* Tliat is, ' seeing it is.' — G.
t That is, ' attempts.' Sibbes's spelling is ' assaies,' — Qu.' assaults ?' — G.
Cant. V. 2.] ' it is the voice of my beloved.' 56
as the proverb is, a snare under every blessing of God, and in every condi- tion, ■which Satan useth as a weapon to hurt us ; adversity to discourage us, prosperity to pufl* us up : when, if a Christian hath not a waking soul, Satan hath him in his snare, in prosperity to be proud and secure ; in adversity to murmur, repine, be dejected, and call God's providence into question. When a Christian hath a heart and grace to awake, then his love, his patience, his faith is awake, as it should be. He is fit for all con- ditions, to do good in them, and to take good by them.
Let us therefore labour to preserve watchful and waking hearts continu- ally, that so we may be fit to hve, to die, and to appear before the judgment seat of God ; to do what we should do, and sufier what we should suffer, being squared for all estates whatsoever.
THE FIFTH SERMON.
It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled ; for my head is filled with dew, and m,y locks with the drops of the night. — Cant. V. 2.
Hitherto, by God's assistance, we have heard largely both of the church's sleeping and heart- waking ; what this sleeping and heart-waking is ; how it comes ; the trials of these opposite dispositions ; of the danger of sleeping, and excellency of heart-waking ; and of the helps and means, both to shun the one and preserve the other. Now, the church, having so freely and in- geniously* confessed what she could against herself, proceeds yet further to acquaint us with the particulars in her heart-waking disposition, which were twofold. She heard and discerned ' the voice of her Beloved,' who, for all her sleep, was her Beloved still ; and more than that, she remembers all his sweet words and allurements, whereby he pressed her to open unto him, saying, * Open to me, my love, my dove, my undefiled ; ' which is set out and amplified with a further moving argument of those inconveniences Christ had suffered in his waiting for entertainment in her heart, ' For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night,' all which aggravates her offence ; and his rare goodness and patience towards miser- able sinners, so to wait from time to time for admission into our wretched souls, that he may rule and govern them by his Holy Spirit. Therefore, we had great reason to shun this sleepy distemper of soul, which for the present so locks up ' the everlasting gates of our soul, that the King of glory cannot enter in,' Ps. xxiv. 7, and to strive for this blessed heart-waking disposition, which may help us at all times to see our dangers, and, by God's blessing, recover us out of them, as here the church doth at length, though first smarting and well beaten by the watchmen, in a world of perplexities ere she can recover the sense of her fonner union and communion with Christ.
And surely we find by experience what a woful thing it is for the soul which hath once tasted how gracious the Lord is, to be long without a sense of God's love ; for when it looks upon sin as the cause of this separation, this is for the time as so many deaths unto it. Therefore, the church's experience must be our warning-piece to take heed how we grieve the Spirit, and so fall into this spuitual sleep. "Wlierein yet this is a good sign, that yet we arc not in a desperate dead sleep when we can with her say,
' It is the voice of my Beloved that knocks, saying, Open unto me,' &c. * That is, ' ingenuously.' — G.
56 BOWELS OPENED. [SeBMON V.
In whicli words you have,
1. The church's acknowledgment of Christ's voice.
2. Of his carriage towards her.
1. Her acknowledgment is set down here, ' It is the voice of my Beloved.'
2. His carriage, * He knocks,' &c. Wherein,
(1.) His patience in suffering things unworthy and utterly unbeseeming for him. He doth not only ' knock,' but he continues knocking, till ' his head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night.'
(2.) His friendly compellation, ' Open to me, my love, my dove, my un- defiled.' Lo, here are sweet actions, sweet words, and all to melt the heart of the spouse!
First, the church's acknowledgment is to be considered, confessing, ' It is the voice of her beloved.' The first thing to be observed in this acknow- ledgment is, that the church, however sleepy and drowsy she was, yet not- withstanding, her heart was so far awake as to know the voice of her hus- band. The point is this,
Ohs. That a Chfistian soul doth know and may discern the voice of Christ, yea, and that even in a lazij, sleepy estate, but much more when in a good and lively frame. God's believers are Chiist's sheep, John x. 3. Now, ' My sheep,' saith Christ, ' hear my voice,' verse 4. It is the ear-mark, as it were, of a Christian, one of the characters of the new man, ' to taste words by the ear,' as Job saith. Job xii. 11. He hath a spiritual taste, a discerning relish in his ear, because he hath the Spirit of God, and there- fore relisheth what is connatural, and suitable to the Spirit. Now, the voice of Christ without in the ministry, and the Spirit of Christ within in the heart, are connatural, and suitable each to other.