23. Christ’s Dove
23
Christ’s Dove1
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
—Song of Solomon 2:14
[Christ] calls [the church] His “dove.” He regrets nothing that He said. He abides by His word. He calls her His love, His fair one, His undefiled. He avows2 it. He abides by it. [He says,] “You are even My dove”; yet He is not flattering her. If you are Christ’s, He will give you all your styles3 of honor; He will speak much good of you, both behind your back and before your face.
She is termed Christ’s dove:
1. Because the dove is a fearful bird, and soon scared. “They shall tremble…as a dove out of the land of Assyria” (Hos. 11:11). Anything, the smallest noise or din that can be, frightens and chases these timorous birds in their dove-house, into Christ. It is a happy rain that chases Christ’s doves in to Himself. For all the Devil’s wit, he is soon beguiled; the storm that arises against the ship where Christ and His disciples are makes them awaken and pray.
2. The dove is a mournful bird; the doves of Christ are also mourning and in tears. “They that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity” (Ezek. 7:16). If you are God’s doves, you will have many sorrowful days in the world. There are bloody wars between the kirk4 and the world. Keep the dove from the nest, and she mourns without; keep the kirk from Christ, and she will break her heart.
3. She is not a vengeful bird; she has no armor against the ravens and vultures other than her wings to flee away. God’s children’s best armor when they are wronged is by faith in prayer to mount up to God. They must be like Christ. He went out of the world with many wrongs [done to Him], and they are not yet revenged. His blood is keeping to the last court-day. Christ sits with many wrongs in heaven; He has not gotten amends from those that spat in His face. Many times the kirk and her Husband, Christ, will be wronged here, although it is between them (Song 5). She thrusts Him to the door and lets Him lodge all night in the rainy fields.
4. And then fourthly, the kirk is like a dove mourning without a marrow;5 for that fowl cannot want a marrow. If you are God’s doves, woe will you be when your marrow, Christ, flies away. She swoons, and her heart flies out of her when Christ flies away.
5. The dove is an innocent, harmless bird; she cannot offend. So is the kirk; the meek spouse of Christ will not marrow with a malicious house.
6. The dove is a silly, weak, tender fowl, and if it is compared to the rest of the birds, it is valued only at a tenth of flying fowls. Surely God’s kirk in herself is but a weak bird and tender woman, compared in Revelation 12 to a woman who has just delivered a child, and there is little between her death and her life if she is not carefully attended. A Christian is a tender thing, a jewel in the hand of Christ. If He lets us fall, we are soon broken in pieces. We should pray that Christ will handle us softly and not let us be tempted above our strength. The kirk is called a crippled woman that goes only upon her one side (Mic. 4:6). So surely we had need to come out of the wilderness leaning on our Beloved (Song 8:5).
7. And for their number, they are only a handful (Isa. 6:13). The tithe or remnant, God’s part, is but a tenth, and the Devil has all the stock; often God has one, and the devil nine. We have great need to labor to be of God’s tenth.
1. Communion Sermons, 248–51.
2. avows: promises with a vow
3. styles: titles
4. kirk: church
5. marrow: spouse; match