have their sins destroyed if they must not eat Secondly others think that by friends here and in other places of Scripture Christ meaneth those that strive much about the Law and works and require a necessity of doing to obtain the promises Let such consider of the second point before named and shew how the friendship comes in that way and see what need they have to eat Lastly some are affraid to eat because they are unworthy by reason of sinful works But the discontent of these in the want of works shews that they do depend upon works therefore such must examine themselves by the third point and they shall find that they also have great need to eat for the destroying of that opinion in them We see then that all sorts of people have need to eat Open gross sinners and those that are righteous in their own eyes and also those that are fearful at their own unworthiness But why doth Christ call all that are invited his friends Quest When they are not all reconcil'd to him I answer Ans because there is no enmity remaining on Gods part Christ having slain the enmity Eph. 2.15 the enmity is on our part God is reconciled to us through the death of his Son but we are not reconciled to God Now God being reconciled 2 Cro. 5.19 20. sendeth the Gospel which is the word of reconciliation to publish the same wherein he calleth us friends on purpose to woo and invite us to himself And if we receive the Gospel then there is no difference between God and us but if we despise his bounty and will not have his merits then are we his enemies Neither doth God account any for his enemies but those that refuse to have life and salvation by that new and living way which he hath appointed This news is brought unto us by the Gospel by which Doctrine the Law is opened which sheweth us as in a glass our miserable and wretched condition and that Christ came to purchase deliverance for us and to bring it into our Consciences that we might serve him with cheerfulness all the days of our lives This is the feast he provideth and biddeth us eat which is to make a right application of the Law and Gospel in order as aforesaid And calleth us friends because the Gospel maketh us friends And biddeth us drink also because he would assure us hereby of his real and hearty good will to us and that he giveth to us freely of the bread and water of life And to drink abundantly to shew that he doth not grudge us any thing that he hath purchased for poor sinners or that might beget in us a good opinion of himself towards us And telleth us that we are his wel-beloved as much beloved as ever were any upon the face of the earth that his heart is upon us and his care for us and that he cannot nor will not ever be wanting to us These things are written on purpose that we might believe and that we might have no other opinion of God but according to these words that we might acknowledg him to be free and bountiful to us and our God Such a faith can never want any help or protection that is in God Heaven and Earth yea the whole Creation shall work together to accomplish what is wanting for the believing man Let us see therefore that we believe the Gospel to be no other Doctrine but that which destroyeth the opinion in us of all worth in our selves and that poureth forth unto us of the bounty and loving kindness of God most freely that we might serve him with a willing service Those that define the Gospel any otherwise do set forth a strange God by extolling the righteousness in man which is but to bless an Idol of their own brain And let us also see that we join our selves to the Gospel and count it great riches to behold our spiritual poverty and to have our filthy rags to be taken from us and the best robe to be put upon us that we may do good works not in fear but with joyfulness then shall we rightly eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God and have eternal life through his name And seeing he calleth us friends being reconciled to us let us also be reconciled to him and not be offended And whatsoever we want let us aske it of him who can deny us nothing because he is our friend And seeing he bideth us drink and drink abundantly let us be sure that what ever is promised in the Gospel is certainly ours as if we had it in present possession And sith he telleth us that we are his welbeloved let us believe him and never question his love to us any more and what calamities soever we meet with in this World let us be sure although they are tedious and irksom to the flesh to indure they are for nothing but to manifest his free and everlasting love to us What remaineth then Seeing Christ is so willing so free so full of bounty and loving kindness to us but that we store our selves with rich and heavenly provision against a rainy day In this world we shall see little appearance of any thing but Satan using all Art and skill by his instruments to take away our peace and blast our comforts and many times hath great power given him so to do therefore he attempteth to devour us which he knoweth he cannot do unless he can destroy our faith and deprive us of our Christ therefore we had need to eat and drink abundantly of this heavenly provision that when we feel our selves oppressed with the tribulations of the world and malice of Satan we may be so strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that we may be able to conquer all our spiritual enemies VERSE II. I sleep but my heart waketh THese words are the voice of the Church who when she heareth Christ pour out himself so abundantly to her falleth asleep Sleep is a rest or ceasing from the use of the outward senses and in this place signifies the silencing of sense and reason in the use and exercise of faith For when Christ biddeth her in the former verse eat and drink abundantly he promiseth all things both for this life and the life to come yet notwithstanding she seeth not how nor which way those promises shall be accomplished for the word seemeth to promise incredible things to reason as that Abraham shall have a Son in his old age contrary to nature that Sarah shall bring forth the promised seed when she is past Child bearing Also it setteth forth unto us that Isaac must be offer'd and yet in him all Nations shall be blessed Moreover it promiseth help to the afflicted when no means appeareth how or which way deliverance shall come but in stead of apprehending any help or deliverance according to sense and reason there shall nothing appear but utter ruin
shall be as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed VERSE II. As the Lilly among thorns so is my love among the Daughters THese are the words of Christ who first sheweth the Church the danger she is like to fall into by reason of her Doctrine she is like the Lilly among the thorns in danger to be scrat and torn in pieces this acceptance she findeth amongst the daughters meaning the Preachers of the Law that draw on works into the Doctrine of justification these in all ages have been the only enemies to the Bride of Christ which did not fear to set upon Christ himself but crucified the Lord of life let any man but stick fast to the righteousness of Faith and hold it forth against them in this one point concerning righteousness by the Law and they will shew themselves First or last to be as thorns in his side And thus the Gospel sendeth fire on the earth but without the Gospel all things are at quiet Also Christ in these words preferreth the Children of the free-woman which he calleth his love far above the Children of the bond-woman which he calleth the Daughters For thus he saith in effect that as the Lilly far surpasseth the thorns both in Nobility and Beauty So doth my love far surpass the Daughters that is is higher in my esteem then those that earnestly require the works of the Law Next as it were an answer to this follow the words of the Bride VERSE III. As the Apple-tree among the trees of the Forrest So is my beloved among the Sons IN which words even as the Bridegroom before did set forth the Bride beyond the Daughters of the bondwoman under the similitude of the Lilly So here the bride doth set forth the excellency of her beloved beyond the Sons of Agar under the similitude of an Apple-tree Now the Apple-tree far surpasseth the trees of the wood which are by nature wild in regard of the goodness of the fruit and also the variety thereof So doth the fruit she says of my beloved far surpass the Sons that is the fruit of all those that first require the works of the Law to be done before a man can be interested in the Gospel this the spouse of Christ cannot relish because it is not the voice of her beloved and therefore she hath the Sons in small account and betaketh her self to her own Apple-tree and feedeth on his fruit the fruit of which tree doth heal the Nations I sate under his shadow with great delight By the shadow of the Apple-tree understand the shadows and figures of Christ in all ages of the Church which being rightly understood are full of heavenly delight A shadow in Divinity representeth something to faith which is absent to sense and reason confirming that to the eye which the word doth to the ear For God hath always made a double Declaration of his bounty for the comfort of sinful man the one is by his word wherein he instructeth us by hearing the other by figures and shadows wherein he instructeth us by seeing And this comes to pass by reason of our wonderful necessity and weakness being not able to comprehend so excellent a mystery as the Gospel without the use of visible helps Therefore Christ instructing Nicodemus in the Doctrine of regeneration Joh. 3. teacheth him by figures to understand the Mystery If I have told you of earthly things and ye beleive not how can ye beleive if I tell you of Heavenly things As much as to say unless you learn to believe by the knowledg of earthly things ye cannot beleive if I tell you of Heavenly things Now by earthly things he meaneth the figures and shadows of Christ in all ages of the Church and begins with Baptism the thing in question then between Christ and Nicodemus So also Circumcision the Passover the Sacrifices the Temple the Tabernacle the Ark and the mercy Seat were all earthly things by which the Jew was to be instructed in his faith These were the patterns of things in the Heavens to lead the Jew to the knowledg of Heavenly things themselves Now therefore as shadows were necessary to instruct the Jew in his Faith in a Christ that was to come So also were some shadows necessary to instruct the gentile in his faith in the Christ that is come Esa 4. And therefore it was promised that in the days of Christs Kingdom there should be a Tabernacle for a shadow which promise was fulfil'd in the coming of John the Baptist For all the Law and the Prophets prophesied until John the Baptist that is till Baptism Now all the Law and Prophets prophesied of a Christ to come Joh. 1.31 But Baptism manifesteth unto us the Christ that is come Now seeing Baptism endeth that faith and Religion which resteth in a Christ to come therefore it beginneth that Faith and Religion which resteth in the Christ that is come And therefore it is said by the Evangelist Mar. 1. that Baptism is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God Because it endeth the former Prophesie of a Christ to come and beginneth that Faith and Religion which resteth in Christ that is come And even as no man could visibly profess the true Religion amongst the Jews unless he were first united to the Jew by Circumcision So no man can so much as profess the true Religion now unless he be first united to the Church through Baptism And as it is the beginning of our entrance into the way of Christianity So it is the beginning of our comfort in the day of distress for even as Christ was present with the Fathers of old as soon as by faith they rightly understood the shadows so Baptism as oft as we fly unto it by faith hath Christ present with all that he is and all that he hath prepared for poor sinners Which spiritual coming of Christ into the Soul causeth the absence of all discomforts whatsoever The right understanding of this Mistery causeth the bride to sing here I sate down under his shadow with great delight Also this Doctrine openeth a light for the conviction of all false Prophets whatsoever all Sects and Heresies that now be or ever will be having their first rise from the contempt of Baptism or some false opinion concerning the same And with this proposition they all begin that Baptism is nothing unless the person first believe By which proposition they wholy deny the true Christ and rest upon a false Christ For Baptism not only manifesteth the true Christ to become as hath been proved but also sheweth us that until Baptism all people are under the Prophecy of a Christ to come Now that Doctrine which requireth faith before Baptism requireth faith not in the true Christ that is come but in a false Christ which is yet to come which Christ in Scripture is no where to be found And if there be no such Christ to be
as Davids Worthies did hold strongly with him 1 Cron. 11.10 and with all Israel to make him King so do all these mighty men by their Doctrine and faith oppose the world and the whole Kingdom of Satan Therefore seeing faith is so great a Tower hath so many Bucklers and Weapons of defence in it and maketh such mighty men in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ we that dwell in this mighty fort should wonderfully rejoyce and not easily be overcome but set our selves against our selves the world and the whole Kingdom of Antichrist and learn through the power of this mighty shield to make all our adversaries whatsoever to tremble VERSE V. Thy two breasts are like two young Roes that are twins which feed among the Lillies AS the Lord is the Father of many Children so he also provideth a Mother for them And she hath breasts by which she nourisheth them It is not enough to have a Child if there be nothing to feed it for then for want of nourishment the Child must die Some say that by the breasts are meant the Old and New Testament others say no because in Solomons time the New Testament was not written Others think the Ministers of the word are the breasts because they are termed Nurses but they cannot understand the number why they should be said to be but two Those that by the breasts understand the Old and New Testament or if you will the Law and Gospel seem to be in the right for the New Testament although it was not written in Solomons time as we have it now yet the Covenant of grace was understood then and also pen'd by Solomon most sweetly as in this Canticle of Solomon doth appear The milk that cometh out of these breasts is conveyed into the Conscience by the teats which pertain to the breasts The teats are the Ministers and expounders of the Law and Gospel which are called the teats of virginity Because when they give the sense of the word truly faith is preserved Eze. 23.3 and the Church is presented a Virgin to Christ But if the teats are corrupted then the virginity of the Bride is destroyed and the purity of faith is lost Therefore it is said in the aforesaid Text that when Aholah and Aholiab Jerusalem and Samaria had committed whoredom in Egypt there the breasts were pressed and the teats of their virginity were bruised These breasts are said to be twins because the knowledg of them are brought into the Soul both together And also to be two to shew that they are distinct and also that the true Mother feedeth her Children with both the breasts with equal respect And being likened to Roes feeding among Lillies it sheweth not that Roes do eat Lillies for of all things as some write they eat them not but the goodness of the pasture where they feed For as in our Land we know ground to be good for feeding when we find some certain sort of grass in it so in Jury they knew their ground to be good when there were store of Lillies growing in it So that there is rich feeding where the milk of these breasts is drawn out which filleth all that tast thereof with heavenly and Divine consolations Which sheweth us the cause why the Children of the Church prove so little why they do not learn knowledg nor understand Doctrine but in stead of growing in grace they grow in error the reason is because they are weaned from the Breasts Esa 28.9 they never find the teat The milk of consolation never comes into the Conscience for the nourishment of the Soul because there is a stoppage in the teats that will not suffer the sense of the word to enter Therefore the breasts are pressed begin to quar and grow sore because the teats are bruised and do not perform their Office And hence it comes to pass that although the Gospel be infinitely full of comfort and joy such joy that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath ever entred into the heart of man to conceive yet because the sence is not given that the Conscience which is like a silly Babe may taste and make application thereof the comfort is gone the joy is lost And as the stoppage in the teat is one cause so also the waywarness in the Babe is another that will not come near the breasts to tast of the milk that although the breasts be full and the teat be put into the mouth of it yet it will not suck by any means that can be used Therefore the breasts being forsaken and the teat despised in stead of proving it grows to be a Dwarf it falleth into incurable disseases runneth up and down from one Physician to another and at length falleth down into Everlasting death and condemnation Therefore seeing the pasture is so good and the feeding so excellent as to feed among Lillies it is good for every man so to learn to feed that he may grow thereby The Nurse must learn how to give the teat and also the infant how to receive the teat that both may grow to a manly stature in Christianity Some that are Nurses will suckle but with one breast they give the Gospel but deny the Law to be of any use at all to a believer these are not Children of the true Mother because they lose one of the Breasts Others do earnestly require the works of the Law to be done and give not the Gospel but upon condition of mans obedience to the same these destroy the use of both the Breasts But the true Mother giveth both the breasts and so openeth and defineth both the Law and Gospel that every mean capacity may understand it She considereth the condition of all her Children and when she findeth any in heaviness of heart she suckleth them with the Gospel but those that are hardned and presumptuous and think themselves secure She followeth them with the Law to drive them to Christ Therefore seeing the Breasts are here commended because the Church is nourished by them and the Mother also in that she giveth both the Breasts let every one in his place learn so to give the Breast and so to receive the milk in the natural taste of it that the Conscience having once caught the teat by faith it may suck and be satisfied with Divine consolations VERSE VI. Until the day break and the shadows flee away I will get me to the Mountains of Myrrhe and to the hill of Frankincense THese words seem to be the answer of Christ to the Churches Petition in the last Verse of the second Chapter Wherein Christ promises that which the Church there desireth even to be with her until the day break and the shadows flee away There are two great Mountains in man by reason of the fall The one is the Mountain of presumption which standeth in a false opinion of the Law and is by reason of the loss of mans Spiritual wisdom and
saith my beloved had with drawn himself and was gone This condition she fell into for the exercise and tryal of her faith after she had opened to her beloved and well understood the Gospel And this complaint she made in Song third Where she complaineth of the very same condition Which sheweth that such sort of tryals do often befal the godly in this miserable and wretched World when our beloved Christ will seem to hide himself and to cast off all care and regard of us when we are in misery that we shall have no sense or feeling at all of his love but will seem to be as a stranger that hath no relation to us even as one that hath forgotten all his promises And therefore she complaineth further in the next words My Soul failed when he spake I called upon him and he gave me no answer When he spake to me in his promises that no good thing should be wanting but that all my wants should be supplyed and bid me cast my care upon him because he cared for me my Soul did even fail and my confidence was even shaken and gone because I saw that all things were promised but nothing seem'd to be perform'd And further she saith I call'd upon him and he gave me no answer I prayed and humbled my self much before him and cryed aloud unto him in my sad condition and yet he gave me no answer By all which we see that it is no new way of excercising the faith of the Church when the godly are cast into poverty reproach and contempt of the world and when they see no way nor means appearing which way to get out In this condition therefore must we be content to live in and not to despaire of help whensoever it shall please our beloved to exercise us in it This great and sore affliction fell upon the Bride after she had done her duty faithfully and carefully for she had opened to her beloved and her hands had dropped the Myrrhe therefore it was for the tryal of her faith that she might learn by being exercised not to faint in a sad condition but to believe in the promises of God although nothing appeared to reason why she should believe the same According as it is said of Abraham that he believed in God who calleth things that are not as though they were Therefore I say this being mark'd out to be the condition of the Church many times no man must take offence at his beloved if he please to exercise his faith this way but quietly and patiently to depend upon him and call upon his name But mark we further what she complaineth of in this condition VERSE VII The watchmen that went about the City found me they smote me they wounded me VVE are not to understand by the watchmen the Ministers of the Gospel but such as continually watch to see the people of God in misery and to add affliction to the afflicted As is opened more at large in Song third Of these the Prophets David and Jeremy do often complain The Church says of these they smote her that is behind her back with words of reproach and wounded her in her name credit and reputation And this bitter temptation the godly shall be cast into by reason of the watchmen oftentimes of which sort of people let all that love God and their own peace and comfort learn in time to beware The keepers of the walls took my vail from me We are not to understand by the vail in this place Cor. 2.3 that which Paul speaketh of which is spread over the heart in the reading of Moses Nor yet such a vail as was wont to be worn by the Daughters of Zion for ornament Esa 2. she being here in the habit of a mourner But the vail here spoken of or rather the image of a vail is that reproach and infamy which was cast upon her by the watchmen whereby they thought to spoil her of her Title the Bride and to set her as much as in them lay in the shape and attire of an Harlot For even as it was the manner of Harlots to cover their faces with a vail Gen. 38.16 as is to be seen in Tamar that they might never afterwards be known or appear to be Harlots So it was the manner of the watchmen so to cover the Church with infamy and reproach that as much as in them lay she should never afterwards appear to be the Bride And this she calleth her vail And this the keepers of the walls took from her By the keepers Esa 62. understand the watchmen of the walls that do continually watch for the preservation of the spiritual City That do always help to preserve the Church in her faith and confidence lest she should be dismayed by the afflictions of the watchmen these do endeavour to build up the walls of Jerusalem and to pray day and night until she be made a praise in the Earth These keepers took off the vail of reproach Psal 59.6 that by reason of the watchmen was cast over the Bride They mentioned her condition at the Throne of grace comforted her in all her tribulations and endeavoured so to still the noise and smitings of the watchmen that at length all her reproach and infamy vanished and came to nothing This being the lot of the Church every one that is godly must expect that at some time or other in his life he shall be covered with this vail although he carry himself ever so exact and uprightly The watchmen are in every corner they go round about the City as David speaks and make a noise like a Dog which barketh sometimes at a very shadow sometimes because other Dogs bark but be it for what cause it will the least blemish that may be in the Bride sets them all a barking Therefore as we must expect the vail So we must beware of giving occasion Moreover as we must look to be in the condition of the Church so we must imitate the practice of the keepers that so when the afflictions of the Bride do become the musick of the wicked and when she is covered with great reproach when the Sons of Zion are esteemed but as earthen pitchers then we must begin to set to our Shoulder and take of the vail First by our prayers next by our endeavour to remove all the reproaches that are cast upon her and Lastly by comforts and consolations Then shall the breaches of the wall be repaired and the spiritual City preserved from those that desire her ruin VERSE VIII I charge you O Daughters of Jerusalem if ye finde my beloved that ye tell him that I am sick of love THe Churches vail being taken of by the keepers she is sick of love She finding so wonderful a deliverance out of so bitter a Temptation is even sick with joy and thankfulness to God And thus it is with us when God turneth our Captivity by his own
obtain Christs love it would utterly be contemned that is of Christ Now by substance of the House he meaneth all works done in the flesh none of all which can procure the love of God to a Soul but are all utterly contemned and despised the assurance there of being attained unto by faith alone These words therefore must utterly confound all opinion of works within us and destroy all confidence in the flesh and it being the Gospel it must teach us also so to expound all those Texts of Scripture that seem to attribute something to works in attaining to the love of Christ that the sense may be agreeable to what is here writen VERSE VIII We have a little Sister and she hath 〈◊〉 breasts What shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for THese are the words of the Church wherein she bemoaneth her little Sister when the day comes that she is even ready for marriage what shall we do for her in the day when she shall be spoken for We are not to understand by the little Sister only the Gentiles as the most do which then when Solomon wrote this Book were without the word for then how shall it be understood now seeing the Gentiles are called Therefore seeing this bemoaning of the little Sister is the voice of the Church in all ages such a sense must be found as will agree to all times Understand then by the little Sister all those that are unlearned in the Doctrine of the Gospel whither they be Jews or Gentiles within the Pale of the Church or without all that belong to the Election of grace and are yet uncall'd All these are comprehended under the Title of the little Sister which first or last shall be spoken for Little she is not in number but in regard of knowledg of the way to Life and Salvation A Sister she is yet not of whole blood she is Sister by the Father but not by the Mother For as Abraham had two Sons which were brethren by the Father but not by the Mother So hath God Almighty two sorts of people in the world and but two which are brethren by generation but not by regenertion They are brethern by the Father as proceeding all from Adam but not brethren by the Mother being not yet new born in the Church And therefore she says she hath yet no breasts that is she hath not breasts of the true Mother being not yet born This little Sister she bewaileth and bemoaneth not so much for the time present as she doth in thinking on the day when she shall be spoken for What shall we do for our little Sister in that day Which bemoaning is always among the Godly in the Church and will be to the end of the world What shall I do for my Husband my Wife my Son my Daughter my Friend But what is meant here by the day when she shall be spoken for Quest I answer Ans the spouseman is the Lord Jesus Christ himself and the day when the little Sister is spoken for is when she feeleth her condemnation by the Law They and all they that feel their condemnation by the Law they and all they are spoken for by the Lord Jesus Christ Now she bemoaneth her little Sister in this condition what shall we do for her that she may be married to Christ And in that she doth so bewail her and make it her principal care to help her it giveth us to understand this That the principal care of the true Church of God for her little Sister is that as soon as she perceiveth her to be spoken for or condemned by the Law to make dilligent enquiry how to give her in marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ And the Reason is first because to Solemnize the Marriage between Christ and the Soul is a work of the greatest difficulty that ever was therefore the Church may well say what shall we do for our little Sister in that day And also it is the most destructive to Satans Kingdom of all things and therefore the marriage is most strongly opposed by the Devil and his Angels But chiefly because unless the Soul be married to Christ the compound between the Conscience and the Law can never be dissolved or untied but the same bargain or Covenant that was made with man at first remains in force which bindeth all men to the penalty which is to endure the wrath of God for ever This informeth us that there are but a very few that pertain to the true Church of God because there are so few that make it their principal care to comfort their little Sister in the day of her distress When she is afflicted with her sin and feeleth her condemnation by the Law and is much broken and distressed by reason of great tribulations and by these things is spoken for by the Lord Jesus Christ that she might be matched to himself instead of making it the principal care to give her in Marriage to the Son of God by faith alone they endeavour with great earnestness to present her to Christ by the works of the Law Instead of dissolving the compound and making void the Covenant that was made with man at first and matching the Soul to Christ in an Everlasting Covenant that the guilt of her sin might be removed and that she might be justified in the sight of God they endeavour in the first place as the only thing needful to Solemnize the contract between her Conscience and the Law Which is according to St. Rom. 7. Pauls Allegory but to present her an Adultress before God for which sin seeing she is separated thereby from the true God she is bound in captivity under the guilt of sin and is in bondage to Satan and the wrath of God for evermore All people therefore must learn from hence to imitate the true Church of God which is to lay down the true grounds of consolation for their little Sister to rest on in the day of her distress that as soon as she is spoken for and feeleth her condemnation by the Law and that she hath no breasts of her own to nourish her in her misery then to become instrumental to marry her to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith alone Now that the match may be made and that she may be wedded to the Son of God she must acknowledg her death by the Law and aske forgiveness for her sins with a believing heart Rom. 7. then is she free according to St. Paul from her first Husband the Law being dead unto it through faith in the Son of God For in that she feeleth and confesseth her death by the Law the Law is also become dead having lost its power and dominion Then may are assure her that the compound made with man at first is dissolved between the Conscience and the Law and may also Solemnize the contract between Christ and the Soul This is the duty we