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then commending his bride, as a fharer of his beauty, notwithstanding her afflicted lot in this world, ver. 2. "As the lily among the thorns, fo is my love among the daughters."

2. We have the bride of Chrift taking her turn. in commendation of him, verfe 3. Wherein I have obferved,

(1.) The compellation fhe gives him, My Beloved. He had named her his love: and here the names him her Beloved: his love to her fired her love to him.

(2.) The commendation fhe gives him, in the following comparifon; "As the Apple-tree among the trees of the wood, fo is my Beloved among the fons." He had commended her as the faireft among women, the most beautiful among the daughters; and now the commends him as the molt excellent among the fons; as fairer than the fons of men; infinitely fairer than the most excellent creatures, men or angels: this the expreffes metaphorically, taking a view of his comparative excellency, as the apple-tree in the garden among the barren trees of the wood, So is my Beloved among

the fons."

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(3.) We have here the confirmation of this from her experience, or the improvement fe made of Chrift under this view of him as the apple-tree; I fat down under bis fhadow with great delight; and bis fruit was Sweet to my tafte. Here is faith's improvement of Chrift as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood.

More particularly, you have here thefe five things following.

1. The fubject of faith, namely, the believer, the bride of Chrift, fuppofed to be in a fcorched, wandering, weary, toiled condition; I fat down.

2. The object of faith, namely, Chrift as a fhadow or a fhadow.tree for the fcorched and weary foul.

3. The act of faith expressed under the notion of a fitting down: I fat down under his shadow.

4. The manner of faith's acting, I fat' down under his fhadow with great delight.

5. The feaft of faith that follows, or the conféquent

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good that iffues upon this acting of faith; His fruit was fweet to my taste.

I fhall endeavour the explication of each of thefe particulars in the profecution of the following doctrinal propofition.

DOCT. That faith's improvement of Chrift, as the tree of life, in whatever fad cafe the foul was into before, is a fitting down under his fhadow with great delight, and feasting fweetly upon his fruits.

Here we fee the bride of Chrift in her prefent fcorched, fun-burnt, weather-beaten cafe, what fhe did in these circumftances; I fat down under bis fhadow with great delight; and then what fhe felt in that fituation, His fruit was fweet to my tafte. The doctrine being fo much the very words of the text, I fhall effay the explication of the feveral branches thereof in the following method.

I. Confider the cafe of the believer here fuppofed. II. Speak of the object of faith, Chrift as a fhadow and fhelter for him.

III. Speak of the act of faith, as it is a fitting down under that shadow.

IV. Of the manner of faith's actings, fitting down with great delight.

V. Of this feast of faith that follows, his fruit being fweet to their taste.

VI. Apply the whole in fundry inferences.

I. The cafe of the believing foul, the bride of Christ, here fuppofed is, that fhe was fcorched with heat, wearied with labour and toil, and difquieted, while here in the weary wilderness wherein fhe needs a fhadow to protect her. She had faid, Song i. 6." The fun hath looked upon me," fo as I am fun-burnt; and my mother's children were angry with me: I am perfecuted, reproached, and abused, and ftand in need of a fhadow from the heat, a refuge from the ftorm. There is a fourfold account on which the fhadow is needed by his people.

1. Con

1. Confider them in their state by nature, before converfion, they have no reft there, but are as the raging sea, cafting forth mire and dirt. Here they may see their way vanity and folly; and yet their corruption carries them over all their convictions and refolutions, even to that which they fee to be vain: and this is the cafe of all by nature. In which state they are liable to the fcorching wrath of God, and cannot be fafe till they get under the fhadow of the apple-tree.

2. Confider them after converfion; and both in the pangs of the new birth, and after they are born again, they need a fhadow from the fiery darts of temptation: "Above all, taking the fhield of faith, wherewith ye fhall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked," Eph. vi. 16. They are ready to be fcorched with this fire, that, for ordinary, flies upon them fuddenly like a dart, and is hot and fcorching like a fiery dart; and readyto confume and deftroy the foul, and make it cry out with Jonah, "Better for me to die, than to live," chap. iv. 3. In this cafe, how much do they need a fhadow from the heat of temptation!

3. Confider them in their wandering cafe, even after they have been comfortably drawn to Chrift, they are ready to run away from God, and forget their refting place they will find, in the iffue, that by their departures, through an evil heart of unbelief, that they have forfaken their own mercies, and turned again to folly, Pfal. lviii. 8.; and that they have made but an ill bargain the Lord hedges up their way with thorns, and makes them fee it is beft for them to return to their first husband. Indeed, God's people are the greatest fools imaginable, when they begin to think that apoftafy will thrive in their hands; for a ftorm will meet them in the teeth, and make them fee the need they have of returning to their neft, under the fhadow of the Apple-tree. New difcoveries of fin and guilt may be ready to make them think their cafe to be hopeless; and yet thefe difcoveries open the door of hope, even as the law before was their fchool-mafter to lead them to Chrift.

4. Con

4. Confider them even in their best cafe, in this world, when coming a-new unto, and abiding in him, without departing from him; yet they may lay their account, that their condition in this world will be fuch as that they fhall fill need a fhadow: for, partly, Chrift will give them much ado, that he may be employed by them, and get work put in his hand by their daily errands to him; and partly alfo they must look for a scorching fun from the world, becaufe they are not of the world, and therefore they may expect that the world will hate, perfecute and abuse them: they need to be armed against daily difficulties, daily ftorms, and fcorchings; and fenced against the heat of that fun spoken of in the first chapter, "The fan hath looked upon me;" this is a fiery fun of worldly tribulations, that,

(1.) Confumes, fometimes, the man's eftate and worldly fortune, as it did Job's fheep, and oxen, and cattle, and fervants; all taken away.

(2.) It fometimes fcorches and confumes their relations and friends, as it did Job's fons and daughters; as they were eating in their elder brother's houfe, a wind comes and fmites the corners of the houfe: this was a fcorching flame indeed, infomuch that Job rofe up and covered himself with afhes, and cries out, "Naked came I into the world, and naked muft return," chap. i. 13,-22. It is a terrible fcorching heat that ftrips a man naked of all his relations, friends and brethren.

(3.) It fometimes fcorches their body; and I need go no further than Job in this alfo; he was fcorched and fmitten with fore boils, from the fole of his foot to his crown, that he took a pot-fheard, to fcrape himself withal, chap. ii. 7, 8.

(4.) It fometimes fcorches their good name, and in a manner confumes it; as not only Job's wicked wife, chap. . 9. but his godly friends reproached him, and laid to his charge much fin, and wickednefs, and hypocrify. This was one of the hottest beams of the fiery fun with which he was burnt black; and it made him cry out, "O that my grief were weighed, and my calamity. laid in the balance; for now it would be heavier than

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the fand of the fea," chap. vi. 2, 3. And while men and devils were throwing darts at him, he faw the handof God drawing the bow and fhooting the arrows at him;

The arrows of the Almighty are within me; the ter rors of God fet themfelves in array against me; the poifon thereof drinketh up my fpirit," chap. vi. 4.-. Thus the New Teftament faints alfo were fcorched,. Heb. xi. 36,-38." They had trials of cruel mockings. and fcourgings, and bonds, and imprifonments: even they, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered about in fheep-fkins and goat-fkins, being deftitute,, afflicted, tormented."-Thus you fee how the bride of Christ may be fcorched and fun-beaten.

If it is enquired, For what reafon is all this? Why, one great reafon is, their diftance from the Apple-tree,, when they are not below the fhadow thereof: and the reafon of this diftance is either more extraordinary, when the Lord, in fovereignty, withdraws; as it was with Job, from whom God did not withdraw for his fin; for he commends his fervant Job, as a perfect and up. right man, none like him in all the earth, chap. i. 1.: or, the more ordinary reafon is, the bride's withdrawing from under his thadow, through unbelief, and finning against God; "Your iniquities feparate between you and your God," Ifa. lix. 2. Yet it is to be here remembered, the distance is neither total nor final; for he faid, "I will never leave thee, nor forfake thee," Heb. xiii.5.; and that though, when diftance takes place, they want the refreshing benefit of the fhadow, yet they have his love, and his goodness and mercy to follow them; and "Tho' for a small moment he hide his face from them, yet with everlafling mercies will be gather them: for, He will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth, left the spirit should fail before him, and the foul which he hath made. He will fee their ways, and heal them; and restore comforts to them." Which proves, that

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his love is never altered toward them.

In a word, the cafe of the foul, that comes to fit down under this fhadow of the Apple-tree, isfuch a fore fcorched cafe, that fometimes the fcorchings of the fiery law are. VOL. IX.

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