3. The bride shall be presented to the bridegroom: she shall "meet the Lord in the air," 1 Thess. iv. 17. She sees how his lovely picture, as it is drawn by the pencil of the Holy Spirit, in the word of the everlasting gospel; and she contracts with him: but then she shall see him in person, and be solemnly married unto him. She is presented "as a chaste virgin to Christ," 2 Cor. xi. 2. Look on her as presented that day; where are all her former deformities? she is presented, "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing," Eph. v. 27. Where is all her former blackness? she "shines forth as the sun," Matth. xiii. 43. Where are all her rags, which so often clothed her with shame?" She is brought unto the King, in raiment of needle-work," Psalm xlv. 14.

4. The witnesses are present; the whole congregation of heaven and earth, to be witnesses to the marriage. There is the glorious company of holy angels: there is the black company of the wicked, of whom many were wont to satisfy themselves to be only spectators of the espousals; and now, to their eternal confusion and anguish, they shall be spectators of the marriage, and but spectators.

5. Then the royal Bridegroom, being on his throne, shall solemnly take his espoused bride in marriage, before the world, angels and men, saying, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," Matth. xXV. 34. And in token thereof, he shall put a crown on her head, 2 Tim. iv. 8, and set her down with himself on his throne: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne," Rev. iii. 21.

6. There shall be a glorious triumph, to grace the solemnity of the day; a triumph over the enemies of Christ and his spouse. All the wicked world shall stand trembling before them, and be adjudged to everlasting fire, and driven from before the throne, in consequence of that fearful sentence, " "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Matth. xxv. 41.

Lastly, Christ and his spouse shall be the last on the field; and when they have seen the backs of all their enemies, (while they depart into everlasting punishment), they shall go away attended with angels, and enter into the King's palace, where they shall sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb, at a table that shall never be drawn.

So the marriage expires not with the world's ending, but is then solemnized and consummated.

Shall we proceed any further in quest of that, which we are sure we shall never find? We have looked into death, and we find

i

the marriage expires not there; we have looked to the world's ending, and we find it is so far from expiring then, that then it is solemnized and consummated: if we attempt to go further, we lose ourselves in a boundless ocean of eternity, where we can see nothing more to take our mark by. Let us stop then, and conclude, that the blessed espousals are for ever; that the spiritual marriage betwixt Christ and believers never expires; never, never, never.

I proceed to the APPLICATION. And the only use I shall make of this doctrine is to exhort you, that, seeing sinners may be espoused to Christ for ever, ye would therefore consent to the offer, and be espoused to him for ever. Christ makes offer of himself unto every soul here this day; and we are come in his name to propose unto you a marriage with the Son of God, that we may gain your consent thereto. O come into this blessed match: accept of Jesus Christ, your Maker, to be your Husband for ever. Shall we not prevail with you, in a treaty so very suitable to your case, so very much for your advantage? Howsoever it be entertained, we must make the offer in his name, proclaim the royal Bridegroom's will and pleasure, and make suit for your hearts. Therefore 66 hearken unto me, that God may hearken unto you."

First, Are there any in all this company who have an unstable, false, and fickle heart, that they can never get fixed, but still it breaks all bounds? No doubt there are. To such I say, Here is a suitable match for you. Come into the marriage covenant, put that heart in Christ's hand: these whom he espouseth, he espouseth for ever. If ye cannot keep the covenant, the covenant will keep you. The covenant of works could never keep an unstable heart, the condition of it being perfect and complete obedience, without the least failure or wavering; a condition ye cannot pretend to fulfil, and therefore ye can have no hope from the way of that covenant. I know the sorry shifts that some make to delude themselves, by patching up a bastard covenant of works, wherein they engage not with Jesus Christ as a Head and Husband, to live by him, being united to him, (which they could certainly do, if they took the way of the covenant of grace), but they covenant with him only as a master, to give him their work for wages. Surely this covenant of your own making will never keep you: your hearts, howsoever ye watch them, will leap out and break it; but the marriage covenant will secure the most unstable heart that is to be found amongst us; so that it shall be as the tree whose root remains fixed in the earth, howbeit the branches thereof are shaken by the wind. Though the spouse of Christ may be tossed to and fro by the blasts of temptation, yet the root of the righteous shall not be moved, Prov. xii. 3.

ever.

Secondly, Are there any in this company that are mourning for the loss of their deceased relations? or any that are afraid of such a mournful occasion abiding them? Here is a suitable match for such persons, the King immortal offers to betroth you unto him for Ye cannot think of the death of your friends, of parting with your dear relations, but with greatest sorrow of heart. Truly ye that are of that disposition will never find a relative suitable to your mind, but by coming into this marriage covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ will take you into the nearest relation with himself; he is willing to espouse you, and being once espoused, ye shall never part. Death, that inexorable messenger, who snatcheth the husband from the wife, and the wife from the husband, the child from the parent, and the parent from the child, cannot prevail here, and shall never be able to separate betwixt Christ and these that are espoused to him, Rom. viii. 38, 39, "Neither death nor life-shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Thirdly, Are there any who know not how to get safe through the world in the evil day? Here is a suitable match for you: be espoused to Christ; he will go betwixt you and all hazards. How bad soever the times be, they will still be within the compass of that sweet clause in the text, "for ever." And therefore I infer, that our Lord offers himself to be a head and husband to us for the evil day, the day of trial. Take him for your husband for ever. If it be a dark day, he will be for a light to you, and guide you; if it be a day of war, he will cover your head; if it be a day of searching of corners, he will hide you either under heaven, or in heaven. Embrace the covenant, and then, although ye sing the triumph before the victory, ye shall not be ashamed, Psalm xlix. 5, "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil ?"

Fourthly, Are there any who have none to provide for them? or any under fears, that, ere long, they will be in a destitute and helpless condition? Come ye into this match, and ye shall never want a provisor, who will surely furnish you all that you shall need, and that is enough; "Verily thou shalt be fed:" yea, "in the days of famine they shall be satisfied," Psalm xxxvii. 3, 19. What time ye are espoused to Christ, even your daily bread is secured to you by the covenant, Isa. xxxiii. 16, "Bread shall be given him, bis waters shall be sure." The carnal world will laugh at this, and bid us sit down and dine upon it; but they cannot laugh the people of God out of their experience, whose consciences do bear them witness, that they have dined sometimes more sweetly upon a promise of the covenant, than it is possible for carnal men to do at their most plentiful tables.

Fifthly, Are there any here that have been ranging through the creation, seeking a match for their souls, something commensurable to the desires of their immortal spirits, but could never yet find it? Ye have not failed to meet with disappointments, even where your hopes have been most raised: ye have found some one thorn of uneasiness or another, wheresoever you have essayed to take up your rest; and whithersoever ye have turned yourselves, ye have still come away dissatisfied; ye have tried many methods to attain to satisfaction, and none of them has answered your design. Be persuaded at length to make trial of this; embrace Christ in the marriage covenant, and be assured he will be to you what no created person or thing can be, a complete covering of the eyes, and a rest to your heart for ever, Psalm lxxiii. 25, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee."

Sixthly, Are there any whom nobody cares for, who are rejected by all, and cast at every door? Our Lord will receive you, even you; for "he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel," Psalm cxlvii. 2. His family, so far as it is made up of the children of men, is made up of foundlings: Israel was a poor foundling; Egypt would lodge them no longer; Canaan would not take them in: but when they were cast at all hands, the Lord took them up, Deut. xxxii. 10, "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness: he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." So, however forlorn your case be, he will take you up, and bring you into the bond of the covenant, even the marriage covenant.

Ye have a Scripture full to this purpose, representing the case of the Jews, whom the Lord took into covenant with himself, but applicable to every soul whom Christ espouseth, Ezek. xvi. 5, "Thou wast cast out into the open field, to the loathing of thy person." Ver. 8, "I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine." It is evident there is an allusion here to the inhuman custom of exposing of infants, very usual among several heathen nations. The Lord shews Israel and all these whom he has espoused, what a miserable case he found them in, and how graciously he dealt with them when they were in that

case.

Thou wast cast out into the open field; thy case was as ill as that of exposed outcast infants. Now, that barbarous custom we find was, to take out the infants, and leave them in some place where they might perish, if some body did not find them, and take them up, as Pharaoh's daughter did Moses when he was exposed,

Exod. ii. Such was thy case, hopeless and helpless, being abandoned of all, and unable to help thyself. This barbarity was exercised on these infants that were lame or deformed, and who they judged were not like to be useful to the commonwealth. So Christ's bride is altogether unsightly, and has nothing promising about her in the day he begins to manifest herself unto her; no beauty for which she is to be desired. Sometimes they exposed infants to perish by the waters, the sea, rivers, or lakes; sometimes they laid them down in woods or desert places, where they might be a prey to ravenous birds and beasts: accordingly thou wast cast out in the open field, even the waste howling wilderness, Deut. xxxi. 10. Thus the sinner lay a ready prey for the devourer, and so thy case was as ill as that of exposed infants.

But that is not all; it was worse than theirs usually was: they were laid out, but thou wast cast out; not laid down warily, but violently thrown away, to, or in, the lothing of thy person, as some abominable thing men cannot endure to look at. When they were exposed, they were put either in a kind of close basket, or in an earthen pot; but so much kindness was not shown to thee, thou wast cast out in the open field, or (as the word is) "to the face of the field;" thrown to, and left upon the bare ground without the least shelter.

But it was yet worse: when infants were exposed, they were swathed and adorned, yea, and precious things, as gold, jewels, rings, were laid down with them for the charges either of their education or burial, if any that found them should be at the pains to do either of these unto them. "But I covered thy nakedness," saith our Lord. As for those whom he takes up, there is nothing to be got by them; it is of mere grace, absolutely free grace, that he takes notice of them to help them. They have not so much as to cover their nakedness.

Now, behold how grace abounds to the foundling; "I entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine," i. e. my spouse, as I showed before. If oue free-born had been exposed, he lost his freedom, and passed into a servile state; but those whom our Lord takes up, he does not enslave, but espouse unto himself.

Finally, Observe, that the first covering the Lord casts upon the naked foundling, is the marriage-robe, the robe of his own righteousness. He does not delay the espousals till the bride be brought into a better and more honourable condition than he found her in, but takes her as she is in her miserable condition, and, espousing her, covers her nakedness; "I spread my skirt over thee, (betrothed thee unto me), and so covered thy nakedness."

O the riches and freedom of grace! Let those that are espoused