rejoycing in him living up in a close obedience to his Law this is the man that forgetteth the Loves of Christ But yet if there be a Soul that hath experienced the Loves of Christ in a particular application to it self that hath given it self a liberty to the flesh and walked in a contrary course to what the Law of Christ requireth this Soul yet more forgets his Loves because he had a deeper impression of them upon his heart the Love of Christ made an impression only upon the others Ears but it hath entred into this man's Soul He is the greatest forgetter of his Love You shall observe in holy Writ that all sin is exprest under the notion of forgetting God Psal 50. 22. and in a multitude of other Texts and this not only because a forgetting of God is the cause of all the Violations of his Law which we could not violate if we remembred God as we ought to do but because indeed all sin in God's account is an actual ' forgetting of him God accounts us to know to remember no more than we are affected with and live up unto Therefore Christians let us make it our business not only to call to mind the Loves of Christ but to remember them in that sense which God calleth a remembrance of them 2. Let us not satisfie our selves with a bare remembrance of his Loves but labour to remember them more than Wine more than the most sweet and pleasant the most gainful and profitable things which this world affords Think that you hear Christ speaking in your Ears in the language in which he once spake to Peter setting all the pleasant and gainful things in the world before you and then saying to you Christians Love you me more than these Let me shew you the reasonableness of this 1. Consider if thou canst not say so Thou dost not answer the Loves of Christ in any degree I am now speaking to such as are Christians not in name and profession only but in deed and in truth Such a one may suppose all the fallen Angels under Christ's Eye even those Legions in the Air and in the bottomless Pit Creatures in their Original more perfect and glorious than man but fallen from their first Integrity and think he heareth Christ saying to him Poor Soul I have loved thee more than all these I died not for these I died for thee I took not upon me the Nature of Angels but the Nature of the seed of Abraham 2. He may suppose all the Heathen Nations under Christ's Eye The great Emperours of Turkey Persia China and other parts of the world with the millions of Souls under their jurisdiction and think that he heareth Christ again saying to him Poor Soul I have loved thee more than these Thou hearest my Gospel Read and Preached every Lord's Day hast thou not seen hast thou not heard These great Nations of the world and all the great Rulers of them never heard the joyful sound I was never Preached in their Streets they were never wooed never intreated to come to me that they might have life I have loved thee more than these Further yet thou mayest fancy all the prophane men all the sensual and carnal men all Hypocrites all unregenerate men whose hearts are yet locked up under unbelief under Christ's and thy Eye and suppose that thou hearest thy great Lord and Saviour saying to thee Poor Christian I have loved thee more than all these They are yet wallowing in their native blood as thou wert before I passed by thee in my time of love and said unto thee live they are yet Children of wrath in an hourly danger of having it come upon them to the utmost I have plucked thee out of Sodom Thy heart by nature was as hard as theirs as much prejudiced against thy own salvation I have made thee to differ I have loved thee more than all these May I rise one step higher to commend the Love of Christ to thy remembrance thou mayest fancy all that glory which Christ had with his Father from before the beginning of the world all the blessed company of Heaven all the riches of Christ's glory and felicity before his and thy Eye and fancy that thou hearest Christ say to thee My poor creature I have in a sense and for a time loved thee more than these I left my Father's Throne and right Hand him whom I was alwaies before brought up with him I left all to come down from Heaven to Earth to take thy flesh to be born of a Virgin and to be laid in a Manger to live a poor and contemned life in the world to die a shameful and ignominious death and all this to purchase for thee Eternal Life and Salvation and to redeem thee from thy vain conversation Have I not loved thee more than these What doth the Apostle say less than this when he saith 2 Cor. 8. 9. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor that you through his poverty might be made rich In what degree then canst thou be said to answer the Loves of Christ if when there is set before thee no more than the pleasures of sin which are but for a season the profits and enjoyments of this life which thou canst have no more than a Lease for Life of if thou canst not say Yea Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that I remember thy Love more than these Either this intoxicating Wine of sinful lusts and pleasures how gratifying soever they be to my fleshly appetite or this pleasant and gainful Wine of worldly Riches Estate Honour Preferment c. Oh that Christians would think of this 2. The second Consideration is yet more dreadful viz. He is not worthy of the Loves of Christ who doth not remember them more than Wine What Christ sometimes said of Love is as true concerning this remembrance of his Loves which is an act of Love Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son dâ— Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And what he saith there of natural Relations is doubtless as true concerning sensible Enjoyments in this world Riches and Honours c. which are objects of your love much beneath reasonable creatures in nearest relation to uâ— It is certainly as true That man or woman that remembers any sensible Enjoyment and is more affected with it than the Loves of Christ is not worthy of his Loves Certainly nothing more becometh us who pretend to be creatures endued with reason than to value things according to their measure and their true and just valuation You will say he is not worthy of a Jewel of great price that valueth a Pebble before it And by the way this will be enough to convince us all that we are saved by Grace and have what Love we have from Christ freely
c. and it proceeds from Christ as the great testimony of his love nor indeed doth Christ otherwise testify his special love than by the influences of his Spirit but I cannot tell why we should restrain it to the particular dispensation in the days of Pentecost I think Piscator expresseth the sense well by suum erga me amorem patefaciat let him manifest to me his love let me know that he loveth me yet supposing it the Reconciled Believing Soul that speaks it seems rather to be understood of further grace than the first grace of regeneration and reconciliation unto God the desire seems to be a desire of free familiar communion with Christ This seems to be the main of her request the great sum of her desires the uppermost of her Souls concernments But observe yet further She begs but a kiss not let him imbrace me but let him kiss me She asketh modestly if saith the woman in the Gospel I might but touch the Hem of his Garment Thus the woman of Canaan also Truth Lord but the Dogs eat the crums Thus the Spouse If he would but kiss me Oh! how precious is the least of Christ to a gracious Soul It is better to be kissed by him than to lie in the worlds arms to be a Door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness But thirdly The word is plural One kiss will not serve the turn she is not a stranger but a Spouse The plural number either imports 1. Various dispensations of Grace Or 2dly Repeated influences of the same Grace 1. It may be understood as denoting various dispensations of Grace Beza saith the Lord kissed the Soul thrice 1. In this life when he is by faith united to it 2. In the day of death when the Soul is taken up into the enjoyment of God 3. In the Resurrection when Body and Soul shall be united and together glorified Another reckons up 7 kisses with which the Lord kisseth his Peoples Souls The Grace of 1. Incarnation 2. The descending of the Holy Ghost 3. The preaching of the Gospel 4. Reconciliation to God 5. Sanctification 6. Divine Consolations 7. The kiss of Glory And the same Author makes the Spouses petition comprehensive of all these certain it is there are various dispensations of Grace there is quickning strengthening comforting Grace and there may be frequent repetitions of these to the Soul according to its particular wants and Gods favour towards it and you may indifferently understand the Text in either sense Fourthly The Spouse here doth not only desire kisses but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kisses of Christs mouth concerning which observe these 2 things 1. The kiss of the mouth was the highest kiss This was the kiss of Love the kiss of Reconciliation Osculum pacis the kiss of the Hand Feet c. was a kiss of honour and reverence and subjection the kiss of the mouth was the kiss of love and friendship of peace and reconciliation 2. I find most Interpreters hinting by this expression something yet more special viz. Communion with Christ in his word The word indeed is the fruit of the lips and cometh out of the mouth and God may seem in some propriety of speech to kiss the Soul with the kisses of his mouth when he speaks to it in his word The Lord will speak peace to his people saith the Psalmist and I create the fruit of the lips peace peace saith the Lord by his Prophet Isaiah some expositors to further this notion have observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes to instruct but I cannot find that usage of it in holy writ Grace is poured forth upon Christs lips she desires those kisses some drive the notion higher observing the difference between the Doctrine of the Law and that of the Gospel the first is terrible the second sweet and comfortable holding forth nothing but the love of God in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins hence the Gospel is called The word of reconciliation Lastly She saith Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth She desires not only to hear the Doctrine of the gospel but that Christ should speak it to her The Preacher speaks to the Ear Christ to the heart Quoties ergo in corde nostro quod de divinis dogmatibus sensibusque quaerimus absque monitoribers invenimus toties oscula nobis á Sponso esse data verbo Dei credimus saith Origen so often as we find God by his word Speaking to our hearts so often doth our beloved kiss us with the kisses of his mouth This is sufficient to have spoken for the Explication of the matter of the Text. There onely remains something more circumstantial to be observed The words are Vox Sponsae The Voice of the Spouse According to the civil usage of our Country and I think most others the Lover speaks first Here the Spouse begins It is so betwixt God and the soul Christ speaks first He is found of those that seek him not and of those that enquire not after him He first loves us and our Love to him proceedeth from his Love first manifested to us But you must not understand her that speaks as one that is a stranger and in a state of disunion with her beloved but as one that is already espoused and made a Spiritual Bride not desiring first grace but further grace which she needeth as well as the first grace for he giveth both to will and to do he is both the author and the finisher of faith and other grace Secondly The words are Vox Volentis The Language of a willing Soul Willing that Christ should come near unto it and take it up into fellowship and communion with himself God's people are a willing people They are indeed made so by a divine power Psal 101. 2. But Certum est nos velle cum volumus saith Aug. It is God who makes us of unwilling Willing When he hath had his first work upon our wills and subdued that strong hold unto himself Then we are willing Nay more Thirdly They are Vox cupientis The voice of a panting Soul not barely content that Christ should kiss it but passionately desiring his kisses They are as much as Oh! that he would kiss me Every gracious Soul passionately desireth fellowship and Communion with Jesus Christ Oh! saith holy David when wilt thou come to me Neither is this all the words are not onely to be considered as a good wish or passionate desire but as a fervent prayer Lastly therefore they are Vox supplicantis the Language of a praying soul where observe What she beggs Not riches not honour not pleasures not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the good things of fortune but the riches of grace her Petition is like that of David Lord lift thou up
to and in your soul to inable you further to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. After the beatifical visions of God in another life Learn hence the great difference there is betwixt earthly and spiritual objects of our desires and delights The worlds Crums are little valuable tho some are fond of its Loaves The good things of the world derive much of their value from the quantity of them that it throws into our laps The minimum quod sic the least portions of the pleasures profits or honours of it have little of value in them but the least of Christ is exceeding precious the things of the world affect not the Soul or or its necessities they are not certain pledges of greater measures they will go but a little way to fill the creatures emptinesses but it is otherwise with Spiritual blessings in and through Christ Thirdly You may from hence observe the difference betwixt the Hypocrites and the Saints desires after Christ An Hypocrite may pretend some desires after Christ nay he may really desire something of his love consider Christ as a Saviour as one that brings the Soul to life and immortality so he must necessarily be the object of the desire of every man that hath any view of his own mortality and that Eternal State to which man is ordained Even Balaam saith Oh that I might dye the death of the Righteous that my latter end might he like his But mark ye these are the fullest manifestations of Divine Love these are more than the kisses of his Mouth but for those tokens of love which are below these for such manifestations of the love of Christ as tend to the inabling of the Soul to serve and glorify God by the subduing of Mans will to the will of God the mortification of lusts and corrupt affections these are not at all valuable to a sensual man not indeed to any but to the changed and renewed Soul I do not know any one thing from which a Man may take better measure of himself and a good Christian may better distinguish himself from one that walketh in a vain shew and meerly glorifieth in appearance than this To a good Christian the least of Christs distinguisâ—iâ—g love is exceeding precious and more precious than the greatest portions of the worlds goods The workings of the Spirit of Christ within and upon the Soul subduing the will of Man to the will of God mortifying our Members and the deeds of the Body Taking the affections off the Earth and Earthly things and fixing them on more sublime and spiritual objects the giving of the Soul a good hope through grace these are things which we usually count some of the least tokens of special and distinguishing love Really they are great things nothing of Christ is little but we judge ordinarily according to sense we ordinarily esteem a sense or assurance or full persuasion of the love of God a much greater thing than these But now for a Soul to set an high price and value upon these to be more satisfied more to triumph and rejoice in the conquest of a lust the victory over a temptation than in the conquest of all our Enemies More to desire that our hearts may be filled with love to God desires after God delight in God than to have our Barns filled with Corn or our Purses with Gold and Silver this I take to be such a difference between a Christian indeed and a Christian in a meer Name Title and outward Profession as a Christian may rest in when he is inquiring into his Soul for evidences of the truth of grace Other manifestations of the love of God may be desired for our selves and with a respect only to our selves and the quiet relief and peace of our own Spirits a Christian can desire these only for the glory of God Try your selves therefore Christians by this Touchstone An Hypocrite may desire to know that his Sins are forgiven and that God would not impute Sin to his Soul or that he would impute a righteousness without works an Hypocrite may desire to live with God in glory but these lesser tokens of love he valueth not But alas even the best of Gods People must I fear be here reproved not for their no valuing of these kisses of Christ that is incompetent with a Child of God but for their not enough valuing of them and being too passionate and unsatisfied for want of the comforting manifestations of Divine Love I have before told you that these sensible manifestations of Divine Love are exceedingly desirable and there is no Child of God but is concerned to wish to pray to labour for them But we must take heed that we be not like our little Children whom we shall sometimes see too much slighting and undervaluing and ready to throw away what good things they have because they want some particular thing which they have a mind to which it may be we that are their Parents do not see so proper for them especially under their present circumstances It was lawful for Rachel to wish for to pray for Children but she sinned in saying to her Husband give me Children or else I die Hannah was much in the same error 1 Sam. 1. 8. weeping not eating and vexing her self because she had no Child and in the mean time forgetting that God had given her an Husband who was better to her than ten Sons So it is lawful nay the duty of a good Christian to pray to endeavour for the sweetest and fullest manifestations of Gods love But I have often thought that though these be good things of a Spiritual nature and so vastly differing from the good things of this life yet in this they agree with them that they must be asked with submission to the will of God because they are not de necessariis ad salutem things that are necessary to life and eternal Salvation but such which a Soul may want without any breach of Gods Covenant with the Soul 2. But for a Soul not only too passionately to desire these things which speaketh its not submitting to the will of God in his not dispensing them to it but to over-look deny or undervalue all the tokens for good which it hath received from God meerly because it hath not these and to conclude that it hath nothing of Christs love this is certainly what doth no become a Christian Certainly a Christian ought as much to value himself upon those emanations of grace by which he is inabled to serve and honour God as upon those by which his Soul is rendred more at ease more refreshed and comforted Every kiss of Christ every measure of special distinguishing love is and ought to be precious to a believing Soul Let me in the last place bottom upon this discourse a double word of exhortation The first respecting the Men of the world those I would persuade to leave off their pursuit of
high Priest became us c. Give me leave upon this argument to make use of the same words Christ hath Loves such a Saviour became the Sons of men and that upon a three fold account 1. As love stands opposed to hatred and wrath and Enmity Considering man as Gods Creature he was not hated of God God hâ—teth not the work of his own hand but considering him as a lapsed creature as degenerated into the Plant of a strange Vine after that God had created him a generous noble plant so he became the object of Gods wrath hatred and Enmity We were Children of wrath by nature saith the Apostle E ph 2. 3. God is angry with the wicked every day How Sutable to us now is it to have a Saviour That is Love and who hath Loves considering the aversion in the holy Divine Beeing from Mankind as rebellious Seed a Seed of Evil doers Who could have suited us to have become a Saviour unto us but one who had akind propension and inclination to us inclining him to the great work of mans Redemption and Reconciliation to God especially also considering that there could be no remission of sins without blood no reconciliation without the reconcilers Death he had need have loves that should dye for his Friend and he much more who should dye for Enemies that were by his death to be made friends 2. As Loves signifies multitude and infinitness of Love We have all a multitude of sins and there is a kind of infiniteness in sin indeed our Acts of Sin are not infinite we cannot number them we cannot measure them but they are to be numbred that is our comfort so that the ballance is on Gods side he hath infinite Mercies But there is an infiniteness of a will to sin in every Sinners heart if a Sinner were let alone he hath such a depth of vileness in his heart that if he were to live infinitely he would sin without limits without bounds infinitely there is an infiniteness in the guilt of Sin we had need of a Saviour that should have Loves an infinite of Love a multitude of Mercies for our multitude of Sins numberless pardons for numberless Sinnings we Sinned yesterday we sin this day and we shall sin to morrow If Christ had not Loves we could have no hopes 3. Thirdly such a Saviour became us As Loves signifyes a Variety of gracious inclinations We have a variety of wants Our wants are not all of one nature we have need of Love to pardon us and to bring us into a state of favour Love to preserve us and uphold us when we are in such a state of favour One or another gracious aspect and inclination of Christ would not have been enough for our Souls which are not onely miserable and stand in need of mercy but poor and stand in need of the riches of divine grace and naked and stand in need of the long White robe of Christs righteousness and blind and stand in need of his Eye Salve We are all Emptiness and stand in need of his fulness that we might receive of his fulness Grace for Grace Less than infinite Loves and variety of gracious inclinations a readiness to serve our Souls in a variety of distresses with a sutable Supply of grace grace suited to every necessity of our Souls could not have fitted our Souls which have not only wants and infirmities but are incompassed about with wants and infirmities Fifthly Let this report of Christ to your Souls ingage you to indeavour to be made the Objects of these Loves I have observed to you before that this text doth not speak of the Love of Christ with respect to his Father but with respect to us to the Sons of men they are the objects of the Loves of Christ here mentioned How should we all study and indeavour that we may be the Beloved the objects of these Loves not of his Love onely but of his Loves Arminians keep a great deal of stir with a Philanthropy in Christ a common Love which he hath for all the Sons and daughters of men Nor is the question betwixt them and other Divines so much about the thing as the extent of it Sober Divines will many of them grant in Christ a common Love to all mankind and speak of some things which they take to be the effects and products of it but admit it yet it is certain he hath also an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good pleasure of his will or Special kindness to some Souls So he hath Loves that is the benignity and kindness of his inclinations is more to Some than to others Let none of us satisfy our selves to be the Object of Christs Love unless we be the object of his Loves I shall press this onely with One Argument It is this Nothing but the Loves of Christ can serve our Souls as to their true Spiritual and eternal Concernment There is a great stir made in the world about a common Love which Christ should have for all the Sons and daughters of men and there are many that would make the Death of Christ to be the Effect of this Common Love And so conclude that he intentionally dyed for all and Every man Others are not of that mind but yet will allow all men and women in the world to receive some good from Christ and that not onely considered as God over all blessed for ever and one with his Father and so in him we live move and have our Being But as Mediator It is from him they say that the world yet stands that the Gospel is preached to the worst of men I see little in this worth the contending for I would gladly know what real advantage accrueth to any Soul from being the common object of Divine Love Admitting that all shal not be saved for whom Christ dyed which they must hold who hold that Christ dyed for all and every man unless they hold universal Salvation I would fain know what relief any Soul can have from this notion of Christs dying for all which some so much contend for Supposing that all men shall not be saved but those onely whom Christ hath loved with a Special Love Nothing can possibly revive a Soul troubled as to its Spiritual and eternal concerns but some evidence of that It is said of the young man who came to Christ so hopefully Mar. 10. 21. kneeling to him saying Master what good thing may I do that I may obtain everlasting Life that he loved him With that general Love which he hath for all his Creatures especially such as have any seeds of goodness in them yet the Text saith he went away Sorrowful Let us labour for the Special Love of Christ Such tokens of his Love as may distinguish betwixt us and those who shall perish But to shut up this Discourse This notion calleth upon all of us who would be like Christ to have Loves also There are two
Christ is so sweet to the Soul I answer 1. Because it signifieth him to be the fountain of the greatest spiritual good to us his name Messiah and Christ signify him to be separated and set apart of God for the accomplishment of the great business of our Salvation his name Emanuel signifies him to have Hypostatically united in one Person the Divine and Humane Nature that he might be a fit Mediator that he might die and merit salvation for us by dying his name Jesus signifies that he is a Saviour his name Shiloh speaketh him to be a Peace-maker his name of an Advocate signifies him to transact our business in Heaven for us his name of High Priest signifies him to have offered for us a propitiatory Sacrifice to have made an atonement for us to bless us to interceed for us the like I might say of his other names Now if the name of a friend who hath done some great kindness for us be oft-times sweet like an Oil poured forth unto us how much sweeter must be his name by whom we are blessed with all Spiritual blessings Secondly Because by his Name or in his name our greatest blessings are obtained How sweet must that name be to the begger upon the use of which all its wants are supplied Is salvation worth any thing There is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved but only the name of Jesus do our Souls want any thing Whatsoever you shall ask in my Name that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son John 14. 13. Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you ch 16. v. 23. Is the Soul trembling under the sense of its guilt doth horrour surprize it do the terrors of the Lord distract it a wounded Spirit who can bear by the discovery of the Lord Christs name to it in the Gospel promises in the mercy truth and faithfulness of Christ it is freed from these The discovery the least discovery of Christ to the troubled Soul is like the Sun beam to the weather beaten and be-wildered Traveller like the shadow to him whom the heat maketh faint like light to him that fitteth in darkness like life to him that fitteth in the shadow of death How sweet is the discovery of Christs truth in his promises the sealing of a promise to a poor doubting Soul Every Soul that hath experienced it will say It is like Oil poured forth I come to the application of this discourse Is the name of the Lord Jesus so exceeding sweet like an Oil poured forth Oh then what is Christ himself It is Origens application Si solo nomine Quid ejus faciet substantia How sweet is the Oil upon the Crown of the head when that which runs down to the skirts of the garment is so sweet Open all created boxes admit that all their sweet qualities would unite and conspire to make one compounded fragrant smell distill all the odoriferous herbs that the Earth bringeth forth mix all the sweet gums and odoriferous spices of Arabia and the whole Eastern part of the world let them all make one body and contribute all their delicious qualities to the composition of one Oil or Ointment to please the wanton sense of a Creature what would they all signify to one Christ Oh blessed Jesus thou that art altogether delights clear the Nostrils of vain Creatures stopt with their own lusts and the vanities of pitiful creature satisfactions and contentments that they may take the air of thy delicious names and follow thee in the savour of thy most precious Ointments Secondly Is the name of Christ in this life so exceeding sweet Oh what will the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven be When the Saints shall see him as he is when they shall be ever with the Lord beholding his face rejoycing in his presence when they shall be at his right hand where are and shall be Pleasures and fulness of Pleasures and that for evermore here we know in part and see in part and the greatest part of that we know of Christ amounteth not to the least part of what we do not know then the Saint shall see him face to face and know him as he is known by him Surely we should cry out with the Psalmist Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts Here we sit but under the shadow of the Apple tree yet it is with great delight and his fruit is pleasant unto our tast how sweet will it be to be within the arms of it If a Garden of Flowers or a Bed of Spices casteth aâ—sweet smell at a 1000 miles distance what will it do when we come near it O you to whom the name of Christ is as an Ointment poured forth follow the savour of it it will bring you to that place of delights where your Souls shall be ever satiated but never nauseated Thirdly Observe from hence the difference betwixt a natural carnal man and a spiritual man The name of Christ is published in all our parts of the world The Gospel is published that is Christs name saith Gencbrard upon my Text but the natural man discerneth no sweetness in it he can smell sweetness in a perfume but in the name of Christ he can smell nothing sweet Nay what is more unpleasing to a carnal heart than the name of Christ and there is reason for it for to him Christs name is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah his name is a Judge an Enemy c. In the second place what an argument is here to persuade those that hear it to labour for a discovery of Christs name to their Souls To persuade sick and fainting Souls to make application of Christs name to themselves To all to study Christs name more to wear it upon their hearts to meditate of it c. 1. To persuade those who know little or nothing of Christ as yet to get a knowledge of Christs name sweetness naturally enticeth the sense and attracts the Soul shall the incomparable sweetness of Christ draw no Souls unto him shall the air of Solomons name bring the Q of the South from the furthest parts of the Earth and shall Christs name draw never a Sinner invite never a Soul to come and tast and see how sweet how good the Lord is You that are enticed with the smell of a flower that lay out your mony for persumes of no value will you have no value for these sweet Ointments Alexander the great was said to have had such a rare temper of his body that it cast forth a natural sweetness I am sure there is an infinite a transcendent sweetness in the Lord Jesus O let the Virgins love him Men and Women that are in a state of Nature are in one sense Virgins not for purity but as not married to Christ O do you love Christ for the
Notion Isa 40. 31. They shall run and not be weary When men begin to be weary they leave running they go a foot-pace as it were draw their leggs after them Now saith the Spouse Lord draw me and we will run we will not be weary in our courses of holiness and duty we will not faint and give over But running in its abstract and single notion doth not conclude Perseverance running added to not being weary doth So here supposing first a drawing then a running in obedience to that while the Lord draweth the Soul will run but we shall no longer dance to him than he pipeth to us And this I think sufficient to open the Spouse's Promise Only add further that those who run must have a way or path to run in What is the Spouse's way Beza saith that Christ is both the Principle from which we run the way in which we run and the End of the Race It is true but in a diversified Notion Christ is our Prâ—nciple in the gracious Influences of his Spirit Without me saith he you can do nothing Christ in his Word and Gospel is our way I will run the way of thy Commandments saith David Psal 119. 132. This is the Race set before us Heb. 12 1. The following of Christ commanded Luk. 9. 23. Christ in his Example in the fulness of the measure of his stature Christ in his Glory is our End That then which the Spouse here promiseth amounts to this Lord I am weak and impotent I cannot come unto thee I cannot of my self move after thee I am hindered by the prevalency of my lusts and corruptions Who shall deliver me from my body of death Who can but thou alone Lord draw me make me willing keep me willing put forth thy mighty Power and sweetly constrain my Soul by thy love then I shall not stand still but move in thy waâ—es I shall not move wâ—akly but strongly not slowly but chearfully freely nimbly I shall not be faint nor weary but hold on in the way of thy Precepts until I come to the fulness of the measure of the stature which is in thee yea until the day break and the shadows fly away and I come to thee in that glory which thou hadst prepared for them that love thee and sollow the Lamb in glory whithersoever he goeth But there is yet one thing further to be considered 2. Qu. What meaneth the change of the Number Her request was in the Singular Number Draw me her promise is the Plural We will or we shall run after thee Who are these We 1. Thou and I together fay some Indeed this must be I live saith the Apostle yet not I but Christ liveth in me We read in Ezekiel's Vision of the Wheels of his Vision of a Spirit within the Wheels without which the Wheels moved not Suppose Wheels put upon the Soul yet the Soul moveth not without the Spirit moving the Wheels Ego cum gratia tud saith Genebrard But this seems to me too nice 2. I rather therefore chuse to expound it with the most of Interpreters and to say that by We is here meant The individual Believer and all her companions Ego adolescentulae mecum saith Bernard Ego Puellae meae saith Tremellâ—us I and my Maidens I and my Virgins I and all mine So it imports thus much that the Child of God once drawn to Christ will make it her business to draw others along with her Yet a little further to enquire the reason why she changeth the Number Doth she promise for more than she would pray for Or doth she envy others that drawing grace which she prayed for for her self Doubtless neither what then 1. Possibly Bernard's notion may be more acute than solid We are drawn saith he when we are tempted when we are afflicted and exercised with tryals we run when we are refreshed and comforted She would have the sowre for her self and the sweet for others She did not know their strength here was her charity But I say this seemeth too nice for certain it is that all who run after Christ must be first drawn one way or other and that by power God's People are made willing in the day of his power 2. Beza therefore speaks better I think When she saith Draw me she speaketh in the person of the whole Church so had a liberty to speak either in the one or the other Number So that as Ludov. de Ponte hath well observ'd by this change of the Number she shews that the Church which consists of many is yet but One according to that of the Apostle Rom. 12. 5. We being many are one body 3. By this alteration of the Number she sheweth That she believed it as easie with God to draw many as one 4. Lastly Though the Saints be many yet the end of Christ's drawing them is That they might be one John tells us ch 11. 52. That the end of Christ's dying was That he might gather together in one the Children of God which were scattered abroad Thus I have opened the terms But before I part with them I must mind you who are capable of that Learning That the Seventy add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to which our English Translation should have been We will run after thee in the savour of thy Ointments The Vulgar Latine follows them so do Origen Ambrose Theodoret Vigilius Hildebrand Greg. Magnus Nyssen Bernard Honorius c. and generally the Popish Writers but Lyra who is one of them differeth and agreeth with the Hebrew which hath not those words and thinks they were put in by some Expositor in the way of an interlineary gloss and afterwards got into the Text through the unskilfulness of some Transcribers How they came into the Text in Translations we cannot tell Sure we are they are not in the Hebrew and therefore our English Translators had no reason to put them in though they make no new Doctrine for the believing Soul doth in leed follow Christ in the savour of his Ointments We heard before that therefore do the Virgins love him and it is their love to him which maketh them to run after him But that is enough to have cautioned you of I proceed to the following words of the Text The King hath brought me into his Chambers This I called The Spouses acknowledgment or testification of her beloveds answer The word translated King is the ordinary word used by the Hebrews to express that relation by she doubtless meaneth by the King the King of Kings the mighty God I shall not restrain it to Christ considered as a Mediator upon which account he hath a peculiar Kingdom The King God my King Hath brought me The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Hiphil signifies he hath made me to come or made me to go Into his Chambers The word is often used in Scripture translated a Chamber Gen. 43. 30. Jud. 15. 1. A
Christ told the Inhabitants of Hierâ—salem that he would have gathered them but they would not And hence appears that it is no wonder that Arminians who will allow none but common grace before conversion should contend that it may be finally resisted for there is no doubt but all common grace may be finally resisted 2. But secondly We say there is a working drawing grace which may be for a while opposed but cannot be finally resisted By this the Soul is regenerate and born again and that not after the will of the flesh or the will of Man but the will of God This we say cannot be finally resisted the reasons are 1. Because by this God gives a new heart and a new spirit and causeth the Soul to walk in his statutes as you will find Jer. 31. 18. ch 36. v 26. Now grace cannot be resisted but from an old heart and indeed it is a contradiction to say God may be resisted by a new heart 2. Again if this grace might finally be resisted the whole business of mans Salvation must depend upon his own goed nature and the power of his own will and the proximate cause of a mans repentance faith holiness must be in himself Thirdly We say there is a co-working Grace by which as Augustine saith being first drawn we move being acted we act this is that grace which God followeth converted Souls with that Grace which followeth the Child of God all the days of his life without which he can do nothing Job 1â— 3. through which strengthening and assisting him he can do all things through which he lives and moves in his spiritual sphere this is resistible in part through that law in our members which rebelleth against the law of our mind and brings us into captivity to the law of sin Hence is the spiritual combate the lustings of the flesh against the Spirit Yet this is but a partial resistance not from the whole of the regenerate Soul but from the flesh in it which lusteth against the Spirit from that part which is yet unregenerate Nor shall this resistance be victorious but the same Soul that crieth out O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of Death shall in the next words say I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ Thus I have shewed you how God in the drawing of a Soul to Christ worketh powerfully But 2dly As he works powerfully so he works sweetly powerfully so that he will be obeyed sweetly so that he is freely obeyed the conversion of a sinner is an act of power but not of violence the mystery of this lieth here Because the effect of grace is upon the will of man Violence is then offered to us when we are compelled to actions contrary to our wills The will is not indeed capable of violence the will may be changed renewed otherwise inclined but not forced force can only be offered to the outward man and why those who contend for a power in man so renew change alter otherwise incline his own will should find a difficulty to allow God as much power as they claim for man who is but a creature I cannot understand Thus far I have shewed you that a Soul must be drawn before it come to Christ I have yet further to shew you that it must be drawn or it will not run after Christ In this drawing indeed there needeth not such a power as in the former the reason is because now to will is present with the Soul as St. Paul saith it only wanteth strength to perform But an influence a powerful influence there must be I believe said he in the Gospel Lord help my unbelief Lord increase our faith said the Apostles without me you can do nothing saith our Saviour Joh. 15. 3. and again saith he as the branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the Vine so no more can you except you abide in me and 2 Cor. 3. 5. Our sufficiency is of God we are not able of our selves so much as to think any thing Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me we are kept by the power of God to Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. The Apostle speaking of the weak Brother saith God is able to make him to stand We stand in grace Rom. 5. 3. Christ prayeth that Peters faith might not fail while Satan winnowed him like wheat God giveth both to will and to do both of his own good pleasure but I shall not need heap up Scriptures in so plain a case I shall have advantage enough to prove it from Reason concluding from Scripture principles 1. In the first place the Scripturé speaketh of the Children of God in this life as in a state of imperfection Not saith the Apostle as though we were perfect or had already attained Phil. 3. 12. To have no further need of Grace speaketh a self-sufficiency and a state of perfection which is every where in holy writ denyed to man in this life nothing needs be added to that man who stands in no need of the power and assistance of Divine Grace but the holy Scripture every where speaketh of the state of man while on this side Heaven as a state in which something is lacking to him of Heaven only as that state wherein just Souls are made perfect wherein that which is perfect shall be come and that which is in part shall be done away Secondly As the Child of God before he comes to Christ is in Scripture represented in a state of death Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickned Eph. 2. 1. Who were dead in trespasses and sins So when come to Christ it represents him in a state of weakness Ro. 5. 6. When we were yet without strength Christ died for us Not only life but strength was a piece of the purchase of Christ for us Christ saith as to his Sheep John 10. 10. I am come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly The Children of God are all as Mephibosheth the Sons of Jonathan and so beloved of David united to Christ and so beloved of God and must eat bread at his Table but they are all of them like him lame of their Feet Now those that are without strength cannot run running doth not only require life as the principle of motion but strength also to assist the motion what the Apostle saith of their knowledge and prophecying they know in part and prophecy in part is as true concerning all their other gracious habits and acts they are all but in part they are in this like Nebuchadnezzars Image part of Iron and part of Clay Adam indeed had both his legs a full strength and could of himself without any need of the assistance of a Mediator have done all that God required of him in that state as necessary to his Salvation but he fell and did not only for his posterity as well as for himself lose his innocency and
righteousness but his spiritual strength and ability also His fall causing the need of a Mediator and a coming unto him that we might have life caused also the need of the influence of the Holy Spirit upon us to quicken and innable us to com◠unto him and to walk with him Hence there was a need of such a Covenant for God to make as that mentioned Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn from them to do them good but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from me Thirdly That body of death which remains in the best of Gods People evinceth a necessity of a continued powerful influence of grace to keep the Soul in any motion especially in any quickness of motion after God That we have weights that pressus down a sin which easily besets us a body of death as St. Paul calls it proper lufts lustings of the flesh against the Spirit is evident in holy writ we are indeed at last more than conquerours over this inteftine adversary but it is through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 7. For lust is so connatural to us the lustings of the flesh so strong in us that our regenerate part could never else maintain the Spiritual fight Besides as I shall shew you as we have an impotency so as we cannot so much as will the thing which is good so we have also a natural dulness and aversion to it and this also remaineth in part in the regenerate Soul nor to be conquered without the influence of the holy Spirit Lastly The many hinderances which the Soul hath from its Enemies without will also hinder it from running James tells us that every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed This is a temptation from within à carne this would be too hardfor a Soul in its own strength But it hath also Enemies from without both from its grand adversary the Devil and also from the world I must confess I have met with one never but one that would pretend to maintain a power in man to resist the strongest Temptations without any extraordinary assistance of the Spirit of grace this he would impose upon the world to believe because that Joseph resisted the temptation from his Mistriss That Joseph did resist that temptation is plain in Scripture but that he did it by no further assistance of Grace than Reuben had who defiled his Fathers Bed or Absolom who went in to his Fathers Concubines will want better proof than any I find in his discourse I cannot but think that if man without the assistance of special grace had a power as he boldly saith to resist the strongest temptations we should have none destroy themselves upon temptations to self murder Atbeistical thoughts and Despair It is an inaccountable thing why any should destroy themselves if this Doctrine were true especially if they be persons not before possest of atheistical principles believing there is neither God nor Devil Heaven or Hell who can give an account suppose it in the power of the best of men to resist the strongest temptations without any special grace how David the man according to Gods own heart came to fall into the sin first of Adultery then of Murther To will was certainly present with him as well as with Paul how came he to want a strength to perform but from Gods withdrawing his special influence of grace from him and leaving him to his own strength which though the strength of a renewed man yet is too little to grapple with a strong temptation If even the best of men without the powerful influence of special grace can resist strong temptations how came Peter to fall by denying his Master by swearing and cursing that he did not know him he manifested that to will was present with him by his telling our Saviour that altho all men should forsake him yet he would not God was pleased to with-hold his powerful influence and to leave Peter to the ordinary strength even of a renewed man he was not able to grapple with the temptation It is so far from being true that man hath a power to resist the strongest temptations that without Christs influence assisting he hath not a power to resist any temptation whether from the World the Flesh or the Devil It is Musculus his observation upon John 15. 3 Our Saviour doth not fay without me you cannot do much or all but you can do nothing Nor if it be a strong temptation such as the fear of life c. can a Christian resist and overcome it without a more than ordinary assistance of Divine Grace proportioned to the degree of temptation But vain man would be wise though he be but as an Asses Colt he would be strong though in very deed he is weaker than water he would be all to himself though he be nothing in himself 5. But for a further proof of this Proposition concerning the necessity of drawing powerful influences of Divine Grace both with reference to the Souls first motions and coming to Christ and further motions in following Christ and running after him I shall but appeal to the experience of all converted Souls If there be an heart before me which God hath truly changed any one that is not only converted from one opinion to another or one profession to another from Paganism to Christianity but indeed converted from the love of sin and lusts to the love of God and the hatred of all sin and an endeavour to walk close with God from an opinion and confidence of and in any righteousness in itself wherein it can hope to stand before God to a trusting and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Righteousness I appeal to that Soul what was it thinkest thou that inclined thy heart to accept of Jesus Christ for thy Saviour to commit all the concerns of thy Soul unto him and to alter thy course of life from a principle of love to God and obedience to his will more than anothers who sate in the same Seat with thee or lived in the same House and sate under the same Ministry heard the same Sermons how camest thou to be taken thy Neighbour left how came thy will to move regularly whiles thy Neighbour under the same circumstances still retained his stiff neck and iron sinews and hard heart and continued in the same lewd and sinful courses who made thee to differ Didst thou make thy self to differ How came it that he did not also make himself to differ I know there is no Soul whose heart is truly changed but will say if almighty power had not changed me I had been as bad as any other And so since thy Soul hath been changed thou hast met with Temptations to sin thou hast resisted them overcome them triumphed over them others possibly some very good men have fallen by and under them who
temptations As easie a thing as some make it to believe many Souls smitten of God and truly afflicted under the sense of sin find it one of the most difficult things in the world to give such a firm and steady Assent to the Revelation of the Gospel as will produce in their Souls any grounded confidence and resting on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour and shall be productive of such a change of heart and life as the Gospel requireth Hence though they be truly wounded in the sense of sin and have taken up resolutions through the Grace of God to sin no more as they have done formerly yet they cannot tell how to bring their Souls to any fiducial adherence and rest on the Lord Jesus Christ but they are still full of doubts and fears concerning their spiritual and eternal state the guilt of their sins is upon their consciences and they pine away in and under it but they are not able to reach out an hand to the Promise in and through Christ they have deep sights of their misery but they can see no hope no mercy at all in God for them Now to such Souls as these this is some relief to consider That no man cometh to the Son unless the Father draweth him It is no wonder that thou who hast formerly been not a stranger only but an enemy to God canst not at first come unto him without a powerful influence of Divine Grace when as those who are brought home to God stand in need of a daily Divine Influence to enable them to walk with him and to run after him This is not the weakness or frowardness or badness of thine heart alone it is the condition of every lapsed Soul And here the thinking Soul will come to feel the wound given it by the Fall of Adam and its own original corruption No man hath by nature more aptitude than another to acts truly spiritual You will say this is very cold comfort We are sure if we be without Christ we are undone and what if our hearts be no worse than others were till they were made better by the Power of Divine Grace so long as that they are so bad as we cannot come to Christ for life We have been lying in this state at the Pool of Bethesda under the Ordinances of God many months and years others within the time have been rolled in here we lie still as weak as ever I will but offer two things to the relief of a Soul thus complaining 1. That every Christian drawn to Christ doth not presently discern it Faith is one thing the sense of that Faith is another thing Many a Child of Light doth not walk in the Light I would hope charitably that that Soul which complains that it cannot believe and seriously bemoans its impotency doth believe a serious desire to believe is generally the fruit of believing I would say to the Soul that thus complaineth Thou art awakened to consider an Eternity and that thy Soul is hastening towards an Eternity yet thou dost not despair thou hast some hope In what is thy hope What dost thou trust in with reference to thy Eternal Happiness Such a Soul will easily see that its Moral Righteousness or Formal Performance of Duties are not the things it hopeth in Where then is thy hope those degrees of hope which keep thee out of the Pit of despair fixed Where can it be fixed but in Christ exhibited in the Promises of the Gospel so as thou rather complainest for want of sense than for want of 〈◊〉 2. If thou dost but pray and wait thou shalt see Christ will make thee to see that he hath drawn thy Soul unto himself Never poor Soul perished under thy circumstances that is heavy loaden under the sense of sin and weary of its sinful courses and sensible that it hath no Righteousness wherein it can stand before God and panting and thirsting after the Lord and his Righteousness I have alwaies thought that God would not be wanting to any as to his special Grace that had made the best improvement he could of common Grace But this case riseth higher God hath begun his good work in thy Soul and he will perfect it he hath begun with thee in a way of special Grace and more shall be added he hath brought to the birth and shall he not give strength to bring forth so as thou hast nothing to do but to pray to wait upon God in his Ordinances and to wait for God with patience Secondly I hear others complaining They would run after God they would follow the Lord fully the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak they find their corruptions their temptations so strong their strength against them so small that they wonder they hold out so long and fear they shall one day fall They cannot find that they run after Christ something of duty they do but with so much dulness and heaviness as is far from running Christian be of good comfort 1. The Lord will draw thee do what in thee lieth the Lord will draw thee Who saith Paul shall deliver me from this body of death He presently subjoyns I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Spouse prayeth in Faith when she saith Draw me and we will run after thee If Abraham had considered his own body at that time dead as to such acts or the deadness of Sarah's womb he had never glorified God by a strong Faith in the Promise Rom. 3. 21. He considered none of these but the Promise only and concluded that what the Lord had promised he was able to perform Thou considerest how busie the Devil is and what he can do How strong thy lusts are how weak thou art and how little thou art able to do But thou dost not consider what a mighty God can do what he can do who hath said To him that hath shall be given and he shall have in more abundance Thou seest a great Mountain of lusts and corruptions great Mountains of temptations and thou art afraid But what art thou O great Mountain before the Lord 's Zerubbabel If it be the Lord's work who shall let him 2. Consider The Lord may sometimes not draw 〈…〉 as at other times and our running will bear a proportion to his drawing The Mother will never leave the little Child to go wholly alone for fear it falls she will alwaies have an hand upon it but she may sometimes put forth more sometimes less of the strength of that hand God never leaveth us wholly to our selves he knows we cannot stand or go without him but he sometimes lets us feel more of his strength sometimes less 3. Going slowly when God slackens his hand is indeed running that is equivalent to a going faster with a further influence It is like the Widdows Mite who hath no more to put in Like Hezekiah's chattering like a Crane Like the voice of David's weeping Like the sorrowful sighings of the
his Spirit but thy Soul is yet unquiet and impatient it is thy duty yet to wait upon God to chide down thy tumultuous and unquiet thoughts all the risings up and murmurings of thy Soul against God to adore and to admire God where thou canst not see or understand him to acknowledge Gods goodness and holiness though thou canst not discern his goodness as to thee in this particular Thus did David Psal 22. 3. after he had complained that he had cried in the day time and the Lord did not hear and in the night season and was not silent v. 3. he saith But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel This is most certainly our duty under such providences as these are we must not look in this life to understand all Gods ways and methods of providence much less the reasons of them that is a piece of knowledge reserved for another world all that we have to do is to observe and study them and where we cannot find them out to admire and adore them and to wait upon him that wrappeth up himself in thick darkness and hideth his face from the House of Jacob. This waiting doth not only signify a passive quietness silence and patience but an active doing our duty Waiting on the Lord and keeping his way are put together Psal 37. we ought not to leave off praying because in our apprehensions at least our prayers lie by without answer much less to slacken our course of holiness but to resolve as the Church did for Zions sake so for our own sake not to hold our peace we have for this an excellent president in the example of the Church Psal 44. 17. All this is come upon us saith she yet have we not forgotten thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant Our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death then she concludeth with prayer v. 23 24 25 26. Awake why sleepest thou O Lord arise cast us not off for ever wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and oppression For our Soul is bowed down to the dust our belly cleaveth to the Earth Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy sake Sermon XXV Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his Chambers IF any asketh who is this King whom the text speaks of as the question soundeth like that Psal 24. v. 8. Who is the King of glory So the answer must be much the same The Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battel the Lord of Hosts he is the King of Glory He is the King of Nations for all the Nations of the Earth are the work of his hands and he hath a Native Lordship and dominion over them He is the King upon the holy hill of Sion the King of Saints they have chosen him he ruleth in them and reigneth over them they have chosen him he hath subdued their hearts unto him and hath chosen them for his peculiar people this is the King of whom the Church and the believing Soul here speaketh and saith The King hath brought me into his Chambers It is the same Person of whom she spake v. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth To whom she said v. 3. Draw me and we will run after thee There she spake to him as her beloved here she speaketh of him as a King there she prayed for something that she wanted here she praiseth and giveth thanks for something she had received I have already taken notice of the alteration of her stile of her so sudden giving thanks upon the quick return God had made to her prayers I come now to consider the mercy or good thing she had received which she expresseth in the same metaphorical dialect which she useth throughout this Song The King hath brought me into his Chambers when I at first opened the whole verse I endeavoured to find out what this mercy was in the receit of which the Spouse triumpheth in this text I then considered Chambers as places more lofty then others and and of more privacy and secrecy and from thence concluded that the Spouse by this phrase signifieth some special favours which she had received from God some special and more near and intimate degrees of fellowship and communion with God into which her beloved had taken her The Proposition I offered from the words for my further explication was this That the Lord Jesus Christ hath Chambers in which he sometimes entertaineth the Souls of his people He hath a favour for them all Rooms in his House for all the sizes of his people but he hath Chambers for some or into which he sometimes takes up the Souls of his Saints the subject of my discourse will be such special favours as God sheweth to some Souls or to the Souls of his people at some times This is evident in holy writ Abraham was called the Friend of God Moses is called his Servant emphatically Moses my Servant is dead David the man according to Gods own heart Solomon was named by God Jedidiah a man beloved of God There are four degrees in the love of God as it respecteth the Children of men 1. He hath a Philanthropy or general love which he sheweth towards all He leaveth not the Heathen without witness In him all men live move and have their being from him they have fruitful times and seasons which fill their bellies with food their hearts with gladness their bellies are filled with his hid treasure The patience of God leadeth them to repentance The invisible things of God even his eternal power and God-head are made known to them by his works of Creation by the things which he hath made 2. He hath a more special love for his Church This is seen in his more special providence exercised towards his whole Church which are more watched over and preserved by a common providence then any other body of people are They have also the Oracles of God the Ordinances of God and means of grace and this latter is certainly an effect of the death of Christ 3. He hath yet a more special love for all those within his Church who are effectually called whose hearts God hath seized and subdued to himself they are made partakes of more special grace being called justified and sanctified and such who shall hereafter be most certainly glorified 4. But there is yet another specialty of Divine love even amongst those who are made partakers of special saving graces some are more specially favoured in this life and shall be more eminently then others glorified in that life which is to come These more special favours to the Saints that are all made partakers of the same saving grace are the subject of my present enquiry 1. Some here understand the mansions of glory but they are forced to make an
promises The only thing that I can fancy why a Christian should make a doubt here is because they may be consequent to the removal of some bodily distempers whose influence upon the mind might cause those troubles that weakness or dulness such as Melancholy c. But hath God no hand in bringing or removing such bodily causes if he hath as certainly there is no evil in our bodies more than in our Cities which he hath not done why may not God both afflict us as to our spirits by sending such distempers upon our bodies and also remove the former which are the effect by the removal of the latter which he hath made to be the cause So that admit these things consequent to the removal of some bodily distemper yet they are the effect of God and may be and ought to be looked upon as the answer of our prayers 3. The greatest difficulty of judgment in this case is as to those things which are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things which concern this life which God giveth to the righteous as well as the wicked to the sinner crying unto him as well as unto his Children How a Christian shall discern that God when he gives him in these mercies gives them in as a God of Truth and Faithfulness remembring his promise to his Servants nor indeed is this Judgment very easie to the most discerning Christian Something I shall say in the case whether what will be satisfactory or no I cannot tell 1. If they have been given in after prayer made with a Spirit indifferent not too importunate I mean for the receiving of them we may hope well We may observe in Scripture that sometimes common good things have been wrung out of the hands of God by too much impatience and importunity which have never proved blessings Such were the Quails Num. 11. 31 32 33. the Text saith while the flesh was yet between their teeth e're it was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the People Such was the first King given to the Israelites even Saul the Prophet saith Hosea 13. 11. I gave thee a King in mine anger But when a Christian begs of God any good thing without too much impatience and importunity with an indifferency of Spirit resigning up himself to the will of God as to the receiving of it and God after such a prayer gives in the mercy I know not why we should not conclude it an answer of prayer This I think was the case of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. She was indeed grieved and troubled because God had denied to her the blessing of a Child in this trouble she prays in a solemn manner we read not of any anger in her Spirit against God any impatience or sinful importunity but she prays as a Woman of a troubled Spirit the Lord gives her a Child it was but a mercy of a common nature wicked Women have Children as well as others but it is given in after a solemn prayer she looks upon the Child as begged of God For this Child saith she I prayed and the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him 2. I shall add but one thing more viz. When together with the good thing there is an heart given to the person to improve and make use of it for the honour and glory of God James lets us know that God never gives us in mercies in answer to our prayers and as evidences of his love and faithfulness that we might consume them upon our lusts when he tells those to whom he wrote James 4 5. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts when God giveth us in an outward mercy if he giveth it us in performance of his promise and in token of his love and favour he together with it gives in an heart inclined and ready to make use of it for the honour and glory of his name This is also exemplified in the case of Hannah in the text before-mentioned 1 Sam. 1. 27 28. For this Child saith she I prayed the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord. In the margent of your larger Bibles you will see it may be read He whom I have obtained by Petition shall be returned to the Lord. You have another no less famous instance of it in David Psal 116. v. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and supplications The Lord hath heard his voice v. 1. He had inclined his ear unto him v. 2. The Lord had dealt graciously with him v. 7. He had delivered his Soul from death his Eyes from tears and his feet from falling Now mark the product of this He loved the Lord because of it v. 2. He resolveth to call upon the Lord so long as he lived v. 9. To walk before the Lord in the land of the living v. 13. To take the cup of salvation and to call upon the name of the Lord. v. 14. To pay his vows v. 16. To be the Lords Servant v. 17. To offer the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving c. Now where upon prayer for a more common mercy suppose life health riches success in business we find that the Lord hath given us both the thing which we asked of God and an heart to honour God with it and to make a due improvement of it we have there no reason to doubt but that it is given us in answer to our prayers and in testification of his faithfulness and love towards us This now is of great concern to us in order to our gladness and joy in him upon the receiving an answer of our prayers for how shall we rejoice in him upon any such occasion unless we discern our good things coming from him This I think is enough to have spoken to this question and upon this whole argument I shall now proceed as God gives me opportunity to the other effect this mercy had upon the Spouse We will remember thy loves more than Wine But of this hereafter Sermon XXIX Cant. 1. 4. We will remember thy Loves more than Wine YOU heard in my last discourse the first effect that the Beloveds favour shewed to his Spouse in the quick return he made to her prayers and the royal favour he had bestowed upon her in bringing her into his Chambers admitting her to some more special and intimate degrees of communion with himself had upon her it put gladness into her heart and brought her up to an exulting and rejoycing in him Joy is but a passion cito fit cito perit that doth not last alwaies it is like a Land-flood that is sometimes up but will in a short time abate Ordinary Joys do so But the Spouse resolves to keep up here and to this end she saith She will remember the Loves of Christ and give them a
is full either of such as are excessive drinkers of Wine or Merchants for it but how thin is it of such as have any remembrance of Christs love who as the Apostle tells us died to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish who can be said to remember Christs love more then Wine that lives in those sins which crucified him who was the Lord of life Yet is not this the course of the most Men and Women who never think of their dying Saviour to restrain them in their drunkennesses debaucheries in their greatest excesses of Riot Nay how many are there that seldom take the love of Christ into their thoughts the love of their cups and of their Harlots hath made Christs loves to be utterly forgotten by their Souls for how can they say that they remember Christs loves above their lusts that will not quench one lust for his sake they in whom the remembrance of Christs death will not extinguish one vile affection one spark of pleasing lust will not the most of men and women yea such in whose ears the loves of Christ are published every Lords day be found perishing for preferring the very lees and dregs of Wine before the loves of Christ I mean for preferring the basest and most sordid kind of pleasures and satisfactions of the flesh for such are those pleasures which are no more than the gratifying of the sensitive appetite 2. Do not most mens discourses and practice betray them to remember Wine I mean their profitable things before the loves of Christ How much is the world and the things of the world the discourse of all companies upon all occasions how few are the discourses concerning Christ and what he hath done for us an hours discourse of Christs loves in a Pulpit upon the Lords day is thought proportionable to six days discourse about our earthly occasions do we not even grudge the Lord a seventh part of our time for the remembrances of his loves the Lords day is a day to call to remembrance Christs loves It was the day of his resurrection by which he compleated mans redemption the Ministers work is to help us in our remembrance of his loves We have besides our attendance upon the publick ministry a private duty this day incumbent upon us viz. To remember him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification I beseech you consider whether your remembrings of Christs loves upon the Sabbath day bear any proportion to your remembrance of your worldly interests other days I mean not for the proportion of time spent in the one and the other God hath indulged our infirmity in that he hath set apart a seventh day only to himself but examine this whether you remember the loves of Christ on the Lords day as you remember your worldly concerns on any of the other six days do the loves of Christ come into your thoughts as much on the week day as the world comes into your thoughts on the Lords days I sear there is none of us all can say that in this thing our hearts are clean I hope I speak to many who remember the loves of Christ and will never suffer his dying love to go off their thoughts But when we come to these comparative examinations to enquire whether we remember his loves more then we remember our sensual or sensible objects ah how short do we come of the duty of Christians yea of what our selves will own and consess to be our duty Happy is that man that doth not condemn himself even in the thing which he alloweth to be his duty But I had rather spend my time in persuading my self and you to our duty which according to my explication of the text and this propositionwill lye much in two things 1. In a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ 2. In a remembrance of them proportionable to that degree of goodness and excellency in them I say first in a Scriptual remembrance a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ I am afraid that we satisfy our selves too much in a Notional formal remembrance of Christs Loves and so please our selves in hearing the Gospel read opened and applyed to our Souls in a formal keeping of the Lords day the day which God hath set apart for us to call to our minds all the acts of our redemption compleated in his resurrection some Churches aware of Peoples awkness to this Spiritual duty have thought fit to appoint other days for a more solemn remembrance of his incarnation and death Nor have I any thing to say against any Christians that will set apart any Special times to remember any Loves of Christ though I do not know that Christ hath left any power to his Church to impose particular times of this nature But alas this is the least part of our duty in the remembrance of his Love We may have a day to remember it in we have such a day every week we may have helps to remember it by The holy Scriptures the Ministers of the Gospel that Preach Christ to their People are such helps But if in these days if with these helps we do not set our selves to meditate of the Loves of Christ to turn our thoughts from other things to the contemplation of and meditation upon the Love of a Christ incarnate the Love of a Christ dying and riseing again from the dead if we do not study to get our hearts affected suitably to such Love with love faith hope c. we do not so live as a People that remember Christ died for our Sins declining whatsoever is contrary to his will and Law in the Gospel do what in us lyeth to promove his honour Glory we are so far from Satisfying our Duty by this formal remembrance of his Love that we are the greatest forgetters of his Love The Jews who never owned him as their Redeemer the Heathen who never heard of his name nor of what he was or did for Sinners can in no propriety of Speech be said to forget his Loves The Christian only the loose Christian the formal Christian he who hears every day of the dying Love of Christ yet goes on to defy him to crucify him afresh and to put him to open shame or he who every Lords day hears the sound of the Loves of Christ and reads of it yet never meditates upon it never suffers his soul by contemplation to pierce into the heights or sound the depths of it whose heart is never truly affected with it so as he hath any Love kindled in his soul towards Christ no breathings after him who exerciseth no faith no hope in him he that lives not in his measure up to it leaving his vain conversation worshiping God in the Spirit
great and singular love to Christ floweth from his Experimental discerning of that admirable suitableness that is in Christ to his Soul and the exceeding love which he hath shewn to him 1. A Believer hath another kind of persuasion of the Love of Christ and the excellency that is in him than it is possible another should have 1. A persuasion flowing from Faith And 2. Confirmed by Experience I say first flowing from Faith We know a thing by Sense Reason or Revelation the Excellency of Christ falleth not under the demonstration of Sense Reason indeed working upon Principles of Revelation I mean concluding from the Revelation of holy Writ will shew even a natural man much goodness much excellency in Christ But this Knowledge is very far from that certainty which Faith begetteth in the Soul which is a certainty against which the Soul hath nothing to oppose ordinarily Faith is an Evidence and the strongest Evidence to the Soul of what it doth not see by the Eye of Sense and seeth very imperfectly by the Eye of Reason 2. A Believer's Knowledge is confirmed by Experience as he hath heard from the Word of God so he hath seen in the dispensations of God to his Soul His Soul is sprinkled with the Blood of Christ it was lost it is now found It lay under the guilt of sin and through Christ's satisfaction it is acquitted Though every Believer hath not a full persuasion of this yet he hath a good hope through grace and this cannot but kindle in his Soul a vehement flame of love to Christ Bless the Lord O my Soul saith the Psalmist Psal 103. 3 4. and all that is within me bless his holy Name Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction Nor hath he only some experience of the suitableness of Christ to his Soul considered as a lost undone Soul but he hath as firm a persuasion of Christ's readiness as well as ability to supply all his wants to hear all his prayers to supply all its necessities to bless it with all spiritual blessings there is no Soul that lives in such a view as a Believing Soul of its daily renewing sins and so standing in need of daily repeated acts of pardon daily renewings of spiritual strength c. It knows it is in the power of none to help it but Christ alone he alone sitteth at the right hand of God to make Intercession for the Soul he is he alone who can be its Advocate at the Throne of Grace It is the Spirit of Christ through which he must mortifie the deeds of the body and who must strengthen it with might to all the operations of the spiritual life It is so natural to the Soul to love those that love it that our Saviour saith if you do it what reward have you The Soul thus apprehending Christ its love towards him proceedeth in a natural order and riseth higher as it knoweth that the love which he hath shewed it and doth shew it is the greatest love For greater love than this can no man shew than that a man should die for his friend Christ hath died for it while it was an Enemy We saith the Apostle being Enemies to God were reconciled unto him through the death of his Son The evil from which he delivered it was the greatest evil The reason why the natural man loveth not Christ is because though he hath indeed heard much of Christ and of his love to the Sons of men yet he believeth not or giveth only a faint and careless Assent unto what he readeth and heareth concerning him He hath experienced nothing concerning the evil of sin nor feeleth any need of pardon and so cannot possibly discern or apprehend that goodness and excellency that is in Christ nor that suitableness to a Soul's state that a Believer is apprehensive of And in regard the wants of the body are no way to be compared with the wants of the Soul and the wants of the Soul cannot be supplied from any except only Ministerially but from Christ alone the Soul must necessarily love Christ with a singular love and all other things in subordination unto him so as they must stand in no competition for the Soul's Affection with him much less can such a Soul love any thing that offers it self in opposition to him I might inlarge fuurther in giving you Reasons for such a Soul 's singular love to Christ but I have touched upon this Argument before and these are the two main Reasons of their singular love unto him Their pourings out of their whole hearts their intire Affections into his bosom I shall only add a short Application of this Discourse Let us all by this try our selves whether we be the Spouse of Christ yea or no that is whether we be true believers yea or no and true Members of the Church of Christ by this we shall know it If we can look up to Heaven and say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth There are many who go into the number of those who make up the visible Church who are not the Spouse of Christ or at least shall not be of the number of those hereafter who shall make up the Lambs Wife mentioned Rev. 21. 9. They are not that Spouse mentioned Rev. 19. 7. To whom it is granted that she shall be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white or of those blessed ones who shall be called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The contract betwixt the Soul and Christ is made in secret In that contract as in others Christ consents to receive the Soul and the Soul consenteth to receive Christ The former of these indeed is sufficiently in the general declared in the more general call and invitation of the Gospel wherein Christ calleth to all to whom the Gospel is preached to come unto him promising that he will receive them and that he will by no means cast them away yet he hath not there spoken this to any particular person by name only in general to all those who are weary and heavy laden and who come unto him and the Soul is often at a loss in determining concerning the truth of its own acts in coming to and receiving of Christ tendred in the Gospel On the other side the presumptuous man is like the foolish young man in the world that thinks that every young woman who smileth on him or speaketh kindly to him will presently take him for her Husband and concludeth good to himself from every smile of providence but to satisfy the true Christian and to convince others of their folly let every Soul know that there is no Soul can take any comfort of this nature but that Soul only that can truly say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth and certainly would men and women be true to themselves they might from hence determine their Spiritual state But yet as there is a common
have a command more then another in it to make our addresses to God nor any to which any promise is made nor concerning which it can be said God hath in it more Manifested himself to People seeking him yet there are two sort of places in which we have more advantage then in others for a communion with God 1. Places of Solitude 2. Places where 2 or 3 meet together or a greater number of Gods People so meet to pray or in any manner to Worship God 1. The first give us advantage by freeing us from the noises business and distractions of the World hence you read of Jsaac's going into the field for meditation and our Saviour's going so often up to a mountain for Prayer Mar. 6. 46. Matth. 14. 23. 2. The second gives us advantage as from the promise of God made to the assemblies of his People so from the influence that the Affections of pious Souls in holy duties have one upon another of which it is an hard thing to give an account but it is no more then I believe any good Christian will find upon his or her experience that their hearts are otherwise affected when they are in a society of serious Christians praying to God or performing any acts of Worship then when they are alone Hence it is that you find serious Christians so covetous of opportunities to withdraw into their closets or when they may join with other serious and consciencious Christians in more publick Worship If any shall for the further explication of this notion ask me from whence a more full free and uninterrupted communion with God is to be adjudged and determined I answer shortly I have before told you That all communion speaks a mutual or reciprocal communication of two or more each to other God communicateth himself to the Soul in his influences of grace the Soul communicateth it self to God in the actings and exercises of its gracious habits so as the fulness freedom and more near communion with God is to be judged from several things 1. First from the attention of the Souls thoughts in the duty A Soul hath more or less communion with God in a duty as his thoughts more or less deviate and wander from the thing he is about When there is a meer bodily service performed either by the lips or knee or Eye the duty is but a mere formality the Soul hath no communion with God in it in Praying the man doth not Pray nor in hearing hear nor in singing sing As to this the best of Gods People must cry God be merciful to us sinners so that the degree of perfection attainable in this life as to this thing is but comparative some may have more of this attention then others or more at one time then at another but none is perfect in this thing Only the pious Soul as in other things so in this thing is striving after perfection pressing forward towards the mark and daily humbling himself for his imperfection and flying to Christs intercession and advocation and exercising faith on his more perfect righteousness A second thing wherein a fuller communion with God on the Souls part lyeth is fervency of Spirit this chiefly respecteth the duties of Prayer and Praise The effectual Prayer must be servent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prayer which setteth the whole Soul on work and while we sing we must make melody in our hearts to the Lord Eph. 5. 19. Prayer is oft times in Scripture expressed under the notion of crying wrestling with God pouring out of the heart before the Lord Psal 142. 2. Psal 62. 8. David calleth this a pressing hard after God Psal 63. 8. some think it is a metaphor from hounds pursuing their game in view 3. A third thing is a Freedom of Spirit This is as I take it that which David calls largeness of heart Psal 119. v 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart There is no good man but findeth his heart more free to duty and in duty at one time then at another there is a straitness of heart which at some times is the great grievance and incumbrance of pious Souls it is caused sometimes from immoderate sorrow sometimes from fear sometimes from one cause sometimes from another but what ever the cause be it certainly abates the Souls communion with God at least its communications of it self to God And by consequence a freedom of Spirit a readiness of heart to duty with a liberty not of tongue onely but of Spirit also for without the latter the former is but hypocrisy advantageth and promoveth the Souls communion with God 4. A fourth thing which maketh the Souls communion with God more full is An ability more strongly to exercise its saith upon God without doubting whether it be in a stronger adherence or more firm persuasion 5. On Gods part the Souls communion is more full when it receiveth from God more influences of grace testifying his acceptance of the Souls addresses unto him or filling it with the sensible manifestations of his love or inabling it more fully to communicate it self unto God that it can be more attent in its thoughts more fervent in Spirit more free to and in its performances or exercise its faith more powerfully and strongly This I conceive to be enough to have spoken in the explication of the Proposition hinting you both wherein this more full and free communion with God is discernable and also what those times or places are where and when it may most ordinarily and probably be obtained which I conceive is the thing which the Spouse in the text expresseth her desire towards and which she begs that her beloved would instruct her as to That this is the desire of every good Christian appeareth 1. From its deprecation of those things which would hinder it and avoiding them so far as it can Those things that hinder it are 1. Intestine lusts and motions to sin Vanity of thoughts c. 2. Diabolical Suggestions Now there are no two things which the pious Soul more deprecateth then these two Worldly distractions Observe David how he bewailed his dwelling in Meshek And having his habitation in the tents of Kedar and how bitterly in three several Psalms he bewails his being banished from Hierusalem Psalm 42. Psal 84. Psal 63. So Psal 120. v. 5. How sadly doth St. Paul bewail his body of death Rom. 7. 24. 2. From its thirstings after times and opportunities of communion with God of which also you have instances in all the Psalms before mentioned Psal 86. 11. He prays for an heart united to fear the Lords name Psal 86. 11. And rejoiceth in a fixed heart Psal 57. 7. Psal 208. v. 1. Nor indeed can it possibly be otherwise as will appear to any Soul that understandeth what communion with God is That which is the object of any rational Souls desire must come under the notion of good and
at Peace with God All that can be said to relieve the Child of God under this complaint to ease him under this burden is this That this misery which befalleth him is but what is common to the very best of men it is a priviledge reserved for the Saints in glory to live in a not interrupted communion with God To be ever with the Lord beholding his face to live in the sense of such a constant communion with Christ as doth afford the Soul a perfect Satisfaction The sublunary Saint is often crying out Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where tho u feedest This dispensation indeed will speak thee sensibly miserable and sad but it will not speak thee to have no relation to Christ I shall shut up this discourse with a Word or two of exhortation Pleading with you to do what in you lies to avoid such a state and to keep your selves within the knowledg where Christ feedeth where he makes his flocks to rest at noon 1. Consider first That as the Spiritual life of any Soul lyes in its union and communion with Christ So the comfort of his life lyeth in his sense of this communion and knowledge how at all times and in all conditions to Support and to maintain it Our Saviour tells us that As the branch cannot bring forth fruit unless it abide in the Vine so neither can we except we abide in him John 15. 4. That Soul which hath no communion with Christ is as certainly dead as the body is that hath no communion with the head or the branch that hath no communion with the stock Now it is true Sense is not necessary to Spiritual life We live saith the Apostle by faith not by sight But the comfort of the Soul doth depend upon sense and knowledge it is true as to a Christians comfort not to live and not to know that we live are much the same thing as to its happiness it is not but I say as to his comfort it is What quiet can a Christian have in his breast what Peace in his conscience What joy in the Holy Ghost that feeleth no intercourses is sensible of no inward communion betwixt his Soul and Christ 2. Hence consider Secondly That to the waky Christian there is no greater misery upon the Earth then what ariseth from his apprehensions of his having no communion with Christ All the enjoyments of the World will be nothing of Satisfaction to such a Soul it is an evil Nullis medicabilis herbis I say with a waky soul it will be thus some Souls are in a profound sleep they never think of Eternity never consider their latter end they are ignorant and know not the relation that Christ hath to a State of Eternal happiness that as Eternal life is the gift of God so it is through Christ for that the Father hath given into his hands the Power of Eternal life and he giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth Now these Souls though they have no fellowship no communion at all yet they have no misery no grief from it But I say to the Soul that is awake to consider the Grave the Eternity to which he is hastening 't is the greatest burden imaginable to lye under apprehensions that his fellowship is not with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ 3. Thirdly consider that of all evils those lye heaviest and most sadly upon the Soul concerning which the man or woman is conscious that he himself hath been accessary to them and a cause of them Let a good Christian be at loss for his communion with God let the cause of it be what it will he is sad enough but if his heart smites him that he himself hath been the cause of it Oh! insupportable burden of that reflection he cannot bear the thoughts of his destroying his Soul by his own hands of this you may make an easy judgment by considering the frame of your Spirit under such accidents though of a much lighter nature it is sad enough for a man to lose his estate for a Mother to lose her Child but for the man to think that he lost his estate through his own supine negligence or for a Mother to think she hath been the death of her Child These are wounds healed usually with great difficulty So for a Soul to think it hath lost its communion with its dear Lord by its own supine negligence or any voluntary act of its own which it might have avoided This maketh a deep wound in the Soul But will some say what should what can we do to uphold our communion with Christ and to maintain a sense of it Let me here speak two words The first to such as have their beloved in view and do yet injoy desired communion with him 2. To such as have lost this view in order to their recovery of it To the first I say 1. Be much with him whom your Soul loveth What the Prophet said of Gods presence of Providence is as true concerning the presence of God in gracious influences 2. Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while you are with him if you seek him he will be found of you Souls that are much with God seldom lose their sight of him ordinarily the Souls of men and women first withdraw the communications of themselves unto him through levity and wantonness then Christ withdraweth both in justice to punish in them that levity and in wisdom to make them to seek after him Hos 5. 15. I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early That Soul is seldom or never at a loss to know where Christ feedeth his flocks that keepeth a constant correspondence with him Be much in Prayer especially secret Prayer much in Heavenly meditation and contemplation when the Spouse after her loss Cant. 3. 1 2 had found her beloved I held him saith she and would not let him go How doth the Soul hold Christ so as she will not let him go but by faith and constant and frequent acts of fellowship and communion with him 2. Secondly Take heed of grieving the holy Spirit It is the Apostles Counsel Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption We maintain our fellowship with Christ by the Spirit That takes of Christs and giveth to us and again it takes of ours and giveth to Christ by the Spirit we Pray by its assistance we exercise faith Love c. Christ by his Spirit communicateth himself to us and we by the Spirit do communicate our Souls to him Take heed therefore you grieve not this Spirit either by any presumptuous sinnings or by quenching its motions or resisting its operations Let every Knock every motion and impulse every impression of the holy Spirit be very valuable to and regardable in the Eyes of your Souls 3. Thirdly Maintain in
of Spiritual Life so he must be led by the Spirit If God did not excite the Grace bestowed on him it would be choaked by that body of death that lust and corruption which is in the best mens hearts What can the creature do when the Holy Spirit hath quickened his habits of Grace he cannot act and exercise them and put forth spiritual acts but doth he no more need the Influence of the Holy Spirit yes without Christ he can do nothing he must still have the Grace of God with him 1 Cor. 15. 10. Not I saith Paul but the Grace of God which was with me This is now cooperative and assisting Grace He cannot make the Wheel which must carry him in the waies of God working Grace must do that when it is made he cannot set it upon motion Exciting Grace must oil it Assisting Grace must keep it up move with it or he will never come to issue any good action A Believer indeed acteth for the habits of Grace from which he acteth are inherent in him he is not moved like a Machine or dead Engine but yet he is acted that is assisted and helped in his action He is nothing but what he hath received he doth nothing but while he is receiving Let not then the Natural man glory in the power and good inclinations of his own will he neither hath nor can have any power to do that which in a spiritual sense is good until it be given him from above Let not the renewed man glory in his infused habits of Grace for as he did not merit it nor any way purchase them so of himself he cannot use or exercise them But let him who glorieth glory in this that to him Christ is all in all that he liveth he acteth and bringeth a good action to an issue but yet not he but Christ that liveth in him acteth with him and worketh in him what he accepteth from him It is Christ who layeth the foundation-stone and then layeth the corner-stone who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith we have nothing to do but to cry Grace Grace when we see the work done In the mean time nothing hindereth but that the Soul may rejoyce and boast in the Lord while it walketh humbly with God mourning over the infirmity of its lapsed Nature for certainly man did not come out of God's hands in the day of Creation in this impotent state Let no man therefore despise those that labour under greater degrees of this impotency than he possibly doth but let him bless the Lord who hath further excited strengthened and assisted him to the operations of his Spiritual Life I shall shut up this discourse with a word or two of Exhortation to every Child of God to use his utmost diligence to keep the King sitting at his Table I mean to keep the presence of Christ as much as he can in and with his Soul that so his Spikenard may send forth the smell thereof I shall urge this by one argument and then offer you my advice in the case and so shâ—â— up this discourse 1. My argument shall be drawn from the high concerns of the Soul in its Spikenard sending forth its smell every Soul is concerned in it three ways 1. In point of duty as God thereby is glorifyed 2. In point of comfort as it will evidence its Spikenard to be such indeed 3. In point of honour as it brings the Soul to a repute in the World 1. I say first in point of duty as God is thereby glorifyed For this cause we are born for this cause is every man come into the World that he may bring honour and glory to his great Creator Herein saith our Saviour John 15. Is my Father glorifyed if you bring forth mach fruit and as the Lord is glorifyed by the vigorous exercise of its grace So is he also honoured by the predication of his grace by the sweet smell which our habits and exercises of grace have in the World That they may see your good works saith our Saviour Matth. 5. And glorify your Father which is in Heaven That they may see your good works saith the Apostle and glorify God in the day of their visitation no man so glorifyeth God as he who vigorously exerciseth his habits of grace The barren field is not that field which crediteth the husbandman the barren and unfruitful Soul is not that Soul which bringeth honour and glory to God It is the fruitful Soul whose smell is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed that bringeth honour to God and so eminently serveth the great end of his Creation 2. The Soul is not only concerned in it in point of duty but also as to its peace and comfort Indeed it cannot be but that comfort should result from the Souls performance of its duty for the fruit of righteousness shall be peace but yet first as he or she that hath a box of Spikenard or any other odoriferous unguent or perfume which casteth out a sweet savour to delight or refresh others doth first partake of it him or her self so it is with the Spouses Spikenard ordinarily its fruits of righteousness do not only affect others but first affect the Soul in which they are found hereby saith St. John we know that we are traâ—slated from death to life because we love the brethren Hezâ—kiah upon a message of death sent by God to him was refreshed with the smell of his own Spikenard 2 Kings 20. 3. I beseech thee O Lord saith he remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done what is right in thy fight When a Christian comes to lye upon a sick bed or a death-bed it will be no grief of heart unto him but a great pleasure and Satisfaction to consider that he hath with his Spirit served God and indeavoured by holiness in all manner of conversation to shew forth the grace of God bestowed on him not to have been received in vain 3. Lastly a Christian is concerned in point of honour A true Christian is an honourable Person born of God and he is bound to consult his honour and repute in the World It is the smell of a Christians grace that giveth him a name and honour a repute before men The World taketh no notice of our habits of grace while they lye dormant in the Soul but when they shew themselves in our conversations in the exercises of faith humility patience meekness obedience then hath a Christian honour before men Thus you see how a Christian is concerned to have his Spikenard send forth the smell thereof Now seeing so much dependeth upon this that a Christian should keep this glorious King sitting at his Table it followeth that this is of high concernment to every Soul But you will say what can we do toward it is not the Spirit of Christ free as the wind which bloweth where
it is wholesome against insection helpeth women in travel cureth consumptions quickeneth the appetite c. I shall not dwell upon this because I do not think it chiefly intended But Christ in this sense is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh healing all the Soul's diseases Ps 103. 3. He is that tree Rev. 22. 2. Whose leaves are for the healing of the Nations He healâ—th the broken in heart Psal 147. 3. What he did while he was upon the Earth by his miraculous power as to mens bodies Mat. 4. 23. Healing all manner of Sickness that he doth now in Heaven for the Soul by his saving efficacy 3. Myrrh is as I told you a great preservative against putresaction Which was the cause of their using of it about dead bodies either putting it into the body after the Egyptian Method or outwardly anointing or embalming the body with it after the Jewish Method Christ is the same to the Soul where he dwells he preserveth the Soul against the putrifaction of lusts and corruptions The Apostle speaks this Rom. 6. 3. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Where he argues that the Souls Interest in Christ arising from its justification preserveth the Soul against putrifying lusts that sin cannot have dominion over it because it is not under the law but under grace But I hasten to the 4th which in the Judgment of Interpreters is chiefly intended here 4. Myrrh whether in the Herb Spice or Gum is exceeding sweet Hence you read of beds and garments persumed with Myrrh Now the greater quantity there is the stronger the odour must be Christ is a heap of sweets exceeding sweet to the Soul his mouth is most sweet Cant. 5. 16. his Cheeks are as sweet Flowers his lips drop sweet smelling Myrrh Cant. 5. 13. Sweetness to the nostrils is nothing else but a smell that arising from some hidden quality in the thing that emits it and conveyed to the nostrils by the air gratifies that outward sense There is a sweetness that is mental too A Notion is as sweet to the Scholar as a perfume is to a Lady Prov. 13. 19. Desire accomplished is sweet to the Soul Christs sweetness is mental sweetness he is sweetness not to the nostrils but to the Soul and so he is a bundle of sweets Let me unty this bundle of Myrrh a little And shew you how Christ is sweet I will open it to you in three things 1. He is exceeding sweet in his actions as our Redeemer As to these he is a bundle of Myrrh there were many of them His Vniting of the Divine nature to the Humane nature in his Incarnation his fulfilling the law his death upon the cross His resurrection ascending sitting at his Fathers right hand making intercession for us The Soul smells of all these by Meditation and faith and the smell is like that of a bundle of Myrrh shall I shew you how 1. For his Incarnation with the manner of it he united the divine and humane nature by an hypostatical union was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a Virgin without the help of man Mr. Ainsworth and others think this Text hath a special referenee to this this is Christ now considered as wrapt in swadling clothes and laid in a manger The Soul smells of this by a firm and stedfast divine faith believing the thing because God hath said it in his word though it cannot see it by the evidence of reason and sense And the Souls smells of it continually by meditation And O how sweet it is to a believing Soul Then saith the Soul first he that Sanctifieth and I that am Sanctified are both one I see Christ is not ashamed to call me Brother 2. Then faith the Soul I see I have a merciful high-Priest that knoweth how to pity a poor piece of flesh hungring and thirsting and full of infirmities 3. Again here 's comfort saith the poor Soul to me I was born a leper under the imputed guilt of Adams sin I was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity But my Saviour was born without sin the vessel was made pure by the overshadowings of the Holy Ghost and no impure hand contributed to his conveyance into the World I was born a Child of wrath indebted to justice before I knew what I did but he was born a Child of Love He was born with a knowledge of humane infirmities to know how to pity me but without sinful infirmities That he might be in a capacity to save and help me Again saith the Soul Then I see a perfect and sufficient Saviour One meâ—rly God considering the justice of God that could give no remission without blood could not have saved me because he could not have died for me and so have destroyed him that had the power of death One meerly man could not have saved me for he could not have merited But a Person that was God and man God and man in one Person must needs be in a perfect capacity as man he died as God he merited nay the Person that was God-man both died and merited How sweet is this to the Soul torturing it self with thoughts for the filthiness of its nature troubled with humane infirmities perplexed with thoughts how Christ should be able to save it c. This is but one of his actions 2. He fulfilled the law for us I am not of their mind that think that Christs active obedience is not imputed I think the Apostle speaks plain enough to the contrary Rom. 8. 3 4. And if not he yet the Prophet By his knowledge he shall justifie many You read that he was made righteousness for us And doubtless whatever some may fancy the obedience of the Person which was God-man could not be an homage due from the humane nature of Christ which was indeed but a creature Christ fulfilling the Law is exceeding sweet to the gracicious Soul This poor Soul when renewed is but renewed in part in many things offendeth and the sense of its daily backslidings makes it tremble How sweet is it now to the Soul to be able to conclude thus to its self Though there be much guile found in my heart and in my mouth yet in his mouth there was no guile found though I have been an Absolom rebelling against my Heavenly Father from my youth upward yet he was an Adonijah a Son that never displeased his Father 3. Look upon him in the laying down of his life How sweet is the meditation of it to a poor Soul Christ crucified is a bundle of Myrrh indeed from hence the Soul draweth many pretious smells hence it is that the Soul smelis Spiritual life with all the consequences and dependencies upon it Hence it smells Spiritual liberty with all the sweet fruits of it I say from hence it smells Spiritual life to itself when it is almost suffocated with the apprehension of the
guilt of sin and cries out if I pine away in my iniquities how can I then live And faints at the apprehension of the wrath of God due to it for every single sin and much more for the numberless number of the sins which it hath committed It smells that of the Prophet Isa Ch. 53. v. 5 6. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities the Chastisement of our peace lay upon him and with his stripes we are healed v. 10. His Soul was made an offering for sin Or that of the Apostle Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us and this refresheth it I have deserved to dye saith the Soul but Christ hath died for me I have deserved to tread the wine press of my Fathers wrath but he hath trode the winepress of his Fathers wrath alone I was born a slave to lusts and corruptions but Christ by dying hath made me free Ah! what a bundle of Myrrh is a crucified Christ to the Soul Hence it smells Spiritual life even from his death for we have Remission of sins through his blood It smells Spiritual peace Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that died Ro. 8. 38. It smells an access unto God The holy of holies being Sprinkled with his blood and Heaven itself by it Sanctified and made accessible It smells Spiritual liberty For the blood of Christ saith the Apostle purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God It smells Spiritual strength For through the cross of Christ saith the Apostle my heart is crucified to the World Thus you see that in this action or suffering rather Christ is to the Soul a bundle of Myrrh 4. Look upon Christ as rising up from the dead He is a bundle of Myrrh there too the Soul from hence again smells Spiritual life Rom. 4. 25. He rose again for our justification Spiritual peace Rom. 8. 38. It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Spiritual strength and quickening Rom. 6. 4. 5. We shall rise with him to newness of life Col. 3. 1. If you be risen with Christ seek the things that are above It smells life from the dead This the Apostle proves 1 Cor. 15 Rom. 8. 11. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies Nay it smells Eternal life from hence Joh. 14. 19. Because I live you shall live also 5. Look upon Christ as the men of Galilee Acts 1. 11. Ascending up to Heaven Thus he is also a bundle of Myrrh he lives and from hence Job smelt that he should see him with his Eyes the Angels that stood to wait upon his ascension told the men of Galilee so much that as they had seen him ascend so they should see him coming again Hence the believing Soul smells that he shall ascend too for where Christ is there he must be The body is there the Eagles shall flee to it one day He is lifted up and every believer shall be drawn after him Our flesh and blood shall inherit the Kingdom of God For 't is in part there already Heaven is the place whither our forerunner is entred Heaven was an open City before the fall Adam and all his Posterity might have entred presently upon the fall it's gates were lockt up the flaming sword of divine Vengeance kept it but the Captain of our Salvation hath now entred and he keeps the gates from shutting any more till every believer be come In 6. Look upon Christ as sitting one the right hand of the Majesty on high So he is a bundle of Myrrh too Is it so saith the Soul Then he hath favour with God and power with God and what need I any more then for my God my Saviour he in whom I have believed to be in favour with the King of Kings and to have power with the Almighty Nay saith the Soul then I am half in Heaven For Eph. 2. 6. We sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Christ and I are one if he sits there I sit there too For he is flesh of my flesh 7. Lastly look upon Christ as interceding for us Rom. 8. Heb. 7. He is not there Idle his work is to plead for us to sollicit our business to act our part to do our work And thus he is a bundle of Myrrh to every believing Soul When the poor Soul sinks in the thoughts of its sins renewing after justification Christ is a bundle of Myrrh to it 1 Joh. 2 1. If we sin we have an advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous When the Soul again sinks at the thoughts of its imperfect duties to think that it cannot do a duty but with so many faults that it may fear the wrath of God for it What a bundle of Myrrh it is to the Soul to think well Christ is in Heaven and he will pick out every fault out of this Prayer this duty c. And so present it in the golden censer Incensed with his merits Thus now I have shewed you how Christ is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh Considered as to his actions as our Redeemer It remains further to shew you that he is so also as to his Spiritual influeuces And Lastly in his Gospel institutions and Ordinances And then I shall come to the Application Sermon LIV. Canticles 1. 13. A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved unto me he shall lie all night betwixt my Breasts I Proceed in opening the bundle or bag or box of Myrrh which makes my Text give a fragrant smell I have shewed that it is Christ who is thus resembled and have propounded to shew you the aptness of the comparison in five things I am yet upon the 4th He is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh for sweetness I proposed to open this in three particulars shewing you that Christ is so 1. In his mediatory actions 2. In his Spiritual influences 3. In his Gospel Institutions and Ordinances I have done with the first and now proceed to the second To shew you the sweetness of Christ to the believing Soul 2. In his Spiritual influences When he ascended upon high saith the Apostle Eph. 4. he gave gifts unto men he gave gifts to his Church his Ordinances Of those the Apostle speaks but he gives other gifts likewise gifts even to the Rebellious Psal 68. All these are summed up under one head The gift of the Spirit This is that which he calls the promise of the Father He was the promise of the Father of old Ezek. 36. 27. It was his promise John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comforter and he shall abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth He is sent in Christs name 26. v. he is called the Spirit of Christ hence the
own inbred enemies those of our own house our innate lusts and Corruptions I mean are as still as our grand Adversary The very waters of Marah themselves turned sweet when this Tree of life is in them Our hearts lose much of their bitterness by the presence of Christ in them it is when the Sun is down that the Frogs and Toads croak and the Dors and Bats fly It is in the night when the Thief steals The time of Christs withdrawings from the Soul is the time when Sathan molests and lusts are most busy 2. The Souls Spikenard then sends forth its pleasant smell You had it in the former verse I shewed you there what dependence the exercise of our grace hath upon Christs presence with us both in respect of his exciting and assisting influence Christ speaks it plain in that excellent parable of the vine and the branches Joh. 15. 5. He that abidath in me and I in him the same bringeth forth fruit for without me you can do nothing v. 6. The same bringeth forth much fruit Otherwise the Soul withereth v. 6. Naturalists say that in those Countries which abounded with Myrrh they were wont to bind bundles of it to the heart or to anoint it with the Gum the use of it was to strengthen the heart against what was noxious and unto a due discharge of its natural operations It is Gregories observation or similitude rather that the Soul that applies Christ to its heart and which findeth his influence will find it like a bundle or an anointing of Myrrh strengthening the Soul against the prevailings of corruptions and filling it with a Spiritual heat and fitness for Heavenly operations And thus I have shewed you just reason why the lodgings or abidings of Christ with a gracious Soul are so desirable to it Obj. But will some poor Soul say Can Christ not abide with that Soul which he hath once owned is his love mutable is he not the God that changeth not but loveth to the end whom he once loveth I answer The Love of Christ is an abiding love he is not yea and nay with the Soul upon which he hath once fixed his heart whom he loveth he loveth to the end 1. His union with the Soul abideth Christ once in us and ever in us is a truth to which we must adhere that corruption which could not at first prevent it shall never he of force to dissolve it but the sense of this union may fail The indwelling Spirit shall not be disseised but the Spirit as a comforter may fail the Souls of the Saints When wilt thou comfort me saith the man after Gods own heart Besides that our state of justification is to be maintained by the performance of our Spiritual duty and there can be no justified Soul that doth not earnestly desire its own continuance in that state 2. His necessary influences upon the Soul abide too The promise must stand good I will never leave thee nor forsake thee nor can it be imagined that so noble and vertual an head as the Lord Jesus Christ can be united to any member of his Spiritual body without a proportionable influence upon it or that the seed of God in the Soul should be wholly inactive But Spiritual desires are also the sacred means which God hath appointed for the preservation of these 3. But Gradual abidings of Christ in the Soul may fail He may not abide with the Soul in such proportions of Spiritual influence at all times Now the degrees of Spiritual influence from Christ are highly desirable to a gracious Soul But I have spake enough to the explication and confirmation of the point I come now to the Application In the first place Let us from this try our selves whether we indeed be the true Spouses of the Lord Jesus Christ and he our beloved yea or no Can we say and say it cordially he shall lodge betwixt our breasts 1. There are many that say he shall sit upon my tongue I will talk to Christ and take his name into my mouth concerning whom we may say as the Prophet sometimes said of the Jews The Lord was nigh in their mouths and far from their reins the woman dandles many a Child in her arms that never lodgeth betwixt her breasts in the night she talks of many a man in the day time whom she will not allow to lodg in her bosom at night there 's many a wretch that talks of Christ that yet will not let him come â—igh his heart 2. There are many that say they shall lodg to eternity betwixt his breasts that yet cannot will not say this going to Heaven is grown market talk and every one is a pretender to that journeys end that yet will not set one foot before another in the way Balaam wisheth vainly and many a one concludeth as vainly that he shall dye the death of the righteous and his latter end shall be like his those mentioned Mat. 7. 24. said they should lodge the long night of eternity betwixt Christs breasts but he saith unto them depart from me I know you not there are too many that build Castles in the air and houses upon the sand and dream of golden mountains but every one is not wife to another that saith she shall one day have him nor is every Soul a Spouse to Christ that promiseth to it self eternal content in him 3. A man may say Oh that Christ would come betwixt my breasts that yet is not the Spouse of Christ There 's scarce a wretch living but at one time or other wisheth Christ would speak to his Soul pardon and peace 't is one thing for a woman to desire the Physitian may make applications to her breasts when full of pain that yet will not say he shall lodge betwixt her breasts you see there may be a great many mistakes in this point but plainly let me ask you two or three questions 1. Are you willing to open the secrets of your Souls to Jesus Christ There 's many a one is willing that Christ should come so near him as his Ear but not into his heart canst thou say that thy Soul cleaveth to the Lord Jesus Christ that thou desirest he should enter into its secrets not only to tip thy tongue regulate thy Countenance but to Command in thy heart 2. Art thou willing that Christ should lodge all night with thy Soul Not serve thee only by fits to cure thy heart akings but that he should lodge and dwell with thee make an abode with thy Soul 3. Art thou willing that a perfect Christ should lodge with thee Not only Christ as an High-Priest to expiate for thee and make an atonement for thy sins but as a Prophet to guide instruct thee as a King to rule over thee and govern thee The Wife desires not an Husband only as her Companion but as her head By this O Christian I shalt thou know if indeed thou beest the Spouse
viz. why the Spouse here compareth her Beloved to a Cluster of Copher Yet in that I find them most reasonably well agreed That whatever Plant it was either the Herb of it or the Juice of it was exceeding sweet and the Spouse here compareth Christ to it to denote that exceeding and abundant sweetness which her Soul had tasted in him And so this Text speaketh but the same in another phrase which she had said before A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved to me she means the samething when she here saith A cluster of Camphire or Copher is my Beloved to me that is exceeding sweet and precious When I spake to the other expression I spake so fully to that point of the infinite Sweetness that is in Christ that I have nothing to add upon that Subject only I remember that I then took notice that I did not judge the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redundant but exclusive My Beloved is not sweet to others they smell no sweetness in him but to Me he is a cluster of Camphire as a bundle of Myrrh sweet infinitely sweet above all other sweet things most sweet The Proposition which I shall only insist upon is this Prop. That the true believing Soul sees peculiar Excellencies and tasts a peculiar Sweetness in Christ which others do not see nor tast This Doctrine supposeth 1. That there is such an overflowing Fountain of goodness and sweetness in Jesus Christ that even those who are not Believers may discern some sweetness and excellency in him 2. It asserts That there is a peculiar excellency and sweetness in him discernable to the Believer which others do not discern The former is a truth As a good woman may so far approve her self to all that see her or hear of her that they may in heart admire her and praise her and have a general love for her but yet this woman may to her Husband in respect of her peculiar suitableness to him and more immediate and intimate converse with him be ten thousand times more precious in his Eyes than unto others So it is with the Lord Jesus Christ a wicked man who is far enough from saving Faith or any special Interest in Christ may yet have a general love for him Give me leave alittle to enlarge upon this supposed part of the Proposition 1. By enquiring upon what bottom this general love can stand 2. By making some Inferences from it The grounds of it may be 1. Real or 2. Supposed and mistaken The truth is such is the Lord Jesus Christ such a Fountain of sweetness that there is real ground for all the Sons of men to love him I will hint you two or three 1. The first shall be his humbling himself for the good of mankind The Evangelist saith Joh. 3. 16. That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. Arminians cannot understand what the greatest part in the World as to the matter of Redemption have to thank God for if Christ were not given with equal respect to one as to another or at least as others qualifie to purchase a possibility for all But certainly if one should say such a one so loved such a Family that he gave his whole Estate to a Child of it we might understand it though every Member of the Family neither had nor were in possibility to have part and part like It is very questionable whether the Angels ever shared in the death of Christ any way yet I believe they love Christ for his dying for men And to that end Eph. 3. 10. the manifold Wisdom of God is by the Church made known to them Beneficence or doing good to others especially such as are in misery is a thing so commends it self to the reason of man that we cannot but have a love for such as are bountiful though we never tast of their bounty We see it in ordinary experience if we that live here be rational and ingenuous hear that one who lives in the furthest parts of England hath given all his Estate to good uses though we have no share in them yet we love the man for it And certainly if you could suppose a reasonable creature who should but hear that Christ the Eternal Son of God came down from Heaven and died upon the Cross for some men though he knew he were none of them yet it would be a ground of love to him considered as a reasonable creature But secondly a ground of it may be The certain apprehension of some good which even the Unbeliever enjoyeth from Christ It is said by many and those too such as can by no means agree that Christ died equally for all or that he purchased a possibility of Salvation for all that yet there is none who lives but is for his life and preservation beholden to the death of Christ and that all receive this good from him which may to rational men evidence a ground of Love I must confess I cannot too boldly strike this string for I much doubt whether the standing of the World and the common preservation of men flows from the Death of Christ as the Issue of his purchase I should rather ascribe it to the gracious Providence of God of which even the Death of Christ also is an Issue 3. Certain it is that whatever the intention of Christ in dying was such is the Wisdom of Divine Providence That the Gospel is held forth indefinitely Whosoever believeth shall be saved So that there is no ground for any Soul to conclude I was none of those considered in the purchase of Christ and there is ground sufficient in the intrinsecal value and sufficiency of the Death of Christ considered together with the indefinite Proposal of the Covenant of Grace to encourage every man under hope of finding mercy with him to come unto him Now which is there of us that should hear of a liberal man worth many thousands of pounds that should have freely determined with himself to spend it all upon our Family and should make a general offer to us that to so many of us as would come to him he would give a share sufficient would not as a reasonable creature judge himself engaged to love him even before we should so go to him and receiveour share Give me leave only to infer two things from this Discourse That there is sufficient ground for God to condemn those for want of love to Christ who yet never had a saving sight of him All men deserve to be Anathema Maranatha whose hearts yern not toward Christ whether ever they had any saving experience of the Love of Christ to their Souls or no. I speak but as a reasonable creature If I were sure that I were shut out of Christ's thoughts when he died upon the cross and that he would never save my Soul yet I see reason enough why I ought to hate my self and condemn my self if I should not love