Clavis cantici, or, An exposition of the Song of Solomon

See here the condescending, the wonderful condescending of the Almighty, to be held by his own creature; to be, as it were, at their disposal, I pray thee let me go, Gen. 32. 26. and Exod. 32. 10. Let me alone, Moses; So long as a believer will not consent to quit Christ, so long keeps their •aith grip of him, and he will not offend at this importunity; ye•, he is exceedingly well pleased with it: It cannot be told how effectual prayer and faith would be, if fervent and vigorous.

See here the condescending, the wonderful condescending of the Almighty, to be held by his own creature; to be, as it were, at their disposal, I pray thee let me go, Gen. 32. 26. and Exod. 32. 10. Let me alone, Moses; So long as a believer will not consent to quit Christ, so long keeps their •aith grip of him, and he will not offend at this importunity; ye•, he is exceedingly well pleased with it: It cannot be told how effectual prayer and faith would be, if servent and vigorous.

The second step of her carriage, which is the scope of the former, ⟨p. 168⟩namely of her holding him, is in these words, till I had brought him to my mothers house, to the chambers of her that conceived me. By mother in Scripture is understood the visible Church, which is even the believers mother, Hos. 2. 2. Say to Ammi (my people) plead with your mother. So chap. 1. 6. this mother hath children, both after the flesh, and after the spirit, the former hating the latter; And, chap. 8. 5. It's the mother that hath Ordinances, for the Brides instruction. The Church visible is called the mother, because, 1. By the immortal seed of the Word, the Lord begets believers in his Church, to which he is Husband, and the Father of these children, she the wife and mother that conceives them, and brings them up. 2. Because of the Covenant-tie that stands betwixt God and the visible Church, whereby she may claim right to him as her Husband (the Covenant being the marriage-contract betwixt God and the Church) which is therefore the ground of the former relation of mother. Again, Christ is said to be brought into the Church, not only when his Ordinances are pure in her, (which is supposed to be here already; for, vers. 3. there were watchmen doing their duty, and dispensing pure Ordinances) but when there is life in them, the presence and countenance of his Spirit going along with them, that they may be powerful for the end appointed: as it was one thing to have the Temple, the type of his Church, and another, to have God's presence singularly in it; So it's one thing to have pure Ordinances set up in the Church, and another, to have Christ's presence filling them with power: Now (saith she) when I got Christ, I knew there was many fellow-members of that same Church, that had need of him, and I was importunate that he might manifest himself in his Ordinances there, for their and my good. Church-Ordinances, are the allowed and ordinary mean of keeping fellowship with Christ, and they are all empty when he is not there. Obs. 1. That even true believers have the visible Church for their mother, and it's written of them as their privilege, that they were born there