ERRATUM. p. 165. 1. 3. after shalt infert not AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE DOCTRINES of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION, with respect to both FAITH and PRACTICE, UPON THE PLAN OF The ASSEMBLY'S SHORTER CATECHISM. Of the fifth Commandment, continued. HIS is a weighty point, [viz. married per Tsons concern for one another's eternal happi* ness], which few lay to heart. I shall lay before you these few things with respect to it. (1.) Married persons, for this end that they may be helpful to one another's souls welfare, ought to walk so together as they may have in each other's consciences a testimony of their integrity, 2 Kings iv. 1: They should take heed they lay not stumbling-blocks before one another, nor carry so as to engender hard thoughts of one another that way. The testimony of God is above all, the teftimony of confcience next, but the testimony of a yoke-fellow's confcience after that. (2.) They should labour to beget and advance the fear of God in one another, to bring them to and carry them on in the truth of religion, 1 Cor. vii. 16. They are not meet helps that are only helpful for the body and temporal concerns; for in that cafe the better part has no help of them. Interest as well as duty VOL. III. A : engageth to this; for the better a man be, the better husband will he be, &c. No wonder that those who fear not God, regard not man. (3.) They should entertain communion in prayer and addresses to the throne of grace, praying for one another, and praying with one another, I Pet. iii. 7. The husband should hold up his wife's cafe to God with his own, and the wife the cafe of the husband; and help them by prayers with them and for them, which is true Christian help. They know one another's weaknesses, temptations, and difficulties, better than any one elfe, and therefore ought to be the more particular in this. (4.) They should be acquainted with one another's cafe, and therefore inquire into the same, and observe it, that they may the better fuit the help to the cafe, 1 Sam. i. 8. And O what a happiness is it for one to have one that is their own flesh, to whom they may freely unbosom themselves! And what a fad thing is it where religious conference is not observed betwixt fuch parties? (5.) They should watch over one another. This is living as being heirs together of the grace of life, 1 Pet. iii. 7. They should ftir up one another to duties and good works; and happy are they that fo prove monitors to one another, 2 Kings iv. 9. 10. They should warn one another of what appears finful in their way, and fo not fuffer fin upon them, Eccl. iv. 9. 10. If men fee a spot on their face, they will tell them of it; but spots in the conversation are more dangerous. But withal special care must be taken that there be no bitterness mixed with it, for that mars the operation; the season must be observed when it will take best, 1 Sam. xxv. 36. 37. and it should be mixed with love. Yea, sometimes entreaties should be ufed rather than rebukes, especially from the wife to the husband, as prudence itself may teach, and may be gathered from 1 Tim. v. 1. Rebuke not an elHer, but entreat him as a father. And fuch warnings should be kindly taken and readily complied with, as the best evidences of love. (6.) Lastly, A joint care for the religious govern. ment of the family. The one ought not to devolve that entirely on the other, but each take their share; otherwise it cannot miss to be mismanaged. Each of them owes a duty to the fouls of their children and servants; and therefore should watch over them, admonish, and rebuke, and stir them up to duty; and fee that God be worshipped in the family, that it be not neglected for the husband's abfence, or any thing elfe; for though the wife be the weaker vessel, she is the head of the family under her husband. Secondly, I come to shew the duties more peculiar to each party. 1. The duties of the husband of this fort may be reduced to this one, viz. That he carry himself towards her as a head for her good, ruling her in the fear of the Lord. It is not a name of power only, but of duty; for he must be such a head to her as Christ is to the church, Eph. v. 23. And whofo reckon upon the authority of that name without eying the duty of it, put asunder what God has joined in his grant, and will join when he calls men to an account. 2. The duties of the wife may be reduced to this one, viz. fubmitting herself to her husband as her head, Eph. v. 22.23. She is not to lord it over him, but to be subject to him. And in this respect there is a reverence and fear of the husband enjoined the wife, Eph. v. 33. 1 Pet. iii. 2. which is a due regard in. the heart to his character as a husband, feeing in that God has put of his own name upon him, God himfelf being called our husband; a fear to offend him, flowing from love, venting itself in speaking and carrying respectfully to him, I Pet. iii. 6. Now the husband as the head of the wife owes her, 1. Protection, so as she may be as fafe and easy under the covert of his relation to her as he can make ⚫ her. For this cause God has given the husband as a 1 head to the weaker vessel; and therefore it was an ancient ceremony in marriage for the husband to spread his skirt over his wife, Ruth iii. 9. He is to protect her to the utmost of his power from the injuries of other, I Sam. xxx. 18. and particulaaly from the infults whether of children or servants in the family, as well as neighbours, Gen. xvi, 6. And if fo, furely he himself is not to bear hard upon her, but to shew her a peculiar tenderness as the weaker veffel, a tenderness to her body and spirit too; and not to fuffer her, far less to oblige her to distress herself above measure. On the other hand, she owes him obedience, a fubmission to and compliance with his admonitions. It is observed of Job's wife, for as ill as she was, when he calls her a fool, she does not give him the same epithet again. Reason itself teaches, that whoso puts himself under the protection of another, must be ruled by that other, and not by himself. 2. Provision, 1 Tim. v. 8. The husband ought to provide for his wife, and chearfully furnish her with what is needful and convenient according to his station and ability; and lay out himself by all lawful means for her comfortable throughbearing. And this he should have an eye to not only for the time of his life, but even after his deceafe. And on the other hand, the wife ought to be helpful to her husband by her frugal management, Prov.. xxxi. 27. And God's word and frequent experiments plainly shew, that a man's thriving or not thriving has a great dependence on his wife's management, Prov. xiv. 1. While he then is busy without doors, she should be careful within; and therefore it is recommended to women to be much at home, Tit. ii. 5. Yet she may well go abroad when her business calls her, as Abigail did, I Sam. xxv. 3. Lastly, Direction, with calmness instructing her, how she should carry in every thing, both with respect to things of this life and of the other, Prov. ii. 17. He ought to be as eyes to her, which have their |