it unto a heart of flesh not work? well, he ftrengthens the weak and withered hand. Hift thou lame feet, that cannot walk? well, he makes the lane to leap like an hart. Haft thou a blind eye? or waft thou born blind? well, he has eye-falve to make the blind to fee clearly. In a word, the first moment the foul matches with Chrift, he begins the cure, and, against the day of confummation of the marriage, the bride will be fully ready, the good work will be perfected, and the bride will be prefented is without fpot or wrinkle, or any fuch thing."

Haft thou a withered hand, that can

4. O go out and meet the Bridegroom, and match with him, and he will bear all your burdens, let them be never fo heavy: "Caft thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." Chrift is the moft fympathifing Husband that ever was: If he fee his bride or beloved fpoufe oppreffed in fpirit with any fort of trouble, be what it will, he is juft afflicted in all her afflictions, and he will be with her in the fire and in the waters, that the fire may not burn, nor the waters overwhelm her. See how he speaks to his beloved fpoufe in her toflings, If. liv. 11. "O thou afflicted, toffed with tempeft, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy ftones with fair colours, and thy foundations with fapphires."

5. O match with the Bridegroom, and he will fubdue all thy enemies, and make thee a conqueror, yea, more than a conqueror over them. They that match and take on with Christ, muft indeed lay their account to have the armies of hell upon their top: The old ferpent cafts out water like a flood against the woman, and the remnant of her feed, that keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jefus Chrift." But be not difcouraged, poor foul; thy Bridegroem has already bruifed the head of the old ferpent, and, ere it be long, will alfo make thee to tread Satan under thy feet. He that food between thee and avenging justice, will likewife ftand with and for thee, in oppofition to all enemies whatever. Let men and devils curfe the ride of Chrift, he will blefs her. Let her be excommunicate, or caft out of the church unto the devil's common, Chrift will not affirm, but make void fuch fentences. In the ninth chapter of John, we read of a poor man born blind, whofe eyes Christ had opened upon the Sabbath day, by making a little clay, and putting it upon his eyes. The Jewith Sanhedrim met; and, under a very religious pretence of zeal for the Sabbath day, they convene the man before them, who profeffed Chrift, in as far as he knew him; and thereupon they excommunicate him, and catt him out of the church, and held him as a Heathen man and a Publican. Well, was this fentence

fentence bound in heaven? No; fo far from that, that ver. 35. when Chrift heard they had caft him out (or excommunicated him, as in the margin), Chrift feeks him out, and finds him, and manifefts himself the more to him, as you may fee ver. 25-38. and, in the 39th verfe, he paffes a heavy doom and fentence upon them that had caft him out: "For judgement I am come into this world, that they who fee not might fee, and that they who fee (or imagine that they are the only men that fee things, or know them in a better fight), might be made blind." Thus Chrift will take up and defend his bride, to the confufion of them that do her hurt. 6. O match with the bleffed Bridegroom, and he will manage all your concerns for you, and that both in heaven above, and earth below; for he has "all power in heaven and in earth" Thy Bridegroom, believer, will agent all thy bufinets for thee on earth; for all the wheels of providence, they are rolled in a fubferviency unto his defign of love towards his beloved fpoufe and bride, Rom. viii. 28. Deut. xxxiii. "He rides upon the heavens in thy help, and in his excellency on the fky." And as for thy concerns in the high court of heaven, he is thy Agent and Advocate there, 1 John ii. 1. 2. "If any man fin, we have an Advocate with the Father," &c.

7. O match with Chrift the Bridegroom, for he provides his bride in a large jointure. Although the contracts nothing with him but debt, and want, and poverty; yet he, in a way of free grace and love, contracts all things with her. See the tenure of the contract, 1 Cor. iii. 21. All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things prefent, or things to come; all are yours, for ye are Chrift's, and Chrift is God's." Oh! how well is the fpoufe of Chrift provided, by virtue of the con.ract of the new covenant? He provides his bride of a crown, and "a crown of glory that fadeth not away." He provides her of a kingdom that cannot be moved, an inheritance incorruptible, undefited, and that fadeth not away." He provides her of a city that hath foundations, whofe builder and maker is God;" and a jointure houle "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." In a word, he contracts, that his own God and Father thall be her God and Father for ever. What more can the most enlarged heart defire ? More eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive."

Met. 5. To win your hearts to the bleed Bridegroom, confider the excellency of the contract he makes with his bride. I told you in the entry, the contract is the covenant

of

of grace and promife, tranfacted in eternity between the Bridegroom and his eternal Father, on the behalf of these whom the Father gave him, Pfal. lxxxix. 3. "I have made a covenant with my chofen." And, in a day of power, when the bride gives her confent, that fame covenant is made and eftablished with her, If. lv. 3. "I will make with them an everlasting covenant, even the fure mercies of David." I fhall name a few properties, and you have them all in a bundle together, Hof. ii. 19. 20. And I will betrothe thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betrothe thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in loving kindness, and in mercy. I will even betrothe thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou thalt know the Lord."

1. It is an everlafting contract; for thus faith the Bridegroom, "I will betrothe thee unto me for ever." As the contract bears date from the ancient years of eternity, so it runs forward to an eternity to come; and, Oh! who can form a right thought of never-ending eternity? Oh! it is a great, but comfortable word to the bride of Chrift, "I will betrothe thee unto me for ever. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good." Death breaks all contracts between man and wife, and nullifies the relation; but "neither death nor life, nor things prefent, nor things to come," fhall feparate between Chrift and his spouse.

2. It is a juft and righteous contract; for it ftands bottomed upon the everlafting righteoufnefs brought in by the Bridegroom, "I will betrothe thee unto me in righteouinefs." The righteoufnefs of Chrift is the condition of the contract of the new covenant. By his obedience unto death, he confirmed the covenant unto many; and he gifts this righteousness unto his bride as her wedding garment, and puts it on her with his own hand: Hence the fings, If. lxi. 10. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my foul thall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of falvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteoufnefs, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth her felf with her jewels."

3. It is a wife and well ordered contract; for, fays the Bridegroom, "I will betrothe thee unto me in judgement," i. e. with great wildom and understanding. This chariot of the wood of Lebanon, viz. the covenant of grace, was made by a greater than Solomon, in whom are hid all the treafures of wifdom and knowledge." It was, the result of the council of peace, between the Father and the Son, from all eternity, and therefore cannot but be well ordered in all

things.'

things." It is the wisdom of God in a mystery, even his hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of the world knew. In other contracts between man and wife, there are sometimes very intricate and perplexing claufes, which occafion law-fuits and vexations; but no fuch thing here, every thing is clear.

4. It is a most loving contract; for, fays the Bridegroom, "I will betrothe thee unto me in loving-kindness." The love that Chrift did bear to his bride from all eternity is the fource and original of the whole of the match. The chariot of the wood of Lebanon is just paved with love for the daughters of Jerufalem. Love makes him to choose her for his bride from eternity; "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Love made him lay down his life a ranfom for his bride; "He loved me, and gave himself for me." Love made him draw her within the bonds of that covenant, whereof he is the Head; and love made all the promises of the contract; and love obliges him to fulfil them.

5. It is a gratuitous and free contract that he makes with her; for, fays the Bridegroom, "I will betrothe thee unto me in mercies; and it is obfervable, that is in the plural number, because that there are a multitude of tender mercies with the Bridegroom towards his bride. She was in mifery when he looked upon her, wallowing in her blood, without any eye to pity, or hand to help; but his tender mercies made him to fpread his fkirt over her, and to fay unto her, Live; and thus his mercy is from everlasting to everlafting upon them that fear him." His tender bowels yearn towards his beloved fpoufe, when he fees her in any diftrefs and trouble; for,

"

in all her afflictions he is afflicted;" and although her afflictions be many, yet at length he relieves her out of them all. 6. It is a faithful and true contract; for he fays, ver. 20. "I will betrothe you unto me in faithfulness." The very name of the Bridegroom is faithful and true, Rev. xix. 11. He is the Amen, the faithful and true Witnefs. He is not man, that he fhould lie, nor the fon of man, that he fhould repent; and therefore the contract of the covenant is more fure than heaven and earth: his "covenant he will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his lips, If. liv. 10. "The mountains fhall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness fhall not depart from thee, neither fhall the covenant of my peace be removed, faith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee."

7. It is an additional claufe of the contract, Hof. ii. 20. "(And thou shalt know the Lord.) I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord." The Bridegroom mani

fefts himself to the bride in another manner than he doth to

"Thine eyes fhall fee Then shall we know, This is the leading

the rest of the world, If. xxxiii. 17. the King in his beauty." Hof. vi. 3. if we follow on to know the Lord." bleffing in the contract of the covenant, and therefore called life eternal, John xvii. 3. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jefus Christ whom thou haft fent." To fee the glory of Chrift, and to be with him, is just the culminating or confummating point of the happiness of the faints in heaven, John xvii. 24. But that which feems especially to be imported in the expreffion, "Thou shalt know the Lord," is, That the bride shall be admitted into the most intimate fellowship and communion with the Bridegroom. As, upon the confummation of the mar riage, the bride and the bridegroom know one another, in a way of conjugal union and communion; fo the bride of Chrift fhall enjoy the fweeteft communion with the Lord, fo as to be in cafe to fay, with the fpoufe, "His left hand fhall be under my head, and his right hand fhall embrace me; and as a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me, he fhall lie all night betwixt my breafts." Thus you fee what an excellent contract it is that Chrift makes with the bride. Now, this contract we bring unto you in a preached gospel, requiring you in God's great-name to take hold of it, and fubfcribe it by the hand of faith, according to that prophecy and promife, If. xliv. 5. "One fhall fay, I am the Lord's, and another fhall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another fhall fubfcribe with his hand to the Lord, and firname himfelf by the name of Ifrael."

of

Mot. 6. To engage you to go forth and meet and match with the Bridegroom, in a way of believing, confider, that, by the command of the Bridegroom, procla nation is made of the purpose of marriage with the bride, and no lawful objection or impediment is or can be made against the defign. O, Sirs, we who are the friends and heralds of the Bridegroom, by commifion from the Bridegroom and his eternal Father, have proclaimed, and continue to proclaim, from the tops the high places, in the chief places of concourfe, "Whoever will, let him come, and be the bride, the Lamb's wife. Unto you, O men (fays he), I call, and my voice is to the fons of men." And what is his voice? See it, If. lv. every one that thirfteth, come, &c. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your foul thall live, and I will make with you an everlafting covenant." Now, fhall pro

I

1—3.

"Ho

clamation