Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (1).pdf/14

 theſe four things : 1. To his ſociety. 2. To his ſociety. 3. To his progeny. 4. To his proſperity. To his piety, by the ferventneſs of her excitation. To his ſociety, by the fragments of her converſation. To his progeny, by the fruitfulness of her education. To his prosperity by her faithful preservation.

1. To his piety, by the ferventneſs of her excitation, I Pet. ii.7. Husband and wife ſhould be as the two milch-kine, which were coupled together to carry the ark of God; or, as the two cherubims, that looked one upon another, and both upon the mercy-feat; or as the two trbles of stone on each of which were engraven the laws of God. In ſome families married perſons are like Jeremiah’s two baſkets of figs, the one very good, the other very evil; or like fire and water, whilst the one is flaming in devotion, the other is freezing in corruption.

There is a two-fold hindrance of holineſs: 1. On the right ſide. 2 On the left.

On the right ſide when the wife would run in God's way, the huſband will not let her go. When the fore-horſe in a team will not draw, he hinders all the reſt: when the general of an army forbids a march, all the soldiers ſtand still. Sometimes on the left: How did Solomon’s idolatrous wives draw away his heart from heaven? A ſining wife was Satan's first ladder, by which, he ſealed the wall of Paradiſe; and took away the fort-royal of Adam's heart from him. Thus ſhe, that should have been the help of his fleſh, was the hurt of his faith, his nature’s under-proper; became his grace's underminer, and that

ſhould