Page:Best-match, or, The incomparable marriage between the Creator & the creature.pdf/18

( 18 ) her, to hide her in till the day of indignation be overpaſt.

4 This doctrine lets us ſee, that believers are no ſuch mean and deſpicable perſons as the world generally takes them to be; they are Chriſt's bride, and he is their huſband: and, O what an honour is it to be married to the Son of God! Having him for an huſband, they come to be related to all Chriſt’s relations; God is their Father, becauſe he is his Father; angels are their ſervants, becauſe they are his ſervants; ſaints are their fellow-brethren, be- cauſe they are his members; heaven is their inhe- ritance, becauſe it is the kingdom of their huſband. In a word, whatever is his, is theirs; “And all things are yours, for ye are Chriſt's, and Chriſt is God’s,” 2 Cor. iii. 22, 23.

(2.) For lamentation. Is it ſo, that there is a marriage-relation betwixt Chriſt and believers? his calls for deep lamentation, in thefc two par- ticulars.

I. It calls us to lament that Chriſt ſhould have ſo few brides among us though he be wooing and courting us by the goſpel, crying, “Behold me! behold me,” Iſa. Ixv. 1. Yet where is the man or woman that is prevailed with to enter a match with this glorious Bridegroom? Though he be fairer than the ſons of men, and condeſcends to offer marriage with ſinners, who are as black and ugly as hell itſelf, yet they ſet him at nought, and give him juſt ground for that melancholy complaint, “My people would not hearken to my voice, Iſrael would have none of me,” Pſal Ixxxi 11. And may he not appeal to the very material creation, to judge of our folly, as he did of old, to Iſrael: Jer. ii 12,13. “Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! yea, be aſtonſlhed and horribly afraid! for my people have committed two great evils: they have forſaken