Men are pleased with answering the bill of accusation against them thus : Ai'e we not baptized ? and do we not come to church ? &c. What do you make of us ? Yet they are abominable swearers, and filthy in then* lives. To such I say, the more God hath lift you up and honoured you in the use of the means, the more just shall your damnation be, that you bring forth nothing but briers and brambles, Heb. vi. 4, seq., the grapes of Sodom and the vine of Gomorrah, Deut. xxxii. 32. Heavy will the doom be of many that live in the church's bosom, to whom it had been better to have been bom in America (r), in Turkey, or in the most barbarous parts in the world. They have a heavy account to make that have been such ill profi- cients under abundance of means. Therefore it ought to be taken to heart.
' My beloved is gone into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.'
That is, ha^ang first planted them Ulies here, to gather them, and to transport them out of the garden here to the garden in heaven, where there shall be nothing but lilies. For the church of God hath two gardens or paradises since the first paradise (whereof that was a resem- blance), the paradise of the church and the paradise of heaven. As Christ saith to the good thief, ' This day thou shalt be with me in paradise,' Luke xxiii. 43 ; so those that are good plants in the paradise of the church, they shall be glorious plants also in the paradise of heaven. We must not alway be here ; we shall change our soil, and be taken into heaven. ' He is gone into his garden to gather lilies.'
1. Christians are compared to lilies for their purity and ivhiteness, un- spotted in justification ; and for their endeavours in sanctity and holiness, wherein also at length they shall be wholly unspotted. It is the end they are chosen to, 'to be holy without blame before him in love,' Eph. i. 4. God and Christ looks upon them without blame, not as they are here de- filed and spotted, but as they intend, by Httle and little, to purge and purify themselves by the Spirit that is in them, that they may be altogether •without blame. They are lilies, being clothed with the white gannent of Christ's righteousness, not having a natural whiteness and pm-ity (s). The whiteness and purity of God's children is borrowed. All theii- beauty and garments are taken out of another's Wardrobe. The church is all glorious within ; but she borrows her glory, as the moon borrows all her light from the sun. The church's excellency is borrowed. It is her own, but by gift ; but being once her own, it is her own for ever.
The church before was likened to a garden culled out, an Eden, a para- * See pp. 8-10.— G.
170 BOWELS OPENED. [SeRMON XVIII.
dise. Now there, you know, were four streams, sweet and goodly rivers, which watered paradise ; the heads of which rivers were without it. So the church of God, her graces are her own ; that is, the Spirit of God comes through her nature, purgeth and purifieth it ; but the spring of those graces, as in paradise, is out of herself.
2. And then the lily is a tall, goodly plant. Therefore the church is com- pared to them. Other men are compared to thorns, not only for a noxious, hurtful quality in them, but for their baseness likewise. What are thorns good for, but to cumber the gi'ound, to eat out the heart of it, to hide snakes, and for the fii'e ? Wicked men are not lilies, but thorns. They are base, mean persons. Antiochus, Dan. xi. 21, is said to be a vile per- son, though he were a king, because he was a naughty* man. Wicked men, though they be never so great, being void of the grace of God, are vile persons. Though we must respect them in regard of their places, yet as they are in their qualification, they are vile and base thorns. But the church is not so, but as a lily among thorns, that is, among vile and abominable persons.
Use 1. The use is to comfort God's children. They have an excellency and glory in them, which, howsoever it is not from them, yet it is theirs by gift, and eternally theirs. Therefore let them comfort themselves against all the censures of sinful persons that labour to trample them under foot, and think basely and meanly of them, as of the ofiscom'ing of the world. Let the unworthy world think of them as they will, they are lilies in God's esteem, and are so indeed ; glorious persons that have the Spirit of glory resting upon them, 1 Pet. iv. 14, and whom the world is not worthy of, Heb. xi. 38, though their glory be within. Therefore let us glory in it, that God vouchsafeth saving grace to us above any other privilege.
Use 2. Again, it comforts us in all our wants whatsoever, that God uill take care for Its. Christ useth this argument. God saith, he clotheth the hlies of the field with an excellent beauty ; he cares even for the meanest plants, and will he not take care for you, 0 ye of httle faith ? Mat. vi. 29. Doth he care for lilies, that are to-day, and to-morrow are cast into the oven ? and shall he not care for the lilies of paradise, the living lilies, those holy reasonable lihes ? Undoubtedly he will. Our Saviour Christ's reason is undeniable. He that puts such a beauty upon the poor plants, that flourish to-day in the morning, and wither before night ; he that puts such a beauty upon the grass of the field ; will he not put more excellency upon his children ? will he not pro-vide for them, feed them ? Undoubtedly he will. Thus we have shewed why God's children in the church of God are compared to lilies.