Page:Wedding-ring, fit for the finger, or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity (5).pdf/12

12 greater light goes down, the lesser gets up: when the one ends in setting, the other begins in shining. The wife may be a sovereign in her husband's absence, but she must be subject in her husband's presence. As Pharaoh said to Joseph, so should the husband say to his wife, Gen. xli. 40. Thou shalt be over my house, and, according to thy word, shall all my people be ruled, only in the throne will be greater than thou. The body of that household can never make any good motion, whose bones are out of place. The woman must be a help to the man in these four things:

1. To his Piety. 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 fragrantness of her conversation.—To his Progeny, by the fruitfulness of her education.—To his Prosperity, by the faithfulness of her preservation.

1. To his Piety, by the ferventness of her excitation, 1 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-seat; or as the two tables of stone, on each of which was 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