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 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 Lamba," says St. John, speaking of our state in the general 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 begin b Isaiah, liii. 7. a Rev. xix. 7. 9. ning," 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 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 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 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, a my nothing to be wished that I 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 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. |