Page:Best-match, or, The incomparable marriage between the Creator & the creature.pdf/10

( 10 ) ſom, ſubſtitutes himſelf in her room, takes on her debt, and pays all that ſhe owed to juſtice and then takes on with her. But, on cur part, juſt nothing at all: we had no hand in the covenant of redempt- ion: no hand in the contrivance of ſalvation; we knew nothing. about the buſineſs; we had no thoughts of a Redeemer, deſerved nothing but pure wrath: we were lying with full contentment in the devil's territories, when Chriſt was carrying on the match.

6thly, How is the marriage concluded on his part?

1. He sends forth his ambaſſadors to court for him, as Abraham did his ſervant for Iſaac; and there is a great work, indeed, to make her give her conſent. Let angels in heaven unite their topics of perfuaſion, they could not prevail with one ſoul, if a converting day were not come: but they muſt always ſpeak fair to her. How rhetorical was Abrabam’s ſervant for his master? “He hath but one child, and that child hath great riches.” He ſecks no portion with Rebecca, only her conſent. Thus be rhetoriſes and flouiſhes exceedingly, and perſuades with the greatest motives. But yet the ambaſſadors of Chriſt have a larger commiſſion, if our eyes were opened to ſee it: they are ſent forth to make love to the bride, and in his name to commend Chriſt.

2. He concludes the marriage thus. The bride being wretchedly ignorant of her true happineſs, therefore his Father diſtreſſes her with the debt that ſhe owes to him: and the wretched perſon is forced, for ſometime, to mount Sinai; and there God deſ- cends in all the circumſtances of terrible majesty! he thunders curſes againſt her; “Curſed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,” Gal. iii l0 God exacts all the debts; confidence roars, and the devils are let looſe; ſhe fears hell and wrath;