Samuel Hopkins · 4 of 22

Sermon III. On Christian Friendship, as it subsists between Christ and Believers, and between Believers themselves. · Sermon IV.

The same Subject continued.

Cant. v. 16. This is my beloved, and this is my friend.

5. JESUS CHRIST, the Christian’s friend, is a person of infinite dignity, worth and excellence. He has all this to the highest possible perfection and extent, so that no imagination can possibly exceed it. This his true dignity, worth and excellence, in himself considered, infinitely heightens his character and worth as a friend, and lays a foundation for the most sweet, exalted and growing happiness in his love and friendship to all eternity. He who has no true worth and excellence cannot be justly valued and delighted in at all, as a friend, and there is no foundation for a happy friendship with such an one. Worth and excellence therefore comes into the essence of the character of a friend: and the more any one has of this, the more is he to be prized as a friend, and the greater happiness is to be enjoyed in his love and friendship. A friend gives himself to his beloved; so that the more dignity, worth and excellence he has, the more he gives to the person he admits into union and friendship with him. Therefore the more worth and excellence any person has, the more we naturally, and justly, prize his love and friendship, and the more sweetness and pleasure we have in it. We prize and delight in the love of another in proportion to. our esteem of him, and the sense we have of his true excellence, dignity and worthiness. How much better is it to us to be the objects of the love of some dignified personage, who appears to us to have all the excellence and attracting charms of human nature, and to have him our friend, than to have the love and friendship of one who is in our eyes absolutely worthless and contemptible! I need not therefore, yea, I cannot, say of how much advantage the dignity and excellence of Christ is in this friendship, in this view. The higher the Christian rises in his esteem of Christ, the more he sees of his dignity and excellence, the more pleased and delighted he will necessarily be in being the object of his embraces and love. Surely then he had rather in this view be beloved by Christ than by all the world besides; and nothing can fill his breast with such overflowing delight as to be able to say. This is my beloved, and this is my friend. And this lays a foundation for esteem and complacency, without which there can be no happy friendship; and the higher this rises, the more happiness and enjoyment there is in a friend. Christ in this respect is distinguished from all other persons in the universe, as the best friend, in union and love to whom there may be the highest happiness. We are in ourselves so mean and low, and of such little worth, that we cannot enjoy friendship to the best advantage with those who are our equals. The more dignified and excellent our friend is, and the more distinguished he is from us, and the more above us, in this respect, the more happy shall we necessarily be in his love and friendship. In Christ therefore believers have all that can be desired in a friend, in this respect. In him they have an inexhaustible fund for high and growing enjoyment; and, in a sense of his dignity and excellence, their ravished hearts will swell with, extatic delight, while they feel and say, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend.”

6. Jesus Christ is the most condescending, familiar friend.

Where there is a great imparity in two friends, the one very high, honourable and worthy, and the other mean and low, it is inconsistent with the most sweet and happy friendship, unless he who is dignified and exalted, and is every way so much superior to the other, knows how, and is disposed, to exercise condescension equal to his true dignity and worth, so as to practise as great familiarity and intimacy with his friend who is so much beneath him, as if he were his equal. But where this is the case, the great superiority of one to the other gives a great advantage to the friendship, and renders it more sweet and happy to the inferior; so that the more worthy and exalted his friend is, the higher enjoyment he has in the friendship. This imparity in station and dignity is commonly in the way of the enjoyment of true friendship among men in this world; because the great and exalted know not how to condescend and stoop to the mean and low, in a manner and degree that is in such a case necessary, but are disposed to keep themselves at a distance.

But Christ is in this respect the most excellent friend; for his condescension and humility are equal to his high exaltation and dignity, and he admits his friends, however mean, unworthy and despicable they are in themselves, to as great familiarity and intimacy, as if he were but their equal; so that his superiority and dignity give great advantage to the friendship, in this respect.

And here it is of importance to observe, that his incarnation, or union to the human nature, by which he is a real man, even Immanuel, God with us, is of infinite advantage with respect to this. God is infinitely the best friend; but it is impossible he should communicate himself to creatures, and become their condescending, familiar friend, in any other way, so well, and to so great advantage, as by uniting himself to their nature, so as to become one of them. In this view, as well as on many other accounts, the incarnation of the Son of God is a most wise and gracious contrivance, as it is adapted in the highest possible degree to promote the happiness of creatures, especially of the redeemed, in the love and enjoyment of God. God hereby comes down to creatures in a way and manner suited to their nature and capacity, and discovers and communicates himself to them to the greatest possible advantage; and there is a foundation laid for that condescension to men, and intimate love and friendly familiarity between Christ and his people, which could not have been in any other way. The Most High God is become a man, a most meek, humble, condescending man, able and disposed to take his people into the most intimate union and familiarity; while this man has all the dignity and honour of divinity. Thus the man Christ Jesus will eternally be the medium of a kind and degree of communication of the Deity to creatures, which could be in no other way, and which is every way adapted to raise them up and make them happy: and the redeemed have a most condescending, intimate friend in the person of Christ, who is both God and man, who cannot be equalled by any other person in the universe; and in union and friendship with whom, they have the highest enjoyment and happiness.

The condescension of Christ, as a most tender, intimate and familiar friend, is truly wonderful, and has not, nor ever will have, any parallel in the universe. This he practised in a manner and degree truly astonishing, towards his friends and disciples, when he was on earth. He condescended to their weakness, and adapted himself in his instructions to their low, childish way of conceiving of things, and meekly bore with their stupidity and unteachable perverseness. He dwelt with them night and day, and admitted them to embrace and kiss him from time to time. We may look on this as an image and specimen of the condescension and familiarity w4th which he treats his people at all times. Though he is now exalted in the highest heavens, and has taken the throne of the universe, and rules over all, angels and authorities and powers being made subject: unto him; yet this has not lifted him up in any degree, so as to dispose him to keep at a greater distance from his people; but he practises as much condescension towards the meanest of them, and receives them to as great a nearness and familiarity, as ever he did in his state of humiliation. His condescension and goodness in this respect infinitely exceeds that of any other friend, and is equal to his exaltation, greatness and dignity. In this he excels all other friends, as much as he does in honour and dignity.

No other friend is so easy of access as he: his friends are Welcome to him at all times; yea, he is always present with them, so that they may converse with him whenever they please, in the most intimate, familiar manner, without keeping the least distance, and without any reserve. He is all attention to them whenever they turn their thoughts with their hearts towards him, and no thing can divert him from conversing with them, or interrupt the correspondence, but their withdrawing themselves, or turning away from him. He is ready to meet them and attend upon them at what time and place they please; yea, he calls after them, and invites them to look towards him, and speak to him. He says to each one of his friends, “Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” Behold, he stands at the door of every one, and knocks, and whoever opens to him, he comes in and sups with them, and they with him.

And here it is worthy of special remark, that their meanness, unworthiness, and past ill treatment of him, is not in the least in the way of this his condescending goodness and kindness. He has no disposition to retaliate for their folly and ingratitude, and keep them at a distance for this: he is as condescending and kind to the meanest and most unworthy and guilty, as to any whatsoever. And while he thus condescends, and is good and kind to them in the most liberal manner, he does not upbraid them for their past follies, or because they, are so much beholden to him. He gives most bountifully, and with the greatest liberality, and upbraideth not.

And he is not, nor ever will be, ashamed of any of his people who have united themselves to him as their chosen friend, however mean and despicable in themselves; but he will appear as their friend, at all times, and in the most public manner, and own them to be his friends, and confess their names before his Father, and before his angels. Yea, he is so far from being ashamed of them, that he looks on them as an honour to him. They are unto him “a crown of glory, and a royal diadem,” in the hand of this their condescending friend: they are unto him “for a name and for a praise and for a glory,” as the bride is the ornament and glory of her husband. Such a friend as this has every true Christian, in which he is infinitely distinguished from all other friends; who is most exactly suited to the circumstances of the redeemed from among men, and to raise their happiness in friendship with him to the highest key.—But I have yet many other things to say of this most excellent and blessed Friend.

7. By all his condescension, love and kindness towards sinners, and entering into the nearest and dearest friendship with them, he does not degrade himself in the least, nor lose any degree of his true dignity, worth and excellence; but has greatly honoured himself hereby.

This is a very important and essential article in this friendship; for if this were not true, it would be a very unhappy union, and no good could come of it, either to Christ, or those on whom he sets his love. If this were a dishonourable friendship on Christ’s part, he would by this lose his merit and worthiness in the sight of the Father; so could be of no avail to recommend the sinner on whom he sets his love, of which he stands in infinite need, and without which he cannot be happy in the favour of God; which will be more particularly considered under the next head.

The Jews attempted to reproach our Lord, and cast an odium upon him, by saying that he was a friend of publicans and sinners. If he had been so in the sense they meant, it would have been indeed a reproach and disgrace to him. If he had been their friend in a sense which did imply the least degree of love and approbation of their character as sinners, and if he had espoused their cause in this view, and under the least influence of this, he would so far degrade himself, and render himself and his love worthless, odious and despicable in the sight of all holy, worthy beings. This therefore would have wholly spoilt his character as the Almighty Friend and Redeemer of sinners. But Jesus Christ is infinitely far from this. Though he is the friend of sinners, has espoused their cause, and befriended them as no other person ever did or could; yet he has not hereby appeared in the least degree a friend to sin, but the contrary to an infinite degree. lie has befriended sinners, consistent with the most perfect and even infinite hatred of sin, and so of their character as sinners, and so as to manifest his hatred and abhorrence of them to the highest possible degree. In his highest act of love and friendship to sinners, he did in the highest possible degree, and in the most public, convincing, striking manner, justify the Divine Character and law which the sinner had opposed and contemned, and condemn the sinner. The highest angel in heaven cannot conceive to this day, and never will to all eternity, how Christ could have condemned sin more effectually, and set the sinner in a worse and more odious light, and shewed his love of holiness and hatred of sin more fully, than he did when he died on the cross. In this he did in the highest possible degree justify God in threatening and cursing the sinner, and being disposed to punish him forever, while he voluntarily took that punishment on himself, that the sinner might escape.

In Christ then are united the greatest friend to God and his law, and to the cause and interest of holiness, that ever was known in the universe; and at the same time the greatest friend of the sinner. These two seeming contraries are united in the same person and character, and expressed in the most perfect manner, and to the highest degree, in the same conduct. Therefore, when Christ stooped the lowest, and condescended the most to befriend sinners, he did in the highest degree and most effectual manner espouse the cause of God in opposition to the sinner, and appeared in his greatest excellency, and was most worthy and meritorious, in God’s light. How these two could be united in the same person and the same act, was far above the wisdom of angels; and herein, in a special manner, is Christ the wisdom of God.

Well may the Christian boast and say, “This is my friend;” who is also the greatest friend to the supreme Lawgiver of the universe, and has so become my friend, and stooped to espouse my cause, and take me into the nearest and dearest relation to himself, as at the same time to maintain and express his dignity, worthiness and excellency, and merit infinitely in the sight of the Father.—This leads to another particular.

8. Christ improves all his worth and excellence in the behalf and for the benefit of his people. It is all theirs, and improved to their advantage, in the best manner, and to the highest degree; so that it is in effect all given away to them, being most effectually, and to the best purpose, placed to their account.

Sinners want such a friend; and no other person could befriend them to any purpose, to himself or to them, but one who is infinitely excellent and worthy. They being infinitely hateful, guilty and ill-deserving in themselves, and having nothing by which they can abate their ill-desert, and render themselves a whit the more deserving and acceptable, on its own account, they must be eternally hated and cursed, unless they have something to recommend them which is not in themselves, but in some other: and this must be something infinitely valuable and excellent, or it cm in no measure or degree countervail their odiousness and ill-desert so as in the least to recommend them to their offended Lawgiver and Sovereign. And it will not become him to forgive them and show them any favour, unless they have something to recommend them, and repair the dishonour they have done him by violating his law, and despising his character and government. Therefore, unless some one did espouse their cause and undertake for them, who has worthiness and merit enough to restore the honour of God’s broken law, and effectually recommend sinners to their offended Sovereign by interposing his own worthiness in their behalf, they must be the objects of his displeasure and wrath forever, as what is most fit and right.

Now Christ is the only person in the universe who was able effectually to espouse their cause in this respect, and act the part of a friend to them. He has worthiness and merit enough in the eyes of the offended Deity, effectually to procure pardon and favour for the sinner, if properly interposed in his behalf, so that it might be fit to reckon it to his account. And this Christ has done in the most lit and proper manner. He has put: himself in the sinner’s stead, has borne the curse he lay under, and paid the greatest honours to the divine law and character; which is so pleasing and acceptable to the Majesty of Heaven, that he is ready to pardon and. bless any one who is a friend to Christ, and trusts in his merit and worthiness alone to recommend him.

Christ repeatedly spoke of this to his disciples in the most express manner, and told them that their love and union of heart to him did effectually recommend them to the Father, and interest them in his love and favour, to as great a degree as they needed, or could desire. His words are, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. If any man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.”

We cannot reasonably suppose that Christ means to declare in these words that their love and friendship to him did, on its own account, or because of the excellency and worth of it in itself considered, recommend them to the Father, and procure his love and favour to them, as a testimony of his well-pleasedness with their persons and love, considered as by themselves, and separate from Christ. We cannot understand our Saviour thus in these words; for this would set them in direct contradiction to the whole New Testament, which teaches us that sinners are pardoned, and received to the favour and love of the Father, purely out of respect to Christ, to his righteousness and worthiness, which alone recommends them to him; and not any exercises and works of their own. But his meaning must be, that the Father is so well pleased with him, and loves him so well, considered in the capacity of mediator and a friend of sinners, and his merit and worthiness in this character is so great in his light, that he is ready to be well pleased with and love any sinner who unites himself to him in true love and friendship, and trusts in him in this relation and character. Such love and union to this friend is a sufficient ground and reason of the Father’s loving him; and so the Father loves him, because he loves and is united to his Son, who is infinitely honourable and worthy in his light, and is infinitely near and dear to him: and who has done and suffered so much in the behalf of the sinner, that his merit and worth might be improved for his benefit, in which he has honoured the Father, and in the most excellent way and manner possible, and to the greatest advantage, employed all the interest he has with the Father, to procure his love and favour to the sinner who is thus united to him. The Father loves his Son so well, he is a person of such infinite dignity and worthiness, and has exercised such an high degree of virtue, and has honoured him so much, in what he has done and suffered for sinners, improving all his merit with the Father in their behalf; that nothing is wanting but the sinner’s loving him and trusting in him in this character, so uniting himself to him as his true friend, in order to the Father’s loving him. The Father has such love to his Son, and the Son stands in such a relation to sinners, that the sinner who loves the Son is necessarily beloved by the Father, purely from the love he has to his Son, however odious, vile and unworthy he is in himself. And thus the Father loves them, because they love his Son; and can do no otherwise, unless he ceases to love his Son; for the love he has to his Son will necessarily operate so, and induce him to love those who love his Son, and to whom the Son is a friend, and acts as their friend before the Father, presenting his merit, and all he has done and suffered for his honour, desiring that this may be reckoned to them, and that they might have pardon and favour on his account. For the Father to withhold his love and favour from such is really to withhold his love and favour from his Son; and therefore if he love the latter, he will love the former; and there is no other possible supposition in the reason and nature of things.

And this view of the matter (by the way) may lead all the attentive to see what is the true meaning and import of the do6lrine of the imputation of the merit and righteousness of Christ, for the pardon and justification of the sinner, who believes in and cleaves to him in the character of a mediator; and how reasonable it is, and exactly agreeable to the nature of things.

If we have a friend who loves us, and there is a mutual friendship between us and him, who we know has great favour and merit with one whom we have offended, and whose love and favour we want, and who is very dear to him, and greatly beloved by him; we are naturally, and with the greatest reason, ready to trust in such a. friend to procure for us the favour we want. And if the dignity and worthiness of our friend is sufficient, and his merit with the person we have offended is so great as to countervail our offence, and worthy of so great a favour as we want, and we know he is engaged to make the best use of his merit and worthiness in the eyes of that person to procure of him this favour, having exerted himself in all possible ways in our behalf, and so as greatly to please and honour him; if we have such a friend, we may be sure of obtaining the favour we want, however unworthy we are, and how much soever we have offended this person, and though he has no disposition to shew us the least favour on our own account; but, considered as we are in ourselves, and unconnected with our friend, is disposed to hate, condemn and destroy us: and in proportion to our love to our friend, and sense of his dignity and worthiness, and of the high virtue and excellence of what he had done in our behalf, shall we have confidence of obtaining the favour we want, and with boldness approach the offended person in his name.

If a subject has incurred the just displeasure of his prince, and greatly wants his pardon and favour; how happy does he count himself, if he has some great personage his friend, who is near the prince, and has great honour and favour with him! especially if he knows this great and honourable personage is ready to improve all the interest and influence he has with the prince, in his behalf, and for this end has been at vail pains and expense to make good the damage the prince had sustained by his crime, and render it honourable for him to grant the pardon, and bestow the favour he wants. In such a case we all know the criminal cannot fail of obtaining the pardon and favour he needs, if his friend at court has dignity, merit and worthiness enough, in the eyes of the prince, to be worthy of such a favour. The prince’s love to this personage will naturally, and necessarily, flow out to the person whose friend he is, and who loves him. And in this case we see the merit and worthiness of this great and excellent personage is imputed, or transferred to the account of the unworthy criminal, to recommend him to that favour, and procure it for him, of which he is most unworthy in himself, and which it would have been utterly unfit and indecent for the prince to bellow upon him, had it not been for this his connection with this worthy person.

This is in some degree a parallel to the case before us. Jesus Christ, the Christian’s friend, appears with such dignity and honour in the court of heaven, and has done such astonishingly great and wonderful exploits to secure the honour of the Almighty Sovereign and Lawgiver of Heaven and Earth, and render it consistent with his granting pardon and favour to sinners; and has so pleased and honoured the Father, and is so dear and excellent in his eyes, that he is ready to love and shew favour to any sinner who loves this worthy personage, and is a real and hearty friend to him; whose interest he espouses before the Father, and interposes all his merit in his behalf. This is quite sufficient to recommend the most guilty, ill-deserving wretch on earth to all the favour that Heaven can bellow. He has no need to plead any thing but his relation and union to the Son of God, as his true and hearty friend; he wants nothing else to recommend him to the highest honours and happiness in God’s kingdom forever. The Father of the Universe will love him with a dear and everlasting love, and embrace him as his dear child, the friend of his well-beloved, his dearest Son. And all the angels will love, serve and honour him forever, because he bears the character, and stands in the relation, of a friend to the Son of God, and is one whose interest he has espoused, and whose name he will confess before the Father and before the angels.

Thus the Christian has a friend who is not only most worthy and excellent in his eyes, with whom his heart is pleased and charmed; but this excellence and worthiness is reckoned to his account, and is become his righteousness, by which he is recommended to pardon and favour with God; so that the Supreme Majesty and Lawgiver of Heaven and Earth hereby becomes his eternal friend and father. Therefore the higher sense the Christian has of Christ’s excellency and worthiness, and the more he loves him, the more confidence, assurance and joy will he naturally have in his merit and righteousness, and say, “In the Lord Jesus Christ have I righteousness: In him shall I, with all the seed of Israel, be justified, and in him only will I glory.”

9. Christ is not only a friend who is full of good will and benevolence to his people, but he highly esteems them, and has great and most sweet complacency and delight in them.

This is abundantly represented in this song. Christ often calls his spouse, the church, his fair one: and she is to him the fairest among women. His language to his church, and to every true member of it, is, “O my dove, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair: thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks. Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. Thou hast ravished my heart, my lifter, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How much better is thy love than wine 1 and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.”

There is something mysterious and wonderful in this; that Christ should thus esteem and delight in those who are in themselves, and in their natural state, so mean, despicable, vile and odious. But this comes to pass by his putting his own beauty and excellence upon them, forming them after his own likeness, and receiving them into the nearest relation to himself, by which they become clothed with his righteousness and worthiness, and partake of his honour and fulness: so that in this near relation, and beautified and adorned with his own beauty and holiness, they are honourable in his eyes, and he takes great complacency and delight in them. And as he is continually purifying and adorning them more and more, and will go on to do it until not the least deformity, not so much as spot or wrinkle, remains, and they are become most perfect beauties, so his complacency and delight in them is increasing, and is now greater, in the view of what they shall soon be brought to, even the most consummate beauty and glory, like a king’s daughter, all glorious within, and her clothing of wrought gold: and they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, the most beautiful, glorious bride of the Lamb.

Now this adds an unspeakable value and sweetness to this friendship. In proportion as any one esteems, loves and delights in another, he naturally, and even necessarily, desires to be the object of his esteem and complacency; and consequently this gives him a sweet enjoyment and happiness, so far as he has evidence that it takes place, and in a degree equal to his view and sense of the worthiness and excellency of his friend. How great then must be the happiness of the believer in his friendship with Christ, from this circumstance! He has the highest and growing esteem of his person and character, and is more and more ravished with his superlative beauty and excellence; and nothing can be more desirable and sweet to him than to have the approbation and love of this glorious, excellent personage: and nothing is wanting to complete his happiness, but to know that he is the object of the complacency and sweet delight of his best beloved and most. esteemed friend. The thought of this is most transporting to his soul; and the more he is persuaded and assured of this in this world, the more ineffable sweetness does he taste and enjoy in this friendship. What then will be the happiness of this exalted friendship, when the beloved faint shall be made to shine forth as the sun in the most perfect beauty, and shall behold the dignity, beauty and excellence of his glorious Friend and Redeemer in the meridian brightness and splendour of his glory, and his heart shall glow with the highest and most perfect love of esteem and complacency towards him, while this his infinitely glorious and excellent Friend returns love for love in the most full and ample manner, and embraces him as his dearest and best beloved, giving him the greatest possible assurance that he takes unspeakable delight and satisfaction in him, and will do lo to all eternity! This will raise the redeemed to heights of happiness, and sweet, extatic delight, beyond all conception, in the enjoyment of their exalted, most dear and best beloved friend, while they find themselves embraced by him in the high exercises of sweet love and complacence, being perfectly pleased and ravished with their love, and, in the highest and most exalted sense, “his left hand is under their head, and his right hand doth embrace them.” How will their hearts swell with the thought, and be filled full, and even run over, with ineffable delight and joy, while they think, and with the greatest assurance say, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend!”

And it is worthy of observation here, that their dependence on Christ for all their worthiness, beauty and excellence, as they receive it all from him, by which they become the objects of his esteem and complacency, they being wholly without any thing of this kind, and infinitely to the contrary of it as he finds them; this their dependence on him will greatly add to the sweetness and enjoyment, while they find themselves thus esteemed and beloved by him; for it is unspeakably more desirable and sweet to become the objects of his love and complacency in this way, than in any other.

The spouse who venerates, esteems and loves her husband far above all others, is happy in his embraces, and the tokens of his esteem, complacency and delight in her, in proportion to her sense of his dignity, worthiness and excellence. And if she has received all that which recommends her to him as the object of his peculiar esteem and delight, from him, or some way by his means, this will greatly add to the sweetness of her enjoyment, in a sense of his great condescension and goodness, and her peculiar obligations to him. This is a faint emblem of the case before us; for these things take place in the friendship we are considering, to an immensely greater degree, and in a far more exalted manner, than can be in any thing temporal and earthly.

And, by the way, it may be here observed, that the redeemed will have greatly the advantage of an eels in their friendship with Christ in this particular. As Christ has been a greater friend to the redeemed than to angels; has exercised immensely more benevolence and kindness, and done infinitely more for them, and so laid them under infinitely greater obligations to esteem, love and honour him; so he exercises a greater love of esteem, complacency and delight towards them, than the angels are the objects of: and that because, he puts a peculiar and distinguishing beauty and dignity on them, of which the angels do not partake. As the King’s bride, the queen, however mean her state was before she married him, is more honourable, and is much more the object of his esteem and complacency, and he takes much more delight and satisfaction in her, than in any of the most dignified servants and greatest nobles of his court, however great and honourable they are in themselves, and she enjoys a peculiar sweetness in his love, and a much higher pleasure and happiness than any of them can do; so the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is more happy in the embraces and peculiar love of her glorious Friend and Husband, the King of the Universe, and tastes more sweetness in a sense of his distinguished affection to her, than the angels, those noble servants of the King of Heaven, ever will or can do. Christ will eternally exercise and manifest a peculiar complacency and delight in them as their distinguished friend and redeemer: and this will be the source of a peculiar enjoyment and happiness, m which they will be distinguished from all other creatures, in the love and embraces of such a friend as no others ever had, or ever will have.

10. Christ is as much the friend of every individual, and the friendship between him and each one is as great, sweet and happy, and every way to as great advantage, as if he was the friend of no other person; yea, much more so.

Herein this friendship differs from, and has the advantage of, all others. If the love and affection of other friends is divided among a great number, and they have one common friend in whose friendship they share, each one has a less share than if he was the only beloved: and if we have one friend whom we esteem and love much above all others, it seems most agreeable at lead to have a peculiar and distinguished share in his affection, and to have him a friend to us in a sense and degree in which he is not to any other; so that a partner or rival in his affections and friendship is rather undesirable than pleasing, and tends to give an alloy to the friendship, rather than a sweetness. This is in a peculiar manner so in love and friendship between the sexes. The bride or spouse is jealous of any rival in the affection of her husband; she is contented with nothing short of having the whole of his love and affection centring in her: she naturally monopolizes it to herself exclusively, and cannot bear to have any one share with her in this friendship; and if this should be the case, it will spoil the friendship for her, and the more she loves him, the more unhappy and miserable she is.

And this, by the way, is a very strong and striking evidence, among many others, that this song, in which the text is found, is not a common love-song; as in this respect it is formed on a plan contrary to the nature of common love and friendship between the sexes, or the bride and her lover, and which is only suited to the case before us. The beloved spouse is in this song represented not as a single person, but as a company or society of persons united in seeking and setting their affections on one person as their common friend and lover. The spouse seeks company in her love to the bridegroom, and endeavours to draw other women to join with her in loving him, and speaks of others being united with her, in this, with approbation and pleasure: “Therefore the virgins love thee:—Draw me, we will run after thee:—WE will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine; the upright love thee.” “Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved gone aside? that we may seek him with thee. My beloved is gone down into his garden, &c.—Thou that dwelleth in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice.” This is a very unnatural representation for a woman to make with relation to her beloved friend, with whom she is seeking a union and friendship, in which a companion or rival would be most disagreeable. But it is perfectly agreeable to the case before us; for the spouse of Christ is not a single person, but a company or society united together in the same love and affection, to one common friend, lover and husband: and every individual believer, or friend of Christ, is so far from monopolizing his love, and desiring to be the only object of it, that it is a great addition to the sweetness and happiness of this friendship, that others join with him in the same love, and equally share in the love and friendship of this glorious friend and bridegroom. Each one enjoys as much of Christ’s love, has as full and large a share in his heart, and enjoys him every way as much, as if he had no other lover and friend in the universe: so that, however great the number is on whom Christ sets his heart, this does not in any degree lessen the privilege and enjoyment of any individual; for he, their common friend, has an inexhaustible, infinite fulness, and is just as much, and all that, to each single one, as if he was the only object of his love. Therefore the more love and benevolence the believer has to Christ, and the higher the friendship rises, the more pleased will he be to have him esteemed and beloved by others; and the more happiness and joy will he have that others share with him in the blessings of this friendship, in proportion to his benevolence to them, and delight in their welfare; which will always keep pace with his love to Christ and delight in him as the best and most glorious friend: so that every true friend of Christ is effectually formed and prepared to enjoy a peculiar pleasure and happiness in a happy and beautiful society, who are equally devoted to this same friendship, and share equally with him in the sweet love and affection of his dearest and most exalted friend.—This leads to another particular.