Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (4).pdf/5



5   I. As it is limited to one man, 2. As it is lengthened to all men. First, As it is limited to one man and so it is taken particularly: man, for the first man. When all other creatures had their mates, Adam wanted his: though he was the em- peror of the earth, and the admiral of the seas, yet in paradise without a companion; though he was truly happy, yet he was not fully happy; though he had enough for his board, yet he had not enough for his bed ; though he had many creatures to serve him, yet be wanted a creature to solace him: when he was compounded in creation, he must be completed by conjunction; when he had no  sin to hurt him, then he must have a wife to  help him: " it is not good that man should  be alone." Secondly, As it is lenghened to all men, and so it is taken universally, Heb. xiii. 4.-- " Marriage is honourable unto all." It is not warrantable, but honourable. The whole trinity hath conspired together to set a crown of glory upon the head of matrimony. 1. God the Father; marriage was a tree planted within the walls of paradise, the flower first grew in God's garden. 2. The Son: marriage is a chrystal glass, wherein Christ and the saints do see each others faces. 3. The Holy Ghost, by his overshadow- ing of the blessed virgin. Well might the world, when it saw her pregnancy, suspect her virginity; but her matrimonial condition was a grave to that suspicion: without this her innocency had not prevented her