Use 4. To proceed to make an use of comfort to poor, douhtinri Chris- tians. ' I am my beloved's,' is the voice of the whole chm-ch, that all ranks of Christians, if they be true, ma}'- without presiunption take up. I have not so much faith, so much love, so much gi'ace, so much patience
184 BOWELS OPENED. [SeEMON XX.
as another, saith a poor Christian ; therefore I am none of Christ's. But we must know that Christ hath in his chm'ch of all ranks, and they are all his spouse, one as well as another, there is no exception. There is a little spirit of emulation, and a spice of envy, in Christians that are weaker. If they have not all that great measure of grace which they see in others, they fear they have none at all; as if there were no babes in Christ's school as well as men and grown persons.
Then again, we see here the nature of faith in the whole church. It is the same that is in every particular, and the same in every particular as it is in the whole church. The whole church saith, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' I appropriate him. There is a spirit of appro- priation in the whole, and there is so in each particular. Every Christian may say with Paul, ' 1 live by faith in the Son of God, that hath loved me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. ii. 20 ; and with Thomas, ' My God, and my Lord,' John xx. 28.
The ground hereof is, because they are all one in Christ, and there is one and the same Spirit in the whole church and every particular Chris- tian, as in pipes, though of different sounds, yet there is the same breath in them. So Christians may have different sounds, from the greater or lesser strength of grace that is in the one and in the other, but all comes from the same breath, the same Spirit. The Spirit in the bride saith Come, Rev. xxii. 17, the whole church saith it, and eveiy particular Christian must say it ; because, as the body is acted by one spirit, and makes but one natural body, though consisting of many parts weaker and stronger, so should there be a harmony in this mystical body acted by that one Spirit of Christ, who so regards all, as if there were but one, and regards every one so, as he doth not forget the whole. Sic omnibus attentus tit non detentiis, dc. Christ so attends to all, that he is not detained from any particular, and he so attends every particular, that he is not restrained from all. There is the same love to all as to one, and to every one, as if there were no other. He so loves each one, that every Christian may say as well as the whole church, Christ is mine, and I am Christ's.
In those things that we call homogeneal, there is the same nature in each quantity as in the whole, as there is the same nature in one drop of water as in the whole ocean, all is water ; and the same respect of a spark, and of all the element of fii'e. So Christ bears the same respect to the church as to every particular, and to every particular as to the church.
Use 5. To come to make an use of direction, how to come to he able to say this, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' For answer here- to, take notice in the first place, from the dependence. Chiist must be first ours, before we can give om'selves to him.
(1.) Therefore, we must dwell on the consideration of Christ's love. This must direct and lead our method in this thing. Would we have our hearts to love Christ, to trust in him, and to embrace him, why then think what he is to us. Begin there ; nay, and what we are : weak, and in our apprehension, lost. Then go to consider his love, his constant love to his church and children. ' Whom he loves, he loves to the end,' John xiii. 1. We must warm our souls with the consideration of the love of God in him to us, and this will stu' up our faith to him back again. For we are more safe in that he is ours, Gal. iv. 9, Philip, iii. 12, than that we give ourselves to him. We are more safe in his comprehending of us, than in our clasp- ing and holding of him. As we say of the mother and the child, both hold, but the safety of the child is that the mother holds him. K Christ
Cant. VI. 3.] ' my beloved is mine.' 18&
once give himself to us, he will make good his ovvti part alway. Our safety is more on his side than on ours. If ever we have felt the love of Christ, we may comfort ourselves with the constancy and perpetuity thereof. Though, perhaps, we find not our affections warmed to him at all times, nor alike, yet the strength of a Christian's comfort lies in this, that first, * Christ is mine,' and then, in the second place, that ' I am his.' Now, I say, that we may be able to maintain this blessed tradition of giving our- selves to Christ,