THE SPOUSES Hidden Glory, AND Faithful Leaning upon her Well-beloved. Wherein is laid down the Souls Glory in Christ, and the way by which the Soul comes to Christ. Delivered in two Lecture SERMONS in St Andrew's Church in Norwich. By JOHN COLLINGS Master of Arts, and Preacher of God's word in Saviour's parish in Norwich.  1 john 3.1. The world knows us not. 
Isaiah 43.1. Fear not, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.  
2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.  
LONDON, Printed for William Franckling, and are to be sold at his Shop near the sign of the George in Norwich. 1646.   

TO The Right worshipful and truly honoured Patriot of his Country, Sir JOHN HOBART Knight and Baronet, one of the Members of the Honourable House of COMMONS.  
Honoured Sir,  
Goodness is the Honour of Greatness, and Grace is the Beauty of Goodness: Greatness without Goodness, is like a grossy body with a sluggards spirit, too heavy to bear its own burden: and Goodness without some Authoritative Greatness, is like a soul in separation, happy in itself, but it wants an organ to move in terrestrials. But he to whom God hath given gracious Greatness, is one that hath ten Talents, one upon whom opportunities wait to do his God Honour. And it is the greatest happiness can betid a creature, to have an opportunity to throw his two mites, his little all into the Treasury of the Lords Glory. Our actuated habit of Love to God's Church and Spouse, is the greatest way of honouring our God. The Bridegroom honours those that he makes his Bride's Ushers: And it is the most endearing service we can do our Master, to have a care of his Lambs. Simon Peter lovest thou me? feed my Lambs: his Lambs in the Fold, which are his Church. Sir, God hath called you to this Honour; though not to feed, yet to provide their Shepherds a Crook. Alas! what shall we do? our Saviour's Lambs stray and wander in dangerous pastures, and we have no Crook to reduce them: we can only feed them when they please to eat: we have no hedge of Government to keep them in their pastures, nor Crook to reduce the wanderers: here is our misery! God hath made us watchmen; we may give good counsel to the unlawful stragglers, but we want our watch-bill to stay them if they will go. Blessed be the God of heaven, that hath not only made you Honourable in the sight of men, but more in his own sight, because zealous for his Bride. Christ's Spouse in this Kingdom is in the wilderness; and woe unto us that we can imagine the heart of any so hard as to contribute a vote to keep her there, much more to hedge up her way with thorns, that she cannot get out. At whose hands will the blood of those the wolves destroy be required? Blessed be the God of heaven, that hath given you an heart to wash not only your hands but tongue also of the blood of those that perish in this Kingdom for want of Government. I have here presented your Worship with a member of Christ's Church; endeavouring to limn out the Spouse in her Hidden Glory: if she wants expected beauty, 'tis the Limners fault: she is truly Glorious in herself, and her Bridegroom's eyes; but her glory is hidden to the world. Is it not pity so glorious a creature as this Spouse is in the perfection of her members, should want Order in her House? and be prostituted to every one that hath wickedness enough to deflower her? May the number of those increase that are the friends of Zion, and the generation of those perish, that make it their design to lay yet more waste the City of God, already near to bury herself in her own ruins. It is alas! too true, Sir, and unhappy too, that God hath put weakness into your hands, though your heart longs to be at Temple-work. Yourself are in a wilderness of Affliction, whiles you should and would gladly be lending your hand and votes to help the Spouse in England out: Gods will must be done, though we be patients. The Lord prosper the Nehemiahs that are at the work, and lessen the number of the Sanballats that hinder it; and in Elijahs absence double his spirit upon his Elishaes': and the Lord grant that in your wilderness of Affliction, you may lean upon you Beloved, and the Bridegroom grant such an happiness to his Spouse, as to spare her friend's life, that you may come out of your wilderness of Afflictions, leaning upon your Beloved, and do your God more service by living to his glory, and contributing your dying Votes to the happiness of his Bride: which is Sir, the daily prayer of  
Your Worship's devoted servant, JOHN COLLINGS.   

TO The Right Honourable, and truly Noble, the Lady Francis Hobart, increase of all happiness. etc.  
Madam,  
I Must ingenuously confess, it was my own ease was the first inducement to me, to offer these unpolished meditations to the censure of the world, (whom I hear already saying, is Saul also among the Prophets?) having promised more copies than I was willing to transcribe; But when that had raked the embers, something else blue the coals: I well knew that the Press was so tainted, it would be a suspicion of faction to be seen under it, and (if ever) now was the time to be a Fool in print: But when I considered the vanity of my former, and the incertainty of my latter, days I thought it was time to redeem the time, not only because my days were evil, but because my span might be almost measured out; And I thought if these meditations might not have the happiness to show some soul the way out of the wilderness, Leaning upon its Beloved, yet they could not be denied so small a blessing, as to keep some Bookish eyes from dirtying themselves with pouring in the excrements of Factious brains and pens, (which present themselves in our unhappy days, upon every shopboard, to Athenian gazers) by busying them in these papers a little. After these thoughts had wrested my notes out of my hands, which at the first composure I had thought (like a dying infant) should only have looked upon the world, misliked it, and gone out again. My near relation to your Honour's house, told me it would be no good manners to speak of a wedding and not invite your Ladyship (especially being one of the Children of the Bride-chamber) to it. The truths here may appeal to your Honour, for a confirmation; and I doubt not but you will and can sign them from precious experience: having already Set to your Seal, that God is true. Nay, I dare be further bold to say that the marriage of the Lamb could not be consummate without you: And I was loath to present a Bride lame, to so glorious a Bridegroom. These sermons are but a Record of your Honour's practice; and yet they are a prophecy of your Honour's life too. The Bride of Christ is not past all her dirty way, when she is espoused to her Bridegroom; She walks with him through dirty paths also: It is the way of heaven, not the way to heaven, that is strewed with flowers and roses: He knew that told us, By much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God.  
Mortality is but the Christians wilderness, For why should the disciple be above his Master, or the servant above his Lord? the Crown of thorns was not made for Christ's head only: and if there be written over our heads, in letters of glory, These are the heirs of heaven, what need we care to hang here nailed to a cross? The nails of the cross are sanctified ever since they pierced his sacred Limbs: A meditation of Christ's agony, may be a cordial draught for a soul sick with afflictions.  
If Christ walked upon the Sea to us, let us gird our coats and walk also: Though Christ seems to sleep, yet our groan will awaken him, for he taketh care that we perish not. Though Christ shakes himself, as if he intended to shake off our hand sometimes; yet let us consider, it is because our hands are dirty, and not be so foolish to let go our hold; Christ may duck, but he will not drown us; He knows the way out of the wilderness, and will lead us right, if we will but lean: Though we sit in darkness and see no light, yet let us trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay ourselves upon our God: we may be persecuted, we shall never be forsaken: we shall come out of the wilderness, leaning upon our Beloved.  
I presume Madam, to present these sermons naked to your Honour's hands, trusting your Ladyship will cover the imperfections with charity; they were buried, but if the Ghosts must walk, I thought it no ways proper to put them on gayer clothes, let them walk in their winding-sheet: If they will but tell a story of heaven to any they meet, and show them the way, and learn them Christ, I will promise them to give them an acquittance for any other debt they own me: If they will but procure me the Bride's prayers, my reward is greater than my desert: If God will honour them to win a soul, his free grace shall have the honour of it; for here is nothing but I have received from his Grace, and to it I own all that I am.  
Madam, were not my discourse of heaven and Christ, my Epistle might be tedious; but I am confident your Honour could be content to hear of your Bridegroom all the day long. The Lord grant your Honour yet more sweetness in his enjoyments, and fill you yet more full of his grace, till you shall come out of the wilderness of mortality, leaning upon your beloved, into the pleasant Paradise of Glory, which is and shall be (Madam) the prayer of  
Your Honours obliged Chaplain, john Collins.   

THE SPOUSES HIDDEN GLORY.  SOLOMON'S SONG, Chap. 8. vers. 5. 
Who is this that cometh out of the Wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?  
THis Book is called the Song of Songs; Canticum Canticorum, that is Canticum Excellentissimum; the most excellent Song; so Vatablus: and Estius 
Qu●a sermocinationem continet Christi sponsi, & Ecclesiae sponsae, Estius.  gives the reason; because it contains a discourse betwixt Christ the Bridegroom, and his Church the Bride. The Song of Songs, as a note of Eminency (thinks he) Mr Brightman will have it as well Nota distinctionis quam Eminentiae, a note of distinction, as of eminency; 
Canticum excellentius omnibus quae Solomon composuit.  A Song more excellent than all those which Solomon made; The Song that sounded sweetest to Solomon's penitent heart: But truly well may that be called the Song of Songs, where every strain is breathed by the Spirit of the most High, whose pen man was Son and Heir to the sweet Singer of Israel, and had the most wise understanding heart, that ever blessed a creature: whose every note is a note of Free grace, and every close a close with Christ, an union with him who is the head of his Church: Finally, where every line breathes the perfume of the Rose of Sharon, and is beautified with the colour of the Lily of the Valleys. It is a Song of Love, sung in parts, by the Son of his father's Love, The Lord Christ, and the wife of his bosom, The Church in general, and every believing soul in particular: It begins with Love, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine; Osculum est Symbolum amoris: And it ends with love, Make hast my beloved, and come away. The fountain from whence it ariseth is a spring of love, and the sea into which it falls is an Ocean of love, where the soul that enters is swallowed up of love, and drowned in sweetness. The whole stream of the book, is a stream of love, running betwixt two precious banks, jesus Christ, and the believing soul; Sometimes it runs an higher, sometimes a lower water; it is always some, though the Floodgates be not always open. The two lovers spend their song in feasting themselves with each others beauties; One while the Bridegroom is courting his Bride with ravishing strains of grace; another while she is emptying her soul into her beloved's bosom. The whole song is but a sweet interchange of delightful expressions, while both seem to be ravished with each others mutual embraces.  
I shall not study the coherence of the Text, it being a strain of the Song that stands in small dependency to the other. The spouse had now her bridegroom by the hand, it was her turn to pour her love into her beloved's bosom: from the 10. verse of the former chapter. My text seemeth to be a parenthesis, standing in small relation to the antecedent, or subsequent words; but seems to be the voice of some third person, viewing this blessed pair sweetly embracing one another, and the beloved following her love through most rugged places and wilderness ways; in those ways leaning upon Christ, either in admiration of Christ's condescension, that he would please through wildernesses to lead his beloved, or in admiration of the spouse so worthless a creature, that she should lean; or of her beauty by the refl●xion of her beloved's countenance, or of her constancy, that the bria●s and thorns of the wilderness could not separate her beloved and her, Quos Deus conjunxit, etc. cries out, Quae est illa quae ascendit ex deserto? What manner of creature is this, that she should lean? or what so glorious creature is this that leans? What manner of love is this, that makes her follow her Beloved through such uncoth, rugged, dangerous ways as these?  
Learned ●remellius would have these words to be no Parenthesis at all, but the continued speech of the Church, and says it is an Expression of the great love that the Church bore to the Lord Christ, by comparison. 
Expositio summi amoris quo Ecclesi prosequitur S●orsum, ansuit ull● unquam Ecclesia quae tot ac tantos l boreas perse●ret, tantaque pericu●a susciperet, ad consequendum dilectum s●um? hec igitur sunt pignora Voluntat●● me● qued fide diffi●ultates omnes superavi. Tremell●●s ad locum.   
What Church ever (saith she) would undertake so many and so great labours encounter so many dangers to get her beloved? These are pledges of my good will, that by faith I have overcome all difficulties, leaning upon him, even in the wilderness.  
But with all due respect to Tremellius, I rather agree with our whole stream of Expositors, that it is a Parenthesis, and the voice of a third person speaking, Quae est illa? The only question is, who this third person should be:  
Beda and Mr Brightman understand it to be the voice of the jewish Church, that with the eye of prophecy fore seeing the conversion of the Church of the Gentiles, cry out, Who is this? This wilderness creature? that she should have any thing to do with the Messiah? and therefore they read it, Dilectum meum, my beloved; Who is this that comes up from the wilderness leaning upon my beloved? whom I thought only to have loved me, 
Quem mesolum dil●gese, ceteris aut●m Nationibus rebar esse ignotum. Bed● ad locum.  and to have been unknown to other nations (saith Beda) C●●us nominis sit haec Gens quae ascendit ex deserto? Insti●ni videtur haec quaestio de grandioribus natu sororibus, quae stupescent hoc novo & inaudito spectaculo, saith Mr Brightman ad locum.  
But I see no reason why it should only be restrained to be the voice of the jewish Church, nor why [illa] [this] should be meant only of the Church in general, whiles that which is predicated of this subject is common to each believing Soul as well as the believing Church: 
Luther ad loc. Non solum V●cinae gen●es, sed etiam ipsi quisunt in po●ulo hanc mirantur sic ascendentem? deserto.  And therefore I rather agree with Luther upon the text; Not only (saith he) the neighbour nations, but those in the same nation shall admire her coming out of the wilderness.  
And I see no reason why we may not make the ordinary eye of the world, the eye of the text, that seeing the believing souls confidence in Christ, and affiance to him, that no wilderness will make her let go her hold but through every wilderness she finds a way by the help of her Saviour, who is her way, and up out of every wilderness (how rugged soever) she will come, and not lose her Saviour her beloved neither, but comes up leaning, cries out, Quae est illa quae ascendit e deserto? Who is this that comes out of the Wilderness? [leaning] Associans, associatura, Marrying or about to marry herself to her beloved; so Tremellius Delicijs affluens, feasting herself with delight, abounding with delights in her beloved: so Vatablu, Hierome and Lyra, Innixa leaning upon her beloved; so Mr Brightman, and reverend Beda: The matter is not much.  
1. Leaning is a posture of familiarity and she that is so bold to lean upon her beloved's arm, is surely lodged in her beloved's heart, and is associans, marrying, or associatura, about to marry herself to her beloved; and 2. Leaning is a posture of love too: She that leans, loves; surely she takes pleasure in her posture, she delights herself in her beloved's shoulder.  
The Text contains an imperfect description of a Virgin, the daughter of Zion, the Spouse of our Saviour; In which consider, 

1. The place whence she came, 

The Wilderness:    
2. Her motion, 

She comes up:    
3. Her posture, 

Innixa, Leaning:    
4. The person upon whom she leans, 

Dilectum, A beloved:    
5. The proper interest she hath in him, 

Dilectum suum, Her beloved:      
The imperfection of the description appears in the first words, being interrogatory, Quae est illa? Who is this? we know not what rare, princely, glorious creature it is?  
Who is this? It is formula interrogandi. An interrogatory form of speech; and doth (arguere ignorantiam) argue an ignorance; We know not who she is; what is she? Secondly, it is a form of admiring, and doth argue amaze. Whatso glorious creature is this, that hath such relation to the King's Son, that she leans up●n him? Hence we learn  
1. That the Spouse of Christ is a glorious creature that the world knows not; from the latter part of the Text.  
2. That it is the property of the believing soul the spouse of the Lord Christ, to come out of the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved.  
Of the first, First, That the Spouse of Christ is a glorious creature that the world knows not:  
Here first, we will inquire, Who is the Spouse.  
Secondly, How she is so glorious.  
Thirdly, How she is unknown, and what of her is unknown: The confirmation will be interwoven with the explication: By the Spouse of Christ every one knows is meant either the Church in general, Hosea 2.19.20. I will betrothe thee unto me for ever, yea I will betrothe thee unto me, in righteousness, and in judgement, and in loving kindness, and mercies. And I will betrothe thee unto me in faithfulness; Or the believing soul in particular; the believing soul stands in the nearest relations to jesus Christ, 12. Matthew. 50. She is his mother and sister, and Christ's sister is his spouse. My sister, my spouse, he calls her Cantic. 5. ver. 1. But wherein is this Spouse of her Saviour so glorious that any need say concerning her, Quae est illa? Who is this that cometh up?  
There are six things which may breed an admiration in the eye of the beholders, in relation to any Bride, all which are eminenter in this spouse.  
1. Her breeding, that's admirable; she is borne of God, 1 joh. 5.18. God is her father: she calls him Our Father and Abba Father every day. jesus Christ himself Baptised her. He shall Baptise you with the holy Ghost and with fire, Math. 3. she is a King's daughter. 45. Psal. 13. and she lives in the Spirit of God Gal. 5.25. she and God are all one in a mystery; the Saint is a mystical piece of Jesus Christ; it lives with him and in him, and he lives in and with it. It is written the heavens shall contain him; contain him, but not circumscribe him; he lives under the Cottage-roof of the meanest Christian; Christ dwells with the believer, and lives too. I live, but yet not I, but Christ lives in me (saith the Apostle.) The soul must needs be well bred under such a Tutor, a glorious breeding! It's brother is jesus Christ, Husband and brother too. The spouse is jesus Christ's sister and spouse, as Abraham said concerning Sarah: She is near a kin to the Trinity; to all the Apostles and Saints; of the blood Royal: admirable for her breeding, that in that regard they might say, Quae est illa? Who is this?  
2. Her carriage, that is admirable, this depends much upon breeding you know; she shames not her breeding: her deportment is according to her birth, her companions noble Kings daughters 45. Psal. 9 Her carrriage chaste, a Virgin through a spouse Christus non renascitur, nisi in cordibus eorum qui spirituales sunt virgins, & Deo uno spiritu adherent. Christ is not borne again, nor married to those that are not spiritual Virgins, and adhere to him alone. She loveth righteousness, and hateth wickedness, 45. Psal. 7. and keepeth her garment unspotted from the flesh; she carries not herself like the wanton women: those that see the Saints carriage for humility, for gravity, for her whole deportment, may in admiration say, Quae est illa? Who is this? What rare, what glorious creature?  
3. Her Beauty is admirable, 45. ps. 2. She is fairer than the Children of men, for grace is poured into her lips. Some daughters are beautiful, but she is far more beautiful. Some in part, but she is all fair; thou art all fair my spouse. She is black (that is in her morning) but her black morning proves a fair day; black by nature, fair by grace, comely as the Tents of Kedar and Curtains of Solomon. A lily (though amongst thorns.)  
1. Her beauty is a perfect beauty. The Church was once called the perfection of Beauty, 2. Lament. 25. No beauteous face and deformed body, much less deformed soul; All fair. See her full description from the best limner in the 7. chap. to the 7. verse. She is without spot, or wrinkle.  
2. It is a  beauty, Kings shall desire thy beauty: amongst Creatures sometimes the flesh may be beautiful, but the countenance casts a veil over, and makes the beauty not lovely, or desirable; but this is a lovely Beauty even in the eyes of Kings.  
3. It is a constant beauty, no sickness can make her unlovely; nothing can wrinkle the believing soul, or curl the gracious brow, the lily of these valleys looseth no beauty in the scorches of afflictions or hail of sorrow, or storms of temptation; but in every condition those that look upon her may say, Quae est illa? What so beauteous creature is this?  
4. She is admirable for her Clothing. Her clothing is of wrought gold. 45. Psal. 13. She shall be brought unto the King in a garment of needlework; in her espousal days she is clothed with grace, hereafter she shall be clothed with glory: she hath put off her widow's garments, and put on a garment like the garment Mordecay was arrayed with. Ester 8.15. Royal apparel taken out of the wardrobe of glory. Blue, and white, precious Raiment; even of the same cloth with the King of glories attire. Dan. 7.9. Revel. 3.5. And with a crown of glory upon her head, and a garment of fine linen, and purple; Indeed she was clothed like jehoshua with filthy garments. But God hath said take away the filthy garments from her, and I will cloth her with change of Raiment. Zech. chap. 3. ver. 4.5.  
1. She is admirable. First for the Variety of her clothing.  
Secondly, For the perfume of her garments.  
We will open her wardrobe and show you a few of the changes of Raiment this Bride hath:  
First, She hath her Inner garment of Christ's righteousness, her robe of righteousness; this the Saints are clothed with, and this is their long white garment: Their inner garment that goes next their soul. They are clothed in white, Revel. 7.13.14. Those that come out of Tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb are arrayed in white robes.  
2. She hath another white garment of chastity, which the Apostle bids Timothy put on, and the young women must have gowns made of it; they were to be chaste and discreet, not committing adultery with the pleasures and profits and vain delights as well as men of the world, but keep her whole love and whole soul to God, and God alone.  
3. She hath a long garment of Charity, her cloak of charity, this is both long and full; with the others she clothed herself, with this she clotheth others; with this she clotheth the naked, and this is a true garment, and it covers a multitude of sins: 1 Pet. 5.8. A garment that neatly becomes a Christian, and which she should be sure to have what ever she wants to the back of her soul: Above all have fervent charity (saith the Apostle) It is a garment that the Bridegroom will look that his Bride should be clothed with, at the great marriage day, Matth. 25.34. etc. Come ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you, before the foundation of the world, for I was an hungry and ye gave me meat etc.  
A fourth change of Raiment, she hath, is the hair cloth of humility; an homely, but precious garment, 1 Pet. 5.5. Be ye clothed with humility; The Bridegroom himself wooed his spouse with this robe, He humbled himself and became obedient unto God, even to death, the death upon the cross; For these two last changes of raiment my heart aches to think how many Christians have left them off: Charity is grown cold, to a Proverb; and humility, the precious garment of humility, changed for the conceited coat of singularity; the party coloured coat of factions hath brought this garment out of fashion; It hath lost no beauty, though it be pitifully out of fashion.  
A fifth change of raiment; is her garment of Moderation, a summer garment to be worn when the Sun of prosperity shines hit: then let your moderation be known unto all men, Philip. 4.5.  
Sixthly, She hath likewise a winter garment of Patience, and this the Spouse puts on in a storm; Tribulation worketh Patience: This the good Church of Ephesus was clad with, and her God loved her in this habit, Rev. 2.3. And hast borne and had patience, and for my name hast laboured, and hast not fainted.  
Seventhly, Many are the changes of this Spouses Raiment, I will only mention one more, and that is Vestimentum fidei, her Buffcoat of faith, this is Pistol, yea Canon proof, this she puts on in a time of war: The shield of faith, called Ephes. 6.16. This is her militia vestment: These are the Spouses several changes of Vesture, and many more; she hath garments of needlework, and divers colours, and she shall have at last a garment of Glory; She is glorious for the change of her raiment, that the eye of the beholder may be put to amaze, and he in admiration say, Quae est illa? Who is this that cometh up?  
2. She is admirable, as for the change, so for the perfume of her garments, Psal. 45.8. All her garments smell of Myrrh, Aloes, and Cassia. Cant. 4.11. The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon; no perfume like the believers sweetness, sweetness that cannot be worn out, she gives a smell as she goes, like the smell of a garden, like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blest; like the perfume of Paradise.  
3. As she is admirable for her clothing, so for her virtues also, Virtues shall I say? Virtue is too cheap a garment for this glorious Bride; Graces are inward ornaments, and indeed this is but her clothing of wrought gold; I have spoke something to this before, the best nature is but the thread of her garment, the Gold of grace is wrought upon it, the warp of nature and the woof of Grace; she is clothed with grace as a garment: Virtue is the cheapest cloth she wears, though that be more precious than a cloth of silver or gold: The virtues of her Bridegroom are in her; Nature refined beyond nature; The Quintessence of ingenuous nature seven times refined, clarified, spiritualised: Virtues (say they) are chained together: This spouse is not adorned with collars of pearl, the most precious pearl is too cheap for her Ornaments, but her cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, and her neck with chains of gold, Cant. 1.16. What chains, but the chains of her virtues and graces? and this chain of grace ravisheth the heart of jesus, Cant. 4.9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy eyes, with one of the chains of thy neck, this precious Chain the Apostle persuades the Saints to put on, 2 Pet. 1.5. Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity; Oh precious chain of intermixed pearl! Surely this will make the spouse admirable, that whosoever hears of her, or sees her, will, must say, Quae est illa? who is this cometh up?  
4. Lastly, She is admirable for her Attendants, this makes all that see her, or know her, or hear of her, stand and admire her, and say, who is this? etc. Psal. 45.9. King's daughters were among thine Honourable women, upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir; None more glorious Attendants than Kings and Queens, Isay. 49.23. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and Queens thy nursing mothers, they shall bow down to thee, with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; What more honourable Attendants than the glorious Angels? Those household servants of the King of glory, even these are this Brides waiting servants, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Heb. 1.14. Shall I go yet higher? The King of glory himself is the Attendant of the King's daughter; he took upon him the form of a servant, he came in person to attend her, he comes still and bears her company; yea jesus Christ is the believers servant in heaven, for he stands at the right hand of her father, to make intercession for her, to make her prayers, and her welcome into the chambers of his Father's glory, (the Mansion house of the King of heaven) She is admirable for her Attendants; first for the multitude of them, The Creation is all her servant, the Creatures below are as the grooms of her kitchen, the Angels are the Gentlemen of her Bedchamber, Queens are her maids of Honour, jesus Christ her Bridegroom is her servant, though her Lord; all his employment is to do her service. Secondly, for the gloriousness of her Attendants, the Queen that stands at her right hand, is clad with gold of Ophir: the Angels that are her ministering spirits are clothed with eternity; None so glorious a retinue as this Spouses, they that look upon her Train as she cometh, must needs say, Quae est illa? Who is this that cometh up? and thus I have showed how this beloved soul is admirable; but the words are as well formula inquirendi as admirandi, a form of enquiring as a form of admiring; It argues they did not know her; therefore they say Who is this that cometh up? The believer is a bride that is unknown to the world, an unknown creature. To whom and what are they unknown, and how far known? what of her must be known, and what in her is hidden?  
First, She is unknown to the ways and carriage of the world.  
Secondly, She is unknown to the men of the world.  
First, She is unknown to the ways of the world, she hates the garment spotted with the flesh, jude v. 23. she is none of those that dare revel in mixed dances, she is not seen at every fair, she proclaims not her beauty at every cross, she dresseth not herself like a puppet of pride that forgets she is dust and ashes, she is indeed all glorious, but it is within; there her clothing is of wrought gold; she paints not her borrowed face, she knows not how to look God in the face another day with a face that is not of his adorning; she hath beauty enough, she needs not borrow any, she knows that paint will consume in hell fire: The painted puppets of earthly pride that far deliciously every day, wonder at her native beauty, though maintained with pulse, and when they see her face outshine theirs, and her making conscience of what they make no scruple, they shall wonder, and say, Who is this?  
Secondly, She is unknown to the men of the world, an hidden creature, 1 joh. 3.1. The world knows us not. They are called Gods hidden ones, 83. Psal. 3. Sometimes compared to jewels, In that day when I make up my jewels, I will spare them. jewels are not seen to every one; the Spouses excellency is not known to all, The men of the world do not know them. What, are they spirits? do not they live in the lower region? How so hidden then?  
Answ. First, They do not know them Scientiâ perfectâ, with a perfect and full knowledge, they look upon a gracious man as one only of a refined nature, a pure moralist, that doth no one wrong, for they have only the carnal eye of sense, and the spirituality of a Christian is spiritually discerned: These diamonds are no better to them then pebbles; a jewel to them is but worth a barley corn.  
Secondly, They do not know them Scientiâ Scientificâ with a distinguishing knowledge; the Bristol stone is as precious to them as the Diamond, nor can they distinguish them; and indeed no one hath infallible marks of them but he that searcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins: An hypocrite may paint herself with such seeming graces, that the world may say of her, Surely this is the Lords anointed, or as in the text, who is this that cometh up? But can the Saint be hidden? It is hard (says that pious man) to hid a great fire, or to cast a covering upon sweet odours that they smell not; Christ's name by which she is called is as a sweet ointment poured out, as a mountain of spices, and he is the strong favour of heaven, and of the highest Paradise; you may cast a covering over the man, that he shall not see the Sun: But not over the body of the sun to hid daylight; To whom is she hidden therefore? and to whom not hidden? What of her is uncovered, and what is covered?  
First, She is not hidden to God; Elijah thought all the saints had beer both dead and buried, when he complained that he was left alone, but God saw seven thousand in Israel, that had not bowed their knee to Baal: Ezechiel saw no mourners but God sent him to mark out such a precious tribe from the tribes of Israel: he saw their private drops; God need not say concerning the most retired saint, Who is this that cometh up?  
Secondly, To herself she is not hidden, She hath her conscience bearing her witness, the manifestation of God's love in her own soul, the prints of his footsteps: God's Spirit bearing witness with their own Spirits; Christ is written in great letters in their hearts, she hath her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her marks to know herself by: By this we know 1 john 2.3. and by this again we know vers. 5. 3. She is unknown and hidden to the world, to the saints of the world, (her brethren know her not) and to the men of the world; to the one less, to the other more; the saints know her not infallibly. It was a true saying of him, " When any of us come in heaven, we shall see some faces there that we never thought had been there, and miss some others that we had verily thought to have found there.  
But yet many ways may the Saints discern by the fruits, betwixt light and darkness; yet not any that I know so certain to our duskish eyes, that by it I can positively and infallibly say of any, This or that is a Saint of God, though in charity I ought to judge so of many; yet Samuel may be deceived in Eliab, God's eyes see not as man sees: Therefore I have sometimes wondered with what face any man (that professeth himself a servant of jesus Christ) dare for a fee at a funeral, lift a moralist to heaven, that possibly burns in hell that hour; I should fear to speak it positively of him that (in my deceivable eyes) seems a pious Christian; They are Hidden one's: How many that shine in heaven at this day a glorious constellation that went out of the world clouded? and with what face shall a minister of jesus Christ say more of me then I dare say of myself? How comes his assurance if I want mine? I know charity in this case is pleaded; But I conceive charity is enough shown to say I hope, or we hope, if the tree may be judged by the fruits; declare the probabilities, and leave the soul to God: But I am not amongst an indocible kind of creatures, that will tell me, they are too old to be taught, and I too young to teach them. To return therefore whence I digressed, and to tell you what of the Christian cannot be hidden, and what of them is hidden.  
1. The acts of his graces cannot be hidden, A Christian must show his love to God, though God clouds himself to him; If they have any habit of love in them, it will act; For Love is strong as the grave, and jealousy burns like fire, Cant. 8.6, 7. Many waters cannot quench love; Their zeal cannot be hid, no not from the world, he cannot hear a wretch swear, see him drunk, profaning Gods sabbaths, nay, abusing his Christ's blood, but he must speak, The zeal of God's house hath eaten up the Christian, as well as his master: The hypocrite learns that politic paradox to see, and not to see, to see and wink: Eliah must be zealous for the Lord God of hosts; The hypocrite will tell you of discretion, " O that idol of discretion (said he) (and very well) that drives the power of Godliness out of the Kingdom! Discretion indeed is commendable, The prudent man ordereth his affairs with discretion, but not with discretion as now impleaded; The Magistrate must be zealous in his place; these tell him he must be moderate, Summum jus est summa injuria, he must not anger his rich neighbour, to levy the penalty for swearing or blaspheming, nor make the poor men his enemies by executing the Statutes for tippling and drunkenness, he must keep his oath with discretion and punish sin with discretion, and damn his own soul with discretion too; The ministers they must act by the hypocritical Newters lukewarm principles of discretion too, they must not reprove faction till they see how it will be favoured above; see what government will be settled and then speak against those that oppose it; See the truth of Christ rend in pieces, his precious robe of truth torn from top to bottom, his church rend limb from limb, cut in more pieces than the Levites concubine, yet must they say nothing; It were indiscretion, want of moderation, bitter Presbyterianisme, what not? to speak against these butchers; wait and see what will be done above, and so indeed it may be salvation may be brought to the church another way, but we must know then assuredly that we, and our houses, and our father's houses shall perish: The word of God was in jeremiahs' heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones, jer. 20.9. Grace commands a Christian Magistrate, and a Christian Minister sometimes beyond what the world judgeth discretion, witness that though an extraordinary case of Phineas for Zimri and Cosbi. But alas where is this zeal? we have more Discreeter (as the world calls them) then Gracious zealous preachers by one half, mere Gallioes that can see a Church rend in pieces, souls perverted, truth torn, and they care for none of these things: And we have more moderate Magistrates then Godly, more that the world calls honest than God will thank for their honesty another day. It was never before our days the Commendation of a Magistrate to be last in action, to do nothing against blasphemers, Heretics, etc. Where ●s these pretended Christians graces? O away with these Ciphers on Benches; act for God or the Devil: When God calls as in these days, Who is on my side, who? why do ye hid your heads in holes? were there a dram of grace in your hearts, it could not be but we should see a little flame.  
The acts of Christians graces cannot be hidden. No, one must say of them in that sense. Who is this?  
Secondly, Their gracious and holy life cannot be hidden, They must walk as it becomes children of the light; they cannot be saints here, and Devils there; their company be it good or bad, shall be the better for them: It was a shrewd failing of Peter, to be a jew amongst the jews▪ and a Gentile amongst the Gentiles, Paul reproved him to his face for it. Thus they are not hidden; if they be God's coin they will have his image and superscription upon them: How then are they hidden from the world, that they may say, who is this? admiring her, that her beloved so great, so glorious, should suffer her to lean on him? Many things in her are hidden, especially these five:  
First, Her b●eeding, that is hidden; Not a believer but is a King's daughter, borne of God, brother of Christ; do the scornful gallants of the world think thus, that a Pesantly Christian is better bred than they that so boast of their Genus & proavos? do they think that the King of glory is father to that leathern Christian? The Christians face indeed discovers his father, he is Christened with the name of the ●rince of peace; Gods eldest son gives them their name Christian, but this their breeding is hidden: the worlds says, Who is this? Is not this the Carpenter's Son?  
Secondly, Her Value that is hidden; Who knows the Value of a child of God? those are precious creatures that are the passive creatures of the earth; those Precisians, Puri ans, call them what you please, those that have trials here of cruel mockings, scourge, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments, that are stoned, sawn in sunder, tempted, slain with the sword, that wander about in Sheepskins and Goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, Of these the world is not worthy, Heb. 12.37.38. The world, the fine world that glifters in cloth of Gold, knows not the value of a Christians leathern doublet, Sub sordido pallio jacet pietas, the world wonders to see a poor creature a piece of momentany dust, leaning upon the Prince of Glory, confiding in Christ, living upon Christ, so welcome to his house, so precious in his eyes, so familiar with his heart, resting upon the Prince of glories bosom; they wonder what they are, what invisible beauty this Prince should set his eyes on, they see no such worth in the Christian, therefore they say, Quae e●t illa? Who is this that comes up? What hidden beauty is inner? Her Value is hidden.  
Thirdly, Her joy and peace that is hidden. The Spouse of jesus Christ is a careless creature, yet not secure, she is a calm in all tempest; let the winds blow and the waves beat this house is founded upon a rock, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; Let heaven and earth rush together yet the Christian is safe. There are in especial five stormy and tempestuous days, which trouble the worldling, and they are all sun-shiny to this Spouse, she hath joy, and peace joyful peace, and peaceful joy in all.  
The first is the day of sickness t● his body; The worldling cries out my burden is too heavy for me to bear, the Saint says, O my God I will kiss thy rod; Thy rod as well as thy s●●ffe shall comfort me; The rod of God to the Christian is made of several boughs of joy and twigs of consolation: Though he kills me (saith job yet I will trust in him; Who is this that hath such peace? saith the worldling; Her peace is hidden.  
A second tempestuous day is the day of trouble to the Spirit; let the worldling be a little troubled in spirit, his foul conscience a little shaked up, the stink chokes him: Give me an halter, saith judas: Oh what shall he do? Now he is damned, that never would believe any such matter as damnation before, he that would believe no hell till he felt it; and scarce any one wicked man but hath at some time or other, a storm in his conscience, for all the flattered peace of their soul: The merryest youth, if Democritus had the Anatomising of him, would be sound to have some melancholy in him: Esay says they are like a foaming sea continually casting forth mire and dirt; Now here hath the Christian peace, the winds and the waves obey her Master; If the winds blow, she casts but out her anchor of hope, and the ship of her soul is still; though she doth strike her sails a little, yet she is sure her cable cannot break in her saddest sorrows: she rejoiceth in the salvation of God, she finds a bottom in the deepest seas, and as confidently looks, that though sh● goes out weeping, yet carrying precious seed, she shall return rejoicing, and bring her sheaves with her; as after a storm, the weatherbeaten mariner expects a calm; the worldling wonders at her hope that makes her not ashamed, at her joy and peace, that cannot be drowned in sorrow, and says, Who is this that cometh up?  
3. A third tempestuous day, is a day o● trouble in the public State or Church; Here the worldling is distracted, and cries out, What shall we do to be saved? In this day she hath peace, she trusts in God, and her God is able to deliver her; she useth lawful means to calm these tempests, and throws her God-displeasing jonas into the sea; if all will not do, in a sweet acquiescency of spirit, she rests, saying, Deus est, It is God, let h●m do what seemeth him good: No stroke can be unlovely that comes from the hand of a father: The Saints of God see God, though he ride● upon the wings of th' wind, and makes the whirlwind his chariot, and she doth not much care whether she goes to heaven in a calm or in a storm, whether she be gently taken thither, or wrapped up in a fiery chariot, whether she goes fairly by land, or swims through a sea of blood: The world wonders at this careless, secure calm and says, Who is this?  
4. A fourth tempestuous day, is the day of death; Oh! here is the worldling troubled, now he sighs out (with the dying Emperor) Animula! quo vadis? I have drunk away my soul, sworn away mine heaven, blasphemed the God that should now save me; Now poor soul! whither goest thou? The spouse of Christ goes down to the grave as willingly as the sleepy body goes to bed; Indeed this virgin hath cause to go willingly to it, she goes but to see where her Lord lay; It was her Bridegroom's bed, She loves the winding sheet ever since it enwrapped her Saviour; The grave is a bed of roses to her, ever since, and she cries out, I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is best of all; She is of the Spirit of that dying Saint, that professed, If all the crowns and empires, riches, honours and glory of the earth were on one hand, and death on the other, he would scorn them and embrace this: The world wonders at the serene death of the Saint, that the King of terrors should be a messenger of joy, the most fearful thing of things to be feared, the most joyful thing to be emb aced: Balaam himself could ●ay, O that I might die the d●ath o● the Righteous let my latter end be like his; A as the Godly man his peace and joy is hidden, and when they see him li●ting up his undaunted ●ead in this terrible day, they say concerning him, Who is this?  
5. The last tempestuous day indeed it is the last d y, he day of judgement: this day but in a fancy the thoughts of this day, Oh how they trouble a worldling when they but think they hear the trumpet sounding Alarm to this dreadful day! Oh how ready are they to have their hearts like Nabals die within them, and become as cold as a stone! how ready be●ore their time to cry, O Rocks, Rocks, fall upon us, cover us from the face of the lamb. When they hear but those words repeated, Behold I come like a thief, that ● (says this wretch) is that jesus whose blood I have trampled upon, whose free grace I have despised; that I (says the Spouses) is the first letter of my jesus, my sweet and precious saviour; Oh how glad shall I be to see my husband with his glorious retinue come to fetch me away to his bed of glory! O come my precious jesus! my dear husband come quickly, Oh that the days of my widowhood were accomplished, Oh that I could see but my husband's face in the clouds, that I might say, Lo this is my Christ, I have waited for him, Lo this is my Christ, I have waited for him, I will rejoice and be glad in his salvation. The world wonders what manner of spirit the Christian hath that is scared with nothing, what manner of peace it is that passeth all understanding, he cries out Quae est illa? Who is this? I must confess the fountain though it be of a great depth, may not contain itself within its own banks; but if full, it must run over; The Saint must speak his joy, if his heart be full, It must breathe out its comforts, I charge you tell my beloved, O ye daughters of jerusalem, that I am sick of love; joy will speak itself, It is not, it cannot be dumb; If the Bridegroom be with the Children of the Bride-chamber, they cannot mourn.  
1. But first, The ground of their joy is not known, that is hidden, they know not whence the spring cometh that maketh the fountain of their joy so brimful as it is; they see them smile, but they know not wherefore.  
2. The measure of their joy is hidden; I may know by the brook, that there is water in the fountain, but I cannot know by the shallow brook what depth the water is that is in the fountain: they may say for this, Who is this joyful creature? What is the Basis? How great is the depth of her hidden joy? what is she? Who is this that cometh?  
4. But Fourthly, The Saint's sincerity is hidden, From the world? yea from one another infallibly: The Barbarians think Paul a murderer one day, a God another day, they know not what any day: The disciples are readier to accuse themselves then judas: An unmixed company of Saints is peculiar to the Church triumphant. I would demand of any who plead for unmixed Congregations, by what infallible mark I shall know a sincere Christian from a deceitful hypocrite; and to my thoughts, that title of Visible Saints seems to have contradictionem in terminis; for if they be saints they are not visible; at least the truth of their Saintship is not visible; And why it is necessarily required to the constitution of God's Church, that they be such as my deceivable eye judgeth Saints, which may be the eldest children of perdition and the worst of devils, is such a riddle, as I must profess I cannot open, nor can (I suppose any considerable reason be given for it.  
It was a true saying of him, To have none good, is the property of a Church malignant; to have all good, and none bad, is the property of the Church Triumphant; to have some good and some bad, is the property of the Church Militant: Only God and their own consciences know their sincerity; O Lo d remember how I have walked before thee (saith Hezekiah) God knew, and his own conscience knew: The Saint's sincerity is hidden to the world; they are ready to say, Who is this? what wine-bibber? as concerning john, What friend of Publicans and sinners? as concerning Christ. What Babbler? as concerning Paul. What Puritan? What Round-head? as now adays, Who is this?  
5. Lastly, The Saint's Glory is hidden, their future estate; and this is one reason why the world despiseth them; the world useth to make much of great men, Kings and Queens; but their greatness must be visible; the world would be kinder to them, if they knew they should be their judges, and sure enough they shall; it is written, The Saints shall judge the world, they shall have a Kingdom, when these shall go to hell; and an hidden Kingdom it is, 1 Cor. 2.9. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard▪ nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for th●m that love him. So much may serve for the Doctrinal part; now let us bring what you have heard to practise.  
1. Let this be a cautionary reproof to the men of the world: no such despised handful of dust and ashes as the little flock, the handful of Christians; the mouth of every dog is open against them: O let what thou hast heard of their glory, be a bridle in thy lips, and an hook in thy nostrils: The least and meanest of them, though c add in rags, is a better man, of better breeding, of more value than thou art, that abasest them, though in cloth of Gold and cloak of Scarlet; Saints are precious creatures. First, Consider ●he is the Spouse of the King of glory; Mighty ●esus is her husband; Art thou a gallon, t and hast thou a wife of thy bosom? tell me, what wouldst thou do to him that in thy absence should turn her out of doors▪ or kick her about the streets? Is not the Lord Christ (thinkest thou) as tender of his, as thou canst be of thy Spouse? She is the wife of an Omnipotent Christ, whose power makes him able, and whose ●ove makes him willing to avenge his Spouse: Verily he will tear thee in pe●ces, and there shall be none to deliver thee: Her husband is one that non● can stand before, when he is angry: If he be angry but a little, Blessed are all they that trust in him: O take heed if he draws his sword, woe unto thee! and he loves his spouse▪ for concerning her, he hath said, He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye. Beware, O Beware of the Apple of God's eye: I had rather lie under the feet▪ then but tread upon the toe of God's child. I might draw some arguments from Love, as this from fear considering she is so lovely, so glorious a creature. But I will use but one more, from the latter part of my doctrine.  
2. Remember she is an hidden unknown creature; we have a Proverb, De absentibus & mortuis nihil malum, speak no evil of those that are absent or dead: we may put in a third, de ignotis; Ingenuity commands us, as well not to wrong those we know not, as those that are dead, or absent: O that rhese few words might bridle the tongues of wretches, from abusing that poor little flock which God is so tender of, that his eye will not endure to see any of it wronged in the least sort, before they repent them of the wrong they offer to them, before this Spouse cries out to her husband and his wrath be kindled in his b east but a little; his wrath is far sooner kindled then quenched.  
In the second place, it may be applied by way of discovery:  
First, To discover the reason why the children of God meet with such course handling from the men of the world; they are accounted as the off securing of the world, and refuse of the Nations; It is because they are hidden ones, the world knows them not; a King may walk in a place where he is not known, and the meanest Peasant not stir●e his hat to him; an Emperor may walk in a foreign Nation, and the most sordid clown not give him the way; The Saint is here in a strange country; he is in, but not of the world: I am a sojourner and a pilgrim here (said the holy man) as all my fathers were; Their dwelling (their fixed dwelling, I mean) is not in the world, they have tents, but they will build no Tabernacles; They will scarce say It is good for us to be here; their voice is Cupio dissolvi, I desire to be dissolved, and be with Christ; Their inheritance is above the stars, their mansion house in the land of glory; if once they come in heaven, the Saints shall Court th' m, the blessed Angels shall wait upon them, the King of glory their Father shall bid them welcome, and their Bridegroom give them joy; there they are known, here they are not, The world says of them, Who are these?  
2. This may, Secondly, discover a difference betwixt the meanest Saint, and the greatest Worldling. Are they so glorious in ●ods eyes, how mean soever in the eyes of men? learn then that a leathern doublet may be more precious than a scarlet coat: These are born of God: the Devil is their father, how great soever their parentage be: You are of your father the devil, joh. 8.44. There's their Breeding in God's Heraldry. And the lus●s of their father they will do: There's their Carriage. Notwithstanding their gay clothes, they are clothed with the rags of unrighteousness, and their garments are spotted with the flesh, Their best clothes will not cover this Nakedness; The Saints are glorious, these inglorious creatures, in the sight of their God.  
3. Thirdly, Are the Saints hidden creatures? This may then inform us, that all is not Gold that glisters; the sincerity and habit of the Saints graces is hidden: every one in Israel is not of Israel: Saints are hidden creatures; hidden to others, and something modestly retired to themselves: they are such as we must say of them, Who are these? I like not those that are too much their own trumpets; when I hear one boasting of his graces, (which, by the way, is the best beauty he hath to glory in, if he might glory in any thing, when he hath nothing but what he hath received) inviting others into his chariot to see his zeal for the Lord God of Hosts (as Jehu once did Jonadab;) though I had rather call a man's title to his lands, than his title to the Kingdom of heaven in question, which is his best inheritance; yet I am ready to suspect such a creature, that there is more without then within; more in his forehead then in his heart: I am ready to fear the Cities running out of the gates; the empty vessel sounding most. It is a pretty Simile of a acquaint Divine of our own, Those Merchants and other Wholesale men in a City, whose shops are of greatest value, and have most solid Merchandise in them, set no great show out at their shop windows, perhaps they are shut up, whiles the poor Pedlar lays out every piece of Ribbon, and bit of Lace he hath: The solid and serious Saint is an hidden creature; of whom we must say, Who is this? He doth not care to set out so much at his windows as he hath in his shop; and yet not so hidden, but communicative upon occasion too.  
To demonstrate that the smell of Christ's spikenard is upon his clothing, that his garments smell of Myrrh, Aloes and Cassia; whiles the peddling hypocrite hangs out every seeming grace to the eye of the world; I am afraid at this time there is many a painted Theban Lady in the Church of God, that will not endure to wash her face: many a painted hypocrite, that dare not come at the fire. We say, Good Wine needs no Bush: The good Christian needs no Trumpet. The beauteous face looks most beautiful through a veil; and odours will smell through a covering: It is the painted lewd strumpet that walks the streets brazing every one she meets, that calls to every one to look on her beauty, and invites the wild-eyed passenger to her lodgings. The modest Gentlewoman wears a veil, and is only seen under that. It is the strumpet in Christianity that proclaims her beauty to all, and sounds a trumpet before her, and invites all to kiss her because she is Christ's Spouse. O friend take heed▪ let there be more in thy heart, and less in thy tongue; Christ's Spouse is all-glorious, but not vainglorious: Glorious, but it is within: She hath a glorious inscription, but her superscription is not in so big characters. You will say of the Saint of God whiles you have a glimpse of her beau●y through her veil, Who is this? As for the other, you shall not need ask who they are, they are the only Church of Chri●t, The godly party, THE well-affected. These say▪ Stand by yourselves; come not near to us; we will have no communion with you; for we are holier than you. The holy God make them more holy; but the Lord grant that none of these boasters be a smoke in God's nose, we find them a fire that burns all the day, Isai. 65.5.  
The next Life is of Exhortation: to teach all of us several lessons.  
1. To those that are not yet married to this King of glory: O that this day might be a day of espousals! And me thinks I have spoke enough to persuade with poor creatures, that are vile dust and ashes, to consider how glorious they are made after this wedding day. What is there  in an husband that is not to be found in this mighty Jesus? I know but four things that can make a Bridegroom ; all which are to be found to the highest in the Lord jesus Christ: 1. Breeding. 2. Beauty. 3. Riches. 4. A loving ingenuous nature. I am come this day to plead for my Master with you (friends) who are but dust and ashes: Doth any one here think that the marriage of Christ will disparage their house? and his cross dishonour their coat? Know (friend) my Master (whose love I tender thee) is the Son of the Lord of lords; the Heir of heaven and earth; One that hath always been brought up in the Court of glory: One that in the day of thine espousals to him shall put a degree of honour more upon thee, though thou were't the Empress of the world before. No honour like the honour to be called the sons and daughters of the most High. If thou hast an ambitious eye, here is an object of highest honour for thee; thou shalt be daughter to that King that can bind Kings in chains, and Nobles in links of iron; and Bride to him that hath Emperors for his meanest servants, and is Heir of eternity.  
2. Hast thou a wanton eye? will beauty move thy affection? My Master is the fairest of ten thousand, white and ruddy, Cant. 5.10. His head is of most fine gold, his locks bushy and black as a Raven, etc. See the full description of him in that Chapter. The creatures beauty is mouldering paint, but His native beauty is permanent glory.  
3. Hast thou a covetous eye? and dost thou look for a great jointure? My Master hath it for thee: He is rich in inheritance, heaven is his, and earth is his, and the sea is the work of his hands. He is rich in moveables: Every beast of the forest is his, and the cattles upon a thousand hills: The fowls of the mountain, and the wild beasts of the field. Ay, and all is thine; for he can withhold no good thing from those that live uprightly. The Father of glory gives all with his Son in marriage. He hath given us his Son; shall he not with him give us all things?  
4. Hast thou a sober ingenuous eye? that thou thinkest love is the best riches, and a certainty in that the best jointure? Know that my Master is of a loving nature too. Read this delicious Song; tell me what Gallant ever courted his Mistress (though far above himself) with such rhetorical expressions of love as this precious Jesus woes poor dust and ashes? O tell me (poor creature) how wouldst thou desire to try my Master's love towards thee? O man, did ever Bridegroom do so much for his Bride? why man? he hath come and left his palace of Glory, for thee, and lived a scornful tedious life upon the earth; he hath pleaded night and day with his angry father in heaven for thee: that thy soul might not be damned; but thou mightst be married to him; he hath made thee a path for thy prayers to his father, and thou hast not had a gracious answer to one prayer, but hath come under Christ's hand, and been sealed with my master's blood. Wilt thou try him by what he hath or will suffer for thee? Why poor creature, for thee hath he been buffeted, beaten, whipped, pricked with a crown of thorns; for thee did he suffer his precious side to be ripped with a spear; for thee did that precious bloody balsamy sweat trickle down his sacred cheeks, for thee was he nailed to cross, for thee he did suffer such torments as made his dying soul cry out, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? is this no suffering? doth not he deserve thee, that hath suffered so much for thee that art but a piece of momentary clay? The Gallant perhaps will venture his life for his Mistress, but my Master hath more than ventured his life for thee; he embraced death for thee; He knew he should die; yet to show that he valued not his heart blood for thee, he shunned not the cross: I doubt whether a gallant would fight a duel for his Love, if he were certain he should be slain in that duel: But this my Master hath done for thee. Some have a trick to try the constancy of their lovers, by making them long suitors: If they be content to woe seven years, than perhaps they will love: This is but an unmannerly trick; but yet thus hast thou tried my Lord, and Master (most unworthy creature) He hath proved himself constant in his patiented wooings and waitings upon thy scorn; this hath been his wooing place; every minister came with a love-letter from my Master to thee; He hath come himself many a time and knocked at the door of thine heart, whilst thou hast been in bed with sin; yea he hath stood and knocked while his locks have been wet with the dew of the night; O hard heart! Why dost thou tyre out my Master's patience (most worthless creature?) What, hath he not stayed for thee long enough? is not yet the constancy of his love approved to thee? What, was it for a portion he should have with thee what portion but sin? he must give his blood to cleanse thee before he can embrace thee; yet rather than lose thee he will do it: O precious melting love! here love was stronger than the grave indeed; was ever love like his? Let me be familiar with thee this day; (I would gladly make joy in heaven this day, for the marriage of some poor soul to my Master) What makes thee so coy and scornful? Art thou a creature of such deserts dost thou think? What dost thou deserve? if any thing, it is hell: yet he, even he who is in heaven itself, and glory itself, he woes thee. What will move thee? Thou art vile and filthy, polluted in thy blood, more loathsome than a toad, worse than the stinking leper that goes up and down the streets: O come, come this day and be married to the Lord Christ; Take him, and him alone, not for the heaven thou shalt have with him, but for the heaven thou shalt have in him; he shall make thee admired, thou shalt be a Queen, thou that art the child of the Devil shalt become the child of God; thou that wert so filthy shalt learn the carriage of a King's daughter; thou that wert all dirty, and besmeared with sin, shalt become all fair; Thou art all fair my spouse; Thou that hadst nothing but rags of iniquity, shalt now be clothed with the glorious robes of righteousness; Isai. 61. vers. 10. Thou shalt be clothed with the garments of salvation, and covered with the robes of righteousness: Thou shalt be decked like a Bridegroom, and as a Bride decks herself with jewels. He shall make thee so glister with graces, and shine with holiness in thy life and conversation, that the world's eye shall be dazzled upon thee, and they shall say of thee, Who is this?  
O you that are children of pleasure, Come; O make haste and be married to this glorious Bridegroom; the King of glory waits upon you to honour you this day: O come to the wedding, become his friends, and Eat of his fatness, and drink of his sweetness, and be merry and rejoice in the God of your salvation, and let us all cry out, Effice (O Christ) nos dignos ut ad Nuptias Agni aliquando introducamur, Lord make us all worthy of such a Bridegroom.  
Secondly, Are the Saints of God hidden creatures, that the world must say of them, Who are th●se? Then judge not, that ye be not judged; Say not, This man is a Saint, and the other a Reprobate, lest you condemn the generation of the just, and justify the generation of the wicked, both which things are an abomination to the Lord.  
A Third branch of this use, may reach to the children of God, those who are already married to this blessed Bridegroom, and made honourable and glorious by such a marriage; O carry yourselves as the Brides of so glorious a Bridegreome, as it becometh those that should not shame their breeding, that the world may say concerning you, Who is this? you are made glorious, you were inglorious creatures: First, Remember what you were, and carry yourselves humbly: Philip King of Macedon, would always be awaked with a momento of his mortality; and Wigiliscus would delight to hear Memento quid fueris, O remember what thou wert; Such were some of you, humbled the believing Corinthians, though now they were washed and sanctified; Quanto Nobilior es tanto te geras submissius, Humility is the greatest Ornament of Honour: Thou art admired, but it is Christ and free grace that hath set the lustre upon thee, and made thee admirable; Admire him for his goodness, and let others admire thee for thy humble carriage: The Leper was to bring two birds at his cleansing, the one was to be killed, the other let go, but first dipped in the blood of the dead bird; The Christians heavenly life must be dipped in the blood of the bird which it hath killed: Though our sins be pardoned, they may be remembered so far as to make us humble: Let the world for thy humble lowly carriage, say, Who is this?  
Secondly, Walk thankfully; Thou wert not honourably clothed, he hath given thee the Robes of righteousness; Thou wert without Ornaments, he hath given thee bracelets, and earrings; O be singing perpetual Hosannas, till thou shalt be translated, and sing perpetual Hallelujah; Be always saying Quid Retribuam, O Quid Retribuam? What shall I? what can I render unto the Lord for his mercy? O that I could praise the name of my God whose mercy endures for ever, for his mercy endureth for ever.  
Thirdly, Walk lovingly towards this Bridegroom that hath honoured thee; thou wert naked, He hath clothed thee with the garments of Righteousness and Salvation, O keep it on for his sake; Thou wert damned, remember who saved thee, for to marry thee; Thou wert rolled in thy blood; Remember who gave his blood to wash thee; Thou wert filthy, and defiled, Remember who anointed thee with oil, and made thy face to shine, Thou wert clothed with rags, O remember who pulled off his own robes to cloth thee; Thou wert poor, Remember who left heaven and glory to make thee rich; Thou wert starved, Remember who gave thee his flesh for meat, and his blood for drink; Thou didst play the Adulteress with him; O remember who notwithstanding that, received thee again into favour, and let us all say with that Holy man, Tota vita nostra conformis illi reddatur qui ex amore nostri totum se nobis conformavit, Let us in all our life conform ourselves to him, who out of a mere principle of love in all things made himself conformable unto us; Art thou made a glorious creature? Walk lovingly, that for that they may say, Who is this?  
Fourthly, Keep the garb of of a King's daughter, walk according to thy place; a King's daughter is no conpanion for every idle woman; you that are the Saints of God, keep company like yourselves: How precious is the communion of Saints? How unpleasant is the company of sinners? Dishonour not yourselves.  
Fifthly, Walk Dependently: The Spouse leans upon her Bridegroom, she draws her very breath from Christ's lungs, She breathes through Christ's lips. She is described here to come up leaning; O lean upon his arm, if you be his Bride, lean upon him for pardoning grace, upon him for strengthening grace, upon him for perfecting grace, Beg not your bread out of your husband's doors, it were a sign he kept too poor an house to maintain you.  
6. Lastly, Walk chastely, that the world may see that every thought of your heart is but as an arrow drawn from the Quiver of your souls, and shot heavenward, that your language is the dialect of Canaan, and your actions all aiming at the glory of God; that all the perishing profits, and vanishing pleasures of the world cannot flatter down your heavenly soul to an hour's lodging; But you love the Lord your Christ, with all your heart, and all your soul, and will serve him with all your mind, and all your strength: Thus walk beleevingly, above means, beyond means, with and without means; Lean when Christ may seem to draw away his shoulder; Though he kills you, yet trust in him, and make the world admire and say, Who is this?  
Walk humbly, Remember what you were, whence you are, what hath saved you, despising no Saint, humbling yourself to all, that the world may admire, and say, Who is this?  
Walk holily and righteously, defrauding none, graciously and strictly before God, close with him, lose to the world, and make the earthly world to say, Who is this?  
Walk lovingly to your husband, charitably to your brethren, judging none, condemning none, honouring all, becoming all things to all men, to gain some; courteously, ingenuously, graciously, that the world may admire, and say, Who is this?  
Walk finally as becomes the Brides of so glorious a Bridegroom, in all places, in all conditions, Remembering what you are, and whence you are, letting your graces shine out, even to your enemies, till your gracious soul●s be swallowed up in glory.  
Lastly, Let it be a word of consolation to all the Saints of God, that can say with Hezekiah, Remember Lord how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart; or with Peter, Thou knowest Lord that I love thee; against all the scoffs, slanders and malice of the world: Alas! they know thee not; not thy sincerity, nor thy joy, nor thy value▪ nor thy glory; carry thyself so gloriously before them, that they may see the virtue that is in thee, and glorify thy Father which is in heaven; then and not before, will the world have a better estimate of thee. And so I have done with the imperfection of the description, from the interrogatory Who is this? I now come to the description itself, Cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved.  
We have already taken notice of two travellers in this text: Christ is a traveller; for had he not come up with his garments died, from Bozra, we had been in the wilderness still. And his Spouse is a traveller, the text saith, she comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved.  
We have took notice of her glorious garb, and her veil: she is still upon her march, let us now take a more full survey of her, and inquire whence she comes? and who is her companion? and what her posture?  
Whence comes she? E Deserto from the Wilderness, that is Terminus a quo, the place from which she comes.  
What's her motion? Ascendit, She cometh up.  
Her posture is Leaning, Innixa,  
The person upon whom she lea●s, is Dilectum, a Beloved; and she hath a propriety in him, it is Dilectum suum her Beloved: Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?  
Doct. It is the property or the duty of the Spouse of the Lord jesus Christ, to come out of the Wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved. We must take it in pieces, and handle the parts severally: These four things lie couched in it.  
1. That the Spouse of Christ hath had, and may sometimes have her dwelling in the Wilderness. That is implied.  
2. Though she hath had, and may sometimes have her dwelling in the Wilderness, yet she rests not there, She comes up from it. Who is this that comes up?  
3. She cannot come up alone; She must come up leaning.  
4. She will lean upon her Beloved, and he will, and only can bear her.  
First, She hath had, and sometimes may have her dwelling in the wilderness: Here first I must open the term Wilderness. Secondly, I shall show you what Wilderness the Spouse hath had, or may have her dwelling in.  
I shall open the first in five or six particulars.  
1. The Wilderness is an untilled place, where wild nature is yet seen, that Art hath not yet tamed, no pruning hook hath lopped the overgrown trees, no plough broke up the soil to make it fruitful: The husbandman hath not tilled the ground there; nor can the reaper fill his hand: It is a place just in its natural state, not yet manured.  
2. The Wilderness is a losing place; no beaten road for the Traveller there to follow, no landmarks, nothing to guide him in his way, he is lost if once in it; he looks on this side, and on the other, forward, backward, every way, still he sees himself lost, knows not whither to go: He is in a Wilderness, and knows not the way out.  
3. The Wilderness is a dangerous place: A man in the Wilderness is a prey to the mouth of every Lion; the Lion is the King of those waste places; and the Bears, Wolves, Cockatrices, and Adders his lesser subjects: There dwells the young Lion, the Cockatrice, and the Adder together, each one searching for his prey: It is a dangerous place.  
4. The Wilderness is a solitary place; where he that walks, as he hath no path, so he hath no company: The paths in the Wilderness are not trodden, no beaten highways are there; no company but the Owls and the Ostriches, the beasts of the field, and creeping things of the earth: Nothing fit to be a companion for man: No, it is a Wilderness.  
5. The Wilderness is a disconsolate place: no curiosities of nature to refresh his spirits with: Terror is round about him; no pleasure to delight him.  
6. Lastly, the Wilderness is a place void of all provisions: There is neither bread for the hungry, nor water for the thirsty soul; no necessities, much less superfluities.  
The expression is very apt: Such a Wilderness, yea many a such Wilderness the Spouse of Christ hath had, and may have her dwelling in:  
1. A Wilderness of Sinne. 2. A Wilderness of Sorrow. 3. A Wilderness of Affliction. 4. A Wilderness of Temptation. 5. A Wilderness of Desertion. Nay, lastly, This whole life is but a Wilderness to her: She hath been in some of these, and may be in all of them; but out of all She cometh up leaning. Every one of these is the soul's Wilderness: and as they come up to Christ, they come up from some of them; and in their walking with the Lord Christ, they go through some of them; and some go through all of them.  
The first is Eremus peccati, The Wilderness of sin; and every soul is born in this Wilderness: Man at first created dwelled in Paradise; but alas! he threw himself out into the Wilderness, and God locked the Garden gate against him. Sinful man preferred the Wilderness before Paradise, and God allots him his dwelling there: There was man thrown, and all mankind born in it. We are all Wilderness brats by nature, Ephes. 2.3. You were children of wrath by nature, even as others. And sin may well be call d a Wilderness; it is status naturalis, our natural condition: We are in a Wilderness habit, when we are clothed with the rags of iniquity. Ay and it is a state as dangerous as the Wilderness: The Lion claims him in the Wilderness as his prey; and if he escapes his teeth, it will be hard to escape the Cockatrice, and young Lion, and Adder, the lesser fry of destroyers: If in this sinful natural condition we do escape the mouth of the roaring Lion the Devil, it is greatly to be seared that the Bear, and the Wolf, and the Cockatrice, the lesser judgements of God, will swallow us up: we are children of wrath, as well passively as actively, in a dangerous condition. Lastly, as the Wilderness is a place void of all necessary provisions for the body, so is sin a state void of all necessary provisions for the soul: We are hungry, and naked, and bloody, and filthy in our sins, it is a Wilderness dress Ezek. ●6. As for thy nativity, in the day that thou wert born, ●hy navel was not cut: neither wert thou washed in water to so ple thee, thou wert cut out in the open field. Vers. 8. Every spouse of the Lord Christ hath been in this Wilderness. Who is this that cometh up?  
The second Wilderness is Eremus c●ntritionis, The Wilderness of contrition, or sorrow for sin: Every soul is naturally in the Wilderness; but every one that is in it seethe not that it is there: Every soul is born blind, though most think they see. When God opens the soul's eyes, and shows it the hell that it treads over every hour, and makes the soul apprehensive of its danger, it conceives itself in a worse Wilderness than before; the physic works: the Patient thinks it is nearer death then before it took it. Here it cries out, Oh, I am a lost undone creature! Oh, whither should I go? on one side behold terror! on the other side despair! If it looks up to heaven, there is an angry God; if downward, there is a gaping hell: Oh, whither should it go? Now it cries out (with the jailor) O what shall I do to be saved? I am lost in my sins! I am lost in mine own righteousness! I know not what to do: If I stay in my sins I perish; if I go out of the world I perish. Here stands the soul turning itself every way, and seeing comfort no way, till the Lord Christ bows the heavens, and thrusts out his arm of salvation, his shoulder of merits, and takes the soul by the hand, saying, Come (my Beloved) I will tell thee what thou shalt do; I am the way out of this wilderness, come out leaning; lean thy arm of faith upon the shoulder of my merits; Free grace is able to bear thee: I am thy Well-beloved, and thy Well-beloved is thine. And ordinarily the soul when it comes to the Lord Christ, comes through this wilderness, this losing place of conviction and contrition, and weeps herself a path; where she would drown in the waters of Marah, if Christ did not hold her up. Indeed God could have brought the Israelites a shorter Journey, then through the wilderness to Canaan; and sometimes God miraculously draws a soul to himself, only by the cords of mercy: God is not tied always to bring a soul the same road to heaven; Elijah was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot; but the more ordinary way is by jacob's ladder. The common way to heaven is by the gates of hell; the way to life is through the chambers of death, through a wilderness: Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness?  
The third wilderness in which the Spouse of the Lord Christ may sometimes have her dwelling in, is the Wilderness of afflictions; bodily afflictions I mean. A wilderness is a place full of briars and thorns; and through such a wilderness (the holy Ghost tells us) lies the Saint's way to heaven: By much tribulation [much pricking of thorns, thorns in the flesh sometimes] must we enter into the kingdom of God. The Spouse hath a dirty way to go to marrying in; and when she is married, she hath a dirty way home too: A wilderness on either side. The Apostle speaks plain, Heb. 11.7, 38. They wandered about in Sheepskins, and Goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth; And who were these that wandered thus in the wilderness? They were such of whom the world was not worthy; the Spouses of the Lord Christ. And truly afflictions may be called a wilderness, for the disconsolacy of them too; they are times of sorrow, no delights please; the Spouse in affliction is in a wilderness.  
4. A fourth wilderness that the Spouse sometimes dwells in, is the wilderness of temptations; The Bridegroom himself was in this wilderness; He was led into the Wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil; The Spirit took him thither, Matth. 4. vers. 1. and Paul was in this wilderness, troubled on every side, this is Satan's wilderness, that he leads many a poor soul into, and it had been a sad wilderness, had not our WAY been there first: If the Devil could have lost our Saviour in it, we should never have found the way out of it: A dangerous, a disconsolate place, well termed a wilderness, as the Saint will tell you that hath been in it.  
5. A fifth Wilderness that the Spouse is sometimes in, is the Wilderness of desertion; Here's a sad wilderness, a desert indeed, Quum Deus deseruit, When God hath forsaken or withdrawn himself from the Soul; this Desert Christ himself was in, Eli, Eli, lamasabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? was the voice of the Lord jesus hollowing in the wilderness: such a wilderness was the Spouse in, when she sought him, but found him not, Cant. 3. verse 2. In this desert the soul is solitary, her God is gone, and she knows not what is become of him; the soul never calls any company her company, if her God be not there: David was in this wilderness too, he is often crying out of the wilderness he was in, when God hid his face from him: The soul that belongs to the Lord jesus goes through many a wilderness in this world, but scarce any which Christ hath not walked in before it, and hewn it a way through it; through every wilderness we may follow the Lamb in his own path.  
6. Nay lastly, The Saints whole life below, is but a wilderness: Earth is a Christians desert; while she lives here, she lives in widowhood, it is a sinful place and a dangerous place, a thorny place, and a place where she finds an abatement of the joys she shall be swallowed up in glory. Mortality is but Meshech, and her best habitations are but tents of Kedar, nothing to the temple of Glory she shall worship her God in hereafter; and the former deserts are but as several corners of this wilderness; but she cometh up out of every wilderness: That is the next branch of the Doctrine I hasten to.  
Doctr. 2. That though the Saint of God hath had, and may have her dwelling in the wilderness, she rests not there, but cometh up out of it.  
She cometh up: It seems to argue a propriety in the motion, as if she were not driven nor drawn up, and a voluntariness in the motion, as if she were not compelled nor made to come, but of herself came, and of her own strength, and yet not of her own strength neither; her own legs would not bear her, for the text tells us she comes up leaning, she had fallen had she not leaned.  
Here is the Question stated; what the soul doth towards its conversion, what power of doing any thing tending towards its conversion before it is sanctified, or after it is sanctified, whether it be merely passive, what she may do, what she cannot do, how fare she may come, where she must lean?  
Whether hath the soul any power to come up out of the wilderness of sin to the Lord Christ, to move one step heaven-ward of itself? And here I have a narrow path to tread betwixt the Pelagians and Arminians on the one side, that would make the soul have more power than it hath: and the Antinomians and Sectaries on the other side, that are so fare from holding that the soul hath no power to come to Christ, that they would make us believe she hath no power to come to Church neither.  
I shall not know how to determine this Question better than in the words of pious and learned Bishop Davenant, Determ. Q. 9 p. 46. Non potest quodvis opus ex divina promissione, ad impetrandam peccatorum remissionem, aut ad eundam possessionem regni coelorum ordinatum, The soul cannot do any thing that is ordained by God, or hath the promise of God, to obtain pardon of sins, or possession of the Kingdom of heaven; she cannot savingly believe, repent, love, etc. for these are the acts of grace, and God is the fountain and donour of all grace.  
1. But first, She may, by God's general restraining grace, without special and saving grace, abstain from gross sins; the heathens did so; the light of nature which God keeps from none, will show her that this is darkness.  
2. Secondly, She may by God's exciting grace, without any saving grace perform many previous actions that are required of men to faith and repentance; she may by virtue of God's general grace, his exciting grace, go to Church, hear the word of God, meditate of God, peccata propria considerare & sensu eorum expavescere, saith Dr. Davenant; Ay, and she may beg deliverance from that woeful condition, which she apprehends herself in; but she stirs not one of these steps after a spiritual, but after a natural manner, till the quickening grace of God come: A man may in a wilderness conceive himself lost, look about for the way out, call for help, be willing to be out, yet not be one step in the way that will lead him out; and this the soul must do so far as it can: Negamus etenim hanc gratiam regenerantem, infundi homnibus, mertibus sed animis per verbum Dei erectis, & subactis, & per praedictas actiones quodammodo dispositis, viz. We deny that regenerating grace is infused into slothful men, but into souls subdued by God's word and law, and after a manner disposed by the foregoing actions; yet we say, that even these foregoing actions have their first motions from God; and the question is whither God doth not first work a sight and sense of sin, and an humiliation for it by his exciting grace, before he comes with his regenerating, quickening and saving grace into the soul; we say he doth in his ordinary course of his dispensations. (Only I must here be safely understood that I speak according to man's apprehension; for in respect of God, nothing is first or last, he works all in an instant, all graces together in the soul; but the question lies not whether God works the habit of Repentance before the habit of Faith, or no; for without question he works together all his works; but whether God makes humiliation act before faith, which we say he doth. Esau and jacob may be in their mother's womb together, but Esau may come out and be seen in the world before jacob: yet not tying up the Almighty to this method, who can and will work any way, even which way it pleaseth him: Nor do we say that any such previous action can be performed by the Creature, ut de merito congrui teneatur Gratiam dare, That God is bound for the desert of any such previous action to give his inward and regenerating quickening grace: But yet this we say, 
Davenant, ibid.  that in the church of God, where men are daily stirred up by the word and spirit to repent and believe savingly, God will give (though not for any of these previous or dispository actions, yet) freely, regenerating grace to all such as are capable of it, unless they have resisted the Spirit of God in the preceding operations, and rejected his quickening grace; but yet we deny, that any man can perform these actions so but he will offend and resist the Spirit of God in them: Now why when as all resist, God should reject some, as they have rejected him, and leave them to the hardness of their own hearts, and work irresistibly on others who have resisted their God as much, and break open their hearts, though locked and barred against him, and fill them with quickening grace, and pull a Lot out of Sodom by force, and draw a soul out of the wilderness by head and shoulders, I say, why he should do it, when two are grinding at the same mill, take one and leave the other; when two are in the same field, why the one should be taken the other left; when two souls are equal in duties, fasting, mourning, in the way that God hath appointed, why he should balk this and take the other, when perhaps that which is taken hath been the least penitent too, I will conclude with Dr. Davenant, is Sacrum Misterium divinae voluntati reliquendum, A sacred and secret mystery to be left to the divine pleasure, and the reason lies in the agents own breast; It is because he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy, and whom he wills he hardeneth; God is his own reason, and his free grace it's own cause.  
So then we conclude, that the soul cannot move one foot to a spiritual action spiritually, not by any common grace, it must be only by Gods regenerating and saving grace. So that to answer yet more distinctly to the Question.  
In respect of Gods exciting and preventing grace, if we look so fare we cannot come, but that preventeth us: We are as clay in the hands of the Potter, we are all dead in sins.  
But when the Lord hath changed the soul, than it cometh. The first motion upon the will is from God, before there is any motion of the will unto God; but when the will is healed of God, than the soul cometh, than the soul which was merely passive before, is active, & will endeavour to do something for that God, that hath done so much for her. It follows, the drawing of God, most holy Spirit: Draw me (saith the Spouse) and I will run after thee. First, I must be drawn; but then I will run: In the same moment God makes us to will, and we will; and yet all the efficacy of the Action comes from Gods most holy Spirit.  
It is certain (saith Augustine) That we are willing when we are willing; but he makes us willing, 
certum est no velle quum volumus, sed ille facit ut velimus qui operatur in nobis velle.  that works in us to will and to perform, Phil. 2.13. And so he, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; God draws, but he draws the soul that is willing: Ay, but first, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he makes it willing. So, I have showed what propriety the soul hath in the Action, how she cometh, and how willing she is to the motion. She is drawn, but she is willing to be drawn to Jesus Christ. But first, she is made willing before she is willing, ay, and in her life, after she is come to Christ, in her walking with Christ; Non suis confidit viribus, she trusts not her own strength, she even then cometh leaning, which is the next Branch of the Doctrine I have to handle.  
Though she comes up from the wilderness, yet she comes up, not of her own strength, but leaning.  
First, Let us inquire what the expression holds out to us.  
Secondly, What is the soul's hand.  
Thirdly, Who it is she leans upon.  
Fourthly, What in him she hath to trust to, and how in every wilderness she leans, and out of every wilderness comes up leaning.  
I conceive, here are four things hinted in this expression leaning, which I may term the four fingers of the Spouses hand, which she lays upon her Saviour's shoulders.  
First, It doth argue that the soul is weary, otherwise she would not lean.  
Secondly, It is a willing posture; I am not forced to lean, I do it willingly: The soul that comes up with Christ is willing.  
Thirdly, It is a posture of love; Otherwise she would not lean.  
Fourthly, It doth argue a confidence that the soul hath in the Lord, that he is able to boar her; Otherwise she would not trust the weight of her soul upon him.  
First, It doth argue weariness; If she were not weary she would not lean. Humiliation is a preface to faith, and the way to be found is to be lost. It is not a leaning of wantonness, but a leaning of weariness: O Lord, I am sinking into Hell, let me save myself from sinking by thy shoulders; I am falling, Lord let me lean: whiles the soul hath any strength to go, it is too proud to be beholden to lean; Come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will ease you, Mat. 11.29. First, weary; then come: First, heavy laden; then I will ease you: What shall I do to be saved (saith the Gaoler?) O I am lost! undone! I am at a Nonplus! O what shall I do? I am weary! for I am fare readier to believe, That that Voice, What shall I do? is rather the Voice of the soul (at its nil●●●tra) Sadly sensible of its lost and miserable condition, sufficiently humbled in the sense of it, than the voice of a soul, thinking it might do any thing that might be but in the least contributory to the desert of salvation. I cannot be persuaded, to think, that when the Gaoler spoke those words, prostrated by humiliation at the Apostles feet, that he had the least thought that he could throw in so much as two mites into the Treasury of free grace. But as it is the ordinary speech of one drowned in the depth of sorrow, amazing sorrow; O what shall I do? What shall I do? though at that instant they know they can do nothing to help themselves. So the Gaoler, in a true sense of his own lost condition, cries out, O what shall I do? he was weary, it was time for the Apostle to bid him lean, then believe (saith the Apostle) and thou shalt be saved. It is but a wresting of the place, or mocking it rather, to bring it to persuade that duties preparatory were here excluded. Surely, had not the Apostles seen him humbled in some degrees, they would as well have prefixed Repent here, as Peter did to them, Act. 2. Repent, and be baptised. The Figleaf is too thin to cover these Opinionists nakedness; Christ came not to call the Righteous, but sinners to repentance. He is a Saviour, but it is for them that are lost in their own feeling too. And the truth of it is, the soul scorns to lean upon Christ so long as it is able to go alone, when it hath never a crutch of merits or duties to rest upon, than it looks out for some rest for its foot, for some shoulder to bear up, for some staff to stay itself upon: Leaning doth argue weariness, that's the first.  
Secondly, It doth argue a willingness in the soul to come to Jesus Christ: Leaning is not a forced action. Indeed (as I said before) Christ first works this willingness; he it is that gives us power to will, and it is by his power that we are willing as it is written; They shall be willing in the day of my power. But he doth not let us lean before we are willing; 
Psal. 110.3.  leaning is an action proceeds from the will, Who is this cometh up leaning?  
Thirdly, Leaning doth argue love, who leans upon his enemies, I will not lean upon one whom I cannot trust, I must have some good thoughts of his love. The soul that leans upon the Lord Jesus Christ loves Christ; that Faith, that pretended dependency of any upon Christ, that proceedeth not out of a principle of love, groweth out of a false root; the loving soul is only the truly believing soul, Leaning is a loving posture: That's the third.  
Fourthly, It doth argue fiduciam, a resting, a trusting the soul upon Christ; he that leans upon another reposeth his whole weight, trusteth his whole strength upon him: He doth as much as say, well; I know I cannot go alone, I cannot stand; but I will trust myself, upon thy strength will I lean, if I fall, I fall: So the soul that comes up out of the wilderness of sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, doth repose its whole weight upon the Lord Christ, it says, O Lord, I am a great and grievous sinner, I am not able to stand upon mine own legs, but I trust my soul upon thy arms; thou hast mercies, and great mercies, and free mercies, if I fall, I fall, if I be damned, I am damned; here I will lean. And here you have the second thing plain, viz,  
Secondly, The soul's hand with which she leans upon Jesus Christ for salvation & these 4. things which I have hinted from this expression, leaning, are as the four fingers of the hand of Faith. And we may thus give a description of it.  
Faith is the hand of a soul which God hath humbled, whereby the soul, being not able to stand alone, nor daring to trust to any thing else, and being made willing by God, out of a principle of love, lays hold upon Jesus Christ, and trusts and rests itself upon him for her salvation. And that leads me to the third thing I propounded, the Person upon whom she leans, the Text renders it, Her beloved; or as I conceive, the old Translation better, Her well-beloved: The Latin dilectum suum, him that is her, conjugally beloved.  
This is the last Branch of the Doctrine, That though the believing soul comes up from the wilderness leaning, yet she will only lean upon her beloved, and he only can and will bear her.  
We know, that whosoever leans, must have a Person to lean upon. Secondly, There must be a capacity in this arm to bear her, some strength, yea, there had need be a great deal to hold up the weight of a soul: First, let us inquire who the Person is, rendered in the Text dilectum, Her well-beloved; in plain terms, her Husband, one that hath more than an ordinary portion of her love.  
Here are five things hinted in this Expression.  
It is one whom she loves: The word signifies a special sort of love; and every greater includes a less.  
One that she is married to, he is well-beloved, her dearest love; not charum, but dilectum; one that hath a title to her.  
Her Beloved, not another's Beloved.  
Her Beloved: He that is her Beloved, not who was her Beloved.  
Her Beloved, not her Beloved's.  
First, It is one whom she loves. This I hinted at before; it is a principle of love, that draws the Soul to lean upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The hatred of herself, hath bred the love of her Saviour in it. And no Soul loves Christ more than that which loathes itself most: When the Soul shall consider what a Brand for Hell it was in its original, how worthless a worm it is, how basely it hath dealt by God, trampling upon his rich offers of Grace, scorning his Invitations. And again, consider that God hath no need at all of it: But if it were burning in hell, could be as glorious as in its Salvation, and yet would be pleased to pour out his precious blood for it, yet so unworthy: To woe the Soul that hath need of him, and yet never prays to him nor ever was a suitor for mercy. This breeds love in the Soul: And the more the Soul fathoms her own misery, the more yet she loves and admires the Lord's mercy, and loving thus, she leans upon him.  
Secondly, It is one that she pleads some title to, and interest in, she calls him hers. Christ is the Bridegroom of the Soul, and the Soul is Christ's Bride: Beloved, in all this Song is taken for the highest degree of love, and nearest relation, conjugal love, therefore Christ elsewhere calls her his Sister, his Spouse; she hath a title to, and interest in him, possession of him; and in another place, I am my welbeloveds, and my well-beloved is mine. She is his, and he is hers: they have a propriety each in other. But suppose we should put the Spouse to prove her title to him, What is thy Beloved more than another's Beloved? Or, why is he thy Beloved (O believing soul) more than the Beloved of another? show thy title to him: And again, why is she Christ's more than another? Why should the Believer monopolise Christ? and how came Christ to be hers? she is his, and he is hers by right of gift, her heavenly Father hath given her unto him; hence is that Phrase of her Saviour's Prayer, John 17.9. All that the Father hath given me, and I pray for all them that thou hast given me. She hath given herself to him. Cant. 1.2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine. She hath said, Draw me, and I will run after thee; ay and he hath given himself to her; he hath given his grace unto her, Gal. 1.6. And his glory unto her. The glory which thou hast given me I have given them. Her Beloved by right of gift.  
She is his, and he is hers, by right of bargain and sale. The Ancients had three ways to get themselves wives; by gift, purchase, or desert. The Fathers sold their Daughters, and the Bridegroom bought his Bride, he gave a Dowry for her. Hence when Sechem had a mind to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, he says, Ask me what Dowry thou wilt, and I will give it thee. Christ hath bought his Beloved; hence (saith the Apostle) He hath paid a price for us. A bloody price: more than all the world was worth. But he would have her because he delighted in her, and so she is his, and he is hers by right of purchase.  
She is his Beloved, and he is hers (by correlation) By right of desert, she deserved not him, but he deserved her. This was a third way by which the Ancients got them wives, by some gallant exploit, or great service. Their wives were sometimes given them for wages; Jacob served fourteen years for Rachel, Gen. 29.17. David for his Sovereign's daughter, encountered great Goliath; and afterwards rob the Philistines of their foreskins: he paid more for her, than she proved to be worth: By this right, the believing soul is the beloved of Christ, he hath served a long service for her; not fourteen, but above thirty years, he hath vanquished the Goliahs of our souls, and hath conquered our Spiritual Enemies.  
He is hers, and she is his, by right of possession, he dwells in her, and she dwells in him. The second person in the Trinity, is an inmate with the believing soul: He dwells under the roof of her heart: He hath a chamber in the soul, and hath pitched his tent within her, and she is in him too; united each unto other, this is very plainly expressed, Ga. 2.20. I live, but yet not I, but Christ lives in me. I am the Carcase, Christ the Soul; the Soul moveth the body, so Christ moves my soul: I move not from any principle in myself, but from a principle of Grace. The life I live in the flesh, I live by the life of the Son of God who dwelleth in me, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Thus you see she may well call Christ her Beloved, and Christ may well call her his Beloved, He hath a propriety in her, and she hath a propriety in him also; he hath married her, and dwells with her, yea, and in her, dilectum suum her well-beloved indeed.  
Thirdly, It is her beloved, not another's beloved. Every soul hath a Beloved; the Drunkard hath his beloved cups; the wanton hath his beloved Queans; the Covetous person his beloved Gold; The soul that leans upon Christ, goes not a whoring after other Gods. The Spouse of Christ, leans not upon the Papists beloved merits, nor upon the Turks beloved Mahomet, nor upon the Pharisees beloved duties, nor upon the Idolaters beloved Saints; she says, Abrah●m knows her not, 
Isa. 63.16.  and Israel is ignorant of her, but the Lord is her father, Christ is her Redeemer, and her maker, her Redeemer is her husband, Creator tuus est sponsus tuus. Her Beloved, not another's Beloved.  
4. He that is her Beloved, not that which was her Beloved. She once loved her sins, and her lust were the beloved's of her soul. The name of Baali was in her mouth; her lusts were her Lords, and they ruled over her. But now the name of Baalim is taken out of her mouth: she calls the Lord Ishi, God alone is her beloved, sin was the dearly beloved of her soul, but now she calls sin no more Naomi, she calls it Marah; that which was once the sweetness, is now the bitterness of her soul, she takes no pleasure in it; no, nor doth she account her duties her beloved; she useth them, but she dares not trust her soul upon them; she dares not plead any desert in them, though once perhaps she had a Pharisaical conceit, that her duties would be her healing, yet when she comes to the Lord Christ to lean upon his Arm, though she useth duties, and is as full of full of Prayer and humiliation as ever: she knocks her hand upon her breast, and cries she is a sinner, Oh! but what remedy? the knocking her hand upon her breast she knows cannot save her; no, for that, God be merciful to her, she leans upon Christ, that is her now Beloved, not upon any duties, or any other merits that was before her Beloved.  
Fifthly, Her beloved, not her beloved's. The soul that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ loves him intensely, and as she loves him best, so she loves him only. As nothing shall have her whole heart, so neither will she divide her heart betwixt him and another: he shall have her heart, and he only shall have her heart, and he shall have her whole heart too; she dare trust her strength upon Christ, and upon him alone: she desireth only to be found in the Lord Jesus, who is her Bridegroom; she is a Virgin, not a Whore; she leans not upon Christ with one hand, and her own merits with another: no, nor dares she lean upon the merits of another; she durst not trust the weight of her soul upon the wings of an Angel, nor to the Prayers of a Saint; she relies upon God, and upon God only. The Papists lean upon Christ, but not upon him alone: she knows it will be a dishonour both to her and her husband, to take any thing in partem amoris, to share with her husband in his love; she will keep her honour in being the wife of one husband.  
And so I have showed you how she leans, what is her hand, who it is she leans upon, what title she hath to him, what rules she observeth in her leaning. I have but one thing more, and that is, to show you what strength there is in the Lord Christ's shoulders to bear her; how she leans even in every wilderness, and what fullness of strength there is in her husband's arm to keep her up from falling.  
The first wilderness you may remember, was the wilderness of sin: Here the Spouse cannot be said properly to lean upon her beloved, for she wants the hand of faith to lay hold upon Christ, and indeed she is not weary: yet I do not know why in some sense, even in this estate, the elect soul is not beholding to free grace; he is her Christ here, though he hath not yet manifested himself to be her jesus, her saviour. The elect soul in sin is elect, & decreed to be saved, though she be not declared to be elect; she is beloved in decree, though God hath not actullay manifested his love unto her: he is not her beloved, but the soul is his beloved, not actually but decretally, he hath thoughts of good to her, but his thoughts are kept within himself, till he is pleased to reveal them to her at his best time: she is his Beloved though there be no correlation, she is in his thoughts, his Spouse, aye, and positively, not conditionally. The Arminians falsely dream of God's conditional decrees, because they comprehend not the ways of God: Believing is necessarily required, yet it was not a condition in God's decree: The soul is his beloved, though yet there be no correlation, though she be not his wife yet, yet she is intended for his wife. To speak according to the ways of men, I may intent to make a woman my wife, before I actually declare my intentions to her; she is my wife in my determinations and thoughts before I woo her, though not actually my wife before I have wooed her, and she hath yielded too, there lies only this difference, my determination must be but conditionally, if she will accept of my proffered love: There lies a power in her to refuse. We may therefore make the simile a little higher; A great Emperor buyeth a woman that is a slave, which he intends to marry, and will, whither she will or no; yet he will woo her, and if it be possible marry her will, as well as her person; yet whither she will or no, he will and may marry her, for she is his purchase, she is his wife in his determination before he hath married her. But yet even this simile is lame. (Every simile, comparing the ways of God, with the ways of man, must at least halt of one foot) for though this Emperor hath power to force the woman's body to the action, yet he hath no power to force her will, to be willing to the action: The will is always independent. sui juris; but God hath power, not only to marry the soul, which he hath bought from being a slave to the Devil, but to make her willing to marry him; yet she is in Christ's decree his Spouse, before he hath actually revealed his decree unto her: So though strictly and properly the soul cannot be said to lean upon Christ in the wilderness of sin, yet she may be said to be beholden unto the Lord Christ, and that thus.  
Every soul hath the like principles of corruption, and would act to the full of its depraved operations, were it not for Gods preventing and restraining grace, She is beholding unto God for his preventing and restraining grace, though here she is merely passive.  
Secondly, She is beholden unto God for his exciting grace: The foul hairs, and fasts and prays, meditates of her own sad condition, though for the substance of the action it is her own, yet it is Gods exciting grace makes her willing to hear, fast, pray, though not his special saving-grace, yet his common grace: But this is not a leaning meant in the Text, she leans here upon Christ, but not upon Jesus [a Saviour] upon God, but not as her Beloved. And here the soul is brought into a second wilderness.  
The wilderness of Sorrow, Contrition, Repentance, call it what you please; though I know the latter term Repentance, be controverted by some new Opinionists.  
Yet I know not why we may not say, That a man may repent without saving-grace. And for that Repentance which they say must be the effect of faith; if I were a Schoolman, I should rather call it Godly Sorrow, but I desire not to play upon terms: And for their defining Repentance, To be a sorrow for sin out of the sense of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, it is a definition they have devised for their own purpose; And give them their premises according as they please, they would be poor Logicians if they made the conclusion to displease them: For from hence they argue, If the love of God be the ground and cause of Repentance [viz. the love of God manifested and sensible to us, we having apprehended it by faith] the special love of God than faith must go before repentance, viz. an apprehension of Gods saving love, and reliance upon it. But I answer, the definition which they give us of Repentance is deceitful; it is a definition of a Species in steed of a Genus (as we say in Logic) As some unwary Divines define Faith, to be an assurane of God's love in jesus Christ: This is true, but this is a faith of the highest stamp, and many a precious soul is without this faith to his dying day.  
Faith of adherence is another thing; as if I should go to define a man to be a reasonable creature, skilled in all sorts of Learning. Any man would understand me, that I did not go about to describe a man in general, but this or that particular man. And I say once again, If I were a Schoolman, I should rather call this A godly sorrow, and define Repentance in general to be A sorrow for sin, there is the genus and differentia: Or if there be required a fuller definition with the ground, though I conceive such a definition would be more proper to give of Repentance in its several kinds, then of Repentance in general; yet we may give it thus, It is a sorrow for sin, arising out of the fear of God's wrath, or apprehensions of God's love. And I know not, why we may not say, That a man may repent without saving grace. Bishop Davenant says, A man by exciting the grace of God, may Peccata propria considerare, ad sensum corundem expavescere & liberationem ab hoc metu exoptare, tremble for his sins, 
Mark. 1.15. Luk. 17.3, 4. Ezek 14 6.  and mourn for them, and desire deliverance out of them, and if this be not Repentance, I know not what is, (not taking Repentance for the whole work of conversion, as sometimes it is taken in Scripture) but taking Repentance for a weariness of sin and sorrow for it.  
But those of our Brethren here (that are so afraid of Babylon, that they will run quite beyond jerusalem, so afraid of being Arminians, or Papists, to ascribe any desert to duties, or tie that God hath to concur with our duties, that they are resolved they will not be sober Protestants: So afraid of being Heterodox, that to avoid it, they will not be Orthodox. Tell us, that this is a legal, not a saving Repentance, it soundsill to distinguish between a legal and saving Repentance. I will digress a little to rend this Figleaf, being all they have to cover the nakedness of their Opinion: I would feign understand that term saving Repentance, in what sense they take it; the Scripture warrants no such distinction.  
If they mean by saving Repentance, such a repentance as merits Salvation; or such a Repentance as God is tied necessarily to concur with, with his saving grace I say, no Repentance can be saving Repentance. No Repentance (saith Learned Davenant) can so dispose the heart; Ut ex merito congrui teneatur Deus gratiam cuiquam infundere.  
If they mean by saving Repentance, such a repentance, as of itself without any more ado, shall be sufficient to Salvation: I say again, no Repentance can be called a saving Repentance. For, Without Faith, it is impossible to please God.  
If they mean by saving Repentance, a repentance that conduceth to Salvation; I say, this kind of Repentance (let them call it legal or what they please) is a saving Repentance.  
If they mean by saving Repentance, such a repentance as is wrought ordinarily in such as shall be saved; I say, in that sense this Repentance is a saving Repentance.  
Now, Whether it ought not to be preached, as well from law as Gospel-motives, is a question lies not in my way to determine; only I hear my Saviour (though he were Gospel it sell, preaching it from a Law-motive, Luk. 13.2. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Let the unprejudiced Reader judge, if damnation be not there preached as a terrible motive to Repentance: Surely I then may learn to preach from the Best of Preachers, and preach, Repent, or you will go to Hell; Repent, or you will be damned, as well as Repent, because God hath loved you: Yea, and John too preached Repentance as well, because The axe was laid to the root of the tree, and whatsoever tree brought not forth good fruit, should be hewn down and cast into the fire, as because The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. I dare not learn contrary to Christ, and Baptists Copy; I will preach Mercy and Judgement: The Law and the Gospel go well together, I will not be accursed for separating what God hath joined. But  
Lastly, I conceive, We cannot call any Repentance saving Repentance, till the work of conversion be fully wrought in our souls. Nay, I make a question, whither any man (without the grace of Assurance) can properly call his Repentance saving Repentance, till he comes in Heaven. And for my own part, I am full in the Negative. But I have digressed too fare, to convince some (who I fear are not so willing to suffer the word of conviction, as I to speak it.)  
We left the Spouse in the second wilderness, The wilderness of sorrow; 'tis time we now return to her, and comfort her, and show you how she comes out of that, leaning upon her Beloved.  
Here now the beloved Soul is mourning like a Turtle, and crying, O what shall I do to be saved? I am lost! oh, how shall I find the way out of this wilderness? O my sins pull me back! I cannot set a step forward! Sin trips up my heels. The Devil tells me I am his; and my sins bear witness to his words? Now she that is not the Spouse of Christ, sinks in these mighty waters, she sinks to hell in despair, is quite lost, if once she comes into them: But he that said not one of those whom his father had given him should perish, seeing the poor soul like Peter, (Math. 14.30.) that thought to have trodden upon those waters, sinking in them, and crying, Lord save me or else I perish! when he sees such a poor soul's ship in which he is, though he seems to sleep, tossed in these bitter waves, when the tempest ariseth, and hearing the soul in this Agony, crying out, Master save me or else I perish, now he gins to arise, and stretch out his shoulder for the soul to lean upon, speaks, and rebukes the winds, and calms the busy tempests; when the Whale of sorrow hath swallowed up these Jonahs', and they are in the bottom of the Sea in the Whale's belly, they cry, their God hears: and causeth the Whale to vomit them out on the dry land. Me thinks that voice of jonah, is the voice of every penitent soul, jonah 2. The soul cries by reason of her affliction unto the Lord, and the Lord hears her; out of the belly of hell she cries, and he hears her voice for he hath cast her into this deep, into the midst of the Seas, and the floods compass her about, and all the billows, and the waves passed over her. Then the soul saith, I am cast out of the Lords sight! yet I will look again towards his holy Temple: The waters compass her about, even to the soul, the depths closed round about her, the weeds were wrapped about her head; she went down to the bottom of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about her, yet her Lord, her God brings up her life from corruption: when her soul faints within her, she remembers the Lord, and her prayers come unto him, even into his holy place. And when the soul is in this wilderness, in the deeps of sorrow, than her Beloved doth throw her his shoulder of supporting grace to lean upon: that she saith as David, Psal. 94.17, 18. Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelled in silence, when I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy O Lord held me up. When the soul cries, O I am drowned! Then the Lords mercy holds her up: No (saith God) thou art not drowned, here is a cord of mercy for thee to lay hold upon, and I will draw thee out by it. Here is my hand, be still O ye waves, this soul is mine. When the soul is burdened with sins, laden with the sense of them; and in the sad apprehension of them, cries out, my burden is too great for me to bear: O I sink! I sink under it! then Christ looks out of the heavens, and says, Cast thy burden upon the Lord (man) and he shall sustain thee: 
Psal. 55.22.  or Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will ease you: Mat. 11.29. The supporting grace of God, is the Anchor of the soul, which stays the Ship of the soul when a tempest of sorrow arises, and the waves beat upon it.  
Now this Anchor hath two flukes.  
The first, is her Beloved's mercy's and merits.  
The second, is her Beloved's promises, when she is in this sad wilderness of sorrow, her Beloved gives her a staff of merits, and mercy, and free grace to lean upon, and a clue of promises to lead her out of this Labyrinth: and the mercies and merits of her Beloved, have two hooks, both which take fast hold to stay her soul.  

1. The fullness of them.  
2. The freeness of them.   
The fullness of them: The soul cries out, O I am damned! Christ suggests to her: But didst thou never hear of one that came to save those which were in their own apprehension damned? I deserve to die everlastingly, saith the soul, oh! but did not he die for thee, that deserved to live everlastingly. (saith Christ?) I deserve infinite torments, (saith the soul) Oh! but are not thy Christ's mercies infinite mercies, (saith God) Thy mercy held me up. My sins have cried up to heaven, (saith the soul) O but my mercies are above the heavens, (saith Christ) Psal. 108.5. My sins are more in number then the hairs of my head, (saith the soul) O, but my mercies) saith Christ) are more in number then the sand which lies on the Sea shore. Psal. 139.17, 18. My sins have abounded, (saith the soul) O, but my grace hath much more abounded, (saith Christ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5.20. O, but my heart is as hard as Iron, and the face of my sins like Brasle, (saith the soul) O, but that God that made the Leviathan, is as strong as the Leviathan. He esteems Iron as straw, and Brass as rotten wood. My sins are many, (saith the soul) But were their name Legion, (saith Christ) I could cast them out. O, but I am an old sinner, I have a mountain of sins. But my mercies are from everlasting, (saith Christ) so are not thy sins, and I came to level Mountains, Luke 3.4. The more old thou art, the more glory shall my free grace have, all the world shall see, I do not pardon thee for any service thou canst, or wilt do me, thou must ere long lie down in the grave. Thus the soul in this wilderness of sorrow, leans upon the fullness of God's mercies.  
But secondly, there must be freeness, as well as fullness, or else what hath the soul to do with Christ? O, (saith the soul) I know that the least drop of Christ blood is fully able to wash away all my guilt: But oh! what have I to do with Christ? I am a poor creature ● the fit object for divine charity: what dowry have I for Christ to marry me? Because thou hast nothing, therefore I will do it, (saith Christ) If thou hadst any thing that thou thoughtest riches, I would not have married thee (saith Christ) Thou art mistaken in my thoughts, I do not marry thee because thou art rich, but because I have a delight in thee, and have an intention to make thee rich: Hosea. 14.4. I will heal their back-slidings, I will love them freely, Ezek. 16.7, 8, 9 Now the soul being fully persuaded of this, that Christ is full of mercy, and able to pardon her, and free in his mercy, therefore willing to forgive her, and desiring nothing for her pardon, but to live like a Spouse in his sight, gins to lean, believing he will pardon her: But yet saith the soul, I could desire to see it under Christ's hand; I think I could take his word now.  
So she leans upon Christ's promises, which are as the other Fluke of this Anchor: Now says the soul, Oh, that I had it but under Christ's hand, that my sins (which I am scarce able to think can be pardoned) may be pardoned, though I stayed my Jesus his leisure for the sealing of it. Here she inquires for first, Promises: and secondly, Precedents: Did ever Christ promise (saith the Soul) to pardon such a scarlet, crimson sinner as I am? Yes, I have (saith Christ) look Isai. 1.18. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as snow, though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool: and so Isai. 55.6, 7. I will have mercy upon you, I will abundantly pardon you. Matth. 11.29. O, but where hath Christ promised freely to dispense these mercies (saith the soul?) Christ turns her again to Isai. 55.1, 2, 3. He every one that thirsteth, come buy of me without money, or money worth: O, but secondly, where did he ever pardon such a sinner as I am (saith the soul?) Christ puts her in mind of Mary Magdalen, Manasses. O, but where one that was so near hell as I am (saith the Soul) an old sinner? the thief upon the Cross (saith Christ.)  
Now it must not be understood, that Christ Jesus should reveal these Promises Audibly to the Soul, but  
1. Either sets his Ministers a work to declare his Charters of Grace, and read the Souls pardon.  
2. Or else he suggests into the soul such promises in such a seasonable time, which must be taken as the voice of God to that soul. Thus the soul furnished with precedents, trusting upon promises, wipes her eyes, comes out of the wilderness leaning upon her blessed Saviour, and saying, O my sweet Saviour! thou that hast drawn me from the pit of hell, and hast reached out thy arm for a worthless lost worm, to lean upon thee. I dare believe thee. I now roll my soul upon thee, I am shipwreck, but thou are my harbour; and now, o what shall I do for thee? O my God I am sick of love! Thou hast ravished my heart! I am thine, I am thine. Thus have I shown how the Soul comes out of the wilderness of sin, and sorrow, leaning upon her Beloved. And here the ship is in harbour, but yet ever and anon she is tossed still, persecuted, though not forsaken: This is the most dangerous wilderness; afterwards she is often in the Corner of a Desert. I must show you how even then she leans, and how out of them she comes leaning upon her Beloved. She is always a dependent creature; she leans when ever she is wearied.  
The third Wilderness therefore is the wilderness of afflictictions; in this she leans; out of this she comes leaning upon her Well-beloved, id est, In afflictions she leans. Christ is her Comfort in her saddest troubles. She leans upon him, viz. Upon his supporting grace: Thy rod and thy staff comforted me, Psal. 23. The staff held him up, while the rod was upon his back. The rod was a comfort because of the staff; the more he had of the rod, the more he had of the staff also. In afflictions, the believing soul leans upon ●od, and says, 2 Lam. 20. Behold O Lord, for I am in distress: Out of the belly of Hell she cries, as Ionas, chap. 2.  
First, She believes, that she shall suffer no more than she is able to bear, 2 Cor. 12.9. My grace shall be sufficient for thee For God's strength is made perfect in the Christians weaknesse.  
Secondly, She believes, that she shall bear no more than shall be for her good, Rom. 8.28. All things shall work together for the good of those that love God. She hath a Promise or two here to lean upon also, Job 5. v. 19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee: And Isa. 43.2. When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. She comes out also leaning, trusting upon God as before, that he would help her out, if he saw best, or support her in: So when she is come out, she believes that God loves her never the worse; neither doth she love him any whit the worse, she cries, It is good for me that I was afflicted. When she is in, she believes she shall come out; and she cometh out with as much love to her God, and confidence in him as ever she had before, not being weary of God's service, because he hath smitten her: She sees a smile in a smiting, favour in a frown, love in a lower, and she is resolved, though he kills her, yet to trust in him: she comes out of this Wilderness leaning.  
A fourth wilderness that the Spouse is in sometimes, is the Wilderness of Temptations. Even in this she leans upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not the Spouses of Christ, The good ground, Luke 8.13. Which when they heard, received the Word with joy, but having no root, for a time believed, and in time of temptation tell away. The true Disciples are those that continue with Christ in tentations, Luke 22.18. First, they believe, that God who is faithful, will not suffer them to be tempted above that which they are able: But will with the temptation also make way to escape, that they may be able to bear it, 1 Cor. 10.13. They believe, in that himself suffered, being tempted, he is able to secure those that are tempted, 2 Heb. 18. The Saints that suffered many things were in many wildernesses, Heb. 11.37. Amongst the rest were in this also; and they all leaned, v. 39 They received a good report through faith. Yea, temptation is so fare from making a child of God let go his hold, that it makes him lay the faster hold, 1 Pet. 1.6. Though now for a season you are in heaviness, through manifold temptations; yet it is that the trial of your faith (being much more precious then of gold which perishes) though it be tried with the fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory In temptations they lean upon God; and they come out of these temptations leaning, believing upon God too, having found, that he is able, and knoweth how to deliver the godly out of all temptations, 2 Pet. 2.9.  
A fifth wilderness, in which the Spouse of Christ leaneth upon her beloved, and out of which she cometh leaning, is the wilderness of desertion. And this is one of the saddest Wildernesses that the Spouse of Christ comes in, and she hath an hard work to lean here, when Christ seemeth to pull away his shoulder: yet even here she leans: Christ himself did so: My God my God why hast thou forsaken me? Mark the phrase, Forsaken, yet not forsaken: the Bridegroom cries out he was forsaken, yet my God Gods forsaking us is no ground for us to forsake him: If he seems not to own us, it is no warrant, nor policy in us not to own him: It is the duty of a pious soul, when God clouds himself, yet to cry, My God. The Bowels of the father must yearn upon the child again, if the child cries, and will not shake him off, It is a remarkable expression of Job, chap. 13. v. 15. Though he kills me, yet will I trust in him. How now? if thou be'st killed (blest Job) how canst thou trust? O immortal faith I that puttest Spirits of confidence in the dust and ashes of Job. Let God hid himself from the soul, and so kill it. (For God's separration of himself from the Christians soul, is a worse death than the separation of his soul from his body.) Yet the soul must trust in him, it must, it will lean upon him. The Spouse looseth not, but quickens her faith in a fit of desertion. That place of the Prophet is remarkable, Isa. 50. v. 10. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord? that obeyeth the voice of his servant? that walketh in darkness and hath no light; let him trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. They that fear the Lord, though they may walk in a dark Wilderness, and see no such light as they were wont to see, have no such comfortable enjoyments of their God as they were wont to have, yet they will trust and rest themselves upon the Lord, and come out of this wilderness leaning.  
In all the wildernesses of this life, the Spouse will lean upon her Beloved, yea, and upon him alone, in all states, in all conditions, upon him for directing grace, upon him for quickening grace, upon him for whatsoever she hath need of, either pardon, or guidance, or direction, or assistance, or comfort or heaven; at all times she must trust in the Covert of his wings, 
Psal. 62.8.  for all blessings: The Spouse of Christ is a most dependent creature. The Babe of grace is never old enough to go alone, it hangs like a child upon the mother's hands, and leans like a Bride upon the Bridegrooms bosom.  
Thus have I done with the Doctrinal part, having showed you, how she hath had, and sometimes hath her dwelling in the wilderness; and how out of every wilderness she cometh up but leaning, and what strength there is in her Saviour to bear her up leaning upon him; even in every wilderness. Who is this cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved? Now let us see what use we may make of it.  
And first here may a word of reproof, and a brand of folly be fastened upon divers erroneous opinions and practices.  
First is it so that the Spouse of the Lord Christ, that comes, and is married to the Lord Christ, comes out of the wilderness of sin? Then this may reprove the error and folly of those that dream of heaven, and flatter themselves with the hopes of glory: but yet never regard coming out of this Wilderness. Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinner to repentance. These men dream of heaven, and yet never think of Repentance. Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost (friend) how lost? what, insensibly lost, as all of us were by Nature? This is an idle construction that giddy headed Sectaries have of late devised to help themselves to heaven with. The Devils are so lost: yet Christ never came to save them: No no friend! it is those that are lost in their own apprehensions, those that know not what to do to be saved, those that feel themselves even in the jaws of hell: he makes apprehensions of his wrath precede the apprehensions of his love: But woe, and alas! how many think they have a part in Christ, That the Devil hath as great a part in Christ actually as they have? heaven is grown the common journeys end, and let men ride which way they list. Not the most debauched wretch in a Congregation, but ask him what he thinks shall become of him, if he dies in that condition: why he hopes he shall go to heaven; nay I wish he doth not say, he is sure of it too. All men are sinners: He is lost, but Christ came to seek and save that which was lost. Tell him of mourning for his sins, if he means to be comforted, of humbling himself, if he means to be exalted, of feeling hell, if ever he means to feel heaven: O then, you are a legal Preacher. Hear what the other side saith, what those you call● Antinomian Preachers; O these are the only Gospel-preachers to them. This makes them pass for such honest men: O they show a fine Cushion-way to Heaven! that you shall not need wet a a foot or eye in: But let them preach what they will (friend) believe him, who (although he knows but little) yet knows you must go out of the wilderness if ever you come there. The way is, neither the Drunkard's Aleway, nor the Adulterers unclean way, nor the Covetous man his dirty way, nor the Ambitious man's highway, nor the Hypocrites hidden way, nor the Carnall-Gospellers formal way, nor the Antinomians easy way. It is a way through a wilderness, not a way in a wilderness: The Spouse is not described by her staying in the wilderness, but by coming out of the wilderness; Who is this cometh out of the wilderness?  
Secondly, Doth the Spouse of the Lord come out of a wilderness of sorrow, leaning upon her Beloved? First, she is in, than she cometh out; then this reproves the folly of those that preach men found before they were lost, and of those that dream of leaning before they are in the wilderness: The Spouse leans, but it is when she is coming out of the wilderness: Is there none that preacheth down a needlessness of duties, that mocks at mourners? that learn people a way to be found before they are lost? Examine the Scriptures before you trust them; under a pretence of exalting Faith, do they not cry down sorrow for sin? and all preparatory duties? Nay, they do cry down the preaching of the Law, to bring men to see they are in the wilderness, that they might lean: Do they make you believe, that preaching the Law is a piece of Antichristianism, and no one ought to preach it? And for their parts, they will take heed of it, for fear of preaching away their hearers. O beware of this leaven! For my part, I had rather hear them, then believe them; (and yet I would not much care for that neither) were it nothing but to consider.  
First, That this way of preaching, hath been that which God hath most blest by his Servants labours: Witness our Rogers, our Hooker, our Pious Shepherd; those three, to which many three may be added, thougn they will scarce come up to the first three. Those three Constellations of Heaven, that gave more light to dark Travellers, that wandered in the night of sin while they shined in our Firmament, than all these Ignes fatui; Oh! I would I could not construe it false-fires, mis-leading poor Travellers. Was ever any of these Leaders so honoured (though they have beat up their Drums almost in every street of the Kingdom for followers) as to gather such Troops of Saints to the Christian warfare, as these before mentioned? Did ever God honour their labours so much as these? who (poor souls!) shone in their days like lights under Bushels too, had only the corner of a Pulpit, or a Pulpit in some blind corner tolerated them. Nay, look upon these that have lately fallen into this Vein, and were Preachers of Gods whole truth before; was not their first fruits better, and more accepted of God than their harvest is now? Hath not God distinguished which way of preaching he will most honour, by making the first ripe grapes sweeter than the whole Vintage? were it only for this, And  
Secondly, For the constant experience of the Saints of God, let them speak their minds freely; hath not this been the way of their conversion? Have not the best Saints in Heaven cried out of the belly of Hell before God heard their voice? Was not Paul strucken down to the earth before he went in the Triumph of Glory? Did not the Gaoler come in trembling, and fall at the Apostles feet, and cry, what shall I do to be saved? before they bid him believe, and thou shalt be saved. Neither can they evade it with saying, That trembling was not an humiliation for sin, but occasioned for fear his prisoners were gone. Lest people should wrest it in that manner, The Holy Ghost hath cleared it to their hand; for before we read of his trembling, Paul had cried with a loud voice, vers 28. Do thyself no harm for we are all here. Neither do we read, that he trembled for th●t at all; but like one struck senseless, and his spirits dead as it were, in a fit of desperate madness, was about with his Sword to let out his own blood. Now I say, were it no more then to hear such doctrine, contrary to the Doctrine which God hath chief honoured in his Servants lips, by making it efficacious for the salvation of their souls, and contrary to the experience of the generality of God's Servants, if not contrary to the Preachers own former and better thoughts and practice, it would be sufficient to make me suspend my faith, from being too hasty to believe this new way to Heaven: But it is enough to confirm me, to hear my Christ calling, Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will ease you. Before you are sensible of an heavy load you will need no ease, and to hear my Text speaking of leaning, but in a wilderness; Nay, it may be noted too, The Text saith, Who is this that cometh? Not who is this that jumpeth up from the wilderness; I cannot fancy this going to Heaven at a running jump, nor can I like this pressing faith without preaching repentance also: Faith is an act of an humble soul. Nor can the soul apprehend the beauty of Christ, and love Christ, before it apprehends it's own miserable condition. The only harm this Doctrine doth, is to make poor souls presume, instead of believing, for alas! Tell an impenitent soul of believing, it apprehends it easy, because it doth not understand it, and runs on upon a supposition, that it hath faith, when, alas, it believeth no more than the Devil believeth: sorrow for sin is better understood by a carnal heart than faith is; for the truth of it is, the humbled soul only can tell what faith is: The other sees, neither the want they have of faith, nor yet the nature of that precious grace. Shall I tell you what pious Master Rutherford says concerning this.  
Faith (saith he) is bottomed upon the sense and pain of a lost condition; Poverty is the nearest capacity of believing. This is Faith's method, be condemned, and be saved; be hanged, and be pardoned; be sick, and be healed. Faith is a flower of Christ's only planting, yet it grows out of no soil, but out of the margin and bank of the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone— Antinomians (saith he again) make faith an act of a lofty Pharisee, applying, (immediato contactu) presently, his hot boiling and smoking lusts to Christ's wounds, blood, and merit, without any conscience of a precedent command, that the person thus believing should be humbled, wearied, loaden, grieved for his sins: I confess (saith he) This is hasty, hot work, but it is a wanton, fleshly, presumptuous opinion, that it is an immediate work to lay hold on the promises and be saved. In his Book of the Trial and Triumph of Faith, you hear the opinion of God's Servants, and the Text mentions a coming too; pedetentim, gradatim, little by little, step by step: Those that come, cannot go so fast as these illegal Sectaries, because they are weary and heavy loaden. Those that learn people to jumppe, must take away Math. 11.29. the heavy load of sins which the Spouse hath upon her shoulders, keeps her from that hasty motion that Antinomians make. I do not speak to limit the Almighty's power, but to show you his ordinary dispensations; not what he can do, but what he will do, what he hath used to do, and God ordinarily walks in his own paths, not in the paths our fancies make for him: we may look for God in his ordinary ways of Providence and dispensations to the soul, if he comes in a new way, it must be beyond our expectations, though not beyond our faith that he can do it, yet beyond our faith that he will do it. When we have no word to assure us, what shall faith be builded upon? God can turn midnight into midday, ipso facto: But we know in Gods ordinary course of Providence, first comes the dawning of the day, than the morning, than the noonday: God can take a soul and marry it, and never humble it, but where hath he promised it? where hath he done it? or if he hath done it, we say, one Swallow makes not a Summer, one example make● not a Rule, one precedent makes not a Law. It is no rule for thee or me to trust in that, no more than the saving of the thief upon the Cross, might be a safe precedent for us to defer repentance tell our dying day. Let thee and I learn to be humbled, to get broken hearts, to loathe ourselves, see our own misery. Sorrow is the ordinary door to joy, Humiliation the ordinary step to exaltation, Mourning for sin the only preface to Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in God's ordinary way of dealing out grace. The Latin is full, Quae est illa quae ascendit, that ascends from the wilderness: Our Translation cometh up, implying an ascensive motion, 'tis hard running up an hill. They that run up a mountain, if they run too fast, they may quickly run themselves out of breath: It is bad jumping over a broad ditch (especially if it be drowning depth) for fear if we jump short we jump our last. It is a great jump from the bottom of Hell to Heaven, to take it at one leap. I wish, those that dare take it, do not fall short and drown themselves eternally. I had rather go up God's steps, then make such a hasty motion, God give me grace to ascend up the Saints stairs to the chambers of glory. Elijah was such a favourite to heaven, that God sent a coach for him; but those that will expect till that fiery Chariot be sent down for them too: I suppose may wait something a longer time than they desire. O beg of God to humble you, to pour out his spirit of mourning, and supplications upon you, this will learn you to believe (friends) It is the humbled soul only that can construe that word Faith: it is Hebrew to others, it poseth the impenitent heart, Faith is a riddle to them: Christ finds his Spouse in the wilderness, and there he gives her his shoulder to lean upon: But,  
Thirdly, She cometh up leaning out of the wilderness.  
Is it the duty of a soul that is in a wilderness of sorrow or affliction, or temptation, or desertion, to lean upon the Lord Christ? Then this may reprove those that are in these wildernesses, and yet cannot be persuaded to lean upon the Lord Christ: hence they cry out, O, faith is impossible! is it possible to believe that Christ Jesus will save me? me, that have scorned his salvation, and slighted his mercies? And because thou hast slighted mercy, wilt thou therefore still slight mercy? still refuse his offer of grace? Thou sinnest as much now in not believing there is mercy for thee, that hast despised mercy, as thou didst sin in despising that mercy. O why is it harder to raise up, then to cast down a soul? Why wilt thou not believe, O thou of little faith? Is the molehill of thy sins, like the mountain of his mercies? doth the voice of thy sins roar like the voice of his loving kindness? Is there any humbled soul before the Lord? O do not provoke God by thy infidelity now he hath made thee capable of faith: You that are Christians, for shame, in your several wildernesses of afflictions, temptations, and desertions, do not, O do not cast down your heads, and say, who shall show us any good? or if you do, say again with the Saint in the ensuing words, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us: Believe in your depths of sorrow, believe in your most trying afflictions, most sadding temptations, most kill desertions, believe me, it is the greatest honour you can put upon the Lord Christ: And it is the greatest dishonour you can put upon your God, to have any diffidence in the Lords arms, any distrust in the Lord's freegrace. It is the property, nay, it is the duty of the Spouse to come out of wildernesses leaning.  
Fourthly, Doth she lean upon God before she can come? must he work the first motion to make her willing, before she can believe in him?  
Then how are those to be here reproved that would make man's will to be the Author of its first motions unto God. Pelagius was a great defender of it. First he would hold, That the grace of God was not necessary, but by the law of nature we might be saved. 2. That the grace of God (which the Apostle speaks of) was only in giving the law of nature. 3. Driven from this, he would maintain, that the faculties of the soul, and their natural Actions was the grace of God, understood by the Apostle. Yet here is no leaning upon our Beloved. Afterwards he would maintain. 
* Si quaeratur an ex suis Naturalibus viribus anima aliquid afferat ad suam conversionem, vel renovationem, vel aliquam facultatem, vel actionem, quae vel partialis causa, vel quocunque alio modo appelletur, vere respondetur quod habet se mere passive. Chemnit. in loc. de l. b. A bit.  4. That the grace of God was necessary for sins past, but it was in the power of man's freewill, to avoid or commit sins for the time to come, and to resist rebellious corruptions. 5. After this, he would maintain, That some men indeed were weak, and must do all by the grace of God, others that were stronger might act good by their own will. But still only some Spouses lean. Lastly, he would maintain, (and the Arminiams' still from him: 
* Quae de gratia dei praveni nte, & praeparante, & operante traduntur, hunc habent sensum, quod non nostrae partes priores sunt in conversione, sed quod deus per afflatum divinum praeveniat, post hunc autem motum, voluntatis divinae factum, voluntas humona, non habet se merè passiuè sed mota & adjuta, espiritu sancto non repugnat sed assentitur. Ib. ) That grace did indeed help a good work, but it had its first motion from our wills, or at least might have: and the will had a negative voice, and might resist and cross grace which did not work irresistably in the soul, to force the soul to him.  

a Cassianus Monachus Pelagis Doctrinam amplexus est. Faustus Hormisda & Ben.  I would not rake up these graves, did not these ghosts walk in these our days, when every grave of Heresy is unboweled, and no one takes care to throw the dirt upon them again. Nay, and the Papists having been tainted with this Leven, the Sententiaries now tell us, 
b Hominis est preparare cor. Aquin. in Sum. Theol. Aquiescere & assentiri est nostrúm.  That a man without grace, merely by the strength of his free will, may avoid any mortal sin, and prepare himself for God's free grace, and fulfil the Commandments of God; Quoad substantiam actus, for the substance of the Act. 
c Quibus de congruo mereatur gratiam gratum facientem. Scotus.  And another more impudently maintains, That a man without any grace of God (by the mere strength of nature) may do works morally good, yea, even such as God shall be bound to concur with, and give his special grace for. Even thus going back from their own great Rabbis, one of which was pleased to confess, 
d Homo sinegratiâ Dei non potest non peccare & mortaliter & venialiter. Lomb.  That a man without the grace of God, could not but sin both mortally and venially. What is become here of the Beloved's Leaning? But no more of these; only if you hear such Doctrines (as you may hear any thing in these days) believe them not.  
Doth God move the will attending him in duties, first? secondly, when the will is thus moved, doth it then come? 
5. Spiritus Sanctus pravenit. movet & impellit voluntatem in conversione, non ●tiosam, sed attendentem verbo Chemnit. Vel per speculationem somniorum, vel per simulationem orationis illabi efficaciam. Spiritus Sa●cti. Vide D. Featly, Dippers Dip●.  when it is drawn, doth it run? Then this reproves the Enthusiasts of old, the Anabaptists, Antin●mians, Seekers of our days, that hold, first, there is no need of duties. The Enthusiasts of old affirmed, That for the receiving of the Spirit of Promise and saving grace, the Spirit of God was either infused to them in a dream, Vel per simulationem orationis: Ay, and the motions of the Spirit, were as sensible in their flesh as the beating of the pulse, so blasphemous were they grown; and thence they would lie, and gape for Revelations, and so indeed they may have a suggestion from the Devil but scarce a Revelation from God. Oh! How in these days are mentainted with these lazy Opinions! slighting duties, vilifying Sabbaths, neglecting ordinances; that if poor people would truly now give account of their growth in grace, and of their learning godliness: many of them might truly. As the child that ye have heard a story, in the learning of its primer, boasted to the father that it had learned past Grace. Is not this the miserable learning of our days? that men are grown past grace, past Prayer, past Ordinances, past all duties?  
6. Again what you have heard, that after the soul is drawn, than it comes, may show us the falseness of another Doctrine of Enthusiasm, too brief even in these days also: that the soul is merely passive, even after the work of conversion also; and is even then a mere stone. Draw me (saith the Spouse) and then, 
See the Book set out from the Ministers of New-England of the heretics, etc. Post conversionem concurrit voluntas, non tamen quasi suis viri●us adjuvet spirituales actiones. Semper addendum est non esse plenam libertatem, in sancto renato, sed virtutem in infirmitate perfici, Chemnit. Intelligant si filij Dei sint spiritu Dei se agi, ut quod agendum est agant, & cum egerint, illi, a quo aguntur gratias agan●. Aguntur enim, ut agant, non ut ipsi nihil agant. Aug.  I will run after thee. Indeed, after our conversion, the will is but in part sanctified, and the Image of God in us will want of his first integrity, after it is renewed: but Christ's strength is perfected in our weakness; we must understand if we be the children of God, that God hath therefore wrought in us that we might also work something, and when we have wrought it, give thanks to God, who hath made us to work; for God hath wrought in us, that we might work, not that we should be idle. Thus I have laboured to you to divide the Truth from Error; Now you have heard of the leaven of these Pharisees; take heed of it.  
In the next place, what you have heard, that the soul that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, leans upon a new Beloved, not upon her old beloved's: may serve to reprove those that would feign plead a title to Christ, and have a portion in Christ, but they will not take Christ alone: two sorts there are of these. The one cannot leave their old beloved's, and the other cannot trust this Beloved O the wicked man would have his portion in Christ, if he might but have his lusts too, his pleasures, his profi●; but to take Christ, & Christ alone, o this is such a hard saying that they cannot bear by any means; If Christ and his lusts would lie both in one bed, Christ at the feet, and his lusts at the head; then Christ should be as welcome as any thing to him, but he is loath to sue a divorce for this Beloved, he is loath to part with his old love for a new; till he seethe how he can love him. But at a venture he will take him in p●rtem amoris. O wretch! flatter not thyself, if Christ be thy Beloved, he will endure no Polygamy; you must leave your sins or be without your Christ. The true Spouse leans upon her Beloved, not upon her Beloved's, upon her now Beloved, she forsakes her old.  
Lastly this may serve to reproove.  
1. Those that would lean upon Christ, but they dare not trust their souls upon Christ alone. Forsooth he will be the Spouse of Christ, but he must lean upon Christ with one hand, and his good works with the other. The whore of Babylon commits adultery with herself.  
2. Under this lash comes a better rank of people, that when God hath showed them their own sinful, sad condition, they do not only perform duties, pray, and mourn, and repent, and be humbled, all which they ought to do; but they are ready to rest in them, and make them their Beloved: It is natural to the soul, that God hath made to loathe its sins, to love its duties, it finds duties almost as consentaneous to its nature, as sins were before; and it is too ready to think that its saving, or damning, depends upon such a quantity of tears, and humiliation: Hence, you hear souls in this condition, often complaining; oh! I could believe, if I were humbled enough, if I could but mourn enough. This soul doth well to be sensible of the hardness of its own heart; and it is too true, it can never mourn, it can never be humbled enough. But it doth ill to think that freegrace stints its operation, and blessed influence, to such a quantity of tears, if it be humbled enough, to see its want of Christ. The water runs through the river, that is the way to the Sea, but it doth not rest in the river, but with a swift and continued motion, runs betwixt the banks, till it comes, and is swallowed up in the Sea: Even so the soul ought to run through duties, but not to rest betwixt the banks of duties, but to run through, till it come to the Sea of freegrace, where it will be swallowed up of infinite mercy; and our imperfections will be drowned in his infinite perfection; we ought to take duties in our way to Christ, but not to make duties our Jesus. God hath ordained that they should fit us for him; but it is written, My glory will I not give to another. The glory of the Lords freegrace, is his greatest glory; he will not give that to any other: None shall share with him in his Spouses love, he is a jealous Saviour. The Spouse leans upon her Beloved, not Beloved's: Thus I have done with my use of reproof.  
The next use is for examination, here may every one try himself whether he be the Spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ, or no: Even by what hath been already said; I will reduce it all 〈◊〉 three heads.  
First Examine thyself, whether thou be'st out of the wilderness of sin, yea, or no.  
Secondly, Whether thou wert, or art in any other wilderness, yea, or no.  
Thirdly, What was, or is thy demeanour in these wildernesses thou hast been, or art in, and how hast thou come, or dost thou come out.  
Examine whether thou be'st not in the wilderness of sin, yea, or no: It was given as the Character of the Spouse, to come out of this wilderness: O, but how shall I know that? (will the soul say.) I will name two or three notes, by which thou mayest suspect thyself as from probabilities.  
1. The wilderness it is an incult place; a place where the soil was never tilled, it is as hard almost as a millstone; the overgrown Trees were never pruned, the unruly boughs never lopped, the bushes never cut or stubbed: dost thou find thy heart in such a condition, that it is as hard as ever; neither judgement breaks it, nor mercy melts it, the fallow-ground of it is not ploughed, nor the seed of righteousness sown in it? Thy unruly lusts are not tamed, thy life is as much overgrown with sin as ever it was: thy sins were never yet cut off from the body of thy life. O friend! suspect thyself; Thou mayest justly fear, yea, and know too, that thou art not the Spouse of Christ, thou art in the wilderness, in thy natural estate.  
Secondly, The wilderness is a barren place, it brings forth no corn for the sickle, no wholesome fruit, no figs, no grapes for man's , for can a man gather grapes of thistles, or figs of thorns? No pastures wholesome for the beasts. The fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Joel 1.19. And God complained that Nineveh was dry like a wilderness. Zeph. 2.13. Art thou a barren, and unfruitful creature, that dost nothing for God? thy heart is a barren heart, no seeds of good are sown there, thy tongue is a barren tongue, no good words come out thence; thy whole soul a barren soul; not a good action upon the record of thy life. Indeed, no soul can be barren, the soul is of a working nature; but sinful works are unfruitful works (in the Apostles language.) The unfruitful works of darkness, and what fruits had ye of those things, whereof you are now ashamed? God's Spouse is a fruitful creature, Gal, 5.22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc. A barren soul is always a wilderness soul. Those that are borne of God, bring forth fruits unto God.  
Thirdly, Thou mayest know whether thou be'st in the wilderness or no, by the company thou delightest in: It is a known rule, Noscitur ex socio qui non dignoscitur ex se.  
He that is a wilderness creature, loves wilderness company, the wolves, and bears, and foxes: but he that is out, keeps the company of men; dost thou love the wilderness company? the swinish drunkard, the politic Fox, the malicious Lion, the venomous liar and slanderer, the lascivious wanton, more than the Children of God? oh suspect thyself! By this we know (saith John) that we are translated from death to life, if we love the Brethren: Lazarus when he was raised from the grave, we do not read he went to keep the dead men company again: those that God hath raised from the death of their sins, live amongst living men, and delight in living men's company; Thus examine whether thou be'st come out of the wilderness of sin, or no.  
Secondly, As coming out of the wilderness is a sign of the child of God: so being in the wilderness, is likewise a note whereby thou mayest know thyself. God's Spouse comes out of one wilderness into another, out of the wilderness of sin into the wilderness of sorrow, and out of that to their Saviour. wouldst thou know whether thou art found, or no? Examine whether thou wert ever lost or no: wouldst thou know whether ever thou wert a believer, examine whether ever thou wert a penitent, or not. This is God's ordinary way; thence he complains of his people, that they would not repent, that they might believe in him. Dost thou find God in another manner of working in thy soul? bless God for it; and if thy title be good to heaven, which will be known by thy walking with God; believe me, God hath used thee kindly, heaven hath cost thee cheaper than it costs many a poor soul, and walk humbly before God, because he hath not humbled thee under his mighty hand, as he hath done many another poor creature: and though I would not condemn those that plead their title to heaven this way, for fear I should condemn the generation of the righteous, yet believe me, I should suspect it in my own cause. They that go out weeping, and carry precious seed, shall return rejoicing, and bring their sheaves with them.  
2. Examine thyself, What other wildernesses thou meetest with? Afflictions, temptations, etc. I would not give this as an infallible mark, and yet God says, whom he loves he chasteneth, and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth; and thence the Father drew out his Conclusion, Unicum Deus habuit filium sine peccato, nullum sine flagello. God had one  without sin, but none without a rod. But I know, even the wicked sometimes begin their hell upon the earth: and though would suspect myself, if I met with no afflictions, ye I would not be glad to have a life full of crosses, and afflictions my best evidence for heaven: I rather named this for a preface to the next note,  
3. Examine how thou carriest thyself in the wilderness▪ there is a different carriage betwixt the child of God, and th● child of the Devil in afflictions: the one sinks into his grav● with despair, the other lifts up his head to Zion with hope the one is pressed to death under crosses, the other lives above all crosses. Cain cries, my punishment is too heavy for me to bear Job cries, though he should kill me, yet I will trust in him: Th● Reprobate cries, Who is the Lord that I should wait for him? The Saint says, I will patiently wait for the Lords Salvation: the wicked man dies, the Saint leans; the eyes of the sinners fail that day; but the Saints look up to Zion, from whence comes their help that day.  
Examine How thou hast come out of thy wilderness? of thine own strength? or leaning? Canst thou say, That God knew thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. Hos. 13.5. If thou thinkest thou camest out alone, thou art there still, What gave thee comfort in the depths of sorrow? what? thy merry company? did thy duties do it? If any thing did it but thy Christ, I fear thou art still in the wilderness: when thou didst mourn, as one that mourneth for his only begotten son, didst thou look upon him whom thou hadst pierced? there is nothing but the blood of Christ can give a cordial to a fainting soul; nothing but the handkerchief of free grace that can wipe thine eyes; nothing but the blotting out of the hand-writing, which was written in God's Book, and thine own conscience against thee, that can make thy heart leave trembling, and thy knees leave beating together for terror. Thou canst not come out alone, if ever thou camest out, it was leaning.  
Examine thyself, How thou hast carried thyself since thou camest out? How hast thou been since thou wert humbled, and lost in the wilderness of sorrow? What effects hath the wilderness of sorrow wrought upon thee? Hath thy sorrow been like the sorrow of Achan, that thou hast been only sorry because thou hast been under an Attachment of wrath? Or like Ahab, rending his clothes, putting on his sackcloth, and going softly? 2 Chron. 22. Or like Pharaoh, saying, I have sinned? Exod. Or like Balaam, saying, I have sinned, I will return bacl again? when he might have had more thanks for his labour and never have come there, he had checks enough. Art thou worse when thou comest out of the wilderness of Affliction, that we may brand thee with Ahaz his Brand, This was that King Ahaz? Or dost thou come out of thy Afflictions leaning, with thy weak faith strengthened, and thy strong faith confirmed? Hast thou lost no grains, but got in the fire? Is thy gold as good weight now as before? it is a good sign it is good then. But I hasten to the next Use, which may be to inform us:  
First, The sad condition that all unbelievers are in.  
Secondly, The joyful condition that all the Children of God are in.  
Thirdly, The great love of God, that he would send Christ to seek us up in the wilderness, and give his hand to poor creatures to lead them out.  
And lastly, If in every wilderness we must lean upon the Lord Jesus Christ, It may inform us, what need we have at all times to walk close with the Lord Christ. First, here see the sad condition that all men and women by nature are in, that have not the Lord Jesus Christ. It consists in two things:  
First, They are in a wilderness: Sin is a wilderness. Now which of you (friends) but would think himself as good as a dead man if he were in the midst of an Arabian desert, that he could not see any possibility of getting out, nor any comfort he could enjoy there: terror on every side, comfort on no side; the Lions and beasts of prey of every hand ready to devour him, and it is well if he can keep his flesh for food for himself, for he can get no provision for his body, nothing, except he would eat the bark of trees; o● the parched grass. What man would not tremble, to think of on that should be condemned to such an exile? Do not your hearts pity as oft as you think of those poor men that were left but half a year in Green-land? And yet O Lord! How few pity themselves! O poor creature! Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur, the Story is thy own, apply it therefore: You that are in your sins are all in a sad wilderness; the judgements of God, like the beasts of prey, are ready to swallow you up on every hand; 'tis a miracle of mercy you are not in hell; there is but a thread betwixt you and death; the Sword of God's wrath hangs over your head, while you are at your Drunken Banquets of sin: Oh! what comfort? what joy can you have in the wilderness (friends?) that when you lie down at night, you know not but you may wake in the morning past Repentance, even with Hell flames about you; as the Lord lives, there is but a hair's breadth betwixt you and Hell.  
Consider, That you have no one to help you out of any wilderness; if Christ be not yours, nothing is yours: what will you do in a stormy day of Afflictions, when you shall cry unto God, and he shall say unto you, as he once said to the roaring Israelites, Judg. 10.14. Go, and cry unto the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. Cry unto your Gold now, unto your Lusts now, trust your Riches now, make you a golden Calf! See if it will now save you. O think! You that live in sin, and love and delight in sin, what shall I do in a sad day of sickness, when the fear of the grave shall surround me, and the terrors of Hell shall make me afraid? What shall I lean upon when these comforts shall be no comforts? when I shall say to all creature enjoyments, miserable comforters are you all. Where shall I warm me when these flashes will be out? when these sparks of pleasure and profit shall be choked, and killed with the dust and ashes of my grave? Hear ye this all ye, That kindle a fire that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have kindled; This shall ye have at the Lords hand, 
Isa. 50. v. 11.  you shall lie down in sorrow: Your pleasurable sins are but as sparks (Sirs) What will you do when your sparks are out? They are (as we say of a short flame) but a Widow's joy for a moment: Take heed, that when your sparks are out you blow not your nails in hell: Take heed, that your sparks do not kindle everlasting burn for you. What will you do in a wilderness of Affliction? how will you come out? What will ye lean upon?  
Secondly, This may serve to inform us of the happy condition of God's Children, and that è contrario, in a just opposion to the others misery: O lift up your heads ye righteous, and be glad ye upright in heart: Your happiness consists in these two things:  
First, You are out of the wilderness, out of the danger of Hell, and those that can spell in their thoughts but that word Hell, will know it to be a mercy to be out of the fear of it. You are out of the wilderness, O bless that God that hath helped you out: 'tis a great happiness to be delivered of fears; believe me! Did the wicked men seriously think what a weight of wrath they lie under, what a cloud of blood hangs over their heads, they would pray till all their knees were melted (though they were all steel) to be delivered from it. Hold up your hands that you have escaped a drowning; that you fear not the wild beasts that belong to the wilderness; Gods dreadful judgements you dare meet, the Lion and the Bear, and they dare not set the print of their teeth upon you. A godly man is like a man under protection, he owes much, but the Bailiff dares not meddle with him; Christ hath undertaken the debt for him, he is under the protection of the Son of God; he can look a Judgement in the face, and never run for it. The wicked man, on the contrary, is like one. that hangs upon every bush (as we say) owes more than he is worth; he dares scarce look out of the doors whiles the Bailiffs are about; when the judgements of God are about, the wicked wretch dares not look out, he sinks into his grave in the thoughts of it. This Plague, this Fever, this Ague, may be a Bailiff to Arrest me, that God hath sent to carry me bound hand and foot and thrown into Hell, where is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. And then thinks with himself (O that they did so!) Where is my surety (if it should be so?) who would be bound for the payment of the Debt due for my sins, and to be paid at God's judgement seat? The godly man, he likewise saith; This Plague, this Fever, this Sickness, may Arrest me: But suppose they should, the Son of God is bound for my Debt; My Judge surely will not demand better Surety than his own Son. I bless God I am out of the wilderness: O happy man! Here's a portion of thy happiness; but here is not all.  
2. Consider, That if thou shouldest fall into the corner of another wilderness: Thou hast one to lean upon, even in every wilderness: If thou shouldst have a rod upon thy back, thou hast a staff to comfort thee. Thou hast one to lead thee out, when soever thou art in: an arm that thou mayest trust to. Happy is he that hath a friend in the Court, such is thy friend. A friend in adversity, is better than a Brother, (saith Solomon) thou hast a friend in adversity, and he is thy brother. Thy brother Christ is thy friend, that will lead thee through, & out of every wilderness; Is the child happy that in want hath a father to run unto? the wife happy that hath a husband in time of sickness to comfort her? The servant happy that hath a Master in adversity to pity him? then I dare pronounce thee in all times happy. Thy husband loves thee, thy father sends his Son to lead thee: thy husband is always by, to comfort thee, and lead thee by his hand. God hath said, Esay 58.11. That he will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones. Thou hast always a friend at need, a brother in adversity.  
Thirdly, Is it so that the Spouse comes out of the wilderness▪ leaning upon her Beloved? This may then show us the infinite love of God to the Creature; that he would be pleased to look us up in the wilderness, and let us lean upon him: Christ was lead into the wilderness because thou wert there, he had a bad journey to fetch thee home: Oh! what should? what could (besides his infinite freegrace) make his bowels of mercy so yearn towards the Creature, as to look it up in the wilderness, to  it naked, to wash it polluted, to save it damned? Christ the shepherd had lost his stray sheep, and goes after that which was lost in the wilderness until he findeth it, than he layeth it on his shoulders, and bringeth it home. O, blessed be the name of the Lord for his free grace and mercy! The shepherd followed the sheep, whiles the sheep regarded not the shepherd; we were in a wilderness, he came to find us out. O! was not this infinite love, astonishing mercy?  
Lastly, Is it so? that we must come out of every wilderness leaning upon our Beloved? O then let this inform us what need we have to walk close with the Lord Jesus Christ; what need we have to be fearful of offending, and careful to please him: It is he that must help us in every need; he that must lead us in every wilderness: If he forsakes us we are undone. Have we but one friend? let us keep him then: if we anger him, we lose our best friend: hath the shiftless child need to keep the love of the father? the Babe need to keep in the arms of the Nurse? the wife need to keep the love of the husband? the blind man need to keep the love of his guide? O Christian, thou hast much more need to keep the love of thy Christ. It is he that must secure thee at every need; he that must make the rugged ways plain for thee; It is he that must carry the Babe of grace in his arms, lest it should dash its feet against the stones of affliction. It is he that must lead the child of God upon his hand, least in this world of afflictions it fall, and hurt itself. O keep close in his arms, keep thyself warm in his bosom; fear that which may make thy God go from thee. God's departing from the Creature is a piece of hell: thou knowest not how soon thou mayest need him; yea, thou always needest him, therefore take heed of sinning against him; thou wilt anger the best friend, I will assure thee.  
I hasten to the last use, which shall be a word of Exhortation: Doth the Spouse of Christ come out of the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved.  
First, O then, you that are yet in the wilderness of sins, come out, come out, get this Spouses Beloved, and then lean upon him.  
2. You that are in the wilderness of sorrow for sin, afflictions, temptations desertions, lean upon your beloved, live leaning and die leaning: you that say you are sinking, and you cannot believe. Oh lean! and come out of this wilderness leaning upon your Beloved.  
A word to the first: Is there any before the Lord this day that is yet in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, with what arguments shall I plead with such a soul? Those are not wanting, but with what arguments shall I prevail with such a soul, to come unto the Lord Christ? were any here drowning in the water? a little Rhetoric would persuade them to let me help them out? were any cast in a wood, I should not need much entreat them to give me their hand, and I would show them a way out of that losing place, why should I not as much prevail for heaven this day?  
1 Consider what estate it is that thou takest such pleasure to continue in? first, It it a dangerous place, more dangerous than the sands to the ship: thou art ready to be swallowed up of hell every hour in it. A troop of judgements waits upon thee to destroy it; how canst thou abide consuming fire? or dwell in everlasting burn?  
Secondly, Consider, it is a joyless condition: There is no true joy to the sinner, though he sings sometimes amongst his drunken cups, yet he cannot feed hearty upon a feast of joy, because the Sword hangs over his head; it is but a feigned joy that the sinner hath, a sudden short lived flame, without any coals underneath to preserve it. There is no peace to the wicked (saith God) and if no peace, there can be no joy; when the sinner is serious he cannot rejoice, his rejoicing is like the skipping of mad men that know not what they do.  
Thirdly, Consider, it is a starving condition. The sinner's soul starves whiles he feasts bis body like a glutton, his soul dies for thirst, when his body is overflowen with drunkenness. It is impossible the puff-paste of iniquity should nourish a soul: Doth an Angel feed upon the earth? doth a Saint feed upon hell? The soul is of an Angelic substance, it cannot feed upon sin: sin starves it. Dost thou love to be in the midst of thorns? dost thou delight to lie down in sorrow? canst thou endure to see thy better part starved, whilst thou pamperest thy filthy Carcase? O let this deter thee from the wilderness of sin, and persuade thee to come out of it unto Paradise. There,  
First, Thou shalt be in a safe condition: Out of the fear of judgements, out of hell's gunshot. There life or death will be either peace temporal, or else eternal, either grace, or glory unto thee; here thy soul shall be in a harbour, if thousands fall at thy left hand, and ten thousands at thy right: none shall make thee afraid, thou shalt laugh at trouble when it comes. Thou shalt be sure to go to heaven either by land, or water: If thou goest through the fire, thou shalt be sure to have Christ with thee. Heaven is a security in all estates, a protection from all Arrests, if the King of Glory hath a mind to sue thee, thou shalt not be arrested (like other men) with a writ of wrath, but invited to sup with him in glory, only by a letter of love, and he will send his Ushers of glory to wait upon thy soul to the chambers of glory, Luke 16.22. The soul of good Lazarus was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom: you shall not live like other men, haunted with the bloodhounds of wrath, nor die like other wretches, that go out of the world, haled by the Sergeants of hell to everlasting prison: but quietly sleep, and awake again one day in glory. O who would not desire such a protection for himself? such a security for his soul? who would not throw off his rags of sin, to put on Christ's livery of grace, when Christ's badge upon his shoulder shall free him from all Arrests? That he shall walk up and down, and nothing shall make him afraid?  
Secondly, Consider that Heaven is a place as full of joy, as ever the wilderness was full of sorrow and trouble; of this I spoke before. O think of the joy of the Saints, you children of vain pleasure, you madmen of the earth, that can dance over the hole of the Asp, and put your hands on the Cockatrices den. Your false and flattering joy is nothing to the real joys of heaven, There is joy like the joy in the harvest, like the joy when men divide the spoil. The yoke of their burden is broken, and the rod of the oppressor: O you that love your drinking meetings, and dancing days, that you would but love heaven, where you might drink new wine with your Lord Christ: where you might dance in glory, and make all your days, days of joy, and every hour, an hour of pleasure.  
Thirdly, consider, that there, and there only, is provision for your soul. Christ's robes is the only clothing that will cover the nakedness of it; his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed, there my friends, Eat, and drink, and be merry, there you may have wine and milk without money, or without price. O, spend not your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which profiteth not?  
Here you may eat that which is good, 
Esa. 35.1, 2, 3.  and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Here is a Feast of fat things; The fatlings are killed: O come unto the wedding! Why should your rooms be empty in the day of the Lords espousals? You shall be welcome to my Master's Table: Now, O now, Behold he stands at the door and knocks: (Lord, break where thou knockest) If any man will hear his voice, and open the door, he will come into him, and sup with him, 
Revel. 20.  and he shall sup with him. O let me entreat you, to pity the yerning of your Saviour's bowels toward you; pity the groan of his tender heart for you; pity yourselves, if not your Christ; and, O come, come out of the wilderness of sin into this wilderness of sorrow; that of a drunken profane creature, thou mayest be a mourning pious soul; of a proud careless sinner, become a poor humbled penitent; that the world may admire, Saul amongst the Prophets, and Paul amongst the Apostles, and thee amongst the Saints of Christ; and say of thee, who art now a profane Swearer and Blasphemer, Behold he Prayeth! Of thee that wert a filthy Wanton, Behold he Mourns! Of thee that wert a filthy Drunkard and Glutton, Behold he Fasts! And may in time say of thee, Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved? But,  
Secondly, Is there any before the Lord this day, that is in any other wilderness of Sorrow, Affliction, Temptation, Desertion, etc. O lean! Come out of your wilderness leaning upon your Beloved.  
First, Is there any one here, to whom the Lord hath shown their own sad condition too, and yet hath not revealed the fullness of his free grace to them? O lean upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and leaning come out of thy wilderness; Believe, and thou shalt be saved? But here's the hard task, to persuade such a soul to believe.  
Consider but these few things.  
1. That now thou art in a capacity of believing. Poverty of spirit is the nearest capacity of faith; Blessed are th●y that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now thou art weary. Christ hath promised to ease thee; now thou art heavy laden, he hath promised to help thee.  
Secondly, Consider that thou hast ground enough to build thy faith upon; Christ's power and love are two Pillars, able to hold up the weakest faith.  
First, Believe; lean upon Christ, for he is able to pardon thy sins; thou shouldest blaspheme in thy thoughts if thou shouldest not think this. Can infinite mercy be fathomed thinkest thou? Can any one plead his undeservings against free grace? Were thy burden fare heavier than it is, cast it upon Christ, for he is able to bear it; Art thou thick darkness? he is infinite light: Art thou all sin? he is all pardon: Art thou altogether lovely? why Christ is altogether lovely.  
Secondly, Believe; because Christ is as much love as he is power: he is not only able, but he is willing to pardon thee; free grace thirsts after thee. Nay, believe me, thou canst give Christ no greater satisfaction then to receive his mercies. Christ is withchild of free grace (to speak it with reverence) and he desires nothing more than to be delivered in thine heart. He is a Sea of mercy, and he would rejoice to empty himself by drops into his people's hearts. But why did I say empty? Can the Sun lose any light by communicating his light to others? When the creature speaks of God, he must speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he would fill thee, and yet continue full himself. He is satisfied when thou art full. He shall see of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Thou art not so willing to receive, as he is to bestow free grace. O then lean upon him.  
Thirdly, Consider, thou canst not dishonour thy God; more than when thou art humbled by him for thy sins, and cast down in thine own thoughts, and called to believe in his mercies, and secured upon his word, if thou wilt but trust him. If thou wilt not, then believe in him, Surely than thou art of a little faith, if not an Infidel. Thou couldst not believe when thou wert an impaenitent hardhearted creature. Why? because thou knewest no need thou hadst of faith: Neither couldst thou hear Christ's invitation, because thou wert not weary and heavy loaden; but now that the Lord hath humbled thee, now the promises belong unto thee, what? darest thou not take Christ's word? Suppose a Traitor were condemned to die, and the King should send a Pardon by the hand of his own Son to this forlorn wretch, and he should refuse it, saying; The King cannot pardon me; what hath he to do to send me a Pardon? I know he doth but mock me, he means nothing less, etc. Were not this a piece of unworthiness, by which he should dishonour his Prince as much as with his Treason before? O take heed of provoking the Lord still; it is enough that thou hast provoked him once, yet he will pardon thee. And on the contrary, thou canst not honour Christ more than in believing; for thou acknowledgest the unfadomable depth of his free love and mercy; Thou proclaimest God, to be a God, gracious, long-suffering, a God that may be trusted by the creature which hath deserved nothing at his hand; that he is so pure an Essence of love, that he will create himself a cause of love where is none. And though he could find nothing in thee to pardon thee, for thy sake, yet he would pardon thee for his own Name sake.  
So likewise, you that are in any wilderness, or shall be, of Affliction, Desertion, Temptation, etc. O lean! lean! 'Tis that which God requires at your hand; 'tis that which will ease you when you are weary; help you when you are heavy laden; Believing will ease you when complaining will not; 'tis that which honours God, and honours Christ; It gives him the glory of his Power, and Providence, and Dominion, and free Grace, and mercy. Christ, believe me, will take it kindly at your hands, that you will try him in need, and trust him even in despair; though he kills you, yet you will trust in him. Those that venture upon Death with such a faith cannot die. Those that have such a Spirit must live eternally. The way to live, is to die believing, and the way to stand, is to lean falling. O come all ye that love the Lord ● and trust in his mercies: I have done, only I conclude with my Text.  
O you that are falling, as you think into the pit of despair that are lost in the wilderness of sorrow: Believe, believe, and you shall be saved. Come out trusting upon God; resting upon the fullness of his mercy, and the freeness of his grace, come out, come out leaning upon your Beloved.  
O you that are in a wilderness of afflictions, lean upon God's staff, let his rod comfort you; believe that he smileth while he smiteth thee, believe in affliction you shall have no more than you are able to bear; he will let his grace be sufficient for you, all shall work for your good▪ And come you out of your wilderness leaning upon your Beloved.  
O you that are in the wilderness of temptations, in the snare of the Devil, believe, and lean, your Christ was tempted, and he knows how to secure those that are tempted: lean upon him to bear you up in, and to give you an happy issue out of your temptations in which you are in, for the trial of your faith, and come you out likewise leaning upon your Beloved.  
You that are in the sad wilderness of Desertion, cry, My God though you be forsaken, keep your faith, retain your Interest; O lean, lose not your hold you have upon the Almighty, lean in: and come out of this your wilderness leaning upon your Beloved.  
Finally. All you that are in the wilderness of sin; the worst wilderness of all: Let me conclude with you, And once more as the Ambassador of Jesus Christ, in my Master's name, as if he himself were here. I beseech you, by the many, and tender mercies of him, whose bowels yearn towards you, by his precious blood, which was poured out upon the Cross for sinners, (and who knows, whether not for you, as well as others) as you tender the life and happiness of your own souls, the joy of your faithful pastors: nay, (which is most of all) as you tender the honour of God, come out, o come out of your sad wilderness! be humbled, and mourn, sit down in dust and ashes, that you may rise up, adorned with grace, and be crowned with glory, that you may lean upon your Beloved, and (O that my first or last words might prevail with some great sinner this day for whom we might all rejoice, concerning whom we might all say, who is this that comes out of the wilderness leaning upon her well-beloved.  
FINIS.