2. Then, again, these words, ' I am his,' implies mutual love. All is mutual in them, mutual propriety, mutual peculiarity, and mutual love. I love Christ so as I love nothing else. There is nothing above him in my heart, as Christ loves me more than anything else, saith the church, and every Christian. He loves all, and gives outward benefits to all, but to me
* That is, ' originates, or gives its beginning to.' — Ed. t That is, ' property.' — G.
Cajjt. VI, 3.] * I AM MY beloved's.' 175
he hath given himself, so love I him. As the husband loves all in the family, his cattle and his servants, but he gives himself to his spouse. So Christ is mine, himself is mine, and myself am Christ's. He hath my soul, my affections, my body, and all. He hath a propriety in me, and a pecu- harity in me. He hath my affection and love to the uttermost, as I have his, for there is an intercourse in these words.
8. Then, again, they mi])\j mutual familiarity . Christ is familiar to my soul, and I to Christ. He discovers himself to me in the secret of his love, and I discover myself to him in prayer and meditation, opening my soul to jlim upon all occasions. God's children have a spirit of prayer, which is a spirit of fellowship, and talks, as it were, to God in Christ. It is the language of a new-bom Christian. He cries to his Father. There is a kind of familiarity between him and his God in Christ, who gives the en- trance and access to God. So that where there is not a kind of familiarity in prayer and opening of the soul to Christ upon all occasions, there is not this holy communion. Those that are not given to prayer, they cannot in truth speak these words, as the church doth here, * I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,' for they imply sweet familiarity.
4, Then, again, they imply mutual likeness one to another. He is mine, and I am his. The one is a glass to the other. Christ sees himself in me, I see myself in him. For this is the issue of spiritual love, espe- cially, that it breeds likeness and resemblance of the party loved in the soul that loveth ; for love frameth the soul to the likeness of the party loved. I am his, I resemble him. I am his, I have given myself to him. I carry his picture and resemblance in my soul, for they are words of mu- tual conformity. Christ, out of love, became like me in all things, wherein I am not like the devil, that is, sin excepted. If he became like me, taking my nature that I might be near him in the fellowship of grace, ' My be- loved is mine,' I will be as like him as possibly I can, I am his. Every Christian carries a character of Christ's disposition as far as weakness will suffer. You may know Christ in every Christian ; for as the king's coin carries the stamp of the king (Caesar's coin bears Caesar's superscription), so every Christian soul is God's coin, and he sets his own stamp upon it. K we be Christ's, there is a mutual conformity betwixt him and us.
Now, where you see a malicious, unclean, worldly spirit, know that is a stamp of the devil, none of Christ's. He that hath not the Spirit of God is none of his. Now, where the Spirit of Christ is, it stamps Christ's like- ness upon the soul. Therefore we are exhorted, Phil. ii. 5, to be like- minded to Christ.
5. Again, these words, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,' imply a mutual care that Christ and the soul have of the good of one another, of each other's honour and reputation. As Christ hath a care of our good, so a Christian soul, if it can say with truth and sincerity I am Christ's, it must needs have care of Christ's good, of his children, religion, and truth. What ! will such a soul say. Shall Christ care for my body, soul, and salva- tion, and stoop to come fi-om heaven to save me, and shall I have no care for him and his glory ? He hath left his truth and his church behind him, and shall not I defend his tnith, and stand for the poor church to the utmost of my power against all contrary power ? Shall not I stand for rehgion ? Shall it be all one to me what opinions are held ? Shall I pretend he cares for me, and shall I not care for that I should care for ? Is it not an hon- our to me that he hath trusted me to care for anjihing ? that he will be honoured by my care ? Beloved, it is an honour for us that we may speak
176 BOWELS OPENED. [SeKMON XIX.
a good word for religion, for Christ's cause, for his church, against ma- ligners and opposers ; and we shall know one day that Christ will be a rewarder of every good word. Where this is said in sincerity, that Christ is mine, and I am Christ's, there will be this mutual care.