is predicated of the subject is common to every particular soule as well as to the beleeving Church For every beleever leanes by faith upon the Lord Jesus and comes out of his particular wildernesses leaning upon him And therefore I rather agree with * Non solum vicinae gentes sed etiaÌ„ ipsi qui sunt in populo hanc mirantur sic ascendenteÌ„ ex deserto Luther Luther upon the place not only saith he the Neighbour Nations but those of the same Nation shall admire her comming out of the wildernesse In short I conceive the words have a Prosopopeia in them The Church or soule speaks them as if she should have said Methinks I fancie the world standing wondring at me how I can leane upon Christ in my wildernesseconditions and out of the saddest wildernesse how I can come up by the strength of Christ leaning upon him They will wonder at my glory and honour that Christ will priviledge such a worme as I am so as to lean upon him and that he will help me They will not understand how I can come leaning in the wildernesse they will say Who is this Christs power of Grace in me will be hidden to them and yet they will admire Who is this That comes up out of the wildernes Out of a sad low condition out of a lost rugged condition out of crosses trials afflictions inward or outward But I shall open this terme more hereafter Leaning Tremellius reads it associans associatura joyning or marrying or about to joyne or marry her selfe Vatablus Hierome and Lyra read it Deliciis â—ffluens flowing abounding with delights Beda and Brightman read it Innixa leaning upon her Beloved And so our Translation The quarrell betwixt these Expositors is not so great but I conceive it may easily be thus taken up 1. Leaning is a posture of familiarity And she that is so bold as to leane upon her Beloveds arme is surely lodged in her Beloveds heart and is associans marrying or associatura about to marry to her Beloved and 2. Leaning is a posture of love too She that leanes loves and surely she takes pleasure in her posture she takes delight in her Beloveds company Upon her Beloved Christ Jesus who loves her and having first loved her is now beloved of her He is called Her to denote her propriety in him Thus you have the sence of the former part of the Text. The Church or the beleeving soule fancies that the world seeing her keep her hold on Christ in saddest conditions and keep a close communion with Christ in the midst of briars and thorns in a barren heath and dry ground in the midst of trials would be ready either out of ignorance not knowing the power of grace that upheld and helpt and sustained her or else admiring her happy and glorious condition that in the wildernesse she had such a Beloved to leane upon or admiring the strangnesse of her constancy and patience that she would adhere to Christ at such a low ebbe would either by way of scoffing or admiring cry out Who is this that nothing will part from Christ Or Who is this that Jesus Christ will thus owne and uphold in saddest conditions Or Who is this What power is this that upholds this man or woman in such estates as every one else would bee lost in Who is this that commeth by the feet of faith and patience up out of these deep sad wildernes-straights and yet comes up with such a fixed temper of spirit with such a stayed mind and with such a stedfastnesse of reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ Who is this that commeth up Thus you have the former part opened It followes now in the Text. I raised thee up under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee For the opening of these words and making my way cleare these two things must be resolved 1. Whose part of the Dialogue whose speech these words be 2. What the meaning of them is The first great question is whose part in this dialogue of love these are This is certaine they are either Christ's or the beleevers the opinions of men are divided about it Some think that the words are the continued speech of the Spouse their great reason is because the words both before it and after it are the Spouses Of this opinion are Gregory Aquinas Lyra Hierom yea and learned Mercer and M. Ainsworth There are some others that think they are the words of Jesus Christ minding the Spouse how he raised up his Church say some which I doe not deny so they doe not limit it to the body of beleevers collectively for my owne part I strongly incline to the latter viz. That the words are the words of Christ my reasons are 1. Partly because the 4 verse containes a phrase of speech with which she had twice closed a speech before viz. chap. 3. 5 6. chap. 5. 8. and partly because of the congruity which appeares to me in the sence thus The Spouse before had seemed to cast out words as if she had bin almost ashamed of Christs company and by her walking with him had made her selfe a laughing stock or a wondering stock to the world for so the phrase Who is this may also be taken to which Christ replies I raised thee c. as if he should have said and do I not deserve this and a great deale more too Remember but what I have done for thee I have raised thee up under the Apple-tree c. To which as overcome with love the soule replies v. 6. Set me as a seale c. As if she should say Truth indeed Lord thou hast done it O set me now as a seale upon thine arme as a seale upon thy heart c. A third reason is the incongruity of the sence if the word be taken as the words of the Spouse which will further appeare in the opening of the words The first question being resolved I come to the second To shew you what is the meaning of these words In doing of which 1. I shall shew you the opinion of others 2. I shall reject most of them shewing you reason why I doe so 3. I shall give you my owne opinion concerning the words and reasons for it Sort. 1 1. I will begin with such expositors as would have these words to be the Spouses words and these are either Papists or Protestants The popish expositions run together I say they that is the Spouse the beleeving soule raised thee awakened and applied thee under the apple-tree hanging upon the crosse Gregory saith that the apple-tree is procul dubio arbor sanctae crucis the tree of the holy Crosse Sort. 2 M. Ainsworth and Mercer carry it another way I saith M. Ainsworth that is the Spouse raised thee up by earnest prayer Psa 44. 24. Raised up Christ under the apple-tree the tree of free grace and life mentioned Chap. 2. 3. To this sence
or draw away the heart too much from God take up our Church-time or family duty-time or secret duty-time c. in such case they must bee forgot too 4. Comparatively they must be forgot God must be greater than they in the throne of our heart wee must not love father nor mother nor daughter nor wife nor child more than Christ So Mathew expounds that place Luk. 14. 26. in Matth. 10. 37. wee must not be lovers of any pleasures more than of Christ nor of house or lands or honour or any piece of vanity under the Sunne This is plaine for we must love Christ with all our heart and soule and though the second commandment bee thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe yet it doth not say Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy Christ 5. Lastly In effect they must be forgot Christians must doe as if they had no relations they may rejoyce and buy and sell and purchase and use the world but marke how it is in a forgetting manner 1 Cor. 7. 30. they that rejoyce must be as if they rejoyced not and they that buy as if they possest not and they that use the world as if they used it not Christians may be called by their titles of Rabbi and my Lord and Madam but while they are so they must have a scornfull low slight esteeme of these swelling words of vanity not despising the meanest of Gods Saints but ready in honour to preferre them above themselves and accounting the title of Christian of a servant of God to be a greater title of honour than worldly dignities can invest them with And now I have finished my first taske in the explication of the doctrine in which I have shewed you what of our fathers house must be forgotten 2. How farre we must forget it The second thing I propounded was to shew you how that soule is beautifull with what beauty the soule is beautifull that thus forgets its owne people and its fathers house This I shall shew you 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Not with a corporall beauty this makes not the flesh beautifull It ads no lustre to flesh and blood possibly it may discolour that 2. Not by a native beauty no naturall beauty The beauty that will appeare in the soule upon this selfe deniall is not like the beauty of the face which appears after washing off dirt which clouded natures colours 3. Not in the eye of the vaine creature nor in its owne eyes Aske a vaine creature he will tell you that the leaving of vaine dresses and patches and plaitinge of the haire is the way to make the creature look like no body to make it despised in the world c. and such a one perhaps lothes and abhors it selfe as a vile creature Jo. 42. 6. Thus it shall not be beautifull and it is no matter whether it be or no. But secondly such a soule shall bee beautifull these three wayes 1. Imputatione By the beauty of Christ put upon it see for this that notable place Ezech. 16. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Then wast thou decked with silver and gold and thy rayment was of fine linnen and silke and broidered worke and thou wert exceeding beautifull And thy renowne went forth amongst the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through the comelinesse which I had put uppon thee saith the Lord God Christ makes the reflexion of his beauty to bee cast upon such a soule and it becomes beautifull through his comelinesse the soules doing these things doth not make it spiritually any more than corporally beautifull but they being done it becomes comely through Christs comelinesse comely through a comelinesse that is put upon it that 's the first way Secondly It is beautifull 2. Through Christs Acceptation Of free grace Christ said to the young man in the 19 of Matth. Sell all thou hast c. and thou shalt have treasure in heaven not thou shalt earne it but thou shalt have it Christ accepts the soule as beautifull and accounts the soule as beautifull that for his sake will forget its owne people and its fathers house Cant. 4. 1. Behold thou art faire my love behold thou art faire thou hast doves eyes c. 3. Such a soule is beautifull though not in the worlds eyes yet in the Saints eyes The world will hate and despise them but the Saints will love and value them Cant. 6. 1. the Daughters of Hierusalem say unto the spouse whither is thy beloved gone O thou Fairest amongst women the daughters of Hierusalem the Saints account such a soule beautifull It may bee that shee may call her selfe black the greatest of sinners and the least of Saints yea and the world may so call her but those that are godly shall esteeme her comely and the King shall desire her beauty And that leads me to the last particular in the explication of the Doctrine 3. What is the meaning of that phrase The King shall desire thy beauty 1. Generally It is a speech according to the manner of men Gen. 4. 7. it is said of the husband toward the wise Vnto thee shall be his desire And wee meet with that phrase Deut. 21. 11. when thou seest amongst the Captives a beautifull woman and thy desire shall be towards her to make her thy wife 2. But more particularly I think the true meaning of the phrase may bee understood in these particulars First of all it implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall discover and see an excellency in such a soule we can desire nothing but we shall first discover some excellency in it Now the Lord discovers an excellency in such a soule hee shall eye such a soule as an excelling soule as a lovely soule worthy of him though not through its owne worthinesse and suitable for him 2. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ shall love such a soule discovering in it a suitable excellency he shall love it his heart will be ravished with it Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart Christs affections will be drawne out to a soule that so forgets it selfe his heart will bee melting towards it and on fire for it there must first bee a love in the soule to the object before the heart bee drawne forth to covet an union with it 3. It implies That the Lord Christ will in his heart preferre such a soule when a mans desire is towards a particular woman to make her his wife he preferres her above other women his desire is not to her sex but to her to her rather than ten thousand others The Lords desire shall bee towards such a soule As you have heard described to you that hee will preferre her above ten thousand of his creatures though the Lord sees thousands of his creatures hundreds in a congregation that the world dotes upon some for their faire faces and on others for their brave parts this Eliab and the
the builders refused A man of no fashion in the world who cared for him did any of the Pharisees believe on him The wife you know takes her honour from her husband and usually if hee be accounted one of no fashion shee is not valued at a very high rate Saints though they be indeed the worlds pillars yet in the vulgar estimate they are the worlds burthens and where ever they live they usually live at a low rate in worldlings desires if any of note before turne puritane hee loseth his rate in the worlds thoughts presently the Gentleman loseth his honour the Lady her repute but it is because their prizers have lost their wit and their eyes and it need not much trouble a Saint for Christ desires their beauty still They have put themselves out of the worlds reckoning and heightend themselves in Christ's esteem Despise on sooles the King hath desired these soules beauty Ah! but will a poore misdoubting Christian say I am afraid they have a true object of laughter in me I am afraid I have not that desireable beauty but am a painted sepulchre were I but convinced that I had indeed truly forgot my fathers house and that the Lord Christ had indeed desired my beauty I could naile their scoffes to my heeles and mourne over their gallant follies But I feare 1 Obj. Alas I am going home to my fathers house ever and anon I am ready to yield to temptations ready to fall into sinne yea and the Lord pardon mee I fall seven times a day If I had forgot my fathers house should I have such inclinations to goe home would my heart draw so hard for vanity as it doth sometimes should I sinne so often c. I answ 1. Which way stands your affection your heart you say bends that way but which way stands your affection doe you take pleasure in such inclinations have you a good mind to sinne if you durst to returne to your old vanities if you durst only you durst not that 's an ill signe But upon such inclinations doth there presently arise a loathing in your soules doe you say Get thee behind mee Sathan that 's a good signe that though you be invited by a temptation of vaine company or the Devill c. yet you have truly forgotten your fathers house 2. You goe home sometimes you say it may be you fall into some of your former vaine courses and are with some of your vaine companions But I pray What doe you when you are in your fathers house are you pleased with your vanities or with the vanities of your friends or doe you spend your time in chiding It may be your heart sometimes declines to some vanity or you are sometimes in converse with vain persons Are you one with vanity one with sinners or doe your spirits rise against your selves and against the vanities of those with whom you are What indignation is wrought if any you may have forgot your fathers house for all this going home 3. You goe home sometimes you say But I pray How long doe you stay there Is sinne your trade Doe you live in knowne sinnes this indeed will argue your profession but hypocrisie But on the contrary though you fall through weaknesse yet doe you rise through grace though you sinne sometimes yet is sinne as Davids concupiscence call'd a stranger in the Parable Thus the best Saints have sinn'd yea and may sinne not of wilfulnesse but of weaknesse not trading in sinne nor lying in it but falling into it and rising by repentance 2. Obj. Ah! but will another Christian say I cannot deny my selfe in the company of my fathers house wretch that I am I got acquaintance when I was young with vaine persons or I am related to such and I dare not say but I love their company and oft times leave better for them neither can I deny my selfe in my relations My heart is excessively let out after them 1. Thou saiest thou art oft times yet a companion of vaine persons but consider Christian are they thy invited ghests or accidentall meerly are they intruders or are they the welcome crmpanions of thy life are they thy pickt company or no thy intimates or meerly companions in respect of thy trade and converse with the world If thou delightest not in them they indeed are sometimes thy companions but thou art not theirs 2. Art thou a companion with them in sinne or onely in civill actions or for discourse c. sometimes if the first indeed it is a signe thou hast not left thy fathers house but if the latter onely it is no such signe thou keepest thy course they come to thee and it may be disturbe thee but thou doest not goe to them 3. Thou sayest thou lovest them But it would be considered Whether thy love be meerly naturall or more It may be thou lovest them because they are witty people or of ingenuous dispositions Thus Christ loved the young man Matth. 19. and thus thou mayest love them It is an ill signe if thou lovest them because they will drinke or sweare or bee vain and wanton in their discourse or carriages 4. Thou sayest thou lovest thy relations and thou canst not deny thy selfe in them thy heart is so glued to them c. and God forbid but thou shouldst love them 1. with a naturall affection it s a signe of a wretch Rom. 1. 31. to be without naturall affection and 2. with a providentiall love and care hee that provides not for his family saith the Apostle is worse than an infidell But 1. Suppose Christ should call thee to suffer for him and thou hadst a good mind to it and they should plead hard for thee to spare thy selfe wouldst thou with Hierom shake off thy father and mother and children and runne to Christ this would bee a signe thou hadst forgot them Though thou lovest them 2. Notwithstanding that thou lovest them wouldst thou favour them in any sinne against God and onely luke-warmely reprove them like old Elie It is not well done of you O my sons because thou lovest them wilt thou rather let them dishonour God damn their owne soules doe any thing rather than reprove or smite them this love indeed is a reall hatred and will argue little love to God in thy soule But on the contrary though thou lovest them with the tenderest love wilt provide for them with the most providential care yet is thy love so truly tempered that it shall not in the least hinder thee from doing thy duty to Christ no nor yet from doing thy duty to them from reproving sharply admonishing severely is thy love such that it shall not blind thy eyes so as thou wilt wink at the least neglect of duty in them not at the least sin in them Love them then as wel as thou canst it shall be no sad evidence against thy soule otherwise Parents look to it your children will curse you another day for your
step in and say Sir this is my friend I pray bee patient with him I will undertake for the debt I will engage my word and bond that the debt shall bee paid at such a time or when you will please to call for it c. The Creditor it may be will be so favourable as to say Sir I know you are able to do it if you will engage your word I shall spare your friend pay it at such a time or when you will set the time and I will acquit your friend The engagement is entred in the Creditors Book and from that day forward the Creditor looks upon this his Debtors friend as now by his own voluntary engagement become his Debtor and never regards his old Debtor more This is our case Adam had runne us in debt an infinite debt which neither he nor we are able to pay A Writ of Vengeance was out mankinde ready to bee arrested and bound in Chaines and throwne into an everlasting prison from whence hee should have been sure never to come out till hee had paid the utermost farthing which he could never have done with all the friends and estate he could have made Jesus Christ seeing some of his elected friends that his Father had given him having their names in the Writ steps in and sayes Father these are my friends Isa 63. 8. Surely they are my people children that will not lye so he was their Saviour I will undertake their debt upon me charge it upon my score I will pay every farthing if thou pleasest to accept it it shall be paid at such a time Gal. 4. 4. When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the Law to redeeme them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of sonnes The Father accepts this tender therefore he is stiled Gods beloved Sonne in whom he is well pleased The word is in whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An emphaticall word which generally signifies to love but more specially and properly it signifies to love something by adhering to it with the minde and heart and so to be content and fully satisfied with it that one desires nothing else Me thinks I cannot but observe three things in it 1. God signifies by it that he is pleased with him and with his tender As if wee should say I like that well 2. God signifies by it that he is fully content with him so that hee desires nothing else As if we should say I desire no better security than his 3. God doth signifie by it that he will trust to it As it we should say in such a case to a surety Well then I will no more look after my Debtor now I will trust to you onely So upon Christs offer saith God I like thy tender as sufficient and am so fully content with it that I desire no more but now I shall wholly trust to thee for all Now God repeateth these words in the Gospell at Christs Baptisme and at Christs Transfiguration Matth 3. Mat. 17. And to what purpose but to witnesse to the world as that hee was well pleased with Christ as his Sonne that in heaven his worke was to delight in his Sonne and he did so delight in him that he desireth no other pleasure than the company and beholding of his Sonne which puts me in minde of a sweet notion of Master Rutherfords that God spent all his time from Eternity till the Creation of the World in delighting himselfe in Christ But I say as it doth signifie that and so set out the infinite love of the Father that he would be pleased to part with such a darling of glory for us as also in this it sets out the Fathers love that he should send to looke after inglorious wretches when hee needed not our companies for hee had pleasure and delight enough in the company of his Eternall Sonne whose company did so content him that he desired nothing else for himselfe So I also thinke that God by his twice repeating of it after Christ came would have us understand that God was well pleased with him as our Surety with what Heb. 7. 22. Christ is called our Surety payment hee should make c. But now in regard it was in time that Christ came in the fulnesse time saith the Apostle Gal. 4. 4. How did the Lord Jesus make our paiment sure I answer By engaging his word God the Father had nothing but the Lord Jesus Christs word for the paiment of all the Elects debts not from eternity till Christ came and made payment according to his engagement Now thus hath the Lord Jesus Christ raised us out of our lost condition by engaging his word and entring into a Covenant 2. He did it Assumptione carnis By assuming of our flesh He made a Covenant with his Father for us from all Eternity But hee tooke out this Bond in time canceling it with his owne bloud Therefore saith the Apostle Galatians Chapt. 4. Verse 4. God in the fulnesse of time sent forth his Son made of a Woman born under the Law to Redeem those that were under the Law that they might receive the adoption of sons He could Covenant for us as God but he must dye for us as man In the fulnesse therfore of time he bowed the heavens and came downe and tooke upon him our flesh not changing the Godhead into flesh neither confounding the substances nor the Natures but personally uniting of them that the two Natures became one Person and so he became a Saviour fit to raise us Now to him that raised this was necessary 1. That justice might be done It had been no justice in God to have charged the guilt of one Nature upon another Gods wayes appeare equall in charging the guilt upon the guilty Ez. 18. 3. Forasmuch then as the children whom he came to redeeme were partakers of flesh and bloud he also tooke part with them that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death even the Devill Heb. 2. 14. and ver 17. In all things it behoved him to be made like to his brethren and why ver 16. He had taken upon him the seed of Abraham that is the guilt of the seed of Abraham to satisfie for them 2. It was requisite That he might be a faithfull High-priest faithfull to his word You shall observe it that Christ gives it as a great reason of his condescentions and actions of Grace That all righteousnesse may be fulfilled and that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet c. Christ is tender of his Fathers Truth Now God had said that the womans seed should bruise the serpents head Gen. 13. ver 15. And though by Abrahams seed was spiritually meant Christ Gal. 3. 15 16. to whom the Promises were made yet the Promises had not been fulfilled if that Christ had not also been Abrahams seed and therefore
that have lived godly in Christ Iesus hitherto have so I expect that all that will live godly should still suffer persecution The portion in this life surely is not the portion of the Saints here and hereafter is too much After Christs Suffering time we quickly read of his Ascension The mountaines of Edom are given to the children of Esau for a possession Immediately after the dayes of Tribulation shall the Sonne of Man come And truely the little experience of the best Saints temper in this breathing time that England hath had hath made me as little to desire as to expect an Earthly happinesse Saints have Nature in them as wel as Grace Wantonnesse is the Daughter of Peace and in our time the Mother hath brought forth twinnes The extravagancies of Opinion and estrangements of affection the cooled love of truth and forgetting first love of which wee have had and have too large experiences I confesse have made mee little lesse than an enemy I am sure an Infidell to the Churches continued Peace Broken metalls must bee melted before they will runne together againe it must be a fire that must throughly purge away our drosse and take away our tinne And as I expect for the whole so for every member at least I would have them expect it for themselves Let us seeke the Kingdome of God for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they come let them be thrown in let us blesse God if wee receive them It is a Benjamins double Messe to have earth and heaven too Let us not build our expectations high if we have them we shall but have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogges meat God feeds his Dogges with such Crums and they will bee losse unto us Much lesse let us make it our worke to get great things for our selves Madam to mee it seems a businesse of farre greater concernment to enquire and learne rather what to doe in a streight than whether wee shall have a time that shall bee without streights I had rather be prepared for the worst than filled with expectations of the best Here is Isa 43. 2. our comfort that in the flouds and the flames hee will be with us that will not suffer the flouds to drowne us nor the flames to kindle upon us This short Sermon will direct your Ladiship to a posture that in every condition will afford your Honour ease It need not trouble us that there is a Lion in our way if wee have strength to encounter him We need not be troubled that our way to Canaan lies through wildernesses if we have the cloud and pillar of fire Much fear will argue little faith Yet a little while Madam and hee that shall come will come and will not tarry Yet a while and we shall be beyond the feare of drownings more above feares than wee are now below enjoyments The great God that hath directed your Honours steps towards him multiply the dayes of Peace to your Ladiship that you may finde a nearer way to heaven than through much tribulation and goe Iacobs way betwixt Egypt and Canaan But if for triall the Lord shall carrie your Honor the way of the Israelites it is more triall and may ask more time but in heaven there cannot be a Saint missing Iniquity onely shall bee purged Fsa 27. 9. away and this shall bee all the fruit to take away sinne and when the Lord shall make the stones of the Altar chalke-stones that are beaten in sunder the Groves and the Images shall not stand up The Lord in every Wildernesse preserve your Ladiships faith by his power to salvation and if he brings your Honor in doubt not Madam but hee will also bring you out of everie Wildernesse leaning on your wel-beloved Which may be your Ladiships assured faith and shall be Madam the constant prayer of Your Honors most obliged Chaplain humble Servant in the Lord Jesus John Collings Chaplyfield house May 21 1649. The SPOUSES Carriage in the Wildernesse Song of Solomon Chap. 8. ver 5. Who is this that commeth up out of the wildernesse leaning upon her welbeloved WE have already taken notice of two Travellers in the Text. Christ is a Traveller For had he not come up with his Garments died from Bozra we had been in the wildernesse still And the Spouse is a Traveller The Text saith She commeth up from the wildernesse leaning upon her welbeloved The Text presents us the Spouse in motion Observe first From whence she moves the Terminus à quo that the Text tels us is the wildernesse 2. What her motion is it is ascensive she commeth up 3. Her moving posture it is leaning upon her beloved The Doctrine that yet remaines in the Text which I promised to handle is Doct. 3. That the Spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ being raised by him commeth out of every wildernesse leaning upon her beloved I must take it in pieces and handle the parts severally These foure things be couched in it 1. That the Spouse of Christ hath had and may somtimes have her dwelling in the wildernesse That is implied 2. Though she hath had and may sometimes have her dwelling in the wildernesse yet she rests not there She comes up from it Who is this that comes up 3. She cannot come up alone She must come up leaning 4. She will lean upon her Beloved and he will and only can bear her First She hath had and sometimes may have her dwelling in the wildernesse Here first I must open the tearme Wildernesse Secondly I shal shew you what Wildernesse the Spouse hath had or may have her dwelling in I shall open the first in five or sixe particulars 1. The Wildernesse is an untilled place where wild nature is yet seen that Art hath not yet tamed no pruning hook hath lopt the over-grown trees no plow broke up the soyle to make it fruitfull The husband-man hath not tilled the ground there nor can the reaper fill his hand It is a place just in its naturall state not yet manured 2. The Wildernesse is a losing place no beaten road for the Traveller there to follow no land-marks nothing to guide him in his way he is lost if once in it hee looks on this side and on the other forward backward every way still he sees himselfe lost knowes not whither to goe He is in a Wildernesse and knowes not the way out 3. The Wildernesse is a dangerous place A man in the Wildernesse is a prey to the mouth of every Lion the Lion is the King of those waste places and the Bears Wolves Cockatrices and Adders his lesser subjects There dwells the young Lion the Cockatrice and the Adder together each one searching for his prey It is a dangerous place 4. The Wildernesse is a solitary place where hee that walks as hee hath no path
thou know the joyes of a married life to Christ dost thou put no difference betwixt being a bondslave to hell and one free in Jesus Christ betwixt the enjoying the communion of the children of the Devill and enjoying the communion of Saints no difference betwixt enjoying the communion of devils in everlasting torments and the communion of God Angells and Saints in the highest Heavens where eye hath not seen nor hath eare heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for them that love him now if thy conscience bee not seared thou hast ever and anon some flashes of hell in thy face The merriest sinner of you all I believe is not alwayes free Is there no difference betwixt that condition think you and a peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost Now you never lie downe in your beds but if you dare look back and consider how you have spent the day your soule is stricken with terrour and there is a dart almost struck through your liver and you dare not let your soules feed upon the thoughts but are glad to shusfle it over for feare you runne madde but if your soules would but forget these vanities ah how sweetly would you sleep and when you had spent a day in duties of hearing or praying how sweetly would your soules look back upon it Now if you were not rock't into a sleep of damnation you would scarce lie downe to sleep but you would feare lest you should wake in the morning with hell flames about your eares nor walke in the day but like the selfe-accused murtherer your eye would be over your shoulder for feare the devill should be laying hold of you then you would lie downe in peace and rise up in peace and nothing would make you afraid Is this world nothing Christian ah that the Lord would perswade you of this Besides 3. Consider Christian there is nothing in your fathers house but you shall find in Christ by a way of eminency Must you forsake your sinnes you shall be filled with the graces of the spirit of God Must you forsake a little idle vaine company you shall have the communion of Saints yea a fellowship with the father and the sonne the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1. 3. Must you forget your pompe and glory c. you shall bee called the sonnes and daughters of God heires coheires with Christ Rom. 8. Must you forget worldly riches you shall have the riches of grace Must you forget a few vaine pleasures you shall have a fulnesse of pleasures at Christs right hand and that for ever more Psal 16. 11. Must you forget your owne righteousnesse you shall bee clothed with the righteousnesse of Josus Christ what 's lost by the exchange Christian 4. Consider againe Christ forgot his fathers house for you and yet it was worth many of yours hee forgot the glory the company the pleasures of his fathers house for you he was content for you to be a companion of fishermen yea of sinners yea of theeves when he died upon the crosse for you this he did freely he made himselfe of no reputation hee nothinged himselfe for you Hark what the Apostle sayes 2 Cor. 8. 9. you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for your sake bee became poore that you through his poverty might be made rich Let that melting love winne you Besides 5. It is the way to be beautifull what abundance of paines poor vaine wretches take to be beautifull surely this must move Beauty is a desirable thing the vaine creatures of the earth would never else set nature with the heeles upward doe any thing to obtaine it wee should never else have so much precious time lost and so many precious soules undone with paintings and trimmings patchings and perfumings and a thousand such apish tricks but beauty is the idoll of the world to which the very soule shall be offered up in sacrifice and when all this is done the soule is amisse and the way to adorne that is to undresse all againe Hark you that desire beauty here 's the way of beauty which you have not known it is to deny your selves in all these things and whatsoever else is contrary to the law of Christ or short of him yea and this 6. Shall make you desirably beauteous that Christ shall desire you and the Saints shall desire you this is the way to ravish his heart But no more by way of motive God must doe all I know when I have spake my utmost I might tell you who it is will desire your beauty It is the King of heaven of glory and peace the King shall desire your beauty If this all this will not doe the Lord open your eyes and then I am sure it will But this is an hard work and young ones especially had need of a great deale of helpe to it and truly nature affords none all is laid up in Christ onely In order to the getting of it from Christ let me advise you Dir. 1 First With a serious eye to look upon your fathers house and see what there is in it desirable that should so bewitch one that hath not outlawed his or her reason to it Look seriously upon your sinnes will you not see a filthinesse in them Look upon your vaine company bee they what they will will you not discerne some sordidnesse or basenesse in their actions upon your honours and greatnesse will they not appeare bubbles upon your pleasures will they not appeare shaddowes You look upon these things as pictures side-wayes or at a distance that makes you admire them and runne after them come neerer to them will they not look dawbed with some uncomelinesse or other Will not the colours that look'd so sweetly afarre off stink if you bring them neere your nose Let that bee the first piece of advice Dir. 2 While you enjoy these things take heed of letting out your heart to them rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as if you used it not be not too much intent upon your fathers house converse not too much with any thing there things of the world have a glutinous quality the heart will cleave to them if you let it lie very long amongst them and if it once cleaves there will bee no wayes but either your heart must be soundly rent upon the severing or hell-fire must part them Dir. 3 Thirdly Ah Learne to live from your fathers house betimes take the wise mans counsell it was after a large survey and discourse of every roome and the vanity of every roome in our fathers house Eccl. 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth if rottennesse enter into the bones it will hardly ever â—ut You that are young for the Lords sake think of this Ah come off your youthfull vanities before they can plead custome with your soules live from home
the mistakes he hath therefore rather chose to put himselfe upon thy charity then put thee or himselfe to the trouble of a table of Errata's which is usually made with trouble and seldome used when it is done A short Table of the severall things contained in the two last Sermons THE Psalme analysed and the words of the Text opened 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. 5. Doctrines noted out of the words 13 14. The fifth Doctrine handled viz. That soule that would have the Lord Jesus Christ desire its beauty must forget its owne people and its Fathers house and whosoever doth that shall be beautifull 14 15 16 c. The Method of handling the Doctrine propounded 15. What is meant by our Fathers house 15. What of our Fathers house must be forgotten opened in five particulars 1. The manners of our Fathers house viz. our sins 16. 5. Sorts of sins chiefely hinted in that expression 16 17 18 19. Sinnes 1 Originall 16. 2 Of Education 17. 3 Of Company Conversation 18 4 Of Custome 18 19. 5 That are our beloved sins 19. 2. The Company of our Fathers house 19 20. That is two-fold ib. 1. Our dearest Relations 19 20. How they must and must not be forgotten 20. Not 1 in honour 2 nor affection nor 3 providentiall care but. 1. If God they draw severall wayes 20 21. 2. If their love beclâ—eâ— us out of the way when God calls us 21. 2. Sinfull Company is the company of our Fathers house 23. 3. The soule must forget the honour and pomp and riches and greatnesse of its Fathers house 24 25 26. How that must be ibid. 4. The soule must forget the pleasures and vanities of its Fathers house 27. That explained 28 29. 5. The soule must forget the Righteousnesse of its Fathers House 30 31. VVhat that is ib. Civility is but a smooth way to hell it is worth nothing no more is fâ—â—â—â—lity in duties â—â— 2. Br. Of Explic. How these things must be forgotten 32 33 34 45. c. 1. Sin and sinfull Company must be forgotten absolutely 32 33. 2. The rest must bee forgotten secundùm quid 33. 3. They must be forgotten Conditionally 33. that explained 34. 4. Comparatively they must be forgotten 35. 5. In effect they must be forgotten 35 36. 3 Br. of the Explication viz. How that soule shall be beautifull that thus forgets its Fathers house 36 37 38. That shewed Negatively Positively 36 37. Negatively not with A corporal beuty 36. A natural beauty 37. in its owne eyes a creatures eye 37. Positively it shall be beautifull 1. By Imputation 37. 2. By Christs Acceptation 38. 3. In Saints eys 38 39. 4. Branch of the Explication viz. what is meant by that phrase The King shall desire thy Beauty 39 40. Opened Generally 39. 2. Particularly Six things implyed in it 40 41 42 43. 1. Christ shall see an excellency in such a soule 40. 2. He shall love such a soule ib. 3. He shall in his heart preferre such a soule 40 41. 4. He will endeavour and effect an union with such a soule 42. 5. He will covet a neare Communion with such a soule 4. 6. He will love such a soul with a constant and inseparable love 43. 5. Reasons of the Doctrine 44 45 46. Because 1. It is the very law of marriage 44. 2. While the soule lives in its Fathers house it cannot be beautifull 44. 3. Till the soule part with these it cannot cleave to Christ 45. 4. Because God is a jealous God 46. 5. Because it is the will of Christ to whom aâ— an Husband the united soule must bee obedient 46 The Application of the Doctrine à 47 ad 89. 1. For Instruction in severall Branches Br. 1. That the most part of the world 〈◊〉 those which the world esteems of are uncomely indesireable creatures in Christs eye 47 48 49 50. Br. 2. Which may the way to heaven lyes and that it is a straight way 51 52 53 54. Br. 3. That something more than Nature must make a soule beautifull in Christs eyes 54. Br. 4. With what an infinite love hath Christ loved his Saints 54 55 56. Br. 5. What happy creatures are poore self-denying Saints 56 57 58. 2. Use For Examination Whether we have forgotten our fathers house and our beauty be desireable in Christs eyes or no. 59 60 61 62 63 c. 1. You have seen a great deale of folly in your Fathers house 60. 2. You have had another excellency discovered to you 60 61. 3. Your parting hath not been without some teares 61 62. 4. You have some combatings of spirit with your fleshly inclinations to go home againe 62 63. 5. Christ is your sole delight and all Christ is your delight 63 64. 6. Doe you abide and dwell with Christ 64. 3 Use For Consolation 1. Against all the uncomelinesse Saints apprehend in themselves 65. 2. Against all the dirt the world casts upon Saints 65 66. 3. Against the worlds low esteem of them 66. Severall Objections of misdoubtings Christians answered 67 68 69 70 71. 1 Ob. I am ready to yeeld to temptations and fall into sinne I feare I have not forgot the manners of my Fathers house An. Notwithstanding thy falling into sinne sometimes yet thou maist have forgot it try therefore 1. Which way stands thy Affection 68. 2. Doe you not chide your selves back 69. 3. How long doe you stay at home 69. 2. Ob. I have not forgotten my Fatheas house I am often in vaine company yea and I love them my heart is too much glued to my Relations Answ 1. Are they thy invited guests or intruders 71. 2. Art thou a companion of them in sin or only in civill actions 71. 3. Dost thou love them with a meer naturall love or more 71. 4. Could thy Relations hinder thee from Christ or thy love hinder thee from discharging thy duty to them faithfully 72 73. 3. Ob. I am not low enough for Christ I am rich and noble c. Answ 1. This is a melancholy fancy fat folk may get in at the straight gate with crowding 74. 2. Dost thou not affect and delight and hunt after worldly pompe and glory 74. 3. Dost thou look upon thy title of the servant of Christ as the highest title of honour 74. 4. Is thy outward greatnesse no snare to thee in the waies of Christ if none of these it cannot hinder thee 74 75 4. Obj. Ah! But I am so much addicted to vaine pleasures c. 1. Answ Dost thou love thy pleasures more then God 76. 2. Wilt thou baulk an opportunity of communion with Christ or his saints to enjoy a vaine pleasure 76. 3. Dost thou affect pleasures that cannot consist with holinesse as adultery c. 77. If none of these thou mayest enjoy them and yet be beautifull in Christs eyes ib. Vse 4. For exhortation 1. To those who have not forgotten their fathers house 77 78 79 80 81.