Do accept a few thoughts more upon this verse, of the evil days which may come on the mystical Body of Christ, which is drawn together, acts, moves, and is kept together by the strong Silver Cord of everlasting love. I drew them with the Cords of Love, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.—This keeps the whole Body together; and Paul tells us to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Love is the bond; put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. This is the Cord that draws us to heaven: this unites us in heart to Jesus. Love as a principle, and as shed abroad in the heart, unites us to his Truth, his Ways, his Ministers and his People. When this is sweetly felt, and especially in that degree the Apostle speaks of, when perfect, that is eternal love comes in, it casts out fear, which hath torment: to live under this influence is truly blessed, but such seasons are short, they are pleasant days truly; and in our first setting out, or some part of our pilgrimage, we do experience them truly blessed. So did Solomon, but he had some evil days, when his own corrupt heart overflowed with sin, which brought on a sad distance between God and his soul. This is also attended with a shyness to the Household of Faith, and very few pleasant seasons in God’s House of Prayer. No love is felt to Jesus, and scarce a desire after him; very little affection is felt to faithful ministers, as there is but little received under their message, which used to be so sweet to them, and their love to ministers so strong, for the truth’s sake. Thus, by contracted guilt, the cord of love is loosed, not in God, but in our exercise of this grace. So of those we once viewed saints, many we have proved to be nothing but hypocrites; some only mumping a living under the mask of religion; some lying in wait to deceive; some watching for our halting, to find something amiss in our conduct; and if they can catch any thing, it is marrow and fatness to their bones. Tattling, lying, backbiting, jealousies, and evil speaking. These things we begin to discover, and groan on account of them in Professors, till we can hardly help exclaiming with the Prophet, There is none upright among men, the best of them is a briar, the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. Very little spiritual love being now felt, the Silver Cord, appears to be loosed, not that the principle is lost, but God is teaching the Believer wisdom, and directing the principle of love to the proper object, even to the Household of Faith—not to every Professor, but only to those who stand manifest in our consciences, that they are taught of God; yet it must be acknowledged that while the heart is shut up from the exercise of love it is an evil, a trying day. Sin on the conscience, backsliding, getting into a worldly spirit, the affections being entangled with creature love—these things bring on evil days. O! what a mercy to have the heart right with God. When the soul is thus filled with love, it is always attended with an illuminated mind, a mind receiving the truth. Charity rejoiceth in the truth, believeth all things God hath said, as well as hopeth for what God hath promised. But it is possible to stumble upon the dark mountains; God may cause darkness to come on the mind, the judgment to be bewildered, and errors to creep in—the Golden Bowl may be broken.—Ephraim, says God, is oppressed and broken in judgment, either by evil men, who lay in wait to deceive, or by a curious spirit, which a Believer may be plagued with, till he has imbibed some error, which leads him into darkness, bondage, and misery. A sound judgment is valuable, like a Golden Bowl, but many of God’s children have got proud, and God has permitted Satan to lay a snare for their feet, a haughty Spirit before a fall, and into awful errors they have run, till days of trouble have come on, and they have found out their errors. Moreover, real contrition for sin; a heart affected with grief after the Saviour, mourning on account of him.—Compunction and godly sorrow of heart is precious, is valuable to God; with this sacrifice he is well pleased; this is a Golden Bowl broken indeed, in the best of senses. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. The Silver Cord of Love, the Golden Bowl of a sound Judgment, and an heart influenced by the Spirit of Grace, are in sweet connexion; these make a Believer shine in the Church—such are valuable characters, but they are few. My soul desired the first ripe Fruit.
The Pitcher may be broken at the Fountain. Our Lord Jesus is a never-failing Fountain in his Person, in his Offices, in his Love, and in his Work. He is the Fountain of all spiritual and eternal Life. What a deep, never-failing, abundant source of all good he is to his Covenant People. He is a fountain of Gardens for his Church, a Fountain of living Waters, and a Fountain opened for Sin and Unclearness. Faith wrought in the heart, may be compared to a Pitcher, which draws its supplies from that inexhaustible source of all blessings. It receives the Atonement into the conscience, it is the great Artery in the spiritual Body, which conveys peace and joy through the whole soul, as it receives the precious Blood from the heart of Christ, and every other blessing is in this one, Jesus died for me. While Faith is thus busied, the exercises of Religion, like a wheel, go their happy round to the Cistern of Gospel Ordinances; for a while Faith is thus exercised on Jesus, the mind, the soul is made willing, and rolls its happy round, like a wheel well oiled. Faith is going to the Fountain while the Believer is willingly running the way of God’s Commands. It is worthy our notice, that all the treasures of blessings in Christ, are compared to a Fountain; but in Ordinances, in Ministers, and Means, it is but a Cistern. Hence the folly of those who seek salvation in their round of duties; they forsake the Fountain, and cleave, in general, to those Cisterns that can hold no water. Faithful Ministers and Gospel Ordinances hold the Water of Life, and wisdom declares the man of understanding shall draw it out. This I dare say you can prove in your own experience; if your soul is, through faith in the Person and Work of Jesus, happy in his love—all the while the Pitcher of Faith is bringing you such supplies, you can come as regular to the Cistern of Gospel Ordinances, and as willing as a wheel, well set in motion, goes its round. In such days of the Power of Faith, we are made willing to believe, to do, to suffer, and to obey. Such days we have had, but we have had some evil days besides, some opposite reasons, when the Pitcher of Faith appeared to be broken, for all the good it did for us; it ceased to act, at least in the way it had done; it brought no grace, no love, no joy, no comfort; it was like a Broken Pitcher; not that it can cease to exist, as a principle, but only in its motions, ’tis weak, low, and of course the mind must be low, and the wheel move slowly, if it moves at all, in Ordinances, in Conversation, in Prayer, in Reading, and every other religious Exercise. Ah, my dear friend, have you not met with such days of evil? but all things work together for good, even those sins, those hindrances to our comfort, shall terminate right; for the elder sin shall serve the younger. Sin makes us pray, cry, groan, wrestle, entreat; this makes Faith grow and increase, and what belongs to God ascends to him, gravitates to its own centre. Faith comes from him, is busied about him, affections go to him, hope centers in him, patience waits on him, humility is precious to him; this is the fruit of his own Spirit, and we find by daily experience, that the Spirit goes to God who gave it, while all that is carnal in us will cleave to the dust, to sin, to the world, to all that is opposite to God; like loves its like, that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit, and delights in spiritual objects; that which is born of the Flesh is Flesh, and is desirous of sensual gratification. This is the Believer’s affliction; but we shall soon be done with time, and commune upon an eternal scene, when all that belongs to the earth, to the dust, will return to it, and all of me, and belonging to me, will return to him from whom it came. The Lord carry on his Work in your soul and mine; and while we live, may we be enabled, through all, and by all our evil days, to distinguish between the Dust and the Spirit, the Old-Man and the New—to watch the operations of both; lament the one, and bless God for the other.
Yours in him,
FINIS.