Page:Best-match, or, The incomparable marriage between the Creator & the creature.pdf/5

( 5 ) 2. The marriage-relation betwixt Chriſt and believers, appears from the compellations given to believers in ſcripture, with reſpect to Chriſt. How frequently calls he her “his love, his ſpouſe” in the book of the Song? Thou haſt raviſhed my heart, my ſitter, my. How fair is thy love, my ſiſter, my !" Song iv. 9, 10. In Rev.xix 7. the church (or believers in the collective capacity) is called the bride, the Lamb’s wife: "The mar- riage of the Lamb is come, and the bride hath made herſelf ready.” We need not ſtand to prove that which is ſo evident; we need ſay no more to confirm it. than to repeat the text, “Thy Maker is thy Huſband.” Therefore I come.

II. To ſpeak of the nature of this marriage: and here we would briefly conſider, 1. The parties mar- ried 2. The terms of this marriage 3. The pro- perties of the marriage. 4. The effects of it. 5. How the match is carried on. 6 How it is concluded.

1ll. I ſay, let us conſider, the parties married; who is the Bridegroom, and who is the bride.

1. Then, the Bridegroom is the wisdom of God; and all the treaſures of wiſdom and knowledge are found in him: he knows all the wants of the bride, and is ready to ſupply them.—On the ether hand the bride, before her matching with him, is the moſt arrant fool out of hell: her folly is diſeovered, by continuing to refuſe to match with him; in refuſing to give her conſent to this heavenly Bridegroom.

2 The Bridegroom is the eternal Son of God, the King’s only Son; “The King made a marriage for his Son: He is the blood-royal of heaven.— On the other hand, What is the bride’s pedigree? She needs not boaſl of her deſcent; ‘thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite." Eſek. xvi 3. There is a vaſt: difference here.