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ture, there is nothing defireable in or about me, I am a tranfgreffor from the womb, conceived in fin, and fhapen in iniquity, altogether as an unclean thing; will ever the glorious Bridegroom match with the like of me!'

Anfw. If Chrift ftood upon this objection, he could never have a bride among the race of Adam; he never married any of Adam's race because of their beauty or comeliness, but that he might make them beautiful, through his comeliness, that he puts upon them, Ezek. xvi. 8.-12.

Object. 3. But Oh! My tranfgreffions are multiplied, innumerable evils compass me about, and my fins have been highly aggravated against light, against love, against covenant vows and engagements: I gave my confent unto Chrift, but I have flidden back, and therefore Chrift will never look upon me.'

Anfw. Be it fo as you fay; yet, if you will return, he will receive you graciously, Jer. iii. 1. Though thou haft played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me ;" and If. i. 18. "Come now, and let us reafon together, faith the Lord: though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they fhall be as wool." Remember the example of Manaffeh, Mary Magdalene, Paul, and many others; the fame mercy and grace that faved them, is as able to fave you: his "hand is not thortened that he cannot fave," &c.

Object. 4. I am lying in a dunghill of fin and mifery, the Bridegroom will never look upon me.'

Anfw. He raifech the poor out of the duft, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, and fets them with princes: See what a dunghill the poor Ifraelitifh infant was lying in, when the Lord paffed by, and faid unto it, Live, Ezek. xvi. "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet will I make thee as the wings of a dove, covered with filver, and her feathers with yellow gold."

Object. 5. I am fo miferabie, the Bridegroom will never look upon me.'

Anfw. That is a mistake, for the Bridegroom's name is mer ciful, and his mercy is in the heavens.

Object. 6. I am blind,' fays the finner. Chrift anfwers, "I recover fight to the blind;" Chrift fays to blind "Laodicea, I counfel thee to buy of me eye-falve that thou mayeft fee."

Object. 7. I am naked, have no robe of righteoufnefs to cover me.' Ay, but (fays the Bridegroom) give but thy confent, and I will bring forth the best robe in heaven, and cover the Thame of thy nakedness that it may not appear.

Object. 8. I am poor, and fo poor, that I have no defireable qualification

qualification to recommend me.' Anfw. The Bridegroom, "though he was rich, yet he became poor, that, through his poverty, we might be made rich." He has abundance of gold, gold tried in the fire, unfearchable riches ;" and all his riches are thine, that moment you consent to him.

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Object. 9. I am dead, there is not the leaft fpark of fpiritual life in me, and therefore the Bridegroom will never look upon me.'

Anfw. "Hear (fays the Bridegroom to the dead), and your fouls fhall live," Ifa. lv. 3. " And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the fure mercies of David; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet fhall he live, for I am the refurrection and the life:" And if thou be but groaning under a sense of thy deadnefs, it is a fign of fome life, for the dead do not ufe to tell any fuch tales of themselves. See what Chrift doth to the dead, Eph. iii. . "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trefpaffes and fins," Ezek. xxxi. "The Spirit of life quickeneth the dry bones."

Object. 10. 'I do not know if ever the Bridegroom loved me, or choosed me.'

Anfw. He has revealed his love in the propofal of marriage that he makes thee in the gofpel of his grace. He has faid that he is willing; and he fwears by his life, that he has "no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they would turn unto him and live." He declares, that he hates putting away; and that him that comes to him, he will in no ways caft out, that "the promife is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off."

Now, your way is, to take him by his word, and to judge of his thoughts and purpose by his word; for " thofe things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever." I illustrate the cafe in hand, by a familiar fimilitude of a propofal of marriage made unto a woman; the man that is in fuit of her, not only proposes and profers love to her, but he folicits and courts her confent; he forms the contract to the greatest advantage; he makes over himself and his whole eftate unto her, and confirms his ingenuity by his oath, that she may not have any doubt of his love and affection.

Now, if after all, the woman fhould fay, I will not confent to marry this man, because I do not know if he really loves me; would not every body look upon the woman as most ridiculous and unreasonable? and, in this cafe, does the not charge the man with the most horrid difingenuity? Well, this is the very cafe: how fhould you know the love of Christ to you, but by his offers, promifes, intreaties, and declarations

clarations of his love; and to doubt of his love, is to charge him foolishly with deceitful dealing: and O! do not treat him fo any more, but believe, and fee his falvation.

Object. 11. "Oh! God is angry with me, I think I fee frowns in his countenance, when I begin to think of matching with his beloved Son.'

Anfw. You are in a great mistake; for the main ground. of his controverfy with you is, because you do not go forth to meet his beloved Son: And that moment you receive him by faith, you fhall find him a well pleafed God; for to as many as received him, as their Saviour, Husband, King, Priest, and Prophet, John i. 12. " to them gave he power to become the fons of God."

Object. 12. You urge me to wed by faith the Bridegroom, and gladly would I do it, but I find an entire impotency, and inability in myself, and it is only the power of God that must do the work; and therefore, all you have faid is in vain, till a day of power come.'

Anfw. It is true, it is the power of God that must make a finner willing; but the way that this power is exerted is, by convincing the finner of his own inability either to will or to do, that fo he may put the whole work in the Lord's hand. And if this be your cafe, the good work is already begun; and he that has begun to convince you, and humble you under a fenfe of your own impotency, he will carry it on, and finish the matter; for he has faid, Pfal. cx. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power," lfa. xl. 29." He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might in creafeth ftrength."

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I conclude this exhortation with two or three advices.

1. Be convinced and perfuaded of your dangerous and deplorable cafe, while married unto the law, and your lufts; for which fee the ufe of reproof and lamentation.

2. Conceive and entertain hopes of getting the match between Chrift and you accomplished and brought about. A hopeless defpair as to this matter cuts the finews of all activity: "There is no hope; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go," Jer. ii. 25. and therefore," it is good that a man should hope," Lam. iii. 26.

3. Be much in ftudying the love of God in providing such a help every way meet for you. It was an evidence of God's kindness to Adam, when he faid, "It is not good that the man thould be alone," Gen. ii. 18. I will make "him an help meet for him.” Much more is it an evidence of the

love of God to loft man, that he has laid help for him upon one that is mighty, Pfal. lxxxix. 19.

4. I recommend to you to be much in ftudying the love of the eternal Son of God, in marrying the human nature unto a personal union with the divine, that he might act the part of a Kinfman Redeemer. Oh! think what he has done in order to get a bride for himself in Adam's family, for one love kindles another, and "we love him because he first loved us," 1 John iv. 19.

5. Be much in viewing the glorious fulnefs and fuitablehefs of the Bridegroom through the lattices of the word read and preached; "For all-we beholding as in a glafs the gloty of the Lord, are changed into the fame image, from glory to glory," &c. 2 Cor. iii. last.

6. Oh! cry and plead much for the purchased and promifed Spirit, that he may glorify Christ, and testify of him to your fouls, according to the promise of the Bridegroom, before he left this world, John xvi. 14. " He fhall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and fhew it unto you."

7. In matching with the Bridegroom, difband all other lovers, faying with Ephraim, Hof. xiv. 8. "What have I any more to do with idols." If. xxvi. 13. " O Lord my God, other lords befides thee have had dominion over me, but henceforth by thee only will I make mention of thy name." If you be for me (fays Chrift), let these foul-murdering lufts go; let go your luft of covetoufnefs, your luft of uncleanness, your luft of pride, malice, revenge, your luft of drunkenness and gluttony; for as no man can ferve two mafters, Matth. vi. 24. fo can no man be married unto Chrift and these lufts at once; Chrift fays, Destroy thefe, crucify them, "Mortify the deeds of the body," Rom. viii. 13. "Fornication, evil concupifcence, and covetoufnefs, which is idolatry," Col. iii. 8. I came to deftroy thefe works of the devil, John iii. 8. And therefore give a bill of divorce to them, if you would follow me.

I fhut up this discourse with a word of counsel and advice to believers, who, through the power of grace, have been determined to go forth and meet the Bridegroom.

Oh! bless the Lord that ever gave you counsel to do fo, for this was never effected by the power of nature, but only by the power of victorious grace, Pfal. cx. 3. "Thy people fhall be willing in the day of thy power." Thou waft dead in fin, Eph. ii. 1. but he " paffed by thee, and faid unto thee, Live," Ezek. xvi. 6. Thou waft full of enmity against God and his anointed, Pfal. ii. 2. but he captivated thy heart with VOL. III.

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his own love, and lovelinefs. Who made thee to differ from others that are left behind, "in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity?" Why, it was the bleffed Bridegroom that drew thee to him with the cords of his own love; and therefore let the high praises of the Bridegroom, and of his eternal Father, be continually in thy mouth, Pfal. cxlix. 16. John vi. 44. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath fent me draw him." Let the bride, the Lamb's wife, put much confidence in the Bridegroom; and well may fhe do it, for he is "the confidence of all the ends of the earth, his name is FAITHFUL and TRUE," Rev. xix. 1I.

THE NEW TESTAMENT ARK OPENED AGAINST THE DELUGE OF DIVINE WRATH.

Heb. xi. 7.-By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not feen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the faving of his houfe.

THE FIRST SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

N the preceeding chapter, the apoftle, in the clofe of it, had exhorted the believing Hebrews to perfevere in the faith; and to enforce the exhortation, he demonftrates, in this chap ter, the excellency of the grace of faith, and that, firft, Abftractly in itself confidered, ver. 1-3.; fecondly, By laying before them the example of their believing ancestors, both be

fore and after the flood.

This verfe which I have read contains the example of the faith of Noah, who was the laft patriarch of the old world, and the first of the new world; I mean the laft before, and the firft, after the flood. More particularly in the words you have these things.

ift, An alarm founded, (warning is given by God of things not feen as yet.) The party that gives the warning is God. And when God fpeaks or warns, well doth it become all the inhabitants of the earth to liften, Pfal. l. 1. "The mighty

God

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