Romans 7:25

REFLECTIONS

Oh! the blessedness of the marriage state in Christ! If a woman is bound to her husband so long as he liveth, and the husband to his wife; Jesus my husband, my Maker, my Redeemer, ever liveth; and I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. And, though I have played the harlot with many lovers, yet will I go and return to my first husband, for I am his in an everlasting covenant which cannot be broken.

Blessed and Eternal Spirit! I praise thee for the account which thou hast caused thy servant the Apostle to give of himself in this sweet Chapter. Here, through thy teaching, I behold Paul the spiritual condemning Paul the carnal, and groaning under a body of sin, which will not let him do the things the soul would do, because evil is present with him. And do I not behold in it, O Lord, my own features of character? Oh! for grace to enter into a right apprehension of the blessed teaching here presented and brought home to my poor heart. Surely, Lord! grace was in lively exercise in Pauls heart, when, from the conscious depths of sin in a body wholly of sin, the soul cried to the depths of divine mercy. And surely, the Apostle was enjoying sweet soul-union with Jesus, when under all, he found deliverance from sin and death, with all the consequences of evil in his own fallen nature, in the full redemption by Christ. Here, Lord, may my soul find deliverance also, while carrying about with me the present body my flesh, where dwelleth no good thing. Oh! for the unceasing and lively actings of grace and faith, to cry out with Paul under all these exercises; I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.