3. Therefore, as we have in Christ a feast for variety, so for sufficiency of all good. No man goeth hungiy from a feast. It was never heard for any to famish at a feast, in Christ there is not only abundance, but redun- dance, a diffusive and a spreading goodness ; as in breasts to give milk, in clouds to drop down showers, in the sun to send forth beams. As Christ is full of grace and truth, so he fully dischargeth all his offices. There is an overflowing of all that is good for our good. He that could multiply bread for the body, he can multiply gi'ace for our soul. If he giveth life, he giveth it in abundance, John x. 10. If he giveth water of life, he giveth rivers, not small streams, John vii. 38. If he giveth peace and joy, he giveth it in abundance ; his scope is to fill up our joy to the full. As he is able, so ' is he willing to do for us far more abundantly than we are able to think or speak,' Eph. iii. 20. "Where Christ is present, he bringeth plenty with him. If wine be wanting at the first, he will rather turn water into wine, than there should be a fail.
4. In a feast there is variety of friendb/ company ; so here friends are stirred up to refresh themselves with us. We have the blessed Trinity, the angels, and all our fellow-members in Christ to come with us.
There is no envy in spiritual things, wherein whatsoever the one hath, the other hath not the less.
5. In a feast, because it is intended for rejoicing, thei'e is music; and what music hke to the sweet hannony between God, reconciled in Christ, and the soul, and between the soul and itself, in inward peace and joy of the Holy Ghost, shedding the love of Christ in the soul. We do not only joy, but glory, under hope of glory, and in afflictions, and in God now as ours, in whom now by Christ we have an interest, Rom. vi. 2-10. When we come sorrowful to this feast, we depart cheeiful. This, as David's harp, stills all passions and distempers of spirit.
The founder and master of the feast is Christ himself ; and withal ia both guest, and banquet, and all. All graces and comforts are the fruits of his Spirit ; and he alone tbat infused the soul, can satisfy the soul. He that 'is above the conscience can only quiet the conscience. He is that wisdom that ' sends forth maids,' Prov. ix. 3, his 'ministers, to invite to his feast. It is he that cheereth up his guests, as here. Those that invited others, brought ointment, and poured it out upon them, to shew their wel- come, and to cheer them up, as may appear by our Sariour's speech to the Pharisee that invited him, Luke vii. 44. So we have from Christ both the oil of grace and oil of gladness. ' He creates the fruits of the lips to be peace,' Isa. Ivii. 19, speaking that peace and joy to the heart that others do to the ear. ' He raiseth pastors according to his own heart, to feed his sheep,' Jer. iii. 15.
The vessels wherein Christ conveyeth his dainties are the ministry of the word and sacraments. By the word and sacraments we come to enjoy Christ and his comforts and graces ; and by this feast of grace we come at
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84 BOWELS OPENED. [SeKMON III.
length to the feast of feasts, that feast of glory, when we shall be satisfied with the image of God, and enjoy fulness of pleasures for evermore ; and, which adds to the fulness, we shall fuUy know that it shall be a never- interrupted joy.
We see, then, that we cannot please Christ better than in shewing our- selves welcome, by cheerful taking part of his rich provision. It is an honour to his bounty to fall to ; and it is the temper of spirit that a Chris- tian aims at, to ' rejoice always in the Lord,' Phil. iv. 4, and that from enjoying our privileges in him. We are not bidden to moui-n always, but to ' rejoice always,' and that upon good advisement ; ' Rejoice,' and ' I say again,' saith St Paul, ' rejoice.' Indeed, we have causes of mourning, but it is that the seed of joy should be sown, in mourning ; and we can never be in so forlorn a condition, wherein, if we understand Christ and om'selves, we have not cause of joy. ' In me,' saith Christ, ' ye shall have peace,' John x\'i. 33. The world will feed us with ' bread of affliction,' Hos. ix. 4. K the world can help it, we shall have sorrow enough ; and Christ knows that well enough, and stirs us up to a cheerful feeding on that he hath procured for us. He hath both will, and skiU, and power, and authority to feed us to everlasting life, for the Father sent him forth, and sealed him to that pur- pose. All the springs of our joy are fi'om him, Ps. Ixxxvii. 7.
Our duty is to accept of Christ's inviting of us. What wdl we do for him, if we will not feast with him ? We will not sufier with him, if we wiU not feast with him ; we will not suffer with him, if we wiU not joy with him, and in him. Happy are they that come, though compelled by crosses and other sharp ways. If we rudely and chm-hshly refuse his feast here, we are like never to taste of his feast hereafter. Nothing provokes so deeply as kindness despised. It was the cause of the Jews' rejection. ' How shall we escape,' not if we persecute, but ' if we do but neglect so great salvation ? ' Heb. ii. 3.