It

that the Holy Ghost doth sometimes in this book take notice of them on no good account. Plainly, chap. v. 7, they turn persecutors. was Luther's saying, "Nunquam periclitatur religio nisi inter reverendissimos." Here they are of a more gentle temper, and seeing the poor disconsolate soul, they seem to take notice of her condition.

It is the duty, indeed, of faithful watchmen, to take notice of poor, troubled, deserted souls;-not to keep at a distance, but to be willing to assist. And a truly pressed soul on the account of Christ's absence cannot cover its love, but must be inquiring after him: "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?"—" This is my condition: I have had sweet enjoyment of my blessed Jesus, he is now withdrawn from me. Can you help me? can you guide me to my consolation. What acquaintance have you with him? when saw you him? how did he manifest himself to you, and wherein?" All these labourings in his absence sufficiently discover the soul's delight in the presence of Christ. Go one step farther, to the discovery that it made of him once again, and it will yet be more evident. Verses 4, 5, "It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem," etc.

First, She tells you how she came to him: "She found him;"-what ways and by what means is not expressed. It often so falls out in our communion with Christ, when private and public means fail, and the soul hath nothing left but waiting silently and walking humbly, Christ appears; that his so doing may be evidently of grace. Let us not at any time give over in this condition. When all ways are past, the summer and harvest are gone without relief,-when neither bed nor watchmen can assist,-let us wait a little, and we shall see the Salvation of God. Christ honours his immediate absolute actings sometimes, though ordinarily he crowns his ordinances. Christ often manifests himself immediately, and out of ordinances, to them that wait for him in them;-that he will do so to them that despise them, I know not. Though he will meet men unexpectedly in his way, yet he will not meet them at all out of it. Let us wait as he hath appointed; let him appear as he pleaseth. How she deals with him when found is nextly declared: "She held him, and would not let him go," etc. They are all expressions of the greatest joy and delight imaginable. The sum is:-having at length come once more to an enjoyment of sweet communion with Christ, the soul lays fast hold on him by faith (xparsiv, “to hold fast," is an act of faith), refuses to part with him any more, in vehemency of love,-tries to keep him in ordinances in the house of its mother, the church of God; and so uses all means for the confirming of the mutual love between Christ and

her: all the expressions, all the allusions used, evidencing delight to the utmost capacity of the soul. Should I pursue all the instances and testimonies that are given hereunto, in that one book of the Song of Solomon, I must enter upon an exposition of the greatest part of it; which is not my present business. Let the hearts of the saints that are acquainted with these things be allowed to make the close. What is it they long for, they rejoice in? what is it that satisfies them to the utmost, and gives sweet complacency to their spirits in every condition? what is it whose loss they fear, whose absence they cannot bear? Is it not this their Beloved, and he alone?

This, also, they farther manifest by their delight in every thing that peculiarly belongs to Christ, as his, in this world. This is an evidence of delight, when, for his sake whom we delight in, we also delight in every thing that belongs to him. Christ's great interest in this world lies in his people and his ordinances,-his household and their provision. Now in both these do the saints exceedingly delight, for his sake. Take an instance in both kinds in one man, namely, David, Ps. xvi. 3, "In the saints and the excellent" (or the noble)" of the earth is all my delight; my delight in them." Christ says of his church that she is "Hephzi-bah," Isa. lxii., " My delight in her." Here says David of the same, “Hephzi-bam,—" My delight in them." As Christ delights in his saints, so do they in one another, on his account. Here,” says David, "is all my delight." Whatever contentment he took in any other persons, it was nothing in comparison of the delight he took in them. Hence, mention is made of "laying down our lives for the brethren," or any common cause wherein the interest of the community of the brethren does lie.

Ps. xlii.,

Secondly, For the ordinances, consider the same person. lxxxiv., and xlviii., are such plentiful testimonies throughout, as we need no farther inquiring; nor shall I go forth to a new discourse on this particular.

And this is the first mutual consequential act of conjugal affection, in this communion between Christ and believers:-he delights in them, and they delight in him. He delights in their prosperity, hath pleasure in it; they delight in his honour and glory, and in his presence with them. For his sake they delight in his servants (though by the world contemned) as the most excellent in the world; and in his ordinances, as the wisdom of God;-which are foolishness to the world.

CHAPTER V.

Other consequential affections:—1. On the part of Christ-He values his saints— Evidences of that valuation:-(1.) His incarnation; (2.) Exinanition, 2 Cor. viii. 9; Phil. ii. 6, 7; (3.) Obedience as a servant; (4.) In his death. His valuation of them in comparison of others. 2. Believers' estimation of Christ: -(1.) They value him above all other things and persons; (2.) Above their own lives; (3.) All spiritual excellencies. The sum of all on the part of Christ-The sum on the part of believers. The third conjugal affection-On the part of Christ, pity or compassion-Wherein manifested-Suffering and supply, fruits of compassion-Several ways whereby Christ relieves the saints under temptations-His compassion in their afflictions. Chastity, the third conjugal affection in the saints. The fourth-On the part of Christ, bounty; on the part of the saints, duty.

II. CHRIST values his saints, values believers (which is the second branch of that conjugal affection he bears towards them), having taken them into the relation whereof we speak. I shall not need to insist long on the demonstration hereof; heaven and earth are full of evidences of it. Some few considerations will give life to the assertion. Consider them, then,—1. Absolutely; 2. In respect of others; and you will see what a valuation he puts upon them:

1. All that ever he did or doth, all that ever he underwent or suffered as mediator, was for their sakes. Now, these things were so great and grievous, that had he not esteemed them above all that can be expressed, he had never engaged to their performance and undergoing. Take a few instances:

(1.) For their sakes was he "made' flesh;' "manifested in the flesh." Heb. ii. 14, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." And the height of this valuation of them the apostle aggravates. Verse 16, "Verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham;" he had no such esteem of angels. Whether you take éπiλaμCáveolaι, properly to "take," or to “ take hold of," as our translators, and so supply the word "nature,” and refer the whole unto Christ's incarnation, who therein took our nature on him, and not the nature of angels; or for åvaλaμCávɛotαι, to “help,” (he did not help nor succour fallen angels; but he did help and succour the seed of Abraham,) and so consider it as the fruit of Christ's incarnation,-it is all one, as to our present business: his preferring the seed of Abraham before angels, his valuing them above the other, is plainly expressed. And observe, that he came to help the seed of Abraham,—that is,3 believers. His esteem and valuation is of them only.

'John i. 14; 1 Tim. iii. 16. * Vide Vind. Evan., cap. xiii. vol. xii. Rom. iv. 17; Gal. iii. 7.

poor.

(2.) For their sakes he was so made flesh, as that there was an emptying, an exinanition of himself, and an eclipsing of his glory, and a becoming poor for them, 2 Cor. viii. 9, "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor." Being rich in eternal glory with his Father, John xvii. 5, he became poor for believers. The same person that was rich was also That the riches here meant can be none but those of the Deity, is evident, by its opposition to the poverty which as man he undertook. This is also more fully expressed, Phil. ii. 6, 7, "Who being in the form of God, counted it no robbery to be equal to God, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the fashion of a man, and found in form as a man," etc. That the "form of God" is here the essence of the Deity, sundry things inevitably evince; as,

[1.] That he was therein1 equal to God; that is, his Father. Now, nothing but God is equal to God. Not Christ as he is mediator, in his greatest glory,-nothing but that which is infinite, is equal to . that which is infinite.

ἐκένωσε,

[2] The form of God is opposed to the form of a servant; and that form of a servant is called the "fashion of a man," verse 8,-that fashion wherein he was found when he gave himself to death, wherein as a man he poured out his blood and died. Μορφὴν δούλου λαβὼν (he "took the form of a servant"), is expounded in the next words, ¿ ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος,—an expression used to set out his incarnation, Rom. viii. 3. God sent him iv iμorúμarı σapxòs àμaprías in taking true flesh, he was in the "likeness of sinful flesh." Now, in thus doing, it is said auròv ixévwσe,—“ he humbled, emptied himself, made himself of no reputation." In the very taking of flesh, there was a condescension, a debasing of the person of the Son of God; it could not be without it. If God humbled himself to "behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth," Ps. cxiii. 6, then certainly it was an inconceivable condescension and abasement, not only to behold, but take upon him (into personal union) our nature with himself. And though nothing could possibly be taken off from the essential glory of the Deity, yet that person appearing in the fashion of a man, and form of a servant, the glory of it, as to the manifestation, was eclipsed; and he appeared' quite another thing than what indeed he was, and had been from eternity. Hence he prays that his Father would "glorify him with the glory he had with him before the world was,” John xvii. 5, as to the manifestation of it. And so, though the divine nature was not abased, the person was.

(3.) For their sakes he so humbled and emptied himself, in taking flesh, as to become therein a servant,—in the eyes of the world of no 1 See Vind. Evan., cap. xiii. vol. xii.

2 John xiv. 28.

Isa. liii. 2.

esteem nor account; and a true and real servant1 unto the Father. For their sakes he humbled himself, and became obedient. All that he did and suffered in his life comes under this consideration; all which may be referred to these three heads:-2[1.] Fulfilling all righteousness. [2] Enduring all manner of persecutions and hardships. [3.] Doing all manner of good to men. He took on him, for their sakes, a life and course pointed to, Heb. v. 7, 8,-a life of prayers, tears, fears, obedience, suffering; and all this with cheerfulness and delight, calling his employment his "meat and drink,” and still professing that the law of this obedience was in his heart,—that he was content to do this will of God. He that will sorely revenge the least opposition that is or shall be made to him by others, was content to undergo any thing, all things, for believers.

(4.) He stays not here, but (for the consummation of all that went before) for their sakes he becomes obedient to death, the death of the cross. So he professeth to his Father, John xvii. 19, "For their sakes I sanctify myself;"-"I dedicate myself as an offering, as a sacrifice, to be killed and slain." This was his aim in all the former, that he might die; he was born, and 'lived, that he might die. He valued them above his life. And if we might stay to consider a little what was in this death that he underwent for them, we should perceive what a price indeed he put upon them. The curse of the law was in it, the wrath of God was in it, the loss of God's 'presence was in it. It was a fearful cup that he tasted of, and drank of, that they might never taste of it. A man would not for ten thousand worlds be willing to undergo that which Christ underwent for us in that one thing of desertion from God, were it attended with no more distress but what a mere creature might possibly emerge from under. And what thoughts we should have of this himself tells us, John xv. 13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." It is impossible there should be any greater demonstration or evidence of love than this. What can any one do more? And yet he tells us in another place, that it hath another aggravation and heightening, Rom. v. 8, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." When he did this for us we were sinners, and enemies, whom he might justly have destroyed. What more can be done?—to die for us when we were sinners! Such a death, in such a manner, with such attendancies of wrath and curse,-a death accompanied with the worst that God had ever threatened to sinners,-argues as high a valuation of us as the heart of Christ himself was capable of.