Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (5).pdf/10

10 the solitariness of the condition, Man alone, to the suitableness of the provision, I will make an help meet for him. In which you have two parts:

1. The agent: I will make. 2. The object: A help.

1. The agent, I will make We cannot build a house without tools; but the Trinity is at liberty; Die verbum tantum. To God's omniscience there is nothing invisible; to God's omnipotence there is nothing impossible. We work by hands without; but works without hands. He that made man meet for help, makes a meet help for him.

Marriages are consented above, but consummated below, Prov. xviii. 22. Tho' man wants supply, yet man cannot supply his wants, Jam. i. 17. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, &c. A wife, though she be not a perfect gift, yet she is a good gift. These beams are darted from the Sun of righteousness.

Hast thou a soft heart? It is of God's breaking: hast thou a sweet wife? she is of God's making.

Let me draw up this expression with a double application.

1. When thou layest out for such a good on earth, look up to the God of heaven; let him make thy choice for thee who makes his choice of thee. Look above you, before you look about you; nothing rakes up the happiness of a married condition, like the holiness of a mortified disposition. Account not those the most worthy that are the most wealthy. Art