righteousness but his spiritual strength and ability also His fall causing the need of a Mediator and a coming unto him that we might have life caused also the need of the influence of the Holy Spirit upon us to quicken and innable us to com◠unto him and to walk with him Hence there was a need of such a Covenant for God to make as that mentioned Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn from them to do them good but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from me Thirdly That body of death which remains in the best of Gods People evinceth a necessity of a continued powerful influence of grace to keep the Soul in any motion especially in any quickness of motion after God That we have weights that pressus down a sin which easily besets us a body of death as St. Paul calls it proper lufts lustings of the flesh against the Spirit is evident in holy writ we are indeed at last more than conquerours over this inteftine adversary but it is through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 7. For lust is so connatural to us the lustings of the flesh so strong in us that our regenerate part could never else maintain the Spiritual fight Besides as I shall shew you as we have an impotency so as we cannot so much as will the thing which is good so we have also a natural dulness and aversion to it and this also remaineth in part in the regenerate Soul nor to be conquered without the influence of the holy Spirit Lastly The many hinderances which the Soul hath from its Enemies without will also hinder it from running James tells us that every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed This is a temptation from within à carne this would be too hardfor a Soul in its own strength But it hath also Enemies from without both from its grand adversary the Devil and also from the world I must confess I have met with one never but one that would pretend to maintain a power in man to resist the strongest Temptations without any extraordinary assistance of the Spirit of grace this he would impose upon the world to believe because that Joseph resisted the temptation from his Mistriss That Joseph did resist that temptation is plain in Scripture but that he did it by no further assistance of Grace than Reuben had who defiled his Fathers Bed or Absolom who went in to his Fathers Concubines will want better proof than any I find in his discourse I cannot but think that if man without the assistance of special grace had a power as he boldly saith to resist the strongest temptations we should have none destroy themselves upon temptations to self murder Atbeistical thoughts and Despair It is an inaccountable thing why any should destroy themselves if this Doctrine were true especially if they be persons not before possest of atheistical principles believing there is neither God nor Devil Heaven or Hell who can give an account suppose it in the power of the best of men to resist the strongest temptations without any special grace how David the man according to Gods own heart came to fall into the sin first of Adultery then of Murther To will was certainly present with him as well as with Paul how came he to want a strength to perform but from Gods withdrawing his special influence of grace from him and leaving him to his own strength which though the strength of a renewed man yet is too little to grapple with a strong temptation If even the best of men without the powerful influence of special grace can resist strong temptations how came Peter to fall by denying his Master by swearing and cursing that he did not know him he manifested that to will was present with him by his telling our Saviour that altho all men should forsake him yet he would not God was pleased to with-hold his powerful influence and to leave Peter to the ordinary strength even of a renewed man he was not able to grapple with the temptation It is so far from being true that man hath a power to resist the strongest temptations that without Christs influence assisting he hath not a power to resist any temptation whether from the World the Flesh or the Devil It is Musculus his observation upon John 15. 3 Our Saviour doth not fay without me you cannot do much or all but you can do nothing Nor if it be a strong temptation such as the fear of life c. can a Christian resist and overcome it without a more than ordinary assistance of Divine Grace proportioned to the degree of temptation But vain man would be wise though he be but as an Asses Colt he would be strong though in very deed he is weaker than water he would be all to himself though he be nothing in himself 5. But for a further proof of this Proposition concerning the necessity of drawing powerful influences of Divine Grace both with reference to the Souls first motions and coming to Christ and further motions in following Christ and running after him I shall but appeal to the experience of all converted Souls If there be an heart before me which God hath truly changed any one that is not only converted from one opinion to another or one profession to another from Paganism to Christianity but indeed converted from the love of sin and lusts to the love of God and the hatred of all sin and an endeavour to walk close with God from an opinion and confidence of and in any righteousness in itself wherein it can hope to stand before God to a trusting and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Righteousness I appeal to that Soul what was it thinkest thou that inclined thy heart to accept of Jesus Christ for thy Saviour to commit all the concerns of thy Soul unto him and to alter thy course of life from a principle of love to God and obedience to his will more than anothers who sate in the same Seat with thee or lived in the same House and sate under the same Ministry heard the same Sermons how camest thou to be taken thy Neighbour left how came thy will to move regularly whiles thy Neighbour under the same circumstances still retained his stiff neck and iron sinews and hard heart and continued in the same lewd and sinful courses who made thee to differ Didst thou make thy self to differ How came it that he did not also make himself to differ I know there is no Soul whose heart is truly changed but will say if almighty power had not changed me I had been as bad as any other And so since thy Soul hath been changed thou hast met with Temptations to sin thou hast resisted them overcome them triumphed over them others possibly some very good men have fallen by and under them who
c. and it proceeds from Christ as the great testimony of his love nor indeed doth Christ otherwise testify his special love than by the influences of his Spirit but I cannot tell why we should restrain it to the particular dispensation in the days of Pentecost I think Piscator expresseth the sense well by suum erga me amorem patefaciat let him manifest to me his love let me know that he loveth me yet supposing it the Reconciled Believing Soul that speaks it seems rather to be understood of further grace than the first grace of regeneration and reconciliation unto God the desire seems to be a desire of free familiar communion with Christ This seems to be the main of her request the great sum of her desires the uppermost of her Souls concernments But observe yet further She begs but a kiss not let him imbrace me but let him kiss me She asketh modestly if saith the woman in the Gospel I might but touch the Hem of his Garment Thus the woman of Canaan also Truth Lord but the Dogs eat the crums Thus the Spouse If he would but kiss me Oh! how precious is the least of Christ to a gracious Soul It is better to be kissed by him than to lie in the worlds arms to be a Door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness But thirdly The word is plural One kiss will not serve the turn she is not a stranger but a Spouse The plural number either imports 1. Various dispensations of Grace Or 2dly Repeated influences of the same Grace 1. It may be understood as denoting various dispensations of Grace Beza saith the Lord kissed the Soul thrice 1. In this life when he is by faith united to it 2. In the day of death when the Soul is taken up into the enjoyment of God 3. In the Resurrection when Body and Soul shall be united and together glorified Another reckons up 7 kisses with which the Lord kisseth his Peoples Souls The Grace of 1. Incarnation 2. The descending of the Holy Ghost 3. The preaching of the Gospel 4. Reconciliation to God 5. Sanctification 6. Divine Consolations 7. The kiss of Glory And the same Author makes the Spouses petition comprehensive of all these certain it is there are various dispensations of Grace there is quickning strengthening comforting Grace and there may be frequent repetitions of these to the Soul according to its particular wants and Gods favour towards it and you may indifferently understand the Text in either sense Fourthly The Spouse here doth not only desire kisses but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the kisses of Christs mouth concerning which observe these 2 things 1. The kiss of the mouth was the highest kiss This was the kiss of Love the kiss of Reconciliation Osculum pacis the kiss of the Hand Feet c. was a kiss of honour and reverence and subjection the kiss of the mouth was the kiss of love and friendship of peace and reconciliation 2. I find most Interpreters hinting by this expression something yet more special viz. Communion with Christ in his word The word indeed is the fruit of the lips and cometh out of the mouth and God may seem in some propriety of speech to kiss the Soul with the kisses of his mouth when he speaks to it in his word The Lord will speak peace to his people saith the Psalmist and I create the fruit of the lips peace peace saith the Lord by his Prophet Isaiah some expositors to further this notion have observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes to instruct but I cannot find that usage of it in holy writ Grace is poured forth upon Christs lips she desires those kisses some drive the notion higher observing the difference between the Doctrine of the Law and that of the Gospel the first is terrible the second sweet and comfortable holding forth nothing but the love of God in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sins hence the Gospel is called The word of reconciliation Lastly She saith Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth She desires not only to hear the Doctrine of the gospel but that Christ should speak it to her The Preacher speaks to the Ear Christ to the heart Quoties ergo in corde nostro quod de divinis dogmatibus sensibusque quaerimus absque monitoribers invenimus toties oscula nobis á Sponso esse data verbo Dei credimus saith Origen so often as we find God by his word Speaking to our hearts so often doth our beloved kiss us with the kisses of his mouth This is sufficient to have spoken for the Explication of the matter of the Text. There onely remains something more circumstantial to be observed The words are Vox Sponsae The Voice of the Spouse According to the civil usage of our Country and I think most others the Lover speaks first Here the Spouse begins It is so betwixt God and the soul Christ speaks first He is found of those that seek him not and of those that enquire not after him He first loves us and our Love to him proceedeth from his Love first manifested to us But you must not understand her that speaks as one that is a stranger and in a state of disunion with her beloved but as one that is already espoused and made a Spiritual Bride not desiring first grace but further grace which she needeth as well as the first grace for he giveth both to will and to do he is both the author and the finisher of faith and other grace Secondly The words are Vox Volentis The Language of a willing Soul Willing that Christ should come near unto it and take it up into fellowship and communion with himself God's people are a willing people They are indeed made so by a divine power Psal 101. 2. But Certum est nos velle cum volumus saith Aug. It is God who makes us of unwilling Willing When he hath had his first work upon our wills and subdued that strong hold unto himself Then we are willing Nay more Thirdly They are Vox cupientis The voice of a panting Soul not barely content that Christ should kiss it but passionately desiring his kisses They are as much as Oh! that he would kiss me Every gracious Soul passionately desireth fellowship and Communion with Jesus Christ Oh! saith holy David when wilt thou come to me Neither is this all the words are not onely to be considered as a good wish or passionate desire but as a fervent prayer Lastly therefore they are Vox supplicantis the Language of a praying soul where observe What she beggs Not riches not honour not pleasures not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the good things of fortune but the riches of grace her Petition is like that of David Lord lift thou up
to and in your soul to inable you further to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. After the beatifical visions of God in another life Learn hence the great difference there is betwixt earthly and spiritual objects of our desires and delights The worlds Crums are little valuable tho some are fond of its Loaves The good things of the world derive much of their value from the quantity of them that it throws into our laps The minimum quod sic the least portions of the pleasures profits or honours of it have little of value in them but the least of Christ is exceeding precious the things of the world affect not the Soul or or its necessities they are not certain pledges of greater measures they will go but a little way to fill the creatures emptinesses but it is otherwise with Spiritual blessings in and through Christ Thirdly You may from hence observe the difference betwixt the Hypocrites and the Saints desires after Christ An Hypocrite may pretend some desires after Christ nay he may really desire something of his love consider Christ as a Saviour as one that brings the Soul to life and immortality so he must necessarily be the object of the desire of every man that hath any view of his own mortality and that Eternal State to which man is ordained Even Balaam saith Oh that I might dye the death of the Righteous that my latter end might he like his But mark ye these are the fullest manifestations of Divine Love these are more than the kisses of his Mouth but for those tokens of love which are below these for such manifestations of the love of Christ as tend to the inabling of the Soul to serve and glorify God by the subduing of Mans will to the will of God the mortification of lusts and corrupt affections these are not at all valuable to a sensual man not indeed to any but to the changed and renewed Soul I do not know any one thing from which a Man may take better measure of himself and a good Christian may better distinguish himself from one that walketh in a vain shew and meerly glorifieth in appearance than this To a good Christian the least of Christs distinguisâ—iâ—g love is exceeding precious and more precious than the greatest portions of the worlds goods The workings of the Spirit of Christ within and upon the Soul subduing the will of Man to the will of God mortifying our Members and the deeds of the Body Taking the affections off the Earth and Earthly things and fixing them on more sublime and spiritual objects the giving of the Soul a good hope through grace these are things which we usually count some of the least tokens of special and distinguishing love Really they are great things nothing of Christ is little but we judge ordinarily according to sense we ordinarily esteem a sense or assurance or full persuasion of the love of God a much greater thing than these But now for a Soul to set an high price and value upon these to be more satisfied more to triumph and rejoice in the conquest of a lust the victory over a temptation than in the conquest of all our Enemies More to desire that our hearts may be filled with love to God desires after God delight in God than to have our Barns filled with Corn or our Purses with Gold and Silver this I take to be such a difference between a Christian indeed and a Christian in a meer Name Title and outward Profession as a Christian may rest in when he is inquiring into his Soul for evidences of the truth of grace Other manifestations of the love of God may be desired for our selves and with a respect only to our selves and the quiet relief and peace of our own Spirits a Christian can desire these only for the glory of God Try your selves therefore Christians by this Touchstone An Hypocrite may desire to know that his Sins are forgiven and that God would not impute Sin to his Soul or that he would impute a righteousness without works an Hypocrite may desire to live with God in glory but these lesser tokens of love he valueth not But alas even the best of Gods People must I fear be here reproved not for their no valuing of these kisses of Christ that is incompetent with a Child of God but for their not enough valuing of them and being too passionate and unsatisfied for want of the comforting manifestations of Divine Love I have before told you that these sensible manifestations of Divine Love are exceedingly desirable and there is no Child of God but is concerned to wish to pray to labour for them But we must take heed that we be not like our little Children whom we shall sometimes see too much slighting and undervaluing and ready to throw away what good things they have because they want some particular thing which they have a mind to which it may be we that are their Parents do not see so proper for them especially under their present circumstances It was lawful for Rachel to wish for to pray for Children but she sinned in saying to her Husband give me Children or else I die Hannah was much in the same error 1 Sam. 1. 8. weeping not eating and vexing her self because she had no Child and in the mean time forgetting that God had given her an Husband who was better to her than ten Sons So it is lawful nay the duty of a good Christian to pray to endeavour for the sweetest and fullest manifestations of Gods love But I have often thought that though these be good things of a Spiritual nature and so vastly differing from the good things of this life yet in this they agree with them that they must be asked with submission to the will of God because they are not de necessariis ad salutem things that are necessary to life and eternal Salvation but such which a Soul may want without any breach of Gods Covenant with the Soul 2. But for a Soul not only too passionately to desire these things which speaketh its not submitting to the will of God in his not dispensing them to it but to over-look deny or undervalue all the tokens for good which it hath received from God meerly because it hath not these and to conclude that it hath nothing of Christs love this is certainly what doth no become a Christian Certainly a Christian ought as much to value himself upon those emanations of grace by which he is inabled to serve and honour God as upon those by which his Soul is rendred more at ease more refreshed and comforted Every kiss of Christ every measure of special distinguishing love is and ought to be precious to a believing Soul Let me in the last place bottom upon this discourse a double word of exhortation The first respecting the Men of the world those I would persuade to leave off their pursuit of
Of these here the Spouses predicates 1. A goodness 2. A transcendent and excelling goodness My work must be to demonstrate both 1. That they are good 2. That they are good before wine before all Sublunary goods all created comforts of what nature soever 1. That they are good The true nature of all good lyes in the conveniency and Sutableness of things which we so call to some wants and necessities that we have and lye under Hence the Philosopher describes Good to be the Object of our desires what all men desire for we desire nothing but in order to the supply of some want or other that we are sensible and apprehensive of A man may indeed desire what is not good but he must apprehend some goodness in the thing which he desireth So that to demonstrate the loves of Christ to be good there needs no more than to prove them convenient and admirably Suited to some thing which we want to Supply us in that want That I may restrain my discourse to the Loves of Christ as mediator I shall only premise what I hope you all believe That we have Souls as well as Bodies the Soul is an essential part of man and as much excelling and better than the Body as the body is better than rayment This admitted whatsoever suiteth the Soules wants must necessarily be good and eminently good The Souls wants are many but its principal wants are reducible to five heads 1. Pardon Righteousness Peace Purity Hopes or assurance of Eternal life and Glory 1. It wanteth pardon of Sin This is a want which the Soul brought into the world with it it was by nature dead in trespasses and Sins conceived in Sin brought forth in iniquity a Child of wrath by nature Eph. 2 3. This want hath grown upon the Soul from the day of its birth It s Child-hood and youth were altogether vanity who knows the Errours of his life The righteous falls seven times a day who can tell how often he offendeth It is true not one of many is sensible of this want but that only increaseth their misery It is certain this is a great want of a Soul Christ else had never directed us to pray Forgive us our debts There is a debt of ten thousand Talents upon every Soul that hath not tasted of Christs pardoning grace That it is not arrested for it proceeds only from Gods patience who sometimes beareth long with vessels of wrath fitted for destruction The Love of Christ is Suited to this want It is he that forgiveth Sins and washeth the Soul from the guilt of sin with his blood He dyed for our sins saith the Apostle He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities saith the Prophet Isaiah Ch. 53. 5. We have Redemption and forgiveness of Sins through his blood This Love of his is so suited to this want of the Soul that it can be supplyed no other way God forgiveth sin and none but he who but the creditor can discharge the debtor but it is for Christs sake that God forgiveth us Eph. 4. 32. Without blood there is no remission this was tipyfyed as the Apostle teacheth us by the Beasts of old slain for Sacrifices of Expiation and Atonement and without his Blood we could have had no Remission for it is very vain as the same Apostle instructs us for any to think that the blood of Bulls and Lambs and Goats could de away Sin 2. Secondly The Soul wants Righteousness A righteousness wherein it should stand before God as if it had never sinned against him For the righteous Lord saith the Psalmist loveth righteousness and the Apostle tells us Rom. 3. 15. That God declareth his righteousness for the remission of Sins Such is the nature or at least such is the will of God that he remits no sins but upon a first declaration of his righteousness Neither doth God accept any Soul but the righteous Soul we have no righteousness our works will not make this Web. God therefore imputeth Righteousness without works Rom. 4. 6. In the Gospel God hath revealed his righteousness from faithto Faith Rom. 1. 17. This is the righteousness of Christ Rom. 8. 3. For what the law could not do because it was weak through our flesh that God himself hath done sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemning sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Hence Christ is by the Prophet called the Lord our Righteousness and the Apostle saith he was made of God for us wisdom righteousness And hence the Apostle Prayeth Philip. 3. 8 9. That he might win Christ which he expounds v. 9. And be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith It is called the Righteousness of God because it is that which God accepteth us for the righteousness of Christ because it is his perfect Satisfaction to and obedience to the law and the righteousness of faith because it is by faith by us received and applyed and made ours But in Christ and from Christ the Soul must find and have that righteousness in which alone it can stand before God 3. A third great want of the Soul is Peace Peace with God Peace with itself Rom. 8. 7. The Carnalmind is Enmity to God Take a man in his natural state he is an Enemy to God and God is an Enemy to him He hath no peace with God and if he hath any quiet in his own mind it is but a Truce not a Peace the product of Gods silence not the product of his favour Now in Christ and in him alone the Soul hath peace In the world saith our Saviour to his disciples you shall have trouble but in me you shall have pcace My peace saith he I give unto you I leave with you It is he that hath reconciled the whole number of the elect to God by his death and it is he who doth by his Spirit and the word of reconciliation committed to his Ministers actually reconcile Souls unto himself He is therefore called our Peace we have Peace with God through him Rom. 5. 1. And therefore the Apostle in all his Salutations prefixed to his Epistles prayeth Mercy and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ 4. A fourth great want of the Soul is Purity No unclean thing shall enter into the new Jerusalem Take the Soul of a Christian Naturally it is an impure filthy Soul what can be clean that is born of a Woman Or how can that which is clean come from that which is unclean The connate proneness of our hearts to whatsoever is evil and the natural aversion of our hearts to any thing that is good is a sufficient proof of this The promise of the clean heart and of the new heart in Ezek. 36. as you know are both
be something of that mind but that the words are not draw me to thee but draw me after thee So that he thinks she rather desires the drawings of Grace that she might follow him in an holy conversation walking as she had him for an example The sum then of this petition considered as the language of the Church the collective Spouse is this Lord I have in my Bosom many that are indeed drawn to thee in an outward profession in that sense in which thou sayest When I am lifted up I will draw all men after me they are flocked like Doves to the Windows Oh let them yet be drawn more effectually to an hearty embracing of thee for none so comes to thee but he whom the Father draws Lord draw that part of my Members by thy efficacious grace Considered as the voice of a believer the sense is this Lord thou hast made me thine thou hast by thy mighty powerful work of thy Spirit drawn me to thee but I am weak and feeble and not able to follow thee in a course of holiness nor to watch with thee thou who at first hast put forth thy powerful effectual Grace in changing my heart in bringing me to thy self continue the same power of thy Grace commanding me to keep my heart close with thee so as I may never depart from thee I proceed to the next words We will run after thee The former word contained the Spouses Petition this her promise what wilt thou do O thou fairest if the Lord will bestow upon thee the daily influences of his drawing Grace she here answereth and preventeth that question saith she we will run after thee These words may also be conceived to have the force of an argument enforcing her Petition Lord If thou wilt draw me I will not hold back no We will run after thee Here is considerable 1. The Persons promising We where the change of the number is very considerable she had spoken before in the singular Number draw me here she promiseth in the plural We will run 2. The promise itself or thing promised Will run The answering of two questions will open these words 1. What is meant by running 2. Why she saith we will run when before she had only said draw me Qu. 1. What is here meant by Running what doth the Spouse promise under this term of running after Christ 1. The word in the Hebrew doth properly signify a bodily motion and you easily understand what it is to run it is more than to go and walk It is here by a metaphor applied to the Soul or indeed to the whole man for although some of the Hebrew Doctors and some others according to their different notion of the Spouse which I before hinted understand it of Abrahams bodily motion out of his Country or the Israelites motions out of Aegypt and Babylon or the Peoples going to the Temple in Solomons time to worship God yet their notions are doubtless much too low and not at all agreeing to that notion of the Spouse which we have fixed I do therefore fully agree with the most and the most eminent interpreters who acknowledge here a metaphor and that by running some motion of the mind is signified analogous to the motion of the body which we call running now what that is we must further enquire 2. Running doth not only signify motion but some strength in the body so moving The sick and feeble person can hardly stand or go much less run The person running may want some degrees of strength but he must have legs and some strength in his legs or he cannot run The Soul that runneth after Christ must first be possessed of some Spiritual strength The strength of the Soul is an effect of Christs drawing Behold saith the Prophet thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee First God calls then we run first he putteth strength into them and then they use the strength which he hath given them Isa 0. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength like the Eagle they shall run and not be weary first they shall renew their strength then they shall run 3. Thirdly Running importeth speed and celerity in motion Festinant em significat actionem is De Dieu his note on the Text. David saith I will run the way of thy Commandments Psal 119. 32. which he expoundeth v. 60. I made hast and delayed not to keep thy precepts Buxtorf in his Hebrew Lexicon noteth that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to run hastily comes from this Hebrew word and others fancy that the latine word Rota that signifies a Wheel hath its Original from this word also Delrio interpreteth it here by festinabimus we will make hast and indeed it is the obvious and ordinary notion of the word thus you know running is distinguished from those flower motions of creeping going walking c. Running argueth a quick and speedy motion the Soul having received from Christ the powerful influences of Divine Grace stands not still creeps not moveth not slowly but makes hast in the ways of God 4. Running argues a free and chearful motion The man that runs hath as we say good will in his way it implies a prompt inclination and readiness of mind Thus Forster an Hebrew Lexicographer notes a great cognation betwixt this word and two other Hebrew words the one of which signifieth to bring forth in plenty and abundance the other to be willing or have a good will to a thing Buxtorf also observeth its affinity to the latter Avendrius also observeth that it signifieth to move readily as the false Prophets ran Jer. 12. 5. Jer. 23. 21. I have not sent these Prophets and yet they ran as Gehazi ran for his bride 2 King 5. 20. Thus the believing Soul that is once drawn by the Spirit of Grace moves in the way of holiness not dragged on to duty by a Foreign Principle It is its meat and drink to do the Will of God It delighteth in the Law of God as to the inward man it was before unwilling but now it is made willing as it is said My People shall be a willing people in the day of my power Grace giveth wheels to the Soul and it oileth the wheels when given Buxtorf noteth that this word is used only to signifie the running of Men not of Beasts Men move not like Beasts rashly and giddily and meerly when they are whipped on or out of wantonness but men propose and know their end and move toward it out of a Principle of Reason and Affection The believing Soul knoweth its end and moveth towards it from a conduct of reason so it moveth speedily and freely after Christ 5. I find some Interpreters judging that the term likewise implyeth a promise of Perseverance There is one Text of Scripture which seemeth to advantage this
Christ told the Inhabitants of Hierâ—salem that he would have gathered them but they would not And hence appears that it is no wonder that Arminians who will allow none but common grace before conversion should contend that it may be finally resisted for there is no doubt but all common grace may be finally resisted 2. But secondly We say there is a working drawing grace which may be for a while opposed but cannot be finally resisted By this the Soul is regenerate and born again and that not after the will of the flesh or the will of Man but the will of God This we say cannot be finally resisted the reasons are 1. Because by this God gives a new heart and a new spirit and causeth the Soul to walk in his statutes as you will find Jer. 31. 18. ch 36. v 26. Now grace cannot be resisted but from an old heart and indeed it is a contradiction to say God may be resisted by a new heart 2. Again if this grace might finally be resisted the whole business of mans Salvation must depend upon his own goed nature and the power of his own will and the proximate cause of a mans repentance faith holiness must be in himself Thirdly We say there is a co-working Grace by which as Augustine saith being first drawn we move being acted we act this is that grace which God followeth converted Souls with that Grace which followeth the Child of God all the days of his life without which he can do nothing Job 1â— 3. through which strengthening and assisting him he can do all things through which he lives and moves in his spiritual sphere this is resistible in part through that law in our members which rebelleth against the law of our mind and brings us into captivity to the law of sin Hence is the spiritual combate the lustings of the flesh against the Spirit Yet this is but a partial resistance not from the whole of the regenerate Soul but from the flesh in it which lusteth against the Spirit from that part which is yet unregenerate Nor shall this resistance be victorious but the same Soul that crieth out O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of Death shall in the next words say I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ Thus I have shewed you how God in the drawing of a Soul to Christ worketh powerfully But 2dly As he works powerfully so he works sweetly powerfully so that he will be obeyed sweetly so that he is freely obeyed the conversion of a sinner is an act of power but not of violence the mystery of this lieth here Because the effect of grace is upon the will of man Violence is then offered to us when we are compelled to actions contrary to our wills The will is not indeed capable of violence the will may be changed renewed otherwise inclined but not forced force can only be offered to the outward man and why those who contend for a power in man so renew change alter otherwise incline his own will should find a difficulty to allow God as much power as they claim for man who is but a creature I cannot understand Thus far I have shewed you that a Soul must be drawn before it come to Christ I have yet further to shew you that it must be drawn or it will not run after Christ In this drawing indeed there needeth not such a power as in the former the reason is because now to will is present with the Soul as St. Paul saith it only wanteth strength to perform But an influence a powerful influence there must be I believe said he in the Gospel Lord help my unbelief Lord increase our faith said the Apostles without me you can do nothing saith our Saviour Joh. 15. 3. and again saith he as the branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the Vine so no more can you except you abide in me and 2 Cor. 3. 5. Our sufficiency is of God we are not able of our selves so much as to think any thing Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me we are kept by the power of God to Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. The Apostle speaking of the weak Brother saith God is able to make him to stand We stand in grace Rom. 5. 3. Christ prayeth that Peters faith might not fail while Satan winnowed him like wheat God giveth both to will and to do both of his own good pleasure but I shall not need heap up Scriptures in so plain a case I shall have advantage enough to prove it from Reason concluding from Scripture principles 1. In the first place the Scripturé speaketh of the Children of God in this life as in a state of imperfection Not saith the Apostle as though we were perfect or had already attained Phil. 3. 12. To have no further need of Grace speaketh a self-sufficiency and a state of perfection which is every where in holy writ denyed to man in this life nothing needs be added to that man who stands in no need of the power and assistance of Divine Grace but the holy Scripture every where speaketh of the state of man while on this side Heaven as a state in which something is lacking to him of Heaven only as that state wherein just Souls are made perfect wherein that which is perfect shall be come and that which is in part shall be done away Secondly As the Child of God before he comes to Christ is in Scripture represented in a state of death Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickned Eph. 2. 1. Who were dead in trespasses and sins So when come to Christ it represents him in a state of weakness Ro. 5. 6. When we were yet without strength Christ died for us Not only life but strength was a piece of the purchase of Christ for us Christ saith as to his Sheep John 10. 10. I am come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly The Children of God are all as Mephibosheth the Sons of Jonathan and so beloved of David united to Christ and so beloved of God and must eat bread at his Table but they are all of them like him lame of their Feet Now those that are without strength cannot run running doth not only require life as the principle of motion but strength also to assist the motion what the Apostle saith of their knowledge and prophecying they know in part and prophecy in part is as true concerning all their other gracious habits and acts they are all but in part they are in this like Nebuchadnezzars Image part of Iron and part of Clay Adam indeed had both his legs a full strength and could of himself without any need of the assistance of a Mediator have done all that God required of him in that state as necessary to his Salvation but he fell and did not only for his posterity as well as for himself lose his innocency and
Jesus Christ Of whom he said This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased What are the fatlings kill'd how are all things ready the Lord Jesus Christ hath dyed there is in his blood a sufficiency of merit The Gospel is Preached the Ministers of Christ are sent out to offer reconciliation with God union with Christ to all those to whom the Gospel is Preached a great part of them will not come they make light of the tender of Grace and Salvation what is the matter that they find any difficulty to make hast to their own happiness The three great causes are mentioned and they fall under these three heads 1. Worldly enjoyments 2. Worldly imployments 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions these have all a power upon man by reason of that lust which is in them either the lust of the Eye or the lust of the flesh or the pride of life 1. Wordly enjoyments hinder some The first said I have bought a Farm I must go and see it The young man Mat. 19. seems to have a good mind to follow Christ Christ bids him first go and sell all that he had and he should have riches in Heaven The Text saith he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions Mat 19. 22. Our Saviour upon it saith to his Disciples Verily I say unto you a rich man shalt hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle then for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Another Evangelist expounds this by one that trusteth in his riches The desire of getting riches and the over-much complacency and delight of the Soul in them together with mens valuing themselves upon them are three great drawers of the Soul from Christ The first as it over-ruleth the Soul to an evil covetousness oppression and unjust methods and measures of gain and so brings him into the herd of those that shall never come into Heaven The Second as it melteth the Soul into sensuality and hindereth those acts of Self-denial and Mortification without which a man cannot be Christs Disciple nor ever come into Heaven The 3d As it swells the Soul with pride and lifts it above religious Duties which it judgeth too mean for it suited to poor people but not to Persons of its degree and quality in the world 2. Worldly Employments hinder others Alass That Men and Women should be too busie to attend the making their calling and election sure but so it is The second said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I must go and prove them Some Men and Women are not at leasure to be saved as they are not at leasure to pray that the thoughts of their heart might be forgiven them or to hear that their Souls might live Licitis perimus As many perish by the ill uses of lawful things as by reaching their hands to absolutely forbidden fruit more die by meat then by poison Though the Drunkard cannot keep the narrow path that leads to Eternal life yet what hindereth but that a sober Person should what more lawful then to buy five yoke of Oxen and to try and use them when we have them It is the command of God that In the sweat of our Face we should eat our Bread Ah! But if the Cart draws to the Market when God calls to the Solemn Assemblies of his People the five yoke of Oxen prove of fatal consequence O cupide negotiator saith De-Ponte when a man hath so much business about his body that he hath no leasure to attend the business of his Soul he is over-busy and makes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when his Trading is so much in the world as is inconsistent with having his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his conversation in Heaven then much business makes him mad and his time is but like Domitians spent in catching of flies instead of attending the concerns of the Roman Empire the concerns I mean of his immortal Soul I would have the active men of the world sometimes think whether they have not too much business to manage and go to Heaven too This made our holy Mr. Palmer bless God who had call'd him to the work of the Ministry which drew mens minds towards God whereas most other imployments divert the Soul from God 3. Sensual and sensible satisfactions are another kind of things which potently seduce and draw off the Soul from God Another said I have married a Wise and cannot come Never yet any mist of Heaven but had some impediments or other the others prayed to be excused this guest saith I cannot come Riches draw hard so do worldly business and imployments but ah Pleasures pleasures are the bane of Souls like the silly Bee they are drowned in their own Hony Gods voice grates upon the Ears accustomed to Musick and all manner of delightful sounds A bleeding crucified Christ is a most ingrateful object to the wanton Eye that hath been used only to behold pleasant things Yet it is to be observed that he doth not say I am going to an Harlot but I have married a Wife cannot come Still Licitis perimus These are those potent Seducers which suiting with the strong natural byass inclinations of our hearts draw off from Christ Man is too weak to withstand the force of them God doth not please upon every Soul to whom the Gospel is Preached to put forth his power Hence Souls of the same species under the same means and assistances yet incline and move diversely There is there can be nothing in man that makes him in practice to differ from his Neighbour Let not therefore he who is thus drawn glory for it is God who hath drawn him Nor let any murmur on the behalf of those who are not thus drawn Grace is the Lords own he may do with it what he pleaseth Augustine saith well concerning Grace the cause why it is given to one not to another may be hidden and secret but unjust it cannot be In the mean time as I said before I believe at the great day there will be not be found so much as one Soul that shall be able to accuse God for the denial of this Grace this powerful and effectual Grace who hath not voluntarily resisted and vexed the holy Spirit of God in the use of that common Grace for the want of which he hath no reason to complain and shall not the Lord be justified in refusing to draw those who have first suffered a base lust which was in their power to have resisted to draw them away from him Shall not this powerful Grace be righteously denied to them who have suffered themselves by a revel to be drawn from a Sermon 2. Further yet we may from hence have an account of those many startings aside from God of which his own People are guilty and the inequality of gracious motions and actions Some seem to us to stand still
should we go with our homage for any influence of grace received God laid it to the charge of the Israelites Hos 2. 8. that they did not know that he gave them their Corn and Wine and Oil and Silver and Gold Great evils followed this ignorance 1. God had not that glory which was due unto him for it 2 They made an ill use of them they multiplied them for Baal 3. They by this means provoked God to deprive them of those mercies Those who do not know that is do not believe that their fresh springs of grace are from God cannot give God the glory of them nor will think themselves so concerned to use them for the honour and glory of God the not doing of which will provoke Godâ— to deprive them of them I cannot understand how those who derive all their good motions from their own wills should understand themselves obliged further than to sacrifice to their own Net and Yarn and to applaud themselves instead of giving glory to God What have they to praise God for saving only for making them reasonable creatures and so leaving them to the power and freedom of their own natural faculties Fourthly and lastly This notion calleth upon all the Children of God to eye and to use Christ as the fountain both of their spiritual life and strength Christ is the All in all to and in all his Saints He is the Lord their Righteousness that is their All as to Justification The Lord their strength that is as to Sanctification and in Heaven he will also be to them All in All. They shall be ever with the Lord that 's their All in Heaven But here is our infirmity that we do not eye Christ in this notion Hence our doubts and fears because of our guilt of sin and imperfection in duty hence our despondencies as to the Promises if our Souls be but a little spiritually sick we prophesie to our selves no less than spiritual death We shall one day die by the hand of our tempter or by the power of our lusts Here we do not act like our Father Abraham he did not consider the deadness of his own body nor the deadness of Sarah's womb he staggered not at the Promise through unbelief We consider only the frame and temper of our own hearts and what they are able to produce we consider not what God is able to perform nor yet his Promise which ensureth his willingness that he might be faithful Fear not said God to his People for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee and uphold thee with the hand of my Righteousness Isa 41. 10. v. 14. Fear not thou worm Jacob and you men of Israel for I am thy Redeemer 2. Use him as the fountain both of your life and strength It is with the spiritual life of the Soul as with the natural life of the Body both of them are from God's breathings The first is from the breathings of his more common providence the second from the breathings of his more special grace and spiritual influence And in the like manner as the former is also preserved and maintained by God upholding our faculties and the virtues in our meat to nourish in our physick to heal us and keeping off those accidents which would ruine and destroy us use him therefore as the principle and fountain of your life 1. By frequent addresses and applications to him Because our natural life is from God We are not excused from endeavouring to our utmost the preservation of it whether by the use of food or physick oâ— cautious avoiding what will be noxious and pernicious to it because the influence of God's blessing is not to be expected in the omission and neglect of due means but from the due use of them God concurreth with our endeavours and use of means though he putteth forth an influence in order to the effect beyond the bare vertue of the means so as to our spiritual life the necessity of Christs influence in order to the preserving and upholding it doth not infer a needlesness of our use of such means as he hath instituted in order to that end it only teacheth us not to trust in the means alone but to look beyond them unto Christ Every gracious Soul hath in itself a principle of spiritual life as every living Body hath in it a principle of natural life but as the Soul in the Body of a man may be obstructed in its operations so the Soul may be clog'd in its spiritual operations hindered by lusts and corruptions hindered by strong temptations and motions to sin these may make the Soul stumble and fall they may make it dull heavy and inactive weak and sad and dejected here is need of Christs further drawings in order to it we must cry unto him we must lie in the way in which he useth to meet Souls with such dispensations 2. Keep up in your Souls a dependency upon Christ without distrust and unbelief when you cannot live upon the sense of strengthening quickning consolatory influences yet live upon faith as to them God is never so much honoured as when he is trusted when his Servants live a dependent life upon him for whatsoever he hath promised It speaketh a great faith to live upon a promise when we cannot live by sight a Christian should live by faith upon Christ as to his spiritual influences with reference to the Enemies of his Soul as David lived by Faith upon God and his promises and providence with reference to his worldly Enemies Psal 118. 10 11 12. All Nations saith he compassed me about but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them They compassed me about yea they compassed me about but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them They compassed me about like Bees they are quenched as the fire of Thorns for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them If our strength depends upon Christs drawings we have no reason to distrust because of our own weakness and have nothing to do but to do what in us lieth depending upon Christ for his further supplies and influence Sermon XXII Canticles 1. 4. Draw me and We will run after thee I Have done with the Spouse's Petition Draw me I now come to the Argument or her Promise And we will run after thee She begg'd her Beloved's drawing she promiseth her own running From the Petition I observed That the Soul must be first drawn before it will come to or run after Christ This I have discoursed largely I come now to the second Proposition I raised from these words Prop. That the gracious Soul being first drawn will run after Christ Till it be drawn it will not it cannot run when once drawn it will run This Proposition I shall open prove and apply In the Explication I have only the term running to open I opened the term draw largely in my Discourse upon the
most of God have been such as have been I will not say most but much in contemplation which brought contemplation afterward into a superstition and a contemplative life to be cried up beyond all sense or reason 4. Lastly Be much in prayer But I have spoke enough upon this argument Sermon XXVII Canticles 1. 4. We will be glad and rejoyce in thee We will remember thy loves more then Wine The upright love thee I Am now come to the Fourth thing considerable in this Second Petition of the Spouse I have done with the Petition Draw me 2. With the Argument by which she inforced her Petition We will run after thee 3. With the Spouse's Attestation of the quick acceptance of her Petition The King hath brought me into his Chambers I have only to consider the Effect that this Love had upon her that is exprest in the words I have now read We will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy Loves more than Wine I have opened the words before We I and all Believers we who being many are yet one body united by one Spirit Members under the Government of one Head we who have tasted and experienced thy goodness will be glad The word in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expressive of the largest dilatation of the heart upon union with its object It is used Isa 65. v. 19. Prov. 24. 23. Psal 21. 1. Psal 2. 11. 13. 11. Zech. 9. 9. and rejoyce in thee The word again here used is often used in the Old Testament Exod. 4. 14. Jer. 31. 13 c. I shall not undertake to justifie the Critical distinction some make betwixt these two words as if one were restrained to the more inward motion of the heart the other more expressive of the more external gestures or actions signifying that affection in thee in Christ as the principal object and in the significations of thy love to us The Proposition is shortly this Jesus Christ and the manifestations of his love to believers Souls particularly in answering prayers are the singular objects of their joy and rejoycing In order both to the explication and confirmation of this Proposition I will guide you a little into the understanding of the nature of Joy 2. Consider how Christ can be the object of the believers joy and is more the object of his joy then of another mans 3. How he is the special singular object of their joy Take joy considered in itself it is but a natural plant a power God hath given to every reasonable Soul the object of it is some good to which it is in some degree united and it is greater or lesser according to the nature of the good or the degree of the apprehension There is in all joy satisfaction and rest and something of musick or melody 1. There is in all joy a Soul satisfying suln ss desire speaks some emptiness in the Soul and is the Souls motion in order to a satisfaction the like might be said of hope but all joy speaketh a Soul satisfaction according to the measure of the joy the rejoycing Soul hath alwaies in it a fulness and a pleasing fulness that is the first thing in the nature of it 2. There is in all joy a rest that quieteth the Soul the desiring thirsty hoping Soul is still in motion being in the pursuit of something which it hath not attained but the rejoycing Soul is at rest David in the hour of his joy saith Return unto thy rest O my Soul For God hath dealt graciously with thee That is a second thing in joy 3. There is in all joy something of musick and melody hence that phrase of leaping for joy hence singing and shouting are the natural expressions of joy thus joy may be described to be a natural power or inclination of the Soul by which having more perfectly or imperfectly obtained an union with the object which it desired or hoped for it is in proportion satisfied and well pleased at rest and keeps as it were a festival within it self Two things are required to make an adequate obiect of this joy 1. The thing must be good 2. We must have some apprehension both of the goodness of it and our union with and interest in it 1. The object that our Souls rejoice in must be something which either is good or which at least we apprehend to be so the nature of good lieth in a suitableness and conveniency of a thing for us and whatsoever we apprehend suited to any of our wants or convenient for us in any of our circumstances that we call good and whatsoever we apprehend under that notion whether it indeed be so or no we love and if we want it we desire it if we apprehend it probable to be our portion we hope for it if we have it or apprehend we have it we delight and take a complacency and rejoice in it 2. So that secondly to make an adequate object of our joy There must be some apprehended union betwixt our Souls and the object we rejoice in For although we can love and take a secret complacency in an object which appeareth to us as good yet it is propriety in it that causeth our joy and rejoycings Thus far now I have only considered and discoursed of joy philosophically as it is a natural affection working upon its proper object Let us now consider it as a grace or sanctified affection Grace doth not plant new powers in the Soul of man it only turns the natural powers to their proper objects Our Saviour tells us there is none good but God God is the Summum Bonum the first and chiefest good nor is any thing good but what deriveth from him Christ is good supremely good as in him there is found what is suited to the greatest wants and emptinesses that the nature of man is exposed and subject to And that the believer more valueth Christ then another man ariseth only 1. From his different apprehension 2. From his different relation to him and interest in him 1. From the different apprehensions of good which the believer hath from those which are in other men I told you before that the nature of good lieth in the suitableness or conveniency of a thing to our wants and emptinesses Man is a creature made up of two essential parts the Body and the Soul that which suiteth the one or the other we call good The Soul is considerable with respect to a present or future state the first is that which alone the most men are sensible of or concerned for We have a threefold perception of an object according to which we judge of the goodness or badness of it 1. The first is by the Eye of sense according to which we judge that good which gratifieth the exteriour senses this of all is the most unmanly judgment of it thus the man of pleasure judgeth those things good which gratify his eyes ears tast sinell
promises The only thing that I can fancy why a Christian should make a doubt here is because they may be consequent to the removal of some bodily distempers whose influence upon the mind might cause those troubles that weakness or dulness such as Melancholy c. But hath God no hand in bringing or removing such bodily causes if he hath as certainly there is no evil in our bodies more than in our Cities which he hath not done why may not God both afflict us as to our spirits by sending such distempers upon our bodies and also remove the former which are the effect by the removal of the latter which he hath made to be the cause So that admit these things consequent to the removal of some bodily distemper yet they are the effect of God and may be and ought to be looked upon as the answer of our prayers 3. The greatest difficulty of judgment in this case is as to those things which are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things which concern this life which God giveth to the righteous as well as the wicked to the sinner crying unto him as well as unto his Children How a Christian shall discern that God when he gives him in these mercies gives them in as a God of Truth and Faithfulness remembring his promise to his Servants nor indeed is this Judgment very easie to the most discerning Christian Something I shall say in the case whether what will be satisfactory or no I cannot tell 1. If they have been given in after prayer made with a Spirit indifferent not too importunate I mean for the receiving of them we may hope well We may observe in Scripture that sometimes common good things have been wrung out of the hands of God by too much impatience and importunity which have never proved blessings Such were the Quails Num. 11. 31 32 33. the Text saith while the flesh was yet between their teeth e're it was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the People Such was the first King given to the Israelites even Saul the Prophet saith Hosea 13. 11. I gave thee a King in mine anger But when a Christian begs of God any good thing without too much impatience and importunity with an indifferency of Spirit resigning up himself to the will of God as to the receiving of it and God after such a prayer gives in the mercy I know not why we should not conclude it an answer of prayer This I think was the case of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. She was indeed grieved and troubled because God had denied to her the blessing of a Child in this trouble she prays in a solemn manner we read not of any anger in her Spirit against God any impatience or sinful importunity but she prays as a Woman of a troubled Spirit the Lord gives her a Child it was but a mercy of a common nature wicked Women have Children as well as others but it is given in after a solemn prayer she looks upon the Child as begged of God For this Child saith she I prayed and the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him 2. I shall add but one thing more viz. When together with the good thing there is an heart given to the person to improve and make use of it for the honour and glory of God James lets us know that God never gives us in mercies in answer to our prayers and as evidences of his love and faithfulness that we might consume them upon our lusts when he tells those to whom he wrote James 4 5. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts when God giveth us in an outward mercy if he giveth it us in performance of his promise and in token of his love and favour he together with it gives in an heart inclined and ready to make use of it for the honour and glory of his name This is also exemplified in the case of Hannah in the text before-mentioned 1 Sam. 1. 27 28. For this Child saith she I prayed the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord. In the margent of your larger Bibles you will see it may be read He whom I have obtained by Petition shall be returned to the Lord. You have another no less famous instance of it in David Psal 116. v. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and supplications The Lord hath heard his voice v. 1. He had inclined his ear unto him v. 2. The Lord had dealt graciously with him v. 7. He had delivered his Soul from death his Eyes from tears and his feet from falling Now mark the product of this He loved the Lord because of it v. 2. He resolveth to call upon the Lord so long as he lived v. 9. To walk before the Lord in the land of the living v. 13. To take the cup of salvation and to call upon the name of the Lord. v. 14. To pay his vows v. 16. To be the Lords Servant v. 17. To offer the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving c. Now where upon prayer for a more common mercy suppose life health riches success in business we find that the Lord hath given us both the thing which we asked of God and an heart to honour God with it and to make a due improvement of it we have there no reason to doubt but that it is given us in answer to our prayers and in testification of his faithfulness and love towards us This now is of great concern to us in order to our gladness and joy in him upon the receiving an answer of our prayers for how shall we rejoice in him upon any such occasion unless we discern our good things coming from him This I think is enough to have spoken to this question and upon this whole argument I shall now proceed as God gives me opportunity to the other effect this mercy had upon the Spouse We will remember thy loves more than Wine But of this hereafter Sermon XXIX Cant. 1. 4. We will remember thy Loves more than Wine YOU heard in my last discourse the first effect that the Beloveds favour shewed to his Spouse in the quick return he made to her prayers and the royal favour he had bestowed upon her in bringing her into his Chambers admitting her to some more special and intimate degrees of communion with himself had upon her it put gladness into her heart and brought her up to an exulting and rejoycing in him Joy is but a passion cito fit cito perit that doth not last alwaies it is like a Land-flood that is sometimes up but will in a short time abate Ordinary Joys do so But the Spouse resolves to keep up here and to this end she saith She will remember the Loves of Christ and give them a
and persecutions But comely hrough an imputed righteousness and through the habits of grace with which God hath adorned her I come now to apply that discourse and First We may from hence gather the true notion of a child of God and understand how he stands distinguished from one that is a natural man and yet an unbeliever The true notion of a child of God is this He is one who is imperfectly perfect Black but comely you shall observe in Scripture that perfection is both predicated and denied concerning the People of God Not as if I had attained or were already perfect saith Paul Phil. 3. 12. We are commanded to strive after perfection to endeavour to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord but it is a mark which no man hitteth Heaven is the only place where just Souls are made perfect both as to their fruitions and as to their Actions A thing is then said to be perfect and so a person when there is nothing wanting to it or him nothing that can be added and in this sense no man can be said to be perfect on the other side we are not only commanded to study perfection but it is said of many in holy Writ that they were perfect Noah was a just and perfect man Gen. 6. 9. Job was perfect and upright Job 1. 1. Paul saith he spake wisdom amongst them that are perfect 1 Cor. 3. 6. Phil. 3. 15. Let us as many as be perfect A Christian is perfect in the same sense that he is comely In short there is a threefold perfection may be predicated of a Christian 1. A Perfection of Justification In this sense every believer is comely through Christs righteousness put upon him and reckoned to him and he is perfect for the state of justification is a state that admits not of degrees thus we are as the Apostle speaketh to the Colossions compleat in Christ 2. There is a Perfection of Regeneration and Sanctification this is threefold 1. Of degrees thus none is perfect no not one none liveth and Sinneth not against God there is something to be added to the best mans habits and Acts of Grace 2. Of Parts thus again every believer is perfect Sanctified as the Apostle speaketh in body and mind and spirit the man is made a new creature all the faculties and powers of his Soul are renewed and Sanctified 3. Of scope design and intention This is uprightness this is called perfectness because God upon the covenant of grace accepteth the Soul upon the account of Christ as if it had fulfilled the whole Law of God Rom. 8. 3 4. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through our flesh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin or by a Sacrifice for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit God accounteth the righteousness of the Law fulfilled by those who walk after the Spirit tho personally it is not because Christ condemned sin in the flesh Thus Noah is said to be a perfect man Gen. 6. 9. and Job a perfect man and upright this is expounded v. 8. one that feareth God and escheweth Evil. For in the strict sense of perfection Job saith chap. 9. v. 20. If he justified himself his own mouth should condemn him if he should say he were perfect that should prove him perverse 3. There is a comparative perfection in this sense the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 3. 6. That he spake wisdom amongst them that were perfect and Phil. 3 15. Let us as many as be perfect be thus minded that is as many of us as are comparatively perfect whose attainments as to knowledg and faith are higher than others The State of the Saints is in no other sense a State of perfection So as I say they are imperfectly perfect which is the same with that of the Text Black but comely And this sufficiently distinguisheth the believer from the unbeliever whether the profane person or the hypocrite The unbeliever may say he is black but he cannot say he is comely What beauty can there be in any Soul not reconciled to God they are all blackness all deformity It is true there is a great deal of difference in these men some of them are black and filthy in the eyes of the rational and more orderly part of the World such is the Atheist the profane Curser and Swearer the Blasphemer the Drunkard the Thief the Oppressor the unrighteous and intemperate man these are the fots of the Earth the spots of the World the shame and reproach of the Nation or City in which they live Beasts walking in humane shapes But there are many others who have much beauty in them in the eyes of the World and humane reason yet are not comely in the eyes of Christ If a man be Sober and Temperate Just and Righteous Kind and Charitable tho he liveth not up to the strict rule of the Gospel and the Commandments of God yet living up to the conduct of humane reason and the advantages of humane society which the others infect and destroy the World counteth him a very good man full of beauty and comeliness applaudeth commends and courts him But now the Lord Christ not judging according to the outward appearance but according to the heart seeing in this mans heart no love of God constraining him to these acts nothing of the fear of God awing this mans Soul unto his duty God I say seeing him in these actions neither acting from a persuasion that this is the will of God nor from a belief of the Promises or of the Threatnings nor from an Obedience to the Precepts of God but meerly from Politick and rational principles from self ends interests that he may appear to men to be good and seeking in these actions the praise of men not of God Or meerly under the conduct of reason commanding their passions in order to their more comfortable being in this World and a more honorable and acceptable converse with the best men in it God I say seeing this judgeth these morally vertuous men black we that are Parents to Children and Masters 〈◊〉 Servants tho we cannot judge of their hearts yet can distinguish betwixt actions which they do upon and in obedience to our command and what they do not at our command nor out of obedience to us tho they be things which done please us being what we would have had done God who knoweth the heart will much more do so I remember our Saviour Matth. 23. 23. pronounceth a wo to the Scribes and Pharisees for faith he you pay Tythe of Mint and Annis and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith these things ought you to have done and not to have left the other undone Christ judgeth the comeliness of a Soul not meerly from its external acts
Word strict in their walking ready to exhort to reprove and admonish such as walk disorderly and not as becometh the Gospel Hypocrites and false Brethren are no more able to bear this then they are able to obtain of themselves to do like them Hence are their censures of them as Persons that are righteous overmuch needlesly strict and severe hence their envy and reproaches and their watchings for their haltings and taking all advantages to blazon their infirmities and to make them as odious and to look as black as they can 3. Another reason of it lyeth in the looseness of their principles both their principles of Doctrine and Faith and their practical principles directing their lives and conversations False brethren are alwaies looser in one or both these sorts of principles then the sincere Christian is The study of the Hypocrite is to form his faith and to interpret the law of God into a consistency with his lusts that he may keep his lusts and yet protect himself from the checks and reverberations of his conscience and flatter himself with hopes of Eternal Salvation and also keep up his credit and reputation with the world The sincere Christian hath no other design then to form his faith according to the revelations of truth in the Word and his conversation to the rule of life in the Word of God the Word is a lamp to his feet and a lanthorn to his paths and from that he dares not start when the false Prophets told Micajah that the Prophets had all with one mouth prophesied good to Ahab and suited his humour Micajah answers them As the Lord liveth whatsoever the Lord bids me speak that will I speak The same is the language of every true Christian whatsoever Propositions of truth I find spoken by Holy Men that were inspired by God in his Word that â—nd nothing but that shall be an article of my faith What way soeâ—â—r God hath prescribed me in his Word to Worship him in and by that will I do neither adding thereunto nor yet diminishing therefrom whatsoever rules God hath given me for the order of his Church to them I will adhere whatsoever laws God hath given me to guide my conversation to the observation of them I will keep thus he is in all things tied up to a divine rule But now the false Professor hath looser principles He dare allow the judgment of his own natural reason in determining of truth as the object of his faith and of the Traditions and Practice and Precepts of men as the rule of his Worship and the will of men as to the order and government of the Church and from one of these three causes most ordinarily proceeds that opposition which is given to the strict Servants of God from the anger of their Mothers Children I come to the second Member of the Proposition 2. This opposition is one great cause of the Spouses appearing black Both the opposition which the particular Christian hath from his own impetuous lusts and motions to sin and which that part of the Church which is alone the Spouse of Christ hath from false Brethren and the opposition given her by them are a great cause of the Churches blackness or appearing blackness The grounds of it are 1. Partly that trouble and sadness which usually attends those conflicts in the Spirits of Christians The time of War is a time of sadness in that part of the world which is the seat of it and the hour of this Spiritual War and Conflict is a sad time in the Soul Paul cryeth out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Hence are Christians sad and heavy walkings which the World counteth blackness 2. Partly from the prevailings of sin sometimes in the Soul David complained under the Old Testament that Iniquities prevailed against him and Paul complaineth under the New Testament not only of a War but of a Victory in some Skirmishes that the law of his Members got against the law of his Mind so that he was brought into a captivity to the law of Sin which was in his Members Rom. 7. 23 Now sin is that which maketh the Soul really black and where any of the People of God in the view of the world so discoloureth himself the world needeth no provocation to call them black The Eye that is directed by a Soul full of malice envy and hatred spies the least miscarriages in the Soul that is hated and aggravates them with the highest aggravations And as this is true concerning that opposition which the particular Soul findeth from its inbred lusts and corruptions that makes the believer black so it is as true that the opposition which that part of the Church which is the true Spouse of Christ meets with from false Brethren will make the Church appear black This will appear from the several unlovely consequences of such opposition 1. From hence are Errors and Heresies Schisms and Contentions in the Church of Christ of these you read in the Episties to the Romans Carinthians Galatians then which nothing make a Church appear more black in the Eyes of the World and they are more especially the reproaches of the Church of Christ by how much the Gospel which is their rule in which they are instructed and to the rules of which they profess a submission is a Gospel of peace and Christ Jesus which is their head and the Author of the Gospel is the Prince of Peace Errors rise up in the Church from men of corrupt principles The Apostle tells us of perverse disputingâ— by men of corrupt minds 1 Tim. 6. 5. and 2 Tim. 3. 8. you have it again men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith Hence also are Schisms and Contentions Only by Pride saith Solomon cometh contention The cause of 〈◊〉 is generally some corruption in Churches and deviation from that Order which Christ hath set and established which that part of the Church which keeps close to the Word as its rule cannot bear with Indeed sometimes they are caused from mens corrupt principles as to the faith and love of preheminâ—â—ce their rashness and want of Judgment how far Christians ought to preserve unity but I say generally they are caused by such as are â—â—lse Brethren who if they be not those who divide yet are those who give the cause of the division 2. From hence are â—â—srepresentations of the Servants of God 〈◊〉 Pharâ—â—â—â—ical generation that say unto others stand far from us we are 〈◊〉 then you such as would be too pure and righteous ovâ—â— much that make a shew of more then indeed thâ—yâ—ard Hypocrites Precisions that are over-nice c. Such kind of charges and imputations as these proceed ordinarily from Mothers Children saâ—e Professors and Brethren such as have a form of Godliness and deny the power of it such as are Mâ—mbers oâ— the Church but their hearts are not perfect with God 3. From hence Thirdly are
it is wholesome against insection helpeth women in travel cureth consumptions quickeneth the appetite c. I shall not dwell upon this because I do not think it chiefly intended But Christ in this sense is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh healing all the Soul's diseases Ps 103. 3. He is that tree Rev. 22. 2. Whose leaves are for the healing of the Nations He healâ—th the broken in heart Psal 147. 3. What he did while he was upon the Earth by his miraculous power as to mens bodies Mat. 4. 23. Healing all manner of Sickness that he doth now in Heaven for the Soul by his saving efficacy 3. Myrrh is as I told you a great preservative against putresaction Which was the cause of their using of it about dead bodies either putting it into the body after the Egyptian Method or outwardly anointing or embalming the body with it after the Jewish Method Christ is the same to the Soul where he dwells he preserveth the Soul against the putrifaction of lusts and corruptions The Apostle speaks this Rom. 6. 3. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Where he argues that the Souls Interest in Christ arising from its justification preserveth the Soul against putrifying lusts that sin cannot have dominion over it because it is not under the law but under grace But I hasten to the 4th which in the Judgment of Interpreters is chiefly intended here 4. Myrrh whether in the Herb Spice or Gum is exceeding sweet Hence you read of beds and garments persumed with Myrrh Now the greater quantity there is the stronger the odour must be Christ is a heap of sweets exceeding sweet to the Soul his mouth is most sweet Cant. 5. 16. his Cheeks are as sweet Flowers his lips drop sweet smelling Myrrh Cant. 5. 13. Sweetness to the nostrils is nothing else but a smell that arising from some hidden quality in the thing that emits it and conveyed to the nostrils by the air gratifies that outward sense There is a sweetness that is mental too A Notion is as sweet to the Scholar as a perfume is to a Lady Prov. 13. 19. Desire accomplished is sweet to the Soul Christs sweetness is mental sweetness he is sweetness not to the nostrils but to the Soul and so he is a bundle of sweets Let me unty this bundle of Myrrh a little And shew you how Christ is sweet I will open it to you in three things 1. He is exceeding sweet in his actions as our Redeemer As to these he is a bundle of Myrrh there were many of them His Vniting of the Divine nature to the Humane nature in his Incarnation his fulfilling the law his death upon the cross His resurrection ascending sitting at his Fathers right hand making intercession for us The Soul smells of all these by Meditation and faith and the smell is like that of a bundle of Myrrh shall I shew you how 1. For his Incarnation with the manner of it he united the divine and humane nature by an hypostatical union was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a Virgin without the help of man Mr. Ainsworth and others think this Text hath a special referenee to this this is Christ now considered as wrapt in swadling clothes and laid in a manger The Soul smells of this by a firm and stedfast divine faith believing the thing because God hath said it in his word though it cannot see it by the evidence of reason and sense And the Souls smells of it continually by meditation And O how sweet it is to a believing Soul Then saith the Soul first he that Sanctifieth and I that am Sanctified are both one I see Christ is not ashamed to call me Brother 2. Then faith the Soul I see I have a merciful high-Priest that knoweth how to pity a poor piece of flesh hungring and thirsting and full of infirmities 3. Again here 's comfort saith the poor Soul to me I was born a leper under the imputed guilt of Adams sin I was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity But my Saviour was born without sin the vessel was made pure by the overshadowings of the Holy Ghost and no impure hand contributed to his conveyance into the World I was born a Child of wrath indebted to justice before I knew what I did but he was born a Child of Love He was born with a knowledge of humane infirmities to know how to pity me but without sinful infirmities That he might be in a capacity to save and help me Again saith the Soul Then I see a perfect and sufficient Saviour One meâ—rly God considering the justice of God that could give no remission without blood could not have saved me because he could not have died for me and so have destroyed him that had the power of death One meerly man could not have saved me for he could not have merited But a Person that was God and man God and man in one Person must needs be in a perfect capacity as man he died as God he merited nay the Person that was God-man both died and merited How sweet is this to the Soul torturing it self with thoughts for the filthiness of its nature troubled with humane infirmities perplexed with thoughts how Christ should be able to save it c. This is but one of his actions 2. He fulfilled the law for us I am not of their mind that think that Christs active obedience is not imputed I think the Apostle speaks plain enough to the contrary Rom. 8. 3 4. And if not he yet the Prophet By his knowledge he shall justifie many You read that he was made righteousness for us And doubtless whatever some may fancy the obedience of the Person which was God-man could not be an homage due from the humane nature of Christ which was indeed but a creature Christ fulfilling the Law is exceeding sweet to the gracicious Soul This poor Soul when renewed is but renewed in part in many things offendeth and the sense of its daily backslidings makes it tremble How sweet is it now to the Soul to be able to conclude thus to its self Though there be much guile found in my heart and in my mouth yet in his mouth there was no guile found though I have been an Absolom rebelling against my Heavenly Father from my youth upward yet he was an Adonijah a Son that never displeased his Father 3. Look upon him in the laying down of his life How sweet is the meditation of it to a poor Soul Christ crucified is a bundle of Myrrh indeed from hence the Soul draweth many pretious smells hence it is that the Soul smelis Spiritual life with all the consequences and dependencies upon it Hence it smells Spiritual liberty with all the sweet fruits of it I say from hence it smells Spiritual life to itself when it is almost suffocated with the apprehension of the
reduplications of words and phrases are usual The Hebr. is very full of them they are of several uses I shall note such of them as may be properly applied to this Text. 1. Sometimes the doubling of a word or phrase denotes the certainty of the thing or action Gen. 15. 13. Know of a surety thy seed shall be a stranger c. In the Heb. it is knowing thou mayest know And thus frequently in the new Testament verily verily denotes the exceeding certainty of the Proposition spoken and thus it may do in this Text thou art fair my Love thou art fair That is thou art certainly very fair 2. Sometimes it is to note the exceeding earnestness and intention of him who speaketh Bis dictum magis dicitur Thus it is often used in Scripture Gen. 14. 10. The valley of Siddim was full of slimepits so we translate it in the Hebr. A valley of pits of pits So in many Texts other Writers amongst whom Julius Scaliger c. much Commend this form of speaking as having in it a great kind of force and vehemency according to this usage the sense is thou art exceeding sair my Love which comporteth with what he had said before v. 8. where he had called the Spouse thou sairest amongst Women Christ hath his delight amongst the Sons of men He takes no such delight in the Angels as in believers 3. Repetitions thirdly of the same word or phrase in Scripture sometimes note a distribution And so the sense may be this thou art fair my Love thou art fair Thou art justified by my grace and so thou art fair thou art Sanctified in my name so thou art fair thou art fair without and thou art fair within thou art fair in this part and fair in that part fair in every part 4. Lastly to mention no more Repetltions are often used by Orators not only to express a vehemency of intention in him that speaketh and the certainty of the thing that is spoken but to beget a vehemency and earnestness of attention in him that heareth and Interpreters of holy Writ do assign this as one reason of the use of them in several places of Scripture when the Holy-Ghost designeth earnestly to inculcate the thing spoken and to beget in us a belief of it hence now we may learn these things which I will but name and conclude what I have to say from the consideration of the Circumstances of the first Proposition of the Text. 1. The beauty of a believing Soul is unquestionable it is not in a complement that Christ saith the believing Soul is beautiful it is not a seeming beauty but a certain beauty 2. The beauty which grace gives the Soul is an eminent beauty not an ordinary but an eminent beauty The phrase is doubled to denote eminency 3. The Beauty of a believing Soul is a manifold beauty A beauty in every part 4. It is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ that a believing Soul should know and believe it self to be a beauteous Soul A Gracious Soul may debase it self too much and often err as much in having too mean thoughts of it self as the hypocrite doth in having too high thoughts of himself thinking of himself above what be ought to think But I intend not to enlarge a discourse upon these things having spoken to them or at least to some of them before thus much is sufficient to have noted concerning the Circumstances I proceed to the second part of the Text Thou hast Doves Eyes The Proposition of this Text is plain enough The true Spouse of Christ hath Doves Eyes I before observed to you that some read it thy Eyes are like the Eyes of a Dove others thy Eyes are as a pair of Doves but as the difference is not much so I see no reason to deviate from our English translation For the explication and confirmation of the Proposition for I will join both together we will enquire these three things 1. Qu. Why Our Saviour in commending his Spouse begins with her Eyes and only Commends her for them 2. Qu. What is here meant by the Spouses Eyes 3. Qu. Why the Spouse is said to have the Eyes of Doves rather then of any other creature 1. Qu. Why doth our Saviour here Commend the Spouse only for her Eyes 1. The general account which Interpreters give of it is this That it is a Synechdoche and by a figure according to which a considerable part is often put for the whole our Saviour doth here speak his whole Spouse to be like a Dove like a Doves Eye Indeed we are commanded to be harmless as Doves Matth. 10. 16. And the Church is called Gods Turtle Dove Psal 74. 19. And David wisheth that he had the wings of a Dove Psal 55. 6. The shape of a Dove was that shape which the Spirit of God chose when it descended upon Christ And the coming in of the Gentiles to Christ is set out by the flockings of Doves to the Windows Isa 60. 8. And the Eye of all the members is the most considerable as to beauty a good Eye much commendeth an ill complexion and a bad Eye much blemisheth any other Symmetry of parts And this may be allowed for one reason But 2. The Soul doth much discover it self at the Eye It is the casement at which it shews it self many of the Vertues and Vices of the mind are read in the Eye wantonness discovers it self at the Eye hence you read in Scripture of Eyes full of adultery 2. Pet. 2. 14. So doth rage pride malice envy and many other vices and as the evil so the good dispositions and vertues of the Soul are much discovered by the Eye too so that indeed when our Saviour commendeth his Spouse for her Eyes he commendeth her whole Soul and it is but a proof of what he had before said Thou art fair my beloved thou art fair Thou hast Doves Eyes proves that 2. Qu. What is here meant by the Spouses Eyes After such a resolution as I gave to the first question this might seem needless if Interpreters had not led me the way who are in doubt whether our Saviours design here be to commend those bodily parts of his Spouse or some inward parts called Eyes by a Metaphor the difference is not much for supposing him to resemble the Eyes of her body to Doves Eyes the reason is because of those gracious dispositions in her Soul which by her Eyes discover themselves and are like the natural inclinations of Doves if he speaks of the Eyes of her mind and his meaning be that his Spouses understanding which is the Eye of the Soul is like a Doves Eyes the thing is much the same Unquestionably that which our Saviour here designs to Commend believers for is the gracious dispositions of their Souls discovered in their outward conversation much resembling the natural dispositions and behaviours of Doves But the chief thing we have to enquire into for
hope there 's none who hears me this day but is sometimes breathing out the desires of his Soul unto God in Prayer Oh! let this be the lauguage of your Prayers Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth Let others beg of God Riches and Honours and the favours of Men Let others beg the golden Ring but do you desire the kiss Consider The Soul of the rational Creature stands obliged by the law of reason to desire the best things Is there any thing to be compared with special grace this is that more excellent way which the Apostle propounds to be coveted before the best gifts You read in the book of Esther ch 5. v. 9. 11. concerning Haman that he called for his Wife and tells her of the great honour to which the King had advanced him and of his great Riches but saith he all this availeth me nothing while I see Mordecay suting in the Kings Gate When the poor worlding sits down and thinks how God hath blessed him with Riches Honours and whatsoever contentments the creature can afford him hath he not cause to say All this availeth me nothing whil'st I have no assurance of the love of God whil'st for ought I know or have reason to believe the wrath of God may be flaming against me and I one of those who shall after all these sweet enjoyments spend an Eternity in that fire which is prepared for the Devil and his Angels Riches profit not in the day of Wrath no nor any thing else will profit in that day but an interest in Christ How much better is a dinner of Herbs with the love of God than great Treasures with his hatred A morsel of bread with an interest in Christ than a stuffed Ox with the wrath of God Secondly These influences alone will evidence distinguishing love Indeed other gifts may possibly speak no love at all The Israelites desired a King God granted them their desires and saith by his Prophet that he gave them a King in his Wrath. It may be truly said concerning the gifts of God to many a poor Creature he gives them Riches in his Wrath Honours in Wrath outward prosperity in Wrath outward good things dipt in divine vengeance the wrath of God may smoke against them while the quails are betwixt their teeth Poenalis nutritur impunitas This is a secret of Divine Justice which every one seeth not It is the saying of a devout Author that God often useth impios melle suo punire to punish wicked men with their own Hony But God never gives a kiss in Wrath he cannot give osculum Iscarioticum where he kisseth he loveth God throws the good things of this life amongst his Enemies his Friends living in the same world it may be get something of them but they are no distinguishing mercies But whomsoever he kisseth that Soul is certainly beloved of him Thirdly There are no petitions please God so well as those which are put up for spiritual things When Solomon begged of God a wise and understanding heart it is said that the saying pleased the Lord well Yea God shewed that it pleased him well for he received in abundance what he asked not Nor is this hard to be conceived by us who have the same affections towards our own Children had any one of us who are Fathers 2 Children and we should put it to their choice what they would ask of us and the one should ask that we would settle so much land upon him the other should tell us he desired not our lands but should importunately beg that his Father would love him best would not the latter please you best should we not be ready to give that Child-more than it asked You read of the two Daughters of Naomi Orpah and Ruth Ruth 1. 14 15. they both followed their Mother in law while she was full but when she was empty Orpah kisseth her Mother in law and leaveth her Naomi would have had Ruth have done so too but v. 16. Ruth refuseth and tells her Whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy People shall be my People and thy God shall be my God where thou diest I will die and there will I he buried Which is as much as if she had told her that she valued the company of her Mother above all other concerns Did not this think you indear her to Naomi and certainly nothing can more endear a soul to God than for it to judge his favour better than life and his loves more than Wine Now to engage your hearts to prefer the kisses of God before any other good things with which the hand of his providence can make you happy there needs no more than that you should be truly possessed with the notion of your own wants and rightly understand the differences of good He that knows how much more excellent than the Body the Soul of man is will quickly understand that those things which are proportioned to its wants are more desirable goods than those which are only suted to our more outward concerns Study but the excellency of the love of God and the vanity and Earthliness of the Creature the state of your souls by nature and with respect to that guilt which by multitudes of Sins you have contracted from which nothing can excuse you but the blood of Christ nor any thing evidence your absolution to quiet your accusing and condemning consciences but the kisses of his Mouth and you will need no more to evince to you that these coelestial kisses are of all good things the most excellent the most desirable which being well understood the rational Soul directly moveth to a choice and desire of them above and before all other things Sermon III. Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth IT is the Spouse that speaketh she saith not Let him embrace me nor as elsewhere He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts but Let him kiss me Quid tam minimum submissum quam osculetur me is De Ponte his note upon the Text. A kiss is the least token of conjugal love and affection Hence observe The least tokens of Christs special distinguishing love are very desirable to believing Souls The free Love of God shining out through Christ upon souls predestinated unto glory in the pardoning of their sins the acceptation of their persons the renewing of their natures in strengthening quickening comforting influences of grace is what we call the distinguishing Love of Christ being not the effects of his Philanthropy but his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now the tokens of this are more or less or may be so called According to the degree of their Emanation from Christ and the Spirit of Christ Or According to our judgment and apprehension or Estimation 1. According to the degree of their Emanation God whose heart is at all times the same towards his people yet is pleased gradually to
discover it and to manifest himself unto his people As the Sun in the Firmament whose Light in it self is alwaies the same and which hath alwaies the same ability and aptitude to illuminate the Air and to refresh the Earth with its Beams yet gives out its Light variously according to its position in the Firmament or aspect upon the Hemisphere its nearness to or distance from the Object to be inlightened or refreshed or as it is more or less hindered by the interposition of Clouds or Vapours so doth the Sun of Righteousness also diffuse his Beams variously Or as indeed a prudent Father though at all times his heart be full of love to his Children yet in the discoveries and manifestations of it he governeth himself by his own prudence relating to the Child 's good and with respect to the Child's behaviour and demeanour towards him So though whom God loveth he loveth with a great love and to the end yet as to the discoveries and manifestations of it he governs himself by his own Infinite Wisdom and with a great respect to his Peoples carriage and demeanour towards him Hence it is that though every Child of God be beloved of God with the same special and distinguishing Love yet every one lives not under the same manifestations and emanations of it He sheweth to some more to some less to some scarcely any according to the Wisdom of his Counsel and the good pleasure of his own will One soul shall have just light enough to discern that the day is broke in his soul that the Sun is arisen with healing in his wings upon him another shall hardly have so much light as to discern that but shall walk in the dark and see no light Another shall have the Sun of Righteousness more fully shining upon him and be able to say with Job I know my Redeemer lives and that I shall see him with these Eyes and though Worms shall destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God Or with Paul Rom. 8. 38. I know and am persuaded that neither life nor death nor any thing shall separate me from the Love of God in Jesus Christ Yea the same soul shall sometimes see its Beloved standing as it were behind the wall and looking in upon it through the Lattice see him in a Glass darkly another time it shall see him with a fuller sight as in the house with it face to face One while it shall only see as by a Wicket of hope open and possibly but imperfectly open neither another while its vision shall be as it were of the Heavens opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for it 2. The more or less of special and distinguishing grace is often measured by the soul's apprehension and particular fancy which judgment possibly is not alwaies according to Truth but yet such as we ordinarily make Thus we commonly judge the comfortable reflections of Divine Love to be the greatest tokens of it The sweetest indeed they are but possibly the strengthening Influences of Divine Grace by which the soul is inabled to perform its spiritual duties and to fight the good fight both against motions to sin from within and temptations to sin from without may be no less manifestations of special and distinguishing grace But take your measures how you will the gracious soul valueth at an high rate the least manifestations of such grace as may evidence to it that it is beloved of God with a special and distinguishing love I do not say the least of these will satisfie such a soul That it will not for the soul in which God hath caused by his Spirit a spiritual thirst after himself is continually crying out Give Give The soul will not be satisfied until in the Resurrection it awakes with God's likeness but in the mean time the least influences of this nature will be to it very precious and desirable The truth of this Proposition will appear to you from the petitions of several of the Servants of God in holy Writ more eminently those which we read of concerning David Psal 4. 6. There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord saith he lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and in the following words he declares that it should be more to him than the worldlings Harvest or Vintage greater matter of gladness than their increase of Corn Wine or Oil And Psal 84. 9. he asks no more than that the Lord would look upon the face of his Anointed What can be less than Beholding and giving the soul a good look The liberty that the Birds of the Air the Swallow and the Sparrow had to make their Nests about the Lord's Altars one would think argued but a small favour yet David prefers their condition before his One would think the Office of a Door-keeper in the Lord's House were but a small preferment yet David valueth it above a Mansion in the Tents of wickedness The several expressions which David maketh use of in the Psalms to testifie his desires after God such as Beholding Looking upon him Remembring him c. are all evident proofs of this The Woman Luk. 7. 38. counts it honour enough to sit at Christ's feet to wash his feet with her tears and then to wipe them with the hairs of her head The Woman of Canaan is called a Dog and contented with it so she may but lick up the Crumbs under her Master's Table You read of another Woman that cried out If I may but touch the Hem of his Garment The Prophet Zechariah foretold of a time when men should take hold of the Skirt of a Jew saying We will go with you for we have heard God is with you Any thing of Christ is precious to a soul that hath once tasted how good he is Joseph of Arimathea must have his dead body and the Disciples must run to the Sepulchre where he was laid The People of God of old had a favour for the dust of Zion and the stones thereof But much more precious must the least emanations of that virtue be which is in him suited to the wants the spiritual wants of poor souls What can be less than a look a smile a word yet we find these have been very precious to the People of God What can we think of less than the hearing of a Prayer yet David esteemeth this ar an high rate Psal 116. 1 2. For this he professeth his love to God and his resolution to call upon him so long as he lived One would think that of all other Fellowship and Communion with Christ a Fellowship with him in his Sufferings were least desirable St. Paul glorieth in this and speaks of it as a thing desirable Phil. 1. 10. ch 3. 11. And we read of the Apostles praising God that they were thought worthy to suffer for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ The same Spirit that was in all these
their worldly and sensual satisfactions I would speak to them as one standing this day in wisdoms Porch and crying after them in their hottest pursuits of the world Come and turn your hearts hither you that are simple ones and void of understanding I shall have a fairer opportunity to speak to these when I come to consider the argument by which the Spouse backeth her Petition But alas we had need make these cries often you can see the world and the gay and fine things therein precious and run after them with a swift pace but you can see no excellency in the kisses of Christ nothing for which they should be so desired when alas the world is but like a brave glass which whole is of some value but if broken in pieces the small pieces of it are worth nothing Christ his love is like a wedge of Gold or like a most precious perfume the least particle the least drop of which hath its value there is no emanation of his special loves but is suted to the Souls wants and to some eminent necessity under which the Soul laboureth Hear Solomon speaking to you Prov. 1. 22. How long you simple ones will you love simplicity And Fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Your reason tells you that a vessel of Silver or Gold is much preferrible to one of Earth or Glass and as for other reasons so for this which you ordinarily say break a vessel of Earth and Glass the pieces are worth nothing but if one of those more valuable mettals be broke the least pieces have their value Why should not the same reason instruct you that Christs favour is to be prefer'd to all the world can afford you a little of the world is not much valuable a plentiful estate the highest pitches of honour a belly full of pleasure that indeed may appear desirable but the least tokens of Christs love the least expressions of his favour are most valuable things The kisses of the world are for the most part but Oscula Iscariotica or Joabitica like the kisses of Judas who in order to the betraying of his Master first kissed him or like the kiss of Joab to Amasa who under pretence of kissing him smote him under the fifth rib and slew him Christ's kisses are kisses of peace and reconciliation of love and favour Secondly This notion calleth to all those that are true Christians and that for three things For a due value of the least tokens of Christs special and distinguishing love look narrowly to make up your judgment whether what you take to be such be such or no and there you must take heed that you do not make conclusions from the gifts of common providence No man can judge of the love or hatred of God to his Soul from any thing which befalls him in this life No man can judge of any special love from Gods giving him a longer life greater measures of health a more plentiful estate or any thing of this nature God gives the worst of men their portion in such things as these No nor â—dly from common gifts such as those of knowledge utterance c. look therefore narrowly to make your judgment and the surest Judgment is from such things as more conform you to the nature or will of God but if you will find aliquid Christi any thing which you can call Christs or speaks his distinguishing love take heed of undervaluing that Secondly It calls to you for the use of all means for proficiency and growth in Grace Such as hearing the Word Prayer the use of all the Ordinances of God for in reason if the least tokens of Christs special love be desirable greater manifestations of it are much more desirable Labour for more holiness more heavenly-mindedness more subjection of your will to the will of God Hath the Lord blessed you with a faith of adherence a power given you from above to cast your Souls upon the Lord Jesus Christ Labour for faith of evidence be like the Travellers to Zion of which David speaketh Psal 84. that go from strength to strength until they all appear before the Lord in Zion It may be a good question sometimes to satisfy a troubled doubting Soul what is the Minimum quod sic the lowest degree or measure of saving grace but it is an ill hearing from a lazy wanton Soul Lastly it calls loudly to us to thirst after Heaven where the believing Soul shall be the Lambs Wife and follow him whithersoever he goes and be blessed with the clearest vision and the fullest imbraces of its beloved Oh how pleasant will the mansions of glory be to those Souls to whom the imperfect views that it hath had of Christ in this life have been so desirable while we are present in the Body even Paul himself owneth himself absent from the Lord. Now indeed we are the Sons of God now we are in a capacity of his kisses tokens of special love sufficient to uphold and refresh our Souls but there we shall be at the rivers of pleasures where there is not only pleasure but fulness of pleasures and that for evermore O Blessed are they that shall be alwaies before the Throne of God seeing their Redeemer with those Eyes and taking their fills of his love Sermon IV. Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth BY the beloveds Kisses mentioned in this Text I have understood Christs special and distinguishing love and the tokens of it by which either as God blessed for ever or as the Mediatour of the world he may discover his kindness to the Children of Men or the Members of his Church in common from whence I have already observed that the heart of a Believer is after distinguishing love Kisses being the least of those Evidences I have shewed That the least tokens of Christs special and distinguishing love are and will be very sweet to Believers Souls But I observe the word is in the plural number Kisses and so may signify either 1. Various dispensations of Grace Or 2. Various repetitions of the same Acts of Grace Hence the next Proposition ariseth That altho the least dispensations of special and distinguishing love be exceeding sweet and precious to Souls which have once tasted how good the Lord is yet their hearts will be after fuller and frequent dispensations and repetitions of it I take both these to be comprehended in the plurality of the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace is a thing which is but one piece considered as it is in God their 's nothing plural in the one Divine Being but as the Sea which is in itself but one yet as it washeth upon several coasts receiveth several names and denominations as the English Sea the Irish Sea and the Baltick Sea So as the Grace of God respecteth the several necessities and wants of us
with reference to the Levitical rites Christ speaketh to Peter Joh. 13. much in the same dialect Except I wash thee thou canst have no part in me But the meaning is pardon me remove the guilt of my sin from me but is this enough for this holy Man Is this all that he asketh of God No v. 8. Make me to hear the voice of Joy and Gladness that the Bones which thou hast broken may rejoice There he prayeth for Consolatory Grace Well will this yet satisfie the thirst of this holy Man No he must also have a renewed Heart a right Spirit The Spirit of God resting upon him dwelling abiding in him A right Heart as well as a righteous Heart v. 10. Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me v. 11 12. Take not thy holy Spirit from me Uphold me with thy free Spirit He must not only be set right in Gods way but he must be kept right and upheld in it Look upon him in that 119 Psalm Psal 119. 28. Strengthen me according to thy Word The Lord had given him the Pardon of his Sin he had given him Wisdom so as he tells us in that Psalm he was become wiser than his Teachers God had sanctified Affliction to him so as by it he had learned to keep Gods Statutes The Lord had given him an heart to love his Law to make it his Meditation night and day yet he cries Strengthen me O Lord And again v. 25. Quicken me in thy way Quicken me after thy Loving-kindness v. 4. O Quicken me in thy Righteousness Hath he enough yet No one thing he yet wants v. 42. Mine Eyes fail for thy Word when wilt thou comfort me There is hardly any Dispensation of Grace which we do not find David in that Psalm pleading with God for This one instance of David is enough to shew you the temper of every Soul which hath but once tasted how good the Lord is Nor indeed can it be otherwise If we consider the Beauty and excellency which appeareth to such a Soul in every Dispensation of Grace The Spouse saith of Christ in another part of this Song He is altogether lovely There is no part of Christ which is not in itself lovely he is the brightness of his Fathers Glory the fulness of the God Head dwells in him bodily As every Beam of the Sun every Emanation of that Body of Light is lovely to him whose Eyes are open to discern it So every Beam of the Sun of Righteousness every Emanation of his Love must necessarily be lovely to the Soul that hath its senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil All Beauty is attractive whatsoever appeareth to our Souls lovely and beautiful appeareth also desirable But this is not all though Beauty and Comeliness be attractive and allures our Souls into an earnest desire after it yet profit is more Secondly There is no Dispensation of Divine Grace but suiteth some great want of the Soul It is the same Reason that I gave you why the least of Christ is so pretious Because the least of his Grace is suited to some great want of our Souls What I there applied to the least of his Love I here apply to the varieties of his gracious dispensations and indeed reasonably for there would be no variety in grace if there were not a variety of defects and wants and emptinesses in our Souls that which distinguisheth divine grace is our various wants and necessities and we can as naturally not desire a supply for our own discerned defects and wants as we cannot desire various emanations of divine love suited to the supply of them Nature prompteth us to desire a supply for every craving of our Souls The Soul is sensible that it daily sinneth and cannot but desire pardoning grace and say unto God every day Forgive us our debts it is sensible that it wants purity and holiness and therefore cannot but desire a right Spirit Its wants are many and it therefore desireth various dispensations of grace to supply them they are daily renewing therefore it desires repeated acts of grace to be renewed also A third reason lyeth in the Concatenation of grace The Philosopher saith Virtutes sunt Concatenatae that all vertues are chained together and no man is truly virtuous but hath in him the habits of all Virtue they make Virtue to lie in the reduction of the whole Soul to the rule guidance and conduct of reason I am sure Gratiae sunt concatenatae the Graces of Gods Spirit are like Pearl stringed together and that upon a double account 1. With respect to themselves 2. With respect to our sense and apprehension Pardoning grace never goeth without renewing and regenerating grace God never saith to any Soul Thy Sins are forgiven but he addeth sin no more The Grace of Consolation never goeth without the Grace of Sanctification The Grace of Regeneration is alwaies attended with some degrees of that Grace which strengtheneth and quickneth the Soul unto its Spiritual work and duty 2. As to our sense of it The Grace of God being as I have before said nothing else but the Love of God freely shining upon us with respect to our several circumstances and diversified wants the Soul is prone from the want of a supply as to one thing to suspect its want of all Hence it is that it suspecteth the want of the love of God in the whole from its sense of the want of it in part Indeed this oft-times is the error of a Soul that is truly gracious from it s not distinguishing betwixt those things that are necessary to Eternal life and Salvation and those influences that are meerly accommodating and tending to the better being of the spiritual life the dispensations of which are not meerly directed from the divine love but from the divine wisdom and sometimes are with-held from the wisdom of God by which he directeth his own motions to their ends Hence as Gideon when the Angel came to him and said The Lord is with thee O thou mighty man of valour replyed If the Lord be with us why am I thus So the Soul thirsting after the love of God if any go about to persuade it under its sadness and dejections under the sense of its weakness as to spiritual duties or dulness and heaviness in the performance of them that yet the love of God is toward it it hath a truth of Grace it cries out If God loved me why am I thus I am weak why am I not strengthened or my Soul is dull and dead and heavy why am I not quickned Or I am sad and dejected if God loved me why am I not comforted The Soul of a believer is apt to conceive that because Love is one in God therefore it 〈…〉 be a sharer in his love while it wants any one aspect of it 〈◊〉 might suite its spiritual wants Another reason may be the possibility
say some interpreters desires his manifestation in the Flesh the publication of the Doctrine of the Gospel together with the comfortable application of those Doctrines to her conscience I am sure there is a truth in that Let me therefore a little make use of their notion Take this for the Proposition Prop. It is of the nature of a believing Soul to thirst after a communion with Christ in his Word his Gospel especially and the teachings of his Spirit in and by that I here join two of those propositions together which I distinguished upon the opening of the words She desires the kisses of his Mouth 2. That he should kiss her with the kisses of his Mouth This Proposition will offer me an opportunity to discourse to you the affection of the believing Soul to the words of Christ both in the more external and more spiritual and internal teachings and ministrations of it The words of the Gospel are the words of Christ the kisses of his mouth whether they be applied and set home to the particular conscience yea or no. The ministration of the Gospel is in itself exceeding glorious Therein saith the Apostle is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. Therein in Gods way of Salvation revealed to lost sinners and by it life and immortality are brought to light Now this word of God is to be considered As written for our Instruction For saith the Apostle Rom. 15. 4. whatsoever things were written before were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope As preached So it is the Ordinance of God for our faith and therefore called The word of Faith Sanctification Consolation and Eternal Salvation for indeed the supply of all the spiritual wants and necessities of our Souls Hence there are three ways by which our Souls have a communion with God in his Word Reading Hearing and Meditation Reading is one means by which we come to the knowledg of the will of God in his Word The King of Israel was commanded to read in the Book of Gods Law all the days of his life that he might learn to keep the Law of his God and there is a blessing pronounced to him that readeth Indeed he that readeth the word as it lyeth before us in our Bibles hath this advantage that he is sure what is there plain to his understanding is the undoubted pure Word of God and while a man readeth the Scriptures he is but repeating of Gods Word to his own soul or hearing God immediately speaking to him Hearing the word preached is another means of communion with God in his Word This is an Ordinance of God and such a one as he honoureth with being the great means of calling and saving such as he hath ordained to life So as in that ordinance a soul hath an opportunity to meet God to draw nigh unto him to hear him speak unto it We must take heed that we do not think that all which we hear out of pulpits is spoken by God God no further speaketh by the Minister than the Minister keepeth unto his Text speaketh according to the Scriptures either by way of interpretation or application And therefore every good Christian is to search the Scriptures whether what their Preachers deliver be consonant to them Those noble Bereans mentioned Acts. 17. did so when St. Paul was the Preacher and are commended for it The Scriptures are to be judged by no other rule but Sermons are to be measured by the holy Scriptures No man hath communion with God by hearing further than so far as that is consonant to the will of God which he heareth But admitting the Minister of Christ answereth his name and Office and faithfully revealeth and applieth the will of God while we hear we have communion with God God communicateth his holy will unto us and we communicate with him by an obedient Ear who hath comanded us to hear that our souls may live A third way is by Meditation This is an act of our inward man standing upon the things which we have read or heard as necessary to the souls spiritual nourishment as Digestion is to the nourishment of our bodies by what is their proper food a duty much practised by David Psal 119. 97 99. And a good man is described by it Psal 1. 3. He meditateth in the law of the Lord night and day By this the soul doth not only fasten the word of God upon it self but it also dives deeper into the depths of it I say this communion with God in his word is very desirable to the spouse of Christ I added his gospel especially The Word of God in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is made up of several parts There is in it sacred history no unuseful part of holy Writ it being that which more than any other acquainteth us with Gods way of of providence with his people of old You have in it many Moral Instructions and Precepts of Christianity and Godliness an admirable part of Scripture that which makes the holy Scriptures to be what no other book in the world is a light to our feet and lanthorn to our paths Shewing us what we are to do what to decline and avoid but yet these are not properly called Gospel doctrines You have in it many Prophesies or predictions of what God intended to do in the world most of which are fulfilled some we yet live in the expectations of You have also in it many terrible threats and curses and many woes denounced against the violaters of the law of God these are excellent portions of holy Writ to keep your souls in awe and make us afraid of sinning against God but these are not properly Gospel Doctrines but properly belong to the Law which declareth and worketh wrath You have also in those sacred books many declarations of the good will and love of God to poor lost Sinners declared in and through Jesus Christ You have an historical part of the Gospel declaring what Christ hath done and Suffered for us a declarative and promissory part proclaiming Salvation to poor lost creatures and promising life and Salvation and all grace to some poor undone sinners promises for the conferring and increase of grace These and such like I principally understand by Gospel Doctrines The Doctrine of Gods free grace in the pardoning of sin and the imputation of Christs Righteousness to the soul Doctrines that reveal Christ and tend to bring the soul to Christ or direct the soul in walking with him Now I say tho the believing soul values every line of holy Writ and hath a reverence for the whole Word of God and desires a communion with God in reading and hearing and meditating in every part of his revealed will yet it hath a special thirst after those portions of it which contain these Revelations Other parts are
gain doth arise ordinarily Now all the profit that can be so much as imagined to arise from the world as meerly read in our Bibles or heard opened from the Ministers of the Gospel or meditated upon can be nothing but some superficial notional knowledge in the things of God Knowledge indeed is an excellent thing and as pleasant to an ingenuous Soul as Light is to the Eye and such a Soul counts it amongst his gains and this may and doth draw out not only true and good and pious Souls to read and hear Sermons and study the Scriptures but it may and doth entice and allure others But the pious Soul feeth a profit beyond this he hath read 1 Tim. 3. 15. That the holy Scriptures are able to make a man wise to salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ V. 17. To make the man of God perfect throughly furnished to every good work He hath heard that good words from thence have made Souls better when sorrow hath made the heart to stoop this is the profit this the advantage which he promiseth unto himself from the Word of God this makes him thirst after a real inward spiritual communion with God in his Word he knows nothing less than this can answer the ends which his Soul aimeth at That it is not being in the Sanctuary but his seeing the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary which must effect this Hence it is that though a more External communion with God in his word be sweet and desirable to him yet he cannot take up with it but he thirsteth after the Teachings of his Spirit in and by the Word But I see I must leave much of this discourse to other opportunities Sermon VII Canticles 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth 4. THere is yet another Reason to be assigned and added to what you have already heard why an understanding pious Soul cannot be satisfied with a bare external Communion with God in his Word That is the danger which it apprehends from such a performance when the Soul resteth in it and takes up with it Heb. 4. 12. The Apostle telleth us The word of God is quick and powerful Whatsoever means are used in order to an end if it be of a quick and operative Nature if it reacheth not the end it certainly doth harm Pbysick that is quick and operative if it conduceth not to the healing of the Body usually impairs it and doth it harm The hearing and reading of the word are means in order to the Salvation of our Souls by the working of Faith in us changing our hearts and transforming us into its own likeness if they profit not in order to that end they certainly prejudice the Soul Isa 55. 10. As the rain cometh down from Heaven and the Snow and returneth not thither but watereth the Earth So shall my word be that goeth out of my Mouth The Apostle lets us know that Ministers in preaching the Gospel are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are savea and in them that perish V. 16. To the one they are the savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life We read in the Gospel of two effects of the Word Preached by Christ and the Apostles some believed others were hardened This must necessarily make a pious thinking Soul that considereth reading and hearing the Word as they indeed are not as ends but as means in order to a more noble end that it cannot but long after this spiritual inward communion with God in these Institutions There 's nothing more to be dreaded than an hardened heart and without this inward Teaching of the Spirit of God in and by the Word the Soul certainly hardeneth and groweth worse by and under it I shall now come to make some Application of this discourse From it you may learn That there is a more internal communion with God in his Word than the most of common hearers are aware of God's speaking to our Eyes and Ears our common sense and understanding is one thing his speaking to our hearts to our will and affections is another thing It is one thing for a man or woman to give God his bodily presence his Eyes and his Ears in an Ordinance another thing for the Soul to give up his will in it to comply with the will of God in what he shall reveal unto it I am afraid this is a notion is little either understood or attended to Men and women think they have done their work and fulfilled their duty if they have but read a little in their Bibles and come to Church to hear a Sermon never regarding what inward communion they have had with God either in the one or the other and look at no further Communication of God unto them than to let them know his will nor at any further communicating themselves unto God than in lending him the presence of their outward man and the more out-parts and powers of their Souls This apprehension of men makes them stand amazed at God's Peoples being so fond of Sermons and running after them Indeed were this all that good men and women expected they might possibly not be so exceedingly thirsty after them though even a notional knowledge of the will of God is no contemptible thing but they have further expectations upon Ordinances than this amounteth to They said Isa 2. 3. Come you let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths They know that God promised of old That wheresoever he recorded his name to dwell there he would meet his people and bless them And that the same Promise extendeth to the New Testament and that there the Lord hath promised where two or three are gathered together in his Name he will be in the midst amongst them which Promise being not of his Essential presence for so he is never absent from us but concerning the presence of his grace it is a promise of blessing so as they are not satisfied without some token of God's favour and blessing From this discourse also may be concluded in what communion with God through the Spirit lieth Some would have it to lie in meer Enthusiastical raptures impressions and revelations and that the way to enjoy it is to cast off all Forms all Duties and Ordinances these are the things they make to be the things that are above mentioned in Col. 3. 1. Certainly there is a form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle Paul commendeth the Romans for yielding obedience to Rom. 6. 17. A form of sound words which he commandeth Timothy to hold fast 2 Tim. 1. 13. These are not that form of Godliness in men that deny the power of it which the Apostle speaks of in that Epistle There are Duties and Ordinances to be above which is to be above
high Priest became us c. Give me leave upon this argument to make use of the same words Christ hath Loves such a Saviour became the Sons of men and that upon a three fold account 1. As love stands opposed to hatred and wrath and Enmity Considering man as Gods Creature he was not hated of God God hâ—teth not the work of his own hand but considering him as a lapsed creature as degenerated into the Plant of a strange Vine after that God had created him a generous noble plant so he became the object of Gods wrath hatred and Enmity We were Children of wrath by nature saith the Apostle E ph 2. 3. God is angry with the wicked every day How Sutable to us now is it to have a Saviour That is Love and who hath Loves considering the aversion in the holy Divine Beeing from Mankind as rebellious Seed a Seed of Evil doers Who could have suited us to have become a Saviour unto us but one who had akind propension and inclination to us inclining him to the great work of mans Redemption and Reconciliation to God especially also considering that there could be no remission of sins without blood no reconciliation without the reconcilers Death he had need have loves that should dye for his Friend and he much more who should dye for Enemies that were by his death to be made friends 2. As Loves signifies multitude and infinitness of Love We have all a multitude of sins and there is a kind of infiniteness in sin indeed our Acts of Sin are not infinite we cannot number them we cannot measure them but they are to be numbred that is our comfort so that the ballance is on Gods side he hath infinite Mercies But there is an infiniteness of a will to sin in every Sinners heart if a Sinner were let alone he hath such a depth of vileness in his heart that if he were to live infinitely he would sin without limits without bounds infinitely there is an infiniteness in the guilt of Sin we had need of a Saviour that should have Loves an infinite of Love a multitude of Mercies for our multitude of Sins numberless pardons for numberless Sinnings we Sinned yesterday we sin this day and we shall sin to morrow If Christ had not Loves we could have no hopes 3. Thirdly such a Saviour became us As Loves signifyes a Variety of gracious inclinations We have a variety of wants Our wants are not all of one nature we have need of Love to pardon us and to bring us into a state of favour Love to preserve us and uphold us when we are in such a state of favour One or another gracious aspect and inclination of Christ would not have been enough for our Souls which are not onely miserable and stand in need of mercy but poor and stand in need of the riches of divine grace and naked and stand in need of the long White robe of Christs righteousness and blind and stand in need of his Eye Salve We are all Emptiness and stand in need of his fulness that we might receive of his fulness Grace for Grace Less than infinite Loves and variety of gracious inclinations a readiness to serve our Souls in a variety of distresses with a sutable Supply of grace grace suited to every necessity of our Souls could not have fitted our Souls which have not only wants and infirmities but are incompassed about with wants and infirmities Fifthly Let this report of Christ to your Souls ingage you to indeavour to be made the Objects of these Loves I have observed to you before that this text doth not speak of the Love of Christ with respect to his Father but with respect to us to the Sons of men they are the objects of the Loves of Christ here mentioned How should we all study and indeavour that we may be the Beloved the objects of these Loves not of his Love onely but of his Loves Arminians keep a great deal of stir with a Philanthropy in Christ a common Love which he hath for all the Sons and daughters of men Nor is the question betwixt them and other Divines so much about the thing as the extent of it Sober Divines will many of them grant in Christ a common Love to all mankind and speak of some things which they take to be the effects and products of it but admit it yet it is certain he hath also an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good pleasure of his will or Special kindness to some Souls So he hath Loves that is the benignity and kindness of his inclinations is more to Some than to others Let none of us satisfy our selves to be the Object of Christs Love unless we be the object of his Loves I shall press this onely with One Argument It is this Nothing but the Loves of Christ can serve our Souls as to their true Spiritual and eternal Concernment There is a great stir made in the world about a common Love which Christ should have for all the Sons and daughters of men and there are many that would make the Death of Christ to be the Effect of this Common Love And so conclude that he intentionally dyed for all and Every man Others are not of that mind but yet will allow all men and women in the world to receive some good from Christ and that not onely considered as God over all blessed for ever and one with his Father and so in him we live move and have our Being But as Mediator It is from him they say that the world yet stands that the Gospel is preached to the worst of men I see little in this worth the contending for I would gladly know what real advantage accrueth to any Soul from being the common object of Divine Love Admitting that all shal not be saved for whom Christ dyed which they must hold who hold that Christ dyed for all and every man unless they hold universal Salvation I would fain know what relief any Soul can have from this notion of Christs dying for all which some so much contend for Supposing that all men shall not be saved but those onely whom Christ hath loved with a Special Love Nothing can possibly revive a Soul troubled as to its Spiritual and eternal concerns but some evidence of that It is said of the young man who came to Christ so hopefully Mar. 10. 21. kneeling to him saying Master what good thing may I do that I may obtain everlasting Life that he loved him With that general Love which he hath for all his Creatures especially such as have any seeds of goodness in them yet the Text saith he went away Sorrowful Let us labour for the Special Love of Christ Such tokens of his Love as may distinguish betwixt us and those who shall perish But to shut up this Discourse This notion calleth upon all of us who would be like Christ to have Loves also There are two
from God and Heb. 9. 14. the Apostle tells us That the blood of Christ purgeth our Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God Hence the Apostle 1. Cor. 1. 30. Telleth us that Christ is made unto us Wisdom Sanctification and Redemption 5. The 5th great Want of the Soul which I mentioned was Hopes or Assurance of an happy Existence to all eternity This Want now accrueth from the Soul's Immortality The Consideration that God hath created us under an Ordination to an Eternal Existence and State Admitting this which indeed is the main thing that distinguisheth a reasonab'e Soul from the Soul of a brute Creature it is impossible that the Soul should be under any degree of Happiness that hath not some Hopes or Assurance of Glory That its Soul shall go to God when it leaveth the Body And that the Body shall rise again in a joyful Resurrection in which it shall be again united to the Soul that both may live with God for ever Now this is a Good which floweth unto the Soul from the Loves of Christ This needs no further proof than 1. That no Soul is born to this glorious and incorruptible Inheritance for we are by nature Children of Wrath and eternal life is the Gift of God as the Apostle tells us Rom. 6. The Gift of God is eternal Life and it is a gift which cometh from God to us by the Hands of Christ John 17. 2. As thou hast given him Power over all Flesh that he should give eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And John 10. 28. Speaking of his sheep saith he I give unto them eternal Life and they shall never perish Now as their having a certain right to and their future possession of eternal Life is necessary for them in another Life when this transitory Life shall be determined so the hopes or full assurance of it is necessary for them to make them in any measures happy while they live here And this is in and from Christ also and therefore he is called our Hope 1 Tim. 1. 1. And the the Apostle Col. 1. 27. saith Christ in us is the Hopes of Glory That is all the Hopes we have of Glory are from Christ This is abundantly enough to evince that positive goodness that is in the Loves of Christ their high and sutable conveniencies to the necessities and wants of our Souls I shall in the next place shew you the transcendent Goodness and excellency that is in them that they are as the Text saith Better then Wine or as it is expressed in the Hebrew Idiome good before Wine Wine as I have before shewed you literally Signifies the Juice of the Grape Figuratively whatsoever is good sweet and excellent in the World Now take it in one or both Senses The Demonstration is very easy I shall make it in 3 particulars 1. First all the Goodness that is in Wine taken either litterally for the Juice of the Grape or Figuratively for all created comforts lies in a Sutableness of them and that but for a time neither to the more external wants of a Creature Three things must be yielded concerning all created Goods 1. None of them reach the wants of the Soul which is the best and noblest part of man What do Pleasures Riches Honours whatsoever this world affordeth signify as to the Souls wants It wants Pardon of sins Will any of these procure or purchase it It wants a Righteousness wherein to stand before God Will these procure it It wants Peace of Conscience Will those give it It wants Purity Will they cleanse it It naturally wants a Right and title to Glory and the Hopes or Assurance of it Can any of these help the Soul to it They indeed sute the more external wants of Man The wanton Sense wants grateful Objects They will Supply it The body wants Food and Rayment they will Supply it But for the more inward Spiritual Wants of the Soul they have no Sutableness to them no conveniency But as I have shewed you the Loves of Christ have nay they are not onely suted to the Souls greatest wants but to the Bodies also at least so far as the Soul hath influence on the Body upon the Happiness of which it undoubtedly hath for a good Conscience is a continual feast The Contentment which Grace filleth the Soul with the Mortification and Subduing of the Passions and stubborn Will of Man have a great Reflection upon the Health and chearfulness of the Body So that here is a double Argument to prove the Loves of Christ better than Wine 1. From their Sutableness to the necessities and wants of the Soul which are the wants of the noblest part of man 2. From their sutableness to the wants both of Soul and body by reason of the Reflection which the Souls good hath upon the outward Man even in this Life to say nothing of the joyful Resurrection of the Body and the Happiness both of Body and Soul reunited in the Enjoyment of God for ever 2. All created Comforts last but for a Season and that a little Season They only sute the wants of our Bodies in this Life Riches profit not in the day of Wrath Honours lie down with our Bodies in the dust Pleasures cease when our senses which they gratified are gone Nay very often the Sutableness or gratefulness of these created Goods extinguisheth before the determination of our natural Lives When Barzillai was Fourescore years old his Eye took no pleasure in seeing nor his Ear in hearing There are daies in this Life Eccles 12. 7. in which a man shall say he hath no pleasure in them What do Riches Honours Friends Pleasures signify in a day of Sickness 3. No created good suteth all our wants one suteth one want another fills up another Emptiness none suteth all But the Love of Christ as it suteth our Soul wants So it is Suted to all times and is certain and a Supply to all wants of Souls This is my first Argument to prove his Loves better then Wine 2. Secondly there is no need or want which Wine or created goods supplieth but the Love of Christ will supply and much more eminently and abundantly Let me open this in a few particulars 1. Wine in regard of the Subtile Spirituous nature of it hath a great vertue to exhilarate the Spirits and to raise up the Affection of Joy Hence you read of those who shout by reason of Wine Psal 78. 65. And the Psalmist saith VVine makes glad the heart of Man Psal 104. 15. and Ecc. 10. 19. Wine maketh merry But do not the Loves of Christ do this much more Eph. 5. 19. And be you not drunk with Wine wherein is Excess but be you filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs making Melody in your heart to the Lord. David Psal 4. cries out Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon me for thou thereby
shalt make my heart more glad then theirs when their Corn and Wine and Oil increaseth Those who are critical in words in the Latine Tongue distinguish between Voluptas and Gaudium Pleasure they make to be nothing but the Sensual Appetites Satisfaction 't is common to Beasts as well as Man Gaudium or Joy they make to be the procede of the satisfaction of the rational Appetite the first is meerly sensual and beastly the latter alone becometh a Man who is a reasonable Creature I am sure that Mirth which is in the Soul of man that Exhilaration of his Spirits which ariseth from the sense and apprehension of the Love of Christ unto the soul is a Satisfaction to the Rational Spiritual Appetite so the nature of it must be more Spiritual more Suted to the reasonable creature then any Wine or indeed any created comforts can be 2. Wine is of excellent use to allay our thirst and in Physick and Chirugery under deliquiums c. This is a great execellency that is in it Prov. 31. 6. Give wine to those of heavy hearts In Chirurgery it is of use to wash and cleanse wounds c. Hence you read in the Gospel of the good Samaritane that he put Wine and Oil into the wounds of the man that was fallen amongst thieves But in this respect are not the loves of Christ good before Wine Wine onely satisfieth the cravings of nature the drought of the body for want of moisture If a Soul hungers and thirsteth after righteousness Wine will not allay that thirst the Loves of Christ will and surely the thirstings of a Soul are far greater wants than the want of liquor for the body Wine may be of some use in Deliquiums and failures of the Vital and Animal Spirits But if the Soul fainteth for Gods Salvation Wine is of no use the Loves of Christ are Wine may wash and purify the wounds of the body and keep them from putrefaction but the Loves of Christ alone can purify the wounds of a Soul and resist putrefaction there He was annointed to preach glad tidings to the meek to bind up the broken hearted to appoint to them that mourn in Sion Beauty for Ashes and the Oil of gladness for the Spirit of heaviness Isaiah 61. 1 2 3. 3. Wine will make a man forget his affliction Prov. 31. 6 7. Give wine to him who is of a heavy heart let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more but now wine doth this by bringing a man unto a kind of stupefaction or temporary deliration and the Affliction must be meerly external and not in extremity Wine makes a Man forget his affliction onely by putting him besides himself The Loves of Christ have a proportionable effect upon the Soul but of a far more high and excellent nature Let a Soul be bowed down to Hell and not know what to do Let but the Loves of Christ shine upon it in the sealing of any promise it forgets all its poverty and misery The Soul will rejoyce in Sufferings glory in tribulation c. the Martyr cries out that the fire is but as a Bed of Roses So that you see there is never a good quality in Wine but something proportionable to it only infinitely excelling is to be found in Christs loves My last demonstration of the truth of this Proposition is this Wine though it hath many excellent qualities yet hath it also some ill qualities The Loves of Christ are not such There is an excess in Wine saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess It is a mocker saith Solomon it will intoxicate breed many diseases many a one perisheth by drinking too much Wine But no Soul ever perished from the excess of Christs love to it no Soul ever contracted any distemper from it he you filled with the Spirit saith the Apostle in the same Text where he tells us there is an excess in Wine Much of what I have said concerning the excellency of the love of Christ above Wine taken in a literal sense is as true concerning it in its figurative sense as it may be supposed and interpreted to signify and created comforts they only are suited to our External wants only they are but temporary and uncertain they also have some ill qualities attending them I shall therefore add no more Doctrinally By way of application We may in the first place observe in o what a degree of debauchery the generality of the Sons and Daughters are fallen Nothing more becomes a Man or Woman considered as a reasonable Creature than to discern aright betwixt things that differ and to judge aright concerning them and accordingly to make our Election and to guide our practice But supposing what you have heard to be truth where is the man of many that rightly discerneth rightly judgeth or aright guideth himself in practice where is the man that judgeth the loves of Christ better than Wine How many are there that judge Wine better then the loves of Christ Wine not in the figurative sense as it signifies all outward created comforts but in the literal sense as it signifieth nothing but the juice of the Grape fermented and a little refined from its dregs doth not every one thus judge that useth Wine immoderately that sits bibbing at a Tavern until the Wine inflameth him Christ by his Apostle Paul hath said Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess How many are there that tarry long at the Wine that go to seek mixt Wine that look upon wine when it is red when it giveth its colour in the cup when it moveth itself aright till at last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder till it causeth woe and sorrow and contentions and wounds and redness of the Eyes as Solomon Speaketh Prov. 23 29 30 31. and yet have no sense of the Loves of Christ no thoughts of it make no enquiries after it take no course for the obtaining it Do not those poor wretches Love wine better than the Love of Christ that will not abate life a cup of wine to gain it Those that for an intemperate cup of wine will be disobedient to the rule which Christ hath given them My Soul in this contemplation even akes to think what will become of drunkards by whom I mean not those only who reel in the streets and are intoxicated with Wine but those who take a greater pleasure in drinking than in praying or hearing the word of God or obeying his will 2. But if we extend the notion of wine further to signify all sensual Satisfactions all created comforts Lord how many are there in the world that in this betray their folly and discover the corruption and debauchery of humane nature How few are there in the world that do not prefer some creature or other before the loves of Christ indeed as the Poet-saith Trahit sua quemque voluptas
an everlasting Happiness As a Merchant that hath heard a Report of the rare Commodities and cheapness of them in a Country which Report he doth not so far believe as he will adventure an Hundred Pounds to try the Issue yet may desire the Commodities at such Rates as he hears of so may an unregenerate man that hath fate under the Preaching of the Gospel and heard abundantly of the Excellency of Christ and the rare effects of his Love though he will not do any thing toward the obtaining them yet may wish that Christ loved him that he might be made partaker of such Love though all this while in Heart he believeth little or nothing That you may not therefore deceive your selves in this point take a few notes of such desires as are indeed Evidences of Grace 1. They are not meer velleities lazy wishings and wouldings as we say but alwaies attended with the use of means which we judge or find proper to obtain our desires And indeed this alone without anything further said will try this issue a desire arising from the knowledge and experience a Soul hath of the goodness of an Object is alwaies attended with the use of what means are within our reach for the obtaining of it Hence a Souls pretended desire of the pardon of sin through the blood of Christ and of living with Christ in glory not conjoined with fervent prayers with an endeavour to reform our lives and to sin no more is of no good significancy at all It is only an indication that the man or woman would be happy and secure as to eternity if there be such a thing which he hath heard but now when these desires are attended with sad reflections upon ourselves for sin serious indeavours against sin and hearty and fervent prayers to God for pardon these things speak the truth and sincerity of our desires 2. Desires upon knowledge and experience of the goodness of a thing are alwaies most intense and strongest If you observe it the desires of our Souls are augmented from a double cause 1. The certainty of our knowledge of that goodness which is in the thing desired 2. The quickness of our apprehension of the want of it The more full and certain knowledge that we have of the goodness and excellency of an Object the more we desire it For I told you before it is not the simple goodness and excellency of a thing that draweth out our Souls after it but our apprehension of such a goodness hence in reason it must follow that the desire must be strongest in that Soul where the apprehension is most full and certain And all goodness being measured by us by the suitableness of the thing to our wants the quicker and fuller apprehensions the Soul hath of its wants of Christ love the stronger must the souls motions for and towards it be Now the believing Soul having the most certain knowledge of the goodness of the Loves of Christ and having also the fullest and quickest apprehension of its wants of them of necessity its pantings after them must be most intense and strong As the Hart panteth after the Water Brooks as David speaketh Psal 42. 1. Hence it is that when the Prayers of Hypocrites are but complementings of God a few words of course the prayers of the Saints are wrestlings with God as Jacobs prayer is stiled strong cries and groans which cannot be uttered as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 8. where any Soul findeth such desires as these it hath reason to rejoice and be comforted concerning the truth of its grace tho it findeth its actions imperfect and Gods manifestations of himself to it in consolatory influences not so full In this sense it is true that desires of grace are indications of it provided they be such desires as flow from a knowledge or any experience of Divine Love I mean a knowledge of Faith a certain firm persuasion wrought in the heart of that goodness and excellency that is in Christ and his loves not a meer knowledge from report and the credit of others but such desires can never admit of a regardless carelessness whether the Soul obtaineth what it desireth or no but will be attended with an inquiry after and a due use of all means for the obtaining the thing desired And besides they will alwaies be strong desires according to the nature of the good desired and the apprehended degree of the Souls want of it and hence again The Soul that hath these true desires will find them attended with trouble and unquietness till it hath in some measure at least obtained the thing which it desireth for as the wise man saith of Hope so it is true of desire deferred it maketh the heart sick The Soul filled with desires is like the Woman in Travel pained till it obtaineth the thing desired As when the desire is accomplished it is sweet to the Soul Prov. 13. 19. So while it is accomplished there must be some bitterness and uneasiness in the Soul But now desires after Christ and his loves attended with no trouble no uneasiness for want of the accomplishment and obtaining of them faint and cold and languid desires without the use of means within our power to obtain the thing desired are of no significancy as to a truth of grace Solomon hath two sayings in his Proverbs that may be applyed here Prov. 13. 4. The Soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the Soul of the diligent shall be made fat And Prov. 21. 25. The desire of the slothful killeth him for he refuseth to labour Two things are said of the slothful sluggard 1. That he desireth and hath nothing he never obtaineth his desire 2. That his desires kill him they do him hurt no good what is the reason Because he refuseth to labour But the Soul of the diligent is made fat Solomon speaketh as to the things of this Life The Soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing It is as true as to Spiritual things the Grace of God the Loves of Christ The Souls of Sluggards that will sometimes say O that I had my part in Christ O that my Iniquities might be pardoned O that I might live with God in Glory c. but never will do any thing toward these things not so much as deny themselves in a Lust nor keep under their Body and bring it into Subjection in any thing these Souls have nothing The truth is they have nothing of any true desire proceeding from any sound knowledge or any true experience but they shall have nothing Their Desires kill them if they trust to these desires of Grace as Indications of a truth of Grace they kill them they cheat their own Souls to an eternal ruine and destruction But the diligent Soul is made fat That Soul that from a sound and firm persuasion of the goodness and excellency of the loves of Christ desires to tast and further to tast of them and is
he may go to God or no whether he hath one good Argument to use which may be of avail with God We have many words to say many Arguments to use and when it is a clear day with the Soul it can easily discern it and fill its mouth with words of several natures but in a dark day under the prevailings of Melancholy or boisterous Temptations it can find many Arguments to deter it from Addresses to God it s own vileness and unworthiness considered with God's purity and holiness the multitude of its sins its former Prayers as it fancieth lying by not answered but it cannot find one Argument to incourage it But every Christian hath at all times many Arguments if he could discern them David made his vileness and unworthiness an Argument Psal 25. Pardon mine iniquity saith he for it is great That 's an Argument all have and at all times Ah! but saith the Soul this is no other than the vilest person hath He may plead the freeness of Divine Grace The Soul that goeth to God for Free Grace can never want an Argument but still this is common and no more encouraging a Believer than another man We may plead our own misery and sad state misery is the object of Grace and Mercy but still this is common The vilest sinner may go and plead with God for mercy because his state is miserable A true Christian would have an Argument of a more special nature and such a one as in the use of he could go boldly and with confidence to the Throne of Grace Admitting this Proposition every good Christian hath such an Argument such an Argument as no unregenerate man hath such an Argument as he may go to God with with boldness and confidence God was never yet wanting to the truly hungring and thirsty Soul after his Love such an Argument as if pleaded with God and being in truth alwaies prevailed with God I shall shut up this Discourse with some few words of Exhortation 1. To all To labour to bring up their hearts to this to prize the favour of God above all other things whatsoever How you shall know whether your hearts be brought up to it or no I have before shewed you but suffer me here to give you some Directions in the case and to press it with some Arguments Until we do find that our Souls do set such an estimate upon the Loves of Christ we can never use it as an Argument with God This is therefore the first thing which we have to do to be restless till we find that we can say it in truth that we value Christ's Loves above all earthly things Nor will this ever be effectually done till the holy Spirit of God comes upon our hearts with its impressions and demonstrations all that we can do will bear no more than the notion of means in order to that blessed end Of that nature much may be directed First Let thy Soul and its immortal state with its condition referring to that state be much in thy thoughts It is one great reason why men neglect and are careless as to the Loves of Christ because they do not remember they have immortal Souls nor consider any future state or their own circumstances relating to it Men know that they have bodies and experience hunger and thirst and cold and so are very busie in taking care what they shall eat and drink and put on but they do not know at least they do not attend to their knowledge of it and have no certain knowledge and persuasion that they have immortal Souls that can no more die with the body than eat drink or sleep with it so as they take no further care than for their outward man Neither do they attend to the consideration of the condition of their Souls with respect to an eternal existence but run away with presumptuous fancies that God will not suffer them to perish for ever determining concerning their Souls according to their fancies and the dictates of their own vitiated reason not according to the revelations of the Divine Will would men think more of their Souls and consider the immortality of them would they determine concerning them according to Divine Revelation it were impossible they should so far as generally they do neglect the care of them They would quickly see that all the good things of the world could not affect the Soul with any good and therefore must needs be invaluable things compared with those things that will secure the Souls happiness both here and for ever If men believed they had immortal Souls their reason would teach them quickly to conclude that they are better than the body which is but earth and which must return to dust and consequently whatsoever is good for the Soul must be infinitely more good than what only serveth the necessities of our earthly part and that neither but for a little time But the truth is as the Fool hath said in his heart there is no God So he hath also said in his Heart I have no Soul no such immortal substance as Preachers talk of there is no such thing as Heaven or Hell most unregenerate men are in their Hearts Atheists The natural reason of all men teacheth them to look after their concerns and interests and to prefer greater before lesser interests and to value what makes for their greatest interests above what is only subservient to an interest of lesser value Mens preference of created comforts before the loves of Christ proceedeth meerly from their ignorance that they have Souls to look after or at least unbelief of it if they notionally know it their not understanding the nature and spiritual concerns of their Souls or at least their erronious fancies and conceptions of an universal Salvation of all or all at least that are baptized the first thing to be done rationally to possess Men and Women of the excellency of Christs loves above Wine above all sensual things or any sensible things is to possess men of this knowledge and to keep their Eyes waking to the consideration of it and to engage them to take their measures of these things from the revelation of the will of God in his word not from their own wild fancies and ratiocinations Secondly Possess your Souls of the impossibility of their receiving of any good any thing suited to their necessities but only from Christ There is no other name given under Heaven there is no Salvation in any other The power over all Souls is committed unto Christ The Father forgives Sins but it is for Christ's sake as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you saith the Apostle we have Redemption forgiveness of Sin through his blood In him we have righteousness peace through him we have access an entrance into the holâ—est of all the Father hath given unto him Eternal life that he should give it to whomsoever he pleaseth There is no good thing suited to a Souls
wants but it deriveth from Christ Good things suited to the more external wants of our Body derive from God as the great preserver of man and flow from that common providence of his which dayly worketh in the upholding and preservation of created Beings but good things for our Souls derive from Christ as Mediator and as they are purchased by his blood so they are dispensed out by his Spirit This now can appear to a Soul from no other light but that of Revelation study therefore the holy Scriptures meditate therein night and day they testify all this concerning Christ A full persuasion of these two things 1. That we have immortal Souls ordained to an eternity either of happiness or misery 2. That nothing but the love of Christ can furnish them with those good things which are proper and necessary for them with respect to their Eternal Happiness are enough to convince Men and Women that the loves of Christ are as much better than Wine and to be preferred to it as the Soul is better than the Body and the things suited to its wants better than those things which are only suited to the wants of the outward man But still I say and every days experience maketh it good Non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris you shall not persuade Men and Women tho you say enough to persuade them though you shut up their mouths and they having nothing to say such a power hath lust in the heart of man into such a debauchery is the nature of man degenerated Admitting men to believe that they have immortal Souls and that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God there is nothing in nature hath a fuller evidence than this truth that the loves of Christ are preferrible to all things in the world and a man cannot act like a reasonable creature in preferring any thing unto them yet who believes it who lives up to this demonstration It is God must persuade the Soul of this and till the Soul hath this written and ingraven upon it by the finger of his Spirit it will never so Judge Lastly therefore Pray mightily that God would open your Ears to see this and persuade your Souls of the truth of it for till he doth it in vain are mens persuasions To move you to it consider 1. This will bear some proportion to the love of Christ to mankind Christ loved us more than these more than all the Kingdoms and pleasures and profits and honours of the world yea more than his own life yea he preferred us to the Angels the fallen Angels for he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of man 2. This will speak the Soul to be a wise and understanding Soul Certain it is as I have already shewed you that the loves of Christ are good before Wine The wisdom of a Soul lyeth much in a right discerning betwixt good and evil and betwixt that which is good and that which is more good or better The excellency of a Soul lyeth in its conformity to God he is an Atheist who owneth not God to be the first Being and to be of all Beings the most excellent and perfect Being So as necessarily that Soul that comes nearest in conformity to God must be the most excellent Soul now that Soul which acteth most up to the principles of improved and pure reason and to the rule of that holy Writ which we all confess to be the revealed Will of God and liveth most up to the Divine Pattern doing what God doth that must needs be the most wise excellent understanding Soul Now will not a little reason serve to convince us that Christ is the most excelling Object and therefore to be preferred to all sublunary enjoyments Doth not the Scripture represent him to us as altogether desires as the chiefest of ten thousand as the well beloved of the Father in whom he is well pleased as he whom we ought to love with all our heart all our Soul all our Strength Doth not the Father the Heavenly Father love him above all other objects To which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day I have begotten thee and again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son He was brought up with the Father and daily his delight rejoycing alwaies before him 3. This will speak an heavenly sublimated Soul purged from the dregs of sensuality and from an earthly mind a Soul risen with Christ and seeking the things which are above Col. 3. 1. The preference of Wine any sensual satisfactions or any sensible enjoyments to the loves of Christ speaks a dirty Soul that feedeth upon carrion and can be filled with wind Lastly You have heard what an argument this will supply a Soul with in all its addresses and applications to God for any grace or favour no argument can be more moving more prevailing with God none that layeth hold upon more promises or that toucheth God more as a tender Father O therefore labour for this frame of Spirit and give your Souls no rest until you find that they indeed do prefer the love of Christ before all other things in Heaven and Earth Secondly This notion calleth to all you who profess Godliness and to any thing of the Spirit of Adoption which teacheth to cry Abba Father to take heed of a Carnal mind an heart cleaving to any created comforts in excessive degrees so as for the enjoyment of them or any of them to run the hazard of the loves of Christ you will by it prejudice your souls in a great argument which you might use at the Throne of Grace There are amongst others three distempers of heart which those that would do much with God in Prayer must take heed of 1. A revengeful not forgiving frame of Spirit It is a dreadful Text Mat. 6. 15. But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you Our Saviour hath taught us to pray Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors 2. A doubting and unbelieving frame of Spirit He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him he that lifts up his hands unto God must lift up pure hands and that without doubting 3. Thirdly A Carnal heart cleaving to the world preferring the things of the world to the loves of Christ the good things of Grace Lastly Is this such an argument of force with God Let then such as can use it in truth make use of it I doubt not but I speak to many who can in truth say that they value the loves of Christ the tokens of his special and distinguishing love above all earthly contentments when you go to God plead this take unto you words and say Lord let me be made a partaker of thy special distinguishing love thou knowest that my Soul valueth it above mountains of Gold
seen Secondly The Soul receiveth the savour of these good Ointments By Experience it hath tasted how good the Lord is What it bath heard of God in his Word it hath seen in the communications of his Grace There is no knowledge like to this and there is no Spiritual Virgin but hath had less or more some experience of the Lord 's good Ointments But I come to the Application In the first place this may inform us of the Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ what an adequate Object he is for every Soul to take a delight and pleasure in It may be worth your observation how the Language of the Scripture concerning Christ is such as seems to court the humour of every Soul to a seeking after a propriety and interest in him by shewing him to have something in him suitable to it that so it might take our hearts off beguiling Objects Every Sinner naturally saith Who will shew us any good Good is the common Mistress of the World Every one courts it They only differ in their fancies and apprehensions of what is so and court shadows and Chimera's One saith Who will shew us any good That is some way to get a penny How shall we heap up Silver as the Dust and Riches as the Sand and joyn house to house and field to field until there be no room left in the Earth Come unto me saith Christ I will give you the Riches of Grace the Riches of Glory Rev. 3. 18. I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white Rayment that thou mayest be clothed and the shame of thy nakedness may not appear What shall it profit thee saith he to gain the whole world and lose thy own Soul Another man he cares not for money but for his necessary uses but he hunts after honour that is his good he would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great person in the World he would be led about the Streets and hear men cry out Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour This man now looks upon Silver and Gold but as white and yellow Earth and Sand Idolized a little by a relative value some put upon it He snuffs up the Air and desires no more than a great Name in the world Christ to take them off this pitiful pursuit of the Wind and Chaff of the Air the empty Air of Court Favour or popular Applause tells them he hath honour for them To as many as receive him he gave a p wer to become the Sons of God And if Sons then Heirs Joynt-Heirs with Christ They shall Reign with him They shall judge the World They shall be Kings and Priests to the most High God c. There is a third sort that crys Who will shew us any good Their good is the tickling of their Senses delicious Fare and Drink for their tast fine Rayment for their touch sweet Odours for their smells Musick for their Ears c. Give them but enough of Wine and Strong Drink and Dancings and dainty Food costly Apparel Perfumes sweet Ointments for their Hair c. and a few such trifling vanities which perish with the using and they have enough let who will take Silver and Gold and Honours c. Now that the Lord might draw off these sensual Hearts he proponndeth himself as the object of Pleasure he at whose right hand is pleasure a fulness of pleasure for evermore one who hath Oils and sweet Ointments Wine c. Thus he allureth the appetite of every sinner propounding himself as an object proportioned to it In the second place This Notion will afford every one of us a Note by which we may try our interest in and acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ The Note is this If thou beest a Spouse of Christ thou hast a savour of his good Ointments Do the excelling graces of Christ make him appear pretions to thy Soul 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you that believe he is pretious To an unbeliever Christ is vile every unbeliever doth not speak vilely of Christ but he hath a vile estimate of him he judgeth vilely concerning Christ he hath no esteem for him he seeth no excellency in him for which he is to be desired he can understand the value of any Gold but that which Christ calleth Gold tried in the fire Rev. 3. 18. He can fancy the value of any honour except that of being called the Sons of God he can tast any pleasure but that which ariseth from a Souls Vnion and communion with Christ By this we may try our selves what relation we have to Christ In the last place this Notion of Christs good Ointments offers me a fair opportunity to persuade Men and Women of pleasure Vain Christless careless Souls to endeavour an acquaintance with Christ There is a generation in the world whom pleasure enticeth from God and his ways their temptation lies not in their Chests they value not riches if they have mony they throw it away as dirt it lies not in honours they have no itch after great places no but it lies in the cravings of their external senses Their senses itch they must scratch them this is their undoing must be so so long as the practice of Religion lies in self-denyal and a mortification of our members They must drink Wine in Bowls and stretch themselves upon their couches of Ivory and anoint themselves with chief Ointments and chant to the sound of the Viol and invent to themselves instruments of Musick Give them but a few glasses of brisk and generous Wine and a lesson or two upon some instrument of Musick with a foolish wanton Song Give them but gay cloths and a powdered Perriwig a few patches or a little paint for their faces they regard not whether they have a peny in their Purses yea or no and verily Pleasure is the undoing of many a Soul the Woman saith the Apostle it is as true of the man that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth As there are pleasures the meer use of which is sinful so there is scarce any kind of pleasures I mean such gratifications of the outward senses as come under the name of Voluptates but expose Souls to temptations to greater sins and indispose the Soul to the greatest duties they are Snares in which the Devil catcheth many a poor Soul Now how shall these poor Souls be drawn off from this that it may not dance itself into Hell fire Certainly by no means so effectual as the discovering to it that as these pleasures are pernicious and dangerous to the Soul so there are far greater pleasures to be found with Christ Perfumes often are but like paint to a Sepulcher the body the cloaths by a little art smell sweet the mind and Soul the more noble part of man stinks it may be through sordid conditions but most certainly in the Nostrils of God
Christ is so sweet to the Soul I answer 1. Because it signifieth him to be the fountain of the greatest spiritual good to us his name Messiah and Christ signify him to be separated and set apart of God for the accomplishment of the great business of our Salvation his name Emanuel signifies him to have Hypostatically united in one Person the Divine and Humane Nature that he might be a fit Mediator that he might die and merit salvation for us by dying his name Jesus signifies that he is a Saviour his name Shiloh speaketh him to be a Peace-maker his name of an Advocate signifies him to transact our business in Heaven for us his name of High Priest signifies him to have offered for us a propitiatory Sacrifice to have made an atonement for us to bless us to interceed for us the like I might say of his other names Now if the name of a friend who hath done some great kindness for us be oft-times sweet like an Oil poured forth unto us how much sweeter must be his name by whom we are blessed with all Spiritual blessings Secondly Because by his Name or in his name our greatest blessings are obtained How sweet must that name be to the begger upon the use of which all its wants are supplied Is salvation worth any thing There is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved but only the name of Jesus do our Souls want any thing Whatsoever you shall ask in my Name that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son John 14. 13. Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you ch 16. v. 23. Is the Soul trembling under the sense of its guilt doth horrour surprize it do the terrors of the Lord distract it a wounded Spirit who can bear by the discovery of the Lord Christs name to it in the Gospel promises in the mercy truth and faithfulness of Christ it is freed from these The discovery the least discovery of Christ to the troubled Soul is like the Sun beam to the weather beaten and be-wildered Traveller like the shadow to him whom the heat maketh faint like light to him that fitteth in darkness like life to him that fitteth in the shadow of death How sweet is the discovery of Christs truth in his promises the sealing of a promise to a poor doubting Soul Every Soul that hath experienced it will say It is like Oil poured forth I come to the application of this discourse Is the name of the Lord Jesus so exceeding sweet like an Oil poured forth Oh then what is Christ himself It is Origens application Si solo nomine Quid ejus faciet substantia How sweet is the Oil upon the Crown of the head when that which runs down to the skirts of the garment is so sweet Open all created boxes admit that all their sweet qualities would unite and conspire to make one compounded fragrant smell distill all the odoriferous herbs that the Earth bringeth forth mix all the sweet gums and odoriferous spices of Arabia and the whole Eastern part of the world let them all make one body and contribute all their delicious qualities to the composition of one Oil or Ointment to please the wanton sense of a Creature what would they all signify to one Christ Oh blessed Jesus thou that art altogether delights clear the Nostrils of vain Creatures stopt with their own lusts and the vanities of pitiful creature satisfactions and contentments that they may take the air of thy delicious names and follow thee in the savour of thy most precious Ointments Secondly Is the name of Christ in this life so exceeding sweet Oh what will the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven be When the Saints shall see him as he is when they shall be ever with the Lord beholding his face rejoycing in his presence when they shall be at his right hand where are and shall be Pleasures and fulness of Pleasures and that for evermore here we know in part and see in part and the greatest part of that we know of Christ amounteth not to the least part of what we do not know then the Saint shall see him face to face and know him as he is known by him Surely we should cry out with the Psalmist Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts Here we sit but under the shadow of the Apple tree yet it is with great delight and his fruit is pleasant unto our tast how sweet will it be to be within the arms of it If a Garden of Flowers or a Bed of Spices casteth aâ—sweet smell at a 1000 miles distance what will it do when we come near it O you to whom the name of Christ is as an Ointment poured forth follow the savour of it it will bring you to that place of delights where your Souls shall be ever satiated but never nauseated Thirdly Observe from hence the difference betwixt a natural carnal man and a spiritual man The name of Christ is published in all our parts of the world The Gospel is published that is Christs name saith Gencbrard upon my Text but the natural man discerneth no sweetness in it he can smell sweetness in a perfume but in the name of Christ he can smell nothing sweet Nay what is more unpleasing to a carnal heart than the name of Christ and there is reason for it for to him Christs name is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah his name is a Judge an Enemy c. In the second place what an argument is here to persuade those that hear it to labour for a discovery of Christs name to their Souls To persuade sick and fainting Souls to make application of Christs name to themselves To all to study Christs name more to wear it upon their hearts to meditate of it c. 1. To persuade those who know little or nothing of Christ as yet to get a knowledge of Christs name sweetness naturally enticeth the sense and attracts the Soul shall the incomparable sweetness of Christ draw no Souls unto him shall the air of Solomons name bring the Q of the South from the furthest parts of the Earth and shall Christs name draw never a Sinner invite never a Soul to come and tast and see how sweet how good the Lord is You that are enticed with the smell of a flower that lay out your mony for persumes of no value will you have no value for these sweet Ointments Alexander the great was said to have had such a rare temper of his body that it cast forth a natural sweetness I am sure there is an infinite a transcendent sweetness in the Lord Jesus O let the Virgins love him Men and Women that are in a state of Nature are in one sense Virgins not for purity but as not married to Christ O do you love Christ for the
and then think to put off God with the bone O desperate folly and presumption offer this now to thy Prince will he accept it canst thou expect Sinner that Christ should freely love thee when thou art grown old who refusedst him when thou wert young canst thou reasonably think that God will be put off with the fag end of thy life dost thou not know how hardly an old sinner is brought to repentance sin is bred and sed in his bones and it will not out art thou aware how acceptable to God the sacrifice of thy youth is under the old law no Sacrifice was admitted that was above three years old Dost not thou remember how kindly God accepted his young Samuel Abijam Josiah Timothy c. who in their youth inclined their hearts unto him doth the good nature and handsome features and sweet perfumes of the young man please thee and is there no excellency in the Graces of him who is full of Grace and Truth is there no savour in Christs Ointments no sweet Odour from his name poured forth O come you that are Virgins behold your Husband an Husband who if you be poor is able to enrich you if you be mean and base is able to honour and to ennoble you who what ever you want is able to supply you O that upon the pouring forth of his name amongst you in this Sermon this day some of your souls this day might be allured to love the Lord Jesus Christ Secondly This notion obligeth all those that be Saints or profess themselves such to approve themselves to be Virgins the holy Spirit hath so called them certainly it should be their great care to answer their name To keep themselves unspotted from the world undefiled in the way free from the pollution of the world through lust I have toldyou that there are many who go for Virgins but are not they are wedded to some filthy lust or other wedded to the world defloured by entertainnig some corrupt dangerous principles or declining to a corrupt conversation we live in a debauched a debauching age you that stand take heed lest you fall 1. If you lose your Virginity you lose your honour The young Womans Virginity is her honour your freedom from idolatry and superstition your soundness in the faith your purity integrity and holiness of life is your honour Hold fast that thou hast saith Christ to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 11. that no man take thy Crown he who despoileth you of your purity of Doctrine and Worship or who seduceth you to any licentious practices takes away your Crown yea not only your Crown in respect of reputation but your Crown of Glory also John Rev. 14. 1. Saw a Lamb standing upon Mount Sion and with him 144000 having his Fathers name written upon their foreheaas and v. 2. heard a voice from Heaven c. and they the 144000 sang as it were a new Song before the Throne and the four Beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that Song but the 144000. which were redeemed from the Earth v. 4. It followeth These are they which were not defiled with Women for they are Virgins these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these were redeemed from amongst men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without sault before the Throne of God not defiled with Women Non polluti idololatriá quae est scortat io spiritualis sed virgines fide spiritu saith Pareus not defiled by idolatry which is a spiritual Adultery but Virgins in Spirit and Faith Secondly Consider if you lose your chastity It will be an hard matter to reconcile you to your first Husband If the Virgin be known to have lost her Virginity it is no easy matter to procure her an Husband of any reputation if the Wife hath lost her Virginity that is her chastity it is an hard matter to reconcile her to her Husband If a man put away his Wife and she go from him shall he return to her again Jer. 3. 1. It is true the mercies of God are above the mercies of men it follows there yet return unto me saith the Lord but it is no easy matter for a lapsed Saint to recover his peace many a Bone must be first broken and if such be saved it must be as through fire It is a dreadful Text which you have Heb. 6. 5 6. O keep your integrity and behave your selves like Virgins live an hidden life more and more to God and Christ more and more reserved from the world learn what this meaneth Our life is hid with Christ in God Be like Virgins careful in nothing save only to please Christ who is your spiritual Husband let your behaviour speak your Virgin-modesty and that you may keep your Virgin State and behaviour 1. Take heed of Books that will principle you to a Spiritual Fornication There are 2 sorts of Books in the world which help much to debauch it 1. Amorous Books full of lascivious Songs and filthy stories 2. Heretical Books The first debauch People as to their bodies the latter as to their faith and immortal Souls 2. Take heed of Whorish Company The Chast Virgin is often spoiled by unchast Society Dinah went abroad into wanton company and was deflowred If she had kept her Fathers house she had probably kept her honour How many Christians are defiled both in Judgment and Practice by keeping company with Papists Quakers Socinians c. Lastly O love the Lord all his Saints for the savour of his Ointments for the sweetness of his Name which is as an Ointment poured forth The best are prone to love Christ only for the Peace of Conscience which they have upon their Justification by his blood and for the Heaven they shall have hereafter for his sake His Glory is exceeding sweet This Love is not to be faulted but I would work my own heart and have you study to work up your hearts to an higher pitch Labour to be like Angels The Angels were never Redeemed with the Blood of Christ never knew what trouble of Conscience meant They have a natural right to Heaven yet they love admire adore Christ they are rational though spiritual Subsistences What maketh them to love Christ but the perfections and excellencies which they see in him Let us study to be like Angels to get up our hearts to such a spiritual pitch as this to love Christ for the excellency of his person for the savour of his good Ointments I shall add no more to this Discourse I have now done with this third Verse Sermon XVI Cant. 1. 4. Draw me we will run after thee The King hath brought me into his Chambers we will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine The upright love thee I Have told you that the eight first Verses of this Chapter
his Net i. e. he slattereth him and under pretence of friendship enticeth them into ruine God saith He will draw his people with the Cords of a man with the Bands of Lovâ— Hos 11. 4. and that he had drawn them with loving kindness Jer. 31. 3. thus Deborah promised to draw the Israelites to Tabor that is to persuade and to conduct them thither Judg. 4. 7. Solomon saith he sought to draw his flesh with Wine so it is in the Hebrew Eccles 2. 3. his meaning is he would entice and please his flesh 4. Sometimes in Scripture it signifieth to lengthen out and to continue Thus it is used to signifie the sound of a Trumpet lengthened out It is translated prolonged Isa 13. 22. d ferred Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferred in the Hebrew drawn out maketh the heart sick Psal 109. 12. Let none draw out mercy We translate it extend mercy unto him None of my words shall be prolonged The same word is there again used O continue thy loving-kindness Psal 36. 10. This sense methinks seemeth not much forreign to this place as the Petition refers not only to first but following grace We need the prolongings and continuances of Divine Influences to make us to run after Christ The word as the Learnedest Lexicographers in that Language tell us signifies with a secret force to compel one whitheâ— we would have him It sometimes signifies with fair words Reasons and persuasions to draw one to our side Forster tells us that Christ without doubt had respect to this place in those Gospel expressions No man cometh to the Son but he whom the Father draweth And when I shall be lifted up I will draw all men after me And Lud. de Ponte expounds this Text by that in the Gospel Compel them to come in So then when the Spouse saith Draw me this is that she means Lord Put forth thy secret Power thy irresistible and effectual Grace and compel me to come unto thee and to run after thee move me sweetly but yet powerfully Draw me by thy Word and Spirit and by the sweetness of thy grace open my heart saith Mr Ainsworth I am weak Lord add thy strength so Tâ—emellius glosseth Divine grace must prevent and must follow he that is not drawn will be hindered by his own corruption Lust draws every heart backward from Christ The Soul must by Grace be drawn to him Bernard understands it of an act of power and thus glosseth Lord it is better that thou should'st draw me by any force than that thou shouldest spare me and leave me secure in my deadness But let us weigh it yet a little further It is the Spouse that here speaketh The Church of God the believing Soul hath the Spouse need to be drawn to Christ Is she not already come to him doth she not willingly follow after him how then doth she say draw me doth the Child of God follow him unwillingly To this I answer 1. The Church doth not consist of all true believers there may be some in the bosom of that that have but a name to live and which had need be drawn unto Christ For these the Church may be understood to pray that there may not be any in it strangers unto Christ but that as some are drawn so all may be drawn 2. But Secondly Bernard who starts this question answereth it otherwise Non omnis qui trahitur invitus trahiâ—ur Every one who is drawn is not drawn unwillingly The Bear is drawn to the Stake unwillingly so is the Malefactor to the place of Execution but an hungry man may be drawn to his Meat and the Cripple to the Bath and both willingly besides if the Spouse were not willing she would never make it her request to be drawn nor yet were she able of her self to go would she ask to be drawn Those who are weak as well as those that are unwilling had need to be drawn How perfect soever the Soul be saith Bernard while it sigheth under the body of death and is kept in the Prison of mortality being full of wants and full of sin it goeth slowly and dully after Christ and is not at liberty to follow him but must be drawn to its Spiritual duty I know saith the Spouse that I cannot come to thee in Heaven but by going after thee while I live here upon the Earth and I know I cannot go after thee unless thou drawest unless thou helpest me She confesseth here that she standeth in daily need of preventing Grace of drawing and quickning Grace from God 'T is true she prayeth and so seemeth to prevent the Grace of God but in that she prayeth it is plain that the Grace of God had prevented her otherwise she would not have said Draw me She here desireth that Grace of God which might have a divine sweet efficacious power and force with it to constrain her Soul to run after Christ The Kingdom of Heaven within the Child of God suffâ—reth violence and force through the power of Lust and Corruption She beggeth of God to oppose the power of his Grace to the power of her Lusts and vile Affections She useth this word therefore to acknowledge her weakness and to shew that without the help of grace she could not run after Christ according to that John 15. 4 Withâ—ut me you can do nothing Genebrard saith that by this Phrase she teacheth us that the beginning of our Justification is from God Bernard Beza Lud. de Ponte and others conclude that she teacheth that further Grace is from God By the word draw she begs not only first grace but the prolongings and continuances of Divine Grace according to that Psal 36. 10. O continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee and thy righteousness to the upright in heart The Soul doth not only stand in need of the sweet and powerful influences of Divine Grace to bring it to Christ but to keep it and to carry it on its state and exercises of Grace For whether would the Spouse be drawn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after thee saith the Text. Our translation puts these words after the next Verb we will run after thee in the Heb they follow draw me and so may indifferently be read with either The matter is not much they must be understood here as well as there the term of either motion was the same Surely 't is thither she would be drawn whither she had a mind to run The Spouse is drawn and comes to Christ By faith it runs and follows after Christ by holiness and is drawn so by a power inabling it to perfect holiness it is drawn to Christ by Death say some so Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ 1 Phil. With reference to this Bernard puts this question An hoc dicit cupiens dissolvi Doth saith he the Spouse speak this desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ He saith he should
Notion Isa 40. 31. They shall run and not be weary When men begin to be weary they leave running they go a foot-pace as it were draw their leggs after them Now saith the Spouse Lord draw me and we will run we will not be weary in our courses of holiness and duty we will not faint and give over But running in its abstract and single notion doth not conclude Perseverance running added to not being weary doth So here supposing first a drawing then a running in obedience to that while the Lord draweth the Soul will run but we shall no longer dance to him than he pipeth to us And this I think sufficient to open the Spouse's Promise Only add further that those who run must have a way or path to run in What is the Spouse's way Beza saith that Christ is both the Principle from which we run the way in which we run and the End of the Race It is true but in a diversified Notion Christ is our Prâ—nciple in the gracious Influences of his Spirit Without me saith he you can do nothing Christ in his Word and Gospel is our way I will run the way of thy Commandments saith David Psal 119. 132. This is the Race set before us Heb. 12 1. The following of Christ commanded Luk. 9. 23. Christ in his Example in the fulness of the measure of his stature Christ in his Glory is our End That then which the Spouse here promiseth amounts to this Lord I am weak and impotent I cannot come unto thee I cannot of my self move after thee I am hindered by the prevalency of my lusts and corruptions Who shall deliver me from my body of death Who can but thou alone Lord draw me make me willing keep me willing put forth thy mighty Power and sweetly constrain my Soul by thy love then I shall not stand still but move in thy waâ—es I shall not move wâ—akly but strongly not slowly but chearfully freely nimbly I shall not be faint nor weary but hold on in the way of thy Precepts until I come to the fulness of the measure of the stature which is in thee yea until the day break and the shadows fly away and I come to thee in that glory which thou hadst prepared for them that love thee and sollow the Lamb in glory whithersoever he goeth But there is yet one thing further to be considered 2. Qu. What meaneth the change of the Number Her request was in the Singular Number Draw me her promise is the Plural We will or we shall run after thee Who are these We 1. Thou and I together fay some Indeed this must be I live saith the Apostle yet not I but Christ liveth in me We read in Ezekiel's Vision of the Wheels of his Vision of a Spirit within the Wheels without which the Wheels moved not Suppose Wheels put upon the Soul yet the Soul moveth not without the Spirit moving the Wheels Ego cum gratia tud saith Genebrard But this seems to me too nice 2. I rather therefore chuse to expound it with the most of Interpreters and to say that by We is here meant The individual Believer and all her companions Ego adolescentulae mecum saith Bernard Ego Puellae meae saith Tremellâ—us I and my Maidens I and my Virgins I and all mine So it imports thus much that the Child of God once drawn to Christ will make it her business to draw others along with her Yet a little further to enquire the reason why she changeth the Number Doth she promise for more than she would pray for Or doth she envy others that drawing grace which she prayed for for her self Doubtless neither what then 1. Possibly Bernard's notion may be more acute than solid We are drawn saith he when we are tempted when we are afflicted and exercised with tryals we run when we are refreshed and comforted She would have the sowre for her self and the sweet for others She did not know their strength here was her charity But I say this seemeth too nice for certain it is that all who run after Christ must be first drawn one way or other and that by power God's People are made willing in the day of his power 2. Beza therefore speaks better I think When she saith Draw me she speaketh in the person of the whole Church so had a liberty to speak either in the one or the other Number So that as Ludov. de Ponte hath well observ'd by this change of the Number she shews that the Church which consists of many is yet but One according to that of the Apostle Rom. 12. 5. We being many are one body 3. By this alteration of the Number she sheweth That she believed it as easie with God to draw many as one 4. Lastly Though the Saints be many yet the end of Christ's drawing them is That they might be one John tells us ch 11. 52. That the end of Christ's dying was That he might gather together in one the Children of God which were scattered abroad Thus I have opened the terms But before I part with them I must mind you who are capable of that Learning That the Seventy add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to which our English Translation should have been We will run after thee in the savour of thy Ointments The Vulgar Latine follows them so do Origen Ambrose Theodoret Vigilius Hildebrand Greg. Magnus Nyssen Bernard Honorius c. and generally the Popish Writers but Lyra who is one of them differeth and agreeth with the Hebrew which hath not those words and thinks they were put in by some Expositor in the way of an interlineary gloss and afterwards got into the Text through the unskilfulness of some Transcribers How they came into the Text in Translations we cannot tell Sure we are they are not in the Hebrew and therefore our English Translators had no reason to put them in though they make no new Doctrine for the believing Soul doth in leed follow Christ in the savour of his Ointments We heard before that therefore do the Virgins love him and it is their love to him which maketh them to run after him But that is enough to have cautioned you of I proceed to the following words of the Text The King hath brought me into his Chambers This I called The Spouses acknowledgment or testification of her beloveds answer The word translated King is the ordinary word used by the Hebrews to express that relation by she doubtless meaneth by the King the King of Kings the mighty God I shall not restrain it to Christ considered as a Mediator upon which account he hath a peculiar Kingdom The King God my King Hath brought me The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Hiphil signifies he hath made me to come or made me to go Into his Chambers The word is often used in Scripture translated a Chamber Gen. 43. 30. Jud. 15. 1. A
highly expressive of our inward affections It follows We will remember thy Loves more then Wine This is the third thing she promiseth I shall be very short in the explication of this phrase more fully opening the terms when I come to handle the Proposition I shall raise from them Only this the Heb. word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we met with it before v. 2. the Septuagint translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the difference is founded I conceive in the cognation of the two words signifying Loves and Breasts they differ only in the points but suppose it were thy Breasts a figure must still be acknowledged because the breasts are near the heart and that is the seat of love so that the sense still must be thy loves thy gracious influences More then Wine that is more then those things which are most pleasant and delightful to us but I opened this v. 2. It follows The upright love thee in the Hebrew it is Vprightnesses or Vpright things love thee so the Hebrew word properly signifieth The same word is used Psal 17. 2. Thy Eyes shall behold upright things The word is found in this form Psal 9. 9. He shall judge the world in righteousness and the people in uprightnesses so Prov. 1. 3. Is 33. 15. Prov. 2. 9. Psal 58. â—2 Psal 75. 3. If we expound it as the letter of the Text is in the abstract the question will be whether it should be read in the Nominative case uprightnesses love thee or in the Ablative in uprightnesses they that is the Virgins love thee If in the first sense the meaning is this Whatsoever is good and right is to be found in thee all the graces love thee that is cleave and are united unto thee The fulness of grace dwelled in him and all vertues and graces were made perfect in him But although this be a truth yet I do not take it to be the sense of the Text and in my further discourses on this Song I shall have occasion once and again to discourse that subject Secondly It may be read in the Ablative case In uprightnesses they love thee that is as Buxtorf expounds it Rectissimè fortiter The Saints love thee most intirely sincerely strongly thus it will afford us this lesson That the Saints love to Christ is a most strong sincere and entire love The Virgins love Christ in uprightnesses not in word and in tongue only but in deed and in truth as St. John expoundeth it they love him with a true and perfect heart But this will fall in the handling of the Doctrine which will arise from the third sense which is more generally accepted and which I shall embrace Thirdly Therefore I agree with those who think the Abstract is here put for the Concrete uprightnesses for the most upright persons The quality for the persons indued with that excellent quality a very ordinary way of speaking in the Hebrew and indeed most languages No wonder my beloved that I should love thee for there is not an upright Soul in the world but loves thee and the more there is of uprightness in any Soul the more that Soul loves thee Uprightnesses love thee Thus now I have largely opened this excellent Text. The Propositions I shall observe from it and handle them if God please in their order are these that follow Souls must first be drawn by God before they will come to Christ or run after him and it is their duty to pray that they may be so drawn The Soul being drawn shall and will run after Christ That Gods drawing one Soul will be a means to make many run after him That God is often very quick in answering his Peoples Prayers That Jesus Christ hath Chambers into which he sometimes brings his Peoples Souls That Jesus Christ is the singular object of the Saints joy in the middest of its mâ—st excellent enjoyments The Gâ—ace receiving Soul will remember his loves more than Wine The upright Soul will love the Lord Jesus Christ and the more upright a Soul is the more it will love him Sermon Xâ—VII Canticles 1. 4. Drawme and We will run after thee I Come to handle more largely those Propositions from this second Petition of the Spouse which in my last discourse I had no more time but to name the first of which was this Prop. Souls must first be drawn by God before they can come to or run after the Lord Jesus Christ I noted to you in my explication of this Petition that there are two principal usages of this word Draw in Holy Writ it sometimes signifieth an alluring by fair carriage and persuasions 2. Sometimes a constraining by force and power both ways the Lord draweth those Souls that come to Christ or that run after him he draweth them suaviter and fortiter sweetly and yet powerfully 1. There is a drawing by Afflictions and Chastisements Afflictions are the Lords Cords If saith Job ch 36. 8 9. they be bound in Fetters and be holden in Cords of Affliction Then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions wherein they have exceeded he openeth their Ear to discipline and commandeth them that they return from iniquity Thus the Lord drew Manasses he was bound by Fetters and carried into Babylon and when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication It is added v. 13. Then Manasses knew that the Lord he was God I know that Bernard thus interpreteth this Text tho he restrains it not to that sense but I must crave leave to dissent from so great a Person not only because I find scarce any Interpreters agreeing with him but because then the thing here prayed for must be Afflictions which I do not know we are commanded to pray for and I am sure nature restraineth us in such a Petition neither are afflictions in their own tendency drawing Cords they are rather called Cords and Fetters to signify their pinching effects than that God ordinarily useth them to draw Souls by unto himself we read of one Thief upon the Cross converted at his last hour and of one Manasses converted by Festers but you have but a single instance of each in Holy Writ and let me further add Manasses his affliction was but Fetters and Imprisonment nothing that affected his head and made him unfit to do any thing but to attend the distempers of his Body nor indeed is there any drawing vertue in an affliction it rather naturally alienateth the Soul from God in my experience in the work of the Ministry I have known many good Men and Women bettered by Affliction but I never knew a bad man or woman by affliction brought home to God it is a fire that so softens the wax and hardeneth the clay and this agreeth with what we have in Scripture
of the Spirit necessary and that both as to the Souls first coming to God and further walking with God tho as to the latter the Soul being renewed and sanctâ—fied there be a far less influence necessary than as to the former yet even after sanctification the Apostle tells us that we are kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation and Christ tells his Disciples that without him they could do nothing Joh. 15. 3. And St. Paul saith 2 Gal. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God But indeed the great question is upon the first Arminians will grant special grace to believers but no more than common grace to all men in astate of unbelief Let us therefore first enquire 1. Whither there be not something of a divine power and influence necessary to cause any Soul to come to Christ beyond the Preaching of the Word and that common concurrence of the Spirit with the word Preached and all the suasions and arguments can be used by Ministers and of what nature this pâ—wer is We affirm it Jesuites and Arminians deny it let me shew you upon what arguments we assert it I shall not instance in all or the 4th part of what hath been or might be said only speak something to satisfy you remembring that I am now preaching a Sermon not writing a controversy 1. Those who assert that there needeth no such act of the divine power must necessarily make man a God to himself I mean the Author of the greatest Spiritual and Eternal good both in respect of action and fruition whatsoever is moved is moved from a living principle within self or from another Either man is moved to Christ as drawn by the Father or from a principle of life within himself I know they will say it is from his own power of willing now besides the multitude of Scriptures which this is opposed to Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in Trespasses and Sins Psal 110. 3. The People shall be a willing People in the day of thy Power Phil. 2. 13. For it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure I say besides these This opinion makes man the author of the greatest good to himself 1. In point of action it makes him the author of th se gracious acts and habits by which a Soul is made meet for the inheritance of the Saints of life repentance faith and new obedience expresly contrary to those Scriptures which tell us that it is given to us to believe Phil. 1. 29. That Faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. God gives repentance unto life and a multitude of other Scriptures 2. And in point of fruition too man by this Doctrine is his own Saviour for Eternal life is every where promised to repentanâ—e faith and new obedience which according to this principle are all works proceeding from our selves so man is become a Saviour to himself by this new Divinity and the author of the highest good to himself and hath nothing to bless God for but only making him a Man not a Beast for being indued with a reasonable Soul and living under the Gospel he hath a power of himself to repent to believe in Christ to do whatsoever Eternal life is promised to in the Gospel unless they will say he is beholden to God for the Covenant of Grace annexing eternal life to these performances and accepting sincerity instead of perfect obedience which yet leaves the regenerate Soul no more to bless God for than the vilest and most profane Sinner that liveth where the Gospel is preach'd for he also hath a reasonable Soul a will equal with others there is a covenant of grace equally established for Judas as well as Peter according to this Doctrine One is under the means of Grace and the common aids and assistances of the Spirit as well as the other for the good inclination of his will to accept the terms of the Gospel which the profane person hath not the regenerate Soul hath no body to thank but himself and to applaud himself for the principle of goodness of which it seems he is an author to himself Secondly This Doctrine leaves the Soul something to glory in before God The Apostle treating of Justification by faith in opposition to that of works argueth thus Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God The Proposition of that Text which alone in this case I will make use of is That God hath so ordered the causes in the Salvation of Man that man hath no cause of glorying before God to that purpose he speaks Rom. 3. 27. Where is boasting then it is excluded but admitting that there needed no power to change the heart but what is in mans will boasting is not excluded a man hath wherein to glory and that before God he shall say Lord it is true thou fixedst an eternal Covenant of Grace thou madest me a man thou gavest me the Gospel and the preaching of it but notwithstanding all that thou ever didst for me I might have gone to Hell as well as a thousand more for whom the same Covenant was made as well as me to whom thou gavest a Soul of the same species with mine the same Gospel the same Preaching the same common grace if I had not had a principle of goodness in my own will of which my self was the cause I had been damn'd notwithstanding all thou didst for me as many others shall be for whom thou didst as much as for me Is not here glorying before God Is boasting excluded by this Divinity The main parts here as to mans Salvation are given to a mans self For I pray observe a man cannot repent truly and believe and obey the Gospel and perish for ever now all these it seems a man may do from himself without any act of Divine power inabling him more than a reprobate to do them but he may have a common Covenant of Grace establish'd for him as well as others he may have a reasonable Soul he may have the Gospel preach'd to him and the common aids and assistances of the Spirit and yet perish for ever So as plainly all that necessarily brings Salvation makes the Soul meet for it and accompanieth it all this is from man nothing is from God but that notwithstanding which he might have perished for ever Thirdly This Doctrine most absurdly ascribes unequal vertues to Souls that are equal as to their species faculties and vertues All reasonable Souls are equal their faculties are the same their vertues and powers the same their Souls are under equal means motives aids assistances whence is it that one mans will is enclined to believe to receive Christ to obey his laws the others not Are not here inequal vertues ascribed to
and weak without strength We are like Lot in Sodom though we daily hear that the wicked shall be turned into Hell with all those that forget God though the Lord useth all intreaties with his poor Creatures and the love of God be displayed before us in the fullest measure yet till the Lord doth by us as the Angel did by Lot lay hold upon us and pull us out of our sinful state we move not a jot Yea verily man in his best estate man regenerate and brought home to God must also be drawn or he will not run he must be kept by the power of God through faith to Salvation or he will never come into Heaven when to will is present with us we have no strength to perform The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak O miserable men that we are who shall deliver us from our bodies of death I need say no more it being what is justified by the experience of the best of men and their prayers directed to God accordingly Sermon XIX Cant. 1. 4. Draw me and we will run after thee I Have formerly discoursed from this Text this Proposition That the Soul till drawn doth not run after Christ I am in the application of that discourse and that by way of Instruction This may inform us in the true nature of special saving Grace It is a drawing to and after Christ Grace in its general notion signifieth nothing but free love and favour Let me find grace or I have found grace signifies no more in Scripture than though I have no worth no merit yet shew me love and favour when applied to God it signifieth no more in the general notion whether this love be shewed in the collation of the good things which concern this life or those which concern that life which is to come they are all grace in a large sense because emanations of divine love not merited by Creatures But words taking their significancy more from use than etymology Grace in a more strict and usual notion hath been taken to signify The emanations of Divine love concerning the Souls and Eternal Salvation of the Children of men which is called the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Now these divine emanations having different effects this Grace of God is also distinguished into Common and special ineffectual and effectual under the notion of common grace we comprehend all those effluxes of divine goodness by which God sheweth his kindness to the Souls of men in order to their Salvation whether they prove effective of their Salvation yea or no under this head some will bring both Election and Redemption owning no other Election than the eternal counsel of God to save such as should believe so denying all eternal Election of persons and making Christs intention in dying to extend to all either equally or at least so far as to put all in a possibility of Salvation if their own perverse wills do not hinder The Publication and proposal of the Gospel with the common influences of the Spirit attending the preaching of it certainly come under this notion for though all hear not that joyful sound yet it is granted on all hands that of those that do hear it to some it is the savour of life unto life to others the savour of death unto death And this is all the grace which some will acknowledge antecedent to the pardon of sins and regeneration But we affirm a further special grace than this is which we call special because it is not equally administred to all no not to all that hear the Gospel saving because it brings salvation not only in a general tender and offer unto all but to that particular Soul upon whom it shineth and so is effectual because effective of the blessed end to which it is levelled and aimed and doth not evaporate in a meer tender and proposal of the will of God This is that which we conceive expressed here and in John 6. 44. under the notion of drawing Which term is fully expressive of the Nature of it as it signifieth both 1. An act of power 2. An act of sweetness and love 1. An act of power The converted Soul is made willing in the day of the Lords power Psal 110. 3 4. The holy Scripture describes us in our natural state as dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. 1. Enemies to God Col. 1. 21. and alienated from the life of God Having hearts harder then rocks then nether milstones iron sinews stiff necks Let those that think a meer intreaty of a Soul to come to Christ that it might have life a meer moral suasion or persuading a Soul to Spiritual duty will change it and renew it and beget in it spiritual habits try what their Rhetorick will do to melt a rock or to raise a dead body If the disadvantage of an ill education and a customary course of debauchery added to our vitiated nature hath such a power to beget in us a moral impotency that the drunkard and the unclean person cannot obtain of himself notwithstanding the advantage of his own ratiocination and the potent arguments drawn from the health of his body the upholding his reputation amongst men the preservation of his estate the pleasing of his sober friends to turn from an Alehouse and Tavern and from the house of the strange Woman no not tho his own experience and the daily experience of others verifieth these arguments and the acts are but such as by the force of reason supposing the common grace of God denied to none may be declined How shall we ever think that a man hath a natural power to the most sublime and spiritual acts and that the power of God must not be put forth upon a Soul causing it to love God and to hate sin and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Two things evince this grace to be an act of divine power 1. The invisibility of Christ and his excellencies 2. The natural alienation of our Souls from him If indeed our need of Christ or the suitableness which is in him to the lapsed state of Souls were either evident to sense or demonstrable to reason or the excellencies of Christ were demonstrable to either something might be said for the sufficiency of rational arguments to persuade the Soul to Christ yet not enough in that case for the sensibility of the goodness of temperance and sobriety and chastity their suitableness to the frail state of our bodies ready to be destroyed by debaucheries opposite to these vertuous habits we see by experience are not enough to keep Souls within the circle and bounds of morality But the other things being neither subject to the demonstration of sense or reason it is most irrational to plead for a power in the will of man to chuse them The sweetness of what the lapsed Soul in its state of alienation from God tasteth in sensible satisfactions is a thing evident to sense and it is
Assemblies I cannot away with even the Solemn Meetings Your New Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble to me God had appointed all these things he had commanded they should tread his Courts bring Oblations offer Incense keep New Moons and Sabbaths but all these things ought to have been done out of love to God with a Faith in Christ and with pure hearts not being so performed they were no Godliness but meer abomination unto God The case with us under the Gospel is the same though our Acts of homage there prescribed be of another more reasonable and spiritual nature God hath required of us to pray to praise to hear his Word to partake of his Supper He hath also prescribed us the manner in which we ought to do these acts in Faith in Obedience with the intention of our minds attention of our thoughts fervency of spirit Separate the more external acts from these they are no better than formal performances bodily exercises neither acceptable to God nor profitable to our selves If men will call these Godliness or Holiness it is a great mistake The external acts are indeed such as men that live under the Gospel may be excited to perform and may perform without any special influence of Grace by vertue of his natural powers and abilities and the common Grace of God not denied to any But when they are done without due affections and principles and inward motions of the heart correspondent to the nature of the actions according to the revelation of the Divine Will they are no Holiness but Hypocrisie and thus they cannot be performed without the assistance and influence of special Grace Thus from this notion of the necessity of Christ's drawing both with reference to our first coming to Christ for life and further following him walking with him and running after him Christians may be able to judge both concerning the Truth of their Faith and also of their Holiness If either be true they must be the effect of Divine special Grace and more than any can do from the powers of Nature even the best educated Nature not renewed changed and influenced by special and distinguishing grace I am fully of their mind who think that those Souls who are no further changed and reformed or converted than might be from the power of Nature rationally improving Moral Principles and Gospel Motives and Arguments cannot be saved But yet I am so charitable as to think that many may be saved who think they have no other conversion than this the workings of the Spirit of God upon our Souls are so indiscernable and internal that we may possibly mistake them for the workings of meerly our own powers and faculties under the advantages of the Gospel but they must be more than such or else as I have before said man is the first Author of all spiritual good both with respect to action and fruition to himself and clearly his own Saviour and must make himself to differ from another and that by the highest and most spiritual difference and one man's Soul must have different and inequal vertues from the Soul of his Brother whose Soul is of the same species and hath the same faculties But I have dwelt long enough upon this branch of Application Let every one now by this Examine himself whether the Faith that he thinks he hath be a meer Assent to the Proposition of the Gospel upon the Evidence of it he hath had from the Church or from men or a meer languid incertain Assent from probable Arguments of Reason or a meer presumption bottomed upon no Promise Or whether it be a firm and fixed Assent to the Truths of the Gospel understood by him conjoyned with a reliance upon the Person of the Mediator clearly revealed in the Gospel as the only Saviour of Man and producing an endeavour in all things to live up to the condition of the Promise Whether the Holiness which he thinketh his Soul hath arrived at lieth in a meer Moral Righteousness a forbearance of gross and scandalous courses of sin and a doing such acts of Justice and Charity as a man may do from the meer improvement and conduct of reason and a meer Formality of Godliness a performance of such acts of homage as God hath prescribed without respect to the manner in which God hath willed them to be performed If your pretended Faith and Holiness be no more trust not to them as Evidences that you are come to Christ all this may be without any thing of this drawing your Faith is no more than that mentioned Matth. 7. 22. where our Saviour tells you that many pretendedly trusting in and relying upon him as may appear by what they said should say to him in that day Lord Lord Have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works to whom he would say I never knew you depart from me you workers of iniquity God had never promised Heaven Salvation to a prophesying in his Name nor to a casting out of Devils so as their confidence or reliance on or in Christ was the growing up of a Rush without Mire a trusting without a ground or bottom Your Holiness and Righteousness is no more than that of the Pharisee who gloried Luk. 18. 11 12. That he was not as other men were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers he fasted twice a week and gave Alms of all that he possessed Our Saviour saith he went away not justified And Matth. 5. 20. Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you can never enter into the Kingdom of God Say to your selves severally My Soul thou must one day come before the Judgment Seat of Christ and begging for admittance into Heaven thou wouldest be loth to hear the Lord in that day say to thee Depart from me I know thee not My Soul what hast thou more to trust to than they had Canst thou say any more than Lord I am not as other men I am no Swearer no Drunkard no Reviler no Extortioner no Whoremonger Lord I fast often I go to prayers often and to Church often to hear the Word if thou hast no more to say the Pharisee had as much The interest of a man 's own body or estate the examples of other men the credit and applause of the world may move a reasonable Soul under no other power than that of reason nor other influence than that which all within the compass of the Church where the Gospel is Preached may carry thee thus far without any influence of powerful special Grace Further yet this notion of Truth may help to relieve many good Souls who are discouraged either because they seem to themselves to stick in the New Birth Or because they find in themselves a great weakness to spiritual duties Or impotency in the resistance of their own intrinsick motions to sin or forein
expressive of the drawing influences of Divine Grace which are followed with the promises of running keeping Gods Commandments yea keeping them with his whole heart keeping them to the end So v. 7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous Judgments So v. 41. Let thy mercies come unto me even thy salvation v. 44. So shall I keep thy law continually What needs any further proof of this than what every good Christian hath from its own experience Who is there that walks with God that alwaies finds the same spiritual temper that doth not find that he cannot at sometimes do as he can and doth do at other times Every good Christian finds the same willing at all times To will is alwaies present with him but who finds the same degree of strength the same readiness and chearfulness of Spirit in Gods service at all times Now from whence is this if not from the inequal drawings of Divine Grace if the Soul be drawn strongly then is it strong if weakly it moveth accordingly Being drawn then it runs Being at first drawn to Christ it moves being further drawn it runs The reason of this lieth 1. Partly in the Souls renewed nature 2. Partly in the nature of special Divine Grace 1. All motion is from a principle of life Natural motion from a Natural life Spiritual motion from the Spiritual life and the truly Spiritual motion is as much an indication of a Spiritual life that principleth it as the Natural motion is an indication of that Natural life from which it floweth and the Spiritual motion is as much the necessary effect of a principle of Spiritual life as the Natural motion is the necessary effect of a Natural life So as the Soul being once quickned by the quickning Spirit cannot but move in its Spiritual motions But look as it is in the natural motions some motion must attend all natural life yet it is more or less more or less strong or weak and there is a more or less chearfulness and readiness attends the motion of the natural body as the faculties of the Soul that animates it are more or less upheld by the influence of Divine Providence and the incumbrances of that life are more kept off by the power of Divine Providence So it is as to our Spiritual life there is in that Soul that is once drawn to Christ and so alive to God a seed of God abiding which is a constant principle of life and is alwaies working and moving to and in its proper operations but yet these motions are more or less strong free and chearful according to the influence of the holy Spirit of God and the workings of it in the Soul which being a free agent sometimes puts itself forth more sometimes less according to that are the Souls motions either more quick and chearful or more dull and heavy but being once drawn to Christ it moves and moves willingly from a principle within itself being made willing it willeth and chuseth the things that please God though it must be further drawn before it runneth It requires no more than a renewed sanctified heart to move for and towards God but it requireth an inlarged heart to run after God 2. Secondly It will yet further appear from the Nature of Divine Grace in its special saving operations There are those who will acknowledge no Grace but exciting Grace in the proposal of the Gospel and pressing the Grace of it by those gifts which God hath for that end given to his Ministers whatsoever else is done in the Soul they will have to flow from the power of mans will lest free to good or evil but we say this is not enough there must also be a working Grace applied to the Soul in conversion and a co-working Grace which is necessary to the Soul after conversion Now all special Grace whether it be operans or cooperans that which we call working or that which we call co-working is effective those who will own nothing but an exciting Grace allow it no proper effect upon the Soul for if it be productive of an effect it is more than exciting Now here indeed lies the difference betwixt common and special Grace betwixt the Grace that bringeth salvation and that which only proposeth and offereth Salvation The first is alway effective of its end the latter is never effective but is determined in the exhibition and offer of good which man is left to his own freedom and choice whether he will accept yea or no which being admitted it is not possible but that the Soul once drawn by it must run or rather will run for now it moves from the inward principle of a renewed nature and if working special Grace be esfective and faileth not in its operations upon the unrenewed Soul it is much more effective of its end in the Soul that is changed and renewed where it is but assistant to the renewed nature so as the Soul being drawn will run First From that principle of spiritual life which is in the renewed nature alwaies a principle of some motion though sometimes more and sometimes less and Secondly From the powerful assistance of that special Grace which God puts forth upon the Soul in its renewed state helping it over those mountains of difficulties which sometimes it meets with and removing those stumbling blocks which corruption and the malignity of the world or its grand adversary oft-times layeth in its way I have thus far opened the proposition I shall now apply it First 1. By way of Caution Blindness is a great Mother of boldness and confidence and Love is the Mother of jealousy and suspicion hence it is that the natural man knowing nothing of spiritual things nor understanding the state of the Soul by nature nor the workings of God in the Soul turning it from sin unto God seldom or never examineth or questioneth his state The knowing Christian fullest of Love for God finds difficulty to satisfy himself as to his Spiritual state The first concludeth himself sufsiciently drawn because he sits under the preaching of the Gospel and finds sometimes some good motions and impressions whether he obeyeth them or no whether he be turned into the likeness of the Gospel yea or no. The other though he doth find his heart renewed and changed tho he doth find that to will is present with him yet because he wanteth strength to perform because he doth not find at all times that promptness and readiness of mind that freedom activity and chearfulness of Spirit which he thinks he hath sometimes found and which he seeth others triumph and rejoice in questioneth whether he was drawn yea or no. Now such a Soul ought to distinguish 1. Betwixt a being drawn to Christ and a being drawn after Christ It is true there is no Soul that is drawn to Christ but shall be drawn after him but yet these are two things both the
poor things to be the price of the least mercies when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants but where one prayer is more conformable to the will of God than another it may move God further and may obtain a more speedy answer from Gods hand 3. Finally there may be some reason given on the account of the parties praying Some of Gods people may be greater favourites with God then others God loves all his Saints with an equal elective and redeeming love but there may be differences as to the manifestations of his love Samuel and Moses Noah Daniel and Job are mentioned by the Prophets as Persons that had a mighty power with God above others God therefore in the expression of his anger against Israel saith if they stood before him they should only save their own Souls God sent Abimelech to Abraham and Jobs Friends to Job to pray for them assuring them that those he would accept God had a David whom he calls the man according to Gods own heart and Christ had a John who was called the beloved Disciple all the Disciples were beloved but he was loved with a more special signal love this the Disciples knew and therefore when he had told them that one of them should betray him Simon Peter beckned to John that he should ask him of whom he spake Now it is no wonder if the prayer of him who is highly beloved in some singular degree of favour with God should receive a quicker answer then anothers this is but after the manner of men 2. The state of Gods people may be such as will admit of no delay If the Lord doth not come in with some present help they must be lost and undone their Spirits must fail and the Souls which he hath made now in such cases as these it is no wonder if the Lord gratifies his people with quicker answers and returns to their prayers but who is he that can pretend to give a reason of Gods differing dispensations of his grace all that we can do in this case is but to shew you that the ways of the Lord are reasonable though the reason of them be a depth past our finding out We should not sufficiently adore and admire God if we did perfectly understand him but I shall add no more doctrinally to this discourse much of which though it may look like something of a digression yet I hope it will not be altogether unprofitable This notion wonderfully commendeth the love of God to the Sons and Daughters of Men. There is not any one name of God that more commendeth the love of God to us or which we have more reason to glory in than that he is a God that heareth prayers It is true God needeth not our tongues to tell him what we have need of he knoweth what things we need before we ask him nor do our prayers merit any favour It is the goodness the free goodness of God that relieveth us in any streight in any distress but you know it is very natural to us when we are in any misery in any distress or streight to cry for help and a wonderful relief to our thoughts to know that our sighs and cries and groans are not lost in the air Oh! 't is a sad and uncomfortable thing to cry and to have none to help none to deliver What a comfortable thing it is to cry in hope nay in confidence for we have this confidence saith the Apostle that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Now that the great and mighty God who needeth not our supplications should lend an ear to them and give us an assurance of his hearing and answering them what a mighty thing is this to set up God high in our thoughts for the Majesty of Heaven to stoop to the worms of the Earth when they but turn up their heads to him What a condescension is this what an humbling of the Divine Majesty what a relief to poor creatures infirmities to know that not a sigh not a groan not a prayer shall be lost But this is yet something beyond this That the Lord should oft-times give a present answer and prevent our impatience by an answer so swift as gives our Eyes no leave to fail through a frustrated expectation this is yet a great deal more In receiving our petitions and promising us an answer God shews himself a gracious King though we wait some time for an answer but in his present answers he shews himself a gracious Father that is not patient that his Child should be one hour in distress and misery Nor is the love of our Heavenly Father alone commended in this particular but the love of Jesus Christ also is remarkably commended for it is through him that we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh and he is the High Priest over the House of God O let every quick return of prayers which God makes to our Souls bring us more in love with Christ more into the admiration of his love and raise up our hearts more in thankfulness for the death resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ Secondly How should this incourage us to prayer and to such a performance of that duty as we may have a quick return and answer Prayer is not so slighty a duty as the most of people do make it it ought not to be made such a formal performance It is one of our great priviledges to have an access a freedom of access to the Throne of Grace to ask of God such things as we stand in need of it is that which bringeth down the Protection and influences of common providence and the influences of his special grace it openeth and shutteth up Heaven By prayer Elijah brought down rain and fire from Heaven Samuels Prayer brought thunder and lightning Hezekiahs prayer brought down an Angel that destroyed the Host of Sennacherib it obtained a blessing for Jacob and turned his name into the name of Israel because as a Prince he had power and prevailed with God nay it often brings down the mercy we want in a very short time while the Child of God is speaking God answereth here am I. This should make us value the duty of prayer and not to think it a mere thing of course and turn it into a formality And what you have heard concerning the nature of that prayer which is of such power and prevalency with God should also mind you to take heed how you pray Prayer doth not lie in a meer uttering or repeating of words expressive of our minds unto God men may call this prayer but they will find it a bodily labour of a little efficacy and avail with God it is true you will hardly find any thing called Prayer in Scripture where words were not
Enallage of tenses to justify their interpretation to say the King hath is put for the King shall bring me c. Aquinas Piscator and some others thus interpret the Spouse The question about degrees of glory is not well agreed amongst Divines there are great Divines on either side as to that opinion nor is it a small difficulty to open in what the glory of one Child of God when he comes in Heaven shall excell anothers When it is certain that they shall all see God inherit his Kingdom be satisfied with his likeness and there shall be no want to any Soul there especially we being taught by our Saviour that every labourer in the Vineyard shall have his penny But yet it is very probably judged by Divines That in that firmament as well as in that which is lower the stars shall differ one from another in glory and that when Christ told his Disciples they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel he by it expressed some greater degrees of glory then shall be the portion of his more common Disciples besides that the Scriptures speaking of God's rewarding all men according to their works compared with the disproportion which we see in the works of Believers make it yet more probable So that I must confess my self very inclinable in this point to be of the mind of those Divines who think that in the Mansions of Glory there shall be Chambers though I am not able to distinguish them from the lower Rooms in those blessed Mansions But yet I am not inclinable supposing this to interpret the Spouse as speaking of them here but rather judge her by this phrase designing to express her felicity not discerned by the Eye of Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen but by the Eye of Sense some special favour now received from God and I am therefore concerned further to enquire what these favours may be 2. God hath Chambers of special Providence Some indeed understand that Text Isa 26. 20. Come my people enter into the Chambers and hide thy self concerning the Grave because the righteous are taken away as the Prophet saith from the Evil to come But others and I think better interpret it as an invitation of God to his people in calamitous times to betake themselves into the Chambers of his special providenee the Psalmist saith Psal 91. 1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of his Wings In this Chamber there are Closets there is a special providence that attendeth and watcheth over the whole Church as the whole Nation of the Jews were under more special providences than the Heathens but yet there is a more special providence attends the people of God who are so indeed Which is abundantly proved throughout the 91 Psalm so Psal 34. 18. The Eye of the Lord is upon those that fear him and upon those that hope in his mercy To deliver their Souls from death and to keep them alive in Famine But in regard the Spouse here speaketh not of herself as under any circumstances of outward misery or affliction I do not think this is her meaning in this Text these are not the Chambers concerning which the Spouse boasteth that the King had brought her into them she is speaking here doubtless of more spiritual inward dispensations 3. God hath his Chamber of Audience where he receiveth heareth and giveth answer to the prayers of his people This is a near degree of the Souls communion with God and what God hath promised them Psal 34. 15. The Eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his Ears are open unto their cry And again v. 17. The righteous cry and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their troubles This is a favour which the Lord affordeth every believer the promises of hearing prayers belong to them all but yet in this Chamber there are Closets also God sometimes granteth a more speedy answer to his pecples prayers sometimes he delayeth and seemeth to be angry with and to shut out his peoples supplications from him but you know it was my whole business in my last discourse to prove and to give you some account of this which may very well supersede any larger discourse upon it under this Proposition Abraham Moses and Daniel and Job were all entertained in these Chambers so are many of the Servants of God at this day men mighty with God in prayer such Favourites in the Court of Heaven that they have no more to do then to form their Petitions and to put them into the hands of Christ and to get upon their Watch-Tower with Habakkuk and see what the Lord will answer God seemeth to have said unto them as Ahasuerus said to Esther What is thy Petition O my Child and what is thy request it shall be performed even to the half of my Kingdom Solomon was entertained by God in this Chamber when the Lord appeared unto him in Gibeon and asked him what shall I give thee and when after his prayer upon the dedication of his Temple the Lord again appeared to him and said I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place for my self a Soul may be said to be brought into this Chamber either when it findeth that God hath answered its prayers at any time Or 2. When it before it prays ordinarily findeth a persuasion within itself that it shall be answered and so goeth with boldness and confidence to the throne of grace and poureth out its self unto God without doubting 4. God hath Chambers which I may call the Chambers of his special presence This being the thing which I conceive chiefly intended in this metaphorical expression I shall spend a little time in the explication of it The Scripture speaking much of Gods presence with and absence from his people his being with them or forsaking them and departure from them that you may in some measure understand those phrases Consider 1. There is a presence of the Divine Essence in all places in respect of which it is said The Lord filleth Heaven and Earth In respect of this he is never far from any of us he is neither shut up in nor shut out of any place nor is he more present in one place then he is in another according to that barbarous verse Enter praesenter Deus est ubique potenter God is every where in respect of his being essential presence and power 2. There is a presence of the Divine goodness it 's communicative goodness for there is an essential goodness which can never be separated from it wherever the divine being is there is infinite goodness but there is in God not only a goodness of perfection which is essential to God and inseparable from him but a goodness of bounty and beneficence which is nothing else but the goodness of God affecting the creature and flowing out upon the creature now this
dependeth upon the will of God He sheweth mercy where he will shew mercy Thus God is said to be present where he sheweth mercy and kindness and to be absent where he with-holdeth his acts of kindness Thus the Saints in Heaven are said to be ever with the Lord in Heaven because they shall be ever under the fullest manifestations of his glory and goodness and the damned are said to depart from God because they are never like more to see him or feel him in any manifestations of his mercy and goodness the shewing of mercy and goodness is so natural to God so much his proper work and delight that he is said to be wholly absent from them to whom he will never more shew kindness and mercy So as to this life God is said to be present with a people when he sheweth them goodness and mercy to be departed and to be absent from them when he with-holdeth from them such dispensations as they have formerly enjoyed and are suited and proper to their wants or desires Now these mercies or good things being such as are suited to the necessities of our bodies here in this life or of our Souls the first of which we usually call the good things of common providence The latter the good things of special grace God is said to be present with or absent from his people with respect to the one or to the other with respect to the good things of common providence God is present with a people when he goeth forth with their Armies gives them peace and plenty success in business prosperity in their tradings and commerce and on the other side he is said to be absent from them and to be departed from them when he goeth not forth with their Armies but makes them to fall before their enemies when he sends amongst them famine and pestilence c. Thus as to particular persons as God is said to be present with persons when he upholdeth their Souls in life their bodies in health when he blesseth them in their businesses and relations and maketh the works of their hands to prosper so he is said to have forsaken them and to be departed from them when he leaves them to sicknesses blasts them in their Estates c. thus Gods presence and being with his people his absence forsaking of and departing from a people or person are often taken in holy writ Thus God may be present with the very worst of men thus he may be absent and depart from the very best of his people But then there is a presence of God with men and women with respect to the good things of special grace Now these things again are such as are either absolutely necessary to salvation Or 2. Such influences as though they be not absolutely necessary to the salvation of the Soul yet do highly accommodate the Soul in its way to Heaven Of the first sort are the graces of justification and of Regeneration Sanctification without these the Soul can never enter into the Kingdom as to these therefore God is always present with never absent from the Souls of any whom he hath chosen and called out of darkness into light in that sense the promise doth and ever shall hold true He will never leave his people nor forsakethem But now there are other influences of grace exceeding pleasant of high advantage accomodation to the Soul in its way to Heaven such are further degrees of strength and ability further freedom lâ—fe and activity and chearfulneâ—s in the service of God pâ—ace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost these are not absolutely necessary unto eternal life and salvation nor to the upholding of spiritual life in the Soul the want of them is only afflictive to the Soul and incumbers it in its spiritual life without a total destruction of it as to these God giveth more or less to the Souls of his people and to the same Souls more or less at one time then at another and so is said to be present or absent from them according to the greater or lesser degrees of these influences which he vouchsafeth unto them and those Souls may be said to be brought into the Lords Chambers to whom he vouchsafeth greater degrees of these gracious influences and those Souls may be said to be under desertions forsaken of God to whom the Lord denieth such degrees of these influences as either themselves have before enjoyed or others do enjoy As to these God is very various in his dispensations they being such dispensations as God upon the covenant of grace is left at liberty to dispense out to the Souls of his people or to with-hold from them according to his own good pleasure and wisdom and which accordingly he doth dispense out in pursute of the design of his own glory and as according to his infinite knowledge and wisdom he seeth will be most for the good of his people when God dispenseth out more of these he is said to be more present with the Souls of his people when he more with-holdeth them he is said to be absent not that at any time he is wholly absent from the Souls of his people as to his gracious presence for without that they were able to do nothing the seed of God abiding in the Soul must be upheld in its life and cherished by the influence of the Sun of righteousness upon the Soul but as God though he be alwaies present in the world by his essential presence yet doth not alwaies shew forth his power in upholding and preserving this or that part of it no not the same parts of it which is the reason of that sickness and mortality with which some parts of it are affected more than others and the same parts of it are affected at some times more than others So as to spiritual influences though he alwaies vouchsafeth such a presence of his gracious influences as shall keep up spiritual life in the Soul yet for further gradual influences the want of which is yet consistent with spiritual life in the Soul the Lord granteth or with holdeth them according to his own will guided by his infinite wisdom with respect to the great ends of his own glory and his peoples good And the Lords withdrawings of this nature are the cause of all the Souls sickness and spiritual distempers upon this are the grievous complaints of the people of God of the strength of their corruptions the violence of temptations their deadness and inactivity to in the operations of the spiritual llfe their heaviness sadness and want of comfort When the Lord granteth out to any of the Souls of his people more of these influences then he may be said to bring them into his Chambers when they find more internal strength to the performance of their duties that their meditation of God is more sweet to them they can believe with less doubting pray with more faith more fervour less distraction
or touch and indeed this is the judgment of the greatest part of the world when they say who will shew us any good this is all they understand by it who will gratify our sensitive appetites These are the things they desire delight and rejoice in these men rejoice in nothing but in pleasures profits or honours such things as either serve the lust of the Eye or the lust of Flesh or the pride of life 2. A second Eye by which we discern good and accordingly judge of it is the Eye of Reason God hath indued man with a reasonable Soul which hath several powers and faculties amongst the rest the understanding by which I understand that power in man by which he apprehendeth things and the reason of them and takes the impression of notions that which is suited to this we call good and upon a much truer notion then the other Hence is some mens thirst and desire of knowledge and knowledge is as sweet to them as Wine is to the Drunkard they discern an excellency in the mind and Soul above what is or can be in the fleshly part of a man and delight more in understanding then the voluptuous man doth in pleasure or the worldly man in wealth that is their good for which they contemn pleasures and all sensual satisfactions 3. Our third way of apprehending good is by the Eye of saith which the Apostle tells us is the evidence of things not seen There are some whom God hath so far enlightned by the revelation of his will as they do not only know that they have bodies and a sensitive part which requireth satisfaction to its several cravings and a more noble part which is the mind capable of understanding things and the reasons and causes of them but Souls an immortal part capable of the favour of God of an union and communion with him they know that the happiness of man can lie in nothing beneath the favour of God nothing beneath an union and communion with him they have read it in the Word of God to which God hath wrought in their hearts a firm and full assent that no man cometh to the Fathers but by Christ There is no other name given under Heaven no other way by which they can arrive at a true peace and happiness either in this life or in that which is to come And from hence it is that all their desires are after Christ all their hope in him and he becometh their chief joy 2. A second reason of their rejoicing in Christ more then other mens lies in their different relation to him and interest in him or apprehensions at least of that relation and interest I told you before that although an apprehended good be the object of our love before we enjoy it the Soul cannot but take some pleasure and complacency in what he apprehendeth under that notion yet while the Soul cometh to have some relation to it some propriety and interest in it though it may move towards it by desire and hope yet it comes not to a joy and rejoycing in it till it comes to have some apprehension that it hath obtained it You may see this in other things suppose a man of the world to fancy a great estate or a great degree of honour and diâ—nity to be good or that an ingenious Child fancieth the like of knowledge both the one and the other may desire these things at a distance the man of the world may wish he had such an Estate and the Schollar may wish he had such degrees of learning and knowledge but till the one and the other have attained what they desire in some degree they cannot rejoice in it neither is their mind satisfied nor at rest It is the same case as to a spiritual man He is enlightned to see he hath a Soul of a further capacity then the most men understand their Souls to be that he hath some further wants then the most understand that they have he believeth the Scriptures and understands that he wants peace and reconciliation with God he understandeth that there shall be a Resurrection a day of Judgment and that he must one day be in an happy or in a miserable eternity so as he wants the security of a better life when this life shall be at an end upon this account he may be pleased with the thoughts of Christ as he by whom these good things alone can be obtained he may desire Christ he may hope in him but till he comes to apprehend that he hath obtained a part and interest in him it is impossible he should rejoice in him and according to his apprehensions of his interest so is his joy and rejoycing in Christ There must be some union betwixt the Soul and its object before there can be any joy and rejoycing 1. There is an union of contemplation We cannot so much as contemplate a desirable object but our Soul must have some union with it and there will a proportionable joy attend this indeed this will be of all other the weakest in degree because this is the lowest degree of union imaginable Thus a man may rejoyce in the contemplation of a door of salvation opened to Mankind by Christ before he hath made any use of it at all to enter in thereat Thus the Angels at the Birth of Christ proclaimed glad tidings and joy to all people 2. There is an union of hope when the Soul doth not only contemplate some great and eminent good but apprehendeth it attainable by itself tho not without some difficulty as this union of the Soul with its object now is closer and fuller then the other so the joy that resulteth from it must necessarily be more hence in Scripture you read of the rejoycing of hope which the Apostle would have believers keep firm 3. There is an union of sensible possession or which is the fame of faith and full persuasion which makes things unseen visible to us and as this of all other is the most full and perfect union so it causeth the most full and perfect joy it most satisfieth the Soul and brings it most to its rest and causeth the greatest triumph and festival in the Soul even a peace which is past all understanding There is no believer but hath obtained one of the two latter unions with Christ No unbeliever that hath obtained more then the former An unbeliever may have heard that Christ came into the world to save Sinners to seek and to save that which is lost and may have a proportionable joy but alass how little must it be while he neither feeth a need of him nor yet can have any apprehension that he hath any share or interest in him It can be no more then as the rejoycing of an understanding man to hear that an able Physician is come into the Country before he is sensible of any need he hath of him or hath had any experience of his skill and ability
meat the Flock shall be cut off from the sold and there shall be no Herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my Salvation The believing Soul can rejoyce in nothing without Christ and it can rejoyce in Christ when it hath nothing more to rejoyce in Let a gracious Soul have but the sense of God's Love in Christ to his Soul he can say to all the world as Esau though not upon such a consideration said to his Brother Jacob I have enough my Brother I have enough keep what thou haft unto thy self Am I justified and regenerated have I peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ have I the pardon of my sin and a righteousness wherein I can stand before God it is enough If the Lord will not give me Bread to eat nor Children to continue my name if I die Childless so I do not die Christless it is enough If I have not Raggs to cloth me nor an Estate to leave Portions to six and also to seven yet I have said to the Lord Thou art my Portion it is enough Hence ariseth a good Christian's contentment in all Estates I have learned saith Paul in all estates to be content content to want content to abound content to have little or much as the Lord pleaseth If the Lord will take away such a man's Children Estate c. he saith with Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the Name of the Lord. If I have my part in Christ saith he I have yet enough Omnia mea mecum porto I have my All as the Philosopher is reported to have said when his City was on fire and his Neighbours reflected on him going out and carrying nothing along with him nor concerning himself for the share of Estate he had in it If the Believer considereth his body he seeth a crazy constitution diseases growing upon him if he looks into his Family and seeth it empty of Children if into his Grounds and seeth them bring forth nothing but Weeds and Thistles if into his Stalls and seeth them empty of Cattel yet if he looks into his Soul and finds any evidences of the Love of Christ he can rejoyce in them this must be understood when he seeth himself stript naked not by his own wicked hands but as Job was by the effective Providence of God for the loss of the things of this life the good things of the common Providence of God caused by our own sinful hands and miscarriages oft-times hinder this Joy as they make it difficult to us to see the Love of God in and under them 4. And lastly This Soul rejoyceth in Christ Primarily Emphatically Supremely The Child of God is a parta ker of flesh and blood and hath a sensitive appetite which when gratified necessarily causeth a joy proportionate to the good which it receiveth hence he rejoyceth in the good things of common Providence as well as another man but not as much as another man not upon the same account that another man doth Christ is the Believer's chief Joy and as his title to the good things of this life differs from the title of another so his joy in them differeth from the joy of another All men may have a natural legal title to the good things of this life Dominion and Title is not founded in grace but it is mended by grace Another man derives from God as the Lord of the whole Earth who by his common Providence distributeth portions to the Sons of men as he pleaseth but the believer doth not only derive from God as the supreme Lord but from Christ all is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods saith the Apostle so that while he rejoiceth in the gifts of common Providence he rejoiceth in Christ because he rejoyceth in these things as coming from the hand of a Father reconciled to him by the blood of Christ he rejoiceth in the good things of this life as the loving Wife reioiceth in some present made her by her Husband not so much in the fineness or costliness of it though that may also please her humor as in the kindness and love of her Husband shewed in giving it her So the believer more rejoyceth in the goodness of God shewen to him in any dispensation of Providence then in the thing which God hath given him or her and he supremely rejoiceth in Christ whiles he rejoiceth in a lower comfort Let me shew you this in the instance of Hannah whose story you have 1 Sam. ch 1 2. She was the Wife of Elkanah she had no Children and was passionately desirous of the blessing of Children an affection common to all of that sex especially and for which there was some more special reason in that Age and Nation partly because of the promise of a numerous issue to Abraham so as the Women that were Barren lookt upon themselves as hardly the genuine Children of Abraham at least not sharers in his blessing partly because they knew the Messias was to be born of a Jewish Woman and every Child-bearing Woman might have an expectation to be his Mother Under this great affliction she applies her self to God by prayer the Key of the Womb is one of those Keys which the Jewish Doctors say God keepeth in his hand God hears her prayer she conceiveth and brings forth Samuel as in the first Chapter she names him Samuel to testify her joy in receiving him as an answer of her Prayer upon which she dedicates him to the Lord 1 Sam. 1. 28. So in the second Chapter she sings a Song of praise mark the phrase of it 1 Sam. 2. 1. Mine heart rejoyceth in the Lord my Horn is exalted in the Lord. Her Child was the next object of her joy but how doth she rejoice in him the primary object of her joy was the Lord her great joy in Samuel was as God by giving him to her shewed her his love and that he had not shut out her supplications from him She rejoyced in God Supremely in Samuel Subordinately in God Emphatically in her Child more remissly Thus doth a good Christian rejoice in Christ thus is he the singular object of a believers joy David calleth God the gladness of his joy we translate it his exceeding joy Psal 43. 4. The Prophet Isaiah faith Isaiah 29. 19. The meek shall encrease their joy in the Lord and the poor amongst men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel Yet the proximate cause was v. 20 Because the terrible one was brought to nought and the scorner consumed and all those that watched for iniquity cut off Hence Christ commandeth his Disciples not to rejoice in this that the Devils were subject to them but that their names were written in the Book of Life Doubtless the subjection of Devils to them was true matter of joy ah but it was no primary object no supreme object of their joy no
that understand you have Souls under an ordination to an eternal Existence that know the state of the Soul by nature and have tasted also how good the Lord is to you to whom Christ is precious and whom you will easily acknowledge your chief Joy I am calling to you but for the exercise of an habit with which God hath indeed indued you the exerting of a power with which God hath blessed you the using of a right which God hath given you There are amongst others two great causes why Christians do not so rejoyce in Christ as they ought to do 1. The first is Their giving too much way to unbelief and despondency Though we cannot increase our own Faith without special grace assisting yet we may promove our unbelief favouring our despondency and cherishing our doubts and giving way to our groundless fears and forgetting the Covenant of Grace not saying often enough to our Souls Why art thou cast down O my Soul c. 2. The second is Their too much carnality or worldliness Where almost is the man to be found that cannot rejoyce in his worldly Affluences although he wants the sense of the Love of God in Christ or that if he were tried would not find it an hard matter to rejoyce in God if the Fig-tree did not blossom and there were no fruit on the Vine How ready are we to rejoyce in our creature-comforts when we have them more than in the Love of Christ to our Souls whence is this but from our too much savouring minding and living upon Earth and earthly things Is the hearing of Prayers such a matter of joy to a gracious man how should this engage us 1. So to pray that we may receive an answer of them from the Lord 2. To look after our Prayers and the answers of them that the sense of such an answer may excite our joy in Christ As to the first I have spoken so fully to it under the first Doctrine I handled from this Text that I shall not need again to inlarge upon it here I shall only inlarge upon the second Foolish Children that shoot Arrows and never look after them lose that pleasure and content in their game which those have who observe what becomes of their Arrows and how near they come to the mark to which they are directed and levelled Formal Christians who send up Prayers to Heaven and never look after them never consider whether the Lord answereth them yea or no lose that pleasure and satisfaction which the Soul hath that watcheth his Prayers and with David when early in the morning he hath directed his Prayers to God as Psal 5. 3. looketh up You read of the Prophet Habakkuk when chap. 1. he had been putting up his Prayer to God he resolveth chap. 2. v. 1. to stand upon his watch and to set himself upon the Tower watching to see what God would say unto him Here now comes in a considerable question viz. How a Christian shall know whether God hath heard and answered his prayers yea or no The difficulty lies upon two things 1. Vpon God's different ways of answering 2. In regard we may receive the good things we receive from God meerly from him as a God full of pity and tender compassion seeing and pitying the misery and needs of his creatures as our Saviour saith He hears the young Ravens when they cry unto him Not as from a God in Christ reconciled and hearing us upon the account of his Truth and Promise and the Intercession of Christ Now the answer of those Prayers only which are answered upon the account of Christ and testifications of the Love of God in Christ can bring the Soul to a gladness and rejoycing in Christ upon that occasion and motive As to the first 1. I see no reason for a Soul that hath been importunate with God for some good thing which it hath not yet received if it finds it self satisfied under the want of it and content to submit to the Will of God in the denial of it and to resign up it self to his good pleasure as to the collation of it upon him I say in such cases as these I see no reason for a Christian to question whether this answer be from God as a God of Truth and Faithfulness fulfilling his promise to the Soul His promise to his people is to with-hold from them no good thing that is nothing which shall be truly and really good for them considered in their circumstances Now where a sensible good is with-held and denied that a real good may be bestowed and the Soul is also brought to see its own mistake in the desire of that sensible good and to acquiesce in the good pleasure of God in not giving it nay to acknowledge that it is better for it not to have it and is quiet and satisfied certainly this is one of the clearest answers of our prayers and no Soul ought to question but this is a return of prayers Let us put a case Suppose a Christian lying under the power of some mortal disease under which he hath often prayed that if it were possible God would make the bitter Cup of Death to pass from him Still he or she groweth weaker and weaker worse and worse as to his or her bodily state but they find within themselves a further contentedness with the good pleasure of God a power to glory in their tribulation and to rejoyce in the hopes of that glory of God to which its affliction is bringing it a desire not to be unclothed meerly and free from its pain but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up in life What reason now hath a Christian to suspect whether this be in answer to its prayers and slowing from God as a God of Truth fulfilling his Word seeing as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit It is a good thing here that is given the Soul it is given it by God it is he who hath wrought the heart into this frame It is given in upon and after earnest prayer and though it be not the very thing in specie which we asked yet it is in value more abundantly compensating the things we asked and finally the thing which we did ask we asked with submission to the Will and Wisdom of God so that as to these kinds of answers I take the case to be clear 2. As to the giving in of such spiritual mercies as we have begg'd of God in their kind whether they be peace of Conscience strength against temptations power against corruptions sensible consolations more freedom and liveliness unto and in duty there is as little reason to doubt because they are the very good things we a kt 2. Of such a spiritual nature as God doth not use to give them to Souls that are strangers to him 3. The matter of
is full either of such as are excessive drinkers of Wine or Merchants for it but how thin is it of such as have any remembrance of Christs love who as the Apostle tells us died to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish who can be said to remember Christs love more then Wine that lives in those sins which crucified him who was the Lord of life Yet is not this the course of the most Men and Women who never think of their dying Saviour to restrain them in their drunkennesses debaucheries in their greatest excesses of Riot Nay how many are there that seldom take the love of Christ into their thoughts the love of their cups and of their Harlots hath made Christs loves to be utterly forgotten by their Souls for how can they say that they remember Christs loves above their lusts that will not quench one lust for his sake they in whom the remembrance of Christs death will not extinguish one vile affection one spark of pleasing lust will not the most of men and women yea such in whose ears the loves of Christ are published every Lords day be found perishing for preferring the very lees and dregs of Wine before the loves of Christ I mean for preferring the basest and most sordid kind of pleasures and satisfactions of the flesh for such are those pleasures which are no more than the gratifying of the sensitive appetite 2. Do not most mens discourses and practice betray them to remember Wine I mean their profitable things before the loves of Christ How much is the world and the things of the world the discourse of all companies upon all occasions how few are the discourses concerning Christ and what he hath done for us an hours discourse of Christs loves in a Pulpit upon the Lords day is thought proportionable to six days discourse about our earthly occasions do we not even grudge the Lord a seventh part of our time for the remembrances of his loves the Lords day is a day to call to remembrance Christs loves It was the day of his resurrection by which he compleated mans redemption the Ministers work is to help us in our remembrance of his loves We have besides our attendance upon the publick ministry a private duty this day incumbent upon us viz. To remember him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification I beseech you consider whether your remembrings of Christs loves upon the Sabbath day bear any proportion to your remembrance of your worldly interests other days I mean not for the proportion of time spent in the one and the other God hath indulged our infirmity in that he hath set apart a seventh day only to himself but examine this whether you remember the loves of Christ on the Lords day as you remember your worldly concerns on any of the other six days do the loves of Christ come into your thoughts as much on the week day as the world comes into your thoughts on the Lords days I sear there is none of us all can say that in this thing our hearts are clean I hope I speak to many who remember the loves of Christ and will never suffer his dying love to go off their thoughts But when we come to these comparative examinations to enquire whether we remember his loves more then we remember our sensual or sensible objects ah how short do we come of the duty of Christians yea of what our selves will own and consess to be our duty Happy is that man that doth not condemn himself even in the thing which he alloweth to be his duty But I had rather spend my time in persuading my self and you to our duty which according to my explication of the text and this propositionwill lye much in two things 1. In a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ 2. In a remembrance of them proportionable to that degree of goodness and excellency in them I say first in a Scriptual remembrance a full and perfect remembrance of the Loves of Christ I am afraid that we satisfy our selves too much in a Notional formal remembrance of Christs Loves and so please our selves in hearing the Gospel read opened and applyed to our Souls in a formal keeping of the Lords day the day which God hath set apart for us to call to our minds all the acts of our redemption compleated in his resurrection some Churches aware of Peoples awkness to this Spiritual duty have thought fit to appoint other days for a more solemn remembrance of his incarnation and death Nor have I any thing to say against any Christians that will set apart any Special times to remember any Loves of Christ though I do not know that Christ hath left any power to his Church to impose particular times of this nature But alas this is the least part of our duty in the remembrance of his Love We may have a day to remember it in we have such a day every week we may have helps to remember it by The holy Scriptures the Ministers of the Gospel that Preach Christ to their People are such helps But if in these days if with these helps we do not set our selves to meditate of the Loves of Christ to turn our thoughts from other things to the contemplation of and meditation upon the Love of a Christ incarnate the Love of a Christ dying and riseing again from the dead if we do not study to get our hearts affected suitably to such Love with love faith hope c. we do not so live as a People that remember Christ died for our Sins declining whatsoever is contrary to his will and Law in the Gospel do what in us lyeth to promove his honour Glory we are so far from Satisfying our Duty by this formal remembrance of his Love that we are the greatest forgetters of his Love The Jews who never owned him as their Redeemer the Heathen who never heard of his name nor of what he was or did for Sinners can in no propriety of Speech be said to forget his Loves The Christian only the loose Christian the formal Christian he who hears every day of the dying Love of Christ yet goes on to defy him to crucify him afresh and to put him to open shame or he who every Lords day hears the sound of the Loves of Christ and reads of it yet never meditates upon it never suffers his soul by contemplation to pierce into the heights or sound the depths of it whose heart is never truly affected with it so as he hath any Love kindled in his soul towards Christ no breathings after him who exerciseth no faith no hope in him he that lives not in his measure up to it leaving his vain conversation worshiping God in the Spirit
besides the blot which these eruptions of corruption leave upon the particular Souls they leave also a blackness in the Church which is made up of them Besides that there is no Church but hath in it some of unsanctified hearts who as Jude tells us are spots in our feasts of charity and where they prevail in number they bring in also another blackness upon the Church by admission of corruptions in Doctrine Worship and Discipline c. 2. Particular Souls are also black through acts of mortification The people of God live a dying life I die daily saith Paul they keep under their Bodies that they may keep them in subjection to their Spirits Now though there is nothing makes a Soul to look more white and beautiful in the Eyes of God yet nothing makes them appear more black and unlovely in the Eyes of the world The world looks upon Christians chastising themselves with fasting and tears in their dejections and humiliations as very black but this is indeed no real but an appearing blackness to such as understand no loveliness in any thing but sensuality 3. The People of God are often black through afflictions Job speaking of affliction saith Job 30. 30. My skin is black upon me and my bones are burnt with heat Hence the afflicted faces are said to gather blackness Joel 1. 6. Nahum 2. 10. The skin of the Church in the hour of her affliction is said to have been as black as a Raven Lam. 5. 10. and it is said of the afflicted Nazarites Lam. 4. 8. That their visage was more black then a Coal So that you see Affliction is every where in Scripture called Blackness Now there is no Child of God in this life exempted from afflictions such as are from the hand of God immediately of which nature are desertions terrors and Soul troubles of several sorts bodily distempers c. or from Satan more immediately of which nature are temptations Or from the world in persecutions and injuries by it done unto them and the Spouse seemeth to have a particular respect to these for she adds my Mothers Children were angry with me And as the particular Soul is subject to these blacknesses so is the Church 1. Through a mixture of ill members such as to use Judes phrase are spots in the Churches feasts of charity Such no Church of God hath been free from in any age some that are corrupt in their tenets and principles others that are so in their conversations God denominates his Church from the sincere and better part of it but the world alwaies denominates it from the worser part and cries Crimine ab uno disce omnes they are all alike hence there is no man causeth the name of God to be so reproached and evil spoken of as persons professing to religion and membership in Churches and living loosely oâ—growing corrupt in their Doctrines and Principles 2. The Church becomes black Through the admission of corruption in Doctrine Worship or Discipline All deviation from the Divine Rule where it is a sufficient rule in the case is the blackness of any Church it is a wonderful thing to observe how prone the heart of man is to this Though the Church of the Jews had a more infallible rule and more plain in this case then any other Church can pretend to Yet I cannot find that ever the Worship of God continued in it in purity fourscore years The longest was the time of David and Solomon who each of them reigned forty years but in the latter part of Solomons time it admitted of much corruption there was a great toleration of Idolatry as you read in the story and you shall observe in the whole History of that Church in how few Kings Reigns the high places and the groves were taken away and when they were taken away in one Kings Reign how soon they grew in fashion again in the next though there were no sins for which the Jews so severely smarted nor against which the wrath of God was more severely declared by the Prophets God sent amongst them If in the New Testament you look over the Epistles wrote to the Church of Corinth and Galatia and the seven Churches of Asia you will again find the same thing it is true every deviation from truth or from the purity of Worship or discipline will not unchurch a Church the Lord hateth putting away concerning Idolatry I know not what to say that is a Spiritual Adultery and every where in Scripture is call'd Whoredom and going a Whoring and as divorce was lawful in case of carnal adultery so possibly it may be presumed as to spiritual adultery that God hath said to a People Lo-ammi you are not my people who are lapsed to idolatry but for other failings tho the Lord liketh them not but hath something against every Church that admits any corruptions of this nature yet they are but spots and blemishes and how far a separation from such a Church may be lawful or is sinful is a great question I think a total separation is not But that is not my task at present to discourse 3. The Church also may be black through persecutions The afflicted state of the Church is called a lying amongst the pots Psal 68. 13. Probably there may be a time towards the end of the World when the true Church of Christ may enioy some tranquillity and enjoy a more serene quiet and fixed state then it hath yet enjoyed or doth at this day enjoy when it shall not be so incumbred by the Cross and those tribulations by which Christians have hitherto entred into the Kingdom of God there have been some both more ancient and modern Divines who have inclined to think that yet before the end of the World Christ shall reign upon the Earth a thousand years but whether that time which we call the day of Judgment shall last so long or those thousand years shall be a space of time preceding the last judgment whether those Scriptures which are usually interpreted in favour of that opinion signifying Christs being heve in Person or only a quiet and more tranquil estate of the Church are questions which I shall not undertake to determine But as the history of the Gospel Church hitherto justifieth that it hath been a state of affliction and blackness so most Divines are pretty well agreed that we are not to expect any other until those thousand years do begin so as in this respect we must look to see the Church of Christ black however white she be upon other accounts Now thus the Spouse is black not in Gods Eyes who judgeth not according to outward appearance but according to the heart and in his judgment of men counteth none the worse for what happeneth to them from the World or from the Devil and though he cannot look upon iniquity in the best so as to approve of it yet doth he not judge of them according to their failings but
that which should commend him or it No artificial beauty is our own and so a thing not to be gloried in All the comeliness of a Child of God is a derived comeliness His blackness is his own his comeliness is from another it is Christ that hath made him to differ he hath received his beauty and therefore ought not to glory as if he had not received it And this in the second place ought to mind them of their duty of thankfulness and admiration of â—he love of Christ When saith David I consider the Heavens the work of thy hands the Moon and the Start which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him Yet David in that Psalm is speaking of no more then Gods more common mercies of Creation and Providence but what greater reason hath a Child of God to cry out Lord what is man that thou shouldst remember him Lord What was I that thou shouldst remember me and fix thy love and put thy comeliness upon me I was by nature an Ethiopian and have contracted much more blackness by my conversation in the world now that the Lord should make us comely through his comeliness that he should fix his love upon any of our Souls and put any of his Chains about our Necks What manner of love was this To which of the Angels said he at any time aâ— Zech. 16. 8. When I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was a time of love and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness yea I sware unto thee and entered into a covenant of life with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Or as Jer. 3. v. 14. Turn O backsliding Children saith the Lord for I am married unto you To which of them hath he at any time said my Love my Dove my Vndefiled We had none of us either Beauty or Portion Christ hath given us both Admire the height and depth of Divine Love and consider what an ingratitude it would be if any of us should now like Israel Ezek. 16. 15. Trust in your own beauty and play the Harlotâ— and pour out fornications on every one that passeth by Bestow our hearts our love and affections upon any objects contrary to him beneath and besides him whether it be not reasonable that we should be wholly to him and for him who are wholly from him and are nothing but what we are in him Thirdly This notion calleth to the people of God not to be overmuch disquâ—eted and dejected It is one thing to walk humbly that is our duty another thing to walk dejectedly that is our infirmity we have no reason to be proud because we are black nor yet to despond and be dejected because in Christs Eyes if we be upright if we prepare and fix our hearts to seek the Lord we are comely We have no reason because of our blackness to glory in our selves but we have reason to rejoice and to glory in our comeliness which though indeed Christs comeliness yet being puâ—upon us becometh ours A believer hath therefore hath nothing to do but to see that his interest in Christ be clear and to see to wash his feet and he is clean every whit We have reason to consider our ways to reflect upon our infirmities to be humbled for our failings and to walk humbly at all times in the sense of them but still to incourage our selves in the Lord our righteousness to hope in God and rejoice in Christ tho we have no confidence in the flesh either in any priviledges of our birth or in any works of our own Lastly This Doctrine calleth upon all not to look upon the Spouse of Christ because she is black They are the words of our Spouse following in the next verse but the proper application of what she saith in this verse the use which she desireth her Brethren to make of this her imperfect and black state Something God willing shall be spoken hereafter more largely for the explication of those woâ—dâ— then the streightness of my time will now allow I shall therefore reserve the fuller explication of this duty until I come to the next verse and shall give you but a short tast and specimen of what I shall then more fully inlarge upon 1. We ought not to look upon the Spouse of Christ in these circumstances with a supercilious scornful and censorious Eye The Eye is the Oâ—gan of the body by which the Soul first taketh the cognisaâ—ce of a thing and is suitably affected there are two false rules by which we judge of persons 1. When we judge of them by particular actions 2 When we judge of them by external acâ—idents the first of them indeed is more proper then the latter because they are the fruit of the Soul the other are forreign and adventitious neither of them are a safe rule of Judgment not the former because none is to be denominated from single and particular acts and this the Philosopher will teach us and indeed if this rule of judgment should be true what judgment must have passed upon Lot Noah Abraham Jacob Job David Pâ—teâ— all the most eminent Servants of God whose names are upon Sacred Record they were all guilty of irregular acts Not the latter for it is not that which is accidental to a man but that which proceedeth from him that defileth a man Take therefore heed of a censorious scornful Eye when you look upon the People of God in their blackness consider that you also may be tempted that although you now stand yet you may fall 2. Look not upon her with a pleased and satisfied Eye The Eye is that Organ of the Booy which giveth the Soul delight content pleasure and satisfaction in the object Psal 92. v. 11. Mine Eye also shall see my desire upon mine Enemies We have naughty and corrupt hearts ready to take a secret delight and pleasure in the slips and failings of our Brethren let this be far from you either to rejoice in the real blackness the failings and miscarriages of any whose general conversation is not unworthy of the Gospel or to rejoice in any of their afflictions we are to weep with those that weep not to rejoice when we see our Brethren weep The first rejoicing is opposite to your duty with respect to the honour of God which suffereth by others sins as well as our own The second is eminently contrary to that love and fellow-feeling and compassion which we owe unto our Brethren Thirdly look not upon them so as to take out a copy for your imitation Rocks stand up in the Sea and lights stand upon the Land to give Ships notice of Rocks and Sands not that Mariners should run upon them but that they may avoid them for this end also are the failings and sins of Gods People Recorded in Holy Writ When you see a Child of God
Look under the vail of Religious Persons in the day of their afflictions The Vail may be black and yet the face White You may possibly see the People of God glorifying him in the Fires eminent faith adherence to God constancy patience shining forth in the People of God in the hour of their tryals you may possibly hear Paul and Silas singing praises unto God at midnight and the Apostles going away from their place of punishment rejoicing that the Lord hath thought them worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ and here a Job resolving that Tho the Lord slayeth him yet he will trust in him These things speak a Lilly tho amongst thorns Sermon XXXVIII Cant. 1. 6. My mothers Children were angry with me I am now come to the 2d cause which the Spouse of Christ here assigneth of her appearing blackness The Anger of her Mothers Children My Mothers Children saith she were angry with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They fought in me or they fought against me In my explication of the verse I told you that some by Mothers Children understand those lusts and corruptions which are members of that body of death which yet remain in the best of Gods People those members mentioned by the Apostle Col. 3. 5. which we have while we live upon the Earth for our exercise to mortify these lye in the womb of the same Soul together with our habits of grace these are those which the Apostle calls the flesh which lusteth against the Spirit These cause that war in our members mentioned James 4. 1. they war against the Soul 1. Pet. 2. 11. Others 2. understand by the Mothers Children mentioned in the text False brethren such members of the Church as are indeed the Children of the Church our visible Mother but not the Children of our heavenly Father Tho in my own judgment I rather incline to the latter as the sense of the Text yet I shall give that deference to those worthy Interpreters that have mentioned the former that there being a truth in that I shall take both senses into the Proposition which I shall law down thus The conflict which particular believers have with their own inbred lusts and corruptions and which the Church hath with false brethren will often make them appear black to the Eye of the World Here are two propositions wrapped up together 1. That true Christians will have conflicts with their own lusts and corruptions and the true members of the Church with such as are false brethren 2. That both the particular Christians and the Church of Christ in these conflicts will appear black 1. True Christians will have conflicts with their lusts and corruptions This is so great a truth that this Spiritual conflict is a note of the truth of grace in the Soul It is indeed as wars use to be sometimes hotter sometimes cooler and more remiss and the Soul is in it sometimes more sometimes less a conquerour as God will please to afford the Soul more or less of his strength but it is always something When God did bring the Israelites into Canaan he was not pleased at once to drive them cut but by little and little Exod. 23. 28 29. neither were they faultless for many of the Tribes did not drive them out Judah could not drive them out Judg. 1. 19. It is said of several of the other Tribes that they did not drive them out Upon which God resolveth that he would not drive them out but they should be as thorns in their sides God in bringing Souls out of a state of nature into a state of grace doth not wholly drive out lust and corruption he bringeth sin out of its Dominion Rom 6. 13. So as it reigneth not in the mortal Bodies of the Saints sin like the tree in Nebuchadnezzars vision Dan. 4. 14. is hewed down many of its branches are cut off and its leaves and its fruit is scattered and the Soul is got from under it but yet the stump of its roots are in the Earth tho bound with a band of Iron and Brass kept under by the law of the Christians mind that he getteth no dominion the Soul is not under the power of it Now as there was a continual war betwixt the Canaanites left in the land and the Israelites so there is a continual war and spiritual combate betwixt those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these passions of sin these lustings of the flesh and the Spiritual part of the Spiritual man Paul doth excellently describe this conflict Rom. 7. 21. I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the law of God as to my inward man But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. Saint Paul sets forth himself there as a man in a battel and sometimes taken Prisoner So again Gal 5. â—7 For the 〈…〉 Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contr ary the one to the other And indeed in the last words lyes the reason of this war and conflict It is of the nature of contraries to expell one another not to indure one another in the same subject but to be in a continual combate till the one or the other hath got the Victory Grace in Scripture is compared to light sin to darkness light and darkness mutually expell one another so doth Grace and lust Now both these being in the Soul of the regenerate man who is but Sanctified in part and neither of them being lazy and inactive but active and operative principles there must be this conflict which I have mentioned this war in our members which makes the People of God look black 2. And as it fares with individual Christians with respect to their lusts and corruptions so it also fareth with the Collective Spouse the Church of Christ with respect to false Brethren who are the presumptive but not the true members of it 1. such will be in the Church while it is upon the Earth 2. And these will be angry with the true members of it 1. while the Church is upon the Earth it will be like a field of Wheat which hath tares in it the Gospel and the preaching of it is like a drag-net which draweth unto the Church as its shore Fish both good and bad there will come a time when the Lord will take his fan and throughly purge his floor but that will be in the day of judgment if we look upon Gods ancient Church the Congregation of Israel there was a Jannes and a Jambnes that resisted Moses a Corah Dathan and Abiram that rose up against Moses Aaron many false Prophets to mislead People many more false hearts that were easily misled the Chaldee
the Lord made me to understand by his hand upon me in writing If you would know what that was v. 12 13. The Pattern of all that he had by the Spirit of the Courts of the House of the Lord and of all the Chambers round about of the Treasuries of the House of God and of the Treasuries of the dedicate things also for the courses of the Priests and Levites and for all the work of the Service of the House of the Lord Texts of Scripture which they are not aware of who bring in David as an instance of a Prince who added new Acts or Modes or Rites and Ceremonies in the Worship of God David ordered no more than the Lord had made him to understand in writing by his Spirit and by his hand upon him One would think that mens common reason should judge it safest to keep to the Divine Rule and that it should be the easiest thing But so vain hath man been in all Ages that you shall find they could never content themselves with that Rule but as if they had had a mind to pull down the Vengeance of God upon them they were continually devising new waies and methods after the example of other Nations and copying out their Idolatries and Superstitions The Jews must make a golden Calf in imitation of the Egyptians then they fall in with the Idols of the Moabites Micah must have an Image Jeroboam must set up Calves at Dan and Bethel In short this was the constant vanity of the Jews to all reasonable mens just admiration Christ left us a perfect Rule for Worship under the New Testament But how soon was the Primitive Church in matter of Worship turned aside from the simplicity of the Gospel It kept Doctrine in good degrees of Purity for five hundred years after Christ but the Purity of Worship was abated in many places within less than three hundred years and every Age still grew worse and worse till the Pope got into the Saddle and then that Pope was no body who could not think upon one trifle or other to be added to the Rituals of Worship Till the Popish Worship came up to be what it is at this day a mixture of Paganish Jewish and Christian Rites And it is a very hard thing for any who readeth the Gospel and observeth Christ's Rules and the Apostles Practice and Rules for Worship and Ordinances to find any thing amongst them which hath upon it Christ and the Apostles Stamp and Impression 8. In all times this hath been a temptation to sincere Professors and many both Ministers and People individual Believers and Churches to deviate from the Divine Rule Either the Commands of Superiours have prevailed as in Jeroboam's time it is laid to the charge of the Israelites Hos 5. 11. That they willingly followed the Commandment It is like some not very willingly neither but the more of their will was in it the greater the guilt was and they are chiefly blamed so Micah 6. 16. The Statutes of Omri are kept Or else the Example of their Leaders in Church or State have had the force of a Law upon them Or the gaudry or specious pretences made for things introduced have had a force upon them Many things having as the Apostle saith a shew of Wisdom and Will worship and a neglecting of the body 8. And lastly When these things have happened they have been the blackness and pollution of those Souls and those Churches that have been so far prevailed upon Black and white in this case must be determined and adjudged from a strict adherence to or a deviation from the Divine Rule Those that are brought over to such compliances have discoloured themselves more or less according to the degree wherein they have offended They have kept others Vineyards but their own they have not kept The trust which their Lord and Master committed to them as to the Ordinances of Worship they have not kept 1. These things bring a blackness and unloveliness upon the Soul or upon a Church in the Eyes of God and of Jesus Christ He may not presently give them a Bill of Divorce and say unto them they are not his People but he looks upon them with an ill Eye as a speckled Bird Jer. 12. 9. Mine Inheritance saith God is become unto me as a speckled Bird they kept something of Divine impressions and institutions but they were speckled they had some colours fetched from the Moabites and Ammonites and Philistins c. It is his will that those who worship him should worship him according to his will in Spirit and in Truth such the Father seeketh to worship him now these things spoil the truth of Divine Worship which must be measured from a Divine Institution And they spoil the spirituality of it reducing Carnal Ordinances and setting them up instead of the Spiritual Worship of God Such indeed the Jews had for a time as you read Heb. 9. 10. but they were to hold no longer than until the time of Reformation The Gospel-worship was to be exclusive not only of Ordinances that were typical prefiguring a better and most excellent Sacrifice and Service which were fulfilled the Antitypes being come but it was also exclusive of Carnal Ordinances such as were pleasing and gratifying to the flesh and outward man The Worship of God according to Christ's Institution was to be more reasonable plain and spiritual 2. Nay Errours in the matters of the Worship of God do not only defile and make the Soul guilty but exceeding guilty Errours of Worship look like controulments of the Divine Wisdom who sent his Son and his Apostles to establish a Rule of Worship These additaments speak the Establisht Rule imperfect for otherwise they must be idle and superfluous nothing of which nature is to be admitted in so grave and sacred an action The Assertion of the Divine Rule as not perfect in the matter of Worship reflecteth upon our Saviour either as not knowing what it is that in worship would be most acceptable to his Father or as not faithful in the House of God Or finally as carelesly leaving things of that nature to the wills and fancies of men as whose wildness even from the beginning of the world to that time had shewed it self in nothing more But besides how can we better measure the greatness of any guilt than by the Revelations of God's will and wrath against it and in reference to it If you observe the Old Testament throughout from the time of the Israelites coming out of Egypt to their coming out of Babylon you fhall find the will of God fully revealed against no one sin or kind of sin like this of corruption and faileurs in the matter of his Worship so as such Souls must needs be black in the Eyes of Christ because guilty and that not in an ordinary degree 2. Hence also these things have made them black in the Eyes of the sincerer part of Christians Thus
profits honour c. as well as with the supply of our necessities We live in and converse with the world which is full of objects that gratifie our sensitive appetite in these things these are continual temptations to us to remit at least the care of our own souls to neglect our own Vineyards The Church also while it is militant here on Earth considered as Visible hath in it a great mixture of the world though not of the Pagen world there must be a profession of Christ in all the Members of the Visible Church yet of that world which lyeth in wickedness and it is this mixture of Hypocrites with such as are the sincere Servants of God that causeth the Church's neglect of its Vineyard All the remissness in a Church of its care as to the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of Christ proceedeth from this mixture of persons who are no more than Visible with such as are sincere and true Members of the Church of Christ 4. A fourth cause of this neglect is mens foolish presumptions that they are well enough The work of every particular Person in keeping the Vineyard of his own Soul is so contrary to the grain of flesh and blood that not only the natural man but even the Sanctified man in regard of that corruption which is yet in him is ready to take up with short measures of it and to think his Vineyard is well enough kept when indeed it is not men are loth to be righteous over much and are very apt to think that a little is enough We are very apt to think that we do enough duty and consider not the mark which we are to press after the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ It is something natural to us to think we may not only do but over-do what God requireth of us when alas when we have done all we can we are unprofitable servants servants so that what we do is but our duty unprofitable servants so that what we do cometh much short of our duty Perfection is what we are all bound to aim at and strive after but withal it is what no man attaineth not as though I had already attained or were already perfect saith the Apostle You know in works that are not naturally pleasing to us we are well pleased to think we have done enough Thus it is in the business of Religion and holiness they are things which please not flesh and blood so as we are well pleased when we can Satisfy our selves and think that we need do no more nor go any further and as it is with particular Christians so it is with Churches all which have not Pastors and Governours according to Gods own heart nor are all the members of them members of Christ Now those who are not so are no great lovers of nor zealous for the perfection of purity but can take up with measures short of those which Christ hath made and given Hence is that neglect of the keeping their own Vineyards which is but too obvious in all Churches and hence are those obvious declinations in that duty which men owe to God and in the purity of Churches every Age is still declining and growing worse then the former whiles a party in the Church still studyeth more and more to wriggle their neck out of the yoke of Christ and to get rid of some ingrateful things to flesh and blood which a former Age retained For as no particular Person at first runs up to the highest degree of wickedness so seldom doth any Church at first Apostatize to that degree but gradually declineth None shall need to enquire whence it is that this Neglect of our own Vineyards maketh us to appear thus black who but considereth that this Neglect is contrary to the Divine rule which obligeth us to keep our hearts with all diligence Prov. 423. to strive after perfection and to go on unto it and also obligeth all Churches to keep that which is committed to their trust to keep the Lords Word c. There is no medium in this case betwixt black and white The Whiteness beauty and glory of a Christian lyeth in his holding fast of his profession both of faith and holiness his keeping close to the divine rule and here in also lyeth the whiteness and beauty of those assemblyes of Christians which we call Churches and the more or less both of a Christians and of a Churches beauty and whiteness lyeth in his or their more or less conformity to the divine rule which being granted their neglect of this must necessarily render them black and make them to appear so to others This discourse may in the first place let us see the weakness of our faith in our different apprehensions of our worldly and spiritual concernments Certainly had we the same persuasions that we have Souls as that we have Bodies as quick apprehensions of the danger of our Souls miscarriage as we have of our bodily dangers had we but a firm persuasion of the excellency of our Souls above our Bodies we should have an equal if not a greater care to keep this Vineyard of our immortal Soul as we have to keep our Bodies but have we so It is true there are some in the World that are lazy and slothful as to their outward concerns they will rather steal or beg then work but these are but few in comparison of others God hath given men a body to look after with what diligence doth he keep that he riseth up early lyeth down late and eateth the bread of carefulness and all this for the keeping of his body but for this Vineyard of the Soul of man how few are they that look after it how little is the diligence that is used in keeping of that who attendeth the health of his Soul with that diligence that he attendeth his bodily health or the maintenance and food of his Soul with the same diligence that he attendeth his bodily food and sustenance or the adorning of his Soul with the same care and diligence that he attendeth the adorning of his body What doth this argue doth it not speak either that men have no great opinion that they have immortal Souls or that they have no great opinion of the price and value of them or that they do not think there is so much care necessary for the keeping of them We may observe from hence upon what the blackness of particular Souls and Churches is principally to be charged There may be some blame to be laid upon forrein causes Temptations from the World and the Devil but the greatest blame must be laid upon our selves Did we keep our watch so strictly as we might keep it Temptations could have no such power upon us as they have the Devil and the world can do no more then strike fire the tinder that receiveth it must be in our own box when the Prince of the World came to Christ
he could do nothing against him because he found nothing in him If the Devil found nothing in our Souls he could do nothing against them but only disturb them The like may be said for the corruptions of Churches If the husbandmen did not sleep the Enemy could not sow so many tares All corruptions in the Doctrine of faith in matters of Worship and discipline have crept in by the Officers of Churches not keeping their own Vineyards The man of sin the Western Antichrist had never so hacknyed the Western Churches if they had not like Issachar Couched under the burden and bowed their necks down to the Yoke I shall shut up this discourse with a few Words of Exhortation to all to keep their own Vineyards I shall not here speak to the duty of husbandmen Spiritual husbandmen to keep the Vineyard of the Church it were a Proper discourse from the Doctrine but I am not in a proper auditory And besides would every particular Christian but keep the Vineyard of his own Soul the care of Magistrates and Ministers who are the keepers of Christs Vineyard might be less Christians woful remissness and neglect in keeping the more particular Vineyards of their own Souls is that which makes the work of the keepers of the more publick Vineyard of the Church so difficult and almost unpracticable to them Let me therefore only lay a little stress here as we say if every man would sweep his own door the street would be clean So it is true if every one would look to the Vineyard of his own particular Soul or his particular family the Church of God would be clean for that is made up but of particular families and particular Souls When these Vineyards are kept the more publick Vineyard which is made up of these must also be kept Wherein the keeping of our Vineyards lyeth you have heard viz. 1. In the keeping of it clear of weeds and noxious plants 2. In the cultivation and manuring such plants as are fit for it In these two things lyeth the keeping of Gardens and Vineyards amongst men in these two things lyeth the keeping of our Vineyards in a metaphorical more spiritual sense you whom God hath trusted with the care of others have a larger Vineyard then those that are solute The Wife is a part of the Husbands Vineyard Children are their parents Vineyard Servants are their Masters Vineyard Every mans family is his Vineyard If any be single his Soul is his Vineyard The keeping of your Vineyards lyeth in a keeping of them free from Scandal not suffering sin upon any that stand in any relation to you we ought not to do it as to our neighbour much less as to any that are our neighbours in thenearest and strictest sense and who stand in nearest concernment to us David resolved to walk within his house with a perfect heart that the faithful in the land should dwell with him and that he that walked in a perfect way should serve him that he that wrought deceit should not dwell within his house he that telleth lyes should not abide in his sight Psal 101. 2 7 8. Abraham commanded his Children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment Gen. 18. 19. For you that have only the Vineyards of your own Souls to keep neglect them not I will press this upon you with 2 considerations which I shall recommend to you 1. The first shall be The value of the Vineyards with which God hath betrusted to you The Vineyards are Souls either your own Souls or the Souls of others or both Which way soever you consider a Soul whether as a Spiritual being or as a reasonable being indued with noble faculties or as an immortal being that cannot perish with the body as that part of man which beareth the most lively impress of the image of God as that which was purchased by the blood of Christ and which is the habitation of God through the Spirit in which the holy Spirit may dwell that which is ordained to an Eternity either of happiness or misery which way soever you look upon your own Souls or the Souls of those who are committed to your trusts they are noble Vineyards Reason teacheth us to take the best care of our best and most excellent things I have thought it often a most unreasonable vanity of some Gentlemen to take a great deal more care of the managery of an horse or hawk then of their Sons It is every whit as great if not a much greater vanity to take a greater care of the bodies and outward concerns of their relations then of their Souls What can be laid in ballance with a Soul which will not be found too light for it what shall be offered in exchange for it and not rejected as of too low a consideration Of what value think you that must be which was bought with the blood of him who was the Son of God Consider of what value the profession of your faith and the practice of holiness is your faith is called precious faith and of holiness it is said that without it none shall see the Lord. 2. Secondly Consider who it is that hath betrusted you with them Behold saith God All Souls are mine It is God that hath given unto us the trust of our own Souls and the trusts of others Souls for all Souls are originally Gods He breaths the Soul into the body of a man he puts Souls into mens families I beseech you consider here these particulars 1. That every Person of reputation and honour valueth a trust and thinks it beneath a man not to discharge a trust he undertakes with some degrees of faithfulness We see in our daily experience that as men naturally Love to be trusted so they have a kind of natural religion for the keeping and discharging of it This is what makes men consciencious as to the wills of Persons that are dead All Souls are trusts our particular Souls are trusts the Souls of our relations are trusts to us The property of all Souls is Gods the trust of them is in us I wish this were but well thought on the wicked men mentioned by the Psalmist said our lips are our own who is Lord over us Psal 12. 4. men think that they may do what they will with what they have a full propriety in This is a great cause of mens neglect of their Souls they dream too much of an absolute property they have in them they say their Souls are their own Who is Lord over them would men consider their Souls a little more as trusts they would take a stricter care of them 2. Tho we naturally value all trusts yet such as our Superiours or near friends commit to us we yet value more A dread of our Superiours makes us to value and take care of what they have committed to our trust a love to our friends makes us value theirs
is this Thou believing Soul who in my Eyes art more beautiful and lovely then any other Soul in the world if thou beest in any thing ignorant of my will and where to meet me and how to enjoy fellowship and communion with me do not stray from the rule of my word nor vary from the examples of those whom I gave for Shepherds to my People keep close to them to their Doctrine and to my Ordinances administred by them There thou shalt find me There I rest at noon These two verses thus opened afford us several Propositions of Doctrine as matter of further discourse Prop. 1. Christ is he and only he whom the believing Soul loveth Prop. 2. Though there may be a time when such a Soul may conceal and disown its love to Christ yet there will be a time when it will break forth and she will acknowledge it Prop. 3. A gracious Soul desireth nothing more then a quiet full and sweet communion with Christ Prop. 4. Christ hath shades where he resteth and feedeth his flock under the greatest and most scorching Afflictions Prop. 5. Though a pious Soul never slighteth a communion with Christ yet she never prizeth it at an higher rate then in an hour of greatest trials and temptations Prop. 6. Gods People will especially in times of trial and great temptation be prone to fall into sin and error to the scandal of their profession Prop. 7. Sin and Scandal are the two great things which a gracious Soulfears Prop. 8. The Believing Soul is of all other Souls the most beautiful in Christs Eyes Prop. 9. The Beauty of this Soul is not perfect it may in some things be ignorant Prop. 10. The surest way for a Soul to get a perfect instruction in the things that concern its spiritual good and to keep and to enjoy communion with Christ is to feed its self by the Tents of Christs Shepherds and to live according to the examples and directions of his holy Servants recorded in Holy Writ I begin with the first of which I shall speak but briefly Prop. 1. Jesus Christ is he whom the Soul loveth with a singular love I put in the term singular because as I told you the phrase imports it Love is nothing else but the adhaesion or cleaving of the Soul to an object out of a goodness and suitableness which it hath discerned in it with a complacency which the Soul taketh in it which is such as if the Soul wants it it desires it if it enjoyeth it it is glad and rejoyceth in it which being first considered it followeth that look how many objects as there are that have in them any goodness or suitableness to our state so many objects of our love there are in the world And 2. That look how much goodness and suitableness to us we apprehend in one object more than in another so much we love one thing more than another or one person more than another 2. There is also a love that floweth from Union and Relation of which we are not able to give a perfect account the Parent loves the Child and the Husband loves the Wife and the Wife the Husband not alwaies out of Judgment The Husband discerning in the Wife a suitableness to him is not alwaies the cause of love Nor is the Child's love to the Mother or Father alwaies rational flowing from an apprehension of the suitableness of the Parent to it but rather from an impetus of nature an unaccountable complacency in those whom God hath made correlates caused by the God of Nature who hath made them one flesh who so deliberately considereth this will easily understand a double reason of the Believers Love to Christ 1. The first is That Union which is betwixt the believing Soul and the Lord Jesus Christ which is wrought by Faith this produceth this second Union which is that of Love By Faith Christ is united to the Soul and becometh a member of his body and that is followed by this Union of Love The Soul in the same hour wherein it is united by Faith to Christ being taught of God to love the Lord Jesus Christ It 's a piece of its Regeneration which continually followeth Justification and is indeed coaevous with it so that as in the natural Union the same day the man becomes a Father or the Woman a Mother there is a new Emanation of affection and love the Man or Woman that before knew nothing of the heart of a Parent now begins to feel it and in the moral Union betwixt the Husband and Wife the same day that they are married to each other there floweth a reciprocal Affection each to other so as they then begin to know the heart of an Husband and a Wife of which they knew little or nothing before So it is upon the Spiritual Union as the God of Nature influenceth the Souls of persons whom he hath given one to another in natural and moral Relations ordinarily for a reciprocal usefulness one to another So the God of Grace influenceth the Soul put into a spiritual Relation to Christ That the Believer upon his Union with Christ doth find his heart cleaving to and taking a complacency in the Lord Jesus Christ and begins thus to know the heart of a Believer And look as it is in the moral Relation betwixt the Wife and the Husband though the Man may have heard such reports of the virtues and excellencies of the Woman before he hath married her as hath inforced from him a complacency in her yet this bears no proportion to that delight and complacency he taketh in her when she is once married to him So although a Soul upon the large discourses he hath heard of Christ and of his love to Mankind and what he hath done and is ready to do for the Souls of men may have some good thoughts of him and some kind of complacency in his thoughts of him yet there is a vast difference betwixt this and that complacency which the Soul taketh in Christ when it is once by Faith united to him and amongst other habits of grace hath that of Love to God infused into his Soul according to that Rom. 5. 5. The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us I know there is a Dispute raised by some whether the natural man's love to God differeth from the Believer's love to God specifically or only gradually I do not think that these spiritual habits fall under those logical measures I am sure it is a love flowing quite from another cause The natural man's love is no more than a natural Plant cultivated by reason the other 's is a fruit of the Spirit so as they differ further than gradually but whether we should call it specifically or no or want a Logical term to express the difference I shall not think it worth my time to enquire 2. A second Reason of the Believer's love and so
great and singular love to Christ floweth from his Experimental discerning of that admirable suitableness that is in Christ to his Soul and the exceeding love which he hath shewn to him 1. A Believer hath another kind of persuasion of the Love of Christ and the excellency that is in him than it is possible another should have 1. A persuasion flowing from Faith And 2. Confirmed by Experience I say first flowing from Faith We know a thing by Sense Reason or Revelation the Excellency of Christ falleth not under the demonstration of Sense Reason indeed working upon Principles of Revelation I mean concluding from the Revelation of holy Writ will shew even a natural man much goodness much excellency in Christ But this Knowledge is very far from that certainty which Faith begetteth in the Soul which is a certainty against which the Soul hath nothing to oppose ordinarily Faith is an Evidence and the strongest Evidence to the Soul of what it doth not see by the Eye of Sense and seeth very imperfectly by the Eye of Reason 2. A Believer's Knowledge is confirmed by Experience as he hath heard from the Word of God so he hath seen in the dispensations of God to his Soul His Soul is sprinkled with the Blood of Christ it was lost it is now found It lay under the guilt of sin and through Christ's satisfaction it is acquitted Though every Believer hath not a full persuasion of this yet he hath a good hope through grace and this cannot but kindle in his Soul a vehement flame of love to Christ Bless the Lord O my Soul saith the Psalmist Psal 103. 3 4. and all that is within me bless his holy Name Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction Nor hath he only some experience of the suitableness of Christ to his Soul considered as a lost undone Soul but he hath as firm a persuasion of Christ's readiness as well as ability to supply all his wants to hear all his prayers to supply all its necessities to bless it with all spiritual blessings there is no Soul that lives in such a view as a Believing Soul of its daily renewing sins and so standing in need of daily repeated acts of pardon daily renewings of spiritual strength c. It knows it is in the power of none to help it but Christ alone he alone sitteth at the right hand of God to make Intercession for the Soul he is he alone who can be its Advocate at the Throne of Grace It is the Spirit of Christ through which he must mortifie the deeds of the body and who must strengthen it with might to all the operations of the spiritual life It is so natural to the Soul to love those that love it that our Saviour saith if you do it what reward have you The Soul thus apprehending Christ its love towards him proceedeth in a natural order and riseth higher as it knoweth that the love which he hath shewed it and doth shew it is the greatest love For greater love than this can no man shew than that a man should die for his friend Christ hath died for it while it was an Enemy We saith the Apostle being Enemies to God were reconciled unto him through the death of his Son The evil from which he delivered it was the greatest evil The reason why the natural man loveth not Christ is because though he hath indeed heard much of Christ and of his love to the Sons of men yet he believeth not or giveth only a faint and careless Assent unto what he readeth and heareth concerning him He hath experienced nothing concerning the evil of sin nor feeleth any need of pardon and so cannot possibly discern or apprehend that goodness and excellency that is in Christ nor that suitableness to a Soul's state that a Believer is apprehensive of And in regard the wants of the body are no way to be compared with the wants of the Soul and the wants of the Soul cannot be supplied from any except only Ministerially but from Christ alone the Soul must necessarily love Christ with a singular love and all other things in subordination unto him so as they must stand in no competition for the Soul's Affection with him much less can such a Soul love any thing that offers it self in opposition to him I might inlarge fuurther in giving you Reasons for such a Soul 's singular love to Christ but I have touched upon this Argument before and these are the two main Reasons of their singular love unto him Their pourings out of their whole hearts their intire Affections into his bosom I shall only add a short Application of this Discourse Let us all by this try our selves whether we be the Spouse of Christ yea or no that is whether we be true believers yea or no and true Members of the Church of Christ by this we shall know it If we can look up to Heaven and say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth There are many who go into the number of those who make up the visible Church who are not the Spouse of Christ or at least shall not be of the number of those hereafter who shall make up the Lambs Wife mentioned Rev. 21. 9. They are not that Spouse mentioned Rev. 19. 7. To whom it is granted that she shall be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white or of those blessed ones who shall be called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The contract betwixt the Soul and Christ is made in secret In that contract as in others Christ consents to receive the Soul and the Soul consenteth to receive Christ The former of these indeed is sufficiently in the general declared in the more general call and invitation of the Gospel wherein Christ calleth to all to whom the Gospel is preached to come unto him promising that he will receive them and that he will by no means cast them away yet he hath not there spoken this to any particular person by name only in general to all those who are weary and heavy laden and who come unto him and the Soul is often at a loss in determining concerning the truth of its own acts in coming to and receiving of Christ tendred in the Gospel On the other side the presumptuous man is like the foolish young man in the world that thinks that every young woman who smileth on him or speaketh kindly to him will presently take him for her Husband and concludeth good to himself from every smile of providence but to satisfy the true Christian and to convince others of their folly let every Soul know that there is no Soul can take any comfort of this nature but that Soul only that can truly say unto Christ O thou whom my Soul loveth and certainly would men and women be true to themselves they might from hence determine their Spiritual state But yet as there is a common
green pastures for his flock in the day time and a secure fold for them at night yea and a fitting shadow for them at noon Christ doth so for his little flock to whom it 's his his Fathers and his will to give a Kingdom There shall be no want of those that fear him In the day time of their lives he feeds and protects them by his providence he nourisheth them by his ordinances and daily influences of grace In the night of death he folds their Bodies in the grave their Souls in Abrahams bosom It is the work of a Shepherd to provide and look out pasture for his sheep when that ordinary pasture is burnt up like a wilderness It is our great Shepherds work to provide feeding and resting places when either publick trials afflictions and persecutions debar them of their ordinary subsistence upon common providence or ordinary and more publick dispensations of publick ordinances and institutions the common food of their Souls But you will say to me what are these shadows from the heat these feeding and resting places which Christ hath provided wherein to feed and rest his flock at such a Noon 1. First he feedeth them upon the promises either more general or more specially suited to their particular trials Jeremiah saith Jer. 15. 16. I found thy words and did eat them and they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart Jeremy possibly there speaketh of the word of Prophecy which was as welcome to him as his meat But what was the word of Prophecy but the revelation of the will of God to him which when it was foretelling some judgment to come upon the People is more ordinarily called The Burden of the Lord The Believing Soul also in the Noon time of his Affliction and tryal finds the word of the Lord this he digesteth by faith and they become the joy and rejoycing of his heart By these things men live said Hezekiah some understand his affliction Others the promises of God made to him in the day of his Affliction The carnal heart understands not this food it is to him all one with feeding upon the air The promises are onely yea and Amen in Christ they are as shew bread of which none but the Royal Priest-hood can eat when the Child of God hath nothing else to eat he will yet feed upon a promise I had perisht saith David in my affliction if thy word had not been my delight Psal 119. v. 92. Latimer is said to have made his last meal upon that promise 1 Cor. 10. 13. Faithful is God who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able It is also reported of one Mr. Midgely a Minister in Yorkshire that being under horrid temptations to destroy himself and going once to the water side with design to do it carrying in his pocket the New Testament he paused a while to read a little and happily fell upon that text Mat. 1. 28. 29. Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you upon the reading of which he said to himself or to God rather sayest thou so I will not then drown my self yet The large field of the promises is one of those green pastures Where Christ at Noon feedeth his flock and maketh them to rest It is a feeding place which is at all times green the promises contain the Sure mercies of God He that liveth upon meer Sensible enjoyments feedeth but upon Grass and Flowers The Grass will wither and Flowers will fade But the word of the Lord abideth for Ever and there are some promises or others which sute the Soul in all its states and circumstances of Tryal and affliction 2. Secondly Christ sometimes feeds his flock at noon upon Special Providences And these are also of several sorts either of Protection from the Evil or Sustentation in and under trouble or deliverances out of trouble sometimes when thousands and ten thousands fall on their right and left hand The Plague shall not come nigh their dwellings according to the promise Psal 91. v. 7. In a time of famine Corn shall be fetched out of Egypt for Jacobs Family the Prophet shall be fed by a raven or the multiplying of the little meal in the widows barrel and the little Oyl in the cruse Sometimes they shall by some miraculous or at least inexpected waies and means be delivered out of trouble so were the three Children in the fiery fornace Daniel in the den of Lions of these there are multitudes of instances in Ecclesiastical History 3. Thirdly He sometimes feeds his People by Special influences either of strengthening or comforting grace In the multitude of my perplexing thoughts saith David thy comforts delight my Soul Psal 34. v. 19. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us saith the Apostle so our consolations abound by Christ 2 Corinth 1. 5. He will saith Job put strength into me Hence the Servants of God are inabled to rejoyce in tribulation under sicknesses have professed that they were never better and in great trials have rejoiced with a joy unspeakable Rejoycing in tribulation floweth not from the Tribulation For no affliction is joyous but grievous but from the influences of God upon the Soul in and under its tribulation Some one or other of these waies and means Christ feedeth his flock in a time of Trial and maketh them to rest in the Noon time of Trials and afflictions I proceed to the application of this discourse This in the first place commendeth the love of Christ to his little flock They say the Devil leaves the Witch when she is once in Gaol or upon trial for her life how true that is I cannot tell but certain it is that his Servants have no great help from him in an hour of straits and adversity this indeed speaks no love which never so much or so clearly shineth as through a Cloud of sad Providences Solomon tells us that a friend is made for an hour of adversity But herein is the Love of Christ manifested to those that have relation to him my Soul saith Mary Luk. 1. 4647. doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden Christ regardeth the low estate of his People he leaveth them not when they are in distress Isaiah 43. 1 2. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee For I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour This lets us see the wonderful difference betwixt the state and condition of believers and unbelievers The world hath no places where to make their flocks to rest at Noon The Devil takes no care for his flock at
This saith he thou hast seen O God keep not silence O Lord be not thou far from me so Psal 38. 21 22. Psal 71. 12. Every Christians experience is a full proof of this so as the Proposition needeth no further proof only let me shew you the reason of it The great Reason is Because we are all of us more prone to live by sight then by faith The Apostle saith we live by faith not by sight He tells you what he himself and other Christians then did and what all good Christians should do The just saith the Prophet shall live by faith But through our infirmity we do live more by sight then we do by faith It is a lesson very hard to flesh and blood could we live more by faith there would be these two consequents to such a life 1. In the day of our sensible contentments we should live more upon the word and promises of God then upon any sensible comforts and enjoyments But it is hard for us to have a staff lent us and not to lean upon it so when it breaketh we come to see our errors and see more need of the influences of Divine Grace at such then at other times 2. We should see as much in God and in Christ to uphold and maintain our selves in an evil day as at any other times for the promises are the same and Christ in whom all the promises are yea and Amen is the same and Gods all-sufficiency is the same he is at all times the God that changeth not This being premised as the great and original cause we may conceive some further and more particular reasons 2. Because in this Noon all creature comforts fail yea and in some afflictions sensible spiritual comforts sometimes fail also In trials that are more external such as bodily afflictions persecutions c. outward comforts fail when the Sun shineth upon our Tabernacles and the rod of God is not upon us we are then ready to forget God when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked up the heel when these outward consolations are taken away then the Soul beginneth to see that it stands in need of some other supports If the Affliction be some divine desertion then the sensible consolations of the Holy Spirit fail also what Daviá said in his prosperity Psal 30. 6. I shall never be moved we are all of us too prone to say in the day of our prosperity but as it fared him with v. 7. so it fareth with us when the Lord hideth his face we are troubled It is too natural even to the best of men not to know the God of our mercies in the day of our mercies It was Israels sin Hosea 2. 8. For she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oil. We do not so duly attend to that which we profess to know that our Soul strength and Soul comforts are from the Lord and hence it is that in the day when they are withdrawn we see a more special need of the presence and influence of Christ upon us It is the unhappiness and infirmity of humane nature that we seldom either understand our mercies or the Author and Fountain of them till we come to want them while we have health and peace and liberty while we have inward strength and quiet we neither understand the value of these mercies nor Eye God as we should do as the Author of them but in the noon time of our tryals and afflictions whether more immediately from God in bodily afflictions or divine desertions or more immediately from men then we both understand the value of our mercies and also what need we have of the presence of God with us and the influences of God upon us At other times we live very much upon our more sensible enjoyments now we have not them to live upon and so see a more need of a God and a Christ to live upon 3. Ordinarily at such a time Our lusts and corruptions move very impetuously A man never so well knows the lusts and corruptions of his own heart as in an evil day Natura vexata prodit Sâ—ipsam Anger a man we say and you will see his temper when God by his providence vexeth a poor creature as others will see something so he will see more what lusts and corruptions are in his heart The Devil knew this well enough when he replyed to God commending his servant Job Put forth now thine hand and touch him and he will eurse thee to thy face Now as every good Soul keepeth a watch upon his heart and observeth the motions of sin and lust in his Soul so he never seeth more of the need of the presence and influence of God upon his Soul then when Iniquities prevail against him When Paul cries out of the body of death he presently cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me 4. Lastly His Grand Adversary the Devil is never more busy then at such a time Times of afflictions are not only times of divine temptations when God proveth and tryeth his People whether they will adhere and keep close to him but of Diabolical Suggestions and temptations also When the Devil is making tryal whether he can pluck a Soul out of Christs hand and out of his Fathers hand The Psalmist calls the Devil The fowler and he knows hard weather is the best time for his purpose he first gets a commission against Job to take away all that he had saving his life onely and then his Wife cometh and persuadeth him to curse God and dye and he followeth him with many other Suggestions and temptations This was the reason of Saint Pauls writing to the Church of Corinth to restore the incestuous Person who by his order was cast out of their communion lest saith he he should be swallowed up of too much grief and Satan should have advantage against him for we are not ignorant of his devices We are never so sensible what need we have of our friends as when our enemies appear most busy most strong and active Hence it is that although a believer seeth a need of the presence and influence of Christ at all times yet he never seeth so great a need of him as in a time of great and sharp trials and afflictions when trouble is hard at hand I shall shut up this discourse with a Word or two of exhortation shortly This should ingage all of us so to behave our selves towards our Lord in the morning of our prosperity that we may not want his presence and influence in the noon of our trials afflictions and adversity It is a mighty folly in any of us to live as we had no Prospect of the ordinary or necessary contingencies of humane life Prudence quasi providence Solomon saith The wise man hath his Eyes in his head And these Eyes are imployed in looking forward as well as round about him at the present It is a great folly in
Divine will say whether this be not though not Originally yet with respect to circumstances a thing unlawful so as it is not just matter of a Superiours Precept that is the question On the other side That St. Paul said he would never eat flesh while the World stood rather then make his brother to offend 1 Cor. 8. 13. I observe St. Paul doth not say I will eat no meat but no flesh while the World standeth flesh is but one Species of meat he might eat other things and support his life And as to that Species of meat it must doubtless be restrained by the former discourse which is of meat that had been set before Idols This he determines unlawful 1 Cor. 20. doubtless it is unlawful for a man to starve himself rather then offend his Brother St. Paul speaks of a thing if not unlawful yet as to which he was at a full liberty he could forbear it without any remarkable prejudice to himself Besides the Scandal in the case is but a contingency he is not sure his Brother will be made to offend by his example or action The case is a very hard case but I shall spend no more Words about it that being not the Scandal which cometh within the compass of my text But either such Scandal as ariseth from actions plainly sinful or at least actions that have no such circumstances Whether we interpret covered as an harlot was covered or as a mourner was covered both such Scandals are the just fears of all good Christians 1. Sin is the object of every good Christians fear upon many accounts As it defileth the Soul and taketh away its beauty and comeliness as it rendereth the Soul guilty and obnoxious to the wrath of God As it Spoileth the Souls peace causeth sour reflections of conscience As it hazardeth the Souls Salvation As indeed it is the cause of that evil all that evil that can befall a man especially considering that every good Christian knoweth this and in one degree or other hath felt it so as it needeth no more then its own former experience to confirm it and can have no fruit no pleasure in those things for which it hath formerly so trembled and of which it hath been and is still ashamed He that loves the Lord hateth evil Psal 97. 10. David hated the works of them that turned aside Psal 101. 3. Now whatsoever is the object of our hatred when it cometh near us and we see a probability of being surprized with it we naturally fear 2. As to scandal If it be given by any sinful action of ours it is doubtless sin and to be feared equally with any other sin it being but the aggravation of a sinful act The case is also the same if it be caused through an ill use of our liberty in a case where we have a perfect liberty though the act be not in it self sinful yet the circumstance makes it so The reason is because in things of an indifferent nature we are tied up to general Rules and are obliged to do that which shall be most 1. For the glory of God 2. For the good of others 3. Which will give least offence to Jew or Gentile Those golden Rules given us by the Apostle in 1 Cor. 10. 31 32 33. There are three great Reasons why every good Christian will as much fear scandal as any other more plain downright sinning 1. The concern of the glory of God that is an end we must aim at in all our actions whether Natural Moral or Religious The glory of God is as much prejudiced by the sin of another as by my own sin so that in all scandals the honour of God is wounded two waies 1. By my own sin who ought not so to have used the liberty which his Word left me 2. By the others sinning occasioned by my sin David's Eyes ran down with Rivers of water because others did not keep the Law of God 2. The concern of his Brothers Soul which is destroyed by his sin For thy meat saith the Apostle destroy not thy Brother for whom Christ died God makes it a mark of hatred of our Brother not to reprove him nor to suffer sin upon him how much greater hatred must it speak in us to give him Exemplum malae rei aedificantes in gehennam as Tertullian somewhere describes scandal to set him an example contributing to his destruction Love will not lay a stumbling block in the path of the blind How can any man say he loveth his Brother that doth not not lay a stumbling block before his Brother to make his body to stumble and fall but to make his Soul to fall 3. The concern of the peace and quietness of his own Soul is in it too He that is of any tenderness of Conscience will find no peace in the doing of any thing which reflecteth any dishonour upon God or tendeth to destroy his Brother for whom Christ died We may learn from hence that the fear of sin and scandal are no ill signs in any Souls in whom they are found It is a noble â—nd Divine temper to be afraid of sinning against God The best of men in the Old Testament are ordinarily described under the notion of men fearing God No man can fear God but the man that feareth sin whether he feareth the Lord and his power and greatness with a more servile fear or feareth the Lord and his goodness which is a more filial and ingenuous fear one of the first fruits or prime evidences of it is a fear of sinning against God and that man who feareth not sin feareth not God It is true there may be an excess of this fear through our infirmity ignorance and mistake a man may have a timorated Conscience and be sometimes afraid where no fear is and this often happeneth in Persons under the power and prevailing of Melancholy which darkeneth a man's reason In such a case it is rather the effect of a natural disease than the genuine and proper motion of a reasonable Soul A man also free from that distemper through ignorance and infirmity may be afraid of actions as sinful which indeed are not so but this is an errour on the right hand It is much better in this case to fear too much than too little to forbear many lawful actions for fear of sinning against God in them when the weak Conscience is not fully satisfied then to run on adventurously when the Conscience doubteth Let others despise and mock at Persons as those that would be too precise and pure that durst not do some actions as to which others make no difficulty nay it may be think them their duty My Soul shall I hope alwaies reverence those in whom I discern an uniform fear of sin If men indeed strain at Gnats and swallow Camels pretend a Conscience in some things but regard not the dictates of it in other things this is Hypocrisie this is but a
pretended fear But if you see Christians in all their other waies strict and conscientious taking heed to their waies though I may think that in some things they fear too much and scruple what I do not scruple nor see any sin in yet I hope I shall alwaies reverence such Persons I may be mistaken as well as they and who hath made me more infallible than they are It is a noble temper to be afraid of sinning against God and so consequently to be afraid of scandal not only of doing acts that are openly sinful but of doing such actions which we think we cannot do without grieving offending and making to stumble and fall those for whom Christ died If Christ had such a value for Souls as for the Redemption of them to come down from Heaven to Earth and to die upon the Cross certainly they should not be so cheap in my sight as for the good of them I will not forbear the least thing which I may as well forbear as do It is possible that Religious People may fear scandal too much They may in some particulars be afraid of their duty for fear of offending Brethren they may lay too great a stress upon a scandal of grief But these are very pardonable things in comparison of mens neither fearing God nor men and running on in courses of actions without regarding the offence of God or of men Every good man will in your City be wary of leaving ladders in streets or heaps of muck or any pits uncovered from whence Persons in the dark may receive any mischief and this is but in conformity to the antient Law of God which commanded the Jews to lay no stumbling blocks in the way of the blind Have we charity for our neighbours Bodies and have we none for their Souls Are we tender of making them wound or break a bodily limb and have we no regard to the making them wound the honour and glory of God and the peace of their own Souls and to hazard their own eternal Salvation If men had any drams of true Brotherly Love they would at least forbear actions as to which they have a perfect liberty with which they know any number of fâ—ber Persons will be offended This I speak as to things in which they have a perfect liberty For what things I apprehend that I ought to do as my duty toward God or to forbear upon that account I can neither do the one nor forbear the other to avoid offending others the reason is because Charity as we say ought to begin at home every man or woman is obliged in the first place to attend and look after the Peace and eternal Salvation of his own Soul Obj. But you will say to me What shall we do in cases where we are under the command of Superiours to do things which yet we see we cannot do but we shall give occasion of offence to Christians not so well satisfied as we are Sol. I told you before that I apprehend this a very hard case The Law of God obligeth me to obey my Superiours it also commandeth me to give no offence to lay no stumbling block before my Brother and this Law concerneth Superiours as well as Inferiours As I ought not to do any such actions which probably may give occasion to my Brother to sin so no Superiours ought to command me to do any such things Superiours therefore unquestionably sin in making any such things the matters of their command But admit they will not do their duty still the question is what is mine I do not think the command of a Superior in this case can take hold of my conscience my reason is because his command in this case is contrary to the command of God who hath commanded him as well as me to give no offence to lay no stumbling block in the way of his Brother If he sinneth in the matter of his command I cannot sin in withholding my active obedience that is certain But if he will not be sensible of his duty nor only command but command under penalties that I though originally at liberty must do the thing or ruin my self and family this much narroweth the case Here now the question lyes Whether in a matter as to which I have originally a perfect liberty and so judge but through the iniquity of a Superiors command must either do or forbear this or that action or ruin my self and family and on the other side if I do do it or do forbear it I see I shall not only grieve my Brother but cause him to sin probably what is my duty Whether ought the contingency of my Brothers stumbling and sinning by my example to rule me and cause me rather to chuse the loss of all I must confess I do here a little hesitate My reason is because my Brothers fall is not necessitated by my action he ought to live by rule not by example to follow me no further then I follow Christ to allow me to live by my own faith while yet he lives and walks by his own faith That may be lawful to me which to him is not lawful because he doubteth and cannot see with my eyes Oh! how happy would the World be if Superiors would only press things which they apprehend necessary by a divine Precept I mean in relation to the things of God for in civil things Superiours are more absolute Judges and if in any thing they mistake and apprehend things such which indeed are not they would be very tender for that can be but in very few cases and if private Persons would learn not to judge others but in things where they see them act apertly and plainly against the will of God and not arrogate infallibility to themselves and others would learn not to be too positive upon their own apprehensions nor make others practice their rule but to live by their own faith But this is but a digression I say It is a good thing to fear sin and to fear Scandal I shall shut up this discourse with an Exhortation to Christians to make sin and Scandal the objects of their fear I shall not need to inlarge much upon the first it being the confessed duty of every one that owneth the name of a Christian or any relation to Jesus Christ He that feareth not what is plainly sinful feareth God in no sense he neither feareth the Lord and his greatness nor yet the Lord and his goodness I shall only tell you that he who feareth sin feareth the occasions and appearances of it But I shall rather press the exhortation with reference to Scandal calling upon you to take heed of any actions 1. Which may draw out the lusts and corruptions of other mens hearts to entertain any hard thoughts or use any hard speeches concerning Profession and Religion Now these are in the first place 1. All actions that are openly sinful this was that which stuck to David when he had
little into the Nature of the Believing Soul's Beauty Then I shall give you some Reasons of it and lastly Make some Application 1. It is not a corporeal visible Beauty but spiritual and invisible When we speak of Beauty we ordinarily understand a symmetry of bodily parts with a due mixture of the colours of flesh and blood commending it self to the carnal Eye This is that of which Solomon saith Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain but none I hope will have so gross a conception of the Soul's Beauty in the Eyes of Christ who seeth not as man seeth and judgeth not from any outward appearance The King's Daughter is all glorious within Psal 45. 13. This Beauty lieth in the Soul's symmetry to and with the Divine Law in a due proportion of virtues and gracious habits in the Soul's conformity to God the pattern of Perfection The Heathens by the Light of Nature could see that the inward Beauty was the true Beauty It is reported of Diogenes that meeting with a young man who was exceeding comely but very vitious he cried out O quam bona domus malus hospes What a brave house is here and how bad an inhabitant it hath It is what may be said of a great many comely men and women in the world O what brave houses hath the God of Nature made but what ill Tenants hath the Devil thrust into them Within there dwells nothing but Pride Ignorance Lust Vanity and other Inmates of corruption Our Saviour hath fitted them with a name they are Painted Sepulchres The Spouse's Beauty is spiritual her Ornaments are the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible as the Apostle speaketh 1 Pet. 3. 4. And as corporeal Beauty lieth in the due proportion of the parts of the body one to another yet this alone will not make a Beauty without a due proportion of colours and a good Air of the countenance So this Spiritual Beauty lieth in the proportion of the Soul and its several powers and faculties to the Divine Rule its Symmetry with the Divine Nature yet this will not do without the grace of Justification that grace which doth gratum facere render the Soul acceptable in the sight of God Hence this Beauty is not obvious to our senses The World saith the Apostle knoweth us not It is a Spiritual Beauty so as flesh and blood discerneth it not whereas we see things by the Eye of Sense Reason or Revelation Corporeal Beauty is discerned by a carnal Eye the object beareth a due proportion to the Organ Yea there is an inward Beauty which even the Eye of a natural man may discern it lieth in the proportion which the mind of the man or woman beareth to the Rule of Virtue and the Principles of Reason Thus a man may see more Beauty and Loveliness in one that is Learned and knowing than in one that is ignorant in one that is just chast sober temperate than in a beastly Drunkard a sottish unclean Adulterer an unjust and unrighteous man c. But the Beauty of a Child of God lieth deeper and more remote from a carnal mans apprehension in the Souls Symmetry with the pure and holy nature of God the proportions of his Soul to the pattern of a disciple of Christ as his lineaments are drawn in holy Writ This the natural Eye seeth not the Spiritual man alone discerneth nor doth he at all times discern it in ano ther Eli could not see Hannahs beauty but thought it had been only a little colour which too much wine had brought into her face The Subject of this beauty is the heart Christ seeth and knoweth that hence though a Child of God doth appear fair to his Brother yet to Christ more fair even the fairest amongst Women 2. Secondly It is not a Native but an adventitious beauty you saith the Apostle hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. 1. Children of wrath by nature even as others v. 3. By nature there is none righteous no not one none that understandeth nor seeketh after God the Philosopher spake like a Philosopher when he determined the Soul to be naturally as white Paper or tabula rasa The Divine must speak otherwise there is in man a want justitiae debitae inesse a want of that image of God in which lies the Souls beauty He was created in honour but he is become like the Beast that perisheth he hath lost the image of the heavenly Behold saith David Psal 51. I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother bring me forth What can be clean saith Job that is born of a Woman Or how can that which is clean come forth from that which is unclean The vitious inclinations of Children is matter of demonstration till they be in some measure corrected by the precepts and instructions and government of those that are set over them and by moral discipline which yet doth not cultivate and adorn them sufficiently to render them beautiful in the Eyes of Christ 3. Thirdly it is not an Artificial but created beauty The beauty of the Civil person that either from the precepts or examples of his governours or his ingenuous education hath imbibed Principles of Moral Discipline is indeed no native beauty but it is an artificial beauty as to which God hath had no hand but that of his common Providence but the Spouse's beauty is a created beauty wholly Gods work in the Soul creating faith in it uniting it to Christ changing its heart giving it new habits new qualities and inclinations Thou were comely saith God Ezech. 16. 14. through my comeliness put upon thee Corporteal beauty is the work of God in nature and it is hardly in the power of man to contribute any thing towards that The Painter dissembleth a beauty but giveth no real beauty the Taylor dissembleth a Symmetry of parts but cannot give it But Spiritual beauty is much more the gift of God that is a Gift of Special grace Art may make a woman that is not beautiful appear so but it cannot make one to be beautiful that is not so Good works do little more to the Saints beauty in the Eyes of Christ then hansome cloaths or linnen doth towards the beauty of the body If the body be comely and beautiful hansome fashioned cloaths or linnen may indeed set it off but if the body hath no true symmetry of parts all that good cloaths do is to hide deformity and to make the body that is not comely yet appear so unto others If the Soul of a man or woman be truly beautiful through an imputed righteousness and inherent grace good works much set forth this beauty to the world and are also acceptable unto God But works only Morally good that is such things as God hath commanded can never make a Spiritual Ethiopian fair nor the Soul that is naturally crooked straight The Romish Taylors and Painters labour in vain to make
Souls beautiful by prescription of good works not flowing from a true faith in Jesus Christ indeed the truely beautiful Soul will maintain good works for necessary uses and not be seen in any part of the world or in any station in it but clothed with them the Kings Daughter though all glorious within yet must have her garments also smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia but these are not her onely beauty in the Eyes of her beloved she still cries out O Lord my righteousness is all as a menstruous cloth as an unclean thing I am altogether in my self as a filthy and unclean thing 4. The beauty of the Child of God is not onely Adherent but also Inherent Justification is his beauty this I call adherent he is in a state of favour with God hath a right to be called his Child Regener at ion is his inherent beauty and makes not onely a change in his state but in his nature and temper Justification maketh an alteration in the Souls state and relation to God before that it was an enemy now a Child it cannot be properly said to be any thing inherent in us rather adherent to us without it the Soul cannot be comely in the Eyes of Christ those who in Johns vision were seen clothed in white were such as were washed in the blood of the lamb Let the Vertues of mens Souls be never so eminent their actions never so splendid yet while they are not justified they cannot be fair in the Eyes of Christ who judgeth not according to the outward appearance but according to the heart But yet this is not all the Spouse's beauty In the same moment wherein by justifying the sinner God maketh a change in his state he also maketh a change in his heart this cannot be alone neither is it causative of the other Those are wonderfully vain that charge us with asserting that God can be pleased with an unholy Soul or that any such Soul is fair and lovely in the Eyes of that God who is of purer Eyes then that he can behold any iniquity This is what Protestants do affirm That God reckoneth the righteousness or comeliness of Christ unto to the Soul and so makes us comely and in the same moment gives his Spirit to it to renew sanctifie it and dwell in it that both these make up the Spiritual beauty comeliness but God doth not accept our Persons upon the latter but upon the former account yet we say This conformity of the heart to the will of God wrought by regeneration is a great part of the Souls comliness Thou hast saith Christ ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished mine heart with one of the Chains about thy neck Cant. 4. 9. This we also further say That although this inherent beauty be not that for which Christ accepteth the Person of a Child of God yet God is well pleased with it and it doth much increase Gods manifestative love towards a Person John 14. 21. 5. Fifthly The beauty of the Child of God is a desirable beauty desirable to God Indeed all beauty is desirable this is to God desirable You must understand it safely All desire in the creature speaketh some want and indigences in God it only speaks complacence Psal 45. 4. So shall the King desire thy beauty the meaning is no more then be well pleased with thy Beauty God is well pleased with their Souls and his will moveth toward them and the enjoyment of them not to fill up any vacuity or emptiness in himself but to fill up their emptinesses with the sulness of himself who filleth all in all Thus the Schoolmen say truly That though the creature works and moves to supply his own indigence yet God never moveth nor worketh but to communicate his own perfection and fulness 6. The beauty of the Child of God is a never fading beauty Corporeal beauty is vain age sickness contagious diseases many accidents either greatly abate or destroy this This Spiritual beauty though it may abate yet shall never sail It is one of Gods gifts to the Soul which are without repentance It is caused from the seed of God which abideth in the Soul The appearance of it to the world may abate but its beauty cannot wholly fail and perish It is as the air of the Soul resulting from its state of Justification which altereth not and from the infused habits of Regeneration which cannot dye 7. Lastly It is not apersect beauty The adherent beauty of Gods People is perfect the Soul that is justifyed from the guilt of one sin is justifyed from the guilt of all sins God never forgives in part if we understand by forgiving remitting the obligation sin layeth us under to Eternal death But the inherent beauty of the Children of God is imperfect we know in part and love in part sincerity is all we can glory in all our perfection as to that The habits of grace infused in Regeneration are capable of increase and augmentation nor will any be perfect in them till he comes to dye No nor then neither for though the actings of some grace proportioned to our indigent mortal state will then cease and so in that sense may be said to be perfected yet Love and delight in God habits of Grace which we shall carry with us into and exercise in another world shall be made perfect there But in the exercises of our habits of grace the best of Gods People are much more imperfect laying many a black parch upon a fair face which the pure God seeth and can distinguish from Beauty spots Though for them he will not cast his people off Thus far I have shewed you the nature of the Spouses beauty I shall now shew you whence it is that such a Soul in the Eyes of Christ is the fairest amongst Women This will appear but reasonable if we consider That their beauty is Christs workmanship I told you before that it is not an artificial beauty nor natural but created and superinduced upon the Soul The holy Scripture calls man Gods Generation Acts 17. 29. and borroweth the expression from an Heathen Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they saw that by the light of Nature The Apostle tells us Eph. 2. 10. That we are Gods workmanship created to good works which God had before ordained that we should walk in them God had ordained it Christ wrought it Whatsoever of good a Child of God hath in him it is all from God he is begotten of God John 1. 13. We are created by him to good works and he worketh in us to will and do Are we justified and is that any part of our beauty We are justifyed by his grace washed in his blood Except I wash you saith Christ you have no part in me It is natural to us all to account any thing best and fairest to which our selves have contributed any thing as a cause The Father and Mother value
God be vile in your Eyes who are so highly esteemed by him who is your Lord and Master and by whom you pretend to hope to be saved But to shut up this discourse You that will not conform your judgment to the Judgment of Christ concerning such People and behave your selves towards them accordingly shall certainly be forced to submit to his Judgment spoken of Jude 14. and 15. 2d Branch I would willingly improve this notion a little further not onely to reconcile your judgments to the judgment of Christ concerning the People of God but to reconcile you also to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the ways of God The effecting of the former if I could do it though it might produce some more quiet and peace in the World and reduce men to the rule of reason yet as to your own Souls if that be all all the effect it would have would be to save you from a deeper place in Hell It is not a good opinion of Gods People or a peaceable or kind behaviour to them will bring any man to Heaven I could wish that all who hear me this day to use Saint Paul's words to Agrippa were as the People of God are excepting that reproach and obloquy which they suffer those bonds and imprisonments to which they are exposed that they also would come into the number of those whom the Lord judgeth the best Souls in the World the fairest amongst women 1. Is it nothing to you to come into this reputation Leud profane debaucht Persons let their quality in the World be what it will in Scripture come under the notions of Children of Belial Vain Persons What an object of desire doth corporeal beauty appear to the World What will not a vain woman do to get it to preserve it to dissemble it what time what mony she spends to set it out What care she takes if as to it she be under any defects to hide them to correct them c. Quantum est in rebus inane All this it may be is spent in painting a Sepulcher a rotten post Possibly look into this Masquerade there 's nothing but what is rational filthiness and deformity An understanding void of any valuable knowledge A Perverse and stubborn will against what is rationally good beastly affections her Soul it may be is full of lasciviousness Pride Malice Envy All unlovely things Turbulent Passions Is Spiritual beauty worth nothing Shall Heathens judge a Soul that is knowing subdued to the rule of reason chast good just sober meek modest beautiful and worth a thousand Souls otherwise disposed and qualified and shall Christians judge otherwise shall they think Soul-beauty not valuable Or shall they not judge it worth any thing to be comely with Christs comeliness and in the Eyes of an all seeing heart searching God to be without spot or wrinkle consider Sirs how much this is beneath the name or profession of Christians how we are condemned by wanton gallants desiring corporeal beauty and Heathens valuing the rational beauty of the mind which commends it self to all rational minds before they be debauched 2. Consider what it is to have the King of Kings to desire and to predicate our beauty Psal 45. 11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty The King this King is God whose throne is for ever and ever and whose Scepter is a righteous Scepter v. 6. Beauty is in it self attractive but who is there that will not covet a beauty that a King should desire But what are all the Kings of the Earth compared with him who is the King of glory So shall the King saith the Psalmist desire thy beauty How great a thing is this for the great God to have a desire to the Sons of men and a delight in them And further for this King to predicate our beauty as the Lord doth in the Text and did concerning Job Job 2. v. 3. And the Lord said unto Satan hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause For this great King to desire a Souls beauty signifieth to be the Spouse of Christ to be in favour with God in this life and it promiseth an eternal communion with God in glory in the life which is to come when the Marriage of the Lamb shall be consummate and the Bride the Lambs Wife shal follow him wheresoever he goes 3. Lastly consider The consequent of not being of the number of those whom Christ here calleth the fairest amongst Women Amongst men their is a medium betwixt mens looking upon a woman as the fairest and such a one whose beauty they desire and being abominable and odious in their Eyes But as to Christ there is no medium betwixt these two The unbelieving and the abominable are put together Rev. 21. 8. A man may not love a woman so well as to make her his Wife and yet have a kindness for her not hate and abhor her The case is not so betwixt God and the Soul He or she whose beauty the Lord doth not desire is by God hated and abhorred that Soul is abominable in his fight The abominable Rev. 21. 8. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the Second death These arguments are enough to those who believe there is an Heaven and an Hell who believe there is a God and a Christ and that all mankind are under the favour or disfavour of this great and terrible God To persuade them to get into the number of these whom God judgeth the fairest amongst women Will any say to me but what can we contribute towards it Love is a free thing It is true Love is free and the Love of none amongst the creatures is or can be so free as the Love of God who is the freest Agent but yet hearken to the direction of the Psalmist who doubtless is an infallible guide in this matter Psal 45. v. 10. Hearken O Daughter and consider and incline thine Ear forget also thine own People and thy Fathers house So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty What is our Fathers house but the house of old Adam What are our own People but our own sinful courses our old sinful company How shall we forget them but by hearkening to the Counsels of God considering our state and condition what we are Whither we are hastening what will become of us in the latter end Giving and inclining our Ears to what To the reproofs corrections admonitions instructions of Gods Word to the knocking 's and motions of his blessed Spirit so shall the Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings the Lord of Lords desire and greatly desire your beauty To those who what ever they are called and go for in the World are Atheists in heart and
absurd and false are supposed in order to the forming of a true conclusion But in the Text it is certain that it doth Our Lord in saying If thou knowest not Supposeth that the Spouse might not know and therefore he directeth her in the latter part of the Text. It is certain that the term know in Scripture doth not alwaies signify the comprehending the thing spoken of in our understanding it sometimes signifieth to approve sometimes to attend to what we know sometimes to Experience I take here the first and most natural signification of the term to be the Sense If If thou knowest not that is if thou beest ignorant If thou beest at a loss At a loss for what I told you that to perfect the Sense we must supply something from the foregoing verse from the matter of the Spouses Petition She had desired him to tell her where he fed his flock where he made them to rest at noon Where she might have the best freest and least interrupted fellowship and communion with him especially in a time of great distress and affliction To this he answereth O thou fairest amongst Women If thou knowest not that is if thou knowest not where I feed my flocks nor where I make them to rest at noon Go thy way c. The words might lead me to a more general discourse of the imperfection of a believers state in this life Or to a more particular discourse concerning those grains of ignorance which may be allowed a gracious Soul But as the first is too general so the latter is too hard a task until the world be better agreed then it yet is about the number of fundamental truths necessary to be known and believed in order to Eternal life and Salvation Besides I think my Text considered as an answer to the preceding petition guides me to another thing The Spouses request was to be instructed how she might enjoy a full and free communion with her Lord especially in a time of trial and distress with reference to this petition her Lord answereth her If thou knowest not Supposing she might as to this at some times be ignorant and at a loss The Proposition is plain Prop. That even the best of Gods People the fairest amongst Women may sometimes be at a great loss where and how to maintain their desired communion with Christ I shall open the Proposition in three conclusions Then confirm and apply it 1. The Souls communion with Christ lyes in their reciprocal communications of themselves each to other All communion is made up of a mutual communication of two or more Persons I have discoursed the nature of communion largely in some of my former discourses and therefore shall say little of it now Onely I say all communion lyes in a mutual and reciprocal communication Thus two friends have communion each with other by frequent meetings together mutual discourses and communications of the Secrets of each others hearts one to another The Subjects in this communion are Souls clothed with bodies and their communion is bodily But now the Soul considered with Christ as its correlate in this communion are Spirits and their communion is more Spiritual The Soul performeth its part in it by the secret exercise of the powers God hath given it upon Christ as the object By Spiritual Meditations the exercise of faith love hope desire joy and delight c. By giving up its will to his will assenting to what he dictateth in his word consenting to what he there commandeth c. Christ communicates himself to the Soul by the secret influences of his Spirit opening and inlightening the understanding bowing and inclining the will influencing the affections convincing strengthening quickening comforting the Soul Indeed there is a more external communion with God but separated from this it signifieth nothing to the Souls advantage so we are said to have communion with God in reading and hearing his word praying receiving the Sacraments the Soul hath in these no further fellowship communion with God then it in them exerciseth these more inward powers in more external acts by the advantage of the bodily members so far as it poureth out itself to God in prayer by the words of the lips or opens its heart to God in hearing the word receiveth it with faith and love and meekness c. So far and no further hath the Soul in these duties any communion with God Nor doth God communicate himself to the Soul that is not made to believe and obey what it heareth further then to let it know his will with the advantage of such arguments as his Ministers are inabled to use by vertue of those gifts which he hath given them to fit them for their ministration 2. There can be no union between Christ and that Soul with whom Christ hath not a constant communion communion is the Daughter of union according to the nature of the union Wherever communion wholly ceaseth the union is dissolved Indeed where the communion is voluntary not from a natural cause there may be great differences in the degrees of it but wholly interrupted it cannot be hence God and Christ have a constant communion with the believing Soul this is by the Spirit of God given to them and dwelling and working in them and the seed of God abiding in them Our union with Christ is preserved by the same means by which it was at first made which was by Gods first communication of his power and goodness to the Soul and the Souls communication of itself by faith to him Thus the Vnion was first made between God and the Soul thus it is and must be maintained and upheld The reason why we say the Soul once in a state of grace cannot fall from it either finally or totally is not from the ability and certainty of their own wills however renewed and sanctified but from the more constant and certain influences of the Spirit of Grace which is given to the Soul dwelleth in it and worketh in it Christ hath not only promised to come to them that love him and keep his Commandments but to make his abode with him hence the union between Christ the Soul is not only compared to the moral union between the Husband and Wife Eph. 5. 30. but to the natural union between the Vine and the Branches John 15. 1. betwixt which while they remain united there is a constant communication and in very deed did not the Soul of a believer daily receive divine influences and communications it must wither and die as naturally as the Branch doth when the union is broken betwixt it and the Vine and this our Saviour teacheth us John 15. 4. As the Branch cannot bring forth fruit unless it abideth in the Vine so no more can you except you abide in me 3. Although the Souls communion with Christ can never be wholly interrupted and broken yet it may be more of less and sometimes indiscerned by the Soul I
at Peace with God All that can be said to relieve the Child of God under this complaint to ease him under this burden is this That this misery which befalleth him is but what is common to the very best of men it is a priviledge reserved for the Saints in glory to live in a not interrupted communion with God To be ever with the Lord beholding his face to live in the sense of such a constant communion with Christ as doth afford the Soul a perfect Satisfaction The sublunary Saint is often crying out Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where tho u feedest This dispensation indeed will speak thee sensibly miserable and sad but it will not speak thee to have no relation to Christ I shall shut up this discourse with a Word or two of exhortation Pleading with you to do what in you lies to avoid such a state and to keep your selves within the knowledg where Christ feedeth where he makes his flocks to rest at noon 1. Consider first That as the Spiritual life of any Soul lyes in its union and communion with Christ So the comfort of his life lyeth in his sense of this communion and knowledge how at all times and in all conditions to Support and to maintain it Our Saviour tells us that As the branch cannot bring forth fruit unless it abide in the Vine so neither can we except we abide in him John 15. 4. That Soul which hath no communion with Christ is as certainly dead as the body is that hath no communion with the head or the branch that hath no communion with the stock Now it is true Sense is not necessary to Spiritual life We live saith the Apostle by faith not by sight But the comfort of the Soul doth depend upon sense and knowledge it is true as to a Christians comfort not to live and not to know that we live are much the same thing as to its happiness it is not but I say as to his comfort it is What quiet can a Christian have in his breast what Peace in his conscience What joy in the Holy Ghost that feeleth no intercourses is sensible of no inward communion betwixt his Soul and Christ 2. Hence consider Secondly That to the waky Christian there is no greater misery upon the Earth then what ariseth from his apprehensions of his having no communion with Christ All the enjoyments of the World will be nothing of Satisfaction to such a Soul it is an evil Nullis medicabilis herbis I say with a waky soul it will be thus some Souls are in a profound sleep they never think of Eternity never consider their latter end they are ignorant and know not the relation that Christ hath to a State of Eternal happiness that as Eternal life is the gift of God so it is through Christ for that the Father hath given into his hands the Power of Eternal life and he giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth Now these Souls though they have no fellowship no communion at all yet they have no misery no grief from it But I say to the Soul that is awake to consider the Grave the Eternity to which he is hastening 't is the greatest burden imaginable to lye under apprehensions that his fellowship is not with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ 3. Thirdly consider that of all evils those lye heaviest and most sadly upon the Soul concerning which the man or woman is conscious that he himself hath been accessary to them and a cause of them Let a good Christian be at loss for his communion with God let the cause of it be what it will he is sad enough but if his heart smites him that he himself hath been the cause of it Oh! insupportable burden of that reflection he cannot bear the thoughts of his destroying his Soul by his own hands of this you may make an easy judgment by considering the frame of your Spirit under such accidents though of a much lighter nature it is sad enough for a man to lose his estate for a Mother to lose her Child but for the man to think that he lost his estate through his own supine negligence or for a Mother to think she hath been the death of her Child These are wounds healed usually with great difficulty So for a Soul to think it hath lost its communion with its dear Lord by its own supine negligence or any voluntary act of its own which it might have avoided This maketh a deep wound in the Soul But will some say what should what can we do to uphold our communion with Christ and to maintain a sense of it Let me here speak two words The first to such as have their beloved in view and do yet injoy desired communion with him 2. To such as have lost this view in order to their recovery of it To the first I say 1. Be much with him whom your Soul loveth What the Prophet said of Gods presence of Providence is as true concerning the presence of God in gracious influences 2. Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while you are with him if you seek him he will be found of you Souls that are much with God seldom lose their sight of him ordinarily the Souls of men and women first withdraw the communications of themselves unto him through levity and wantonness then Christ withdraweth both in justice to punish in them that levity and in wisdom to make them to seek after him Hos 5. 15. I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early That Soul is seldom or never at a loss to know where Christ feedeth his flocks that keepeth a constant correspondence with him Be much in Prayer especially secret Prayer much in Heavenly meditation and contemplation when the Spouse after her loss Cant. 3. 1 2 had found her beloved I held him saith she and would not let him go How doth the Soul hold Christ so as she will not let him go but by faith and constant and frequent acts of fellowship and communion with him 2. Secondly Take heed of grieving the holy Spirit It is the Apostles Counsel Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption We maintain our fellowship with Christ by the Spirit That takes of Christs and giveth to us and again it takes of ours and giveth to Christ by the Spirit we Pray by its assistance we exercise faith Love c. Christ by his Spirit communicateth himself to us and we by the Spirit do communicate our Souls to him Take heed therefore you grieve not this Spirit either by any presumptuous sinnings or by quenching its motions or resisting its operations Let every Knock every motion and impulse every impression of the holy Spirit be very valuable to and regardable in the Eyes of your Souls 3. Thirdly Maintain in
us in the way of holiness And feed thy Kids by the Shepherds tents Kids as you know are young Goats Once in Scripture Goats are put in opposition to sheep Math. 25. to signify the wicked of the Earth which hath given Interpreters occasion to interpret this phrase thy fi lt by and unclean thoughts But it is observable that though Goats be a term once used in Scripture in that sense yet Goats are not alwaies mentioned in holy writ in an illâ—sense In this very Song the Spouses hair is compared to a flock of Goats Ch. 4. v. 1. The Goat to the Jews was not an unclean beast the hair of it was much used about the Tabernacle and the body of it was often used in Sacrifice Their interpretation therefore is doubtless to be preferred who interpret it 1. Either of the weak Members of Christ oâ— 2. of the infirm faculties of the Soul By the Shepherds tents It is all along a Metaphor The flock is the Church The true Sheep of this Flock are those who hear the voice of Christ and follow him as himself tells us My Sheep hear my voice and follow me The Principal Shepherd is Christ John 20. 1 I am the true Shepherd He administreth this great charge committed to him by his Father by inferiour Shepherds He led his ancient People the Jews like a Flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron and afterwards made use of several Shepherds to feed them Christ committed his Flock to the 12 Apostles with power to ordain Pastors and Teachers The Shepherds tents signify the places where they feed the Flock of Christ Shepherds in those countries had no fixed houses but moveable tents which they carried about with them and pitched now here now there as was most convenient for the feeding of their Flocks If any ask me where we shall find these footsteps of the Flook I answer in the Word of God we have no other infallible record of them that I know so that by the footsteps of the Flock and the Shepherds tents two things are clearly to be understood 1. The Examples of Gods Saints recorded in Scripture 2. The Ordinances of God dispensed by his faithful Ministers Hither doth Christ send his Spouse inquiring where he fed where he made his Flocks to rest at Noon You see whither my Text would lead me viz. To a discourse concerning the Word of God â—s the Rule of Christians the certain footsteps of the Flock are to be found there 2. To a discourse concerning our duty to imitate the Saints of God Something I must touch upon as to both these but I shall discourse neither of them in their latitude having fully done it lately in set Discourses upon those Arguments I shall now speak to neither of them further than they relate to the direction of the Text Being both the surest compass for a Christian when he is at loss to direct his course by when he is in distress and knows not what to do Hence the Doctrine is Prop. The surest way for Christians to support and maintain their communion with Christ under any doubts or dark dispensations of God to them is for them to keep to the examples of the Saints of God under such dispensations and to keep themselves close to Divine Institutions The Proposition you see is concerning Christians injoying and upholding their communion with Christ in a day of darkest dispensations in the Noon of Trials and Afflictions 2. It directeth a double means in order to this end 1. A keeping to the footsteps of the Flock 2. Feeding by the Shepherds Tents I shall speak to this by way of Explication Confirmation and Application By way of Explication the only Question is What Flock what Shepherds are here spoken of 1. It must be Christ's Flock that is plain There are other Flocks in the World but the Text is doubtless to be understood of the Flock of Christ which I before shewed you was the Church of Christ 2. I think it reasonable also to determine That that Flock is here meant for whose feet we have the best assurance that they were guided and upheld by the unerring Spirit of God The Papists call to us for this to keep to the footsteps of the Flock But when we come to ask them where that Flock is they will tell us it is at Rome where it hath been kept and fed by a lineal Succession of Bishops from the Apostles times The name of the Church of Christ is an honourable name this maketh every Party cry out as the Jews of old The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are we There is scarce any company of Hereticks and Sectaries but lays claim to this name Neither can this Text be understood of all those that are within the Pale of the Visible Church which hath in it bad as well as good but of that little Flock only who hear Christ and follow him and those to whom it is our heavenly Father's will to give a Kingdom the footsteps of those who have made the Word a light to their seet and a lamp to their paths for none can be so absurd as to think that Christ here directeth his Spouse to go her way by the footsteps of those who walk contrary to the will of his Father Now where shall we find where can we find those of whom we are sure they were of this little Flock or where shall we find the certain practice of such but in the Records of holy Writ For the present Church of Rome those that know the second Commandment or any of the Revelations of the Divine Will against Idolatry must know this Flock is not to be found there For the Primitive Church if they mean the Apostolick Church the Church in their Age whose Story we have Recorded in the Acts of the Apostles we agree with them that this is the Flock whose footsteps we are to follow yet no further than they followed Christ Be you followers of me saith the Apostle as I am of Christ but for the following Church after their Age we are so much at loss to know what they did Antichrist hath so trodden out their footsteps so purged and corrupted all Writings that should give us any true account of what the Church did that we can by no means allow the Record of their practice to be a sufficient Guide to us We have no sufficient Evidence of the prints of their feet in matters wherein the Eternal Salvation of our Souls are concerned We have a more sure word of Prophecy and we are sure we are not to follow them in any thing wherein they did not follow Christ We conclude then as to this matter that Christ in these words intended to give his Spouse a certain Rule to follow the steps of those whom they might be sure it was Christ's Flock and whose footsteps might be seen This Flock can be only that the print of whose feet we have in the unerring Word
is with them I come to the Application I shall only apply it by Exhortation to two great duties Fortitude and unity I begin with the first upon which I shall most inlarge as to which I shall shew you 1. Wherein it lies and discourse it to you as it stands distinguished from a natural Spirit and stomack 2. From a moral fortitude 2. I shall offer you some directions in order to the promoving of it 3. Lastly I shall press it by some arguments It is agreed on all hands that the object of it is dangers and sufferings That the nature of it lyeth in a bold encountring and going through them That the vices opposed to it are 1 Cowardise 2. Rashness or fool hardiness as we call it There is a courage or fortitude which ariseth only from the natural Spirit and courage of the creature Now this is to be found in beasts as much as in men yea and more then in men the reflections of whose reason makes them less Spiritful then Horses or Dogs or Lions c. This commendeth no man for no man hath more of this then many Beasts have So it removeth not man at any distance from a Brute Creature Secondly There is a moral fortitude Which though it must have some foundation in nature for none that is naturally fearful and cowardly will by reason be improved to any degree of valour yet differeth from the other As it ariseth from knowledge and some just improvement of reason and is governed by the dictates of reason and directed to some noble and rational end such now as the preservation of our honour or Country c. But now Christian fortitude is quite another thing as it ariseth 1. From a threefold principle of grace 2. As it is directed by the rule of the Word 3. As it is exercised upon and against sin As lastly it works for a more noble end the glory of God and the Salvation of the Soul you may take this Description of it It is an habit infused into the Soul by the holy Spirit of God inabling the Soul from the dread of the Eternal God a Love to him and a faith in him and his promises to despise the prospect or presence of any danger in a resistance and fighting against sin and all temptations to it governing it self by the rule of Gods Word in order to the glory of God and the Salvation of a mans Soul From hence may easily be gathered both how it differeth from Natural Spirit and stomackfulness which is under no government either of reason or Religion and is a mere natural quality and found in beasts as much and more then in man It also differeth from Moral sortitude both in the Principle the rule and manner of its exercise and the End All which I shall open I shall begin with the first of these 1. The first Principle of Christian Fortitude is the holy Spirit Fear not saith God I will strengthen thee and uphold thee with the hand of my righteousness It is indeed God as the God of Nature that puts the natural Spirit and courage into the Horse or other beasts Job 32. 19. Hast thou saith God given strength to the Horse Hast thou clothed his neck with Thunder But here God acts as the Author of saving grace The holy Spirit is the Author of all gracious habits now there is a threefold Spiritual habit from which this fortitude or Christian courage proceeds they are as it were the Parents of it 1. The first is the fear of God No man is valiant against sin when temptations to it lye from great dangers but he that hath a true dread of God in and upon his heart It is said of Moses Hebr. 11. 27. That by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he indured as seeing him who is invisible He forsook Egypt in obedience to the command of God he feared not the wrath of the King When he saw he must either incur the Kings wrath or Gods displeasure he feared not the wrath of the King though as Solomon saith The wrath of the King is as the Messenger of death Yet he feared not the wrath of the King here now was courage here was Christian Fortitude Whence was it that he was so courageous The Text tells you He indured as seeing him who was invisible he had the dread of the King of Kings upon his Soul agnovit imperatorem coeli he knew there was one that was higher then the highest mortal and this is necessary and that too in a very good degree to every Soul that is valiant for God Every Person that feareth not God will be a coward in the Spiritual fight 2. A Second habit contributing to this fortitude or Christian courage is The Love of God The Apostle tells you it constrains we see in daily experience the lover will indure no difhonour to be done unto no affront to be put upon the woman that he loveth The vain Gentleman is ready to fight upon any such account The Soul which truly loveth God will fuffer no affront no dishonour which he can help to be done unto and put upon God much less can he allow his own Soul in any such thing what ever be the consequent of it 3. A third habit from which this Christian courage or fortitude ariseth is Faith Faith respecting both the Proposition of the Word and the promise of the Gospel and Person of the Mediatour Faith agreeing to all which the holy Scripture revealeth concerning the wrath of God his power justice greatness concerning the reward of those who well fight the good fight who overcome c. And also hoping and trusting in God for the fulfilling of those promises Natural courage is much from Nature and derives much from the Blood Moral Fortitude deriveth much from Education and Reason Christian Fortitude in encountring dangers ariseth from quite different principles The Christian is stout and valiant in the resistance of sin because he feareth the great and living God whose wrath is a thousand times more formidable then the wrath of the greatest man who when he hath killed the body can do no more God can cast both body and Soul into Hell-Fire Because he loveth God and will suffer any thing rather than grieve and offend him and because he believeth whatsoever God hath revealed in his holy Word concerning the greatness power wrath and justice of God against sin and concerning those who strive in the resistance of it Hence you read in that martyrology which you have Heb. 11. 33. That they through faith subdued Kingdoms v. 34. quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword waxed valiant in the fight v. 35. they were tortured not accepting deliverance v. 36. they had Trials of cruel mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment c. The principles of the Christian valour are not meer Natural Spirit and stomackfulness nor meer principles of honour and
those Ornaments with which he surnisheth the Souls of his beloved They are those borders of Gold and studs of Silver which are here spoken of They are the true and the best Ornaments Other Ornaments are but the Devils or at best our own Ornaments Such Ornaments as are put on for Pride or lust are the Devils Ornaments With these Souls are adorned whom he hath by the hand leading in the broad way which leadeth to destruction There are indeed other more innocent Ornaments which serve to signify the quality of Persons and to make them appear more lovely and amiable but at the best these are but humane Ornaments they are not the dresses in which Christ dresseth his Spouse a pious Soul may be dressed in these those that dwell in Kings houses that are of higher quality and in an higher station and greater estates in the World may wear soft rayment but these are none of the Ornaments which Christ puts upon the Soul that he Loves though he may allow their infirmity in the use of them There is other bread and men must use it but Christ is the bread of life There are other clothings but Christs righteousness is the true clothing and the white Linnen of the Saints There are other Ornaments of our bodies but the habits of grace with which Christ dignifieth and adorneth the Souls of his People are the only Ornaments of the Souls which he looks at Christs Ornaments are saith Love meekness humility temperance The Love and fear of God Heavenly mindedness Thus saith the Apostle Peter of old the holy women who trusted in God did adorn themselves You have an account of other Ornaments Isaiah 3. But you find not this sentence at the foot of that account Thus of old holy women who trusted in God adorned themselves With some of them you read that Jezebel adorned her self when she looked out at the window Methinks this should be a mighty humbling consideration to a good man or woman who have adorned themselves after the manner of the World that they might not be singular but go like Persons of their rank in the World to think Now I have decked and adorned my self at the expence of a great deal of mony and I have spent in the doing of it a great deal of time None of these things are Christs Ornaments he hath allowed me to wear them but these are none of those things which I have received from him as my Saviour and Redeemer none of those things which do commend me unto him or make me at all more lovely in his sight These are none of his rows of Jewels or his Chains of Gold None of that attire in which I must if ever I come to Heaven be brought unto the King of Kings This is none of that rayment of needlework mentioned Psal 45. 14. And would serious Christians but entertain some such thoughts with what a contempt and neglect would they look upon their other Ornaments while their circumstances make it but decent for them to wear them How would they use them only to put them in mind of those better things by Christ resembled by them This comparison also lets us know that the Ornaments of grace are the best the most valuable most desirable Ornaments Christ compares them to rows of Jewels to Chains of Gold to badges and spots of Silver Jewels Gold and Silver amongst things Ornamental are the bravest and amongst men counted above others Ah! that I could this day but fasten this one nail this one persuasion in your Souls That habits of grace are the best Ornaments how much wast of mony would be saved How many good works more would be done How much more given to the necessities of Saints how much glory would be more given to God How much more good done to others How much more peace would be brought to your own Souls How much more would the poor creature that upon the account of our vanity is made more a Servant to corruptions and groans as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. for the day of judgment upon that account be rescued from that bondage How much more time would be rescued for holy duties were you but rooted and grounded in this persuasion that there are no Ornaments like those of the grace of Christ Hear what Solomon saith Prov. 1. 7 8 9. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge My Son hear the instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy Mother for they shall be an Ornament of grace unto thy head and a Chain of Gold about thy neck Prov. 4. 9. Wisdom shall give to thy head an Ornament of grace and a crown of glory It were easy to demonstrate these to be the best and most excellent Ornaments otherwise then by the Metaphor of the Text. These adorn the Soul Others adorn the carkass only The substance of others is corruptible they are things beneath us for the most part in the lowest ranks of creatures It is a shame to man to be beholden to a stone or a little Earth or a Silk-worm or a little flax for his Ornament they are Ornaments that degrade the creature and make a man beholden for his Honour and Ornament to things he treads upon Grace is a supernatural thing a thing that entreth into the substance of the Soul and makes it substantially beautiful It is not a Pendent that hangs at the Ear or a Necklace that hangs about the Neck but makes no alteration in it the Neck the Ear is the same thing still with it and without it still the same grace makes a real a lovely change in the dispositions and the affections of the Soul Other Ornaments commend us but to our earthly Relations and the vainer part of the World Grace commends us to Christ to his Father to Saints and Angels The demonstration is easie But ah how few are they that believe our Report How few will believe that Grace is the Best Ornament Thirdly Observe The Spouses Ornaments are of Christ and his Fathers preparing making We will make thee Neither is the Soul natively adorned neither is it in its own power by any act of its own will to adorn it self It 's Righteousness is as raggs and as a filthy cloth faith the Prophet raggs and filthy cloths are no Ornaments neither can these Ornaments be purchased Job 28. 15. It cannot be gotten for Gold neither shall Silver be weighed for the price thereof Nor can these Ornaments be borrowed The wife Virgins could lend no Oil to those that were foolish Matth. 25. To talk of grace under any other notion than that of a free gift is indeed no better than Nonsense There are Ornaments for minds indeed to be got at Athens and other Schools of Philosophers But these are not that white Linnen in which at the great day the Lamb's Wife must be brought to her Husband Not that Garment of Needle-work in which the King's Daughter must be brought
the Soul and it cannot lye hid in the Soul 2. It is from the Ordination of God that grace sendeth forth its smell We may say this of every created Quality which produceth any effect It is from the Law of God in creation laid upon that Plant Gum or Oil known to the Eastern People by this name of Spikenard and the Law of God laid upon Musk and sweet Flowers amongst us that they or any of them send forth a pleasant smell the powerful hand of God in creation hath created such vertues and qualities in these things and God hath ordained that they should emit or send forth their savour and there is a daily influence of the providence of God upon them by which these natural powers and faculties in them are upheld by which they do produce these grateful effects to our senses and daily affect the Air which we suck in by which that gratefulness is conveyed to us The like may be said of grace which is but a savoury sweet smelling quality in the rational creature correspondent to the other savory sweet smelling qualities in vegetative and sensitive creatures It is Gods creation in the Soul and it is from Gods Ordination that it sendeth forth this smell This is true whether by the Sending forth the smell thereof we understand the exercise thereof Or the gratifying the Spiritual senses of others by such exercise Both of them do proceed from the Ordination of God which is the Law of God upon the New creature There is a double Ordination of God in the case The exercise of a believers grace is from a divine Ordination Joh. 15. 16. You have not chosen me but I have chosen you and obtained you that you should go and bring forth fruit We are chosen in him before the foundation of the World that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Eph. 1. 4. Predestinated to be to the praise of his glory v. 11. He hath also ordained the acceptableness of the savour of grace both in his own nostrils and in the nostrils of others those especially that are made partakers of the divine nature And from hence it is that grace and the actings and exercises of it send forth a sweet smell to some And others revile them and speak ill of them As it is in natural things savours which are to some exceedingly grateful and delicious are to other creatures as ingrateful and abominable which proceedeth from a different nature or different qualities in several creatures all which are Originated in the Creation and Ordination of God So it is with grace the exercise of which is a sweet smelling savour in the nostrils of God let me hear thy voice saith the beloved in this song for thy voice is sweet and thy countenance is comely and a sweet smelling savour in the nostrils of such as are made partakers of the same divine nature It is a stench in the nostrils of debaucht and profane men and the lively and vigorous exercise of it is so in the nostrils of Hypocrites all this proceeds from their different nature and the Ordination of God whose Ordination it is That wisdom should be justified of her Children God hath ordained that where habits of grace are they should sprout forth in acts there is a Principle of life in the seed of God as in natural seeds which being committed to a fitting soil sheweth it self Nor is this without the concurrence of a daily providence of God upholding this Spiritual vertue Let us then observe that true grace is neither a dead and insipid thing nor yet an ingrateful thing in its exercise to any that have any acquaintance with God or fellowship in the divine nature The name of grace is an excellent name and every one would be called by it Amongst Christians the name of an ungracious man is a name of such reproach as every one is offended at But alas How dead and insipid a thing must grace be if all had it who would pretend to it in the age wherein God hath cast our lot Men would be thought to have grace in whom we cannot discern one good work They pretend to spikenard but where is the smell thereof Shew me thy saith saith the Apostle by thy works Nay how many are there in the World whose lusts and corruptions send forth an ill savour It is observed in nature that unless the four Elements there are no things but sent out some favour some smell Thence the Philosopher makes a smell the affection of a compounded body all compounded bodies send forth a smell little or much grateful or ingrateful to us The most of men and women send from their conversations some scent some smell abroad in the World but alas The smell of the most is not like the smell of a field of a Soul that the Lord hath blessed with the blessing of his grace but like the smell of Souls which the Lord hath cursed and will curse One man smells of drunkenness another smells of the lusts of uncleanness a third smells of covetousness a fourth of Pride and haughtiness of mind a Fifth of earthly mindedness and covetousness a Sixth of Levity and airiness Another smells of cruelty and unmercifulness another of lyes and perjuries breaking all oaths covenants promises c. These are not the smells of Lebanon but of Topheth God said of old he would not smell in the Israelites assemblies Amos 5. 21. I hate I despise your feast dayes and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies Though you offer me your burnt offerings and your meat offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the peace offerings of your sat beasts There are some whose smells are such in the nostrils of God with respect to their ordinary conversation that nothing they do or can do will smell sweet in Gods nostrils As some ill Savours are so strong as they drown the sweet smell of any perfumes which the Person hath about him So some sinners smell so odiously so abominably in the nostrils of God that no good act they can do is or can be acceptable to God this was the case of these Israelites They did some good things the keeping of solemn feasts the offering of burnt offerings were things which God had commanded and else where he calleth them a sweet savour But such was the stench the ill savour of the lives of these degenerated Israelites that it had drowned the sweet smell in Gods nostrils which these acts had sent forth had they been done by better men What was the matter v. 5. They sought to Bethel They were Idolaters Jeroboam had set up Calves at Dan and Bethel and thither they went to Worship the true God but by and before the Calves They were full of unrighteousness they turned Judgment to wormwood and left off righteousness v. 7. They trode upon the poor and took from them burdens of wheat v. 11. They were haters of Gods faithful
of Spiritual Life so he must be led by the Spirit If God did not excite the Grace bestowed on him it would be choaked by that body of death that lust and corruption which is in the best mens hearts What can the creature do when the Holy Spirit hath quickened his habits of Grace he cannot act and exercise them and put forth spiritual acts but doth he no more need the Influence of the Holy Spirit yes without Christ he can do nothing he must still have the Grace of God with him 1 Cor. 15. 10. Not I saith Paul but the Grace of God which was with me This is now cooperative and assisting Grace He cannot make the Wheel which must carry him in the waies of God working Grace must do that when it is made he cannot set it upon motion Exciting Grace must oil it Assisting Grace must keep it up move with it or he will never come to issue any good action A Believer indeed acteth for the habits of Grace from which he acteth are inherent in him he is not moved like a Machine or dead Engine but yet he is acted that is assisted and helped in his action He is nothing but what he hath received he doth nothing but while he is receiving Let not then the Natural man glory in the power and good inclinations of his own will he neither hath nor can have any power to do that which in a spiritual sense is good until it be given him from above Let not the renewed man glory in his infused habits of Grace for as he did not merit it nor any way purchase them so of himself he cannot use or exercise them But let him who glorieth glory in this that to him Christ is all in all that he liveth he acteth and bringeth a good action to an issue but yet not he but Christ that liveth in him acteth with him and worketh in him what he accepteth from him It is Christ who layeth the foundation-stone and then layeth the corner-stone who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith we have nothing to do but to cry Grace Grace when we see the work done In the mean time nothing hindereth but that the Soul may rejoyce and boast in the Lord while it walketh humbly with God mourning over the infirmity of its lapsed Nature for certainly man did not come out of God's hands in the day of Creation in this impotent state Let no man therefore despise those that labour under greater degrees of this impotency than he possibly doth but let him bless the Lord who hath further excited strengthened and assisted him to the operations of his Spiritual Life I shall shut up this discourse with a word or two of Exhortation to every Child of God to use his utmost diligence to keep the King sitting at his Table I mean to keep the presence of Christ as much as he can in and with his Soul that so his Spikenard may send forth the smell thereof I shall urge this by one argument and then offer you my advice in the case and so shâ—â— up this discourse 1. My argument shall be drawn from the high concerns of the Soul in its Spikenard sending forth its smell every Soul is concerned in it three ways 1. In point of duty as God thereby is glorifyed 2. In point of comfort as it will evidence its Spikenard to be such indeed 3. In point of honour as it brings the Soul to a repute in the World 1. I say first in point of duty as God is thereby glorifyed For this cause we are born for this cause is every man come into the World that he may bring honour and glory to his great Creator Herein saith our Saviour John 15. Is my Father glorifyed if you bring forth mach fruit and as the Lord is glorifyed by the vigorous exercise of its grace So is he also honoured by the predication of his grace by the sweet smell which our habits and exercises of grace have in the World That they may see your good works saith our Saviour Matth. 5. And glorify your Father which is in Heaven That they may see your good works saith the Apostle and glorify God in the day of their visitation no man so glorifyeth God as he who vigorously exerciseth his habits of grace The barren field is not that field which crediteth the husbandman the barren and unfruitful Soul is not that Soul which bringeth honour and glory to God It is the fruitful Soul whose smell is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed that bringeth honour to God and so eminently serveth the great end of his Creation 2. The Soul is not only concerned in it in point of duty but also as to its peace and comfort Indeed it cannot be but that comfort should result from the Souls performance of its duty for the fruit of righteousness shall be peace but yet first as he or she that hath a box of Spikenard or any other odoriferous unguent or perfume which casteth out a sweet savour to delight or refresh others doth first partake of it him or her self so it is with the Spouses Spikenard ordinarily its fruits of righteousness do not only affect others but first affect the Soul in which they are found hereby saith St. John we know that we are traâ—slated from death to life because we love the brethren Hezâ—kiah upon a message of death sent by God to him was refreshed with the smell of his own Spikenard 2 Kings 20. 3. I beseech thee O Lord saith he remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done what is right in thy fight When a Christian comes to lye upon a sick bed or a death-bed it will be no grief of heart unto him but a great pleasure and Satisfaction to consider that he hath with his Spirit served God and indeavoured by holiness in all manner of conversation to shew forth the grace of God bestowed on him not to have been received in vain 3. Lastly a Christian is concerned in point of honour A true Christian is an honourable Person born of God and he is bound to consult his honour and repute in the World It is the smell of a Christians grace that giveth him a name and honour a repute before men The World taketh no notice of our habits of grace while they lye dormant in the Soul but when they shew themselves in our conversations in the exercises of faith humility patience meekness obedience then hath a Christian honour before men Thus you see how a Christian is concerned to have his Spikenard send forth the smell thereof Now seeing so much dependeth upon this that a Christian should keep this glorious King sitting at his Table it followeth that this is of high concernment to every Soul But you will say what can we do toward it is not the Spirit of Christ free as the wind which bloweth where
it listeth May not the King sit or rise up from his Table when he pleaseth I answer It is true that our God as to his manifestative presence with the Souls of his People governeth himself according to the good pleasure of his will and his own infinite and unsearchable wisdom The King oft-times riseth up from his Table when the Soul of his Child is able to give it self no account what distaste he hath taken nor what hath made him to go away from it and not to give out his influence as at other times but yet it is as true that at other times he withdraweth for the punishment of his Peoples sins either of Omission or Commission and there are some means to be used in order to the keeping of his presence with us upon the Omission or neglect of which he withdraweth and hideth his face and he ordinarily departech not from the Soul but upon some distast given to him I shall therefore conclude this discourse with a few directions given in order to the keeping ofhis presence with us To keep to the Metaphor here used there are four or five things which will make a serious and ingenuous Person make hast from a Table or depart from a place where he might have made a longer stay or abode 1. The frowardness or ill humour of his host 2. A discerned want of love or attendance 3. An ill intertainment 4. The dulness or unpleasantness of the company 5. A discerned slight or carelesness of his presence To avoid these 1. Take heed of grieving his holy Spirit quenching the motions of it Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man will open I will come in and sup with him and he shall sup with me O Christs coming in and supping with the Soul and allowing the Soul to sup with him signifies what is here in the Text expressed by the Kings sitting at his Table And the Spouses Spikenard sending forth the smell thereof now this dependeth upon the Souls opening when Christ stands at the door and knocketh he knocketh by the motions of his holy Spirit the Soul openeth by its willingness to receive imbrace and obey such motions the reason why this great King riseth up from his Table is because when he knocketh the Soul is not obedient to his motions he pipeth to the Soul and it doth not dance He mourneth to it and it doth not weep it doth not answer his motions to it according to the nature of them but denyeth delayeth or disputeth God telleth the presumptuous sinner Prov. 1. 24. That Because he hath called and he refused because he stretcheth out his hand and he doth not regard but he sets at nought all his Counsel and would none of his reproof he would laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh c. As a Child of God cannot be guilty of sinning to such a degree as setting at nought all the Lords Counsel and refusing all his reproof So he cannot be under such a severe threatning as is there mentioned But as the Child of God may in some degrees be guilty of such sinning not hearkening to and obeying all the motions of Gods holy Spirit not receiving all its reproof So for this he may be punished in his measure by Gods withdrawings of his manifestative presence take therefore the Apostles Counsel Eph. 4. 30. And grieve not the holy Spirit whereby you are sealed unto the day of Redemption 2. Let this great King want no love no attendance no reverence nor obedience while he sits with you When Christ was at meat in the house of Simon the leper Mary brought a box of Spikenard and poured it on his head Mar. 14. 3. Christ sits still while the Ointment was poured out it was not the smell of the Spikenard but the love of her that brought it which made the room pleasant to him He stirred not from the Table at Marthas house so long as Mary sate at his feet and Martha served him Hear what he saith Job 14 23 If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Say you to all the powers and faculties of your Souls to all the members of your bodies as the Virgin Mary said to the Servants at the wedding in Cana of Galilee where Christ was present Joh. 2. 5. Whatsoever he saith unto you do it That is the way to keep him still sitting at his Table in your Soul 3. Take heed there come nothing to your Table that shall distast him Every ill smell of lnsts and corruptions will disturb him this made him to hate the Jewish feast days and not to smell in their Solemn assemblies Amos 5. 21. If you look into Isaiah 1. 11 12 13. Ch. 66. v. 3. Jer. 7. 8 9 10. You will see what sins will make him to rise up from his Table All formality and hypocrisy in your behaviour toward him all gross and Scandalous sinnings c. When in stead of wine he meets with the poison of Dragons instead of sweet grapes he meeteth with grapes of gall and clusters of wormwood he will not long sit at his Table in that Soul 4. Not only the apparent badness and rudeness but the dulness and unpleasantness of a company makes an ingenuous man rise up from his Table Take heed of heaviness and dulness inactivity and want of delight in your communion with God 5. Lastly As a discerned carelesness and slighting of a friends Company makes the stay of an ingenuous Person with his friend much shorter then it otherwise would have been So any careless slighty behaviour toward this great King may make his stay and abode with your Souls in the sensible manifestations of his love much shorter then it otherwise might have been He will be a welcome guest where-ever he abideth on the other side he doth not easily rise up or depart from a Table where the Soul inlargeth it self in testifying the gratefulness of his presence to it by offering him all the entertainment it can afford him giving up of it self to him daily importuning him not to leave him Thus you shall find our Spouse doing Cant. 3. 4. I found him whom my Soul loveth I held him and would not let him go untill I had brought him into my Mothers house and into the Chamber of her that conceived me Sermon LIII Canticles 1. 12. A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved unto me he shall lie all night betwixt my Breasts YOU may by the Language spoken understand who it is that speaks it is the Spouse for she talks of her breasts Our business is to consider what she saith She hath already exprest her grateful sense of her beloveds presence with her and the advantage she had by it her graces cast a precious savour By the advantage of his company and influence She goes on still in the Language of one that loveth
guilt of sin and cries out if I pine away in my iniquities how can I then live And faints at the apprehension of the wrath of God due to it for every single sin and much more for the numberless number of the sins which it hath committed It smells that of the Prophet Isa Ch. 53. v. 5 6. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities the Chastisement of our peace lay upon him and with his stripes we are healed v. 10. His Soul was made an offering for sin Or that of the Apostle Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us and this refresheth it I have deserved to dye saith the Soul but Christ hath died for me I have deserved to tread the wine press of my Fathers wrath but he hath trode the winepress of his Fathers wrath alone I was born a slave to lusts and corruptions but Christ by dying hath made me free Ah! what a bundle of Myrrh is a crucified Christ to the Soul Hence it smells Spiritual life even from his death for we have Remission of sins through his blood It smells Spiritual peace Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that died Ro. 8. 38. It smells an access unto God The holy of holies being Sprinkled with his blood and Heaven itself by it Sanctified and made accessible It smells Spiritual liberty For the blood of Christ saith the Apostle purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God It smells Spiritual strength For through the cross of Christ saith the Apostle my heart is crucified to the World Thus you see that in this action or suffering rather Christ is to the Soul a bundle of Myrrh 4. Look upon Christ as rising up from the dead He is a bundle of Myrrh there too the Soul from hence again smells Spiritual life Rom. 4. 25. He rose again for our justification Spiritual peace Rom. 8. 38. It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Spiritual strength and quickening Rom. 6. 4. 5. We shall rise with him to newness of life Col. 3. 1. If you be risen with Christ seek the things that are above It smells life from the dead This the Apostle proves 1 Cor. 15 Rom. 8. 11. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies Nay it smells Eternal life from hence Joh. 14. 19. Because I live you shall live also 5. Look upon Christ as the men of Galilee Acts 1. 11. Ascending up to Heaven Thus he is also a bundle of Myrrh he lives and from hence Job smelt that he should see him with his Eyes the Angels that stood to wait upon his ascension told the men of Galilee so much that as they had seen him ascend so they should see him coming again Hence the believing Soul smells that he shall ascend too for where Christ is there he must be The body is there the Eagles shall flee to it one day He is lifted up and every believer shall be drawn after him Our flesh and blood shall inherit the Kingdom of God For 't is in part there already Heaven is the place whither our forerunner is entred Heaven was an open City before the fall Adam and all his Posterity might have entred presently upon the fall it's gates were lockt up the flaming sword of divine Vengeance kept it but the Captain of our Salvation hath now entred and he keeps the gates from shutting any more till every believer be come In 6. Look upon Christ as sitting one the right hand of the Majesty on high So he is a bundle of Myrrh too Is it so saith the Soul Then he hath favour with God and power with God and what need I any more then for my God my Saviour he in whom I have believed to be in favour with the King of Kings and to have power with the Almighty Nay saith the Soul then I am half in Heaven For Eph. 2. 6. We sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Christ and I are one if he sits there I sit there too For he is flesh of my flesh 7. Lastly look upon Christ as interceding for us Rom. 8. Heb. 7. He is not there Idle his work is to plead for us to sollicit our business to act our part to do our work And thus he is a bundle of Myrrh to every believing Soul When the poor Soul sinks in the thoughts of its sins renewing after justification Christ is a bundle of Myrrh to it 1 Joh. 2 1. If we sin we have an advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous When the Soul again sinks at the thoughts of its imperfect duties to think that it cannot do a duty but with so many faults that it may fear the wrath of God for it What a bundle of Myrrh it is to the Soul to think well Christ is in Heaven and he will pick out every fault out of this Prayer this duty c. And so present it in the golden censer Incensed with his merits Thus now I have shewed you how Christ is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh Considered as to his actions as our Redeemer It remains further to shew you that he is so also as to his Spiritual influeuces And Lastly in his Gospel institutions and Ordinances And then I shall come to the Application Sermon LIV. Canticles 1. 13. A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved unto me he shall lie all night betwixt my Breasts I Proceed in opening the bundle or bag or box of Myrrh which makes my Text give a fragrant smell I have shewed that it is Christ who is thus resembled and have propounded to shew you the aptness of the comparison in five things I am yet upon the 4th He is to the believing Soul a bundle of Myrrh for sweetness I proposed to open this in three particulars shewing you that Christ is so 1. In his mediatory actions 2. In his Spiritual influences 3. In his Gospel Institutions and Ordinances I have done with the first and now proceed to the second To shew you the sweetness of Christ to the believing Soul 2. In his Spiritual influences When he ascended upon high saith the Apostle Eph. 4. he gave gifts unto men he gave gifts to his Church his Ordinances Of those the Apostle speaks but he gives other gifts likewise gifts even to the Rebellious Psal 68. All these are summed up under one head The gift of the Spirit This is that which he calls the promise of the Father He was the promise of the Father of old Ezek. 36. 27. It was his promise John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comforter and he shall abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth He is sent in Christs name 26. v. he is called the Spirit of Christ hence the
influences of the Spirit are the influences of Christ I shall instance in a sixfold influence of the Spirit of Christ upon the Soul as to all which he is a bundle of Myrrh to his beloved 1. The first is his convincing influence Joh. 16. 8. When he is come he will reprove the World of sin In respect of this influence the Spirit of Christ is called the Spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. They say of Myrrh that in the gathering it makes the hands of the gatherers exceeding bitter but gathered it becomes incomparably sweet Thus it is with the Lord Christ as to this influence of the Spirit upon us the Soul for the time that it is under this influence is full of bitterness but it turneth to an exceeding great sweetness The Book which St. John did Eat was in the Mouth as sweet as hony but in the belly more bitter than wormwood A fit emblem of sin The convictions of the Spirit of Christ are of a quite contrary nature in the mouth they are as bitter as wormwood but in the belly they are exceeding sweet the Soul in the hour of conviction is exceedingly sad and troubled but when convinced how it blesseth God who was pleased to convince it of sin Like the woman who in an hard labour is full of pain and wisheth she had never bred a Child but being once delivered forgets her pain and remembers her throws with pleasure 2. A second influence of the Spirit of Christ is Illumination The Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge Isaiah 11. 2. It teacheth us all things Joh. 14. 26. 1. Joh. 2. 27. That is all things necessary to Salvation The things which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive even these things are revealed to us by the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. Concerning the manner of the Spirits teaching how consistent with the teachings of Ordinances and yet distinct from it I have else where shewed you my business now is to shew you that Christ in this influence is a bundle of Myrrh Light is sweet to the Eye saith Solomon knowledge is that about which the understanding which is the Eye of the mind is exercised and is every whit as pleasant unto the Soul as light is unto the bodily Eye Now as all knowledge is sweet to the Soul so especially the knowledge 1. Of things hidden from others 2. Of such things as are of nearest concernment to us especially if the knowledge be certain 1. I say the knowledge of such things as are hidden from others such knowledge we upon experience find to be very sweet and such a knowledge the Spirit of Christ gives to the Soul The Gospel of Christ is it self called a mystery a thing hidden from ages and hidden from the wise and prudent This indeed is more generally revealed to all but more especially and fully and clearly to the believing Souls But further the Spirit of God reveals the secrets of God to the Souls of the Saints 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. Even the deep things of God its particular election and the truth of its graces c. Now this knowledge is sweet to the Soul 2. The knowledge of such things as are of nearest concernment to us is most sweet Such is the teaching of the Spirit it teacheth us to cry abba Father it teacheth us to see the things that are freely given us of God Add to this that by how much any knowledge is more certain by so much it is more sweet the understanding is not so pleased with probable notions as what is matter of demonstration and assured to the Soul such is the teaching of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 4. It teacheth by demonstration leaving no doubting in the Soul This is a second influence of the Spirit of Christ upon the Soul in respect of which he is a bundle of Myrrh unto the Soul 3. A third influence of the Spirit of Christ is its Sanctifying influence Rom. 15. 16. being Sanctified by the Holy Ghost It is Christ that Sanctifieth Heb. 2. 11. Sanctification is expressed under the Notion of being conformed to the Image of Christ Now as to this influence of grace Christ is a bundle of Myrrh to the believing Soul The unbeliever hates holiness but the Child of God Loves it and desires further degrees of it Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man saith Paul Rom. 7. 22. He his highly pleased when he finds the power of grace in his heart overpowering lusts and corruptions and his Soul every day growing more and more like God and like Christ more full of Spiritual desires Spiritual affections his heart more willing to deny it self to be under the plenary power and Command of Jesus Christ when he finds that it is not he that liveth but it is Christ that liveth in him Christ in respect of this influence is to the Souls of his Saints as a bundle of Myrrh 4. A fourth influence of Christ upon the Soul is his strengthening influence Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me He strengtheneth the Soul 1. In doing Spiritual duties 2. In resisting Corruptions 3. In suffering sharpest trials The Lord stood by me saith Paul But it is not my present business to discourse either of the several sorts of Spiritual strengthening influences Nor yet of the ways and methods by and in which Christ meeteth the Soul with strength and Communicates strength unto it My work is only to shew you that this influence of his is as a bundle of Myrrh to the Soul Now that Christ in this influence is exceeding sweet to the Soul needs no other proof then the daily experience of the Souls of Gods People how refreshed do they rise up from Prayer when they have found the Spirit of Christ in it helping their infirmities with strong cryes and groans It is said of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. That she rose up and her Countenance was no more sad This was that which made the holy Martyrs take joyfully the spoiling of their goods the burning of their bodies And made them feel no more pain to use the expression of one of them then if they had been upon a bed of Roses So that their Persecutors cursed them saying they had a delight to burn 5 A fifth sort of influences are the Quickening influences of the Spirit of Christ I have formerly told you that the Scripture mentioneth a threefold quickening All of them from Christ and by the Spirit 1. The quickening of the dead body mentioned Rom. 8. 11. This will be as a bundle of Myrrh exceeding sweet when it comes when in the resurrection we shall be like Angels And the thoughts of this are exceeding sweet while we live here 2. The quickening of the dead Soul mentioned Eph. 2. 1. This is exceeding sweet to the Soul when done Oh how pleasant it is to a Soul to remember
his conversion the time the Sermon when and by which God was pleased at first to work upon it and work a change in it 3. The quickening of a dull Soul labouring under any Spiritual deadness heaviness or inactivity of this David often Speaks and prays for it Psal 119. Quicken me in thy precepts c. The knocking 's and motions of the holy Spirit are tiresome and tedious and exceeding grievous to a carnal heart they disturb its sweet sleeps in its bed of idelness Security and lust but they are exceeding sweet to a gracious heart The renewed Soul prays for them thirsts after them delights in them and is never more pleased then when it feels itself most alarumed and awakened and spurred on by them 6. The last sort of influences are the comforting influences of Christ by his Spirit The Spirit is called the comforter often John ch 14. 16. It is a piece of its office to seal and to witness It witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God It sealeth us up to the day of Redemption I shall not need stand to prove that Christ in these is as a bundle of Myrrh The very name comforter imports sweetness and is of it self a bundle of Myrrh to the Soul Now all our Consolations come from Christ Phil. 2. 1. 2 Cor. 1. 5. He was called the Consolation of Israel And the Jewish believers waited for him under that Notion Luk. 2. 25. I have now opened to you the 2d thing and shewed you how Christ in his influences is a bundle of Myrrh One thing yet remains 3. Christ in his Ordinances and Gospel Institutions is a bundle of Myrrh Christ is in his Ordinances We preach Christ crucified saith the Apostle and we are Baptized into Christ Rom. 6. And for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 10. 10. It is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ Christ in these is a bundle of Myrrh to the Souls of believers But indeed Christ in these is only sweet upon the former account viz. in respect of his influences which he is pleased to convey in and through these Organs and separated from these Ordinances signify little but burthen to the Soul Ordinances are sweet to the Soul two waies 1. As God is pleased in and by them actually to convey the influences of Christ and his grace to the Soul Thus they are only sweet to the Soul when it sees the power and glory of God in his Sanctuary 2. As they are under a divine appointment in order to that End Thus Ordinances are sweet to the gracious Soul though at present the Soul doth not meet with and enjoy God in them yet saith the Soul they are those appointments wherein God hath said he will be found and instituted of God in order to that end and it may be my lot as well as others to meet with God in them therefore the Soul prizeth them how precious Ordinances even those which were carnal as the Apostle calls them under the Jewish Oeconomy were to the Servants of God who lived in those times appears by the eminent instances of David in Psal 84. Psal 63. Psal 42 c. The Psalmist speaks of the Body of Jews Psal 84. v. 6. That they passed through the valley of Bacah and went from strength to strength until they all appeared before God in Zion And thus I have opened to you the fourth thing in this similitude shewing you how aptly Christ is compared to a bundle of Myrrh viz. For sweetness but I also noted two things hinted in the term of bundle a bundle or bag notes a quantity of sweets 2. Men use to bind up things in bundles for their better preservation Hence two things more 5. Christ is a bundle of Myrrh He is an heap of sweetnesses exceeding sweet to the gracious Soul The Apostle saith Col. 2. 3. That all the treasures of wisdom are in Christ All the treasures of Soul sweetness are in Christ also There are other things that are sweet to the Worldling and him that is a stranger to Christ Stollen waters are sweet to the Thief Prov. 9. 17. The bread of deceit is sweet to the deceiver Prov. 20. 17. Lust is sweet to the unclean Person yea and to the exterior senses of a gracious Soul other things may be sweet to the Child of God But to the Soul of the Saint considered as a Saint nothing is sweet but Christ he is its bundle of Myrrh all the pleasure and sweetness and delight that it hath in the World on this side of Heaven is either in the meditation of Christ or application of him fiducially or assuredly all his hopes of good are in Christ Christ in him the hopes of glory All his injoyments which he valueth are the enjoyments of Christ and his grace he is a bundle of Myrrh unto it 6. Lastly Christ is to it as a bundle of Myrrh In regard of of its great care and diligence to preserve and keep alive its sense and enjoyments of the Lord Jesus Christ The gracious Soul is very careful to keep its view of Christ Observe the next words He shall lye all night betwixt my breasts of which hereafter Observe again this Spouses carriage Cant. 3. 4. Upon her recovery of Christ when he had absented himself I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my Mothers house into the Chamber of her that conceived me See also Cant. 8. v. 1. The Soul that hath had any experiences of Christ and of the influences of his grace binds them up as it were in a bundle The memory of that Soul is the bag and the string too Thus the Psalmist Psal 77. 5. I have considered the days of old the years of ancient times I call to remembrance my Song in the night v. 11. I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate also of all thy works and talk of all thy doings And indeed this needeth no further proof then what my former discourse hath given it for it is very connatural to us to be careful in the preserving and keeping â—lose and safe whatsoever is precious to us The Worldling ties up his mony in bags and is very careful to keep safely what he hath got with care the Lady keeps her perfumes and Jewels safe so doth the Scholar his Books indeed so doth every one whatsoever he accounteth sweet and pretious Now nothing being more sweet and precious to the Soul then Jesus Christ and his influences it is as natural to him to indeavour the preservation of them But I have spake enough to the explication and confirmation of the point Have you heard that Christ is to the Soul as a bundle of Myrrh How sottish then is the generality of the World that either despise or neglect their interest in him If ever a People despised their own mercies and set light by the
own inbred enemies those of our own house our innate lusts and Corruptions I mean are as still as our grand Adversary The very waters of Marah themselves turned sweet when this Tree of life is in them Our hearts lose much of their bitterness by the presence of Christ in them it is when the Sun is down that the Frogs and Toads croak and the Dors and Bats fly It is in the night when the Thief steals The time of Christs withdrawings from the Soul is the time when Sathan molests and lusts are most busy 2. The Souls Spikenard then sends forth its pleasant smell You had it in the former verse I shewed you there what dependence the exercise of our grace hath upon Christs presence with us both in respect of his exciting and assisting influence Christ speaks it plain in that excellent parable of the vine and the branches Joh. 15. 5. He that abidath in me and I in him the same bringeth forth fruit for without me you can do nothing v. 6. The same bringeth forth much fruit Otherwise the Soul withereth v. 6. Naturalists say that in those Countries which abounded with Myrrh they were wont to bind bundles of it to the heart or to anoint it with the Gum the use of it was to strengthen the heart against what was noxious and unto a due discharge of its natural operations It is Gregories observation or similitude rather that the Soul that applies Christ to its heart and which findeth his influence will find it like a bundle or an anointing of Myrrh strengthening the Soul against the prevailings of corruptions and filling it with a Spiritual heat and fitness for Heavenly operations And thus I have shewed you just reason why the lodgings or abidings of Christ with a gracious Soul are so desirable to it Obj. But will some poor Soul say Can Christ not abide with that Soul which he hath once owned is his love mutable is he not the God that changeth not but loveth to the end whom he once loveth I answer The Love of Christ is an abiding love he is not yea and nay with the Soul upon which he hath once fixed his heart whom he loveth he loveth to the end 1. His union with the Soul abideth Christ once in us and ever in us is a truth to which we must adhere that corruption which could not at first prevent it shall never he of force to dissolve it but the sense of this union may fail The indwelling Spirit shall not be disseised but the Spirit as a comforter may fail the Souls of the Saints When wilt thou comfort me saith the man after Gods own heart Besides that our state of justification is to be maintained by the performance of our Spiritual duty and there can be no justified Soul that doth not earnestly desire its own continuance in that state 2. His necessary influences upon the Soul abide too The promise must stand good I will never leave thee nor forsake thee nor can it be imagined that so noble and vertual an head as the Lord Jesus Christ can be united to any member of his Spiritual body without a proportionable influence upon it or that the seed of God in the Soul should be wholly inactive But Spiritual desires are also the sacred means which God hath appointed for the preservation of these 3. But Gradual abidings of Christ in the Soul may fail He may not abide with the Soul in such proportions of Spiritual influence at all times Now the degrees of Spiritual influence from Christ are highly desirable to a gracious Soul But I have spake enough to the explication and confirmation of the point I come now to the Application In the first place Let us from this try our selves whether we indeed be the true Spouses of the Lord Jesus Christ and he our beloved yea or no Can we say and say it cordially he shall lodge betwixt our breasts 1. There are many that say he shall sit upon my tongue I will talk to Christ and take his name into my mouth concerning whom we may say as the Prophet sometimes said of the Jews The Lord was nigh in their mouths and far from their reins the woman dandles many a Child in her arms that never lodgeth betwixt her breasts in the night she talks of many a man in the day time whom she will not allow to lodg in her bosom at night there 's many a wretch that talks of Christ that yet will not let him come â—igh his heart 2. There are many that say they shall lodg to eternity betwixt his breasts that yet cannot will not say this going to Heaven is grown market talk and every one is a pretender to that journeys end that yet will not set one foot before another in the way Balaam wisheth vainly and many a one concludeth as vainly that he shall dye the death of the righteous and his latter end shall be like his those mentioned Mat. 7. 24. said they should lodge the long night of eternity betwixt Christs breasts but he saith unto them depart from me I know you not there are too many that build Castles in the air and houses upon the sand and dream of golden mountains but every one is not wife to another that saith she shall one day have him nor is every Soul a Spouse to Christ that promiseth to it self eternal content in him 3. A man may say Oh that Christ would come betwixt my breasts that yet is not the Spouse of Christ There 's scarce a wretch living but at one time or other wisheth Christ would speak to his Soul pardon and peace 't is one thing for a woman to desire the Physitian may make applications to her breasts when full of pain that yet will not say he shall lodge betwixt her breasts you see there may be a great many mistakes in this point but plainly let me ask you two or three questions 1. Are you willing to open the secrets of your Souls to Jesus Christ There 's many a one is willing that Christ should come so near him as his Ear but not into his heart canst thou say that thy Soul cleaveth to the Lord Jesus Christ that thou desirest he should enter into its secrets not only to tip thy tongue regulate thy Countenance but to Command in thy heart 2. Art thou willing that Christ should lodge all night with thy Soul Not serve thee only by fits to cure thy heart akings but that he should lodge and dwell with thee make an abode with thy Soul 3. Art thou willing that a perfect Christ should lodge with thee Not only Christ as an High-Priest to expiate for thee and make an atonement for thy sins but as a Prophet to guide instruct thee as a King to rule over thee and govern thee The Wife desires not an Husband only as her Companion but as her head By this O Christian I shalt thou know if indeed thou beest the Spouse
viz. why the Spouse here compareth her Beloved to a Cluster of Copher Yet in that I find them most reasonably well agreed That whatever Plant it was either the Herb of it or the Juice of it was exceeding sweet and the Spouse here compareth Christ to it to denote that exceeding and abundant sweetness which her Soul had tasted in him And so this Text speaketh but the same in another phrase which she had said before A bundle of Myrrh is my Beloved to me she means the samething when she here saith A cluster of Camphire or Copher is my Beloved to me that is exceeding sweet and precious When I spake to the other expression I spake so fully to that point of the infinite Sweetness that is in Christ that I have nothing to add upon that Subject only I remember that I then took notice that I did not judge the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redundant but exclusive My Beloved is not sweet to others they smell no sweetness in him but to Me he is a cluster of Camphire as a bundle of Myrrh sweet infinitely sweet above all other sweet things most sweet The Proposition which I shall only insist upon is this Prop. That the true believing Soul sees peculiar Excellencies and tasts a peculiar Sweetness in Christ which others do not see nor tast This Doctrine supposeth 1. That there is such an overflowing Fountain of goodness and sweetness in Jesus Christ that even those who are not Believers may discern some sweetness and excellency in him 2. It asserts That there is a peculiar excellency and sweetness in him discernable to the Believer which others do not discern The former is a truth As a good woman may so far approve her self to all that see her or hear of her that they may in heart admire her and praise her and have a general love for her but yet this woman may to her Husband in respect of her peculiar suitableness to him and more immediate and intimate converse with him be ten thousand times more precious in his Eyes than unto others So it is with the Lord Jesus Christ a wicked man who is far enough from saving Faith or any special Interest in Christ may yet have a general love for him Give me leave alittle to enlarge upon this supposed part of the Proposition 1. By enquiring upon what bottom this general love can stand 2. By making some Inferences from it The grounds of it may be 1. Real or 2. Supposed and mistaken The truth is such is the Lord Jesus Christ such a Fountain of sweetness that there is real ground for all the Sons of men to love him I will hint you two or three 1. The first shall be his humbling himself for the good of mankind The Evangelist saith Joh. 3. 16. That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. Arminians cannot understand what the greatest part in the World as to the matter of Redemption have to thank God for if Christ were not given with equal respect to one as to another or at least as others qualifie to purchase a possibility for all But certainly if one should say such a one so loved such a Family that he gave his whole Estate to a Child of it we might understand it though every Member of the Family neither had nor were in possibility to have part and part like It is very questionable whether the Angels ever shared in the death of Christ any way yet I believe they love Christ for his dying for men And to that end Eph. 3. 10. the manifold Wisdom of God is by the Church made known to them Beneficence or doing good to others especially such as are in misery is a thing so commends it self to the reason of man that we cannot but have a love for such as are bountiful though we never tast of their bounty We see it in ordinary experience if we that live here be rational and ingenuous hear that one who lives in the furthest parts of England hath given all his Estate to good uses though we have no share in them yet we love the man for it And certainly if you could suppose a reasonable creature who should but hear that Christ the Eternal Son of God came down from Heaven and died upon the Cross for some men though he knew he were none of them yet it would be a ground of love to him considered as a reasonable creature But secondly a ground of it may be The certain apprehension of some good which even the Unbeliever enjoyeth from Christ It is said by many and those too such as can by no means agree that Christ died equally for all or that he purchased a possibility of Salvation for all that yet there is none who lives but is for his life and preservation beholden to the death of Christ and that all receive this good from him which may to rational men evidence a ground of Love I must confess I cannot too boldly strike this string for I much doubt whether the standing of the World and the common preservation of men flows from the Death of Christ as the Issue of his purchase I should rather ascribe it to the gracious Providence of God of which even the Death of Christ also is an Issue 3. Certain it is that whatever the intention of Christ in dying was such is the Wisdom of Divine Providence That the Gospel is held forth indefinitely Whosoever believeth shall be saved So that there is no ground for any Soul to conclude I was none of those considered in the purchase of Christ and there is ground sufficient in the intrinsecal value and sufficiency of the Death of Christ considered together with the indefinite Proposal of the Covenant of Grace to encourage every man under hope of finding mercy with him to come unto him Now which is there of us that should hear of a liberal man worth many thousands of pounds that should have freely determined with himself to spend it all upon our Family and should make a general offer to us that to so many of us as would come to him he would give a share sufficient would not as a reasonable creature judge himself engaged to love him even before we should so go to him and receiveour share Give me leave only to infer two things from this Discourse That there is sufficient ground for God to condemn those for want of love to Christ who yet never had a saving sight of him All men deserve to be Anathema Maranatha whose hearts yern not toward Christ whether ever they had any saving experience of the Love of Christ to their Souls or no. I speak but as a reasonable creature If I were sure that I were shut out of Christ's thoughts when he died upon the cross and that he would never save my Soul yet I see reason enough why I ought to hate my self and condemn my self if I should not love
did he ever revenge himself Nay when he was reviled saith Peter he reviled not again but suffered quietly c. He had satisfied Eyes What Covetousness was he ever guilty of he had a bag indeed but it was for the poor he had not an hole where to hide his head Yet he neither coveted the holes of the Fox nor the Nests of the Birds He had Benign Eyes upon whom did not he look kindly To whom was he not ready to do good He had meek and lowly Eyes he says of himself Learn of me for I am meek and lowly He had simple Eyes no guile was found in his mouth no deceit in his heart no doubleness in his actions c. He had clean Eyes he delighted not in filthy conversation not in filthy company or places if he came at a publicanes and sinners house it was to make it clean and a fit habitation for his holiness He had mournful Eyes he wept over Hierusalem as truly as a Turtle that hath lost its mate He hath chast Eyes not only in a carnal but a Spiritual sense all his delight is in the Sons of men in the Souls of his People By Doves Eyes Christians you shall be like the Lord Jesus Christ whose Eyes you see were such and like the holy Spirit which descended in the form of a Dove and what more honourable for a Christian then to be like Christ for a godly man then to be like God Thus Thirdly you shall distinguish your selves from those who only glory in appearance The Apostle tells us of some that glory in appearance only but not in heart 2. Cor. 5. 12. Now it should be the great business of a Christian to distinguish himself from these Christ tells his disciples Joh. 8. 31. that if they would continue in his word then they should be his disciples indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are many in the World that are so but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in shew and appearance The Doves Eye is a certain note of a disciple of Christ many have the countenance of Doves and the voice of Doves but they have not the Eye of Doves an Hypocrite may groan like a Dove and may look like a Dove in some part of his conversation but yet want the Eye of a Dove The Eye is a noble part of the body it discovers a man much and it serves him much Our Saviour saith the light of the body is the Eye Matth. 6. 22. if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole body is full of light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness He speaks chiefly of the danger of an evil Eye and its unprofitableness to the body It is true concerning the Soul an evil Eye discovers an evil Soul in a great measure O labour therefore for Doves Eyes that you may have an evidence to your own Souls and that you may by them evidence unto others that you are such as glory not in appearance only but in deed My last argument shall be from the honour repute which by them you will gain to your Master to his Gospel in the World It is one of the great things that a Christian hath to take care of that the name of God for his sake be not Blasphemed in the World and on the contrary it should be his great care so to order his conversation as that by the ordering of it he may in the World gain a name and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel and bring up a good report of the land of Canaan and the Inhabitants thereof Now could we find a Christian that were harmless and innocent doing injury to none slow to conceive wrath ready to forgive free from greediness of the World and covetousness after that to which he hath no right kind and courteous meek and lowly simple in heart and of a single Eye tender spirited of a clean conversation chast and sober of a broken Spirit observing his waies and circumspect in his walking how lovely would this Christian appear even in an evil World How likely were a company of such Christians to recover the honour which others have lost to Religion in the World Oh! let the honour of the Gospel move you that the report of your faith may spread and others may see that Religion is not an empty thing and glorify God in the day of their visitation Obj. But you will say are these things in our power Can we create to our selves Doves Eyes If not why do you persuade us And why do you not rather spend your time in praying to God for us Sol. I answer that for the habits of these graces the exercise of which I call to you for they are the gift of God The Creator gives the Dove its Eye and the God of grace must create in men Doves Eyes But yet 1. As to the outward exercise of these things some of them at least much lyes in a mans power in the use of that Common grace which the Lord denies to none till by their abuse of it they have provoked him to deal so with them they may doubtless restrain their hands and tongues from acts of cruelty revenge and malice their bodies from unchast acts c. it is true these acts as done by them cannot please God because not done from a right Principle to a right manner nor to a right End nor are they able to mortify their inward lusts but the outward acts are their duty and would take off much of the reproach cast upon Religion 2. For those who have received the habits of regenerating grace 't is true the Lord must excite them to action And the Lord by the influence of his Spirit must also assist us in the exercise or we shall do nothing but these are such influences of graces as he 1. Grants to use in the use of our indeavours And such influences 2. as he ordinarily doth not deny to his Children putting forth themselves to what they can in the performance of their duty So that asserting yet those great truths of God That it is the Lord that gives to will and to do The first by the infusion of the habit of the grace of regeneration the second by the influence of his grace upon his People exciting those habits to exercise and assisting them in their exercise yet there is room enough for exhortations of this Nature Sermon LVIII Canticles 1. 16. Behold thou art fair my Beloved yea pleasant also our Bed is green IT is generally agreed that the person spoken to in this verse is he who is in this Song represented under the notion of a Beloved by which I have told you that we understand the Lord Jesus Christ and the person speaking is she whom he calls his Love the fairest amongst women c. By her the Caldee Paraphrast all along understands the Congregation of Israel which by that antient Interpreter is
it are buried up in ruines It is the Word of God that is the Basis of the Church and the Basis of every individual Soul that is a Member of that Church 3. The Beams and Rafters of an House as they support the burthen and bear the weight of the Building so they also unite the parts and sides of it they are the Mediums of Union to it so is the Word and Ordinances to the Church The Word is the Foundation upon which the Church and every particular Soul is builded and the Doctrine of Faith and the Ordinances of God are the means of Union in it I do not think that an Explicit Covenant-Union is necessary to the constitution of a Church I think that Union which the whole Church hath in the Profession of the same Doctrine of Faith and in the practice of the same Ordinances Rules of Worship is sufficient to make up such an Union amongst all Gospel Professors as may justifie the denomination of a Catholick Church And again an agreement in the Profession of the same Faith and the practice of the same Ordinances in the same place is enough to make up a particular Church of God Look as in a Building let the walls be at never so many foot distance one from another yet the beams or dormans that go across the Building unite them together and make them all but one and the same Building So it is with the whole number of Professors scattered over the face of the whole Earth though part of them be in England part in France part in Germany part in other parts of the World yet the same Doctrine and Profession of Faith and the practice of the same Ordinances of Worship running through them all makes the whole but one Body one Church the House of the Living God 4. Look as it is with the Beams and Rafters the purer and stronger and more substantial they are and the more intire and homogeneous they are the stronger the House is So it is as to the Word and Ordinances of God the purer the Doctrine of Faith and Ordinances for Worship are the stronger and better the Church is If the Beams of an House be sappy or rotten or patched up of several heterogeneous pieces the weaker the House is and more subject to fall and to decay So it is with the Church which is the House of the Living God If the Doctrine of Faith owned and professed in it be as it were heart of Oke pure Doctrine taken out of the heart of the Written Word not sappy through the additions of Humane Inventions nor heterogeneous part of it the pure Word of God part of it the meer Fancies and Doctrines of men if the Ordinances for Worship practised in it be pure Ordinances if the Tabernacle be according to the Pattern of the Mount according to the form of sound words and pure Rule of the Gospel the Church is fair and glorious and strong the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it but if otherwise if the Doctrine of Faith professed in it be mingled with the Clay of Humane Fancies and Errours if the Ordinances of Worship practised in it be full of the sap of Traditions and Ceremonies the Church is a declining decaying Church and hath no strength in her The reason is because God will not continue with such a Church The Psalmist saith of the Church God is in the midst of her therefore she shall not fall now they must be golden Candlesticks in the midst of which God walketh But thus much may be sufficient to shew you the propriety of the Metaphor Let me shortly Apply this before I pass on to the other Proposition This in the first place commends unto us the Excellency of the Word of God and the Doctrine of Faith contained in it and the Excellency of Gospel Ordinances they are the Beams and Rafters of the House of God hewed out framed and fitted to the Building by him who was the Master-builder the Lord Jesus Christ and laid by him The Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 10 11. saith that as a wise Master-builder he had laid the Foundation and another builded thereon v. 11. Other Foundation could no man lay than that already laid which is Jesus Christ Christ is called the Church's Fundamentum its Foundation and he is the lapis angularis the corner stone as is contained in the Scripture Saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2. 6. Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone eleâ—t and precious the head of the body Col. 1. 18. He from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part Eph. 4. 16. Our Divines say that Christ is the Foundation of the Church in a double sense 1. He is Fundamentum Salutis the Foundation of Salvation in the Church The Salvation of every Soul lieth upon his shoulders Act. 4. 12. Neither is there Salvation in any other 2. He is Fundamentum Fidei Cultus the Foundation of Faith and Doctrine of Worship and Order the Foundation of Doctrine and Ordinances I say And as no man can lay any other Foundation of Salvation than Christ so neither can any lay any other Beams of Doctrine or Institutions for Worship but what Jesus Christ hath laid Christ by himself and by his Apostles laid these Foundations and Beams of Doctrine and Worship from the Gospel of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles must be drawn the Articles for the first and the Canons for the latter And the whole Building of the Church depends upon these Foundations and Beams Let the Word of Faith or the Purity of Worship fail from the Church or any part thereof it presently ceaseth to be a Church of God and turns into an Antichristian Synagogue Now I say this commends to every Christian the Doctrine of Faith and the Ordinances of God There is an Excellency in Entity or Being Hence whatsoever it be which gives Being to a thing and without which it would not be at least not such hath a great Excellency in it and the more noble the thing is to which Being is given the more Excellent is the Form by which it hath such Being The Soul of man gives Being to a man The Body without the Soul is but a lump of flesh a piece of Clay the Soul informeth and inliveneth and giveth an Humane Being to it separate that from it and the man is no more Some Philosophers have vainly dreamed of an Amma Mundi a general Soul of the World which should give Form Life Motion to every part of the World Now as the Soul of a man is more excellent than any Souls of Beasts because it is the Principle of a more Noble Being so doubtless if there were any such Universal Soul which gave Life Being Motion Form Union to all the World it would be a more excellent substance than any
though the trimming were more costly the cloth was not so good They were all but shadows of things to come The substance is ours What sober Person lives in a Congregation where the Sabbaths of God are strictly observed where the Pastor powerfully plainly clearly gravely Preacheth the wholesome Doctrines of the Gospel Prays powerfully and Spiritually where the Word of God is read and the Sacraments duly and orderly administred where Psalms are daily sung in a Spiritual manner and the Ordinances of discipline are prudently and faithfully executed and doth not see a great comeliness in them at which his Soul is pleased and with which it is delighted 2. As they are exceeding pleasing to a Spiritual heart so there is a lovely Majesty in them and also a great Symmetry and proportion God hath stamped a certain secret Majesty upon every holy institution of his which Commandeth love and reverence for it from all sober Persons who have not outlawed both their reason and Religion too and here again the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel administrations gives advantage to them besides there is a great Symmetry in them the word Preached is verbum audible an audible word the Sacrament is verbum visible a visible word When the Gospel is Preached what is Preached but Christ crucified and what is that which is represented in the Sacrament but a Christ crucified The whole Gospel administration is a goodly thing and doth shine nativa luca in a certain native light of its own and hath such a loveliness attends the pure dispensation of it that the superadding of any humane inventions is but like adding black patches to a lovely face without which it was far more beautiful 3. But lastly the Beauty of the Word and Ordinances of the Gospel lies in this that the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ is upon them This is that which gives them lustre Observe holy David Psal 27. v. 4. one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord to enquire in his holy Temple The gracious Soul sees the Face of God in his Word and the Image of Christ in Ordinances this makes them lovely Look as it is with the body let it be never so goodly a structure the lineaments of it never so proportioned yet if the Soul informs it not there is no beauty in it So it is with Ordinances Christ is the Soul of Ordinances and it is only his stamp upon them his presence in them which makes them lovely and beautiful Take the Word of God as Christ is wrapt up in it the Ordinances of God as they are the institutions of Christ and sacred conduit pipes and means by which Christ conveys himself and the influences of his grace unto Peoples Souls so they are exceeding beautiful they are those performances in which the Soul seeth Christ and meets with Christ and this makes them goodly things 2. The 2d thing which the Proposition praedicates concerning the word and Ordinances is power and Efficacy and usefulness I observed to you concerning Cedars that as they had much beauty and goodliness in them so they had much strength in them which made them very useful for Beams and Rafters fit to bear the weight of materials in building laid upon them and to uphold the building There is a wonderful power and vertue in the Word and Ordinances of God 1. There is a supporting power in them 2. There is a working power in them 1. There is in them a supporting power They support a Church The Apostle saith that the Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2. the Church cannot stand without them they support a particular Soul The weight of poor Souls all lies upon the Word of God how often doth holy David speak to this in that excellent Psalm Psal 119. v. 49. Remember thy Word into thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope v. 15. This is my comfort in my affliction for thy Word hath quickened me 81. My Soul fainteth for thy Salvation but I hope in thy word v. 92. unless thy love had been my delight I should have perished in my affliction Nay herein doth the wonderful power of the Word of God appear above the strength of Cedars you must Imagine a Cedar Beam of some proportionable bigness to bear the great weight of a building every stick of Cedar will not do it But now not the whole Word of God only but a particular promise will strangely support and bear up the whole weight of a Soul sinking into despair I have heretofore given you strange instances in this case and I doubt not but many of your Souls can verify this from a particular experience 2. But further there is a working power likewise in the Word and Ordinances this is now more than is in a Cedar beam that hath in it a great strength but it hath no life it is an inanimate thing and so worketh nothing it beareth much but hath no activity in it The words which I speak saith our Saviour are Spirit and life Indeed the life and Spirit which they have is Christs life Christs Spirit without which they are but dead letters and weak things but from Christs concurrence with them they have not only the forementioned power to uphold and bear up a sinking Soul but they have an active working power to cast down the strong holds of the Soul according to that of the Apostle 2. Cor. 10. 4 The Weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ But I shall not inlarge upon this being something beyond my Metaphor 3. The third thing which my Proposition predicateth of the Word Ordinances of God is sweetness This is one thing which I observed to you concerning the Câ—dar wood and the pine Tree they were of a grateful and delightful smell The sweetness of the Cedar is a gratefulness to the exterior senses But the sweetness of the Word and Ordinances of God is intellectual they are sweet to the inward man Which intellectual sweetness is yet set out by similitudes of sensible things Psal 119. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast What is sweeter then honey saith Sampson Judg. 14. 18. Holy David â—elleth him Psal 19. 10. The word of God is sweeter then the hony or the hony comb and Psal 119. 104. He doubleth the Expression for the further confirmation of it They are the words of God that are the pleasant words of which Solomon saith Prov. 16. 24. Pleasant words are as an hony comb Sweet to the Soul and health to the bones The sweetness that resulteth to the Spiritual sense from
c. It is true the Doctrine of the Law and Gospel the Propositions of truth contained in both are much one and the same The moral precepts the same and the promises the same c. Yet that great Proposition of truth De Mâ—ssia venturo concerning the star that should come forth out of Jacob the coming of Shiloh The raising of the great Prophet like to Moses c. This Proposition was perfected in the Gospel and turned into another of far more comfort to us viz. That Christ is come and hath dyed for our siâ—s c. But all the Propositions of the Gospel are of eternal truth and all the Ordinances of the Gospel are like Beams of Cedar that shall never decay That 's the first Inference 2. Observe from hence The blindness of many Peoples Eyes and the hardness of our hearts together with the unreasonableness of unbelief You have heard that there is a Beauty and a sweetness in the Word and Ordinances of God they are beautiful to the Eye and they are sweet unto the tast and to the smell the lips of Christ drop sweet smelling Myrrh what is the reason then that the most of People can tast no sweetness in them nor see any beauty in them Alas the most men and women in the World have no more savour of a Sermon or Sacrament then in the white of an Egg They see more beauty in a play-book or an history then they can see in the holy Word of God the reason is this they are void of Spiritudl senses they have their exteriour carnal senses they can tast sweetness in an Hony-Comb but they have not any Spiritual sense they can tast no sweetness in the Word of God which to Davids tast was sweeter then the Hony-comb They must needs want Spiritual sense for they want Spiritual life they are dead in trespasses and sins no sooner doth the Lord quicken a dead Soul but it savoureth the things of God and tasts that sweetness and sees that beauty in the Word of God and in the Ordinances of God of which I have been discoursing 2. As it discovers the want of Spiritual sense in an unbelievers Soul so it also discovers the hardness of mens hearts The Word and Ordinances of God have a power and Efficacy in them but alas how few do they make any impression upon But I shall not insist upon this as not so proper to the resemblance of the Text. Let me rather 3. Infer the unreasonableness of unbelief from what you have heard of the supporting power of the Word of God The Word of God is the greet supporter of Souls under all afflictions temtations in all distresses and agonies c. God is indeed pleased as to some of his People to give them in sensible evidences of his love sealing them up by way of assurance of his love unto the day of redemption and blessed are they who are in such a case but this is not the portion of all the People of God the most of Christians have nothing but the royal Word of God to trust to and upon this all their hopes hang as to Eternity And we are so carnal that we find it an hard thing oft-times to keep up the building of grace faith and hope upon this foundation but are ready to sway and sink through distrust and doubtings through unbelief and anxiety of thoughts c. This is that which we call unbelief The unreasonableness of which is sufficiently evidenced from the stability of the Word of God it is a Beam of Cedar Thou that thinkest it an hard thing to have nothing but a bare Word of God to trust to unless thou hast some sensible evidence that canst not believe without a sign consider 1. That the Word is the Beam of the Church The whole Church of God is built upon the Word it is that which God hath judged sufficient at all times for his People God the Father had no more than Christ's word for the price of all the Souls that were saved from the beginning of the World until the time of Christ's Death and Passion when the price was actually paid into God's hand All the Believers that were saved from Adam till Christ's coming in the Flesh had no more to trust to for their Salvation than the Royal Word of God That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head That a Messiah should come and be slain to make reconciliation for iniquity c. They all trusted on these words of God and were saved 2. Consiâ—er This Beam is a Beam of Cedar it is an incorruptible thing The Apostle calls the Word and Oath of God two immutable things It must needs be so because of the immutable Nature of God he is a God that cannot lye that cannot speak that which is false he is a God that cannot repent he cannot like man eat his word or recede from it David saith That the Word of the Lord is settled in the Heavens The Grass may wither and the Flower may fade but the Word of the Lord must stand for ever Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle thereof cannot fail Hath he said it and shall he not do it Hath he spoken it and shall not he bring it to pass The Apostle calls the word of Prophecy a sure Word The word of Prophecy is sure and the word of Promise is sure therefore trust to it 3. It is a Beam that never yet brake never Soul miscarried that trusted its whole weight upon it What greater Arguments can any have to persuade his Soul to trust to the Word of God than these two First That the Nature of the word is such that it cannot fail The truth of God cannot be turned into a lye Secondly That no instance can be produced of any Soul that miscarried in its confidence Look over all the Book of God and find me Gods Word given to any Soul for anything whether temporal or spiritual and it was not made good unto him indeed the Visions have sometime tarried beyond the patience of God's People but they have alwaies been fulfilled in their seasons 4. Consider how unreasonable a thing it is that thou shouldest trust to the word of a man and distrust the Word of a God You think your selves concerned to trust in the Royal word of a King in the serious word of a Noble Person in the word of an ordinary Friend who is but accounted morally honest how unreasonable a thing then is it that thou shouldest not take the word of a God the word of him who cannot lye To sum up this then Christian what though thou hast nothing but the word of God to trust to either for those things which concern thee as to this Life or for those things which concern thee as to another Life yet the Word of God is enough it is the Beam of Christ's House and it is a Beam of Cedar which cannot corrupt or putrifie
former Proposition where I told you it signified a powerful gracious influence of the Holy Spirit upon the Soul persuading alluring and commanding the Soul's Obedience It is an act both sweet and powerful Sweet for God draws with the Cords of Love as he speaks Jer. 31. 3. yet powerful for the Soul is made willing the will is not forced but melted renewed and changed and contrariwise inclined to what was before its inclination So as my meaning is that when God hath once by the sweet and powerful influence of his Spirit upon the Soul of a man allured persuaded and commanded the Soul to its duty then it will run after him The only question to be spoken to is what is meant by Running When I opened the Text I told you of several things imported by this term I shall now more largely discourse them 1. Running implieth willingness to the motion It implieth motion and so is opposed to lying or siâ—ting still It is a saying of Augustine Certum est nos velle quum volumus agere quum agimur It is saith he certain that we will when we are made willing that we act when we are acted sed ille facit ut velimus it is God that maketh us to be willing He giveth to will and to do Men may run that are not originally willing it is a mischief that they fear which makes them run but yet even then they move willingly though it be a danger imminent upon them which maketh them so willing But this motion is a much sweeter motion they are made willing first and then they move out of choice willingly until the Soul be renewed and changed it moveth not at all toward God it may move to natural actions from that principle of natural life of which it is possessed It may move to moral actions from that principle of life which every reasonable Soul is possessed of But it moveth not to any truly spiritual actions because it wanteth a principle of Spiritual life But this being infused in regeneration to will being given unto it it moveth in the ways of God and that from a principle within itself You saith the Apostle Eph. 2. 1. hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins It moveth not as a meer Machine or Instrument from the power and force of a forreign agent but as a living creature from itself and a principle within itself Yet not without a divine influence look as it is in natural motions though they flow from a a principle of life in a man yet they are not without an influence of more ordinary common providence upholding our natural faculties hence the Apostle saith of God in him we live move and have our being So it is as to our Spiritual motions the Soul moveth from the principles of Spiritual life infused into it from the principles of the new creature but yet not without the influence of the Spirit of Grace upon it upholding those habits of Grace which are infused into the Soul and exciting it to and assisting of it in Spiritual actions Without me saith Christ you can do nothing he doth not say without me you cannot do much or you cannot do great things but you can do nothing But yet to will is present with the Soul yea and to do though it hath no strength to do what it would And as the Soul hath need of a daily influence of Grace in its ordinary course of Spiritual action so it hath need of more special and powerful influences when it meets with a work more difficult for saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. 5. We are not sufficient to think one good thought as of our selves for now our sufficiency is from God This is now Gratia co-operans co-operating Grace in the exercises of which we are not mcerly passive as in the reception of the first Grace as it was with the Israelites in their journey towards Canaan Numb 9. 17. 18. c. They kept pace with the Cloud and with the Pillar of fire when the Cloud moved they moved when the Cloud stood still they stood still At the Commandment of the Lord they journied and at the Commandment of the Lord they pitched as long as the Cloud abode upon the Tabernacle they rested in their Tents And when the Cloud tarried long upon the Tabernacle many days then they journied not So it is with such as are Israelites indeed in their spiritual motions toward the new Hierusalem the City of God If the Grace of God assists not they move not and according to the degree of its influence they move more or less But yet they move and willingly move though not without the co-operating and assisting Grace of God 2. Secondly Running implyeth strength in the motion thus it is opposed to creeping or walking saintly The weak man may creep and go slowly but he cannot run When the Lord draweth the Soul will not only move towards God and that freely and willingly but it will move strongly it will find strength against sin and strength unto duties Job 17. 9. The righteous man will hold on in his way and he that is of clean hanas shall grow stronger and stronger God commandeth that we should love h m with all our strength Luk. 10. 27. When the Lord draweth the Soul then it runneth with all its strength loveth God with a love that is stronger than the Grave then it believeth with a strong saith and obeyeth with a perfect heart While God was present with Sampson though they tied his Hair to a Beam and shut up the Gates of the City he could carry away Beam and Gates though he had no more then the jaw-bone of an Ass he could with it slay a thousand men when God was departed from him he could not get out of his Enemies hands though he had no such opposition when a Soul finds the power and presence of Divine Grace though it hath strong corruptions and meet with strong Temptations yet they are all nothing to it it easily over all becomes more than Conqueror Peter at one time at the command of Christ walks to him upon the Sea at another time wanting the same special assistance is overcome by a silly Maid in the High Priests Hall the opposite Temptation was much the same in both cases viz. from the sear of his life which was in as apparent danger from the Sea as from the Enemies in the Hall of the High Priest 3. Running argues speed so it is opposed to walking a foot-pace or step by step When the Soul is by God drawn unto him and wants not his co-operating Grace drawing him after him it will not only move towards God and that with strength and courage but it will move with nimbleness and readiness As it is with the body sometimes though it hath its usual strength and be able to work as usually yet it is seized with a torpor and laziness there is a dulness and inactivity upon it So it
is with the Soul its Spiritual distemper many times is not so much a weakness as a spiritual deadness dulness and inactivity so as it wants a promptness and readiness to its duty It cannot say with David My heart is ready O God my heart is ready I will pray and sing Praise Running argues the absence of this ill temper If the Lord draweth the Soul it will not only serve him but it will serve him with a ready mind and free Spirit praise and duty will wait for God in the Soul it will not only walk but run the ways of Gods Commandments David hath an expression to this purpose Psal 119. 60. I made hast and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Every Soul that loves God keepeth the Commandments of God it is the test of our love to God He that hath my commandments and keepeth them saith Christ John 14 21. he it is that loveth me But there is a great deal of difference in mens keeping and fulfilling the commandments of God The meanest weakest Christian doth in his measure keep the Lords commandments all the commandments of God Psal 119. 6. Then saith David shall I not be ashamed when I have a respect to all thy Commandments He that hath the least of saving Grace sets the law of the Lord in his Eye and makes the word of God a light to his feet and a Lanthorn to his paths and hath a reverence and regard to all the commandments of God and To will is present with him he would walk perfectly with God but in many things he doth offend through weakness and in many things through a dulness and heaviness which sometimes doth affect and afflict his Soul he doth not only want a strength to perform but he wants a life and quickness of Spirit in what he doth but now if the Lord draweth the Soul makes hast and delayeth not to keep the Commandments of God Jacob himself had forgot the vow which he had made unto God when he fled from the face of his Brother Esau God draweth him saith unto him Gen. 35. 1. Arise go up to Bethel make there an Altar to God c. then Jacob made hast and delayed not v. 2. When there is a suspension of this drawing Grace in its co-operating and concurring influences the Soul moves heavily like Pharaohs Chariots when the Wheels are taken off it hath a view of its duty and lieth under convictions as to it and it may be finds strength enough to the performance of it but wants a readiness of mind and is ready when it hath a monition to duty from such as wish well to it to say as he said to Paul Go thy way when I am at leisure I will send for thee Or tomorrow or at such or such a time I will do it as the young man in the Gospel whom Christ bid follow him said suffer me first to go and bury my dead So sometimes the Soul is ready to say suffer me first to go and do such or such a thing So the Soul is ready to delay and put off good motions but when the Lord draweth then it maketh hast and delayeth not to keep his Commandments It longeth for times of duty It is glad when they say unto it Come let us go up to the House of the Lord it sayeth when shall I come and appear before God There is a time when the Soul saith when will the Sabbath come the hour of Prayer come that I may appear before God and pour out my Soul before him This is now when God draweth hard when the Spirit of God cometh upon the Soul in a more than ordinary influence and there is a time when the Soul saith when will the Sabbath he gone the hour of duty be run out This is when the Lord doth not draw in such a manner The believing Soul like the flowers opens or shuts as the Sun of righteousness shineth more or less upon it Let me again allude to that Text Psal 65. 1. Praise watteth for God in Zion Praise is a rent due from our Souls to God we farm much mercy from the great Landlord of all good Praise is all the rent we pay Now look as it is in the world a bad tenant never hath his rent ready so it is with a bad Man he lives upon mercy and it may be hath liberal portions of mercy but God never hears of him to pay his acknowledgments A good Tenant if the times be good hath alwaies his rent ready for his Landlord so as his rent waiteth for his Landlord but if the times be bad even the best Tenants though they have an heart to pay their rent yet may not have it to pay their Landlords may wait for their rents so it is with the best Souls If the Sun of righteousness shines out clearly upon them and the Spirit of Grace draweth powerfully Praise waiteth for God in their Souls If not God may wait for his Praises Hence David so often prayeth Quicken me according to thy word Psal 119. 25. Quicken me in thy way v. 37. Quicken me in thy righteousness v. 40. I have now opened the term Run The Proposition opened lies thus before you That the Soul of a Christian once drawn not only by the motives and arguments of the Gospel improved by the gifts of Gods Minister but by the secret and powerful influence of the Spirit of God upon it doth no longer lie still as the Soul dead in sin nor move from a forreign power put forth upon it but from an inward principle within itself and that not weakly and impotently but with might and strength and that not dully and heavily but with life freedom speed and chearfulness after God in the way of its duty keeping the Commandments of God with its whole heart being first made willing it willeth being first set on work it worketh yet not of itself meerly nor principally I live saith the Apostle yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God I can do all things saith the same Apostle to the Philippians through Christ that strengtheneth me and without me you can do nothing saith Christ to his Disciples Joh. 14. 3. The truth of this further appears from Gods Peoples promises of running upon Gods drawing in that excellent 119 Psal you shall find many passages of this tendency v. 32. I will run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt inlarge myheart 33 Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end v. 34. Give me understanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart v. 35. Make me to go in the paths of thy Commandments v. 36. Incline my heart to thy testimonies The inlarging of the heart his prayer for giving him understanding making him to go in the paths of Gods Commandments c. are but all several phrases
such a time Other men may seem to do well enough so long as they have rest and ease and prosperity But what will they do in the day of their visitation God takes another care for his People when David can incourage himself in nothing else he can incourage himself in his God When the Fig-tree doth not blossom and there is no fruit in the vine when the fields yield no meat and the flock are cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stall yet even then they can rejoyce in the Lord and be glad in the God of their Salvation Habak 3. 17 18 19. Vnder his shades we shall live saith the Afflicted Church Lam. 4. 20. I state under his shadow with great delight saith the Spouse Cant. 2. 3. There are many promises which God hath made to his People to be their hiding place their rock their Covert their shadow from the storm and from the tempest To which I refer you In the next place What cause of rejoycing and lifting up of the head is here to the People of God whether such as lie under the present pressures of Tryals or Afflictions or such as have these storms in prospect though they be not already fallen upon them Is the noon of Tryals and Afflictions come upon any of you Hath the Lord taken away those gourds which heretofore were a shade to you your health friends estate your outward comforts of what kind soever yet be of good cheer God is only changing your Souls Pastures Hitherto you have lived more immediately upon the creature you shall only now live more immediately upon God hitherto you have lived by sight God is now calling you to live by Faith hitherto your great Shepherd hath fed you in the fields of sensible comforts and enjoyments things that are seen he is now calling you to live upon things that are invisible but every way as sufficient for the support and sustenance of the Soul he that hath fed thee in the morning will not leave thee at noon time Psal 37. v. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good and so shalt thou dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed David saith He never saw the righteous forsaken The Believer shall be fed either with that bread which the world knoweth and calleth so or with that bread which the world knoweth and calleth so or with that bread which the world knoweth not of There is a revolution of time a vicissitude of Providences but there is no change of the Word and Promises of God Verily they shall be fed There shall be no want to those that fear the Lord. A noon may come but Christ hath a shadow a feeding a resting place for his flocks at noon That God who hath kept thee in health will also keep thee in sickness He that hath hitherto kept thee from the malice of a most malicious world will keep thee under the pressures of their malice Only take care to Trust in the Lord and to do good Is not this thy case Hast thou the storm only in prospect but it is not yet fallen upon thee and art thou only tormented with the fears of what is likely to come upon thee oft-times slavish fear proves a great evil and an evil in prospect is greater than when it is fallen upon a person Let this incourage you to hear that Christ hath shades for his People at noon God hath said I will never leave you nor forsake you Let me only commend one Promise to you it is made to the Church and to every Believer as a Member of it it is that Isa 4. 5 6. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her Assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence and there shall be a Tabernacle in the day-time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from Storm and from Rain I will shut up this Discourse with a word or two of Exhortation First To such as are yet none of the Inhabitants of Mount Zion None of those I mean who are the true Members of the Church of Christ Those who have no title or are able to make out no title to the dwelling-places upon Mount Zion or any of them what a motive should this be to all such to indeavour what in them lieth to get into Christ's little Flock A noon must come Possibly it is now morning with you and you are more careless but man is born to trouble and it is as natural to humane nature as it is for sparks to fly upward as Job tells us The Children of God in respect to the world's hatred are more exposed to others but there is none who liveth and shall not see death none that lives but must look to be in deaths often of one nature or another It is certainly the highest prudence to be prepared for all Assayes Thou hast no way for this but to get an interest in Christ Whilst thou art an Egyptian thou canst not look for the Priviledges of one that is an Inhabitant in Goshen Doest thou ask me how can this be How should I who am a Goat be transformed into a Sheep Our Saviour answers thee Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God he can be none of that little Flock to whom it is God's will to give that Kingdom Regeneration a new Birth from the holy Spirit can only make this Spiritual Metamorphosis Thy work in order to it lyeth only in some external actions such as refraining what thou canst from sin waiting upon God in Ordinances calling upon God in Prayer not resisting the motions of his holy Spirit 2d Branch Secondly This Discourse ought to quicken such as are of the Flock of Christ in all their Noons of Affliction and Trial to betake themselves to Christ's shades to the places where Christ useth to feed and to make his Flocks to rest at Noon What those shades are I have shewed you our work is to betake our selves unto them It is natural to us when we are pursued to look for a covert for some refuge or shelter where we may hide our selves till the storm be passed over and to flee to such places where we think that we may be secure There is no true shelter but in Christ's shades Let us then inquire what is the duty of a good Christian in an evil day that he may bring his Soul to a rest and quiet 1. The first and great thing is to look out our Evidences to make out our title to and interest in the Lord Jesus Christ We must intitle our selves to the great Shepherd of our Souls as our Shepherd before we can expect that he should in a scorching time make us to lie down in green Pastures and lead us besides the still waters and encourage our selves as David Psal
23. 4. Though I walk through the shadow of death I shall fear none evill for thou art with me thy Rod and thy Staff comfort me 2. That done a Christian's next work is to look out the Promises which God hath made either such as are more general and respect his People under any Trial or such as are more special and relate to the People under any Trial or such as are more special and relate to the People of God under such particular pressures of Affliction that they lie under The Book of holy Scriptures is a great Store-house there is scarce any condition of Christians to which some Promises are not suited It is of great use for a Christian to know and understand and be acquainted with the Promises They are as the Jointure to the Wife all that she hath to live upon only with this difference the Woman liveth not upon the Jointure which her earthly Husband hath made her till he be dead Christ died once he dieth no more but ever lives but the Promises are what the Soul liveth upon when God seems as dead withdrawing himself from the support and protection of his People A good Christian ought not therefore to be a stranger to them 3. It is the duty of a Christian to betake himself to these shades to eye the Promises to commit himself unto them to hope in them these are acts and exercises of Faith Come my People saith God by his Prophet Isaiah Enter into the Chambers and hide thy self for a little time till the indignation be overpast Our coming is by Faith committing our selves unto God and trusting in him 1 Pet. 4. 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their Souls unto him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator Christ is the primary object of our Faith the Promises are the proximate objects In such a time therefore let every good Christian call the Promises to his mind whet them upon his Soul offer his Soul to them call upon it to trust in them 4. It is the duty of a Christian at such a time to wait upon God with patience God ought to be trusted in regard of his Truth and Faithfulness his Power and Goodness He ought to be waited upon in regard of his Majesty and Greatness and Wisdom The Promises are oft-times made in general for help deliverance strength and the like without specifying the particular way and method which God will use and without limitations of time He that believeth maketh not hast 5. There must be a close walking with God though we be sore broken in the place of Dragons and covered with the shadow of death yet we must not forget the Name of our God our heart must not turn back from him we must not deal falsly in our Covenant with him nor suffer our steps to decline from his way Psal 44. The Promise Psal 37. 4. that we shall dwell in the Land and be certainly fed is prefaced with a Precept to trust in the Lord and to do good And the advice of the Apostle Peter is to commit our Souls in well doing unto God as to a faithful Creator 6. Lastly Prayer must be added the promises are Gods bonds by which he hath made himself a Debtor to his Creature Prayer is an action of ours by which we put these bonds in suit Sermon XLIII Cant. 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at Noon for why should I be like one of them that turneth aside by the flocks of thy Companions I Am still upon the Spouses third Petition to her Beloved Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon Methinks I could say with Peter when he was with his Master upon the Mount of Transfiguration It is good for us to be here let us build here two Tabernacles one for the Spouse another for her Beloved What she would have in this Petition clouded with Metaphors I have more fully before opened either a more full communion with Christ most free from interruptions Or his more special influence upon her in her hours of affliction and persecution I have spake something already to it in both these senses I have but one thing to add before I come to the words which are the reason of her Petition that is from the form of the words considered as a prayer so expressive both of her wants and desires a supply The Proposition I shall shortly speak to is this Prop. That though a Believer at all times fees a need of the presence and influence of the grace of Christ yet more especially in the time of afflictions and tryals Return unto me for I am married unto you saith the Lord was Gods language of old to his ancient Spouse the People of the Jews The Apostle largely pursueth the same metaphor Eph. 5. 32. This is a great mystery I speak concerning Christ and the Church so he concludeth his discourse the Wife desireth her Husbands presence at all times God hath made the Woman the weaker sex and the Wife stands in daily need of her Husband whom God hath made her head to guide and conduct her she is not only as a Vine for fruitfulness but for weakness and dependency also so is every believing Soul it hath alwaies need of that promise I will never leave you nor forsake you But as the Wife hath more especial need of the Influence and assistance of her Husband in times and matters of difficulty and distress so hath the believing Soul so that he at all times prayeth with David Psal 27. 9. Hide not thy face from me put not away thy Servant in anger thou hast been my help leave me not neither forsake me O God of my Salvation The Child of God knoweth what will follow at any time if the Sun of Righteousness doth not shine upon him all his protection strength life healing is in the shadow of his Wings But yet I say he or she seeth a more especial need of his presence and influence in the noon of sharp Trials and Afflictions Hence you shall observe that though the Servants of God have kept their daily courses of prayer yet at such times they have used themselves to more solemn addresses and applications to God of which you have plentiful instances in Scriptures in the solemn fasts and prayers put up to God in such times and their more special Petitions put up with reference to such times and dispensations of Providence Hence David cryeth out Psal 22. 11. Be not far from me for trouble is near for there is none to help me and again v. 19. Be not thou far from me O God make hast to help me so again Psal 35. 22. It was a time of great outward straights with David as you may see by reading all the former part of that Psalm v. 22.