Only, from this entrance that hath been made into the
description of him with whom the saints have communion, some motives might
be taken to stir us up whereunto; as also considerations to lay open the
nakedness and insufficiency of all other ways and things unto which men
engage their thoughts and desires, something may be now proposed. The
daughters of Jerusalem, ordinary, common professors, having heard the
spouse describing her Beloved, Cant.
v. 10–16, etc., instantly are stirred up to seek him together
with her; chap. vi. 1, “Whither is thy Beloved
turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.” What Paul says of them that
crucified him, may be spoken of all that reject him, or refuse communion
with him: “Had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory;” — Did men know him, were they acquainted in any measure with him,
they would not so reject the Lord of glory. Himself calls them “simple
ones,” “fools,” and “scorners,” that despise his gracious invitation,
Prov. i. 22. There are none who
despise Christ, but only they that know him not; whose eyes the god of this
world hath blinded, that they should not behold his glory. The souls of
men do naturally seek something to rest and repose themselves upon, —
something to satiate and delight themselves withal, with which
they [may] hold communion; and there are two ways whereby men proceed in
the pursuit of what they so aim at. Some set before them some certain end,
— perhaps pleasure, profit, or, in religion itself, acceptance with God;
others seek after some end, but without any certainty, pleasing themselves
now with one path, now with another, with various thoughts and ways, like
them, Isa. lvii. 10 — because something
comes in by the life of the hand, they give not over though weary. In what
condition soever you may be (either in greediness pursuing some certain
end, be it secular or religious; or wandering away in your own
imaginations, wearying yourselves in the largeness of your ways), compare a
little what you aim at, or what you do, with what you have already heard of
Jesus Christ: if any thing you design be like to him, if any thing you
desire be equal to him, let him be rejected as one that hath neither form
nor comeliness in him; but if, indeed, all your ways be but vanity and
vexation of spirit, in comparison of him, why do you spend your “money for
that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth
not?”