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Chrift is in abfolute fafety: he hath retiring chambers for her, to hide her in till the day of indignation be overpaft.

4. This doctrine lets us fee, that believers are no fuch mean and defpicable perfons as the world generally takes them to be; they are Chrift's bride, and he is their husband: and, O what an honour is it to be married to the Son of God! Having him for an husband, they come to be related to all Chrift's relations; God is their Father, because he is his Father; angels are their fervants, because they are his fervants; faints are their fellow-brethren, becaufe they are his members; heaven is their inheritance, because it is the kingdom of their hufband. In a word, whatever is his, is theirs; "And all things are yours, for ye are Chrift's, and Chrift is God's," 2 Cor. iii. 22, 23.

This calls

(2.) For lamentation. Is it fo, that there is a mar riage-relation betwixt Chrift and believers? for deep lamentation in thefe two particulars.

1. It calls us to lament that Chrift fhould have fo few brides among us, tho' he be wooing and courting us by the golpel, crying, "Behold me, behold me," Ifa. lxv. 1. Yet where is the man or woman that is prevailed with to enter a match with this glorious Bridegroom? Tho' he be fairer than the fons of men, and condefcends to offer marriage with finners, who are as black and ugly as hell itself, yet they fet him at nought, and give him juft ground for that melancholy complaint, "My people would not hearken to my voice, Ifrael would have none of me," Pfalm lxxxi. 11. And may he not appeal to the very immaterial creation, to judge of our folly, as he did of old to Ifrael? Jer. ii. 12, 13. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; yea, be aftonifhed and horribly afraid, for my people have committed two great evils: they have forfaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them. out ciflerns, broken cifterns, that can hold no water."

2. This doctrine may afford us matter of lamentation alfo, That believers, who are efpoufed to him, fhould walk fo unworthily of fuch a husband. You know a wife fhould demean herself conform to the character of her husband; and where her carriage is. bafe and mean,

O how unfuitable is it

it reflects a difhonour on him. to fee Chrift's bride' blackened with the filth of hell! to fee thofe who have ftricken hands with Chrift, in a marriage-covenant, joining hands with lufts and idols, and defiling themfelves with them!

(3.) For Examination. Let us try if we be thus married and related to Chrift; whether he be our Hufband, and we his bride and fpoule.

I fhall offer a few marks whereby we may know whether or not we be married unto this glorious Huf band; and they may be drawn from the confideration of the antecedents, the conftituents, and the confequents of this marriage.

ift, Try by the antecedents to the marriage-contra&. Before ever Chrift did contract with thee, didft thou obferve him courting thy foul before this contract? Here is a courting. Now, how did Chrift court you?

1. Did he court you by the aufterity of the Law, as with fire and fword? Did he court you by fuch a word. as that, Thou art a curfed wretch: For, " Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them?" Gal. ii. 16. Did he court you by fuch a word as that, "Curfed is every one that doth the work of the Lord negligently?". Did he court you thus, by the spirit of bondage, with the terrors of God, as clothed with vengeance, telling thee, thou art an heir of hell and wrath, a child of the devil? Did he court thee fo as thou waft furrounded with fear and trouble?

2. Did he court thee as by the aufterity of the law; fo by the fweetness of the gospel, when he faw thee caft down, when he faw thee a poor heavy laden finner, like to be crushed under thy weights? Did he then court you with fuch a word as that, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft," Matth. xi. 8.; or with fuch a word as that, ર "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come to the waters; he that hath no money, come; buy wine and milk, without money and without price, Ifa. lv. 1. Flee to your ftrong holds, ye prifoners of hope." Did he thus court you with the gofpel-offer?

3. Did he court you by his love-letters? This is another antecedent of the contract. Got you ever a love

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letter fent from Chrift out of heaven? But you will fay, What is the love-letter? Even the Bible: "Search the Scriptures, thefe are they that teftify me," John v. 39. Here there are the declarations of the love of Chrift to thy foul: here there are love-promifes in thefe letters, that thall be yours. There is a love-covenant in these letters. Have you read and pondered them? And can you fay that Chrift fpake them in to your heart? If it be a text that was preached upon, or if it be a single word, O Chrift dropt that into my heart and I think it will go with me to my death-bed, it came with fuch life and power. In a word, Got you any gifts before the marriage-contract, fuch as the gift of true conviction, fuch as the gift of heart-contrition, the gift of real humiliation, the gift of felf-denial, the gift of faith? Thefe are given, fome before, fome at the contract.

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2dly, Try by the conflituents of the marriage.

1. If this marriage be made up betwixt Chrift and thee, then thou haft put away all lovers befides Chrift; the right hand will be cut off, the right eye put out; you will be divorced from all other husbands, particu larly from the law; ye must be dead to the law, that ye may be married to another husband, even to Chrift. But you will fay, What is it to be dead to the law? I answer, It is not to lay it afide as the rule of obedience; for the law fhall ftill be the rule and ftandard of the believer's obedience, life, and converfation: but to be dead to the law, is to be fenfible, that the law cannot fave us as a covenant of works, It is to disclaim all hopes of being juftified by the law, or by our works or obedience to it. I fee Chrift, the glorious husband, hath brought in an everlafting righteoufnefs, aufwering the law fully this is the garment I must put on, and çaft off my old filthy rags.

2. Haft thou given a cordial confent upon the contractday? Can you fay you was enabled to take him, as the Palmift, "O my foul, thou haft faid unto the Lord, thou art my Lord;" and thou art my God, my Head, my Hufband? Have you given a rational confent to it? Yea, a fuperrational and fupernatural confent? A deliberate, chafle, flayed, folemn, peremptory confent? Did you

fay

fay it with faith, and with an air of heaven, that he was yours, and fhall be fo for ever? It is true, perfons may be matched to Chrift who cannot condefcend on the precife time: the Spirit may work many times fome way that we cannot know; yet it is his ordinary way with his bride, after many toflings, to break in with ravishing, conquering fweetnels, to draw forth her foul to a folemn remarkable clofing with him, and confenting to him. Have you then been engaged to make over yourself to the Bridegroom, by an unreferved refignation of your felf to him, that you will not only take him wholly, and for ever, for holiness and happiness, for light and life, for grace and glory, but alfo make over yourfelf to him, foul and body, whatever you are, whatever you have been? Have you been thus made to yield yourselves un to the Lord? Are you one with him? Have you one Spirit with him? Are you of one faith with him, of one way with him, endeavouring to walk as he walked? "He that is joined to the Lord is one fpirit," 1 Cor. iv. 17.

3. Can you fay, that, upon the marriage-day, you got a marriage-gift from the Bridegroom? Among the Jews, the Bridegroom was to give a marriage-gift to his bride: Now, what gift got you on this marriage-day? Can you fay, indeed I got the wedding-garment; he clothed me with his righteoufnefs, which he fpan out of his own bowels, weaved with his own hands, and dyed with his own blood; and thus all my guilt is covered, the curfe is done away? This is indeed what few get; yet föme, have been, and are able to fay, I am delivered from the wrath to come; and there is no condemnation to me; and on fuch a time I got alfo an ornament of the graces with the Spirit, which I wear as jewels, viz. faith, love, obedience, patience, humility; and I got the promise of an hundred-fold here, and. I am expecting more gifts yet, before the marriage be confummate; I am expecting more affurance, I live in the hope of glory; I expect a fealed pardon of all my fins, and I look to get the earnest of the Spirit, and more every day.

4. Another conftituent of this marriage-contract is, the bride, on that day, puts off one vail, and puts on another. This was the Jewifh cuftom, the brides put off the

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vail of bafhfulness, and put on the vail of fubjection, Chri's bride, before the marriage, cannot look the Bridegroom in the face, is afhamed to look upon him ; but the is made to put off this vail in the prefence of her former lovers, and to take Chrift by the hand, and then the puts on the vail of fubjection, whereby the promi fes, in his ftrength, to fubject herfelf to her hufband's will, Have we thus promised to be obedient to his commands, in his own itrength, whatever he injoins us to do or fuffer?

3dly, Try by the confequents of this marriage, Would you know if there has been a contract betwixt Chrift and you? Try then by the immediate confequents.

1..Did you fee the King in his beauty, and fuch a glory and excellency in him as could not be paralleled by all the glory of ten thoufand worlds?

2. What was your converfe with him on the contract, day? Can you fay, he embraced me in his arms, and I embraced him in my heart, and there was fweet com munion and fellowship betwixt him and me?

3. Walt thou crowned in the marriage-day, fo as thou waft known by others, as it were, to be the bride of Chrift? The Jews, they not only crowned the bridegroom, but the bride alfo. You fee what the crown is that Chrift's bride fhould have, Rev. xii. 1. "There appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the fun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve ftars." The bride of Chrift is crown-ed with the dorine of the twelve apoftles.

4. The bride of Chrift keeps at home, and delights in the bride-chamber. This is her delight all the days of her life, to dwell in the houfe of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. Ordinances will be fweet, being the galleries wherein the King is held.

II. Try by the qualities and duties of the bride, which are alfo the confequents to this marriage.

1. If you be Chrift's bride, then you will love the bridegroom. Love is what every wife owes to her hufband; much more doth the believer owe it to Chrift, who hath expreffed far more love to this bride than ever

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