BY REV. EBENEZER ERSKINE.
(Continued from page 150).
III. The third thing proposed was, to speak to the holding of the King in the galleries, which is what I had principally in view.
And here I will shew what this holding of Christ supposes and implies, both on the believer’s part, and on Christ’s part. First, what does it suppose and imply on the believer’s part? 1. It necessarily supposes a meeting with Christ in the galleries; for no person can hold that which they never had. You that never knew what it was to enjoy communion with Christ in His ordinances, this doctrine is a hidden mystery to you. 2. It supposes an high esteem of Christ, a love to, and liking of, His company. We are at no pains to hold these whose company we care not for; but when we are pressing with a friend to stay with us, it says, that we value his company. Sirs, there are various opinions about Christ among the hearers of the gospel. The profane world look upon Him as a severe and tyrannical Master, and therefore they will not have this Man to reign over them; they say unto the Almighty: Depart from us. Again, carnal, lukewarm professors, see no form nor comeliness in Him why He should be desired; and therefore they are ready to say with the daughters of Jerusalem: What is thy Beloved more than another beloved? They cannot see any taking excellency in the King of Zion. But it is otherwise with the believer; the glory and beauty of Christ darkens all created excellency in his eye; his language is, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. He is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood; the standard-bearer among ten thousand. 3. On the believer’s part, this holding of Christ supposes a fear of losing Him or of being deprived of His company. The soul that has met with Christ is afraid of a parting. It is true, the believer has no ground to fear the loss of Christ’s real and gracious presence; for the union between Christ and Him is indissolvable; that promise can never fail—”I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” But as for His sensible and comfortable presence, they both may and frequently do lose it; the child of light many times walks in darkness. Now, it is the loss of this presence of Christ that the soul fears, when it is concerned to hold, or bind the King in the galleries. Neither is this a fear of despondency, but a fear of activity and diligence. 4. It supposes a seeming willingness in Christ to withdraw from His people after their sweetest enjoyments. Many times Christ’s carriage, in His dispensations towards His people, seems to have a language much like that to Jacob, when He said to him, Let me go; or like His carriage towards the two disciples going to Emmaus, He made as if He would leave their company and go on in His way. And His carriage seems to have this language, especially when He challenges them for bad entertainment they have formally given Him, when He lets loose the tempter to buffet them, after signal manifestations, or when He trysts them with sharp troubles and afflictions. In all these cases He seems, as it were, to be turning about the face of His throne from them. 5. It implies a holy solicitude, and earnest desire of soul, to have His presence continued. When Christ is hiding, there is nothing the believer desires more than His return. O that I knew where I might find Him! And when they have found Him, there is nothing they desire more than to keep His company, or that He would not be any more to them as a stranger or wayfaring man. Oh! says the soul, when it gets a meeting with the Lord Jesus, a bundle of myrrh is my Well-beloved unto me; He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts, Cant. i. 13. As if she had said, “if He will stay with me, I will deny Him nothing I can afford, I will entertain Him with the highest evidences of cordial affection.” 6. It implies an ardent breathing of soul after more and more nearness to Christ, and further discoveries of Him. There is not such a high discovery of Christ attainable in this life, but there is ay a step beyond it. The believer would always have more of Christ, Cant. ii. 5. The Spouse there is brought into the banqueting house, and allowed to feast and feed liberally upon the Redeemer’s love, and to sit down under His displayed banner; and yet at that very instant she cries out, Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. As if she had said, “Let me lie down among these comforts; let me roll myself perpetually among the blessed apples of the Tree of Life.” They who have got so much of Christ as to be staled of His company never knew what His presence was. 7. It implies a firm resolution not to part with His company: I held Him, says the Spouse, and would not let Him go, Cant. iii. 4. The like we see in Jacob, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me,” that is, I am resolved that thou and I shall not part, cost what it will. 8. It implies a cleaving or adhering to Christ with the whole strength and vigour of the soul. Question? How, or wherein does the soul put forth its strength in cleaving to Christ? I answer, it does it by these three especially. First. By the lively exercise of faith. Hence faith is called an apprehending of Christ, and a cleaving to Him, as Barnabas exhorts the Christians at Antioch to cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart. The poor soul says to Christ in this case, as Ruth did to Naomi, “Intreat me not to leave thee, nor to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” An instance of this cleaving to Christ, we have in the Cannaanitish woman; she, as it were, clasps Him, and will by no means quit her grip, notwithstanding all repulses. Secondly. The soul binds or holds Christ in the galleries by sincere and ardent love. Love is a very uniting affection; by this one soul cleaves to another. As Shechem’s soul did cleave to Dinah, and Jonathan’s to David; so by the love the soul cleaves to Christ; and this is a cord that cannot be easily broken, Cant. viii. 7. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it, if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned. See for this also, Rom. viii. 35. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” etc. Thirdly. The soul cleaves to Christ by fervent and ardent prayer. Jacob held the Angel of the Covenant, and would not let Him go, Hos.* xii. 34. By his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power over the Angel and prevailed: for he wept and made supplication unto Him. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man has a strange prevalence with Christ; it offers a holy kind of violence to Him; and so binds Him in the galleries that He cannot depart. Thus you see what it implies on the believer’s part.
Scottish for always*.
Secondly. What does it imply on Christ’s part, the King is held in the galleries?
- It implies amazing grace and condescension toward the work of His own hands! He humbles Himself even when He beholds the things that are in Heaven; much more when He bows the Heavens, and walks with His people in the galleries of ordinances; and yet more when He is held by them in the galleries. This is such strange condescension, that Solomon, the greatest of kings, and the wisest of men, wondered at it; and wise men do not wonder at trifles. Will God, (saith he) in very deed dwell with men on the earth? 2. It implies Christ’s great delight in the society of His people. He loves to be among them; where two or three of them are met in His name, He will be in the midst of them. He rejoiced from all eternity in the habitable part of the earth, and His delights were with the sons of men, Prov. viii. 31. 3. It implies that there are certain cords which have a constraining power to stay with Him in His people’s company, and sure they must be strong cords wherewith Omnipotency is bound. I mention two or three. First, He is bound by the cord of His own faithfulness, which He has laid in pawn in the promise. He has promised, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee; and He will not deny His Word, His Covenant He will not break. This was the prevailing argument wherewith Moses detained Him in the camp of Israel, when He was threatening utterly to consume that wicked people. Exod. xxxii. 10-13. Let me alone, saith the Lord to Moses, that I may consume them. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them. I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven. He binds them with His own Covenant, ratified with the solemnity of an oath. Secondly, He is bound in the galleries by the cord of His own love. As a compassionate mother cannot leave her child, when it cleaveth to her, and clasps about her: So Christ’s compassionate heart will not let Him leave His people; His love to them surpasses the love of the most compassionate mother or tender-hearted parent. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me, Isaiah, xlix. 15-16. Thirdly, He is bound to them by the bond of marriage. Thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name: He has betrothed them to Himself in righteousness, judgment, loving kindness, and mercies; and He rejoiceth over them, as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride: and because of this He will not, He cannot leave them.