' To gather lilies.' Christ is said to gather these lilies, that is, he will gather them together. Christ will not have his lilies alone, scattered. Though he leaves them oft alone for a while, yet he will gather them to congregations and churches. The name of a chm-ch in the original is Ecclesia (t). It is nothing but a company gathered out of the world. Do we think that we are lilies by nature ? No ; we are thorns and briers. God makes us lilies, and then gathers us to other lilies, that one may strengthen another. The Spirit of God in his (ftiildren is not a spirit of separation of Christians from Christians, but a spirit of separation from the waste, wild wilderness of the world, as we say of fire, Congregat homogenea et disgregat hetei-ogenca. It congregates all homogeneal things, as gold, which it gathers, but disgregates heterogeneal things, consumeth dross. So the * That is, ' wicked.' — G.
I
Cant. VI. 3.] ' i am my beloved's.' 171
Spirit of God severs thorns, and gathers lilies ; gathers Christians together in the church, and will gather them for ever in heaven.
Thus we see the answer of the church to the daughters of Jerusalena, what it was, with the occasion thereof; the question of the daughters of Jerusalem, ' Whither is thy beloved gone ? ' So that the church was be- holden to the daughters of Jerusalem for ministering such a question, to give her occasion to know better what her beloved was. Indeed, we many times gain by weaker Christians. Good questions, though from weak ones, minister suitable answers. It is a Greek proverb, that ' doubting begets plenty and abundance,' for doubting at the first begets resolution at last. 0 ! that we could take occasion hence to think of this. What excellent virtue is in the communion of saints, when they meet about heavenly exer- cises ! What a blessing follows when, though at the entiy their affections may be flat and dull, yet they part not so ! Christ heats and inflames their hearts to do much good to one another. 0 ! those that shall for ever live together in heaven, should they not dehght to live more together on earth ?
THE NINETEENTH SERMON.
I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine ; he feedeth among the lilies. — ■
Cant. VI. 3.
These words are a kind of triumphant acclamation upon all the former passages ; as it were, the foot of the song. For when the church had spoken formerly of her ill- dealing with Christ, and how he thereupon ab- sented himself from her, with many other passages, she shuts up all at last with this, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.'
Now she begins to feel some comfort from Christ, who had estranged himself from her. 0 ! saith she, notwithstanding all my sufierings, deser- tions, crosses, and the like, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,' words expressing the wondrous comfort, joy, and contentment the church now had in Christ ; having her heart inflamed with love unto him, upon his manifesting of himself to her soul. ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine : he feedeth among the lilies.'
There is a mutual intercourse and vicissitude of claiming interest betwixt Christ and his church. I am Christ's, and Christ is mine. ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.'
From the dependence and order of the words coming in after a desertion for a while, observe,
That Christ ivill not be long from his church.
The spiritual desertions (forsakings, as we use to call them), howsoever they be very irksome to the church (that loves communion with Christ), and to a loving soul to be deprived of the sense of her beloved, yet notwith- standing they are but short. Christ will not be long from his church. His love and her desire will not let him. They offer violence. Why art thou absent ? say they. Why art thou so far off, and hidest thyself ? Joseph may conceal himself for a space, but he will have much ado so to hold long, to be straitened to his brethren. Passion will break out. So Christ may seem hard to be entreated, and to cross his own sweet disposition, as to the woman of Canaan, but he will not long keep at this distance. He is soon
172 BOWELS OPENED. [SeRMON XIX.
overcome. ' 0 ! woman, great is thy faith ; have what thou wilt,' Mat, xv. 28. When she strove with him a little (as faith is a striving grace), see how she did win upon him ! So the angel and Jacob may strive for a while, but Jacob at the length proves Israel; he prevails with God, Gen. xxxii. 24, seq. So it is with the Christian soul and Christ. Howsoever there be desertion, for causes before mentioned, because the church was negligent, as we hear, and partly for the time to come, that Christ, by his estrange- ment, might sweeten his coming again howsoever there may be strange- ness for a time, yet Christ will return again to his spouse.
Use 1. The use should be not only for comfort to stay us in such times, but to teach ns likewise to wait, and never give over. If the church had given over here, she had not had such gracious manifestations of Christ to her. Learn hence, therefore, this use, to wait God's leisure. God will wait to do good to them that wait on him, Isa. xxx. 18. If we wait his leisure, he wiU wait an opportunity of doing good to us. When God seems not to answer our prayers, let us yet wait. We shaU not lose by our tarrying. He will wait to do us good.