4. Again, the church here is never content till she find Christ ; whatsoever she had, nothing contents her. She wanted her beloved. As we see here, she goes up and down inquisitive after him till she find him. So it is with a Christian. If he have lost, by his o\vn fault, his foimer communion with Christ, he will not rest nor be satisfied ; but searcheth here and there in the use of this and that means. He runs thi-ough all God's ordinances and means till he find Christ. Nothing in the world will content him, neither honour, riches, place, or friends, till he find that which he once enjoyed, but hath now for a season lost, the comfort and assui-ance of God's love in Christ.
Now, if we can sit down wath other things, and can want Christ and the assurance of salvation, that sweet report of the Spiiit that we are his, and yet be contented well enough, here is an ill sign that a man is in an ill condition. The church was not so disposed here. She was never quiet, nor gives over her inquisition and speaking of Christ (that by speaking of the object she might warm her affections), until at the last she meets with Christ. These and the like signs there are of the truth of the love of Christ. But where there is a flaming love of Chi'ist there is this degree further, a desire of the appearance of Christ, a desire of his presence. For if Christ be so lovely in his ordinances, if we find such sweetness in the word and sacraments, in the communion of saints, in the motions of the Spirit, what is the sweetness, think you, which the souls in heaven enjoy, ■where they see Christ face to face, see him as he is ? Hereupon the spouse saith, ' Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.' Oh, that I might live in his presence. This is the desire of a Chi'istian soul when the flame of love is kindled in any strength, ' Oh, that I might see him.' And there-
160 BOWELS OPENED. [SeRMON XVII.
fore it longs even for death ; for as far as a man is spiritual, he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ ; as Simeon, when he saw him, though in his abasement, * Now I have enough ; let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,' Luke ii. 30. The presence of Christ, though it were but in the womb, when Mary, the mother of Christ, came to Elizabeth, it caused the babe that was in her womb to spring. Such comfort there is in the presence of Christ, though he be but in the womb, as it made John to spring. "What, then, shall be his presence in heaven ? How would it make the heart spring there, think you ? For that which is most lovely in Chi'ist is to come. Therefore the saints that have any degree of grace in the New Testament, they are set out by this de- scription. They were such as loved the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. How can it be otherwise ? If they love Christ, they love the appearing of Christ, wherein we shall be made lovely, as he is lovely.
Here we are not ' altogether lovely ; ' for we have many dregs of sin, many infirmities and stains. Shall we not, then, desire that time wherein, as he is ' altogether lovely,' so shall we be made a fit spouse for so glorious a husband ?
To conclude this point, let us try our afiections by the church's affections in this place, whether Chi'ist be so lovely to us or not. It is said, ' There is no beauty in him when we shall see him, and he was despised of men,' Isa. liii. 2, He was so, in regard of his cross and suflerings, to the eye of the world and of carnal men. Herod scorned him; when Pilate sent him to him, made nobody of him, as the word in the original is (q). They looked upon the outside of Christ in the flesh when he was abased. * There was no form nor beauty in him,' saith the Holy Ghost, that is, to the sight of carnal men ; but those that had the sight of their sins with spiritual eyes, they could otherwise judge of Christ. The poor centurion saw an excel- lency in him when he said, * He was not worthy that he should come under his roof,' Mat. viii. 8. The poor thief saw the excellency of Christ upon the cross in those torments. * Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,' Luke xxiii. 42.
So those souls that were enlightened, that had the sight of their misery and the sight of God's love in Christ, had a high esteem of Christ in his greatest abasement. Therefore, if we have a mean esteem of the children of God as contemptible persons, and of the ordinances of God as mean things, and of the government of Christ (such as he hath left in his word) as base, it is an argument of a sinful, unworthy disposition. In such a soul Christ hath never been effectually by his Spirit ; for everything in him is lovely, even the bitterest thing of all. There is a majesty and excellency in aU things of Christ. The censures of the church are excellent when they proceed and issue forth with judgment, as they should do, ' to deliver such a man over to Satan, that he may be saved in the day of the Lord,' 1 Cor. V. 5.