Imatges de pàgina
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that are with child, and are never delivered; that have good conceptions, religious dispositions, holy desires to the advancement of God's truth, but for some collateral respects dare not utter them, nor bring them to their birth, to any effect. The purpose of his marriage to us, is to have children by us: and this is his abundant and his present fecundity, that working now, by me in you, in one instant he hath children in me, and grand-children by me. He hath married me, in ustionem, and in prolem, against burning, and for children; but can he have any use of me, in adjutorium, for a helper? Surely, if I be able to feed him, and clothe him, and harbour him, (and Christ would not condemn men at the last day for not doing these, if man could not do them) I am able to help him too. Great persons can help him over sea, convey the name of Christ where it hath not been preached yet; and they can help him home again; restore his name, and his truth where superstition with violence hath disseised him: and they can help him at home, defend his truth there against all machinations to displant and dispossess him. Great men can help him thus; and every man can help him to a better place in his own heart, and his own actions, than he hath had there; and to be so helped in me, and helped by me, to have his glory thereby advanced, Christ hath married my soul: and he hath married it in æternum, for ever; which is the third and last circumstance in this spiritual, as it was in the secular marriage.

And here the æternum is enlarged; in the secular marriage it was an eternity considered only in this life; but this eternity is not begun in this world, but from all eternity in the Book of Life, in God's eternal decree for my election, there Christ was married to my soul. Christ was never in minority, never under years; there was never any time when he was not as ancient as the ancient of days, as old as his Father. But when my soul was in a strange minority, infinite millions of millions of generations, before soul was a soul, did Christ marry my soul in his eternal decree. So it was eternal, it had no beginning. Neither doth he interrupt this by giving me any occasion of jealousy by the way, but loves my soul as though there were no other soul, and would have done and suffered all that he did for me alone, if there had been no

my

name but mine in the Book of Life. And as he hath married me to him, in æternum, for ever, before all beginnings, and in æternum, for ever, without any interruptions, so I know, that whom he loves he loves to the end, and that he hath given me, not a presumptuous impossibility, but a modest infallibility, that no sin of mine shall divorce or separate me from him; for, that which ends the secular marriage, ends not the spiritual: not death, for my death does not take me from that husband, but that husband being by his Father preferred to higher titles, and greater glory in another state, I do but go by death where he is become a king, to have my part in that glory, and in those additions which he hath received there. And this hath led us to our third and last marriage, our eternal marriage in the triumphant church.

And in this third marriage, the persons are, the Lamb and my soul; The marriage of the Lamb is come, and blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb1, says St. John, speaking of our state in the general resurrection. That Lamb that was brought to the slaughter and opened not his mouth1, 17 and I who have opened my mouth and poured out imprecations and curses upon men, and execrations and blasphemies against God upon every occasion; that Lamb who was slain from the beginning, and was slain by him who was a murderer from the beginning; that Lamb which took away the sins of the world, and I who brought more sins into the world, than any sacrifice but the blood of this Lamb could take away: this Lamb and I (these are the persons) shall meet and marry; there is the action.

This is not a clandestine marriage, not the private seal of Christ in the obsignation of his Spirit; and yet such a clandestine marriage is a good marriage: nor it is not such a parish marriage, as when Christ married me to himself at my baptism, in a church here; and yet that marriage of a Christian soul to Christ in that sacrament is a blessed marriage: but this is a marriage in that great and glorious congregation, where all my sins shall be laid open to the eyes of all the world, where all the blessed virgins shall see all my uncleanness, and all the martyrs see all my tergiversations, and all the confessors see all my double

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dealings in God's cause; where Abraham shall see my faithlessness in God's promises; and Job my impatience in God's corrections; and Lazarus my hardness of heart in distributing God's blessings to the poor; and those virgins, and martyrs, and confessors, and Abraham, and Job, and Lazarus, and all that congregation, shall look upon the Lamb and upon me, and upon one another, as though they would all forbid those banns, and say to one another, Will this Lamb have anything to do with this soul? and yet there and then this Lamb shall marry me, in æternum, for ever, which is our last circumstance.

It is not well done to call it a circumstance, for the eternity is a great part of the essence of that marriage. Consider then how poor and needy a thing, all the riches of this world, how flat and tasteless a thing, all the pleasures of this world, how pallid, and faint, and dilute a thing, all the honours of this world are, when the very treasure, and joy, and glory of heaven itself were imperfect, if it were not eternal, and my marriage shall be too, in æternum, for ever.

The angels were not married so; they incurred an irreparable divorce from God, and are separated for ever, and I shall be married to him, in æternum, for ever. The angels fell in love, when there was no object presented, before anything was created; when there was nothing but God and themselves, they fell in love with themselves, and neglected God, and so fell in æternum, for ever. I shall see all the beauty, and all the glory of all the saints of God, and love them all, and know that the Lamb loves them too, without jealousy, on his part, or theirs, or mine, and so be married in æternum, for ever, without interruption, or diminution, or change of affections. I shall see the sun black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon become as blood, and the stars fall as a fig-tree casts her untimely figs, and the heavens rolled up together as a scroll18. I shall see a divorce between princes and their prerogatives, between nature and all her elements, between the spheres, and all their intelligences; between matter itself, and all her forms, and my marriage shall be, in æternum, for ever. I shall see an end of faith, nothing to be believed that I do not know; and an end of hope, nothing to be wished that I

18 Apoc. vi. 12-14.

do not enjoy, but no end of that love in which I am married to the Lamb for ever. Yea, I shall see an end of some of the offices of the Lamb himself; Christ himself shall be no longer a mediator, an intercessor, an advocate, and yet shall continue a husband to my soul for ever. Where I shall be rich enough without jointure, for my husband cannot die; and wise enough without experience, for no new thing can happen there; and healthy enough without physic, for no sickness can enter; and (which is by much the highest of all) safe enough without grace, for no temptation that needs particular grace, can attempt me. There, where the angels, which cannot die, could not live, this very body which cannot choose but die, shall live, and live as long as that God of life that made it. Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, that in thy light we may see light: illustrate our understandings, kindle our affections, pour oil to our zeal, that we may come to the marriage of this Lamb, and that this Lamb may come quickly to this marriage: and in the mean time bless these thy servants, with making this secular marriage a type of the spiritual, and the spiritual an earnest of that eternal, which they and we, by thy mercy, shall have in the kingdom which thy Son our Saviour hath purchased with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To whom, &c.

SERMON LXXXIV.

PREACHED AT A CHRISTENING.

REVELATIONS vii. 17.

For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall govern them, and shall lead them unto the lively fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Ir our conversation be in heaven', as the apostle says his was, and if that conversation be, (as Tertullian reads that place) municipatus noster, our city, our dwelling, the place from whence only we receive our laws, to which only we direct our services, in which only we are capable of honours, and offices, where even the office

1 Phil. iii. 20.

of a door-keeper was the subject of a great king's ambition: if our conversation be there, even there, there cannot be better company met, than we may see and converse withal in this chapter. Upon those words, Doth the eagle mount up at thy commandment, or make his nest on high; St. Gregory says, Videamus aquilam, nidum sibi in arduis construentem; Then we saw an eagle make his nest on high, when we heard St. Peter say so, Our conversation is in heaven; and then doth an eagle mount up at our commandment, when our soul, our devotion, by such a conversation in heaven, associates itself with all this blessed company that are met in this chapter, that our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ', and with all the court and choir of the triumphant church. If you go to feasts, if you go to comedies, sometimes only to meet company, nay if you come to church sometimes only upon that errand, to meet company, (as though the house of God, were but as the presence of an earthly prince, which upon solemn festival-days must be filled and furnished, though they that come, come to do no service there) command your eagle to mount up, and to build his nest on high, command your souls to have their conversation in heaven by meditation of this Scripture, and you shall meet company, which no stranger shall interrupt, for they are all of a knot, and such a knot as nothing shall untie, as inseparably united to one another, as that God, with whom they are made one spirit, is inseparable in himself.

Here you shall see the angel that comes from the east, (yea, that angel which is the east, from whence all beams of grace and glory arise, for so the prophet calls Christ Jesus himself, as St. Hierome reads that place) Ecce vir, Oriens nomen ejus, Behold him, whose name is the East) you shall see him come with the seal of the living God, and hold back those angels which had power given them to hurt the sea, and the earth, and you shall hear him say, Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in the foreheads". And as you shall see him forward, so you shall see him large, and bountiful in imprinting that seal, you shall see an hundred and forty-four thousand of the tribes of the children of Israel, and you shall see a

Job xxxix. 27.
5 Rev. vii. 2.

Greg. Moral. xxxi. 34.
6 Zech. vi. 12.

* 1 John i. 3. 7 Rev. vii. 3.

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