to examine their Calling whether it be such as amounts to a Divine Drawing whether there be any thing wrought in your Souls which flesh and blood could not reveal to you any thing more than could be the effect of the will of the flesh or the will of man I have before enlarged upon this Theme shewing you how you may know whether your Faith be a Faith of the operation of God The work of God upon your Souls with power Whether what you take to be Holiness be the Sanctification of the Spirit You have heard that there is an Assent to the Gospel which may be given upon meer humane testimony or upon probable Arguments of Reason neither of which is true Faith that there may be a Moral Righteousness and a formal course of performing Religious Duties neither of which amount to the Sanctification of the Spirit or a running after Christ upon his drawings I shall here only add that there are two or three things which may draw men to some Reformation of life though Christ draweth not 1. The interests of mens bodily lives and healths and estates Temperance Sobriety Chastity are Virtues in the practice of which men are concerned as to these and though indeed lusts have so far fermented in some debaucht persons that these interests will not draw them to such a Reformation yet in many who have not been tainted by a vitious Education and in whom custom hath not begot a second nature these concerns will draw much as to which aactions Grace comes not in I mean special Graceâ— further than to direct men to do them from a Principle of Faith Love and Obedience to the Will of God and with an aim at glorifying God 2. The Examples of others especially such as are our Superiours whom we honour or reverence or our near friends and companions whom we love may have a great force upon us that we may please them or be like unto them to do many things It is of great concern with whom we converse Many persons in Religion write only by Copies and do acts because they see others do them whom they love admire or have in reverence These Examples alone will not only bring men to a conformity to them in a civil conversation but also to forms of Religion and Worship 3. The inter stâ—of mens credit and applause in the World will go a great way Saul begs of Samuel to honour him before the People The Pharisees sought the praise of men rather than that of God and indeed this is the general cause of Hypocrisie This happens more generally when Religion is in fashion and credit with the world I might instance in several other things but these are sufficient Try therefore and examine your Souls and rest not till you find what may evidence to you that you are indeed drawn by Christ Secondly This Doctrine calls to all the People of God for Humility indeed it evidenceth Humility a necessary ingredient into Saintship A proud Child of God is a contradiction Grace leaves the Soul nothing to boast in nothing to be proud of Is he come to Christ He had never come if the Father had not drawn him Doth he run after him faster than another he had never run if he had not been drawn There were some in the Church of Corinth who were puffed up who despised Paul and thought of themselves above what they ought to think they were full they were rich they had need of nothing Observe the Argument by which the Apostle humbleththem 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who hath made thee to differ from another Or What hast thou which thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Art thou come to Christ and is not thy neighbour What follows from hence but as the Apostle to the Romans saith that to thee God hath been more good to him more severe Hast thou come of thy self or in thy own strength Christ hoth told us That no man cometh to the Son but he whom the Father draweth Every one as he is learned and taught of the Father cometh unto the Son He who is not drawn is the object of thy pity and deserveth thy prayers thy good counsel and exhortations all the help thou canst give him but thou hast no reason to triumph or boast or glory over him had not the Lord drawn thee thou hadst been in the same circumstances that he as as much a stranger to Christ as he is It is grace special grace which alone maketh the difference betwixt thee and him Dost thou find thy self more strong and able than another to resist a motion to sin whether from the lusts of thy own heart or from the suggestions of of the Devil or from the World Thou standest when another is overcome and falleth Dost thou find more ability to spiritual duties more freedom and liveliness in the performance of them still all this is from grace Without Christ thou couldest do nothing thou hast no reason to glory because what thou hast is received what thou dost is by grace which thou hast received I live saith Paul Gul. 2. 20. yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God So as the Child of God hath nothing to glory in nothing to boast and triumph over his weaker Brother for if he differs it is grace alone makes him to differ Thirdly This notion calleth upon the People of God to bless the Lord if at any time they find their hearts more inabled to run after God Psal 18. 29. By thee saith David I have run or I have broken through a Troop and by my God have I leaped over a wall David owns there to God his Victory over his fleshly enemies but a Christian's Warfare is more spiritual against Principalities and Powers against spiritual Enemies mighty Temptations strong Motions to sin doth he at any time get a Victory against them certainly he is obliged to give God the glory for it is by him that he breaketh through the Troops of the Prince of darkness Hath he difficult duties to perform and hath he found a strength to perform them still the glory is due unto God for by him he leapeth over the wall It is an expression of David's Psal 87. 7. All my springs are in thee Our spiritual life is maintained from many springs A spring of pardoning grace because of our renewing guilt A spring of renewing and sanctifying grace because of the frequent lustings of the flesh against the Spirit and our being brought so often into a captivity to the Law of our members Springs of strengthening quickening comforting grace because of accidents which weaken our strength make us dull and heavy in the service of God and often to walk in the dark and see no light Now all our fresh springs are in Christ whither then but to God
Doctors generally understand this of an ill savour strangely interpreting this Text of the Golden Calf which the Israelites made soon after they came out of Egypt after the commission of which Idolatry they say the name of the Israelites which before was exceeding sweet in the nostrils of God stank and had an ill savour But all of the most valuable interpreters of this Text understand it of a sweet and fragrant smell which alone is proper to Spikenard Thus far we have inquired out the Grammatical sense of the words Let us further inquire 1. What is meant by the King sitting at his table 2. What is meant by the Spouses Spikenard sending or giving out the smell thereof By the King that King is doubtless meant the same Person whom the Spouse in the two next verses calleth her Beloved by whom we have all along understood the Lord Jesus Christ the only question here is what is meant by his sitting at his table Some by it understand his Incarnation the time during which he tabled with us others his glorifyed estate so Tremellius I think Genebrard hitteth the sense right who saith the phrase Denotat praesentiam Christi cum Ecclesia signifyeth the presence of Christ with his Church Thus also Mercer interpreteth it while Christ saith he is present with his Church feeding it with his Word the Church sendeth forth the sweet smells of Faith grace and good works as Paul saith we are a sweet savour unto God And what he saith of the presence of Christ with the Church is as true concerning his presence with the particular Soul that believeth in him he who fitteth with another at the table hath a fellowship and communion with him while Christ vouchsafeth me his presence That I take to be the sense of this Phrase You read in the Gospel of a Marriage Supper which the King provided for his Son And Rev. 19. 9. You read of the Marriage Super of the Lamb and God promiseth Rev. 3. 20. That if any man opens to him while he standeth at the door and knocketh he will come in and sup with him Which phrases only note Gods nearness of presence intimacy of fellowship and mmunion with his People The next question is what is here meant by the smell thereof Tremellius translates it Nardinum that which is of spikenard taking the Suffix not as a Pronoun but as forming a Noun adjective So it should be read thus while the King sitteth at his Table that which is of Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof as if the smell related to the fulness of Grace which is in Christ But I shall rather follow our own translation To send forth its Smell saith Mr. Durham on the Text is to be in lively exercise Grace without smell or lively exercise being like flowers somewhat withered that savour not nor like unbeaten spice that sâ—nds not forth its savour My grace is in exercise that is his Sense But 2dly The smell of a thing is that which discovers a thing that both to our selves and to others Not only the motions and vigorous actings and exercises of grace but the Notifications and discoveries of it both to our selves and others depends upon Christs presence with and influence upon the Soul that is possessed of it Two Propositions of Doctrine arise from the words thus opened 1. Prop. That true grace will give its proper smell 2. Prop. The smell of the Saints grace doth much depend upon Christs influence upon them and communion with them I cannot but observe the connexion of this verse with the two former Her beloved had told her that her Cheeks were comely with Rowsrof Jewels her Neck with Chains of Gold he had been commending her for her grace holy conversation in the World Ay saith she while my beloved whiles the King sitteth at his Table my Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof So long as it pleaseth the Lord to keep my Soul company to vouchsafe me his gracious influence so long I can do something those habits of grace with which he hath blessed me so long send forth their smell but if he hath withdrawn himself from me if he withholdeth his blessed influences my grace moveth not smelleth not But before I can reach that I would willingly speak something to the first Proposition concerning the nature of true grace to send forth a smell a peculiar smell 1. Prop. True grace where it is will send forth a proper smell The Philosopher tells us that a smell is a quality of a mixed body which is drawn out by heat arising from a due temperament of things in it which are hot and moist But I have nothing to do with the Philosophical notion of a smell it is here without question taken Metaphorically and as I before hinted signifieth Motion and discovery In all smells that arise from things there is 1. Something of motion the thing giving out the smell moveth and sends some quality into the air The smell of grace signifies the motion and exercise of it 2. There is in smells something of discovery By the smell of a thing we both discover the place of the thing and know where it is and also the nature of things in a great measure I will open my meaning to you in this proposition in three conclusions shortly Where a truth of grace is in the Soul it will not lye hid but discover it self both to him that hath it and to others or at least to one of them A man may carry dust in his pocket and neither himself nor others with whom he converseth know it but he cannot so carry Musk or any odoriferous thing if it be open grace is a glorious light which God kindleth in the Soul and must not be hid the Kingdom of Heaven which is within us as well as that without us is like unto leaven which cannot lye long hid in the meal The Romans faith was spoken of throughout the World Rom. 1. 8. The elders obtained a good report Heb. 11. 2. Grace where it is will be heard of Eph. 1. 15. After I had heard of your faith and your love to all the Saints The like he saith to the Colossians Colos 1. 4. It is a thing to be seen in its fruits and effects Shew me thy faith by thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works James 2. 18. The grace that dwelleth in Christ hath a favour so we had it before Because of the Savour of thy good Ointments therefore do the Virgins love thee Grace is the salt of the Soul Have salt in your selves saith our Saviour and sale must not be without a Savour It is compared to light to fire neither of which will be restrained Secondly grace doth not send forth a Savour only but a sweet savour like the Savour of Spikenard which is very grateful to the exterior senses Corruption and lust hath a savour The Savour of the body of death is like
the habits of Grace in the Soul are not discerned but by the exercise Indeed as to our acceptation with God the reason is different he seeth the hearts of men in their internal change and renovation but he hath given them their gracious habits for this very end that they should exercise them he hath commanded the exercise of them Let me hear thy voice saith he for sweet is thy voice By the exercise of them he is glorified a great deal of honour redoundeth to him from others So as it must needs be true that as is the exercise of Grace so must be the smell thereof whether you by smell understand exercise as the smell of the odoriferous Ointment or Plant is the product of its odoriferous quality or the acceptation of it with God and acceptableness of it unto man Where there is no exercise of Grace there can be no smell where the exercise of it is weak the smell of it must bear a proportion where there are the highest and strongest exercises there is the sweetest and strongest smell 4. Where the King is withdrawn from his Table the Soul's Spikenard sendeth forth little or no smell This is my last Conclusion in proof of the Proposition God sometimes hideth himself from the Souls of his People The presence of God with Churches Nations and particular Souls of which you so often read in holy Writ is to be understood not of his Essential Presence for so he is never absent from any of us Enter praesenter Deus est ubique potenter according to the old barbarous verse he filleth Heaven and Earth infinitum ultrà spatium an infinite space beyond what we can comprehend under these two terms It must be therefore understood of his Providential Presence respecting his goodness and such grateful dispensations as from thence flow to poor creatures Now the goodness of God respecting our outward or inward man God is said to be present or absent with or from his creatures as he dispenseth out good unto them or with-holdeth them from them Hence you read in Scripture so often of God's presence with his People in going out with their Armies blessing them with successes c. And on the contrary of God's hiding his face and departures from his People by his giving them up to their Enemies his cursing them in their baskets and store c. As to their inward man God is said to be present with them when he upholdeth their Souls to their spiritual operations gives them quiet and peace in their Spirits c. to be absent and to hide his face from them when he with-holdeth these Influences God indeed doth never wholly forsake a living man for he must then die and return to his dust nor as to his Spiritual Influences doth he ever wholly withdraw himself from the Believer's Soul for then his Spiritual Life must be wholly extinguished the Union betwixt the Soul and Christ and his Spirit wholly dissolved but he oftentimes doth gradually withdraw himself this is what we call Desertion Take a Soul under these circumstances which enjoyeth not the presence of Christ with it as at other times this Soul at this time hath its Spikenard for the Seed of God abideth in it but alas it sendeth not forth the smell thereof at least not so as at other times the deserted Soul acts its Grace weakly falls under many corruptions and into many temptations It is like a Flower in Winter whose Root is kept in the Earth alive but it doth not bud and blossom as at other times It is true God at such a time loveth the Soul for whom he loveth he loveth to the end but many of its actions in this state are not so pleasing to him it crieth out I think upon him and I am troubled I am so troubled that I cannot speak I cannot pray I cannot sing praises c. Nor can its conversation be so sweet to men it walks dejectedly and troubled c. It is true Desertions are of several sorts and degrees and that Soul from whom God hideth himself as to consolatory Influences may yet enjoy his presence as to strengthening and quickening Influences but the actions of a deserted Soul so far as it is deserted are far from sending forth a pleasant smell These four things are sufficient to make good the Proposition viz. That the presence of Christ with and his supernatural Influences upon the Soul are highly necessary to the Spouse's Spikenard sending forth the smell thereof I come now to the Application Observe from hence in the first place how little room is left for any creature 's boasting and how just reason the best of Souls have to walk humbly before their God We are naturally proud and have hearts exceedingly prone to be lifted up above measure God knoweth our infirmity and hath so ordered the whole business of our Salvation that all boasting is excluded There are but two things as to our Spiritual concerns that we can boast or glory in The dignity of our state or the change of our hearts manifested in our holy dispositions or vertuous and pious actions As to the former God hath as the Apostle hath determined excluded boasting by the Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. Where is boasting then saith he he answereth himself It is excluded By what Law Of Works nay but by the Law of Faith Would any man glory that his Soul is in a state of righteousness and favour with God What reason is there for that if he be justified through Grace and righteous only through the imputed righteousness of another If he be only compleat in Christ all glorying of that Nature is excluded What is then left for a man to glory in will he glory in his habits of grace the renovation of his nature c. So indeed he might if this change had proceeded from himself if he had been born again of the will of man or of bloods but if it be of the will of God if it be of water and of the Spirit which worketh as a most free agent blowing where it listeth where is there any room for boasting Will he boast of his good acts If it be not he that liveth but Christ that liveth in him if all things which he doth be through Christ that strengtheneth him where is there any room for boasting God hath not left us a Feather to boast of Will a man boast that he hath a power to will what is spiritually good He boasts beyond his Line and of a Lye For it is God who giveth both to will and to do This is gratia operans working Grace it is working efficacious Grace that giveth man any spiritual power he cannot make his own Spikenard it is indeed his but ex dono of God's free gift But it may be when he hath it he can exercise it without any further assistance no as he must first receive the Spirit before he hath in him any thing
of the Lord Jesus and not an harlot I might have further added That the Soul that is so says so of noâ—e else 〈◊〉 and none but be shall lodg betwixt my breasts She is an harlot that speaks it in any sense less then exclusive If thou canâ—t truly say of the Lord Jesus Christ be shall lodge betwixt my breasts Thou also sayest He shall and none else shall not the sweetest lust I have nor the loveliest piece that the World can afford me not any thing contrary unto him nor any thing besides him That Earthly Object comes too nigh a Christian that comes between its breasts The heart is reserved for the Beloved Deal faithfully I beseech you with your own Souls the World is full of pretenders but I fear me exceeding thin of such as can say and say it in truth and say it cordially That Christ is he and he alone whom they desire should lodge and stay betwixt their breasts But enough for this Use I hasten to conclude Let us in the next place see what this Doctrine will afford us for the promoving our comfort or our holiness by way of Consolation or Exhortation and first for Consolation The term or Verb in the Text speaketh certainty but futuriety and the phrase denotes 1. The Spouse's leave 2. Desire 3. Confidence He shall lodge And thus considered to say nothing of the too Critical note that some make upon the term night as fignifying here a time of affliction in which Christ is an especial comfort to the Soul I say to say nothing of that because the word in the Text doth not necessarily imply a night yet the phrase thus considered the Text and Doctrine offer a great deal of refreshings to those appearingly forgotten Souls who cannot obtain the sensible abidings of Christ with them and are therefore ready to pronounce sadly against their Souls that God is not with them nor they with him As Gideon said If the Lord be with us why are we thus forgetting that God sometimes hideth himself even from the House of Jacob. Let such a Soul observe That the Spouse here doth not say He doth lie alwaies betwixt my breasts though it be true that Christ doth truly and constantly dwell in the heart of his Saints yet 't is often indiscernably to it but she saith He shall lie which imports 1. I will give him leave I will not drive him from my Soul my breasts shall be free and open to him 2. The Spouse's defire it is Vox cupientis 3. It speaks confidence it is Vox fidei the language of Faith which when it speaks properly alwaies speaks in the future tense for hope which is seen is no hope unless when it calls the things which are not in present fruition as if they were because of its being an evidence of things not seen Look as the true Wife is not â—lwaâ—es known by having her beloved Husband in her Arms but first By her readiness so to receive him Secondly By her desire of it as her happiness So is the true Believer not alwaies known by his or her sensible Enjoyments of the Lord Jesus Christ but by the openness of her heart to receive him 2. By the longing of the Soul after him 3. By the confidence of the Soul in him But lastly Oh that the same frame of spirit might be found in you even in every one of you who profess to have tasted how good the Lord is which was here found in the Spouse towards the Lord Jesus Christ that you would all say He shall lodge all night betwixt our breasts I but now told you it imported three things 1. Leave 2. Desire 3. Confidence 1. Lift up your heads O you gates stand ope you everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in Stand open O my Soul to the Lord Jesus Christ keep your hearts free to the entertainment of the Lord Jesus Christ 2. Make it the business of your desire and prayer 3. Be confident that he will make his abode with you These might be three distinct branches but I have not time to speak fully to each of them For the two first I have prevented my self as to the Arguments which I should use to urge them Consider what I spake to the third Question in the Explication how honourable a thing it is to you how sweet and pleasant how infinitely advantagious and profitable thereis only to be added a word of Direction Will the poor Soul say How should I procure the abidings of Christ with me I mean his abidings as to his gradual Influences For your direction I will only turn you to that one Text Joh. 14. 22. where you shall be resolved from our Saviour's own mouth If any man love me he will keep my words and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Christ is ready enough to stay where he finds love but it must be real love such as is joyned with keeping of his words Be expressive then of your love to Christ 1. By voiding from your heart whatever may be offensive to his Majesty 2. By heightening in your heart a great esteem of him 3. By doing whatsoever he commands you Do you abide with him in a way of duty and he shall abide with you in a way of mercy according to that of the Prophet in the Book of Chronicles to the King God is with you if you be with him but if you forsake him he will forsake you if you be incertain and unconstant with him he will be so with you as to the gradual Influences of his Love With the froward he will shew himself froward 2. I told you it is the Language of Faith He shall lie Faith is the sacred Instrument by which Christ is united to the Soul and it is that by which Communion with Christ is maintained and preserved According to a Christian's Faith it ordinarily is unto it as to Divine Dispensations Faith merits nothing of Christ but it applieth much Believe and the abidings of Christ shall be established upon your Souls but you must know that this Faith must not be a dead Faith but such as works by love Though Faith and Holiness must not be confounded yet unless as to Instrumental efficacy in Justification in the act of justifying they can never be separated But thus much shall serve for this Verse Sermon LVI Canticles 1. 14. My Beloved is unto me as a Cluster of Camphire in the Vineyards of Engedi IT is agreed on all hands that it is the Spouse which yet speaketh and the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we met with from her in the former verse is enough to prove it and to let us know that she is yet speaking concerning her beloved It is also as well agreed that what she saith in this verse amounts to little more then what she had said in the 13. v. Only she expresseth the same thing under a new resemblance but it is
further say that there is no portion of holy Writ so copiously as this expressing the infinite love and transcendent excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ None that more copiously instructs us what he will be to us or what we should be toward him and consequently none more worthy of the pains of any who desires to Preach Christ My Meditations upon the second Chapâ—â—r composed in my maturer years were published some years â—â—nce Those upon this Chapter have being done in my younger time staid till I could get some leisure to peruse them my self and correct some things in the stile especially our juvenile fancies seldom pleasing us in our maturer years You will I hope Madam pardon my Dedication of them to your Ladyship Your â—â—lf knows how great Obligations you have laid upon me I cannot answer them These are all the Requitals we can make our Friends for their kindnesses Silver and gold I have none but what I have I humbly present your Ladyship with nor shall I have been wholly unserviceable to your Ladyship in your highest concerns if any thing in these Discourses shall help further to inflame your Soul with love to him who is the chiefest of ten thousand and contribute to the sending of your Soul to Heaven in the admiration of your Beloved where you shall see him as he is whom these Discourses will but shew you as in a glass darkly Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen April 3. 1683. Your Ladiships most humble Servant JOHN COLLINGES TO THE READER SOme few years since I was prevailed with to publish some discourses upon the Second Chapter of this excellent Song I had then by me these upon the first Chapter but they being composed in my younger years I was desirous first to peruse them before I suffered them to come forth into the World since which time I have had so little rest that the perusal of them hath taken up much longer time than I then thought upon The publishing of my discourses upon the Second Chapter first obliged me to take something out of these discourses to make those as intelligible as I could concerning the Penman of the Book and the Nature form and stile of it which I have here restored to their due place with some advantage all those things falling in to the handling of the first verse I am not upon the persual of notes composed so many years since my self much pleased with the largeness of my discourses upon the five or six first verses occasioned from the variety of Propositions raised from them but there are couched in those verses some very great points and my consulting so many expositors as I did together with my proneness to suspect my own judgment rather then those whom I had reason to prefer before my self was the cause of that Nor did I think it much material if I saw a Proposition offered me by any valuable interpreter as feunded on one of those verses which I saw was a Proposition of truth and justifiable from other Scripture whether it were certainly there founded or no for he pretends to too much skill that will be too positive in giving the sense of a metaphor in this or that Text. It is enough for a modest Interpreter to give a probable sense of such expressions and to prove it from a plainer Revelation I hope thou wilt be so charitable to me as to think that I troubled not a Popular auditory with all that thou wilt find here in the opening of the several verses I bless God I was never so idle as to make up discourses to people of what I knew they did not understand What I found in my notes put in for my own Satisfaction I have let go not knowing but my book might fall into the hands of some Scholar who might be able to judge from what Satisfied me upon what grounds I formed such Propositions of truth as I did from the several verses so preparing the matter of more Popular and practical discourse I bless God I always looked upon the work of the ministry as the most grave and serious employment under Heaven whether the Minister speaks with reference to explication or application In the first he acts as an Interpreter making the words of the eternal God more plain and intelligible to the infirm capacityes of his people How great is that work to be the Lords Interpreter In the latter he acts as an Ambassador persuading and offering terms of peace between God and man and using all his art in intreating men to be reconciled to God Who is sufficient for these things As to the former we have no more accommodate means then searching the Original texts comparing the usage of words in one Text with the usage of them in others consulting Interpreters who have gone before us then using our own judgments as to what they have said or our own thoughts shall further suggest to us thou wilt discern that this is the method I have used and if in any thing I have been mistaken I have erred neither wilfully nor singly When I had examined the several verses my work was to raise Propositions from them so interpreted to open them to justify them to be divine truths from other places of plainer Revelation For my method and stile it is what I judged most accommodate to the end of my work No man discourseth to any length upon a subject without a method some use a Cryptick method which is only for their own conduct others a plainer method for the advantage of others the former may do well enough in the Schools where the end is only to raise some subitaneous affections I never thought it proper for the Pulpit where the Preachers end is or should be to inform his People in the great things of God and to affect their hearts and in order to it he is bound to speak with the best advantage both for their memories and understandings thou wilt find I have kept to the ordinary plain method of explication confirmation and application No man having drank old wine desireth new for he saith the old is better In the proof of Propositions I have rather studied the evidence of holy writ and Scriptural reason then other more incertain Topicks knowing it the duty of Ministers to take care that the faith of their people may not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God One plain Text of holy Writ more confirms a Proposition of Divine truth to an understanding Christian then an hundred rational arguments For my stile it was the least of my study my Opinion always was that what Augustine calls diligens negligentia was
Rocks of Pearl or ten thousand Rivers of Oil. But possibly some may say This is to plead my own merit I answer no for consider who it is that hath wrought in thy heart this value and esteem Is it not God Did flesh and blood reveal any such thing unto thee thou dost not then plead thy own merit thou only pleadest with God from what he hath already wrought and begun in thee 2. It is but the pleading of the promise which God hath made to them that love him and keep his Commandments 3. Neither dost thou plead thy esteem and value for the loves of Christ as meritorious as thinking that thy prizing the loves of Christ meriteth the further manifestations of them to thy Soul thou only pleadest it as a gracious habit wrought in thy Soul by which God hath fulfilled in thy Soul the condition of the promise thou only beggest of God that he who hath wrought in thy Soul that condition to which he hath annexed his promise would now fulfil also that promise to thy Soul which is annexed to that condition Thus I have finished the discourses I designed upon the first Petition of the Spouse as pressed by her first Argument Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth For thy Loves are better than Wine Sermon XIII Canticles 1. 3. Because of the savour of thy good Ointments Thy name is as an Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee I Proceed to the next Proposition which I at first observed from these words which I then largely opened Christ hath good Ointments which cast a savour my meaning is according to my former explication of the words That the Lord Jesus Christ is filled with the graces of the blessed Spirit which in themselves are as good Ointments and whose excellency is discerned by every true Believer by every Soul that is espoused to the Lord Jesus Christ to use the Apostles phrase I have espoused you to one Husband For a further discourse upon this Proposition let me first shew you 1. What I mean by Christs Grace and when I say he is full of the Graces of the holy Spirit 2. In what respects these graces are like to good Ointments 3. What particular graces of the Spirit are thus like to good Ointments 4. Whence it is that they are discerned and more effectually discerned by a gracious heart than another We read in the Psalmist that Christ was anointed mith the Oil of gladness above his fellows Heb. 1. 3. That he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10. 38. That phrase in the Epistle to the Hebrews borrowed out of Psal 45. as I shewed you is excellently interpreted by John God gave not the Spirit unto him by measure Joh. 3. 34. The Grace of God was said to be upon him Luk. 2. 40. and he is said to be full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Grace in Scripture as it relateth unto God is usually taken in one of these two senses 1. For the favour and free love of God by which a Person is accepted of God and so Grace is in St. Pauls Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and in his other Epistles opposed to works thus we are said to be justified by Grace saved by Grace In this sense it is also in Scripture applied to Creatures Esther obtained Grace that is favour in the sight of the King Esther 2. 17. and so in many other Texts Or 2dly it is taken For some holy and virtuous qualities and dispositions by which our Persons being first accepted in Christ we are acceptable unto God Thus it is said Joh. 1. 16. Of his fulness we have all received Grace for Grace thus Love is called a Grace 2 Cor. 8. 6. and in this sense the Apostle telleth the Corinthians God is able to make all Grace to abound to them 2 Cor. 8. 9. In this sense we are commanded to grow in Grace that is in holy virtuous dispositions or habits 2 Pet. 3. 18. It is expounded by 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your 〈◊〉 virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly-kindness charity The Grace of Christ is taken in a double sense 1. Subjectively For that free love and favour which is subjected in Christ and being in him as its Fountain floweth from him to cur Souls In this sense Christ is said to be sail of Grace and truth full of love free love towards his Peoples Souls and truly in this sense Grace comes by Jesus Christ for out of him God loveth no Soul In this sense the Apostle wisheth to the Romans Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ Take Grace in this sense Christ is the Subject of it and the medium by whom it floweth from the Eternal Father to the Children of men he himself was from Eternity beloved of God and that both necessarily and freely being his Fathers Son begotten from Eternity the Father loved him delighted in him and indeed in this sense Christ may be said to have been the object of Grace but he was not anointed with this in time he had it from before all times only as to the Grace of Vnion the humane Nature until Christ assumed it was not beloved of God Christ assuming it it became the object of this Grace 2. But secondly the Grace of Christ is also taken objectively for that Grace which was poured out on Christ as Mediator and this is either 1. The Grace of Vnion which is the free love of God assuming the humane nature into a personal union with the Divine Nature in which thing God put a great deal of dignity upon and shewed a great deal of love unto our Nature 2. The grace of Sanctification by which I understand not the same which the Children of God receive upon Regeneration when of unholy they are made holy of impure they are made pure of proud they are made humble c. But those holy dispositions and qualifications which were found in Christ considered as the Son of Man by vertue of the union of the Divine Nature with the Humane Nature and his anointing with the Holy Ghost not given by measure unto him by which he was not only acceptable to his Father as Mediator but he is also exceeding lovely to his Saints So that when I say Christ hath good Ointments abundance of Grace I understand 1. Abundance of free love which dwelt in him as God over all blessed for ever to be dispensed out according to the particular exigencies of all his Peoples Souls 2. Many gracious dispositions which eminently dwelling in the God-Head from all Eternity were also by the Spirit poured out upon the Humane Nature in his Incarnation These are here called by a Metaphor Ointments and good Ointments 1. Because by the communication of these from the Divine
of the Spirit necessary and that both as to the Souls first coming to God and further walking with God tho as to the latter the Soul being renewed and sanctâ—fied there be a far less influence necessary than as to the former yet even after sanctification the Apostle tells us that we are kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation and Christ tells his Disciples that without him they could do nothing Joh. 15. 3. And St. Paul saith 2 Gal. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God But indeed the great question is upon the first Arminians will grant special grace to believers but no more than common grace to all men in astate of unbelief Let us therefore first enquire 1. Whither there be not something of a divine power and influence necessary to cause any Soul to come to Christ beyond the Preaching of the Word and that common concurrence of the Spirit with the word Preached and all the suasions and arguments can be used by Ministers and of what nature this pâ—wer is We affirm it Jesuites and Arminians deny it let me shew you upon what arguments we assert it I shall not instance in all or the 4th part of what hath been or might be said only speak something to satisfy you remembring that I am now preaching a Sermon not writing a controversy 1. Those who assert that there needeth no such act of the divine power must necessarily make man a God to himself I mean the Author of the greatest Spiritual and Eternal good both in respect of action and fruition whatsoever is moved is moved from a living principle within self or from another Either man is moved to Christ as drawn by the Father or from a principle of life within himself I know they will say it is from his own power of willing now besides the multitude of Scriptures which this is opposed to Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in Trespasses and Sins Psal 110. 3. The People shall be a willing People in the day of thy Power Phil. 2. 13. For it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure I say besides these This opinion makes man the author of the greatest good to himself 1. In point of action it makes him the author of th se gracious acts and habits by which a Soul is made meet for the inheritance of the Saints of life repentance faith and new obedience expresly contrary to those Scriptures which tell us that it is given to us to believe Phil. 1. 29. That Faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. God gives repentance unto life and a multitude of other Scriptures 2. And in point of fruition too man by this Doctrine is his own Saviour for Eternal life is every where promised to repentanâ—e faith and new obedience which according to this principle are all works proceeding from our selves so man is become a Saviour to himself by this new Divinity and the author of the highest good to himself and hath nothing to bless God for but only making him a Man not a Beast for being indued with a reasonable Soul and living under the Gospel he hath a power of himself to repent to believe in Christ to do whatsoever Eternal life is promised to in the Gospel unless they will say he is beholden to God for the Covenant of Grace annexing eternal life to these performances and accepting sincerity instead of perfect obedience which yet leaves the regenerate Soul no more to bless God for than the vilest and most profane Sinner that liveth where the Gospel is preach'd for he also hath a reasonable Soul a will equal with others there is a covenant of grace equally established for Judas as well as Peter according to this Doctrine One is under the means of Grace and the common aids and assistances of the Spirit as well as the other for the good inclination of his will to accept the terms of the Gospel which the profane person hath not the regenerate Soul hath no body to thank but himself and to applaud himself for the principle of goodness of which it seems he is an author to himself Secondly This Doctrine leaves the Soul something to glory in before God The Apostle treating of Justification by faith in opposition to that of works argueth thus Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God The Proposition of that Text which alone in this case I will make use of is That God hath so ordered the causes in the Salvation of Man that man hath no cause of glorying before God to that purpose he speaks Rom. 3. 27. Where is boasting then it is excluded but admitting that there needed no power to change the heart but what is in mans will boasting is not excluded a man hath wherein to glory and that before God he shall say Lord it is true thou fixedst an eternal Covenant of Grace thou madest me a man thou gavest me the Gospel and the preaching of it but notwithstanding all that thou ever didst for me I might have gone to Hell as well as a thousand more for whom the same Covenant was made as well as me to whom thou gavest a Soul of the same species with mine the same Gospel the same Preaching the same common grace if I had not had a principle of goodness in my own will of which my self was the cause I had been damn'd notwithstanding all thou didst for me as many others shall be for whom thou didst as much as for me Is not here glorying before God Is boasting excluded by this Divinity The main parts here as to mans Salvation are given to a mans self For I pray observe a man cannot repent truly and believe and obey the Gospel and perish for ever now all these it seems a man may do from himself without any act of Divine power inabling him more than a reprobate to do them but he may have a common Covenant of Grace establish'd for him as well as others he may have a reasonable Soul he may have the Gospel preach'd to him and the common aids and assistances of the Spirit and yet perish for ever So as plainly all that necessarily brings Salvation makes the Soul meet for it and accompanieth it all this is from man nothing is from God but that notwithstanding which he might have perished for ever Thirdly This Doctrine most absurdly ascribes unequal vertues to Souls that are equal as to their species faculties and vertues All reasonable Souls are equal their faculties are the same their vertues and powers the same their Souls are under equal means motives aids assistances whence is it that one mans will is enclined to believe to receive Christ to obey his laws the others not Are not here inequal vertues ascribed to
hurt God denieth it because he would do us good and not hurt In this case if the Lord giveth us an heart content to be without the thing we ask he abundantly answereth our prayers and giveth us the general and true desire of our Souls God sometimes answereth our prayers by giving us idem the same thing which we ask but this he never doth but where he seeth it is for our good and that under our present circumstances sometimes he answereth us by giving us tantundem the value of the mercy though not the particular thing which we ask of God thus he answered Paul as to the thorn in his flesh and this is a real answer and with this every Child of God ought to be fully satisfied and contented But this is enough to have said to this point how Christians may know whether Gods time his set time to favour his Church or the Souls of his people is come a point of great concern in order to the satisfaction of Christians why they have not a present answer to their prayers to abate their dissatisfaction as to the inequal motions of Divine Providence in this answer of prayers 3. Lastly Something is necessary with reference to the manner of our prayers if we would so pray as to receive a present answer So two things are necessary 1. That we pray Believingly 2. Fervently 1. Believingly I opened this before under the first head and therefore shall say nothing to it here 2. Fervently That is that which alone I shall here speak to This is much mistaken if it be thought to lie in the vehemency of our tone and expression it lyeth much deeper in the intension of the mind and the Souls secret affection to and in the duty James tells us ch 5. v. 16. The effectual servent prayer of the righteous availeth much The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth operative and working and so working as it produceth the effect The Prophet speaking of God Isaiah 41. 4. useth this expression who hath wrought and done it the Septuagint translate the Hebrew word there by this word the Apostle useth it to express such a working as that by which God bringeth about his decrees Eph. 1. 11. Who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will and again he useth it to express the working of the Devil in wicked men whom he calleth Children of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. In the primitive times those who were acted by the Devil were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the great power and force which the evil Spirit put forth upon and shewed in those miserable creatures that were possessed Piscator upon the Text Jam. 5. 16. translates it Ardens the burning flaming prayer Beza translateth it Efficax the efficacious prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doubtless signifies that prayer which setteth the whole Soul on work There is a cold dead lazy prayer where the tongue only is set on work or only the tongue and the head or the fancy the one to invent and compose matter the other to utter it but neither of these is that fervent prayer which St. James speaketh of but that prayer which setteth the whole Soul in motion towards God where not only the fancy and imagination and understanding are imployed to invent and suggest matter the will to will it but the affections which indeed in a reasonable creature are but the motions of the will towards its object with the utmost intension to desire it to exercise an hope in God for it c. this is the fervent working prayer mentioned by St. James this prayer doth much with God Jacobs prayer was such a prayer Moses saith he wrestled with God until the morning he said unto God I will not let thee go until thou blessest me the Prophet expounds it Hosea 12. 4. He wept and made supplications unto him by this prayer he had power over the Angel and prevailed as it is there in the words immediately preceding yea and he had a present answer God blessed him before he parted with him as you read in his History Such a prayer was Daniels to which he received also a present answer Dan. 9. v. 3. I saith he set my face to the Lord God to seek by Prayer and Supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes such was Elijahs prayer 1 Kings 18. 42. The text saith He put his face betwixt his knees a posture signifying the great intension of his mind and spirit It is a praying with strong cries and groans which cannot be uttered which is the Apostles phrase Rom. 8. 26. This praying comes up to the first and great commandment Yhou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul and all thy strength This is like the drawing the arrow to the head which sendeth it with more force to the mark nor indeed is there a better sign of a sudden answer than when the Lord hath thus prepared the heart A man seldom finds his Soul more then ordinarily fervent and importunate with God for a mercy but when the Lord hath determined suddenly to give it in to him Thus now I have shewed you in what cases God ordinarily gives in speedy answers to his peoples prayer But God doth not do this alwaies David himself complaineth Psal 22. 2. O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent The Church crieth out Psal 80. 4. O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry with the prayers of thy people And again he shutteth out my prayer Lam. 3. 8. What should be the reason of these inequal dispensations from the hand of the same God and gracious Father I answer 1 Why may not God do it that we may not track him in his ways He will be known to be a free agent He will sometimes give present answer that his people may be confirmed in their faith that God is a God hearing prayer The God that never said to the seed of Jacob seek my face in vain he will not alwaies give a present answer that we may not ascribe too much unto prayer nor will he alwaies delay that we may not ascribe too little to it If God should alwaies give a present answer we should ascribe too much to prayer and make an idol of a duty That the Lord might secure his own glory and be owned as the God of our mercies the object of our faith and dependence the free fountain of all our good things God is pleased sometimes sooner sometimes later to give in answer to his peoples prayer 2. But there may be reason enough for it fetched from the prayers themselves One prayer may be made more in faith than another more fervent than another more fitted to Gods set time for the bestowing of a mercy than another it is true nothing of these can render the prayer more meritorious our prayers take them at the best are too
Souls beautiful by prescription of good works not flowing from a true faith in Jesus Christ indeed the truely beautiful Soul will maintain good works for necessary uses and not be seen in any part of the world or in any station in it but clothed with them the Kings Daughter though all glorious within yet must have her garments also smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia but these are not her onely beauty in the Eyes of her beloved she still cries out O Lord my righteousness is all as a menstruous cloth as an unclean thing I am altogether in my self as a filthy and unclean thing 4. The beauty of the Child of God is not onely Adherent but also Inherent Justification is his beauty this I call adherent he is in a state of favour with God hath a right to be called his Child Regener at ion is his inherent beauty and makes not onely a change in his state but in his nature and temper Justification maketh an alteration in the Souls state and relation to God before that it was an enemy now a Child it cannot be properly said to be any thing inherent in us rather adherent to us without it the Soul cannot be comely in the Eyes of Christ those who in Johns vision were seen clothed in white were such as were washed in the blood of the lamb Let the Vertues of mens Souls be never so eminent their actions never so splendid yet while they are not justified they cannot be fair in the Eyes of Christ who judgeth not according to the outward appearance but according to the heart But yet this is not all the Spouse's beauty In the same moment wherein by justifying the sinner God maketh a change in his state he also maketh a change in his heart this cannot be alone neither is it causative of the other Those are wonderfully vain that charge us with asserting that God can be pleased with an unholy Soul or that any such Soul is fair and lovely in the Eyes of that God who is of purer Eyes then that he can behold any iniquity This is what Protestants do affirm That God reckoneth the righteousness or comeliness of Christ unto to the Soul and so makes us comely and in the same moment gives his Spirit to it to renew sanctifie it and dwell in it that both these make up the Spiritual beauty comeliness but God doth not accept our Persons upon the latter but upon the former account yet we say This conformity of the heart to the will of God wrought by regeneration is a great part of the Souls comliness Thou hast saith Christ ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished mine heart with one of the Chains about thy neck Cant. 4. 9. This we also further say That although this inherent beauty be not that for which Christ accepteth the Person of a Child of God yet God is well pleased with it and it doth much increase Gods manifestative love towards a Person John 14. 21. 5. Fifthly The beauty of the Child of God is a desirable beauty desirable to God Indeed all beauty is desirable this is to God desirable You must understand it safely All desire in the creature speaketh some want and indigences in God it only speaks complacence Psal 45. 4. So shall the King desire thy beauty the meaning is no more then be well pleased with thy Beauty God is well pleased with their Souls and his will moveth toward them and the enjoyment of them not to fill up any vacuity or emptiness in himself but to fill up their emptinesses with the sulness of himself who filleth all in all Thus the Schoolmen say truly That though the creature works and moves to supply his own indigence yet God never moveth nor worketh but to communicate his own perfection and fulness 6. The beauty of the Child of God is a never fading beauty Corporeal beauty is vain age sickness contagious diseases many accidents either greatly abate or destroy this This Spiritual beauty though it may abate yet shall never sail It is one of Gods gifts to the Soul which are without repentance It is caused from the seed of God which abideth in the Soul The appearance of it to the world may abate but its beauty cannot wholly fail and perish It is as the air of the Soul resulting from its state of Justification which altereth not and from the infused habits of Regeneration which cannot dye 7. Lastly It is not apersect beauty The adherent beauty of Gods People is perfect the Soul that is justifyed from the guilt of one sin is justifyed from the guilt of all sins God never forgives in part if we understand by forgiving remitting the obligation sin layeth us under to Eternal death But the inherent beauty of the Children of God is imperfect we know in part and love in part sincerity is all we can glory in all our perfection as to that The habits of grace infused in Regeneration are capable of increase and augmentation nor will any be perfect in them till he comes to dye No nor then neither for though the actings of some grace proportioned to our indigent mortal state will then cease and so in that sense may be said to be perfected yet Love and delight in God habits of Grace which we shall carry with us into and exercise in another world shall be made perfect there But in the exercises of our habits of grace the best of Gods People are much more imperfect laying many a black parch upon a fair face which the pure God seeth and can distinguish from Beauty spots Though for them he will not cast his people off Thus far I have shewed you the nature of the Spouses beauty I shall now shew you whence it is that such a Soul in the Eyes of Christ is the fairest amongst Women This will appear but reasonable if we consider That their beauty is Christs workmanship I told you before that it is not an artificial beauty nor natural but created and superinduced upon the Soul The holy Scripture calls man Gods Generation Acts 17. 29. and borroweth the expression from an Heathen Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they saw that by the light of Nature The Apostle tells us Eph. 2. 10. That we are Gods workmanship created to good works which God had before ordained that we should walk in them God had ordained it Christ wrought it Whatsoever of good a Child of God hath in him it is all from God he is begotten of God John 1. 13. We are created by him to good works and he worketh in us to will and do Are we justified and is that any part of our beauty We are justifyed by his grace washed in his blood Except I wash you saith Christ you have no part in me It is natural to us all to account any thing best and fairest to which our selves have contributed any thing as a cause The Father and Mother value
their own Child above any others The man of art takes most delight in his own workmanship God can do nothing but what is truly and highly good and he cannot but be most pleased in his own work 2. Secondly The beauty of the Child of God is Christs beauty and lyeth in the Souls assimilation or being made like unto Christ Is he justifyed It is by the imputation of his righteousness Is he regenerated It is through his Spirit and by his regeneration the image of God and Christ is renewed in him in Knowledge righteousness and holiness the like mind is in him that was in Christ Likeness is the Mother of Love and all Love floweth from some likeness or conceived likeness in the object beloved Christ cannot but love that Soul that is made partaker of the Divine nature renewed according to his image made like unto himself The believer was predestinated to be conform to the Image of the Son by Faith Regeneration he is made conform renewed according to the image of God according to the Apostles phrase If Jacob knew his sons coat again and the sight of it was enough to set the Fathers bowels on yerning Christ will doubtless know his own robes and cannot but account that Soul most beautiful that is adorned with dressed in them This in the first place may serve to convince us of the truth of what John tells us 1. John 5. 19. That the whole world lyeth in wickedness For these Souls whom Christ judgeth and calleth the fairest amongst Women The most lovely and beautiful Souls are those who in the Eyes of the generality in the world are counted the most unlovely despicable and contemptible Persons in nature in so much that Godly men and women may take up the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 9. concerning himself and those of his own order 1 Cor. 4. 9. We think that God hath set as forth as it were appointed unto death for we are made a spectacle to the world to angels and to men We are fools for Christs sake profane leud men they are wise we are weak they are strong they are honourable we are despised the People of God in the present age in all former ages are they who hunger and thirst who are naked and buffeted and have no certain dwelling place yet they labour working with their hands being reviled they bless being persecuted they suffer it being defamed they intreat yet are they made as the filth of the world as the off-scouring of all Nations even to this day Thus it was under the Old Testament the prophet complained in his time Isa 59. 15. That truth failed and he who departed from evil made himself a prey but he addeth and the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no judgment It was so under the New Testament who was more despised and rejected of men then Christ Who was more reviled contemned abused both in words and deeds then John the Baptist Christ and his blessed Apostles and all the Primitive Christians Christ foretold his disciples that the world should hate them that they should speak of them all manner of Evil persecute them turn them out of their Synagogues c. It is so in our times if there be in any places Persons fearing God and working righteousness Persons that make a conscience of their waies that fear an Oath that durst not drink and swear and curse and blaspheme the living God as others do that make conscience of their worshipping God and are a little more strict and frequent in it then others are These are the Persons against whom the world spits all their venom against whom their hands are lifted up men may meet together to drink and revel to hear leud and profane Songs and Plays but not to pray not to consider and exhort one another to love and to good works what is this an Evidence of but that the world lyeth in wickedness Christ judgeth pious Souls the fairest Souls these are they sor whom he died Whom he calls his Sister his Spouse the fairest Souls in the creation these are those Souls whom the World sets up as marks to shoot all their invenomed arrows bitter words against to offer all affronts and indignities unto Shall not the Lord visit for these things Shall he not be avenged on such a generation Shall a gallant in the World draw his Sword upon the man that affronts his Paramour or Mistress a wanton Woman that he hath espoused or to whom his heart cleaveth and shall the Lord bear these affronts these injuries offered to Souls that are more precious in the Eyes of their Lord then all the world is beside Hear what the Lord said by his prophet as to that antient People of his Isa 43. 2 3. I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour I gave Egypt for thy ransom Ethiopia and Seba for thee Since thou wert pretious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and People for thy life Was this spoken for the Jews only think we or did this concern the profane part of the Jews or those only that feared the Lord walked in his commandments and worshiped him in Spirit and in truth That it was not to be understood with reference to or upon the account of the leud and profane part of the Jewish Nation is evident by Gods declared detestation of them by the same prophet and by others of his Prophets If it were spoken with reference to such as feared God and walked in his commandments and kept close to the rule of Worship which he had given them it holds good still to all Souls that fall under that Character They are precious in Gods fight honourable he hath loved them the holy one of Israel is their Saviour and the worlds hatred of them profane mens reviling contemning abusing them is but a continued Evidence that the world knoweth them not and speaketh evil of and doth evil to things and Persons they know not Or that it lieth in wickedness in a vile and wicked Error of judgment judging those vile and base whom God judgeth precious and honourable and those worthy of hatred whom he loveth though the Lord may for a time suffer his good righteous Servants to be thus reviled thus treated thus abused by leud and ungodly men for the trial of their faith and for the exercise of their patience and that some of the blood of his Saints may be poured into the cup of wicked mens sins that the cup of their iniquities may be full and they may fill up their measures of sinning That upon them may come all the righteous blood of his People which hath been shed yet be assured the Lord will not suffer it alwaies but awake as one out of sleep plead the cause of his People and give Egypt for their ransom and Ethiopia and Seba
Christ having both a fellowship with the death of Christ in dying to sin and with the life of Christ in living unto newness of life Upon these accounts and these only is the Believing Soul fair in the Eyes of Christ Before I part with this Observation Let every gracious Soul make a stand upon it and consider what it affords him for Consolation while he looks over his Soul and sees it full of spots and taking a review of his life he can find no ground of hope to his Soul that Christ should cast an Eye of love and pity upon him he sees there 's no proportion between his duties or any actions of his conversation and the holy Law of God Well yet the comfort lies here that the Lord hath not said Blessed is the man that hath no sin for who liveth and sinneth not against God but Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered and to whom the Lord imputeth no sin Psal 32. 1. If we once lose this great Truth of the Justification of a poor Soul by the Righteousness of Christ we have cut up a Bridge which we shall see a need of to go over as often as we enter into any serious thoughts of our own state the weight of all our Souls and all the comfort of them hangs upon this one pin That what the law could not do because it was weak through our flesh that God hath done sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for fin condemning fin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us We have lost all that day that we forsake that desire of St. Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the law but that which is of God Even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ But you will say How shall we know that Christ hath thus loved us That must be known by our loving him and so the matter will return to the same point We freely grant that our Justification is to be evidenced for our Sanctification and that even the witness of Gods Spirit is not a single but a joint Testimony together with our Spirits But yet there is a great difference as to Christians comfort in these things That Soul that looks to be made fair with his own works if he rightly understand himself shall never be Satisfied concerning his Spiritual beauty because his works must necessarily be compleatly perfect otherwise the law accuseth and curseth him But he who acknowledgeth that his beauty is meerly from grace freely justifying but yet his receiving of this grace is to be evidenced by his works stands concerned no further to enquire concerning the perfection of his works in order to this end then only to see if they be perfect according to Gospel allowances not according to lawstrictness And such are the Gospel terms that if there be a willing mind a presence to will a delight in the Law of God as to the inward man it is accepted of God Here 's a bottom for him I proceed to the 4th Circumstance which I observed relating to the first Proposition of the Text and that was the term Behold which is prefixed Behold thou art fair and doubled Behold Behold There is a threefold use of this particle in Scripture it denotes 1. presence of a thing 2. Certainty 3. Eminency It may in this Text denote all three 1. It may denote the present state of a believing Soul to be a beautiful state Behold thou art fair now in this life while thou art black with infirmities and corruptions black through afflictions and temptations yet even now thou art fair 1 Joh 3. 2. Beloved Now we are the Sons of God It doth not yet appear what we shall be This particle is often thus used in holy Writ Gen. 29. 2 25. and it is capable enough of this sense in this Text. Behold thou art fair thou shalt not only be hereafter beautiful when the Crown of glory shall be set upon thy head but thou art now beautiful thou doest not apprehend thy self so thou art bewailing thy spots and thy infirmities but I look upon thee as fair with all thy spots I look upon thee as beautiful even now 2. It denotes the certainty of a thing Behold is a particle of Demonstration and is often so used in Scripture There is nothing more certain then what we can behold Thus the particle is used Gen. 16. 2. Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing they are the words of Sarah that is the Lord hath certainly restrained me see Gen. 18. 27. The believing Soul is certainly a beauteous Soul The Beauty of that Soul which truly believes in Jesus Christ is not an imaginary thing it is a true and real thing it is a certainty's Behold thou art fair c. 3. Lastly this particle Behold doth very often denote eminency and excellency When something is wonderful in Nature or otherwise the Scripture useth to make mention of it by prefixing this particle Behold to it So James 3. 3 4. It is a wonderful thing that the strength of an Horse should be ruled by a bit and that so great a bulk as a ship driven about with fierce winds should be turned about with a very small helm and thus it is a very often used in Scripture and it may have that use here Behold thou art fair My Love Behold thou art fair and so it may hint to us these two things 1. That the beauty of a believer is no ordinary beauty but a rare and eminent beauty not like the beauty of Woman not like that vain thing which we call beauty in a natural fense which is only the object of the lust of the Eye no it is a Spiritual beauty which age will not deface diseases will not spoil no outward accidents will hurt a beauty that is not exposed to wind and weather The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and yet so great is her glory that the King of Kings desires her beauty Or secondly it may denote this 2. That it is a wonderful thing that Christ should account a Child of Adam a poor believing Soul beauteous When David considered the Heavens and the Earth he cries out What is man O Lord that thou shouldest remember him or the Son of man that thou shouldest be mindful of him It is a matter of high admiration to any ingenuous Soul to sit down and think that Jesus Christ should account it beautiful But I hasten to the last Circumstance I observed to you that the phrase is doubled Christ doth not only say thou art fair my Love but he doubles the phrase Thou art fair thou art fair There is doubtless nothing superfluous in holy Writ though possibly there may be something both in the matter and stile of which we can give no Satisfactory account almost in all languages these repetitions and