The intercourses of divine love betwixt Christ and his Church, or, The particular believing soul metaphorically expressed by Solomon in the first chapter of the Canticles, or song of songs : opened and applied in several sermons, upon that whole chapter : in which the excellencies of Christ, the yernings of his gospels towards believers, under various circumstances, the workings of their hearts towards, and in, communion with him, with many other gospel propositions of great import to souls, are handles / by John Collinges ...

Sermon LXII.

Cantieles 1. 17.

The Beams of our House are Cedar, and our Rafters are of Fir.

I Come to the second Proposition, which I have observed out of these words.

Prop. 2. That the Word and Ordinances of God are the Beams and Rafters of his House, which is his Church.

So I chose rather to interpret these metaphorical terms than (as some) concerning Persons. I shall shew you the propriety of the Me∣taphor in a few particulars.

1. Beams and Rafters are integral parts of an House, indeed part of the substance of it, without which there can be no House. An House may want a due proportion of Beams and Rafters, and yet be an House; but some there must be, some more principal Beams and Rafters, or there can be no House; Without the Word and Or∣dinances of God, there can be no Church of God. Every company of men make not a Church, but a company owning the Word of God, and walking in the Fellowship of Ordinances; these make an House of God. A Church may for a time (it may be for some long time) want some particular Ordinances, and yet be a true Church of God, but its state must be lame and imperfect. But if it want all the Or∣dinances, if it wants the Word and Sacraments, which are the Church's Beams, it cannot be a Church of God. It is lame if it wants any Ordinance of God, but it loseth the nature of a Church if it wants all Ordinances. That which makes a Church to be a Church, is Union and Fellowship; now the Word of God, and the Doctrine of Faith contained in the Word and the Ordinances for Worship and Order, are those things in which the Church hath its Fellowship, by which the Members of the Church have Fellow∣ship both with God, and also one with another.

2. The House is built upon Beams and Rafters, and they bear up the weight of the other materials. The weight of every Tile in the House lies upon the Rafters, and the whole Building is laid up∣on the groundsel and dormans, and wall plates, and studds; all which come under these two Notions of Beams and Rafters. The Church of God also is builded upon the Word of God; this is that which the Apostle, Eph. 2. 20. calls the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets; the Faith and Obedience of every particular Member of the Church is builded upon the Word of Promise, and the Word of Precept. Our Faith is built upon the Promises of the Word; our Obedience upon the Precepts, they are the Foundations, and Rule of all Holiness. The whole weight of every particular Soul is laid upon the Word, and the weight of the whole Church lies upon the Word of God. Look as it is in an earthly house builded with the hands of men, if the Beams prove false or untrusty, or the Foun∣dations prove unsure, the whole Building either sinks and falls, or at least sways this or that way: So it is with the Church as to the

Word of God; yea so it is as to every particular Soul; the secu∣rity of the particular Soul, and the whole Fabrick of the Church, depends upon the truth, and sureness, and permanency of the Word of God. If the Word of God should not hold sure, if the Truth of God could be found a Lye, all our Faith and Hope is in vain. The very notion of a Church is a Chimaera, and the greatest concernments of it are buried up in ruines. It is the Word of God that is the Basis of the Church, and the Basis of every individual Soul, that is a Mem∣ber of that Church.

3. The Beams and Rafters of an House, as they support the burthen, and bear the weight of the Building: so they also unite the parts and sides of it; they are the Mediums of Union to it; so is the Word and Ordinances to the Church: The Word is the Foundation upon which the Church, and every particular Soul is builded; and the Doctrine of Faith, and the Ordinances of God, are the means of Union in it. I do not think that an Explicit Covenant-Union, is ne∣cessary to the constitution of a Church: I think that Union which the whole Church hath in the Profession of the same Doctrine of Faith, and in the practice of the same Ordinances & Rules of Wor∣ship, is sufficient to make up such an Union amongst all Gospel Professors, as may justifie the denomination of a Catholick Church. And again, an agreement in the Profession of the same Faith, and the practice of the same Ordinances in the same place, is enough to make up a particular Church of God. Look as in a Building, let the walls be at never so many foot distance one from another, yet the beams or dormans that go across the Building, unite them together, and make them all but one and the same Building: So it is with the whole number of Professors, scattered over the face of the whole Earth, though part of them be in England, part in France, part in Germany, part in other parts of the World, yet the same Doctrine and Profession of Faith, and the practice of the same Ordinances of Worship running through them all, makes the whole but one Body, one Church, the House of the Living God.

4. Look as it is with the Beams and Rafters; the purer, and stronger, and more substantial they are, and the more intire and homo∣geneous they are, the stronger the House is: So it is as to the Word and Ordinances of God; the purer the Doctrine of Faith, and Ordi∣nances for Worship are, the stronger and better the Church is. If the Beams of an House be sappy, or rotten, or patched up of seve∣ral heterogeneous pieces, the weaker the House is, and more subject

to fall, and to decay: So it is with the Church, which is the House of the Living God. If the Doctrine of Faith, owned and professed in it, be as it were heart of Oke, pure Doctrine, taken out of the heart of the Written Word, not sappy through the additions of Humane Inventions, nor heterogeneous, part of it the pure Word of God, part of it the meer Fancies and Doctrines of men; if the Ordinances for Worship practised in it, be pure Ordinances, if the Tabernacle be according to the Pattern of the Mount, according to the form of sound words, and pure Rule of the Gospel, the Church is fair, and glorious, and strong, the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; but if otherwise, if the Doctrine of Faith professed in it be mingled with the Clay of Humane Fancies and Errours; if the Ordinances of Worship practised in it, be full of the sap of Traditions and Ceremonies, the Church is a declining, decaying Church, and hath no strength in her. The reason is, because God will not continue with such a Church. The Psalmist saith of the Church, God is in the midst of her, therefore she shall not fall; now they must be golden Candlesticks in the midst of which God walk∣eth. But thus much may be sufficient to shew you the propriety of the Metaphor. Let me shortly Apply this before I pass on to the other Proposition.

This (in the first place) commends unto us the Excellency of the Word of God, and the Doctrine of Faith contained in it, and the Ex∣cellency of Gospel Ordinances; they are the Beams and Rafters of the House of God, hewed out, framed and fitted to the Building, by him who was the Master-builder, the Lord Jesus Christ, and laid by him. The Apostle, 1 Cor. 3. 10, 11. saith, that as a wise Master∣builder he had laid the Foundation, and another builded thereon—v. 11. Other Foundation could no man lay, than that already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Christ is called the Church's Fundamentum, its Foun∣dation, and he is the lapis angularis, the corner stone, as is contain∣ed in the Scripture. Saith St. Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 6. Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, ele••t and precious; the head of the body, Col. 1. 18. He from whom the whole body fitly joyned together, and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth, according to the effe∣ctual working in the measure of every part, Eph. 4. 16. Our Divines say, that Christ is the Foundation of the Church in a double sense. 1. He is Fundamentum Salutis, the Foundation of Salvation in the Church: The Salvation of every Soul lieth upon his shoulders, Act. 4. 12. Neither is there Salvation in any other. 2. He is Fun∣damentum

Fidei, & Cultus, the Foundation of Faith, and Doctrine of Worship and Order, the Foundation of Doctrine and Ordinances, I say: And as no man can lay any other Foundation of Salvation than Christ; so neither can any lay any other Beams of Doctrine or Institutions for Worship, but what Jesus Christ hath laid. Christ, by himself, and by his Apostles, laid these Foundations and Beams of Doctrine and Worship; from the Gospel of Christ, and the Writings of the Apostles must be drawn, the Articles for the first, and the Canons for the latter: And the whole Building of the Church de∣pends upon these Foundations and Beams. Let the Word of Faith, or the Purity of Worship fail from the Church, or any part there∣of, it presently ceaseth to be a Church of God, and turns into an Antichristian Synagogue. Now I say, this commends to every Chri∣stian, the Doctrine of Faith, and the Ordinances of God. There is an Excellency in Entity or Being: Hence whatsoever it be which gives Being to a thing, and without which it would not be (at least not such) hath a great Excellency in it; and the more noble the thing is, to which Being is given, the more Excellent is the Form by which it hath such Being. The Soul of man gives Being to a man: The Body without the Soul is but a lump of flesh, a piece of Clay; the Soul informeth, and inliveneth, and giveth an Humane Being to it; separate that from it, and the man is no more. Some Philosophers have vainly dreamed of an Amma Mundi, a general Soul of the World, which should give Form, Life, Motion to every part of the World. Now as the Soul of a man is more excellent than any Souls of Beasts, because it is the Principle of a more Noble Being, so (doubtless) if there were any such Universal Soul, which gave Life, Being, Motion, Form, Union, to all the World, it would be a more excellent substance than any particular Soul is. But God himself supplieth that place. Now The Word and Ordinances of the Gospel, though they be not Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World. Yet they are Anima E••clesiae, as it were the Soul of the Church of God, without which the Church would be no such thing as the Church of the Living God: They are those things which make the Church to be a Church; and the whole Church to be but one Church. Let this therefore engage every Christian to prize the Word, and to prize the Ordinances of the Gospel. That's the first Branch.

Hence in the second place you may observe, what is a sad Symp∣tom of a decaying Church, and by this you may also discern a lame

and imperfect Church. Look as in a Building there are some more principal Beams and pieces of Timber, without which there can be no House, no Building: Others that are integral parts, without which the Building is not compleat, yet the House may be an House, though lame and imperfect. So it is in this case, without the Doctrine of Faith, and some Ordinances of Worship, the Church is no Church. If any part of the Doctrine of Faith be wanting, or corrupted in a Church, the Church is (however true) yet lame and imperfect. Suppose a Church wholly want some Ordinances, (as some do the Ordinances of Ecclesiastical Censures) yet they are not by this made no Church, if they have the Doctrine of Faith, and some Ordinances of Worship; much less ought a Church to be so cen∣sured, for the temporary want or suspension of the Exercise of some Ordinances, (which was the case of the Jewish Church in the Wil∣derness as to Circumcision) but yet the Church that wanteth such Ordinances is imperfect and lame. And again I say, this is a sad Symptom of a decaying Church, when either the Doctrine of Faith, or Ordinances of Worship, are denied, or corrupted in it; for these are the Beams and Rafters of the House; and every one grants that House to be a decaying, declining House, where the Beams and Rafters are rotten. We need no further Evidence of this than what we have in God's Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia, recorded by St. John in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation. The Church of Smyrna was a decaying Church: The Doctrine of Balaam, and of the Nicolaitans was holden in it. The Church of Thyatira was a decaying Church, for the Woman Jezebel taught, and seduced the Servants of God in it. And but a while after, (these Rafters and Beams being decayed) these Houses of God fell, and to this very day lie in their rubbish. From that time that Jeroboam set up the Calves at Dan and Bethel, and the Kings of Judah set up Altars in Groves, the Church of the Jews was a de∣clining, decaying Church, and the Rulers of it, and Members of it having no heart timely to repair, and reform it, the House fell. It is true, God raised it again after the Captivity, but it decaying the second time, fell, and lies buried in its Ruines this day.

Thirdly. From this Notion, may be drawn a great argument both for unity, and uniformity. Ʋnity in matters of faith. Ʋnifor∣mity in matters of practice. The Doctrine of unity in the Church of the Gospel is exceedingly pressed in Scripture, scarce is there any one of the Epistles of the Apostles, in which, it is not again

and again pressed; Be of one mind: there is a double union, which is our duty to labour after. The first is unit as fidei: the unity of faith, as to the understanding. The second is unit as Charit at is quoad affectum, the unity of Love, and Charity as to the affecti∣ons. The latter of these hath been highly pleaded for in these sinful, and wofully divided times: and indeed never more need of it, but it hath not been duly considered, that considering the corrupt state of man, The former union must be the Mother of the latter. For as all love is founded in some similitude, so this love and affection where it hath any where grown up to its due heighth, we shall find, hath been founded in the similitude of understanding, and de facto it is evi∣dent, that amongst Christians of different persuasions in the things of God, there hath seldom been an intireness of cor∣dial affection. Indeed these things ought not to be: there∣fore I do not Commend them, nor yet blame the exhorta∣tion of brethren of divided Principles to an union in affection, forbearing one another where all things have not been alike revealed to all; but such is the corruption of our natures, that this is rather optandum, then sperandum, to be wished for rather than hoped, for if there could be unity in Judgment and unifor∣mity in practice, (which the Apostle calls a thinking and a speak∣ing the same things) the other union of affection would follow more readily: O let us labour for this. There is but one truth; but one true rule of Worship. This Doctrine, these rules are contained in the Word of God: these are the Beams and Rafters of the Church, and if the same Beams and Rafters run through the whole Church, and be upon every part of the roof, we may expect that the building should be strong, and durable; on the other side, the difference of these Beams and Rafters, whiles one Church holds one thing in ma••ter of faith, another Church holdeth another thing; nay, whiles one particular Chri∣stian believes one thing, another Christian believes another thing, whiles this Church, or this Christian Worships God af∣ter one way and order, another Church, or other Christians, they Worship God after another way: though indeed it is possible their differences may not be so great, but they may yet agree in one and the same head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and so both parties differing may at lest be saved, yea it may be their differences are not so great, but there may be a just for∣bearing

one of another (provided all Christians were of equal understandings, or that they rightly understood each other;) yet doubtless, this breach of unity, as to matters of Judgment, in things relating to the Doctrine of Faith, and breach of Ʋnifor∣mity as to matters of practice, is a great weakening of the Church of God, and much spoileth the beauty, and glory of it: O there∣fore study unity, and study uniformity: you strengthen the build∣ing by both these, you weaken it, by dividing or disagreeing (at least to open notice.) It is to me very remarkable that St. Paul almost in every Epistle presseth these things, and Phil. 4. 2. when but two women dissented, he thought it worthy of his pains to persuade them to it: I beseech Euodias, and I beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. Doest thou therefore O Christian, differ from other Christians amongst whom thou livest, in any matter of faith, or in any matter of pra∣ctice, as to fellowship in Ordinances? sit not down Satisfied, but labour for this unity, for this uniformity. And as means to it, let me but offer you my thoughts.

1. I would have Christians open hearted and free in the dis∣covery of their dissents. It is one of the great plagues of our times, that Christians are not free one with another, but lock up their private opinions, and make it a great piece of their art to conceal themselves and to lurk under ambiguous phrases, &c. It is true some are too open: the Apostle Commands him that in an indifferent thing hath a particular faith, to have it to himself before God, Rom. 14. 22. that is to be understood as to the open publishing of it to the disturbance of others, and the offence of the weak: but in the mean time (doubtless) a prudent discovery of such dissents, to able and faithful Persons of a differing Judgment, would much contribute to the unity of Christians.

2. Especially 2dly, If they would be willing to be convinced, and to hear arguments against themselves, to bring forth their strong reasons and to hear others bring forth theirs also: I know not how it comes to pass, that Christians who have Spiri∣tual sores, in their understandings and Judgments, are very loth to discover them, and are impatient of having them touch∣ed (at least) at first, would Christians be willing to take Satis∣faction, and give Satisfaction each to other, many of our dif∣ferences in Doctrine and practice would easily be composed;

especially if to their mutual discourses to this purpose they would but bring humble hearts, and pietatem discendi rather then discutiendi acumen, a pious mind to learn rather then a de∣fire to shew their quaintness in arguing their own cause (which Augustine lamented that he did not do in his reading the Scrip∣tures whiles he was a young man.)

3. And 3dly, If to all this Christians would add Prayer unto that God who revealeth truth to his People, it would highly con∣tribute to this unity I am pleading for, it is a piece of Christs intercession for us that we might be one.

4. And lastly, Would Christians (as becomes such as are humble) if after all due means used for mutual Satisfaction, and attaining to this happiness, but learn that piety and prudence which the Apostle Commands and reason dictateth, viz. To keep the things wherein they dissent to themselves and walk together so far forth, as they have mutually attained, and are mutually agreed: certainly this would go very far, and if this course did not ful∣ly contribute to preserve the strength and beauty of the Beams, and Rafters, of Gods house amongst us; yet the weakness of them, or rather indeed our weakness would not be so manifest to our enemies nor our nakedness so much discovered unto them that hate us.

Is the Doctrine of faith? And are the Ordinances of God, the Beams, and Rafters of the Church? How much are we then all concerned to keep them in their strength, and purity, and beauty. We are Commanded to contend earnestly for the faith, which was delivered once to the Saints, Jude. 3. and to strive to∣gether for the faith of the Gospel, Phil. 2. 7. there is a striving about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, which the Apostle warns Timothy against, 2 Tim. 2. 14. and there is a striving about things that are indifferent and it may be grant∣ed on both sides to be so. These are vain janglings and unpro∣fitable strivings. But there is a striving for the Doctrine of faith, against Haereticks, and erroneous Persons, and there is a striv∣ing for a true Worship of God, and a pure administration of Or∣dinances, according to the rule of the word, without the mix∣ture of Ceremonies and humane Inventions. In these things Christians that are members of the Church, stand highly con∣cerned to strive: To strive to maintain, the Word of God, and the Doctrines of faith contained in them, that they be not cor∣rupted

with the leaven of errour. And to maintain the Worship of God in its perfection, that no part of it be loft: and in its purity, that the administration of it be not mixed up with hu∣mane inventions: now to strive for these things is a noble striv∣ing, and worthy of Christians: for the Ordinances of God and the Word of God they are the Beams and Rafters of the house of God, and what man is there that doth not take himself con∣cerned to take care of the Beams and Rafters of hishouse, that nothing comes to them which may expose them to a sudden putrefaction and rotenness, and indanger the whole building to fall? If a Church defends the Doctrine of the Word, and the Ordinances of God, and maintains them in their strength, beauty, purity, they will defend it. There can be no instance given of Gods leaving any Church, so long as the Doctrine of faith re∣mained in it incorrupted, and the Ordinances of God abode in it and were administred in their power, strength and purity. But this is enough to have spoken to the 2d Proposition: the 3d yet remains.

Notes

• Use 1.
• 1 Cor. 3. 10, 11.
• 1 Pet. 2. 6.
• Col. 1. 18.
• Eph. 4. 16.
• Acts 4. 1••.
• Use 2.
• 1 Cor. 1. 10.
• Phil. 4. 2.
• Use 4.