WE AS JOHN Q. PUBLIC OF AMERICA BEING THE SIMPLE PEOPLE WE ARE, WE ASK SIMPLE QUESTIONS:

CAN WE LEGITIMATELY CALL OURSELVES, AS AMERICANS, CHRISTIANS, IF WE ARE NOT LITERALLY MARRIED TO CHRIST.

SO THEN WE SAY TO OURSELVES, THAT WE AS AMERICANS WHO ARE MARRIED, LIVE TOGETHER DO WE NOT?

THUS COMMON SENSE TELLS US THAT IF WE, AS AMERICANS, DO NOT LITERALLY LIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST, THEN WE WOULD NOT BE MARRIED TO CHRIST, WOULD WE?

FORMER MR. MORALITY WROTE TO HIS BRETHREN IN ROME:

Ro. 7: [4] Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be MARRIED to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

SO IF FORMER MR. MORALITY CONFIRMS THAT IF WE ARE A TRUE CHRISTIAN WE ARE MARRIED TO CHRIST, BUT DOES FORMER MR. MORALITY BELIEVE THAT WE LITERALLY LIVE TOGETHER?

Gal. 2: 20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

BUT WHAT IF CHRIST DOES NOT LIVE IN WE AMERICANS THAT CALL OURSELVES CHRISTIANS?

2Cor. 13: [5] Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ IS IN YOU, except ye be reprobates?

SO WE AS AMERICANS NEED TO EXAMINE OURSELVES TO OBSERVE TO KNOW IF CHRIST LITERALLY LIVES IN US OR NOT.

RO. 8: [6] For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

[7] Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

[8] So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

[9] But ye are not in the flesh,

but in the Spirit,

if so be

that the Spirit of God DEWELL IN YOU.

Now if any man have not

the Spirit of Christ,

he is NONE of HIS.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD IN THIS SERMON BEAUTIFULLY ELABORATES UPON THIS VERSE:

Isaiah 54:For thy Maker is thine husband.

“And therefore, the marriage state,

especially by the apostle Paul,

is frequently made use of, to figure out to us the real, vital union, between Jesus Christ and regenerate souls.

This is termed by the apostle,

Eph. 5:32, “A great mystery.”

But great as it is, we must all experience it, before we can say assuredly, that

“our Maker is our husband.”

For what says our Lord, in that prayer he put up to his Father before his bitter passion?

“Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me, shall be where I am, that they may be one with thee; even as thou, O Father, and I are one, I in them, and they in me, that we all may be made perfect in one.”

O infinite condescension! On ineffable union!

Hence it is, that believers are said to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Hence it is, that the apostle speaking of himself, says,

“I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” What an expression is that? How much does it comprehend?

And, that we might not think this was something peculiar to himself, he puts this close question to the Corinthians; “Know ye not, that Christ is in you, unless you be reprobates?”

Agreeable to what he says in his epistle to the

Colossians; “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

And hence it is, that our church, in the communion-office, directs the minister to acquaint all those who receive the sacrament worthily, that they are one with Christ, and Christ with them; that they dwell in Christ, and Christ in them.

Words that deserve to be written in letters of gold, and which evidently show, what our reformers believed all persons must experience, before they could truly and assuredly say, that “their Maker is their

Pass we on therefore to the

Second general head, under which I was to show, what duties of love they owe to Jesus Christ, who are so happy as to be able to say, “My Maker is my husband.”