The Communicant's Companion (continued)
designed to be perpetual. In this ordinance, 1st, We celebrate the memorial of the virtual espousals of the church of Christ when he died upon the cross, to "sanctify and cleanse it, that he might present it to himself." "That was the day of his espousals, the day of the gladness of his heart." 2d, The actual espousals of believing souls to Christ, are here solemnized, and that agreement ratified: "My beloved is mine, and I am his." The soul that renounces all other lovers that stand in competition with the Lord Jesus, and joins itself by faith and love to him only, is in this ordinance "presented as a chaste virgin to him." 3d, A pledge and earnest of the public and complete espousals of the church of Christ at his second coming, is here given; "then the marriage of the Lamb comes," and we, according to his promise, hereby declare that we look for it.
If we come to a marriage-feast, we must not come without a wedding garment, that is, a frame of heart, and a disposition of soul agreeable to the solemnity, conformable to the nature, and answering the intentions of the gospel, as it is exhibited to us in this ordinance. "Holy garments, and garments of praise," are the wedding garments: "Put on Christ, put on the new man," these are the wedding garments. In these we must, with our lamps in our hands, as the wise virgins, go forth, with all due observance, to attend the royal bridegroom.
3. It is a feast of memorial, like the feast of the passover, of which it is said, "This day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord,—a feast by an ordinance for ever." The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt was a work of wonder never to be forgotten; the feast of unleavened bread was therefore instituted to be annually observed throughout all the ages of the Jewish church, as a solemn memorial of that deliverance, that the truth of it being confirmed by this traditional evidence,