Word was to affume, from everlasting, and then chofe us in him, gave us to him, and made us one with him and he fixed his eternal love upon us in him before the world was made. By the tenor of this covenant elected finners were efpoufed to Christ from everlasting, and are openly betrothed to him in time. I will betroth thee to me in righteoufnefs, in mercies, and in loving kindness; yea, I will betroth thee to me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. Thus this fecret betrothing to Chrift in eternity terminates in openly efpoufing us to him in time by the gospel, as Paul fpeaks; I have efpoufed you unto a good husband, chafte virgin unto Christ. the covenant of grace, that I may prefent you as a we were made one with Christ in eternity; but then where is that which unites us to him in time? Nothing can do this but love, because we are enemies; and enmity feparates between the Lord and us. God reconciled us to himfelf by Jefus Chrift, and has fent the word of reconciliation to us; and we are entreated by his fervants to be reconciled to him. But, as the carnal mind is enmity against him, nothing but his love revealed, made known, and fhed abroad in the heart, can remove our enmity: this will make us friends; and this, and only this, can unite us to him; for love is the bond of all perfectness; and this is the bond that binds the foul up in the bundle of life with the Lord our God: and this love, winning and drawing all our love to him, is the neck that unites the the covenant head and his body myftical together: and where this is wanting there can be no union; for be that loveth father or mother better than me is not worthy of me. Many high encomiums are put upon this neck of the holy spouse. Thy neck is comely with chains of gold. Song i. 10. The neck is mutual love between Chrift and his bride; the chains are the promises of the gospel, the apples of gold in pictures of filver: for, in plain English, all that do not receive the love of the truth, and the truth in the love of it, are given up to believe a lie; for God fhall fend to them ftrong delufions. Again-Thy neck is like the tower of David, builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all fields of mighty men. Song iv. 14. This intimates that the many infernal and human attacks that are made at the church, to separate her from her heavenly head and husband, are all in vain; though, to accomplish this, hath ever been, and ever will be, the fchemes, plots, and unholy war, both of devils and reprobates; but, in covenant, God and his truth are both our (hield and buckler. Again-Thou haft ravished my heart, my fifter, my Spouse: thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. Song iv. 9. Love is the neck; and this chain, or the fpoufe's necklace, is the doctrines of the gospel, which, like a chain, hang all together, and depend one on an other; other; in which there is a wonderful harmony, every link bearing its part: and without every link be kept in its proper place, the whole chain is weakened, entangled, and confufed; and appears fo to every poor, weak believer, both in the fcriptures, in the judgment, and in the experience, of the poor foul; and fo they feel it to their forrow, whofe minds have been unfettled, their judgments bewildered, and their affections excluded for a while from the Lord Jefus, by the inftrumentality of damnable heretics, who have feduced them from Chrift, that they might affect them. Solomon, in his dark fayings, gives his pupils many instructions about the neck. My fen, hear the inftruction of thy father, and forfake not the law of thy mother; for they fhall be an ornament of grace to thine bead, and chains about thy neck. The inftruction of our father is the tuition of Chrift, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace: the law of Sarah, who is the mother of us all, is the law of faith: the best ornament of grace to the head is God the health of our countenance; and the best chain to the neck is truth in the love of it. heart. Prov. iii. 3. Again-Let not mercy and truth forfake thee: bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine® Mercy, grace, and truth, came by Jefus Chrift; and Solomon's counfel is to bind them about our neck; for, if the hearing of these things bring about no union between Chrift and the foul, what doth it profit? juft nothing: and, if they are are not written on the tables of the heart, the new covenant is not revealed to the foul; for to write the laws of God on the heart and mind, and to remove fin from us, and to remember it no more, is the better covenant: and where this is not done, there can be no experience of this deliverance from fin; and where there is no experience of pardon, there can be no hope of the glory of God in heaven; for it is experience that worketh hope. Thus Christ is the head; and all the elect, Jews and Gentiles, are the body. God in covenant made them one in eternity; and when covenant love is made known to them, they become one fpirit in time: love, as the neck, unites them; and, by virtue of this union, the body is influenced by the head, and made fruitful, as a branch is in the vine, or as a wife is to her husband: and the great truths of the gofpel are the church's ornamental necklace. But, after all, this is not the neck mentioned in my text. There is another head, befides Chrift. Satan bears this name: The woman's feed fhall bruife thy bead, and thou shalt bruife his heel. This work was done in a figure at Ifrael's deliverance out of Egypt, for Pharaoh was a type of the devil. Thou woundedft the head out of the boufe of the wicked, by difcovering the foundation even to the neck. Hab. iii. 13. When God poured on the Egyptians the fiercenefs of his wrath, he fent evil angels among them; and thefe influenced Pharach, and all his mighty warriors, to pursue Ifrael; and, when God overthrew them them in the Red Sea, he is faid to break the heads of the dragons in the waters. Pfalm lxxiv. 13. It is this head that influences and leads on the whole hoft of perfecutors against Christ. But he shall wound the bead of his enemies, Pfalm lxviii. 21. And this work he did effectually when he triumphed over principalities and powers upon the crofs; and the bleffed effects of this hath been, ftill is, and will be, seen and known, all the world over, in future times, when be fhall wound the heads over many countries. This head has got a body, in which he reigns and rules; and thefe are the children of difobedience: and there is a fad covenant betwixt them, called a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell, Ifai. xxviii. 18; the bond of which is the bond of iniquity, which bond is love to fin, and hatred to God. This is the neck mentioned in my text, which keeps the devil and his children together; and, as fure as he that is joined to a harlot is one body (1 Cor. vi. 16), fo fure thofe that go a whoring after devils (Levit. xvii. 7), are one fpirit with him. The Holy Ghoft runs the parallel betwixt thefe two heads and bodies. We read of the head Chrift, and the head Satan;-of a covenant with Chrift, and of a covenant with hell;-of the church of Chrift, and of the fynagogue of Satan;--of the bond of all perfectness, and of the bond of iniquity;-of love to God, and of love to fin;-of efpoufals to Chrift, and of whoring with devils;-of the mystery of godlinefs, and the mystery of iniquity;-the doctrines of God, and |