Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (4).pdf/13

 13 mercy-seat; or as the two tables 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: 1st, On the right side. 2dly, 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 wrongs 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 wife draw away his heart from heaven? A sinning wife was Satan's first ladder, by which he scaled the wall of par- adise, 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 underproper, beearne his graee's underminer; and she that should be a crown on the head is a cross on the shoul- ders. The wife is often to the husband, as the ivy is to the oak, which draws away his sap from him. 2. A help to his society, by the fragrant- ness of her conversation. Man is an affectionate creature; now the woman's behaviour should be such towards the man, as to require his affection by in- creasing his delectation. That the new-born love may not be blasted as soon as it is blos- somed; that it may not be ruined before it be rooted. A spouse should carry herself so