attained consisted in the perfect union of Divine Love and Wisdom, and this was effected in order that the humanity might become the medium, or mediator, to conjoin mankind with the Eternal Father, or with the fulness of the Godhead, which thenceforward dwelt bodily therein.
In the Old Testament the husband of the church was the Invisible Jehovah: "Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name; the God of the whole earth shall He be called,"—But in the New Testament, no other husband of the church is mentioned than the Lord Jesus Christ, which clearly identifies Jesus Christ with Jehovah, and proves the truth of His own words, "Whosoever hath the Son, hath the Father also." Those who were conjoined with the invisible God, under the old covenant, were invited in the parable to become conjoined with the same God, manifested in the flesh according to the provision of the new covenant, and all that avail themselves of this gracious invitation by a proper purification, will be found worthy to celebrate the marriage of the King's Son eternally in heaven. Now, if marriage is seen in its most exalted sense to be a union of the Divine Love and Wisdom, as well as a union subsisting between the Lord and His church; if the Israelite's God declared, "Thy Maker is thy husband," and in the New Testament the church is called the "Bride, the Lamb's Wife," how great is the necessity laid upon us, that we defile not so holy a union by spiritual fornication or adultery.
