more can they in the ways of righteousness and true holiness: they are like the man born blind, and cannot see, therefore their daily cry is, Lord, that I might receive my sight:' and like the deaf adder, they cannot hear to edification. In a word, they are the very people described in the parable, as poor and maimed, halt and blind; so that they cannot do the good that they would. How helpless is the state of the convinced sinner! how wretched and miserable the condemned criminal, when the borrible sentence is denounced upon him! such is the state of that sinner in whose heart the sentence of death is passed, till the word of salvation present him with a full and free pardon: yet such is his infirmity, that could pardon and salvation be obtained by performing any, the slightest condition, he must die in despair of ever fulfilling the terms, incapable of a truly good thought of himself. Possessed of an evil heart of unbelief, an heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, yet cannot of himself control it in the least, nor wash away the smallest of its stains; the poor believer in seasons of darkness and distance, is apt to conclude that his case is singular, and his spots different from those of God's children: yet this discovery of pollution, this sense of incapacity either to will or do, only proves you to be the Redeemer's purchase; for he purchased all that was Mahlon's, all the sons and daughters of infirmity.

6

Mahlon, also signifies a song, which may lead us to reflect on the believer's character. For, although they have their days of mourning and nights of anguish here below, they have also their short seasons of singing. On the back of some sore temptation, or some deep affliction, when God appears to them, and says unto the heart, Behold me,' how is the heart filled with gladness and the lips with praise! Israel, although in a waste, howling wilderness, could sing, when God had brought them through the deep, and delivered them from the hosts of Egypt. There are seasons, how short, and how seldom soever, in which the believer says, 'I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be 'joyful in my God, because he hath clothed me with the gar'ments of salvation, and covered me with the robe of righteousness.' And eternity is coming, in which they shall sing the song of Moses and the Lamb for ever and ever, so that the purchase of our holy Redeemer may be called the sons of music, or the children of Mahlon, or a song.

From these remarks, you may see who are the people purchased by Christ for his own possession and inheritance.---All who were chosen in him by the Father from everlasting---all who stood perfect in him when fallen and ruined in Adam---all who feel their sore, and seek unto him for help; who know themselves to be ruined and wasted by sin, and apply to him as the repairer of the breach---All whose state is hopeless and helpless, and desire to be saved by Christ alone----such, only

such, are they who may hope to have a new song put into their mouths, even salvation to our God and to his Christ.

Thus much for the mode and matter of the purchase; which we shall understand as now accomplished, and proceed

III. To the marriage itself, and the several rites used in its celebration, which we shall also find to be significant and instructive.

As to the marriage itself, it was public and before witnesses, which indeed is essential to that institution; for there is no such thing as a marriage private and without witnesses. People living in fornication may, to quiet their own consciences, soothe themselves with a notion that their private engagements are equivalent to marriage, but in reality it is no such thing: an union of heart and affections, as necessary to an happy marriage state, is readily granted; but that it is any part of the essence of marriage, must be denied. Domestic and social happiness being the ends proposed in this institution, care has been taken to have its celebration public before witnesses, the better to ascertain the end proposed.

It has been observed, that the purchase which Jesus made of his people was public and open; and it may now be observed, that his marriage with his church does not take place in a corner. The banns are proclaimed by the sound of the great trumpet, which sound has reached to the remotest bounds of the habitable world. The creation has been invited to come and see the bride; and the consummation of the nuptials shall be before assembled worlds. O God, may I on that day be numbered among the righteous! then shall it be a day of festivity with me, and this poor, sin-oppressed soul, shall then rejoice in God my Saviour.

Touching the rites of the marriage, it may be observed that

(1.) The bridegroom took a cake of bread, and brake it, or a small parcel of corn, and divided it betwixt the bride and himself, to which it is thought Hosea alludes, chap. iii. 3, where he tells us, that he married his wife for an homer and half of 'barley.' This rite among the Jews was truly significant, as pointing out the oneness of their union, that by marriage they became one, even as the cake was before it was broken. Believers, as married to Jesus, are said to be one bread, probably in allusion to the bread used in the Lord's supper. No union can be more near than that of Christ and his mystical body; the head and members are bone of each other's bone, and flesh of each other's flesh.

Moreover, a oneness of interest is here shadowed forth; such a oneness as no circumstance can alter, being immutably fixed in the laws of necessity. There is a moral impossibility of a man and wife having two separate interests: to admit a possibility

here, would charge defect upon the relation which constitutes the parties one flesh, and no longer twain.

This unity of interest most beautifully agrees with that endearing relation betwixt Christ and his church, with whom his interests are common. Nothing can be to the Redeemer's glory but what tends to the advantage of his church; and nothing can be to the advantage of the church, or of individuals, but what has the glory of Christ as its ultimate object.

The breaking of the cake, signified the dependance of the bride upon the bridegroom for food and raiment, and every supply. Consistent with this in all civilized countries, especially those called Christian, the eye of the wife is to her husband for supply; a law from which only barbarous nations and barbarous people have departed. This most loudly preaches the gospel to us, and points out our constant, eternal dependance upon the fulness of our heavenly Husband.

Yes, believer, you are indebted to Jesus, for all, for every part of your supply. Whatever gifts, whatever graces ye are the subjects of, they are all derived from his personal fulness. Your clothing is his; your robe of state is your husband's property; you live upon him daily; daily derive from him mercy to pardon, and grace to help in every time of need. This is agreeable to the eternal purposes and transactions of grace, which have laid up all fulness in him; to the injunctions of Holy Writ, which direct us to be strong in, and live upon the grace of Christ. This dependance of the church of Jesus the Bridegroom, effectually secures all the glory of salvation to grace alone: lays the foundation in grace; in grace raises the beautiful structure, and brings forth the head stone with shouts to grace.

This dependance is warranted even in the meanest believer, by the same rite of breaking bread in the marriage; and when broken, sharing it between the parties married; for by this he endowed her with his property: the same union which rendered her dependant on her husband, gave her a legal title to his possessions and property. With holy reverence, and the warmest gratitude, let it be said that the Heir of all things, the adorable and faithful Bridegroom of his church, hath been pleased to endow her with all his property, notwithstanding her uncomely appearance and base original. Yes, my friends, he hath endowed you with all that he has; his holy obedience, all-sufficient atonement, heavenly Spirit, and unsearchable riches. Is he the Son of God, and only Begotten of the Father? ye also are the sons of God through him; for ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Is he the Heir of all things? ye also are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. All the grace that is in him; all the glory he is heir unto, and even his death, and life, are all the believer's property, in virtue of union with him,

as his spouse, glory, and fulness. I know not but his breaking bread between himself and his disciples, in the first institution of the supper, might have an allusion to this rite used in Jewish marriages; thereby leading the believing church to consider him. and themselves as one bread, one mystical person, having eternally one common, indivisible interest, and reciprocal possessors of one common property.

(2.) Another rite, which, according to Mr. Weemes, was called Tebhignoth kedushim, was the bridegroom's putting a ring upon the fourth finger of her hand, saying, "Be thou my wife, according to the law of Moses," was very significant; expressive of the perpetuity of the relation commenced, and probably designed to lead the church of God to contemplate an union more answerable to the figure. A ring with the ancient Magi was an hierogliphic of eternity, being one continued line without an end or beginning. In every thing, as far as it could be done, God hath graciously accommodated his way to human customs and the received doctrines of men, the better to penetrate the mind with things that are heavenly and spiritual.

It is beyond a doubt, that one great end of natural marriage was to shadow forth the relation between Christ and his church; and may not that rite of the ring, that hierogliphic of eternity, be improved in such a way as may lead us to contemplate the eternal relation between Christ and his church. That it was designed for some spiritual improvement, I think is pretty clear from the parable, where the returning prodigal is said to have had a ring put upon his hand, as well as otherwise ornamented, seeing it is universally agreed that the application of that parable is spiritual.

Some people, indeed, affect to deny the eternity of this union betwixt Christ and his church, alledging that it commenceth at conversion, or when the soul by grace closes with Christ as the only desirable way of salvation; they will even be ready to treat the doctrine of eternal union as Antinomianism, as if it produced some evil effect upon the morals of men. If these gentlemen mean no more by union, than the unity of our hearts and afections to Christ, I readily grant that this takes place in conversion, and not before. But if they mean that an elect soul is never considered by the eternal Father as in Christ till he actually believes, I must reject their doctrine as absurd and preposterous. They themselves talk of the elect as chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and of being preserved in him from the beginning; of his being set up from everlasting as their federal head and representative: as if they could be chosen in him, without being considered as any way united to him; or that the Son of God could be an head without any manner of relation to that body of which he is the head.

One of the characteristics of truth, is to be consistent with

itself; this therefore cannot be a truth, because of its incon sistency.

But it is consistent enough to believe, that although our hearts and affections are never united to Christ till effectual calling, the persons of all the elect were united with his person in the act of choosing or election, by which they become God's property, in a manner different from the rest of creation. In the settlements of grace, all was laid up in Christ, not for himself, but for them; which shews that grace still considered them as in relation with him, as members with the Head. In a word, as the spring of this union is in the Deity himself; it must follow, that it is eternal as himself, and that what takes place in regeneration and conversion, is only the effect of that union secretly subsisting from everlasting. But as my business is not now to defend this truth, so much as to hold forth from the history that which may be profitable to the souls of God's people, I pass on to a

(3.) Ceremony used in Jewish marriages, which was their putting a crown first upon the head of the bridegroom, and then on the head of the bride which ceremony seems to have been performed by the bridegroom's mother, if alive, Cant. iii. 11. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King 'Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of ' his heart.'

I thought to have finished the ceremonies of the marriage in this discourse, but time being so far elapsed, must beg yout attention for another on the next opportunity.

DISCOURSE XIII.

RUTH iv. 9, 10.

And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.

We have been discoursing of the rites of the Jewish marriages,

the

(3.) Of which was the coronation of the married couple; not