In that pattern of communion with Jesus Christ which we have in the Canticles, this is abundantly insisted on. The spouse tells us that she sits down under his shadow with great delight. Cant. ii. 3. And this delight to be vigorous and active, she manifests several ways; wherein we should labour to find our hearts in like manner towards him: —
1. By her exceeding great care to keep his company and society, Avhen once she had obtained it, chap. ii. 7, "I charge you, O ye
] 26 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stii- not up, nor awake my love till he please." Having obtained sweet communion vsdth Christ, described in the verses fore- going (of which before), here she expresseth her delight in it and de- sire of the continuance of it ; and therefore, following on the allusion formerly insisted on, she speaks as one would do to her companion, [as one] that had rest with one she loved : " I charge you, by all that is dear to you, — by the things you most delight in, which among the creatures are most lovely, all the pleasant and desirable things that you can think of, — that you disturb him not." The sum of her aim and desire is, that nothing may fall out, nothing of sin or provocation happen, tliat may occasion Christ to depart from her, or to remove from that dispensation wherein he seemed to take that rest in her. " O stir him not up until he please ! " that^ is, never. '"•^H'^'i!, — love itself in the ab- stract, to express a rrddog, or earnest affection ; for so that word is often used. When once the soul of a believer hath obtained sweet and real communion with Christ, it looks about hiin, watcheth all temptations, all ways whereby sin might approach, to disturb him in his enjoy- ment of his dear Lord and Saviour, his rest and desire. How doth it charge itself not to omit any thing, nor to do any thing that may interrupt the communion obtained! And because the common en- trance of temptations, which tend to the disturbance of that rest and complacency which Christ takes in the soul, is from delightful diver- sions from actual commimion with him ; therefore is desire stronsf and active that the companions of such a soul, those with whom it doth converse, would not, by their proj-josals or allurements, divert it into any such frame as Christ cannot delight nor rest in. A be- liever that hath gotten Christ in his arms, is like one that hath found great spoils, or a pearl of price. He looks about him every way, and fears every thing that may deprive him of it. Riches make men watchful; and the actual sensible possession of him, in whom are all the riches and treasure of God, will make men look about them for the keeping of him. The line of choicest communion, is a line of the gi'eatest spiritual solicitousness : carelessness in the enjoyment of Christ pretended, is a manifest evidence of a false heart.
2, The spouse manifests her delight in him, by the utmost im- patience of his absence, with desires still of nearer communion with him.^ Chap. viii. 6, " Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cniel as the grave : the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." The allusion is doubtless from the high priest of the Jews, in his spi-
' ".ffiternitatcm temporis jiixta scnsuin niysticiiin in se incluclit, ut alias in Scrip- tnra; quia imnquain a tali soiiuio, id est, conjmictione cum sponso, excitari velit." — Aler. in loc. ' Jiag. ii. 21; Jor. xxii. 24.
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ritual representation of the church before God. He had a bi'east- plate which he is said to wear on his heart, Exod. xxviii. 29, wherein the names of the children of Israel were engraven, after the manner of seals or signets, and he bare them for a memorial before the Lord. He had the like also upon his shoulders, or on his anus, verses IT, 12; both representing the priesthood of Christ, who bears the names of all his before his Father in the " holy of holies,"' Heb. ix. 24. Now the seal on the heart, is near, inward, tender love and care, which gives an impression and image on the heart of the thing so loved. " Set me," saith the spouse, "as a seal upon thine heart;" — " Let me be constantly fixed in thy most tender and affectionate love ; let me always have a place in thine heart ; let me have an engraving, a mighty impression of love, upon thine heart, that shall never be ob- literated." The soul is never satisfied "with thoughts of Christ's love to it. " 0 that it Avere more, that it were more ! that I were as a ' seal on his heart I'" is its langiiage. The soul knows, indeed, on serious thoughts, that the love of Christ is inconceivable, and cannot be in- creased ; but it would fain work up itself to an apprehension of it : and therefore she adds here, " Set me as a seal upon thine arm." The heart is the fountcmi, but close and hidden ; the arm is manifestation and power. " Let," saith the spouse, " thy love be manifested to me in thy tender and powerful persuasion of me." Two things are evident in this request : — the continual mindfulness of Christ of the soul, as having its condition stiU in his eye, engraven on his ann, Isa. xlix. 15, 16, with the exalting of his power for the preservation of it, suit- able to the love of his heart unto it; and the manifestation of the hidden love and care of the heart of Christ unto the soul, being made visible on his arm, or evident by the fruit of it. This is that which she would be assured of; and without a sense whereof there is no rest to be obtained.