A Great Mystery Christ And the Church

Thus Christ left his father and mother, and clave to his wife. Adam had one wife brought to him and no more: so Christ says “There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number; my undefiled is but one.”

Song 6:8,9

When Eve fell Adam was in the transgression, though he was not deceived; so when the elected spouse fell, Christ was not deceived, yet he was made sin, “and was numbered with the transgressors.”

Isa. 53:12

When Adam and Eve fell, their marriage was not made void; so the fall of the elect did not break the bond of God’s everlasting covenant, but rather paved the way to display eternal love towards the miserable. It appears that both Adam and Eve were chosen vessels; and, when they fell by eating the apples, they fell into soul travail, and were shortly after born again. Eternal love raised them up under the same tree where they fell; as it is written, “I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth, there she brought thee forth, that bare thee.”

Song 8:5

This mother (according to Paul) Is the heavenly Jerusalem;

Gal 4:24

And the heavenly Jerusalem; is the covenant of grace and God’s elect in it; both typified by Sarah and her son Isaac. To Adam and Eve was the first promise of the covenant of grace revealed; and by the application of the promise were they brought forth from black despair to hope in God’s mercy through Christ.

A Great Mystery Christ And the Church

I shall conclude this head with the apostle’s mystery, “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife; and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.”

Eph. 5:29-32

This therefore is another blessed effect of God’s everlasting love. But, as a surety Christ was set up from everlasting; as it is written, “But Christ was made with an oath by him that said unto him The Lord swore, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.”

Heb. 7:21,22

First, Christ, as a surety, was to pay the debt of perfect obedience to the