Part 112

Would you match with a _wise husband_? Haste then, sinners, come away to JESUS: He is the fountain of wisdom, and makes all that come unto him, wise unto salvation; “He is the wisdom of the Father: the LORD possessed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. When he prepared the heavens, he was there; when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then was he with him, as one brought up with him; he was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” As he is wise, so is he _holy_; and therefore, in the words of our text, he is stiled, “The Redeemer, the Holy One of _Israel_:” and by the angel _Gabriel_, “That holy Thing.” The apostles, addressing GOD the Father, stile him his “holy child JESUS:” and the spirits of just men made perfect, and the angels in heaven, cease not day or night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy.” Nor is his _beauty_ inferior to his wisdom or holiness; the seraphs veil their faces, when they appear before him: “He is the chiefest among ten thousand, nay, he is altogether lovely.” And, as he is altogether lovely, so is he altogether _loving_: his name and his nature is Love. GOD, GOD in CHRIST is love: love in the abstract. And in this has he manifested his love, in that, whilst we were yet sinners, nay open enemies, JESUS, in his own due time, died for the ungodly. He loved us so as to give himself for us. O what manner of love is this! What was _Jacob_’s love to _Rachel_, in comparison of the love which JESUS bore to a perishing world! He became a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is every man that hangeth upon a tree.” What _Zipporah_ said to her husband improperly, JESUS may say properly to his spouse the church, “A bloody wife hast thou been to me, because of the crucifixion.” For he has purchased her with his own blood. And having once loved his people, he loves them unto the end. His love, like himself, is from everlasting to everlasting. He hates putting away: though we change, yet he changeth not: he abideth faithful. When we are married here, there comes in that shocking clause, to use the words of holy Mr. _Boston_, “Till death us doth part;” but death itself shall not separate a true believer from the love of GOD, which is in CHRIST JESUS his Lord: for he will never cease loving his Bride, till he has loved her to heaven, and presented her before his Father, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Nay, his love will, as it were, but be beginning, through the endless ages of eternity.