he wept with them, but in his own agony in the garden, it is not said that he wept; if we could stop the flood of tears, in our afflictions, yet there belongs an excessive grief to this, that the ungodly disposition of other men, is a slacking of our godliness, of our sanctification too. Christ Jesus for the joy that was set before him endured the cross; we for the joy of this promise, that God will wipe all tears from our eyes, must suffer all this; whether they be tears of compunction, or tears of compassion, tears for ourselves, or tears for others; whether they be Magdalen's tears, or Peter's tears; tears for sins of infirmity of the flesh, or tears for weakness of our faith; whether they be tears for thy parents, because they are improvident towards thee, or tears for thy children, because they are disobedient to thee, whether they be tears for the church, because our sermons, or our censures pinch you, or tears for the state, that penal laws, pecuniary, or bloody, lie heavy upon you, Deus absterget omnem lachrymam, here is your comfort, that as he hath promised inestimable blessings to them, that are sealed, and washed in him, so he hath given you security, that these blessings belong to you: for, if you find, that he hath governed you, (bred you in his visible church) and led you to his fountain of the water of life in baptism, you may be sure, that he will in his due time, wipe all tears from your eyes, establish the kingdom of heaven upon you, in this life, in a holy, and modest infallibility.

42 Heb. xii.

63

SERMON LXXXV.

PREACHED AT A CHRISTENING.

EPHESIANS V. 25-27.

Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it, and cleanse it, by the washing of water, through the word: that he might make it unto himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blame.

ALMIGHTY GOD ever loved unity, but he never loved singularity; God was always alone in heaven, there were no other gods, but he; but he was never singular, there was never any time, when there were not three persons in heaven; Pater et ego unum sumus; The Father and I are one, says Christ: one in essence, and one in consent; our substance is the same, and our will is the same; but yet, Tecum fui ab initio, says Christ, In the person of Wisdom, I was with thee, disposing all things, at the creation. As then God seems to have been eternally delighted, with this eternal generation, (with persons that had ever a relation to one another, Father, and Son) so when he came to the creation of this lower world, he came presently to those three relations, of which the whole frame of this world consists; of which, (because the principal foundation, and preservation of all states that are to continue, is power) the first relation was between prince and subject, when God said to man, Subijcite et dominamini, Subdue and govern all creatures'; the second relation was between husband and wife, when Adam said, This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; and the third relation was between parents and children, when Eve said, That she had obtained a man by the Lord, that by the plentiful favour of God, she had conceived and borne a son: from that time, to the dissolution of that frame, from that beginning to the end of the world, these three relations, of master and servant, man and wife, father and children, have

1 Gen. i. 28.

* Gen. ii. 23.

3 Gen. iv. 1.

been, and ever shall be the materials, and the elements of all society, of families, and of cities, and of kingdoms. And therefore it is a large, and a subtle philosophy which St. Paul professes in this place, to show all the qualities, and properties of these several elements, that is, all the duties of these several callings; but in this text, he handles only the mutual duties of the second couple, man and wife, and in that consideration, shall we determine this exercise, because a great part of that concerns the education of children, (which especially occasions our meeting now).

The general duty, that goes through all these three relations, is expressed, Subditi estote invicem, Submit yourselves to one another, in the fear of God; for God hath given no master such imperiousness, no husband such a superiority, no father such a sovereignty, but that there lies a burden upon them too, to consider with a compassionate sensibleness, the grievances, that oppress the other part, which is coupled to them. For if the servant, the wife, the son be oppressed, worn out, annihilated, there is no such thing left as a master, or a husband, or a father; they depend upon one another, and therefore he that hath not care of his fellow, destroys himself.

The wife is to submit herself; and so is the husband too : they have a burden both. There is a greater subjection lies upon her, than upon the man, in respect of her transgression towards her husband at first: even before there was any man in the world, to solicit, or tempt her chastity, she could find another way to be false and treacherous to her husband: both the husband and the wife offended against God, but the husband offended not towards his wife, but rather ate the apple, Ne contristaretur delicias suas, as St. Hierome assigns the cause, lest by refusing to eat, when she had done so, he should deject her into a desperate sense of her sin. And for this fault of hers, her subjection was so much aggravated, Thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. But if she had not committed that fault, yet there would have been a mutual subjection between them; as there is even in nature, between both the other couples; for if man had continued in innocency, yet it is most probably thought, that as there would certainly have been marriage, and so children,

so also there would have been magistracy, and propriety, and authority, and so a mutual submitting, a mutual assisting of one another, in all these three relations.

Now, that submitting, of which the apostle speaks of here; is a submitting to one another, a bearing of one another's burdens: what this submission is on the wives' part, is expressed in the two former verses; and I forbear that, because husbands at home, are likely enough to remember them of it; but in the duty, in the submitting of the husband, we shall consider first, what that submitting is, and that is love, Husbands love your wives; even the love of the husband to the wife, is a burden, a submitting, a descent; and secondly, the pattern and example of this love, even as Christ loved his church.

In which second part, as sometimes the accessory is greater than the principle, the symptom, the accident, is greater than the disease, so that from which the comparison is drawn in this place, is greater than that which is illustrated by it; the love of Christ to his church requires more consideration, than the love of the husband to the wife; and therefore it will become us to spend most of our thoughts upon that; and to consider in that, quod factum, and quis finis: what Christ did for his church; and that was, a bounty, which could not be exceeded, seipsum tradidit, he gave, he delivered himself for it; and then, secondly, what he intended that should work; and that was, first, that he might make to himself a glorious church, and without spot and wrinkle, in the triumphant state of the church at last; and then, that whilst it continues in a militant state upon earth, it might have preparations to that glory, by being sanctified and cleansed by the washing of water, through his word; he provides the church means of sanctification here, by his word, and sacraments.

First then de amore maritali, of this contracting a man's love to the person of a wife, of one woman, as we find an often exclamation in the prophets, Onus visionis, The burden of my prophecy upon Nineveh, and Onus verbi Domini, The burden of the word of God upon Israel, so there is onus amoris, a burden of love, when a man is appointed whom he shall love. When Onan was appointed by his father Judah, to go in to his brother's

VOL. IV.

F

widow, and to do the office of a kinsman to her, he conceived such an unwillingness to do so, when he was bid, as that he came to that detestable act, for which God slew him. And therefore the panegyric, that raised his wit as high as he could, to praise the emperor Constantine, and would express it, in praising his continence, and chastity, he expressed it by saying, That he married young; that as soon as his years endangered him, formarit animum maritalem, nihil de concessu atati voluptatibus admittens: he was content to be a husband, and accepted not that freedom of pleasure, which his years might have excused. He concludes it thus, Norum jam tum miraculum, juvenis uxorius; Behold a miracle, such a young man, limiting his affections, in a wife. At first the heats and lusts of youth overflow all, as the waters overflowed all at the beginning; and when they did so, the earth was not only barren, (there were no creatures, no herbs produced in that) but even the waters themselves, that did overflow all, were barren too; there were no fishes, no fowls produced out of that; as long as a man's affections are scattered, there is nothing but accursed barrenness; but when God says, and is heard, and obeyed in it, Let the waters be gathered into one places, let all thy affections be settled upon one wife, then the earth and the waters became fruitful, then God gives us a type, and figure of the eternity of the joys of heaven, in the succession, and propagation of children here upon the earth. It is true, this contracting of our affections is a burden, it is a submitting of ourselves; all states that made laws, and proposed rewards for married men, conceived it so; that naturally they would be loath to do it. God married his first couple, as soon as he made them; he dignified the state of marriage, by so many allegories, and figures, to which he compares the uniting of Christ to his church, and the uniting of our souls to Christ, and by directing the first miracle of Christ, to be done at a marriage. Many things must concur to the dignifying of marriage, because in our corrupt nature, the apprehension is general, that it is burdenous, and a submitting, and a descending thing, to marry. And therefore St. Hierome argues truly out of these words, 5 Gen. i. 9.

Gen. xxxviii. 8.