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Expofitions upon the foure chiefe places in Scripture which treat of Mariage, or nullities in Mariage.

Gen. 1. 27.

So God created man in his owne image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28. And God bleed them, and God faid unto them be fruitfull, &c.

Gen. 2. 18.

And the Lord God faid, It is not good that man should be alone, I will make him a helpe meet for him. 23. And Adam faid, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; fhe fhall be called Woman, becaufe She was taken out of Man.

24. Therefore fhall a man leave his father and his mother, and fhall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

Gen. 1. 27. I.

O God created man in his owne image.] To be inform'd aright in the whole History of Mariage, that we may know for cer

tain, not by a forc't yoke, but by an impartial definition, what Mariage is, and what is not Mariage; it will undoubtedly be fafeft, faireft, and moft with our obedience, to enquire, as our Saviours direction is, how it was in the beginning. And that we begin fo high as man created after Gods owne

Image, there want not earnest causes. For nothing now adayes is more degenerately forgott'n, then the true dignity of man, almost in every respect, but especially in this prime inftitution of Matrimony, wherein his native pre-eminence ought most to shine. Although if we confider that just and naturall privileges men neither can rightly feek, nor dare fully claime, unleffe they be ally'd to inward goodneffe, and stedfast knowledge, and that the want of this quells them to a servile sense of their own conscious unworthineffe, it may fave the wondring why in this age many are so oppofite both to human and to Christian liberty, either while they understand not, or envy others that do; contenting, or rather priding themselves in a specious humility and strictnesse bred out of low ignorance that never yet conceiv'd the freedome of the Gospel; and is therefore by the Apostle to the Coloffians rankt with no better company, then Will-worship and the meer fhew of wifdome. And how injurious herein they are, if not to themselves, yet to their neighbours, and not to them only, but to the all-wise and bounteous grace offer'd us in our redemption, will orderly appear.

In the Image of God created he him.] It is anough determin'd, that this Image of God wherin man was created, is meant Wisdom, Purity, Juftice, and rule over all creatures. All which being loft in Adam, was recover'd with gain by the merits of Christ. For albeit our first parent had lordship over fea, and land, and aire, yet there was a law without him, as a guard fet over him. But Chrift having cancell'd the hand writing of ordinances which was against us, Coloff. 2. 14. and interpreted the fulfilling of all through charity, hath in that refpect set us over law, in the free cuftody of his love, and left us victorious under the guidance of his living Spirit, not under the dead letter; to follow that which most

edifies, most aides and furders a religious life, makes us holiest and likest to his immortall Image, not that which makes us moft conformable and captive to civill and fubordinat precepts; whereof the strictest obfervance may oftimes prove the deftruction not only of many innocent perfons and families, but of whole Nations. Although indeed no ordinance human or from heav'n can binde against the good of man; so that to keep them ftrictly against that end, is all one with to breake them. Men of most renowned vertu have sometimes by tranfgreffing, most truly kept the law; and wifest Magiftrates have permitted and difpenc't it; while they lookt not peevifhly at the letter, but with a greater spirit at the good of mankinde, if alwayes not writt'n in the characters of law, yet engrav'n in the heart of man by a divine impreffion. This Heathens could fee, as the well-read in story can recount of Solon and Epaminondas, whom Cicero in his firft booke of invention nobly defends. All law, faith he, we ought referr to the common good, and interpret by that, not by the fcrowl of letters. No man obferves law for laws fake, but for the good of them for whom it was made. The reft might ferv well to lecture these times, deluded through belly-doctrines into a devout flavery. The Scripture alfo affords us David in the fhewbread, Hezechiah in the paffover found and safe transgreffors of the literall command, which also difpenc'd not seldom with it self; and taught us on what juft occafions to doe fo: untill our Saviour for whom that great and God-like work was referv'd, redeem'd us to a state above prescriptions by diffolving the whole law into charity. And have we not the foul to understand this, and must we against this glory of Gods tranfcendent love towards us be ftill the fervants of a literall indightment?

Created he him.] It might be doubted why he faith, In the Image of God created he him, not them, as well as male and female them; especially fince that Image might be common to them both, but male and female could not, however the Jewes fable, and please themselvs with the accidentall concurrence of Plato's wit, as if man at first had bin created Hermaphrodite: but then it must have bin male and female created he him. So had the Image of God bin equally common to them both, it had no doubt bin said, In the image of God created he them. But St. Paul ends the controverfie by explaining that the woman is not primarily and immediatly the image of God, but in reference to the man. The head of the woman, faith he, 1 Cor. 11. is the man: he the image and glory of God, he the glory of the man: he not for her, but the for him. Therefore his precept is, Wives be fubject to your husbands as is fit in the Lord, Coloff. 3. 18. In every thing, Eph. 5. 24. Nevertheleffe man is not to hold her as a fervant, but receives her into a part of that empire which God proclaims him to, though not equally, yet largely, as his own image and glory: for it is no fmall glory to him, that a creature fo like him, should be made subject to him. Not but that particular exceptions may have place, if the exceed her husband in prudence and dexterity, and he contentedly yeeld, for then a fuperior and more naturall law comes in, that the wiser should govern the leffe wise, whether male or female. But that which far more eafily and obediently follows from this verse, is that, seeing woman was purposely made for man, and he her head, it cannot ftand before the breath of this divine utterance, that man the portraiture of God, joyning to himself for his intended good and folace an inferiour sexe, should so becom her thrall, whose

wilfulnes or inability to be a wife fruftrates the occafionall end of her creation, but that he may acquitt himself to freedom by his naturall birth-right, and that indeleble character of priority which God crown'd him with. If it be urg'd that fin hath loft him this, the answer is not far to feek, that from her the fin first proceeded, which keeps her justly in the fame proportion still beneath. She is not to gain by being first in the tranfgreffion, that man fhould furder loose to her, because already he hath loft by her means. Oft it happens that in this matter he is without fault; fo that his punishment herein is caufeles and God hath the praife in our fpeeches of him, to fort his punishment in the fame kind with the offence. Suppofe he err'd; it is not the intent of God or man, to hunt an error fo to the death with a revenge beyond all measure and proportion. But if we argue thus, this affliction is befain him for his fin, therefore he must bear it, without feeking the only remedy, firft it will be falfe that all affliction comes for fin, as in the cafe of Job, and of the man born blind, Job. 9. 3, was evident: next by that reason, all miseries comming for fin, we must let them all lye upon us like the vermin of an Indian Catharift, which his fond religion forbids him to moleft. Were it a particular punishment inflicted through the anger of God upon a perfon, or upon a land, no law hinders us in that regard, no law but bidds us remove it if we can: much more if it be a dangerous temptation withall, much more yet, if it be certainly a temptation, and not certainly a punishment, though a pain. As for what they fay we must bear with patience, to bear with patience, and to seek effectuall remedies, implies no contradiction. It may no leffe be for our difobedience, our unfaithfulnes, and other fins against God, that wives becom adulterous to the bed, and questionles we ought to take

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