must part, or Christ and your souls can never meet ; sin and your souls must be two, or Christ and your souls can never he one ; you must in good earnest fall out with sins, or else you can never in good earnest fall in with a Saviour ; the heart must be separated from all other lovers, before Christ will take the soul into his bed of loves. Christ takes none into marriage-union with himself, but such as are cordially willing that all old former leagues with sin and the world shall be for ever broken and dissolved. Your cordial willingness to part with sin, is your parting with sin in divine account. You may as soon bring east and west together, light and darkness together, heaven and hell together, as bring Christ to espouse himself to such a soul, as has no mind, no will, no heart to be divorced from his former lovers. It is a foolish thing for any to think of keeping both Christ and their lusts too. It is a vain thing for any to think of saving the life of his sins, and the life of his soul too. If sin escape, your soul cannot escape ; if thou art not the death of thy sins, they will be the death and ruin of thy soul. Marriage is a knot or tie, wherein per- sons are mutually limited and bound each to other, in a way of con- jugal separation from all others, and this in Scripture is called a covenant, Pro v. ii. 7. So when any one marries Christ, he doth therein discharge himself in affection and subjection from all that is contrary unto Christ, and solemnly covenants and binds himself to Christ alone ; he will have no Saviour and no Lord but Christ, and to him will he cleave for ever, Ps. Ixiii. 8 ; Acts xi. 23. But,
Secondly, This marriage-union with Christ doth include and take in a hearty ivilUngness, to take, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ for your Saviour and sovereign.'^ Are you willing to consent to the match. It is not enough that Christ is willing to enter into a mar- riage-union with us, but we must be willing also to enter into a marriage-union with him. 2 God will never force a Christ, nor force salvation upon us, whether we will or no. Many approve of Christ, and cry up Christ, who yet are not willing to give their consent, that he, and he alone shall be their Prince and Saviour. Though know- ledge of persons be necessary and fit, yet it is not sufficient to marriage, without consent, for marriage ought to be a voluntary transaction of persons. In marriage we do in a sort give away ourselves, and elect and make choice for ourselves, and therefore consent is a necessary concurrence to marriage. Now this consent is nothing else but a free and plain act of the will, accepting of Jesus Christ before all others to be its head and Lord, and in the soul's choice of him to be its Saviour and sovereign. Then a man is married to Christ, when he doth freely and absolutely and presently receive the Lord Jesus ; not, I would have Christ if it did not prejudice my worldly estate, ease, friends, relations, &c., or hereafter, I will accept of him when I come to die, and be in distress, but now when salvation is offered, now while Christ tenders himself, I now yield up my heart and life unto him. But,
Thirdly, This marriage-union with Christ includes and takes in
' John i. 12 ; Acts v. 31 ; Col. ii. 6 : weigh well these scriptures : Ps. cxii. 3, and xxv. 5 ; Hosea ii. 7.
' Many can choose Christ as a refuge to hide them from danger, and as a friend to help them in their need, who yet refuse him as a husband.
278 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
a universal and perpetual consent for all time and in all states and conditions. There is, you know, a great difference between a wife and a strumpet ; a wife takes her husband upon all terms, to have and to hold, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, whereas a strumpet is only for hire and lust. When the purse is emptied, or the body wasted and strength consumed, the harlot's love is at an end : so here. That acceptance and consent which ties the marriage-knot between Christ and the soul, must be an un- limited and indefinite acceptance and consent, when we take the Lord Jesus Christ wholly and entirely, without any secret reservations or exceptions. That soul that will have Christ, must have all Christ or no Christ, * for Christ is not divided,' 1 Cor. i. 13. That soul must entertain him to all purposes and intents, he must follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth, Rev. xiv. 4, though it should be through fire and water, over mountains and hills. He must take him with his cup of affliction as well as his cup of consolation, Ps. Ixvi. 12, with his shameful cross as well as his glorious crown, with his great sufferings as well as his great salvation, Heb. ii. 3, with his grace as well as his mercy, with his Spirit to lead and govern them, as well as his blood to redeem and justify them, to suffer for him as well as to reign with him, to die for him as well as to live to him, 2 Tim. ii. 12; Acts xxi. 13; Rom. xiv. 7, 8. Christianity, like the wind Ccecias, doth ever draw clouds and afflictions after it.^ ' All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,' 2 Tim. iii. 12. A man may have many faint wishes and cold desires after godliness, and yet escape per- secution, yea, he may make some essays and attempts, as if he would be godly, and yet escape persecution ; but when a man is thoroughly resolved to be godly, and sets himself in good earnest upon pursuing after holiness, and living a life of godliness, then he must expect to meet with afflictions and persecutions. Whoever escapes, the godly man shall not escape persecution in one kind or another, in one degree or another. 2 He that is peremptorily resolved to live up to holy rules, and to live out holy principles, must prepare for sufferings. All the roses of holiness are surrounded with pricking briars. The history of the Ten Persecutions, and that little Book of Martyrs, the 11th of the Hebrews, and Mr Foxe his Acts and Monuments, with many other treatises that are extant, do abundantly evidence that from age to age, and from one generation to another, they that have been born after the flesh have persecuted them that hath been born after the spirit, and that the seed of the serpent have been still a-multiplying of troubles upon the seed of the woman. Gal. iv. 29 ; but a believer's future glory and pleasure will abundantly recompense him for his present pain and ignominy. But such as will have Christ for their Saviour and sovereign, but still with some proviso or other — viz. , that they may keep such a beloved lust, or enjoy such carnal pleasures and delights, or raise such an estate ifor them and theirs, or comply with the times, and such and such great men's humours, or that they may follow the Lamb only
^ The north-east wind, (/cantos,) PI. 2, 46, 47; Vitr. 1, 6 ; Sen. Q. N. 5, 16.— G.