The Intercourses of Divine Love Betwixt Christ and His Church, To the reader
TO THE READER.
SOme few years ſince, I was prevailed with to publiſh ſome diſcourſes upon the Second Chapter of this excellent Song. I had then by me theſe upon the firſt Chapter, but they being compoſed in my younger years, I was deſirous firſt to peruſe them, before I ſuffered them to come forth into the World, ſince which time I have had ſo little reſt that the peruſal of them hath taken up much longer time than I then thought upon. The publiſhing of my diſcourſes upon the Second Chapter firſt obliged me to take ſomething out of theſe diſcourſes, to make thoſe as intelligible as I could, concerning the Penman, of the Book, and the Nature form, and ſtile of it, which I have here reſtored to their due place with ſome advantage (all thoſe things falling in to the handling of the firſt verſe) I am not, upon the perſual of notes compoſed ſo many years ſince, my ſelf much pleaſed with the largeneſs of my diſcourſes upon the five or ſix firſt verſes, occaſioned from the variety of Propoſitions raiſed from them, but there are couched in thoſe verſes ſome very great points, and my conſulting ſo many expoſitors as I did, together with my proneneſs to ſuſpect my own judgment rather then thoſe whom I had reaſon to prefer before my ſelf, was the cauſe of that. Nor did I think it much material, if I ſaw a Propoſition offered me by any valuable interpreter as feunded on one of thoſe verſes, which I ſaw was a Propoſition of truth, and juſtifiable from other Scripture, whether it were certainly there founded or no, for he pretends to too much skill, that will be too poſitive in giving the ſenſe of a metaphor in this or that Text. It is enough for a modeſt Interpreter to give a probable ſenſe of ſuch expreſſions, and to prove it from a plainer Revelation. I hope thou wilt be ſo charitable to me, as to think that I troubled not a Popular auditory, with all that thou wilt find here in the opening of the ſeveral verſes. I bleſs God I was never ſo idle as to make up diſcourſes to people of what I knew they did not underſtand. What I found in my notes put in for my own Satisfaction I have let go, not knowing but my book might fall into the hands of ſome Scholar, who might be able to judge from what Satisfied me, upon what grounds I formed ſuch Propoſitions of truth as I did from the ſeveral verſes ſo preparing the matter of more Popular, and practical diſcourſe. I bleſs God I always looked upon the work of the miniſtry, as the moſt grave, and ſerious employment under Heaven, whether the Miniſter ſpeaks with reference to explication or application. In the firſt he acts as an Interpreter, making the words of the eternal God, more plain, and intelligible to the infirm capacityes of his people. How great is that work to be the Lords Interpreter? In the latter he acts as an Ambaſſador, perſuading, and offering terms of peace between God, and man, and uſing all his art in intreating men to be reconciled to God. Who is ſufficient for theſe things? As to the former we have no more accommodate means, then ſearching the Original texts, comparing the uſage of words in one Text with the uſage of them in others, conſulting Interpreters who have gone before us, then uſing our own judgments, as to what they have ſaid, or our own thoughts ſhall further ſuggeſt to us; thou wilt diſcern that this is the method I have uſed, and if in any thing I have been miſtaken, I have erred neither wilfully nor ſingly. When I had examined the ſeveral verſes, my work was to raiſe Propoſitions from them ſo interpreted, to open them, to juſtify them to be divine truths from other places of plainer Revelation. For my method, and ſtile, it is what I judged moſt accommodate to the end of my work. No man diſcourſeth to any length upon a ſubject without a method, ſome uſe a Cryptick method, which is only for their own conduct, others a plainer method for the advantage of others, the former may do well enough in the Schools, where the end is only to raiſe ſome ſubitaneous affections; I never thought it proper for the Pulpit, where the Preachers end is or ſhould be, to inform his People in the great things of God, and to affect their hearts, and in order to it he is bound to ſpeak with the beſt advantage both for their memories and underſtandings, thou wilt find I have kept to the ordinary plain method of explication, confirmation, and application. No man having drank old wine deſireth new, for he ſaith, the old is better. In the proof of Propoſitions I have rather ſtudied the evidence of holy writ, and Scriptural reaſon, then other more incertain Topicks, knowing it the duty of Miniſters to take care, that the faith of their people, may not ſtand in the wiſdom of men, but in the power of God. One plain Text of holy Writ more confirms a Propoſition of Divine truth to an underſtanding Chriſtian, then an hundred rational arguments. For my ſtile it was the leaſt of my ſtudy, my Opinion always was that what Auguſtine calls diligens negligentia, was the beſt diligence as to that; while I was yet a very young man I had learn'd out of him, that it was no Soleciſm in a Preacher to uſe oſſum for os, for (ſaith he) an Iron key is better then one made of gold, if it will better open the door, for that is all the uſe of the key. I had learn'd out of Hierom, that a gaudry of phraſes, and words in a Pulpit is but Signum inſipientiae. The words of a Preacher; ſaith he, ought pungere, non palpare, to prick the heart, not to ſmooth and coax. The work of an Orator is too precarious for a Miniſter of the Goſpel. Gregory obſerved that our Saviour hath not ſtiled us the ſugar but the ſalt of the Earth, and Auguſtine obſerveth, that though Cyprian in one Epiſtle ſhewed much of a florid Orator, to ſhew he could do it, yet he never would do ſo any more, to ſhew he would not. The ſtudy of words, the right placing of them for their better chiming, &c. I always thought a puerile, and pedantick thing, fitter for a School boy, then a miniſter of the Goſpel. Honeſt Souls when they come to hear the word do not come to ſee Reeds ſhaken with the wind of Oſtentation and Vain-glory, nor yet to ſee men clothed with the ſoft rayment of fine expreſſions and phraſes, (which for the moſt part like ſuch clothes have leaſt efficacy to warm a Soul, or to keep it in any Religious heat) they come to hear a Prophet, yea more then a Prophet, a man that ſhall reveal the mind and will of God to them. To me the moſt tunable tongues in Pulpits, always ring moſt awke. It is beneath the gravity of a Preacher to tickle a wanton Ear. The end of all words is but to convey to our minds the knowledg of things, and thoſe are the beſt words that do that beſt, grandia granditer dicenda. I never thought my ſelf further concern'd as to words, then to ſpeak intelligibly, and ſo as through no rudeneſs or indecency of phraſe to make Perſons nauſeate my diſcourſe who had a juſt Reverence for divine things. Words will always follow matter, but matter doth not always attend words. I bleſs God I early diſcerned and avoided this trifling, rather deſiring to humble that ſtile which was at my tongues end, then to ſtrain my tongue to a dialect which I either thought my People underſtood not, or was beneath the greatneſs of the ſubjects of my diſcourſe. If any think the portion of Scripture undertaken in theſe diſcourſes not fit for a Preacher, they ſhould do well to conſider, whether it be not a portion of holy writ, and ſuch a portion as the eminenteſt Divines in all ages, and of all perſuaſions have thought worthy their pains to inquire the ſenſe of. Having thus far Apologized for the following diſcourſes I leave them to thy candor and judgment, begging Gods bleſſing upon them to thy Souls advantage,
April 3. 1683. JOHN COLLINGES.