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
Christ Leaning is not a forced action Indeed as I said before Christ first works this willingnes he it is that gives us power to will and it is by his power that we are willing as it is written They shall be Psa 110. 3. willing in the day of my power But he doth not let us leane before we are willing Leaning is an action proceeds from the will Who is this cometh up leaning Thirdly leaning doth argue love who leans upon his enemies I will not leane upon one whom I cannot trust I must have some good thoughts of his love The soul that leans upon the Lord Jesus Christ loves Christ that Faith that pretended dependancy of any upon Christ that proceedeth not out of a principle of love groweth out of a false root the loving soule is only the truly beleeving soule Leaning is a loving posture that is the third Fourthly It doth argue fiduciam a resting a trusting the soule upon Christ he that leans upon another reposeth his whole weight trusteth his whole strength upon him He doth as much as say well I know I cannot goe alone I cannot stand but I will trust my self upon thy strength will I leane if I fall I fall So the soule that comes up out of the wildernesse of sinne to the Lord Jesus Christ doth repose it's whole weight upon the Lord Christ it sayes O Lord I am a great and grievous sinner I am not able to stand upon mine owne legges but I trust my soule upon thy armes thou hast mercies and great mercies and free mercies if I fall I fall if be damned I am damned here I will leane And here you have the second thing plaine viz Secondly The soules hand with which she leanes upon Jesus Christ for salvation and these 4. things which I have hinted from this expression leaning are as the foure fingers of the hand of Faith And we may thus give a description of it Faith is the hand of a soule which God hath humbled whereby the soule being not able to stand alone nor daring to trust to any thing else and being made willing by God out of a principle of love layes hold upon Jesus Christ and trusts and rests it selfe upon him for her salvation And that leads me to the third thing I propounded the Person upon whom she leanes the text renders it Her beloved or as I conceive the old Translation better Her welbeloved The Latine dilectum suum him that is her conjugally beloved This is the last Branch of the doctrine That though the beleeving soule comes up from the wildernesse leaning yet she will onely leane upon her beloved and he only can and will beare her We know that whosoever leanes must have a person to leane upon Secondly There must be a capacity in this arme to beare her some strength yea there had need to be a great deale to hold up the weight of a soule First let us enquire who the Person is rendred in the Text dilectum Her welbeloved in plaine termes her Husband one that hath more than an ordinary portion of her love Here are five things hinted in this Expression 1. It is one whom she loves The word signifies a speciall sort of love and every greater includes a lesse 2. One that she is married to he is welbeloved her dearest love not charum but dilectum one that hath a title to her 3. Her Beloved not anothers Beloved 4. Her Beloved He that is her Beloved not who was her Beloved 5. Her Beloved not her Beloveds First It is one whom she loves This I hinted at before it is a principle of love that drawes the Soule to leane upon the Lord Jesus Christ The hatred of her selfe hath bred the love of her Saviour in it And no Soul loves Christ more than that wich loaths it self most When the soule shall consider what a Brand for Hell it was in its originall how worthlesse a worme it is how basely it hath dealt by God trampling upon his rich offers of Grace scorning his Invitations And again consider that God hath no need at all of it But if it were burning in hell could be as glorious as in its Salvation and yet would be pleased to powre out his precious bloud for it yet so unworthy To wooe the Soule that hath need of him and yet never praies to him nor ever was a sutor for mercy This breeds love in the Soule And the more the Soule fadomes her owne misery the more yet she loves and admires the Lords mercy and loving thus she leanes upon him Secondly It is one that she pleades some title to and interest in she cals him hers Christ is the Bridegroome of the Soule and the Soule is Christs Bride Beloved in all this Song is taken for the highest degree of love and nearest relation conjugall love therefore Christ elsewhere calls her his Sister his Spouse she hath a title to and interest in him possession of him and in another place I am my welbeloved◠and my welbeloved is mine She is his and he is hers they have a propriety each in other But suppose we should put the Spouse to prove her title to him What is thy Beloved more than anothers Beloved Or why is he thy Beloved O beleeving soule more than the Beloved of another shew thy title to him And againe why is she Christs more than another Why should the beleever monopolize Christ and how came Christ to be hers she is his and he is hers by right of gift her heavenly Father hath given her unto him hence is that Phrase of her Saviours Prayer John 17. 9. All that the Father hath given me and I pray for them that thou hast given me She hath given her selfe to him Cant. 1. 2. Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine She hath said Draw me and I will run after thee ay and he hath given himselfe to her he hath given his grace unher Gal. 1. 6. And his glory unto her The glory which thou hast givē me I have given them Her Beloved by right of gift 2. She is his and he is hers by right of bargaine and sale The Ancients had three waies to get themselves wives by gift purchase or desert The Fathers sold their Daughters and the Bridegroome bought his Bride he gave a Dowry for her Hence when Sechem had a mind to Dinah the daughter of Jacob he sayes Aske me what Dowry thou wilt and I will give it thee Christ hath bought his Beloved hence saith the Apostle He hath paid a price for us A bloudy price more than all the world was worth But he would have her because he delighted in her and so she is his and he is hers by right of purchase 3. She is his Beloved and he is hers by right of desert she deserved not him but he deserved her This was a third way by which the Ancients got them wives by some
Faith doe they not cry downe sorrow for sinne and all other duties Nay they doe cry downe the preaching of the Law to bring men to see they are in the wildernesse that they might leane Doe they make you beleeve that preaching the Law is a price of Anti-christianisme and no one ought to preach it And for their part they will take heed of it for feare of preaching away their hearers O beware of this leaven For my part I cannot close with this novell Doctrine when I consider First that this other way of preaching hath bin that which God hath most blest by his servants labours Witnesse our Rogers our Hooker our Pious Shepard those three to which many threes may be added though they will scarse come up to the first three Those three Constellations of Heaven that have more light to darke Travellers that wandred in the night of sinne while they shined in our Firmament then all these Ignes fatui mis-leading poore Travellers Was ever any of these Leaders so honoured though they have beat up the Drums almost in every street of the Kingdome for followers as to gather such Troopes of Saints to the Christian warfare as these before mentioned Did ever God honour their labours so much as these who poor soules shone in their daies like lights under Bushels too had only the corner of a Pulpit or a Pulpit in some blind corner tolerated them Nay looke upon these that have lately fallen into this Veine and were Preachers of Gods whole truth before was not their first fruits better and more accepted of God then their harvest is now Hath not God distinguished which way of preaching he will must honour by making the first ripe grapes sweeter then the whole Vintage were it onely for this And Secondly For the constant experience of the Saints of God let them speake their minds freely hath not this beene the way of their conversion Have not the best Saints in Heaven cryed out of the belly of Hell before God heard their voice Was not Paul strucken downe to the earth before he went in the Triumph of Glory Did not the Gaolor come in trembling and fall at the Apostles feet and cry what shall I doe to be saved before they bid him beleeve and thou shalt be saved Neither can they evade it with saying That trembling was not an humiliation for sinne but occasioned for feare his prisoners were gone Least people should wrest in that manner The Holy Ghost hath cleared it to their hand for before we read of his trembling Paul had cryed with a loud voice vers 28. Doe thy selfe no harme for we are all here Neither doe wee read that he trembled for that at all but like one struck senselesse and his spirits dead as it were in a fit of desperate madnesse was about with his Sword to let out his owne blood Now I say were it no more then to heare such Doctrine contrary to the Doctrine which God hath chiefly honoured in his Servants lips by making it efficacious for the salvation of their soules and contrary to the experience of the generalitie of Gods Servants if not contrary to the Preachers owne former and better thoughts and practice it would be sufficient to make me suspend my faith from being too hastie to beleeve this new way to heaven But it is enough to confirme me to heare my Christ calling Come unto me all yee that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Before you are sensible of an heavy load you will need no ease and to heare my Text speaking of leaning but in a wildernesse Nay it may be noted too The Text saith Who is this that commeth Not who is this that jumpeth up from the wildernes I cannot fancy this going to Heaven at a running jump nor can I like this pressing faith without preaching repentance also Faith is an act of an humble soule Nor can the soule apprehend the beautie of Christ and love Christ before it apprehends it 's owne miserable conditions The onely harme this Doctrine doth is to make poore soules presume instead of beleeving for alas Tell an impenitent soule of beleeving it apprehends it easie because it doth not understand it and runnes upon a supposition that it hath faith when alas it beleeveth no more then the Devill beleeveth sorrow for sinne is better understood by a carnall heart then faith is for the truth of it is the humble soule onely can tell what faith is The other sees neither the want they have of faith nor yet the nature of that precious grace Shall I tell you what pious M. Rutherford sayes concerning this Faith saith he is bottomed upon the sense and paine of a lost condition Povertie is the nearest capacitie of beleeving This is Faiths method be condemned and be saved be hang'd and be pardoned be sick and be healed Faith is a flower of Christs onely planting yet it growes out of no soile but out of the margin and banke of the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone Antinomians saith he againe make faith an act of a lofty Pharisee applying immediato contactu presently his hot boyling and smoking lusts to Christs wounds blood and merit without any conscience of a precedent command that the person thus beleeving should be humbled wearied loaden grived for his sinnes I confesse saith he This is hastie hot work but it is a wanton fleshly presumptuous opinion that it is an immediate work to lay hold on the promises and be saved In his Book of the Tryal and Triumph of Faith you hear the opinion of Gods Servants and the Text mentions a comming too pedetentim gradatim little by little step by step Those that come cannot goe so fast as these because they are weary and heavy loadcn Those that learne people to jump must take away Math. 11. 29. the heavy load of sinnes which the Spouse hath upon her shoulders keepes her from that hastie motion that Antinomians make I doe not speake to limit the Almighties power but to shew you his ordinarie dispensations not what he can doe but what he will doe what he hath used to doe and God ordinarily walkes in his owne paths not in the paths our fancies make for him we may looke for God in his ordinary wayes of Providence and dispensations of the soule if he comes in a new way it must be beyond our expectations though not beyond our faith that he can doe it yet beyond our faith that he will doe it When wee have no word to assure us what shall faith be builded upon God can turne midnight into mid-day ipso facto But we know in Gods ordinary course of Providence first comes the dawning of the day then the morning then the noone-day God can take a soule and marry it and never humble it but where hath he promised it where hath he done it or if he hath done it wee say one Swallow makes not a Summer one example makes not
but a fained joy that the sinner hath a sudden short lived flame without any coales underneath to preserve it There is no peace to the wicked saith God and if no peace there can be no joy when the sinner is serious he cannot rejoyce his rejoycing is like the skipping of mad men that know not what they doe Thirdly Consider it is a starving condition The sinners soule starves whiles he feasts his body like a glutton his soule dyes for thirst when his body is overslowne with drunkennesse It is impossible the puffe-past of iniquity should nourish a soule Doth an Angell feed upon the earth doth a Saint feed upon hell The soule is of an Angelicke substance it cannot feed upon sinne sinne starves it Dost thou love to be in the middest of thornes dost thou delight to lye downe in sorrow canst thou endure to see thy better part starved whiles thou pamperest thy filthy Carcasse O let this deterre thee from the wildernesse of sinne and perswade thee to come out of it unto Paradise There First Thou shalt be in a safe condition Out of the feare of judgements out of hells gunshot There life or death will be either peace temporall or else eternall either grace or glory unto thee here thy soule shall be in a harbour if thousands fall at thy left hand and ten thousands at thy right none shall make the afraid thou shalt laugh at trouble when it comes Thou shalt be sure to goe to heaven either by land or water If thou goest through the fire thou shalt be sure to have Christ with thee Heaven is a security in all estates a protection from all Arrests if the King of glory hath a mind to sue thee thou shalt not be arrested like other men with a writ of wrath but invited to sup with him in glory onely by a letter of love and he will send his Ushers of glory to waite upon thy soul to the chambers of glory Luke 16. 22. The soule of good Lazarus was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome you shall not live like other men haunted with the blood-hounds of wrath nor dye like other wretches that goe out of the world haled by the Sarjeants of hell to everlasting prison but quietly sleepe and awake againe one day in glory O who would not desire such a protection for himselfe such a security for his soule who would not throw off his raggs of sinne to put on Christs livery of grace when Christs badge upon his shoulder shall free him from all Arrests That he shall walke up and downe and nothing shall make him afraid Secondly Consider that Heaven is a place as full of joy as ever the wildernesse was full of sorrow and trouble of this I spake before O thinke of the joy of the Saints you children of vaine pleasure you mad-men of the earth that can dance over the hole of the Aspe and put your hands on the Cockatrices den Your false and flattering joy is nothing to the reall joyes of heaven There is joy like the joy of the harvest like the joy when men divide the spoyle The yoake of their burthen is broken and the rod of the oppressour O you that love your drinking meetings and dancing dayes that you would but love heaven where you might drink new wine with your Lord Christ where you might dance in glory and make all your dayes dayes of joy and every houre an houre of pleasure Thirdly consider that there and there onely is provision for your soule Christs robes is the only cloathing that will cover the nakednesse of it his flesh is meat indeed and his bloud is drinke indeed there my friends Eate and drinke and be merry there you may have wine and milke without money or without price O spend not your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which profits not Here you may eate that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse Here is a Feast of fat things The fatlings are killed O come to the wedding Why should your roomes be emptie in the day of the Lords Espousals You shall bee welcome to my Masters Table Now O now Behold he stands at the doore and knocks Lord breake where thou knockest If any man will heare his voice and open the doore he will come into him and sup with him and he shall sup with him O let me intreat you to pittie the yerning of your Saviours bowels toward you pittie the groaning of his tender heart for you pittie your selves if not your Christ and O come come out of the wildernesse of sinne into this wildernesse of sorrow that of a drunken profane creature thou mayest be a mourning pious soule of a proud carelesse sinner become a poore humbled paenitent that the world may admire Saul amongst the Prophets and Paul amongst the Apostles and thee amongst the Saints of Christ and say of thee who art now a profane Swearer and Blasephemer Behold he Prayeth Of thee that wert a filthy Wanton Behold he Mournes Of thee that wert a filthy Drunkard and Glutton Behold he fasts And may in time say of thee Who is this that commeth up from the wildernesse leaning upon her Beloved But Secondly Is there any before the Lord this day that is in any other wildernesse of Sorrow Affliction Temption Desertion c O leane Come out of your wildernesse leaning upon your Beloved First Is there any one here to whom the Lord hath shewne their owne sad condition too and yet hath not revealed the fulnesse of his free grace to them O leane upon the Lord Jesus Christ and leaning come out of thy wildernesse Beleeve and thou shalt be saved But here 's the hard taske to perswade such a soule to beleeve Consider but these few things 1 That now thou art in a capacitie of beleeving Povertie of spirit is the nearest capacitie of faith Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousnesse Now thou art weary Christ hath promised to ease thee now thou art heavy laden he hath promised to help thee Secondly Consider that thou hast ground enough to build thy faith upon Christs power and love are two Pillars able to hold up the weakest faith First Beleeve leane upon Christ for he is able to pardon thy sinnes thou shouldest blaspheme in thy thoughts if thou shouldest not thinke this Can infinite mercy be fadomed thinkest thou Can any one plead his underservings against free grace Were thy burthen farre heavier then it is cast it upon Christ for he is able to beare it Art thou thick darknesse he is infinite light Art thou all sinne he is all pardon Art thou altogether lovely why Christ is altogether lovely Secondly Beleeve because Christ is as much love as he is power he is not only able but he is willing to pardon thee free grace thirsts after thee Nay beleeve me thou canst give Christ no greater satisfaction then to receive his mercies Christ is with child
other Shammah yet the Lord that sees all and can judge best lets Eliab and Shammah passe and fixeth his eye upon this selfe denying in the world despised creature and upon it hee fixeth his heart and prizeth such a soule above all the other trumperies and kickshawes of beauty The Lord culs out such a soule his desire is towards her shee is the Esther hee picks out and such a soul is more preferred in Christs eye than this witty man or woman or that gallant this Lord or that Lady Christ hath no desire to them but to this soule his desire is 4. It implies That Jesus Christ will indeavour and effect an union and enjoy such a soule what is the meaning of that phrase the man's desire shall be to his wife but he shall desire to be joyned in marriage to her that they may bee no longer twaine but one flesh and if his desire be towards her and it be a feasible thing he will effect it if shee consent and friends consent c. The Lords desire shall be to the soule that is the Lord Jesus Christ shall indeavour yea and unite himselfe to effect an union with such a soul he shall wooe it yea and shee shall yield for when hee works who can let him Christ will marry himselfe to such a soule make a marriage covenant and tie himselfe in a marriage bond to it for though in man desire may bee frustrated so that desire and enjoyment are two things yet it is necessarily to be understood in Christs desiring whose power is such that hee shall not need starve his desire longer than he pleaseth 5. It implies That the Lord Jesus Christ will court neare communion with such a soule mark how he speaks to the Spouse Cant. 2. 14. O my Dove that art in the clefts of the rocks in the secret places of the staires let me heare thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance comely hee will not onely have communion but hee will covet communion with such a soule hee will desire to have it draw nigh and dwell in his presence to have it come neare him in a duty in an ordinance c. 6. Lastly Hee will love such a soule with a constant and inseparable love it is said The King shall desire thy beauty he shall desire it and never cease desiring of it hee shall for ever desire thy beauty And thus I have opened to you all the three termes now I come to the second taske As I have gone along in opening the generals in severall particulars I have proved the Doctrine that it is so But may some say what ground is there that the Lord Jesus Christ should desire this of every soule that hee will love and marry and have communion with that it should thus forsake its owne people and its fathers house why should Christ hold the soule to this hard meat I shal therefore in the next place shew you the reasons of it And there is a very great deale of Reason for it 1. Because it is the very law of marriage Gen. 2. 24. Therefore shall a man forsake father and mother and cleave to his wife The Lord Christ marries himselfe to the soule It is written I will betroth thee unto mee yea I will betroth thee unto mee for this cause the soule shall forsake its owne people and its fathers house and shall cleave to its Christ for this cause because the soule is married or about to marry to the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore must look to doe as married persons use to doe leave all for their husband 2. A second reason is because while the soule lives at home with its owne people and at its fathers house it cannot be beautifull nor desirable Our owne people are a filthie people our fathers house a nastie house the soule while it hath left that cannot be beautifull nor desirable The most beautifull creature you know if shee bee brought up by sluttish people as wee say and goes in a filthy habit there is a cloud cast over her beauty So it is with a soule while it hath left its sins and vaine company and pride and ambition and pleasures and riches and selfe-righteousnesse it cannot be beautifull in Christs eyes Now beauty is the attractive of the soule the soule must see a beauty in that which it lets out it selfe to in desiring let that be a second reason 3. Because there cannot bee a cleaving to Christ unlesse there be a parting with these Christ requires the highest love of our soules it is the first commandement you know with our Saviours glosse upon it Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule Hence Christ tels us no man can serve two masters you cannot serve God and Mammon that soule that will hug sin must hate God that soule that will be a companion of Jesus Christ and a companion of Saints must not be a companion of sinners for what fellowship hath Christ with Belial righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse light with darknesse the temple of God with Idols and so the rest Your soule cannot love two thengs with an highest love 2. You cannot in heart truly cleave to two contraries There is a third reason especially if you consider 4. That God is a jealous God you meet with the phrase often and given as a reason why they should doe this or that For the Lord thy God is a jealous God Jealousie is a passion in the soule non patiens consortium in re amatâ saith Aquinas that will not indure or that makes the soule that it will not indure any sharing in the object beloved The woman that hath a jealous husband must leave all her old companions Christian thy God is a jealous God if therefore thou wouldst have him desire thy beauty if thou wouldst have him care for thee thou must forget thine owne people and thy fathers house I will adde but one reason more Lastly 5. Because It is the will of Christ It was the Apostles precept that wives should obey their husbands Now selfe deniall is a great piece of Christs command It is his first request Hee that will be my Disciple let him deny himselfe selfe deniall is the first of Christianity He that hath not learned this hath not learned the A B C of Christianity not so much as the Christ-crosse row as you call it Here should bee reason enough if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee hath said so was enough in Pithagoras his schoole to put the businesse past disputing amongst his schollers I am sure it should bee much more in Christs schoole wee will therefore enquire no further reason for it Let mee now come to application I shall apply it by way 1. Of Instruction 2. Of Examination 3. Of Consolation 4. Of Exhortation Vse 1 Instr It may serve to instruct us in the truth of severall Positions I will only pick out some few 1. It may instruct us That
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
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.
him and engaged him still to be The servant of thy soule in the work of his Master John Collings Chaplyfield house May 21. 1649. THE LOST SHEEP brought home c. Solomons Song Ch. 8. v. 5. Who is this that commeth out of the wildernesse leaning upon her weld beloved I raised thee up under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there shee brought thee forth that bare thee THis book is called the Song of Songs that is Canticunt excellentissimum the most excellent song so Vatablus and Estius gives the reason because it containes a discourse between Christ the most glorious Bridegrome and his Church or the beleeving soule the Bride The song of songs as a note of Quia sermocinationem cōtinet Christi Sponsi Ecclesiae spōsae Estius eminency Mr. Brightman will have it as well Nota distinctionis quam eminentiae a note of distinction as well as of eminency A song more excellent than any of those that Solomon made the song that sounded sweetest to Canticum excellentius omnibus quae Salomon composuit Brightman Solomons penitent heart whose pen-man was Son and heire to the sweet singer of Israel Whose every note is a note of free grace where every straine is breathed by the spirit of the most high and every close sounds the beleevers close with Christ an union with him who is the head of the Church A song finally wherein every line breathes the perfume of the Rose of Sharon and is beautified with the colour of the Lilly of the Vallies It is a song of love sung in parts by the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of his Fathers love and the wife of his bosome whether the society of beleevers his Church in generall or every beleeving soule in particular It beginns with love Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine and it ends with love Make hast my Beloved and come away The fountaine from whence it ariseth is a spring of love and the Sea into which it falls is an ocean of love where the soule that enters is swallowed up of love and drowned in sweetnesse The whole streame of the book is a streame of love running betwixt two precious bankes Jesus Christ and the beleeving soule sometimes it is an higher sometimes a lower water it is alwayes some though the flood-gate be not alwayes open The two lovers spend their long in feasting themselves with each others embraces One while the Bridegroome courts his bride with ravishing straines of grace another while she is emptying her soule into her beloveds bosome In the whole there is nothing but a sweet enterchange of delightfull expressions while both seeme to be ravished with each others embraces I shall in handling of the text first open it to you 2 Raise some propositions of Doctrine from it and 3. Handle them by explication confirmation and application For the finding out the meaning of the words it is necessary we should consider them in a double Notion 1. Relatively 2. Absolutely 1. Relatively as they stand in a necessary connexion with the former verses It was now the spouses course to powre out her soul into her beloved's bosome her part began at the 10. ver of the former Chapt. and continues to this verse My text in the former part of it seemeth to be a Parenthesis and the voice of a third person considering the great love exprest by the spouse and her following of him through the most rugged wildernes-ways and even then leaning upon him or considering the great glory and happinesse of the Spouse from the influence of Christ love upon her either in admiration of Christs condiscention that will admit a worm to leane upon him and will stoop to lead it and uphold it in darkest saddest conditions and fill it with light in peace at such times or in admiration of the Spouses glory and beauty by the reflection of her Beloveds countenance or of her constancy and secret power of grace in her that in the wildernesse saddest condition she could leane that the briars and thornes would not seperate her Beloved her quos Deus conjunxit c. or out of an ignorance of her and the secret power of grace in her carrying her out in darkest times and in a wildernesse condition to such an affiance cryes out Qua est illa What manner of creature is this that she should leane Or who is this so glorious a creature that comes up leaning Or what manner of love is this that makes her follow a Beloved through such uncoth rugged dangerous wayes as these 2. But to consider the words Absolutely now in themselves Who is this that commeth up The first question is whose words these are The second what the meaning of them is Expositors differ upon the first Some would have them to bee the continued speech of the Church and say They are an expression of the great love beleeving soules beare to Expositio summi amoris quo Ecclesia prosequitur Sponsum an suit ulla unquam Ecclesia quae tot ac tantos labores perferret tantaque pericula susciperet ad consequendum dilectum suum Haec igitur sunt pignora voluntat is meae quod fide difficultates omnes superavi Tremell ad locum the Lord JESUS CHRIST by comparison What Church or what person ever saith she would undertake so many and so great labours to obtaine her Beloved These are pledges of my good will that by faith I have overcome all difficulties leaning upon him in the wildernesse I shall neither wholly embrace nor altogether reject this sense I am inclinable to thinke the words may be the Spouses but not spoken in Tremelius his sense as from her selfe boasting of her selfe but spoken by a Prosopopeia the Spouse speaking what she conceived others would say concerning her and rather incline to thinke the words should be a Parenthesis than otherwise Beda and M. Brightman with the rest that would have this whole Booke to be a Prophecye of the calling of the Church of the Gentiles will have the words to be the voice of the Jewish Church admiring at the calling of the Church of the Gentiles Who is this What wildernesse-creature is this that she should have any thing to doe with the promised Messias Quem me solum deligere caeteris autem Nationibus rebar esse ignotum Cujus nominis sit haec gens quae ascendit ex deserto Institui videtur haec questio de grandioribus natu sororibus quae stupescent hoc novo inaudito spectaculo Bright ad loc Beda ad locum And therfore those Expositors read it Dilectum meum my Beloved who I thought only had loved and chosen me and should have been unknowne to any other Churches But I see no reason why the words should be only restrained to the Jewish Church nor why illa this should only be understood of the Church in generall whiles that which
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
wanting to thee Goe sell all that thou hast Christian let me tell thee all this self-Righteousnes must be sold not lost but slighted If thou hast no more than a Bridled nature it is not enough the young man went away from Christ sorrowfull Mar. 10. The Pharisee went away not justified Luke 18. ver 14. Nay secondly if thou hast no more than a refined Nature it is nothing though it be seven times refined It is a piece of Nature That there is a God Nature revealeth it to men and that this God is a spirit and that Si Deus est animus c. Hic tibi praecipuè sit pura mente colendus Seeing God is a spirit he must 1. Be worshipped 2. Be worshipped sincerely Cato could say so this is all but Nature the finest of Nature Thou mayest pray in thy Family Morning and Evening the Heathen would doe as much they would cry to their Penates yes thou mayest doe it and without the Common-prayer Booke too I doe not read that they had one in use to worship their Idols with Nature had given them a tongue to speak their wants without a Tutor and yet be a wretch under the Apple-tree The Pharisee would be so far from being ashamed to pray in his Family that he would not be ashamed to come and pray in the Temple Luke 18. v. 10 11. He fasted twice a weeke They fasted often Mat. 9. 14. They were strict observers of the Sabbath how many quarrels had they with our Lord Jesus Christ for healing for his Disciples but plucking of eares of corne on the Sabbath day Here was Nature seven times purified and yet for all this Christ tels his Disciples Mat. 5. 20. That except their righteousnesse exceeded the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees they should never enter into the Kingdome of God Tremble at this you that are lyers Sabbath-breakers prophane persons unjust in your Callings unconscionable in your walkings with God Tremble at this you that never pray in your Families in your Closets God never heares of you but when you come to Church and then to no purpose neither you are not yet raised nay far from it Flesh and bloud might have revealed this unto you This is the first Note Secondly know If you have not pluckt and tasted of the fruit of the Apple-tree you are still but under it You may remember I construed under the Apple-tree out of Jesus Christ If you have got no benefit by Jesus Christ you have no portion in him if you be not in him and if he be not in you It is the Apostles Note 2 Cor. 13. ver 5. Know you not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates The Apple is in the man that hath eat it Christ is in the soule by a spirituall union if the soule hath any part in him or shall ever have any benefit by him Free Grace is the fruit of this Apple-tree of Paradise Are the Graces of God in you but some may say how shall we know that The tasted Apple is 1. Sweet 2. Cordiall 3. Nutritive 4. Diffusive 1. Sweet Cant. 2. 3. As the Apple-tree amongst the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved amongst the Sonnes I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was pleasant to my taste The Spouse there compareth the Lord Jesus to an Apple-tree a rare Apple-tree as an Apple-tree amongst the trees of the wood Now he was not only an Apple-tree in himselfe a sweet Tree full of the Apples of Life and free Grace but he was an Apple-tree to her he was her beloved and shee sate downe under his shadow Now it was 1. With great delight 2. His fruit was sweet to her taste If Christ be in thee and thou beest in Christ Christ is very sweet to thee thou sittest under his shadow with great delight and his fruit is pleasant to thy tast 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you that beleeve he is precious His name to thy soule is as an ointment powred forth Cant. 1. 3. Why like an ointment powred forth Mar. 14. v. 3. Joh. 12. 3. When the box of ointment was broken and powred forth on Christs head the whole house was filled with the savour of it Is it thus with thy soule Christian Is Jesus Christ precious to thee Is his name to thy soule like an ointment powred forth Is thy whole heart filled with the sweet smell of Jesus Christ Art thou ravished with his love his incomprehensible his unfadomable love Is Christ in his Ordinances precious to thy soule that thou desirest the sincere milke of the word as the new borne babe desires the milke of the breasts Doth the very thinking of Christ ravish thy heart Doth the naming of him carry thy soule almost above it selfe in an extasie of love Is he like an Apple to thy tast that thy mouth is filled with the sweetnesse of his juice High thoughts of Jesus Christ argue that Jesus Christ is spiritually tasted by thy soule Art thou melted with his love It is a signe thou hast tasted of the fruit of the Apple-tree 2. The tasted Apple is cordiall Cant. 2. 5. Stay me with flaggons comfort me with Apples Cant. 7. 8. The smell of thy nose is like Apples It is spoken there of the Church Apples are cordiall in tast and comfortable in smel Try thy self by this Christian Is Christ cordiall to thy soul when thy soul is fainting swooning in the thoughts of thy self and thine owne wickednesse and vilenesse Doth it then comfort thee to remember Jesus Christ his love and merits Christ is no cordiall to wicked unbeleeving wretches it terrifieth them the more to remember Jesus Christ When the Lord hath awakened their consciences and startled them in their naturall condition tell them of Christ this adds fuell to the flame Why It is this Christ whom they have scorned abused crucified It is this Christ concerning whom they have said We will not have this Christ to raigne over us Now they thinke that they heare that scorned Christ ringing a dolefull peale in their eares Bring those mine enemies that said I should not rule over them and slay them before me But to the Beleever Christ is comfortable when he looks upon himselfe as a great sinner the naming of Christ comforts him Ah! saith he that is he that dyed for my sinnes and rose againe for my justification Rom. 5. 25. When he looks upon all his righteousnesse as a monstruous cloth and as filthy rags the naming of Christ is againe a cordiall to him Ah! saith the soule that is he that was made for me wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption When he looks upon himselfe as a debtor to an infinite justice the name of Christ is a cordiall againe that 's he saith the soule that hath paid the debt to infinite justice for me that for me hath satisfied his Fathers wrath that powred out his soule unto death and was Esa 53 4
painted hand reacheth nothing the hand must be a reall hand that plucketh the Apple-tree There is a great deale of drossy counterfeit faith in the world The Devils have some graines of faith amongst them the Apostle sayes They beloeve and tremble Wicked and prophane wretches have their degrees of faith too they will at least tell you they beleeve that Christ came into the world and dyed they give credence to the story c. But this faith is no true hand it will plucke never an apple of Life 2. As the hand must be true so it must be perfect it must have fingers enough to doe it It must be perfect justifying faith though it reach not the perfection of faith that a justified person may have There are severall acts of faith some will have knowledge to be an act of it others and the most say that knowledge is supposed to faith but Assent is the first and lowest act Many goe hither and no further they goe away not justified but the perfection of that faith which justifies lyeth in a trusting too and a relyance upon the Lord Jesus Christ To this faith are all the promises pronounced Blessed is that man that puts his trust in the Lord And who is he that sits in darknesse and seeth no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God I say this is the perfection of that faith which must be de necessitate necessarily required to justification It is not the reflection of faith that is in a justified person Try thy selfe O Christian dost thou truly beleeve then not barely assenting and giving credence to the word of God as a word of truth but being sensible of thy owne vilenesse and the insufficiency that is in thy selfe for any salvation dost thou truly relye upon Jesus Christ and this will be tryed by the third particular necessary to the hand that reacheth 3 The hand that reacheth must be lively It must have a principle of life in it selfe and must act in lively operations The dead hand let it be never so true flesh and bloud it reacheth nothing it hath no internall principle of life in it selfe to carry it out in externall operations of Life so must it be with the souls hands that reach and plucke the Apples of free grace of the Tree of Life mentioned Rev. 22. 1. It must have an internall principle of Life The hypocrites faith hath no internall principle of life in it the soule is not quickned neither hath it any power to act externall operations Viva fides est operosa is a knowne maxime Faith in the Saints is powerfull 2 Thes 1. 11. The worke of faith with power Jam. 2. 17. Faith without works is dead Now it 's lively 1. Internally purging the heart It purifieth the heart 2. Externally it worketh by love it worketh as a loving heart towards God so in acts of love Faith if it be true hath not only a perswading and comforting quality to perswade the soule of God and the faithfulnesse of him that hath promised and to refresh the soule by staying upon God but it hath a quickning quality to enliven the soule and quicken it to an holy close walking with God The same faith that saith to the soule this promise is the truth of God stay thy selfe upon it saith also to the soule this precept is the rule of God walke according to it Now Christian try thy selfe whether thou hast tasted of the fruit of the Apple-tree whether thou hast a portion in Jesus Christ yea or no If thou hast reached to thy soule an Apple of free grace thou hast an hand by which thou didst it it must be a true hand Faith is the hand Hast thou not the painted faith of the hypocrite but the true faith of the Saints called by a distinguishing character The faith of Gods Elect Titus 1. v. 1. Hast thou not a finger only but the perfect hand that faith which truly justifieth thy soule which doth not consist in a bare notion and knowledge nor yet in a bare assent but in a fiduciall cleaving to the Lord Jesus Christ Is it lively as living in respect of the inward principle so lively in respect of the outward operations If so then it may be a true faith and thy hand with which thou hast reacht the fruit of the Apple-tree for the comfort of thy soule may be such a one as will doe it and thy hope may be upon good and justifiable grounds but if not deceive not thy owne soule Christ and you are strangers yet and thou art out of Christ I shall adde but one Note more which shall be yet further for the clearing of this Lastly therefore know Thou canst have no such hand unlesse it be given thee from above The hand of Faith is none of Natures products Alas how many cheat themselves with Faith when the Devill hath indeed as much true faith as they have There is a naturall perswasion and there is a morall perswasion and there is a traditionall perswasion and a diabolicall perswasion all these differ from the worke of Faith which is true and that hand which must reach Jesus Christ to my soule 1. There is a naturall perswasion Nature hath principles to perswade the soule by to some Assent Nature perswades us there is a God and he must be worshipped Looke upon me saith Nature Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum I have not a spire of grasse but tels thee there is a God See the variety greatnesse beauty of my work Read a great God in a great Whale or Elephant a beauteous God in a glorious flower A wise God in my choice of works Behold a God in the order thou hast seen in me See him in my Law written in thy heart Rom. 2. 15. From these and such like things Nature bequeathes a faith to the soule and learnes it credere Deum to beleeve a God But this is far from faith not only from justifying faith but also from faith as to that point It wants that steadinesse of assent which must be in assent when an act of faith A Roman writ to Tully to write him something concerning the immortality of the soule Tully writ back againe to him Evolve librâ—m Platonis nihil amplius est quod desideres Read saith he Plato's Book over concerning it and you will desire no more The Roman returnes him answer Evolvi iterum atque iterum evolvi c. I have read it over saith he againe and againe but I know not whence it is when I reade it I assent to it but I have no sooner laid the book out of my hand but I begin to doubt againe whether the soule be immortall yea or no. So it is with all perswasion from natural principles as to that extent of Doctrine it would perswade us of the perswasion that ariseth from them is faint and weake one while we thinke it is true another while we question
Brother a Sister a Friend that hath no grace Lord what shall I doe for her in the day when she shall be spoken for Remember your owne misery and you will pitty their poor soules Thirdly and lastly Were you all borne out of Christ in a sad undone condition by Nature Then let mee perswade you to keep humble hearts Remember but what you were It is enough to tame the swellings of your spirits to thinke that you were not borne worth a ragge to cover your nakednesse you were cast out into the open field to the loathing of your person It was that which the Apostle urged to bring downe the swellings of pride in the Corinthians 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Let mee apply those very words to thy soule Christian Art thou proud of thy gifts and proud of thy graces that thou differest from another and excellest another others are nothing to thee c. I beseech thee to consider who maketh thee to differ How came there to be such a difference betwixt thee and other Christians I am sure you were once both under the Apple-tree together there your mothers brought you forth there she brought you forth that bare you Hath Christ made thee to differ What hast thou then that thou diddest not receive Now if thou diddest receive it why diddest thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Wilt thou boast boast of thy owne then Christian boast of thy workes not of thy gifts give Christ his owne and thou art not worth a farthing yea the Lord knowes ten thousand times worse than a begger Wee say and truely too that one that hath been very scandalous if ever the Lord brings him in he had need bee very circumspect and humble And so concerning one that hath been of a verie low and meane condition and by the meere favour of the Prince is raised up to some great dignity wee say it will be a great deale of policy in him to carry himselfe humbly in his place Truely Christian I know no actuall difference by Nature betwixt thee and the vildest damned Reprobate in Hell Indeed there was a difference in God the Fathers Book of Election and in Christs Book of Redemption which is but a transcript of the other but a Creature difference there was none no selfe-difference at all Hath the Lord brought thee in thou hadst need walke humbly and circumspectly Philip would have the Boy to cry at his Chamber doore Philippe memento mortalis es Philip thou art a mortall man remember it be not proud of thy Empire thy Diadem must lye downe in the dust I would have the Christian that the Lord hath given great gifts and parts to be minded of his first estate I would have my Text written in his heart repeated in his eares O remember Christian who it was that Raised thee up under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee And now I have done with my Use of Exhortation in its several Branches Use 4 I have but one word more and that is Consolation Is it so that we are borne under the Apple-tree though under out of Christ yet under not out of sight or hope The Apple-tree is over us though by Nature we have no hand to reach up to it Here 's then a word of comfort and hope 1. To those that upon serious examination the Lord hath made seriously sensible that to this houre they are out of the Lord Jesus Christ if yet they be willing to get into him 2. To those of Gods people that walke with sad hearts for the spirituall estate of their children husbands wives friends c. considering that they were all borne out of Christ and for ought they can yet see they have yet no portion in him For the first Is there any whose hearts the Lord hath smitten with the sad apprehensions of this Truth that they are all borne out of the Lord Jesus Christ that begin to say what shall we doe to be saved Loe here is some comfort yet though thou beest borne for the present out of Christ yet possibly thou mayest be borne under the Apple-tree yea for ought thou knowest thou art Christ is the Apple-tree Christ exhibited in his Gospell in the preaching of the Word c. is a glorious Apple-tree full of ripe Apples dropping into the hands of every soule that doth but lift up his beleeving hand to take and eat This is certaine whomsoever Gods secret will shuts out of heaven his revealed will shuts out none who doth not shut out himselfe Come therefore Turne turne why wilt thou dye O thou sinfull creature For ought thou knowest thou art in no worse condition than Manasses and Paul and Mary Magdalene all of them were borne such as thou art Christ cals Hoe every one that thirsteth come c. Come then let not thy sinnes hinder thee there 's merit enough and mercy enough in him O let not faith be awanting in thee Behold it is now Autumne with us Autumne indeed for Gospell-dispensations have been but as green Apples formerly to the times wherein the Lord hath cast our lot never was there such a plenty of soule-enlightening powerfull preaching plenty enough the Lord grant we surfeit not with it O reach out an hand take eat live To encourage consider how the Lord pleads with you Some Apple-trees are so loaden with fruit that when the Apples grow once to their full quantity the boughes bend even to the hand of the gatherer such my friends are our dayes the boughes loaden with Apples of free Grace even bend again to your soules O take eat and your soules shall live The Autumne is plenteous The Gospell is free you may take what you will it shall cost you nothing Christ even bends to you loaden with Apples of Love Ah! how he reacheth out himselfe to your soules despaire not only plucke and eat you are under the Apple-tree Secondly Is there any one here that hath a child husband wife friend brother sister c. that he can have no comfort concerning in regard that they can see no sigues of grace in them let this comfort them yet they may be under the Apple-tree though the Lord hath not discovered himselfe yet to their soules yet he may doe it All the Apples are not gathered off the Tree of Life it is laden yet pray cry for them mourne for them the Lord may yet give them an heart to repent I thinke it was Ambrose told Saint Austines mother being sadly lamenting the condition of her sonne then a Manichee Be of good comfort saith he it is impossible that a sonne of so many teares should perish I will not say so concerning any one but I will say vix probabile est it is scarse probable
did it freely we buy without money or money-worth Isa 55. 1 2. 2. If you aske to what end hee did it It was his own glorie that he might get himselfe glory from poore dust and ashes that little thanke him for all this mercy declared to their souls He Predestinated Redeemed and Adopted us meerely to the praise of the glorie of his grace Ephes 1. verse 6. The end which he aimed at in Calling us was his glory Rom. 9. 23 24 25 26. If you aske me why God that could as well have been glorified in the damnation of poore wretches would chuse rather to be glorified in their salvation and bringing them to life I must run back again to the Fountaine againe meerly because so it pleased him because it was his will There wee must rest I shall now proceed to the Application of this mysterious sweet and precious Doctrine and it might be applyed severall wayes But I shall onely apply the consideration of it as offering you ground and matter First of Humiliation Secondly of Instruction Thirdly of Examination Fourthly of Exhortation Fiftly of Consolation Use 1 First of all for Humiliation Harke Christians is it so that thou wert so lost and undone that none but Jesus Christ could raise thee and hee hath done it when none else could and wil raise thee higher yet and this hee could not have done without taking thy flesh dying upon the Crosse suffering the bitternesse of his Fathers wrath consider then what cause thou hast to be humbled for thy sins 1. Considering that these were they put Christ to death 2 that by these since that time thou hast crucified the Lord of life 1. Consider that thy sins were those that put Christ to death Rom. 4. 25. He was delivered to death for our sinnes Me thinks every one when they heare of Christs Agony and bloudy Sweat of his Whippings Buffetings of his bitter Sufferings c. should be ready to cry out with Pilate Quid mali fecit What evill I pray hath he done Ah none Christian it was to raise thee thou wert dead lost undone he dyed to raise thee thou stolest the fruit he climbed the tree thou enjoyedst the sweetnesse of sinning and he for that was acquainted with the bitternesse of suffering He bore thy iniquity even thine and mine too if we be elected Certainly it was a great griefe of heart to David to remember that he had an hand in the bloud of Uriah that was surely the great transgression that hee complained of to be sure that heart-troubling sinne for which hee puts up that particular Petition Deliver mee from bloud-guiltinesse O God And questionlesse it was no small Trouble of Spirit to Paul afterwards to consider that he was one of them that were consenting to Stephens death Acts 7. 59 60. Chap. 8. verse 1. he afterwards repeats it with shame I was a persecuter Christian here is one murdered by cruell hands not an Uriah not a Stephen but hee that is worth ten thousand of these not an Abell yet his bloud troubled Cain all his life time but one whose bloud cries for better things than the bloud of Abell did here 's the Lambe of God slaine slaine by thy hands he was bruised for thine iniquities and his soule was made an Offering for thy sinnes Is it nothing to thee O Christian when Pilate was but about to condemne him his wife came startled in and cries Have nothing to doe with that just man and when Stephen charged the Jewes Acts 7. 52. for being the betrayers and murtherers of the Lord Jesus they apprehended it as a thing so hainous that they would not endure him beyond that word but were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth verse 54. Christians there is none of you here but your sinnes were the betrayers and murtheres of the Lord Jesus that Christ that had such eternall sure and unchangeable thoughts of love to your soules Ah! how great were those sins which could not be remitted without the bloud of the immaculate Lamb of God Me thinks every one of you should sit downe and say Ah Lord that ever I should be such a wretch so farre to provoke the fire of thy wrath that nothing could quench it but the bloud of thy Sonne that I should throw my selfe so deep into Hell that nothing could raise mee but the bloud-shedding of the deare Sonne of Gods love You have had to doe with that just man Christians not to doe with condemning him but even with the vildest acts of Barbarisme were done unto him your hypocrisie was the kisse that betrayed him the sinnes of your hands and feet were the nailes that fastened his hands and feet to the Crosse the sinnes of your body were the Spears that pierced his sacred side the sinnes of your soules were they that made his soule heavy to the death that caused the with-drawings of his Fathers love from him and made him in the heavinesse of his panged soule to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me O sit downe goe alone weep and weep bitterly for him whom you have pierced for those stripes by which you are healed 2. But secondly if any thing will move your soules to make your head a Fountaine of water and your eyes Rivers of teares Consider That this Christ you have crucified even since his death upon the Crosse for you When the Apostle St. Peter Acts 2. had made a long Sermon of Christs love shewing the Auditors what Christ had done and what he was he summeth up all verse 36. God hath made that same Jesus whom yee have crucified both Lord and Christ Now saith the Text verse 37. When they heard this viz. that they had crucified this Christ they were pricked at the heart This Christ my beloved whom you have crucified by your youth sinnes and life sins this was he that was crucified for you O be pricked at the hearts at this saying Was it not enough that he once was pierced scoffed wounded crucified for you but must you againe crucifie him and which of you doe it not daily Causinus tels us a story of Clodoveyus one of the Kings of France that when he was converted from Paganisme to Christianity while Remigius the Bishop was reading in the Gospell concerning the Passion of our Saviour and the abuses he suffered from Judas and the rest of the Jewes he brake out into these words If I had been there with my Frenchmen I would have cut all their throats In the meane time not considering that by his daily sins he did as much as they had done Which of us is not condemning the crucifiers of Christ for their cruelty and in the meane time we condemne not our selves who by our daily sinnes make him to bleed againe afresh Ah let us judge our selves and sit downe and mourne we are they that have added to Christs bonds that have increased his wounds and the pangs of his grieved soule
thee 2. Thee that wert as low as others Adam left thee as deep in hell as any reprobate there Loe here the infinitenesse of free grace Two were in the same house yea grinding at the same mill of iniquity and thou art taken and the other is left possibly thou wert in thy wildest youth seeming to ride faster to hell than the other were that were thy brethren friends and acquaintance yet the Lord hath raised thee and let the others lye wallowing in their bloud he hath not said to them live 3. Thee that wert his Enemy Was ever dying love yea love in dying extended to an enemy before You have heard of two stories one of a Grecian the other of a Roman paire Theseus and Perithous Pilades and Orestes that would have dyed for their friends each for another but hath any offered to dye for his Enemy Moses would offer to have his name blotted out for his people that were Gods people and which he loved but would Moses have done it for a Philistine yet this hath Christ done O love ye the Lord all his Saints 4. Thee that never askt it He was found of them that sought it not Alas mankind lay as well without a tongue to aske as an hand to help themselves and behold Christ pitied them and amongst them thee his love declared from Eternity towards thee had not so much cause in thee as a poore prayer would have amounted to he was not moved by thy sighs and teares but by his owne infinite love 5. Lastly thee that hast still Rebellion in thee Christ said within himselfe when he dyed upon the Crosse Now is my heart-bloud powred out for as vile wretches as any are and for those that I know will requite my bleeding wounds my dying love with new speares and thornes thus he knew that thou wouldst doe in the time of thy unregeneracie yea and after thou shouldst be called too Who lives and sinnes not Now Christian lay these things to thy heart meditate of study out this love and see if thou hast not cause to say My soule and all that is within me my tongue and all that is without me praise the Lord. But O remember Christian Remember Burnt offering and sacrifice he doth not require but this he requires that thou shouldst doe his will O say Loe I come I am ready to do it But more particularly let me point thee out some particular duties that the Lord requires of thee in a poor answer to his rich Acts of eternall love First hath not he thought his glory too deare to lay aside for a while for thee nor his Word and Truth too dear to pawne for thee nor his bloud too deare to spill for thee hath he valued nothing in comparison of thee O doe thou value nothing in an equall ballance with him be willing to deny thy selfe for him who in every thing hath denyed himselfe for thee Thy Lusts cannot be so pleasing to thee as Christs glory was to him Be content to leave them Thy Honour cannot be so great as his was which he left for thee and became ignoble in our eyes Surely when wee saw him we esteemed him despised smitten of God and afflicted Isa 53. 4. But it was when hee was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities when the chastisement of our peace was upon him and that by his stripes we might be healed Thy Riches cannot be greater than his yet remember him O remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for your sake became poore that you through his Povertie might be made rich 2 Cor. 7. Thy life cannot be more deare than his yet he valued not his life for thee but powred out his bloud his precious bloud upon the Crosse that through his bloud thou mightest have remission purchased Learne hence Christian a lesson of self-deniall Be content to suffer for him who was content to suffer that he might raise thee value nothing in comparison of him This Lesson had Saint Paul learned Phil. 3. v. 7 8. What things were gaine to me I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may win Christ c. ver 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Looke upon nothing in an equall ballance with him 1 Cor. 2. 2. I determined not to know any thing amongst you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Secondly hath Christ entred into a Covenant and given his word to his Father and kept his word with his Father for you O then learne of him Vow your selves to him and keep the vowes of your lips Say with David Psal 116. ver 16. Ah Lord truly we are thy servants we are thy servants and the sons of thy handmaids for thou hast loosed our bonds Say with David Psal 40. Mine eares hast thou opened and bored them Say Ah Lord we come to doe thy will Christ kept his word with his Father for you Ah keep your word with him pay him the vowes which you have made Thirdly Hath Christ to raise you taken upon him your flesh O then Take ye upon your selves his spirit He hath become for you the childe of man doe you become for him the children of God Be made partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. Your Nature was full of imperfection and weaknesse the divine Nature is full of perfection and glory He hath raised you be raised put off your filthy rags and put on change of Raiment Fourthly Hath Christ died that he might raise you from the death of Sinne and from the power of the Second death O then dye to sinne Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evill concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things c. The Apostle Saint Paul presseth the great duty of mortification from this very principle Likewise reckon yee also your selves to be dead to sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 11. and so on ver 12 13. Let not sinne therefore reigne in your mortall bodies c. Ah throw away the nailes that pierced your Christ Fifthly Did Christ rise from the dead that he might raise you from the death of sinne O then rise to newnesse of life The Apostle Saint Paul presseth this worke of Vivification also from Christs Resurrection Rom. 6. ver 4. We are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father euen so we also should walke in newnesse of life and so all along that Chapter Sixthly Hath he
ascended that he might raise us O then let us likewise ascend after him setting our affections upon things which are above not upon things which are below Christ who is our treasure is ascended Let our hearts also be where our treasure is Col. 3. ver 1. If then ye be risen with Christ seeke those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God 7. Lastly Will he yet once againe come and raise you by glorification O then Let Christ in you be the hopes of glory Looke for him he is making ready his chariot He is bowing the Heavens and comming downe He hath prepared a place for his redeemed ones and he is comming Loe he is comming to take them up into the chambers of glory that where he is there they may be also But to summe up all let me only adde 5. A fifth and last use of Consolation To all the Saints and servants of God both touching themselves and touching others 1. Touching themselves against their worldly miseries and spirit-feares 1. Art thou disconsolate Compl. Christian to thinke what a poore low estate God hath given thee in this world that thou art poore despised rejected O consider thou shalt have better in heaven The Martyrs could be comforted at their bitter breakfast to thinke they should have a good supper There is a roome prepared for thee in glory O be comforted in the hopes of glory When thou canst say I have not bread to eat yet Christ is mine I have not a foot of land yet Heaven is mine I am worth nothing yet I blesse God I have a portion in Jesus Christ It is enough Christian it is enough against thy spirit-fears be comforted Ah saith 2. Compl. a Christian my sins my great sins that my youth hath been guilty of make me feare and sit downe in bitternesse yet be comforted if thou beest changed Christ hath raised thee hee paid ransome enough for thee if thy sinnes were greater than they are It was a sad saying to remember such were some of you but it was joyfull newes to consider But now you are washed now you are cleansed c. But alas saith the 3. Compl. Christian I sinne every day my backslidings are many I sinne in my righteousnesse my best duties are sinne Consider Christian Christ is still raising thee by pleading for thee it is his work to make intercession for the Saints But alas saith the Christian If God be 4. Compl. with me if Christ be mine why am I thus why doe I walke heavily I answer Because God sees it fit for thee thou mayst be raised both meritoriously and actually though not comfortably and sensibly God will shine upon thee when he thinks good the Sun shines where it lists Ah But I feare 5. Compl. I shall fall away saith another I have a base heart full of corruption c. Dost thou feare and why dost thou so sinne Dost thou thinke Christ hath taken all this paines with thee for nothing No no be assured as Heaven is purchased for thee so it shall be given to thee Christ useth not to doe his worke by the halves I have not lost one of them saith Christ he knowes them by name they cannot be missing his worke shall not be in vaine concerning any one of his chosen ones Secondly Let Christians from hence be comforted concerning others 1. Such of their friends as they may sadly feare have as yet no portion in the Lord Jesus Christ O pray for them weep for them speake to them in the name of the Lord and yet hope that though they be not actually raised yet they may be meritoriously raised There is many a one that hath a white name in Gods Election-booke and whose name Christ hath engraven upon his hands that to us is yet a black child of wrath a stranger to the Covenant of Grace If their names be there Christ will in his owne time raise him betwixt this and the Judgment day there is a spare roome in Heaven for them 2. Art thou disconsolate to see some of thy friends in great terrors in great afflictions of spirit O rejoyce over them Christian it is probable Christ is raising of them Be assured if they be his he will raise them there is not the lowest worme that belongs to Christ but he hath provided an high place for them Not the most blubber'd-eyed uncomely Christian in thine eyes in the world but Jesus Christ hath provided an handkerchiefe to wipe all teares from their eyes Christ hath raised them and will raise them One Branch of my use of Instruction I forgate in its due place take it now in a word We may hence be instructed and let us learne how much Christ deserves our cleaving to him in the wildernesse in all trials and crosses whatsoever I take this to be the proper use of this Text. The Spouse had fancied to her selfe what the world would say of her how they would admire her dependance upon Christ when he seemed to leave her and make her sad Christ replyes in the words of the Text I raised thee up under the Apple-tree c. As much as to say And doe I not deserve all this love and a great deale more Is it for nothing that thou thus cleavest to me Remember what thou wert by Nature Remember who hath done all the good for thee that is done for thy soule I raised thee up under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee THE SPOVSES Carriage In the Wildernesse in her leaning upon her Welbeloved Opening the temper of the Beleeving-soule in her severall Wildernesses And discovering the way of her comming out by her acting of Faith on the Lord JESVS CHRIST In a Sermon formerly preacht in Andrewes Parish in Norwich Now reprinted being corrected by the Author By JOHN COLLINGS M. A. Isa 50. 10. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darknes and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God LONDON Printed for Rich Tomlins 1649. TO The Right Honorable his never enough Honoured Lady FRANCES HOBART Increase of Grace c. Madam SOme time since I presumed to present this Sermon to your Honours hands your Ladiships acceptance then hath emboldened mee now to present it againe with some though very small alterations It presents your Ladiship with a great piece of your Honours duty and practise Faith Madam is almost the Christians All the Life of Faith is distinctively the Christians life and if ever there were a time for a Christian to live this life surely this time in which the Lord hath cast our lot is the time The whole Church of Christ is this day in the Wildernesse the Israelites way to Canaan lay that way And for my part I look still that the Church should keep the beaten path and as all
WAY been their first If the Devill could have lost our Saviour in it we should never have found the way out of it A dangerous a disconsolate place well tearmed a wildernesse as the Saint will tell you that hath been in it 5. A fifth Wildernesse that the Spouse is sometimes in is the Wildernesse of desertion Here 's a sad wildernesse a desert indeed Quum Dens deseruit When God hath forsaken or withdrawne himselfe from the Soule this Desert Christ himselfe was in Eli Eli lama-sabachthani My God my God why hast thou forsaken me was the voice of the Lord Jesus hollowing in the wildernesse such a wildernesse was the Spouse in when she sought him but found him not Cant. 3. v. 2. In this desert the soule is solitary her God is gone and she knowes not what is become of him the soule never calls any company her company if her God be not there David was in this wildernesse too he is often crying out of the wildernesse he was in when God hid his face from him The foule that belongs to the Lord Jesus goes through many a wildernesse in this world but scarce any which Christ hath not walkt in before it and hewn a way through it through every wildernesse we may follow the Lamb in his own path 6. Nay lastly The Saints whole life below is but a wildernes Earth is a Christians desert while she lives here she lives in widowhood it is a sinfull place a dangerous place a thorny place and a place where she finds an abatement of the joyes she shall be swallowed up in in glory Mortality is but Meshech and her best habitations are but tents of Kedar nothing to the temple of Glory she shall worship her God in hereafter and the former deserts are but as severall corners of this wildernesse but she commeth up out of every wildernesse That is the next branch of Doctrine I hasten to Branch 2. That though the Saint of God hath had and may have her dwelling in the wildernesse she rests not there but commeth up out of it She cometh up It seemes to argue a propriety in the motion as if she were not driven nor drawne up nor made to come but of her selfe came and of her owne strength and yet not of her own strength neither her owne leggs would not beare her for the text tells us she comes up leaning she had fallen had she not leaned Here is the Question stated what the soule doth towards its conversion what power of doing any thing tending towards its conversion before it is sanctified or after it is sanctified whether it may meerly passive what she may doe what she cannot doe how far she may come where she must lean Whether hath the soule any power to come up out of the wildernesse of sinne to the Lord Christ to move one step heaven ward of it selfe And here I have a narrow path to tread betwixt the Pelagians and Arminians on the one side that would make the soule have more power than it hath and the Antinomians and Sectaries on the other side that are so farre from holding that the soule hath no power to come to Christ that they would make us beleeve she hath no power to come to Church neither I shall not know how to determine this Question better than in the words of pious and learned Bishop Davenant Determ Q. 9. 49. Non potest quodvis opus ex divina premissione ad impetrandam peecatorum remissionem aut adeundam possessionem regni coelorum ordinatum The soule cannot doe any thing that is ordained by God or hath the promise of God to obtaine pardon of sinnes or possession of the Kingdome of heaven she cannot savingly beleeve repent love c. for these are the acts of grace and God is the fountain and donour of all grace 1. But first she may by Gods generall restraining grace without speciall and saving grace abstaine from grosse sinnes the heathens did so the light of nature which God keeps from none will shew her that this is darknesse 2. Secondly She may by Gods exciting grace without any saving grace performe many previous actions that are required of men to faith and repentance she may by vertue of Gods generall grace his exciting grace goe to Church hear the word of God meditate of God peccat a propria consider are sēsu eorum expavescere saith Davenant Ay and she may beg deliverance from that wofull condition which she apprehends her selfe in but she stirrs not one of these stepps after a spirituall but after a naturall manner till the quickning grace of God come A man may in a wildernesse conceive himselfe lost look about for the way out call for help be willing to be out yet not be one step in the way that will lead him out and this the soule must doe so farr as it can Negamus etenim hanc gratiam regenerantem infundi hominibus inertibus sed animis per verbum Dei erectis subact is per praedictas actiones quodammodo dispositis viz. We deny that regenerating grace is infused into sloathfull men but into soules subdued by Gods word and law and after a manner disposed by the foregoing actions yet we say that even these foregoing actions have their first motions from God and the question is whether God doth not first work a sight and sense of sinne and an humiliation for it by his exciting grace before he comes with his regenerating quickning and saving grace into the soule we say he doth in his ordinary course of his dispensations Only I must bee here safely understood that I speak according to mans apprehension for in respect of God nothing is first or last he works all in an instant all graces together in the soule but the question lies not whether God works the habit of Repentance before the habit of Faith or no for without question he works together all his works but whether God makes humiliation act before faith which we say he doth Esau and Jacob may be in their mothers womb together but Esau may come out and be seen in the world before Jacob yet not tying up the Almighty to this method who can and will work any way even which way it pleaseth him Nor doe we say any such previous action can be performed by the Creature ut de merito congrui teneatur Gratiam dare That God is bound for the desert of any such privious action to give his inward and regenerating quickning grace But yet this Dave ibid. we say that in the Church of God where men are dayly stirr'd up by the word and spirit to repent and beleeve savingly God will give though not for any of these previous or dispository actions yet freely regenerating grace to all such as are capable of it unlesse they have resisted the spirit of God in the preceding operations and rejected his quickning grace but yet we deny that any man can performe these
actions so but he will offend and resist the Spirit of God in them Now why when as all resist God should reject some as they have rejected him and leave them to the hardnesse of their own hearts and work irresistibly on others who have resisted their God as much and break open their hearts though lock'd and barr'd against him and fill them with quickning grace and pull a Lot out of Sodom by force and draw a soule out of the wildernesse by head and shoulders I say why he should doe it when two are grinding at the same mill take one and leave the other when two are in the same field why the one should be taken the other left when two soules are equall in duties fasting mourning in the way that God hath appointed why he should baulke this and take the other when perhaps that which is taken hath been the least penitent too I will conclude with Dr. Davenant is Sacrum Misterium divinae voluntati reliquendum A sacred and secret mistery to be left to the divine pleasure and the reason lies in the agents own breast It is because he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and whom he wills he hardeneth God is his owne reason and his free grace it s owne cause So then we conclude that the soule cannot move one foot to a spirituall action spiritually not by any common grace it must be only by Gods regenerating and saving grace So that to answer yet more distinctly to the Question In respect of Gods exciting and preventing grace if we looke so farre we cannot come but that preventeth us We are as clay in the hands of the Potter we are all dead in sinnes But when the Lord hath changed the soule then it commeth The first motion upon the will is from God before there is any motion of the will unto God but when the will is healed of God then the soule commeth then the soule which was meerly passive before is active and will endeavour to doe somthing for that God that hath done so much for her It followes the drawing of Gods most holy Spirit Draw me saith the Spouse and I will run after thee First I must be drawne but then I will run In the same moment God makes us to will and we will yet all the efficacy of the Action comes from Gods most holy Spirit It is certaine saith Augustine that Certum est nos velle quum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus qui operatur in nobis velle wee are willing when wee are willing but he makes us willing that workes in us to will and to perform Phil. 2. 13. And so he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God drawes but he drawes the soule that is willing Ay but first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes it willing So I have shewed what proprietie the soul hath in the Action how she commeth and how willing she is to the motion She is drawne but she is willing to be drawne to Jesus Christ But first she is made willing before she is willing ay and in her life after she is come to Christ in her walking with Christ Non suis confidit viribus she trusts not her owne strength she even then commeth leaning which is the next Branch of the Doctrine I have to handle Though she comes up from the wildernesse she comes up not of her owne strength but leaning First Let us enquire what the expression holds out to us Secondly What is the soules hand Thirdly Who is it she leanes upon Fourthly What in him she hath to trust to and how in every wildernesse she leans and out of every wildernesse comes up leaning I conceive here are foure things hinted in this expression leaning which I may tearme the foure fingers of the Spouses hand which she layes upon her Saviours shoulders First It doth argue that the soule is weary otherwise she would not leane Secondly It is a willing posture I am not forced to leane I do it willingly The soule that comes up with Christ is willing Thirdly It is a posture of love Otherwise she would not leane Fourthly It doth argue a confidence that the soule hath in the Lord that he is able to beare her Otherwise shee would not trust the weight of her soule upon him First it doth argue wearinesse If she were not weary she would not leane Humiliation is a preface to faith and the way to be found is to be lost It is not a leaning of wantonnesse but a leanning of wearinesse O Lord I am sinking into Hell let me save my selfe from sinking by thy shoulders I am falling Lord let me leane whiles the soule hath any strength to goe it is too proud to be beholden to leane Come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. 29. First weary then come First heavy laden then I will ease you What shall I doe to be saved saith the Gaolor O I am lost undone I am at a Non-plus O what shall I doe I am weary for I am farre readier to beleeve that that Voice What shall I doe is rather the Voice of the soul at it's nil ultra sadly sensible of it's lost and miserable condition sufficiently humbled in the sense of it than the voice of a soule thinking it might doe any thing that might be but in the least contributary to the desert of salvation I cannot be perswaded to think that when the Gaolor spake those words prostrated by humiliation at the Apostles feet that he had the least thought that he could throw in so much as two mites into the Treasury of free grace But as it is the ordinary speech of one drown'd in the depth of sorrow O what shall I doe What shall I doe though at that instant they know they can doe nothing to help themselves So the Gaoler in a true sense of his owne lost condition cryes out O what shall I doe he was weary it was time for the Apostle to bid him leane then beleeve saith the Apostle and thou shalt be saved It is but a wresting of the place or mocking it rather to bring it to perswade that duties preparatory were here excluded Surely had not the Apostles seen him humbled in some degrees they would as well have prefixed Repent here as Peter did to them Act. 2. Repent and be baptized Christ came not to call the Righteous but sinners to repentance He is a Saviour but it is for them that are lost in their owne feeling too And the truth of it is the soule scornes to leane upon Christ so long as it is able to goe alone when it hath never a crutch of merits or duties to rest upon then it lookes out for some rest for it's foot for some shoulder to beare up for some staffe to stay it selfe upon Leaning doth argue wearinesse that 's the first Secondly It doth argue a willingnesse in the soule to come to Jesus
gallant explcit or great service Their wives were somtimes given them for wages Jacob served 14 years for Rachell Gen. 29. 17. David for his Soveraignes daughter encountred great Goliah and afterwards robbed the Philistines of their foreskins he paid more for her than she proved to be worth By this right the beleeving soule is the beloved of Christ he hath served a long service for her not fourteene but above thirty yeares he hath vanquished the Goliahs of our soules and hath conquered our Spirituall Enemies 4. He is hers and she is his by right of possession he dwels in her and she dwels in him The second person in the Trinity is an inmate with the beleeving soule He dwels under the roofe of her heart He hath a chamber in the soule and hath pitched his tent within her and she is in him too united each unto other this is very plainly exprest Gal. 2. 20. I live but yet not I but Christ lives in me I am the Carcasse Christ the Soule the soule moveth the body so Christ moves my soule I move not from any principle in my selfe but from a principle of Grace The life I live in the flesh I live by the life of the Sonne of God who dwelleth in me who loved me and gave himselfe for me Thus you see she may well call Christ her Beloved and Christ may well call her his Beloved He hath a propriety in her and shee hath a propriety in him also hee hath marryed her and dwels with her yea and in her dilectum suum her wellbeloved indeed Thirdly It is her beloved not anothers beloved Every soule hath a Beloved the Drunkard hath his beloved cups the wanton hath his beloved Queanes the Covetous person his beloved gold The soule that leanes upon Christ goes not a whoring after other Gods The Spouse of Christ leanes not upon the Papists beloved merits nor upon the Turks beloved Mahomet nor upon the Pharisees beloved duties nor upon the Idolaters beloved Saints she sayes Abraham knowes her not and Israel is ignorant of her but Isa 63. 16. the Lord is her Father Christ is her Redeemer and her Maker her Redeemer is her Husband Creator tuus est sponsus tuus Her beloved not anothers Beloved Fourthly He that is her Beloved not that which was her Beloved She once loved her sins and her lusts were the beloveds of her soul The name of Baalim was in her mouth her lusts were her Lords and they ruled over her But now the name of Baalim is taken out of her mouth she calls the Lord Ishi God alone is her beloved Sin was the dearly beloved of her soule but now shee calls sinne no more Naomi shee calls it Marah that which was once the sweetnesse is now the bitternesse of her soule shee takes no pleasure in it no nor doth she account her duties her beloved she useth them but shee dares not trust her soule upon them she dares not plead any desert in them though once perhaps she had a Pharisaicall conceit that her duties would be her healing yet when she comes to the Lord Christ to leane upon his Arme though she useth duties and is as full of Prayer and humiliation as ever shee knocks her hand upon her breast and cryes she is a sinner Oh but what remedy the knocking her hand upon her breast shee knowes cannot save her no for that God be merciful to her she leanes upon Christ that is her now Beloved not upon any duties or any other merits that was before her Beloved Fifthly Her beloved not her beloveds The soule that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ loves him intensly and as she loves him best so she loves him onely As nothing shall have her whole heart so neither will she divide her heart betwixt him and another he shall have her heart and he onely shall have her heart and he shall have her whole heart too she dare trust her strength upon Christ and upon him alone she desireth only to be found in the Lord Jesus who is her Bridegroome shee is a Virgin not a Whore she leanes not upon Christ with one hand and her owne Merits with another no nor dares shee leane upon the Merits of another shee durst not trust the weight of her soule upon the wings of an Angel nor to the Prayers of a Saint she relies upon God and upon God onely The Papists leane upon Christ but not upon him alone shee knowes it wil be a dishonour both to her and her husband to take any thing in partem amoris to share with her husband in his love shee will keep her honour in being the wife of one Husband And so I have shewed you how she leanes what is her hand who it is she leanes upon what title she hath to him what rules she observeth in her leaning I have but one thing more and that is to shew you what strength there is in the Lord Christs shoulders to beare her how she leanes even in every wildernesse and what fulnesse of strength there is in her husbands arme to keep her up from falling The first wildernesse you may remember was the wildernesse of sinne Here the Spouse cannot be said properly to leane upon her beloved for she wants the hand of faith to lay hold upon Christ and indeed she is not weary yet I doe not know why in some sense even in this estate the elect soule is not beholding to free grace he is her Christ here though he hath not yet manifested himselfe to be her Jesus her Saviour The elect soule in sin is elect and decreed to be saved though shee be not declared to be elect she is beloved in decree though God hath not actually manifested his love unto her he is not her beloved but the soule is his beloved not actually but decretally he hath thoughts of good to her but his thoughts are kept within himselfe till he is pleased to reveale them to her at his best time she is his beloved though there be no correlation she is in his thoughts his Spouse aye and positively not conditionally The Arminians falsely dreame of Gods conditionall decrees because they comprehend not the wayes of God Beleeving is necessarily required yet it was not a condition in Gods decree The soule is his beloved though yet there be no correlation though she be not his wife yet yet she is intended for his wife To speake according to the wayes of men I may intend to make a woman my wife before I actually declare my intentions to her she is my wife in my determinations and thoughts before I wooe her though not actually my wife â—â—fore I have wooed her and she hath yâ—elded too there lyes only this difference my determination must be but conditionally if she will accept of my proffer'd love There lyes a power in her to refuse We may therefore make the simile a little higher A great Emperour buyeth a woman that is a slave which he
intends to marry and will whether she will or no yet he will wooe her and if it be possible marry her will as well as her person yet whether she will or no he will and may marry her for she is his purchase she is his wife in his determination before he hath married her But yet even this simile is lame Every simile comparing the wayes of God with the wayes of man must at least halt of one foot for though this Emperour hath power to force the womans body to the action yet hee hath no power to force her will to be willing to the action The will is alwayes independent sui juris but God hath power not only to marry the soule which he hath bought from being a slave to the Devill but to make her willing to marry him yet she is in Christs decree his Spouse before â—e hath actually revealed his decree unto her so though strictly and properly the soule cannot be said to lean upon Christ in the wildernesse of sinne yet she may be said to be beholden unto the Lord Christ and that thus 1. Every soul hath the like principles of corruption and would act to the full of it's depraved operations were it not for Gods preventing and restraining grace She is beholding unto God for his preventing and restraining grace though here she is meerly passive Secondly She is beholden unto God for his exciting grace The soule heares and fasts and prayes meditates of her owne sad condition though for the substance of the action it is her owne yet it is Gods exciting grace makes her willing to heare fast pray though not his speciall saving-grace yet his common grace But this is not the leaning meant in the Text she leanes here upon Christ but not upon Jesus a Saviour upon God but not as her Beloved And here the soule is brought into a second wildernesse 2. The wildernesse of Sorrow Contrition Repentance call it what you please though I know the later tearme Repentance be controverted by some Yet I know not why we may not say That a man may repent without saving-grace And for that Repentance which they say must be the effect of faith If I were a School-man I should rather call it Godly Sorrow but I desire not to play upon tearmes And for their defining Repentance To be a sorrow for sinne out of the sense of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ it is a definition they have devised for their owne purpose And give them their premises according as they please they would be poore Logicians if they made the conclusion to displease them For from hence they argue If the love of God be the ground and cause of Repentance viz. the love of God manifested and sensible to us we having apprehended it by faith the speciall love of God then faith must goe before Repentance viz. an apprehension of Gods saving love and reliance upon it But I answer the definition which they give us of Repentance is deceitfull it is a definition of a Species in stead of a Genus as we say in Logick As some unwary Divines define Faith to be an assurance of Gods love in Iesus Christ This is true but this is a faith of the highest stamp and many a precious soule is without this faith to his dying day Faith of adherence is another thing as if I should goe to define a man to be a reasonable creature skil'd in all sorts of Learning Any man would understand me that I did not goe about to describe a man in generall but this or that particular man And I say once againe if I were a School-man I should rather call this A godly sorrow and define Repentance in generall to be A sorrow for sin there is the genus and differentia Or if there be required a fuller definition with the ground though I conceive such a definition would be more proper to give of Repentance in it's severall kinds than of Repentance in generall yet we may give it thus It is a sorrow for sinne arising out of the feare of Gods wrath or apprehensions of Gods love And I know not why we may not say That a man may repent without saving grace Bishop Davenant sayes A man by exciting the grace of God may Peccata propria considerare ad sensum eorundem expavescere liberationem ab hoc metu exoptare tremble for his sinnes and mourne for them and desire deliverance out of them and if this be not Repentance I know not what is not taking Repentance for the whole worke of conversion as sometimes it is taken in Scripture but taking Repentance for a wearinesse of sinne and sorrow for it But those of our Brethren here that are so afraid of Babylon that they will run quite beyond Jerusalem so afraid of being Arminians or Papists to ascribe any desert to duties or tye that God hath to concurre with our duties that they are resolved they will not be sober Protestants So afraid of being Heterodox that to avoid it they will not be Orthodox tell us that this is a legall not a saving Repentance It sounds ill to distinguish between a legall and saving Repentance I will digresse a little to rend this Fig-leafe being all they have to cover the nakednesse of their opinion I would faine understand that tearme saving Repentance in what sence they take it the Scripture warrants no such distinction 1. If they meane by saving Repentance such a repentance as merits Salvation or such a Repentance as God is tyed necessarily to concurre with with his saving grace I say no Repentance can be saving repentance No Repentance saith Learned Davenant can so dispose the heart Ut ex merito congrui teneatur Deus gratiam cuiquam infundere 2. If they meane by saving Repentance such a repentance as of it selfe without any more adoe shall be sufficient to Salvation I say againe no Repentance can be called a saving Repentance For Without Faith it is impossible to please God 3. If they meane by saving Repentance a repentance that conduceth to Salvation I say this kind of Repentance let them call it legall or what they please is a saving Repentance 4. If they meane by saving Repentance such a repentance as is wrought ordinarily in such as shall be saved I say in that sense this Repentance is a saving Repentance Now Whether it ought not to be preacht as Well from law as Gospell-motives is a question lyes not in my way to determine only I here my Saviour though he were Gospel it self preaching it from a Law-motive Luk. 13. 2. Except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish Let the unprejudiced Reader judge if damnation be not there preached as a terrible motive to Repentance Surely I then may learne to preach from the Best of Preachers and preach Repent or you will goe to Hell Repent or you will be damn'd as well as Repent because God hath loved you Yea and John too
know that the least drop of Christs bloud is fully able to wash away all my guilt But what have I to doe with Christ I am a poore creature the fitter object for divine charity what dowry have I for Christ to marry me Because thou hast nothing therefore I will doe it saith Christ If thou hadst any thing that thou thoughtest riches I would not have married thee saith Christ Thou art mistaken in my thoughts I doe not marry thee because thou art rich but because I have a delight in thee and have an intention to make thee rich Hos 14. 4. I will heale their back-slidings I will love them freely Ezek. 16. 7 8. 9. Now the soule being fully perswaded of this that Christ is full of mercy and able to pardon her and free in his mercy therefore willing to forgive her and desiring nothing for her pardon but to live like a Spouse in his sight begins to leane beleeving he will pardon her But yet saith the soule I could desire to see it under Christs hand I thinke I could take his word now So she leanes upon Christs promises which are as the other Fluke of this Anchor Now sayes the soule O that I might have it but under Christs hand that my sinnes which I am scarse able to thinke can be pardoned may be pardoned though I staid his leisure for the sealing of it Here she enquires for Promises and Presidents Did ever Christ promise saith the Soule to pardon such a scarlet crimson sinner as I am Yes I have saith Christ looke Isa 1. 18. Though your sinnes be as skarlet they shall be as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll and so Isa 55. 6 7. I will have mercy upon you I will abundantly pardon you Mat. 11. 29. O but where hath Christ promised freely to dispence these mercies saith the soule Christ turnes her again to Isa 51. 1 2 3. Ho every one that thirsteth come buy of me without mony or mony-worth But secondly where did he ever pardon such a sinner as I am saith the soule Christ puts her in mind of Mary Magdalen Manasses O but where one that was so near hell as I am saith the soule an old sinner the theese upon the Crosse saith Christ Now it must not be understood that Christ Jesus should reveale these Promises Audibly to the soule but 1. Either sets his Ministers a worke to declare his Charters of Grace and read the soules pardon 2. Or else he suggests into the soule such promises in such a seasonable time which must be taken as the voice of God to that soule Thus the soule furnished with presidents trusting upon promises wipes her eyes comes out of the wildernesse leaning upon her blessed Saviour and saying O my sweet Saviour thou that hast drawne mee from the pit of hell and hast reached out thy arme for a worthlesse lost worme to leane upon thee I dare beleeve thee I now roule my soule upon thee I am shipwrackt but thou art my harbour and now O what shall I doe for thee O my God! I am sick of love Thou hast ravished my heart I am thine I am thine Thus have I shewne how the soule comes out of the wildernesse of sinne and sorrow leaning upon her Beloved And here the ship is in harbour but yet ever and anon she is tossed still persecuted though not forsaken This is the most dangerous wildernesse afterwards she is often in the corner of a Desart I must shew you how even then she leanes and how out of them she comes leaning upon her Beloved She is alwayes a dependent creature she leanes when ever she is wearied The third Wildernese therefore is the wildernesse of afflictions in this she leanes out of this she comes leaning upon her Welbeloved id est in afflictions she leanes Christ is her comfort in her saddest troubles She leanes upon him viz. upon his supporting grace Thy rod and thy staffe comforted me Psal 23. The staffe held him up while the rod was upon his back The rod was a comfort because of the staffe the more he had of the rod the more he had of the staffe also In afflictions the beleeving soule leanes upon God and says Lam. 2. 20. Behold O Lord for I am in distresse Out of the belly of Hell she cryes as Jonas chap. 2. First She beleeves that she shall suffer no more than she is able to beare 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace shall be sufficient for thee For Gods strength is made perfect in the Christians weaknesse Secondly She beleeves that she shall beare no more than shall be for her good Rom. 8. 28. All things shall worke together for the good of those that love God She hath a Promise or two here to leane upon also Job 5. v. 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evill touch thee And Isa 43. 2. 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 She comes out also leaning trusting upon God as before that he would help her out if he saw best or support her in so when she is come out she beleeves that God loves her never the worse neither doth she love him any whit the worse she cryes It is good for me that I was afflicted When she is in she beleeves she shall come out and she commeth out with as much love to her God and confidence in him as ever she had before not being weary of Gods service because he hath smitten her She sees a smile in a smiting favour in a frowne love in a lowre and she is resolved though he kils her yet to trust in him she comes out of this wildernesse leaning A fourth wildernesse that the Spouse is in sometimes is the wildernesse of Temptations Even in this she leanes upon the Lord Jesus Christ They were not the Spouses of Christ The good ground Luk. 8. 13. Which when they heard received the Word with joy but having no root for a time beleeved and in time of Temptation fell away The true Disciples are those that continue with Christ in tentations Luke 22. 18. First they beleeve that God who is faithfull will not suffer them to be tempted above that which they are able But will with the temptation also make way to escape that they may be able to beare it 1 Cor. 10. 13. They beleeve in that himselfe suffered being tempted he is able to succour those that are tempted 2 Heb. 18. The Saints that suffered many things were in many wildernesses Heb. 11. 37. Amongst the rest were in this also and they all leaned v. 39. They received a good report through faith Yea temptation is so farre from making a child of God let goe his hold that it makes him lay the faster hold 1 Pet. 1. 6
is his greatest glory he will not give that to any other None shall share with him in his Spouses love he is a jealous Saviour The Spouse leanes upon her Beloved not Beloveds Thus I have done with my use of reproofe The next use is for examination here may every one try himselfe whether he be the Spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ or no Even by what hath been already said I will reduce it all to three heads First Examine thy selfe whether thou beest out of the wildernesse of sinne yea or no. Secondly Whether thou wert or art in any other wildernesse yea or no. Thirdly What was or is thy demeanour in these wildernesses thou hast been or art in and how hast thou come or dost thou come out Examine whether thou beest not in the wildernesse of sinne yea or no It was given as the Character of the Spouse to come out of this wildernesse O but how shall I know that will the soule say I will name two or three notes by which thou mayst suspect thy selfe as from probabilities 1. The wildernesse it is an incult place a place where the soyle was never tilled it is hard almost as a milstone the over-growne Trees were never pruned the unruly boughs never lopt the bushes never cut or stubbed dost thou find thy heart in such a condition that it is as hard as ever neither judgement breaks it nor mercy melts it the fallow ground of it is not plowed nor the seed of righteousnesse sowne in it Thy unruly lusts are not tamed thy life is as much overgrowne with sinne as ever it was thy sinnes were never yet cut off from the body of thy life O friend suspect thy selfe Thou mayest justly feare yea and know too that thou art not the Spouse of Christ thou art in the wildernesse in thy naturall estate Secondly The wildernesse is a barren place it brings forth no corne for the sickle no wholsome fruit no grapes for mans pallat for can a man gather grapes of thistles or figgs of thornes No pastures wholsome for the beasts The fire hath devoured the pastures of the wildernesse Joel 1. 19. And God complained that Nineveh was dry like a wildernesse Zeph. 2. 13. Art thou a barren and unfruitfull creature that dost nothing for God thy heart is a barren heart no seeds of good are sown there thy tongue is a barren tongue no good words come out thence thy whole soule a barren soule not a good action upon the record of thy life Indeed no soule can be barren the soule is of a working nature but sinfull works are unfruitfull workes in the Apostles language The unfruitfull workes of darknesse and what fruits had ye of those things whereof you are now ashamed Gods Spouse is a fruitfull creature Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering c. A barren soule is alwayes a wildernesse-soule Those that are borne of God bring forth fruits unto God Thirdly thou mayest know whether thou beest in the wildernesse or no by the company thou delightest in It is a knowne rule Noscitur ex socio qui non dignoscitur ex se He that is a wildernesse-creature loves wildernesse-company the Wolves and Beares and Foxes but he that is out keeps the company of men dost thou love the wildernesse-company the swinish drunkard the politike Fox the malitious Lyon the venomous lyer and slanderer the lascivious wanton more than the Children of God Oh suspect thy selfe By this we know saith John that we are translated from death to life if we love the Brethren Lazarus when he was raised from the grave we do not read he went to keep the dead men company againe those that God hath raised from the death of their sins live amongst living men and delight in living mens company Thus examine whether thou beest come out of the wildernesse of sin or no. Secondly As comming out of the wildernesse is a signe of the child of God so being in the wildernesse is likewise a note whereby thou mayest know thy selfe Gods Spouse comes out of one wildernesse into another out of the wildernesse of sinne into the wildernesse of sorrow and out of that to their Saviour Wouldest thou know whether thou art found or no Examine whether thou wert lost or no Wouldest thou know whether ever thou wert a beleever examine whether ever thou wert a penitent or not This is Gods ordinary way thence he complaines of his people that they would not repent that they might beleeve in him Dos thou find God in another manner of working in thy soule blesse God for it and if thy title be good to heaven which will be knowne by thy walking with God beleeve me God hath used thee kindly heaven hath cost thee cheaper then it costs many a poore soule and walke humbly before God because he hath not humbled thee under his mighty hand as he hath done many another poore creatures And though I would not condemne those that plead their title to heaven this way for feare I should condemne the generation of the righteous yet beleeve me I should suspect it in my owne cause They that goe out weeping and carry precious seed shall returne rejoycing and bring their sheaves with them 2. Examine thy selfe What other wildernesses thou meetest with Afflictions temptations c. I would not give this as an infallible marke yet God sayes whom he loves he chasteneth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth and thence the Father drew out his Conclusion Unicum Deus habuit filium sine peccato nullum sine flagello God had one Sonne without sinne but none without a rod. But I know even the wicked sometimes begin their hell upon the earth and though I would suspect my selfe if I met with no afflictions yet I would not be glad to have a life full of crosses and afflictions my best evidence for heaven I rather named this for a preface to the next note 3. Examine how thou carriest thy selfe in the wildernesse there is a different carriage betwixt the child of God and the child of the Devill in afflictions the one sinkes into the grave with despaire the other lifts up his head to Sion with hope the one is prest to death under crosses the other above all crosses Cain cries my punishment is too heavy for me to beare Job cries though he should kill me yet I will trust in him The Reprobate cryes Who is the Lord that I should wait for him The Saint sayes I will patiently wait for the Lords Salvation the wicked man dyes the Saint leanes the eyes of the sinners faile that day but the Saints look up to Sion from whence comes their helpe that day 4. Examine How thou hast come out of thy wildernesse of thine owne strength or leaning Canst thou say That God knew thee in the wildernesse in the land of great drought Hos 13. 5. If thou thinkest thou camest out alone thou art there stil What
selfe Deniall I rejoyce to see the flowings of the spirit of grace in those eminent Servants of the Lord that have both hunted for venison and caught it to make savory meat for the Saints discovering those secrets of the Lords strength and unsearchable riches of love beyond the pennes or tongues of those that have gone before them But methinkes I have sometimes feared lest while those Eminent ones have driven according to the peace of their own soules and made it their work almost onely to dresse out the strong meat they should have driven beyond the pace of the Lambs and onely go away with part of the flock who are able to receive and have eares to heare such sublime gospell mysteries I have sometimes wished a Shepard or Hooker or two more to stay behind and to drive the remnant of the flock which in heaven will overtake the other though there be many things to be spoken which without over driving them they are not yet able to beare I being one borne out of due time am onely fit for such a work the opening the Rudiments of Christianity and it shall be my crowne if by teaching the A B C of the wayes of grace I may be made instrumentall but to fit Saints for their highschooles I have presumed here to present your Honour with the first Lesson of Grace He that will be my disciple saith Christ let him deny himselfe and take up the crosse and follow me first deny himself then follow me Not but that I hope your Ladiship can readily endorse this sermon with that speech of the young man All these have I kept from my youth Though I need not mind your Honour that it is a lif 's not a dayes practice Madam there can be no Mistresse like Experience which easily convinceth me that your Ladiship who have had a constant sight of sublunary vanities an enjoyment of creature-contentments is farre more able to read him who now writes a lecture of the Vanity of every thing under the Sun than he is to read it your Ladiship who hath been blest in the want of those advantages and onely from a guesse at the body by the foot can subscribe Solomons account of them surely Madam there is nothing under the Sun but in cleaving to it and neglecting Christ a rationall creature must dishonour himselfe as well as his Saviour and as well call in question his own judgement and out-law his owne reason as disobey his God Christ Madam Ah! Christ Christ alone is the excelling one that is Altogether desires It is the Rose of Sharon only that wants prickles His name is the onely box of Ointment which one fly or other will not make to stinke And now I mention his name I remember what the spouse saith Thy name is an ointment powerd forth therefore doe the Virgines love thee Of those Virgines I trust your Ladiship is those that love Christ for the ointment of his name powred forth so I trust hath the Ointment of grace powred upon that head from which you drew your naturall breath ran downe to the skirts of all her Relations Madam This world is not so well bred but in Christs wayes if your Ladiship desire to walk you must expect to be a sharer in the scoffs of those that put out the finger at those that run not with them to the same excesse of Riot I need not mind your Ladiship of the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ who patiently endured the crosse and despised the shame for your sake Madam the wayes of Christ the paths of holinesse are onely uncomely to those before whose eyes the Devill hath cast a mist and the God of this world hath blinded their eyes lest the glorious light of of the gospell should shine upon them If the King desires our beauty no matter whether our rate be high or low amongst the children of Vanity whose God is their Belly and whose glory is their shame May your Ladiship strive after perfection and yet daunce before the Ark though Michal mocks out at the window The Moone keeps its course though the dogs bark This Sermon Madam was formerly dedicated to your Ladiships eares I never thought then that the noise of it should have gone beyond the chappell it was preacht in nor indeed had it had not your Ladiships noble Mother commanded the transcription of a coppy which desire was also seconded by other Noble friends whose commands I was as unwilling to disobey as unable to performe through my multitude of other occasions which is the only reason of my publication of it that I might be thrifty of my time for my other studies and by troubling the world worke my own ease Having resolved upon this course I was desirous it should appeare as covertly as might be and have therefore added it to some other Sermons preacht long before then sent to the presse to gratify the desire of the Printer Madam your Ladiship I trust will easily excuse me for the want of paines in it If I should spend time to tickle some few ears it would be unthriftily done and possibly I might by it lose the advantage of speaking to many anothers heart I had rather so preach and write that those that heare or read my sermons should read and heare with a trembling heart than with a tickled fancy Madam Such as it is I crave leave to present it to your Ladiship Beseeching the God of grace so to empower every line that it may be a drop of mercy to your Honours and every Readers soule That your Ladiship may grow up like the tree planted by the rivers of water and bring forth fruit in your season That in the renewing of every week there may appeare in your Ladiships heart conversation an answer of those old prayers newly returned to your Ladiships Noble Parent That the Lord may have glory your soule peace and hee the dayly answer of his prayers who truely is Madam Your Honours most humbly obliged servant in the Lord Jesus John Collings Chaplyfield house Aug 21. 1649. A LESSON OF Self-Denyall Psal 45. 10 11. Hearken O daughter and consider and encline thine eare Forget also thy own people and thy Fathers house so shall the King desire thy beauty IT is agreed almost amongst all Expositors that this Psalme is a Marriage-Song and principally relating to the spirituall marriage between Jesus Christ and the beleeving soule or between Christ and his Church But there is a little question amongst them whether the spirituall sense of it be couched under a type or an Allegory Some thinke that the Holy Ghost here treates of that spirituall marriage under the type of Solomons marriage to Pharaohs daughter of which wee read 1 King 3. 11. Of this opinion saith D. Rivet are D. Rivet Pref. in hunc Psalmum the Hebrew Interpreters and most others as Calvin Bucer Junius Jansenius c. yet these grant that there are some things in the Psalme not
in the Text And forget thine owne people and thy Fathers house Here are two things to be enquired into 1. What is meant by her owne People and her Fathers House 2. What is meant by forgetting of them For the first we must be guided by the Knowledge of the Spouse to whom these words are spoken if you look upon 1. The Church of the Jewes as the Spouse meant here to be married to Christ without question it is meant of the Jewish Worship the Ceremoniall Law and Worship and their Traditions they were to hee forgotten and the Gospell-worship to be embraced the worship of Christs Institution consonant to that of Christ to the Woman of Samaria John 4. 21 22 23. 2. If you understond by the Spouse the Church of the Gentiles then the Fathers house is all the Gentile worship and Paganish Idolatry which must all be left upon their turning to Christ 3. If you understand by the Spouse the particular beleeving soule the Fathers house is old Adams house all sinnne and wickednesse all traditionall worshipping Renounce the Per patris domum intelligo quicquid corruptionis ex utero afferimus aut quaecunque ex prava institutione nobis adhaerent quasi ad nos haereditario jure aut educatione transfusa Rivet ad loc World saith Deodate and cleave to Christ It is a Lesson of Selfe-Denyall consonant to that of Christ Matth. 10. 37. By Fathers house saith Doctor Rivet wee may understand whatever corruption wee either brought out of the wombe with us or have contracted by ill education or custome so that they cleave to us as our inheritance And by People saith he I understand ea quae ex mala consustudine conversatione cum impiis acquisita nos a Deo abducunt quae omnia nobis sunt deponenda all those Corruptions and whatever they be which we have contracted by ill acquaintance and conversing amongst the wicked which estrange us from God these must all bee laid downe Luke 9. 23. Luke 14. 26. I shall anon in the opening of the Doctrine open this tearm more fully I now proceed So shall the King desire thy Beauty Some read it Quia concupivit because the King hath desired thy beauty making it a motive to induce her to forget her fathers house So August Cyprian c. Others read it according to our Translation The King The King of Glory the King of Peace Christ that King I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion Hee is the King Greatly desire Out of his love to thee his great love to thee he shall desire it not onely love thee but desire thee yea not onely desire thee but greatly desire thee He speaks after the manner of men whose desire is to the women they love Gen. 4. 7. Vnto thee shall be his desire And so Deut. 21. 11. If thou seest amongst the Captives a beautifull woman and thou hast a desire to her to make her thy wife Christs Love is such to the soule that he hath a desire to her yea not a desire barely but a passionate desire he shall greatly desire he shall be in love with the soule He shall greatly desire thy Beauty What Beauty Pulchritudo est in mente credentium saith Musculus it is meant not of a face Beauty but an heart Beauty Decor Ecclesiae saith Mollerus est in fide obedientia dilectione In the graces of the soule it is a Beauty that the Lord Christ puts upon the soule it is not a Beauty of nature but of grace that is the Saints Beauty Sanctitas Ecclesiae est pulchritudo Eeclesiae saith Piscator the holinesse of the Church is the Churches beauty and so the holines of the soul is the souls beauty This is the fairenes this the Beauty that is meant in those places of Solomons Song Cant. 1. 10 11. Cant. 4. 1. Cant. 6. 1. Cant. 7. 1. This is the Beauty that the Lord Jesus Christ the great King shall so desire in the soule this is the comelinesse that shall make any poore soule desireable in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ This is the Beauty which will make the King of Glory rest and content himselfe in his Love to the soule that hath it and make him bee delighted with the acquaintance of the soule and in conversing and having Communion with the soule This is it that which where it is found will so ravish Christs heart that he will never part from the soule as Mollerus expounds that phrase greatly desire Thus as shortly as I could dispatch it you have the sense of the Text. Now in it there lyes these truths 1. That the gracious soule by marriage to Jesus Christ becomes his Daughter as well as his Spouse Hee will not onely love her as a Wife but care for her as a Daughter 2 Cor. 6. 16. 2. That it is a great piece of the Daughters worke to hearken to Christ in his Word It is no height of Saintship to be beyond Ordinances if wee be out of Heaven It is a note of a Reprobate being once enlightned to fall back but it is a new degree of Saintship they are deafe Adders that have lived thus long no Saints Children of the Devill not of God his Daughters must hearken Hearken O Daughter 3. Christs Daughter must and shall see as well as heare Hearing is not enough the soule must be open to receive Christ as well as the eare to heare his voice and if they will heare they shall see Hearken O Daughter and see 4. Christs Daughters must incline their eare as well as heare and see Obedience must bee joyn'd to Faith and Worship Inward affection and intention of minde must bee joyned with outward hearing 5. Which is the Doctrine I will Insist upon Doct. 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 bee beautifull And the Lord-Jesus shall desire its Beauty In the handling of this Doctrine I shall doe these 5 things 1. I shall shew you what it is for a soule to forget its owne people and its Fathers house 2. I shall shew you how and in what sense the soule that doth it shall be beautifull 3. I shall shew what is meant by the Lord Christs desiring such a soules beauty 4. I shall give you some reasons why it is requisite that the soule that would endeare it selfe to Christ and make it selfe desireable should forget its Fathers house 5. Lastly I shall apply the whole Doctrine suitably First what is meant by the soules owne people and Fathers house and secondly by forgetting of them What was meant in generall I shewed before Our Fathers house is old Adams house the world and all therein I shall now shew you in some particulars First What of our Eathers must bee forgot Secondly how and in what sense we must forget it The first I shall dispatch in these few following
Mat. 7. 13 14. but then you must not look for the same journies end The Lord give you hearts to consider it and feare to tremble at it 3. And from hence thirdly you may bee instructed that it must bee something more than nature that must make a poore soule beautifull and desirably beautifull in Jesus Christs eyes It must neither bee naturall beauty will doe it nor yet naturall parts no nor natures glory nor the best of nature naturall righteousnesse Matth. 5. 20. It must be something more than flesh and bloud yea something more than flesh and bloud can helpe us with But I passe over this 4. From hence fourthly you may be instructed What an infinit love the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved his Saints with 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold saith the Apostle with what manner of love the father hath loved you with that you should be call'd the sonnes of God Here hee sayes hearken O Daughter the Daughter of a King is honourable but the daughter of the King of Kings is much more honourable But if I may say it here seemes to be a degree of love beyond it the Kings wife is more honourable than the Kings daughter Behold therefore O yee upright in heart with what manner of love the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved you that hee should desire your beauty not only love you but if uncomely poor wretches make you beautifull according to that Ezech. 16. 13 14. nay not only so but desire your beauty not onely like it but desire it O love infinit love when David sent his servants to let Abigail know that hee desired her beauty marke how she admires at it 1 Sam. 25. 41. shee arose and bowed her selfe on the earth and said Behold let thine handmaid bee a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord Doe you heare this newes O yee daughters of men doe you heare this newes that the King of glory the Lord Jesus Christ that hath no need of you that is infinitly above you hath sent me this day to tell you that hee desires your beauty Rise up O yee Saints bow your selves and say Let us be servants to wash his feet c. Let us bee the doore-keepers of his house his meanest servants No Christians you shall be his sons and daughters Nay hearken O daughters here 's more for you The King desires your beauty Spell this love at leisure and now wash your soules follow after Jesus Christ study it with your most serious thoughts live to it with strictest lives What conversation becommeth the gospell what manner of persons should you be Follow on make haste and rise and follow him singing crying as you goe O the heighth and depth the incomprehensible heighth the unfadomable depth of love wherewith the Lord Jesus Christ hath loved sinners before the beginning of the world c. And lastly 5. Can you learn a lesse result from hence than this that Saints selfe-denying despised Saints are happy creatures Terque quaterque beati blessed againe and againe Surely you have not heard mee all this while but you are preventing me in the words of the Psalmist Happy are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God we may say of them O nimium dilectis Deo creatures strangely beloved of their God strangely happy in this that the King should desire their beauty Let the world scorne one let them put out the finger and barke at the moone let them mock puritanisme let the way of holinesse be every where spoken against pro hominum arbitrio let them talke so long as you gaine you dance before the ark though Michal mock out at the window You shall be more beautifull the more vile they think you it is for the Kings sake that hath desired your beauty and scornd theirs for the Kings sake that hath chosen you to obtaine everlasting life through Jesus Christ but hath ordained them to wrath and neglected their beauty One would not think now that these creatures that ravish Christs heart should offend worldlings eyes so much surely Christ should have no judgement if these were the contemptible ones of the earth the unlovely creatures Well well Christians let them mocke on after the way which they call simplicity and foolery moping c. worship thou the God of thy fathers thou shalt have thy pleasures when they shall have torments thou shalt have thy crowne and honour when the pride of their glory shall bee stained and that shall lie in the dust These children of vanity forget what Abraham though something too late to doe him good advised their brother to remember Luk. 16. 25. That in their life time they received good things and those precious Lazarus'es evill things but yet a little while and you shall be comforted and they tormented yet a little while and you shall be honoured and they shall be cursing the wombe that bare them and the paps that gave them suck cursing the honour that ruin'd them the pleasures that damned them the worldly glory which hath made them inglorious for ever yet a little while and instead of their sweet smels they shall have the stinkes of fire and brimstone and instead of their girdles rentings of heart for ever instead of their well-set haire they shall have baldnesse they shall spend more time in rending and tearing their haire than ever they did in curling or powdring it Yet a little while and instead of their stomachers they shall have girdings with sackcloth everlasting burnings instead of their present beauty But blessed shall you bee for you shall shine like the Sun in the firmament of the father for the King hath desired your beauty I have at last done with my first use of Instruction I proceed now to a second and that shall bee of examination Vse 2 Are you willing now to know Christians whether Jesus Christ cares for you yea or no whether you be desirable in his eyes yea or no heaven and hell hang upon this thing Trie whether you have forgotten your owne people and your fathers house The most men and women are afraid of the touchstone and are willing rather to take heaven for granted though they find hell for certaine but this is not safe with you Trie your selves then Christians I will helpe you a little in so good a work 1. If you have forgotten your fathers house you have first seene a great deale of folly and vanity in it Man is a reasonable creature and will never leave any thing but he will see some cause to leave it Did the Lord ever yet convince you throughly not with a Notionall but an heart conviction of the folly of your fathers house Did the Lord ever throughly convince you of your evill wayes the sinnes of your natures the customary sinnes of your lives of your education sinnes and your beloved sinnes Had you ever a through conviction of the vanity
love to them you have heard of killing with kindnesse let the kind of death be never so sweet yet the death will be bitter Take heed not of killing the bodies alas that were nothing but of damning your childrens soules and your owne too with miscalled kindnesse 3 Obj. But wil another Christian say I have not forgot my honour and glory I am not low enough I feare to get in at heavens gate I answer first 1. This is like the melancholy conceit of her that a Divine of our owne speaks of of a woman that conceited she was so fat shee could not get to heaven it is the lownesse of mind that God looks at Lords and Ladies if their hearts be not as high as their titles may sit in heaven as well as meaner persons I doe not say they shall have chaires of state set for them but they may have a roome there it may be one or two may sit above them if there bee degrees in glory that gave them place here but as Master Rutherford sayes the least place in Heaven is Heaven though it bee behind the doore But secondly 2. Is not thy outward Pompe and glory that which thou affectest and delightest in it and huntest after Does not thy title tickle thy eare nor swell thy heart if not it can doe thee no hurt all the feare of those swelling things is lest they should breed tympanies in the soule 3. Doe you look upon the title of the servant of Jesus Christ the title of Christian as the farre more honourable title Are you of Theodosius his temper which would you rather chuse to be call'd my Lord or Madam or to be called the servant of Christ which doe you preferre if the latter it is a signe you have forgot the former though you retaine it 4. Is your outward greatnesse and pompe no snare to your soule in the wayes of God Great persons are too ready to think they are above prayers above hearing above meane Saints should such ones as they pray in their families no let their boy do it should they pray in secret and runne up and downe to lectures O no forsooth it is a dishononour to them Heaven was made I confesse for the most part for people of lesser quality 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. James 2. 5. should such as they go to private meetings no better go to a taverne there they shall only foule their soules but keep their clothes cleane But now hath the Lord given thee another spirit it is true thou art great but thy greatnesse is no such snare to thy soule thou canst pray for all thy greatnesse and heare sermons and kneele in a duty for all thy silk stockings and entertain communion with the meanest Saint yea and for a need preferre a lether dublet in honour before thy selfe Though thou beest great it seemes thou hast forgot it 4 Obj. Ah but will a Christian say I am so addicted to mirth and pleasure I must have my vagary and tickle my sense sometimes c. 1 Answ Christian dost thou love thy pleasures more than thy God that indeed were something art thou more pleased with hearing a song than hearing a sermon this sounds high But love God best and for ought I know thy eye for thy recreation may bee delighted in seeing and thy care with hearing too 2 Answ Wilt thou baulk an opportunity of communion with Christ or with his Saints for a vaine pleasure Wilt thou bee a loser in thy heart to gaine a little pleasure for thine eye or eare or any sense wilt thou misse a family duty an opportunity of hearing Gods word privatly or publiquely thy time of secret duty a time of communion with the Saints to wait upon thy pleasure In such a case I would have thee suspect thy heart otherwise thou mayest recreate thy selfe with them and yet have forgotten them 3 Answ Suppose thy pleasures have been such and are such as are in themselves sinfull as wantonnesse drunkennesse c. Dost thou love them so that thou wilt have them whether God will or no thou wilt break with God to enjoy thy lust this is an ill and a very ill signe But possibly thy pleasures are such as God allowes thee temperately used if such thou mayest so use them and yet the King desire thy beauty I have finished this branch of application I have but one word more to adde It shall be of Use 4 Exhortation Let mee now perswade with you Christians And oh that the Lord would help mee to perswade 1. with you who have not at all yet forgate your fathers house and so consequently your beauty is not at all desirable to Christ 2. With you that have begun to doe well I have a word to both sorts 1 Br. Is there alas is there any poore soule before me this day whose heart smites him and tells him that his soule is not at all yet desirable in the eyes of Jesus Christ is there any poore creature so sadly miserable possibly the world dotes on you for beauty wit parts behaviour c. but in the meane time doe your soules tell you in plaine English that you are despised in Christs eyes As though God did beseech you by mee I pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God Ah poore soule wouldst thou be desired of Jesus Christ Hearken then O daughter and consider and incline your eare forget thy owne people and thy fathers house I know I am pleading with you for an hard thing especially for you that have all the world at will But I beseech you by the love you bear to your precious soules which shall last for ever doe it ah doe it I had need now have the Rhethorick of an Angell yea if I had yet God must perswade Japhet to come and dwell in the tents of Shem. Let mee offer but a few considerations and venture at a perswading of you and leave the issue with God 1. Consider How will you live when your fathers house failes you for the present it is a full house and you live as wee say as well as a carnall heart would wish you have pleasures and honours and riches even what you would aske the colour is in your cheeks and the marrow in your bones But will this last alwayes doth not the fashion of this world passe away and will not the fashion of your bodies passe away what will you doe in that day of your visitation These things may last a while till God comes to keep a Court in your Conscience or hee summons you to a particular judgement or layes you upon your back in a bed of affliction or comes to his last judgement But in any of these dayes poore creature what wilt thou doe when thy perfumed body shall come to stinke in the nostrils of men thy soule shall be more loathed of God a future livelihood would be thought of This will perswade a virgin to marry sometimes But besides 2. Christian Dost
or the transcript it is a peace with the whole Trinity The Father is he with whom it is made the Sonne is he by whom it is made the Spirit seales it and becomes Nuntius pacis the Messenger of that peace to the soule being hee to whom it belongs of office to set the broad seale of the Court to every pardon Eph. 1. 13. Eph. 4. 30. But why then is it called Christ's peace I easily answer 1. Because hee is the meritorious cause of it Eph. 2. 14 15. hee is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken downe the middle wall of partition betweene us having abolished in his flesh the enmity c. v. 16. and that hee might reconcile both to God in one body by the crosse having slaine the enmity thereby And the spirit which conveyeth the newes of this peace to the soule is sometimes called his spirit hee was hee that while hee lived upon tho earth came and preached peace to them that were afarre off and to them that were nigh Eph. 2. 17. and through him wee have an accesse by one spirit unto the father vers 18. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their sinne 2 Cor. 5. 19. Wee that preach the Gospell of peace to you as though God did by us beseech you are Ambassadours for Christ and as in Christ's stead wee entreat you to be reconciled to God therefore it is called his peace and it is said to bee laid up in him and from this peace of justification and peace of conscience proceeds A third peace which is the peace of the members each with other a peace which is too sadly broken and too little pursued in our dayes 1 Joh. 1. 3. The Saints have fellowship one with another and their fellowship is with the father and the sonne Jesus Christ and could they walk together except they were agreed And thus I have now though in a discourse something too large shewed you what peace is and what this peace is that is Christ's peace and that is laid up in Christ for the Saints and they may find it in him in the midst of their earthly troubles But yet more particularly In what of Christ is this peace laid up for the Saints 2. How shall they come by it in the day of trouble To each of these give me leave to speak a word or two To the first In what of Christ is this peace laid up I answer in three particulars 1. It is laid up in the bloud of Christ in his bitter death and passion as the meritorious cause This peace Christian is written and sealed with the bloud of the Lambe the immaculate Lambe of God this is cleare in that place I before quoted Eph. 2. 16. Hee reconciled us both unto God in one body by the crosse vers 13. you are made nigh by the bloud of Christ his bloud was the bloud of expiation 2. It is laid up in the word of Christ in his precious promises That is plaine from the very words of the Text These things have I spoken that in mee you might have peace David had peace many a time out of a promise the word of the Lord quickned and comforted him hee had once a trouble that had sunk him had he not found peace here they are his owne words Psal 119. I had perished in my affliction if thy law had not beene my delight The Gospell is therefore call'd the Gospell of peace and the word of Christ is as well the word of peace as the word of truth how many poore soules have found this true by many precious experiences they hove been in spirit-troubles heavinesse hath made their heart to stoop till a good word hath come and made it better 3. It is in the spirit of Christ who is the Nuntius pacis hee that declares and seales up the peace to the soule and is the messenger of peace betwixt God and Christ and the soule that truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in him hath life Thus it is in him Now if you aske how the child of God may draw this peace from Christ I answer these three wayes 1. By Meditation of him thus David Psal 104. 34. my meditation of him shall be sweet the soule-feeding upâ—◠〈…〉 of 〈…〉 â—â—on the gracious acts of grace in which the Lord Jesus Christ hath declared the yernings of his love to poor soules shall rather peace a quietment and establishing of spirit in the midst of all its troubles when the poore Christian is in the midst of troubles to sit down and think well yet my sinnes are pardoned yet God and I are at agreement this affliction this crosse comes not to me as a law demand not as a piece of vindicative justice but as a fatherly chastisement this shall administer peace to his soule his meditation of Christ shall be sweet to his soule That 's one way to gaine it 2. By a believing application both of what Christ hath spake and what he hath done Faith is the hand that the soule reacheth out for peace and by which the soule brings in peace to it selfe Rom. 5. 1. Beeing justified by faith wee have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ Those that believe shall bee established and the more a soule believes the more it is established it is from some unbeliefes or other that any soule is disquieted Faith brings in peace it is not the bare knowing of the promise or the bare knowing of what Christ hath done but the chosen with the promise the chosen with Christ in what hee hath done and suffered for the soule that brings in peace to the soule 3. The soule gaines this place by a close walking with Iesus Christ a walking in the spirit Is 32. 17. The work of righteousnesse shall bee peace marke the upright man consider the just man the end of that man is peace the wicked mans conscience is continually throwing out myre and dirt There is no peace to the wicked saith our God Peace indeed is not the wages of a day well spent not a naturall result and fruit of a strict walking but peace is the reward of righteousnesse the reward not of debt but of grace The words of the Psalmist hint thus much to us To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Psal 50. 23. When a Christian hath ordered his conversation aright the salvation of God must be shewne him I have onely one thing remaining as to the doctrinall part of my discourse that is to shew you what paines what order Christ hath taken for his Saints peace in him while in the world they meet with trouble It may easily be gathered from what I have already spoken in short take it in these three words 1. He hath died upon the crosse that he might doe it Eph. 2. 14 15 16. It cost him his bloud to work out our peace 2. He hath
doe it hee hath spoke it and shall hee not bring it to passe and upon such like considerations thy spirit begins to bee composed and to returne to its rest This is likewise a gospell-peace a true made right bred peace This was likewise something which the Church cald to mind from whence shee had peace Lam. 3. 31 32 33. The Lord will not cast off for ever though he cause griefe yet wil hee have compassion c. Shee lived upon the reversions of his love by vertue of his faithfulnesse that stood bound for the fulfilling it In short bee it from these particulars or any of the like nature if thy peace be hatched up in thy soule from a due consideration and application of the nature of God as hee hath revealed himselfe in his word it is a true Gospell peace a peace of Christs making in thy soul 3. If the peace that ariseth in thy soule ariseth from a due meditation and a believing application of any thing that Christ hath done or suffred for thee it is a true peace if it arise from a meditation of Christ dying for thee and washing thee with his bloud from Gods accepting thy soule in Christ this is true peace As suppose that thou art under some heavy burthen of spirit in respect of some outward crosses and trialls and now thou sitt'st down and thinkest well yet my sinnes are pardoned yet my soule is washed with the bloud of sprinkling yet the Lord hath accepted mee in his well-beloved why should I bee troubled this is a blessed peace Eccles 9. 7. Go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work The Lord commands us to be at peace if we be at peace upon this account Rejoyce saith Christ that your names are written in the book of life Or if thy soule be troubled under the sense of thy sinnes and thou knowest not what to doe at last thou resolvest to cast thy selfe upon a promise to venture in upon Christ saying If I perish I perish and hence thou hast peace this is a true Gospell-peace of spirit In short if it be upon the consideration and application to thy selfe of any thing Christ hath done it is true peace Suppose thou hast some grievous affliction befallen thee thou art afflicted in thy body or in thy estate or in thy relations and this is a sad trouble to thee but now thou sittest downe and thinkest with thy selfe why should I bee thus troubled hath not Christ taken out the sting of this crosse hath it any poyson in it is it not a meere fatherly chastisement hath not Christ overcome the world and upon the due consideration of these things and believing application of such meditations thou findest a quiet secretly steale upon thy soule and thy spirit is becalmed this is a sweet peace a peace of Christ's concluding in thy soule this is according to Christ's rule Bee of good cheare I have overcome the world A fourth note by which thou mayest judge thy peace is this If it bee a peace concluded upon thy former experiences then is it a true peace such was Davids peace Psal 119. 52. I remembred thy judgements of old O Lord and I comforted my selfe David many a time made peace with his spirit this way looking over the old records of mercies and concluding confidently from the past or present mercy to the future Psal 116. 7. Returne to thy rest O my soule for God hath dealt graciously with thee If upon this account thou commandest thy soule to rest because the Lord hath dealt graciously with thee it is a signe the peace of thy spirit is right made The Psalmist whosoever hee was whether Asaph or David that composed that 77 Psal when hee could find peace no way he took this course he went and look't over the old records for it Psal 77. 11 12. It may be thou art under heavy burthens in respect of manifold corruptions or manifold temptations or in respect of some crosses and afflictions that are befallen to thee in this world or thou hast been troubled for some such thing and nothing would comfort thee But at last it came in thy mind the Lord hath delivered mee in many a strait I have seen mercy in many a judgement I have felt his upholding power many a time when I was even sinking and saying my hope is cut off from before the Lord why should I distrust him now why should not that God that hath delivered me in six troubles keep mee in the seventh also that it should not hurt me well I will trust in him c. This peace now is a true peace this is a peace of Christs making in the soul Fiftly If faith be a commissioner on thy soules part in making thy peace thou mayest then know it is a true peace Such was Davids peace Psal 27. 13. I had fainted unlesse I had believed to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living his believing kept him from faintings and settled his soule How is thy peace handed to thy soule Christian is it handed by faith is faith the Dove that thou sendest out of the Arke of thy soule when the waters of trouble are high and doth that returne with the olive branch in her mouth Open the windowes of thy soule and let it in never doubt but it is an olive branch of peace Is it a believing a trusting in the Lords providence or promise a believing a closing with God that works out thy peace feare not thy peace feare not any newes for not being good if faith brings it to thy soule faith seeth God sealing before it seales to thee Let that be a fifth note of triall I will adde but a Sixth Lastly Peace after prayer is ordinarily true peace It is not earned by prayer but it is usually a fruit that groweth upon that root and if thine be such rejoyce in it Such was Hannah's peace 1 Sam. 1. 15. 18. Hannah was a woman as shee reports her selfe of a troubled spirit shee goes and powres out her soule before the Lord and the words say her countenance was no more sad no shee had peace her prayer was answered shee had true peace Indeed any temple-peace is true peace any peace that the soule truly extracts out of ordinances is true peace David when he was so unreasonably troubled with that temptation Psal 73. of the wickeds prosperity at last hee goes into the Sanctuary there his soule was stayed Psal 73. 17. Wouldst thou know then whether thy peace be true or no whether it be Christs peace yea or no such a peace as thy soule may trust yea or no and not in thy peace have great bitternesse examine thy peace whence it came examine thy selfe how thou camest by it didst thou in trouble go and powre out thy soule before the Lord and crie mightily to him wrestle with him c. Didst thou wait upon
trouble under every crosse whence is it then that their spirits are sometimes so much down so much sunk whence is it that assoone as ever a Saint is troubled he doth not presently without any more adoe runne to Christ and secure himselfe and be at rest but wee heare day after day that the Spirit of the Saint is under the same burthens overwhelmed in the same manner as if there were no balme in Gilead no Physician there Truly there may bee many causes possibly there may be a sullennesse in the soule that it will not out of the cave it is angry with God and will refuse comfort Possibly God may please to deny a present application of a comfort by the hand of the spirit which can alone make a plaster stick upon a wounded spirit bee it never so well made and spread But I perswade my selfe two great and very usuall causes yea most usuall are Ignorance and negligence Either the soule is a stranger to the Rock or else it doth not put forth its legges in running to it 1. A Christian may have a great interest in Christ a great portion in the rock of ages and yet be in a great manner ignorant of him and this partiall ignorance though it shall not hinder their finall salvation for our high-priest hath compassion on the ignorant saith the Apostle to the Hebrewes yet it may hinder their present comfort It may be the soule is not so acquainted with the word of God that when it is in trouble it can turne to a promise presently that shall relate to its condition it may be it may not bee so acquainted with all the corners of Christs gracious heart that it can presently consider Christ in a sutable notion to comfort it under its present burthen Now this very ignorance and not being acquainted with Jesus Christ may a great deale hinder the soules comfort and make him go with a sad heart a great deale longer than that soule that is more growne in the knowledge of Christ more acquainted with every piece of his nature more experienced in his wayes Indeed secondly a great cause may be the soules negligence a knowledge may lie dormant in the soule a man may have legges and not use them so a Christian may have a sufficient acquaintance with Christ in his words of promise and wayes of mercy and yet for all this if it will sit still in an houre of trouble and never set it selfe to meditate upon these things never put forth it selfe to trie if it can close with the promise that it knowes never trie whether its faith will efficaciously worke upon the mercifull nature of Jesus Christ though it knowes it A soule may walk troubled long enough but this I have nothing to doe with here Christians ah you that feare the Lord in the dayes of your peace be every day gaining more and more knowledge of God in his wayes of mercy be every day gaining more and more knowledge of God in his precious promises learne to know every hole of the rock that so you may readily flie to it in an houre of straits readily run to it in an houre of trouble That your spirits may no sooner be troubled but you shall being so acquainted with the book of God presently turne to a good word of promise that shall make it better or presently fix your eye upon Christ and consider him in some sutable notion of love or other from which your soules shall gather peace This shall be your wisdome Br. 3 Lastly you that are believers have you heard that there is peace laid up for the Saints against the dayes of trouble Then learne if ever you meet with trouble in the world whether outward or inward Not only to look after peace and a quietment and settling of your spirits againe but look to draw your peace from the Lord Jesus Christ in the day of trouble to quiet your spirits in him and to heale your spirits with something drawne from him some word of his some meditation concerning him c. Fetch out your peace and quietment in all troubles from the bosome of the Lord Jesus Christ Let mee for this exhortation onely give you some few directions and then I shall conclude with two or three motives I know every child of God is listning after this and apprehends a great deale of sweetnesse in this fully conceiving that it would be a very sweet thing if he could bring this about that his soule should come out of every disturbance Walking upon Christs hand you cannot but say this would be a sweet comming off indeed Ah but will some say how should this bee what course should we take to worke this about what would you advise a poore creature to doe that it might come out of troubles on this fashion To this I shall answer in a few directions and that briefely Dir. 1 First Let it be thy first work when thou art overwhelmed with a rrouble be it from what cause it will to sit downe and think what is now a bitter dispensation that doth not please mee I am troubled at it but let me think is there nothing of God in this dispensation commeth this affliction out of the dust see if thou canst see nothing of Gods power or soveraignty wisdome or justice providence love and goodnesse c. I dare say there is scarce any affliction befals thee but if thou studiest it well thou wilt see all of these yea more of God than these come to in it thou wilt be brought at last to conclude surely God was in this crosse in this losse of a friend in this losse of estate and I was not aware of it surely it is the will of the Lord concerning me and shall I not submit God might doe what he hath done he is my Lord and soveraigne why then doth my spirit rise up in armes against him this is the ordering of a wise Providence If what I would have had had come to passe then surely I could not have mended it it would have been worse for me surely here is love in this dispensation for that God is all love that measured it out to mee Thus by understanding what of God there is in thy triall thou wilt gaine a true peace The truth is it is the usuall course of men and women holy men and women as well as others if a trouble come upon them to sit downe and conceit what of man there is in it and say This was such a ones malice to mee now hee hath done me an ill turne c. whereas this instead of bringing the soule off trouble in a sanctified manner doth nothing else but involve the soule in an inextricable Labyrinth of afflictions and if ever it comes out it is at the back-doore too Dir. 2 When thou hast considered what there is of God in it then mediate a little what there is in God to mend it Sit downe and think with thy selfe is