THE

WIFE'S ADVOCATE:

A DISCOURSE,

PREACHED

ON A MARRIAGE OCCASION

'Husbands, love your Wives, and be not bitter against them.'

'Husbands, love your Wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it.'-Paul.

'True greatness is always tender and sympathising.' — Lavater.

PREFACE.

WHEN the Author, if he may be excused a reference to himself, quite a youth, first went to London, and was all anxiety to hear the preachers of the famed metropolis, he was told by a friend, if he wished to hear a good doctrinal sermon, he must hear; if an experimental, he must hear -; and if a practical, he must hear. And he well remembers simply asking, 'But is there no minister here who preaches all these? I should rather hear him.

This mode, he is conscious, he has always aimed and endeavoured to follow himself: and by this criterion he is willing to be judged, not indeed by an occasional hearer, but by his regular and constant attendants. The following discourse, therefore, is not to be taken as a specimen of his preaching, but as a part; the propriety and usefulness of which, are to be viewed in alliance with other parts, and in harmony with the whole.

A minister, who, like Epaphras, would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God,' must inculcate the relative duties.

And he will find his advantage in enforcing them connectedly. Each party will the better receive - especially admonition and reproof; when the corresponding party is addressed at the same time, and in the same manner: because it will show that the preacher has no private aim; and is no respecter of persons.

The apostles invariably adopted this method. If they addressed servants, they always addressed masters. If they exhorted children, they always exhorted parents also. It was the same with regard to the conjugal relations.

Bath, December 1, 1829.

DISCOURSE.

Malachi ii. 13-15.

And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good-will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

It has been the lot of some very good men, to live in very bad times. And this was the case with Malachi. Even then, indeed, some were found, who feared the Lord, and thought upon his name.' And they were graciously noticed and distinguished by him: 'They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I shall make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.'

These, however, were only so many exceptions from the multitude; and resembled a few small luminaries, that serve to render the darkness between, the more palpable. According to the language of our proplet, the degeneracy was complete. From the crown of the head to the soul of the foot, there was no soundness. The young and the old; the rich and the poor; rulers and subjects; priests and people, were all deeply revolted from God.

In such a corrupt state of society, the office of a minister is not a very enviable, or easy one. It is trying to censure and condemn ; and he that is not faithful to his conscience and commission, will fail under the trial, and prophesy smooth things, because the multitude love to have it so. But the man of God, raised above the love of fame, and the dread f frowns, will not shun 'to declare all the unsel of God,' warning every man, and eaching every man in all wisdom, that he may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.'

The connexions of life, the sources of so much virtue and sin, happiness and misery; are numerous and various: and when properly

estimated, they are not to be judged of by their publicity, and elevation, and splendor; but by the constancy of their influence, the extent of their operation, and the importance of their effects. The most ordinary relations, therefore, are the most fundamental. These are the DOMESTIC. Communities originate from families; and depend upon them: and the quality of the one must partake largely of the attributes of the other. In religious concerns, it is not too much to say, with Philip Henry, that ‘a man is really what he is relatively.' We are aware that there is much of instinct in the relative affections; and that they do not strike far into moral character. The existence of them alone, is not a sufficient proof of piety, But it is otherwise with the absence of them. This is decisive evidence against a person, If he is bad at home, he is bad every where. If he is a bad father, and a bad husband, he cannot be a good man. And, therefore, when a very eminent minister was asked whether he thought a certain individual was truly pious, he replied, 'I cannot tell-I never lived with him.'