joy unspeakable and full of glory. I feel; I believe; I joy and rejoice. I feed on hidden manna. Mine eyes shall see my Redeemer. He fshall stand, at the last day, upon the earth; and I shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and I shall be ever with my Lord. Christ is mine and I am his. I shall live and adore him. Glory to my Creator and my Redeemer for ever. O what a Mafter I have ferved! and what peace I have this day! I fhall fleep in Chrift; and, when I awake, I fhall be fatisfied with his likenefs. Oh for arms to embrace him! for a well-tuned harp to praise him! I disclaim all my labour and faithfulness in the work of the ministry. The port which I would be in at is redemption and forgivenefs of fins through his blood. Thou wilt fhow me the path of life; in thy prefence is fulness of joy. There is nothing now between me and the refurrection but, To-day fhalt thou be with me in paradife. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places. I have gotten a goodly heritage. I blefs the Lord that he gave me counsel,"

THOUGHTS

THOUGHTS ON MARRIAGE:

OR,

HOLY RESOLUTIONS

UPON ENTERING INTO THE

MATRIMONIAL STATE.

Ат

the

day of

one thousand seven hundred, &c. years, in contemplation of an intended marriage betwixt the parties following, viz. A. M. and K. B. it is finally concluded and agreed, firft to give ourfelves to the Lord, and then to one another, by the will of God. Being therefore convinced of our natural and fuperadded unworthiness, guilt, and pollution of heart and life; convinced that, notwithstanding the Lord hath, in a distinguished manner, been kind, and carefully fupplied us with every neceffary outward enjoyment; favouring us with a Christian education in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and, on occafions innumerable, dealing with us by his word and Spirit ; yet, contrary to light and love; contrary to mercies and. judgments; contrary to warnings, afflictions, and deliverances; contrary to manifold convictions and comforts of his bleffed Spirit; we have forgotten, despised, or rebelled against him, and thus deferved his most awful curfe to attend us into our intended relation, and to be

plunged

plunged into everlasting damnation at the conclufion thereof. But, having heard, and we hope in fome meafure known the joyful found of the Saviour and great One fent to deliver us; the joyful found of his being a propitiation for our fins, and made of God to us wifdom, righteousness, fanctification, and redemption; of being given of God as a covenant to the people, a light to the gentiles, and God's falvation to all the ends of the earth, in whom men fhall be bleffed, and all nations fhall call him bleffed; and of God's being in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, as the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-fuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin: Having heard him fpeaking all these words from heaven to our confcience, in his word, "I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of, the land of Egypt. Hear, O my people! and I will fpeak. I will testify against thee. I am God, even thy God. Thou shalt have no other god before me. For I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. I will fay it is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Wilt thou not, from this time, cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? Thou shalt call me, my Father, and shalt not turn away from me. I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercy: I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou fhalt know the Lord." In contemplation and belief whereof, we, who are by nature two goḍlefs and gracelefs children of fatan, do confent, each for himself, and with

with respect to one another, that thou, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be and do for us as thou haft faid; that Jefus, who died for the ungodly, and received gifts for men, even the rebellious, be of God to each of us wifdom, righteousness, fanctification, and redemption; and that God be the superlative choice of our foul, ftrength of our heart, and portion for ever. Now, Lord, we believe, help thou our belief, while our hearts attempt to cry, My Lord, and my God. My beloved is mine and I am his. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none in all the earth I defire befides thee. Thou art my refuge and portion in the land of the living. The Lord is my refuge, my fortrefs, and my God, in whom I will truft. He is my God, and I will praise him; my father's God, and I will exalt him. This God will be our God for ever, and our guide even unto death !

And, in contemplation of Jehovah making over himself in Christ, in whatever he is in perfection and relation, whatever he hath in property, and whatever he doth in purpose or work to us, who are utterly unworthy of the leaft of thy mercies, we, according to thy gracious allowance and command, furrender up ourselves, and all we have, to thee as God, even our God in Chrift. Our perfons we furrender to thee, as the Bride, the Lamb's wife, loved and washed in his blood, and made all glorious within, to be the friends of God, justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ, accepted in the beloved, and reconciled to God through the death of his Son,-to be by grace admitted fon and daughter of God Almighty, and the unalienable fervants of him who hath loofed our bonds: Ourselves,

thofe

thofe inward hells of darkness, guilt, and pollution, we furrender to thee, our God, who art grace, love, light, and holiness, that thou mayeft inftruct, renew, purify, and fill with all thy fulness. Our whole man we give

up to be temples of the Holy Ghost and of God by him, to be fanctified inftruments of glorifying him here on earth; and, to be veffels of mercy, are prepared unto glory, made meet for the inheritance of the faints in light.

In the serious view of entering into a relation whofe conflitutive engagement is deeply marked with death, and whose work is a joint race unto death, we furrender up our life to be bound in the bundle of life with thee, Lord, and we commit our departing fpirits into thy hand, O redeeming God of truth! that whether we live, we may live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we may die unto the Lord; that, after our intended relation to one another is broken by death, our relation to thee, as the stay of the widow or widower, and as our everlasting light, our God and our glory, may fucceed in the full sweetness thereof. What duties thy law fpiritual, holy, juft, and good, and exceedingly broad, requires of us, we commit to thee, our God, as the performer of all things for us, that thou mayeft work in us both to will and to do of thy good pleasure. What' fins, what lufts, are to be found with us, we furrender` to thee, the fin-forgiving and foul-fanctifying God, that thou mayeft caft them all behind thy back, and caft them unto the depths of the fea; mayeft fubdue our iniquities, and deftroy in us the works of the devil. What temptations await us, we commit to the management of the God of peace, that thou mayest bruife fatan