' I charge you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him I am sick of love.'
Thus we may see that the way to heaven is full of changes. The strength of coiTuption overclouds many times, and damps our joys. How many several tempers hath the chiux-h been in ! Sometimes she is all compounded of joy, vehemently desiring kisses of her best beloved. She holds her beloved fast, and will not let him go ; and sometimes, again, she is gone, hath lost her beloved, is in a sea of troubles, seeks and cannot find him, becomes sluggish, ^negligent, overtaken with self-love, after which when she hath smarted for her omissions, as here again, she is all a-fire after Christ, as we say, no gi-ound will hold her, away she flies after him, and is restless until she find him. ^Vhere by the way we see, that j^enna- nency and stability is for tJie life to come ; here our portion is to expect changes, storms, and tempests. Therefore they must not be strange to particular persons, since it is the portion of the whole church, which thus by suffer- ings and conformity to the head, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, must enter into glory, while God makes his power perfect in om- weakness, 2 Cor. xii. 9, over- comes Satan by unlikely means, and so gets himself the glory, even out of our greatest infirmities, temptations, and abasements.
But God, though he make all things work for good unto his children, Eom. viii. 28, even the devil, sin, and death, desertions, afflictions and all; yet we must be warned hereby not to tempt God, by neglecting the means appointed for om- comfortable passage, but open to Christ when he knocks, embrace him joyfully in his ordinances, and let our hearts fly open unto him. For though, through his mercy, our wounds be cured, yet who would be wounded to try such dangerous experiments, as here befeU the church in her desertions, for her sluggish negligence, deadness, and self-love ?
So that we see there is nothing gotten by favom'ing ourselves in carnal liberty, security, or by yielding to the flesh. The chm'ch stood upon terms with Christ when he would have come in to her ; but what ensued here- upon ? She fell into a grievous desertion, and not only so, but finds veiy hard usage abroad, all which she might have prevented by watchfulness, carefulness, and opening to Christ knocking. It is a spiritual error, tc which we are all prone, to think that much is gained by favouring om'selves,
* See Note i.—G.
128 BOWELS OPENED. [^SeEMON XTTT.
but we shall find it otherwise. See here, again, that God will bear with nothing, though in his own, but he will sharply punish them even for omissions, and that not only with desertion, but sometimes they shall meet with oppositions in the world,
David cannot scape with a proud thought in numbering of the people, but he must smart for it, and his people also, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. God is wondrous careful of his children to correct them, when he lets strangers alone, Amos iii. 2. It is a sign of love, when he is at this cost with us. And it should tie us to be careful of our behaviour, not to presume upon God's indulgence ; for the nearer we are to him, the more careful he is over us : ' He will be sanctified in all that come near him,' Lev. x. 3. We see the Corinthians, because they come unreverently to the Lord's table, though otherwise they were holy men, ' some of them are sick, some weak, others sleep, that they might not be condemned with the world,' 1 Cor. xi. 30.
Let none, therefore, think the profession of religion to imply an im- munity, but rather a straighter* bond ; for ' judgment begins at the house of God,' 1 Pet. iv. 17. Whatsoever he suS^ers abroad, he will not suffer disorders in his own house, as the prophet says, ' You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore you shall not go unpunished,' Amos iii. 2. The church is near him, his spouse whom he loveth, and therefore he will correct her, not enduring any abatement, or decay of the first love in her. And for this very cause he threateneth the church of Ephesus, ' to remove her candlestick,' Rev. ii. 5.
To proceed. The poor chm-ch here is not discouraged, but discovers and empties herself to the daughters of Jerusalem. As it is the nature of culinary fire, not only to mount upwards, but also to bewray itself by hght and heat, so of this heavenly fire, when it is once kindled from above, not only to aspire in its motion, but to discover itself, in afiecting others with its qualities. It could not contain itself here in the church, but that she must go to the daughters of Jerusalem. * I charge you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, if je find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love.' Therefore they may doubt that they have not this heavenly fii*e kindled in them, that express it not seriously ; for of all aflections, it will not he con- cealed. David wonders at his own love : ' Oh, how I love thy law ! Oh, how amiable are thy tabernacles ! ' Ps. cxix, 97.