Page:Best-match, or, The incomparable marriage between the Creator & the creature.pdf/11

( 11 ) and God declares, in the goſpel, that the wretched bankrupt ſhall go to priſon, and ly eternally in hell, if ſhe do not take on with his Son, marry him, and believe on him. Thus the bride is forced to an ex- tremity: ſome have more, ſome have leſs of this law-work; but all are humbled and broken, in ſome meaſure, who are married to Chriſt: he ſends forth his Spirit and convinces the world of ſim. But this would not do either; and therefore,

3. The Bridegroom ſees that nothing but con- dſcenſion will do it; and ſo he appears in all his glory: when the bride is fail of fears, perplexities, and anxieties; when the terrors of God are ſur rounding her, and the arrows of the Almighty drinking up her ſpirits, and when ſhe is crying out. What ſhall I do? Whether ſhall I go? Then the Bridegroom appears in all his excellency and glory, and ſays, “Behold me, behold me!” And ſhe gets a view of him, that raviſhes her heart, and enlarges her ſoul: then it is that the Spirit is ſent to deter- mine her to conſent. The manifeſtation of his glory does enlighten her mind and ſpirit; and immediately grace, upon the will, draws out the whole heart alter him: ſo that if the bride could be grieved and pained upon the marriage-day, it would be for her ſolly in refuſmg him ſo long.—But what is done upon the bride's part, for concluding the match ? Nothing at all; but the whole ſoul is enabled to acqueſce in a Redeemer: and the believer is ready, at ſnch a time, to ſay, “He is my Lord, my God, my ſtrength, my all" and ſhall be for ever.— Thus you have a brief ſcheme of the nature and way of this marriage.

Having ſpoken but very briefly to the former heads, I ſhall here, before I proceed to the reaſons of the doctrine, offer a few remarks upon the time of this marriage-union betwixt Chiſt and believers