clamation of marriage be made, and yet fhall the bride draw back, and make the proclamation of none effect.

Mot. 7. Confider, that if you be pleased with the match, all parties are pleased.

1. The Father of the Bridegroom is pleafed. The first motion of the bargain was made by him; he first proposed the match for his beloved Son, in the council of peace, faying, 'O my Son, wilt thou match with yon company of Adam's family, and buy them off from the hand of justice, and betrothe them unto thee for ever? Mine they are, and I give them unto thee.' And as the Father proposed the match, fo he presents his beloved Son unto the bride, faying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. Behold my Servant whom I uphold, mine Elect in whom my foul delighteth." For what end doth the Father thus commend him unto you, if he be not pleafed with the match? Yea, he commands and requires you to take him by the hand, 1 John iii. 23. "This is his commandinent, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jefus Christ," &c.

2. As the Father of the Bridegroom is pleafed; fo is the Bridegroom himself, yea, as you heard in ten or twelve particulars, he is exceedingly fond of it. His delights were and are with the fons of men; he rejoices over the foul that comes to him, "as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride."

3. The friends of the Bridegroom, all faithful ministers, are pleased, yea, they travail as in birth, till they gain your confent to take your Maker for your Hufband; and that day your confent is gained, they rejoice, and forget their forrow, like a travailing woman when a man-child is born into the world.

4. Fellow virgins, all true believers, are well pleased and rejoice when a poor foul gives heart and hand to the Bridegroom, Pfal. xlv. 14. 15. "The virgins her companions that follow her fhall be brought unto thee: with gladnefs and rejoicing shall they be brought." Thus, I fay, all parties are pleased. O, then, let it be a bargain, and go forth and meet the Bridegroom.

Mot. 8. As all parties on the fide of the Bridegroom are pleased, so all things are ready, and therefore come to the marriage. The Bridegroom is ready, as the words of the text declare, Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go je out to meet him; yea, he stands at the door, and knocks. The Holy Ghoft, the Comforter, is ready to caft the everlasting knot, faying, "To day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." He is ready to give the bride "the oil of joy for VOL. III. mourning,

mourning, and the garment of praise for a heavy spirit.» The contract of the covenant is ready, being figned by the Father, faying, If. xlii. 6. “I will give them for a covenant unto the people;" and the Bridegroom has figned it with his own blood, Dan. ix. Heb. ix. The marriage houfe is built, and ready for the reception of the bride, Prov. ix. at the be ginning, "Wifdom hath builded her houfe, the hath hewn out her feven pillars." The marriage fupper is ready, "My oxen and my fatlings are killed, Matth. xxii.: and Prov. ix. 2. "Wisdom hath killed her beafts, the hath mingled her wine, the hath also furnished her table," &c. In a word, all the angels and faints in heaven, all minifters and Christians upon earth, are ready to clap their hands, and to tune their harps, and there will be joy both in heaven and in earth, at your going forth to meet the Bridegroom.

Mot. 9. Go forth, and meet the Bridegroom in a way of believing; for fad, fad, will be the event, if you do not, after all that has been faid. Why, fay you, What will be the event? or what will follow?

1. You will fadden the heart of the Bridegroom, who is the joy of heaven and earth. How fad a heart got he from the Jews, when he grieved for the hardness of their hearts, and when he wept over them? And will you follow their footsteps, and grieve the heart of your God alfo?

2. If you go not forth to meet him, he will depart from you, and give you up, Gen, vi. 3. "My Spirit (fays he) thall not always Arive with man." Pfal. lxxxi. 11. "My people would not hearken unto my voice; Ifrael would none of me, fo I gave them up," &c. Many a fad wo will befal you upon his departure, Hof. ix. 12. "Yea, wo alfo to them, when I depart from them."

3. He will go to his Father that fent him, and enter a complaint against you, faying, 'O Father, according to thy command, I went and propofed myfelf as a Bridegroom to fuch a people or perfon, but they refufed the match, they caft the bargain." And O how will God the Father refent the indignity? John iii. 18. 36. "He that believeth not, is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him. There remains no facrifice for fuch a fin:" For, in fo doing, you trample the blood of the Bridegroom under your feet, Heb. x. 26. 29.

4. Heaven and earth, and the whole creation, will be aftonished, and horribly afraid at you, in preferring other lovers unto him, who is altogether lovely, Jer. ii. 12. 13.

5. Sin, Satan, and the world, will pick you up, and lead

you

you captive, and God will fay, They are joined to their idols, let them alone, Hof. iv. 17. feeing they continue in covenant with death, and at agreement with hell, If. xxviii. 15. Let them go, and fee what the end will be: "I have purged thee, and thou waft not purged, and therefore thou fhalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more," Ezek. χχίν. 13.

6. Remember, defpifed love iffues out in flames of wrath and refentment, Prov. i. 24. "Because I have called, and ye refused, I have ftretched out my hand, and no man regarded;" ver. 26. ver. 26. "I alfo will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh."

Sirs, I am afraid, that fome, if not many of you in this place, are more taken up in drinking, caballing, and peuthering about your enfuing elections, than you are about this important affair of having your own fouls, and the fouls of others, matched unto the Son of God. Your heads and hearts are fo filled with these finful and trifling matters, that the Bridegroom cannot get a hearing. Yea, you are "like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers," Pfal. lviii. 4. 5. But, dear friends, allow me to reafon the matter with you, in the name of God, If. lv. 2. "Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which profiteth nothing?" What will the gain of the election, or the gain of the whole world avail, if you lose your own fouls, by not going forth from these things to meet the Bridegroom? For the Lord's fake, remember, that if you do not go forth, and meet him, and match with him by faith now, you shall meet with him and fee him fhortly upon the back of death, and at the last judgement, Rev. i. 7. "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him," and you alfo that pierced his heart by unbelief, and then you will wail because of him: O how will you look him in the face, whofe offers of love you despised? What will you do? and what blushing and confufion of face will fly up unto your breaft and countenance, when you hell fee your defpiféd lover fitting upon his white throne, with all his holy angels, "ten thousand times ten thoufand, and thoufands of thoufands, miniftring unto him?" Oh," to whom will ye then fly for help, and where will ye leave your glory?" lf. x. 3. How will How will you choose rather, if poffible, to be buried under rocks and mountains, than appear before the face of him (Rev. vi. 15.), who once in a day courted your affections and confent to be his bride, but was maletreated, rejected, and defpifed by you? You faid by

your

"Let

your practice, we will not go with this man, Gen. xxviii. 58. we will not have him to rule over us, Luke xix. 14. God depart from us, for we defire not the knowledge of his ways; what is the Almighty that we fhould ferve him," Job xxi. 14. Therefore the dreadful and awful fentence shall go forth against you, Matth. xxy. 41. "Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." and thereupon you fhall be hurried by legions of devils into everlasting torments. O confider these things in time, ye that forget God, and make light of the offers of the Bridegroom's love, left he tear you in pieces, when there is none to deliver.

2dly, But I do not love to conclude with the thunders and lightnings of Mount Sinai, but choose rather to turn again to Mount Zion, and to cry again, and again, Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye cut to meet him. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold the beauty and excellency of the true King Solomon, Cant. iii. 11. "O that this may be the day of his efpoufals, and the day of the gladness of his heart." Behold how glorious he is in his apparel, and how he comes travelling from Edom, and from Bozrah, in the greatnefs of his ftrength, in order to meet you, and will not you go forth and meet him. The Bridegroom began his journey towards you, from the early ages of eternity, Mic. v. 2. For his goings forth were of old, from everlasting. He left the glory he had with his Father before the world was, and tra velled up and down this world for his fpoufe, for about the fpace of thirty-three years, in poverty, reproach, and perfecution; he travelled through feas of wrath, and the Jordan of death, and then back again to heaven, in order to bring about the match; and, fince his afcenfion, he has been travelling in the chariot of the everlasting gospel, first among the Jews, and then among the Gentile nations; and he is come even unto these ifies of the feas, and utmost parts of the earth; he has been long ftretching out the arms of redeeming love unto Scotland, and unto the inhabitants of Stirling, crying, Behold me, behold me: How gladly would I gather you, unto me as the "hen gathereth her chickens under her wings !" Matth. xxiii. 37. How would my foul rejoice over you, as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, if you would but entertain and embrace me as your Bridegroom? I who am your Maker will be your Husband, and betrothe you unto me for ever. Well then, Sirs, take on with the best of Hufbands, and say with thy whole heart and foul, Thine are we, O David, and on thy fide will we be, thou Son of Jeffe, 1 Chron. xii. 18. O let it be an everlasting bargain, that shall never be diffolved.

Oh !

Oh! may fome poor foul fay, gladly would I go forth and meet the Bridegroom, and prefent myfelf as the bride, the Lamb's wife; but when I begin to think of it, there are a thousand obstacles caft in my way, which I know not how to furmount.

Well, let us hear what either the devil, the world or an evil heart of unbelief, has to fay; for there is no objection they can offer, that is of any relevance; the bleffed Bridegroom has removed all impediments on the fide of law and justice, by his obedience unto death; and he ftands ready to answer, and we in his name and authority are ready to anfwer, whatever may come from any other airth.

Object. 1. Oh! may fome poor dejected foul fay, The dif tance between the Bridegroom and me is fo great and infinite, that I can never think it will be a bargain; he is God's firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth; will he ever match with me, a poor defpicable worm, who am but nothing, yea, lefs than nothing and vanity.'

Anfw. It is true, the diftance between him and you is great as he is the Son of God, God co-equal with the Father; and if he had not removed this bar, by taking the human nature into a perfonal union with himself, there could never have been any fuch thing as a fpiritual marriage between him and any of Adam's race: "But though he be in the form of God, and thinks it not robbery to be equal with God," yet he has become our equal alfo by the affumption of the human nature; that fo, being upon a level with us, he might betrothe us to himfelf for ever. Since he has come over the mountain of infinite diftance, both natural and moral, let not the distance of par ties be any impediment on your fide; but confider the greater the inequality of the match be, the more are the riches, freedom, and fovereignty, of the grace of God exalted, and this is the great plot of heaven, If. lvii. 15. Thus faith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whofe name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place"-To which no man can approach, 1 Tim. vi. 16. "With him alfo that is of a contrite and humble fpirit, to revive the fpirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." God would have us, and all the world, to know that his ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts; but as the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts. It is God's way to pass by the great, the rich, and the wife and noble, and to pitch upon the weak, the poor and contemptible things of the world," that no flesh may glory in his prefence."

Object. 2. May another fay, I am a poor deformed crea

ture,