an eminent * divine fpeaks. O let the keepers of the vineyard look to and keep their own vineyard: we have a heaven to win or lofe, as well as others.

Thirdly, Let us take heed that we withhold not our know. ledge of Chrift in unrighteoufnefs from the people. O that our lips may difperfe knowledge, and feed many. Let us take heed of the napkin, remembring the day of account is at hand t. Remember, I beseech you, the relations wherein you stand, and the obligations refulting thence: Remember, the great Shepherd gave himself for, and gave you to the flock; your time, your gifts are not yours, but God's: Remember the pinching wants of fouls, who are perishing for want of Chrift; and if their tongues do not, yet their neceffities do befpeak us, as they did Jofeph, Gen. xlvii. 15." Wherefore should we die "in thy prefence? Give us food, that we may live and not die." Even the fea monsters draw forth their breafts to their young ones, and shall we be cruel! cruel to fouls! Did Chrift not think it too much to fweat blood, yea, to die for them? and fhall we think it much to watch, ftudy, preach, pray, and do what we can for their falvation? Olet the fame mind be in you which was alfo in Chrift!

Secondly, To the people that fit under the doctrine of Chrift daily, and have the light of his knowledge fhining round about them.

First, Take heed ye do not reject and defpife this light. This may be done two ways: First, When you despise the means of knowledge by flight and low efteems of it. Surely, if you thus reject knowledge, God will reject you for it, Hof. iv. 6. it is a despifing of the richest gift that ever Christ gave to the church and however it be a contempt and flight that begins low, and feems only to vent itself upon the weak parts, in artificial difcourfes, and untaking tones and gestures of the speakers; yet, believe it, 'tis a daring fin that flies higher than you are aware, Luke x. 16. "He that defpifeth you, despiseth me; and he that defpifeth me, defpifeth him that fent me." Secondly, You defpife the knowledge of Chrift, when you defpife the directions and loving conftraints of that knowledge; when you refuse to be guided by your knowledge, your light

Gildas Salvianus, p. 27.

F 2

+ We may apply to minifters what Tacitus fpeaks of magistrates, Ita nati eftis, ut bona malaque veftra ad rempublicam pertineant, i.e. On your good or bad conduct depends the good or ill of many. Tacit. Annal. lib. 4.

and your lufts conteft and struggle within you. O'tis fad when your lufts mafter your light. You fin not as the Heathens fin, who know not God; but when you fin, you must flight and put by the notices of your own confciences, and offer violence to your own convictions: And what fad work will this make in your fouls? How foon will it lay your confciences wafte?

Secondly, Take heed that you reft not fatisfied with that knowledge of Christ you have attained, but grow on towards perfection. 'Tis the pride and ignorance of many profeffors, when they have got a few raw and indigefted notions, to fwell with felf-conceits of their excellent attainments: And 'tis the fin, even of the best of faints, when they fee (veritas in profundo) how deep the knowledge of Chrift lies, and what pains they must take to dig for it, to throw by the shovel of duty, and cry, Dig we cannot. To your work, Christians, to your work; let not your candle go out: Sequefter yourselves to this ftudy, look what intercourfes, and correfpondences are betwixt the two worlds; what communion foever God and fouls maintain, it is in this way: Count all therefore but drofs in comparison of that excellency which is in the knowledge of Jefus Chrift.

Sets forth CHRIST in his effential and primeval GLORY,

PROV. viii. 30. Then was I by him, as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.

T

66

HESE words are a part of that excellent commendation of wisdom, by which in this book Solomon intends two things; firft, Grace or holiness, Prov. iv. 7. "Wisdom is the principal thing." Secondly, Jefus Chrift, the fountain of that grace and look as the former is renowned for its excellency, Job xxviii. 14, 15. fo the latter, in this context, wherein the Spirit of God describes the most blessed state of Jefus Chrift, the wifdom of the Father, from thofe eternal delights he had with his Father, before his affumption of our nature: "Then "was I by him," &c. that long Evum was wholly fwallowed up, and spent in unfpeakable delights and pleasures, Which

delights were twofold, (1.) The Father and Son delighted one in another (from which delights the Spirit is not here excluded) without communicating that their joy to any other, for no creature did then exift fave in the mind of God, verse 30. (2). They delighted in the falvation of men, in the prospect of that work, though not yet extant, verfe 31. My prefent business lies in the former, viz. the mutual delights of the Father and Son, one with and in another; the account whereof we have in the text: wherein confider,

1. The glorious condition of the non-incarnated Son of God, defcribed by the person with whom his fellowship was, "Then was I by him," or with him; fo with him as never was any, in his very bofom, John i. 18. the only begotten Son was in the bofom of the Father; an expreffion of the greateft dearness and intimacy in the world; as if he should fay, wrapt up in the very foul of his Father, embofomed in God.

2. This fellowship is illuftrated by a metaphor, wherein the Lord will floop to our capacities, (as "One brought up with him") the Hebrew word * 1 [Amin] is fometimes rendered a cunning workman, or curious artift, as in Cant. vii. r. which is the fame word. And indeed Chrift fhewed himself fuch an artist in the creation of the world; "For all things

were made by him, and without him there was nothing made, "that was made," John i. 3. But Montanus, and others, render it nutricius; and fo Chrift is here compared to a delightful child, fporting before its Father: the Hebrew root t phy [Shachak], which our tranflation renders "rejoicing be"before him," fignifies to laugh, play, or rejoice; fo that, look as parents delight to fee their children fporting before them, fo did the Father delight in beholding this darling of his bofom.

This delight is farther amplified by the perpetuity, and uninterruptedness thereof; "I was day by day his delights, rejoi cing always before kim". Thefe delights of the Father and

66

* PON [Amin] Signifies a Skilful Artift; he is pleased to affume this character, in order to fhew men, that their converfion is not owing to any strength of their own, but is the work of this skilful Artift. Brightman on Cant. i, 26.

Ridere, to laugh, PA [Shachak] ludere, to sport; laetari, to rejoice; avepronalas, after the manner of men; he compares himself to a pleasant child, ftanding before his father. Luvat. on this place.

‡ пpnVD or [Jam, Jom Meshacheketh]. Die, die Judens.

SERM. II. the Son one in another, knew not a moment's interruption, or diminution thus did thefe great and glorious perfons mutually let forth their fullest pleasure and delight, each into the heart of other; they lay as it were imbofomed one in another, entertaining themselves with delights and pleasures ineffable, and unconceiveable. Hence we observe,

Doct. That the condition and fate of Jefus Chrift before his incarnation, was a state of highest and most unspeakable de light and pleasure, in the enjoyment of his Father.

John tells us, he was in the bofom of his Father: to ly in the bofom is the pofture of dearest love, John xiii. 23," Now "there was leaning on Jefus' bofom one of his difciples "whom Jefus loved;" but Chrift did not lean upon the Father's bosom, as that disciple did on his, but lay in it: and therefore, in Ifa. xliii. 1. the Father calls him, "Mine elect in whom "my foul delighteth;" which is + variously rendered; the Septuagiat, quem fufceptit, whom my foul takes, or wraps up: others, complacuit, one that highly pleases and delights my very foul and, 2 Cor. viii. 9. he is faid, in this eftate, wherein I am now describing him, to be rich: and, Phil. ii. 7. "To be equal "with God, and to be in the form of God," (i. e,) to have all the glory and enfigns of the majefty of God; and the riches which he speaks of, was no less than all that God the Fathr hath, John xvi. 14. "All that the Father hath is mine:" and what he now hath in his exalted state, is the fame he had before his humiliation, John xvii, 5. Now, to glimple out (as we are able) the unspeakable felicity of that state of Christ, whilst he lay in that bieffed bofom, I fhall confider it three ways, negatively, pofitively, and comparatively.

1. Let us confider that ftate negatively, by removing from it all those degrees of abasement and forrow which his incarnation brought him under; as,

First, He was not then abased to the condition of a creature,

* John i. 18. Here is infinuated, metaphorically, the intimate communion of the Son of God with the Father, which consists in e ternal generation, in the strictest oneness or unity of nature, in the most ardent love, and in communication of the most secret affairs. Glaff.

Hieron. Quem approbat, i. e. Whom my foul approves. Pagninus & Montanus, Complacuit animae meae, i. e. One that highly delights my foul. The Septuagint, Quem fufceptit anima Rea, i, e. Whom my foul takes or wraps up.

which was a low step indeed, and that which upon the matter undid him in point of reputation; for by this (faith the apostle) " he made himself of no reputation," Phil. ii. 7. it emptied Kim of his glory. For God to be made man, is such an abafement as none can exprefs: but then not only to appear in true flesh, but also in the likeness of finful flesh, as, Rom. viii. 3. O what is this!

Secondly, Chrift was not under the law in this eftate. I confefs 'twas no difparágement to Adam in the state of innocency, to angels in their state of glory, to be under law to God; but it was an unconceivable abasement to the abfolute independent being to come under law: yea, not only under the obedience, but also under the malediction and curfe of the law, Gal. iv. 4. "But "when the fulness of time was come, God fent forth his Son, “made of a woman, made under the law.

Thirdly, In this ftate he was not liable to any of thofe forrowful confequents and attendants of that frail and feeble ftate of humanity, which he afterwards affumed, with the nature: As, (1.) He was unacquainted with griefs: there was no forrowing or fighing in that bofom where he lay, tho' afterwards he be came "a man of forrows and acquainted with grief," Ifa. liii. 3. "A man of forrows," as if he had been constituted and made up of pure and unmixed forrows; every day converfing with griefs, as with his intimate companions and acquaintance. (2.) He was never pinched with poverty and wants, while he continued in that bofom, as he was afterwards, when he faid, "The "foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the "fon of man hath not where to lay his head," Mat. viii. 20. Ah bleffed Jefus! thou needst not to have wanted a place to have lain thine head, hadst thou not left that bofom for my fake *. (3) He never underwent reproach and fhame in that bofom, there was nothing but glory and honour reflected upon him by his Father, tho' afterwards he was defpifed, and rejected of men, Ifa. liii. 3. His Father never looked upon him without fmiles and love, delight and joy, tho' afterwards he become a re

*He that was in the bofom of the Father; an expreffion fhewing the intimate, close, and fecret delight and love he had from the Father. How unfpeakable is it, that he fhould deprive himself of the fenfe of it? to put himself, as it were, out of heaven into hell? this is deeper love than ever we can imagine or conceive: No wonder, the apoftle calls it περισσεύων [ perileuon], and ὑπερπερισσεύων [hyperperiffeuon] the unfearchable riches of grace; we are never able to go to the bottom of it, but ftill there is more grace. and love behind. Mr. Anth. Burgefs, lett. in Jahn xvii. p. 503.