a husband did to a wife; he loved her, and gave himself for her. He fhed the hotteft blood of his heart to fave and redeem her. You will love him with a love of defire; "With my foul have I defired thee in the night:" with a love of delight; "My meditation of him fhall be fweet" with a love of benevolence, wishing well to his intereft; "If I forget thee, O Jerufalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not thee to my chiefeft joy," Pfal. cxxvii. 5, 6. They that habitually love hufband, wife, children, riches, or any thing more than Christ, have no reafon to think that they are matched with him.

2. If we be married to Chrift, we will truft in and depend on our hufband, In whom can a wife truft, if not in her hufband? The believer refts on Chrift for grace and glory; and commits all to him, ventures all on him, and expects all from him. The foul that is efpoufed to Chrift, looks on the infinite virtue of his blood, the infinite efficacy of his Spirit, the infinite fulnefs of his grace, the infinite dimenfions of his love, the infinite faithfulness of his promife: in all this he fees an infinite ground of hope, and thereupon he ventures, and rolls all on him. Here, he fays, I will flay and rest, here I will build, here I am refolved to flay, here I am refolved to live and die.

3. If we be married to Chrift, we will have a zeal for his glory. Some facrifice Chrift's intereft to their own honour; but the believer fays, Let my Master increafe, and me decrease. Though my name fhould never be heard of in the world, let Chrift be exalted. O, fays Chrift's bride, I would have all the world coming and adoring him! I would have all the world to love him! I would have all the world to praife him! Efpecially when fhe is under any lively influence, O then, fays fhe, if the greatest enemies knew what were in our Lord, they would come and join with him, as I have done!

4. The bride of Chrift cannot live without him. An honeft wife will be hard put to it, to live many years without her husband. O it is fometimes like a hell to her to mifs Chrift in ordinances! O the fore moans and

heavy groans of the deferted foul, that has had the ex perience of the sweetness of Chrift! "O that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his feat!" Job xxiii. 3. "O that it were with me as in months past!"

5. If you be Chrift's bride, you will be longing fometimes for his fecond coming; lefs or more you will defire the day of judgment, and long for his appearance, The epilogue of all the fpoufe's fweet difcourfes is, "Make hatte, my Beloved, be thou like a roe, or a young hart, on the mountains of Bether, till the day break, and the fhadows fly away." And the conclusion of the whole Bible is, "Come, Lord Jefus, come quickly," Rev. xxii. 20. Can you fay you have longed for his coming? I fee the devil reigns here, corruption reigns here, and never will things be right till he come again in the clouds, and fet heaven and earth in a flame, when these nuptial folemnities fhall begin to be celebrated, and the marriage. folemnized while eternity lafts.

6. If there has been a marriage betwixt Chrift and your fouls, then readily you have fome of the love-tokens to prefent; I mean, fome experiences and fome expreffions of his covenant-love: you can tell, that, fome. time or other, he brought you to the banquetting-houfe, and difplayed a banner of love over you. Sometime he hath enlarged your foul with ardent and longing defires after him, and fatisfied you with the fatnefs of his houfe. The foul that is really efpoufed to Chrift, will readily have fome experiences of his love to tell of.

7. The fpoufe of Chrift is a chafte fpoufe. Idols ne-, ver get her heart as before; though now and then she may give a fquint look, yet idols never have that force and room in her affections once they had; fhe is afraid, of doing any thing that may be difpleafing and difho nouring to him; hence we will find the spouse of Christ breathing out earnest defires and requests to God, to be kept and led in the way of righteoulnefs; "O that my ways were directed to keep thy ftatutes," Pfalm cxix. 5. Hence the groans up her cafe, "O wretched one that I am! who fhall deliver me from this body of fin and death!" Rom. vii. 24.

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8. If we be Chrift's bride, we will be a fruitful bride, Let us try; have we never a child of good works, or of grace? Thy belly, fays Chrift to the fpoufe, is as an heap of wheat," Song vii. 2. You know wheat is very fruitful; the barren foul that never loved, never mortified, never repented, never gave alms, never appeared for God; that barren foul is not the fpoufe of Chrift; for the fpoufe of Chrift is fruitful,-Thus much by way of trial.

4thly, For Exhortation. Is there a fpiritual marriage betwixt Chrift and believers? O then! fhall we not be perfuaded to come and clofe with Chrift for our Hufband, and take our Maker for our Husband, our God for our Hufband? If we be ambitious, here is the top of ambition, Jefus Chrift; if we be covetous, here is the true riches; whatever we are, whatever we have been, if we come to him, he will in no ways cast us out: it is true, we cannot come of ourselves, but let us cry, Lord, if I die, I fhall be buried under the mercy-feat, praying, weeping, looking, as I can, and go to hell with Chrift in my heart as much as I can. Come to him, and he will overcome your impotency; lay your cafe before him, faying, Lord, I am a wretched one in the highest degree; Lord, here is a great offer made, I have no heart to it; O come and give a difcovery of a loft ftate, and of thy excellent glory. O draw out my heart, and let me die upon the fpot, rather than reject Chrift for ever!

Many motives might be adduced; confider only,

1. The lovelinefs and beauty of Chrift. His beauty is univerfal; he is lovely in his perfon, lovely in his natures, lovely in his offices, lovely in his eftates of humiliation and exaltation, lovely in all his relations; his beauty is transforming, it will make the bride comely alfo; it is communicative, the bride is made comely through his comelinefs. When we fpeak of the comelinefs of Christ, we should let angels and faints above, that have the more immediate intuition of the radiant fplendor of this blessed object, go forth to declare his glory. Every thing in him is lovely, and nothing is lovely without him, nothing is lovely but what proceeds from him,

and

and goes to him; he is fo lovely, that he cannot poffibly be otherwife: he is the primary, original, and neceflary

lovelinefs.

2. Confider, as he is lovely, fo he is loving; his love is infinite, eternal, free, diftinguishing, effectual; never man loved like him. O how many foldings are in this love, as can never be unfolded?

3. Confider, if we clofe with Chrift we will give him a glad heart; his heart is glad in that day, when he takes a poor finner by the hand; the day of his espou fals is the day of the gladness of his heart. How many times have we grieved him by our hypocrify, and fofmality, and backwardnefs? And would we now give him a glad heart, for all the grieved hearts we have given him? then let us embrace him as offered in the gofpel, and then he will be glad, Why? then he will fee the fruit of election, the fruit of redemption, the fruit of his death, the fruit of his refurrection, the fruit of his afcenfion, the fruit of his interceffion then he gets back the temple of the Holy Ghoft; the loft fheep is found again; then he gets back the member of his own body.

I might give fomething by way of direction. You may fay, What fhall I do then, that I may be married unto Chrift?

In one word, if you would have Christ for your huf band, O then entertain his fuit, and hearken to his wooing and courting motions! Is he darting light into. your hearts, and letting you fee the evil of fome fin, that formerly ye delighted in? O do not refift his fuit, by continuing in fin after this Is he ftrengthening that light fo as to fet confcience on fire with the fenfe of fin, and apprehenfion of wrath? O quench not this fire till you get water out of the wells of falvation! otherwife ye reject his fuit.Is he carrying his fuit farther, and flirring up your affections to defire after Chrift! O quench not this motion! but cry to him to fasten the nail fure, and carry on the work, till the marriage be compleated.

Now, I might give a word of exhortation alfo to them that are married and efpoufed to Christ.

All

All I fhall fay is this; O let Chrift's bride live on him, and take all from himi! as a poor woman married to a rich man, fhe lives upon his riches. Many are ready to fay, That if Chrift would call us his bride, we would live on ourselves; we would pray, repent, believe, &c.; but the bride of Chrift mult get all-thefe things in him, and take all from him, and live wholly on him, and freely on him. When Jofeph's brethren did not know him, they were buying and felling with him, they would have nothing from him without money; but when they knew that he was a brother, for all the offences that they had done him, they were content to come down every man of them, and take all from him for nothing: this is the way you must do with Chrift, when matched to him; we muft not, with the legalift, have repentance and duties of our own, we must take all from him, who is the repofitory of all divine fulness, whereof the believer's part is, out of that fulnefs, to receive grace for grace.

SERMON