The spouse, in like manner, in the Canticles, giving an account of her great and incomparable love unto her beloved, manifests that it arose from the exact consideration that she had taken of his per- son and all that belonged thereunto, chap. v. 9-16. The like may be said of all other graces; and by these must we be preserved, or utterly fail. As to the use of these things,—
(1.) We may see hence the reason why so many turn aside, and fall off from the truth and ways of the gospel. They have given over a due consideration of Jesus Christ, his person, offices, and mediation, and so have lost the means of their preservation. They have been weary of him, not seeing form or comeliness in him for which he should be desired. What a sad instance have we hereof in those poor deluded creatures, who, neglecting him, pretend to find all light and life within themselves! This is their Beth-el, the beginning of their transgression; for when men have neglected the person of Christ, is it any wonder if they despise his ways and ordinances, as is their manner? Indeed, the ordinances of the gospel, its worship and institutions, have no excellency, no beauty in them, but what ariseth from their relation unto the person and offices of Christ; and if they are neglected, these must needs be burdensome and grievous. And as it is in vain to draw men unto the embracement of them who know him not, who are not acquaint- ed with him, seeing they appear unto them the most grievous and intolerable of all things that can be imposed on them; so they who on any account cease to consider him by faith, as he is proposed unto them in the gospel, cannot long abide in their observation. Give such men the advantages of liberty, and keeping up a reputa- tion of profession without them,—which they suppose a new and sin-
526 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. III.
gular opinion will furnish them withal,—and they will quickly cast them off as a burden not to be borne. And as it is with gospel worship, so it is with all the articles of faith, or important truths that we are to believe. The centre and knot of them all is in the person of Christ. If they are once loosed from thence, if their union in him be dissolved, if men no more endeavour to learn “ the truth as it is in Jesus,” or to acquaint themselves with the will of God, as he hath “ gathered all things unto a head in him,” they scatter, as it were, of their own accord from their minds; so that it may be they retain no one of them, or if they do so, yet not in a right manner, so as to have an experience of the power of them in obedience. This is the cause of the apostasies amongst us; Christ is neglected,— not considered, not improved. .A light within, or a formal worship without, is enthroned in his stead; and thence all sorts of errors and evils do of their own accord ensue. Deal with any whom you see to neglect his ways and truths, and you will find this to be the state of things with them:—they have left off to value and esteem the person of Christ; or they had never any acquaintance with him. And in vain is it to dispute with men about the streams whilst they despise the fountain. The apostle gives us a threefold miscarriage in religion, Col. ii. 18:—[1.] A pretence of a voluntary, wncom- manded humility, a pretended mortification, indeed a bare covering of base and filthy pride; [2.] A worshipping of angels, an instance to express all false, self-invented worship; and, [3.] Curiosity in vain speculations, or men’s intruding themselves into the things which they have not seen, setting out things with swelling words of vanity, wherewith in truth they have no acquaintance, whereof they have no experience. And all these, saith he, verse 19, proceed from hence, that they “hold not the Head;” they have let go the Lord Christ, from whom all truths are to be derived, and consequently all truth itself. Here lies the spring of our frequent apostasies.
(2.) Again, we may hereby examine and try ourselves. Do we at any time find any of the ways, institutions, or ordinances of Christ grievous or burdensome unto us? do we find a secret dislike of them, or not that delight in them which we have formerly enjoyed? If we search into the root of our distempers, we shall find that our hearts and spirits have not been exercised with that consideration of the person and offices of Christ which our duty calls for. We have not been kept in a constant adoration of his majesty, admiration of his excellency, delight in his beauty, joy in his undertaking, holy thoughtfulness of his whole mediation. This hath betrayed us into our lukewarmness and indifferency, and made us faint and weary in his ways. Hence also all endeavours for a recovery from such a frame, that regard only the particular instances that we are sensible of, are languid and successless, He that finds himself faint in or weary of any of the
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 527
ways of Christ or any duties of. obedience unto him, or that discovers an undervaluation of any of the truths of the gospel, as to their use or importance, and thinks to recover himself and retrieve his spirit only by applying himself unto that particular wherein he is sensible of his failure, will labour in the fire and to no purpose. It may be that after some days, or months, or years, he will find himself more at a loss than ever; and that because although he strzveth, yet he striveth not lawfully. If we would recover ourselves, we must go to the source and beginning of our decays.