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woman wooed, doubts and fears whether her intended will prove faithful at last or not, which will not be removed until fhe is efpoufed with a ring; fo here the match will not appear clear to the foul; nor will doubts, fears, mifgivings of heart, and torment, be caft out; till perfect love takes place, or until we are made perfect in love, or until this ring be put on the hand of faith; the greateft, the hardest, and moft difficult work of faith being this, to perfuade the foul that Chrift loves it with an everlafting love; and even faith's perfuafion must be attended with a feeling fense of this love too, or else the foul cannot reft fatisfied. But, when this is done, the match is made, and is indiffoluble, and the foul is more than fure of it. And now,

4thly, Faith puts on the shoes. Being juftified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jefus Chrift;" and "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts."

5thly. Faith now looks through the veil, and fees him that is invifible; yea, fhe fees the promifed feed, and embraces him.

that captures the heart of the

And it is this eye heavenly wooer:

"Thou haft ravished my heart, my fifter, my fpoufe; thou haft ravished my heart with one of thine eyes." This, my beloved fifter, is our efpoufals to the Lord Jefus; thus comes the fecond Eve to the fecond Adam. But ftill the Father doth not let his daughter go out of his hand; no, "None,"

"None," faith the Bridegroom," fhall pluck them out of my hand;" and adds, "My Father is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." Thus God holds her, and claims her as his daughter, and Chrift holds her and claims her as his spouse, and as his Father's choice and gift to him. And, indeed, it was our heavenly Father that decreed, propofed, and made this match. Thus have I fhewed thee how we become dead to the law that we may be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we may bring forth fruit unto God, even as the branch in the vine brings forth grapes.

But now observe what the Saviour fays: "I am the vine, and ye are the branches, and my Father is the husbandman; every branch in me that beareth fruit my Father purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." After we have enjoyed the dearly beloved of our fouls for a few months, our love, our fimplicity, meeknefs, contrition, tenderness, filial fear, &c. abate in their exercife; and we begin to creep into felf, wax proud, get fecure and carelefs; dream of cafe all the way, and are very nice, and rather dainty; nothing but the best wine of the kingdom, and the very marrow of the feaft, will do for us; we must fhew ourfelves, feck admiration and applaufe, and appear to be fomething. But, when the Father fees this, he takes us in hand again; he vifits our fins

with

with the rod, and our iniquities with fcourges, as he fays he will do; he turns us loofe on the barren mountains of Sinai, he exercises us with legal bondage again. This ftirs up every inbred corruption, which aftonifhes us; this convinces us of the need of diligence and watchfulness, and that we have not much to be proud of, seeing the root of every fin is ftill in us, though guilt is purged · and fin is fubdued by grace. And here our beloved withdraws himfelf, and is gone. He is not to be found at Horeb, but at Zion. From this mount we get nothing but barrennefs, drynefs, and deadnefs of foul. These things falling upon us, bring us to rue our pride, fecurity, lightness, and folly; and, though we come no more under the curfe, nor under vindictive wrath nor unpardoned guilt, yet it is a grievous yoke to an heavenborn foul, and not a little mortifying to one of the fpoufe's dignity. Bitter reflections, cruel jealoufies, and humbling mortifications, attend this purging rod. And it is very debafing to appear with the yoke of a slave, and a fallen countenance, like a thief, before the more meek and lowly foul; as it is written "Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou faireft among women! My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of fpices." He was gone down to them that were more meek and lowly. But when we are humbled the Father leads us back again to the enjoyment of Chrift Jefus, who is God's falvation to the ends of the

earth;

earth; and we are again influenced by a spirit of love, of power, and of a found mind; and now we are all tenderness, care, and circumfpection, fimplicity, meeknefs, and gratitude. But, alas! this foon wears off again, and then another purging comes upon the fruitful branch; and, after that is over, sweet union is felt again, and we feel our abiding in him; and do, by these means, bring forth fruit: and thus "we go in and out, and find pasture." This, my dear fifter, is the purging hand that thou art now under. Thou art, for the third time, under the all-wife management of the great husbandman; and he is puzzling and confounding thy wisdom, and taking off fome of thy luxurious branches, and cafting down fome of thy high-reafonings and contentions, which exalt themselves against the knowledge of him. And now for the spouse's requeft in the Song. Know thou that, when God shook the house where the apoftles were affembled, together with the rushing of a mighty wind, and filled them all with the holy Comforter, under which influence they went forth and wrought, and the Lord worked by them, confirming their word with figns, that then was fulfilled this prophecy," And the Lord God fhall blow the trumpet, and fhall go forth with whirlwinds of the fouth," Zech. ix. 14. Thus is the spirit of love called the fouth wind; wind being a known emblem of the Holy Ghoft. Read Ifaiah, chap. xl.

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Whereas the wrath of God in the law, which ftirs up our enmity, is the fpirit of bondage to fear; and, as it brings a cold chill on our love, and much fear and trembling, it is therefore called the north wind. Hence Solomon, knowing that bondage always precedes liberty, the one bringing grief and the other joy, fays, "In the day of profperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity confider; for God hath fet the one against the other." Profperity is the time when our Lord embraces us; but our adverfity is the time when the Lord refrains from embracing. Hence Solomon represents the fpoufe as being diffatisfied with her carnal eafe, and dead, indifferent ftate; and that, to fuch a hungry foul, the bitterness of legal bondage would be fweeter than fuch a dead frame. He fets forth the fpoufe as praying thus: "Awake, O north wind, and come, thou fouth; blow upon my garden, that the fpices thereof may flow out;" knowing that there would be no divine embraces till humbling trials had taken place. In this way is the believer purged. Take notice further, that, as fome fouls are called fervants, and are under the law, in bondage to it, and ftrangers to grace; fo gracious fouls, though often humbled, and exercifed with the bondage of the law, are ftill under grace: the former being a corrupt tree in its natural flate, and the other a good tree, purged, and made good by the grace of God. Solomon represents death as a woodcutter,

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