and humane reason yet are not comely in the eyes of Christ If a man be Sober and Temperate Just and Righteous Kind and Charitable tho he liveth not up to the strict rule of the Gospel and the Commandments of God yet living up to the conduct of humane reason and the advantages of humane society which the others infect and destroy the World counteth him a very good man full of beauty and comeliness applaudeth commends and courts him But now the Lord Christ not judging according to the outward appearance but according to the heart seeing in this mans heart no love of God constraining him to these acts nothing of the fear of God awing this mans Soul unto his duty God I say seeing him in these actions neither acting from a persuasion that this is the will of God nor from a belief of the Promises or of the Threatnings nor from an Obedience to the Precepts of God but meerly from Politick and rational principles from self ends interests that he may appear to men to be good and seeking in these actions the praise of men not of God Or meerly under the conduct of reason commanding their passions in order to their more comfortable being in this World and a more honorable and acceptable converse with the best men in it God I say seeing this judgeth these morally vertuous men black we that are Parents to Children and Masters 〈◊〉 Servants tho we cannot judge of their hearts yet can distinguish betwixt actions which they do upon and in obedience to our command and what they do not at our command nor out of obedience to us tho they be things which done please us being what we would have had done God who knoweth the heart will much more do so I remember our Saviour Matth. 23. 23. pronounceth a wo to the Scribes and Pharisees for faith he you pay Tythe of Mint and Annis and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith these things ought you to have done and not to have left the other undone Christ judgeth the comeliness of a Soul not meerly from its external acts