07. THE SEVENTH SERMON

THE SEVENTH SERMON My love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; and how shall I defile them?—Song of Solomon 5:2-3. THAT the life of a Christian is a perpetual conflicting, appears evidently in this book, the passages whereof, joined with our own experiences, sufficiently declare what combats, trials, and temptations the saints are subject unto, after their new birth and change of life; now up, now down, now full of good resolutions, now again sluggish and slow, not to be waked, nor brought forward by the voice of Christ, as it was with the church here. She will not out of her sleep to open unto Christ, though he call, and knock, and stand waiting for entrance. She is now desirous to pity herself, and needs no Peter to stir her up unto it (g). The flesh of itself is prone enough to draw back, and make excuses, to hinder the power of grace from its due operation in us. She is laid along, as it were, to rest her; yet is not she so asleep, but she discerns the voice of Christ. But up and rise she will not.

Thus we may see the truth of that speech of our Saviour verified, ’That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,’ John 3:6. The flesh pulls her back: the Spirit would raise her up to open to Christ. He in the meanwhile makes her inexcusable, and prepares her by his knocking, waiting, and departing; as for a state of further humiliation, so for an estate of further exaltation. But how lovingly doth he speak to her!

1. ’Open unto me, my love.’ He calls her my love, especially for two respects; partly because his love was settled upon her. It was in his own breast, but it rested not there, but seated itself upon, and in the heart of his spouse, so that she became Christ’s love. We know the heart of a lover is more where it loves than where it lives, as we use to speak; and indeed, there is a kind of a going out, as it were, to the thing beloved, with a heedlessness of all other things. Where the affection is in any excess, it carries the whole soul with it.

2. But, besides this, when Christ saith my love, he shews, that as his love goes, and plants, and seats itself in the church, so it is united to that, and is not scattered to other objects. There are beams of God’s general love scattered in the whole world; but this love, this exceeding love, is only fastened upon the church. And, indeed, there is no love comparable to this love of Christ, which is above the love of women, of father, or mother, if we consider what course he takes to shew it. For there could be nothing in the world so great to discover his love, as this gift, and gift of himself. And therefore he gave himself, the best thing in heaven or in earth withal, to shew his love. The Father gave him, when he was God equal with his Father. He loved his church, and gave himself for it. How could he discover his love better, than to take our nature to shew how he loved us? How could he come nearer to us, than by being incarnate, so to be bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; and took our nature to shew how he loved it, Ephesians 5:30. Love draws things nearer wheresoever it is. It drew him out of heaven to the womb of the virgin, there to be incarnate; and, after that, when he was born not only to be a man, but a miserable man, because we could not be his spouse unless he purchased us by his death. We must be his spouse by a satisfaction made to divine justice. God would not give us to him, but with salving* his justice. What sweet love is it to heal us not by searing, or lancing, but by making a plaster of his own blood, which he shed for those that shed his, in malice and hatred. What a wondrous love is it, that he should pour forth tears for those that shed his blood! ’O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,’ &c., Matthew 23:37; that he prayed for those that persecuted him, Luke 23:34; and what wondrous love is it now that he sympathiseth with us in heaven, accounting the harm that is done to the least member he hath, as done to himself! ’Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?’ Acts 9:4, and that he should take us into one body with himself, to make one Christ, 1 Corinthians 12:27. And he doth not content himself with anything he can do for us here, but his desire is, that we may be one with him more and more, and be for ever with him in the heavens, as you have it in that excellent prayer, John 17:24.

Use 1. Now this should stir us up to be fully persuaded of his love, that loves us so much. Christ’s love in us, is as the loadstone to the iron. Our hearts are heavy and downwards of themselves. We may especially know his love by this, that it draws us upwards, and makes us heavenly minded. It makes us desire further and further communion with him. Still there is a magnetical attractive force in Christ’s love. Wheresoever it is, it draws the heart and affections after it.

Use 2. And we may know from hence one argument to prove the stability of the saints, and the immortality of the soul, because Christ calls the church his love. The want of love again, where it is entire, and in any great measure, is a misery. Christ therefore should suffer, if those he hath planted his love upon, whom he loves truly, either should fall away for ever, or should not be immortal for ever. Christ will not lose his love. And as it is an argument of persevering in grace, so is it of an everlasting being, that this soul of ours hath; because it is capable of the love of Christ, seeing there is a sweet union and communion between Christ and the soul. It should make Christ miserable, as it were, in heaven, the place of happiness, if there should not be a meeting of him and his spouse. There must therefore be a meeting; which marriage is for ever, that both may be for ever happy one in another, Hosea 2:20.

Use 3. Let us often warm our hearts with the consideration hereof, because all our love is from this love of his. Oh the wonderful love of God, that both such transcendent majesty, and such an infinite love should dwell together. We say majesty and love never dwell together, because love is an abasing of the soul to all services. But herein it is false, for here majesty and love dwell together in the heart of one Christ, which majesty hath stooped as low as his almighty power could give leave. Nay, it was an almighty power that he could stoop so low and yet be God, keeping his majesty still. For God to become man, to hide his majesty for a while, not to be known to be God, and to hide so far in this nature as to die for us: what an almighty power was this, that could go so low and yet preserve himself God still! Yet this we see in this our blessed Saviour, the greatest majesty met with the greatest abasement that ever was, and all out of love to our poor souls. There was no stooping, no abasement that was ever so low as Christ was abased unto us, to want for a time even the comfort of the presence of his Father. There was an union of grace; but the union of solace and comfort that he had from him was suspended for a time, out of love to us. For he had a right in his own person to be in heaven presently. Now for him to live so long out of heaven, and ofttimes, especially towards his suffering, to be without that solace (that he might be a sacrifice for our sins), to have it suspended for a time, what a condescending was this? It is said, Psalms 113:6, that God stoops ’to behold the things done here below.’ It is indeed a wondrous condescending, that God will look upon things below; but that he would become man, and out of love to save us, suffer as he did here, this is wondrous humility to astonishment! We think humility is not a proper grace becoming the majesty of God. So it is not indeed, but there is some resemblance of that grace in God, especially in Christ, that he should, to reveal himself, veil himself with flesh, and all out of love to us. The consideration of these things are wondrous effectual, as to strengthen faith, so to kindle love. Let these be for a taste to direct our meditations herein. It follows,

’My dove.’ We know when Christ was baptized, the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of a dove, Matthew 3:16, as a symbol of his presence, to discover thus much: (1.) That Christ should have the property and disposition of a dove. ’And be meek and gentle.’ For indeed he became man for that end, to be ’a merciful Saviour.’ ’Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly,’ Matthew 11:28-29. ’And I will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed,’ &c., Matthew 12:20, said he; and therefore the Spirit appeared upon him in the shape of a dove. As likewise, (2.) To shew what his office should be. For even as the dove in Noah’s ark was sent out, and came home again to the ark with an olive branch, to shew that the waters were abated; so Christ was to preach deliverance from the deluge of God’s anger, and to come with an olive leaf of peace in his mouth, and reconciliation, to shew that God’s wrath was appeased. When he was born, the angels sung, ’Glory to God on high, on earth peace, and goodwill towards men,’ Luke 2:14. Now, as Christ had the Spirit in the likeness of a dove; so all that are Christ’s, the spouse of Christ, have the disposition of Christ. That Spirit that framed him to be like a dove, frames the church to be a dove; as the ointment that was poured on Aaron’s head: it ran down upon the lowest skirts of his garments, Psalms 133:3.

Now, the church is compared to a dove, partly for the disposition that is and should be in the church resembling that creature; and partly, also, for that the church is in a mournful suffering condition.

I. For the like disposition as is found in a dove. There is some good in all creatures. There is no creature but it hath a beam of God’s majesty, of some attribute; but some more than others. There is an image of virtue even in the inferior creatures. Wherefore the Scripture sends us to them for many virtues, as the sluggard to the ant, Proverbs 6:6. And indeed we may see the true perfection of the first creation, the state of it, more in the creatures than in ourselves; for there is no such degeneration in any creature as there is in man.

Now, that which in a dove the Scripture aims at, 1, we should resemble a dove in is, his meekness especially. The church is meek both to God and man, not given to murmurings and revengement. Meek: that is, ’I held my tongue without murmuring,’ as it is in the psalm; ’I was dumb,’ &c., Psalms 39:2 : which is a grace that God’s Spirit frames in the heart of the church, and every particular Christian, even to be meek towards God by an holy silence; and likewise towards men, to put on the ’bowels of meekness,’ as we are exhorted, ’As the elect of God, put on the bowels of meekness and compassion,’ &c., Colossians 3:12. Hereby we shall shew ourselves to be Christ’s, and to have the Spirit of Christ. And this grace disposeth us to a nearer communion with God than other graces. It is a grace that God most delights in, and would have his spouse to be adorned with, as is shewed, 1 Peter 3:4, where the apostle tells women, it is the best jewel and ornament that they can wear, and is with God of great price. Moses, we read, was a mighty man in prayer, and a special means to help and fit him thereunto, was because he was the meekest man on earth, Numbers 12:3; and therefore, ’seek the Lord, seek meekness,’ Zephaniah 2:3; and it fits a man for communion with God, ’for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the meek and humble,’ 1 Peter 5:5. It is a grace that empties the soul of self-conceit, to think a man’s self unworthy of anything, and so makes it capacious, low, and fit for God to fill with a larger measure of his Spirit. It takes away the roughness and swelling of the soul, that keeps out God and grace. Therefore in that grace we must especially be like this meek creature, which is no vindictive creature, that hath no way to revenge itself.

Again, 2, it is a simple creature, without guile. It hath no way to defend itself, but only by flight. There is a simplicity that is sinful, when there is no mixture of wisdom in it. There is a simplicity, that is, a pure simplicity; and so God is simple, which simplicity of God is the ground of many other attributes. For thereupon he is eternal, because there is nothing contrary in him; there is no mixture in him of anything opposite. So that is a good simplicity in us, when there is no mixture of fraud, no duplicity in the soul. ’A double-hearted man is inconstant and unstable in all his ways,’ James 1:8. Now simplicity, as it is a virtue, so we must imitate the dove in it; for there is a sinful, dove-like silliness. For, Hosea 7:11, Ephraim is said there to be ’like a silly dove without heart; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.’ There is a fatal simplicity, usually going before destruction, when we hate those that defend us, and account them enemies, and rely more upon them that are enemies indeed than upon friends. So it was with Ephraim before his destruction: ’He was a silly dove without heart; he called to Egypt, and went to Assyria,’ false friends, that were enemies to the church of God; yet they trusted them more than God or the prophets. Men have a world of tricks to undermine their friends, to ruin them, and to deserve ill of those that would with all their hearts deserve well of them, when yet in the mean time they can gratify the enemy, please them, and hold correspondence with them, as here Ephraim did. ’Ephraim is a silly dove,’ &c. This, therefore, is not that which we must aim at, but to be simple and children concerning evil, but not in ignorance and simplicity that way.

3. Again, this creature is a faithful creature. That is mainly here aimed at. It is faithful to the mate. So the Christian soul, by the Spirit of God, it is made faithful to Christ, it keeps the judgment chaste, is not tainted with errors and sins. He keeps his affections chaste likewise, sets nothing in his heart above Christ. ’Whom hath he in heaven but him, and what is there in earth he desires beside him?’ Psalms 73:25. You know in the Revelation, the spouse of Christ is brought in like a virgin contracted, but the Romish Church like a whore. Therefore the church of God must take heed of the Roman Church, for that is not a dove. We must be virgins, who must keep chaste souls to Christ, as you have it—’Those that follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth, they have not defiled themselves with women,’ Revelation 14:4. The meaning is spiritual, namely, that they have not defiled themselves with idolatry and spiritual fornication; they have chaste hearts to Christ. So in this respect they resemble the dove. These, therefore, that draw away from the love of religion to mixture, to be meretrices* and harlots in religion, they are not Christ’s doves. As far as they yield to this, it is an argument that they have false hearts. Christ’s church is a dove. She keeps close and inviolate to him.

4. Again, this creature is of a neat disposition. It will not lodge where it shall be troubled with stench, and annoyed that way; and likewise feeds neatly on pure grain; not upon carrion, as you see in the ark, when the raven was sent out it lights upon carrion, of which there was then plenty, and therefore never came into the ark again, Genesis 8:7. But the dove, when she went out, would not light upon carrion or dead things; and so finding no fit food, came back again to the ark. So the Christian soul in this respect is like a dove, that will not feed upon worldly carrion, or sinful pleasures, but upon Christ and spiritual things. The soul of a carnal and a natural man useth to feed upon dust, earth and earthly things. When the soul of a true Christian, that hath the taste of grace, feeds neatly, it will not feed on that which is base and earthly, but upon heavenly and spiritual things.

5. It is gregaria avis, a bird that loves communion and fellowship, as the prophet speaks, ’Who are those that flock to the windows as doves,’ Isaiah 60:8; for so they use to flock to their houses by companies. So the children of God love the communion and fellowship one of another, and keep severed from the world as soon as ever they are separated from it, delighting in all those of the same nature. Doves will consort with doves, Christians with Christians, and none else. They can relish no other company. These and such like properties may profitably be considered of the dove. The much standing upon these were to wrong the intendment of the Spirit of God; to neglect them altogether were as much. Therefore we have touched upon some properties only.

I. Now, for the sufferings of the church it is like a dove in this. The dove is molested by all the birds of prey, it being the common prey of all other ravenous birds. So the poor church of God is persecuted and molested. ’Oh that I had wings like a dove,’ &c., saith holy David, Psalms 55:6. It is an old speech, and is for ever true, that crows and such, escape better than doves. The punishment that should light on ravens, ofttimes it lights on doves. Thus God’s dove, God’s church, is used. But what defence hath God’s poor church? Why, no defence. But,

First, flight, even as the dove hath nothing but flight. It hath no talons to wound, but it hath flight. So we are to fly to God as to our mountain; fly to the ark, that God may take us in. The church of God hath no other refuge but to be housed in God and Christ, Proverbs 18:10. He is our ark.

Secondly, and to mourn; as Hezekiah saith of himself, ’He mourned as a dove, and chattered like a crane,’ Isaiah 38:14. The state of the church of God is like the turtle’s, to mourn in all afflictions, desertions, and molestations of wicked men; to mourn to God, who hears the bemoanings of his own Spirit in them. And woe to all other birds, the birds of prey, when the turtles do mourn because of their cruelty. It is a presage of ruin to them, when they force the turtle to sorrow and mourning.

Thirdly, And then, thirdly, they have another refuge besides flight and mourning, which is to build high from vermin that would otherwise molest them. Instinct teacheth them thus to escape their enemies by building high, and so to secure themselves. So there is in God’s children a gracious instinct put, an antipathy to the enemies of it; which tends to their safety, in that they mingle not themselves with them. And likewise God breeds in them a familiarity with himself, and stirs them to build in him as on a rock, to be safe in him.

Objec. But you will object, If the church of God be his dove, why is it so with it as it is, that God should suffer his love, and his dove, and his turtle thus as it were to be preyed upon? ’Give not the soul of the turtle to the beasts,’ saith the psalmist, Psalms 74:19. If the church were God’s dove, he would esteem more of it than he doth, and not suffer it to be persecuted thus?

Ans. God never forsakes his dove, but is an ark for it to fly to, a rock for it to build on. The dove hath always a refuge in God and in Christ in the worst times. You have a notable place for this, ’Though you have lien among the pots,’ that is, smeared and sullied, ’yet they shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as the snow in Salmon,’ Psalms 68:13-14. So though the church of God lies among the pots awhile, all smeared, and soiled, and sullied with the ill-usage of the world, yet as long as it keeps itself a dove, unspotted of the filth of the world and sin (though it be smeared with the ill-usage thereof), we see what God promiseth here, ’yet shall they be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.’ So God will bring forth his dove with glory out of all these abasements at length. So much for the title of dove. It follows,

’My undefiled.’ Undefiled is a high word to be applied to the church of God here; for the church, groaning under infirmities, to be counted perfect and undefiled. But Christ, who judgeth aright of his church, and knows best what she is, he yet thus judgeth of her. But, how is that? The church is undefiled, especially in that it is the spouse of Christ, and clothed with the robes of his righteousness. For there is an exchange so soon as ever we are united to Christ. Our sins are upon him, and his righteousness is made ours; and therefore in Christ the church is undefiled. Christ himself the second person is the first lovely thing next the Father; and in Christ all things as they have relation to him are loved, as they are in him. Christ’s human nature is next loved to the second person. It is united, and is first pure, holy, and beloved. Then, because the church is Christ mystical, it is near to him; and, in a manner, as near as that sacred body of his, both making up one Christ mystical. And so is amiable and beloved even of God himself, who hath pure eyes; yet in this respect looks upon the church as undefiled.

Christ and his church are not to be considered as two when we speak of this undefiledness, but as one. And the church having Christ, with all that is Christ’s, they have the field, and the pearl* in the field together. And Christ giving himself to the church, he gives his righteousness, his perfection, and holiness; all is the church’s.

Quest. But how can it be the church’s, when it is not in the church, but in Christ?

Ans. It is safe for the church that it is in Christ, who is perfect and undefiled for us; to make us appear so. And so it is in Christ, the second Adam, for our good. It is not in him as another person, but it is in him as the church’s Head, that make both one Christ. The hand and the foot see not; but both hand and foot have benefit by the eye, that sees for them. There is no member of the body understands, but the head does all for them. Put the case we have not absolute righteousness and undefiledness in our own natures and persons inhering in us. Yet we have it in Christ, that is one with us, who hath it for our good. It is ours, for all the comfort and good that we may have by it; and thereupon the church in Christ is undefiled; yea, even then when it feels its own defilements. And here ariseth that wondrous contradiction that is found in a believer’s apprehension. The nature of faith is to apprehend righteousness in the sense of sin, happiness in the sense of misery, and favour in the sense of displeasure. And the ground of it is, because that at the same time the soul may be in some measure defiled in itself, and yet notwithstanding be undefiled in her head and husband Christ. Hence the guilty soul, when it feels corruption and sin, yet notwithstanding doth see itself holy and clean in Christ the head. And so at once there is a conscience of sin, and no more conscience of sin, as the apostle saith, Hebrews 10:2, when we believe in Christ, and are purged with his blood, that is, there is no more guilt of sin binding over to eternal damnation, yet notwithstanding always there is a conscience of sin, for we are guilty of infirmities, ’And if we say we have no sin, we lie, and deceive ourselves, 1 John 1:8.

Obj. But, how can this be, that there should be conscience of sin, and no conscience of sin, a sinner, and yet a perfect saint and undefiled?

Ans. 1. The conscience knows its own imperfection, so it is defiled, and accuseth of sin. And as it looks to Christ, so it sees itself pure, and purged from all sin. Here is the conquest, fight, and the victory of faith in the deepest sense of sin, pollution, and defilement in ourselves, at the same time to see an absolute and perfect righteousness in Jesus Christ. Herein is even the triumph of faith, whereby it answers God. And Christ, who sees our imperfections, but it is to purge and cleanse them away, not to damn us for them, at the same time he sees us in his own love clothed with his righteousness, as one with himself, endowed with whatsoever he hath; his satisfaction and obedience being ours as verily as anything in the world is. Thus he looks on us, and thus faith looks upon him too, and together with the sight and sense of sin, at the same time it apprehends righteousness, perfect righteousness, and so is undefiled. This is the main point in religion, and the comfort of Christians, to see their perfection in Christ Jesus, and to be lost in themselves, as it were, and to be only ’found in him, not having their own righteousness, but the righteousness of God in him,’ Php 3:9. This is a mystery which none knows but a believing soul. None see corruption more, none see themselves freed more. They have an inward sight to see corruption, and an inward faith to see God takes not advantage at it. And surely there can be no greater honour to Christ than this. In the sense of sin, of wants, imperfections, stains, and blemishes, yet to wrap ourselves in the righteousness of Christ, God-man; and by faith, being thus covered with that absolute righteousness of Christ, with boldness to go, clothed in the garments of this our elder brother, to the throne of grace. This is an honour to Christ, to attribute so much to his righteousness, that being clothed therewith, we can boldly break through the fire of God’s justice, and all those terrible attributes, when we see them all, as it were, satisfied fully in Christ. For Christ, with his righteousness, could go through the justice of God, having satisfied it to the full for us. And we being clothed with this his righteousness and satisfaction, may go through too.

Ans. 2. But besides that, there is another undefiledness in the church, in respect to which she is called undefiled, that is, in purity of disposition, tending to perfection. And God respects her according to her better part, and according to what he will bring her in due time. For we are chosen unto perfection, and to be holy in his sight; and perfectly holy, undefiled, and pure. We are not chosen to weak beginnings. In choosing us, what did God aim at? Did he aim at these imperfect beginnings, to rest there? No; we were elected and chosen to perfection. For, as it is in this natural life, God purposed that we should not only have all the limbs of men, but grow from infancy to activeness and perfection. As God at first intended so much for our bodies, no question he intends as much also for the soul, that we should not only have the lineaments of Christianity, a sanctified judgment, with affections in part renewed, but he hath chosen us to perfection by degrees. As the seed first lies rotting in the ground, then grows to a stalk, and then to an ear, so God’s wisdom shines here, by bringing things by degrees to perfection and undefiledness. His wisdom will have it thus (or else his power might have it otherwise), because he will have us to live by faith, to trust his mercy in Christ, and not to the undefiledness that is begun in us, but to admire that which we have in Christ himself.

And, indeed, it is the character of a judicious believing Christian soul, that he can set a price and value the righteousness of Christ, out of himself, labouring, living, and dying to appear in that; and yet to comfort and sustain himself during this conflict and fight between the flesh and the Spirit, that in time this inherent grace shall be brought to perfection. And Christ, he looks upon us as he means to perfect the work of grace in us by little and little, as he means to purge and cleanse us, as Ephesians 5:26-27. The end of redemption is, that he might purge his church, and so never leave it till he have made it ’a glorious spouse in heaven.’ He looks upon us as we shall be ere long, and therefore we are said ’to be dead to sin,’ while we are but dying to it. And, saith he, ’you have crucified the flesh with the affections, and lusts thereof,’ Galatians 5:24, when we are but crucifying it. But it is said so because it is as sure to be done as if it were done already. As a man, when he is condemned, and going to his execution, he is a dead man, so there is a sentence passed upon sin and corruption. It shall be abolished and die. Therefore it is dead in sentence, and is dying in execution. It is done; ’They that are in Christ have crucified the flesh, with the lusts thereof,’ Galatians 5:24. It is as sure to faith as if it were done already. So we are said ’to sit in heavenly places with Christ,’ Ephesians 2:6. We are with him already. For Christ having taken us so near in affection to himself, he will never leave us till he have made us such as he may have full contentment in, which is in heaven, when the contract between him and us shall be fulfilled in consummation of the marriage. Thus faith looks, and Christ looks thus upon us. Which should comfort us in weakness, that God regards us not in our present imperfections, but as he means to make us ere long. In the mean time, that he may look upon us in love, he looks upon us in the obedience of his son, in whom whatsoever is good shall be perfected at the last.

Use 1. What should we do then, if Christ doth make his church thus, ’his love,’ ’his dove,’ ’his undefiled,’ by making his love to meet in it as the centre thereof, whereunto he doth confine all his love, as it were? We should confine our love to him again; and have no love out of Christ, since he hath no love out of us. There should be an everlasting mutual shining and reflection between him and the soul. We should lay open our souls to his love, as indeed he desires especially the communion of our affections. We should reflect love to him again. This perpetual everlasting intercourse between Christ and his spouse, is her main happiness here, and her eternal happiness in heaven. In looking on him who hath done so much for us, he shines on us, and we look back again upon him. Doth Christ love us so intimately, and so invincibly, that no indignities nor sin could overcome his love, which made, that he endured that which he hates most, ’to become sin for us,’ 2 Corinthians 5:21, nay, the want of that, which was more to him than all the world, the want of the sense of the favour of God for a time. ’My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Hath Christ thus infinitely loved us, and shall not we back again make him our love? In their degree the saints of God have all done so. It was a good speech of Ignatius the martyr, ’My love Christ was crucified!’ (h) So a Christian should say, ’My love was crucified,’ ’My love died,’ ’My love is in heaven.’ And for the things on earth, I love them as they have a beam of him in them; as they lead me to him. But he is my love, there my love is pitched, even upon him. This is the ground of these Scripture phrases, ’But our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,’ &c., Php 3:20; and ’set your affections on the things that are above,’ Colossians 3:1. Why? Christ our love is there. The soul is more where it loves, than where its residence is. It dies, as it were, to other things, and lives in the thing it loves. Therefore our thoughts and affections, our joy and delight should be drawn up to Christ; for indeed his love hath such a magnetical attractive force, that where it is, it will draw up the heavy iron, the gross soul; and make it heavenly. For there is a binding, a drawing force in this excellent affection of love.

Use 2. ’My love, my dove,’ &c. There are all words of sweetness. He labours to express all the affection he can. For the conscience is subject to upbraid, and to clamour much. So that there must be a great deal of persuasion to still the accusing conscience of a sinner, to set it down, make it quiet, and persuade it of God’s love. Therefore he useth all heavenly rhetoric to persuade and move the affections.

Use 3. In this that the church is undefiled in Christ, let us learn when afflicted in conscience, not so much to judge of ourselves by what we feel in ourselves, as by what faith suggests. In Christ therefore let us judge of ourselves by what we are as in him. We are poor in ourselves, but have riches in him. We die in ourselves in regard of this life, but we have a life in him, an eternal life; and we are sinners in ourselves, but we have a righteousness in him whereby we are righteous in his sight, 2 Corinthians 5:21. We are foolish, unskilful, and ignorant in ourselves, but he is our wisdom in all whatsoever is amiss in us. Let us labour to see a full supply of our wants made up in Christ. This is to glorify God as much as if we could fulfil the law perfectly. If we were as undefiled as Adam was, we could not glorify God more, than when we find ourselves and our conscience guilty of sins, yet thus by the Spirit of God to go out of ourselves, and to see ourselves in Christ, and thus to cast ourselves on him, embrace him, and take that gift of God given us, Christ offered to us, because God so commands, John 4:10. We honour God more than if we had the obedience that Adam had at first before his fall. For now in the covenant of grace, he will be glorified in his mercy, in his forgiving, forbearing, rich, transcendent mercy, and in going beyond all our unworthiness and sins, by shewing that there is a righteousness provided for us, the righteousness of God-man; whose obedience and satisfaction is more than our disobedience, because it is the disobedience of man only, but his obedience and righteousness is the obedience and righteousness of God-man. So it satisfieth divine justice, and therefore ought to satisfy conscience to the full. Our faith must answer Christ’s carriage to us. We must therefore account ourselves in him ’undefiled,’ because he accounts us so. Not in ourselves, but as we have a being in him, we are undefiled.

Use 4. Again, see here, Christ accounts us, even in regard of habitual grace, undefiled, though we have for the present many corruptions. Let us therefore learn a lesson of moderation of so excellent a teacher; let us not be ashamed to learn of our Saviour. What spirit shall we think they have, that will unchurch churches, because they have some defilement and un-brotherly brethren, accounting them no churches, no brethren, because they have some imperfections? Why hath not Christ a quarrel to the church then? is he blind? doth his love make him blind? No; he seeth corruption, but he seeth better things; somewhat of his own, that makes him overlook those imperfections, because they are such as he means to mortify, subdue, wear away, and to fire out by the power of his Spirit, which as fire shall waste all those corruptions in time. So it is with the church. Put the case, she hath some corruptions; that it be not with her, as it should be, yet she is a church notwithstanding. The church of Corinth, we see, Paul styles them saints and brethren, with all those sweet names, 1 Corinthians 1:2, notwithstanding they had many corruptions among them.

Use 5. We have a company of malignant spirits, worse than these a great deal, atheistical persons, that have no religion at all, who, out of malice and envy, watch for the halting of good Christians; who can see nothing but defilement in those that have any good in them, nothing but hypocrisy, moppishness, all that is naught; who, if they can devise any blemish, put it upon them. Whereas Christ sees a great deal of ill in the church, but he sees it to pardon, subdue, and to pity the church for it, extolling and magnifying its goodness. What spirits are those of that watch to see imperfections in others, that their hearts tell them are better than they, that they may only disgrace them by it; for goodness they will see none.

Use 6. And likewise, it should teach us not to wrong ourselves with false judgment. We should have a double eye: one eye to see that which is amiss in us, our own imperfections, thereby to carry ourselves in a perpetual humility; but another eye of faith, to see what we have in Christ, our perfection in him, so to account of ourselves, and glory in this our best being, that in him we have a glorious being,—such an one whereby God esteems us perfect, and undefiled in him only. The one of which sights should enforce us to the other, which is one end, why God in this world leaves corruption in his children. Oh, since I am thus undefiled, shall I rest in myself? Is there any harbour for me to rest in mine own righteousness? Oh, no; it drives a man out of all harbour. Nay, I will rest in that righteousness which God hath wrought by Christ, who is God-man. That will endure the sight of God, being clothed with which, I can endure the presence of God. So, this sight of our own unworthiness and wants should not be a ground of discouragement, but a ground to drive us perfectly out of ourselves, that by faith we might renew our title to that righteousness, wherein is our especial glory. Why should we not judge of ourselves as Christ doth? Can we see more in ourselves than he doth? Yet, notwithstanding all he sees, he accounts us as undefiled.

Use 7. Again, since he accounts us undefiled, because he means to make us so, and now looks on us as we shall be, in all our foils* and infirmities, let us comfort ourselves, it shall not thus be always with us. Oh, this flesh of mine shall fall and fall still, and shall decay as Saul’s house, and the Spirit at the last shall conquer in all this! I am not chosen to this beginning, to this conflicting course of life. I am chosen to triumph, to perfection of grace: this is my comfort. Thus we should comfort ourselves, and set upon our enemies and conflict in this hope of victory: ’I shall get the better of myself at the last.’ Imperfection should not discourage, but comfort us in this world. We are chosen to perfection. Let us still rejoice, in that ’we are chosen to sanctification,’ which is a little begun, being an earnest of other blessings. Let us not rest in the pledge or in the earnest, but labour for a further pledge of more strength and grace. For those that have the Spirit of Christ, will strive to be as much unspotted and as heavenly as they can, to fit themselves for that heavenly condition as much as may be. When, because they cannot be in heaven, yet they will converse there as much as they can; and because they cannot be with such company altogether, they will be as much as they may be; labouring as they are able to be that which they shall be hereafter. Imperfection contents them not, and therefore they pray still in the Lord’s prayer, ’Thy kingdom come,’ Matthew 6:10. While there is any imperfection, their hearts are enlarged more and more; nothing contents them but perfection. And indeed God accounts us thus unspotted for this end, because he would encourage us. Where he sees the will and endeavour, he gives the title of the thing desired.

I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? Verse 3.

Here is an ingenious confession made by the church of her own untowardness. Notwithstanding all Christ’s heavenly rhetoric and persuasion that he did use, yet she draws back, and seems to have reason so to do. ’I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on again’ to let thee in? ’I have washed my feet, &c. It is a phrase taken from the custom of those hot countries, wherein they used to wash their feet. ’I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them’ to rise and open the door to thee? There is a spiritual meaning herein, as if she had said, I have some ease by this sleepy profession, some freedom from evil tongues, and some exemption and immunity from some troubles I was in before. I was then, perhaps, too indiscreet. Now wilt thou call me again to those troubles, that I have wisely avoided? No; ’I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?’ I affect‡ this estate very well; I am content to be as I am, without troubling of myself. Thus the church puts off Christ. This I take to be the meaning of the words. That which is observable is this: that it is not an easy matter to bring the soul and Christ together into near fellowship. We see here how the church draws back; for the flesh moves either not to yield at all to duty, or to be cold, uncertain, and unsettled therein. The flesh knows that a near communion with Christ cannot stand with favouring any corruption, and therefore the flesh will do something, but not enough. It will yield to something, but not to that that it should do, to that communion and fellowship that we ought to have with Christ. To instance in some particulars, as a rule and measure to somewhat of which we should be.

Obs. 1. A Christian life should be nothing but a communion and intercourse with Christ, a walking in the Spirit; and to be spiritual, and to favour the things of the Spirit altogether, he should study to adorn his profession by a lively and cheerful performance of duty, Matthew 5:16, and be exemplary to others; and should be in such a frame as he should ’walk continually in the comforts of the Holy Ghost’ undismayed, and undaunted, ’and abound in the fruits of the Spirit,’ Acts 9:20,’ and do all the good he can wheresoever he comes. He should ’keep himself unspotted of the world,’ James 1:27, go against the stream, and be continually in such a temper, as it should be the joy of his heart to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, 2 Timothy 4:6. One might go on thus in a world of particulars, which would be too long. If we could attain to this excellency, it were an happy life, a heaven upon earth. This we should aim at. Will the flesh endure this, think you? No, it will not; which you shall see more particularly in this next observation, which is,

Obs. 2. That one way, whereby the unregenerate part in us hinders this communion with Christ, and the shining of a believer in a Christian course, is by false pretences, reasons, and excuses. ’I have washed my feet; I have put off my coat,’ &c. The flesh never wants excuses and pretences (there was never any yet came to hell, but they had some seeming pretence for their coming thither) to shift and shuffle off duties. There was never yet any careless, sinful course but it had the flesh to justify it with one reason or other; and therefore it is good to understand the sophistical shifts* of the flesh, and pretences and shows which it hath. And as it is good to know the truth of God, and of Christ revealed in his word, so is it to know the falseness and deceitfulness of our own hearts. They are both mysteries almost alike, hard to be known. Labour we then more and more to know the falsehood of our own disposition, and to know the truth of God. To give instance in a few particulars. You see in the church the difficulty of her communion with Christ comes from the idle pretences and excuses she hath. Every one hath his several pretexts, as his state and condition is. We think we should be losers if we give ourselves to that degree of goodness which others do; whereas God doth curse those blessings which men get with neglect of duty to him. If we seek ’first the kingdom of heaven, all other things that are good for us shall be cast upon us,’ Matthew 6:33.

Obj. Thou shalt lose the favour of such a one?

Ans. Never care for that favour thou canst not keep with God’s favour. The favour of man is a snare. Take heed of that favour that snares thee. Thou losest their favour and company, but thou gainest the favour of Christ, and company of angels.

Obj. But they will rail on thee, and reproach thee with thy old sins?

Ans. Care not, ’God will do thee good for that,’ as David said when Shimei cursed him, 2 Samuel 16:12.

Obj. But I shall lose my pleasure?

Ans. O! but such pleasures end in death. They are but pleasures of sin for a season, and thou shalt not lose by the change. ’The ways of wisdom are pleasant ways,’ Proverbs 3:17. One day religiously spent in keeping of a good conscience, what a sweet farewell hath it! Joy is in the habitation of the righteous. It becomes the righteous to be joyful. However outwardly it seems, yet there is a paradise within. Many such objections the flesh makes. Some take scandal at the prosperity of the wicked, and affliction of the saints, and from hence take occasion to rot in their dregs of sin. But what saith Christ? ’Happy is the man who is not offended in me,’ Matthew 11:6. As for the prosperity of the wicked, envy them not. They stand in slippery places, and flourish like a green bay tree, but presently they vanish. Take no offence at them, nor at the cross. Look not at this, but at the ensuing comfort. ’Blessed are they that suffer for righteousness sake,’ 1 Peter 3:14. Bind such words to your head as your crown. God reserves the best comforts to the worst times; his people never find it otherwise.

Obj. Ay, but if I be thus precise, the times are so bad, I shall be alone.

Ans. Complain not of the times, when thou makest them worse. Thou shouldst make the times better. The worse the times are, the better be thou; for this is thy glory, to be good in an evil generation. This was Lot’s glory, 2 Peter 2:7. Paul tells what ill times they were; but, saith he, ’our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for a Saviour,’ Php 3:20. What brings destruction on God’s people, but their joining with the wicked? When they joined with the children of men, then came the flood. These and the like pretences keep men altogether from goodness, or else from such a measure as may bring honour to God and comfort to themselves. Or if men be great, why, this is not honourable to do thus, as you know what Michal said to David, ’How glorious was the king of Israel this day! like a fool,’ &c., 2 Samuel 6:20. To attend upon the word of God with reverence, to make conscience of religion, Oh! it stands not with greatness, &c. But the Spirit of God answereth this in him, ’I will yet be more vile for God,’ verse 22. It is a man’s honour here to stand for God and for good things; and it is our honour that God will honour us so much.

Those likewise that are worldly have excuses also. ’Alas! I must tend my calling.’ And they have Scripture for it too. ’He that provides not for his family is worse than an infidel,’ 1 Timothy 5:8, as if God had set up any callings to hinder the calling of Christianity; as if that were not the greatest calling, and the best part that will abide with us for ever; as if it were not the part of a Christian to redeem time from his calling to the duties of Christianity. I have no time, saith the worldling; what will you have me to do? Why, what time had David, when he meditated on the law of God day and night? Psalms 1:2. He was a king. The king is bound to study the Scriptures. And yet whose employment is greater than the employment of the chief magistrate? Deuteronomy 17:18-19. And thus every one, as their state and condition is, they have several pretences and excuses. Those that are young, their excuse is, we have time enough for these things hereafter. Others, as those that were negligent to build the second temple, ’the time is not yet, say they,’ Haggai 1:2; whenas the uncertainty of this life of ours, the weightiness of the business, the danger of the custom of sin, the engaging of our hearts deeper and deeper into the world, makes it a more difficult thing to be a Christian. It more and more darkens our understanding, the more we sin; and the more it estrangeth our affections from good things, the more we have run out in an evil course. Time is a special mercy; but then thou hast not time only, but the means, good company, and good motions. Thou mayest never have such a gale again; thy heart may be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Again, who would want the comforts of religion for the present? As Austin saith, ’I have wanted thy sweetness too long.’* What folly is it to want the sweetness and comfort of religion, so long as we may have it.

Some others pretend, the uncomfortableness of religion, I shall want my comforts; whenas indeed there is no sound comfort without having our hearts in a perfect communion with Christ, walking with God, and breaking off from our evil courses. What is the reason of discomforts, unresolvedness, and unsettledness? when we know not where we are, whither we go, or what our condition is. Unsettledness breeds discomfort; and indeed there is no pleasure so much as the pleasure that the serving of God hath with it. As the fire hath light and heat always in it, so there is no holy action that we perform throughly, but as it hath an increase of strength, so there is an increase of comfort and joy annexed to it. There is a present reward annexed to all things that are spiritually good. They carry with them present peace and joy. The conscience hath that present comfort which consumes all discouragements whatsoever, as is always found in the experience of that soul that hath won so much of itself, as to break through discouragements to the practice of holy duties. Believers have a joy and comfort ’that others know not of,’ Revelation 2:7; an hidden kind of manna and contentment.

These and a thousand such like discouragements men frame to themselves: ’My health will not serve,’ ’I shall endanger my life.’ ’There is a lion in the way,’ saith the sluggard, Proverbs 26:13, who, with his excuses, ’thinks himself wiser than the wisest in the city,’ verse 16. There is none so wise as the sluggard, for belly-policy teacheth him a great many excuses, which he thinks will go for wisdom, because by them he thinks to sleep in a whole skin. He is but a sluggard for all that; and though he plead ’yet a little while,’ poverty, not only outward, but spiritual poverty and barrenness of soul, ’will come upon him as an armed man,’ Proverbs 6:11, and leave him destitute of grace and comfort, when he shall see at last what an evil course of life he hath led, that he hath yielded so much to his lazy flesh to be drawn away by discouragements from duties that he was convinced were agreeable to the word. Now, what may be the grounds and causes of these false pretences and excuses which hinder us from holy duties? There be many causes.

1. First of all, one cause of this in us is this: Naturally, so far as we are not guided by a better spirit than our own, we are inclined too much to the earthly present things of this life, because they are present and pleasant, and we are nuzled up in them, and whatsoever pulls us from them is unwelcome to us. This is one ground.

2. Again, join with this, that naturally, since the fall, the soul of man having lost wisdom to guide it to that which is truly good, hath wit enough left to devise untoward shifts, to excuse that which is evil. In this fallen estate the former abilities to devise things throughly good is turned to a matter of untoward wit, joined with shifting. ’God made man right, but he hath sought out many inventions,’ Ecclesiastes 7:29. Carnal wit serves carnal will very well; and carnal lusts never want an advocate to plead for them, namely, carnal reason. From the bent, therefore, of the soul to ill things, pleasure, ease, and honour, such a condition as pleaseth the outward man since the fall, the bent and weight of the soul goeth this way, together with wit. Having lost the image of God in holy wisdom, there is shifting. This is a ground also why delays are joined with shifts.

3. Again, there is another ground, that corrupt nature, in this like the devil and sin, which never appear in their own colours, sets a man on this way. Who would not hate the devil if he should appear in his own likeness? or sin, if it should appear in his own colours? And therefore wit stretcheth itself to find out shifts. For, says the heart, unless there be some shifts and pretences to cover my shame, I shall be known to be what I am indeed, which I would be loth were done. I would have the sweet but not the shame of sin, the credit of religion, but not put myself to the cost which cometh with true religion, to deny myself. Corrupt courses never appear in their own colours. They are like the devil for this.

4. And then, again, naturally there is a great deal of hypocrisy in us. We may do duties to satisfy conscience, for somewhat must be done, to hear now and then, read and come to prayer betwixt sleeping and waking, yawning prayers, when we can do nothing else. Somewhat must be done. Conscience else will cry out of us that we are atheists, and shall be damned. Some slubbering service must be done therefore. Yet notwithstanding, herein is our hypocrisy, that we cannot bring our hearts to do it, as it should be done, to purpose; for though it be true that there is much imperfection in the best actions, the best performances, yet this is hypocrisy when men do not do it as God may accept it, and as it may yield themselves comfort. The heart draws back. Duties it will and must do, but yet will not do them as it shall have comfort by them. This is inbred in the heart naturally. Conscience forceth to do something, though the flesh and corruption pulls back. This is the disposition of all men, till they have got the victory of their own atheistical hearts.

5. And then, again, another ground may be this, a false conceit of God and of Christ, that they will take anything at our hands. Because we love ourselves, and think that we do very well, we think that God is such a one as we are, as it is, ’Thou thoughtest that I was like unto thee,’ &c., Psalms 50:21 that God will be put off with anything, and any excuse will serve the turn. You have not a swearer, a filthy, careless person, but he thinks God is merciful, and Christ died for sinners; and I was provoked to it, &c. Still he thinks to have some excuse for it, and that they will stand good with God. This atheism is in us naturally, and when we are palpably to blame in the judgment of others and ourselves in our sober wits, yet we put more ignorance and carelessness on God than on ourselves. ’Tush, God regards it not.’ It is the times. I would be better. It is company whom I must yield unto, &c. They think God will accept these things from them.

6. But one main ground thereof is, the scandals that we meet withal in the world, which, indeed, is a ground, because our own false hearts are willing to catch at anything. You see, say they, these men that make profession of religion, what they are; and then the devil will thrust some hypocrisy* into the profession of religion, and they judge all by one or two, and will be sure to do it. Therein stands their ingenuity; and if they can see any infirmity in them that are incomparably better than themselves, Oh, they are safe. Here is warrant enough to dislike religion and all good courses, because some do and so,* as if the course of religion were the worse for that. Thus they wrap themselves in those excuses, as men do their hands to defend them from pricks. This is the vile poison of our hearts, that will be naught, and yet, notwithstanding, will have reason to be so. The speech is, wickedness never wanted pretexts, which, as it is true of great wickedness, much more is it of that which goes in the world for drowsy lukewarm profession, under which many sink to hell before they are aware. They never want reason and pretexts to cover their sin. There is a mint and forge of them in the soul. It can coin them suddenly. Thus we see our wits do serve us excellently well to lay blocks in our own way to hinder us from heaven. We are dunces, and dull to do anything that is spiritually good, whereof we are incapable. But if it be to lay blocks in our own way to heaven, to quarrel with God and his ordinances, with the doctrine of salvation, with the instruments, teachers, and those that lead us a better way, that our wit will serve for. But to take a course to do us good another day, to lay up comforts in which we might end and close up our days, there we are backward, and have shift upon shift. This is added for the further explication of it, because of the necessity of the point; for except our hearts be discovered to us, we shall never know what religion means, save to know so much as may, through the winding, turning, shifting, and falsehood of our own nature, bring us to hell. Wherein we are worse enemies to ourselves than the devil is, who could not hurt us unless we did betray ourselves. But he hath factors in us to deal for him. Our own carnal wit and affection, they hold correspondency with him; whence all the mischief that he doth us is by that intercourse that our nature hath with Satan. That is the Delilah which betrayeth all the Sampsons, sound worthy Christians in the world, to their spiritual enemies. Therefore, we can never be sufficiently instructed what a vile nature we have, so opposite to religion, as far as it is saving. Corrupt nature doth not oppose it so far as it is slubbered over, but so far as may bring us to that state we should be in. We have no worse enemies than our own hearts. Therefore, let us watch ourselves continually, and use all blessed means appointed of God whereby we may escape out of this dangerous, sleepy disposition of soul, which cost the church so dear, as we shall hear, God willing, hereafter.