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Show Why chrifts voice after abfence" more precioHI. ( Chrillians ! ) when the voice of your Beloved bath been fo common, the powerful publick revealing the will of God to you in Pulpits, hath been fo common, and fo ordinary with you, that you have been even like the Ifraelites to their Manna, you have been ready to fay , Our Soul1 loath tbi1 common-brrad. The • Word of the Lord in his Gofpel hath been undervalued by you, and plain, powerful Scriptural preachings have been little fer by, becaufe it hath not been ( like Ezechir/Jbrtad) baked with mans dung, fancy, and llrains of wit. Gofpel·Sermons have been cal· led flat and dull, and plain notions of Truth have been little re· garded, New notions only in falhion. But my beloved, if ever God turns his hand upon you, and !huts you out of his publick A1Temblies, and deprives you of your fpiritual Mini!try, you will then learn to prize the Voice of your Be/ov.d. The time hath been when it hath not been fo much the Voice of Chri{f in an Ordina11ce, which hath pleafed the wanton ears of profellion, as the voict of men handfomly dellvering that ·voice ; God grant that you may never fee the time,' when you would be glad of the meat without fuch fauce:Will you know the reafon why rhe true Spoufe of Chrill, efpecially after his abfence from tl-lem, will fo rejoyce to btar hif voice J it lies, r. In tht ntceffity of ~tiH a means to maintain our jj>iritual bri•g and weV-bemg; What IS the reafon that a poor creature that hath been ufed to a delicious fare, and then defpifed a plain diet yet when he comes to be in want is glad at a crufi of bread that a great Err.perour offers a Kingdom for a draught of wat;r? The reafon lies in the nece1Tary connellion which the Providence of God hath created ~etwixt our naturallife,.and the llrength of It, and that food wh1ch God hath created proper for the bodies of men : Our fpiri!ual life and well-being hath much rh~ fame de· pmdance upon the voice of God in his Word, that our natural life hath upon our daily bread. God hath faid, He&r and ym foult jkaU liv<, and he hath bidden us, 'Ia~t heed what ;~d hor11 we hear • . The So~ Is jPirftuallift,ftrength and comfort depends upon the vo1ce of Cbrijl tn h1s Word, I fay, upon the voice ofChrift in his Word. · I will not fay that the Soul can,.tlive with011t hearillf.. The body may liv< without eating. Mofet continued in the Mount forty days without Victuals. Elijah went in the fhength of one meal forty days: the Soul may live without publick Ordinances, God can mal1e up the want of them by more immediate influences, but why ChriflJ voice after ahfence" ntor-e preciou1. but this is not its ordinary food : God hath bidden us to Hear for the time to com<, apd the Soul may live upo_n the Word of Go~ which it hath formorly heard, and upon the mfluen~es of the Spirit which at fuch a time it may have, yea and expeel: to have from the Lord. El1jah in" the time of a famine. was fed by a Ravw, b~t yet he doubtlefs rejoyced when the famme was gone_: I f~y, 1C is the voice sf Chri{l in his Word that keep~ the Soul alrve tn an ordinary courfe. Every one that gets mto a_ P~lpn_ doth not fpeak the voice ofChrift; a man may fo (pend h1s Ume tn £~ea~h. that what he faith may be no more favoury and nounllung ~~g~ Soul than a dilh of dirt or Oones would be to his body: But b twixt a true preaching of the Gofpel, a true reveahng the ~ind and Counfel of God to peo_Pies Souls, and rhe_Soul; growt~, llrength andrnourilhment, there IS as Jull a connexron, as there IS. betwixt the life-natural and growth and Hrenr;r~ of the body, and that bread which is his proper food : and It rs as rmpollible that the Soullhould for any time want the former,and not reJoyce at the return of that enjoyment, as that a poor creature alma!~ ttarved< {bould not rejoyce when it hath got its natural food. To the l;hter a man is conltrained by a neccllity of nat~re~ to the other be is compelled lby his fpiritual nature, and thrs 1s the true reafon ofir.. .r h ·r. '-JJir 2 Secondly It if IH trHt alfo eo11cerninr_ tbevoice o; C "''"J · Spirit fPeakjng t~ the Soul,and the reafon is the· very fame. As our . Saviour faith of br~ad , Man lives not by brea~ ~nly; bHt by e~try otd tbatiJOmtlol# of the mouth of God: Sort IS rrue concernrng ~e voiceofChrill in his Word, which'. i~ 'fpirit.ua~ Bread: man Jives not by bearing only, but by -the Spmt ofGod•rn, and by·rhe word inllrudirig and making irnprellions upon the heart,ycalook·· a! it is as io the body Though brrad be a great necdfary o~ nians ·life and -without lt the body cannot live; yet there are orh~r: hi her c~nferving. caufes of !he life of man. Such ts the wo! - in g of: divine .P.rovidence up_\l~lding· our f.tc~l~ies, and: kecpm~ u gof our Souls in life. Thus It IS as to our fplrltwal hfe ., man-h . v~th· by the voice of Chnl't in his Word , not by the fouhd ~f t~e word meerly but by the vertue of the Word made by r e . pmt ofChrill etfellual to the heart; . yea .there is 3n hi_gher caufe than• this preferving the fpirituai beiflS; and- well-.b~mg of.-t~~ Squl:• and that is the.immediateliofluence_, ,~f the_ Sp1nt of Go m•;,n tainin" Ahc.Souls-union labd commumon with God. Hence·lh· ay, . ., A 3 ~ - t ere . |
