which it appears, that fruitfulness or conception is the gift of God, entirely dependant on his sovereign will and pleasure; which ought to quiet the minds of those to whom it is denied: had it been duly considered by Rachel, she had never addressed her husband in the unbecoming manner she did, Give me children, or else I die:' seeing children were not Jacob's gift, but that of his God.

Fruitfulness will always be the result of marriage to Jesus : the bride, the Lamb's wife, is represented as a woman travailing in birth, and bringing into the world a man child, the dread of the dragon, who therefore sought his destruction. And so will every soul united to him, in virtue of that union, be fruitful in every good word and work, bring forth fruit unto holiness, and have his latter end life everlasting: not that you shall be able always to do the things that ye would; on the contrary, you will always find that the flesh shall lust against the spirit, and that when ye would do good, evil is present with you; yea, when you stand before the Lord, that Satan shall stand at your right hand to resist you: but this conflict shall not hinder the fruits of faith; rather shall it tend to promote its fruitfulness and enlargement.

5th. Once more, for I hasten to a conclusion. Perpetual cohabitation is another fruit or subsequent of this marriage relation. Boaz took Ruth into his house, and Jesus takes the espoused soul in his house also; the house of rest and habitation of his holiness. In all her wilderness warfare, and sojourning below, he graciously condescends to visit, and to dwell with her, how black soever the curtains of her tent may be. This is his gracious promise to his believing church, and whilst below, his people may expect his presence. When her warfare is accomplished, when she hath finished her militant course, he will take her to his heavenly kingdom, that she may be ever with the Lord, and behold that glory which he had with the Father before the world began: but as to her happiness and glory when thus taken home, what shall we, what can we say? Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what glories are prepared for those who love the Lord, and who have by grace made choice of Jesus as their only, their all-sufficient Saviour and Redeemer!

ST

DISCOURSE XIV.

A GENERAL IMPROVEMENT OF THE WHOLE.

As the great end of our hearing the gospel is soul-profit, and as our profiting in a great measure depends in God's ordinary way on the manner in which we hear, it may not be amiss to examine ourselves upon the premises delivered, and see what grounds of encouragement arise out of the doctrines deduced from the history of Ruth and Boaz. The

I. Head of improvement I propose, is examination. Examine yourselves.

1. Whether Moab or Israel is your choice? whether you delight in the kingdoms of the world, or in the commonwealth of Israel? whether our hearts are fixed on earth or heaven? This is one of the grand questions to be attended to; a question of the last importance, and which enters into the very state of our soul concerns. Is alienated Moab our choice? then Israel is not if earth is your delight, there can be no such thing as a desire after heaven in your bosom. It is not difficult to see whether we worship idols or the true God; cannot any one determine whether his heart is running upon riches, pleasures, and honours; or whether these things appear all as vanity, and the heart is set upon higher pleasures? Let these things engage the attention of my hearers now; for there is a day coming, a long expected day of final retribution, when every thing earthly must appear in its own identical emptiness, and nothing shall appear valuable besides the very things which we are now most prone altogether to neglect, or to treat with indifference.

Admitting that everlasting happiness is your concern, and to flee from the wrath to come your supreme desire, ask your own hearts, whether ye are wedded to Jesus or to the legal covenant? There is such a thing as seeking salvation in a way that will never succeed, as it were by the works of the law; or the doing of some good thing with a view to obtain eternal life. That young man in the gospel who came to Jesus, appears to have been very desirous of eternal life, but he sought it only in the way of doing, Master, what good thing shall I do that I may ' inherit eternal life?' But when he found the way to life unanswerable to his own inclinations, he went away sorrowful, and, for any thing said about him in Scripture, never returned. Orpah also, who wept to part with her mother-in-law, but notwithstanding parted with her, rather than part from her kindred and

country. If your hearts are wedded to the legal covenant, and you hope for heaven by your own personal holiness, your disappointment must finally be dreadful; for by the works of the law shall no flesh living be justified, all that are under the law being under the curse. How sad then must the state of those be, who being ignorant of God's righteousness, go about to establish their own works as the grounds of their acceptance, and title to happiness!

If your souls are wedded to the Lord Jesus, and you really do prefer the land of Israel to that of Moab, it may further be asked, Are you wedded to him only? there are some who would intermix the customs of the two nations: even Rachel was for carrying her gods along with her. There are who would be called by the name of Jesus Christ, yet eat their own bread, and clothe themselves with their own raiment; and there are who would join themselves to both him and Moses, as well as others who would serve both Christ and the world. If you can even say, that you have renounced the legal covenant as the ground of your hope, the customs of the world as the objects of your choice, there is yet a possibility of your being joined to your frames and feelings, as well as to Jesus Christ. It is truly desirable to have an agreeable frame of soul; but this frame is not attainable till you have learned to live above all the changes of your own minds upon Jesus only, and that fulness that is in him. When indeed taught to approach him not as a saint, but to live upon him as a perishing sinner, you may have those frames which are truly evangelical; and leading the life of faith, you shall enjoy the pleasure of believing; which can never be your case, till you yourselves are reduced to your own proper state of nothingness, and Christ is become your all in all.

But farther, if you are married to Jesus only, and have such experience of heart deceitfulness, and the instability of your frames, that you dare place no dependence upon them, permit me to ask you, Has your Bridegroom, the beloved of your souls, brought you into his banqueting house, into the church, the tent of his mother? Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah's tent; Boaz took Ruth into his house; and Jesus brought his spouse into his banqueting house also. Perhaps you will say, as some do, I must wait the Lord's time, when that comes I shall be inclined to give up myself to his church. But having the written law of Christ in our hands, it is absurd, and to the last degree enthusiastic, to expect some farther manifestation to induce us to be found in the way of duty. The Lord's time is now: now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.' If not embraced now, you may never have an opportunity of glorifying Christ in the ordinances of his house.

I knew a dear saint, whose memory will ever be precious to me, who from a deep sense of her own nothingness and unwor

thiness, could never prevail with herself to embrace the privileges of God's ordinances; who, when she came to a death-bed, and could even meet death with a smile on her countenance, had nothing that disturbed her, though leaving husband and children more beloved by her than life itself, but her having neglected to honour Christ in his house and ordinances. Her pathetic lamentations will never cease, at times, to thrill through my heart, till I meet the beloved spirit within the confines of eternity. O Sirs! duty neglected, is sin committed; sin which may one day lie inconceivably heavy upon your hearts, and be the matter of the most bitter lamentation; and whether you may choose to hear and obey, or be offended with me for disturbing your repose and putting you on thinking, this is one part of my duty which must by no means be neglected.

Now, believers, I would in a particular manner address myself to you concerning the marriage of Jesus with his church; but how sublime the subject! how far surpassing the power of description! how infinitely then must it transcend the feeble efforts of my unequal pen! Christ and his church are the children of one Father, as were Abraham and Sarah: he is the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; she is his daughter, all glorious within; daughter of the Eternal King by adoption and grace. The match determined upon in the paternal purpose, the Father presents his daughter to the intended Bridegroom, who views her with rapturous delight, and in the endearing language of fervent love expresses his approbation of her, Thon 'art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee.' The approbation of the Bridegroom thus expressed, the Father in council engages for the consent of his daughter, Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power:' this is the betrothment of the church to Jesus, by which she becomes the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

In the gift of his church, the Almighty Father and the coequal Son enter into solemn covenant upon her account. On the part of the Father, all grace, glory, and happiness is settled on her, as the chosen of the Son for his fulness and glory: on the part of the Son, he engages to use her as his beloved consort, to pay whatever debts she should contract; to bear what sins she should commit; to deliver her from whatever evils she should expose herself unto; and, in all respects, to use her as bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.

Preliminaries thus settled, nothing remained but the celebration of the nuptials, or the becoming one flesh with his people, being already one spirit, or married in the intention of the mind. There being a moral impossibility of the bride assuming the nature of the Bridegroom, he graciously condescends to humble himself, in the assumption of her nature, with all its sinless infirmities. Thus he became man, became bone of our

bone, and flesh of our flesh, and thus in open marriage he gave his hand to his betrothed.

But still the consent of the bride is wanting, till the day of divine power, when the Father says to her by his word and Spirit," Wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband, to have and to hold for better and worse?" Then the soul, renouncing all other lovers, gives her heart and hand unto Jesus only, is become a partaker of the divine nature. Here is now an intermixture of natures; he, as the bridegroom, appears clothed in our nature; and the believer appears as having received, and acting under the influence of his spirit. Now can the soul survey the unsearchable riches of Christ as legally her own, in virtue of his marriage endowment, and may say, "My Beloved is mine, with all his fulness and glory; and I am his, with all my imperfection and sinfulness:" which leads me to take notice of a few things, which naturally result from this marriage relation, more particularly than has been done in the former discourses.

(1.) A mutual participation of property, naturally and legally results from your relation to the Redeemer. In marriage all that the husband has becomes the property of the spouse: yes, believer, all that the Lord Jesus has, or is heir unto, is your own property; his righteousness so spotless in itself, and so acceptable to the Father, is all your own; he hath made it over to you in marriage contract. Yours is the efficacy of his atoning blood, which would be useless with regard to himself, for he never offended: yours is the Spirit of his grace to lead, to guide you whilst here, and to bring you to his glory, which also is yours. His heaven, his glory, his fulness, and unfathomable depth of comfort, his unsearchable riches, and his God and Father, are all your own. Whatever Jesus is heir unto, you are joined with him in his expectations; if he is heir of all things, ye are heirs of all things through him, joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

But, O believer, what an exchange is here! our sole property is sin and wretchedness, and even that he graciously takes off our hand; he freely acknowledges all that is ours, to have become his own, in virtue of his relation to his people: hence, because they were sinners, he was made sin;' because they were rebels, he died the death; because they had merited stripes, the stripes fell upon him. Good Lord, we have all thy glory and grace, and thou all our guilt and shame! We may well say each of us, "O what shall I do my Saviour to praise; so good, and so true, so plenteous in grace!"

(2.) A oneness of interest results from this relation; and the longer we live, the more we know of the Christian life, the more we shall see the propriety of this proposition. Our true interest