7. So also, * their fountains were sealed up,' Cant. iv. 12 ; so the joys of the church and particular Christians are, as it were, sealed up. A stranger, it is said, ' shall not meddle with this joy of the church,' Prov. xiv. 10.
8. Lastly, a garden siands always in need of weeding and dressing. Con- tinual labour and cost must be bestowed upon it ; sometimes planting, pruning, and weeding, &c. So in the church and hearts of Christians, Christ hath always somewhat to do. We would else soon be overgrown and turn wild. In all which, and the like respects, Christ calleth upon the winds ' to blow upon his garden,'
Use 1. K then the church be a severed portion, then ice shoidd tvalk as men of a severed condition from the tvorld, not as men of the world, but as Christians ; to make good that we are so, by feeling the gi'aces of God's Spirit in some comfortable measure, that so Christ may have something in us, that he may dehght to dwell with us, so to be subject to his pruning and dressing. For, it is so far from being an ill sign, that Christ is at cost* with us, in following us with afflictions, that it is rather a sure sign of his love. For, the care of this blessed husbandman is to prime us, so as to make us fruitful. Men care not for heath and wilderness, whereupon they bestow no cost. So when God prunes us by crosses and afflictions, and sows good seed in us, it is a sign he means to dwell with us, and dehght in us.
2. And then also, we should not strive so much for common liberties of the world that common people dehght in, but for peculiar graces, that God may dehght in us as his garden.
3. And then, let us learn hence, 77ot to despise any nation or person, seeing God can take out of the waste wilderness whom he will, and make the desert an Eden.
4. Again, let us bless God for oursehes, that our lot hath fallen into such a pleasant place, to be planted in the church, the place of God's delight.
5. And this also should move us to be fruitful. For men will endure a fruitless tree in the waste wilderness, but in their garden who will endure it ? Dignity should mind us of duty. It is strange to be fruitless and barren in this place that we live in, being watered with the dew of heaven, under the sweet in- fluence of the means. This fruitless estate being often watered from heaven, how fearfully is it threatened by the Holy Ghost, that ' it is near unto cursing and burning,' Heb. vi. 8. For in this case, visible churches, if they pros- per not, God will remove the hedge, and lay them waste, having a garden elsewhere. Sometimes God's plants prosper better in Babylon, than in Judea. It is to be feared God may complain of us, as he doth of his people, * I have planted thee a noble vine ; how art thou then come to be degenerated ?' Jer. ii. 21. If in this case we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not regard the best thing that comes from us, as our prayers, Heb. xii. 17.
* That is, ' expense." — G,
12 BOWELS OPENED. [SeRMON I.
We must then learn of himself, how and wherein to please him. Obedience from a broken heart is the best sacrifice. Mark in [the] Scriptm-es what he abhors, what he delights in. We use to say of our friends, Would Grod I knew how to please them. Christ teacheth us, that ' without faith it is impossible to please him,' Heb. xi. 6. Let us then strive and labour to be fruitful in our places and callings. For it is the greatest honour in this world, for God to dignify us with such a condition, as to make us fruitful. ' We must not bring forth fruit to ourselves,' as God complains of Ephraim, [Israel], Hos. x. 1. Honour, riches, and the like, are but secondary things, arbitrary at God's pleasure to cast in ; but, to have an active heart fruitful from this ground, that God hath planted us for this purpose, that we may do good to mankind, this is an excellent consideration not to profane our calling. The blessed man is said to be, ' a tree planted by the water side, that brings forth fruit in due season,' Ps. i. 3. But it is not every fruit ; not that fruit which Moses complains of, Deut. xxxii. 32, the wine of dragons, and the gall of asps : but "good fruit, as John speaks ; ' Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn do-s\T3, and cast into the fire,' Mat. iii. 10.
6. Lastly, in that the church is called Christ's garden, this inaj strengthen our faith in God's care and protection. The church may seem to lie open to all incursions, but it hath an invisible hedge about it, a wall without it, and a well within it, Zech. ii. 5. God himself is a wall of fire about it, and his Spirit a well of living waters running through it to refresh and comfort it. As it was said of Canaan, so it may be said of the church, ' The eye of the Lord is upon it all the year long,' Deut. xi. 12, and he waters it continually. From which especial care of God over it, this is a good plea for us to God, ' I am thine, save me ;' I am a plant of thine own setting ; nothing is in me but what is thine, therefore cherish what is thine. So, for the whole church the plea is good : * The church is thine ; fence it, water it, defend it, keep the wild boar out of it.' Therefore the enemies thereof shall one day know what it is to make a breach upon God's vineyard. In the mean time, let us labour to keep our hearts as a garden, that nothing that defileth may enter. In which respects the church is compared to a garden, upon which Christ commands the north and south wind, all the means of grace, to blow.