Matthew 22:46

REFLECTIONS

Blessed Lord Jesus! Was there ever condescension like thine, to marry our nature? To pass by the nature of angels, and to take on thee the seed of Abraham! And didst thou, Lord, so fix thy love upon thy Church, that though thou knowest from the beginning that our whole nature would deal very treacherously, yet this did not prevent thy gracious design, but thou didst determine to pay our dreadful debt, to rescue us out of the hand of every enemy, to disannul our agreement with sin, and to call back thy spouse, the Church; who, as a treacherous wife, had departed from her first husband? Did Jesus indeed, in the prosecution of this great design, send forth his servants in all ages of the Church; Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, to call home his own, and to bring all his redeemed to the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven? Oh! peerless, unequalled love! Oh! matchless sovereign mercy! Lord Jesus! grant that when thou comest in at the last day to see thy guests at thy table, my poor soul may not be found like the man without a wedding garment, and from being Christless now, I should be speechless then. But oh! thou dear Lord! may my soul be found of thee in that all-decisive hour, so adorned in thy spotless righteousness, that both now, and then, my soul may sing the holy triumphs of the Church, and find the blessedness of it. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord: my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

Dearest Lord Jesus! while Pharisees, and Herodians, and Sadducees, all confederate against thee; Oh! do thou cause my poor soul to be attached to thee more and more. Give me to enter into a proper apprehension of all the mysteries of faith, and the doctrine of the resurrection; that, convinced of an interest in the covenant of redemption made with Abraham, and the heirs with him of the promise, I may make the study of Christ, and the knowledge of Christ, the great essentials of everlasting life? and esteem Christ, and him crucified, the one thing needful, beyond all the knowledge of the earth. Oh! the blessedness of this living to Christ, and rejoicing in Christ, and making him, what God hath made him, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the and of salvation; convinced that there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.