THE SEVENTH SERMON.
My love, mt/ dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I havejmt off my coat; how shall I put it an ? I hare washed my feet ; and how shall I defile them ? — Cant. V. 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, suffi- ciently 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 Chi-ist, 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 spi- rit,' John iii. 6. The flesh pulls her back : the Spirit would raise her up to open to Christ. He in the meanwhile makes her inexcusable, and pre- pares her by his knocking, waiting, and departing ; as for a state of fur- ther 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 lore iras 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 Hves, 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 afiection 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 fas-
* That is, ' dismiss.' — G.
Cant. V. 2, 3.] ' my love.' 77
tened 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 dis- cover 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 natui-e to shew how he loved it, Eph. v. 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 pui'chased 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 sealing, or lancing, but by making a plaster of his own blood, which he shed for those that shed his, in maHce and hatred. What a wondrous love is it, that he should pour forth tears for those that shed his blood! ' 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,' &c.. Mat. xxiii. 37 ; that he prayed for those that persecuted him, Luke xxiii. 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 ix. 4, and that he should take us into one body with himself, to make one Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 27. And he doth not content himself with anything he can do for us here, but his de- sire 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 x^ii. 24.