The Usefulness and Excellency of Christ, Section 18 – Section 19
SECT. 18.
An exhortation to Gods people to be more for Christ then ever they were.
2. THis point may serve to incline 2. This serveth to incline the wills of Gods people yet more to Christward.the wills of Gods people:
1. To be more for Christ then ever they were.
2. To make more use of Christ then ever they did.
For the first, I say they should be more for Christ then ever they were, manifesting so much;
1. By a happy undervaluing of all earthly vanities in comparison of Christ.
II. By a holy willingnesse to be with Christ.
III. By a mighty care to keep Christ still.
1. To begin with the first of these particulars, how willing should all Gods people be to preferre the Lord Christ before all things else here below, even as they would preferre roses before nettles, and thistles, and things of no value; for,
Ground. 1 1. Christ, being like a rose, will comfort us, Iohn 14. 18. where as worldly riches, and honours, and pleasures will but vexe and sting us, as you have formerly heard.
2. Being like a rose, he is most *1 Pet. 2. 6.precious: For *Rosa semper apud Rom…es fuit in honore.roses were ever highly esteemed; among the * Romans especially.
Ground. 3 3. Christ is a rose still: For he saith not I have been, but I the *foreign Ego rosa …h…ron.rose of Sharon, Johnston Tha…at. Not p 115.indefinitely, and remarkably, not nominating any time past, present, or to come, to shew that he is not a rose for a time onelyonly, as other fading roses are, though in many other respects he be like a rose, No, but that he is a rose still, faire still, precious still, fresh still, even the immortall and everliving God, Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, Rev. 1.
True it is, that this sweet rose once withered a little, when Christ died, but it was onelyonly for a little while, and according to his humane nature, that he died; for his divine nature could not possibly suffer, or die, being immortall, 1 Tim. 1. 17. and his humane nature rose againe likewise the third day, 1 Cor. 15. 4. Like a true Phoenix, which burneth himselfe to ashes, and so dieth, and revives again wholly the third day, and then returne to his own place, as *Epiph physiol. c. 11. de phenice. Mentionem faciunt hujus avis Tertullianus quoque, Ambrosius, Cyrillus, Artemidorus, & alij.Epiphanius records it.
Thus Christ for his part is a rose still durable and permanent, seeing he ever liveth, Heb. 7. 25. but all earthly things else are fading, vanishing, mutable. I'le instance in a man that swims in honour, wealth, and pleasures, and flourishes, like a rose for a time.
There is one who writes of a famous Physician of Cracaw, that he did so *Silicet magni nominis apud Cracovienses Medicus erat, qui adeo el…ganter apparabat cinerem ex omnibus plantae partibus, ut omnes carum scitè conservaret spiritu… Cinis, ad mola vasculo candela aliquanto inca lescens apertae rosae emittebat speciem, quam sensim cr…scere, veg…tari, ac formam penitus caulis foliorum, ac geminae d… ni{que} floridae rosae umbram exprimere tandem explicatissimam rosam producere intueri licebat, redibat in pulverem igne remolo. Rosenberg. Rhodolog. cap ult.artificially apt and fit ashes of all the parts of a rose plant, as that he did preserve the spirits thereof; insomuch as that, when he did bring neare it a candle and heate it, one might see the forme of a perfect rose, which afterward returned againe to dust, when the fire and heate was removed. Thus he: whether his relation be true or false I know not; but this I am sure of, that however man, being raised of the dust, and warmed with a living soule, may make a faire shew, and seeme to be like a rose in his flourishing estate, if God doe but blow out his candle, and take away that heate which must preserve his naturall life, he returne to dust, from the which he is taken, and then all his thoughts perish, his pleasures perish, his faire lineaments perish, his honour likewise and glory doth perish, and all his goods vanish; for he carrieth nothing with him but a winding sheet of all his abundance. See Esa. 40. 6. All flesh is grasse, and all the goodlinesse thereof as the flowers of the field. The grasse withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord floweth upon it.
Wherefore let us looke upon all earthly Paradises with a most disdainfull eye, and scornfull countenance, and trample under with the feet of a holy contempt all sublunary fading, and flowry prosperity, Like that mysticall woman, Rev. 12. 1. and let the Lord Jesus Christ be alone exalted, and mounted in our truly beleeving hearts. Let him reigne there, and sit upon his Throne as King, and have the preheminence as our dread and soveraigne Lord, whose glorious excellency, ravishing beauty, and inexplicable delightfulnesse doth more then infinitely transcend the utmost and height of all earthly felicities, raised above the highest possibility by the most inventive and strongest imagination of any meere humane brain, and extended to the very last end of the world, or that length of time you can imagine.
2. Be more willing then ever you were to be with Christ.
1. Here.
2. Hereafter.
1 Here, seeing he is thus like a rose, and therefore *Rosa quippe p…ae caeteris floribus colore d…lectat, odore recreat, & sapere comfortat d…lectat in visu, recreat in …lfact…, & comfortat in g…stu. Durand Ratio… div. offic. l. 6. p. 121.most faire, most sweet, most pleasant; for the rose delights us more then any flower * saith Durand, by its colour, and recreates us more by its odour, and comforteth us more by its taste. I am sure you will grant, that if a woman were joyned by matrimoniall copulation to a husband, as faire as Absalom, and as pleasant as Ionatham, she should not desire to goe abroad among other men for content; but rather keep home and satiate her selfe with that passing delight, which she may take in so sweet a companion, nay, should even infinitely long to be where he is, rather then any where else.
Well, Christ Jesus to whom all you, who are Gods people, are most blessedly united, and married in a mysticall and ineffable manner, is fairer then Absalom, pleasanter then Ionathan: For he is like a rose, yea, he passes any rose, as I noted formerly. For fairenesse and pleasantnesse, being the author of that fairenesse and sweetnesse, which is in all roses created, and therefore I said but now that he is most faire. And should ye not then desire to be with Christ rather then any where and with any creature else? nay, should ye not even be restlesse as long as you be out of his blessed sight, and sweetest company? and should ye not even be in paine, and regardlesse of all things else, if therein you cannot meet with your deare love Christ? Remember Asaph, who could say for his part, whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I Psal. 7. 25.desire besides thee? or * with thee, that is, like thee, or as much as thee, as if thou alone wert not my all-sufficient husband, to content me, but that I must needs associate my selfe with others, that they may satisfie me, No, No. Thou Lord art unto me all in all, sweeter then a thousand other friends, and ten thousand companions; If I may but enjoy thee, I have enough; and if I should misse thee, there is no friend, no company, no conference, no place that would or could please me; so sweet *Bernard su…e Cant. se …n. 15. mi…i, so. 125.S. Bernard could say the like, all the meat of the very soule is but unsavory, if Christ be not in it: if thou write unto me, thy writing delights me not, if I cannot reade …esus in it; if thou dispute or talke and conferre with mee, thy discourse cannot please me, unlesse Jesus do sound in mine eares; Thus he, even in those darke and misty dayes of ignorance and blindnesse, in the which he lived (neere 400 yeers before the Reformation) Floruit enim circa initium duodecim i… saeculi post Christum natum.and should not you living and flourishing under the brightest Sun-shine of Christs glorious Gospel be as much for Christ?
Quest. You will say unto me, where would you have us then to desire and to seek to be with Christ, seeing you do so charge us? Christ you know is in heaven, and you would have us to be willing to be with him here.
Answ. 1 For answer whereunto I say first, that Christ is not like unto that rose of gold, which the Pope of Rome sheweth upon a Lords day in the Lent onelyonly in Rome, which his Durand. Ration. div. affic. l. 6. fo. 121.flatterers hold to typifie the new Jerusalem, No, he is not onelyonly in one place even in heaven, which is his proper place, though his humane nature be there bodily, but he is also to be seene and to be met with here below, as he is God, shewing himself graciously present in his own ordinances, and in the hearts and meetings of his people. See Matth. 18. 20. When two or three be gathered together in my name, there I am in the middest of them, and Ioh. 17. 20. At that day you shall know that I am in my father, and you in me, and I in you.
Thus generally.
More particularly I answer;
Be willing therefore to meet him and to be with him.
1. In the word preached in the house of God, which is like the pleasant field of Sharon, where the Sunne shineth most warme and faire, so as that there you cannot misse the Lord Jesus Christ, that sweetest Rose, who hath obliged himself by promise to be there even as in Sharon field properly so called, wch lyeth most pleasantly under the warmest Sun-shine one might not want a goodly Rose springing out of that prosperous earth in Solomons dayes, and when the time of the yeer did serve. Wherefore as the little Bee loves to flie about those gardens and places which are full of Roses, as being a *Plin. Natur hist l 2…. c. 12.lover of Roses, so do ye love and like the house of God, whereas in a Rose garden you may be sure to find Christ that sweet Rose of Sharon.
2. Be willing to be with him, at and in the mysterious administration and participation of the blessed Sacrament of his sacred Supper. For there also you cannot but meet him, yea, see him with the eyes of faith, as bleeding for your sins, and being all red, as it were, like a Rose, with bleeding, in regard of that precious blood which once he shed for your immortall souls, when he died for your transgressions, and which then you do savingly and seasonably remember to have been so powred forth, as the wine is powred out, when you feast and feed your souls with that celestiall and mysticall food, which is there provided for you; nay you may even there embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in your armes, the armes I meane of faith, as that good old Simeon, held him in the armes of his body, being ready even to sing with him, for joy the same Cygnean caution, or song, which he sang, saying; Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart (home) in perce according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Luk. 2. 29, 30. Thus he, and you may adde; for our eyes of faith have now seene that sweetest Rose of Sharon, our eyes have seen his precious blood, as it were, as red as a Rose, and our souls have tasted how sweet the Lord is, even sweeter then sugared roses, and the sweetest honey; oh how good, how good, and gracious is he? and how infinite are his tender mercies, and his sweetest comforts past finding the like?
3. Be willing to be with Christ in prayer, talking and conferring with him, as freely and frequently and familiarly as a Bride with her Bridegroome, and as *Zosimas, relicto Arc…sil…o, solus ad cubiculii propere …ccu…it▪ in quo D…um fami…iter comp…l…t &c. … h…st. Eccl…s. l. 4 c. 7.Zosimas, and Latimer that blessed martyr, and worthy Bishop did, who prayed (as Mr. Foxe reporteth it, of him) as if he had seene God face to face in a most sweet and familiar manner, so let your beleeving hearts also even mount up and ascend into heaven it self, where Christ is at the right hand of God, that Christ may again descend in and with your hearts in a most sweet and inexplicable manner, returning most comfortable and heart-reviving answers, to your most gracious and heart-breaking desires, as you may see, Cant. 5. 1. I am come into my garden (meaning the Church and every *Cant. 4. 12. I… …tum di…ct…s v… nit, quando Christ…s mentes visi…at. Gr…gor. in …oc.beleeving soule which is his most delicious paradise) my Sister, my Spouse, as if he should say, it was thy heartie desire, ô my deare Spouse, that I should come into this pleasant garden; for thou saidst let my beloved come into his garden, Cant. 4. 16. and now loe here I am to answer the longing expectation of thy blessed soule, which doth even pant and thirst after me, who am the health of thy countenance and thy God, Psal. 42. 1. 2. 11. My company thou doest affect, I see, and it is most sweet unto thee, and therefore my company thou shalt have, here I am to be with thee, as thou didst desire me: for as thou takest delight in me, so do I take delight in thee, and as my voice is sweet to thee, so thine is sweet to me, Cant. 2. 14. and as I am like a rose in thy sight, most amiable and most faire, so art thou like a garden of flowers most pleasant and most fragrant in my sight, Cant. 4. 12. and as the unexpressable and sweetest comforts of my spirit which are my fruit, that I bring with me, do marvelously please thee, so do thy most *Cant. 4. 16.pleasant fruits, which are the *Vel bona opera Psellus in Cant. 4. 16.graces of my spirit, whom I find in thee, when I come unto thee, please me, and therefore behold, here I am to enjoy thee, who dost so earnestly and ardently long to be with me.
4. Be willing to be with Christ by reading much and often in the booke of God, which is like a most pleasant *Irenaeus adversus haeres. Valent. l. 5.paradise (as Irenaeus aptly resembles it) in the which the Lord Jesus Christ doth flourish, as a Rose in Sharon field, shewing himselfe thorow the very thornes of the most pricking and piercing Law of God, but especially thorow the green and reviving leaves of the soul-solacing Gospel, and so consequently throughout the whole book of God, whereof that Princely preacher, the *Ph…l…p Camerar in vita Com. Anhalt.Prince of Anhalt was wont to say; what else is the whole Scripture, but swadling clothes of the childe Jesus, he being to be found almost in every page, in every verse, and line, so as that the *Col. 3. 16.Apostle might well terme the whole word of God, the word of Christ, because he is the matter of the whole, and the contents of all the Bible, *Ideo enim Moses po…u…t aeneum serpentem non inc… gruè …st…nd…ns, quod lex Christum prophetavit. Beda in Num 21.shadowed in the Law, shewed in the Gospel, which caused *August. in Psal▪ 49. 5.St. Austine to say most aptly, Vnam vocem habent duo testamenta, The word of the Lord containes nothing but the word, which is the Lord.
5. Be willing to be with Christ in the reading of such good books as were written by good men of Christ. For we must not thinke that the Pope of Rome onelyonly is authorized to shew Christ by a rose of gold unto the people, as his *Romanus vero pontifex successor utique Petriet vicarius Iesu Christ… hunc florem fidelibus populis demonstrat. Durand. Rat. l. 6. fo. 112.flatterers doe make him beleeve. No, but every faithfull Minister of Christ may shew him forth in the best manner he can, though he be not able to doe it in golden lines and phrases, and therefore divers able men have done their best to shew Christ both by speaking and by writing unto the people of God, whose most excellent treatises are to be found extant as so many delightfull rosaries or rose-gardens, wherein Jesus Christ is most sweetly set forth, and flourishes like a rose, faire and pleasant: so as that ye may doe well to fetch a walke in them now and then, to recreate your wearied minds with the sight and smell of so fragrant and faire a flower, and to manifest that ardent and longing desire to be with Christ, wch ought to be in every one of you.
6. Be willing to be with Christ in the people of God, who also are as a most delicious garden, Cant. 4. 12. In the which this faire rose doth shew himselfe most graciously by their sweet and savory speeches, and fairest carriage, emblematizing and representing in a most fit and proportionable degree that most admirable and ravishing pleasantnesse, amiablenesse, and fairenesse which is in Christ himselfe the rose of Sharon. See Gal. 2, 20. Psal. 16. 3.
2. Be willing to be with Christ in heaven hereafter, and not so unwilling to depart this fraile life, as many are: For so you shall mount up with Elias, though not in a chariot of fire, yet upon the wings or armes of Angels into the very bosome▪ as it were of Christ, that fairest rose of Sharon, assoone as your earthly tabernacles are dissolved, and unsouled by death, you goe then to behold and to see his glorious beauty and to enjoy his sweetest society through all eternity.
*Socrates prosi…t…rse libent…r mori…ur…m ut poss… vid…e …ll…s … ve…rum h… …o…, inter … sit Or…us, H…, H… &c q…d nos si… Non …; illos: so…tus prophetarum Christum ipsum in s…a gloria. A…c…. pro…. de Mo… p 410.Socrates did professe once, that he for his part was most willing to die, that he might see those companies and assemblies of those ancient heroicall personages, Orpheus namely, Hesiodus, Homer, &c. and should not you Christians that are espoused to Christ, be infinitely more desirous to goe hence upon the summons of death, that you might enjoy the beatificall and most glorious vision of Jesus Christ, your coelestiall bridegroome, that sweetest and fairest rose of Sharon, blessed for ever? should ye not even eccho forth as it were the same words which once issued from the blessed soule of that holy Apostle, Phil. 1. 23. answering him and saying; we also have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.
3. Be perswaded likewise to manifest it, that you make more of Christ then ever you did, seeing he is so faire and so usefull, and so desirable a rose; by a mighty care to keep him still, as we keep and conserve roses over yere, in glasses and vessels of earth: so be carefull I say, to conserve Christ, that sweetest rose of Sharon, not onelyonly over yeare but every yeare, and every day of your whole race, till your very last gaspe.
Quest. If you ask me how and where would you have us to keep him?
Answ. I answer: In the vessels of your hearts, and within the compasse of your minds, striving to thinke upon him continually, even as a spouse upon her best beloved, and as *Val Max.Artemisia did ever carry in her mind her deare deceased husband Mauseolus, mingling her very drinke with his ashes: so doe you beare Christ in mind, who is your best beloved, and mingle or bestraw all your meat and drinke, and words and works with his sweetest remembrance, even as the ancient *R…manis …l a … in sp…rgere mo…a… … Thau… Nat. p 215Romanes did bestraw their meat with roses, nay, come you must promise him so much, before ye depart in the words of his spouse *Cant. 1. 4.: We will remember thy love more then wine.
2. Keep him not onelyonly by way of a holy and perpetuall recordation and mindfulnesse of him, but also by an extraordinary care to preserve and to enjoy the comfortable sense and feeling of his gracious presence in your blessed soules, imitating his faire spouse in the Canticles, who when he had him, would not let him goe, chap. 3. 4.
Quest. You will say unto me, how can we keep him if he will be gone?
Answ. I answer: as you conserve roses with sugar, so you may keep him a long time with
1. Sugred and sweet thoughts of God, and him, and his word, and saints, &c. abandoning other vain and worldly cogitations: For then we make, as it were, our minds his *Salomoni ergo (vel Christo) lectulum facimus, eum amundi solicitudinibus omnino cessamus, dum in solo desiderio Christi l… benter pausan…us, eique, ut nobiscum paus…t cor abomni terrena cup…ditate mundamus, Greg. in Cant. 3. 7.bed, whereon he is then pleased to rest, Cant. 3. 7.
2. With sweet and gracious speeches and communications, if you have a care to bridle your tongues, and to refraine your lips from bitter words, and unprofitable discourses; and contrarily, to sugar the conceptions of your minds with sweet and savory expressions, tending to the glory of God, and to the edification of others; For with such communcication God is well pleased. See Luke 24. 15.
3. With sweet and gracious works, which are even able to attract him, and to draw him towards you after he hath been (in regard of his sense and feeling) absent from you; for so he saith to his faire Spouse, I am come into my garden, &c. meaning the beleeving soule, Cant. 5. 1. after she had desired him to give her a gracious visit, saying, Let my beloved come into his garden, and eate of his pleasant fruits, that is, let him please and delight himselfe with these precious graces, and glorious works, which himself hath wrought by his holy spirit, as I noted formerly, that this is the meaning of that excellent Gregor. in loc Psellus in loc.place, as both Gregory and Psellus in their annotations affirme.
SECT. 19.
Christ should be used much.
2. BE willing also to make more use of Christ then ever you did yet, seeing that now you understand how that he is most like unto a rose, whose usefulnesse and medicinallnesse Petrus Andre. Matthiolus a Physician so extolleth and setteth forth in his Commentaries on the 1. Book of Dioscorides the 112. Chapter, as that I for my part must not thinke that I shall be able to magnifie them more then he did, and therefore Ile here set down his own words (which formerly I have cited in the margin) Certainly, saith he, roses are much to be magnified, and to be had in high esteeme, because they serve not onelyonly for an ornament to beautifie our gardens, and are most delightfull to the eye, but also because they be used in the most excellent medicines, whereby the life of man is succoured. Thus he, and therefore how may we extoll and magnifie, say I, the Lord Jesus Christ, that most admirable Rose of Sharon, which must needs be more then infinitely more medicinall, being the Creator, then all roses created. Make use of him therefore, as men make use of roses in such cases as these.