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the Bridegroom. But now that I may open this twofold spring of confolation, I fhall effay to draw a little water out of them, for the confolation of the bride, the Lamb's wife: I begin with

The firft, John iii. 29. "He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom." Now Chrift hath the bride in thefe following refpects.

ift, By eternal donation and gift from the Father. The Father of the Bridegroom gifted the bride unto his beloved Son,. John xvii. "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me." They were the Father's by electing love: he chofe them from among the mafs of corrupted mankind, and he makes a propine of them to his eternal Son, that he might redeem them with his blood, and call them in due time by his grace, juftify them freely, fanctify them throughout, and fave them eternally.

2dly, The Bridegroom hath the bride by purchase. She is by nature the law's debtor, juftice's prifoner, and the devil's flave. Chrift takes a view of her in this deplorable condition; the juftice of God purfuing like the avenger of blood; the devil, as God's executioner, ready to haul her to the prifon of hell. 'O (fays Chrift), I have loved her with an everlasting love, and my heart is fo much fet upon a marriage with her, that I am content to fatisfy the law and justice in her room; let the curfe of the law due to them fall upon me; let the awakened fword of juftice rage against me, that they may escape; I will be wounded for their iniquities, and bruifed for their tranfgreffions.'

3dly, He hath the bride by conqueft. Although law and justice be fatisfied, yet, the devil having got poffeffion, he will not quit the prifoner, unless fhe be taken out of his cuftody by main force. Well, fays the Bridegroom, I will lead captivity captive, I will bruife the head of that old ferpent the devil, fpoil principalities and powers; and fo the lawful captive fhall be delivered, and the prey taken from the mighty.' 4thly, He hath the bride by her own confent, in a day of power, Pfal. cx. 3. He conquers her enmity against him by difcoveries of his love and lovelinefs, Hof. xi. 4. Jer. xxxi. 3. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee:" and thereupon the bride figns the contract, If. xl. 3. 4. "One fhall fay, I am the Lord's, and another shall fubfcribe with his hand unto the Lord," &c. And fo the efpoufals are made, and the Bridegroom hath the bride. But it may be afked, 'Where hath he the bride?' An{wer,

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ft, He hath her in his houfe: for as King Solomon built houfe for Pharoah's daughter; fo Chrift, the true Solomon,

builds a twofold houfe for his bride, a houfe on earth, and another in heaven. We read of a houfe that Wisdom hath built, Prov. ix. 5. with feven pillars, for the entertainment of his bride, and the ftones thereof are laid with fair colours, and the foundation thereof of fapphire; and this is that house of mercy, which God will have built up for ever: and then he has prepared a houfe, yea, a "city which hath foundations, whofe builder and maker is God;" John xiv. 2. 3. "In my Father's house are many manfions," &c.

2dly, He hath the bride not only in his houfe, but in his hand; Deut. xxxiii. 3. "All his faints are in thy hand,” i e. in the hand of the Bridegroom; John x. 28. “I give unto them eternal life, and they fhall never perih, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." O believer, is not this a glo Pious fpring of confolation, that thou art continually in the hand of thy glorious Hufband and Bridegroom? He keeps his bride in the hollow of his hand, the hand of his power and providence.

3dly, What more? I can tell you more yet. The Bridegroom hath the bride in his arms and befom; If. xl. 11. “He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bofom," &c. O what a fweet lodging is this, to lie in the bofom of him, who lay from eternity, and will lie to eternity, in the bofom of the Father, encircled with the everlafting arms of the eternal God! O bieffed lodging! Pfal. xci. 1. "He that dwelleth in the fecret place of the Moft High, fhall abide under the fhade of the Almighty."

4thly, The Bridegroom hath the bride continually in his eye fuch is the love that he bears her, that his eye can never be off her; wherever the is, his eye follows her, and his eyes run to and fro through the whole earth to fhew himself strong in her behalf.

5thly, The Bridegroom hath the bride continually in his very heart. Oh" fays the fpoufe, fet me as a feal upon thine heart, as a feal upon thine arm." As the priest had the tribes of Ifrael upon his breaft, fo Chrift has his people fet as a feal upon his heart; the can never be out of his mind. Now is not this a glorious spring of confolation to the foul efpoufed to Christ; that thy Bridegroom, believer, has thee in his house, in his hand, in his arms, and bofom, and fet in his eye, and on his very heart? But,

Secondly, As the Bridegroom hath the bride, fo the bride hath the Bridegroom; for he that hath the Son hath life. If thou be a believer, thou haft the Son, who is the Bridegroom. Take this in thefe particulars,

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ft, If thou be the bride, and haft received him by faith, thou haft the perfon of the Son for thy Hufband and Bridegroom, "Thy Maker is thine Hufband." You know, that in marriage the relation is between the perfon of the man and woman; fo, in the fpiritual marriage, it is the perfon of Chrift and the perfon of the believer that are married. And what thinkeft thou, believer, of being married to the fecond Perfon of the glorious Trinity? To which of the angels did he ever say, Thou art the bride, the Lamb's wife?

2dly, Being married to the Son of God, thou art a partaker of the divine nature, as he is a partaker of the human, 2 Pet. i. 4. The beauty of the Lord thy God is upon thee. The Bridegroom imparts and communicates his beauty to the bride; and then the looks" forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the fun ;" and he fays, "Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee."

3diy, The Bridegroom's Father is thy Father; John xx. 17. "I afcend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." Chrift, as the fecond Adam and new covenant Head, fays for himfelf, and all believers who are his bride, Pfal. lxxxix. "Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my falvation." And the Father of Chrift allows and requires his Son's bride to come to him with holy and humble confidence, and cry, Abba, Father, unto him: "Doubtless thou art my Father, wilt thou not cry unto me, my Father? thou art the guide of my youth."

4thly, The Holy Ghoft is thy Comforter, to encourage and comfort the bride in the abfence of the Bridegroom; John xvi. 6. "It is expedient (fays Chrift) for you, that i go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come ; but i i go away, I will fend him unto you," and he thall dwell in you, and abide with you for ever. The fpirit of the Bridegroom abiding with the bride is far better than if the enjoyed his bodily prefence.

5thy, The very life of the bride is hid in the Bridegroom, Col. in-3. "Your life is hid with Chrift in God. Because I live, ye hall live alfo." Perhaps, poor believer, to thy own fenfe and feeling, thou mayeft be brought to that pafs, as to fay, My life draweth nigh unto the grave, I am free dead?" I am a dry tree, and like Ezekiel's dry bones: but remember, that the fountain of life is with thy Head, Husband, and Pridegrooni; "becaufe I live, ye fhall live alfo."

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Cilly Know for thy comfort, that the contract of the covenant ends fall; he has betrothed thee to himself, not for a day, for a month, or a year, or an age, but for ever: "I will make with them an everlafting covenant." The covenant

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ftands faft with him: "My covenant I will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."

7thly, Having the Son, thou haft all the promises of the new covenant, as fo many wells of falvation, out of which thou mayeft draw waters with joy; for all the promises of God are in him, and in him they are to the bride of Chrift yea and amen. Oh how great and precious are these pro

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8thly, Having the Son for thy Bridegroom, the law, nor juftice, nor the world, nor life, nor death, have any action or procefs against, thee. You know, in law, the wife cannot be purfued for debt: the husband is liable for her debt; and if the husband pay the debt, the creditors have nothing to fay against the wife. Well, this is the cafe with thee, O believer, who haft the Son for thy Hufband: he has cleared scores with law and juftice, and was difcharged of it in his refurrection, wherefore" he was taken from prifon and from judgement;" and therefore the foul married and betrothed unto him, being under his cover, may lift up the head and cry, Rom. viii. 33. 34. "Who can lay any thing to my charge? It is God that jullifieth, who is he that condemneth?"

9thly, Whatever deep feas or Jordans of trouble thou mayeft have before thee, the Bridegroom has past his word for it, that he will be prefent with thee in them, If. xli. 10. If. xliii. 2. When thou paffeft through the waters, I will be with thee," &c. When thou art laid upon a fick-bed, or a deathbed, the Bridegroom will attend thee; for he has faid, "I will never leave thee nor forfake thee: yea, when thou lieft down in the grave, thou fhalt fleep in his bed and bofom; "Them that fleep in Jefus, will God bring with him.”

1othly, Thy Bridegroom, believer, when thou art giving up the ghost, and thy foul departing from thy body; he, with a guard of angels, will be ready to receive thy fpirit, John xiv. 3. "I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be alfo." O what comfort is it to a dying faint or believer, that no fooner he is abfent from the body, but he is prefent with the Lord; and may welcome the waggon of death, that is come to fetch the bride home to the house of the Bridegroom, faying, with dying Stephen, O Lord Jefus, receive my fpirit!"

1thly, Though thou drop the carcafe of the body into the grave, where it fleeps quietly until the morning of the refur rection, yet the Bridegroom fays, I will raife them up at the laft day. This promife he frequently repeats, particularly John vi. "I will raife him up at the laft day." O lift up thy head, believer; for the day of thy complete redemption, even

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the redemption of thy body from the power of the grave, draweth nigh. Thy beloved Bridegroom will, as it were, come to the bed-fide of the grave, and cry, "Awake and fing, thou that fleepest in the dust:" and then the dew of the Holy Ghoft, that quickened thy foul when dead in trefpaffes and fins, fhall alfo quicken thy dead body, and thereupon the earth fhall caft out the dead, If. xxvi. 19. compared with Rom. viii. 11. Then, O then, believer, thou shalt "fhine forth like the fun in the kingdom of thy Father," thy vile body fhall be made' like unto the glorious body of the Bridegroom; and thereupon the nuptial folemnity will begin, which shall never have an end, each one crying to another, as Rev. xix. 7. "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready."

Thus you see what unspeakable ground of confolation and eternal triumph there is for the foul that is efpoufed unto Chrift but the ten thoufandth thoufandth part of it cannot be told; for eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, nor hath the heart of man conceived, what is laid up for her in Christ.

Object. 1. Oh! may fome poor foul fay, these are great things indeed; but I am afraid they do not belong unto me; I am afraid I am not the bride; he is fuch a great and glorious perfon, and I am fuch a poor defpicable worm, fo guilty, fo filthy, that I am afraid the match was never made between him and me; and therefore I am afraid to apply all that comfort that belongs to the bride of Christ.

Anfw. It is one of the properties of the bride of Christ, to be humble, and lowly, and felf-denied, and to be admiring the infinite distance between the Bridegroom and her: She is never taken up with admiring her own gifts and graces, her own beauty and excellency, but the beauty, glory, and excellency of the Bridegroom: She does not boait of what she has received, but all her boasting and glorying is in the Lord : And the more humble and denied the bride of Chrift is, the more amiable and defireable fhe is in the eyes of the Bridegroom, If. lvii. 15. and Ixii. 2. .

Object. 2. I am fo peftered with a body of fin and death, carnality, unbelief, and pride, and other heart plagues, that I doubt if my fpot be the spot of Chrift's bride.

Anfw. You fee how much the great apoftle Paul was diftreffed with the law of fin which was in his members, Rom. vii. "Wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from this body of death." Chrift fays of his bride, Cant. vi. "What will fee in the Shulamite? as it were the company of two armies," grace and corruption continually struggling together; the flesh lufting againit the fpirit, and the fpirit against the VOL. III.

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