Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 3
SERMON III.
Preached at a Mariage.
HOSEA 2. 19.
And I will mary thee unto me for ever.
THE word which is the hinge upon which all this Text turns, is Erash, and Erash signifies not onelyonly a betrothing, as our later Translation hath it,2 Sam. 3. 14. but a mariage; And so it is used by David, Deliver me my wife Michal whom I maried; and so our former Translation had it, and so we accept it, and so shall handle it, I will mary thee unto me for ever.
The first mariage that was made, God made, and he made it in Paradise: And of that mariage I have had the like occasion as this to speak before, in the presence of many honourable persons in this company. The last mariage which shall be made, God shall make too, and in Paradise too; in the Kingdome of heaven: and at that mariage, I hope in him that shall make it, to meet, not some, but all this company. The mariage in this Text hath relation to both those mariages: It is it self the spirituall and mysticall mariage of Christ Jesus to the Church, and to every mariageable soule in the Church: And it hath a retrospect, it looks back to the first mariage; for to that the first word carries us, because from thence God takes his metaphor, and comparison, sponsabo, I will mary; And then it hath a prospect to the last mariage, for to that we are carried in the last word, in aeternum, I will mary thee unto me for ever. Be pleased therefore to give me leave in this exercise, to shift the scene thrice, and to present to your religious considerations three objects, three subjects: first, a secular mariage in Paradise; secondly, a spirituall mariage in the Church; and thirdly, an eternall mariage in heaven. And in each of these three we shall present three circumstances; first the Persons, Me and Tibi, I will mary thee; And then the Action, Sponsabo, I will mary thee; And lastly the Term, In aeternam, I will mary thee to mee for ever.
In the first acceptation then,1t Part. Persons. in the first, the secular mariage in Paradise, the persons were Adam and Eve: Ever since they are he and she, man and woman: At first, by reason of necessity, without any such limitation, as now: And now without any other limitation, then such as are expressed in the Law of God: As the Apostles say in the first generall Councell,Acts 15. 28. We lay nothing upon you but things necessary, so we call nothing necessary but that which is commanded by God. If in heaven I may have the place of a man that hath performed the Commandements of God, I will not change with him that thinks he hath done more then the Commandements of God enjoyned him. The rule of marriage for degrees and distance in blood, is the Law of God; but for conditions of men, there is no Rule given at all. When God had made Adam and Eve in Paradise, God did not place Adam in a Monastery on one side, and Eve in a Nunnery on the other, and so a River between them. They that built wals and cloysters to frustrate Gods institution of mariage,1 Tim. 4. 3. advance the Doctrine of Devils in forbidding mariage. The Devil hath advantages enow against us, in bringing men and women together: It was a strange and super-devilish invention, to give him a new advantage against us, by keeping men and women asunder, by forbidding mariage. Between the heresie of the Nicolaitans, that induced a community of women, any might take any; and the heresie of the Tatians that forbad all, none might take any, was a fair latitude. Between the opinion of the Manichean hereticks, that thought women to be made by the Devil, and your Colliridian hereticks that sacrificed to a women, as to God, there is a fair distance. Between the denying of them souls, which S. Ambrose is charged to have done, and giving them such souls, as that they may be Priests, as your Pepution hereticks did, is a faire way for a moderate man to walk in. To make them Gods is ungodly, and to make them Devils is devillish; To make them Mistresses is unmanly, and to make them servants is unnoble; To make them as God made them, wives, is godly and manly too. When in your Roman Church they dissolved mariage in naturall kindred, in degrees where God forbids it not, when they dissolve mariage upon spitituall kindred, because my Grandfather Christned that womans Father; when they dissolve mariage upon legall kindred, because my Grandfather adopted that womans Father: they separate those whom God hath joyned so, as to give leave to joyn in lawfull mariage. When men have made vows to abstain from mariage, I would they would they would be content to try a little longer then they doe, whether they could keep that vow or no: And when men have consecrated themselves to the service of God in his Church, I would they would be content to try a little farther then they doe, whether they could abstain or no: But to dissolve mariage made after such a Vow, or after Orders, is still to separate those whom God hath not separated. The Persons are he and she, man and woman; they must be so much; he must be a man, she must be a woman; And they must be no more; not a brother and a sister, not an unckle and aneece; Adduxit od eum, was the cause between Adam and Eve, God brought them together; God will not bring me a precontracted person, he will not have me defraud another; nor God will not bring me a mis-beleeving, a superstitious person, he will not have me drawn from himself: But let them be persons that God hath made, man and woman, and persons that God hath brought together, that is, not put asounder by any Law of his, and all such persons are capable of this first, this secular mariage.
In which our second Consideration is the Action, Sponsabe; Sponsabo.where the Active is a kinde of Passive, I will mary thee, is, I will be maried unto thee, for we mary not our selves. They are somewhat hard driven in the Roman Church,Bellar. de Matrimo. l. 1. c. 6. when making mariage a Sacrament, and being prest by us with this question, If it be a Sacrament, who administers it, who is the Priest? They are fain to answer, the Bridegroom and the Bride, he and she are the Priest in that Sacrament. As mariage is a civill Contract, it must be done so in publick, as that it may have the testimony of men; As mariage is a religious Contract, it must be so done, as that it may have the benediction of the Priest: In a mariage without testimony of men they cannot claim any benefit of the Law; In a mariage without the benediction of the Priest they cannot claim any benefit of the Church: for how Matrimonially foever such persons as have maried themselves may pretend to love, and live together, yet all that love, and all that life is but a regulated Adultery, it is not mariage.
Now this institution of mariage had three objects: first, In ustionem, In ustionem.it was given for a remedy against burning; And then, In prolem, for propagation, for children; And lastly, In adjutorium, for mutuall help. As we consider it the first way, In ustionem, every heating is not a burning; every naturall concupiscence does not require a mariage; may every flaming is not a burning; though a man continue under the flame of carnall tentation, as long as S. Paul did; yet it needs not come presently to a Sponsabo, I will mary. God gave S. Paul other Physick, Gratia mea sufficit, grace to stand under that tentation; And S. Paul gave himself other Physick, Contundo corpus, convenient disciplines to tame his body.Ambrose. These will keepa man from burning; for Vriest desideriis vinci, desideria pati, illustris est, & perfecti; To be overcome by our concupiscences, that is to burn, but to quench the fire by religious ways, that is a noble, that is a perfect work. When God at the first institution of mariage had this first use of mariage in his contemplation, that it should be a remedy against burning, God gave man the remedy, before he had the disease; for mariage was instituted in the state of innocency, when there was no inordinatenesse in the affections of man, and so no burning. But as God created Reubarb in the world, whose quality is to purge choler, before there was any choler to purge, so God according to his abundant forwardnesse to doe us good, created a remedy before the disease, which he foresaw comming, was come upon us. Let him then that takes a wife in this first and lowest sense, In medicinam, but as his Physick, yet make her his cordiall Physick, take her to his heart, and fill his heart with her, let her dwell there, and dwell there alone, and so they will be mutuall Antidotes and Preservatives one to another, against all forein tentations. And with this blessing, blesse thou, ô Lord, these whom thou hast brought hither for this blessing: make all the days of their life like this day unto them; and as thy mercies are new every morning, make them so to one another; And if they may not die together, sustain thou the survivor of them in that sad hour with this comfort, That he that died for them both, will bring them together again in his everlastingnesse.
The second use of mariage was In prolificationem, In prolem.for children: And therefore as S. August. puts the case, To contract before, that they will have no children, makes it no mariage but an adultery: To deny themselves to another, is as much against mariage as to give themselves to another. To hinder it by Physick, or any other practise; nay to hinder it so far, as by a deliberate wish, or prayer against children, consists not well with this second use of mariage. And yet in this second use, we dòe not so much consider generation as regeneration; not so much procreation as education, nor propagation as transportation of children. For this world might be filled full enough of children, though there were no mariage; but heaven could not be filled, nor the places of the fallen Angels supplied, without that care of childrens religious education, which from Parents in lawfull mariage they are likeliest to receive. How infinite, and how miserable a circle of sin doe we make, if as we sinned in our Parents loins before we were born, so we sin in our childrens actions when we are dead, by having given them, either example, or liberty of sinning. We have a fearfull commination from God upon a good man, upon Eli, 1. Sam. 3. 11. 4. 18.for his not restraining the licentiousnesse of his sons; I will doe a thing in Israel, says God there, at which every mans eares that heares it shall single: And it was executed, Eli fell down and broke his neck. We have also a consolation to women for children,1 Tim. 2. 15. She shall be saved in Child-bearing, says the Apostle; but as Chrysostome and others of the Ancients observe and interpret that place (which interpretation arises out of the very letter) it is, Si permanserint, not if she, but if they, if the children continue in faith, in charity, in holinesse, and sobriety: The salvation of the Parents hath so much relation to the childrens goodnesse, as that if they be ill by the Parents example, or indulgence, the Parents are as guilty as the children. Art thou afraid thy childe should be stung with a Snake, and wilt thou let him play with the old Serpent, in opening himself to all tentations? Art thou afraid to let him walk in an ill aire, and art thou content to let him stand in that pestilent aire that is made of nothing but oaths, and execrations of blasphemous mouths round about him? It is S. Chrysostomes complaint, Perditionem magno pretio emunt; Salutem nec done accipere volunt; we pay dear for our childrens damnation, by paying at first for all their childish vanities, and then for their sinfull insolencies at any rate; and we might have them saved, and our selves to the bargain, (which were a frugall way, and a debt well hedg'd in) for much lesse then ours, and their damnation stands us in. If you have a desire, says that blessed Father, to leave them certainly rich, Deumiis relinque Debitorem, Doe some such thing for Gods service, as you may leave God in their debt. He cannot break; his estate is inexhaustible; he will not break promise, nor break day; He will shew mercy unto thousands in them that love him and keep his Commandements. And here also may another showre of his benedictions fall upon them whom he hath prepared and presented here; Let the wife be as a fruitfull Vine, and their children like Olive plants: Ps. 128. 3.To thy glory, let the Parents expresse the love of Parents, and the children, to thy glory, the obedience of children, till they both loose that secular name of Parents and Children, and meet all alike, in one new name, all Saints in thy Kingdome, and fellow servants there.
The third and last use in this institution of secular mariage,In adjutorium. was, In adjutorium, for mutuall help. There is no state, no man in any state, that needs not the help of others. Subjects need Kings, and if Kings doe not need their Subjects, they need alliances abroad, and they need Counsell at home. Even in Paradise, where the earth produced all things for life without labour, and the beasts submitted themselves to man, so that he had no outward enemy; And in the state of innocency in Paradise, where in man all the affections submitted themselves to reason, so that he had no inward enemy, yet God in this abundant Paradise, and in this secure innocency of Paradise, even in the survey of his own work, saw, that though all that he had made was good, yet he had not made all good; he found thus much defect in his own work, that man lacked a helper. Every body needs the help of others; and every good body does give some kinde of help to others. Even into the Ark it self, where God blessed them all with a powerfull and an immediate protection, God admitted onelyonly such as were fitted to help one another, couples. In the Ark, which was the Type of our best condition in this life, there was not a single person. Christ saved once one theef at the last gasp, to shew that there may be late repentances; but in the Ark he saved none but maried persons, to shew, that he eases himself in making them helpers to one another. And therefore when we come to the P…sui Deum adjutorium meum, to rely upon God primarily for our Help, God comes to the faciam tibi adjutorium, I will make thee a help like thy self: not always like in complexion, nor like in years, nor like in fortune, nor like in birth, but like in minde, like in disposition, like in the love of God, and of one another or else there is no helper. It was no kinde of help that Davids wife gave him, when she spoke by way of counsell, but in truth, in scorn and derision, to draw him from a religious act, as the dancing before the Ark, at that time was: It is no help for any respect, to slacken the husband in his Religion. It was but a poor help that Nabals wife was fain to give him by telling David, Al as my husband is but a foole, like his name, and what will you look for at a fools hand? It is the worst help of all to raise a husband by dejecting her self, to help her husband forward in this world, by forfeiting sinfully, and dishonourably her own interest in the next. The husband in the Helper in the nature of a foundation, to sustain and uphold all; The wife in the nature of the roof, to cover imperfections and weaknesses: The husband in the nature of the head from whom all the sinews flow; The wife in the nature of the hands into which those sinews flow, and enable them to doe their offices. The husband helps as legges to her, she moves by his motion; The wife helps as a staffe to him, he moves the better by her assistance. And let this mutuall help be a part of our present benediction too; In all the ways of fortune let his industry help her, and in all the crosses of fortune let her patience help him; and in all emergent occasions and dangers spirituall, or temporall, O God make speed to save them, O Lord, make haste to help them.
We have spoken of the persons,In aeternum. man and woman, him and her; And of the action, first as it is Physick, but cordiall Physick; and then for children, but children to be made the children of God; and lastly for help, but true help and mutuall help; There remains yet in this secular mariage, the Term, how long, for ever, I will mary thee for ever. Now though there be properly no eternity in this secular mariage, nor in any thing in this world, (for eternity is that onelyonly which never had …eginning, nor ever shall have end) yet we may consider a kind of eternity, a kind of circle without beginning, without end, even in this secular mariage: for first, mariage should have no beginning before mariage; no half-mariage, no lending away of the minde, in conditionall precontracts before, no lending away of the body in unchaste wantonnesse before. The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; and when two bodies, by mariage are to be made one temple, the wife is not as the Chancell, reserv'd and shut up, and the man as the walks below, indifferent and at liberty for every passenger. God in his Temple looks for first fruits from both, that so on both sides, mariage should have such a degree of eternity, as to have had no beginning of mariage before mariage. It should have this degree of eternity too, this quality of a circle to have no interruption, no breaking in the way by unjust suspitions and jealousies. Where there is Spiritus immunditei, as S. Paul calls it, a spirit of uncleannesse, there will necessarily be Spiritus zelotypiae, as Moses cals it, a spirit of jealousie. But to raise the Devill in the power of the Devill, to call up one spirit by another spirit, by the spirit of jealousie and suspition, to induce the spirit of uncleannesse where it was not, if a man conjure up a Devill so, God knows who shall conjure it down again, As jealousie is a care and not a suspition, God is not ashamed to protest of himself that he is a jealous God.Exod. 20. God commands that no idolatry be committed, Thou shalt not bow down to a graven Image; and before he accuses any man to have bowed down to a graven Image, before any Idolatry was committed, he tells them that he is a jealous God; God is jealous before there is any harm done. And God presents it as a curse, when he says, My jealousie shall depart from thee, Ezech. 16. 42.and I will be quiet, and no more angry; that is, I will heave thee to thy self, and take no more care of thee. Jealousie that implies care, and honour, and counsell, and tendernesse, is rooted in God, for God is a jealous God, and his servants are jealous servants, as S. Paul professes of himself,2 Cor. 11. 2. I am jealous over you with a gedly jealousie. But jealousie that implies diffidence and suspition, and accusation, is rooted in the Devil, for he is the Accuser of the brethren.
So then, this secular mariage should be in aeternum, eternall, for ever, as to have no beginning before, and so too, as to have no jealous interruption by the way; for it is so eternall, as that it can have no end in this life: Those whom God hath joyned, no man, no Devill, can separate so, as that it shall not remain a mariage so far, as that if those separated persons will live together again, yet they shall not be new maried; so farre, certainly, the band of mariage continues still. The Devil makes no mariages; He may have a hand in drawing conveyances; in the temporall conditios there may be practice, but the mariage is made by God in heaven. The Devil can break no mariages neither, though he can by sin break off all the good uses, and take away all the comforts of mariage. I pronounce not now whether Adultery dissolves mariage or no; It is S. Augustines wisdome to say, Where the Scripture is silent, let me be silent too: And I may goe lower then he, and say, Where the Church is silent, let me be silent too; and our Church is so far silent in this, as that it hath not said, That Adultery dissolves mariage. Perchance then it is not the death of mariage, but surely it is a deadly wound. We have Authors in the Romanc Church that think fornicationem non vagam, that such an incontinent life as is limited to one certain person, is no deadly sin, But there is none even amongst them that diminish the crime of Adultery. Habere quasi non haberes, is Christs counsell, To have a wife as though thou hadst none, that is continency, and temperance, and forbearance and abstinency upon some occasions; But non habere quasi haberes, is not so; not to have a wife, and yet have her, to have her, that is anothers, that is the Devils counsell. That falutation of the Angle to the blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed art thou amongst memen, we may make even this interpretation, not onelyonly that she was blessed amongst women, that is, above women, but that she was Benedicta, blessed amongst women, that all women blest her, that no woman had occasion to curse her: And this is the eternity of this secular mariage as far as this world admits any eternity; that it should have no beginning before, no interruption of jealousie in the way, no such approach towards dissolution, as that incontinency, in all opinions, and in all Churches is agreed to be. And here also without any scruple of fear, or of suspition of the contrary, there is place for this benediction, upon this couple; Build, ô Lord, upon thine own foundations, in these two, and establish thy former graces with future; that no person ever complain of either of them, nor either of them of one another, and so he and she are maried in aeternum for ever.
We are now come in our order proposed at first, to our second Part;2d Part. for all is said that I intended of the secular mariage. And of this second, the spirituall mariage, much needs not to be said: There is another Priest that contracts that, another Preacher that celebrates that, the Spirit of God to our spirit. And for the third mariage, the eternall mariage, it is a boldnesse to speak any thing of a thing so inexpressible as the joyes of heaven; it is a diminution of them to goe about to heighten them; it is a shadowing of them to goe about to lay any colours or light upon them. But yet your patience may perchance last to a word of each of these three Circumstances, The Persons, the Action, the Term, both in this spirituall, and in the eternall mariage.
First then, as in the former Part, the secular mariage,Persons. for the persons there, we considered first Adam and Eve, and after every man and woman, and this couple in particular; so in this spirituall mariage we consider first Christ and his Church, for the Persons, and more particularly Christ and my soul. And can these persons meet? in such a distance, and in such a disparagement can these persons meet? the Son of God and the son of man? When I consider Christ to be Germen Iehovae, the bud and blossome, the fruit and off-spring of Jehovah, Jehovah himself, and my self before he took me in hand, to be, not a Potters vessell of earth, but that earth of which the Potter might make a vessel if he would, and break it if he would when he had made it: When I consider Christ to have been from before all beginnings, and to be still the Image of the Father, the same stamp upon the same metall, and my self a peece of rusty copper, in which those lines of the Image of God which were imprinted in me in my Creation are defaced and worn, and washed and burnt, and ground away, by my many, and many, and many fins: When I consider Christ in his Circle, in glory with his Father, before he came into this world, establishing a glorious Church when he was in this world, and glorifying that Church with that glory which himself had before, when he went out of this world; and then consider my self in my circle, I came into this world washed in my own tears, and either out of compunction for my self or compassion for others, I passe through this world as through a valley of tears, where tears settle and swell, and when I passe out of this world I leave their eyes whose hands close mine, full of tears too, can these persons, this Image of God, this God himself, this glorious God, and this vessell of earth, this earth it self, this inglorious worm of the earth, meet without disparagement?
They doe meet and make a mariage;Action. because I am not a body onelyonly, but a body and s,oul there is a mariage,Deut 21. 12. and Christ maries me. As by the Law a man might mary a captive woman in the Warres, if he shaved her head, and pared her nails, and changed her clothes: so my Saviour having fought for my soul, fought to blood, to death, to the death of the Crosse for her, having studied my soul so much, as to write all those Epistles which are in the New Testament to my soul, having presented my soule with his own picture, that I can see his face in all his temporall blessings, having shaved her head in abating her pride, and pared her nails in contracting her greedy desires, and changed her clothes not to fashion her self after this world, my soul being thus fitted by himself, Christ Jesus hath maried my soul, maried her to all the three intendments mentioned in the secular mariage; first, in ustionem, In ustionem.against burning; That whether I burn my self in the fires of tentation, by exposing my self to occasions of tentation, or be reserved to be burnt by others in the fires of persecution and martyrdome, whether the fires of ambition, or envy, or lust, or the everlasting fires of hell offer at me in an apprehension of the judgements of God, yet as the Spirit of God shall wipe all tears from mine eyes, so the tears of Christ Jesus shall extinguish all fires in my heart, and so it is a mariage, In ustionem, a remedy against burning.
It is so too,In prolem. In prolificationem, for children; first, vae soli, woe unto that single soul that is not maried to Christ; that is not come into the way of having issue by him, that is not incorporated in the Christian Church, and in the true Church, but is yet in the wildernesse of Idolatry amongst the Gentiles, or in the Labyrinth of superstition amongst the Papists, vae soli, woe unto that single man that is not maried unto Christ in the Sacraments of the Church; and vae sterili, woe unto them that are barren after this spirituall mariage,Ier. 22. 30. for that is a great curse in the Prophet Ieremy, Scribe virum istum sterilem, write this man childlesse, that implied all calamities upon him; And assoon as Christ had laid that curse upon the Fig-tree,Mat. 21. 19. Let no fruit grow upon thee for ever, presently the whole tree withered; no fruit, no leafes neither, nor body left. To be incorporated in the body of Christ Jesus, and bring forth no fruits worthy of that profession, is a wofull state too. Vae soli, woe unto the Gentiles not maried unto Christ; and vae sterili, woe unto inconsiderate Christians, that think not upon their calling, that conceive not by Christ; but there is a vae praegnanti too,Mat. 24. 19. wo unto them that are with child, and are never delivered; that have good conceptions, religious dispositions, holy desires to the advancement of Gods truth, but for some collaterall respects dare not utter them, nor bring them to their birth, to any effect. The purpose of his mariage 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 maried 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 condemne men at the last day for not doing these, if man could not doe 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 dispossesse 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, then he hath had there; and to be so helped in me and helped by me, to have his glory thereby advanced, Christ hath maried my soul: And he hath maried it in aeternum, for ever; which is the third and last Circumstance in this spirituall, as it was in the secular mariage.
And here the aeternum is enlarged;In aeternum. in the secular mariage it was an eternity considered onelyonly in this life; but this eternity is not begun in this world, but from all eternity in the Book of life, in Gods eternall Decree for my election, there Christ was maried 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 my soul was a soul, did Christ mary my soul in his eternall Decree. So it was eternall, it had no beginning. Neither doth he interrupt …his by giving me any occasion of jealousie 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 name but mine in the Book of life. And as he hath maried me to him, in aeternum, for ever, before all beginnings, and in aeternum, 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 mariage, ends not the spirituall: not death, for my death does not take me from that husband, but that husband being by his Father preferr'd to higher titles, and greater glory in another state, I doe but goe 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 mariage, our eternall mariage in the triumphant Church.
And in this third mariage, the persons are,3 d Part. Persons. Apoc. 19. 7, 9. Esay 53. 4. the Lamb and my soul; The mariage of the Lamb is come, and blessed are they that are called to the mariage Supper of the Lamb, says S. Iohn speaking of our state in the generall Resurrection. That Lamb that was brought to the slaughter and opened not his mouth, 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, then any sacrifice but the blood of this Lamb could take away: This Lamb and I (these are the Persons) shall meet and mary; there is the Action.
This is not a clandestine mariage,Action. not the private seal of Christ in the obsignation of his Spirit; and yet such a clandestine mariage is a good mariage: Nor it is not such a Parish mariage, as when Christ maried me to himself at my Baptisme, in a Church here … and yet that mariage of a Christian soul to Christ in that Sacrament is a blessed mariage: But this is a mariage in that great and glorious Congregation, where all my fins shall be laid open to the eys of all the world, where all the blessed Virgins shall see all my uncleannesse, and all the Martyrs see all my tergiversations, and all the Consessors see all my double dealings in Gods cause; where Abraham shall see my faithlesnesse in Gods promises; and Iob my impatience in Gods corrections; and Lazarus my hardness of heart in distributing Gods blessings to the poore; and those Virgins, and Martyrs, and Confessors, and Abraham, and Iob, 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 banes, and say to one another, Will this Lamb have any thing to doe with this soule? and yet there and then this Lamb shall mary me, In aeternum, for ever, which is our last circumstance.
It is not well done to call it a circumstance,In aeternum. for the eternity is a great part of the essence of that mariage. Consider then how poore and needy a thing, all the riches of this world, how flat and tastlesse 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 it self were unperfect, if it were not eternall, and my mariage shall be too, In aeternum, for ever.
The Angels were not maried so; they incurr'd an irreparable Divorce from God, and are separated for ever, and I shall be maried to him, in aeternum, for ever. The Angels fell in love, when there was no object presented, before any thing was created; when there was nothing but God and themselves, they fell in love with themselves, and neglected God, and so fell in aeternum, 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 jealousie, on his part, or theirs, or mine, and so be maried in aeternum, for ever, without interruption, or diminution, or change of affections. I shall see the Sunne black as sackcloth of hair,Apoc. 6. 12. and the Moon become as blood, and the Starres fall as a Figge-tree casts her untimely Figges, and the heavens roll'd up together as a Scroll. 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 it self, and all her forms, and my mariage shall be, in aeternum, for ever. I shall see an end of faith, nothing to be beleeved that I doe not know; and an end of hope, nothing to be wisht that I doe not enjoy, but no end of that love in which I am maried 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 Joynture, for my Husband cannot die; and wise enough without experience, for no new thing can happen there; and healthy enough without Physick, for no sicknesse can enter; and (which is by much the highest of all) safe enough without grace, for no tentation that need 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, ô Lord, that in thy light we may see light: Illustrate our understandings, kindle our affections, pour oyle to our zeale, that we may come to the mariage of this Lamb, and that this Lamb may come quickly to this mariage: And in the mean time bless these thy servants, with making this secular mariage a type of the spirituall, and the spirituall an earnest of that eternall, which they and we, by thy mercy, shall have in the Kingdome which thy Son our Saviour hath purchased with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To whom, &c.