further say that there is no portion of holy Writ so copiously as this expressing the infinite love and transcendent excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ None that more copiously instructs us what he will be to us or what we should be toward him and consequently none more worthy of the pains of any who desires to Preach Christ My Meditations upon the second Chapâ—â—r composed in my maturer years were published some years â—â—nce Those upon this Chapter have being done in my younger time staid till I could get some leisure to peruse them my self and correct some things in the stile especially our juvenile fancies seldom pleasing us in our maturer years You will I hope Madam pardon my Dedication of them to your Ladyship Your â—â—lf knows how great Obligations you have laid upon me I cannot answer them These are all the Requitals we can make our Friends for their kindnesses Silver and gold I have none but what I have I humbly present your Ladyship with nor shall I have been wholly unserviceable to your Ladyship in your highest concerns if any thing in these Discourses shall help further to inflame your Soul with love to him who is the chiefest of ten thousand and contribute to the sending of your Soul to Heaven in the admiration of your Beloved where you shall see him as he is whom these Discourses will but shew you as in a glass darkly Now the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen April 3. 1683. Your Ladiships most humble Servant JOHN COLLINGES TO THE READER SOme few years since I was prevailed with to publish some discourses upon the Second Chapter of this excellent Song I had then by me these upon the first Chapter but they being composed in my younger years I was desirous first to peruse them before I suffered them to come forth into the World since which time I have had so little rest that the perusal of them hath taken up much longer time than I then thought upon The publishing of my discourses upon the Second Chapter first obliged me to take something out of these discourses to make those as intelligible as I could concerning the Penman of the Book and the Nature form and stile of it which I have here restored to their due place with some advantage all those things falling in to the handling of the first verse I am not upon the persual of notes composed so many years since my self much pleased with the largeness of my discourses upon the five or six first verses occasioned from the variety of Propositions raised from them but there are couched in those verses some very great points and my consulting so many expositors as I did together with my proneness to suspect my own judgment rather then those whom I had reason to prefer before my self was the cause of that Nor did I think it much material if I saw a Proposition offered me by any valuable interpreter as feunded on one of those verses which I saw was a Proposition of truth and justifiable from other Scripture whether it were certainly there founded or no for he pretends to too much skill that will be too positive in giving the sense of a metaphor in this or that Text. It is enough for a modest Interpreter to give a probable sense of such expressions and to prove it from a plainer Revelation I hope thou wilt be so charitable to me as to think that I troubled not a Popular auditory with all that thou wilt find here in the opening of the several verses I bless God I was never so idle as to make up discourses to people of what I knew they did not understand What I found in my notes put in for my own Satisfaction I have let go not knowing but my book might fall into the hands of some Scholar who might be able to judge from what Satisfied me upon what grounds I formed such Propositions of truth as I did from the several verses so preparing the matter of more Popular and practical discourse I bless God I always looked upon the work of the ministry as the most grave and serious employment under Heaven whether the Minister speaks with reference to explication or application In the first he acts as an Interpreter making the words of the eternal God more plain and intelligible to the infirm capacityes of his people How great is that work to be the Lords Interpreter In the latter he acts as an Ambassador persuading and offering terms of peace between God and man and using all his art in intreating men to be reconciled to God Who is sufficient for these things As to the former we have no more accommodate means then searching the Original texts comparing the usage of words in one Text with the usage of them in others consulting Interpreters who have gone before us then using our own judgments as to what they have said or our own thoughts shall further suggest to us thou wilt discern that this is the method I have used and if in any thing I have been mistaken I have erred neither wilfully nor singly When I had examined the several verses my work was to raise Propositions from them so interpreted to open them to justify them to be divine truths from other places of plainer Revelation For my method and stile it is what I judged most accommodate to the end of my work No man discourseth to any length upon a subject without a method some use a Cryptick method which is only for their own conduct others a plainer method for the advantage of others the former may do well enough in the Schools where the end is only to raise some subitaneous affections I never thought it proper for the Pulpit where the Preachers end is or should be to inform his People in the great things of God and to affect their hearts and in order to it he is bound to speak with the best advantage both for their memories and understandings thou wilt find I have kept to the ordinary plain method of explication confirmation and application No man having drank old wine desireth new for he saith the old is better In the proof of Propositions I have rather studied the evidence of holy writ and Scriptural reason then other more incertain Topicks knowing it the duty of Ministers to take care that the faith of their people may not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God One plain Text of holy Writ more confirms a Proposition of Divine truth to an understanding Christian then an hundred rational arguments For my stile it was the least of my study my Opinion always was that what Augustine calls diligens negligentia was
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
certainly a forbidden Relation Love not the world saith the Apostle nor the things of the world yet never were more to be found amongst such who are called Christians Thirdly Marriage doth not alwaies spoil Virginity as it signifies Chastity But an heart equally cleaving and inclining to two men will especially if byast to him who is not the Woman's Husband She that hath one true and proper Husband and yet loveth another equally with him or more than he hath lost her Virgin-heart Ah! how many of these are there amongst Professors they are married to Christ in the face of the Church they were baptized into his Name and are under Vows to be the Lord's But as God said of old concerning Ephraim Their heart is divided and therefore they must be found faulty Ah! How many are there that have divided hearts that halt between two Opinions and are not able to conclude with themselves whether Baal be God and they should serve him or God be God and they shall serve him Nay they halt between two Conversations something there is of Heaven in them but alas how much of the Earth how much of sin folly and vanity how much of contradiction to their Profession where 's a Christian Caleb to be found to walk with God fully Fourthly If we have some that are Virgins yet how few beautiful Virgins where 's the beauty the glory of Professors where 's their former shining out before men Ah! call your Children Ichabods call them Ichabods The Glory is departed in a great measure from England from the Professing Party of England Where 's the former sincerity love to God zeal for God plainness of heart sincerity of conversation brotherly love heavenly walking the World the vanities of the World have spoiled Professors beauty The Sun of a little outward prosperity hath shone upon them how are they tanned But in the next place this discourse offers us a fair opportunity to try our Relation to Christ whether we be the Lambs Wife who shall hereafter follow him whithersoever he goes 1. Are you Spiritual Virgins There are tokens of Spiritual as well as Natural Virginity 1. Purity and Chastity in heart as well as outward appearance Blessed are they saith our Saviour who are pure in heart for they shall see God is not thy heart defiled with sensual affections impetuous passions doth not thy Soul cleave to sin and lust 2. Dost thou live like a Virgin an hidden life doth not the world see all that thou hast of a Spiritual life dost thou not like the Pharisees love to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the Streets more than with thy doors shut about thee in thy closet livest thou any thing of that life which is hid with Christ in God is it thy only and greatest care to please thy heavenly Father and Christ thy great Lord and Master 3. Where 's thy modesty the Virgin blusheth presently when any thing is reflected upon her Art thou ashamed when thou committest iniquity and thy heart reflects it upon thee or hast thou a Whores fore-head that cannot blush I might instance in many particulars more but these are enough to try thy Spiritual Virginity 2. A second note of the Spouse of Christ arising from this Text is a love to Christ Love is a natural plant and groweth in every Soul but love to Christ is a plant from Heaven heavenly a plant sprung up from the seed of God in the Soul If Christ should from Heaven propo und the fame question to thee which while he was on Earth he propounded to Peter couldst thou answer with him Lord Thou that knowest all things knowest that I love thee This Grace of all others is most discernable for love is of an active nature and will hardly lie hid The pantings of thy heart after him the acquiescence complacency and delight of thy heart in him will easily discover it to thee if thou lookest narrowly The natural man cannot say that his Soul cleaveth to Christ or thirsteth after Christ or taketh any complacency in the Lord Christ Thirdly As God is the fountain of good and blessing to his Creatures and as Christ hath a fair inheritance of a Crown an Heaven an incomprehensible glory which is annexed to the fruition and enjoyment of him so the worst of men may have a kind of love for Christ or rather for what he bringeth along with himself unto the Soul Lastly Therefore Dost thou love Christ for the savour of his good Ointments because his name is an Oil or Ointment poured forth He that loveth Christ meerly for his Heaven and Glory is purely selfish in his love I deny not but Moses had an Eye to the recompence of reward and so hath every honest and gracious heart without doubt Christs beneficence and goodness unto us and the benefit which our Souls have and hope to have from Christ is and ought to be a very great attractive and to draw out our hearts more and more in love to Christ but herein is the purity of the Saints love he discovereth such an excellency in the Lord Jesus Christ that were he never to have an Heaven with him yet his heart would cleave to him infinitely delight in him if thou canst say that thou thus lovest the Lord Jesus it will indeed speak thee to be a Spiritual Virgin a Spouse to the Lord Jesus I shall conclude my discourse upon this verse with a threefold word of Exhortation 1. In the first place methinks from this metaphorical expression of Saints under the notion of Virgins I have here a fair opportunity to plead with Virgins to be Saints Virgins generally have the object of their love to seek Lo here a most deserving object for every young man every young woman that heareth me Methinks the holy Spirit points out this in the Metaphor Therefore do the Virgins love thee Christ here expresseth himself under the notion of some beautiful young man beautified and adorned with all the advantages both of nature and of art So that the Virgins must love him I noted to you before that some would have the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be rather a term of age then either signifying Sex or State oh that I could this day prevail with you who are young men and young women to love the Lord Jesus Christ Youth is an age a time of love full of love but it usually mispends its self upon vain and worthless objects the young man loves his lusts and his pleasures the young woman loveth dancings and foolish sports and vain company and gay and costly attire but how rare is it to find a young man or woman that sincerely loveth the Lord Jesus Christ truly amongst young or old there is hardly one of a thousand but of those that are in the height and heat of their youth hardly one of ten thousand It is too frequent for us to give our marrow to the Devil
Enallage of tenses to justify their interpretation to say the King hath is put for the King shall bring me c. Aquinas Piscator and some others thus interpret the Spouse The question about degrees of glory is not well agreed amongst Divines there are great Divines on either side as to that opinion nor is it a small difficulty to open in what the glory of one Child of God when he comes in Heaven shall excell anothers When it is certain that they shall all see God inherit his Kingdom be satisfied with his likeness and there shall be no want to any Soul there especially we being taught by our Saviour that every labourer in the Vineyard shall have his penny But yet it is very probably judged by Divines That in that firmament as well as in that which is lower the stars shall differ one from another in glory and that when Christ told his Disciples they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel he by it expressed some greater degrees of glory then shall be the portion of his more common Disciples besides that the Scriptures speaking of God's rewarding all men according to their works compared with the disproportion which we see in the works of Believers make it yet more probable So that I must confess my self very inclinable in this point to be of the mind of those Divines who think that in the Mansions of Glory there shall be Chambers though I am not able to distinguish them from the lower Rooms in those blessed Mansions But yet I am not inclinable supposing this to interpret the Spouse as speaking of them here but rather judge her by this phrase designing to express her felicity not discerned by the Eye of Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen but by the Eye of Sense some special favour now received from God and I am therefore concerned further to enquire what these favours may be 2. God hath Chambers of special Providence Some indeed understand that Text Isa 26. 20. Come my people enter into the Chambers and hide thy self concerning the Grave because the righteous are taken away as the Prophet saith from the Evil to come But others and I think better interpret it as an invitation of God to his people in calamitous times to betake themselves into the Chambers of his special providenee the Psalmist saith Psal 91. 1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of his Wings In this Chamber there are Closets there is a special providence that attendeth and watcheth over the whole Church as the whole Nation of the Jews were under more special providences than the Heathens but yet there is a more special providence attends the people of God who are so indeed Which is abundantly proved throughout the 91 Psalm so Psal 34. 18. The Eye of the Lord is upon those that fear him and upon those that hope in his mercy To deliver their Souls from death and to keep them alive in Famine But in regard the Spouse here speaketh not of herself as under any circumstances of outward misery or affliction I do not think this is her meaning in this Text these are not the Chambers concerning which the Spouse boasteth that the King had brought her into them she is speaking here doubtless of more spiritual inward dispensations 3. God hath his Chamber of Audience where he receiveth heareth and giveth answer to the prayers of his people This is a near degree of the Souls communion with God and what God hath promised them Psal 34. 15. The Eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his Ears are open unto their cry And again v. 17. The righteous cry and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their troubles This is a favour which the Lord affordeth every believer the promises of hearing prayers belong to them all but yet in this Chamber there are Closets also God sometimes granteth a more speedy answer to his pecples prayers sometimes he delayeth and seemeth to be angry with and to shut out his peoples supplications from him but you know it was my whole business in my last discourse to prove and to give you some account of this which may very well supersede any larger discourse upon it under this Proposition Abraham Moses and Daniel and Job were all entertained in these Chambers so are many of the Servants of God at this day men mighty with God in prayer such Favourites in the Court of Heaven that they have no more to do then to form their Petitions and to put them into the hands of Christ and to get upon their Watch-Tower with Habakkuk and see what the Lord will answer God seemeth to have said unto them as Ahasuerus said to Esther What is thy Petition O my Child and what is thy request it shall be performed even to the half of my Kingdom Solomon was entertained by God in this Chamber when the Lord appeared unto him in Gibeon and asked him what shall I give thee and when after his prayer upon the dedication of his Temple the Lord again appeared to him and said I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place for my self a Soul may be said to be brought into this Chamber either when it findeth that God hath answered its prayers at any time Or 2. When it before it prays ordinarily findeth a persuasion within itself that it shall be answered and so goeth with boldness and confidence to the throne of grace and poureth out its self unto God without doubting 4. God hath Chambers which I may call the Chambers of his special presence This being the thing which I conceive chiefly intended in this metaphorical expression I shall spend a little time in the explication of it The Scripture speaking much of Gods presence with and absence from his people his being with them or forsaking them and departure from them that you may in some measure understand those phrases Consider 1. There is a presence of the Divine Essence in all places in respect of which it is said The Lord filleth Heaven and Earth In respect of this he is never far from any of us he is neither shut up in nor shut out of any place nor is he more present in one place then he is in another according to that barbarous verse Enter praesenter Deus est ubique potenter God is every where in respect of his being essential presence and power 2. There is a presence of the Divine goodness it 's communicative goodness for there is an essential goodness which can never be separated from it wherever the divine being is there is infinite goodness but there is in God not only a goodness of perfection which is essential to God and inseparable from him but a goodness of bounty and beneficence which is nothing else but the goodness of God affecting the creature and flowing out upon the creature now this
dependeth upon the will of God He sheweth mercy where he will shew mercy Thus God is said to be present where he sheweth mercy and kindness and to be absent where he with-holdeth his acts of kindness Thus the Saints in Heaven are said to be ever with the Lord in Heaven because they shall be ever under the fullest manifestations of his glory and goodness and the damned are said to depart from God because they are never like more to see him or feel him in any manifestations of his mercy and goodness the shewing of mercy and goodness is so natural to God so much his proper work and delight that he is said to be wholly absent from them to whom he will never more shew kindness and mercy So as to this life God is said to be present with a people when he sheweth them goodness and mercy to be departed and to be absent from them when he with-holdeth from them such dispensations as they have formerly enjoyed and are suited and proper to their wants or desires Now these mercies or good things being such as are suited to the necessities of our bodies here in this life or of our Souls the first of which we usually call the good things of common providence The latter the good things of special grace God is said to be present with or absent from his people with respect to the one or to the other with respect to the good things of common providence God is present with a people when he goeth forth with their Armies gives them peace and plenty success in business prosperity in their tradings and commerce and on the other side he is said to be absent from them and to be departed from them when he goeth not forth with their Armies but makes them to fall before their enemies when he sends amongst them famine and pestilence c. Thus as to particular persons as God is said to be present with persons when he upholdeth their Souls in life their bodies in health when he blesseth them in their businesses and relations and maketh the works of their hands to prosper so he is said to have forsaken them and to be departed from them when he leaves them to sicknesses blasts them in their Estates c. thus Gods presence and being with his people his absence forsaking of and departing from a people or person are often taken in holy writ Thus God may be present with the very worst of men thus he may be absent and depart from the very best of his people But then there is a presence of God with men and women with respect to the good things of special grace Now these things again are such as are either absolutely necessary to salvation Or 2. Such influences as though they be not absolutely necessary to the salvation of the Soul yet do highly accommodate the Soul in its way to Heaven Of the first sort are the graces of justification and of Regeneration Sanctification without these the Soul can never enter into the Kingdom as to these therefore God is always present with never absent from the Souls of any whom he hath chosen and called out of darkness into light in that sense the promise doth and ever shall hold true He will never leave his people nor forsakethem But now there are other influences of grace exceeding pleasant of high advantage accomodation to the Soul in its way to Heaven such are further degrees of strength and ability further freedom lâ—fe and activity and chearfulneâ—s in the service of God pâ—ace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost these are not absolutely necessary unto eternal life and salvation nor to the upholding of spiritual life in the Soul the want of them is only afflictive to the Soul and incumbers it in its spiritual life without a total destruction of it as to these God giveth more or less to the Souls of his people and to the same Souls more or less at one time then at another and so is said to be present or absent from them according to the greater or lesser degrees of these influences which he vouchsafeth unto them and those Souls may be said to be brought into the Lords Chambers to whom he vouchsafeth greater degrees of these gracious influences and those Souls may be said to be under desertions forsaken of God to whom the Lord denieth such degrees of these influences as either themselves have before enjoyed or others do enjoy As to these God is very various in his dispensations they being such dispensations as God upon the covenant of grace is left at liberty to dispense out to the Souls of his people or to with-hold from them according to his own good pleasure and wisdom and which accordingly he doth dispense out in pursute of the design of his own glory and as according to his infinite knowledge and wisdom he seeth will be most for the good of his people when God dispenseth out more of these he is said to be more present with the Souls of his people when he more with-holdeth them he is said to be absent not that at any time he is wholly absent from the Souls of his people as to his gracious presence for without that they were able to do nothing the seed of God abiding in the Soul must be upheld in its life and cherished by the influence of the Sun of righteousness upon the Soul but as God though he be alwaies present in the world by his essential presence yet doth not alwaies shew forth his power in upholding and preserving this or that part of it no not the same parts of it which is the reason of that sickness and mortality with which some parts of it are affected more than others and the same parts of it are affected at some times more than others So as to spiritual influences though he alwaies vouchsafeth such a presence of his gracious influences as shall keep up spiritual life in the Soul yet for further gradual influences the want of which is yet consistent with spiritual life in the Soul the Lord granteth or with holdeth them according to his own will guided by his infinite wisdom with respect to the great ends of his own glory and his peoples good And the Lords withdrawings of this nature are the cause of all the Souls sickness and spiritual distempers upon this are the grievous complaints of the people of God of the strength of their corruptions the violence of temptations their deadness and inactivity to in the operations of the spiritual llfe their heaviness sadness and want of comfort When the Lord granteth out to any of the Souls of his people more of these influences then he may be said to bring them into his Chambers when they find more internal strength to the performance of their duties that their meditation of God is more sweet to them they can believe with less doubting pray with more faith more fervour less distraction
God be vile in your Eyes who are so highly esteemed by him who is your Lord and Master and by whom you pretend to hope to be saved But to shut up this discourse You that will not conform your judgment to the Judgment of Christ concerning such People and behave your selves towards them accordingly shall certainly be forced to submit to his Judgment spoken of Jude 14. and 15. 2d Branch I would willingly improve this notion a little further not onely to reconcile your judgments to the judgment of Christ concerning the People of God but to reconcile you also to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the ways of God The effecting of the former if I could do it though it might produce some more quiet and peace in the World and reduce men to the rule of reason yet as to your own Souls if that be all all the effect it would have would be to save you from a deeper place in Hell It is not a good opinion of Gods People or a peaceable or kind behaviour to them will bring any man to Heaven I could wish that all who hear me this day to use Saint Paul's words to Agrippa were as the People of God are excepting that reproach and obloquy which they suffer those bonds and imprisonments to which they are exposed that they also would come into the number of those whom the Lord judgeth the best Souls in the World the fairest amongst women 1. Is it nothing to you to come into this reputation Leud profane debaucht Persons let their quality in the World be what it will in Scripture come under the notions of Children of Belial Vain Persons What an object of desire doth corporeal beauty appear to the World What will not a vain woman do to get it to preserve it to dissemble it what time what mony she spends to set it out What care she takes if as to it she be under any defects to hide them to correct them c. Quantum est in rebus inane All this it may be is spent in painting a Sepulcher a rotten post Possibly look into this Masquerade there 's nothing but what is rational filthiness and deformity An understanding void of any valuable knowledge A Perverse and stubborn will against what is rationally good beastly affections her Soul it may be is full of lasciviousness Pride Malice Envy All unlovely things Turbulent Passions Is Spiritual beauty worth nothing Shall Heathens judge a Soul that is knowing subdued to the rule of reason chast good just sober meek modest beautiful and worth a thousand Souls otherwise disposed and qualified and shall Christians judge otherwise shall they think Soul-beauty not valuable Or shall they not judge it worth any thing to be comely with Christs comeliness and in the Eyes of an all seeing heart searching God to be without spot or wrinkle consider Sirs how much this is beneath the name or profession of Christians how we are condemned by wanton gallants desiring corporeal beauty and Heathens valuing the rational beauty of the mind which commends it self to all rational minds before they be debauched 2. Consider what it is to have the King of Kings to desire and to predicate our beauty Psal 45. 11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty The King this King is God whose throne is for ever and ever and whose Scepter is a righteous Scepter v. 6. Beauty is in it self attractive but who is there that will not covet a beauty that a King should desire But what are all the Kings of the Earth compared with him who is the King of glory So shall the King saith the Psalmist desire thy beauty How great a thing is this for the great God to have a desire to the Sons of men and a delight in them And further for this King to predicate our beauty as the Lord doth in the Text and did concerning Job Job 2. v. 3. And the Lord said unto Satan hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause For this great King to desire a Souls beauty signifieth to be the Spouse of Christ to be in favour with God in this life and it promiseth an eternal communion with God in glory in the life which is to come when the Marriage of the Lamb shall be consummate and the Bride the Lambs Wife shal follow him wheresoever he goes 3. Lastly consider The consequent of not being of the number of those whom Christ here calleth the fairest amongst Women Amongst men their is a medium betwixt mens looking upon a woman as the fairest and such a one whose beauty they desire and being abominable and odious in their Eyes But as to Christ there is no medium betwixt these two The unbelieving and the abominable are put together Rev. 21. 8. A man may not love a woman so well as to make her his Wife and yet have a kindness for her not hate and abhor her The case is not so betwixt God and the Soul He or she whose beauty the Lord doth not desire is by God hated and abhorred that Soul is abominable in his fight The abominable Rev. 21. 8. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the Second death These arguments are enough to those who believe there is an Heaven and an Hell who believe there is a God and a Christ and that all mankind are under the favour or disfavour of this great and terrible God To persuade them to get into the number of these whom God judgeth the fairest amongst women Will any say to me but what can we contribute towards it Love is a free thing It is true Love is free and the Love of none amongst the creatures is or can be so free as the Love of God who is the freest Agent but yet hearken to the direction of the Psalmist who doubtless is an infallible guide in this matter Psal 45. v. 10. Hearken O Daughter and consider and incline thine Ear forget also thine own People and thy Fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty What is our Fathers house but the house of old Adam What are our own People but our own sinful courses our old sinful company How shall we forget them but by hearkening to the Counsels of God considering our state and condition what we are Whither we are hastening what will become of us in the latter end Giving and inclining our Ears to what To the reproofs corrections admonitions instructions of Gods Word to the knocking 's and motions of his blessed Spirit so shall the Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings the Lord of Lords desire and greatly desire your beauty To those who what ever they are called and go for in the World are Atheists in heart and believe nothing which the Scripture saith of Heaven or
Man 's but a shadow and a Picture is That shadow's shadow yet don't judge amiss Though here you onely on the shadow look What followes read The Substance is i' th' book THE INTERCOURSES OF DIVINE LOVE BETWIXT Christ and his Church OR The Particular Believing Soul Metaphorically expressed by Solomon in the first Chapter of the Canticles or Song of Songs Opened and Applied in several Sermons upon that whole Chapter In which the Excellencies of Christ the yernings of his bowels towards Believers under various circumstances the workings of their hearts towards and in communion with him with many other Gospel Propositions of great import to Souls are handled By John Collinges D. D. Solomon divinitus inspiratus Christi Ecclesiae laudes aeterni Connubii cecinit Sacramenta simulque expressit sanctae desiderium animae Epithalamii carmen exultans in spiritu jucundo composuit Elogio figurato tamen Nimirum velabat ipse instar Moysis faciem suam non minus forsitan in hâc parte fulgentem to quod illo adhuc in tempore nemo aut rarus erat qui revelatà facie gloriam illam speculari sufficeret Bernardus 1 Serm. in Cantica London Printed by T. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. To the Lady Ann Knightley Madam AMongst the many Spiritual mercies by which within these fifty years last past England hath been exalted to heaven as our Saviour said of Capernaum the plenty of good Books hath not been the least so as there is hardly any point in Divinity which hath not been judiciously handled both dogmatically polemically and practically and discourses upon it published in our own Tongue The things hid in times of Popery yea and for many years in the beginning of our Reformation have been made known the things covered have been revealed what was at first spoken in darkness hath been told in the light preached upon the house tops and so published that all those who would might read and understand Certainly no Nation under Heaven of which we have any record was ever blessed with the Means of Grace to that degree none ever had more judicious Interpretations of the Word of God nor more serious and faithful Applications of it to the Consciences of men and women so as if either the Doctrine or Duty of the Gospel be yet hid to any it is much to be feared that it is to such only who shall perish But of all good Books we have been exalted in none more than those which have bin wrote on practical Subjects Books of all others to be most highly valued as more immediately serving the great end of man in shewing him the way of Salvation directing his coming to Christ and walking with him of which we have had such plenty as indeed there would be no more need of writing on such Subjects if the Vanity of our Natures did not more incline us to a discourse upon the same Argument newly wrote than to what hath been written as well some years since by which means the multiplying of good Books doth not a little contribute to the much reading of good Books and that I am sure contributes much both to knowledge and practice the two great ends that every Preacher ought to aim at so as I cannot be of their mind who would have no more written of this nature because so much hath been already wrote any more than I can be of theirs who think there is now no such need of Preaching because formerly there hath been so much So long as there are any Souls in the World who know not Christ and live not up to the Rules of his Gospel there will be need both of the one and of the other nay were there none such there would be need of it to keep up the Grace of God bestowed upon men in its warm exercise Nor me thinks should there be one Preacher of the Gospel who should not publish the glad tidings of it and leave some Record to the Ages to come of his faithfulness in that work The Riches of Divine Grace can never be too much published we can never enough declare his love who for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich Such like thoughts as these Madam have brought these Discourses into a more publick light They were composed many years since soon after my entrance into the publick Ministry I am willing they should be a Testimony to the world what Doctrine I then Preached and see no cause yet to be ashamed of and what scope or design I have alwaies propounded to my self The Gospel of the Kingdom Christ The faithsul saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesâ—â— came into the world to save sinners 1. Tim. 1. 15. The Apostle Doctrine Acts 4. 12. That there is no Salvation in any other then in Christ for there is no other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved were the great things I took my self concerned as a Preacher to publish to the world Together with what our Saviour hath taught us That he who believeth him i not condemned But he that believeth not is condemned already shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 18. 36 and that Faith without works is dead These were the greaâ— things I had in my eye to open explain and apply to people My apprehension that I saw much of these things revealed in the Song of Solomon though clouded under Metaphorical expressions was that which led me to the study of that difficult portion of holy Writ than which undoubtedly there is no portion of the Old Testament more Evangelical according to the common Hypothesis agreed by the most valuable Divines in all Ages viz. That it contains a Dialogue between Christ and his Church or particular believing Souls in it If any think I might have chosen plainer Texts from which to discourse these things I freely yield it as to many of them But shall this excellent Book alwaies acknowledged a sacred portion of holy Writ by the wisest man upon earth stiled the Song os Songs that is the most excellent Song lie by us as the Vision of a Book that is sealed or be bound up in our Bibles for nothing Or can there be any work more worthy of a Divine than to attempt the clearing of so incomparable a piece of Divine Revelation from that darkness which it pleased God to cloath it with in a time when the most which he spake concerning Christ was in Types 〈◊〉 Prophecies or Metaphors Time together with the Sermons of â—hrist and his Apostles have expounded the Types and Prophecies of Christ Is it not a work worthy of us to explain the Metaphors that we might have a Christ wholly unveiled There 's no great fear of any dangerous erring in the case if he that explaineth taketh care that his Explication agreeth with plainer Revelations Madam I think I may
and desireth the continuance of it The Ignorant bold presumptuous Sinner desireth not the Love of God the pardon of Sins he thinks he is sure of all Hence now it is that the believer desires the Loves of Christ it apprehendeth them good possible and what its Soul doth stand indaily and further need of which apprehension is the reason why our Souls desire any thing be it of what nature soever we can desire nothing but what we must apprehend good sutable to us in some of our circumstances possible to be attained and such as either wholly or in some degree at least we need 2. According to the degree of our knowledge or apprehension of the goodness of any object so are our desires after it This will justify itself upon experience in all other things we do not desire them according to the degree of goodness in them for then every man must desire the favour of God Union and Communion with him but according to the degree of our knowledge or apprehension of such a good as such Now there are various degrees of knowledge 1. The first and meanest is the meer act of our Understanding which by the help of our Eyes and Ears gaineth the knowledge of things And thus the vilest of men may know that the Loves of Christ are good yea good before wine that is they may have so read in the Bible so heard from Ministers of the Gospel And even this knowledge may produce in a bad man a desire after these things proportioned to his apprehension Hence such a man may faintly will and lazily desire these things 2. A Second degree of Knowledge is Opinion This riseth a little higher the man who thus knows that the Loves of Christ are good doth not onely know it from reading or hearing but from probable Arguments Nor is it difficult for a wicked man thus also to know that the Loves of Christ are good Assoon as he can be made to believe that there is a God and that he is the Fountain of Good and that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God and Equal with the Father both in Essence and all Divine Perfections his Reason will persuade him that there must be a Goodness yea a transcendent Goodness in Christs Loves But while Flesh and Blood only revealeth this thing unto him his Knowledge is incertain and faint and he is subject to thoughts that he may be mistaken and therefore though he may sometimes desire Christs Love yet it is but by fits and with incertainties according to the Nature of the Knowledge and Apprehension he hath of the truth of the things 3. A Third degree of Knowledge is Persuasion arising from Demonstration Now there is 1. A Demonstration of Sense thus we know the Sun shines the Fire burneth c. 2. A Demonstration of Reason when we can conclude a thing from infallible Principles of natural Reason 3. A Demonstration of Faith which is the Demonstration of the Spirit When men know things from the holy Spirits fully persuading them of the truth of this or that from a Divine Revelation This is the Demonstration of faith 4. There is yet a further and higher degree of Knowledg that ariseth from Experience being a sensible Evidence of the truth of what the Soul had before received a little of from the sight of the Eye and hearing of the Ear and more from the persuasion of the Spirit and some Argumentations within itself I say now that according to the degree of the Souls knowledge and apprehension so are the workings of the Affections This of desire in particular Hence the desires of Believers to the Loves of Christ must necessarily be the strongest For the degree of the Knowledge and Apprehension the Believer hath of the goodness of them is higher than it is possible any other Souls should have Other Souls may have read Books discoursing the Loves of Christ or heard Discourses of that tendency or judge so from Arguments of Scripture which may make such a thing probable to them But none but these have any persuasion wrought in their Souls by the Spirit of God of the Excellency of them none else have had any real Tasts and Experience of them Knowledge and Experience of the Goodness of any Objects being those things which move the Soul to desire them and the degree of the Souls apprehension of such Goodness and Excellency in Objects the ground of the Souls Intention in such desires it must necessarily follow that a good Christians Knowledge and Experience of that Goodness which is in Christs Loves must be the grounds of their desires after them There needeth no Scripture to prove this it is evident to our Reason Yet take the Instance of David Psal 4. 6. David desires of God to lift up the light of his Countenance upon him Observe now v. 7. what made him prefer the light of Gods Countenance to the Worldlings Corn and Wine and Oil Thou hast put gladness into my Heart Accordingly he tells us Psal 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee Hence you shall observe that David concludeth many of his Psalms of Praise with Prayer But will some say If they have had experience of the Loves of Christ why should they yet desire them None desires what they have This is true if our Enjoyments were perfect but there is an heighth and depth and length and breadth of the Love of God in Jesus Christ an heighth which the Soul hath not taken a depth which the Soul hath not fathomed a length and breadth which the Soul hath not measured from end to end It is true we desire nothing but what we want either in whole or in part therefore in Heaven will be no desire That which is perfect will be come and all that which is in part only will be done away But we shall never be filled with the Loves of Christ till our Mortality be swallowed up in Life I come now to the Application We may learn from hence That God must shew some act of Love to us before we can shew any Love to him Desires after the Loves of Christ though sincere are the least and first and lowest motions of our Souls toward God These you have heard must arise from a Knowledge and Experience of the goodness of those Loves Now this Knowledge this Experience must be the Gift of God to and the work of God in and upon the Soul yea and that not in a way of common Grace and Illumination but in a way of special Grace for though a common Illumination may produce some faint desires yet it will produce no sincere and effectual desires because the Knowledge begot by them will be flitting and incertain and attended with Doubts Fears and Incertainties So as till the Lord by his Spirit hath wrought in the Soul a persuasion of Faith commanding the Soul without dispute to give credit to what he hath revealed in his Word
there will be no sincere desires in the Soul after these things The Schoolmen tell us there are three ways by which we gain the Knowledge of a thing By Signs Conjectures and Effects as some Causes are known 2. By the enquiry of our Reason into the nature of it 3. By Divine Revelation The Excellency of the Loves of Christ is a spiritual thing and to be judged upon Spiritual accounts and in a Spiritual manner The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. So as the natural Reason of a Man will serve him very little to the gaining of this Knowledge by the Effects having never experienced it he cannot know it so as there is no other way to know it but by Divine Revelation God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 10. hath revealed them to us by his Spirit And v. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God So as that I say God must shew some special token of his Love to our Souls for good before we can shew any Love to him or make so much as one step toward him Observe from hence That a Believers Soul moves rationally and accountably enough in all its desires after the Loves of Christ The Souls of Believers are not so unintelligible as some prophane Persons would make them in their Passions for and Motions towards Christs Loves The Knowledge a Soul hath or the Experience which it hath had of the Goodness and Excellency of any Object moves the reasonable Soul to the desires of it Admitting the Believer to see things in another Light than a natural Man hath or can see in to have other Notions of Good and Evil and to take the measures of them from their subserviency to the Spiritual and eternal good of the Soul the Passions and Desires of his Soul after Christs Love are as natural Motions of the reasonable Souls as the Worldlings Desires after Riches or the sensual Mans Passions for such things as gratifie the sensitive Appetite The Reason why every Soul moveth not after these Spiritual Things is because every Soul seeth not the Good and Excellency in them Multitudes hardly know that is believe they have immortal Souls that shall outlive their Bodies in a state of Happiness or Misery or if they know or believe that yet they do not believe that there is no other name under Heaven by which they can be saved but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Nor ever had any experience of the Love of God to Souls Their deriding of Religious Passions and the Breathings of pious Souls after the Manifestations of Divine Love flows from their ignorance of them and their unreasonable Rudeness in speaking evil of the things which they know not The original difference betwixt a person truly pious and panting after the Love of Christ and others lies here These Creatures know that they have Souls Souls ordained to an eternal existence either in HÄ—ll or Heaven in eternal Happiness or in eternal Misery They believe what God hath said that there is no other Name under Heaven by which Men and Women can be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ neither is there Salvation in any other That he that believeth on him is not condemned and he that believeth not is damned already the Wrath of God abideth on him and he shall never see Life they do not only read these things in their Bibles and hear them from their Preachers but the Holy Spirit of God hath firmly persuaded them that they do as fixedly believe them as they do any thing of sensible or rational Demonstration they have more waky thoughts with reference to Death Mortality and Eternity are things more in their Eyes than in the Eyes of others Again they have tasted and experienced more of the Love of Christ Allow the Souls of others to be in the same Circumstances they would have alike Motions but because they are ignorant knowing nothing of Spiritual Things or at least nothing as they ought to know it thence it is that their Souls move not this is now but the natural working of reasonable Souls in other cases nor is there any such unaccountable or unintelligible thing in it And indeed this gives us the true Reason why every unregenerate Soul is so cold in its motions toward Christ and also may inform us how far it is possible such a Soul may go in motions of this nature The Reason why such a Soul moves no more is want of Evidence which such a Soul hath of the Goodness of his Loves Simple Goodness and Excellency in an Object is not attractive of the Soul but Goodness apprehended by evidenced and appearing to us All the apprehension that it is possible a natural man should have of the Loves of Christ must be from Reading Hearing or its own Reasoning and concluding from what it hath so heard or read for it wants both the demonstrative persuasion of the Holy Spirit and also any experimental Tasts or sensible Evidence All Knowledge which hath no better Foundation will arise no higher than to beget in the Soul an Opinion and leaves the Soul at some Incertainties and unfixed and hence its Motions towards an Object of which it hath no better Evidence are also incertain and faint and fluctuating Knowledge being the Foundation of Desire Reason will tell us that the Desire must bear proportion with the Knowledge The unregenerate man having no Knowledge of Spiritual things that is productive of more than an Opinion the desire must be incertain and faint according to the nature of the Opinion that causeth it By this also Christians may be able to take some Measures and make up some Judgments of themselves whether the desires they find in their Souls after Christ and his Loves be such as are peculiar to the Souls of Believers yea or no. We usually say that Desires after Grace are Evidences of it and there is a truth in it but all desires are not so for as I have said there may be desires after Christ and his Loves in an unregenerate Man commensurate to that knowledge which he hath of the Goodness of them but this will speak nothing of good to the Soul only such Desires as flow from a Christians Knowledge of Faith and from Experience He that hath only a knowledge of Christ and his Loves from Reading the word or from the Report of Ministers may so far desire Christs Loves as may serve him for his own ends nay though he hath no great Faith as to that eternal State of Happiness to which Christ brings the Soul but hath only received Notions of such ablessed State to which he gives no great credit yet for his own Security because his notions may be true though he hath no great fixed persuasion of them he may yet desire the Loves of Christ so far as to bring him to
the Application of it to Christ in the New Testament it appeareth that he was intended in it There Christ is called the Lord's Messiah against the Lord and his Anointed c. It is a Name which agreeth to Christ as he was Anointed with the Oil of gladness above his fellows Psal 45. 8. That is with the Holy Ghost and with Power as it is expounded Act. 10. 38. The Spirit not being given unto him by measure Joh. 3. 34. He was Anointed to Preach glad Tydings to the meek Isa 61. 1. By this Name some think both Natures in Christ are expressed as well the Divine Nature Anointing as the Humane Nature Anointed Justin Martyr thinks he was called the Messiah not only because he himself was Anointed but because he Anointeth This is now a second Name given to the Lord Jesus and is as I shall shew you as Oil poured forth 3. A third peculiar Name of Christ you have Gen. 49. 10. where he is called Shiloh Jacob in his last blessing of his Sons saith The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the Lawgiver from his feet till Shiloh come There is a dâ—spute amongst Etymolâ—g sts for the Original of that word some will have it to be derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Son Until Shiloh come that is until the Son of God cometh or till Judah's Son come which must be understood either of David or of Christ But I do rather agree with those who derive it from the Hebrew Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be a Peace-maker a name very proper to Christ who made Peace between God and Man betwixt Jew and Gentile and is therefore called Our Peace This Name of Christ is also an Oil poured forth 4. A fourth peculiar Name of Christ is the Name Jesus The Angel you know gave him that Name Matth. 1. and gave also the reason of it because he was to save his People from their sins he therefore came into the world that we might be saved from our Enemies and from the hands of all that hated us When old Simeon had him in his Arms he called him The Lord's Salvation Jesus signifies a Saviour These are some of his personal Names every one of which is to the Soul as a sweet Oil or Ointment poured forth 2. But he hath a second sort of Names which are the Names of Office given to Christ upon the account of several Offices which he was to bear and thus he is called Our Mediator Our Advocate Our King Our High Priest The Prophet c. First He is called Mediator It is a name you will find in the New Testament given to our blessed Lord four times One Mediator between God and Man even the Man Christ Jesus saith the Apostle to Timothy 1 Tim. 2. 15. The Apostle to the Hebrews calls him The Mediator of a better Covenant Heb 9. 15. Of the New Covenant Heb. 12. 24. The Law was ordained in the hands of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19 20. Socinus tells us that this word in Scripture signifieth no more than God's Interpreter but the Word in the Greek is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meâ—ius and signifieth a middle person one who stands in the midst betwixt two offended parties and appeaseth them Suâ—das interprets it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that maketh Peace A name excellently agreeing to Christ who was God-Man God with us Neither God only after his Incarnation nor meer man 2. Because being thus God-Man he interposeth himself betwixt the Offended Creator and the Offending Creature and taketh up the difference between God and Man This Name of Christ is as an Ointment or Oil poured forth Secondly He is called our Intereessor and Advocate Heb. 7. 25. He ever liveth to make Intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. He maketh Intercession for us 1 Joh. 2. 1. If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the Righteous The Office of an Advocate is in a Court to appear ingage and plead for his Client Christ as an Advocate appears in the Court of Heaven for Believers pleadeth their Cause answereth the Accusations which Satan brings against them interceedeth for them c. This is a sweet Name This is as an Oil poured forth to a Soul conscious to it self of its manifold failings and the imperfections of its best performances Thirdly He is called a King Pilate called him so in mockery to the Jews and refused to alter the Superscription of the Cross which had so expressed him God calls him his King I will set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion He is called so not only with regard to his Essential Kingdom which he hath as God over all blessed for ever nor only with respect to his Political Government of his Church which is or should be every where executed according to his Laws and Prescripts but with respect to that special Dominion which he hath over his Saints by which he doth both surprise their Enemies bruising Satan under their feet strengthening them against their lusts and corruptions commanding them into a conformity to his Will and to the practice and exercises of those habits of grace which he hath bestowed upon them Fourthly He is called our Priest our High Priest The Apostle to the Hebrews calls him the High Priest over the House of God The High Priest of our Profession a great High Priest The Office of the Priest was to enter into the Holiest to offer Sacrifice for the People to pray for them to bless them Christ did all this He once offered up himself for us he entred into the Holiest whither our forerunner is entred saith the Apostle we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in him He was saith the Apostle to the Galatians made a Curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come down upon us Fifthly He is called a Prophet that is also his Name That Prophet by way of Eminency Deut. 13. 3. Joh. 1. 21. Act. 3. 23. The woman of Samaria perceived that he was a Prophet Joh. 4. 19. He is a Prophet not only as he could and did foretel many things to come but as he teacheth and instructeth his People This he did while he was here upon the Earth going about and Preaching in the Temple in the Synagogues in the Streets upon Mountains c. but when he ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men he made some Apostles some Evangelists others Pastors and Teachers for the continual building up of his Church and not only so but by his Spirit instructing them in and revealing to them the deep things of God the things which Eye hath not seen nor hath Ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive Now all these pieces of Christ's Name are to the believing Soul as Oil poured forth But besides these personal Names of Christ and his Names of Office Whatever else Christ is made known by is his
call Love We naturally love what we apprehend good though we view it but at a distance from us Many a man that hath no Learning nor is ever like to have it yet loves Learning as it hath in it an innate Excellency as it is an ornament to him that hath it and makes him more useful to the world than his Neighbour In Christ's excelling graces which dwell in him eminently and essentially there is such a lustre and brightness and glory that to make the Soul take a complacency in him there needeth no more than that it be enlightened to see know and understand Christ Hence it is that many a Soul convinced of the filthiness of sin and of the fulness of that Excellency which is in Christ before ever it have received him so as to apprehend its Interest in him yet loves admireth him passionately desireth a part and portion in him saith within it self Oh that my Soul were brought unto Christ Oh that this Christ were my Christ my Jesus c. 2. But there is not only a transcendent goodness and excellency in Christ's Name but also a Relative Goodness Our reasonable Natures force us to love any thing which appeareth to us to be Good and Excellent but we much more love it when we discover in it a suitableness to our state and condition and the more goodness and suitableness we discern in any Object in proportion to our state and wants the more a great deal do our hearts cleave to it and long after it Now every Child of God is apprehensive enough of the proportion which the Name of Christ bears to the wants the various wants that it hath It wants a Mediator a Saviour an Advocate an Intercessor and this that Soul is sufficiently sensible of and therefore its heart cleaveth unto Christ and cryeth out Whom have I in Heaven but thee Or what have I upon the Earth to be compared with thee This Soul seeth that there is nothing in Heaven or Earth that so suiteth the Soul of a Child of God as Christ doth Hence his love to him is stronger than the Grave and his jealousie burns like fire 3. The Virgins must needs love Christ upon the discoveries of himself to their Souls because these discoveries command and teach the Soul to love him Our love to Christ proceeds you see upon rational grounds but not wholly upon rational Principles for we are taught of God saith the Apostle to love one another and if without a Divine Teaching we cannot love our Brethren whom we have seen we shall much less love Christ whom we have not seen Indeed this is the first cause of any love from our carnal hearts to Christ at all it is true No Sacrifice from our hearts flameth or can ascend towards God until fire hath first come down from Heaven and kindled it when indeed love is thus kindled in the Soul the fire increaseth in the Soul as the apprehensions of Christ's Excellencies and discoveries of himself do increase in the Soul from the experiences we have of God or the improvements of our Reason upon Revelation to shew us more of the Excellency of Christ I come now to the Application In the first place This may convince us That even amongst Professors there are many that glory in appearance and not in reality They are no Virgins they have no love for the Lord Jesus Christ The world it is to be hoped is not so full of such as go for Virgins in a carnal sense and are none as it is of such as go for Virgins in a spiritual sense and are none Unmarried they are but you must understand it only with reference to Christ who is the only proper adequate match for a reasonable Soul they are without Christ indeed but not without a-Mate First Too many are Whores instead of Virgins You shall in Scripture observe that sin especially Apostacy is compared to Whoredom and those that live in sin to such as live in Adultery God of old complained of his People that he was broken with their whorish heart Ah! how many Professors are there in the world of whom we may say the same God is broken with their whorish heart How many spots are there in our Assemblies How many of our Virgins that have at least such black spots upon their faces as cannot be allowed to be the spots of God's Children Some are gone a whoring after other Gods Reconciled they call it to the Church of Rome Oh! tell it not in Gath publish it not in the Tents of Askelon that Protestants should ever again lick up that Vomit and be so sottish as to adore a piece of bread for God or fall down before a Graven Image Blessed be God there are not many whom God hath thus given over I mean not many Professors though too many that have been baptized into the Name of Jesus Christ But how many more have defiled themselves with damnable or at least very dangerous Opinions You read of the Daughter of Jephtah that she went up to the Mountains three months to bewail her Virginity The Mountains are places of solitude How were it to be wished for many that they would go and sit alone that they would go up to the Mountains of Solitude and bewail the loss of their Spiritual Virginity They were sound Christians in appearance but they have lost their soundness They were fond of Ordinances and Duties but they have cast off Duties and Ordinances They were of the number of Virgins as we thought and we were bound in charity so to think we judged by the outward appearance but they have defiled themselves Secondly Many are wedded and no Virgins We do not call married Women Virgins 'T is true they are not so in one sense as the notion of a Virgin signifieth a solute or single person but yet they may be so in another sense as the notion of a Virgin signifieth one that is pure and chast But now if you can imagine a Woman married to a Beast or married incestuously this marriage would spoil her Virginity in the fairest notion of it The Soul married to Christ is yet a Virgin for she is married but to one Husband and him the proper Husband for a poor Soul so that that Soul is yet a Virgin But now the voluptuous sensual Soul that is united to a base and sordid lust or the covetous worldly Soul that is united to the gain and filthy lucre of the world is no Virgin no more than an incestuous Wife is in any notion a Virgin and how many of these are to be found in the Tents of persons professing to Religion How many Demas's who have forsaken and forgotten their Religion and have embraced the present World Judas's who have betrayed their Master and their Brethren for a few pieces of Silver Surely the Soul the high-born Soul of man is of too noble an extract too spiritual a substance to be united to the Earth This is
and then think to put off God with the bone O desperate folly and presumption offer this now to thy Prince will he accept it canst thou expect Sinner that Christ should freely love thee when thou art grown old who refusedst him when thou wert young canst thou reasonably think that God will be put off with the fag end of thy life dost thou not know how hardly an old sinner is brought to repentance sin is bred and sed in his bones and it will not out art thou aware how acceptable to God the sacrifice of thy youth is under the old law no Sacrifice was admitted that was above three years old Dost not thou remember how kindly God accepted his young Samuel Abijam Josiah Timothy c. who in their youth inclined their hearts unto him doth the good nature and handsome features and sweet perfumes of the young man please thee and is there no excellency in the Graces of him who is full of Grace and Truth is there no savour in Christs Ointments no sweet Odour from his name poured forth O come you that are Virgins behold your Husband an Husband who if you be poor is able to enrich you if you be mean and base is able to honour and to ennoble you who what ever you want is able to supply you O that upon the pouring forth of his name amongst you in this Sermon this day some of your souls this day might be allured to love the Lord Jesus Christ Secondly This notion obligeth all those that be Saints or profess themselves such to approve themselves to be Virgins the holy Spirit hath so called them certainly it should be their great care to answer their name To keep themselves unspotted from the world undefiled in the way free from the pollution of the world through lust I have toldyou that there are many who go for Virgins but are not they are wedded to some filthy lust or other wedded to the world defloured by entertainnig some corrupt dangerous principles or declining to a corrupt conversation we live in a debauched a debauching age you that stand take heed lest you fall 1. If you lose your Virginity you lose your honour The young Womans Virginity is her honour your freedom from idolatry and superstition your soundness in the faith your purity integrity and holiness of life is your honour Hold fast that thou hast saith Christ to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 11. that no man take thy Crown he who despoileth you of your purity of Doctrine and Worship or who seduceth you to any licentious practices takes away your Crown yea not only your Crown in respect of reputation but your Crown of Glory also John Rev. 14. 1. Saw a Lamb standing upon Mount Sion and with him 144000 having his Fathers name written upon their foreheaas and v. 2. heard a voice from Heaven c. and they the 144000 sang as it were a new Song before the Throne and the four Beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that Song but the 144000. which were redeemed from the Earth v. 4. It followeth These are they which were not defiled with Women for they are Virgins these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these were redeemed from amongst men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without sault before the Throne of God not defiled with Women Non polluti idololatriá quae est scortat io spiritualis sed virgines fide spiritu saith Pareus not defiled by idolatry which is a spiritual Adultery but Virgins in Spirit and Faith Secondly Consider if you lose your chastity It will be an hard matter to reconcile you to your first Husband If the Virgin be known to have lost her Virginity it is no easy matter to procure her an Husband of any reputation if the Wife hath lost her Virginity that is her chastity it is an hard matter to reconcile her to her Husband If a man put away his Wife and she go from him shall he return to her again Jer. 3. 1. It is true the mercies of God are above the mercies of men it follows there yet return unto me saith the Lord but it is no easy matter for a lapsed Saint to recover his peace many a Bone must be first broken and if such be saved it must be as through fire It is a dreadful Text which you have Heb. 6. 5 6. O keep your integrity and behave your selves like Virgins live an hidden life more and more to God and Christ more and more reserved from the world learn what this meaneth Our life is hid with Christ in God Be like Virgins careful in nothing save only to please Christ who is your spiritual Husband let your behaviour speak your Virgin-modesty and that you may keep your Virgin State and behaviour 1. Take heed of Books that will principle you to a Spiritual Fornication There are 2 sorts of Books in the world which help much to debauch it 1. Amorous Books full of lascivious Songs and filthy stories 2. Heretical Books The first debauch People as to their bodies the latter as to their faith and immortal Souls 2. Take heed of Whorish Company The Chast Virgin is often spoiled by unchast Society Dinah went abroad into wanton company and was deflowred If she had kept her Fathers house she had probably kept her honour How many Christians are defiled both in Judgment and Practice by keeping company with Papists Quakers Socinians c. Lastly O love the Lord all his Saints for the savour of his Ointments for the sweetness of his Name which is as an Ointment poured forth The best are prone to love Christ only for the Peace of Conscience which they have upon their Justification by his blood and for the Heaven they shall have hereafter for his sake His Glory is exceeding sweet This Love is not to be faulted but I would work my own heart and have you study to work up your hearts to an higher pitch Labour to be like Angels The Angels were never Redeemed with the Blood of Christ never knew what trouble of Conscience meant They have a natural right to Heaven yet they love admire adore Christ they are rational though spiritual Subsistences What maketh them to love Christ but the perfections and excellencies which they see in him Let us study to be like Angels to get up our hearts to such a spiritual pitch as this to love Christ for the excellency of his person for the savour of his good Ointments I shall add no more to this Discourse I have now done with this third Verse Sermon XVI Cant. 1. 4. Draw me we will run after thee The King hath brought me into his Chambers we will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine The upright love thee I Have told you that the eight first Verses of this Chapter
Hypocrite would seem to be somthing but is nothing he doth nothing he is inconcerned in the good of others Souls whereas if he were a true Plant of righteousness he would cast his Seed Prov. 10. 21. The Lips of the Righteous feed many It is an iâ—l sign that there is a truth of grace wanting in that Soul in which are found no endeavours to propagate the knowledge fear of God But I shall shut up my Discourse upon this Argument with a word of Exhortation to all those who profess themselves to have received the special grace of God So to manage their conversation that others by their examples or by their means may be provoked to run after Christ Christ tells his Disciples Mat. 5. 13. That they were the Salt of the Earth and v. 14. The light of the World a City set upon an Hill that God had not lighted up a light in their Souls to be hid for no Man lighteth a Candle to put to it under a Bushel saith he but to be set on a Candlestick that it might give light to all them that are in the House Upon this he foundeth an Exhortation v. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven I see no reason to restrain those Texts unto those that are the Ministers of the Gospel they are true of all true Christians the Children of God in the World are the Salt of the World and it is their duty to season others They are the light of the World and to shew light to the World they are obliged so to live that being themselves drawn others also by their means may run after Christ You will say to me how shall this be How should a Christian so live as to draw others to run after Christ I answer It will very much depend upon 1. The Seriousness of his pious behaviour towards God 2. The Humility and Inn cency and quietness of his behaviour toward men 3. His abounding in good works 4. His Communicativeness both of his Gifts and of his Experiences I will a little inlarge upon all these 1. I sav First It will much depend upon the Evenness and Seriousness of a Christians pious behaviour toward God Religion is in it self a lovely thing and many who cannot get leave of themselves to be pious and devout yet are constrained to commend it in others where they see the Practitioners in it serious and even in their practice for nothing is more odious even to common Eyes than to see men act a part in Religion but for a Christian in praying to pray in hearing to hear to be serious and in earnest in his acts of devotion so to demean himself that he shall appear to others to mind what he is about to be fervent in Spirit while he is serving the Lord is lovely in all mens account to see men gaping about the Church whiles they are pretending to pray sleeping or talking when they are pretending to hear the Word of God winneth none but rather estrangeth the World from God and makes them think there is nothing in Religion but a vain shew But to see a Christian serious and servent in prayer diligent and attentive in hearing hanging as it were upon the Preachers Lips as it is said of those who heard Christ Luke 19. 48. we translate it they were very attentive to hear him the Greek is they did hang upon him this makes People think there is something in Godliness Especially when men are even in their pious conversation that their warmth in Piety is not by fits but there are the same at all times having to do with the same God and being in the same service of God 2. A second thing upon which the inciting others to come to and to run after Christ doth much depend is Christians behavior towards men so three things much commend the grace of God to the World 1. Humility Pride and self exalting are generally odious to all men and men as it were by a natural instinct conclude there is nothing of God in those in whom they see much of Pride discovered by an immoderate boasting uncharitable judging and censuring superciliousness a scorn and contempt of others but now where men have the advantage of the Word of God which commands men to deny themselves to be cloathed with humility in honour to prefer others before themselves to learn of Christ for he is meek and lowly c. they are much more confirmed in this and any thing of pride in Christians doth rather estrange men from God and Christ then cause them to run after him 2. Innocency in Christians is another thing which much commends the ways of God to others Christ commanded his Disciples to be wise as Serpents innocent as Doves Paul exhorteth the Philippians 2. Phil. 15. to be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke Most People have a natural Notion of God that he is full of goodness and doth no Man harm and those who are in any measure acquainted with the Scriptures observe that Christ's conversation on Earth was an innocent harmless conversation the Apostle Heb. 7. 26. calleth him not only undefiled and separate from Sinners but holy and harmless Now an innocent conversation implieth righteousness in all injustice there must be harm done to others 3. A third thing that makes an honest and winning Conversation towards men is quietness and peaceableness in opposition to Tumultuousness Sedition and quaâ—reling The Apostle commands us to study to be Qâ—iet 1 Thess 4. 11. I need not enlarge upon this Experience tells you how much a quietness and peaceableness of behaviour obligeth the World and how much a contrary temper disobligeth it from Men and Women professing to Religion and Godliness God is the God of Peace and delighteth not in confusion 3. A third thing upon which much depends the winning and gaining of others to run after Christ is abounding in good works I here restrain the Notion of good works understanding by them acts of Mercy and Charity towards men Our Saviour bids us make our selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness and by it teacheth us that good works of this Nature are not unprofitable as to our own Souls though they are no fit price to purchase Heaven with But they are also of great use to save the Souls of others as they have a tendency to commend the grace and ways of God unto other men On the other side acts of Oppression Cruelty and uncharitableness have a great malignity to estrange Souls from Religion and Godliness It is a sad story I have somewhere met with upon the Cruelty shewed by the Spaniards to the Indians upon their pretended converting them to the Faith of the Gospel A great Person of the Indians would know whither the Souls of the Spaniards went when they died to Heaven or to Hell and being told they went to Heaven replied Then
presently after his death and troubled the Church for 300 years together the root of them was doubtless the worlds hatred this our Saviour hath learned us and in some measure armed his people against it John 15. 8. If the world hate you you know it hated me before it hated you If you were of the world the world would love his own But because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you God hath put an enmity betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent Christ and his Seed the Devil and his Children but in regard we must not so understand that Text Gen. 3. 15. as if God infused those evil habits of malice and envy and hatred of God and goodness but only that God would infuse such Spiritual gracious habits into the Souls of his People as through that native malice envy and corruption which is in the hearts of such as God pleaseth not to change by his special grace would provoke such an enmity in them we must inquire into the root and grounds of that hatred which produceth this enmity and hostility and that is 1. Their natural aversion to all piety and goodness And 2. That Pride which is in their hearts which suffereth them not to be patient of the preference of godly men in the favour of God nor of being excelled by them before men in such a conversation as their lusts will not suffer them to lead much less to be condemned by their Doctrines and reproofs hence they both hate such as will reprove them either in the Gate or from the Pulpit and because the Ministers of Christ are those to whose Office especially the latter belongeth hence they have in all times been made the buts and objects of their fury But though these afflictions come immediately and proximately from men yet they are also the appointments of God the counsels of God executed by his permissive Providence not restraining the malice and lusts of wicked mens hearts but suffering them to exert and put it forth the same account must be given of this sort as of other sorts of Gods afflictive dispensations 1. The punishment of his peoples sins 2. The trial exercise and manifestations of his peoples graces 1. The punishment of his peoples sins and this is for the most part evident in such Persecutions as fall upon whole Churches I say for the most part it is rare that God lets loose Enemies upon a setled Church to disturb its quiet till it hath losts its first love and admitted sinful mixtures Thus it fell out to the famous Churches of Asia to whom the Epistles were written in the Revelations and it may be the obvious decays of Religion in the Primitive Churches were no small cause of the Persecutions which vexed and destroyed them for three hundred years together 2. The trial exercise and manifestation of his peoples graces was also another cause this we are often told in the Epistles of the Apostles nor did the Church of Christ receive a small augmentation and increase by the courage and constancy the faith and patience of the Martyrs 3. Lastly God also by this means obtaineth another end viz. Wicked mens filling up the measures of their iniquities That upon them might come as our Saviour speaks all the righteous blood that hath been shed by their Fore-fathers But all this is a digression from the principal thing in the Proposition which is to shew you how these blacken the Spouse of Christ That is either 1. Really by drawing out corruption Or 2. Appearingly in the Eyes of the world 1. Afflictions often really blacken the Spouse of Christ as they draw out that latent Corruption which is in their Hearts This is true both concerning the Church and concerning the particular Soul 1. As to the Church which is by our Saviour compared to a Field of Wheat in which are Tares as well as Wheat and to a Net which within the swallow of it hath bad as well as good fish Now Persecution makes a great discovery of Hypocrites they that received the Seed into stony ground having no root in themselves fall away enduring but a while and when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth for the Word are immediately offended the Dragons Tail Revel 12. 4. drew down the third part of the Stars of Heaven and did cast them down to the Earth Thus it is seen in all Persecutions they alwaies discover a great number of Hypocrites false Brethren yea and often many of Gods People at first shrink and fall under the greatness of the temptation so you know it sell out as to Peter in the High Priests Hall and so it hath been with many of such as have at last dyed in the testimony of the truths of God These things make the Church black when the Sun looketh upon it though in the issue the melting of the Church proveth the purifying of it and making it exceeding white as you know it is with many things purified by fire though the fire maketh them at last more bright and pure yet at first till their dross be cleansed they look more black so it is with the Church of God in the day of its fiery trial So it is also as to Particular Christians Tribulation in them at last worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope Even such an hope as will not make ashamed but this is after some excercise therein Hence saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 11. Now no chastening for the present seeâ—oth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby How black did holy Job look Chap. 3. When he Cursed the day of his birth Who afterward being exercised with a long affliction came out white Till by Tribulation the Soul cometh to be humbled and tamed to the will of God and to have his will melted into a resignation to the will of God till his faith and patience come to be both tryed and to have their perfect work Tribulation and Persecution maketh the Spouse really black like the Person that hath taken Physick to purge out some ill humours so long as his Physick is working and strugling with the peccant humours he is sicker and appeareth worse then before he took it 2. But secondly Tho Persecution and Tribulation may at first make the Spouse really black yet they make her appear much more black then she is in the Eyes of the world and the generality of men and women in it of which a various account may be given I will instance but in two or three things 1. The first is the impressions which the calumnies and slanders of Enemies thrown upon the Church and upon believers have upon many people There is nothing more ordinary then when the Enemies of God are in their highest rage against his People to have their mouths fullest of obloquy and slander
the Harvest but then the Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth Matth. 13. 40 41 42. Some telling them that there is no communion with Christ but by joining with the Prayers of the Church and receiving the Sacrament with the Church as if an external communion with Christ which Judas a Son of perdition had were all that men and women need look after These different notions and instructions sometimes puzzle the minds of Gods own People and make them to be at a great loss I now come to the Application This in the first Place lets us see what a perpetual use and need there will be of an able standing Gospel Ministry and the goodness of God in providing such an ordinance for his Church The interest of Souls lyeth in two things 1. In an union with Christ and reconciliation to God 2. In a fellowship and communion with him The Ministry of the Gospel is and will be useful to the end of the World on both these accounts 1. For procuring promoving Souls reconciliation to God and union with Christ 2 Cor. 5. 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be you reconciled to God So long as there are any sinners in the World any Souls in such a state as living and dying in it they cannot be saved So long will be need of Gospel Ministers and such too as are both able and faithful There are some in the World that think a Conversion to an opinion from Paganism to the outward profession of Christ is all the Conversion necessary and Baptism all the regeneration necessary according to whose Doctrine all Drunkards Whoremongers Men-stealers Lyers Thieves Extortioners Covetous Persons Sorcerers if Baptized must be saved directly contrary to what the Apostle affirms these indeed may think the Ministry of the Gospel needless Preaching needless amongst Christians and only of use amongst Heathens or count no more need of Ministers then of Philosophers from Athens to read men lectures of a good life and any Ministers any kind of Preaching will serve the turn A lecture out of Aristotle or Plato is as good a Sermon as they see any need of But those who will believe what Paul saith 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. That there are multitudes amongst Baptized Persons not reconciled to God and who shall never come into Heaven which is confirmed also by Saint John Rev. 21. 8. They must see a need of this Ordinance and acknowledge the great mercy in this gift to the Church 2. Nay indeed this Doctrine may convince you That if all within the Church were Christians not in name onely but indeed washed with the blood of Christ Justified and Sanctified yet there would be need of such an Ordinance For the best of Christians are oft times at loss how to uphold maintain their communion with Christ Here now lye th the work of the Ministry of the Gospel as the hand in the way to direct Christians which way to go that they may come to the journies end which they aim at the end of their hopes and the Salvation of their Souls This was the end of Christs institution of them Eph. 4. 12. For the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying the body of Christ If there be such a thing as Christians fellowship and communion with Christ if they may be and often are at loss how to maintain this communion they had need of some to be helpers of their faith and of their joy Which is the Notion of Ministers given by the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 14. Yea and they had need be able Ministers too How various are the cases of Christians how different one from another This work is to be done publickly which indeed serveth for the most of Christians and privately also for those who cannot receive Satisfaction from publick instructions Alas who is sufficient for these things and how slighty a business is ordinarily made of the greatest work the most weighty imployment under Heaven How many watchmen are there that like those mentioned in the 3d Chapter of this Song When the Spouse of Christ comes to them complaining as v. 6. That her beloved hath withdrawn himself and is gone when their Souls fail when they come and tell them that they have sought their beloved and cannot find him they have called but he hath given them no answer instead of relieving of them they smite them wound them take away their vails from them they wound them with cruel and envenomed Words mock and jeer and revile them and know not how to speak a word to the weary indeed not understanding what a wearied Soul means the most they are able to say is what is thy beloved more then anothers beloved The Lord pity his flock and give them Pastors according to his own heart who can feed them with wisdom and understanding and will be faithful in doing of it men to whom the Lord God hath given the tongue of the learned that they may speak a Word in season to those that are weary as he promised Isaiah 50. 4. There are no more pestilent enemies to the People of God then those that would have the flock of Christ without Shepherds or which it may be is worse Supplied with Idol Shepherds as the Prophet calls them Zech. 11. 17. And indeed are like Idols that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not the name of Shepherds but nothing of the skill and faithfulness required in such a place This Notion Secondly may give some relief to Souls whose condition this may be Here may be some before the Lord this day who are crying out where is my God become Lord when wilt thou strengthen me Quicken me Comfort me I confess the case of these Christians is sad communion with Christ is the life of a good Christians life All the comfort and Satisfaction of his life is bound up in this one thing let him want this he wants all if he be at a loss as to this he is quite lost this is that which differenceth the true Child of God from an Hypocrite the profane man lives without a God in the World all talk of communion with God is but canting the thing it self a Chimera The Hypocrites ends cannot be obtained by this course of life he taketh up with meer external acts of communion never regarding whether he hath any communion with God in and by those acts he can live without any presence of God without any influence of God upon his Soul A Child of God cannot if he wanteth communion with God he calls all into question doubteth of his union and whether he hath not been all this while mistaken whether his Soul be yet actually reconciled and
work thou gavest me to do Christ and his Disciples have in the general one and the same work to glorifie God Though if we come to speak of the particular actions by which God is glorified by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Believer there is a great deal of difference Christ glorified his Father by performance of the acts of our Redemption according to his Fathers Will we by those good works which he hath commanded yet in the general scope viz. the glorifying of God and the more general mean by which this general End is attained viz. obedience to the Will of God they are both the same Christ glorified his Father by obedience to his Will The Child of God glorifieth God by obedience to his Will both of them glorified God by the praedication of his Name by praising him c. Christ took upon him the form of a Servant and became obedient Phil. 2. 7 8. The Child of God is by Birth a Servant and by Covenant a Servant there is that difference betwixt them but they are both Servants both obedient to the Will of God and both by that obedience serve the great End of glorifying God which justifieth the Notion though the Acts of their obedience differ according to their several spheres and stations In a great Family you know they are all fellow-servants though some of them have a more some a less noble Imployment 3. Christ is their Fellow-worker their Fellow-helper not only with reference to the Father as they both work to the same End and by the same general Means viz. obedience to the Will of God but as he worketh in them and excites their habits of grace and strengtheneth them in the exercise of them Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4. 13. Without me you can do nothing Joh. 15. 3. His Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it lifts over against them The Child of God without the presence and assistance of Christ cannot pray a prayer nor hear a Sermon nor perform any spiritual duty so as that Christ is not only to the Believer a Fellow labourer and Fellow-servant doing the same work that they do or at least having done the same work but he is their Fellow-helper as to all their own spiritual Motions and Actions 4. You in holy Scripture read of a Fellow-Prisoner Aristarchus and Epaphras are both of them called Paul's Fellow-prisoners Coloss 4. 14. You read also of a Fellow-Souldier Philip. 2. v. 25. Philemon 2. This Notion signifieth one that is a Partner and Fellow to another in Conflicts Combates c. a common Partnership in hazards and sufferings In this sense our Lord properly calleth his Spouse the Believing Soul his Fellow He fought and overcame the same Enemies with whom they daily fight The Christian hath three great Enemies the World the Flesh and the Devil It is true Christ had none of the second to incounter he was born without sin he lived without sin he had no body of death But yet he had to die for our sins all our sins were set in Battel Array against him they were those which nailed him to the Cross but he conquered and declared his Conquest by his Resurrection from the dead The World is our Enemy one of those Enemies against which we are to maintain the Spiritual Fight It was also his Enemy he fought against it and overcame it Joh. 16. 33. Be of good cheer I have overcome the World The Devil is another of our great Enemies against whom we are commanded to put on the whole Armour of God Christ overcame him also Heb. 2. 14 15. Through death he destroyed him who had the power of death even the Devil And the same Apostle in the same Epistle tells us that he was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour those that are tempted The Apostle mentioneth Christ in this Notion when he calleth him The Captain of our Salvation It is long since that he let his People know by his Prophet Isaiah that In all their afflictions he was afflicted He took himself concerned in the persecution of his Church and therefore calleth from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Indeed it is not easie to determine what kind of Sympathy the most perfect Nature of Christ is capable of but that he is their Fellow-sufferer the Scripture plainly determineth Thus you see that it is not in a complement that Jesus Christ speaking to his Saints speaks to them in this dialect Thou that art my Fellow But our Translation reads it O my Love and the word as I before shewed you is also so translated properly enough A Friend hath this name in the Hebrew because he is alwaies the companion and associate of his correlated Friend Hence we translate it My Loves and conformably to this our Lord speaketh Joh. 15. 14. You are my Friends if you do whatsoever I have commanded you And again v. 15. Henceforth I call you not Servants I call you Friends Let us a little inquire how Christ approveth himself a Believers Friend Friendship speaketh 4 things 1. Love 2. Free and ingenuous love 3. Mutual and reciprocal Love 4. Mutual communion and converse each with other 1. It Speaketh Love Amicus ab amando This is so obvious to every one that either understandeth any thing of the Revelation or History of holy Writ that it will need very few words to demonstrate Besides the frequent friendly compellations which Christ hath given his People whoso considereth his conjuction with his Father in the Eternal Purposes for their Salvation and all those means by which they are made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light his concern in the Eternal Covenant of Redemption and of Grace in which he became a Surety for them his taking upon him humane Nature walking up and down in our flesh Dying upon the Cross for us sinners his resurrection from the dead for their justification his ascending up into Heaven and giving Gifts unto men Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints his sending his Spirit to convince the World of sin righteousness and Judgment his daily influence upon his People strengthening quickening and comforting of them his being their advocate with the Father in case both of Sins and duties his passionate expressions while he was on the Earth for the conversion of Souls his intreating them by his Ministers as his Embassadors that they would be reconciled to God the charge that he hath given the World against offending them his declarations of his coming to judge the World to render tribulation to them that trouble them and to them Rest and Peace I say he that considereth any of these things much less all of them together must say that he loved them with an Everlasting unchangeable Love alone suted to all the necessities of his poor Creatures and that he hath willed them good sutable to all
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
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
hath it that walks with God and hath a fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ By way of Argument let me but plead with you 1. To observe the difference between sensual and intellectual pleasures And again betwixt rational and spiritual pleasures Who is there that observes not how much the satisfaction of the mind in the possession of Learning and Vertue excels all that satisfaction which the Eye hath in seeing or the Ear in hearing Christ is pleasant to the Soul not to the outward but to the inward man The pleasures of the mind are rational or spiritual The proportion which knowledge beareth to the understanding of man and which moral Vertue bears to his Reason makes them pleasant and creates an intellectual rational pleasure But alas it must be imperfect for as the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing so neither is it possible that the Soul should be satisfied with knowledge or moral accomplishments especially when it is awakened to consider Eternity Hence the Learned man that before took pleasure in his knowledge being awakened cries out I with my Learning may go to Hell when one that knows much less may go to Heaven where 's the pleasure But now the Soul that is possessed of Christ hath its heart perfectly at rest because it sees its eternal Interest provided for and cannot discern it self in danger of future misery Furthermore the things in which it takes pleasure are above the rank of all sublimary contentments even such things as Eye hath not seen nor hath Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive Besides Conscience is quiet Conscience is that which spoils much of the Worlds pleasure for as a good Conscience is a continual feast so an evil Conscience is more or less a continual torment Now Christ is he alone that quieteth the Conscience Many a poor Christless Soul drinks Wine in Bowls and boast in their outwardly happy condition but by and by a finger of a mans hand appears their Conscience begins to stir and to tell them they are damned undone sinners what becomes of their pleasure But now the Soul that is in Christ his Conscience speaks peace to him he hath peace without trouble And to give you a demonstration of this pleasantness of a Christian's life as I remember Christ said of the Lillies they neither spin nor sow yet Solomon in all his glory is not like one of them So give me leave to say Step unto the poor Cottages of Christians who have searce Bread to eat no Silken Rayments to put on no Musick to make them merry no Money to spend no Orchards or Gardens to delight them and yet there 's many a Nobleman many a Gentleman who have all these in abundance yet in all their glory are not like one of these Lillies these poor Souls have more true content and pleasure in one day than they have in all their life nor would they change conditions with them So true is that of Solomon Prov. 15. 16 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great Treasures and trouble therewith Better is a dinner of Herbs where love is than a stalled Oxe and hatred therewith I dare warrant you that the Philosopher could have dined more sweetly at home with Bread and Water than at the Tyrants Table of Dainties in view of a sharp Sword hanging over his head by a thred There 's many a poor Christian in this like a true spiritual Diogenes that satisfieth himself with the influence of the Sun upon his Tub better than an Alexander could do himself with a whole World subdued to his feet 2. Observe from hence the difference between Christ and lusts Christ and the World The Soul of man cannot be alone it is either espoused to lusts and to the World or else to the Lord Jesus There 's many a one whose Soul is united to it's lusts Lust is its beloved Can this Soul say Behold thou art fair my Beloved yea pleasant Doubtless nothing less Reason tells the Drunkard that his Drunkenness is a foul thing and Reason tells the Unclean person that his Soul is united to a filthy thing Take him that is united to the World to the Riches of it or to the Honours of it Reason tells him they have no beauty in them nor are they more pleasant than beautiful Ah! what racks of Conscience have prophane sinners oft-times The Wine tickles the throat as it passeth but it maketh the stomach sick The lusts of the flesh leave a Thorn in the Conscience which abides when the pleasure of them is vanished The World pleaseth the Eye while the figure of it passeth before it but it is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great fancy and vexation of spirit spoils the pleasure of it But Christ is pleasant never any Soul that followed him repented of it yea those that follow him weeping never repent of their repentings Bring me that Soul which ever said I would I had never known or never walkt with Christ Let this therefore prevail with every Soul that hears me this day to get acquaintance with Christ And 2. With those who have interest in him to labour to grow up in him 1. The former Because he is pleasant 2. The latter Because they have not tasted the bottom of that pleasantness which attends him and the full Enjoyment of him Pleasantness is an alluring thing When Eve saw that the Apple was pleasant to the Eye she took it Gen. 3. 6. When Issachar in Jacob's Prophecy Gen. 49. 15. saw that the Land was pleasant he bowed his shoulder to bear Were you but possessed of this one Truth that Christ is pleasant that the way of Christ is a way of pleasantness it would go a great way to persuade men into it Hearken to the Wise man speaking of Wisdom of Christ indeed and his Grace under the notion of Wisdom Prov. 3. 17. Her waies are waies of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her Hearken you that are at ease in Zion that drink away care and spend your time in singing away the Evil day you that lie upon Beds of Ivory and stretch your selves upon Couches and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and Calves out of the midst of the stall you that chant to the sound of the Viol and invent to your selves Instruments of Musick you that drink Wine in Bowls and fare deliciously every day and dress your selves in gorgeous Apparel I tell you there 's many a poor Soul that hath Christ and is clothed with Rags and feeds upon Roots and drinks Water whose Soul is more at ease and enjoys more pleasure than yours doth O! therefore return you Shulamites return and understand aright the waies of true pleasure from those things that are meer empty shadows of vanity 2. Let this engage you that have received Christ to grow
from above 2 When we boast our selves to have some good or some measures of good and perfection which we have not 3 When we slight and despise others whom we judge to come short of our perfections They likewise prescribe a threefold remedy for this distemper 1. The consideration of our native weakness and infirmity 2. The consideration of the infinite greatness and perfection of God 3. The consideration of our own gifts and graces in the shortness and imperfections of them In short therefore there is no need to fear the discovery of any Pride in the acknowledgment of what God hath done for us provided 1. That we do not play the Hypocrites boasting beyond our line of what we never experienced what God never wrought in us The proud man arrogateth more to himself then doth belong unto him 2. Provided that thou doest intitle God to all that thou hast of good in thee It is truly said by the Schoolmen Cum aliquis aestimate bonum quod habet ab alio ac si haberet a seipso fertur per consequens appetitus ejus supra modum in propriam excellentiam That is If a man judgeth that that good which he hath from another proceedeth from himself his desire is immoderately carried out after his own excellency and this is Pride They are therefore highly concerned to look to themselves as to this that attribute so much to the power of mans will without any influence of special and distinguishing grace you shall observe how careful St. Paul was against this upon all occasions where he mentioneth his grace I live saith he but yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God I was a Persecutor a Blasphemer Injurious but I obtained mercy and the grace of the Lord was exceedingly abundant in me with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus I am the least of the Apostles not worthy to be called an Apostle But by the Grace of God I am what I am It is no pride to acknowledge what God hath given us and done for us but to arrogate it to our selves as done by our own power this is pride 3. Provided 3dly That thou dost not despise the day of small things in the Souls of others Scorning contemning and despising those for whom God hath done or we think that he hath done less then he hath done for us This will speak Pride the proud Soul as he alwaies arrogateth too much to himself so he alwaies giveth too little to his Brother and haughtily over-looketh what he hath so that his Brother alwaies seems low and vile in his Eyes 4. Lastly Provided That with the acknowledgment of thy perfections and graces thou conjoynest an admiration of Gods goodness an acknowledgment of thy unworthiness and of thy sinful failings and imperfections Thus you see the Spouse doth in this Text. I am black saith she but comely So did Paul in the places I before quoted 3. A third Bar to this is Novelty This can only be pleaded with reference to our acknowledgments to the Church or the Officers of it with respect to our either being admitted into a full communion with it in all Ordinances or being restored to it after some lapse for the more private practice of it to our Brethren it is as old as David as may be seen from Psal 66. v. 16 17. As to the former it was from the beginning certainly thus None were admitted into the Gospel Church without a profession of repentance and faith in Christ None after a lapse or Apostacy was restored to the Church without it Indeed through the corruption of times both the one and the other practice hath degenerated into a meer formality and now it seemeth new to us But as it is but a reduction of an Apostolical and Primitive Practice so there certainly is nothing more reasonable both for the comfort of the particular Soul from whom this declaration is desired and for the satisfaction of the Minister of Christ who is but a Steward of the mysteries of Christ and ought to be faithful and also for the mutual satisfaction of such as are to be Members of the same Body 4. But lastly whatever is pretended it is much to be feared that Pride is the true hinderance of this Christian and Spiritual duty 1. Either we think it beneath us to discourse of spiritual things and to acknowledge all to the free grace of God Or 2. We think we come short of some perfections which others have attained and we are ashamed to let others know how short we are But O that Christians would grow more familiar with spiritual things We think that it is a piece of Charity if we hear of a Neighbour that is full of pain or very sick ofsuch adistemper as we have formerly laboured under to goand tell him how we were what we did what effect and issue it had but we find an awkness to relate to fellow Christians how we lay labouring under the guilt of sin and perplexities of conscience and burthens of temptations and what our applications to God were and what relief we found from his free grace and mercy But in the performance of this as well as other duties there may be miscarriages Let me therefore conclude with offering some directions for the better management of this duty They shall be three 1. Take heed to the principle moving thee to such actions That must be love to God the principle of all religious actions without which we do nothing acceptably this is determined by the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 1 2. It is love that is the fulfilling of the law and indeed we can no otherwise in any point fulfil it Take heed that self-love be not the principle if by it thou seekest thy honour and praise self love only principleth thee but if thou dost it that God may have the glory of his Grace that the Souls of others may be profited and advantaged That offences may be prevented or removed That the dirt may be wiped off which the world throweth upon profession In these cases the love of God is thy principle 2. Take heed to the manner of thy doing it As to that I shall only hint 2 things 1. See that God hath all the glory It is lawful for thee to boast of the Grace of God but you must be sure to boast in the Lord and in all thy acknowledgments of any spiritual good thou oughtest to sing with David Psal 115. 1. Not unot us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name be given the Glory for thy mercy and for thy truth sake 2. Do it with all the greatest lowliness and humility of mind and expression that thou art able so as nonw may for what thou hast received of grace think of thee above what he ought to think Paul forbare to speak what he could have spake after his rapture into the third Heavens
2 Cor. 12. 6. Lest as he saith any should think of me above that which he seeth in me or that he heareth of me We are to have a care of the corruptions of others hearts as well as our own 3. Look to the simplicity of thy heart in the end of thy action This will indeed be much regulated from the principle if the principle be true the end will be so A man can do nothing out of a true principle of love to God but his end will be the honour and glory of God if the principle be self-love the end will be our own honour praise and applause to have the reputation of a religious man in the world and to appear to be what indeed we are not Now if thy end be the honour and glory of God you have heard that is no other way attainable but either by the predication of his goodness or by the doing of his will either in the doing good to others or the preventing of scandals and offences or upholding the credit and reputation of Religion c. But of all these things I have discoursed more fully before Sermon XXXVI Cant. 1. 6. Look not upon me because I am black c. I Have done with the four first Propositions which I observed in these two verses I come to the fifth from those words Look not upon me because I am black Where the Spouse or rather the Holy Ghost by her doth not forbid all looking upon the Spouse whether we understand the Church or the particular believing Soul in the day of her blackness but some particular lookings And this is very usual in Scripture to deliver Propositions generally which yet must be understood in a limited and restrained sense of which a multitude of instances might be given Mat. 18. 3. Except you â—e converted and become as little Children that is in some things as little Children you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God So where Christ saith my Doctrine is not mine the meaning is not mine alone and again If I give testimony of my self that is if I alone gave testimony of my self my testimony is not true So often in precepts and exhortations when thou makest a feast saith our Saviour Luk. 14. 12. call not thy Friends or thy Brethren or thy Kindred that is not them alone There is nothing more ordinary in the phrase of Scripture and particularly in exhortations or prohibitions So here when she saith Look not upon me her meaning is not to dissuade all intuition and beholding her in her blackness but to caution us how to look upon her hence the Proposition was It is our duty to take heed how we look upon the Church or the particular Child of God because they are black What the blackness of the Church or of the particular Soul is I have heretofore largely discoursed Both of them are black through Afflictions and black through Corruptions the Corruptions of particular Souls are personal the Corruptions of the Church are the Corruptions of the body collective through the mixture of undue and corrupt Teachers or Members the reception of false and erroneous Doctrine idolatrous or superstitious Worship or Rites c. In some sense we may not be able to avoid looking upon them as looking signifies no more then the casting of our Eyes upon obvious objects that are before us In some sense it is our duty to look upon them to pity and compassionate them and contribute what we are able toward their help and recovery But in other senses it is our sin to look upon them The business as to which I am to instruct you under this Proposition is how truly to divide betwixt our duty and our sin in this case The Eyes are the windows of the Soul through which most of our affections and passions shew themselves Pride discovereth itself by the Eye hence you read of a Generation whose Eyes are lâ—fâ—y Prov. 30. 13. and David saith of himself O Lord mine heart is not haughty nor my Eyes lofty Psal 131. 1. Love and wantonness discovereth itself by the Eye Hence Peter tells us of Eyes full of Adultery and Job tells us he had made a covenant with his Eyes that he would not look upon a Maid Covetousness and immoderate desires discover themselves by the Eye Prov. 27. 29. The Eyes of man are never satisfied The joy pleasure and satisfaction of the Soul are discerned by the Eye Mine Eyes also shall see my desire on my Enemies Psal 92. 11. Hope looketh through the Eye hence David expresseth his hope in God by the action of his Eyes Mine Eyes are towards the Lord Psal 25. 15. and in many other Texts Pity sorrow and compassion are discovered and expressed by the Eye The Eyes for sorrow wax dim and run down with tears The outward man moveth according to the bent and inclination of the will and affections as a mans will stands bent and his affections are inclined so he moveth so he acteth and this will of man and his affections discovering themselves by the Eye The motions of that are made use of in Scripture to express the several affections and inclinations of the Soul of man The Spouse in this Text must not be understood to caution the Daughters of Hierusalem against the natural motions of their Eyes with reference to her But 1. Against those unkind affâ—ctions towards her which were not suitable to her state and condition 2. Against those unkind effects and actions which ordinarily follow such affections I put in those words unkind and unsuitable because there are affections and actions which are our duties towards the Spouse in the day of her blackness This will lead me to discourse two points under this Proposition 1. The duâ—y of Christians towards the Church of Christ black with Afflictions or through sinful mixtures and corruptions and towards particular Christians under affâ—â—ctions or lapses 2. How Christians may sin in their behaviours towards one or the other under such circumstances First Let me speak as to what is a Christians duty in the ease that I shall resolve in this general position That it is a Christians duty so far to look upon the Church and the particular Christian in the day of their blackness as they may be thereby affected with that due compassion which they owe unto their Brethren and quickned to those acts which brotherly love and compassion calteth to them for Thus not to look upon the Spouse because she is black is our sin So that the duty of a Christian here lieth in two or three things 1. In a sympathy or fellow feeling of a Churches or Christians burdens and misery The Eye naturally affects the heart according to the nature of the object which it seeth Nature itself teacheth a sympathy betwixt members of the same body No one member can be afflicted or pained but the whole body feeleth it and hath some sense of it The Apostle hath compared the Church the