them ? and who will ever make you so rich a return ?
Say not, " What is thy Beloved more than another
beloved, that thou dost so charge us'':" for there is none to be compared with him, either in heaven or on earth. *' He is fairer than the children of men '' :" " He is the chiefest among ten thousand :" " He is altogether lovely\" Oh, rest not, till with holy confidence you can say, " This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem*." And so set your- selves from this moment to prepare yourselves for him, that he may shortly " bring you to his banqueting-house, and his banner over you be love"."]
2. Those who profess to stand m the relation of
his Spouse —
[Look forward for the period when he will come and take you to himself. The precise hour of his arrival is not known : but it will not be very long, at all events. In the mean time, let your preparation for him be diligent and unintermitted. Seek to be daily more and *nore *' glorious within," and to have your clothing of wrought gold ever ready ; so that if his arrival be ever
so
" Hos. iij- 3. " Hos. ii. 19, 20. "^ 2 Cor. xi. 2.
<J Cant. V. g. ■■ Ps. xlv. 2, ' Cant. v. 10, l6.
' Cant.v. l6. " ib. ii. 3, 4.
so sudden, he may not find you unprepared for his call. Be jealous over yourselves ; and forgive me if I also be jealous over you, in relation to this matter. You know how " the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety" even in Paradise: and you may be sure that he will use his utmost efforts to *' corrupt you from the simplicity that is in Christ ''." Be on your guard there- fore, lest either in principle or in practice you turn aside from him. He has numberless instruments whom he employs as his agents to deceive the world ; " deceitful workers, who can trans- form themselves into the apostles of Christ ; as he himself also is not unfrequently transformed into an angel of light y." But intreat of God to keep you : beg of him to " hedge up your way with thorns, and even to build up a wall around you, that, if you should for a moment incline to follow after your former lovers , you may not be able to find your paths." If un- happily you have gone in pursuit of them , implore of
God, that " you may never find them ; or, having found, may
never overtake them :" or, if you have overtaken them ,
separate yourselves instantly from them, and say, " I will go and return to my first husband 3 for then it was better with me than now'" ']
" 2 Cor. xi. 3. ^ 2 Cor. xi. 13, 14. * Hos. ii. 6, 7.