And for those that have in some measure given themselves up to Christ, and can say, ' He is mine and I am his,' let them go on with comfort, and never be discouraged for the iufu'mities that hang about them. For one pai't of Chi'ist's office is to pui'ge his church by his Spirit more and more ; not to cast her away for her iufu-mities, ' but to wash and cleanse it more and more till it be a glorious spouse like himself,' Eph. v. 27. For if the husband will, by the bond of nature, bear with the infirmities of the wife, as the weaker vessel, doth not Christ bind himself by that which he accounts us bound ? Is there more love and mere}-, and pity in us to those that we take near us, than there is in Christ to us ? What a most blasphemous thought were this to conceive so ! Only let us take heed of being in league with sin ; for we cannot give our souls to Christ, and to sinful courses too. Christ will allow of no bigamy or double marriage. Where he hath anything to do, we must have single hearts, resolving, though I fall, yet I pm-pose to please Christ, and to go on in a good conversation ; and if our hearts tell us so, daily infirmities ought not to discourage us.
188 BOWELS OPENED. [SeKMON XX.
We have helps enough for these. First, Christ bids us ask forgiveness ; and then we have the mercy of Christ to bear with weaker vessels. Then his advocation.* He is now in heaven to plead for us. If we were perfect, we needed not that office, 1 John ii. 2. Let none be discouraged there- fore ; but let us labour more and more that we may be able to comprehend in some measure the love of Christ, so will all duties come off sweetly and easily ; and then we shall be enabled to suffer all things, not only willingly, but cheerfully, and rejoice in them. Love is of the nature of fire, which as it severeth and consumeth all that is opposite, all dross and dregs, and dissolves coldness, so it quickens and makes active and lively. It hath a kind of constraining force, a sweet violence. As the apostle saith, ' the love of Christ constraineth,' 2 Cor. v. 24.
Let a man that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, be called to part with his life, he Avill yield it as a sacrifice with comfort. Come what will, all is welcome, when we are inflamed with the love of Christ; and the more we sufibr, the more we find his love. For he reserves the manifestation of his love most for times of sufiering ; and the more we find the manifesta- tion of his love, the more we love him back again, and rejoice in suffering for him that we love so. Whether they be duties of obedience, active or passive, doing or suffering, all comes off with abundance of cheerfulness and ease, where the love of Christ is, that the soul can say, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' Nothing in the world is able to make such a soul miserable. It follows.
' He feedeth among the lilies. The church here shews where Christ feeds.
Quest. But the question is. Whether it be the feeding of the churcn and people that is meant, or whether he feeds himself ?
A}is. For answer, he both feeds his church among the lilies, and dehghts himself to be there. The one follows the other. Especially it is meant of the church. Those that are his, he feeds them among the lilies. How ?
Lilies are such kind of flowers as require a great deal of nourishment, and grow best in valleys and fat gi'ound. Therefore when she saith, ' He feeds among the lilies,' the meaning is, he feeds his church and people in fat pastures, as sheep in such grounds as are sweet and fruitful. Such are his holy word and the communion of saints. These are especially the pastures wherein he feeds his church. The holy truths of God are the food of the soul, whereby it is cherished and nourished up to life everlast- ing. This whole book is a kind of pastoral (to understand the word a little better), a * song of a beloved' concerning a beloved. Therefore Christ in many places of this book, he takes upon him the term and carriage, as it were, of a loving shepherd, who labours to find out for his sheep the fattest, fruitfulest, best, and sweetest pastures, that they may grow up as calves of the stall, as it is Malachi iv. 2, that they may grow and be well liking.
You have, to give light to this place, a phrase somewhat like this, where he follows the point more at large. Cant. i. 7. The church there prays to Christ, ' Tell me, 0 thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon.' Those that are coming up in the church desire to know with whom they may join, and what truths they may embrace. * Tell me where thou feedest, and where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon :' that is, in the greatest heat and storm of persecution, as at noon-day the sun is hottest. ' For why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of thy companions ?' that is, by those that are not true * That is, ' advocacy.' — Ed.