120 BOWELS OPENED. [SeBMON XI.
The cliurcli is Ckrist's spouse. The veil was a token of subjection. Now they that draw the people to themselves, as in popish churches, that desire to sit high in the consciences of people, and so make the church im- dutiful, ' they take away the veil of subjection,' and so force Christ to punish the church, as we see in former ages.
2. As the veil is for honour and comeliness, so ' they take away the veil' of the church, when they take awai/ the credit and esteem of the church; when they lay open the infirmities and weaknesses of the church. This is strange that the watchmen should do this ; yet notwithstanding oftentimes it falls out so that those that by place are watchmen, are the bitterest enemies of the church. Who were bitterer enemies of the poor church in Christ's time than the scribes, pharisees, and priests?
And so in the time of the prophets. Who were the greatest enemies the church had, but false priests and prophets ?
Quest. '\Vliat is the ground of this, that those men that by their standing should be encouragers, are rather dampers of the church's zeal in pursuit of it?
Ans. There are many grounds of it.
Sometimes it falls out from a spirit of en\j in them at the gi'aces of God's people, which are wanting in themselves. They would not have others better than themselves.
Sometimes fi-om idleness, which makes them hate all such as provoko them to pains. They raise up the dignity of outward things too much, as we see in popery. They make everything to confer grace, as if they had a special virtue in them. But they neglect that wherewith God hath joined an efficacy, his own ordinances.
Use 1. This should teach us,, to be in love xvith Christ's government, and to see the vanity of all things here below, though they be never so excellent in their ordinance. Such is the poison of man's heart, and the malice of Satan, that they turn the edge of the best things against the good of the church.
What is more excellent than magistracy ? yet many times the point of sword is directed the wrong way. ' I have said ye are gods,' Ps. Ixxxii. 6. They should govern, as God himself would govern, and ask with them- selves. Would God now, if he were a watchman of the state, do thus and thus ? But I wish woeful experience did not witness tlae contrary.
So ministers are Christ's ambassadors, 2 Cor. v. 20, and should carry them- selves even as Christ would do. They should strengthen the feeble knees and bind up the broken hearted, nor* discourage ; and not sew pillows under the armholes of wicked and carnal men, Ezek. xiii. 18. But, alas! we see the edge of the ordinance is oftentimes turned another way by the corrupt, proud, unbroken hearts of men and the malice of Satan.
Use 2. Again, it should teach us vot to think the ivorse of any for the disgraces of the times. The watchmen here take away the veil of the church, and her forwardness is disgraced by them. Take heed, therefore, we enter- tain not rash conceits of others upon the entertainment they find abroad in the world, or among those that have a standing in the church, for so we shall condemn Christ himself. How was he judged of the priests, scribes, and pharisees in his times ? And this hath been the lot of the church in all ages. The true members thereof were called heretics and schismatics. The veil w-as taken off. It is the poisonful pride of man's heart that, when it cannot raise itself by its ov.n worth, it wiU endeavour to raise itself
* Qu. 'not?'— G.
Cant. V. 7.] * they smote me, they wounded me.' 121
by the ruin of others' credit through lying slanders. The dsvil was first a slanderer and liar, and then a murderer, John viii. 44. He cannot murder without he slander first. The credit of the church must first be taken away, and then she is wounded. Otherwise, as it is a usual proverb, Those that kill a dog make the world believe that he was mad first; so they always first traduced the church to the world, and then persecuted her. Truth hath always a scratched face. Falsehood many times goes under better habits than its own, which God suflers, to exercise our skill and wisdom, that we might not depend upon the rash judgment of others, but might consider what grounds they have ; not what men do, or whom they oppose, but fi'om what cause, whether from a spirit of envy, idleness, jealousy, and pride, or from good grounds. Else, if Christ himself were on earth again, we should condemn him, as now men do the generation of the just, whom they smite and wound, and take away their veil from them.
THE TAVELFTH SERMON.
The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they tvoimded me: the keepers of the walls took away my veil from mc. — Cant. V. 7.
The watchmen, those that by their place and standing should be so, they smote the church. As Bernard complains, almost five hundred years ago, * Alas, alas ! ' saith he, * those that do seek privileges in the chui'ch are the first in persecuting it ; ' and as his fashion is to speak in a kind of rhe- toric, ' they were not pastors, but impostors.' There be two ordinances without which the world cannot stand.