Nov 13
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GARDEN It would be wholly unnecessary to notice the name of garden (taken from the Hebrew word Gan), being so generally understood, were it not that the church of Christ is so frequently represented under the similitude. Indeed, the church is sometimes called gardens, to denote both their number and variety; by which is meant, the particular names of the churches of Jesus, such as the apostles of Christ; yea, Christ himself directed Epistles to the churches at “Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Philippi,” and the like, and the seven churches in Asia. But though these were diversified, and scattered abroad in the earth, yet still, after all, the church of Christ is but one and the same. So said Christ himself. “My dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her mother: she is the choice one of her that bare her.” (Song vi. 9.) The Jerusalem which is above, and which is the mother of us all, knows but of one church, of which Jesus is the Head; for both Jew and Gentile will ultimately be brought into one fold. And in the meantime all true believers in Christ have one faith, one hope, one spirit, one heart and affections; all united to their glorious Head, and all united to each other, as “members of his body, his flesh, and his bones.” (Gal. iv. 26. John x. 16. Ephes. iv. 4, 5; v. 30.) And what endears the whole, and renders it most blessed is, that Christ the glorious Head, to whom the whole body is united, supplies all, justifies all, sanctifies all, and is himself the all of life and strength, and the portion to his people, in grace here, and glory hereafter. So sung the church, and so all the redeemed know. “A fountain of gardens is my beloved, said the church, a well of living water, and streams from Lebanon.” (Song iv. 15.) And while we eye Jesus as the source of life and fruitfulness to his garden the church, it is blessed to see how very lovely the similitude of a garden, corresponds to the state of Christ’s church. As first a garden is an enclosure, separated and fenced round; so the church stands in the midst of the world’s wide wilderness, gathered from it by sovereign grace. (Song iv. 12. Isa. v. l, 2.) Secondly, a garden is the property of some owner; it is not alike common or open to all: so is the church. Jesus hath bought it with his blood; the Father hath given it to Christ by grace; and the Holy Ghost hath made it Christ’s, by the sealing act of covenant faithfulness. Thirdly, a garden is distinguished from the common fields or hedges of the highway, by having nothing growing there but what has been planted; exactly thus with the church. Everything in it is of the Lord’s right hand planting; for Jesus saith himself, “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” (Matt. xv. 13.) Fourthly, in a garden there are great varieties of plants and shrubs, and fruit-trees and flowers; so in Christ’s church the fruits of the Spirit appear in a beautiful and regular order, some by the exercise of one grace, and others by another, but “all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” (1 Cor. xii, 11.) Fifthly, a garden is under the eye and inspection of its owner, and very frequently visited by him; and the Lord Jesus is said to have his eyes upon his Judea from the one end of the year even to the other end of the year. Yea, the Lord Jesus walks in his garden the church, and makes this his sacred haunt, where he delights to come and visit his people. The church speaks of her Lord to this effect: “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.” (Song vi. 2.) And elsewhere she invites Jesus to come into his garden, and to eat of his pleasant fruits. And Jesus as instantly accepts the invitation, and saith, “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse! I have gathered my myrrh with my spice.” (Song iv. 16; v. 1.) Sixthly, a garden requires much care in dressing, and pruning, and weeding, and the like; so the church of Jesus hath the constant care of her Lord. He saith himself, “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it; I will keep it night and day.” (Isa. xxvii. 3.) And how, through pruning dispensations weeding out the remains of indwelling corruption in the heart, and by the digging round and nourishing the graces of her Lord’s own planting, doth Jesus keep alive and cause to flourish the several circumstances of his church and people. And lastly, to mention no more, as in gardens the owners gather for their use the several productions of their gardens, so Jesus for his own glory gathers the fruits of his own Holy Spirit, planted in the hearts of his redeemed while on earth, gathers their persons at death, and transplants them into his garden above, to flourish under his almighty hand in glory for ever. So very beautiful is the similitude of a garden to the church; and, no doubt, under several other particulars the allusion might be found to correspond. Jesus! I would say, let thy garden thy church be always blessed with thy presence!
Robert Hawker –The Poor Man’s Concordance and Dictionary.
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“Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.”—Zech. xiv. 8.
My soul, was not this fulfilled in part when the gospel went forth from Jerusalem? And is it not now fulfilling, while the same blessed gospel is going forth from sea to sea, and from the river even unto the ends of the earth? Surely neither the summer’s drought, nor the winter’s frost, shall dry up or congeal those living waters. But, my soul, hast thou asked of Jesus, as the woman of Samaria did in the moment of Jesus’s promise, for those living waters? Oh if thou knowest, my soul, this gift of God, and wilt daily, hourly, ask of him both in summer and in winter, he will give thee these living waters. Oh contemplate their property, and then, my soul, ask and receive, that thy joy may be full. Jesus himself is this well of living waters; and wherever he comes, like the waters in Ezekiel’s vision, he gives live, and quickens sinners dead in trespasses and sins. Also, Jesus in those streams maintains the life he hath first given. Moreover, Jesus not only maintains, but revives and renews them, again and again, when the graces of his people languish. Again, these living waters of thy Jesus are always running: here is nothing stagnant, but always flowing. Lastly, into whatever heart Jesus gives them, they shall be, as he hath promised, a well of water springing up to everlasting life. Are these things so; and have the saints in all ages, and under all dispensations of the church, both in the old testament and in the new, been thus supplied? Is it indeed He, my beloved, who is the same. yesterday, and today, and for ever, that thus hath supplied, and is supplying, and ever will supply all? Is it thou, Oh thou precious Lamb of God, that art in the midst of the throne, leading the church above to fountains of living waters, and becoming the same to the church below! Wilt thou not give of thy fulness to satisfy my thirsty soul in this dry and barren land, where no water is? Yes, yes, my soul, exult with the church of old, for thy Jesus is the same; a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon is my beloved. Robert Hawker
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A fountain is supplied from its own spring, and yields his contents to supply the poor and needy, when they seek water, and there is none elsewhere, and their tongue faileth for thirst, that they may drink and not Famish, or die by famishing. So this “law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.” Can this law of the wise be the ten commandments, which are affirmed by some to be the believer’s only rule of life! I trow not. Paul tells us the letter killeth, 2 Cor. iii. 6, that it is the law of death, Rom. viii. 2, that the law worketh wrath, Rom. iv. 15, and is the ministration of death and condemnation, 2 Cor. iii. 7. 9. Nor does our faith in Christ alter the nature of the law, or make it to us what it was not before. It is the yoke of bondage, and gendereth to bondage still; hence we are exhorted to “stand fast in our liberty, and not be entangled again with that yoke of bondage,” Gal. v. 1, it still retains its binding nature, even to the believer, and will entangle him again it he looks to it for help. This rule of life (as some term it) is still a killing letter; hence God declares, that we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, “that we should serve [him] in nearness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter, Rom. vii. 6. If the law be a killing letter, and the law of death, it cannot be a fountain of life; by which the wise man departs from the snares of death. We know that sin is a transgression of the law, and that where there is no law there is no transgression; and that death is the sentence of the law; if so, the commandments are the snares that hold the sinner in the arms of death. The first snare that entangles a thief, is the law; and if he is left to the mercy of that, it will serve him as the spider does the fly in the web, never let him go till it has killed him; it is a killing letter, and so all will find it that weave the spider’s web; no web can be woven that will cover the soul on that loom; the commandment is exceeding broad. Nor can we suppose that our calling the ministration of condemnation the rule of life will alter this matter, or turn a killing letter into a living fountain; for that law gives no life, therefore it can be no part of this law of the wise. “Had there been a law given that could have given life, verily righteousness should have come by the law,” Gal. iii. 21. This law of the wise, that is, a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death, is what Paul calls “the ministration of the Spirit opposed to the ministration of death,” 2 Cor. iii. 11. Solomon’s fountain of life is Paul’s ministration of the Spirit; and Solomon’s snares of death is Paul’s law of death. The wise man’s law of life is the same as the living water that the Saviour gives, “that is in the believer as a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” John, iv. 14.
Blessed be God for ever, it is a fountain of life indeed, by which the poor believing sinner departs from the snares of death, and that for evermore; or, to speak in the apostle’s language, “The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death,” Rom. viii. 2, that is, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin that works in my members, and from the law of Moses, which is the ministration of death. We may call this “law of the wise the believer’s only rule of life,” without talking nonsense. William Huntington-extract from The Rule and a Riddle