4, Because naturally ourselves, being conscious of guilt, are full of fears from thence. So that if the soul be not persuaded first of Christ's love, it runs away from him, as Adam did from God, and as Peter from Christ, ' Depart fi-om me, for I am but a sinful man,' Luke v, 8, So the soul of every man would say, if first it were not persuaded of God's love in Christ, ' "^ATio amongst us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings ? ' Isa, xxxiii. 14. Therefore to prevent that disposition of soul which would rise out of the sense of guUt and imworthiness, God first speaks to us in Christ ; at length saying unto our souls, ' I am thy salvation,' whereupon the soul fii'st finding his love, loves him back again, of whom it finds itself so much beloved ; so that our love is but a reflection of his, 'I am my beloved's, because my beloved is mine.'
It is with the Spirit of God as with the spirits in the soul and body of a man, there is a marriage .betwixt the body and soul. The spirits join both together, being of a middle nature ; for they have somewhat spiritual near the soul, and somewhat bodily near the body. Therefore they come be- tween the body and the soul, and are the instruments thereof, whereby it works. So it is with the Spirit of God. The same Spiiit that tells the
Cant. VI. 3.] ' my beloved is jnNE.' 183
soul that Christ is ours, the same Spirit makes up the match on our part, and gives us up to Christ again.
Let this then be the trial that we are Christ's, by the spiritual echo that our souls make to that report which Christ makes to our souls, whether in promises or in instructions.
Use 1. See hence likewise the nature of faith, for these are the words of faith as well as of love. Faith hath two branches, it doth give as weU as take. Faith receives Christ, and says, Christ is mine ; and the same faith saith, I am Christ's again. Indeed, our souls are empty ; so that the main work of faith is to be an empty hand, mendica manus (as Luther calls it) ; a beggar's hand to receive. But when it hath received it gives back again, both ourselves and aU that we can do. The churches of Macedonia ' gave themselves,' and then ' they gave their goods,' 2Cor. viii. 5. Where faith is, there wiU be a giving of ourselves and our. goods ; and, by a pro- portion, our strength, -u-its, and all back again. This discovers a great deal of empty false faith in the worid ; for undoubtedly if it were true faith there would be a yielding back again. . , ,
Use 2. And again, these words discover the mutual coherence of justifi- cation and sanctificatipn, and the dependence one upon another.. ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' Christ is mine; his righteousness is mine for my justification ; I am clothed with Christ ,as it is, ' The spouse there is clothed with the sun,' Rev. xii. ;1, withthe beams of Christ. But is that all ? No. ' I%m my beloved's ;' I am- Christ's. There is a return of faith in sanctification. The same Spirit that witnesseth Christ is ours, it sanctifies and alters our disposition, that we can say, I am Christ's. It serves to instruct us therefore in the necessary. connection of these two, justification and sanctification, against the idle slander of papists, that sin- fully traduce that doctrine, as if we ■v^ere Solifideans (r), as if we severed justification from sanctification. No. We hold here that whensoever Christ is ours, there is a spirit of sanctification in us, to yield all to Christ, though this resignation be not presently perfect.
Use 3. This likewise helps us, by way of direction, to understand the covenant of gi-ace, and the seals of the covenant, what they enforce and comprise ; not only what God will do to us, but the duty we are to do to him again, though we do it in his strength. A covenant holds not on one side, but on both. Christ is mine, and I. am Christ's again. 'I will be their God,' but they must have grace ' to be rny people,' Lev. xx\i. 12 ; and then the covenant is made up. The covenant. of grace is so called, because God is so gracious as to enable us to perform our own part.
And so in the. seals of the covenant in baptism. God doth not only bind himself to do thus and thus to us, but binds us also to do back again to him. So in the communion, we promise to lead a new life, renewing our covenant ; and therefore we must not think that all is well (when we have received our Maker), though we continue in a scandalous, fruitless course of life. No. There is a promise in the sacrament (the seal of the covenant of grace), to yield up ourselves to God, to return to Clirist again with our duty. Then we come as we should do when we come thus disposed. This for direction, ' My beloved is mine, and I am my beloved's.'