to and in your soul to inable you further to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. After the beatifical visions of God in another life Learn hence the great difference there is betwixt earthly and spiritual objects of our desires and delights The worlds Crums are little valuable tho some are fond of its Loaves The good things of the world derive much of their value from the quantity of them that it throws into our laps The minimum quod sic the least portions of the pleasures profits or honours of it have little of value in them but the least of Christ is exceeding precious the things of the world affect not the Soul or or its necessities they are not certain pledges of greater measures they will go but a little way to fill the creatures emptinesses but it is otherwise with Spiritual blessings in and through Christ Thirdly You may from hence observe the difference betwixt the Hypocrites and the Saints desires after Christ An Hypocrite may pretend some desires after Christ nay he may really desire something of his love consider Christ as a Saviour as one that brings the Soul to life and immortality so he must necessarily be the object of the desire of every man that hath any view of his own mortality and that Eternal State to which man is ordained Even Balaam saith Oh that I might dye the death of the Righteous that my latter end might he like his But mark ye these are the fullest manifestations of Divine Love these are more than the kisses of his Mouth but for those tokens of love which are below these for such manifestations of the love of Christ as tend to the inabling of the Soul to serve and glorify God by the subduing of Mans will to the will of God the mortification of lusts and corrupt affections these are not at all valuable to a sensual man not indeed to any but to the changed and renewed Soul I do not know any one thing from which a Man may take better measure of himself and a good Christian may better distinguish himself from one that walketh in a vain shew and meerly glorifieth in appearance than this To a good Christian the least of Christs distinguisâ—iâ—g love is exceeding precious and more precious than the greatest portions of the worlds goods The workings of the Spirit of Christ within and upon the Soul subduing the will of Man to the will of God mortifying our Members and the deeds of the Body Taking the affections off the Earth and Earthly things and fixing them on more sublime and spiritual objects the giving of the Soul a good hope through grace these are things which we usually count some of the least tokens of special and distinguishing love Really they are great things nothing of Christ is little but we judge ordinarily according to sense we ordinarily esteem a sense or assurance or full persuasion of the love of God a much greater thing than these But now for a Soul to set an high price and value upon these to be more satisfied more to triumph and rejoice in the conquest of a lust the victory over a temptation than in the conquest of all our Enemies More to desire that our hearts may be filled with love to God desires after God delight in God than to have our Barns filled with Corn or our Purses with Gold and Silver this I take to be such a difference between a Christian indeed and a Christian in a meer Name Title and outward Profession as a Christian may rest in when he is inquiring into his Soul for evidences of the truth of grace Other manifestations of the love of God may be desired for our selves and with a respect only to our selves and the quiet relief and peace of our own Spirits a Christian can desire these only for the glory of God Try your selves therefore Christians by this Touchstone An Hypocrite may desire to know that his Sins are forgiven and that God would not impute Sin to his Soul or that he would impute a righteousness without works an Hypocrite may desire to live with God in glory but these lesser tokens of love he valueth not But alas even the best of Gods People must I fear be here reproved not for their no valuing of these kisses of Christ that is incompetent with a Child of God but for their not enough valuing of them and being too passionate and unsatisfied for want of the comforting manifestations of Divine Love I have before told you that these sensible manifestations of Divine Love are exceedingly desirable and there is no Child of God but is concerned to wish to pray to labour for them But we must take heed that we be not like our little Children whom we shall sometimes see too much slighting and undervaluing and ready to throw away what good things they have because they want some particular thing which they have a mind to which it may be we that are their Parents do not see so proper for them especially under their present circumstances It was lawful for Rachel to wish for to pray for Children but she sinned in saying to her Husband give me Children or else I die Hannah was much in the same error 1 Sam. 1. 8. weeping not eating and vexing her self because she had no Child and in the mean time forgetting that God had given her an Husband who was better to her than ten Sons So it is lawful nay the duty of a good Christian to pray to endeavour for the sweetest and fullest manifestations of Gods love But I have often thought that though these be good things of a Spiritual nature and so vastly differing from the good things of this life yet in this they agree with them that they must be asked with submission to the will of God because they are not de necessariis ad salutem things that are necessary to life and eternal Salvation but such which a Soul may want without any breach of Gods Covenant with the Soul 2. But for a Soul not only too passionately to desire these things which speaketh its not submitting to the will of God in his not dispensing them to it but to over-look deny or undervalue all the tokens for good which it hath received from God meerly because it hath not these and to conclude that it hath nothing of Christs love this is certainly what doth no become a Christian Certainly a Christian ought as much to value himself upon those emanations of grace by which he is inabled to serve and honour God as upon those by which his Soul is rendred more at ease more refreshed and comforted Every kiss of Christ every measure of special distinguishing love is and ought to be precious to a believing Soul Let me in the last place bottom upon this discourse a double word of exhortation The first respecting the Men of the world those I would persuade to leave off their pursuit of
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
of relation hath taken to him that of a Father to let us know there is in his gracious nature something analogous or proportionable to the heart and bowels of Earthly Parents to their Children and accordingly our Saviour argues that if any of our Children ask of us bread we will not give them a Stone nor a Scorpion instead of Fish and thence concludeth that if we being evil know how to give good things to our Children much more will our Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him You many of you know the heart of a Father To which of you would it not be a great argument to draw you out to any acts by which you could manifest your loves to a Child for your Child to come and beg your love to it telling you that it valueth your love above all things in the world that it had rather have your love your heart towards it than have all the estate you can give it Shall there not be something in the heart of God proportionated to this affection in your hearts Is it possible that a Child of God should come to God and in sincerity say to him Father I beg some tokens of thy special distinguishing love to my Soul thou that knowest all things knowest that I love thee and that my Soul doth value thy loves above all that the world affords and Gods heart should not yearn and his bowels melt towards such a Soul God must say of the voice of such a Soul as Isaac sometimes said It is the voice of my Son Jacob None but a Child can speak such a language 4. Finally No arguments can be of more force to use with God than such wherein the Interest of his own glory is concerned The Glory of God being his own great end which he pursueth in all his actions he useth a great argument to God that saith unto him Father glorify thy self So gracious is God that he gives us leave to fetch arguments from our selves our own wants and the misery we are in which arguments affect God as he is a God full of pity and tender compassion But those arguments which we can fetch from the Interest of his own glory seem to have a greater force as complying with what is the Lords great and chiefest end He that sets an high value and estimate upon the love of Christ giveth God a great deal of Glory preferring him to all things in the world for God cannot be more glorified by the Creature than to be in heart esteemed above and preferred to the whole Creation So as that Soul that goeth to God with this argument doth in effect say Father my Soul hath glorified thee upon the Earth and doth give thee the glory of being the most excellent object and more desirable than all the world besides Now therefore glorify thy self in manifesting of thy love to me that I may further exalt thee in thy rich and free Grace I now come to the application By way of Instruction first we may observe That the meanest Child of God is furnished with a better argument to encourage his hopes in his addresses to the throne of Grace than the greatest and proudest Sinner in the world hath There are arguments which Sinners may use from the infiniteness and freeness of the divine bounty and goodness from their relation to God as his Creatures from the greatness of their misery c. and they may obtain something from God upon these pleas from that infinite goodness and compassion that is in the Divine Nature but no unregenerate man can use this argument which hath in it a much greater force On the other side there is no the meanest child of God not the meanest believer that is in the world but hath this argument to use with God Other arguments may be of avail with God for the obtaining some good things of this life this is of force for the obtaining those of highest consequence relating to the internal and eternal happiness of the Soul Secondly This offers us a great incouragement to examine our selves upon this point Whether we have a due estimate of the loves of Christ Whether we can truly say to our blessed Lord That his loves are better than Wine and that we value them not only above all sensual satisfactions which the profane scandalous Sinner doeth not but above all sensible satisfactions which no unregenerate carnal man doth I remember when our Saviour examined Peter about his love to him he propounded to him this question Joh. 21. 15. Simon Peter lovest thou me more than these I do know that many Interpreters by these in that Text understand his other Disciples standing by There was a time when Peter preferred himself as to his love towards his Master to all the other Disciples Tho saith he all should deny thee yet I would not deny thee Peter since that time was humbled our Saviour had a mind that his humility should be manifested and therefore say some he propoundeth that question to him but I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles puts another sense upon the words Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these and so it may be referred either to the company with whom he was or to the diversion of fishing they were employed in or to the great draught of fish which they had taken I do but allude to the text who so truly loveth the Lord Jesus Christ if all the persons and things in the world were before him must be able to say I love Christ more than these Admit his friends and nearest relations to be in his Eye all the pleasant and delectable things in the world all the Crowns and Scepters and honours in the world all the Gold and Silver and Houses and Lands in the world in his Eye He must be able to say I love the Lord Jesus Christ more than these yea if his own life be set before him not to be enjoyed without the loss of Christs love he must be able to say that he loves Christ more than that Mat. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me Lu. 14. 26. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple But I have formerly given you some directions how to try your selves whether the loves of Christ in the apprehension of your Souls are good before Wine and shall therefore add no more on this argument In the third place This notion may be of great use to relieve Christians doubting whether they have any one good Argument to use with God in their applications to him 2. Whether any of their Prayers have at any time pierced the Heavens and been accepted of God A good Christian is often doubting whether
savour of his good Ointments Consider what a difference there is betwixt this Object of your Loves and those pitiful Objects which your Souls are so hot in the pursuit of One man's heart is after his Wine another's after his Riches a third after the Pride of Life The Name of these things is like the opening of a Dunghill which sendeth forth a stench they bring up an ill report upon your Souls Christ's Name is like an Ointment poured out 2. What an Argument doth this afford to persuade troubled fainting Souls in their spiritual Swoonings and Deliquiums to apply themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ Ludovicus De Ponte upon my Text telleth us Oil is a sign of Peace it healeth wounds it nourisheth the weak it feedeth the Candle with light It exceedeth all Liquors Christ's Name is as Oil as Oil poured forth it brings Peace to a disturbed Soul it healeth the wounds of a wounded Spirit it nourisheth the weak Soul it exceedeth all created Oil. O meditate upon this excellent Name There is something healing and refreshing almost in every Name of Christ 3. Finally Let those who have tasted how good the Lord is study Christ's Name more meditate upon his Name his Promises his Mercy Truth and Faithfulness more wear his Name upon your hearts There is no Christian but is subject to its faintings David's Soul fainted for the Lord's Salvation Psal 119 81. But he hopes in the Lord's Word He had multitudes of perplexing thoughts but in the midst of all the comforts of God refreshed his Soul You that have experienced the sweetness of his Name study yet a farther knowledge of him and acquaintance with him Sermon XV. Cant. 1. 3. Because of the savour of thy good Ointments Thy Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee I Have yet something further to discourse to you from this Text. You have heard from it 1. That Christ hath good Oils or good Ointments which cast a savour 2. That his Name is as an Oil or Ointment poured forth It followeth Therefore do the Virgins love thee When I opened the words I noted to you a double sense of the term Virgins each contrary to the other Some taking notice of the term Virgins as signifying persons in a single and solute state and condition understand by it persons that are natural and unregenerate not yet by Faith married and united to this spiritual Bridegroom intended in this Song who upon the pouring out of the sweet Oil in the Preaching of the Gospel which is part of his Name are invited and allured to take a complacency in the Lord Jesus Christ to desire him to will and chuse him as their Lord and their Saviour There is a truth in this When I shall be lifted up saith Christ I will draw all men after me But I do not think this the sense of the term 1. Because I am not willing to interpret Metaphors used in Scripture into a sense different from all other Texts of Scripture where the same terms are used Now I do not remember that in all Scripture Heathens Unbelievers Natural and Unregenerate men are called Virgins but only such as are the Saints and Servants of God 2. Nor secondly are they so they beâ—ng married to their lusts and to the world c. Upon which account the Scripture expresseth them under the notion of Adulterers and Adulteresses persons that are filthy unclean defiled c. 3. Neither can the Natural Unregenerate man be said while such to love Christ because of the savour of his good Oiutments they are constantly expressed under the notion of such as hate God and hate Christ By Virgins therefore I then told you the Scripture generally understands the Saints Indeed Professors at large in the Parable Matth. 25. 1. are set out under the notion of foolish Virgins But the wife Virgins are the true Children of God Rev. 14. 4. 2. Cor. 11. 1. The Proposition then is this Prop. 13. That the Saints who are Virgins love the Lord Jesus Christ for those excelling graces which they discern in him In the handling of which I shall 1. Enquire why Saints are called Virgins so shewing you the propriety of the Metaphor 2. Whence it is that they love Chr st for the savour of his Ointmenâ—s and the pourings out of his Name First Why are the Saints of God called Virgins Not because they are not married The Soul of man will not be alone it will be united to something if it be not united to God and Christ it will be united to the world to lust and corruption I say it will not be alone The same therefore that are here called Virgins are elsewhere called The Spouse of Christ the Bride the Lamb's Wife c. Such as are espoused to one Husband God faith of them I am married to you saith the Lord. But they are called Virgins 1. Because they are free from those things to which Vulgar Souls are married but which are not the proper Husbands of reasonable Souls God hath created man's Soul for himself and its Maker only can be a proper Husband for it A Soul may be united to other Objects but they are not just Matches they are not proper Husbands for Immortal Souls that are Spiritual Substances and under ordinations for Eternity The most of Souls are married but they are unequally yoked For a Spiritual Substance to be united to a clod of Earth to a little yellow Earth or Sand is a very unequal match For a Soul to be united to any sordid lust any sinful pleasure is a very unequal match The Souls of Voluptuous men of Covetous worldlings of Ambitious men they are indeed married they have made a Covenant with their lusts and with the world and with these things they eat they drink they sleep they converse they keep a constant communion as the married woman doth but they are all this while Adulterers and Adulteresses because these things are not proper matches for the Soul of man it is like the marriage of a Man to a Beast Now in this respect the Saints are Virgins not defiled with this adulterous Union they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 2. 20. Hence they are called undefiled in the way Psal 119. 1. They are Virgins with respect to any Marriage-Union with the world or any sinful lusts or any thing which is not a proper match for a rational immortal Soul They indeed live in the world and use the world but they use it according to the Apostles Precept as if they used it not they live not with the world as the Wife lives with her Husband delighting in it looking upon it as their chief Joy and Portion they make use of the world and the things of this world for their lawful occasions as the Man may use the Woman that is not his Wife but the world is not that which their hearts cleave to
I do not misconceive him David seems in this to have failed Psal 22. 2 3 4. O my God saith he I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they trusted in thee and were not confounded but I am a Worm and no Man a reproach of Men and despised of the People c. To silence this corruption so exceedingly natural to us let me offer a few things to thy thoughts 1. The first shall be the Lords Prerogative to shew mercy where he will shew mercy This our Saviour hints me in the Parable of the Labourers sent into the Vineyard Mat. 20. 15. when those who had wrought all the day received their penny in proportion to those who had wrought but a few hours they complained the Master of the Vineyard saies to them May I not do with my own what I please All influxes of grace are Gods own It is a prerogative that every one of us claims for himself to dispose of his love especially some degrees of it as we please why should we deny that to God which every one of us claimeth to himself The Prince will not allow the Subject to dispose of his favour no more will the Father allow it to his Child why should we think God is not at the same liberty especially considering 2. That God by it doth us no wrong You have this in the same Text Friend I do thee no wrong Mat. 20. 15. This now dependeth upon this hypothesis that the grace of God cannot be merited by any he that hath the greatest manifestations of Divine love hath them freely he who hath the least discoveries of it hath what he hath freely without any preceding merit in himself If God will let one of his Children walk in the light of his countenance and another to walk in the dark and see no light if he will treat one in Chambers another in a low and more common Room yet he doth not wrong to any There is no injustice in the case in appearance to us he sheweth indeed more severity to the one and more goodness to the other but he is unjust to neither because neither hath merited any thing that he receiveth 3. God hath with held from thee nothing for which he agreed with thee This is a third thing which the Master of the Vineyard told those labourers that repined because they had not more then those who had laboured less Mat. 20. 15. Did I not saith he agree with thee for a peny we can lay claim to nothing of anothers but either upon the plea of a Native right thus the Child laies claim to his Patrimonial Estate as heir at law or upon the account of purchase by vertue of some compact or agreement or some valuable consideration given him for it we can lay no claim to the Grace of God as our Patrimonial right as Heirs to it we are indeed called Heirs but it is by adoption nor upon the account of any valuable consideration given who hath given first to God and it shall be repaid to him again All the claim we can lay to any thing either of Grace or Glory is upon the account of a Covenant that God hath made with us or with Christ on our behalf and by us accepted when we come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ The question is what God hath agreed with us for he hath agreed with us for a Kingdom Fear not little Flock saith Christ it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom He that believes on me is not condemned saith our Saviour he is passed from death to life He hath agreed with us for all that grace and mercy which is necessary to bring us to this Kingdom That he will give us a clean heart and a new heart that we shall be kept by the power of God through faith to salvation But where hath the Lord agreed with the Souls of any of his people for equal measures of his manifestative love Nay plainly God in the Covenant of his Grace hath reserved himself a liberty to chastife and afflict his people either for the probation of Grace or for the punishment of sin and this is one species of affliction by which God doth both try the faith and patience and also correct the errors and miscarriages of the best of his people But you will say is not manifestative love promised I answer it is but so are not the measures of it nor yet the particular time for the discovery of it 2. It is but the matter of a conditional promise John 14 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him Psal 50. 21. To him that ordereth his conversation aright I will shew the Salvation of God The promises of Eternal life and Salvation are made to Faith and holiness without which both which none shall see God but not to degrees of the one or of the other a weak faith may bring a Soul to Heaven so will an upright and sincere heart though incumbred with many lustings of the flesh against the Spirit but the case is otherwise as to some degrees of the manifestative love of God which much depend both upon degrees of faith and degrees of holiness also Our Saviour hath determined doubts and fears indications of little faith and reason will determine them inconsistent with much joy peace and comfort in the Soul that holiness in some good degree is necessary to our peace will appear to any Soul that considers that nothing but sin will break our peace with God So that if thou beest not conscious to thy self that thy faith is as strong as others and thy ways as perfect before God as theirs thou hast no reason to expect the same manifestations of Divine love No tho thou beest one who truly believest and truly lovest and fearest God God hath agreed with every believer for eternal life and salvation for pardon of sin and a clean heart and the upholding of him by his power unto salvation But he hath not agreed with every such Soul for the same measures of peace and comfort the same degrees of his manifestative love he hath reserved himself a liberty to reward those with these more special favours who walk most closely and exactly with him in their conversations Those therefore who find their Souls under temptations to repine at God for doing more for others then for them should do well to reflect upon themselves and to consider whether the faith of those others be not more strong and their walking with God more close and exact then theirs if it be they are not to wonder that their Souls are more highly favoured and more
most of God have been such as have been I will not say most but much in contemplation which brought contemplation afterward into a superstition and a contemplative life to be cried up beyond all sense or reason 4. Lastly Be much in prayer But I have spoke enough upon this argument Sermon XXVII Canticles 1. 4. We will be glad and rejoyce in thee We will remember thy loves more then Wine The upright love thee I Am now come to the Fourth thing considerable in this Second Petition of the Spouse I have done with the Petition Draw me 2. With the Argument by which she inforced her Petition We will run after thee 3. With the Spouse's Attestation of the quick acceptance of her Petition The King hath brought me into his Chambers I have only to consider the Effect that this Love had upon her that is exprest in the words I have now read We will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy Loves more than Wine I have opened the words before We I and all Believers we who being many are yet one body united by one Spirit Members under the Government of one Head we who have tasted and experienced thy goodness will be glad The word in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expressive of the largest dilatation of the heart upon union with its object It is used Isa 65. v. 19. Prov. 24. 23. Psal 21. 1. Psal 2. 11. 13. 11. Zech. 9. 9. and rejoyce in thee The word again here used is often used in the Old Testament Exod. 4. 14. Jer. 31. 13 c. I shall not undertake to justifie the Critical distinction some make betwixt these two words as if one were restrained to the more inward motion of the heart the other more expressive of the more external gestures or actions signifying that affection in thee in Christ as the principal object and in the significations of thy love to us The Proposition is shortly this Jesus Christ and the manifestations of his love to believers Souls particularly in answering prayers are the singular objects of their joy and rejoycing In order both to the explication and confirmation of this Proposition I will guide you a little into the understanding of the nature of Joy 2. Consider how Christ can be the object of the believers joy and is more the object of his joy then of another mans 3. How he is the special singular object of their joy Take joy considered in itself it is but a natural plant a power God hath given to every reasonable Soul the object of it is some good to which it is in some degree united and it is greater or lesser according to the nature of the good or the degree of the apprehension There is in all joy satisfaction and rest and something of musick or melody 1. There is in all joy a Soul satisfying suln ss desire speaks some emptiness in the Soul and is the Souls motion in order to a satisfaction the like might be said of hope but all joy speaketh a Soul satisfaction according to the measure of the joy the rejoycing Soul hath alwaies in it a fulness and a pleasing fulness that is the first thing in the nature of it 2. There is in all joy a rest that quieteth the Soul the desiring thirsty hoping Soul is still in motion being in the pursuit of something which it hath not attained but the rejoycing Soul is at rest David in the hour of his joy saith Return unto thy rest O my Soul For God hath dealt graciously with thee That is a second thing in joy 3. There is in all joy something of musick and melody hence that phrase of leaping for joy hence singing and shouting are the natural expressions of joy thus joy may be described to be a natural power or inclination of the Soul by which having more perfectly or imperfectly obtained an union with the object which it desired or hoped for it is in proportion satisfied and well pleased at rest and keeps as it were a festival within it self Two things are required to make an adequate obiect of this joy 1. The thing must be good 2. We must have some apprehension both of the goodness of it and our union with and interest in it 1. The object that our Souls rejoice in must be something which either is good or which at least we apprehend to be so the nature of good lieth in a suitableness and conveniency of a thing for us and whatsoever we apprehend suited to any of our wants or convenient for us in any of our circumstances that we call good and whatsoever we apprehend under that notion whether it indeed be so or no we love and if we want it we desire it if we apprehend it probable to be our portion we hope for it if we have it or apprehend we have it we delight and take a complacency and rejoice in it 2. So that secondly to make an adequate object of our joy There must be some apprehended union betwixt our Souls and the object we rejoice in For although we can love and take a secret complacency in an object which appeareth to us as good yet it is propriety in it that causeth our joy and rejoycings Thus far now I have only considered and discoursed of joy philosophically as it is a natural affection working upon its proper object Let us now consider it as a grace or sanctified affection Grace doth not plant new powers in the Soul of man it only turns the natural powers to their proper objects Our Saviour tells us there is none good but God God is the Summum Bonum the first and chiefest good nor is any thing good but what deriveth from him Christ is good supremely good as in him there is found what is suited to the greatest wants and emptinesses that the nature of man is exposed and subject to And that the believer more valueth Christ then another man ariseth only 1. From his different apprehension 2. From his different relation to him and interest in him 1. From the different apprehensions of good which the believer hath from those which are in other men I told you before that the nature of good lieth in the suitableness or conveniency of a thing to our wants and emptinesses Man is a creature made up of two essential parts the Body and the Soul that which suiteth the one or the other we call good The Soul is considerable with respect to a present or future state the first is that which alone the most men are sensible of or concerned for We have a threefold perception of an object according to which we judge of the goodness or badness of it 1. The first is by the Eye of sense according to which we judge that good which gratifieth the exteriour senses this of all is the most unmanly judgment of it thus the man of pleasure judgeth those things good which gratify his eyes ears tast sinell
God and whose heart is sincere before God is an upright and righteous Soul In this Sense the upright heart is the Sincere heart Thus David saith of himself I was upright before him 2 Sam. 22. 24. And God saith of Job He is a perfect and an upright man The Proposition must be understood of the latter he that is Evangelically righteous or upright for there are none of the former upon the Earth none that are legally righteous 3. Thirdly As there are degrees of Sanctification so there are degrees of uprightness The text seems to speak of the highest degrees Uprightnesses It is very ordinary with the Hebrew to express the Superlative degree by the plural number besides this is Signified by putting the Abstract for the Concrete we usually call men notoriously vile and wicked by the Abstract names of vice and persons eminently good and virtuous by the Abstract Names of virtue and goodness Those that are highest in grace who do most excel in holiness are fullest of love to Christ Love teacheth every Child of God the weakest babe in grace to cry after Christ and the grown Christian to delight in him and to walk up and down in his name Every righteous every upright Soul loveth Christ and that with a true sincere love though not in an equal degree she saith our Saviour who hath much forgiven will love much Having premised these distinctions let me a little further inquire into the true Notion of these upright men upright by this Evangelical rectitude In short they are such as are justified and Sanctified made righteous through Christs righteousness imputed to them holy through the Sanctification of his Spirit 1. Such as are justified This is the first thing requisite to an upright right man let the unjustified Soul be what it will do what it can it cannot be upright either in heart or way Suppose a stick naturally crooked you may pare it and paint and colour it and cover its crookedness alittle but until it hath been in the fire and bended right it will be crooked still the natural man the Soul not justified by grace not washed with the blood of Christ may be pared by education and brought off from some flagitious and enormous practices he may be coloured and painted over by some acts of moral vertue and some formal performances of religious duties but still in Gods Eye the Soul is a crooked Soul until the Lord hath made it right till it be justified by faith 2. To this uprightness is required not only justification or the removal of the Souls guilt and imputation of a righteousness a perfect righteousness but the sanctification of the heart God never sanctifieth any whom he doth not justify hence no Soul can be said to be an upright Soul that is not justified nor doth the Lord at any time justify a Soul but he at the same time also reneweth and sanctifieth it hence the upright Soul must be a renewed Sanctified Soul But yet in regard our regeneration and sanctification is not as to degrees perfect though as to parts Divines say it is that is the whole man is renewed it may be yet worthy to be inquired from what degrees of Regeneration and Sanctification a man may be denominated an upright man the rectitude of any thing is to be judged from its conformity to some rule The rule of mans uprightness is the Lords Statutes which are right saith the Psalmist Psal 19. 8. holy and spiritual and just and good Rom. 7. Thy judgments are right saith David Psal 119. 75. 128. It is said so of nothing else so as from a conformity to this rule must rightness or uprightness be judged And thus 1. There is an uprightness of judgment when the Soul judgeth according to truth both concerning notions and practices when it judgeth aright concerning truth and is not warped by error and when it judgeth aright concerning the ways of God then the Soul is upright with respect to the understanding and judgment 2. There is an uprightness of the whole Soul with respect to the scope and bent of it when the heart of man doth not stand inclined and bent to sin but the Soul can say with David I hate vain thoughts but thy law do I love I hate every false way c. The man that in all his actions designeth and intendeth the honour and glory of God and obedience to his will though in many things he cometh short and offendeth yet this man is an upright man his end and general scope is right 3. There is an uprightness of will in this the uprightness of a mans intention discovereth itself when to will is present with the Soul as St. Paul saith Rom. 7. Though he wanteth a strength to perform the man or woman in heart willeth the honour and glory of God and this not by fits but steadily and certainly and is really unwilling to do any thing by which God may be dishonoured though through ignorance he may offend and through a natural impotency not being able to love the Lord with all his heart and strength yea and through moral impotency and a mixt infirmity through the great power of temptations whether from the seduction of lust or the violent motions and impressions of Satan 4. There is an uprightness of action which lieth in a true and sincere endeavour to do the will of God and by this both the uprightness of intention and will also is to be judged This is the upright man though he may stumble and fall and oft doth fail who liveth and sinneth not against God And as these holy dispositions are found in the Soul in more remiss or intense degrees so the Soul is more or less upright and the man deserves this honourable denomination less or more These now are the Souls that love Christ To love any object whether person or thing signifieth to take a delight and complacency in it Whether in the thoughts of it if absent as the Apostle saith whom we having not seen yet love or in the contemplation and fruition in converse and communion with it if more present This Praedicate concerning the upright that they love Christ is to be understood exclusively and inclusively concerning the Person of Christ and whatsoever beareth his image and superscription 1. Exclusively these and none but these love him Others may talk of loving Christ but it is but a talk and pretence they love but in word and tongue only not in deed and truth there is something else either lust or the world something or other that hath more of their affection more of their heart then Christ hath 2. Inclusively These and all these love Christ there is not an upright Soul in the world but loves Christ and takes a pleasure complacency in him and preferreth him before his chief joy 3. They love the person of Christ He is in their Eyes altogether desires the chiefest of ten thousand there is nothing in the
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
great and singular love to Christ floweth from his Experimental discerning of that admirable suitableness that is in Christ to his Soul and the exceeding love which he hath shewn to him 1. A Believer hath another kind of persuasion of the Love of Christ and the excellency that is in him than it is possible another should have 1. A persuasion flowing from Faith And 2. Confirmed by Experience I say first flowing from Faith We know a thing by Sense Reason or Revelation the Excellency of Christ falleth not under the demonstration of Sense Reason indeed working upon Principles of Revelation I mean concluding from the Revelation of holy Writ will shew even a natural man much goodness much excellency in Christ But this Knowledge is very far from that certainty which Faith begetteth in the Soul which is a certainty against which the Soul hath nothing to oppose ordinarily Faith is an Evidence and the strongest Evidence to the Soul of what it doth not see by the Eye of Sense and seeth very imperfectly by the Eye of Reason 2. A Believer's Knowledge is confirmed by Experience as he hath heard from the Word of God so he hath seen in the dispensations of God to his Soul His Soul is sprinkled with the Blood of Christ it was lost it is now found It lay under the guilt of sin and through Christ's satisfaction it is acquitted Though every Believer hath not a full persuasion of this yet he hath a good hope through grace and this cannot but kindle in his Soul a vehement flame of love to Christ Bless the Lord O my Soul saith the Psalmist Psal 103. 3 4. and all that is within me bless his holy Name Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction Nor hath he only some experience of the suitableness of Christ to his Soul considered as a lost undone Soul but he hath as firm a persuasion of Christ's readiness as well as ability to supply all his wants to hear all his prayers to supply all its necessities to bless it with all spiritual blessings there is no Soul that lives in such a view as a Believing Soul of its daily renewing sins and so standing in need of daily repeated acts of pardon daily renewings of spiritual strength c. It knows it is in the power of none to help it but Christ alone he alone sitteth at the right hand of God to make Intercession for the Soul he is he alone who can be its Advocate at the Throne of Grace It is the Spirit of Christ through which he must mortifie the deeds of the body and who must strengthen it with might to all the operations of the spiritual life It is so natural to the Soul to love those that love it that our Saviour saith if you do it what reward have you The Soul thus apprehending Christ its love towards him proceedeth in a natural order and riseth higher as it knoweth that the love which he hath shewed it and doth shew it is the greatest love For greater love than this can no man shew than that a man should die for his friend Christ hath died for it while it was an Enemy We saith the Apostle being Enemies to God were reconciled unto him through the death of his Son The evil from which he delivered it was the greatest evil The reason why the natural man loveth not Christ is because though he hath indeed heard much of Christ and of his love to the Sons of men yet he believeth not or giveth only a faint and careless Assent unto what he readeth and heareth concerning him He hath experienced nothing concerning the evil of sin nor feeleth any need of pardon and so cannot possibly discern or apprehend that goodness and excellency that is in Christ nor that suitableness to a Soul's state that a Believer is apprehensive of And in regard the wants of the body are no way to be compared with the wants of the Soul and the wants of the Soul cannot be supplied from any except only Ministerially but from Christ alone the Soul must necessarily love Christ with a singular love and all other things in subordination unto him so as they must stand in no competition for the Soul's Affection with him much less can such a Soul love any thing that offers it self in opposition to him I might inlarge fuurther in giving you Reasons for such a Soul 's singular love to Christ but I have touched upon this Argument before and these are the two main Reasons of their singular love unto him Their pourings out of their whole hearts their intire Affections into his bosom I shall only add a short Application of this Discourse Let us all by this try our selves whether we be the Spouse of Christ yea or no that is whether we be true believers yea or no and true Members of the Church of Christ by this we shall know it If we can look up to Heaven and say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth There are many who go into the number of those who make up the visible Church who are not the Spouse of Christ or at least shall not be of the number of those hereafter who shall make up the Lambs Wife mentioned Rev. 21. 9. They are not that Spouse mentioned Rev. 19. 7. To whom it is granted that she shall be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white or of those blessed ones who shall be called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The contract betwixt the Soul and Christ is made in secret In that contract as in others Christ consents to receive the Soul and the Soul consenteth to receive Christ The former of these indeed is sufficiently in the general declared in the more general call and invitation of the Gospel wherein Christ calleth to all to whom the Gospel is preached to come unto him promising that he will receive them and that he will by no means cast them away yet he hath not there spoken this to any particular person by name only in general to all those who are weary and heavy laden and who come unto him and the Soul is often at a loss in determining concerning the truth of its own acts in coming to and receiving of Christ tendred in the Gospel On the other side the presumptuous man is like the foolish young man in the world that thinks that every young woman who smileth on him or speaketh kindly to him will presently take him for her Husband and concludeth good to himself from every smile of providence but to satisfy the true Christian and to convince others of their folly let every Soul know that there is no Soul can take any comfort of this nature but that Soul only that can truly say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth and certainly would men and women be true to themselves they might from hence determine their Spiritual state But yet as there is a common
their Evils 2. Secondly Friendship speaketh free and ingenuous Love Not the Love of a Child to a Father which is Natural to which he is obliged by a filial duty because of his Fathers care of and provision for him not the Love of a Servant which is purchased by a kind usage and dependance A friend loveth freely The Love of true Friends is ordinarily an inaccountable thing They love one another and can hardly give one another an account of it further than a goodness and excellency a suitableness and likeness which they discern or at least think they see each in other Christs Love to us is free He healeth our backslidings and loveth us freely He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy The reciprocal Love of the believing Soul is not so free and so ingenuous as is his beloveds love to him Yet it is thus far ingenuous that it is not only for that the Soul hath from Christ but for that goodness and excellency which it discerneth in Christ this we had before Because of the Savour of thy good Ointments therefore do the Virgins Love thee 3. Love properly doth not make a friend unless it be mutual and reciprocal Indeed in a large sense a man may be said to be a friend to his Enemy That is to wish well to him and to do him some kind Offices But this is not friendship All Friendship implyeth a reciprocation of Love Christ Loves the believer and every true believer loveth Christ So they are Friends in the strictest and most proper sense Indeed there is a great difference which is well expressed by one of the Casuists thus We will good to him but we do not bestow that good upon him which we will him But he while he willeth good to us also giveth us that good which he willeth and by his loving us maketh us good and lovely But every Child of God truly loveth Christ truly I say that is sincerely though not with that kind or degree of Love with which Christ loveth him Lord saith Peter thou that knowest all things knowest that I Love thee And If any man Loves not the Lord Jesus saith the Apostle let him be Anathema Maranatha 4. Lastly Love of friendship alwaies speaketh Communion betwixt the two Lovers We are bound to Love our Enemies and in every good man there is such a Love even to those that hate them but this is no Love of friendship for the Precept of Love to Enemies obligeth onely against malice and private Revenge and to common Offices of kindness it doth not oblige to intimacy or to any near fellowship and Communion with them We are so far obliged to Love our Enemies as to bear no malice against them to take no private Revenge upon them to be ready to do any acts of kindness for their Souls and any common offices of love But I say we are not by it obliged to make them our intimates nor to keep any fellowship or communion with them But in a Love of friendship there is alwaies Communion or a mutual Communication of the Parties loving each to others Christ gives this account of his love of friendship to his disciples John 15. 15. Henceforth I call you not Servants for the Servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you Friends for all things I have heard of my Father I have made known to you Christ Communicates himself to believers to such as are his disciples indeed he is in them they in him and he is daily Communicating of his life and strength to them for John 15. 4. Without him they can do nothing They are daily communicating themselves unto him making a secret surrender to him of their hearts their wills their affections Communicating their wants and desires to him by Prayer c. Thus I have justified the notion of Christs Love his friend his Companion to be agreeable to what the Scripture revealeth concerning Christ and the believing Soul This in the first place leadeth us into a just admiration of the Divine Love and condescension Who is this that calleth from Heaven to Earth to the Worms of the Earth and speaketh in this language My Love My Friend My Fellow Is it not he who is the Eternal Son of God God over all blessed for ever he to whom there is none like and besides whom there is no God He whom God calleth his fellow and who thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father And to whom doth he speak Is it not to those who must say to corruption thou art my Mother and to the Worms you are my brethren and my Sisters To those whose Fathers are Amorites and whose Mothers are Hittites who by nature are dead in trespasses and sins unclean Children of unclean Parents Will the Lord Love such Ethioptans as we are by nature Such Enemies as we have shewed our selves by practice Will the Lord make himself a companion to the creature that is but as the dust of his feet What manner of Love and condescension is this For him whom the Eternal Father hath proclaimed to be his Son and that Son in whom he is well pleased in whom the Lord hath set up his rest he whom Kings and Prophets desired to see whom Angels and glorified Saints adore to whom the Father hath given a name above every name he who hath Heaven for his throne the Earth for his footstool and the utmost ends of the Earth for his possession to say to us My Love My Friend My Companion Certainly these terms ought to ravish our hearts and to affect them with in expressible admiration and to whom doth he say thus Is it only to the Glories and beauties of the World To the Emperors Rings Princes and Nobles thereof No he saith thus to every believer even the meanest that treadeth upon the Earth to the most poor distressed afflicted creature to Job that sits upon a dunghill scraping himself with a potsheard to Lazarus that lyeth at the rich mans gate full of sores and begging bread while the Dogs lick his sores to the poorest believer living in the meanest and dirtiest Gottage to those whom the World revileth slighteth scorneth to those who have spit in his face and abused his patience and despised his goodness that have hardened their hearts against him grieved his holy Spirit Yet having repented of these things and being turned to him to these he calleth to these he saith My Love My Friends My Companions He upbraideth them not for their former miscarriages to these he becometh a fellow Prisoner in these he becomes a fellow helper these shall be joint heirs with him Hear O Heavens be astonished O Earth never was Love like this never such matchless Love Let all our Souls swallow up themselves in this gulph of unfathomable Love and while we are sinking let us cry out O the height and depth and length and breadth of the Love of God in Jesus Christ It is a
give to the Poor and if I have taken anything from any by false accusation I restore him fourfold Will he have Peter gird himself and come to him upon the waters Peter will do it immediately Doth he call Simon and Andrew from their Nets to follow him upon a promise that they shall be made Fishers of men and doth he by and by require James and Zebedee to do the like they immediately leave their Father forsake their Nets and follow him Mark 1. 16 17 18. 2. The phrase signifies as much as I will entertain him with the highest Evidences of most cordial Affection I have more than once noted that the heart lies under the left breast however the breasts are the place of love It were endless to enlarge upon those several Scriptures expressing the satisfaction of gracious Souls upon the presence of Christ with them or his returns of presence to them One or two of them shall suffice The first shall be that of David Psal 146. You will discern upon the reading of that Psalm that God had returned to his Soul in Influences of mercy testifying his gracious presence he had heard his supplication v. 1. Inclined his Ear unto him v. 2. helped him v. 6. Mark with what a satisfaction his Soul receiveth these Influences v. 2. I will call upon him as long as I live v. 7. Return unto thy rest O my Soul v. 12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits I will take the cup of Salvation c. v. 16. Oh Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant and the Son of thy handmaid c. How welcome is the presence of God to Davids Soul Do you use to say to your friend Sir what shall I provide for you I think my self much beholden to you I am much your Servant for this kindness rejoiced to see you c. Observe if David here speaketh not much the same language The other instance shall be that of the Spouse Cant. 3. 4. when she had recovered her beloved I found him whom my Soul Loveth I held him and would not let him go untill I had brought him into my Mothers house and into the Chamber of her that canceived me The Child knoweth not how to express its love to its friend better then by bringing him or her home to its Mothers or Fathers house What need any further evidence then that exuberance of joy which is found in every gracious Soul upon any return of divine love which may evidence Christa abiding with it 3. Vehement passions will also discover a gracious Souls desires to the Enjoyment of Christ and his abidings with the Soul When they saw our Saviour weep over Lazarus his grave Joh. 11. They cry out How he loved him He that seeth a Friend mourn when his Friend is gone from him or perhaps but going the woman jealous of any whom she but suspects would draw away her husband from her falling into fits of passion whes he doth but fear such a thing will easily conclude that this friend this Wife is eagerly desirous of the presence and abiding of his friend or her husband with her and Secondly he that observes the jealousy of a gracious Soul over the Lord its Saviour and of every sin of Omission or Commission which it suspecteth as that which may probably separate betwixt his Soul and it He that observeth what slavish fear the Christian yet living in the enjoyments of God is often tormented with left he should lose his beloved presence oâ— takes notice of his weepings even till he can weep no more when he lies but under a perhaps false apprehension that he hath withdrawen himself in displeasure how his Eye oft-times consometh with grief how he makes his bed to swim and wateroth his Couch with tears must needs conclude that the abidings of Christ with the Soul are great objects of its desire And no wonder though they be so as we shall see by enquiring upon the third question Qu. 3. Whence it is that a gracious Soul is so desirous of Christ's lodgings and abidings with it To make a thing the object of a reasonable Soul's desire it is required That the understanding conceive it under the Notion of good and some good which it wanteth and may possibly obtain and according to the degree of goodness apprehended in an object proposed so is the motion of a reasonable Soul's desire more or less towards it Now that which appears to us as good appears so 1. Under the notion of profitable and advantageous Or 2. Under the notion of sweet and pleasant or under the notion of vertaous and honourable It is almost impossible to conceive but that the spiritually enlightened Soul should apprehend the abidings of Christ with it transcendently good upon all these accounts 1. Under the notion of Vertuous and Honourable What greater honour can betide a poor creature than to have the Almighty pitch his Tents in and with it for the Lord of Heaven and Earth to make his abode with a Worm the Eternal Son of God to dwell with Dust and Ashes yea and delight to dwell and continue with it Such honour have all the Saints and no wonder if they be so fond of it Doth Abigail think it an honour to be but a Servant to an Earthly David and Mephibosheth judge it an honour to be admitted to eat Bread at his Table What is it then to have the Son of God in the Arms of our Souls and to have him dwell in our hearts and make his abode there 2. Nor certainly can any thing be more sweet to a gracious Soul The joy and peace that peace which passeth all understanding which is the issue of believing ebbs and flows according to the abidings of Christ with the Soul His presence makes an Heaven and his absence makes an Hell there There are two Passions which are like overflowing Floods and drown a Soul's beauty and comfort Fear and Grief the presence of Christ with the Soul keeps them both under The Soul of the Saint cannot fear when it knows that it is He that saveth it and upholdeth it with the hand of his Righteousness and the Children of the Bride-Chamber himself told us cannot mourn while the Bridegroom is with them 3. For the advantage which accrews to the Soul by the abidings of christ with it besides that already mentioned in the quiet and holy security which it hath by his company which is infinitely above the value of all other concernments I say besides that the advantage is exceeding great I will mention but two things 1. Its enemies are still when the Captain of our Salvation is in our quarters there 's no great fear that the enemy will beat them up The tempter hath nothing to say whiles he that succours the tempted is speaking peace to the Soul God must first say to the Devil behold this Soul is in thy hands before he can meddle with it And our
objects Christ now cannot shew his grace to such a Soul the bank hinders where he pleaseth indeed he worketh secretly takes away the heart of stone and makes it an heart of flesh takes away unbelief vanity earthly mindedness sensual affections and then he emptyeth the treasuries of grace upon the Soul In a word to apply this No wonder then to hear many a poor wretch complain that God never yet spake peace to his Soul others indeed have heard their beloved hath said to others behold thou art fair my love behold thou art fair but they never yet heard such a voice Let me ask thee who thus complainest this question Did Christ ever yet hear thee say as a bundle of Myrrh is my beloved unto me he shall lye all night betwixt my breasts Hast thou served Christ with Ordinary expressions of duty How canst thou expect to be feasted by him with extraordinary returns of mercy If thy breathings after him have been faint and short what reason hast thou to expect that his breathings should be so full upon thee He is indeed a full ocean of free grace but it may be thou hast cast up a bank against him it may be thou hast clogg'd him with an hard heart and unbelieving heart a vain heart a filthy sensual heart Wonder not O Christian that he is so little towards thee in a way of mercy if thou beest scant towards him in thy way of duty There is a generation of men and women in the world who are taken notice of to behave themselves as if they thought that all the World were made to serve them and they not made to serve any but they are an unreasonable generation and sober persons so account of them and accordingly slight them Oh that there might not be such an unreasonable Christian found in the World who should so much as think in his heart that Christ stands concerned to open all his Treasuries of Love upon his Soul which in the mean time hath scarce a thought of doing any thing more than ordinary for the Lord Jesus Christ if thou findest thy heart cold in duty frozen in affections toward Christ wonder not at all if thou findest the bowels of thy Saviour which yern upon others tied up towards thee And I fear me this is the cause of most complaints of this nature although it may be possible that this is not the case of every such complaining Soul witness David Psal 22. 1 2 3 4. 2. What an ingagement doth this Notion of Truth lay upon the Sons and Daughters of men to stretch out their Souls for and towards God Certainly if there be any thing in the World of force to open a Soul for Christ this will do it to hear that Divine Grace keeps pace with our duty and that the proper way to have Christ speak to us and say Thou art fair my Love Thou art fair is for us to get up our hearts in a readiness to say and say it in truth As a bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved to me The Psalmist cries out Psal 34. 12. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Depart from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it Give me leave to speak to all you who fear the Lord in the same dialect What man is there amongst you who would not gladly have Christ speak peace unto your Souls and whisper the words of my Text in your Ears Thou art fair my Love thou art fair O let Christ be yet more and more precious to you let him have the strength of your Love that you may have the seal of his Love let the World know and let him know that he is dear in your Eyes that you may know that you are fair in his Eyes But this is enough for the second Circumstance which I observed I pass to a third Thou art fair my Love thou art fair It is not said thou O man or thou O woman art fair but thou my Love art fair It is both the observation of our own Annotators and some others Obs The Spouse of Christ is fair as she is His Love I observed to you before that the word signifies Amica Socia a Friend and a Companion the Object of ones love and the Companion of ones life This is not after the manner of the Children of men amongst them Beauty raiseth Love but with Christ it is Love that raiseth Beauty Locutio verbi infusio Doni Christ in calling her fair makes her fair Ezek. 16. 14. Thy Beauty was perfect through my comeliness which was put upon thee saith the Lord God A good complexion with a lovely air of the countenance and a due proportion of bodily parts makes the Children of men fair to a sensual Eye An head well furnished with Notions of Learning and a mind indued with vertuous generous dispositions makes a man fair and beautiful to a rational Eye But it is Grace alone that can make the Soul fair to the Divine Eye 1. Nature doth it not for all are by Nature Children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. like the Infant not cut not washed not swadled Ezek. 16. We are by Nature all Blackamores in the Eyes of God our Father an Amorite our Mother an Hittite 2. Art will not do it Though thou wash thee with Nitre and take thee much Sope yet thine iniquity is marked before me saith the Lord Jer. 2. 22. The Pharisees were men who used as much Art as others yet their Beauty to our Saviour's Eye rose no higher than to the Beauty of a Painted Sepâ—lchre that outwardly is beautiful but within full of rottenness so little that our Saviour saith Publicans and Harlots should as to the Kingdom of Heaven have the preheminence before them 3. Grace then alone must do it Those who are Christ's Love are fair only so far forth as they are his Love his Companions There is a double Grace the first of Justification the second of Sanotification according to the first the Believer is Christ's Love according to the second the Believer is Christ's Companion 1. I say first the Grace of Justification this is gratia gratum faciens that Grace by which the Soul is accepted of God It is the free Love of God shewn to the humbled Soul upon its exercise of Faith pardoning its sins reckoning over the Righteousness of Christ unto it and accepting it as righteous in and through Christ this changeth the Soul's state this is it which taketh away its filthy garments and covereth the Soul with Christ's Robes with this is conjoined the Grace of Regeneration by which God changeth the Soul's nature and disposition old things pass away with it and all things become new this is no quality infused into us or inherent in us but the free and pure love and good will of Christ imbracing us 2. The second is the Grace of Sanctification this makes the Believer the Companion of
Bridegroom whose it is to bless us with all spiritual blessings in and through him Supposing the latter the believing Soul directeth her request as her beloved directeth when he commands us to pray saying Our Father If the petition be understood as directed to the Lord Jesus Christ Let him kiss me is as much as Do thou kiss me Vicem nominis supplet vis amoris the force of her love supplyeth the omission of his name saith Lud. de Ponte It is a very usual dialect of Scripture to put the 3d Person for the 2d so the Psalmist God be merciful unto us and bless â—us But 3. Qu. What doth the Spouse mean by Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Some read it He did kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Thus the ancient Chaldee Paraphrast Blessed be the name of the Lord who gave us his Law written by the hand of Moses his Scribe who wrote it in two Tables of Stone and spake with us face to face as a man who kisseth his Companions through the greatness of his love wherewith he loved us more than threescore and ten Nations But the stile of the Song is rather pathetical and optative than historical and narrative and it is rather referred to Christ as Mediator than to God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ considered only as God over all blessed for ever besides that the Hebrew word being in the future tense referrs rather to the time to come than to the time past and I see no need of inventing a figure There is a threefold kiss of which you read in Scripture 1. The kiss of the feet Thus the penitent Woman Luk. 7. 38. kissed her Saviours feet 2. The kiss of the hand Job 31. 27. If my mouth hath kissed my hand 3. The kiss of the lips Prov. 24. 26. and so in many other Texts The Schoolmen tell us of a seven-fold kiss a kiss of 1. Love 2. Union 3. Reverence and Honour 4. Adoration 5. Reconciliation and Peace 6. Treachery as Joab kissed Abner and Amasa and Judas kissed Christ 7. Wantonness According to the usages of several Nations there were several sorts of kisses distinguished by their objects and ends they were wont to kiss the head lips cheek shoulders hands backs feet of their superiours inferiours and equals and that for several testimonies which yet I think are reducible to two heads For a testimony of honour reverence and subjection Thus Parents were kissed by their Children Jacob came near and kissed Isaac Gen. 50. 1. Joseph fell upon his Fathers face and kissed him Thus Exod. 18. 7. Moses went out to meet his Father in Law and did obeysance and kissed him and Orpah kissed her Mother in Law Thus the Persians were wont according to the differences of Persons in respect of quality to give differing kisses Equals kissed one anothers lips the Person who was but a little inferiour kissed his superiours Cheek The lower sort fell at their superiours feet and kissed them Thus Idolaters shewed their reverence to their Idols and the true Worshipers of God were by this distinguished They had not kissed Baal 1 Kings 19. 28. and the Idolaters in Israel said Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves Hos 13. 2. Thus also we are commanded to kiss the Son least he be angry Psal 2. 12. which Jerome translates Purely worship the Son This is now a kiss wherewith we ought to kiss Christ but this is not the kiss of the Text. Secondly Kisses were used for a testimony of love which sometimes was hypocritical and so the kissing deceitful such were the kisses of Joab and Judas ordinarily real which might be considered either as continued or interrupted Kisses were 1. Used in token of continuing love As appears by the several precepts of the Apostles regulating the use of them by a law of holiness and chastity Rom. 16. 16. 1 Cor. 16. 20 c. Or 2. In token of renewed love and reconciliation Thus Laban kissed Jacob upon their reconciliation Esau kissed Jacob and David kissed Absalom Beza thus gives the propriety of this testimony in affection Whereas our life lies in the breath which goeth out of our lips and our Soul goes away when our breath at last goes the joining of the friends lips and mouths signifies that they are so dear each to other that they could willingly unite Souls if it could be and bestow their lives each upon other The kiss of the text must needs be this In testimonium amoris for a testimony of love But still here remains a question whether she desires the kiss of Reconciliation 2. Or that which is a pledge of continuing love Those who understand the first confess a breach betwixt God and his Creatures which indeed there was made in the beginning of the world which breach is as to the meritorious part made up by the incarnation death and passion of Christ Indeed there was an ancient Covenant of Grace concerning it Gen. 3. revealed immediately but I say it was done quoad pretium by the incarnation and death of Christ according to those Texts 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. Col. 1. 21. Eph. 2. 16. according to the prophecy Dan. 9. 24. And as to the particular application of that purchase it is daily done by the Spirit of God working faith in us by which we are united to Christ Now the question is whether the Spouse here beggeth 1. Christs coming in the flesh being incarnate and dying for us for the fulfilling of the eternal Covenant of Reconciliation to which some encline 2. Or the kiss of Justification the actual reconciliation of the Soul unto Christ and application of Christ to the Soul by fâ—rth 3. Or The further influences of â— Love as pledges of that first Grace and Seals of that Original love of his to the Souls of his People Indeed the Eternal Son of God kissed us and he stooped much to kiss us when he took upon him our nature uniting finite and infinite corruptible and incorruptible when he nothinged himself for us and this was foreseen and so might be desired Abraham saw the day and rejoyced Joh. 10. 48. and not only Origen and Bernard of old but many modern interpreters think that the Spouse here hath a great respect to this matchless testimony of Divine Love which being granted the Text is no other than the breathings and pantings of the Church of God then living or the particular members of it after the Incarnation of Christ which doubtless was a great object of their desires Kings and Prophets and Righteous men desired to see the things which the Disciples saw and did not see them c. Others understand the text of those testimonies of Divine Love which followed the death of Christ particularly The sending of the Spirit It is true this is called The promise of the Father and was so under the old Testament Ezech. 36.
and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desideravit he hath desired Love is nothing else but a willing of good to the object beloved and desire is the eldest Daughter and first fruit of love For the particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore they shew the cause of the believers loving of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the savour of his good Ointments The excellencies of grace which are in him of which it hath a spiritual sense This whole verse comprehends a second Argument by which the Spouse inforceth her first petition The first was drawn from that high esteem which her soul had of the love and grace of Christ 2. This is drawn from that particular affection which she had for him common to all spiritual Virgins which she shews was not brutish and irrational no it was because he was full of grace which was more precious than the most excellent Ointments and she had received the savour of this grace for his discovery of himself to the world as a Saviour and more specially to her soul as her Saviour was as an Ointment poured forth You may now take the substance of these two verses and so of the Spouses first and great petition thus Oh! That it might please my dearly beloved Saviour who is my Spiritual Bridegroom to shew me some token of special love and to multiply those tokens to me more specially in and by the words of his Mouth in Gospel Doctrines to speak unto my Soul which doth really prefer the tokens of his love and influences of his grace before the most choice of all creature comforts My beloved is full of grace and love which is sweet like good Ointment every discovery of himself is as sweet as Ointment poured forth therefore doth my Soul love him and not my Soul only but the Souls of all those who are not deflowered by the world and by lusts From the words thus opened several propositions of truth may be observed The mercies which the believing Soul thirsts after are spiritual distinguishing mercies The least of Christ a kiss is exceeding precious to a gracious Soul Though the least influences of grace be precious to believers yet they will not be satisfied without the fullest dispensations of grace and most frequent repetitions of it Believers have special thirstings after the Word of God The kisses of his Mouth The thirst of a true believer will not be satisfied without a Spiritual inward communion with Christ in his Ordinances The kisses of his Mouth A gracious Soul will be very bold and earnest with God for this spiritual communion with him The Lord Jesus Christ hath Loves A variety of Grace The Loves of Christ are better than Wine than all created comforts whatsoever The believing Souls knowledge of the Excellencies which are in Christ is the ground of its earnest desire of fellowship and communion with him It is an excellent Argument for a Soul to use with God for the obtaining of favours from him if it can truly say that it preferreth his favour before all created goods The Lord Jesus Christ hath good Ointments which cast a savour The name of Christ is as an Ointment poured forth Virgin Souls love the Lord Jesus Christ for those excelling graces which they discern in him Sermon II. Canticles 1. v. 1. 2 3. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth for his loves are better then Wine Because of the savour c. I Have in my former Exercises opened the Text and named those propositions of Doctrine which are couched in the words or rationally to be deduced from them I come now to the particular handling of them beginning with the first The thirst of a believing Soul is after Spiritual distinguishing mercies Nature teacheth every one to say who will shew us any good Good is a thing that all the creation is enamoured upon God is the fountain of all goodness Every good and perfect gift cometh from above from him who is the father of lights Who being not a debtor to the creature must needs dispense it out freely Hence that goodness of God which is his goodness of Beneficence not only dwelling in him as a piece of his divine perfection But flowing from him as a stream from the fountain of his liberality is properly called Mercy whether it be good to us in respect of its sutableness to our outward and bodily wants or to our more inward and Spiritual necessities Hence the Mercies and savours of God are either Bodily respecting out outward Man or Spiritual respecting our inward man The former such now as life health peace and prosperity riches c. are such as God gives to his Enemies as well as to his Friends he maketh his Sun to rise upon the evil and the good And sendeth rain on the just and unjust Math. 5. 45. Spiritual good things again are either Gifts of common or of Special Grace Gifts of common grace such as knowledge invention memory utterance c. These are indeed Spiritual gifts so called by the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 1. ch 14. 1. because given out by the Spirit of God and tending to innoble the Spiritual part and they are also called the best gifts 1 Cor. 12. 31. They are so in their kind better than those which only concern the outward man but St. Paul himself mentioneth better than these in the very same Text I shew you a more excellent way Neither are these distinguishing favours but given in common to wicked as well as to good men But now there are Spiritual mercies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called Not only because they come from the Spirit of Grace and innoble the Spiritual part of man but because they are suted to the greatest necessities of our inward man Such are the grace of Justification Union to and reconciliation with God pardon of Sin and the Senses of that pardon together with all the fruits of the Spirit of regeneration and Sanctification These are the distinguishing favours of God which difference the Child of God from him that is not Now I say these are those favours which the believing Soul thirsteth after and longeth for expressed here under the Metaphor of kisses And properly expressed under that notion Men and women use not to kiss such as they hate but such as they have an affection for It is a civil usage amongst us so to salute strangers indeed but frequency of kisses speaks a distinguishing love and some intimacy of Affection and are not ordinary unless amongst very intimate Friends such as is the Husband and Wife Brethren and Sisters c. But yet a little further When Isay the thirstings of gracious Souls are after such distinguishing tokens of divine love I understand it not Exclusively The Children of God are made up of flesh and blood as well as any others and subject to the same necessities and infirmities
hope there 's none who hears me this day but is sometimes breathing out the desires of his Soul unto God in Prayer Oh! let this be the lauguage of your Prayers Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Let others beg of God Riches and Honours and the favours of Men Let others beg the golden Ring but do you desire the kiss Consider The Soul of the rational Creature stands obliged by the law of reason to desire the best things Is there any thing to be compared with special grace this is that more excellent way which the Apostle propounds to be coveted before the best gifts You read in the book of Esther ch 5. v. 9. 11. concerning Haman that he called for his Wife and tells her of the great honour to which the King had advanced him and of his great Riches but saith he all this availeth me nothing while I see Mordecay suting in the Kings Gate When the poor worlding sits down and thinks how God hath blessed him with Riches Honours and whatsoever contentments the creature can afford him hath he not cause to say All this availeth me nothing whil'st I have no assurance of the love of God whil'st for ought I know or have reason to believe the wrath of God may be flaming against me and I one of those who shall after all these sweet enjoyments spend an Eternity in that fire which is prepared for the Devil and his Angels Riches profit not in the day of Wrath no nor any thing else will profit in that day but an interest in Christ How much better is a dinner of Herbs with the love of God than great Treasures with his hatred A morsel of bread with an interest in Christ than a stuffed Ox with the wrath of God Secondly These influences alone will evidence distinguishing love Indeed other gifts may possibly speak no love at all The Israelites desired a King God granted them their desires and saith by his Prophet that he gave them a King in his Wrath. It may be truly said concerning the gifts of God to many a poor Creature he gives them Riches in his Wrath Honours in Wrath outward prosperity in Wrath outward good things dipt in divine vengeance the wrath of God may smoke against them while the quails are betwixt their teeth Poenalis nutritur impunitas This is a secret of Divine Justice which every one seeth not It is the saying of a devout Author that God often useth impios melle suo punire to punish wicked men with their own Hony But God never gives a kiss in Wrath he cannot give osculum Iscarioticum where he kisseth he loveth God throws the good things of this life amongst his Enemies his Friends living in the same world it may be get something of them but they are no distinguishing mercies But whomsoever he kisseth that Soul is certainly beloved of him Thirdly There are no petitions please God so well as those which are put up for spiritual things When Solomon begged of God a wise and understanding heart it is said that the saying pleased the Lord well Yea God shewed that it pleased him well for he received in abundance what he asked not Nor is this hard to be conceived by us who have the same affections towards our own Children had any one of us who are Fathers 2 Children and we should put it to their choice what they would ask of us and the one should ask that we would settle so much land upon him the other should tell us he desired not our lands but should importunately beg that his Father would love him best would not the latter please you best should we not be ready to give that Child-more than it asked You read of the two Daughters of Naomi Orpah and Ruth Ruth 1. 14 15. they both followed their Mother in law while she was full but when she was empty Orpah kisseth her Mother in law and leaveth her Naomi would have had Ruth have done so too but v. 16. Ruth refuseth and tells her Whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy People shall be my People and thy God shall be my God where thou diest I will die and there will I he buried Which is as much as if she had told her that she valued the company of her Mother above all other concerns Did not this think you indear her to Naomi and certainly nothing can more endear a soul to God than for it to judge his favour better than life and his loves more than Wine Now to engage your hearts to prefer the kisses of God before any other good things with which the hand of his providence can make you happy there needs no more than that you should be truly possessed with the notion of your own wants and rightly understand the differences of good He that knows how much more excellent than the Body the Soul of man is will quickly understand that those things which are proportioned to its wants are more desirable goods than those which are only suted to our more outward concerns Study but the excellency of the love of God and the vanity and Earthliness of the Creature the state of your souls by nature and with respect to that guilt which by multitudes of Sins you have contracted from which nothing can excuse you but the blood of Christ nor any thing evidence your absolution to quiet your accusing and condemning consciences but the kisses of his Mouth and you will need no more to evince to you that these coelestial kisses are of all good things the most excellent the most desirable which being well understood the rational Soul directly moveth to a choice and desire of them above and before all other things Sermon III. Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth IT is the Spouse that speaketh she saith not Let him embrace me nor as elsewhere He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts but Let him kiss me Quid tam minimum submissum quam osculetur me is De Ponte his note upon the Text. A kiss is the least token of conjugal love and affection Hence observe The least tokens of Christs special distinguishing love are very desirable to believing Souls The free Love of God shining out through Christ upon souls predestinated unto glory in the pardoning of their sins the acceptation of their persons the renewing of their natures in strengthening quickening comforting influences of grace is what we call the distinguishing Love of Christ being not the effects of his Philanthropy but his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now the tokens of this are more or less or may be so called According to the degree of their Emanation from Christ and the Spirit of Christ Or According to our judgment and apprehension or Estimation 1. According to the degree of their Emanation God whose heart is at all times the same towards his people yet is pleased gradually to
Servants of God is yet to be found in the souls of such as have any acquaintance with or relation to the Lord Jesus Christ And indeed our reason will tell us that it must be so if we consider but these following particulars which will give you a reasonable account of the truth of this Proposition The least token of special distinguishing Grace is of an infinitely sweet and salvifick nature and evidence There are common gifts of the Spirit of God which indeed may be sweet and very grateful to a spiritual nature such are the gifts of Prayer and Prophecy c. but yet are not of a saving nature or evidence a man may have them and perish for ever but it is not so with such influences of the Spirit as are tokens of special distinguishing love spiritual gifts are to be coveted because of a subserviency in them to spiritual and saving ends but they are not of a saving nature and have nothing of a saving evidence in them but in the least token of special distinguishing love there is something of an evidence for Salvation the least of it is of a saving nature Faith that is but as a grain of Mustard seed is as much saving as the strongest Faith is The measures of our comforts much depend upon degrees of grace but our Salvation doth not Christ bids Zacheus go home for that day Salvation was come to his house Salvation cometh to the soul that hour in which the least of special love shineth upon it the least of that brings Salvation and consequently is exceeding sweet and must be so if you consider this soul as first seeking the Kingdom of God allarumed with the spiritual sense of its misery by nature it s lost and undone condition in Adam This is the one thing that such a soul seeks after in comparison with which all other things are as dross and dung to it That it may discern it self beloved of God one of those for whom Christ died and whose sins are washed away with his blood for this it hath wept and prayed and resolved to seek after it and resolved not to be silent There is no evidence of special Love but is suited to some great spiritual want of the soul Our souls are exposed to a great variety of wants All the tokens of God's special Love are suited to some or other of these wants Our souls are impotent and weak both to the performance of spiritual duty and to resist our spiritual adversary to this want now strengthening grace is suited They are dull and heavy and move heavily in spiritual duties to this quickening grace is suited They are sad and troubled for fear of God's wrath to this consolatory grace is suited There is no influence of the special Love of God but is suited to some special want or burden of our souls and therefore the least of them must be exceedingly desirable for so every thing is that suiteth our necessities and so much the more as it suiteth some more special and eminent wants If the Sun doth but arise upon the soul it healeth Mat. 4. 2. though it shineth not out in its fullest glory if Christ spreadeth but a wing over it there is healing in that wing His very shadow gives delight to the soul Cant. 2. 2. the least of his fruit is pleasant to its taste If saith the woman I can but touch the Hem of his Garment I shall be whole Such is the purity of the Saints Love that though they may have an Eye to the Recompence of Reward which his Love brings yet they love him for himself who appears to their souls as Totus desideria altogether desirable It is his Love which their souls thirst after now the least special token of Love sheweth that he loves it and his heart cleaveth to it He that valueth the Love of his friend regardeth not the quantum of the Token but the nature of it if it be of such a nature as he doth not ordinarily give to any common friend that is it which he eyeth If a soul can see any thing which speaketh its Lord joyned to it cleaving unto it this is it which makes it valuable A discerning soul will take little joy in gifts of common providence Riches Honours good Relations common gifts It may and will desire these things while it is in the flesh as they fill up some emptinesses in that our state but it can by no means be satisfied with these things As Haman said when he had been telling his Wife of his great preferments and honours All this doth me no good so long as I see Mordecay sitting in the King's Gate my Enemy is honoured and advanced as well as I So it saith The Lord hath given me riches honour c. but all this doth me no good so long as I see the haters of God enjoy as much of these things as I do let me have some special token of God's Love Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth Fourthly The Child of God knoweth That the least token of Christs special love is more worth than all the world There is no proport on betwixt a corpâ—ral and a spiritual good betwixt what is sutable to our flesh and to our wants in this life and what is sutable to our Souls and necessary for us with respect to our eternal felicity The Philosopher could say Animus cujusque est quisque The mind of a Man is the Man The Christian knows that Anima cujusque est quisque The Soul of a Man is the Man What shall it profit a Man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own Soul The sensual Man values his life above those things that are only good because of their subserviency to that The rational man valueth his mind above his flesh and accordingly sets a price upon knowledge and moral Virtue above those things that meerly gratify his sense The spiritual Man valueth his Soul his Soul considered not only as a rational Being but as a Spirit an immortal Spirit capable of the favour of God and an union and fellowship with him and ordain'd to an eternal existence not only above his body which he knoweth is made up of dust moulded up into flesh and blood and bones but above his mind It really is of more value and he is made apprehensive of it hence he cannot but value the least that tendeth to make that happy above any thing else whatsoever Besides he knows himself created to an eternity and believing that his reason teacheth him infinitely to prefer what is good for him with reference to an happy existence to eternity above any thing that can only serve him for the short time he is to be clothed with flesh and to live in this world This Election of the loves of Christ before all things else and the value he puts upon the least tokens and manifestations of it doth naturally and rationally follow his
their worldly and sensual satisfactions I would speak to them as one standing this day in wisdoms Porch and crying after them in their hottest pursuits of the world Come and turn your hearts hither you that are simple ones and void of understanding I shall have a fairer opportunity to speak to these when I come to consider the argument by which the Spouse backeth her Petition But alas we had need make these cries often you can see the world and the gay and fine things therein precious and run after them with a swift pace but you can see no excellency in the kisses of Christ nothing for which they should be so desired when alas the world is but like a brave glass which whole is of some value but if broken in pieces the small pieces of it are worth nothing Christ his love is like a wedge of Gold or like a most precious perfume the least particle the least drop of which hath its value there is no emanation of his special loves but is suted to the Souls wants and to some eminent necessity under which the Soul laboureth Hear Solomon speaking to you Prov. 1. 22. How long you simple ones will you love simplicity And Fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Your reason tells you that a vessel of Silver or Gold is much preferrible to one of Earth or Glass and as for other reasons so for this which you ordinarily say break a vessel of Earth and Glass the pieces are worth nothing but if one of those more valuable mettals be broke the least pieces have their value Why should not the same reason instruct you that Christs favour is to be prefer'd to all the world can afford you a little of the world is not much valuable a plentiful estate the highest pitches of honour a belly full of pleasure that indeed may appear desirable but the least tokens of Christs love the least expressions of his favour are most valuable things The kisses of the world are for the most part but Oscula Iscariotica or Joabitica like the kisses of Judas who in order to the betraying of his Master first kissed him or like the kiss of Joab to Amasa who under pretence of kissing him smote him under the fifth rib and slew him Christ's kisses are kisses of peace and reconciliation of love and favour Secondly This notion calleth to all those that are true Christians and that for three things For a due value of the least tokens of Christs special and distinguishing love look narrowly to make up your judgment whether what you take to be such be such or no and there you must take heed that you do not make conclusions from the gifts of common providence No man can judge of the love or hatred of God to his Soul from any thing which befalls him in this life No man can judge of any special love from Gods giving him a longer life greater measures of health a more plentiful estate or any thing of this nature God gives the worst of men their portion in such things as these No nor â—dly from common gifts such as those of knowledge utterance c. look therefore narrowly to make your judgment and the surest Judgment is from such things as more conform you to the nature or will of God but if you will find aliquid Christi any thing which you can call Christs or speaks his distinguishing love take heed of undervaluing that Secondly It calls to you for the use of all means for proficiency and growth in Grace Such as hearing the Word Prayer the use of all the Ordinances of God for in reason if the least tokens of Christs special love be desirable greater manifestations of it are much more desirable Labour for more holiness more heavenly-mindedness more subjection of your will to the will of God Hath the Lord blessed you with a faith of adherence a power given you from above to cast your Souls upon the Lord Jesus Christ Labour for faith of evidence be like the Travellers to Zion of which David speaketh Psal 84. that go from strength to strength until they all appear before the Lord in Zion It may be a good question sometimes to satisfy a troubled doubting Soul what is the Minimum quod sic the lowest degree or measure of saving grace but it is an ill hearing from a lazy wanton Soul Lastly it calls loudly to us to thirst after Heaven where the believing Soul shall be the Lambs Wife and follow him whithersoever he goes and be blessed with the clearest vision and the fullest imbraces of its beloved Oh how pleasant will the mansions of glory be to those Souls to whom the imperfect views that it hath had of Christ in this life have been so desirable while we are present in the Body even Paul himself owneth himself absent from the Lord. Now indeed we are the Sons of God now we are in a capacity of his kisses tokens of special love sufficient to uphold and refresh our Souls but there we shall be at the rivers of pleasures where there is not only pleasure but fulness of pleasures and that for evermore O Blessed are they that shall be alwaies before the Throne of God seeing their Redeemer with those Eyes and taking their fills of his love Sermon IV. Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth BY the beloveds Kisses mentioned in this Text I have understood Christs special and distinguishing love and the tokens of it by which either as God blessed for ever or as the Mediatour of the world he may discover his kindness to the Children of Men or the Members of his Church in common from whence I have already observed that the heart of a Believer is after distinguishing love Kisses being the least of those Evidences I have shewed That the least tokens of Christs special and distinguishing love are and will be very sweet to Believers Souls But I observe the word is in the plural number Kisses and so may signify either 1. Various dispensations of Grace Or 2. Various repetitions of the same Acts of Grace Hence the next Proposition ariseth That altho the least dispensations of special and distinguishing love be exceeding sweet and precious to Souls which have once tasted how good the Lord is yet their hearts will be after fuller and frequent dispensations and repetitions of it I take both these to be comprehended in the plurality of the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace is a thing which is but one piece considered as it is in God their 's nothing plural in the one Divine Being but as the Sea which is in itself but one yet as it washeth upon several coasts receiveth several names and denominations as the English Sea the Irish Sea and the Baltick Sea So as the Grace of God respecteth the several necessities and wants of us
with reference to the Levitical rites Christ speaketh to Peter Joh. 13. much in the same dialect Except I wash thee thou canst have no part in me But the meaning is pardon me remove the guilt of my sin from me but is this enough for this holy Man Is this all that he asketh of God No v. 8. Make me to hear the voice of Joy and Gladness that the Bones which thou hast broken may rejoice There he prayeth for Consolatory Grace Well will this yet satisfie the thirst of this holy Man No he must also have a renewed Heart a right Spirit The Spirit of God resting upon him dwelling abiding in him A right Heart as well as a righteous Heart v. 10. Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me v. 11 12. Take not thy holy Spirit from me Uphold me with thy free Spirit He must not only be set right in Gods way but he must be kept right and upheld in it Look upon him in that 119 Psalm Psal 119. 28. Strengthen me according to thy Word The Lord had given him the Pardon of his Sin he had given him Wisdom so as he tells us in that Psalm he was become wiser than his Teachers God had sanctified Affliction to him so as by it he had learned to keep Gods Statutes The Lord had given him an heart to love his Law to make it his Meditation night and day yet he cries Strengthen me O Lord And again v. 25. Quicken me in thy way Quicken me after thy Loving-kindness v. 4. O Quicken me in thy Righteousness Hath he enough yet No one thing he yet wants v. 42. Mine Eyes fail for thy Word when wilt thou comfort me There is hardly any Dispensation of Grace which we do not find David in that Psalm pleading with God for This one instance of David is enough to shew you the temper of every Soul which hath but once tasted how good the Lord is Nor indeed can it be otherwise If we consider the Beauty and excellency which appeareth to such a Soul in every Dispensation of Grace The Spouse saith of Christ in another part of this Song He is altogether lovely There is no part of Christ which is not in itself lovely he is the brightness of his Fathers Glory the fulness of the God Head dwells in him bodily As every Beam of the Sun every Emanation of that Body of Light is lovely to him whose Eyes are open to discern it So every Beam of the Sun of Righteousness every Emanation of his Love must necessarily be lovely to the Soul that hath its senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil All Beauty is attractive whatsoever appeareth to our Souls lovely and beautiful appeareth also desirable But this is not all though Beauty and Comeliness be attractive and allures our Souls into an earnest desire after it yet profit is more Secondly There is no Dispensation of Divine Grace but suiteth some great want of the Soul It is the same Reason that I gave you why the least of Christ is so pretious Because the least of his Grace is suited to some great want of our Souls What I there applied to the least of his Love I here apply to the varieties of his gracious dispensations and indeed reasonably for there would be no variety in grace if there were not a variety of defects and wants and emptinesses in our Souls that which distinguisheth divine grace is our various wants and necessities and we can as naturally not desire a supply for our own discerned defects and wants as we cannot desire various emanations of divine love suited to the supply of them Nature prompteth us to desire a supply for every craving of our Souls The Soul is sensible that it daily sinneth and cannot but desire pardoning grace and say unto God every day Forgive us our debts it is sensible that it wants purity and holiness and therefore cannot but desire a right Spirit Its wants are many and it therefore desireth various dispensations of grace to supply them they are daily renewing therefore it desires repeated acts of grace to be renewed also A third reason lyeth in the Concatenation of grace The Philosopher saith Virtutes sunt Concatenatae that all vertues are chained together and no man is truly virtuous but hath in him the habits of all Virtue they make Virtue to lie in the reduction of the whole Soul to the rule guidance and conduct of reason I am sure Gratiae sunt concatenatae the Graces of Gods Spirit are like Pearl stringed together and that upon a double account 1. With respect to themselves 2. With respect to our sense and apprehension Pardoning grace never goeth without renewing and regenerating grace God never saith to any Soul Thy Sins are forgiven but he addeth sin no more The Grace of Consolation never goeth without the Grace of Sanctification The Grace of Regeneration is alwaies attended with some degrees of that Grace which strengtheneth and quickneth the Soul unto its Spiritual work and duty 2. As to our sense of it The Grace of God being as I have before said nothing else but the Love of God freely shining upon us with respect to our several circumstances and diversified wants the Soul is prone from the want of a supply as to one thing to suspect its want of all Hence it is that it suspecteth the want of the love of God in the whole from its sense of the want of it in part Indeed this oft-times is the error of a Soul that is truly gracious from it s not distinguishing betwixt those things that are necessary to Eternal life and Salvation and those influences that are meerly accommodating and tending to the better being of the spiritual life the dispensations of which are not meerly directed from the divine love but from the divine wisdom and sometimes are with-held from the wisdom of God by which he directeth his own motions to their ends Hence as Gideon when the Angel came to him and said The Lord is with thee O thou mighty man of valour replyed If the Lord be with us why am I thus So the Soul thirsting after the love of God if any go about to persuade it under its sadness and dejections under the sense of its weakness as to spiritual duties or dulness and heaviness in the performance of them that yet the love of God is toward it it hath a truth of Grace it cries out If God loved me why am I thus I am weak why am I not strengthened or my Soul is dull and dead and heavy why am I not quickned Or I am sad and dejected if God loved me why am I not comforted The Soul of a believer is apt to conceive that because Love is one in God therefore it 〈…〉 be a sharer in his love while it wants any one aspect of it 〈◊〉 might suite its spiritual wants Another reason may be the possibility
also that they may know that they also shall another day stand righteous before God Nor do I see any reason why they may not go one step further and passionatly desire some strengthning and assisting grace against some particular lusts Some extravagant desires or lusts of the heart of man do not only expose him to the wrath of God in another world but to the wrath of God manifested in this life Such now as the lusts of the flesh drunkenness c. Experience tells us that the pursuit of these ruines mens healths estates reputations whatsoever is desirable to us in this life and concerning such extravagant motions of our affections and passions as have these issues which are contrary to the natural desires of life and health and prosperity in the world I cannot tell any reason but that an hypocrite may sincerly desire of God strength against them But now in this stands the child of God distinguished from all hypocrites In his desire after all grace not this or that kiss but every kiss of Christs mouth every manifestation of the love of God to a soul particularly such manifestations of Gods love as serve not at all to gratify any desires of the flesh whether respecting gain and profit or honour and reputation in the â—â—rld but such as serve to make the soul more holy and spiritual 〈◊〉 like to God more compliant with the will of God in all things the hypocrite desires influences of grace not that he might glorify God but meerly that he might serve a turn Secondly This discourse will let us see The great difference betwixt the desires that are found in the child of God after Grace and those desires which may be found in him after the things of the world The best of Gods people are compositions of soul and body as they have a spiritual part which hath its desires and cravings so they have the cravings of the flesh also their outward necessities justify in them some desires of the things of this life but now these desires are limited If God will be with me saith Jacob and will keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on so that I come again to my fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God Gen. 28. 20 21. Two things saith Agur Prov. 30. 7. have I required of thee deny me not them before I die Remove far from me vanity and lyes give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me The child of God is so far from desiring abundance of the world that he often prayeth against it He would not be full lest as Agur expresseth himself v. 9. he should deny God and say who is the Lord he would not be wholly empty lest being poor he should steal and take the name of God in vain As to grace he is like the horseleaches daughters still crying give give But for the world if he hath food convenient for him he saith to all the world as Esau once to Jacob. I have enough my Brother I have enough keep that thou hast unto thy self No child of God covets all the world His conversation is as to it without covetousness if he hath but Bread to eat and Rayment to put on if he can but make a competent provision for his family and have but something to give to them that want he blesseth God he hath enough but as to grace he may be added as a fifth thing to those four which Solomon Speaks of which never say they have enough Nor indeed do I know two worser evidences against any soul than never to think it hath enough of the world and yet to be satisfyed with any measures of grace I must confess I have been often troubled to see those whom I should otherwise have judged excellent Christians so fond of the enjoyments of this world and so unsatisfyed when the providence of God hath crossed them in those desires and expectations I wish I could see equal pantings in the souls of some who yet would be thought great professors after Christs kisses as I often see in them after the kisses of the world But alas that is impossible that nail would drive out the other Sirs that is a dreadful text which you have 1. John 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the father is not in him The world is a thing that may be touched with a Saints hands and moderately used for his necessities but it must not be loved it must have no place in the Child of Gods Heart What shall we say then to such Professors as are much more fond of sensual satisfactions to gratify their sensitive appetite than they are of the Grace of God to mortify that appetite to sublimate their affections subjugate their passions to learn them in all Estates to be content to submit their wills unto the will of God How dwelleth the love of Christ in such Souls as are more fond of the worlds kisses than of his But I shall shut up this discourse with a word of Exhortation persuading you to speak after the Spouse in my Text Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Cease not till you have brought up your hearts to this frame that they cannot be satisfied without something of Christs fulness without some tasts of all the riches of Grace whatsoever I have given you as the reasons of this truth may be used by you as arguments in the case There 's no kiss of Christ no Beam of Grace but hath its lightsomness and glory in it No dispensation of Grace but is suited to some eminent want of the Soul if you discern it not the fault is in your Eyes you do not understand the cases of your own Souls so well as you ought to do it would be no Grace no Love if it were not proportioned to some want in us It will be an hard thing for you to satisfy your Souls in the having any truth of Grace if you find not your Souls thirsting after every manifestation of it There is no influence of Grace but is possible to be obtained There is a fulness of the God-Head in Christ considered as your Mediator and he is therefore full that we might drink abundantly of his fulness but to all these before enlarged upon I shall add two It is an evidence of true Grace to be thirsty after all Grace That Soul loveth not Christ truly that doth not desire that he should love it fully True love is satisfied with nothing less than all of the Beloved and renders the Soul jealous presently if it wants but one good look bestowed upon another Secondly The more thou hast of Grace the more thou wilt doubtless have of Glory I know some question whether there shall be any degrees of glory for my own part I see little
say some interpreters desires his manifestation in the Flesh the publication of the Doctrine of the Gospel together with the comfortable application of those Doctrines to her conscience I am sure there is a truth in that Let me therefore a little make use of their notion Take this for the Proposition Prop. It is of the nature of a believing Soul to thirst after a communion with Christ in his Word his Gospel especially and the teachings of his Spirit in and by that I here join two of those propositions together which I distinguished upon the opening of the words She desires the kisses of his Mouth 2. That he should kiss her with the kisses of his Mouth This Proposition will offer me an opportunity to discourse to you the affection of the believing Soul to the words of Christ both in the more external and more spiritual and internal teachings and ministrations of it The words of the Gospel are the words of Christ the kisses of his mouth whether they be applied and set home to the particular conscience yea or no. The ministration of the Gospel is in itself exceeding glorious Therein saith the Apostle is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. Therein in Gods way of Salvation revealed to lost sinners and by it life and immortality are brought to light Now this word of God is to be considered As written for our Instruction For saith the Apostle Rom. 15. 4. whatsoever things were written before were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope As preached So it is the Ordinance of God for our faith and therefore called The word of Faith Sanctification Consolation and Eternal Salvation for indeed the supply of all the spiritual wants and necessities of our Souls Hence there are three ways by which our Souls have a communion with God in his Word Reading Hearing and Meditation Reading is one means by which we come to the knowledg of the will of God in his Word The King of Israel was commanded to read in the Book of Gods Law all the days of his life that he might learn to keep the Law of his God and there is a blessing pronounced to him that readeth Indeed he that readeth the word as it lyeth before us in our Bibles hath this advantage that he is sure what is there plain to his understanding is the undoubted pure Word of God and while a man readeth the Scriptures he is but repeating of Gods Word to his own soul or hearing God immediately speaking to him Hearing the word preached is another means of communion with God in his Word This is an Ordinance of God and such a one as he honoureth with being the great means of calling and saving such as he hath ordained to life So as in that ordinance a soul hath an opportunity to meet God to draw nigh unto him to hear him speak unto it We must take heed that we do not think that all which we hear out of pulpits is spoken by God God no further speaketh by the Minister than the Minister keepeth unto his Text speaketh according to the Scriptures either by way of interpretation or application And therefore every good Christian is to search the Scriptures whether what their Preachers deliver be consonant to them Those noble Bereans mentioned Acts. 17. did so when St. Paul was the Preacher and are commended for it The Scriptures are to be judged by no other rule but Sermons are to be measured by the holy Scriptures No man hath communion with God by hearing further than so far as that is consonant to the will of God which he heareth But admitting the Minister of Christ answereth his name and Office and faithfully revealeth and applieth the will of God while we hear we have communion with God God communicateth his holy will unto us and we communicate with him by an obedient Ear who hath comanded us to hear that our souls may live A third way is by Meditation This is an act of our inward man standing upon the things which we have read or heard as necessary to the souls spiritual nourishment as Digestion is to the nourishment of our bodies by what is their proper food a duty much practised by David Psal 119. 97 99. And a good man is described by it Psal 1. 3. He meditateth in the law of the Lord night and day By this the soul doth not only fasten the word of God upon it self but it also dives deeper into the depths of it I say this communion with God in his word is very desirable to the spouse of Christ I added his gospel especially The Word of God in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is made up of several parts There is in it sacred history no unuseful part of holy Writ it being that which more than any other acquainteth us with Gods way of of providence with his people of old You have in it many Moral Instructions and Precepts of Christianity and Godliness an admirable part of Scripture that which makes the holy Scriptures to be what no other book in the world is a light to our feet and lanthorn to our paths Shewing us what we are to do what to decline and avoid but yet these are not properly called Gospel doctrines You have in it many Prophesies or predictions of what God intended to do in the world most of which are fulfilled some we yet live in the expectations of You have also in it many terrible threats and curses and many woes denounced against the violaters of the law of God these are excellent portions of holy Writ to keep your souls in awe and make us afraid of sinning against God but these are not properly Gospel Doctrines but properly belong to the Law which declareth and worketh wrath You have also in those sacred books many declarations of the good will and love of God to poor lost Sinners declared in and through Jesus Christ You have an historical part of the Gospel declaring what Christ hath done and Suffered for us a declarative and promissory part proclaiming Salvation to poor lost creatures and promising life and Salvation and all grace to some poor undone sinners promises for the conferring and increase of grace These and such like I principally understand by Gospel Doctrines The Doctrine of Gods free grace in the pardoning of sin and the imputation of Christs Righteousness to the soul Doctrines that reveal Christ and tend to bring the soul to Christ or direct the soul in walking with him Now I say tho the believing soul values every line of holy Writ and hath a reverence for the whole Word of God and desires a communion with God in reading and hearing and meditating in every part of his revealed will yet it hath a special thirst after those portions of it which contain these Revelations Other parts are
every good Christian what Soul is there that knoweth any thing of God or of the nature and end of Ordinances that can be satisfied with meer reading of a Chapter of hearing of a Sermon without finding his heart at all affected with what he reads or hears any operation of it at all upon his heart and conscience Formalists indeed who think that God is pleased with noises and empty sounds and with meer bodily labour which profiteth nothing may be satisfied with going to Church and hearing a discourse from a Pulpit and that too of small or no tendency to do good to a Soul but it is impossible that a conscientious Christian that looks upon Ordinances as opportunities under a Divine appointment wherein God hath promised to meet the Souls of people and bless them wherein God hath appointed to come and to speak unto peoples Souls should be satisfied with the meer external action or homage but he must thirst after that blessing which God hath promised to his people when he meets them in places or duties wherein he hath recorded his Name to dwell But I shall shew you further how highly reasonable this is upon this Hypothesis That there is such an inward communion of God with his People in his Institutions One reason may be because a meer outward Communion with God is not distinguishing mercy and this is known to every Soul who knoweth any thing of God Pariter adeunt pariter audiunt said Augustine Hypocrites as well Saints go to Church hear Sermons read Chapters This is a favour God gives to all within the pale of his Church which is a field hath Tares in it as well as Wheat a Drag-net whose swallow hath in it good Fish as well as bad Every Hypocrite may yield God the homage of his Eye and Ear and some thoughts I shewed you before that it is of the nature of a Child of God to thirst after distinguishing mercies This is that which such Souls long after to have some tokens of good from God which may speak God's loving-kindness to them They are awakened to a sense of their lost condition by nature and to a fense of Eternity and they know nothing but the Adoption of Sons nothing but an Union with Christ can do their Souls any good with reference to their greatest wants Besides such Souls as they thirst after what is best suited to their Souls greatest wants so they have learned to value the Love and Favour of God above all earthly things They know that all within the pale of the Church are not in the favour of God many are called and few are chosen Strait is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth to eternal life and few there be that find it Many shall seek to enter and shall not enter Secondly A meer external Communion with God is upon the point no Communion with him It is indeed improperly called a Communion with him God saith our Saviour is a Spirit and from thence a Christian concludeth that those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth I told you before That in all Communion there must be a mutual communication In our Communion with God God communicateth something of himself to the Soul and the Soul must communicate it self in some degrees unto God Now in our meer external Communion with God in the hearing of his Word or reading of it what doth God communicate to us nothing but the revelation of his Will to our exteriour senses or common sense and understanding and the last but in an imperfect degree What doth man communicate of himself to God he lends him his Eye to gather up the Letters of a Book to present them to his understanding he lends him his Ear to hear sounds which may carry some notions of God to the understanding he lends him a little bodily presence and labour to do for a little time what he hath commanded him to do but all this while the man communicateth not his heart and soul his will and affections to God nor doth God communicate any thing of his power and goodness unto the Soul So that if we consider God as a Spirit and who requireth of us the homage of the Soul and inward man it is upon the point no fellowship and communion with God at all Thirdly A meer external fellowship and communion with God in his Word if it may be so called wants those two adjuncts which most allure and inflame the Soul with desires they are pleasure and profit There is no true pleasure in it no true profit and advantage to a Soul arising from it I noted to you before that one reason of the Soul's thirst after communion with God in his Word is the pleasure and sweetness which every pious Soul findeth in it David saith the Word was sweeter to his tast than the Honey and the Honey-comb and he saith That one day in the Lord's Courts is better than a thousand elsewhere But let us a little wistly consider wherein the sweetness of the Word lieth what maketh the Bible to be sweeter than another Book or a Sermon to be a more pleasant discourse than any other The sweetness cannot lie in the gratifying of our exteriour senfes or of our fancy much reading is a weariness to the flesh so is much hearing much study The sweetness of the Word of God and discourses out of it lies in the fittedness of the revelations there and of such discourses to the distresses and spiritual necessities of the Soul and the insight the Word gives us into the great things of God the great Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Now no pleasure no delight no sweetness of this nature ariseth to or in any Soul from a meer external communion with God in it Hence it is that carnal unregenerate men had rather spend four or five hours at a Play or a Musick-meeting or Ball than one at a Sermon they find no sweetness no pleasure at all in the Word The Preacher indeed may be as one that hath the voice of a pleasant lovely Song and have some witty sentences this may please them or if they be persons that are prophane and hate all Religion and Godliness he may use his wit in some jeers and squibs at Religion and this may tickle their lusts a little but a discourse out of Scripture tending to the true ends of Preaching informing the Judgment in the Doctrines of Faith or persuading the practice of Godliness are the most unpleasant sounds in the world to such mens Ears There is no Soul breathing that takes or can take any pleasure from or find any sweetness in reading or hearing that experienceth no inward communion with God in the action or at least that desires none 2. A second great Attractive and mover of our desires is profit and advantage and in this case it must be the profit and advantage of our Souls for they are actions from which no worldly profit and
be translated Let him kiss me or He shall or will kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth Her Prayer was the Prayer of Faith This is a prime requisite in all our Prayers to God Math. 21. 22. And all things whatsoever you shall ask in Prayer believing you shall receive Jam. 5. 15. The Prayer of Faith saveth the sick He saith the Apostle that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those that seek him Nor is that General Faith enough for that Soul that goeth to God for any particular Mercy there must be a more particular Faith both as to Gods Power and Love with reference to that good thing that God is able to do that thing for him yea and willing also so far as in his infinite Wisdom he shall see it good When the blind men had come to Christ begging Mercy Matth. 9. 27 28. saith he Believe you that I 'am able to do this They said Yea Lord then he touched their Eyes Nay the Prayer of Faith signifieth more a trusting and relying on God for the doing of the thing we ask It is very much to observe how much the holy Scripture layeth upon this with Reference to the hearing and answering our Prayers Jam. 1 5. If any of you lack Wisdom let him ask of God But v. 6. let him ask in Faith nothing wavering According to your Faith saith Christ so be it to you The Unregenerate man cannot ask in Faith he wants the Habit his Soul is shut up in Unbelief and Gods People may be too guilty of not asking in Faith giving too much way to temptations and hearkening too much to the jealousies and suspicions of their own Souls Secondly The Spouses Phrase speaks an holy boldness He shall kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouâ—h Indeed this differs but gradually from the other it must be a boldness of Faith and in this Sense we are to come boldly to the Throne of Grace Eph. 3. 12. We have boldness and access with confidence through the Faith of him Hence Heb. 4. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of need Thirdly The abrupâ—ness of the Phrase speaketh Passion and Ferveney The fervent Prayer of the Righteous availeth much Jam 5. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The working Prayer When the whole Soul is in Prayer set on work the Understanding discerning the good the Soul prayeth for discerning God able to give it and willing also discerning the Promise by which God hath made himself a Debter to the Creature for it The Will in willing it the Affections in intense desires of it Men may pray and their Souls be hardly set at work at all only they so far as it influenceth the Eye to see Words in a Book or the Understanding to invent Words which the Tongue may utter This Prayer signifies little it is the fervent working Prayer that availeth much when the whole Soul is at work wrestling with God as Jacob did that it may receive the Blessing Fourthly The form of the Word speaks Reverence Let him kiss me O that it might please the Lord to kiss me so much the Phrase sounds in our Dialect In all our Service of God he requireth Reverence and a godly Fear He that dareth not to come to God but doubteth whether he may presume to ask of him knoweth not the Lords goodness he that dares to come without Reverence knoweth not the Lords Majesty and Greatness As boldness and Confidence without doubting becomes us with respect to his Goodness Love and Faithfulness so Fear and Reverence becomes us with reference to the Greatness and Majesty of the Divine Being Lastly her Speech speaketh Modesty She asketh but a Kiss Modesty is not opposite to an holy Boldness in Prayer She peremptorily asks somthing which might speak his special peculiar Love Yet there is a modesty imported in her words in that she asketh no more than the Kisses of his Mouth In three things we should shew a Modesty in Prayer if it be rightly ordered 1. In the asking the good things of this Life with a due Submission to the Will and Wisdom of God It speaketh too much boldness with God to be too importunate for things that are not absolutely and infallibly good for us under all circumstances It is enough for us that God hath promised to withhold from us no good thing We prefer our own to the Divine Wisdom in such importunities 2. In the asking of Spiritual Mercys Modesty ought to be shewed also in submitting our selves to the VVill of God as to Dispensations or Degrees of gracious Manifestations not absolutely necessary they may be asked but they ought to be asked with limitations if God seeth they be good for us if he that knoweth our Hearts seeth that we will use them for his Glory c. 3. In not prescribing time to God as to the granting of those things which are not in the present time necessary We ought to believe God wiser than our selves and to limit our Requests by the Terms of his Promise to beg the things which God hath promised upon the Terms which he hath promised I have now finished my Discourses as to the Spouses first Petition Let him kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth I shall in my next exercise proceed to the Argument by which she backeth this her first Petition For thy Loves are better than VVine Sermon IX Canticles 1. 2. For thy Loves are better than Wine I Have done with the Spouses first Petition Let him kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth Wherein as I have shewed she manifested her Desire after near and special Communion with her beloved and some distinguishing token of his favour I come now to the Argument by which she backeth this Petition that is expressed in the words I have now read to you The Argument is drawn from the value she had for his Love The reason of her before mentioned Desire was the excellency she apprehended in the favour of her Lord which she expresseth in a way of comparison She saith It is better than Wine And she makes this her Estimate of the Love of Christ an Argument for Gods manifestation of it to her Soul I shewed yon the Sense of the words before I have nothing now to do but to discourse the Propositions arising from the words so opened the first of which was Prop. That Christ hath Loves There are Loves in Christ He is not onely lovely and so the object of our Love the chiefest of Ten thousand but he is Loving and we are the Obiects of his Love Of old He rejoiced in the habitable parts of the Earth and his Delights were with the Sons of Men Prov. 8. 31. The Apostle telleth us 1 Jo. 4. 16. That God is Love It must be understood of God in Christ For take Man as he is stated upon the Fall and
our God is towards him a consuming Fire We are in that state as Stubble dry Stubble he is a consuming Fire But the Apostle tells us 2. Cor. 5. 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself God in Christ is Love toward poor Creatures There are Loves in him Let me a little open the Term. I desire you to take notice of Two things 1. That it is Spoken in the Abstract 2. In the plural number not Love but Loves First Love in the strict and proper Notion of it signifieth the Persons or the Creatures Propension and Inclination to some Object and its Complacency in it And in this Abstract and purer Notion of it it agreeth to the Divine Being and Christ is the Subject of Love There is in the eternal Son of God strong Propensions and Inclinations to do good to the Sons of men To love the Philosopher saith is Velle bonum to will good to another There is in Christ a Propension a strong Inclination to will good to the Sons of Men He hath a Complacency in some of the Sons of Men. Love is a Term that signifies Affections and all our Affections are but the motions of our Wills towards their Objects We say there are no Affections in God That is true But there is something in the Divine Being which is proportionable to what in us we call Affectiions In us Affections are extravagant Motions mutable Passions there are no such things in God In us somthing out of our selves draws out our Love There is no such Passions and Affections in God But if we consider Love in its pure Nature as it is the kind motion of the VVill to an Object so Christ is Love and he hath Loves that is there is in him pure and admirable Propensions and Inclinations of his Will to do good to the Children of Men especially to some particular Souls amongst the Sons of Men. These indeed are not kindled in the Divine Being from any thing in us or out of itself as Flames of Love in the Creature usually are Yet even in Creatures Love oftentimes is an inaccountable thing but in God it is always so he sheweth Mercy because he will shew Mercy and loveth freely That 's the first thing But Secondly The word is plural not Love but Loves God is one and his Love is one Christs Love is one in himself but as the River that went out of Eden to water the Garden of Paradise Gen. 2. 10. was one in its Original and Source but from thence it was parted and became into four Heads So that Oâ—eness of the Divine Propension and Inclination to do good to poor Creatures being out of the Divine Being it divides itself into many Heads and as the Sea which is one in itself yet as it passeth by several Lands and washeth upon various Shoaâ—s receives several Names and so admits of a plural number so the Love of Christ which in him is but one Good-will to poor Creatures yet as it sheweth itself in Serving the necessities of various Souls or the various necessities of the same Soul so it becomes Loves and admits of plurality there is in Christ pardoning Love and an healing Love a strengthening Love and a comforting Love therefore the Spouse saith Thy Loves There is but One Love in Christ but it becomes many when it washeth upon various Shoars and toucheth our diverse wants Thirdly The plural Number speaketh the Dimensions of that Love which is in Christ or rather the want of Dâ—rensions in it The plural number hath no bounds the singular is bounded by Unity but the plural hath no bounds if you be to express Millions of Millions of Millions 't is all still but the plural number Loves reacheth infiniteness When the Spouse saith Thy Loves it is as much as thine infinite unmeasurable Love Christ hath not only a good Will a kind Inclination and Propension to the Sons of Men but an infinite unmeasurable unfathomable Propension and Inclination to do good to the Souls of his Saints The Apostle prayeth for the Ephesians Eph. 3. 17 18. That Christ might dwell in their Hearts by Faith that they being rooted and grounded in Love might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and beighth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge heighth and depth and length and bredth are the boundaries of our knowledge but the Love of Christ passeth knowledge Fourthly Love signifies some Specialties of Affection A good man hath Love for many Women but Love's only for the Wife of his Bosom Loves signifie both a common and a singular and special Love Christ hath a Philanthropy or common Love for all the Sons of Men but he hath an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a special Love and Kindness for some Joseph caused all his Brethren to have a Mess set them but for Benjamin a double Mess God gave Esau the Mountains of Edom. There was Love but Jacob had the Blessing Esau had his Love Jacob had his Loves That the Gospel is preached to every Creature is from Christs Love but that any by the Gospel are made New creatures this is from his Loves It is kindness to them that they have the Gospel but a far greater kindness a kindness of another nature to the Soul that it is inabled to receive the Gospel and is turned into the likness of it 5. Loves may signify the Effects and indications of Love and indeed Terms of Affection applyed unto God do very ordinarily in Scripture signify this Et affectum effectum Both the Motion of the Divine Will within itself and the effect of it upon the Creature So it is true that Christ hath Loves his Good-Will to poor Creatures doth not exhaust itself in one or another Emanation in one or another Stream but in various Emanations in a multitude of Streams and thus you see there are two things in the Proposition asserted 1st That in the Lord Jesus Christ there is an infinite unmeasurable Good-Will to the Childr of Men 〈…〉 such of them as are by Faith united to him 2dly That this Good-will of Christ toward them declareth itself in a great variety of Indications and Effects Suted to their various necessities It is not a Love that evaporates in Air as the Love of some impotent persons whose Love towards us terminates within their own Souls These are the two Points I have to prove and they are of exceeding easy demonstration to those who believe the History of the Gospel or the Matter and Propositions of the whole Word of God Solomon tells us of Christ under the notion of Wisdom the Apostle calls Christ The VVisdom of God 1. Cor. 1. 24. that before ever the Earth was when there were no Depths nor Fountains abounding with VVater when God prepared the Heavens and set a compass upon the face of the Deep when he established the Clouds Prov. 8. 24. 25. 31. He was Rejoycing
in the habitable part of his Earth and his Delights were with the Sons of Men. The Apostle tells those of the Ephesians who were Saints and faithful That they were chosen in Christ before the Foundation of the VVorld that they should be holy and without blame before him in Love predestinated unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his VVill. To the Praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein 〈◊〉 hath made us accepted through the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sins according to the Riches of his Grace c. There is no portion of the Word of God that part of it especially which we call the Gospel but affordeth us an abundant proof of this What meant his being made Surety of a better Covenant for us as the Apostle to the Hebrews tell us His being given for a Covenant for the people Isa 42. 6. a Light to the Gentiles to open the Eyes of the blind to bring out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in Darkness out of the Prison-house His being the Lamb slain from the beginning of the VVorld Rev. 13 8. His Speaking by the Mouths of the Prophets as the Apostle tells us His growing up as a tender Plant and as a Root out of a dry ground having no form nor comliness nor beauty to be desired his being despised rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs his bearing our griefs and carrying our Sorrows being Smitten of God and afflicted his being wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our iniquities when the chastisement of our peace lay upon him His suffering strips that we might â—e healed c. What signified his incarnation his death and 〈◊〉 his resurrection and ascension his taking care for his Gospel to be preach'd to every creature c. his being grieved for the hardness of peoples hearts and troubled for their unbelief his frequent preaching while he was upon the Earth his weeping over Hierusalem his invitations of people to come unto him that they might have life his complaints that they would not come unto him c. I say what do all these things signify from him who needeth not his creature being over all God blessed for ever but that he hath loves an infinite good will to the Children of men No man is at cost taketh pains in any business suffereth hard things to go through it but either out of kindness to himself or to another Our Lord did not do and suffer these things for himself he had no need of them if it were for us it speaks his loves 2. But this is no more than what every one who owneth Christ and the Gospel will easily grant That Christ is Love and hath a Love for the Sons of men yea and that there is an infiniteness and unmeasurableness in the Love of Christ But that he hath Loves in the Other sense Some Specialties of Love some particular propensions to some Souls more than others this is what the proud world cannot so easily digest Yet is this as plain in the Revelation of holy Writ as the other It speaks of an Election or choice of some to Holiness and Happiness before the foundation of the world the choice of Some must suppose the passing by or not electing others experience shews us that not onely the good things of common pro vidence but even the external means of Grace are granted to some not to others 3. Neither doth this grate so much The most perverse opiners in this point must grant the publication of the Gospel an effect of the Love of Christ and that there is a very inequal distribution of it by the wise Providence of God but as to them to whom the Gospel is alike preached they know not how to allow Loves in Christ have they then forgot what the Apostle saith Rom. 9. 6. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all Children But in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is They who are the Children of the flesh these are not the Children of God but the Children of the Promise counted for the seed And again Rom. 2. 28. 29. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circnmcision is that in the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Doth not experience teach us that even where the Gospel is preachd some repent of their sins some are hardened some believe others are lockt up in unbelief some are holy and blameless others are leud and profane But they will say This is not from any Loves in Christ he his alike to all but from the differing motions and inclinations of the will of man I yet ask Whence is it Seing human Souls are Equal and have the same powers and faculties how comes it that one man loveth God and the ways of God another hates and abhorreth every thing almost that hath the image and Superscription of God upon it Is a man a God to himself and the first cause of any motions that are truly and spiritually good Is it not God that giveth to will and to do of his own good pleasure Hath a man any thing which is good which he hath not received If one hath received such a power such an inclination such a disposition from God there is Special Love then Christ hath Loves besides a common Philanthropy a good will to the generality of mankind shewed in other things which will not bring Souls to Eternal Salvation he hath a special Love and kindness to some Souls which he manifesteth in such dispensations to it as shall certainly bring the Soul to Eternal Life and Salvation and these are those of which the text Speaks But I have Spoken enough in evidence of so plain a Proposition as this is I come to the application 1st How should this Revelation of Christ reconcile the world unto him Christ hath Loves for us why should there be found in our hearts or ways any hatred to or opposition against him Yet is not the World full of this What is an opposition to the publication of his Gospel an hatred to his Ministers to his People to his Laws and holy Institutions but an hatred to him Christ hath so judged of it he told some of the first Minister s of his Gospel Math. 10. 14 15. That in the day of Judgment it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha than for those that did not receive them and hear his words Wicked men and Enemies to the Gospel are in Scripture called unreasonable men 2. Thessal 3. 2. Absurd men The absurdness and unreasonableness of men that are Enemies to Christ and the Gospel for of such the Apostle speaketh
there praying to be delivered from those that are unreasonable upon many accounts but eminently in this that they hate do all the despight mischief they can to him who is full of Loves to them We shall sometimes find in men and women a strange aversion from such as truly Love them they cannot get up their hearts to love a man or woman that Loves them but it is very brutish very unreasonable for any of us to hate and malign and to seek to destroy one that Loves us Such brutes are all those that are Enemies to Christ and his Gospel Christ hath Loves for us these Loves are declared in his Gospel that declareth God in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins the publication of the Gospel is a great act of this Love the faithful Ministers of the Gospel are the Messengers to publish this Love what an unreasonable thing it is now for men to make them the But of their malice I remember when the Jews cryed out concerning Christ Crucify him Crucify him and Pilate asked them why What evil hath he done They like a company of unreasonable bruits could give him no answer but still they cryed out the more Crucify him Crucify him Doth not the same brutish cry hold up even at this day in some wretches mouths They can give no reasonable account why they should oppose the publication of the Love of Christ to poor lost Sinners yet they do it with a rage reaching up to Heaven This is now to be unreasonable men why should you persecute him who loveth you Yet verily as St. Paul said of himself The more he loved the Galathians the less he was beloved of them So it feareth with Christ and all that hath relation to him the more faithful the Minister of Christ is in preaching the Gospel the more diligent and zealous he is to gain Souls to Christ the most hated he is and the reason is because it thus fared with Christ Joh. 15. 18. If the world hateth you you know it hated me before it hated you But Oh let this reconcile your hearts unto Christ That he hath Loves No ingenuous man but will repay Love for Love He who repayeth hatred for Love is of the Devil eminently he doth Evil without a provocation because he Loves to do Evil. Secondly What an Invitation doth this Notion afford to the most miserable forlorn Souls to Kiss the Son to receive and close with the Lord Jesus Christ Whilest our Lord was upon the Earth he told the people That when he was lifted up he should draw all men after him Alas that this word All in that Text must be englished by Many Christ is lifted up upon the Cross and therein he hath shewed us that he hath Loves Infinite Loves For Greater Love than this hath no man shewn than that a man lay down his Life for his Friends Yet this is greater Love while we were Enemies he dyed for us Yet how few are drawn after him How few can be persuaded to accept him as their Lord and Saviour What is the reason one man is drawn after his sensual Appetites after his Lusts and those draw quite from Christ Men cannot be his Disciples except they deny themselves mortify their Members Others are drawn after the World and are not at leasure to come to Christ and besides the friendship of the World is enmity with God! Others have some thoughts of coming to Christ but they are afraid Christ should not receive them I shall have occasion to Speak to the 2 d sort when I come to the next Proposition to shew you that Christs Loves are better then Wine Indeed both to the first and Second I might Speak as Saul once to his Courtyers will the Son of Jesse give you Vine-Yards c. Can the World can your Lusts give you Peace of Conscience and joy in the holy Ghost Will they bring you to the favour of God and to eternal Life But they are onely the 3 d Sort whom I would here Speak to Is there a Soul here that is almost persuaded to be a Christian A Christian not in Name but in Deed and is afraid Christ should not be willing to receive it Hear what God saith 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from amongst them and be you separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you Observe what I have bin discoursing Christ hath Loves an Inclination and Propension to do good to the Sons of Men He hath declared it in a variety of gracious Acts from before the Foundation of the World It encouraged the Servants of Benhadad to go to Ahab to beg their Masters Life that they had heard that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings Let this be an incouragement to you to come to Christ to hear that Christ is a merciful High Priest who casteth away none that cometh unto him Certainly it would incourage the greatest malefactor to go to a Prince to beg his pardon and to thâ—oâ— himself into the arms of his grace and mercy if he could but be persuaded that the Prince were full of Love and had a particular propension and inclination of kindness to the family from which he derived This you have heard particularly made good to you concerning Christ You that have been the greatest trangressors the oldest Sinners yet return and come I remember when Isaac told Esau that Jacob had come before him and got the blessing he replyed Father thou hast many blessings bless me also It may be you may be thinking so in your hearts such and such persons they have obtained the blessing they had not been so vile so prosane as I have been O but yet remember the Lord Jesus Christ hath many blessings not Love but Loves come unto him and he shall bless thee also When thy thoughts are overwhelm'd in the thoughts of thy sins sink them again into the thoughts of Christs Loves thou wilt find that is as great a depth as the other is Yea thou will find the same difference as betwixt the Shore and the main Sea Near the Shore the Mariner may find it several fathom water enough to drown a man But off at Sea he finds himself out of the soundings all the lines he hath will find no bottom So a Soul in the thoughts of his sins may find himself beyond his depth he is drowned in the thoughts of them Ah but yet there is a Sounding his Sins are not Infinite so there is a sounding but if he lancheth his thoughts into the depths of Gods grace and Christs Loves there is no soundings let therefore no Soul be discouraged from coming unto Christ Fourthly Hath Christ Loves How sutable a Saviour hath God provided for poor sinful creatures The Apostle to the Hebrews Heb. 7. 26. having said of Christ v. 25. That he is able to the uttermost to Save them that come unto God by him addeth For such an
Loves which are much our duty upon this view of our great Lord and Master 1. Love to him 2 Love to our Neighbours especially those in whom any thing of Christs appears 1. It calls to us for Loves to Christ This in point of gratitude If Saith our Saviour you love them which love you what reward have you Do not even the Publicanes the same Our Love to Christ is but a Love to him who hath Loves for us and indeed this speaketh to all men for Love to him but more especially O Love ye the Lord all you his Saints It is the opinion of great Divines that all the world is beholden to Christ as Mediator that from his Mediation there issueth some good to the worst of men But he hath eminently extended his Love to his Saints he hath loved them with a singular Love If there should be Love wanting in their hearts to Christ they should be of all men and women in the world most inexcusable what could he have done for any of the Sons of Men which he hath not done for them What greater thing could they have asked of him then he hath prevented them in asking O Love you the Lord all you they that believe Do you ask me how you should shew your Love to him The first motions of Love are in the heart Love there is seen in delighting in him breathing after him It next shews itself by the lips Speaking well of him to others defending his interest and concern in the world If we come to more external acts That of David Ps 16. 2. 3. is true here O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my goodness extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth to the excellent on whom is all my delight Our Love to Christ must be seen in our actings in our stations for the honour glory and concern of Christ in the world In our kindness to the poor flock of Christ Christ calls a want of Love to them a want of Love to himself 25. Math. But that brings me to the Second with a short discourse upon which I shall shut up this discourse 2. It calls you for Love to men especially to those in whom you see any thing of Christ The argument for this ariseth from our duty to study a Conformity to Christ he had a kindness for all when he was born good will towards men was proclaimed by the multitude of the Heavenly host Luke 2. 14. There also lyeth an obligation upon usfrom the law of Christ and from this great Example to be kindly affectionate toward all There lyeth also a Precept upon us to do good to all And again saith the Apostle Owe nothing to any but this That you love one another Indeed there is not the same degree of affection nor the same acts of Love due to all as to that we must be ruled by the Word of God but Love is a debt upon us which is due to all men Therefore wrath hatred anger strife malice are 〈◊〉 where reckoned up by the Apostle as the fruits not of the Spirit but of the flesh In a kind Child of God there should be a general love and kindness to all mankind though to be expressed in a Scriptural order as to the degrees and acts of it So it was in Christ 2. But secondly it calls to you for a more Special distinguishing Love to all those in whom you see any thing of Christ Do good to all saith the Apostle but especially to the houshold of Faith The Soul of every Member of Christ should cleave to these with whom he is united not onely by a common nature being the same flesh and blood with him but by a common faith by the ligament of Members of the same body whereof Christ is the head Give me leave to press this the more upon this argument because I find the Apostle St. John pressing it upon the same Topick 1. John 4. 11. If God so loved us we ought also to Love one another v. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us v. 16. He tells us that God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelling in God Every good Christian may see much more in the meanest poorest true Christian to ingage him to Love him or her than Christ could ever see in the highest Saint to oblige or move Christ to love him or her When thou wallowedst in thy blood when thou hadst nothing of the lineament of a Saint in thy Soul not so much as a line of any Spiritual Goodness he passed by thee and it was with him a time of Love as to thy Soul there is not a child of God in the world but there is somthing of holiness and righteousness something of the image and Superscription of Christ to be seen in his Soul something of the Divine nature resplendent in his Soul It may be there is more in some less in others but there is in all some When thou hast a temptation upon thee to aversate thy brother or to turn away thy heart or head or hand from him O remember Christ hath loves and and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in him And that it is he whose heart is full of of Loves for thee who hath commanded thee to Love thy Brother But I have spoken e nough to this first Proposition Sermon X. Canticles 1. 2. For thy Loves are better than Wine IN my last discourse I shewed you that Christ hath Loves kind affections and inclinations to the Children of men and more especially to the Souls of his Saints which he is ready to declare and express yea hath already expressed in acts of kindness and these not of one but various kinds suted to the respective necessities of his people a salve for every Sore a Supply for every want I come now to shew you the quality of his Loves which in my Text is set down positively and comparatively In our translation according to our Idioms or propriety of Speech the positive is to be understood in the comparative particle A thing cannot be called better than another unless it hath some positive absolute goodness in it self but in the Hebrew it is more plainly expressed That saith Are good before Wine It is their way of expressing comparatives It makes no difference in the sense Good before Wine And better than wine are phrases of the same sense In the Explication of the Text I told you that though Wine strictly signifies the juice of the Grape yet by a Synechdoche here it signifyeth all created goods whatsoever can be sweet or profitable or advantageous to us The Proposition is plainly this Prop. The Loves of Christ are good befo e or better than all created comforts and enjoyments whatever I have already shewed you what the Loves of Christ signify viz. His good will his kind affections and inclinations to the Souls of men
shalt make my heart more glad then theirs when their Corn and Wine and Oil increaseth Those who are critical in words in the Latine Tongue distinguish between Voluptas and Gaudium Pleasure they make to be nothing but the Sensual Appetites Satisfaction 't is common to Beasts as well as Man Gaudium or Joy they make to be the procede of the satisfaction of the rational Appetite the first is meerly sensual and beastly the latter alone becometh a Man who is a reasonable Creature I am sure that Mirth which is in the Soul of man that Exhilaration of his Spirits which ariseth from the sense and apprehension of the Love of Christ unto the soul is a Satisfaction to the Rational Spiritual Appetite so the nature of it must be more Spiritual more Suted to the reasonable creature then any Wine or indeed any created comforts can be 2. Wine is of excellent use to allay our thirst and in Physick and Chirugery under deliquiums c. This is a great execellency that is in it Prov. 31. 6. Give wine to those of heavy hearts In Chirurgery it is of use to wash and cleanse wounds c. Hence you read in the Gospel of the good Samaritane that he put Wine and Oil into the wounds of the man that was fallen amongst thieves But in this respect are not the loves of Christ good before Wine Wine onely satisfieth the cravings of nature the drought of the body for want of moisture If a Soul hungers and thirsteth after righteousness Wine will not allay that thirst the Loves of Christ will and surely the thirstings of a Soul are far greater wants than the want of liquor for the body Wine may be of some use in Deliquiums and failures of the Vital and Animal Spirits But if the Soul fainteth for Gods Salvation Wine is of no use the Loves of Christ are Wine may wash and purify the wounds of the body and keep them from putrefaction but the Loves of Christ alone can purify the wounds of a Soul and resist putrefaction there He was annointed to preach glad tidings to the meek to bind up the broken hearted to appoint to them that mourn in Sion Beauty for Ashes and the Oil of gladness for the Spirit of heaviness Isaiah 61. 1 2 3. 3. Wine will make a man forget his affliction Prov. 31. 6 7. Give wine to him who is of a heavy heart let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more but now wine doth this by bringing a man unto a kind of stupefaction or temporary deliration and the Affliction must be meerly external and not in extremity Wine makes a Man forget his affliction onely by putting him besides himself The Loves of Christ have a proportionable effect upon the Soul but of a far more high and excellent nature Let a Soul be bowed down to Hell and not know what to do Let but the Loves of Christ shine upon it in the sealing of any promise it forgets all its poverty and misery The Soul will rejoyce in Sufferings glory in tribulation c. the Martyr cries out that the fire is but as a Bed of Roses So that you see there is never a good quality in Wine but something proportionable to it only infinitely excelling is to be found in Christs loves My last demonstration of the truth of this Proposition is this Wine though it hath many excellent qualities yet hath it also some ill qualities The Loves of Christ are not such There is an excess in Wine saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess It is a mocker saith Solomon it will intoxicate breed many diseases many a one perisheth by drinking too much Wine But no Soul ever perished from the excess of Christs love to it no Soul ever contracted any distemper from it he you filled with the Spirit saith the Apostle in the same Text where he tells us there is an excess in Wine Much of what I have said concerning the excellency of the love of Christ above Wine taken in a literal sense is as true concerning it in its figurative sense as it may be supposed and interpreted to signify and created comforts they only are suited to our External wants only they are but temporary and uncertain they also have some ill qualities attending them I shall therefore add no more Doctrinally By way of application We may in the first place observe in o what a degree of debauchery the generality of the Sons and Daughters are fallen Nothing more becomes a Man or Woman considered as a reasonable Creature than to discern aright betwixt things that differ and to judge aright concerning them and accordingly to make our Election and to guide our practice But supposing what you have heard to be truth where is the man of many that rightly discerneth rightly judgeth or aright guideth himself in practice where is the man that judgeth the loves of Christ better than Wine How many are there that judge Wine better then the loves of Christ Wine not in the figurative sense as it signifies all outward created comforts but in the literal sense as it signifieth nothing but the juice of the Grape fermented and a little refined from its dregs doth not every one thus judge that useth Wine immoderately that sits bibbing at a Tavern until the Wine inflameth him Christ by his Apostle Paul hath said Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess How many are there that tarry long at the Wine that go to seek mixt Wine that look upon wine when it is red when it giveth its colour in the cup when it moveth itself aright till at last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder till it causeth woe and sorrow and contentions and wounds and redness of the Eyes as Solomon Speaketh Prov. 23 29 30 31. and yet have no sense of the Loves of Christ no thoughts of it make no enquiries after it take no course for the obtaining it Do not those poor wretches Love wine better than the Love of Christ that will not abate life a cup of wine to gain it Those that for an intemperate cup of wine will be disobedient to the rule which Christ hath given them My Soul in this contemplation even akes to think what will become of drunkards by whom I mean not those only who reel in the streets and are intoxicated with Wine but those who take a greater pleasure in drinking than in praying or hearing the word of God or obeying his will 2. But if we extend the notion of wine further to signify all sensual Satisfactions all created comforts Lord how many are there in the world that in this betray their folly and discover the corruption and debauchery of humane nature How few are there in the world that do not prefer some creature or other before the loves of Christ indeed as the Poet-saith Trahit sua quemque voluptas
Every one is not alike taken with every sensual object the Apostle tells us we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one hath his proper lust and corruption by which he is drawn away the lusts of the flesh are one mans proper lust the lust of the Eye is anothers proper lust the pride of life is anothers Separate from mankind drunkards lascivious persons vain persons persons that are covetous and too greedy of the worlds riches ambitious men whose God is honour and applause credit and reputation in the World how few will you leave But I hear some say this is an hard censure upon mankind men indeed are flesh and blood man hath natural Senses and naturally seeks the gratification and Satisfaction of them but we hope we do not prefer the satisfaction of them before the Loves of Christ shewed in the pardon of sin peace of conscience purity of heart the hopes of glory This were a very sad thing and it is a very hard judgment to pass upon any Soul we must plead not guilty to this Indictment Say you so my next question is how will ye be tryed will you be tryed by the ordinary rules of tryals of your preference in other cases answer me then or call your souls to answer themselves in some few questions What do you most delight to hear of what do you please your selves most in what do you imploy your selves most in the pursuit of what do you most postpone and put behind in the motions of your lives which do you most neglect for the other c. 1. What do you most delight to hear of The loves of Christ are not the objects of any sense but the Ear but they may be heard of Sermons should be principally such discourses discourses of Christs love we preach Christ Crucified canst thou be patient to hear discourses of the loves of Women discourses of worldly businesses of vanity many hours and canst thou not with the like patience and delight sit out a Sermon of one hour art thou never saying when will this vain idle discourse be done this discourse that tends nothing to the good of my Soul and yet often saying when will this Sermon be done Judge then whether thy Soul judgeth the loves of Christ better than Wine There are those that can rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink and continue till night till Wine inflame them and canst not thou rise up early to hear of the love of Christ and sit an hour or two till the report of his love inflameth thy Soul Hadst thou rather hear a wanton idle story than a Gospel story how dost thou then prefer the loves of Christ before Wine thou manifestly givest the preference to a sensual satisfaction 2. What do you most please your thoughts in the contemplation meditation of My meditation of him saith David shall be sweet Our thoughts must feed themselves with some objects we are so incompassed with the straits and necessities of this life with the various diversions and temptations that I think it unreasonable to put the tryal there Whether have the loves of Christ or worldly objects most of your thoughts none would acquit themselves upon such an inquiry But which are your Souls most pleasant Bread which are your sweetest meditations this will try a Soul undoubtedly such objects as a Soul most preferreth it will be most pleased in the contemplation of But is this the case of the most of men can they say that though they have more thoughts upon the World and sensible objects in it yet the meditations upon the World and the other are rather thoughts of necessity than of delight and pleasure Thirdly What do you most imploy your selves in the pursuit of Is it sensible satisfactions or Christs love I do not here mean by most a frequency of action or length of time but a warmth and fervency and intension of affection and a Christians circumstances and station in the world may be such as will inforce him to spend more of his time and more of his action about worldly than about spiritual things but which doth the Soul press most hard after which pursuit hath most of the strength and vigour of the inward man That doubtless hath the preference in the mans judgment it is an ill sign to see a man work hard and pray coldly lazily perfunctorily when men spend their strength for that which is not bread when a man so toileth in his pleasures when he presseth so hard after the World that his whole heart may be discerned and read in those pursuits and but half his heart can be discerned in his pursuits after the loves of Christ he comes late to an Ordinance of God he sleeps when he is there he doth the work of his God negligently My Soul saith David presseth hard after thee it is an excellent sign when tho the motions of the Soul be after the World yet the pressings hard of the Soul are after Christ and his loves 4. In the motions of your lives what do you most postpone and put behind that which is most postponed is least preferred Let my Tongue saith the Psalmist Psal 137. 6. cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Hierusalem before my chief Joy We have an English saying That meat and drink may be had but work may stay it intimates our preference of meat and drink before labour the end of which is chiefly to procure meat and drink Do you say I must pray I and my House must seek the Lord I must hear that my Soul live my labour in my calling that may stay It is a very ill sign that the Soul prefers earthly things before heavenly things when he postpones the means to obtain things heavenly to the means for obtaining things that are earthly when every trifling business will turn him off from prayer reading hearing the Word It is true there is a time for all things But when the Worlds time is admitted to jostle out Gods time and Gods time is not reserved to him and the worlds time never yields to Gods time it is a very ill sign that Christs loves have not the preference in the Soul Lastly Which do you most neglect for the other Our Saviour telleth us Mat. 6. 24. No man can serve two Masters for either he will love the one and hate the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other the neglect of one thing to give place or room to another sufficiently argueth the preference of that for which we make room before that by the neglect of which we make room for it Do you neglect the world and the things of the world to give room for the loves of Christ and the means to obtain them or do you neglect the loves of Christ and the means he hath appointed for the gaining of them for the world and the means you are to use for the gaining of it
But I have I fear said enough not only to convince you that the most men and women in the world are guilty of a false judgment either judging Wine in the literal sense or at least in the figurative sense better than Christs love but also to convince Gods own People that they do not sufficiently live up to and practice what they profess to Believe I might add another thing 6. Whosoever purchaseth Wine or a satisfaction from any creature by a disobedience to the commands of Christ doth most certainly judge that Wine that creature better then Christs loves The demonstration of this depends upon this That no man or woman can truly say they love Christ or groundedly expect that Christ should love them that doth not keep his Commandments or that wilfully ordinarily and presumptuously breaketh them tho there none lives who doth not sin against God I shall shut up this discourse with a word of exhortation which must be to a preference of the loves of Christ before Wine I shall press this exhortation upon you by some arguments My first argument shall be drawn from the reasonableness of this That a reasonable Soul should judge of things not according to any appearances from false representations but as they are I have spoken enough to persuade any person that believeth that he is not a meer lump of flesh but hath a reasonable Soul and that he is not a creature of this life meerly but ordained to an Eternal Existence and that the Soul of every man by nature and his state is such as the holy Scriptures speak it to be that the loves of Christ are more suited to his necessities his true real wants than it is possible that any created comforts should be now admitting this what more doth become areasonable creature than to judge them so All other judgment is but fallacy and deceit and of all deceit and fallacy there 's nothing so unworthy of a man as to cheat and deceive himself Thus every Soul doth that judgeth any thing better than the Loves of Christ Further yet there is nothing more unworthy of a man then to outlaw himself and suffer his passion to domineer over his reason the course of mans Soul according to reason is for his will to follow the dictate of his understanding for him to pursue the things which he judgeth most excellent and though in other things indeed man doth not so ' he seeth that which is better and doth that which he confesseth and judgeth worst yet all this is passion and so far as a man walketh or acteth thus he acteth not reasonably but this is but the first argument and considereth them meerly as men 2. The second shall concern you as Creatures What an indignity do you put upon the Creator to prefer the Creature before him Wine is but a Creature Riches Honours the World and all that is therein it is all but a Creature Christ is God over all blessed for ever It is a mighty degradation of God in our hearts to prefer any thing to his loves How can any man think that God should look upon that Soul that dethroneth him and preferreth some of his creatures yea of the meanest of his Creatures in his affections before him how righteously shall God leave that Soul to the creature as its portion that chuseth it and chuseth it in preference to his loves Thirdly Consider what an ill requital this is of Christs love to you This argument now concerneth you as you are Christians and believe that Christ in the fulness of time left his Fathers Throne and took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of Man Christ in his love his redeeming love to you hath manifested a double preference 1. A preference of your good to his own glory and manifestative favour from God his Father Christ indeed in his estate of humiliation was the beloved Son of his Father his Father in that time proclaimed him his only begotten Son in whom he was well pleased But he had not those manifestations of that love as before he was incarnate He was made a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come down upon us he cryed out upon the Cross my God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me 2. A preference of you to Angels He took not upon him the nature of Angels but your nature now how ill do you requite this love of your Saviour in preferring a creature to it how can we believe the Gospel and all that it telleth us of the dying loves of Christ and do this Oh therefore let not this be the condemnation of any poor Soul that heareth me this day let none of us incur the guilt of this Idolatry God aggravateth the Peoples sin of Idolatry from this that they said to a stack and to a stone thou art our Father the more base and low and unworthy the object is that is preferred before another the greater is the provocation of the preference Let us then so live so walk as by our conversation to evidence to the world that the Loves of Christ to our Souls are better than all the Wine which the world can afford us Let us not break a divine Precept to embrace any thing which this World can afford us in this we shall be so far from acting like to Christians or Creatures that we shall not act like men possessed of reasonable Souls Let us in our hearts more thirst in the Spirit after Christs Love than the worlds imbraces let us delight more in any reports of the love of Christ any discourses concerning it than in any worldly objects Let us be more diligent in use of means to gain Christs love than to gain the whole world Let us be more satisfied in the enjoyment of any thing of it than if we enjoyed all the World can afford us I remember Solomon saith The blessing of God maketh rich and addeth no sorrow therewith The Loves of Christ make the Soul happy and mixeth no sorrow with that happiness Wine is a sweet liquor but it will intoxicate in time it will grow flat and acid and there is no created good but will at one time or other grow flat sharp if the Soul be not drunk with it There is a satiety in pleasure riches honour there is a time when there will be no pleasure in them when we shall be able to see no goodness at all in them Let us neglect them upon the prospect of the vanity of them and the vexation of Spirit that is in them before we come to experience their vanity and rottenness I have shewed you a far more excellent object Christs loves are better than Wine Sermon XI Cnt. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth For thy loves are better than Wine FOr thy loves are better then Wine I have handled these 2 Propositions which the matter of these words affords us I have now only
diligent in the use of means to have its desires accomplished that Soul shall be made fat That Souls desires shall be accomplished tho it may see it falls short of its duty in the use of means and tho it may be God is not pleased to give the Soul the sensible manifestations of its love so that its desire is deferred and while it is so differred the heart is pained and it meets with some trouble and uneasiness through the not accomplishing of its desires to its sense yet it shall be made fat The hope of the righteous saith Solomon shall be gladness so the desire of such a Soul the diligent Soul shall be satisfaction This is according to the words of our Saviour Mat. 5. 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Thus much I have thought fit to add in this place in answer to that question which we sometimes meet with Whether the desire of grace be grace A true resolution of it is of mighty use sometimes to Souls under melancholick distempers or in an hour of temptation to relieve them where they both want sensible manifestations and a just view of the sincerity of their own actions I shall shut up this discourse with a word of exhortation 1. To all to look to their desires their pretended desires after Christ and his loves That of the Apostle 1 Cor. 16. 22. is a dreadful Curse If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha accursed till the Lord come Love is the complacency of the Soul in an object the first fruit of its desire None hath a true complacency in an object but he desireth an union with it in such a degree as he is capable of Hence every one that liveth under the preaching of the Gospel and hath heard of Christ will pretend to desire him But one desires him from a knowledge by hearsay of the goodness of his loves another desires him from a knowledge of faith a setled persuasion of it wrought in his heart by the Spirit of God and some tasts and experience of it you have heard that the desires of the Soul which arise from a knowledge of report and hearsay are weak and faint and cold and lazy and will speak nothing of good for the Soul that hath them you have heard the other desires are strong and intense vehement and fervent active and diligent Nothing more relieveth a Soul sometimes than to find in itself that though it wanteth a strength to perform yet to will is present with it tho it cannot yet rejoice and delight in the apprehension of his loves yet for these are its desires Nothing more killeth and destroyeth a Soul than to trust to desires of grace as indications of it which indeed are not so O therefore look to your desires after Christ See that they proceed from knowledge and experience For experience indeed it dependeth upon Divine influence and breathing upon the Soul and the holy Spirit of God like the wind breatheth where it pleaseth But see that your knowledge of the goodness of these loves be a knowledge of faith not a meer knowledge from report and hearsay as we may know many things of which we believe nothing that is we know such things are written reported talkt of rake heed this be not all the knowledge your Souls have of the loves of Christ I have shewed you that the Knowledge of Faith is a knowledge of persuasion of the excellency of the loves of Christ in themselves for I am not now discoursing of the persuasion that you have a particular interest in them a firm setled constant persuasion of the Soul that the love of Christ is the most desirable good in Heaven or Earth better then Wine yea better than life itself This is the work of the Spirit of God in the Soul A man can by no study persuade himself of this we can by no art no words no arguments of ours persuade Souls of this All that you can do or which we can advise you to do in this case in the use of such means to the use of which God hath promised his blessing or in the use of which God ordinarily concurreth with his blessing These means are reducible to a few heads 1. His Word 2. His Sacrament 3. Prayer 4. A reformed holy life and Conversation 1. The Word is the great means he hath given you it in writing that you may exercise your selves in it by reading he hath appointed the Ordinance of Preaching that you may receive it by your ears neither reading nor hearing will beget in your Souls such a knowledge of Christs love as will be productive of this knowledge which I call the knowledge of faith but they are both means means within our own power and with the use of which God useth to concur and in the neglect of which noâ—e can expect that the holy Spirit of God should work such a knowledge of the excellency of Christ and his loves as will be productive of these desires after them The Word of God is therefore called the Word of faith not only because it containeth the substance of what we are to believe but because it is that with the use of which God ordinarily concurreth in giving the Soul a power to believe therefore the Apostle tells us That faith cometh by hearing If you would know Christ and his loves read hear the Word of God and that in a conscientious manner but I have had occasion to speak of this under a former proposition 2. The holy Sacrament is another means at least for a further knowledge of Christ and his loves I am not of their minds who think that the Lords Supper is a means for conveighing the first knowledge of faith concerning Christ and his Loves to the Soul if it had Christ doubtless would have given it in commission to his Apostles not only to go and preach to and Baptize all Nations but also to Administer the Supper to them which he did not if any will say both Sacraments are intended I shall not contend but the Apostles practice expoundeth our Saviours precept who baptized none till they believed and made a profession of their true faith in Christ the Sacrament is not a means for ignorant persons and unbelievers to come to the first knowledge of Faith but an excellent means in order to the getting a further knowledge of Faith that is a confirmation of their Faith in the love of Christ 3. A third means is Prayer He gives his holy Spirit in all the manifestations of it to those that ask him 4. The last I mentioned was a reformed holy life and Conversation None know the loves of Christ more fully and effectually then those Souls who walk with him most closely You know the promise of Christs manifestation of himself is to those that love him and keep his commandments but of these things I have before
for food to him But we are blessed with Spiritual Blessings in Christ and upon the account of Christ he giveth the first grace upon the account of Christ's Intercession pleading for the Application of the purchased Redemption He giveth further grace upon the account of Christ's Intercession for us and the Spirit 's Intercession for us For we know not what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God Rom. 8. 26 27. Now a due estimate and value of the Love of Christ in a Soul is an Indication of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in the Soul hence it must needs be an Argument of force with God for he that searcheth the heart knoweth the mind of the Spirit making Intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Secondly The force of this Argument lies here in that it layeth hold upon many Promises The Promises are but as so many Bonds in which God hath made himself a Debtor to his Creatures All Promises oblige the truth and faithfulness of those persons that make them God being the true and faithful One cannot lye He is faithful that hath promised saith the Apostle so that if it be a sufficient Argument to use with a man to obtain any thing we would have to tell him He hath promised it it holdeth towards God more strongly as his truth and faithfulness is much more certain and infallible than any Creature is Besides that it is a further advantage when Promises are made upon a due and just consideration for these is not only the truth but the justice also of the person promising is concerned to the fulfilling of them Hence in Scripture you shall ordinarily find the Servants of God pleading the Word the Covenant of God spoken to and made with them Psal 119. 49. Remember thy Word unto thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope and in many other Texts of Scripture I say when a Soul can go to God and say in truth that he valueth his love and favour above Wine above Life above all created comforts this Argument layeth hold upon several Promises of God I will a little enlarge upon this â— It layeth hold upon a Promise of filling and satisfaction Matth. 5. 6. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled It is a mighty large and comprehensive Promise To fill a Soul with the influences of Divine Love is a very great thing It is not easie to fill the covetous man with Wealth but he may be sooner fill'd with Riches than the Soul of a good man with the Love and Grace of God But here is a Promise of being filled Open thy mouth wide saith God and I will fill it To whom is this Promise made To him that hungers and thirsteth after Righteousness Righteousness is Grace whether you take it for the Righteousness of Justification the Righteousness of Christ in which every Soul must stand righteous before God Or the Righteousness of Sanctification habits and acts of Holiness wrought in us and done by us they are both from Grace from the free Love of God shining upon our Souls He that hungers and thirsts after it is he that intensely desires it Hunger and thirst are natural passions arising in us from our want of due aliment nature inforcing in us a sense of that want and of all other they are the most vehement Thence our English Proverb Hunger will break through stone walls and experience tells us to what hard things these passions have brought people not only to eat Carrion but to kill and eat their own Children yea the flesh of their own Arms so as hungring and thirsting after Righteousness importeth vehement desires after Grace which desires testifie the Soul's estimate of it and value for it and to those who thus hunger and thirst the Promise is made that they shall be filled Again such a Soul hath a right to those Promises of all Grace propounded in the most large and comprehensive terms and general phrases as where God promiseth a new heart the water of life his coming unto Souls dwelling in them abiding with them The Soul that can go to God and truly say that he prizeth the Loves of Christ above all things layeth hold of all these Promises of which the holy Scriptures are full Isa 55. 1 2. Ho every one that thirsteth come you to the waters and buy without money and without price buy wine and milk So Rev. 22. 17. Let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him drink of the water of life freely Joh. 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him So v. 21. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him These now and such like are general Promises comprehensive of all the Love of Christ to the Soul in the various manifestations of it according to the Soul 's diversified necessities with respect to its several circumstances Now observe to whom these Promises are made to those that love Christ and in evidence of that love hunger and thirst after him to them the Promises are made 1. That the Father will love that man or woman 2. That both Christ and his Father will come unto him 3. That they will manifest themselves unto them that they will dwell and make their abode with them That they shall have Wine and Milk without money and price Now I appeal to any ordinary capacity what evidence of Love any Soul can give greater than the valuing of his Loves above all other things So that where this can be said in truth to God God is challenged upon a multitude of Promises even so many as are made to the Love of God and Christ and to the Soul's hungrings and thirstings after him Nay there is yet another sort of Promises which such a Soul challengeth viz. all those Promises of a further supply and increase of Grace to those that have the Seed of Grace As Matth. 13. 12. To him that hath shall be given and he shall have in more abundance I might add many more of like nature but there is hardly any of you but know how to furnish your selves with them Now where the Soul can challenge God upon a Promise and lay claim to the mercy which it asketh from an obligation which God by his Word hath laid upon himself to give it This is a great Argument for it toucheth God upon the account of his Truth and Faithfulness 3. Further yet this argument toucheth God as he is a tender Father God you know to let us know his heart to his poor Creatures amongst other names
wants but it deriveth from Christ Good things suited to the more external wants of our Body derive from God as the great preserver of man and flow from that common providence of his which dayly worketh in the upholding and preservation of created Beings but good things for our Souls derive from Christ as Mediator and as they are purchased by his blood so they are dispensed out by his Spirit This now can appear to a Soul from no other light but that of Revelation study therefore the holy Scriptures meditate therein night and day they testify all this concerning Christ A full persuasion of these two things 1. That we have immortal Souls ordained to an eternity either of happiness or misery 2. That nothing but the love of Christ can furnish them with those good things which are proper and necessary for them with respect to their Eternal Happiness are enough to convince Men and Women that the loves of Christ are as much better than Wine and to be preferred to it as the Soul is better than the Body and the things suited to its wants better than those things which are only suited to the wants of the outward man But still I say and every days experience maketh it good Non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris you shall not persuade Men and Women tho you say enough to persuade them though you shut up their mouths and they having nothing to say such a power hath lust in the heart of man into such a debauchery is the nature of man degenerated Admitting men to believe that they have immortal Souls and that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God there is nothing in nature hath a fuller evidence than this truth that the loves of Christ are preferrible to all things in the world and a man cannot act like a reasonable creature in preferring any thing unto them yet who believes it who lives up to this demonstration It is God must persuade the Soul of this and till the Soul hath this written and ingraven upon it by the finger of his Spirit it will never so Judge Lastly therefore Pray mightily that God would open your Ears to see this and persuade your Souls of the truth of it for till he doth it in vain are mens persuasions To move you to it consider 1. This will bear some proportion to the love of Christ to mankind Christ loved us more than these more than all the Kingdoms and pleasures and profits and honours of the world yea more than his own life yea he preferred us to the Angels the fallen Angels for he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of man 2. This will speak the Soul to be a wise and understanding Soul Certain it is as I have already shewed you that the loves of Christ are good before Wine The wisdom of a Soul lyeth much in a right discerning betwixt good and evil and betwixt that which is good and that which is more good or better The excellency of a Soul lyeth in its conformity to God he is an Atheist who owneth not God to be the first Being and to be of all Beings the most excellent and perfect Being So as necessarily that Soul that comes nearest in conformity to God must be the most excellent Soul now that Soul which acteth most up to the principles of improved and pure reason and to the rule of that holy Writ which we all confess to be the revealed Will of God and liveth most up to the Divine Pattern doing what God doth that must needs be the most wise excellent understanding Soul Now will not a little reason serve to convince us that Christ is the most excelling Object and therefore to be preferred to all sublunary enjoyments Doth not the Scripture represent him to us as altogether desires as the chiefest of ten thousand as the well beloved of the Father in whom he is well pleased as he whom we ought to love with all our heart all our Soul all our Strength Doth not the Father the Heavenly Father love him above all other objects To which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day I have begotten thee and again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son He was brought up with the Father and daily his delight rejoycing alwaies before him 3. This will speak an heavenly sublimated Soul purged from the dregs of sensuality and from an earthly mind a Soul risen with Christ and seeking the things which are above Col. 3. 1. The preference of Wine any sensual satisfactions or any sensible enjoyments to the loves of Christ speaks a dirty Soul that feedeth upon carrion and can be filled with wind Lastly You have heard what an argument this will supply a Soul with in all its addresses and applications to God for any grace or favour no argument can be more moving more prevailing with God none that layeth hold upon more promises or that toucheth God more as a tender Father O therefore labour for this frame of Spirit and give your Souls no rest until you find that they indeed do prefer the love of Christ before all other things in Heaven and Earth Secondly This notion calleth to all you who profess Godliness and to any thing of the Spirit of Adoption which teacheth to cry Abba Father to take heed of a Carnal mind an heart cleaving to any created comforts in excessive degrees so as for the enjoyment of them or any of them to run the hazard of the loves of Christ you will by it prejudice your souls in a great argument which you might use at the Throne of Grace There are amongst others three distempers of heart which those that would do much with God in Prayer must take heed of 1. A revengeful not forgiving frame of Spirit It is a dreadful Text Mat. 6. 15. But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you Our Saviour hath taught us to pray Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors 2. A doubting and unbelieving frame of Spirit He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him he that lifts up his hands unto God must lift up pure hands and that without doubting 3. Thirdly A Carnal heart cleaving to the world preferring the things of the world to the loves of Christ the good things of Grace Lastly Is this such an argument of force with God Let then such as can use it in truth make use of it I doubt not but I speak to many who can in truth say that they value the loves of Christ the tokens of his special and distinguishing love above all earthly contentments when you go to God plead this take unto you words and say Lord let me be made a partaker of thy special distinguishing love thou knowest that my Soul valueth it above mountains of Gold
highly expressive of our inward affections It follows We will remember thy Loves more then Wine This is the third thing she promiseth I shall be very short in the explication of this phrase more fully opening the terms when I come to handle the Proposition I shall raise from them Only this the Heb. word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we met with it before v. 2. the Septuagint translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the difference is founded I conceive in the cognation of the two words signifying Loves and Breasts they differ only in the points but suppose it were thy Breasts a figure must still be acknowledged because the breasts are near the heart and that is the seat of love so that the sense still must be thy loves thy gracious influences More then Wine that is more then those things which are most pleasant and delightful to us but I opened this v. 2. It follows The upright love thee in the Hebrew it is Vprightnesses or Vpright things love thee so the Hebrew word properly signifieth The same word is used Psal 17. 2. Thy Eyes shall behold upright things The word is found in this form Psal 9. 9. He shall judge the world in righteousness and the people in uprightnesses so Prov. 1. 3. Is 33. 15. Prov. 2. 9. Psal 58. â—2 Psal 75. 3. If we expound it as the letter of the Text is in the abstract the question will be whether it should be read in the Nominative case uprightnesses love thee or in the Ablative in uprightnesses they that is the Virgins love thee If in the first sense the meaning is this Whatsoever is good and right is to be found in thee all the graces love thee that is cleave and are united unto thee The fulness of grace dwelled in him and all vertues and graces were made perfect in him But although this be a truth yet I do not take it to be the sense of the Text and in my further discourses on this Song I shall have occasion once and again to discourse that subject Secondly It may be read in the Ablative case In uprightnesses they love thee that is as Buxtorf expounds it Rectissimè fortiter The Saints love thee most intirely sincerely strongly thus it will afford us this lesson That the Saints love to Christ is a most strong sincere and entire love The Virgins love Christ in uprightnesses not in word and in tongue only but in deed and in truth as St. John expoundeth it they love him with a true and perfect heart But this will fall in the handling of the Doctrine which will arise from the third sense which is more generally accepted and which I shall embrace Thirdly Therefore I agree with those who think the Abstract is here put for the Concrete uprightnesses for the most upright persons The quality for the persons indued with that excellent quality a very ordinary way of speaking in the Hebrew and indeed most languages No wonder my beloved that I should love thee for there is not an upright Soul in the world but loves thee and the more there is of uprightness in any Soul the more that Soul loves thee Uprightnesses love thee Thus now I have largely opened this excellent Text. The Propositions I shall observe from it and handle them if God please in their order are these that follow Souls must first be drawn by God before they will come to Christ or run after him and it is their duty to pray that they may be so drawn The Soul being drawn shall and will run after Christ That Gods drawing one Soul will be a means to make many run after him That God is often very quick in answering his Peoples Prayers That Jesus Christ hath Chambers into which he sometimes brings his Peoples Souls That Jesus Christ is the singular object of the Saints joy in the middest of its mâ—st excellent enjoyments The Gâ—ace receiving Soul will remember his loves more than Wine The upright Soul will love the Lord Jesus Christ and the more upright a Soul is the more it will love him Sermon Xâ—VII Canticles 1. 4. Drawme and We will run after thee I Come to handle more largely those Propositions from this second Petition of the Spouse which in my last discourse I had no more time but to name the first of which was this Prop. Souls must first be drawn by God before they can come to or run after the Lord Jesus Christ I noted to you in my explication of this Petition that there are two principal usages of this word Draw in Holy Writ it sometimes signifieth an alluring by fair carriage and persuasions 2. Sometimes a constraining by force and power both ways the Lord draweth those Souls that come to Christ or that run after him he draweth them suaviter and fortiter sweetly and yet powerfully 1. There is a drawing by Afflictions and Chastisements Afflictions are the Lords Cords If saith Job ch 36. 8 9. they be bound in Fetters and be holden in Cords of Affliction Then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions wherein they have exceeded he openeth their Ear to discipline and commandeth them that they return from iniquity Thus the Lord drew Manasses he was bound by Fetters and carried into Babylon and when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication It is added v. 13. Then Manasses knew that the Lord he was God I know that Bernard thus interpreteth this Text tho he restrains it not to that sense but I must crave leave to dissent from so great a Person not only because I find scarce any Interpreters agreeing with him but because then the thing here prayed for must be Afflictions which I do not know we are commanded to pray for and I am sure nature restraineth us in such a Petition neither are afflictions in their own tendency drawing Cords they are rather called Cords and Fetters to signify their pinching effects than that God ordinarily useth them to draw Souls by unto himself we read of one Thief upon the Cross converted at his last hour and of one Manasses converted by Festers but you have but a single instance of each in Holy Writ and let me further add Manasses his affliction was but Fetters and Imprisonment nothing that affected his head and made him unfit to do any thing but to attend the distempers of his Body nor indeed is there any drawing vertue in an affliction it rather naturally alienateth the Soul from God in my experience in the work of the Ministry I have known many good Men and Women bettered by Affliction but I never knew a bad man or woman by affliction brought home to God it is a fire that so softens the wax and hardeneth the clay and this agreeth with what we have in Scripture
and weak without strength We are like Lot in Sodom though we daily hear that the wicked shall be turned into Hell with all those that forget God though the Lord useth all intreaties with his poor Creatures and the love of God be displayed before us in the fullest measure yet till the Lord doth by us as the Angel did by Lot lay hold upon us and pull us out of our sinful state we move not a jot Yea verily man in his best estate man regenerate and brought home to God must also be drawn or he will not run he must be kept by the power of God through faith to Salvation or he will never come into Heaven when to will is present with us we have no strength to perform The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak O miserable men that we are who shall deliver us from our bodies of death I need say no more it being what is justified by the experience of the best of men and their prayers directed to God accordingly Sermon XIX Cant. 1. 4. Draw me and we will run after thee I Have formerly discoursed from this Text this Proposition That the Soul till drawn doth not run after Christ I am in the application of that discourse and that by way of Instruction This may inform us in the true nature of special saving Grace It is a drawing to and after Christ Grace in its general notion signifieth nothing but free love and favour Let me find grace or I have found grace signifies no more in Scripture than though I have no worth no merit yet shew me love and favour when applied to God it signifieth no more in the general notion whether this love be shewed in the collation of the good things which concern this life or those which concern that life which is to come they are all grace in a large sense because emanations of divine love not merited by Creatures But words taking their significancy more from use than etymology Grace in a more strict and usual notion hath been taken to signify The emanations of Divine love concerning the Souls and Eternal Salvation of the Children of men which is called the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Now these divine emanations having different effects this Grace of God is also distinguished into Common and special ineffectual and effectual under the notion of common grace we comprehend all those effluxes of divine goodness by which God sheweth his kindness to the Souls of men in order to their Salvation whether they prove effective of their Salvation yea or no under this head some will bring both Election and Redemption owning no other Election than the eternal counsel of God to save such as should believe so denying all eternal Election of persons and making Christs intention in dying to extend to all either equally or at least so far as to put all in a possibility of Salvation if their own perverse wills do not hinder The Publication and proposal of the Gospel with the common influences of the Spirit attending the preaching of it certainly come under this notion for though all hear not that joyful sound yet it is granted on all hands that of those that do hear it to some it is the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death And this is all the grace which some will acknowledge antecedent to the pardon of sins and regeneration But we affirm a further special grace than this is which we call special because it is not equally administred to all no not to all that hear the Gospel saving because it brings salvation not only in a general tender and offer unto all but to that particular Soul upon whom it shineth and so is effectual because effective of the blessed end to which it is levelled and aimed and doth not evaporate in a meer tender and proposal of the will of God This is that which we conceive expressed here and in John 6. 44. under the notion of drawing Which term is fully expressive of the Nature of it as it signifieth both 1. An act of power 2. An act of sweetness and love 1. An act of power The converted Soul is made willing in the day of the Lords power Psal 110. 3 4. The holy Scripture describes us in our natural state as dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. 1. Enemies to God Col. 1. 21. and alienated from the life of God Having hearts harder then rocks then nether milstones iron sinews stiff necks Let those that think a meer intreaty of a Soul to come to Christ that it might have life a meer moral suasion or persuading a Soul to Spiritual duty will change it and renew it and beget in it spiritual habits try what their Rhetorick will do to melt a rock or to raise a dead body If the disadvantage of an ill education and a customary course of debauchery added to our vitiated nature hath such a power to beget in us a moral impotency that the drunkard and the unclean person cannot obtain of himself notwithstanding the advantage of his own ratiocination and the potent arguments drawn from the health of his body the upholding his reputation amongst men the preservation of his estate the pleasing of his sober friends to turn from an Alehouse and Tavern and from the house of the strange Woman no not tho his own experience and the daily experience of others verifieth these arguments and the acts are but such as by the force of reason supposing the common grace of God denied to none may be declined How shall we ever think that a man hath a natural power to the most sublime and spiritual acts and that the power of God must not be put forth upon a Soul causing it to love God and to hate sin and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Two things evince this grace to be an act of divine power 1. The invisibility of Christ and his excellencies 2. The natural alienation of our Souls from him If indeed our need of Christ or the suitableness which is in him to the lapsed state of Souls were either evident to sense or demonstrable to reason or the excellencies of Christ were demonstrable to either something might be said for the sufficiency of rational arguments to persuade the Soul to Christ yet not enough in that case for the sensibility of the goodness of temperance and sobriety and chastity their suitableness to the frail state of our bodies ready to be destroyed by debaucheries opposite to these vertuous habits we see by experience are not enough to keep Souls within the circle and bounds of morality But the other things being neither subject to the demonstration of sense or reason it is most irrational to plead for a power in the will of man to chuse them The sweetness of what the lapsed Soul in its state of alienation from God tasteth in sensible satisfactions is a thing evident to sense and it is
most absurd to imagine that a Soul should ever call these things bitter till it be convinced of a more excellent good and the incompetency of its fruition both of the one and of the other Could it be any thing less than a powerful act of Divine Grace that could make Moses willing to refuse the pleasures of Pharaohs Court and the honour of being called his Son and to chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God counting the reproach of Christ greater riches then the Treasures of Aegypt O study and adore the power of faving and effectual Divine Grace Do but consider your own weakness and the mighty power of Satan in tempting and you will be convinced that there had need be a divine power exerted in the collation of saving Grace 2. But yet as it is mighty and powerful so it is also sweet we are drawn to Christ but it is with the cords of a man the divine power put forth hath the will for the object which is not forced but melted renewed changed by the influence of the mighty God upon it Indeed the will is not capable of violence but yet it is capable of a divine influence sweetly renewing and changing it the Soul is made willing and then it wills and chuseth desires delights in the things which are good and acceptable in the sight of God Grace doth not meerly exhibit and propose Christ as a lovely and beautiful object altogether desires it doth not only furnish the Gospel and fill the mouths of Ministers with suasive arguments but it fills the Soul the inward man with a powerful divine influence which quite reneweth and changeth it and altereth the byass and inclination of it This is the nature of saving grace effectual grace thus it differs from that Grace of God which may shine upon reprobates which they may finally resist and abide still in darkness This notion in the next place wonderfully commendeth the love of God to those Souls that are made partakers of this Grace of God that bringeth Salvation that maketh a Soul meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light The great boast which those who maintain the contrary systeme of Doctrine to what I have maintained make is that their Doctrine doth vastly more commend the love of God to mankind Let us try that a little According to their Notion of the Grace of God it is no more than might have been consistent with the Eternal perdition of all mankind for they say God hath determined no particular person unto eternal life Christ hath laid down a price no more for the Soul that is saved than for those that perish In the Acts of his Providence he doth no more for one than another Both have the Gospel both have the common assistances of the Spirit and one hath no more than another both have Souls of the same species indued with the same faculties both might have resisted the Grace of God and that finally Now do not these mightily magnify Grace who will allow no more of it then what is consistent with the eternal destruction of all men yet neither are they consistent to themselves in their doctrine of Grace so far as they will allow any thing to it they pretend the advancement of the love of God by their conditional Election incertain Covenant universal Redemption common Grace yet they cannot deny but that the far greater part of the world hath not so much as the means of grace the sound of the Gospel is not in their Ears and how little of it is there in Popish Countries where the People have not the Bible in their own language and hear stories and tales out of the Legends instead of the Gospel nay in Protestant Countries how many places are there where People have Stones instead of Bread Scorpions instead of Fishes where they from the Pulpit hear little of Christ or the great motives of the Gospel to faith and holiness so as to make out their notion of their Doctrines commending the love of God they must find out a way to Christ and Salvation for more than three parts of the world without Christ and that an ordinary way too or but few of them will be saved yet in this extraordinary that their Salvation must be without the Gospel and the potent motives and arguments of it the Preaching of it and the ordinary concurrence of the Holy Spirit with it The opinion of Divineâ— on the other side is this That God out of the Mass of Mankind whether considered as created or to be created they are not so universally agreed did chuse a certain number of Persons great in itself but small in comparison of the whole number of mankind as to whom he willed a Kingdom of life and glory and also chose them and ordained them to obtain this life by having Redemption through the Blood of Christ the forgiveness of sins and by being holy and unblameable before him and to this end sent his Son to die for them and gives to the most of them whom he thus ordained to life and to faith and holiness as the means of it his Gospel and the Ministry of it by which he intreateth all those to whom it is Preached to be reconciled to God but for those whom he hath ordained to life he powerfully and effectually worketh in them by the Spirit of his Grace by which their hearts though they may for a time oppose and resist yet are subdued to the obedience of faith and drawn unto Christ and by which also being come to Christ they are drawn after him being by his power through faith preserved to Salvation Now whether is the Love of God more seen to mankind in the certain Salvation of many though comparatively but few and ordering of causes accordingly Or in such an ordering of causes as it was possible notwithstanding any thing God had done for man all might have perished And whether is God more glorified by our predication of him as one who though from all eternity he knew who would believe and live holily and who would not yet left it possible that all men should believe if they would Or by the predication of him as one who knowing all things because he willed them so being the first cause of all good in the creature ordered all things according to the good pleasure of his own will In the mean time this Drawing Grace which we maintain infinitely commendeth the Love of God to those who are thus drawn if we consider 1. The infinite distance of God from the creature He is a self-sufficiency to himself and in order to his happiness needed not the company of any creatures Now if there were no more in drawing grace than some would make drawing with the Cords of a Man intreating and persuading Souls to be reconciled to God his love might be just matter of admiration and astonishment Who are we that God should treat us and send Embassadors to intreat
his Spirit but thy Soul is yet unquiet and impatient it is thy duty yet to wait upon God to chide down thy tumultuous and unquiet thoughts all the risings up and murmurings of thy Soul against God to adore and to admire God where thou canst not see or understand him to acknowledge Gods goodness and holiness though thou canst not discern his goodness as to thee in this particular Thus did David Psal 22. 3. after he had complained that he had cried in the day time and the Lord did not hear and in the night season and was not silent v. 3. he saith But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel This is most certainly our duty under such providences as these are we must not look in this life to understand all Gods ways and methods of providence much less the reasons of them that is a piece of knowledge reserved for another world all that we have to do is to observe and study them and where we cannot find them out to admire and adore them and to wait upon him that wrappeth up himself in thick darkness and hideth his face from the House of Jacob. This waiting doth not only signify a passive quietness silence and patience but an active doing our duty Waiting on the Lord and keeping his way are put together Psal 37. we ought not to leave off praying because in our apprehensions at least our prayers lie by without answer much less to slacken our course of holiness but to resolve as the Church did for Zions sake so for our own sake not to hold our peace we have for this an excellent president in the example of the Church Psal 44. 17. All this is come upon us saith she yet have we not forgotten thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant Our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death then she concludeth with prayer v. 23 24 25 26. Awake why sleepest thou O Lord arise cast us not off for ever wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and oppression For our Soul is bowed down to the dust our belly cleaveth to the Earth Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy sake Sermon XXV Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his Chambers IF any asketh who is this King whom the text speaks of as the question soundeth like that Psal 24. v. 8. Who is the King of glory So the answer must be much the same The Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battel the Lord of Hosts he is the King of Glory He is the King of Nations for all the Nations of the Earth are the work of his hands and he hath a Native Lordship and dominion over them He is the King upon the holy hill of Sion the King of Saints they have chosen him he ruleth in them and reigneth over them they have chosen him he hath subdued their hearts unto him and hath chosen them for his peculiar people this is the King of whom the Church and the believing Soul here speaketh and saith The King hath brought me into his Chambers It is the same Person of whom she spake v. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth To whom she said v. 3. Draw me and we will run after thee There she spake to him as her beloved here she speaketh of him as a King there she prayed for something that she wanted here she praiseth and giveth thanks for something she had received I have already taken notice of the alteration of her stile of her so sudden giving thanks upon the quick return God had made to her prayers I come now to consider the mercy or good thing she had received which she expresseth in the same metaphorical dialect which she useth throughout this Song The King hath brought me into his Chambers when I at first opened the whole verse I endeavoured to find out what this mercy was in the receit of which the Spouse triumpheth in this text I then considered Chambers as places more lofty then others and and of more privacy and secrecy and from thence concluded that the Spouse by this phrase signifieth some special favours which she had received from God some special and more near and intimate degrees of fellowship and communion with God into which her beloved had taken her The Proposition I offered from the words for my further explication was this That the Lord Jesus Christ hath Chambers in which he sometimes entertaineth the Souls of his people He hath a favour for them all Rooms in his House for all the sizes of his people but he hath Chambers for some or into which he sometimes takes up the Souls of his Saints the subject of my discourse will be such special favours as God sheweth to some Souls or to the Souls of his people at some times This is evident in holy writ Abraham was called the Friend of God Moses is called his Servant emphatically Moses my Servant is dead David the man according to Gods own heart Solomon was named by God Jedidiah a man beloved of God There are four degrees in the love of God as it respecteth the Children of men 1. He hath a Philanthropy or general love which he sheweth towards all He leaveth not the Heathen without witness In him all men live move and have their being from him they have fruitful times and seasons which fill their bellies with food their hearts with gladness their bellies are filled with his hid treasure The patience of God leadeth them to repentance The invisible things of God even his eternal power and God-head are made known to them by his works of Creation by the things which he hath made 2. He hath a more special love for his Church This is seen in his more special providence exercised towards his whole Church which are more watched over and preserved by a common providence then any other body of people are They have also the Oracles of God the Ordinances of God and means of grace and this latter is certainly an effect of the death of Christ 3. He hath yet a more special love for all those within his Church who are effectually called whose hearts God hath seized and subdued to himself they are made partakes of more special grace being called justified and sanctified and such who shall hereafter be most certainly glorified 4. But there is yet another specialty of Divine love even amongst those who are made partakers of special saving graces some are more specially favoured in this life and shall be more eminently then others glorified in that life which is to come These more special favours to the Saints that are all made partakers of the same saving grace are the subject of my present enquiry 1. Some here understand the mansions of glory but they are forced to make an
uneven towards us that in the darkness of our Spirits we might sometimes read the darkness of our loose and sinful conversation God thus punisheth our pride our hypocrify our neglect of duty our wilful yielding to temptations to which we might have made a better opposition And upon the withdrawing of these influences we have all just reason to search and try our own hearts and to reflect upon our own ways to search out if we can the cause why when others are in the Mount with God we are still kept in the valley while they are in the Chambers we are kept in the lower Rooms this is certain that though possibly the punishment of sin be not alwaies the next cause moving God to such dispensations yet we have alwaies reason to suspect it having our Souls never so free from sin but we may find enough to justify God in them 2. It may be reasonable that God should thus deal with us that we might know as I told you in handling the other Doctrine that his grace is free and he a free agent in the dispensation of it Not only first grace but further grace also in God is free indeed else it could not be grace we should never understand the freeness of grace if it were equally dispensed We in our little manifestations of our love to our fellow creatures challenge to our selves a liberty and think our selves free to shew it where we will God certainly must in justice be allowed the same which we should not be brought to see and acknowledge if we saw God treating all his Servants and at all times to the same rate and in the same degree 3. It may be the mind of God to make a trial of his peoples grace to draw forth some habits into acts which would not be so exercised if some of his people were not under different dispensations and the same Souls sometimes variously exercised The Soul that is with the Lord in his Chambers is more a receiver from God then a giver to him It gives him the exercise of its saith in its reflex act which indeed is not very properly an act of faith It offereth up unto God the sacrifice of joy of praise and thanksgiving it followeth here in the next words we will be glad and rejoice in thee It may exercise its love of complacency and delight in God But all this while where is the exercise of the Souls panting and breathing after God of its faith of adherence unto and dependence upon God of its hope in God and patient expectation of and waiting for God where is the exercise of its patience and submission to God under severer providences It is reasonable that God should see all those blessed habits which he hath infused into the Soul drawn forth into act 4. The good Judas asked Christ John 14. 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not to the world Christ told him because they loved him more and kept his Commandments better There is the same reason to be assigned why Christ will manifest himself to some of his Saints more then to others because at some times the love of his people more manifesteth itself to him by a stricter keeping of his Commandments and the love of some good men is greater for God Now to encourage men as I before said to perfect holiness in his fear though he will give them all glory yet some shall in this life have Gods goodness made to pass before them more then others that others may see what it is to be much with God 5. Lastly God often doth it for the good of others And indeed this generally is the reason of that more special communion with God which some have more then others as to the Revelation of his mind and will unto them thus God would not hide from Abraham the thing which he had to do against Sodom because Abraham had a Family to instruct God taketh Moses up into the Mount and revealeth his mind and will unto him that he might teach the People over whom God had set him his Statutes and Judgments the same reason is to be given of Gods special communications to the Prophets under the Old and the Apostles under the New Testament and doubtless the same reason is to be assigned for Gods more full revelation of his mind and will already revealed in the Scripture to his faithful Servants in the Ministry who generally know more of the sense of Scriptures and the mind and will of God revealed in them then other Christians do because God designeth that the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and the people should enquire at them and there is the same reason to be given for some more then ordinary influences of grace upon some Christians Souls See 2 Cor. 1. 4. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforteth us in all tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God God hath made us one for another and in the dispensings out of his own gifts and graces he hath respect unto the serviceableness both of Ministers and others one to another But this is sufficient for the Doctrinal part of this discourse Sermon XXVI Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his Chambers YOU have heard the Proposition raised from these words God hath Chambers in which he sometimes entertains the Souls of his people As there are specialties of common Providence so there are specialties of special and distinguishing grace He takes some of those who love and fear him into nearer degrees of fellowship and communion with him then he doth others Man will claim himself a prerogative in this the Parent will be more fond of more kind to one Child then another though he owns them both as his Children and will give to them both a portion The Prince who hath a tender love for all his Subjects yet will be allowed his favourites Let us not then accuse God in such dispensations of partiality or injustice let us not murmur that we have lesser shares in his manifestative love This is a thing we are very prone to Christ taught it us in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15. The Son that was alwaies at home with the Father v. 28 29. was angry and would not go into his Fathers House no not though his Father intreated him because the Father had killed a satted Calf to entertain his Prodigal Brother returning our Saviour doubtless intended in that parable to check the Jews envy at the kindness Christ was about to shew to the Gentiles or did at that time shew to Harlots to Publicans and Sinners but it reacheth further we shall find all our hearts too prone to this to repine at the further manifestations of the love of God to others Souls then unto ours If
climb up those steps which God hath made for us by which we may ascend into these Chambers we must blame our selves if we abide below But this is not alwaies the cause in some cases we must have recourse to Gods prerogative and must rest in this Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee Some Souls are dignified with a special communion and familiarity with God so was Abraham Moses David yet possibly if we look into the records we have of their lives we shall find more blots in some of them then in some others who we do not read were taken up into such eminent degrees of favour We cannot give just reasons and accounts of all Gods acts of Grace it is enough that God wills them In the mean time if we find but a good hope through grace an heart changed and cleaving to God if we can say with Peter Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that we love thee though we cannot boast of such special providences as others nor of such visions of peace nor of so quick an hearing of our prayers tho we dare not pretend to be such favourites of Heaven yet let us not be discouraged possibly as to us the Lords time is not yet come possibly it never will come God is a great Soveraign and unquestionably free as to these things he knows what is best for us he will deny no good thing to us We may say of the whole Family of God as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons 1 Kings 10. 8. Happy are thy Men happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and heaá¹™ thy wisdom There are some of Gods Servants that as to these enjoyments are more happy then others but there are none but are happy none but have reason for ever to admire the difference which God hath made betwixt them and others to admire what God hath done for their Souls bringing them out of the horrible Pit if they have not if they cannot see reason to rejoice in such a prospect of Heaven as othershave yet they have reason to rejoice in an equal deliverance from Hell I will shut up this discourse with two words of exhortation 1. The first directed to those who can say with the Spouse The King hath brought us into his Chambers 2. The second to those who walk with God but have not yet arrived at this Are there any who can speak the language of the Spouse and glory in this not only that they are brought home to Christ but that the King hath brought them into his Chambers the Lord hath dignified them with some special favours and manifested himself more to them then unto others the following words of this Text will let them know what is their duty I will saith the Spouse be glad and rejoice in thee and remember thy loves more then Wine 1. Be glad and rejoice in God we are often called to for this rejoycing in the Lord Psal 33. 1. Psal 97. 12. Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. and in many other Texts Such is the portion of Gods Children such their state and condition that they have a continual cause of rejoycing and giving of thanks be they under what circumstances they can there is ground enough for them in all things to give thanks but they are more eminently obliged to it when they are under the highest manifestations of Divine Love This rejoycing in the Lord is I conceive opposed both to a carnal joy in sensual objects and also to a rejoycing meerly in that ease and satisfaction which the good thing giveth us for which we rejoice As now suppose a rich man giveth a poor man 20 s. it is one thing for the poor man to rejoice in the gift as suited to to â—his necessitous circumstances another thing to rejoice in the love and favour of the giver This is now the duty of the spiritual man he ought not only under the manifestations of divine love to rejoyce in the Lord more then in all the world and all the affluences and contentments of it which is expressed in the next phrase we will remember thy loves more then Wine and is commensurate to what David saith Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me for thou shalt thereby make my heart more glad then in the day when their Corn and Wine increased I say this is not enough for a Soul thus dignified he ought more to rejoice in the favour of God shewed him in these specialties of his favour then in the ease and satiâ—faction which the mercy received giveth unto his Soul And herein lieth the purity of the spiritual mans joy nor is his joy genuine and perfect till it come to this pitch 2. The second phrase in the Text expressive of this dignified Souls duty is We will remember thy loves more then Wine The term remember is taken in Scripture in a great latitude and expressive both of all that affection which is due to the remembrance of the object and of all that practical duty which is consequent to it I shall touch a little upon both these and that very shortly for I shall God willing speak to both these expressions in order more fully 1. Remember Christs loves with the remembrance of the heart I shall instance but in one fruit of this and that is faith Remember his loves so as for them to trust in God more and to cast the care of thy Soul in an hour of distress the better upon him upon consideration of thy past and present experience We are too ready both to forget our sorrows and to forget our comforts to forget our sorrows by giving our selves a liberty to the same sins for which we have smarted and to forget our comforts by giving liberty to the same dejections and despondencies again after the experiences of Gods favour 2. Remember Christs loves practically so as to make them obligations upon your Souls to a close walking with God See the example of David Psal 116. 1 9 12 18. But I shall speak all this over again when I come to handle the next words and shall therefore add no more My second Branch of this Exhortation shall respect those whom God hath not thus far dignified the Lord hath as they hope admitted them into his family but he hath not yet brought them into his Chambers Some communion with God they hope they have and an heart that panteth after a more full and near communion with him but this they have not yet attained to they walk in the dark and see no light the Lord giveth them an heart to pray but they cannot glory in such a full and quick return of prayers as others have they have not that inward joy and peace which as to some Souls is consequential to believing the question is now what they should do what their duty is under their present circumstances I will open it in two particulars 1. Certainly they ought not to despond
But there is no true believer but either hopes in his mercy or hath some assurance of his love and from hence it is 1. That the true believer alone can rejoyce truly rejoice in Christ 2. That one believer rejoyceth in him above what another can I say the true believer alone can rejoyce in Christ for he alone is sensible of that goodness and excellency that is in him and he alone is apprehensive of any relation that he hath to him or any interest in him others are without Christ he alone can say my Lord and my Saviour And hence I say it is that one believer can rejoice in Christ more than another because one mans apprehension of his part and interest in Christ may be more full than anothers One hath but the apprehension of a good hope the other may have a full persuasion But though there may be a great difference in the degrees of believers joy yet they concur all in their object Christ is the object the singular object of all their joy After this discourse I need not enlarge in telling you how Christ becomes their object of joy not meerly considered as God blessed for ever nor meerly considered as Mediator betwixt God and Man and the Saviour of lost Sinners if he were not so they could not rejoice in him but neither doth his being so give them any cause of rejoycing but in the notion in which he is mentioned all along this Song i. e. considered as their Bridegroom as united unto them and having a particular favour and relation to their Souls For though good considered abstractly may be the object of our love desire and hope yet only good united to us is the object of joy yea and good apprehended by us as our portion and according to the degree both of our union with the good and apprehension of that union so will our joy be And hence again the most perfect joy of believers must necessarily be in their glorified estate hence Heaven is called Out Masters joy for as our union with God and Christ will be there most full and perfect so our apprehension of it will be most clear and not interrupted But that is not the theme of my present discourse I am speaking of the object of believers joy in this life not in that which shall be in that life which is to come when their joy will be unspeakable and full of glory I added in the Proposition that Christ is the singular object of their joy We will saith the Spouse be glad and rejoice in thee this is â—ruâ— both exclusively and inclusively 1. Exclusively 1. He will râ—joyce in nothing inconsistent with the fruition of Christ There is a â—â—mâ—al rejoycing in the satisfaction of mens lusts this is the joy of an Epicure the Drunkard shouts for new Wine And you read of some whose rejoycing was to devour the poor Hab. 3. 14. I told you before that Joy is nothing else but the satisfaction that the Soul hath and the rest which the Soul takes with the Triumph which it makes in its union with that Object which it judgeth good Now the gratifying of lusts and pleasing the senses and the concupiscible or irascible appetite being that which low-born Souls have chosen as their good their rejoycing in this satisfaction is natural to them This Joy is but for a moment Job 20. 5. and shall one day be turned into heaviness Jam. 4. 9. This mirth this laughter is madness as Solomon speaks Eccles 2. 2. like the crackling of Thorns under a Pot Eccles 7. 6. Sorrow saith Solomon is better than it for those that thus laugh shall weep Luk. 6. 25. The Soul that loves Christ cannot rejoyce with this Joy Charity rejoyceth not in evil 1 Cor. 13. This is inconsistent with the enjoyment of Christ and of his favour with that self denial which is necessary to those that will be his Disciples with that taking up of the Cross which is another Law of his Discipleship 2. It is exclusive of rejoycing in any thing without him Though Christ and his Love and Favour be the believing Soul's supreme good the One thing which he desireth yet there are other things which he may and doth account good in their order God hath not forbidden a man to rejoyce in the Wife of his youth and in the Children which God hath given him nor in those providential dispensations by which he accommodateth the lives of his people and maketh them more sweet and happy but the believing Soul cannot rejoyce in these things unless at the same time he seeth reason also to rejoyce in Christ Men of the world can rejoyce in full Barns Coffers though in the mean time they have no sense no hope of the pardon of their sins and reconciliation with God the reason is because they have set up these things as their chief good and are not affected with the concerns of their Souls as they relate to Eternity But neither can the Believer partake of these Joys The Soul can neither rejoyee in any enjoyment exclusive of its chief good nor yet in any thing in the absence of its chief good A believing Soul in any measure satisfied concerning the Love of God to it can rejoyce in the Wife of his bosom in the Children which God hath given him in the accommodations with which God hath blessed him as to the sweetning of this life but without some assurance or some good hope at least through grace that Christ is his and he hath the favour of God in and through his blood he can rejoyce in none of these things It was a peevish expression of Haman Esth 5. 11 12 13. When he told his friends of the glory of his riches the multitude of his Children and all the things wherein the King had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the Princes and Servants of the King and how that Esther had invited him and none but him and the King to the Banquet which she had prepared and added All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecay the Jew sitting in the King's gate Envy slayeth the fool saith Solomon But every pious Soul when he thinks how God hath blest him with a loving Wife sweet and dutiful Children a plentiful Estate yet saith All this availeth me nothing so long as I suspect and fear that I have no part or Interest in Christ There be saith David many who will say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me thou hast put gladness into my heart more than in the time that their Corn and Wine increased 3. The Joy of the Soul in Christ is such that it can rejoyce in him alone It is the expression of the Prophet Habakkuk ch 3. v. 17 18. Although the Figg-tree shall not blossom neither shall there be fruit in the Vine the labour of the Olive shall sail and the Fields shall yield no
meat the Flock shall be cut off from the sold and there shall be no Herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my Salvation The believing Soul can rejoyce in nothing without Christ and it can rejoyce in Christ when it hath nothing more to rejoyce in Let a gracious Soul have but the sense of God's Love in Christ to his Soul he can say to all the world as Esau though not upon such a consideration said to his Brother Jacob I have enough my Brother I have enough keep what thou haft unto thy self Am I justified and regenerated have I peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ have I the pardon of my sin and a righteousness wherein I can stand before God it is enough If the Lord will not give me Bread to eat nor Children to continue my name if I die Childless so I do not die Christless it is enough If I have not Raggs to cloth me nor an Estate to leave Portions to six and also to seven yet I have said to the Lord Thou art my Portion it is enough Hence ariseth a good Christian's contentment in all Estates I have learned saith Paul in all estates to be content content to want content to abound content to have little or much as the Lord pleaseth If the Lord will take away such a man's Children Estate c. he saith with Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the Name of the Lord. If I have my part in Christ saith he I have yet enough Omnia mea mecum porto I have my All as the Philosopher is reported to have said when his City was on fire and his Neighbours reflected on him going out and carrying nothing along with him nor concerning himself for the share of Estate he had in it If the Believer considereth his body he seeth a crazy constitution diseases growing upon him if he looks into his Family and seeth it empty of Children if into his Grounds and seeth them bring forth nothing but Weeds and Thistles if into his Stalls and seeth them empty of Cattel yet if he looks into his Soul and finds any evidences of the Love of Christ he can rejoyce in them this must be understood when he seeth himself stript naked not by his own wicked hands but as Job was by the effective Providence of God for the loss of the things of this life the good things of the common Providence of God caused by our own sinful hands and miscarriages oft-times hinder this Joy as they make it difficult to us to see the Love of God in and under them 4. And lastly This Soul rejoyceth in Christ Primarily Emphatically Supremely The Child of God is a parta ker of flesh and blood and hath a sensitive appetite which when gratified necessarily causeth a joy proportionate to the good which it receiveth hence he rejoyceth in the good things of common Providence as well as another man but not as much as another man not upon the same account that another man doth Christ is the Believer's chief Joy and as his title to the good things of this life differs from the title of another so his joy in them differeth from the joy of another All men may have a natural legal title to the good things of this life Dominion and Title is not founded in grace but it is mended by grace Another man derives from God as the Lord of the whole Earth who by his common Providence distributeth portions to the Sons of men as he pleaseth but the believer doth not only derive from God as the supreme Lord but from Christ all is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods saith the Apostle so that while he rejoiceth in the gifts of common Providence he rejoiceth in Christ because he rejoyceth in these things as coming from the hand of a Father reconciled to him by the blood of Christ he rejoiceth in the good things of this life as the loving Wife reioiceth in some present made her by her Husband not so much in the fineness or costliness of it though that may also please her humor as in the kindness and love of her Husband shewed in giving it her So the believer more rejoyceth in the goodness of God shewen to him in any dispensation of Providence then in the thing which God hath given him or her and he supremely rejoiceth in Christ whiles he rejoiceth in a lower comfort Let me shew you this in the instance of Hannah whose story you have 1 Sam. ch 1 2. She was the Wife of Elkanah she had no Children and was passionately desirous of the blessing of Children an affection common to all of that sex especially and for which there was some more special reason in that Age and Nation partly because of the promise of a numerous issue to Abraham so as the Women that were Barren lookt upon themselves as hardly the genuine Children of Abraham at least not sharers in his blessing partly because they knew the Messias was to be born of a Jewish Woman and every Child-bearing Woman might have an expectation to be his Mother Under this great affliction she applies her self to God by prayer the Key of the Womb is one of those Keys which the Jewish Doctors say God keepeth in his hand God hears her prayer she conceiveth and brings forth Samuel as in the first Chapter she names him Samuel to testify her joy in receiving him as an answer of her Prayer upon which she dedicates him to the Lord 1 Sam. 1. 28. So in the second Chapter she sings a Song of praise mark the phrase of it 1 Sam. 2. 1. Mine heart rejoyceth in the Lord my Horn is exalted in the Lord. Her Child was the next object of her joy but how doth she rejoice in him the primary object of her joy was the Lord her great joy in Samuel was as God by giving him to her shewed her his love and that he had not shut out her supplications from him She rejoyced in God Supremely in Samuel Subordinately in God Emphatically in her Child more remissly Thus doth a good Christian rejoice in Christ thus is he the singular object of a believers joy David calleth God the gladness of his joy we translate it his exceeding joy Psal 43. 4. The Prophet Isaiah faith Isaiah 29. 19. The meek shall encrease their joy in the Lord and the poor amongst men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel Yet the proximate cause was v. 20 Because the terrible one was brought to nought and the scorner consumed and all those that watched for iniquity cut off Hence Christ commandeth his Disciples not to rejoice in this that the Devils were subject to them but that their names were written in the Book of Life Doubtless the subjection of Devils to them was true matter of joy ah but it was no primary object no supreme object of their joy no
otherwise the object of their joy then as it was an evidence of Gods favour It is a great piece of the Spiritual mans art to rejoice in God while he rejoiceth in the creature to make Christ the gladness of his joy as the Psalmist expresseth it now this motion of a pious Soul will appear to be natural supposing him to be first enlightned to discern and to be fully persuaded that the love of Christ to the Soul is the greatest good the rational Soul is capable of this will appear to you if you will but consider these three or four things 1. That the presence and eâ—joyment of some good of which the Soul stands in need and in the pursuit of which it is is the true and natural cause of the motion of that affection which we call joy This is evident both to sense and reason we rejoice not in evil but in good not in an absent but in a present good in the sense and manifestation and apprehension of it 2. That the loves of God and Jesus Christ are the greatest goods in the world and therefore the presence and sensible manifestations of them are the enjoyments and manifestations of the supreme good The very light of nature shewed the Heathen that the happiness of man lay in his union with the greatest good thus far they were agreed by their common reason though they could not so well agree what that chief good was nothing hindred them from agreeing this truth but their want of true knowledge of God and Christ and of the possibility of a poor creatures having an union with him or any kind of enjoyment of him or understanding the need their Souls stood of the loves of Christ for agreeing that the happiness of man lay in an union with the supreme good they wanted but the revelation we have of mans wants and the possibility of this blessed union with and fruition of God but they must have agreed this truth 3. It is but natural to the Soul to rejoice more in the obtaining of a greater good then in the obtaining of what is lesser and to rejoice most in a good most comprehensive of other particular goods though it wanteth those particular good things Who is there who doth not naturally more rejoice in the getting of five hundred pounds than of five because the five hundred pound is a greater good then five who doth not more rejoice in a great stock of mony by him then in a great quantity of Bread or a great Wardrobe of Cloaths the reason is because Mony is comprehensive of these he that hath Mony can buy Bread and Cloths 4 Lastly It is but natural to us to rejoyce in nothing which we apprehend incompetent with that good wherein our chief happiness doth lie Nor in the having of any thing which we enjoy whiles we want that which we look at most of all Rachel was a good Woman Jacob was her Husband to whom she was exceeding dear he had a plentiful estate 't is hard to say what good she wanted save Children only that blessing her heart was upon Jacob was nothing his estate nothing to her she goes to her Husband and cries Give me Children or else I die Now admit a believing Soul to be firmly persuaded that it must live for ever either in eternal happiness or in eternal misery and again to be persuaded That it can never live in eternal happiness without an union with Christ without his love manifested to it in the pardon of its sins and the imputation of his righteousness admit the Soul to be fired in the pursuit of these things as its chief good how is it possible that it should rejoice in any thing incompetent with it or that it should rejoice in any thing with an equal joy as it rejoiceth in this Hence it followeth that Christ must be the singular object of the believing Souls joy 1. Because it is impossible the Soul should rejoice in what is incompetent with the sruition and enjoyment of what it rightly judgeth its chief good Such are all sensual prohibited satisfactions 2. Because it is impossible it should rejoice in what it judgeth a lesser good more then in what it judgeth a greater and transcendent to it 3. Because it knoweth Christ and his loves are comprehensive of all other good for if he hath given us Christ saith the Apostle shall he not also with him give us all things Thus I have opened and shewed you the reason of the Proposition why the Soul rejoyceth in Christ I added and in the manifestations of his love particularly in hearing and answering its prayers I shall give you some reasons of that and then apply the whole discourse But c. Sermon XXVIII Cant. 1. 4. We will be glad and rejoice in thee I Am yet handling the Proposition at first laid down I shewed you the last day how Christ is the singular object of the Spouses joy I added then and the manifestations of his love especially in hearing and answering our prayers Indeed Christ is no otherwise the object of our joy then in the manifestations of his love All joy requireth some sensible manifestation or experience The personal excellencies of Christ make him the object of our love whom saith the Apostle having not seen yet we love Love asks for nothing but amiableness in its object no more doth desire which is the first born of love but joy requires propriety and union Christ manifested to the Soul can alone be the object of joy but I added especially in hearing and answering Prayer that was the case here the Spouse had prayed draw me and we will run after thee she presently triumpheth in the hearing of her Prayers and then addeth we will be glad and rejoice in thee I might have also added prayers put up particularly for spiritual mercies We shall all along in Scripture find this made a great matter of joy in the hearts of Gods people take the instances of Hannah and David Hannah had been 1 Sam. 1. praying unto God for a Child the Lord answered see how she rejoiceth 1 Sam. 2. 1. Hannah prayed and said My heart rejoiceth in the Lord mine Horn is exalted in the Lord my mouth is inlarged over mine Enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation Concerning David we have many instances Psal 31. 21. Blessed be the Lord for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong City v. 22. Thou heardst the voice of my supplication when I cried unto thee Psal 3. 4. I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me from his holy place in this he rejoiceth and triumpheth v. 6 8. Psal 6. 8. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping the Lord hath heard my supplication he will receive my prayer So again Psal 18. 6. again Psal 28. 6. Blessed be the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications so Psal 116. 1. But there needeth no Scripture in the
case the experience of every Soul maketh it good it is natural to every man 1. Because in all answers of Prayer there must be a soul satisfaction upon some union with the object which it desired Joy is nothing else but the triumph of the Soul upon its union with the object which it desired Prayer is nothing else but the Souls desire expressed with its voice The answer of Prayers must be the Souls satisfaction in the obtaining of its desires this satisfaction ariseth from its union with its object upon which joy is but a proper and natural result and consequent 2. In all answers of Prayer there is an owning of the Soul by God As the Soul by Prayer owneth God acknowledging him the Fountain of that goodness which it beggeth so God in answering Prayer acknowledgeth the Soul Joh. 9. 31. We know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a Worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth All giving in of things prayed for doth not speak the answer of prayers God may hear and relieve the cry of the miserable when he doth noṫ answer the prayer of the righteous I have before hinted to you that there is an answer of our cries which floweth from Gods common providence as he is a God of pity and tender compassions and there is an answer of Prayers which comes from God as a God of truth and faithfulness how to distinguish these two I may possibly shew you in the application in some measure it is the latter answer not the former which is Gods owning and acknowledgment of the Soul as one for whom he hath a favour 3. There is yet one thing more in the answer of prayers last mentioned which to every thinking Christian is matter of great joy That it is that which speaketh the Soul to be beloved of God in Christ and to have Christ for his Advocate and Intercessor at the Throne of Grace It is in him that all the promises are Yea and Amen It is in his name that the believer asketh and it is he that doth the thing desired according to the promise John 14. 13. Whatsoever you shall ask that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son and because the thing is confirmed the promise is doubled v. 14. If you shall ask any thing in my name I will do it I shall add no more to the Doctrinal part of my discourse This notion in the first place distinguisheth the Child of God from all Men and Women in the World He is the only man that is glad and rejoiceth in Christ the only person that can say of Christ he is his chief joy 1. There are many that rejoice in their sensual satisfactions There is a man that shouteâ—h by reason of Wine Psal 78. 65. their Vivere est Bibere the pleasing of their Senses their Palate and Eyes and Ears is the greatest good they know after this their Souls move by desires and in the satisfaction of them they rejoice their mirth is madness and their laughter what doth it this of all other is the most sordid joy a rejoycing in iniquity yet this is the chief joy of many poor creatures 2. To others the World is their chief joy Their heart rejoyceth in their labour as the wise man speaketh Eccl. 2. 10. they look on all the work that their hands have wrought and on the labour they have laboured to do and they rejoice the gladness of their heart ariseth from the increase of their Corn and Wine and Oil and they know no better things to rejoice in For this rejoycing in Christ in the sense of his love and the pardon of their sins and the hopes of the glory of God alas how few understand any thing of it I have often had occasion to tell you that the spiritual state of a man or woman is not so much to be determined from his understanding and the notions there men and women may have great degrees of knowledge and yet have unsanctified hearts nor from their external actions An hypocrite may do many things and the best of Gods people in many things offend as from the motions of his will and affections He chuseth the things that please God To will is present with me saith Paul and consequent to this are the workings of the offections Thus a Christian is known by the objects of his love and hatred his hope and fear his desire and jâ—y The last is what I have to do with in this place Joy is one of the fruits one of the fairest fruits of the holy Spirit Gal. 5. 22. will any say to me how shall I know my state by the workings of this affection the answer is in the Text the believer rejâ—yceth in Christ the Apostle tells us that those that are the true circumcâ—sion worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus Phil. 3 3. A believer is not a Stoick as to the things of the World he lives in it and hath need of the things of it but Christ is his chief joy or the head of his joy as David saith of Hierusalem Psal 137. v. 6. But you will say how shall we know this whether Christ be our chief joy I answer 1. Thou wilt not thou canst not rejoice in any course of sin which is contrary unto Christ St. Paul tells us That he delighted in the law of God after the inward man he could not glory in a total freedom from sin he complaineth that he was sometime brought into Captivity to the law of his Members Rom. 7. 22. But he did not rejoyce in iniquity Wicked men sport themselves against God Against whom do you sport your selves Isa 57. 4 Solomon tells us That it is a sport to a fool to do mischief tells us of one who deceiveth his Neighbour and saith am I not in sport his joy is either in the satisfaction of his concupiscible appetite thus St. Peter tells us of some That they count it pleasure to riot in the day time 2 Pet. 2. 13. or in the satisfaction of his irascible appetite thus some sport themselves in doing or beholding mischief they rejoice at the destruction of him that hateth them which was a thing Job purgeth himself from Job 31. 29. or at the destruction of those that they hate they rejoice to do evil Prov. 2. 15. Yea and to see evil done as Edom rejoyced when the Jews were carried into captivity But now the Child of God can be a sharer in none of those joys These joys are incompetent with a rejoycing in Jesus Christ these men rejoyce in those things which crucified Christ I cannot say but a good man under some great temptation mâ—y feel some tickling pleasure in sin and the satisfaction of his appetite through ignorance or passion but he can have no fixed joy in any thing of that nature As a wicked man may have some fit of sorrow for sin so a good man may
have some fits of pleasure and delight in sin but neither of them will be constantâ— and abiding a good mans pleasure in sin is but a fit of sensuality a wicked mans trouble for fin is but a fit of distast It is a good sign that he or she rejoiceth in God and in Christ that can find no sensual satisfaction to rejoice in Secondly It is a sign that Soul truly rejoyceth in the Lord Jesus Christ that can rejoyce in no sensible enjoyment without the sense of God's love in and through him The unquietness and dissatisfaction of the Soul in the midst of all its sensible comforts if at any time it wants the sense of God's love and the pardon of its sins in and through Christ will much evidence Christ to be the Head of his Joy or his chief Joy There are few Souls in this life whose daies are without clouds sometimes they walk in the light sometimes in the dark and see no light now for a Soul under the fullest affluence of created comforts to be able to rejoyce in nothing in the absence of the sense of Christ's love is an excellent sign Abraham Gen. 15. 2. when God bid him ask him what he should give him replyeth Lord what canst thou give me so long as I go childless This now argued that a Child was the chief of his desires and the chief Joy which he had in prospect Abraham had a plentiful Estate a beloved Wife but his dissatisfaction for want of an Heir spake a Child to be his chief Joy an object which his heart was ready more to rejoyce in than in all that he had besides it When the Soul is at this pass that it can say Lord thou hast given me an Husband or a Wife and Children and I acknowledge thy goodness in them thou hast given me a plentiful Estate and I desire to bless thy Name for that but Lord what canst thou give me what canst thou do for me so long as I want the sense of thy love in Christ all these things are nothing to me whiles I have this dissatisfaction though it will not speak the Soul at this time actually rejoycing in Christ yet it will speak Christ to be its chief Joy Thirdly It is a sign that Christ is the chief Joy of the Soul if it can rejoyce in Christ alone when there is no fruit in the Vines when the Figg-tree doth not blossom and the labour of the Olives faileth as Habakkuk expresseth it that is when all sensible external satisfactions fail That Soul which hath not chosen Christ for his portion will hardly be content with Christ alone Mephibosheth declared that Davia's return in peace to Hicrusâ—lem was his chief Joy when upon David's saying Thou and Ziba divide the Lands he calmly replied 2 Sam. 19. 30. Yea lâ—t him take all for as much as my Lord the King is returned to his House in Peace It is said of the Primitive Martyrs Heb. 10. 34. That they indured with joy the spoiling of their goods knowing that they had in Heaven a far more induring substance Our hearts may be ready to deceive us in this point when we only put a case to our Souls and the thing appears at a distance It may be therefore we may come to a nearer judgment what our Souls would do in such a case by observing the frame and temper of our Spirits and what their support is under smaller losses and deprivations of more external comforts There is none of us but at some time or other suffer something from the hand of God immediately or from the hands of men We lose possibly a dear relation or a part of our estates supposing now that at this time thou hast no apprehensions of the wrath of God no fears as to the pardon of thy sins and thy interest in Christ how is thy Spirit under such providences canst thou look above them and yet rejoice that thy Christ is not taken from thee if you should see a Woman in the loss of a Child or Children yet lifting up herself above her sorrows and blessing God that it is not her Husband he is yet alive you would easily conclude that her Husband was her chief joy though she had some pleasure some satisfaction in her Child yet her Husband was the head of her joy 4. Lastly Canst thou joy in Christ Supremely not in thy mercies so much as in the God of thy mercies and in thy mercies only as thou seest the favour and goodness of God in them you read Luke 10. 17. that after Christ had sent out the 70 they after some time returned and made this report to him Lord even the Devils are subject unto us through thy name Christ tells them v 19. Behold I give you power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions over all the power of the Enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven God saith thus to many of his people Behold I give you comfortable Wives towardly and dutiful Children plentiful Estates success in your tradings and worldly businesses I set an hedge of providence about you whatsoever you take in hand doth prosper Notwithstanding rejoice not in this let not this be the great matter of your content and satisfaction But rejoice in this that I have given you my Son and through him the pardon of your sins and favour with me an evidence that your names are written in the Book of Life He that can do this makes Christ the head of his joy And if you can do this 1. You will be more troubled at the fears or apprehensions of the loss of Christs love then at the fears or apprehensions of the loss of any external satisfactions whatsoever 2. You will be rather willing to part with all then to do any thing that may hazard your loss of Gods favour Thus the Martyrs shewed that Christ was their supreme joy Let us labour to find this evidence of grace in our Souls to bring up our hearts to be glad and to rejoice in Christ in that manner as I have opened to you and particularly to rejoice in the answer of our prayers I will inlarge upon both these branches a little Let us be unquiet in our spirits until we find that our hearts are brought to this to rejoyce in Christ solely and supremely to rejoyce in him as our righteousness as our strength as our portion as our All in all I told you before that the Apostle Phil. 3. thus describeth a true Christian one that was of the true Circumcision The Jews he calls there the Concision but saith he We are the Circumcision who rejoyce in Christ Jesus He speaketh there of a reioycing in him as our Righteousness as he from whose perfect Righteousness alone the Soul expecteth Salvation This is in opposition to a rejoycing in any Birth-priviledges or
is full either of such as are excessive drinkers of Wine or Merchants for it but how thin is it of such as have any remembrance of Christs love who as the Apostle tells us died to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish who can be said to remember Christs love more then Wine that lives in those sins which crucified him who was the Lord of life Yet is not this the course of the most Men and Women who never think of their dying Saviour to restrain them in their drunkennesses debaucheries in their greatest excesses of Riot Nay how many are there that seldom take the love of Christ into their thoughts the love of their cups and of their Harlots hath made Christs loves to be utterly forgotten by their Souls for how can they say that they remember Christs loves above their lusts that will not quench one lust for his sake they in whom the remembrance of Christs death will not extinguish one vile affection one spark of pleasing lust will not the most of men and women yea such in whose ears the loves of Christ are published every Lords day be found perishing for preferring the very lees and dregs of Wine before the loves of Christ I mean for preferring the basest and most sordid kind of pleasures and satisfactions of the flesh for such are those pleasures which are no more than the gratifying of the sensitive appetite 2. Do not most mens discourses and practice betray them to remember Wine I mean their profitable things before the loves of Christ How much is the world and the things of the world the discourse of all companies upon all occasions how few are the discourses concerning Christ and what he hath done for us an hours discourse of Christs loves in a Pulpit upon the Lords day is thought proportionable to six days discourse about our earthly occasions do we not even grudge the Lord a seventh part of our time for the remembrances of his loves the Lords day is a day to call to remembrance Christs loves It was the day of his resurrection by which he compleated mans redemption the Ministers work is to help us in our remembrance of his loves We have besides our attendance upon the publick ministry a private duty this day incumbent upon us viz. To remember him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification I beseech you consider whether your remembrings of Christs loves upon the Sabbath day bear any proportion to your remembrance of your worldly interests other days I mean not for the proportion of time spent in the one and the other God hath indulged our infirmity in that he hath set apart a seventh day only to himself but examine this whether you remember the loves of Christ on the Lords day as you remember your worldly concerns on any of the other six days do the loves of Christ come into your thoughts as much on the week day as the world comes into your thoughts on the Lords days I sear there is none of us all can say that in this thing our hearts are clean I hope I speak to many who remember the loves of Christ and will never suffer his dying love to go off their thoughts But when we come to these comparative examinations to enquire whether we remember his loves more then we remember our sensual or sensible objects ah how short do we come of the duty of Christians yea of what our selves will own and consess to be our duty Happy is that man that doth not condemn himself even in the thing which he alloweth to be his duty But I had rather spend my time in persuading my self and you to our duty which according to my explication of the text and this propositionwill lye much in two things 1. In a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ 2. In a remembrance of them proportionable to that degree of goodness and excellency in them I say first in a Scriptual remembrance a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ I am afraid that we satisfy our selves too much in a Notional formal remembrance of Christs Loves and so please our selves in hearing the Gospel read opened and applyed to our Souls in a formal keeping of the Lords day the day which God hath set apart for us to call to our minds all the acts of our redemption compleated in his resurrection some Churches aware of Peoples awkness to this Spiritual duty have thought fit to appoint other days for a more solemn remembrance of his incarnation and death Nor have I any thing to say against any Christians that will set apart any Special times to remember any Loves of Christ though I do not know that Christ hath left any power to his Church to impose particular times of this nature But alas this is the least part of our duty in the remembrance of his Love We may have a day to remember it in we have such a day every week we may have helps to remember it by The holy Scriptures the Ministers of the Gospel that Preach Christ to their People are such helps But if in these days if with these helps we do not set our selves to meditate of the Loves of Christ to turn our thoughts from other things to the contemplation of and meditation upon the Love of a Christ incarnate the Love of a Christ dying and riseing again from the dead if we do not study to get our hearts affected suitably to such Love with love faith hope c. we do not so live as a People that remember Christ died for our Sins declining whatsoever is contrary to his will and Law in the Gospel do what in us lyeth to promove his honour Glory we are so far from Satisfying our Duty by this formal remembrance of his Love that we are the greatest forgetters of his Love The Jews who never owned him as their Redeemer the Heathen who never heard of his name nor of what he was or did for Sinners can in no propriety of Speech be said to forget his Loves The Christian only the loose Christian the formal Christian he who hears every day of the dying Love of Christ yet goes on to defy him to crucify him afresh and to put him to open shame or he who every Lords day hears the sound of the Loves of Christ and reads of it yet never meditates upon it never suffers his soul by contemplation to pierce into the heights or sound the depths of it whose heart is never truly affected with it so as he hath any Love kindled in his soul towards Christ no breathings after him who exerciseth no faith no hope in him he that lives not in his measure up to it leaving his vain conversation worshiping God in the Spirit
justified of her Children It is enough that the upright love him The upright men are the best men in the world But you will say were there such a beauty such an excellency in Christ why should not every rational man enquire after him and love him The answer is easy Because his beauty his excellency is not obvious to the Eye of sense or to the Eye of reason working from its own principles but only to the Eye of faith that of reason working upon revealed principles The goodness excellency of Christ considered as Mediator doth not lie in a suitableness to our bodily wants no nor to the wants of our Souls considered only as rational and spiritual Beings but in his suitableness to our Souls considered as lapsed and fallen from the happy state wherein they were at first created and by that fall exposed to the wrath of God here and hereafter Now this is revealed only in Holy Writ and is to be discerned only by the Eye of faith So as those who do not by a firm and steady assent agree to the revelation of the word cannot possibly see any excellency in Christ as a Saviour and Mediator between God and Man Secondly Every gracious Soul is from this Proposition justified in all their pangs of love for and toward Christ and in all their actions and sufferings in evidence of this love That there is such a thing as a spiritual love sickness is evident to all those who know any thing of the ways of God with the Soul or the motions of the Soul toward God Let persons of atheistical and profane hearts mock so long as they please no Soul that I know of expresseth more of this nature then his who is stiled by God the man according to Gods own heart Psal 119. 20. My heart breaketh with the longings which it hath to thy judgments at all times Psal 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God for the living God Psal 63. 1. My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Our Saviour I am sure blesseth those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5. what work would the unhallowed wits of our Age have made with such metaphors as these in their Books of drollery c. they are all expressive of those pangs of love that sometimes affect good Christians in the several states of their Souls and besides these more inward motions the Souls of good Christians cannot but express their love by a zeal for his glory a love to his institutions a regard to all his commandments and durst not do many things as to which their Neighbours find no difficulty because they love the Lord Jesus Christ who hath said If you love me keep my Commandments For Christ that they may shew their love by their obedience unto him they are ready to suffer the loss of all things yea and do count them but dung that they may win Christ for this the men of the world mock them let them mock on The upright love him I remember in the story of David we read 2 Sam. 6. 20. That Michal his Wife the Daughter of Saul mocked him for his dancing before the Ark in a linnen Ephod How glorious saith she was the King of Israel to day who uncovered himself to day in the Eyes of the handmaids of his Servants as one of the vain fellows shamelesly uncovereth himself The holy man gives her a very smart answer saith he It was before the Lord which chose me before thy Father to appoint me to be a ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel therefore will I play before the Lord. And I will yet be more vile then thus c. Whiles carnal men mock at the secret sighings and groanings of Gods people at their frequency and strictness at in or to religious duties and call it all whining and canting and what comes next to the end of their lewd Tongues the Child of God is justified in this that the upright love Christ and all these their expressions of love are for and towards him who hath chosen their Souls to Eternal life and the use of all means which he hath made necessary in order to that Salvation and who for ought yet appeareth hath passed over the Souls of these Scoffers and left them to perish in their gainsayings When ch 5. of this Song the Spouse chargeth the Daughters of Hierusalem that if they found her beloved they should tell him she was sick of love They reply What is thy beloved more then another beloved O thou fairest among Women what is thy beloved more then another beloved that thou dost so charge us Cant. 5. 8. 9. See into what an elogy of her beloved she breaks out to the end of that Chap. My beloved saith she is white and reddy the chiefest of ten thousand c. when the men of the world see a gracious Soul panting sighting and breathing after Christ they are ready to speak to the same sense tho in ruder language what is the beloved of this Soul more then anothers beloved what makes these people so full of prayers and tears so full of duty so fond of the ordinances of Christ This justifies such Souls in all their pantings after Christ in all the passions of their Souls for him The upright love him Thirdly From hence Christians may take measures of themselves and make up a judgment of their Souls whether they be upright Souls yea or no very much lieth upon this many are the promises that in Holy Writ we shall find made to upright Souls Perfection of degrees is our mark but what in this life we cannot attain unto all perfection we are capable of is uprightness this may be attained we are therefore highly concerned to inquire upon our uprightness By this we shall know it The Soul that truly loveth Christ that is an upright Soul so as that which we have to examine is the truth of our love to Christ This inquiry also is considerable in respect of the Apostolical Anathema 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha It is a great point how a Christian shall certainly know his spiritual state he shall know it by his uprightness how shall he know his uprightness that is to be known by his love to Christ But will some say is not this as hard to be discerned as any thing else I answer surely no. If it be no hard thing for a man to know whether he loves such a woman or a woman to know that she loveth such a man or for any to know they love such a friend such a companion why should it be so hard for a Soul to know whether it loveth Christ or no love will work much in the same manner towards all its objects and though the visibility and sensibility of some objects may draw out
more of our passion and excesses of affection yet the reality and truth of our love may certainly be as well discerned rewards a spiritual and invisible object as to one that is more the object of our exteriour senses let us therefore try those measures and see how we will make up our judgment of the truth of our love to a fellow creature what is that which we call love but the delight and complacency and satisfaction of the Soul in an object beloved declared by the pantings and breathings of the heart after it when absent for an union or re-union with it the acquiescence and meltings of the heart upon it when present and an union with it is obtained or apprehended the Souls intercourse and communion with it and free communications of its self unto it its kindness to every person or thing to whom or which the object beloved hath any relation its patient and pleasing bearing his reproofs its readiness to go or run or do any thing at the will and command of such a person its standing up in the defence of him or her its rising up against any that would do them injury or that it hears speak reproachfully or diminutively of him It 's readiness to suffer any thing for his sake c. Surely by some or all these notes we may try our love to Christ and be as certain of it as we can be of the sincerity of our love to any fellow creature let me therefore desire you to propound these few questions to your selves 1. How far is Christ the object of thy thoughts We say 〈◊〉 amor ibi oculus where love is there the Eye will be the reason of that is because our thoughts are much imployed about the object of our love where our treasure is saith our Saviour there will our hearts be also the Psalmist therefore speaking of the wicked man who hath no love for God saith God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10. 4. So long as we live in the world the things of it are so much and so continually the objects of our senses that it is not to be expected but that our thoughts should in a great measure be exercised about the things of it so that I would not put the issue upon that whether the world or Christ have most of our thoughts but certainly Christ will be much in the thoughts of that Soul in whom the love of Christ is Te veniente die te decedente canebat saith the Poet of the lover the Soul that loveth Christ will think of him in the evening when he lieth down and in the morning when he riseth up and David had his waking thoughts in the night season with God God will not have all of the best mans thoughts because he is but flesh and hath some thoughts to take about what he shall eat and drink and put on but God will have much of his thoughts Christ will be much in the thoughts of that Soul that truly loveth him Secondly 2. How are the motions of thy Soul after an absent Christ Christ as to his person is alwaies absent that the Heavens must contain till the end of the World but he is or may be graciously present in his institutions and with respect to his gracious influences and with respect to both these he is often or may be absent the first makes up the desertion of a Church when it is general or a particular person when it is only the affliction of a particular Soul in some cases and by some severer providences kept from the ordinances of God the second is the particular desertion of a gracious Soul not as to necessary but as to gradual influences now how is thy Soul affected to Christ absent when thou canst not enjoy the Ordinances of Christ as thou hast formerly enjoyed them You see the heart and affection of David in this cafe in divers Psalms particularly Psal 42. Psal 63. Psal 84. what breathings what longings what impatience doth he there express So when thou suspectest his absence as to the particular special influences of his grace how doth thy heart move toward him doth it move as the heart of the Spouse moved in the third and 5th Chapters of this admirable Song Seeking him sighing after him enquiring of all like to inform thee how thou mightest recover thy lost peace being restless till thou hast recovered it This is a sign of love 3. How is thy heart affected in any presence or enjoyment of Christ What pleasure what delight and complacency hath thy Soul in the institutions of Christ in the manifestations of his love to thy Soul See the instance of the Spouse as to this Can. 3. 4. I found him whom my Soul loveth I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my Mothers House and into the Chamber of her that conceived me v. 5. 1 charge you O you Daughters of Hierusalem by the Roes and by the Hinds of the field that you stir not up nor awake my love until he please A rejoycing in the signs of his love being glad and resolving not again to part with him a fear of offending him and care to please him are all of them signs of a love to the Lord Jesus Christ 4. A freedom of converse and communion with him also speaketh love Christ proves himself his Disciples friend because he had made known to them whatsoever he had received from the Father Joh. 15. 15. Dalilab challenged Sampson for want of love to her because he had concealed his secrets from her The withholding of prayer from God the want of frequency freedom and boldness in prayer speaks want of love to Christ in the Soul frequency freedom and boldness holy boldness speaks a Soul full of love to Christ 5. What affections hast thou to those things and persons that have a relation to Christ that bear his image and superscription the Word and Ordinances of God the Ministers and People of God by this you shall know your love to Christ Again 6. How canst thou bear the reproofs of Christ Our nature doth not love reproof we must love those very well from whom we take reproof quietly Let the righteous smite me saith David it shall be as an excellent Oil which shall not break my head When a Christian can bear the verbal reproofs of Christs Word and Ministers and the real reproofs and chastenings of his rod It is a sign of love 7. What zeal hast thou for the honour and glory of Christ Canst thou not hear him reproached but that his reproaches fall on thee thy blood riseth and thy heart is troubled It is an argument of little love for God or Christ when we can patiently hear them abused and dishonoured Psal 69. 9. The zeal of thine house saith David hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen on me 8. I must not forget that of our Saviour If you love me
that which should commend him or it No artificial beauty is our own and so a thing not to be gloried in All the comeliness of a Child of God is a derived comeliness His blackness is his own his comeliness is from another it is Christ that hath made him to differ he hath received his beauty and therefore ought not to glory as if he had not received it And this in the second place ought to mind them of their duty of thankfulness and admiration of â—he love of Christ When saith David I consider the Heavens the work of thy hands the Moon and the Start which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him Yet David in that Psalm is speaking of no more then Gods more common mercies of Creation and Providence but what greater reason hath a Child of God to cry out Lord what is man that thou shouldst remember him Lord What was I that thou shouldst remember me and fix thy love and put thy comeliness upon me I was by nature an Ethiopian and have contracted much more blackness by my conversation in the world now that the Lord should make us comely through his comeliness that he should fix his love upon any of our Souls and put any of his Chains about our Necks What manner of love was this To which of the Angels said he at any time aâ— Zech. 16. 8. When I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was a time of love and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness yea I sware unto thee and entered into a covenant of life with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Or as Jer. 3. v. 14. Turn O backsliding Children saith the Lord for I am married unto you To which of them hath he at any time said my Love my Dove my Vndefiled We had none of us either Beauty or Portion Christ hath given us both Admire the height and depth of Divine Love and consider what an ingratitude it would be if any of us should now like Israel Ezek. 16. 15. Trust in your own beauty and play the Harlotâ— and pour out fornications on every one that passeth by Bestow our hearts our love and affections upon any objects contrary to him beneath and besides him whether it be not reasonable that we should be wholly to him and for him who are wholly from him and are nothing but what we are in him Thirdly This notion calleth to the people of God not to be overmuch disquâ—eted and dejected It is one thing to walk humbly that is our duty another thing to walk dejectedly that is our infirmity we have no reason to be proud because we are black nor yet to despond and be dejected because in Christs Eyes if we be upright if we prepare and fix our hearts to seek the Lord we are comely We have no reason because of our blackness to glory in our selves but we have reason to rejoice and to glory in our comeliness which though indeed Christs comeliness yet being puâ—upon us becometh ours A believer hath therefore hath nothing to do but to see that his interest in Christ be clear and to see to wash his feet and he is clean every whit We have reason to consider our ways to reflect upon our infirmities to be humbled for our failings and to walk humbly at all times in the sense of them but still to incourage our selves in the Lord our righteousness to hope in God and rejoice in Christ tho we have no confidence in the flesh either in any priviledges of our birth or in any works of our own Lastly This Doctrine calleth upon all not to look upon the Spouse of Christ because she is black They are the words of our Spouse following in the next verse but the proper application of what she saith in this verse the use which she desireth her Brethren to make of this her imperfect and black state Something God willing shall be spoken hereafter more largely for the explication of those woâ—dâ— then the streightness of my time will now allow I shall therefore reserve the fuller explication of this duty until I come to the next verse and shall give you but a short tast and specimen of what I shall then more fully inlarge upon 1. We ought not to look upon the Spouse of Christ in these circumstances with a supercilious scornful and censorious Eye The Eye is the Oâ—gan of the body by which the Soul first taketh the cognisaâ—ce of a thing and is suitably affected there are two false rules by which we judge of persons 1. When we judge of them by particular actions 2 When we judge of them by external acâ—idents the first of them indeed is more proper then the latter because they are the fruit of the Soul the other are forreign and adventitious neither of them are a safe rule of Judgment not the former because none is to be denominated from single and particular acts and this the Philosopher will teach us and indeed if this rule of judgment should be true what judgment must have passed upon Lot Noah Abraham Jacob Job David Pâ—teâ— all the most eminent Servants of God whose names are upon Sacred Record they were all guilty of irregular acts Not the latter for it is not that which is accidental to a man but that which proceedeth from him that defileth a man Take therefore heed of a censorious scornful Eye when you look upon the People of God in their blackness consider that you also may be tempted that although you now stand yet you may fall 2. Look not upon her with a pleased and satisfied Eye The Eye is that Organ of the Booy which giveth the Soul delight content pleasure and satisfaction in the object Psal 92. v. 11. Mine Eye also shall see my desire upon mine Enemies We have naughty and corrupt hearts ready to take a secret delight and pleasure in the slips and failings of our Brethren let this be far from you either to rejoice in the real blackness the failings and miscarriages of any whose general conversation is not unworthy of the Gospel or to rejoice in any of their afflictions we are to weep with those that weep not to rejoice when we see our Brethren weep The first rejoicing is opposite to your duty with respect to the honour of God which suffereth by others sins as well as our own The second is eminently contrary to that love and fellow-feeling and compassion which we owe unto our Brethren Thirdly look not upon them so as to take out a copy for your imitation Rocks stand up in the Sea and lights stand upon the Land to give Ships notice of Rocks and Sands not that Mariners should run upon them but that they may avoid them for this end also are the failings and sins of Gods People Recorded in Holy Writ When you see a Child of God
against them Thus David complains Psal 35. 11. that in the day of his ealamity False witnesses did rise up against him and laid to his charge things that he knew not The men of the world whose malice and hatred prompteth them to injurious actions against innocent persons conceive themselves obliged to defend themselves against the common reason of the world which teacheth them to cry out against such acts of violence with raising lies and slanders concerning such as they so oppress and persecute he that is any thing acquainted with the Psalms of David or other parts of Holy Writ will find that what we see in the age we live in was but the old practice of wicked and profane Persons ashamed to own the true cause of their hatred and malice It was Matchiavels maxime Fortiter calumniare aliquid adhaerebit lay loud enough though never so false upon thy adversaries something will stick to them and indeed it is hardly imaginable but it should 2. A second reason of this judgment is because the most of men judge of blackness and comeliness by a meer sensual Eye The life of the Spouse is an hidden life her beauty is an hidden beauty The world doth not consider the afflictions of Gods People Spiritually as they are the tokens of Divine Love for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Child whom he receiveth nor as they purge away the Souls dross and take away its Tin as they melt it and try it and give faith a perfect exercise and patience a perfect work nor are they able to discern the Souls exercises of faith and patience of humility and meekness and quiet submission to the will of God The afflicted Spouse may not only be exceeding beautiful in the Eyes of Christ but in the Eyes of the Saints and People of God in their affliction and tribulation and the generality of men yet see no beauty and comeliness in them because their beauty is spiritually discerned all that is external is blackuess and unloveliness they are only glorious within 3. The generality of men and women in the world judge of the love and hatred of God by what is before men in this life The beauty of the Spouse of Christ lieth in two things 1. In her acceptation with God 2. In her habits of grace and the exercise of them both these are hidden from the Eyes of the world they see not the internal frame of a believers Soul as I but now told you and as their habits of grace are hidden things the world knoweth us not faith John so their state of favour and acceptation with God is an hidden thing also they cannot understand how God should love him or her against whom he suffers men to prevail to such a degree so that the wicked devours the men that are more righteous then they they judge of Gods love and hatred to Souls by what in this life happens to them The Apostles phrases 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. are all riddles to them we are troubled saith he on every side but not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed I have done with the Doctrinal part of my discourse Is this the lot of the Spouse of Christ to be Sun-burnt with afflictions and persecutions Is it their lot to be afflicted and will afflictions make them black and appear more black then possibly they are what then is our duty 1. In the first place it is certainly our duty to expect afflictions of this nature and to expect such usage under them as the people of God before us have constantly met with Our Saviour Christ having given to his hearers the law of his Discipleship Lu. 14. v. 27. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple addeth further v. 28. 29 30 31. For which of you intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he hath sufficient to finish it left happily after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish Or what King going to make war against another Ring sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand Or else while the other is yet afar off he sendeth an Embassage and desireth conditions of peace Our Saviour Christ by those two similitudes teacheth us all the duty of a pre-consideration a thinking before hand what may afterwards happen to us in the profession of religion and the owning of him and the profession of the Gospel It is certainly a true saying Mala inopinata graviora the less prospect we have of evils the more inexpected they come upon us the more heavy they prove to us unthought of evils are alwaies most intolerable because we are least prepared for them Let every good Christian therefore live in view of those Afflictions which the Apostle calleth the Afflictions of the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 8. Either because they constantly or most ordinarily follow the profession of it or because indeed it is unreasonable to think that any person should either adhere to the propositions of truth contained in it or live up to the rule of life which the Gospel prescribeth and be free from them If saith our Saviour John 15. 18. The world hateth you you know it hated me before it hated you and v. 20. Remember the word that I said unto you the Servant is not greater then the Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you These things saith our Saviour John 16. 1. 2 3. I have spoken unto you that you should not be offended they shall put you out of the Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God good service It is a most unreasonable thing for men to meet with more pleasing things and prosperity in the profession of Religion then the Author of that Religion or any of his Disciples ever met with or then he hath told us we should meet with in the profession of it who knew all things or that we should expect more tranquillity in the profession of Religion then the nature of that profession considered together with the ignorance and corruption of the world doth promise the professors of it It is true there is nothing in the nature and profession of the Christian Religion considered singly and apart by itself that is unlovely or disobliging to any it is a Religion full of good will toward men But considering this Religion together with the corruption of the world there is much in it which he that looketh but with a rational Eye will see that the world is never like to bear better then it hath hitherto done it tieth a man up to believe Propositions according to the revelations of the Word To live
of God Let us take heed that we be not made black by afflictions of this nature which we shall be if by them we be moved from our good opinion of the ways of God from our profession or practice of them there is no sinner more black then the Apostate See 2 Pet 2. 20. 21. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it is better sor them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them Indeed failings in a time of Persecution are caused from a double cause Sometimes meerly from the fear of life or some great danger that will befall to men if they adhere to their former profession failings of this nature make a Soul look black but many such recover themselves and the Lord who can have compassion upon our insirmities pities them and recovers them out of the snare of the Devil this is a blackness we ought to avoid by putting on the whole Armour of God that we may be able to stand in the day of the Lords Battel But there is another defection which is occasioned by Persecutions and Afflictions of this nature That is when men out of a greater love to other ways in a time of tryal renounce the truths of God they have formerly owned and forsake the ways of God in which they have formerly walked to these now Persecutions and Afflictions of this nature are but a slight occasion of their defection and Apostacy and this eminent difference you will find betwixt the others and these The others though they may be prevailed withal to warp and start aside because of the greatness of the temptation it was Peters case in the High Priests Hall yet will never be prevailed with to speak evil of and to revile the truths of God which they have owned nor the ways of God in which they have formerly walked and others yet walk The others being prevailed upon to their Apostacy meerly from the lusts of their hearts and the greater love they have alwaies had tho like Hypocrites they have concealed it to looser principles and a looser way of living take themselves concerned to reproach their former ways and those who yet walk in them This is a dreadful blackness not a tincture upon the face only but a tincture of the heart which by occasion of Persecution for the Gospel breaketh out into the more exteriour conversation To enforce this caution I shall only mention three things 1. That this is the affection only of the stony ground Mat. 13. 6 21. It is a certain sign that those never received the Seed of the Word into honest and good hearts that they never had any root in themselves who when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word by and by they are offended He that receiveth the truth in the Love of it cannot so easily abandon the profession of it 1 John 2. 19. They went out from us they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us The day of Persecution and tribulation for the Gospel sake is the day of the manifestation and discovery of hypocrites I do not think that all shrinking in a time of persecution is a note of hypocrisy there is a shrinking through fear in the time of great temptation so Peter shrank But for men to make a defection out of a principle of lust and greater Love to other ways and to reproach and speak Evil of the ways of God which by the way is a certain indication of such a defection this speaketh the man or woman to be no better then an hypocrite nor ever to have been other tho to serve his lusts he disguised himself with a mask of holiness and Religion 2. Secondly consider That no sinner so reproacheth the good and holy ways of God as such a sinner doth He tells the World that he hath tryed them that there is nothing in them that nothing but the ignorance prejudices of his education youth led him into them that the ways of sin profaneness of Formality and Superstition are better and therefore he is at last grown wiser then to take such pains to go to heaven If I would pick out a wretch out of the whole herd of sinners to reproach God to blaspheme the Gospel and the ways of holiness I would pick out onethat had been formerly a professor and had turned away from his profession this wretch pretendeth from experience to justify what others do but loosely discourse 3. Thirdly no sinners must expect a more dreadful Vengeance The reason is evident because none sin against more light There is no man who hath made a profession and lived in any practice of Religion but knows that there is no iniquity in it nothing but what suteth the common reason of mankind not debauched through lust and that those who in any measure live up to the profession of the Gospel are if sober heathens were to be judges the best of men with respect to all duty which the light of Nature teacheth toward the Divine Being and all good offices towards men I say there is none who hath made any profession but knows this and in all his Evil speaking of them doth not sin like an heathen nor like a profane man who speaketh ill of the things he knoweth not but speaketh contrary to the dictate of his own conscience I would not have this understood of those who are made black through these afflictions from the temporary prevailing of a strong temptation these with Pâ—ter tho they fall yet go out and weep bitterly and are recovered and made stronger by their fall but of those others before mentioned to whom Affliction and Persecution are but the externall occasions to draw out the lusts of their hearts which waited but for an opportunity to discover its self 2. Finally to shut up this discourse let this caution us from Judging the Spouse of Christ black because the Sun hath looked upon her You have heard that this is but the Worlds judgment not according to any measures of truth or righteousness To this End 1. Root your selves in this truth That none can judge of Gods Love or hatred from what happeneth to him in this life It is Solomons Maxime and a great truth God governeth the World according to the just Oeconomy of his Providence with respects unto his own wife Ends and no spiritual judgment can be made of the state of any from those administrations oft-times he maketh Princes to go on foot when servants ride on horse back and the wicked to devour those that are more righteous then they 2.
much to be therewith content It is an excellent Exhortation which the Apostle hath given and those are especially capable to receive to whom God hath given a plenty in this world Heb 13. 4. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with those things which you have for God hath said I will never leave nor forsake you Let this caution us all in the last place to take heed how we keep Vineyards how we make our selves drudges and slaves to secular imployments Take heed of such a Service to the world as is inconsistent with that duty and service which you owe unto God You cannot serve two Masters you cannot serve God and Mammon Suffer me to allude to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 9 10. I wrote saith he to you an Epistle not to keep company with Fornicators yet not altogether with the Fornicaters of this world or with the Covetous or the Extortioners or the Idolaters for then you must go out of the world But now I have wrote to you not to keep company if any Brother c. I do but allude to the Text. Brethren I have this day been speaking to you to have a care of medling with the world because it wasts your time spends your spirits distracts your thoughts allureth and inticeth you to the too much love of it because it will be a blot upon your Profession yet I would not be understood as if I had been persuading you to the lives of lazy Monks and Nuns and Hermites if you will have nothing to do with the world you must not live in it God hath commanded us in the sweat of our face to eat our bread The Apostle bids that those who would not labour should not eat and hath told us that he would have us to labour with our hands that we might have something to give to those that want and hath told us that he who provideth not for his family is worse than an Infidel and hath denied the Faith Only take heed how you converse with it that you be not by it defiled that it takes not up too much of your time nor wasts too much of your spirits and strength that it leadeth you not into temptation distracteth not your hearts in holy duties Keep thy foot when thou goest into the House of God look to your thoughts and affections when you draw nigh unto God in holy services and duties use the world so as thou mayest have time for Religious duties in thy family and mayest not by thy worldly concerns be distracted in them I would speak to you in this case as Paul doth in the case of servitude to men and of Marriage Are you by the Providence of God loosed from the world seek not to be bound to it Do your necessities call and for the present bind you to it Till God by favourable Providence loosen you from it do not loosen your selves by idleness and laziness It is possible thou mayest be God's free-man while thy necessities bind thee to worldly business I confess thou hast an hard task but saith the Apostle Let every man in the Calling wherein and whereto he is called abide therein with God Mark that last term not without God not in a neglect of his duty to God but with God Labour to have manum in clavo oculos in coelo to be in thy heart thoughts and affections with God whiles thou art imployed in thy lower business and concerns in this life Sermon XL. Canticles 1. 6. But my own Vineyard I have not kept THe Spouse by which I understand the Church of Christ and every particular believing Soul that is a true member of it is yet apologizing for her blackness or appearing blackness from the causes of it three of which she hath already assigned 1. Her afflictions or persecutions The Sun hath looked upon me 2. Her opposition from false Brethren My Mothers Children were angry with me 3. Her submission to Idolatrous or Superstitious Rites Or her too great intanglements in secular affairs They made me saith she the keeper of their Vineyards She comes now to a fourth Her own too much neligence My own Vineyard I have not kept 1. The Spouse had hitherto not much charged her self she had charged her blackness upon her afflictions and Persecutions upon the opposition she had met with from false Brethren and upon her intanglement in Secular affairs but was there no fault in her self here now she comes to lay much of the blame upon her self My own Vineyard faith she I have not kept Gods dispensations of Providence to me saith she have been some cause of my blackness The opposition I have met with from false Brethren have yet been a greater cause but the truth is saith she notwithstanding both these had not the fault been my own I had not been so black I might have kept my Vineyard better then I have done The truely gracious and humble Soul will not as to its failings excuse it self wholly It may charge something upon forreign causes out of its self either from God or Satan or men but will not discharge its own naughty and corrupt heart The hypocrite chargeth God and the Devil and men highly but seldom chargeth himself or if at all very faintly The reason lyeth in the pride of his heart which will not suffer it to stoop so low as to give God glory or to take any shame to its self 2. Secondly Observe what words they are which these words immediately follow They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but my own Vineyard I have not kept The Soul that is too much abroad is ordinarily too little at home he or she that must have an Oar in every ones Boat seldom hath his own Boat well governed Such a Soul is like the gadding housewife whose own house rarely is well lookt after This happeneth especially when the Soul is much abroad about secular concerns the Soul though it be of a Spiritual nature yet is very capable of being laden with and mired in thick Clay No Soul is so careless of things of an Eternal concern as those Souls which are most careful and sollicitous about things transitory and perishing There is a kind of inconsistency betwixt the business of the world and the business of Heaven the prefent world and that which is to come Nor is any Church so neglective of the Vineyard with which God hath betrusted it as that Church that hath bowed down to impositions of false worship But I shall not largely discourse either of these points though there be a good foundation in the text for it There are vet two other 3. Thirdly It is the Spouse that here complaineth saying My own Vineyard I have not kept Hence observe Even Gods own People are to ready to neglect the Vineyard with which God hath betrusted them 4. Fourthly In that she assigneth this as one and that no small cause of her blackness observe Prop. The
is this Thou believing Soul who in my Eyes art more beautiful and lovely then any other Soul in the world if thou beest in any thing ignorant of my will and where to meet me and how to enjoy fellowship and communion with me do not stray from the rule of my word nor vary from the examples of those whom I gave for Shepherds to my People keep close to them to their Doctrine and to my Ordinances administred by them There thou shalt find me There I rest at noon These two verses thus opened afford us several Propositions of Doctrine as matter of further discourse Prop. 1. Christ is he and only he whom the believing Soul loveth Prop. 2. Though there may be a time when such a Soul may conceal and disown its love to Christ yet there will be a time when it will break forth and she will acknowledge it Prop. 3. A gracious Soul desireth nothing more then a quiet full and sweet communion with Christ Prop. 4. Christ hath shades where he resteth and feedeth his flock under the greatest and most scorching Afflictions Prop. 5. Though a pious Soul never slighteth a communion with Christ yet she never prizeth it at an higher rate then in an hour of greatest trials and temptations Prop. 6. Gods People will especially in times of trial and great temptation be prone to fall into sin and error to the scandal of their profession Prop. 7. Sin and Scandal are the two great things which a gracious Soulfears Prop. 8. The Believing Soul is of all other Souls the most beautiful in Christs Eyes Prop. 9. The Beauty of this Soul is not perfect it may in some things be ignorant Prop. 10. The surest way for a Soul to get a perfect instruction in the things that concern its spiritual good and to keep and to enjoy communion with Christ is to feed its self by the Tents of Christs Shepherds and to live according to the examples and directions of his holy Servants recorded in Holy Writ I begin with the first of which I shall speak but briefly Prop. 1. Jesus Christ is he whom the Soul loveth with a singular love I put in the term singular because as I told you the phrase imports it Love is nothing else but the adhaesion or cleaving of the Soul to an object out of a goodness and suitableness which it hath discerned in it with a complacency which the Soul taketh in it which is such as if the Soul wants it it desires it if it enjoyeth it it is glad and rejoyceth in it which being first considered it followeth that look how many objects as there are that have in them any goodness or suitableness to our state so many objects of our love there are in the world And 2. That look how much goodness and suitableness to us we apprehend in one object more than in another so much we love one thing more than another or one person more than another 2. There is also a love that floweth from Union and Relation of which we are not able to give a perfect account the Parent loves the Child and the Husband loves the Wife and the Wife the Husband not alwaies out of Judgment The Husband discerning in the Wife a suitableness to him is not alwaies the cause of love Nor is the Child's love to the Mother or Father alwaies rational flowing from an apprehension of the suitableness of the Parent to it but rather from an impetus of nature an unaccountable complacency in those whom God hath made correlates caused by the God of Nature who hath made them one flesh who so deliberately considereth this will easily understand a double reason of the Believers Love to Christ 1. The first is That Union which is betwixt the believing Soul and the Lord Jesus Christ which is wrought by Faith this produceth this second Union which is that of Love By Faith Christ is united to the Soul and becometh a member of his body and that is followed by this Union of Love The Soul in the same hour wherein it is united by Faith to Christ being taught of God to love the Lord Jesus Christ It 's a piece of its Regeneration which continually followeth Justification and is indeed coaevous with it so that as in the natural Union the same day the man becomes a Father or the Woman a Mother there is a new Emanation of affection and love the Man or Woman that before knew nothing of the heart of a Parent now begins to feel it and in the moral Union betwixt the Husband and Wife the same day that they are married to each other there floweth a reciprocal Affection each to other so as they then begin to know the heart of an Husband and a Wife of which they knew little or nothing before So it is upon the Spiritual Union as the God of Nature influenceth the Souls of persons whom he hath given one to another in natural and moral Relations ordinarily for a reciprocal usefulness one to another So the God of Grace influenceth the Soul put into a spiritual Relation to Christ That the Believer upon his Union with Christ doth find his heart cleaving to and taking a complacency in the Lord Jesus Christ and begins thus to know the heart of a Believer And look as it is in the moral Relation betwixt the Wife and the Husband though the Man may have heard such reports of the virtues and excellencies of the Woman before he hath married her as hath inforced from him a complacency in her yet this bears no proportion to that delight and complacency he taketh in her when she is once married to him So although a Soul upon the large discourses he hath heard of Christ and of his love to Mankind and what he hath done and is ready to do for the Souls of men may have some good thoughts of him and some kind of complacency in his thoughts of him yet there is a vast difference betwixt this and that complacency which the Soul taketh in Christ when it is once by Faith united to him and amongst other habits of grace hath that of Love to God infused into his Soul according to that Rom. 5. 5. The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us I know there is a Dispute raised by some whether the natural man's love to God differeth from the Believer's love to God specifically or only gradually I do not think that these spiritual habits fall under those logical measures I am sure it is a love flowing quite from another cause The natural man's love is no more than a natural Plant cultivated by reason the other 's is a fruit of the Spirit so as they differ further than gradually but whether we should call it specifically or no or want a Logical term to express the difference I shall not think it worth my time to enquire 2. A second Reason of the Believer's love and so
affection which a woman may have for many men none of which she intendeth to make her Husband and she may do many common acts of kindness for them so there is a common love which a man may have for Christ and many common actions which they may do in his service the question therefore is how a man or woman may know whether he or she may with confidence look up to Heaven and say O thou whom my Soul loveth Let me add a word or two upon this argument here though I have before spoken much to it 1. I desire you to observe in the first place that the Spouse speaketh here in the singular number O thou whom my Soul loveth so must every Soul do that loveth Christ in truth a divided Soul is alwaies faulry That Soul which hath any thing in Heaven or Earth to be compared with Christ doth not love him It is true that love is a diffusive affection and may respect several objects but note these two things 1. These objects must be only diverse not contrary Contraries naturally expel one another there is nothing but sin and last that is contrary to Christ you cannot saith our Saviour love God Mammon he that saith to any lust O thou whom my Soul loveth cannot in truth say so unto Christ How many in the world by their fondness upon their lusts shew their want of love to Christ 2. Conjugal love admitteth neither parity nor priority The Wife that loveth her Husband as she ought to love him must neither love any other before him or better then other nor yet in a proportion equal with him she must love him before and above all things Our Saviour hath determined this in saying He that loveth Father or Mother or Brother or Sister more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more then me is not worthy of me 2. Soul-love will be known also by Soul-longings Love teacheth the Soul to long after 1. Union with the object beloved 2. A sense of reciprocal love 3. Communion with the object beloved If thy Soul loveth the Lord Jesus Christ it will be seen in thy longings after him in the hour of his apprehended adsence or after such degrees of his presence as thou hast not yet attained and after a sense of his reciprocal love the Soul that truly loves is impatient till it discerneth itself mutually beloved it will also long after communion with Christ you read Davids temper as to this Psal 84. 1 2 3. Psal 42. 1. Psal 63. 1. Alass how few are there whose pulses beat with any strength for God 3. Love thirdly is discovered by a complacency delight satisfaction in the presence of the object beloved according to the degree of its presence As it longeth for its object when absent so it rejoyceth and melts in the embraces of it when present What satisfaction hath thy Soul in an Ordinance or Duty in which thou hast seen the power glory of God the presence of Christ in his Ordinance 4. Love again is seen by the Soul's sorrow for a departed Christ The loving Wife weepeth when she for any time parteth with her Husband and is solitary when he is gone Mary's love to Christ was discerned by her weeping because she knew not where they had laid him And the Jews cryed out when they saw Christ weeping over the grave of Lazarus Behold how he loved him The dispensations of Christ to the Soul sometimes are very dark he seems to be gone and as it were buried out of the Soul's sight how beateth thy heart at such a time art thou afflicted or art thou not 5. If thy Soul loveth the Lord Jesus Christ it will be seen by thy anger a any thing whether in or from thy self or others which grieveth or offendeth him Love to its power will suffer no injury to the Beloved The Wife will not her self abuse her Husband nor to her power will she suffer any other if unwarily ignorantly or in a passion at any time she hath done it she is angry at her self for it and if others do it she is ready to seek a revenge upon them What indignation what revenge saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 7. 11. is produced by godly sorrow which is the effect of love 6. If thy Soul loveth Christ thou wilt reveal all the Secrets of thy Soul to him he shall know all thy griefs all thy desires and wants thou wilt be much in prayer much in secret prayer Dalilah charged Sampson for want of love to her because he had concealed his secrets from her Christ on the contrary justifieth his love to his Disciples Joh. 15. 15. by his telling them all he had heard of his Father 7. If Christ be he whom the Soul loves the Soul will be much in the meditation of him Whatsoever is the object of our Love is much in our thoughts O how I love thy Law saith David Psal 119. 97 99. it is my meditation night and day What room in thy thoughts hath Christ and the things of Christ 8. The Soul that is full of love is like the Fountain which is full and must overflow If we love any persons we are often talking of them upon all occasions talking for them and very often as we can get opportunities talking with them What are thy discourses of Christ to others How dost thou use thy Tongue in discoursing for Christ when there is need What discourses hast thou with Christ in prayer 9. Soul-love is like the Sun that cannot shine upon the Glass of the house but its refracted Beams will pierce thorow and shew themselves upon the walls the floor the pavements A love to Christ will look thorow him and shew it self upon every thing that hath relation to him his People his Ministers his Word and Ordinances Psal 16. 2 3. O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my goodness extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the Earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight 10. And lastly If you love Christ with your Souls you will keep his Commandments yea if it be to sacrifice an Isaac to pluck out a right Eye or cut off a right Hand This is our Saviour's mark Joh. 14. 15. Obedience is the first and most genuine fruit of Love and if it be such as shall speak a true Love in the Soul to Christ it must be 1. Internal as well as external 2. Universal not partial 3. Constant and not only for a fit But of these things I have spoken before and therefore shall not inlarge c. Sermon XLII Canticles 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at Noon I have done with the first Proposition I observed from these Words from the compellation O thou whom my Soul loveth viz. That Christ is he and the only he whom the believing Soul loveth there
green pastures for his flock in the day time and a secure fold for them at night yea and a fitting shadow for them at noon Christ doth so for his little flock to whom it 's his his Fathers and his will to give a Kingdom There shall be no want of those that fear him In the day time of their lives he feeds and protects them by his providence he nourisheth them by his ordinances and daily influences of grace In the night of death he folds their Bodies in the grave their Souls in Abrahams bosom It is the work of a Shepherd to provide and look out pasture for his sheep when that ordinary pasture is burnt up like a wilderness It is our great Shepherds work to provide feeding and resting places when either publick trials afflictions and persecutions debar them of their ordinary subsistence upon common providence or ordinary and more publick dispensations of publick ordinances and institutions the common food of their Souls But you will say to me what are these shadows from the heat these feeding and resting places which Christ hath provided wherein to feed and rest his flock at such a Noon 1. First he feedeth them upon the promises either more general or more specially suited to their particular trials Jeremiah saith Jer. 15. 16. I found thy words and did eat them and they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart Jeremy possibly there speaketh of the word of Prophecy which was as welcome to him as his meat But what was the word of Prophecy but the revelation of the will of God to him which when it was foretelling some judgment to come upon the People is more ordinarily called The Burden of the Lord The Believing Soul also in the Noon time of his Affliction and tryal finds the word of the Lord this he digesteth by faith and they become the joy and rejoycing of his heart By these things men live said Hezekiah some understand his affliction Others the promises of God made to him in the day of his Affliction The carnal heart understands not this food it is to him all one with feeding upon the air The promises are onely yea and Amen in Christ they are as shew bread of which none but the Royal Priest-hood can eat when the Child of God hath nothing else to eat he will yet feed upon a promise I had perisht saith David in my affliction if thy word had not been my delight Psal 119. v. 92. Latimer is said to have made his last meal upon that promise 1 Cor. 10. 13. Faithful is God who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able It is also reported of one Mr. Midgely a Minister in Yorkshire that being under horrid temptations to destroy himself and going once to the water side with design to do it carrying in his pocket the New Testament he paused a while to read a little and happily fell upon that text Mat. 1. 28. 29. Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you upon the reading of which he said to himself or to God rather sayest thou so I will not then drown my self yet The large field of the promises is one of those green pastures Where Christ at Noon feedeth his flock and maketh them to rest It is a feeding place which is at all times green the promises contain the Sure mercies of God He that liveth upon meer Sensible enjoyments feedeth but upon Grass and Flowers The Grass will wither and Flowers will fade But the word of the Lord abideth for Ever and there are some promises or others which sute the Soul in all its states and circumstances of Tryal and affliction 2. Secondly Christ sometimes feeds his flock at noon upon Special Providences And these are also of several sorts either of Protection from the Evil or Sustentation in and under trouble or deliverances out of trouble sometimes when thousands and ten thousands fall on their right and left hand The Plague shall not come nigh their dwellings according to the promise Psal 91. v. 7. In a time of famine Corn shall be fetched out of Egypt for Jacobs Family the Prophet shall be fed by a raven or the multiplying of the little meal in the widows barrel and the little Oyl in the cruse Sometimes they shall by some miraculous or at least inexpected waies and means be delivered out of trouble so were the three Children in the fiery fornace Daniel in the den of Lions of these there are multitudes of instances in Ecclesiastical History 3. Thirdly He sometimes feeds his People by Special influences either of strengthening or comforting grace In the multitude of my perplexing thoughts saith David thy comforts delight my Soul Psal 34. v. 19. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us saith the Apostle so our consolations abound by Christ 2 Corinth 1. 5. He will saith Job put strength into me Hence the Servants of God are inabled to rejoyce in tribulation under sicknesses have professed that they were never better and in great trials have rejoiced with a joy unspeakable Rejoycing in tribulation floweth not from the Tribulation For no affliction is joyous but grievous but from the influences of God upon the Soul in and under its tribulation Some one or other of these waies and means Christ feedeth his flock in a time of Trial and maketh them to rest in the Noon time of Trials and afflictions I proceed to the application of this discourse This in the first place commendeth the love of Christ to his little flock They say the Devil leaves the Witch when she is once in Gaol or upon trial for her life how true that is I cannot tell but certain it is that his Servants have no great help from him in an hour of straits and adversity this indeed speaks no love which never so much or so clearly shineth as through a Cloud of sad Providences Solomon tells us that a friend is made for an hour of adversity But herein is the Love of Christ manifested to those that have relation to him my Soul saith Mary Luk. 1. 4647. doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden Christ regardeth the low estate of his People he leaveth them not when they are in distress Isaiah 43. 1 2. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee For I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour This lets us see the wonderful difference betwixt the state and condition of believers and unbelievers The world hath no places where to make their flocks to rest at Noon The Devil takes no care for his flock at
the pleasure she hath by the thoughts of him when he is present Qu. 2. What diligence doest thou use to preserve the sweet savour of Christ unto and upon thy Soul Christ considered in himself is not like a flower that may lose its scent and sweetness no he cannot lose that sweetness which is essential to him he would cease to be Christ if he could cease to be sweet to a lost and and undone Soul but although he retains his sweetness yet thou mayest lose thy savour of it He may not be sweet to thee There are two sorts of Souls who savour very little of Christs sweetness 1. The Soul that lies under guilt of sin the thoughts of Christ to that Soul are ordinarily very terrible 2. The Soul that is choaked with Worldly Incumbrances The freer the Soul can keep it self from distracting cares for the World or from the renewing guilt of sin the sweeter will the thoughts of Christ be unto it Now if Christ be as a Cluster of Copher to the Soul It will be very careful to preserve the sweet savour that it hath of him And by this thou shalt know if Christ be indeed to thee as a Bundle of Myrrh or a Cluster of Copher But thus much shall serve to have spoken to this verse Sermon LVII Cant. 1. 15. Behold thou art fair Behold thou at fair thou hast Doves Eyes THere is a great harmony of Interpreters in the version of the words of this Text out of the Heb. into their several Languages excepting only that what we according to our dialect translate My Love they translate sometimes My Neighbour or My Kinswoman or My Companion for which you also perceive our Margents give an allowance and that some translate a Dove some Doves Eyes and the Arabick differing from all thy Eyes are as a pair of Doves There is no other difference And this is so inconsiderable that I shall spend no time in indeavouring to reconcile it All Interpreters agree that it is the Bridegroom which now speaketh He who acteth that part I mean in this Song The Lord Jesus Christ The Person he speaketh to and of is the believing Soul which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My beloved or My Campanion c. It is of the Foeminine form in the Hebrew which is that which leads Interpreters to conclude that it is the Spouses speech It is a word often used in this form in this Song and I think no where else so in all the Scripture In the sentence you have considerable 1. The matter of it in two Propositions Thou art fair thou hast Doves Eyes 2. The manner of expressing it 1. The words are doubled Thou art fair Thou art fair 2. Here is a double Ecce Prefixed Behold Behold There are in the Text 2. Propositions 1. The Spouse of Christ is fair 2. The Spouse of Christ hath Doves Eyes 1. Prop. The Spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ is fair The believing Soul is a beautiful Soul to the main of this Proposition I have very lately spoken when I spake to the compellation v. 8. where Christ had called her the fairest among Women I then discoursed the Nature of her beauty and shewed you 1. That it was not a corporeal but a Spiritual beauty 2. Not a visible but an invisible beauty 3. Not a Native but an adventitious beauty 4. Not an artificial but a created beauty 5. Not an adherent beauty only but an inherent beauty also 6. A desirable beauty 7. A durable beauty 8. Not a perfect beauty And having spoken so fully to it there where also the same word is used I intend not to repeat it here only I shall take notice of some circumstances by which the Proposition is advantaged in this Text. And They are four or five 1. He had told her before She was the fairest amongst Women Not satisfied with that he repeateth his Love to her again and telleth her she is fair she is fair 2. The Soul had been commending Christ that he was as a bundle of Myrrh as a Cluster of Camphire to her Christ upon her expressing affection to him replies Behold thou art fair c. 3. When he calls her Fair he adds My Love Thou art fair my Love 4. It is not barely exprest Thou art fair but here is an Ecce prefixed Behold thou art fair 5. Lastly He doth not speak it singly But he doubles his words Thou art fair Thou art fair and the term Behold is repeated too Behold thou art fair Behold Thou art fair Here is none of these five circumstances but will afford us a meditation which will be either informative or sweet or profitable to us Give me leave therefore to speak a word to each of them He had told the Spouse before she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fairest amongst Women But not Satisfied with that he tells her again Thou art fair my Love Thou art fair Christ doth not only speak peace but he repeats peace to the believers Soul God often appears to Abraham and Jacob to assure them that he was their God Once have I spoken and twice have I heard it saith the Psalmist that Power belongs unto God There is many a Soul that can say Once hath God spoken yea twice have I heard it that the Love of God belongs to me There is many a Christian that can say In such an Ordinance I heard God speaking peace at such a time I found this Spirit witnessing with my Spirit that I was his Child Christ in this consulteth 1. His Peoples infirmities 2. His own glory 1. Christ I say in this thing consulteth 1. His Peoples infirmities They are many which make them need this two chiefly 1. The Believers Soul is dull of hearing The Apostle chargeth the Hebrews Heb. 5. 11. That they were dull of hearing which made the repeating fundamental truths necessary for them There 's nothing in the World that a gracious heart would more gladly hear then this that it is fair in the Eyes of Jesus Christ and yet nothing that it is more dull to hear the reason is because it so eagerly desires it and prizeth it so highly that it cries out It is too good news to be true You shall observe in the World a double disposition in men some are disposed almost wholly to fear others to over much confidence Hence at such a time of changes in the state as this is one man be a thing never so true and to his mind yet he hardly believes he is naturally disposed to fear the worst Other men let things be never so improbable yet they will hope and talk as confidently as if the thing they would have were done It is much from their natural temper they are disposed to confidence c. Take now an unbelieving natural man and he is disposed to bless himself and hope well of his condition you have his copy Deut. 29. 19 20. He saith I shall have peace though I walk
from expressing exuberant affection to it lest the Child by it take advantage to go on in courses of disobedience Christ dearly loves many a poor Soul that hath its wanton tricks and is full of failings but he will not say to such a Soul Behold thou art fair my Love I will add but one thing more 4. Lastly Possibly Christ hath spoke and spoke it to thee often Behold thou art fair my Love Behold thou art fair but thou hast not heard him I have already told you that many of God's People are very deaf of that Ear. I was about to say there is no better sign of a gracious Soul than not to be too ready to hear such messages of peace God sometimes speaks so as the Soul cannot but hear when he pleaseth to set the Broad Seal of his Spirit unto the poor Soul this indeed is an audible voice and distinguishable enough But God in every Sermon speaks to the Believer Thou art fair my Love thou art fair We never Preach those great Truths of God That whosoever believes shall be saved and whosoever is justified by Faith hath peace with God and such like but God to every Believer that hears us speak Thou art fair my Love thou art fair But alas not one of many hath an Ear to hear no not those who truly believe It is in this case as with Samuel 1 Sam. 3. 4 5. Samuel was young and had not been used to the voice of God God calls him once away he goes to Eli the Lord calls a second time Samuel runs to Eli again and so a third time till Eli instructed and assured him it was the voice of God Till the Spirit of God brings the voice of God in the Gospel to the Ear to the inward Ear of a Christian he will not understand God speaking peace to him when indeed he doth speak it In very deed it is for want of Spiritual Logick The Word of God hath the Proposition He that believes is fair Though a man hath been a Thief a Drunkard a Covetous person c. yet if he be washed if he be justified if he be sanctified in the Name of our God and through the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ he is fair Thus much is plain in the Word 1 Cor. 6. 11. But now when the Soul should come to assume But I am washed I am justified I am sanctified there it fails and these may be the Reasons of a gracious Soul's complaint in this case But I have spoke enough to the first of the five Circumstances which I mentioned I proceed now to a second The Spouse had been admiring Christ comparing him to a bundle of Myrrh to a cluster of Camphire or Copher Now Christ adds Behold thou art fair my Love Behold thou art fair Obs High out-goings of a Soul toward Christ are ordinarily productive of great returns of the Love of Christ upon the Soul Duty in us is not the Father of Grace for who hath given first unto God and it shall be repaid to him again but extraordinary influences of Grace are commonly the wages of great duty It is very seldom that any Soul lets Christ know that he is exceeding dear to it but by the next Post the Soul shall know that it is very dear to Christ Doth God hear Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God c. Ephraim shall presently hear God saying Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Is the Spouse sick of love Cant. 5. 8. Doth she indeed think her Beloved the chiefest amongst ten thousand c. She shall presently hear him saying Thou art beautiful O my Love as Tirzah c. Turn away thine Eyes from me c. ch 6. v. 4 5. I might instance in many Texts of Scripture but I forbear Will you know the reason of this Take it 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Negatively It is not because there 's any merit in duty Christ is no Merchant of Grace he gives it but he sells it not Indeed it is a contradiction to speak of meritorious duty if it be duty it is the payment of a debt on our part and can be no purchase-mony The compass of that Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy Soul and with all thy strength is of an exceeding latitude there 's no finishing of it by any creature in this life It was from the jejune Interpretation that the Pharisees of old and the Papists of late have put upon the Law of God that they ever dreamt that man was able to perform it much less do any thing of supererogation The foundation-stone of man's Salvation is laid in Grace and the top-stone is Grace too To the whole Building you must cry Grace Grace But Positively 2. It is from the overflowings of Divine Grace in him who is our Fountain-head the Lord Jesus Christ The Eye that weeps for its sin till it can weep no more doth not by its tears make it self an Handkerchief to dry its Eyes but a tender-hearted Saviour moved from his own bowels cannot but afford it one and say unto it why weepest thou The Soul that for Christs sake parts with Father Mother Children Brethren Sisters all doth not by this purchase to it self peace of Conscience or eternal life Alas what proportion is there betwixt things temporal and such as are Spiritual and eternal But he who hath both these to give gives them upon the Souls performing its duty in this particular Matth. 19. 29. The Soul that casts up many a long look to the Lord Jesus Christ and earnestly wisheth for his presence with it and valueth it above the World and seeks for it more then for Gold or hid treasure doth not by this earn Christs Love to it but Christ from the fulness of his grace makes choice of this Soul to reveal himself unto The Prophet Isaiah Ch. 30. v. 18. hath such an expression as this The Lord will wait that he may be gracious unto you Christ is a fountain of Grace a full fountain now when the fountain is brim full of water the water waiteth for an opportunity to diffuse it self it may be there is a bank that hinders the full river that it cannot diffuse its water the water therefore works secretly and softens the bank first till a breach be made and then it emptieth it self by it Christ is a sea a full sea of Grace but sinful man casts up a bank against this sea a bank of unbelief A bank of stone hardning his heart a bank of earth favouring an earthly mind a bank of mud delights in sensual lusts and
followers of Paul been to despise the followers of Cephas and those that followed Apollo to despise those that followed Paul How subject have we been to contemn those not of our own form though possibly better Scholars in Christs School then we for Scholarship in Religion is not to be judged by forms in the Church Certainly it had been much better for those self conceited Christians that looking upon their own beauty have so scorned others as low legal Christians to have thought with themselves Ah! but what is my Beauty to Christs Beauty And why do I despise who my self have not attained 2. A 2d sort of professors have erred by thinking of themselves above the measure of faith given to them I know nothing hath contributed so much to the miserable distempers of our Church as this that our professors have looked their faces in a multitiplying glass there they have beheld their parts above what indeed they were yea and their graces too But alas Friends Suppose them what you would have them there is no cause of glorying for if thou hast received it why doest thou glory as if thou hadst not received And let the parts and graces that make thee beautiful be what they will certainly they are short of Christs still who is thy great Example 3. But most abominable are those who dream that they are as holy as Christ as perfect as he is yea that they are Christed and Godded They may be Devilled and Sathanized with pride and self conceit but certainly when the Saint is grown to the highest pitch Christ must be higher by the head and shoulders Did these poor worms ever drink of that cup of which he drank Or were they ever baptized with the Baptism wherewith he was baptized If not how come they to sit at his right hand were they the onely begotten Sons of God full of grace and truth How then come they if they were not so to be sharers with him in his glory Away then with this blasphemous pride and if thou O thou worm of the Earth knowest not how to difference Christs Beauty from thine go to the Sun and Moon and Stars and consider if the imperfect twinkling light of the latter bear any Proportion to the triumphing light of the former go and learn how the heat of thy hand made hot by the Fire can possibly be proportionable to the heat of the Fire which gave thy hand what heat it hath But no more of this It is a thing not fit to be named amongst Christians This is the first Use In the 2d place Let this Caution you against that which the Apostle Jude complains of Jude 16. Having mens persons in admiration Under the former branch of Application I took notice of one great cause of the sad miscarriages of professors in our age I shall here touch upon another It is This having mens persons in admiration Christians have had such a one in their Eye whom they have looked upon as an holy and eminent person full of Spiritual Beauty and him they have followed over hedge and ditch never looking at Christ all the way It is good to behold the workings of Grace upon those who are made the subjects of it but to what end What that we might admire them and follow them no but that we might admire God in them and that Grace of Christ by which they are so holy so humble so meek so eminent in any Grace I am afraid many have made another use of Professors seeming Beauty in these times and the Lord hath let them see that their Beauty was vain and their appearing Favour deceitful Certainly Brethren if that which you have heard be true Christ alone is to be admired by you he is the chiefest of ten thousand Do you hear any one saying such a Minister such a Christian is fair O! he or she is fair they have Doves Eyes look thou up to Heaven and say Nay my dear Saviour thou art fair these are derivative Beauties thine is a primitive Beauty the Beauty of these is but an accidental adventitious Beauty thine is an essential substantial Beauty these are mixed Beauties thine is a perfect Beauty We have hearts that are exceeding carnal Men are very prone to admire their fellows rather for Outward Advantages than for Spiritual Perfections more for outward parts than for Grace and when they take notice of Grace in any to admire them rather than Christ for the Grace of God bestowed upon them The Woman Luk. 11. 27. was guilty of the first that hearing Christ speak lift up her voice and said Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked Christ reforms her wish v. 28. yea rather Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it The Corinthians were guilty of the second who much admired those amongst them that had parts and extraordinary gifts The Apostle endeavours to reform that 1 Cor. 12. 31. I shew unto you a more excellent way that was Grace Grace is better than all the gifts in the World Christians are also subject to a third Errour where they see or at least think they see eminent Grace in any they are prone to admire them and follow them But Christians I shew unto you a more excellent object do you see eminent grace in any admire Christ in them and the eminency of Grace in Christ who hath given them such a proportion But let Christ still be greater in the Throne than the greatest Saint upon the Earth admire him and follow him But that will be a third branch of Application What you have heard methinks should send you all away filled with the admiration of Christ panting with desires after Christ and filled with the love of him 1. I say first Filled with the admiration of Christ Have you at any time seen an eminent Christian abounding with love to God zeal for him clothed with humility buried in self-denial adorned with any Graces which have made him acceptable to all with whom he hath conversed and have you admired such a one how he could abridge himself of the sweets and contentments of this life and satisfie himself with being any thing or nothing so he might but attain to the Resurrection of the Dead win Christ be found in him and win others to him and will you not admire that Fountain from whence all these streams are derived Is he a reasonable creature that gazeth upon a twinkling Star and admires the lustre of it and looks upon the Sun without any admiration at all Oh! admire Christ to whom all created Perfections are no more than so many drops of Water to the Ocean so many grains of Sand to a Mountain so many slender Beams to the body of Light in the Sun 2. Shall not this send you away panting after Union and the seal of Union with Christ Man as a sensual creature desires corporeal Beauty and 't is hard for him to see it
reason why the Word and Ordinances of God are so ineffectual as to some however effectual unto others but I have not time to enlarge so far I shall therefore close up all with one Branch of Application Beseeching every Soul that heareth me this day to labour that Christ may yet be kept in his Bed in our Bed The Bed is the resting place while Christ remaineth and resteth amongst his People The Bed is green The Soul in which Christ resteth is a flourishing Soul the Church in which Christ resteth and in which he dwells is a flourishing Church whiles he walketh in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks they are full of light If he withdraweth himself their light will be darkness Give me leave a little to improve this argument with you to the quickening up of your indeavours to the utmost for the keeping of Christ in our Bed I am the rather ingaged to it from the fears that the experiences of late years and the present juncture of affairs have created in me that Christ is risen up out of his Bed amongst us It was said of old That when the Church had wooden Challices she had golden Priests but after she came to golden Challices she had wooden Priests I cannot say so for our late times The Church of God amongst us hath had golden Priests I believe there was no Nation under Heaven that in such a space of time enjoyed more of the Ordinances of God more able Preachers more powerful and Spiritual administrations The Bed hath been lovely or the Bedstead rather hath been so but hath it been flourishing how few Children have been all this time brought forth unto God The Lord help us Thousands have been perverted but how few have been converted Thousands carried off from the waies of God not so many tens brought into Christ Where are the Souls have been convinced of fin or converted to Christ The conversion of our daies hath been to opinions and factions not to Jesus Christ Yet blessed be God it hath fared with us as with trees withering which bring forth some small proportions of fruit though dwingling as to the proportion and not in so great plenty as formerly but I am afraid we are yet growing worse and worse sure I am if the Lord withdraws his presence from his Ordinances it must be so seeing you may see and not perceive hearing you may hear and not understand Methinks I see our Saviour though now exalted at the right hand of his Father weeping over England as once over Hierusalem and saying O England England thou that hast despised the Ordinances of God and despised those that have been sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thee as an hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but thou would'st not Behold my house shall now be lest desolate You may have Ministers and you may have Ordinances but you shall not see me henceforth till you say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. The pulse of the Spirit in Ordinances hath for many years beaten faintly now and then a stroke like the pulse of a dying man I am afraid lest the last stroke should be nigh at hand Where 's the power and presence of God in our assemblies Where 's the taking of Heaven by force which former times experienced Oh that the consideration of the uneomfortableness of a desolate sanctuary or dead Ordinanees in an open sanctuary might awaken you while yet you have hope to do what in you lies that Christ may be kept in his bed with you it is true the wind blows where it listeth and who can command the breathings of it But yet let there be nothing wanting in your indeavours That if God shall measure out such a dispensation your Consciences may not rebuke you as wilful occasioners of it To this end give me leave to advise 1. That you do not first go out of the bed from him The Prophet told the King that God would be with him and his People if they were with God God is not ready to rise up from his Bed of Love he never forsook a People that kept clofe to him The Jews would not be gathered then Christ hid the things from them that concerned their peace Christ in the last day of the feast cried You would not come to me that you might have life First they would not then he would not you have had a Gospel feast possibly this may be the last day of it this day Christ cries to you Oh let him not go away with this dreadful word you will not come to me that you may have life Take heed of despising Ordinances of slighting Christ and the means of grace Take heed of shunning Christs Bed How many are there that shy the Bedstead refuse the Sanctuary how dreadfully do these poor creatures despise their own mercies Your daies of grace for ought I know may be very few you had not need neglect them The woman that will not come nigh the Chamber where her husband lodgeth is not like to have a flourishing Bed 2. But secondly Take heed also of making Christs Bed unquiet to him The unquiet wife often loseth her husbands Company nothing makes Christs Bed so unquiet to him as sin doth The Soul that resisteth convictions quencheth the motions of the Spirit of God thrusteth Christ out of his Bed while you have the light do not only come unto it but walk in it Sanctuary sins make God abhor his Sanctuary and loath his dwelling place Take heed of quenching private motions of the Spirit or of resisting the more publick convictions of the word 3. Give up your selves to the Lord Jesus Christ The Apostle to the Corinthians saith 2. Cor. 8. 5. that they gave themselves to the Lord and then to them Do what in you lies to give up your selves to the Word of God allow not in your hearts any rebellious thoughts against it Audite verbum Dei tacete Something of this you may do when you hear the Word of God convincing you of sin hold your peace to it suffer the conviction to take hold upon your hearts and to have its operation But alas man hath a vain a stubborn an unquiet ungospellized heart What therefore remains but that we should 4. Pray that the Lord would keep us in his Bed and not himself rise up from us let us therefore take unto our selves the words of the Prophet Jeremiah Jer 14. 7 8 9. O Lord though our iniquities testify against us do thou it for thy names sake for our back slidings are many we have sinned against thee O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why should'st thou be as a stranger in the land And as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished As a mighty man that cannot save Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy
particular Soul is But God himself supplieth that place Now The Word and Ordinances of the Gospel though they be not Anima Mundi the Soul of the World Yet they are Anima Eâ—clesiae as it were the Soul of the Church of God without which the Church would be no such thing as the Church of the Living God They are those things which make the Church to be a Church and the whole Church to be but one Church Let this therefore engage every Christian to prize the Word and to prize the Ordinances of the Gospel That 's the first Branch Hence in the second place you may observe what is a sad Symptom of a decaying Church and by this you may also discern a lame and imperfect Church Look as in a Building there are some more principal Beams and pieces of Timber without which there can be no House no Building Others that are integral parts without which the Building is not compleat yet the House may be an House though lame and imperfect So it is in this case without the Doctrine of Faith and some Ordinances of Worship the Church is no Church If any part of the Doctrine of Faith be wanting or corrupted in a Church the Church is however true yet lame and imperfect Suppose a Church wholly want some Ordinances as some do the Ordinances of Ecclesiastical Censures yet they are not by this made no Church if they have the Doctrine of Faith and some Ordinances of Worship much less ought a Church to be so censured for the temporary want or suspension of the Exercise of some Ordinances which was the case of the Jewish Church in the Wilderness as to Circumcision but yet the Church that wanteth such Ordinances is imperfect and lame And again I say this is a sad Symptom of a decaying Church when either the Doctrine of Faith or Ordinances of Worship are denied or corrupted in it for these are the Beams and Rafters of the House and every one grants that House to be a decaying declining House where the Beams and Rafters are rotten We need no further Evidence of this than what we have in God's Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia recorded by St. John in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation The Church of Smyrna was a decaying Church The Doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans was holden in it The Church of Thyatira was a decaying Church for the Woman Jezebel taught and seduced the Servants of God in it And but a while after these Rafters and Beams being decayed these Houses of God fell and to this very day lie in their rubbish From that time that Jeroboam set up the Calves at Dan and Bethel and the Kings of Judah set up Altars in Groves the Church of the Jews was a declining decaying Church and the Rulers of it and Members of it having no heart timely to repair and reform it the House fell It is true God raised it again after the Captivity but it decaying the second time fell and lies buried in its Ruines this day Thirdly From this Notion may be drawn a great argument both for unity and uniformity Vnity in matters of faith Vniformity in matters of practice The Doctrine of unity in the Church of the Gospel is exceedingly pressed in Scripture scarce is there any one of the Epistles of the Apostles in which it is not again and again pressed Be of one mind there is a double union which is our duty to labour after The first is unit as fidei the unity of faith as to the understanding The second is unit as Charit at is quoad affectum the unity of Love and Charity as to the affections The latter of these hath been highly pleaded for in these sinful and wofully divided times and indeed never more need of it but it hath not been duly considered that considering the corrupt state of man The former union must be the Mother of the latter For as all love is founded in some similitude so this love and affection where it hath any where grown up to its due heighth we shall find hath been founded in the similitude of understanding and de facto it is evident that amongst Christians of different persuasions in the things of God there hath seldom been an intireness of cordial affection Indeed these things ought not to be therefore I do not Commend them nor yet blame the exhortation of brethren of divided Principles to an union in affection forbearing one another where all things have not been alike revealed to all but such is the corruption of our natures that this is rather optandum then sperandum to be wished for rather than hoped for if there could be unity in Judgment and uniformity in practice which the Apostle calls a thinking and a speaking the same things the other union of affection would follow more readily O let us labour for this There is but one truth but one true rule of Worship This Doctrine these rules are contained in the Word of God these are the Beams and Rafters of the Church and if the same Beams and Rafters run through the whole Church and be upon every part of the roof we may expect that the building should be strong and durable on the other side the difference of these Beams and Rafters whiles one Church holds one thing in maâ—ter of faith another Church holdeth another thing nay whiles one particular Christian believes one thing another Christian believes another thing whiles this Church or this Christian Worships God after one way and order another Church or other Christians they Worship God after another way though indeed it is possible their differences may not be so great but they may yet agree in one and the same head the Lord Jesus Christ and so both parties differing may at lest be saved yea it may be their differences are not so great but there may be a just forbearing one of another provided all Christians were of equal understandings or that they rightly understood each other yet doubtless this breach of unity as to matters of Judgment in things relating to the Doctrine of Faith and breach of Vniformity as to matters of practice is a great weakening of the Church of God and much spoileth the beauty and glory of it O therefore study unity and study uniformity you strengthen the building by both these you weaken it by dividing or disagreeing at least to open notice It is to me very remarkable that St. Paul almost in every Epistle presseth these things and Phil. 4. 2. when but two women dissented he thought it worthy of his pains to persuade them to it I beseech Euodias and I beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. Doest thou therefore O Christian differ from other Christians amongst whom thou livest in any matter of faith or in any matter of practice as to fellowship in Ordinances sit not down Satisfied but labour for this unity for
they have in them cravings and lustings of the flesh David prayeth hard for his life Psal 39. ult and Abraham for a Child and Job for health Jonas is fond of a gourd and Agur beggeth food convenient for him and although Rachel may be too importunate for a Child and Paul for the removal of the Thorn in his flesh yet there is a lawful desire of the good things of this life allowed yea commanded us in that form of Prayer which our Saviour prescribes We are bid to pray Give us this day our daily bread But the Child of God first seeks the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof according to our Saviours prescript Mat. 6. 33. I remember David hath such an expression as this Psal 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his holy Temple If a Child of God had but one thing to ask of God this should be it that it might behold the face of God this is that which it would seek after and look out for Yea this is that which their Souls desire eminenter These are the things for which they will wrestle with God and will not let him go until he shall bless them with them Other things they will beg but these are the things their Souls will spend their strength in and lay the stress upon did you hear the secret pleadings of the awakened Soul with God you would easily discern the difference between the desires it hath towards outward things and those which are in it towards Spiritual and distinguishing mercies and be easily able to say Those are the things that this Soul would have pardon of Sins sense of Gods love victory over its lusts and corruptions strength and inlargement of heart in the service of God These are the things which this Soul would have It asks a Ring but the kiss is that to which it hath most mind And all this must be understood of the gracious Soul when it is itself not in its fits of passion and infirmity then Elijah and Job and Jonah and any of the Children of God may speak according to the flesh the law of their members prevailing against the law of their mind hath brought them into captivity to the law of Sin These things being premised for the explication the truth of the proposition will be abundantly evidenced from the example of the man according to Gods own heart holy David and that in several Psalms Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me There be many that say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon me The light of the Sun will please others but 't is only the light of thy Countenance that will please me Psal 63. v. 1. 2. My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is To see thy power and thy glory in the Sanctuary The sight of the Sanctuary will please another but nothing will please David but the sight of Gods power and glory in the Sanctuary Other-where he prays that the Lord would shew him his way and unite his heart to fear his name That God would come unto him and shew himself unto him c. Nor is it hard to find out the reason of it which lies In the sanctification of the renewed man he hath a new heart given unto him A new heart signifies a new understanding a new will and new affections New not as to the faculties themselves but as to the motions and operations of them in which the soul still follows the dictates of reason and proceedeth in the method of a rational creature 1. The Soul is renewed in its understanding from whence proceedeth a new notion and Judgment concerning things The old Serpent cheated our first Parent when he persuaded her that the fruit of the forbidden Tree was to be desired because in the day she should eat thereof her Eyes should be opened and she should be as God knowing good and evil for from that day forward she was struck blind and the Disease according to Divine ordination proved hereditary All we who are the Children of Adam are born blind neither able to take the true notion of good and evil nor yet to make up a Judgment concerning either discerning the things that differ but naturally every one calleth Evil good and good Evil. The Psalmist saith that man stood not in honour but became like the Beast that perisheth In this much like the Beast indeed that we are meerly led by the conduct of a sensitive appetite not discerning those things which are truly and spiritually good and the reason of this is our not understanding our selves for the nature of all good lying in a conveniency and sutableness of the object to us a knowledge of our own state and wants must reasonably be supposed to a right judgment concerning good and Evil. But amongst other Evils accrewing to us by the fall this was one that we are by nature Blind as to our own State and Strangers to our own Souls not understanding that we are by Nature Children of Wrath poor miserable blind and naked but conceiting that we have need of nothing Hence it is that the Soul is not able to judge of the goodness of Union and Communion with God pardon of sin reconciliation with God c. Nor indeed doth it come to understand it until the Eyes of the understanding be opened by the application of Spiritual Eye-salve laid on by the Finger of the holy Spirit of God Till this time the Soul seeth no beauty in Christ nothing for which he should be desired The goodness of Riches and Pleasures and Honours it knows but as for that transcendent goodness and Excellency which is in Christ what it is it doth not understand Hence it naturally desires life health riches honours success in worldly affairs and such common gifts as may serve it in the world with credit and applause and reputation But for spiritual things for distinguishing tokens of love it is not able to take the heighth and length and depth and breadth of the love of God in them nor to discern their conveniency and sutableness to its undone state and condition hence with the Cock in in the Fable it prefers the Barly Corn before that Pearl of great price for the purchase of which the wise Merchant is willing to sell all that he hath But now the regenerate soul hath its Eyes open to discern the things that are excellent and as it is taught by the Spirit of conviction the truth of its natural and unregenerate Estate so its Eyes are opened to see that nothing but the special love of God in Christ is a good suitable to it or worthy of its caring for
knowledge convictions and faith and proceedeth upon the same reason upon which any reasonable creature valueth a greater and more comprehensive good above what is of an inferiour vertue and more insignificant Nor is this other than according to the workings of our Souls in other cases towards Creatures which we have made the objects of our love The good look and smile of an Husband a letter from him a small token be it never so small how welcome and acceptable is it to the Wife The reason lies in her love to her Husbands Person To you that believe saith the Apostle he is precious It is impossible indeed rationally impossible that a Soul should believe take it in what sense you will but it must love the Lord Jesus Christ Take believing as it signifies no more than a firm and steady assent to the proposition of the word revealing Christ to us as he is the eternal Son of God the brightness of his Fathers glory the express image of his Person full of kindness to the Sons of Men pitying them taking a delight in them willing to save them and to communicate of his fulness to them and to this end coming from Heaven to Earth clothing himself with out flesh encompassing himself with creature infirmities then dying upon the Cross that he might purchase us unto himself c. I say it is not possible that a Soul should firmly and steadily assent and agree to these things but he must love Christ But if you take believing in the second sense as it signifieth the Souls receiving of him as its Lord and Saviour its resting and relying upon him and trusting him with all its Spiritual and Eternal Concerns it is impossible but that the Soul should have a love for him above all created Objects and having so it cannot but naturally desire to be mutually beloved and be passionately desirous of some evidences of it and the least evidences of the reciprocations of love on his part who is so exceeding dear in the Eyes of the Soul must needs be exceedingly desirable to and valuable by that Soul This is yet further advantaged from the consideration of the exceeding low Opinion and Estimate which grace teacheth every soul upon whom it hath shined to have and make of it self The proud man valueth nothing but great things from his friend nay he scarcely thinks any thing great enough for him to put any value upon The reason lies in the high opinion which he hath of his own worth and merit but the humble man puts a value upon the least kindness because he hath a low and mean opinion of himself so he looketh upon every thing as more than he could merit or challenge Naaman huffs when the Prophet sends to him to go and wash in the waters of Jordan he expected the Prophet should have come out and stroked him and he thought the Waters of Abana and Parphar were as wholsome as those of Jordan were The Centurion desireth but a good word from Christ when Christ spake of coming to his House Mat. 8. 8. Lord saith he I am not worthy thou shouldst come under my roof The Woman of Canaan knowing her self to be a Dog challengeth no more than Crums Every gracious Soul is sensible that it deserveth nothing but Hell and Wrath this makes the least tokens of Divine love highly valuable in its Eyes who am I said Elizabeth that the Mother of my Lord should come to me who am I saith an humble Soul that the Lord should look upon me that the Sun of righteousness should shine so much as with one healing beam upon my Soul Hence it valueth the least tokens of special love It valueth nothing less than that this proceedeth from its knowledge and spiritual judgment of things that differ It valueth the least of this This proceedeth partly from its knowledge partly from that humility with which it is clothed as with a Garment 7. Lastly This Soul knoweth that Christs Love will not terminate and be bounded with little things The least tokens of distinguishing Love are but the Earnests of a greater bargain they are but the first-fruits to a larger Harvest Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God Psal 92. 13. God at first gives the soul but a good hope a glimpse of his glory but it shall go on from faith to faith and strength to strength Are the least tokens of Christs distinguishing Love so valuable so desirable what should then his fullest and largest tokens be the things which God hath prepared for them that love him which Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive The Assurance of his Love The Manifestations of himself to his Saints in glory If it be so sweet so desirable to see him in a glass darkly what will it be to see him face to face If his kisses be so desirable what will his imbraces be If the Hem of his Garment be so full of vertue and a touch of that so desirable what is his long white Robe which is the white linnen of his Saints If a good word a good look be so good what will it be to be set as a seal upon his Heart and upon his arm Surely that love will be as strong as death as the coales of that fire which send forth a vehement flame Let this notion of truth and the experience which any of your souls have had of the truth of it kindle in you further flames of desire after the further enjoyments of Christ in this life Imperfect tasts of desirable things use to do so in other things Quo plus sunt potae plus sitiuntur aquae Yet in all created goods there is ordinarily more in expectation than fruition but it is not so in Spiritual things The Apostle prayeth for the Ephesians That they might be able with all Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that they might be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 13. 18 19. It is most certain that there are many holy and gracious Souls that want assurance they may live they may die without it but that Soul hath nothing of grace that doth not desire it that doth not thirst and pant after it 2. What will it be to be ever with the Lord what an object of spiritual thirst and desire is a fulness of communion with our Lord in his Fathers House when we shall know as we are known see Face to Face How should this fill all our hearts with desires to be dissolved that we might be with Christ which is best of all The least of Christ is good but that full fruition is best Let this discourse leave some strong pantings in your hearts 1. After the assurance of Gods love 2. After the further manifestations of Christs strength
Bed-chamber 2 Kings 6. 12. An inward Chamber Judg. 3. 24. A Bridegrooms Chamber Joel 2. 16. A Summer Chamber Judg. 3. 24. It is also used Prov. 24. 4. Prov. 7. 27. Job 9. 9. and in many other Texts It plainly signifieth the more inner secret retired part of the house where Persons can be most private and most secure The King hath brought me into his Chambers that is into the places of most private secret communion with him where I can be most private free and secure but yet for the clearer explication of the words we will more strictly enquire upon two things Qu. 1. What is here meant by the Kings Chambers Doubtless it is spoken in a figure The House in the Heavens not made with hands is not as our Earthly Houses divided into rooms and stories by partitions let us therefore rightly comprehend the notion of a Chamber and we shall without much difficulty understand the priviledge in which the Spouse doth glory Three things will give us the notion of a Chamber 1. It is a lofty place elevated from the Earth you know that you ordinarily call those rooms in your Houses Chambers which are above the lower floor 2. It is a place of privacy any one is admitted into your lower rooms but very familiar friends only into your Chambers when those of the same family would be more retired and private they chuse Chambers for that privacy our more hidden private fellowship with our friends or near relations is in our Chambers 3. A Chamber is a resting place we eat and drink and have our ordinary converse with our neighbours in other rooms we lie down and rest in our Chambers These three things I should think may make us to understand the Spouses meaning in this metaphorical expression and what it is that she glorieth in The Lord my King hath heard me and taken me up into the nearest degrees of close private communion with him where my Soul enjoyeth him in the most heavenly free and most familiar manner Qu. 2. But how cometh the Spouse thus soon to glory who but now was praying that the Lord would draw her and facitly complained for the want of the manifestations of his Divine Grace how soon is her tone altered she but now groaned as one that could not get up the Stairs now she glories that she was brought into the Kings Chambers To which I answer two things 1. Possibly she speaketh but in the dialect of Faith you know the Apostle calleth Faith the Evidence of things not seen It like God calls the things that are not as if they were and often forgets the future tense and speaks in the Present or Praeterperfect Tense The believing Soul while it is in the dungeon of a desertion being assured the Lord will do it can say The Lord hath brought me into his Chambers And thus those must necessarily understand it who with Piscator by the Chambers understand Heaven and Glory 2. But I rather think the words are to be understood as they lie before us She is heard while she is speaking while she prayeth Lord draw me she is drawn and is in Heaven e're she is aware of it thus the learned Mercer expounds it If you understand the words in the first sense They speak the vertue and efficacy of faith the believer by vertue of it can look upon things as done which yet are to be done why because the Soul eyeth the promise and knoweth that he who hath promised is both able and faithful If a debt be owing to you from an able and an honest man you say it is as good mony as any in your purse you count you have so much as that debt maketh addition to your estate Gods hand is an able hand and he is faithful the Soul may count upon it that it hath so much either in Grace or glory as the Lord hath promised it If you take the words in the latter sense as I shall do they inform you of the efficacy of Prayer spiritual fervent prayer it availeth much while the believer is speaking God is answering I proceed to the latter part of the Text. We will be glad and rejoice in thee and remember thy loves more than Wine we have heard the Spouses petition Draw me she prayed for Divine Grace that might both sweetly and powerfully draw her Soul after Christ We have heard her promise which I told you might be considered as an argument to enforce her Petition an argument drawn from the glory of God and the concern of it in the answer we will run after thee A prayer for the best things and to receive them for the best end to make her more holy We have heard how well pleasing her petition was she had no sooner prayed but God answereth and she recognizeth her answer My Lord the King saith she hath brought me into his Chambers now she cometh to shew the effects this quick and gracious answer had and would have upon her She mentioneth three The first as some if not too critically distinguish respecting her heart We will be glad 2. The second respecting the action of the whole man We will rejoice in thee 3. The third respecting the record of it We will remember thy loves more than Wine This now distinguished her spiritual affection from a foolish transient passion We will exalt or be glad the Radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very often used in Scripture I will point you to 3 or 4 other Texts from whence you may gather the sense of it Is 65. 19. And I will rejoice in Hierusalem and joy in my People Pro. 23. 24. The Father of the Righteous shall greatly rejoice Psal 21. 5. The King shall joy in thy strength So Psal 2. 11. Psal 13. 11. My heart shall rejoice in thy Salvation Psal 16. 9. Zech. 9. 9. Forster thinks it rather signifieth the expression of the Joy of the heart by some outward gesture than the meer internal affection It doubtless signifies the highest affection of the heart upon its union with its desired object We will be glad the Radical word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to rejoice and to be merry and is very often in the old Testament used to express the gladness of the heart Exod. 4. 14. The rejoicing of a Virgin in a dance Jer. 31. 13. I shall not insist upon that critical distinction which some make betwixt these words restraining the one to the inward affection the other to the more outward expression nor do I think it will hold but clearly both these are expressed by these two words whither distinctly or jointly I shall not determine and the sense is this O Lord thou hast heard my prayer thou hast granted the request of my lips thou hast brought me into thy Royal Chambers admitted me to Spiritual secret and most sweet communion with thee Our hearts shall be most highly affected with thee and our outward man most
Christ having both a fellowship with the death of Christ in dying to sin and with the life of Christ in living unto newness of life Upon these accounts and these only is the Believing Soul fair in the Eyes of Christ Before I part with this Observation Let every gracious Soul make a stand upon it and consider what it affords him for Consolation while he looks over his Soul and sees it full of spots and taking a review of his life he can find no ground of hope to his Soul that Christ should cast an Eye of love and pity upon him he sees there 's no proportion between his duties or any actions of his conversation and the holy Law of God Well yet the comfort lies here that the Lord hath not said Blessed is the man that hath no sin for who liveth and sinneth not against God but Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered and to whom the Lord imputeth no sin Psal 32. 1. If we once lose this great Truth of the Justification of a poor Soul by the Righteousness of Christ we have cut up a Bridge which we shall see a need of to go over as often as we enter into any serious thoughts of our own state the weight of all our Souls and all the comfort of them hangs upon this one pin That what the law could not do because it was weak through our flesh that God hath done sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for fin condemning fin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us We have lost all that day that we forsake that desire of St. Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the law but that which is of God Even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ But you will say How shall we know that Christ hath thus loved us That must be known by our loving him and so the matter will return to the same point We freely grant that our Justification is to be evidenced for our Sanctification and that even the witness of Gods Spirit is not a single but a joint Testimony together with our Spirits But yet there is a great difference as to Christians comfort in these things That Soul that looks to be made fair with his own works if he rightly understand himself shall never be Satisfied concerning his Spiritual beauty because his works must necessarily be compleatly perfect otherwise the law accuseth and curseth him But he who acknowledgeth that his beauty is meerly from grace freely justifying but yet his receiving of this grace is to be evidenced by his works stands concerned no further to enquire concerning the perfection of his works in order to this end then only to see if they be perfect according to Gospel allowances not according to lawstrictness And such are the Gospel terms that if there be a willing mind a presence to will a delight in the Law of God as to the inward man it is accepted of God Here 's a bottom for him I proceed to the 4th Circumstance which I observed relating to the first Proposition of the Text and that was the term Behold which is prefixed Behold thou art fair and doubled Behold Behold There is a threefold use of this particle in Scripture it denotes 1. presence of a thing 2. Certainty 3. Eminency It may in this Text denote all three 1. It may denote the present state of a believing Soul to be a beautiful state Behold thou art fair now in this life while thou art black with infirmities and corruptions black through afflictions and temptations yet even now thou art fair 1 Joh 3. 2. Beloved Now we are the Sons of God It doth not yet appear what we shall be This particle is often thus used in holy Writ Gen. 29. 2 25. and it is capable enough of this sense in this Text. Behold thou art fair thou shalt not only be hereafter beautiful when the Crown of glory shall be set upon thy head but thou art now beautiful thou doest not apprehend thy self so thou art bewailing thy spots and thy infirmities but I look upon thee as fair with all thy spots I look upon thee as beautiful even now 2. It denotes the certainty of a thing Behold is a particle of Demonstration and is often so used in Scripture There is nothing more certain then what we can behold Thus the particle is used Gen. 16. 2. Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing they are the words of Sarah that is the Lord hath certainly restrained me see Gen. 18. 27. The believing Soul is certainly a beauteous Soul The Beauty of that Soul which truly believes in Jesus Christ is not an imaginary thing it is a true and real thing it is a certainty's Behold thou art fair c. 3. Lastly this particle Behold doth very often denote eminency and excellency When something is wonderful in Nature or otherwise the Scripture useth to make mention of it by prefixing this particle Behold to it So James 3. 3 4. It is a wonderful thing that the strength of an Horse should be ruled by a bit and that so great a bulk as a ship driven about with fierce winds should be turned about with a very small helm and thus it is a very often used in Scripture and it may have that use here Behold thou art fair My Love Behold thou art fair and so it may hint to us these two things 1. That the beauty of a believer is no ordinary beauty but a rare and eminent beauty not like the beauty of Woman not like that vain thing which we call beauty in a natural fense which is only the object of the lust of the Eye no it is a Spiritual beauty which age will not deface diseases will not spoil no outward accidents will hurt a beauty that is not exposed to wind and weather The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and yet so great is her glory that the King of Kings desires her beauty Or secondly it may denote this 2. That it is a wonderful thing that Christ should account a Child of Adam a poor believing Soul beauteous When David considered the Heavens and the Earth he cries out What is man O Lord that thou shouldest remember him or the Son of man that thou shouldest be mindful of him It is a matter of high admiration to any ingenuous Soul to sit down and think that Jesus Christ should account it beautiful But I hasten to the last Circumstance I observed to you that the phrase is doubled Christ doth not only say thou art fair my Love but he doubles the phrase Thou art fair thou art fair There is doubtless nothing superfluous in holy Writ though possibly there may be something both in the matter and stile of which we can give no Satisfactory account almost in all languages these repetitions and