humiliation before it be brought home to Christ The Soul being enlightned by the Spirit of Grace seeth the vileness and filthiness of its own heart to that degree that it is ashamed and thinks that it cannot abase itself enough in the sight of God and from this disposition of the Soul to abhor loath and shame itself proceedeth this freedom willingness in the Soul upon all occasions with respect had to Christian prudence to vilify itself by the confession of its own blackness and infirmity 2. It proceedeth also from the habit of humility given to and wrought in the heart of every believer this is one of the perfections of the new Creature it differeth from the other little more then as the dâ—sposition from the habit This teacheth the Soul at all times a mean and low opinion of itself The Hypocrite is alwaies proud and looks upon all his gifts and good actions with a multiplying glass which makes them appear more then they are and greater then they are The humble Soul looks upon all as less In me saith Paul there dwelleth no good thing Hence he can hardly be heard to say any thing but in diminution and defamation of himself 3. It proceeds also from this Souls more perfect understanding the mark of perfection He knoweth better then another what God requires of him what degrees of faith love zeal holiness this makes him a better judge of his own imperfections and more ready to confess and bewail them The Hypocrite and natural man understandeth not the breadth of the Divine Law what faith what holiness God requireth of him he is proud knowing nothing as the Apostle speaks of some 1 Tim. 6. 4. not only his Pride prompting him to exalt himself but his ignorance knowing nothing as he ought to know it is the cause of his want of freedom to this duty It is with such a man as it is with a Sophister in the University A little knowledge that he hath puffeth him up he thinks he knows all things But when he comes to be Master of Arts to have lookt into Books a little more and to understand the compass of learning a little better then he complains of his ignorance and the small portion of knowledge which he hath So the man that hath but a mean and imperfect knowledge of the will of God he is proud and thinketh he knoweth all things but when God comes to open his Eyes and to let him see the mysteries of Divine knowledge he seeth more duty then he saw before and consequently more sin and more defects in his own Soul There is a vast difference betwixt that knowledge of duty sin which is in the heart of a Child of God under the illumination of the Spirit of Grace and that which is in a Soul not under that special illumination 4. Again a Christians often compuring himself with others and judging himself by their measures is often a great cause of this The natural man ordinarily chuseth companions like unto himself and judgeth of himself by their measures seeing himself as the Pharisee Luk. 18. to exceed the Drunkard in temperance and sobriety The Extortioner in justice and mercy the Adulterer in chastity The Atheist in a formality of dutiness a form of godliness he seeth no blackness in himself to confess he is Captain of his Form But now the converted Soul being come to be a companion of those that fear the Lord he sets before himself the examples of the Saints of God in Holy Writ and of those that are yet in the world that excel in virtue In the Scripture he reads of the faith of holy Abraham who believed in hope against hope not staggering at the promise through unbelies the patience of Job who when he had lost all his Estate all his Children yet did not speak inadvisedly with his lips nor charge God foolishly he reads of Davids exceeding love and delight for and in the law of the Lord. When he looks amongst his new Companions he sees in one Christian more tenderness of heart in another more faith in a third more zeal and activity for God then he can find in himself hence he cryeth out of his blackness and bewaileth his coming so short of others 5. Again he liveth in a daily sense of his wants and defects My sin saith David is ever before me and so his tongue doth but express the inward sense and apprehensions of his Soul 6. Lastly as all such Souls will be sensible of their defects and wants so they are continually desirous of an healing of their wounds and a Supply and relief Which they know confession is the way to obtain As for confession unto God the Wise man hath told us Prov. 28 13. That he that covereth his sins shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy David telleth us Psal 32. 3. That when he kept silence his bones waxed old through his roaring all the day For saith he Day and night thine hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer What remedy did he find v. 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee I said I will confess my trangressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my Sin Nor was this a particular favour to David but what others may expect upon the like application to God v. 6. For this shall every one that is Godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him A Godly man knoweth that as the hiding of his disease from the Physician and his wounds from the Chirurgeon is not the way to be cured or healed so neither is the hiding of the nakedness of his Soul fâ—om God the way to have it covered for altho in this there be a difference that our spiritual Physician knoweth our diseases without our discovery of them to him which the earthly Physician doth not yet God notwithstanding his knowledge requiring our acknowledgment makes the case the same And the reason is much the same for the confessing of our sins especially in some cases to a faithful Minister or to private Christians God sent Abraham to Abimelech Gen. 20. 7. For faith he he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee thou shalt live Genesâ— 20. v. 7 and he sent Jobs friend to Job Job 42. v. 7. and saith he my servant Job shall pray for you for him I will accept This in the first place lets us see the difference between a Child of God and one who is but a formal hypocrite An hypocrite generally seeth nothing but whiteness in himself Jehu can see and call Jonadab to see his zeal for the Lord God but he can see nothing of his own self ends in all that he did The Church of Laodicea said I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing tho at the same time she was wretched
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
is this Thou believing Soul who in my Eyes art more beautiful and lovely then any other Soul in the world if thou beest in any thing ignorant of my will and where to meet me and how to enjoy fellowship and communion with me do not stray from the rule of my word nor vary from the examples of those whom I gave for Shepherds to my People keep close to them to their Doctrine and to my Ordinances administred by them There thou shalt find me There I rest at noon These two verses thus opened afford us several Propositions of Doctrine as matter of further discourse Prop. 1. Christ is he and only he whom the believing Soul loveth Prop. 2. Though there may be a time when such a Soul may conceal and disown its love to Christ yet there will be a time when it will break forth and she will acknowledge it Prop. 3. A gracious Soul desireth nothing more then a quiet full and sweet communion with Christ Prop. 4. Christ hath shades where he resteth and feedeth his flock under the greatest and most scorching Afflictions Prop. 5. Though a pious Soul never slighteth a communion with Christ yet she never prizeth it at an higher rate then in an hour of greatest trials and temptations Prop. 6. Gods People will especially in times of trial and great temptation be prone to fall into sin and error to the scandal of their profession Prop. 7. Sin and Scandal are the two great things which a gracious Soulfears Prop. 8. The Believing Soul is of all other Souls the most beautiful in Christs Eyes Prop. 9. The Beauty of this Soul is not perfect it may in some things be ignorant Prop. 10. The surest way for a Soul to get a perfect instruction in the things that concern its spiritual good and to keep and to enjoy communion with Christ is to feed its self by the Tents of Christs Shepherds and to live according to the examples and directions of his holy Servants recorded in Holy Writ I begin with the first of which I shall speak but briefly Prop. 1. Jesus Christ is he whom the Soul loveth with a singular love I put in the term singular because as I told you the phrase imports it Love is nothing else but the adhaesion or cleaving of the Soul to an object out of a goodness and suitableness which it hath discerned in it with a complacency which the Soul taketh in it which is such as if the Soul wants it it desires it if it enjoyeth it it is glad and rejoyceth in it which being first considered it followeth that look how many objects as there are that have in them any goodness or suitableness to our state so many objects of our love there are in the world And 2. That look how much goodness and suitableness to us we apprehend in one object more than in another so much we love one thing more than another or one person more than another 2. There is also a love that floweth from Union and Relation of which we are not able to give a perfect account the Parent loves the Child and the Husband loves the Wife and the Wife the Husband not alwaies out of Judgment The Husband discerning in the Wife a suitableness to him is not alwaies the cause of love Nor is the Child's love to the Mother or Father alwaies rational flowing from an apprehension of the suitableness of the Parent to it but rather from an impetus of nature an unaccountable complacency in those whom God hath made correlates caused by the God of Nature who hath made them one flesh who so deliberately considereth this will easily understand a double reason of the Believers Love to Christ 1. The first is That Union which is betwixt the believing Soul and the Lord Jesus Christ which is wrought by Faith this produceth this second Union which is that of Love By Faith Christ is united to the Soul and becometh a member of his body and that is followed by this Union of Love The Soul in the same hour wherein it is united by Faith to Christ being taught of God to love the Lord Jesus Christ It 's a piece of its Regeneration which continually followeth Justification and is indeed coaevous with it so that as in the natural Union the same day the man becomes a Father or the Woman a Mother there is a new Emanation of affection and love the Man or Woman that before knew nothing of the heart of a Parent now begins to feel it and in the moral Union betwixt the Husband and Wife the same day that they are married to each other there floweth a reciprocal Affection each to other so as they then begin to know the heart of an Husband and a Wife of which they knew little or nothing before So it is upon the Spiritual Union as the God of Nature influenceth the Souls of persons whom he hath given one to another in natural and moral Relations ordinarily for a reciprocal usefulness one to another So the God of Grace influenceth the Soul put into a spiritual Relation to Christ That the Believer upon his Union with Christ doth find his heart cleaving to and taking a complacency in the Lord Jesus Christ and begins thus to know the heart of a Believer And look as it is in the moral Relation betwixt the Wife and the Husband though the Man may have heard such reports of the virtues and excellencies of the Woman before he hath married her as hath inforced from him a complacency in her yet this bears no proportion to that delight and complacency he taketh in her when she is once married to him So although a Soul upon the large discourses he hath heard of Christ and of his love to Mankind and what he hath done and is ready to do for the Souls of men may have some good thoughts of him and some kind of complacency in his thoughts of him yet there is a vast difference betwixt this and that complacency which the Soul taketh in Christ when it is once by Faith united to him and amongst other habits of grace hath that of Love to God infused into his Soul according to that Rom. 5. 5. The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us I know there is a Dispute raised by some whether the natural man's love to God differeth from the Believer's love to God specifically or only gradually I do not think that these spiritual habits fall under those logical measures I am sure it is a love flowing quite from another cause The natural man's love is no more than a natural Plant cultivated by reason the other 's is a fruit of the Spirit so as they differ further than gradually but whether we should call it specifically or no or want a Logical term to express the difference I shall not think it worth my time to enquire 2. A second Reason of the Believer's love and so
more strict and close walking with God Let this ingage us to perfect holivess in the fear of the Lord. Study therefore the closest degrees of fellowship and communion with God the strictest course of an holy conversation There is a great deal of difference even in good mens communion with God some are more upon the mountwith God then others are more in holy meditation and contemplation more in secret duties more in prayer more in watchfulness more warm and zealous for God David had many worthies but he had a first three to which the others did not come up though they did worthily God hath many Souls that he loveth that are dear and precious in his Eyes but he hath also his first threes some that excel and out-run others these are they that have most of Gods Ear for tho the first grace be not given because men keep his Commandments yet further grace the manifestations and signal tokens of Divine love are given out according to the promise Jo. 14. 21. as men love and keep the Commandments of God you therefore that would excel in the favour of God that would have Gods ear fully and presently open to your supplications study to excel in holiness Doth a poor Courtier in the Courts of Earthly Princes bless himself in having the Ear of his Prince that if he hath a Petition to put up unto his Prince he can go immediately into his presence and have his Petition presently signed whereas the Petitions of others are rejected or at least deferred so as he is constrained to wait months or years And is this no priviledge no happiness at all that a poor Soul can immediately go unto the Lord of Heaven and Earth to him who is the Fountain of all grace and goodness and if he wants any thing freely present his Petition to him and have it signed presently not let the Lord go until he hath blessed him when as a wicked man tho he maketh many prayers yet is not heard yea those that may have some interest in God yet walking more loosely and more imperfectly may cry a long time and yet not be answered if we had nothing more then this to commend to us holiness in all manner of conversation and the strictest degrees of walking with God yet this certainly should be enough I shall add but one word more in application of this discourse I put into the Proposition the term sometimes God doth not alwaies but sometimes give in a quick answer to his peoples prayers Let not the people of God therefore think it strange if they have not presently an answer to their prayers God is not alwaies alike quick in his returns to the prayers of his people He always heareth them he will be certain to answer them but he is not alwaies equally quick in the answer of them This is many times the trouble of Souls that belong to God it was Davids trouble expressed Psal 22. 2 3. It was Asaphs trouble though God did at last hear him as you read v. 1. yet he had first spake as in v. 7. 8 9. Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever Doth his promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies yet because the not hearing of prayers is threatned as a judgment and punishment upon wicked men and mentioned in holy writ as the reward of mens regarding iniquity in their hearts This often causeth a great deal of trouble in the Spirits of Gods People Let me therefore shut up this discourse in advising alittle what that man or woman should do that lieth at least under some apprehensions that God doth not hear or hath not heard their prayers they cry in the day time and are not silent in the night season yet God heareth not 1. In the first place Let such a Christian examine whether it be not his own mistake Thou thinkest God hath not heard nor answered thy prayers art thou not in a mistake All answers of prayers are not discernable to our sense It may be God hath answered thee by denying thee the particular thing that thou askedst of him thus he answered Paul by denying him as to the thing he asked which was the taking the thorn out of his flesh He better knoweth what we have need of then we our selves know it the general desire of thy Soul was for some good thou didst therefore desire health riches c. because thou didst apprehend them suitable and convenient and so good for thee God who knoweth thy Soul the frame and temper of it he seeth that these things would be for thy hurt he therefore with-holdeth them and so in not answering answereth thee in not answering thy particular request he doth answer the general desire of thy Soul and only correcteth thy ignorance in thy request 2. You have heard that God sometimes answereth by giving though not the thing yet the value of the thing which thou askest i. e. that which is every way as sutable and convenient and as profitable for thee as that which thou didst desire Hath not God according to thy prayer removed thy affliction yet hath he supported thee under it hath he filled thee with inward consolations hath he told thee as he did Paul that his grace should be sufficient for thee Dost thou call this no answer God answers the prayer of that Soul to whom he giveth the full value of the thing it asketh though he doth not give the thing itself 2. If thou canst not find that God hath answered thee neither in kind nor in value Review thy prayer and see if thou canst not find some failure in that for which God with-holds his answer I suppose thee a person reconciled to God through the blood of Christ other Souls either pray not at all or if at all they make a meer formality of the duty and put up prayers as Children shoot arrows never regarding whither they flie or what becometh of them but even in a good mans prayer there may be such failures as may give God a just cause to with-hold an answer without any breach of Gods truth or faithfulness thou mayest not have prayed in faith but too much doubting thou mayest have prayed for something which thy wise Father saw was not good for thee or at least not good for thee under some present circumstances under which thou art if thou findest any thing of this nature thy work is to correct thy prayers if thou wouldst receive an answer 3. If thou dost not find this if thou canst not charge thy want of an answer upon some defect or failure in thy prayers nor yet find that God hath answered thee either giving thee the thing which thou didst ask of him or the value of it in a quiet and contented frame of Spirit in the want of it or in the supportations or consolations of
climb up those steps which God hath made for us by which we may ascend into these Chambers we must blame our selves if we abide below But this is not alwaies the cause in some cases we must have recourse to Gods prerogative and must rest in this Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee Some Souls are dignified with a special communion and familiarity with God so was Abraham Moses David yet possibly if we look into the records we have of their lives we shall find more blots in some of them then in some others who we do not read were taken up into such eminent degrees of favour We cannot give just reasons and accounts of all Gods acts of Grace it is enough that God wills them In the mean time if we find but a good hope through grace an heart changed and cleaving to God if we can say with Peter Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that we love thee though we cannot boast of such special providences as others nor of such visions of peace nor of so quick an hearing of our prayers tho we dare not pretend to be such favourites of Heaven yet let us not be discouraged possibly as to us the Lords time is not yet come possibly it never will come God is a great Soveraign and unquestionably free as to these things he knows what is best for us he will deny no good thing to us We may say of the whole Family of God as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons 1 Kings 10. 8. Happy are thy Men happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and heaá¹™ thy wisdom There are some of Gods Servants that as to these enjoyments are more happy then others but there are none but are happy none but have reason for ever to admire the difference which God hath made betwixt them and others to admire what God hath done for their Souls bringing them out of the horrible Pit if they have not if they cannot see reason to rejoice in such a prospect of Heaven as othershave yet they have reason to rejoice in an equal deliverance from Hell I will shut up this discourse with two words of exhortation 1. The first directed to those who can say with the Spouse The King hath brought us into his Chambers 2. The second to those who walk with God but have not yet arrived at this Are there any who can speak the language of the Spouse and glory in this not only that they are brought home to Christ but that the King hath brought them into his Chambers the Lord hath dignified them with some special favours and manifested himself more to them then unto others the following words of this Text will let them know what is their duty I will saith the Spouse be glad and rejoice in thee and remember thy loves more then Wine 1. Be glad and rejoice in God we are often called to for this rejoycing in the Lord Psal 33. 1. Psal 97. 12. Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. and in many other Texts Such is the portion of Gods Children such their state and condition that they have a continual cause of rejoycing and giving of thanks be they under what circumstances they can there is ground enough for them in all things to give thanks but they are more eminently obliged to it when they are under the highest manifestations of Divine Love This rejoycing in the Lord is I conceive opposed both to a carnal joy in sensual objects and also to a rejoycing meerly in that ease and satisfaction which the good thing giveth us for which we rejoice As now suppose a rich man giveth a poor man 20 s. it is one thing for the poor man to rejoice in the gift as suited to to â—his necessitous circumstances another thing to rejoice in the love and favour of the giver This is now the duty of the spiritual man he ought not only under the manifestations of divine love to rejoyce in the Lord more then in all the world and all the affluences and contentments of it which is expressed in the next phrase we will remember thy loves more then Wine and is commensurate to what David saith Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me for thou shalt thereby make my heart more glad then in the day when their Corn and Wine increased I say this is not enough for a Soul thus dignified he ought more to rejoice in the favour of God shewed him in these specialties of his favour then in the ease and satiâ—faction which the mercy received giveth unto his Soul And herein lieth the purity of the spiritual mans joy nor is his joy genuine and perfect till it come to this pitch 2. The second phrase in the Text expressive of this dignified Souls duty is We will remember thy loves more then Wine The term remember is taken in Scripture in a great latitude and expressive both of all that affection which is due to the remembrance of the object and of all that practical duty which is consequent to it I shall touch a little upon both these and that very shortly for I shall God willing speak to both these expressions in order more fully 1. Remember Christs loves with the remembrance of the heart I shall instance but in one fruit of this and that is faith Remember his loves so as for them to trust in God more and to cast the care of thy Soul in an hour of distress the better upon him upon consideration of thy past and present experience We are too ready both to forget our sorrows and to forget our comforts to forget our sorrows by giving our selves a liberty to the same sins for which we have smarted and to forget our comforts by giving liberty to the same dejections and despondencies again after the experiences of Gods favour 2. Remember Christs loves practically so as to make them obligations upon your Souls to a close walking with God See the example of David Psal 116. 1 9 12 18. But I shall speak all this over again when I come to handle the next words and shall therefore add no more My second Branch of this Exhortation shall respect those whom God hath not thus far dignified the Lord hath as they hope admitted them into his family but he hath not yet brought them into his Chambers Some communion with God they hope they have and an heart that panteth after a more full and near communion with him but this they have not yet attained to they walk in the dark and see no light the Lord giveth them an heart to pray but they cannot glory in such a full and quick return of prayers as others have they have not that inward joy and peace which as to some Souls is consequential to believing the question is now what they should do what their duty is under their present circumstances I will open it in two particulars 1. Certainly they ought not to despond
or despise me for it it is no native blackness it is but accidental to me it is not internal but external that which makes me thus black in your Eyes is those Affl ctions persecutions which I have met with in and from the world The exceeding heat of that sornace of affliction into which the Providence of God hath cast me hath scorched me and that is it which maketh me appear so black in your Eyes It followeth My Mothers Children were angry with me The Chaldee Paraphrast all along taking the Church of the Jews to be the Spouse here mentioned by Mothers Children here understands the Heathen who were the Children of her mother Eve tempting and seducing them to their Idolatryes The thing is true of that Church very often by the Heathen seduced to their Idolatrys but I find amongst Interpreters two other senses much more large and probable 1. Some by Mothers Children understand those lâ—sts and Corruptions which lye in the womb of our Souls Together with the habits of grace Thus Paul complaineth of the flesh lusting against the Spirit and of a law in his mâ—mbers rebelling against the law of his mind 2. others more probably understand such as are presumptive members of the same visible Church The true members of the Church can be no others then such as are ordained unto Life such as are truly Sanctified through the Sanctification of the Spirit But there are many others who from their external profession are presumptive members of it so may be called our Mothers Children tho not the Children of our Heavenly Father such are all false brethren all hypocrites glorying in an External profession and meer outward appearance Such as these are ordinarily angry with such as are the true Spouse of Christ David complained long since that he was become a stranger to his brethren an alien to his Mothers Children the Apostle Acts 20. 30. foretelleth to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus that there should arise of themselves men speaking perverse things to draw many disciples after them you may read at large in the Epistles to the Romans Corinthians Galatians how the primitive Churches of Christ were troubled with them and Paul in his Epistles to Timothy foretells that latter times should be more troubled with such as should resist the truth as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses It was Bernards Observation long since more lately noted by Genebrard upon my text that she doth not call them Brethren but only her Mothers Children not her Fathers for they were of their Father the Devil his works they did Many such there now are will be in the Church to the End of the World who have only a titular relation to Christ no real relation This now is a Second cause which the Spouse assigneth of her blackness There were many false brethren in her communion who had falsely represented and reported her and made her appear far more unlovely in the sight of others than indeed she was this I take to be the most proper sense of this phrase They made me the keeper of the Vineyards The Chaldee Paraphrast by the Vineyards here understands the Idolatry and Superstition of the Heathen to which the true members of the Jewish Church were tempted by the Heathen their Neighbours and the false brethren they had amongst themselves Hypocrites and formal professors are very prone to admit the Superstitions of men in the Worship of God The Pharisees in our Saviours time laid heavy burdens of humane traditions upon others Mat. 23. 4. Into this sense Mercer and Ainsworth interpret the text observing that it is their Vineyards their Vineyards opposed to her own Vineyard seems to imply the false Worship Rites and Ceremonies of dâ—bauched and apostatized Churches There is yet another sense of the words hinted by Delrio and Genebrard It is this They intangled me in secular affairs so made me neglect the things which were Spiritual and of much higher concernment to me This now is a third cause which the Spouse assigneth of her blackness 1. She had before told us she was Scorched with afflictions and persecutions The Sun had looked upon her 2. She had been betrayed by her own lusts and by false brethren and seduced her to intertain their corruptions to keep their Vineyards now she tells us That her secular diversions did also much contribute to her darkness she had been made to serve in the brick-kilns of the world Keeping of Vineyards was a great deal of the labour of those Countrys a painful and laborious imployment therefore you read 2 Kings 25. 12. upon the King of Babylons conquest of Judea that the Captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be Vine-dressers husbandmen those who in the parable had been labouring in the Vineyard tell the Lord of the Vineyard they had born the burden and heat of the day My own Vineyard I have not kept Here now the Spouse assigneth a fourth cause of her blackness The question here is what is meant by her own Vineyard It is manifestly to be understood of something which the Lord had committed to her to keep considering the Church as the Spouse The Oracles of God were committed to the Church of the Jews as the Apostle telleth us Rom. 3. 2. and the Church is called The pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. Paul tell us 1 Tim. 1. 11. that the glorious Gospel of the blessed God was committed to his trust and telleth Timothy the Ministry was committed to his trust St. Paul calls it his Gospel upon this account Rom. 26. 25. and saith they were put in trust with the Gospel that is the Custody and Ministration of it And St. Paul commandeth Timothy to commit the things which he had heard of him amongst many witnesses to faithful men who should be able to teach others That general term of the Gospel signifieth both the Propositions of the Truth and Doctrine of Faith contained in the new Testament and also those excellent rules which are to be found in it relating both to the Worship of God and the Government of the Church of Christ the dispensation and administration of it This Gospel as to the Ministration of it was by Christ committed first to the Apostles to be by them transmitted to faithful and able men as to the keeping of it to the whole Church The Church of Sardis Rev. 3. 8. is commended for keeping Christs word and not denying his name This undoubtedly is the Churches Vineyard The Province which God hath betrusted to her to keep But every particular Soul hath a Vineyard too And what is its Vineyard but its immortal Soul and the particular trust which God hath committed to it with relation both to its self and others What is the keeping of this Vineyard but a Christians observance of the duties incumbent upon him with reference to his more general or more particular calling So that understanding by the
for I delight in the law of God after the inward man 2. Let him Secondly examine himself whether there be not a comeliness in him in and under his blackness of Affliction and worldly opposition A wicked man may be black through affliction but his blackness is like the blackness of a coal which is a dead colour and hath no beauty in it The Child of God is also black from the same cause but his is like the blackness of a polished marble which hath a great beauty and comliness in it The trial of his faith in his afflictions appeareth more precious then that of gold that perisheth his love to God then appeareth by his panting after him and firm adherence of Soul unto him his meekness his patience all shine forth under his afflictions The demeanour of People under afflictions will much discover whose they are 3. Thirdly The comeliness of the Spouse of Christ is not a comeliness without blackness but a comeliness norwithstanding blackness That is to say It is not a Native but an adventitious and Superinduced comliness nor adventitious from any good dispositions or any acts or indeavours of our own singly but a gracious imputation and infusion The imputation of Christs righteousness the infusion of gracious habits a comeliness arising from Christs comeliness put upon the Soul So as tho the poor creature hath been guilty before God and iniquity yet doth sometimes prevail against it the righteousness of Christ being reckoned to him for righteousness and his heart being renewed Sanctified through the Spirit of Christ and the bent of it being set right for God notwithstanding his blackness the Lord doth judge him comely and beautiful overlooking his blackness by reason of sin and infirmity 4. Lastly Every Child of God will own and be truly sensible of his blackness I am black saith the Spouse The hypocrite boasteth of his whiteness come saith Jehu to Jonadab and see my zeal for the Lord God of hosts God I thank thee saith the Pharisee I am not as other men are Extortioners Unjust Adulterers or even as this Publican I fast twice in the week I give tythes of all that I possess Luk. 18. 11 12. he owneth nothing in himself but whiteness aversates all blackness yet v. 14. he went away to his house not justified Hypocrites are hardly perswaded to own in themselves any blackness The Children of God are as hardly perswaded to own any beauty or comliness in themselves I gave you before the Instances of David and of Paul The reason is because the hypocrite trusts to a Spiders web a righteousness from himself spun out of his own Bowels and he is concerned to justify his integrity and to make it as whole as he can again all that he doth is to be seen of men and therefore he must set the best face of his actions that he can the Child of God seeketh for no such things in himself but despairing in himself he flyeth to the righteousness of Christ and freely confesseth and owneth his own nakedness that he might be clothed with that righteousness again the Child of God seeketh not the praise of men nor his own honour and glory but seeketh the praise of God and the honour and glory of Christ alone Thirdly This notion affordeth a great relief to the People of God against their own dejections and despondencies 2. Satans temptations and 3. The worlds upbraidings 1. Against his own despondencyes and dejections A Child of God living under the power of that Precept 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your solves prous your selves whether you be in the faith or uâ— is often looking into his own heart and can seldom please himself with the prospect He seeth in his own heart much of Vnbelief much of Vaniâ—y much of Hypocrisy always some lust or other a body of death remaining in him iniquity prevailing against him he sinneth 7 times every day and he seeth it every night and oft times as much out of heart much dejected crying out Vnclean Vnclean I am black wofully black no better then a painted hypocrite I make a fair shew to the World and deceive some of my brethten but alas they do not see that luft and vanity that pride and passion that folly and hypocrisy which I can with half an Eye discorn in my own Soul surely I deceive myself I have no portion in God no relation to Christ I cannot be his Spouse Christian be of good Chear thou art black but art thou not also comely When a Child of God hath found out the best of himself all his comfort will be found to lie in that one text Rom. 8. v. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit He can neither look into his own heart and see his inward thoughts and the motions there nor consider his tongue and the issues of that nor compare the best of his actions with the Divine rule but he feeth himself by all condemned and findeth nothing to relieve him in is dark thoughts but in Christs imputed righteousness and that there no is condemnation to them that are in Christ And that is enough provided that he hath this evidence of his being in Christ That he walketh not after the flesh but after the Spirit 2. It affordeth the same relief against the most desperate temptations of our grand adversary the Devil Satan we say first tempteth to Sin and then he makes advantage of our hearkening to his temptations to tempt us to further sins and those of a more heinous and horrid nature to despair of Gods mercy to destroy our selves c. He first attempteth to make the Soul black by moving it to sinful acts then his next work is to perswade the Soul that God will never pardon such a sinner Christ can never Love such an Ethiopian Hence those strong violent impressions upon Souls under the power of temptations God is an holy God of purer eyes then to behold iniquity he can never set his heart upon such a polluted vile wretch as I am I have been guilty of thousands of willful Omissions of duty and Commissions contrary to my duty possibly some particular sin or sins lie as an heavy load upon the poor creatures conscience The Spouse here hath furnished such a Soul with an answer to the tempter The Spouse of Christ is black but yet comely Let then such a Soul thus answer these suggestions of the tempter O thou Prince of darkness it is true I have been a grievous sinner and as such Christ cannot Love me so far forth as I am black I am unlovely but I am not wholly black Christ cannot Love my sins but he can pardon my sin and Love my Soul The Lord hath been graciously pleased to pardon my sins upon my repentance and my acceptation of the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving him as my Saviour he hath said to me while I
a life according to the rule of the word To worship God according to the prescriptions of the Word in all things it calleth a man to the Law and to the Testimony It obligeth every man in his place to bear a testimony against whatsoever is contrary to the strict rule of the Word Now whoso considereth either the ignorance of the world which knoweth not the Son of God nor him that sent him nor what is the revealed will of God or the sensuality of the world how mad upon their lusts the most of Men and Women are Or the Pride of the world which maketh men impatient either of a verbal reproof by doctrine and admonitions or real reproof by a quite contrary conversation more pleasing to God acceptable to and beautiful in the sight of men Or the affectation of dominion over the conscience which a multitude are possest of and their impatience at good Christians not owning and submitting to their dictates and saying as they say and doing as they do can hardly imagine how those that will live godly in Christ Jesus should live any long time in the world without persecution Now the expectation of those searchings and Sun-burnings will have various good effects upon the Soul 1. It will put the Soul upon preparing for them He that liveth in the expectation of trials will be oft-times putting the case to himself if such a tryal should be what should I do My Soul wouldst thou stand to or desert the profession of thy faith wouldst thou keep close to God or depart from him we should be laying up something in store against an evil day 2. Expected tryals as I before told you are alwaies lighter and more tolerable and endured with more courage and patience We are not so frighted with evils which we see at distances and view in the approaches they make to us Nothing more weakneth a Soul in the bearing of an evil as a sudden surprisal like an Apoplexy to the body it at once stops those passages by which the Spirits should discover and exert themselves Secondly This Doctrine calls to Christians for patience and that both under Persecution and Afflictions and under the censures and obloquies of the world because of them Expectation of tryals is a previous duty in order to our preparation for them Patience is a present duty when the Christian is fallen under them It is indeed the work of the day that very grace which in the hour of tribulation should have its perfect work it lieth partly in a quiet submission to the good will and pleasure of God because he hath laid it upon us an holding our peace because it is the Lords doing partly in a quiet waiting for God in the fulfilling of his promises made to his People under such circumstances There are two things that call for our patience under afflictions 1. The smart of the Affliction for no affliction is joyous but grievous 2. The reproach of the world under it this often doubleth the affliction and maketh it more grievous and intolerable Now consider how many things have occurred in this discourse which may excite our patience under both these 1. This is the lot of the People of God There is none of them but the Sun at one time or other works upon The Apostle exhorteth the Thessalonians 1 Thes 3. 3. That no man should be moved by their Afflictions for faith he your selves know that we are appointed thereunto There is a great deal in that saying to quiet the Spirits of Christians under the burthens of tryals 1. God hath laid those burthens upon them I held my peace saith David because it was thy doing It is the Lord said that good man let him do what soever he pleaseth Perhaps saith David God hath bidden him curse It is a mighty thing to silence the Spirit of a Christian when he can see the hand of God in it 2. It is the Lords appointment What hath befallen us in pursuance of an eternal counsel this speaketh the tryal eventually necessary it speaketh it also good for his People for he hath not appointed us unto wrath nor to any means of that tendency Nor is it thy lot alone but the lot of all those who will live godlily in Christ Jesus The Apostles themselves were appointed thereunto and wherein are we better then our Fathers or our Brethren 2. You have likewise heard why God hath appointed our lot to be Trials and Afflictions for the punishment of our sins and for the tryal and exercise of our Graces this also calls for patience Why should a living man complain a man for the punishment of his iniquity We have much less reason to be disturbed at the trial and exercise of our graces 3. You have heard upon what mistakes it is that the World accounts the Christian black by reason of Afflictions because they judge of their complexions by a meer sensual Eye and from a meer erroneous judgment We have therefore no reason to be disquieted because of it But indeed the main use we should make of this point should be for Caution and that in two particulars 1. That afflictions may not blacken us 2. That we do not judge others black because of them 1. Will afflictions blacken the Spouse of Christ Let us take heed that they have not this ill influence upon us We have heard that they no otherwise make us black then as they are occasions to draw out our lusts and corruptions This is that which we are more especially to watch upon In afflictive providences God tryeth us and Satan and the world also try and tempt us God tryeth our faith our patience our submission to his will whether we will deny our selves and take up the Cross and follow him The Devil and the men of the World which are the Devils instruments try us whether we will desert our profession deny the Lord that bought us forsake the ways of God and imbrace a present World If upon Gods tryal his ends be obtained then are we by our afflictions purified and made white if the Devil and his instruments prevail upon us then are we by our afflictions made black This is the thing we are to take heed of Job 2. 3. after that God had taken away Jobs Estate and Children he saith to Satan Hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movest me against him to destroy him without a cause How white there did Job appear after his afflictions But I shall not inlarge my discourse to afflictions in the general but limit it to such afflictions as are more peculiar to the Spouse of Christ and which I have had a more special reference to in my former discourse viz. Persecutions or sufferings for our adherence to the truths of the Gospel and the good ways
Look under the vail of Religious Persons in the day of their afflictions The Vail may be black and yet the face White You may possibly see the People of God glorifying him in the Fires eminent faith adherence to God constancy patience shining forth in the People of God in the hour of their tryals you may possibly hear Paul and Silas singing praises unto God at midnight and the Apostles going away from their place of punishment rejoicing that the Lord hath thought them worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ and here a Job resolving that Tho the Lord slayeth him yet he will trust in him These things speak a Lilly tho amongst thorns Sermon XXXVIII Cant. 1. 6. My mothers Children were angry with me I am now come to the 2d cause which the Spouse of Christ here assigneth of her appearing blackness The Anger of her Mothers Children My Mothers Children saith she were angry with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They fought in me or they fought against me In my explication of the verse I told you that some by Mothers Children understand those lusts and corruptions which are members of that body of death which yet remain in the best of Gods People those members mentioned by the Apostle Col. 3. 5. which we have while we live upon the Earth for our exercise to mortify these lye in the womb of the same Soul together with our habits of grace these are those which the Apostle calls the flesh which lusteth against the Spirit These cause that war in our members mentioned James 4. 1. they war against the Soul 1. Pet. 2. 11. Others 2. understand by the Mothers Children mentioned in the text False brethren such members of the Church as are indeed the Children of the Church our visible Mother but not the Children of our heavenly Father Tho in my own judgment I rather incline to the latter as the sense of the Text yet I shall give that deference to those worthy Interpreters that have mentioned the former that there being a truth in that I shall take both senses into the Proposition which I shall law down thus The conflict which particular believers have with their own inbred lusts and corruptions and which the Church hath with false brethren will often make them appear black to the Eye of the World Here are two propositions wrapped up together 1. That true Christians will have conflicts with their own lusts and corruptions and the true members of the Church with such as are false brethren 2. That both the particular Christians and the Church of Christ in these conflicts will appear black 1. True Christians will have conflicts with their lusts and corruptions This is so great a truth that this Spiritual conflict is a note of the truth of grace in the Soul It is indeed as wars use to be sometimes hotter sometimes cooler and more remiss and the Soul is in it sometimes more sometimes less a conquerour as God will please to afford the Soul more or less of his strength but it is always something When God did bring the Israelites into Canaan he was not pleased at once to drive them cut but by little and little Exod. 23. 28 29. neither were they faultless for many of the Tribes did not drive them out Judah could not drive them out Judg. 1. 19. It is said of several of the other Tribes that they did not drive them out Upon which God resolveth that he would not drive them out but they should be as thorns in their sides God in bringing Souls out of a state of nature into a state of grace doth not wholly drive out lust and corruption he bringeth sin out of its Dominion Rom 6. 13. So as it reigneth not in the mortal Bodies of the Saints sin like the tree in Nebuchadnezzars vision Dan. 4. 14. is hewed down many of its branches are cut off and its leaves and its fruit is scattered and the Soul is got from under it but yet the stump of its roots are in the Earth tho bound with a band of Iron and Brass kept under by the law of the Christians mind that he getteth no dominion the Soul is not under the power of it Now as there was a continual war betwixt the Canaanites left in the land and the Israelites so there is a continual war and spiritual combate betwixt those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these passions of sin these lustings of the flesh and the Spiritual part of the Spiritual man Paul doth excellently describe this conflict Rom. 7. 21. I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the law of God as to my inward man But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. Saint Paul sets forth himself there as a man in a battel and sometimes taken Prisoner So again Gal 5. â—7 For the 〈…〉 Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contr ary the one to the other And indeed in the last words lyes the reason of this war and conflict It is of the nature of contraries to expell one another not to indure one another in the same subject but to be in a continual combate till the one or the other hath got the Victory Grace in Scripture is compared to light sin to darkness light and darkness mutually expell one another so doth Grace and lust Now both these being in the Soul of the regenerate man who is but Sanctified in part and neither of them being lazy and inactive but active and operative principles there must be this conflict which I have mentioned this war in our members which makes the People of God look black 2. And as it fares with individual Christians with respect to their lusts and corruptions so it also fareth with the Collective Spouse the Church of Christ with respect to false Brethren who are the presumptive but not the true members of it 1. such will be in the Church while it is upon the Earth 2. And these will be angry with the true members of it 1. while the Church is upon the Earth it will be like a field of Wheat which hath tares in it the Gospel and the preaching of it is like a drag-net which draweth unto the Church as its shore Fish both good and bad there will come a time when the Lord will take his fan and throughly purge his floor but that will be in the day of judgment if we look upon Gods ancient Church the Congregation of Israel there was a Jannes and a Jambnes that resisted Moses a Corah Dathan and Abiram that rose up against Moses Aaron many false Prophets to mislead People many more false hearts that were easily misled the Chaldee
a foundation for those scandals which arise in it and are thrown upon it from which it appeareth black Lastly You that are the sincerer part of the Church and have heard that you must expect that your Mothers Children should be angry with you that there should be some bad fish in the drag-net with the good some Tares in Christs Field of Wheat some that will be spots in your Assemblies and that these if they do not make you black yet will make you appear black what remaineth but that you take care that neither the lusts of your own hearts which are in a sense your Mothers Children make you black nor the opposition that you will meet with from such as are false Brethren make you appear more black then indeed you are This care of yours must be shewed 1. In a watchfulness against your motions to sin especially such sins as are your proper lusts the sins which do most easily beset you 2. In a mortifying of your Members 3. In a care that you be not unwarrantably disturbed and unduly disquieted because of the opposition which you find srom the law of your Members 4. In a maintaining the Spiritual Combate c. 5. In an innocent and inoffensive carriage in your stations that those who would speak evil of you as evil doers may see your good works and glorify your heavenly Father for so saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 15. is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolishmen in avoiding unnecessary divisions and separations we ought to walk with all that own the name of Christ as far as the Shooes of the Gospel will carry us where we cannot walk with any who call themselves Christians and walk with Christ that is keep to the rule and law which he hath given us there we must part and the offence lieth on their parts who give the cause of it but otherwise we ought to keep Unity Finally in a peaceable and quiet departing from them with whom we cannot agree I know all this will not avoid the unreasonable anger of some of our Mothers Children but by doing this we shall remove the stumbling stone and rock of offence from our own doors they will be those by whom offences come and the woe pronounced by our Saviour will belong to them Sermon XXXIX Cant. 1. 6. They made me the Keeper of the Vineyards THE Spouse is yet apologizing for her Blackness of which she assigneth four Causes 1. Her afflictions The Sun saith she hath looked upon me 2. Her opposition both from within and without My mothers Children were angry with me These I have discoursed and come now to the third Cause assigned by her expressed in these words They made me the Keeper of the Vineyards They that is my Mothers Children before mentioned made me the Keeper of the Vineyards In my Explication of the Text I hinted a double sense of the words the one literal the other metaphorical In the former it signified her intanglement in secular affairs Keeping the Vineyards is a secular imployment a mean imployment and a laborious imployment Thence you read that the General of the Assyrian Army 2 King 25. 12. left of the poor of the Land to be the Dressers of the Vineyards and those in the Parable who had laboured in the Vineyard told their Lord that they had born the heat of the day Thus the sense is I have been too much intangled in secular affairs that hath been the cause of my blackness 2. Others understand the term Vineyard in a metaphorical sense God useth the term to signifie his Church Isa 5. 1 2 3. As God hath a Vineyard so Idolaters and superstitious persons had their Vineyards Most Heathen Nations having some notions of a God have had some Worship of a Deity and wanting the guidance of holy Writ grew vain in their own imaginations hence came Idolatry and Superstition the Israelites having lived many years in Egypt and in their passage through the Wilderness conversing with the Moabites and Midianites and not driving out all the Canaanites out of the promised Land by converse with them learned to know and to serve their gods as you shall read in their whole story in the Books of Kings and Chronicles there being a corrupt as well as a sincerer part in the Jewish Church the corrupter part imposed upon the whole the Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship and Rites of these Nations This is the sense into which the Chaldee Paraphrast interpreteth these words I am not apt to think this the sense but more incline to the former yetâ—â— shall not wholly pass it over partly because the Chaldee Paraphrast is a very antient Interpreter and partly because that sense carries a truth in it Hence arise two Propositions Prop. 1. That a submission to false Worship and Superstitious Rites in the Service of God will make the Spouse of Christ appear black Prop. 2. That great entanglements in secular affairs will make the Spouse of Christ black I shall speak shortly to the first and more largely to the second which I rather think to be the sense The Church of God hath three things committed to her trust the Doctrine of the Gospel the Ordinances of Worship The Rules of Discipline The admission of corruption in any of these maketh a Church black as it is a breach of trust and a deviation from the Divine Rule This is sufficiently proved by the message Christ sent to the seven Churches of Asia He let the Church of Ephesus know that he had something against her because she had left her first love Rev. 2. 4. v. 13. He reflecteth upon the Church of Pergamus because she had those in her who held the Doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans v. 20. He reflecteth on the Church of Thyatira for suffering the woman Jezabel to seduce the Servants of God to commit fornication and to eat things offered to Idols Nor is any thing plainer in the whole story of the Jewish Church than that the admission of corruption in the Worship and Order of that Church was that which made it black and defiled and look unlovely in the Eyes of God and was at last the cause of its ruine and destruction But because Christians may not so distinctly understand either wherein the Nature of Worship lies or wherein the difference lieth betwixt that which is true and false I shall in a few Conclusions lay down what I conceive to be truth in this case and then pass on to the handling of the Proposition arising from the other sense of the words 1. Worship is an homage performed to God immediately in consideration of his Excellency This is Aquinas's and other of the Schoolmens notion about Worship and it is a very good one 2. This homage is either the homage of the outward or inward man The homage of the inward man lieth in the exercises of our Faith Love Fear the exercise of
committed those two great sins of Adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah and God had declared his pardoning him these sins nevertheless saith he because thou hast made the Enemies of God to Blaspheme the Child shall dye the Sword shall never depart from thy house The honour and glory of God is a tender thing and it is a dreadful thing for Christians to give a cause for the name of God to be evilly spoken of 2. But 2dly good Christians are not only concerned to take heed of such actions as are acts of plain impiety and unrighteousness But of such behaviour and such acts as should make Religion and religious Persons appear unlovely to the World let me instance in three or four things 1. Take heed either of an over sad and pensive or of an over light and chearful behaviour The sober and serious Christian that knoweth his times to laugh and times to weep and decent measures to be observed in both is the only man that honoureth Religion He that walks covered by the flocks of Christs companions covered as a mourner or covered as if he were not married to Christ or covered as an harlot whose face is always full of shame and his Eyes always full of tears doth not honour Religion let a Christian betwixt God and his Soul alone cover himself with as much shame as he will and let his Eyes run down with tears in his closet but take heed of dishonouring Profession by a continual drooping and sadness That Christian that is over merry and jolly offends on the other hand and as much Scandalizeth Profession Canst thou be merry canst thou play foolish Soul who sinnedst to day saith our English Poet we sin too much to be over frolick Both these extreams are to be avoided 2. Take heed of a rash tongue I know none more Scandalize Religion and Godliness than such whose Tongues must be alwaies running and who give themselves a liberty to say Quidlibet de quolibet any thing of any Persons who say report and we will report it Hence James accounts the Government of the tongue to the perfection of Religion The tongue is a little member saith James Jam. 2. 5 but it kindleth great fires it is a World of iniquity an unruly evil full of deadly Poison I know nothing by which Religion is more Scandalized then by the ungoverned tongues of Professors 3. Take heed of being busie bodies in other mens matters They who must have an Oar in every Boat besides that they never row their own Boat well shall be sure to have every body quarrelling with them You shall observe that the Scripture never gives a busie body a good character He reckons them as Persons that walk disorderly 2 Thes 3. 11. He joyneth them with idle Persons 2 Tim. 5. 13. He commands men to take heed of suffering upon this score 1 Pet. 4. 15. 3. And lastly Good Christians ought to take heed of those actions or carriages which although themselves judge lawful and possibly they are so yet are generally offensive to Christians and the most serious Christians especially in those Churches and places in which God hath cast their lot All see not with the same Eyes and we ought to have regard to the Souls of others and to a Peace with others Hence some things may be lawful for us in one place and under some circumstances which are unlawful in other places and under other circumstances Now such things may either concern Religious duties as to the Acts of which though all be agreed yet they may not as to circumstances Where thou hast a perfect Liberty it is thy duty to forbear such circumstances as though thou thinkest lawful yet thou feest will be grievous aad offensive to others 2. As to our Civil behaviour in matters of habits and dresses It may be thou thinkest the things in themselves lawful others think them unlawful Why shouldst thou walk like one covered by the flock of Christ's Companions Why shouldest thou for an indifferent thing bring thy self under the hard thoughts of any number of serious Christians The things themselves in thy apprehension are lawful and it is also lawful for thee to decline them why shouldest thou not chuse the less offensive part You may learn from 1 Cor. 11. that Christians in such things as these are to have a great respect to the common guise and custom of places and especially to the common guise and custom to such as themselves in those places God forbad the Jews the very habits of Heathens I believe good Christians as much prohibited the habits of prophane Persons so far as they are distinct from those of the generality of sober Christians So in matters of Pastime and Recreation For Games depending upon meer Lot and Chance What though Judicious Divines do not all determine them unlawful yet some do others and many conscientious Christians doubt concerning them possibly thou dost not if thou doubtest thou art bound to forbear them to take the safer part but admit thou dost not doubt yet in places where any considerable number of conscientious Christians doubt thou art bound to forbear why should thy Liberty be condemned by other mens Consciences Why shouldest thou walk covered by the flocks of Christ's Companions I shall shut up this Discourse with the words of the Apostle Phil. 4. 8. 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 virtue and if there be any praise think on these things Sermon XLIV Cant. 1. 8. If thou knowest not O thou fairest amongst Women Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the Flock and feed thy Kidds besides the Shepherds Tents I Have done with the Spouse's Petition and am come to her Beloved's Answer In which I have observed three things 1. A friendly Compellation O thou fairest amongst Women 2. A Supposition that she might be ignorant of some things relating to communion with him If thou knowest not 3. A Direction in this case Go thy way by the footsteps of the Flocks c. Hence three Propositions are obvious Prop. 1. That of all Souls the truly believing Soul is the most beautiful Soul in the Eyes of Christ Prop. 2. That the beauty of this Soul is not perfect This Soul may be in some things ignorant and at a loss how to maintain communion with God at some times Prop. 3. That the surest way for a gracious Soul to get a perfect Instruction in those things which concern its spiritual good and to keep and enjoy its communion with Christ is to feed it self by the Tents of his Shepherds and to live according to the Precepts of his Word and the Examples of his Church there recorded I shall begin with the first Prop. 1. That of all Souls the Believer is the most beautiful Soul in the Eyes of Christ I will inquire a
when the Soul that found in itself a strength before sufficient to grapple with its temptations and to perform the several duties and operations of a Spiritual life hath suffered itself to be overcome with motions and temptations to sin it finds itself weak falls before a temptation fails in its Spiritual duties it cannot believe hope meditate rejoice and delight in God c. Thus it was with Peter that had faith enough to walk upon the Sea at Christs command when he had sinned by too much confidence in himself he falls by the hand of a silly Damsel in the High Priests Hall hence it is oft-times that the liveliness and chearfulness of the Soul in its conversation also fails and it is at a loss where to find its beloved and how to enjoy its desired communion with him 2. Sometimes these dispensations are not so much founded in the Divine Justice and intended as the punishment of guilt in the Soul as in the Divine Wisdom designing to prove and to try his People and to make them to seek more after him Job was thus tried Though Job doubtless had guilt enough of sin to have justified God in such providences yet God himself saith of him Job 2. 3. That there was none like him in the Earth that he was a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil yet had he not been under some divine desertion and withdrawings of grace as well as more external Trials he had never fallen into those extravagant passions in which you find him ch 3 c. 3. On our part this loss and ignorance happeneth divers ways I shall instance in some more principal causes 1. The prevailing of sin and corruption in the Soul The guile of sin alwaies causeth weakness and blindness How weak is thine heart saith the Lord seeing thou dost all these things Zech. 16 30. Weakness is the cause of sin and it is the effe ct of sin it argueth weakness in a Soul to do those things which God hath forbidden and which will certainly end in the harm of the Soul It is a weak thing wilfully to sin against God and weakness is also the effect of sin this is caused from the sour reflections and reverberations of conscience when a man would medirate on God believe and hope joy rejoice and delight in God conscience throws his sin in his face and bringeth his iniquity to remembrance he remembreth God and is troubled he cannot tell how to believe how to hope how to joy and rejoice in God whom he now looketh upon as angry with him for the proof of this though I might fetch enough from Davids Poenitential Psalms yet I need no more then the experience of every good Christian who keepeth any watch upon his own heart and ways I appeal to any of your Souls when you are conscious of any wilful slips and failings in your life can you remember and think of God as at other times Can you believe and hope in his mercy Can you pray with that boldness and courage and confidence doth not shame cover your faces so as you know not how to look upward 2. Diabolical suggestions are another cause what strange and horrid impressions do the best of Gods people find some indeed of more strength and longer continuance then others but there is scarce any who doth not find them at some times and in some degree or other and although if they be mere impressions not consented to by the Soul but abhorred by it they are not the Souls guilt yet they must be the Souls disturbance so as under them the Soul will not know how to uphold and maintain a communion with God as at other times but its communion is broken and interrupted and imperfect though the Devil cannot stain the Soul without its own concurrence yet he can trouble the Soul if God permits him by his mere suggestions and impressions and therefore we had need pray every day Lead us not into temptation The Devil in this case can do as much to a Soul as a clamorous railing fellow can do to disturb our communion with our friends though we hearken not much to him and chide him away yet he can make a noise and disturb our communion 3. Severe outward afflictions may be a cause Though afflictions be not alwaies indications of Divine Wrath for the Apostle tells us that whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Child whom he receiveth yet oftentimes they are so and whether Gods end be to punish sin or no yet there is no Soul but is conscious of so much daily guilt as gives him cause to suspect they are the punishments of some guilt and I told you before how apprehensions of guilt very ordinarily make the Soul at a loss how to uphold and maintain its wonted communion with God Besides afflictions usually excite passions particularly those of fear and sorrow Both opposite to the exercises of faith and joy and delight in God both distracting the Soul in the sweet meditations of God To this may be added that the Soul in afflictions as it standeth in more need of the divine presence and influence so it is prone to expect more or to think it hath nothing Neither can the Soul under the roilings and prevailings of passion so well discern Christs communications of himself unto it and besides they hinder the Soul in its motions and communications of it self to Christ I am so troubled saith the Psalmist that I cannot Speak The Soul is so troubled that it cannot believe it cannot hope it cannot Pray c. 4. The last cause that I shall assign is distractions caused either from worldly cares and businesses or from some false guides A Soul overwhelmed with businesses and cares of the World will many times find it self at a loss how to maintain its communion with God there is such an opposition betwixt a communion with God and the World the first being wholly a Spiritual thing the other wholly of the Earth earthly that a man overwhelmed in the World will find the maintaining of this communion difficult and be more at a loss to it then another man more free from these incumbrances Besides in the World Christians are subject to distractions from false guides one saying loe Christ is here another saying loe he is there one telling us that the way to have communion with Christ is to cast off duties and ordinances another prescribing an attendance upon them as the onely means of such communion One telling them that there is no other communion with Christ then with Christ mystical having and keeping in the communion of his Church whereas many may do so if we mean the visible Church that have no communion with Christ at all Upon Christs floor there is Chaff as well as Wheat which when Christ cometh with his fan thoroughly to purge his floor shall be cast into unquenchable fire tares as well as wheat which must grow together untill
may not want it and it would be to her of no profitable use only it may be serve for Pride or ostentation but no tender husband with-holds from his Wife what he knoweth her to need But the Child of God never hath so much faith but he seeth cause to cry out Lord help my unbelief he is in daily want of Spiritual strength complaining of weakness and impotency so as supplies of grace are a daily good to gracious Souls and Christ can withhold no such thing from them Desire doth yet more engage the love of a correlate and the more passionate and vehement the desire of the beloved is the more he that loves moveth towards her Satisfaction The Philosopher saith to Love is to will that which is good to another though indeed love rather lyeth in a complacency which one taketh in another of which the willing of good is but a first fruit and an effect good he tells us is that which all desire The nature of good lyes in a Sutableness and conveniency to our needs for the supply of some vacuity or emptiness in us all the effluxes and emanations of divine grace are such suted to some great wants of our Souls and not only so but also to the desires of every gracious man and Woman who is continually crying give give and God cannot be wanting either to supply the necessities or to answer the cravings and importunities of his Peoples Souls He hears the desire of the humble Psal 10. 17. And giveth them their hearts desire Psal 21. 3. Lastly The interest of Gods own honour and glory is concerned in his giving of more grace The loving husband buyeth his Wife Chains and Jewels And fine Clothes and when she hath a good stock he is yet adding to the stock his love to her his desire to Satisfy her desires so far as he is able in all things convenient are the great grounds but yet he hath also some Eye to his own honour and Reputation by it he is taken notice of in the World as one that is able to do such things and also as one to whom his Wife is very dear this blessed Lover first aimeth at his own honour Hereby faith Christ is your Father glorified if you bring forth fruit much fruit of holiness requireth much of the seed of God much grace as the Principle productive of it for without his influence the Soul can do nothing Further grace is necessary to uphold and maintain what grace he hath already bestowed It is also necessary to the production of that much fruit by which God is glorified by his People in the World Grace in its true exercise is a lovely thing in the sight of the World Men that hate the practice of grace in themselves yet love it in another Hence the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 12. commandeth Christians to have their conversation honest amongst the Gentiles that whereas they speak against them as evil doers they may by their good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of their visitation The Children of God are like Stars which shine from a borrowed light God hath all the honour of their well doing The man that walketh piously devoutly humbly in his conversation towards God and in the exercise of justice and righteousness humility and meekness mercy and charity and bounty towards men that is moderate and sober in the use of prosperity and patient in the time of adversity doth by this conversation commend himself to all that part of the World that hath yet any remainder of reason left whose passions have not out-lawed their reason and transformed them into Beasts And look as when the Wife is excellently attired it draweth the Eyes of all after her sets them upon enquiry whose Wife she is the honour redoundeth to the Husband out of whose Purse her Ornaments are known to come So when men see Christians abounding in the fear of the Lord in faith love in meekness sobriety liberality to the Poor love to their Enemies a doing good to all the honour doth not only redound to them but the Name of Christ for their sake is also well spoken of the grace of God in them is commended and magnified I come now to the Application In the first place I cannot but observe from this Text how Christ condesâ—endeth to our weakness that he might make himself and his grace desirable to us Why doth not our Lord speak plainly I will give them more grace I will communicate more of my self unto them He doth so in some other Texts here he clotheth his discourse with metaphors and compareth his grace to things which we much desire and which are very lovely and admirable in our Eyes This is observable there is hardly any thing which while we live in the World is either necessary for our use or delightful to our senses which our fleshly appetite longs for to which Christ some where or other hath not compared himself and the influences of his grace Is Bread necessary I am saith he the bread of life John 6. Is water necessary He compares himself to living water John 4. Yea to a fountain of living water Is meat and drink necessary My flesh saith he is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed Is clothing necessary and fine and rich clothing desirable Come saith he buy of me white rayment that thou mayest be clothed that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear Rev. 3. 18. Is Linnen necessary And fine Linnen desirable Rev. 21. 8. To the bride the Lambs Wife is granted that she should be arayed in fine Linnen clean and white Is Physick sometimes wanting to us The whole saith he speaking of himself need not the Physitian but the sick Is salve necessary sometimes to us I counsel thee saith he Rev. 3. 18. To Anoint thee with Eye-salve Is rest and ease desirable Come saith he to me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Is Gold and Silver are rows of Silver and Chains of Gold borders of Gold and studs or spots of Silver desirable I Counsel thee saith he to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire that thou mayest be rich and here in my Text thy Cheeks saith he are comely between the rows of Jewels Thy neck with Chains of Gold we will make for thee borders of Gold and studs of Silver Ez. 16. 10 11 12. I clothed thee with bâ—oidered work and shod thee with badgers Skins and I girded thee about with fine Linnen and covered thee with Silk I also decked thee with Ornaments and I put Bracelets upon thy hands and Ear-rings in thine Ears and a beautiful crown upon thine head What is the meaning of all this but I bestowed my love my grace upon thee How doth our blessed Lord humble himself to make himself his favour and grace the object of the most vain and airy Souls desire Observe Secondly that Christs graces are
the fruitfulness of the Church lies in its bringing forth many Sons unto God The more Souls are converted the more fruitful the Church is but without Christ's conjunction with it it bringeth forth none If Christ's presence be in his Church it brings forth many Souls If he be not present it brings forth no Children This will easily appear by considering how the Church of God is Instrumental to the conversion of Souls and by making it appear to you that these causes are not principally efficient sole causes nor can be so but are only instrumental causes 2. That upon experience it is made evident that where Christ doth not concur they do nothing For the first 1. The Church is to be considered as to its parts and as to its priviledges as to what God hath planted in it and what God hath betrusted to it As to its parts So it is made up of Officers and members As to its priviledges so there is committed to it the Oracles of God the Mysteries of God the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven there is none of all these but have or may have for ought I know an instrumental causation in bringing forth Children unto God or in bringing of them up but none of them have a Principal efficiency none of them have a sole efficiency nor can produce the effect without Christs conjunction let us look upon them severally 1. Look first upon the Officers of the Church these were extraordinary such as Apostles Evangelists Prophets Ordinary Pastors and Teachers That these have an instrumental causation in the conversion of Souls is plain they were set in the Church for the perfecting of the Saints Eph. 4. 12. for the perfecting their number and for the perfecting of their graces Paul calls them Fathers 1 Cor. 4. 15. and saith he begat the Corinthians He saith the same of Onesimus but alas as the Apostles of old so Ministers now have no more then an instrumentality in this production Paul planted and Apollos watered but God gave the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6. God was all he that planted nothing he that watered was nothing but God that gave the increase was all v. 7. v. 9 They are but waterers together with God workers together with him Hence though Paul Preached the same Doctrine to all yet he was to some the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death And though his earnest desire was to convert his own Nation it was his hearts desire and Prayer to God that they might be saved Rom. 10. 1. yet he could not effect it And if the Officers of the Church who are under a special ordination of God for the great end of conversion could do no more it will easily be granted of private members whose indeavours in quickening others though they may be sometimes blessed of God to such an end yet doubtless are not more efficient to it then the labours of Ministers nor yet in an equal tendency with their's unto so great an end 2. As to the priviledges granted to the Church The Oracles of God are committed to the Church Rom. 3. 2. it is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the mysteries of God are committed to it 1 Cor. 4. 1. The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are Committed to it Mat. 16. 19. I understand ever by the first term the Word of God and the dispensation of it in the Preaching of the Gospel by the second the Sacraments of the Gospel by the third the Censures of the Church I know the terms are more generical and not so to be restrained I only for distinction sake so restrain them at present nor do I meddle here with the disputes whether the dispensation of these or any of these belong to the whole Church or only to Officers nor yet to which of the Officers I shall only assert two things 1. That the Scripture seemeth to assign to all these some instrumentality as to the bringing forth of Children unto God this is plain 1. Concerning the Word 1 Cor. 4. 15. I have begotten you through the Gospel James 1. 18. of his own will begat he us by the word of truth As to the Sacraments for the Sacrament of Baptism we are said to be Baptized into Christ Rom. 6. 3. Gal. 3. 27. and again Acts 2. 38. to be Baptized for the Remission of sins For the Sacrament of the Lords Supper though I dare not assert it a converting Ordinance yet unquestionably it hath its instrumentality to the Salvation of Souls For Censures they have also their instrumentality 1 Cor. 5. 5. the end of their administration is for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of Christ But now 2. It is as plain that they have but an instrumental causation and separated from the influences of Christ and his concurrence with them they do nothing hence James 2. 18. of his own will begat he us with the word of truth John 1. 13. we are born again not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God John 3. 5. except you be born again of water and of the Spirit you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Thus the truth is evidenced from Scripture And Scriptural reason 2. In the second place Consider all experience where-ever the Word of God hath been Preached the Sacraments administred Church Censures duly executed so long as Christ hath granted his presence with the administrations they have been made mighty in order to the bringing home of Souls unto God Where the Lord hath withdrawn his presence either as to the generality of Persons under the external administrations or as to any particular Souls they have signified nothing Isaiah doth but make the heart of the People fat and their Ears heavy and shuts their Eyes Ch. 6. 10. he complains that he laboureth in vain and spendeth his strength for nothing and in vain Saint Pauls Gospel is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness 3000 are converted at St. Peters Sermon while Christ is in his Bed with his Church but few or none of the Jews in their Synagogues Acts 19. they were hardened Christ was gone out of his Bed and it was now no longer green and flourished no more But this is enough to have spoken as to the proof of the Doctrine come we now to the Application The Proposition might be applied variously 1. For the confutation of the errors of those who either deny the necessity of any conjunction of Christ with the Soul as to the production of the fruits of grace or at least of such a conjunction as is unquestionably necessary and of those who think that there is a power in mans will ad bonum Spirituale to produce that which is Spiritually good and that a moral suasion is sufficient to the conversion of a Soul 2. We might from hence observe the