2 Corinthians 11:33

REFLECTIONS

READER! who can behold the warmth and zeal of the Apostle in his godly jealousy over the Corinthian Church, in their espousals to Christ, without feeling an anxiety and jealousy over our own hearts, in relation to our own? Shall not you and I be very earnest to know ourselves betrothed as chaste virgins to Christ? Hath Jesus indeed, notwithstanding all our poverty, loathsomeness by sin, and all the reproached state of the fall, married our persons, taken an interest in all our concerns, nourished us, cherished us, and with all the tenderness and love of the bridegroom, provides for all our wants, and forever doing the part of the most affectionate husband; and shall we not feel our attachment to One who hath so loved us, as to give himself for us? Shall Satan beguile our hearts as he did Eve? Shall any temptation lead away from the beautiful simplicity that is in Christ?. Oh! thou glorious and all-sufficient Savior! In thee is a fulness and an all-sufficiency of the most complete salvation! In thee God is well pleased t. So Lord may be all thy people.

And if any come and preach another Jesus! if any speak of another Spirit, another Gospel, Oh! may the Lord silence all false teachers, all false Apostles. Lord, in compassion to the souls of men, stop the mouths of those, which run unsent of thee. And whatever specious garb they come under, though transformed as angels or light; yet, whatever tends not to honor Christ, let all thy faithful servants be kept from their delusion, and be enabled to resist their deceitful wiles. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha! Oh! for grace to be kept from all evil, and all the malice of the foe, as Paul, let down by the wall, and escaping their hands. And, oh! for grace in spirituals, to be kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation.