Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 2
SERMON II.
Preached at a Mariage.
GEN. 2. 18.
And the Lord God said, It is not good, that the man should be alone; I will make him a Helpe, meet for him.
IN the Creation of the world, when God stocked the Earth, and the Sea, with those creatures, which were to be the seminary, and foundation and roote of all that should ever be propagated in either of those elements, and when he had made man, to rule over them, he …oke to man, and to other creatures, in one and the same phrase, and forme of speech, Crescite, & Multiplicamini, Be fruitfull and multiply; and thereby imprinted in man, and in other creatures, a naturall desire to conserve, and propagate their kinde by way of Generation. But after God had thus imprinted in man, the same naturall desire of propagation, which he had infused into other creatures too, after he had communicated to him that blessing,Gen. 1. 22. 28. (for so it is said, God blessed them, and said, Be fruitfull, and multiply) till an ability and a desire of propagating their kinde, was infused into the creature, there is no mention of any blessing in the creation; after God had made men partakers of that blessing, that naturall desire of propagation, he takes a farther care of man, in giving him a proper and peculiar blessing, in contracting and limiting that naturall desire of his: He leaves all other creatures to the… generall use and execution of that Commission, Crescite et multiplicamini, the Male was to take the Female when and where their naturall desire provoked them; but, for man,Gen. 2. 22. Add…xit Deus ad Adam; God left not them to goe to one another, but God brought the woman to the man: and so this conjunction, this desire of propagation, though it be naturall in man, as in other creatures, by his creation, yet it is limited by God himselfe, to be exercised onelyonly between such persons, as God hath brought together in mariage, according to his Institution, and Ordinance. Though then societies of men doe grow up, and spread themselves into Townes, and into Cities, and into Kingdomes, yet the root of all societies is in families, in the relation between man and wife, parents and children, masters and servants: so though the state of the children of God, in this world be dignified by the name of a Kingdome, (for, so we pray by Christs owne institution,Luk. 17. 22. Thy kingdome come, and so Christ saies, Ecce Regnum, The kingdome of God is amongst you) and though the state of Gods children here, be called a City, a new Ierusalem, comming downe from heaven, and in David,Apoc. 21. 2. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God, yet for all these glorious titles of City and Kingdome, Psal. 87. 3.we must remember, that it is called a family too… The Houshold of the faithfull: And so the Apostle says, in preferring Christ before Moses, That Christ as the sonne was over Gods house, whose house we are. Heb. 3. 6.So that, both of Civill and of Spirituall societies, the first roote is a family; and of families, the first roote is Mariage; and of mariage, the first roote, that growes out into words, is in this Text; And the Lord God said, It is not good &c.
If we should employ this exercise onelyonly upon these two generall considerations, first, that God puts even his care and his study to finde out what is good for man, and secondly, that God doth provide and furnish whatsoever he findes to be necessary, faciam, I will make him a Helper, though they be common places we are bound to thanke God that they are so; that it is a common place to good, that he ever does it towards us, that it is a common place to us, that we ever acknowledge it in him. But you may be pleased to admit a more particular distribution. For, upon the first, will be grounded this consideration, that in regard of the publique good, God pretermits private, and particular respects; for, God doth not say, Non bonum homini, it is not good for man to be alone, man might have done well enough so; nor God does not say, non bonum hunc hominem, it is not good for this, or that particular man to be alone; but non bonum, Hominem, it is not good in the generall, for the whole frame of the world, that man should be alone, because then both Gods purposes had been frustrated, of being glorified by man here, in this world, and of glorifying man, in the world to come; for neither of these could have been done, without a succession, and propagation of man; and therefore, non bonum hominem, it was not good, that man should be alone. And then upon the second consideration, will arise these branches; first, that whatsoever the defect be, there is no remedy, but from God; for it is, faciam, I will doe it. Secondly, that even the workes of God, are not equally excellent; this is but faciam, it is not faciamus; in the creation …f man, there is intimated a Consultation, a Deliberation of the whole Trinity; in the making of women, it is not expressed so; it is but faciam. And then, that that is made here, is but Adjutorium, but an accessory, not a principall; but a Helper… First the wife must be so much, she must Helpe; and then she must be no more, she must not Governe. But she cannot be that, except she have that quality, which God intended in the first woman, Adjutoriam simile sibi, a helper fit for him: for otherwise he will ever returne, to the bonum esse solum, it had been better for him, to have been alone, then in the likenesse of a Helper, to have had a wife unfit for him.
First then,… that in regard of the publique good, God pretermits private respects, if we take examples upon that stage, upon that scene, the face of Nature, we see that for the conservation of the whole, God hath imprinted in the particulars, a disposition to depart from their owne nature: water will clamber up hills, and ayre will sinke down into vaults, rather then admit Vacuity. But take the example nearer, in Gods bosome, and there we see, that for the publique, for the redemption of the whole world, God hath (shall we say, pretermitted?) derelicted, forsaken, abandoned, his own, and onelyonly Sonne. Do you so too? Regnum Dei intra nos; the kingdome of God is within you; planted in your election; watred in your Baptisme; fatned with the blood of Christ Jesus, ploughed up with many calamities, and tribulations; weeded with often repentances of particular sins; The kingdome of God is within you; and will ye not depart from private affections, from Ambition and Covetousnesse, from Excesse, and voluptuousnesse, from chambring and wantonnesse, in which the kingdome of God doth not consist, for the conservation of this kingdome? will ye not pray for this kigdome, in your private, and publique devotions? will ye not fast for this kingdome, in cutting off superfluities? will ye not fight for this kingdome, in resisting suggestions? will ye not take Counsaile for this kingdome, in consulting with religious friends? will ye not give subsidies for this kingdome, in relieving their necessities, for whom God hath made you his stewards? weigh and measure your selves, and spend that, be negligent of that, which is least, and worst in you. Is your soule lesse then your body, because it is in it? How easily lies a letter in a Boxe, which if it were unfolded, would cover that Boxe? unfold your soule, and you shall see, that it reaches to heaven; from thence it came, and thither it should pretend; whereas the body is but from that earth, and for that earth, upon which it is now; which is but a short, and an inglorious progresse. To contract this, the soule is larger then the body, and the glory, and the joyes of heaven, larger then the honours, and the pleasures of this world: what are seventy years, to that latitude, of continuing as long as the Ancient of dayes? what is it, to have spent our time, with the great ones of this time; when, when the Angels shall come and say, that Time shall be no more, we shall have no beeing with him, who is yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever? we see how ordinarily ships goe many leagues out of their direct way, to fetch the winde. Spiritus spirat ubi vult, sayes Christ; the spirit blowes where he will; and, as the Angel took Habakk…k by the haire, and placed him where he would, this winde, the spirit of God, can take thee at last, by thy gray haires, and place thee in a good station then. Spirat ubi vult, he blowes where he will, and spirat ubi vis, he blowes where thou wilt too, if thou beest appliable to his inspirations. They are but hollow places that returne Ecchoes; last syllables: It is but a hollownesse of heart, to answer God at last. Be but as liberall of thy body in thy mortifications as in thy excesse, and licentiousnesse, and thou shalt in some measure, have followed Gods example, for the publique to pretermit the private, for the larger, and better, to leave the narrower, and worser respects.
To proceed, when we made that observation,Non homini. that God pretermitted the private for the publique, we noted, that God did not say, non bonum Homini, It was not good for man to be alone; man might have done well enough in that state, so, as his solitarinesse might have been supplied with a farther creation of more men. In making the inventaries of those goods which man possesseth in the world,Xenoph. we see a great Author says, In possessionibus sunt amici, & inimici, not onelyonly our friends, but even our enemies, are part of our goods, and we may raise as much profit from these, as from those, It may be as good a lesson to a mans sonne, Study that enemy, as Observe that friend. As David says, propitius fuisti, Psal. 99. 8.& ulciscens, Thou heardst them ô Lord our God, and wast favour able unto them, and didst punish all their inventions: it was part of his mercy, part of his favour, that he did correct them. So we may say to our enemy, I owe you my watchfulnesse upon my selfe, and you have given me all the goodnesse that I have; for you have calumniated all my indifferent actions, and that kept me; from committing enormous ill ones. And if then our enemies be in possessionibus, to be inventaried amongst our goods, might not man have been abundantly rich in friends, without this addition of a woman? Quanto congruentius, says S. Augustine; how much more conveniently might two friends live together, then a man and a woman?
God doth not then say, non bonum homini, man got not so much by the bargaine, (especially if we consider how that wife carried her selfe towards him) but that for his particular, he had been better alone… nor he does not say now, non bonum hunc hominem esse solum, It is not good for any man to be alone; for, Qui potest capere capiat, says Christ: he that is able to receive it, let him receive it. What?Mat. 19. 12. That some make themselves Eunuchs for the kingdome of heaven: that is, the better to un-entangle themselves from those impediments, which hinder them in the way to heaven, they abstaine from mariage; and let them that can receive it, receive it. Now certainly few try whether they can receive this, or no. Few strive, few fast, few pray for the gift of continency; few are content with that incontinency which they have, but are sorry they can expresse no more incontinency. There is a use of mariage now, which God never thought of in the first institution of mariage; that it is a remedy against burning. The two maine uses of mariage, which are propagation of Children, and mutuall assistance, were intended by God, at the present, at first; but the third, is a remedy against that, which was not then; for then there was no inordinatenesse, no irregularity in the affections of man. And experience hath taught us now, that those climates which are in reputation, hottest, are not uninhabitable; they may be dwelt in for all their heat. Even now, in the corruption of our nature, the clime is not so hot, as that every one must of necessity, mary. There may be fire in the house, and yet the house not on fire: there may be a distemper of heate, and yet no necessity to let blood. The Roman Church injures us, when they say, that we prefer mariage before virginity: and they injure the whole state of Christianity, when they oppose mariage and chastity, as though they were incompatible, and might not consist together.Heb. 13. 4. They may; for mariage is honourable, and the bed undefiled; and therefore it may be so. S. Augustine observes in mariage, Bonuam fidei, a triall of one anothers truth; and that's good; And bonum prolis, a lawfull meanes of propagation; and that's good; and bonum Sacramenti, a mysticall representation of that union of two natures in Christ, and of him to us, and to his Church; and that's good too. So that there are divers degrees of good in mariage. But yet for all these goodnesses, God does not say, non bonum, it is not good for any man to be alone, but Qui capere potest capiat; according to Christs comment, upon his Fathers text, He that can containe and continue alone, let him doe so.
But though God do not say, non homini, It is not good for the man, that he be alone, nor quemvis hominem, it is not good for every man to be alone, yet, considering his generall purpose upon all the world, by man, he sayes non bonum; for that end, it is not good, that man should be alone, because those purposes of God could not consist with that solitude of man. In that production, and in that survay, which God made of all that he had made, still he gives the testimony, that he saw all was good, excepting onelyonly in his Second dayes worke, and in his making of Man. He forbore it in the making of the firmament, because the firmament was to divide between waters and waters; it was an embleme of division, of disunion. He forbore it also in the making of man, because though man was to be an embleme of Gods union to his Church, yet because this embleme, and this representation, could not be in man alone, till the woman were made too, God does not pronounce upon the making of man, that the work was good: but upon Gods contemplation, that it was not good, that man should be alone, there arose a goodnesse, in having a companion. And from that time, if we seeke bonum, quia licitum, if we will call that good, which is lawfull, mariage is that, If thou takest a wife thou sinnest not, sayes God by the Apostle.1 Cor. 7. 28. If we seeke bonum, quia bonus autor, if we call that good whose author is good,Gen. 2. 22. mariage is that; Adduxit ad Adam, God brought her to man. If we seek such a goodnesse, as hath good witness, good testimony, mariage is that; Christ was present at a mariage,Iohn. 2. and honoured it with his first miracle. If we seek such a goodnesse, as is a constant, and not a temporary, an occasionall goodnesse, Christ hath put such a cement upon mariage,Mat. 19. 6. What God hath joined, let no man put as under. If we seek such a goodnesse, as no man, (that is, no sort nor degree of men) is the worse for having accepted, we see the holiecst of all, the High Priest, in the old Testament is onelyonly limited, what woman he shall not mary, but not that he shall not mary; and the Bishop in the new Testament what kinde of husband he must have been, but not that he must have been no husband. To contract this, as mariage in good, in having the best author, God, the best witnesse, Christ, the logest terme, Life, the largest extent, even to the highest persons, Priests, and Bishops; as it is, all these wayes, Positively good, so it is good in Comparison of that, which justly seemes the best state, that is, Virginity, in S. Augustines opinion, Non impar meritum Iohannis & Abrahae: If we could consider merit in man, the merit of Abraham, the father of nations, and the merit of Iohn, who was no father at all, is equall. But that wherein we consider the goodnesse of it here, is, that God proposed this way, to receive glory from the sonnes of men here upon earth, and to give glory to the sonnes of men in heaven.
But what glory can God receive from man, that he should be so carefull of his propagation? what glory more from man, then from the Sunne, and Moon, and Stars, which have no propagation? why this, that S. Augustine observes; Musca Soli praeferenda, quia vivit, A Fly is a nobler creature then the Sunne, because a fly hath life, and the Sunne hath not; for the degrees of dignity in the creature are esse, vivere, and intelligere: to have a beeing, to have life, and to have understanding: and therefore man, who hath all three, is much more able to glorify God, then any other creature is, because he onelyonly can chuse whether he will glorify God or no; the glory that the others give, they must give,Rom. 12. but man is able to offer to God a reasonable sacrifice. When ye were Gentiles, saies the Apostle,1 Cor. 12. 2. ye were caryed away unto dumb Idols, even as ye were led. This is reasonable service, out of Reason to understand, and out of our willingnesse to doe God service. Now, when God had spent infinite millions of millions of generations, from all un-imaginable eternity, in contemplating one another in the Trinity, and then (to speake humanly of God, which God in his Scriptures abhors not) out of a satiety in that contemplation would create a world for his glory, and when he had wrought the first day, and created all the matter, and substance of the future creatures, and wrought foure dayes after, and a great part of the sixth, and yet nothing produced, which could give him any glory (for glory is rationabile obsequium, reasonable service; and nothing could give that but a creature that understood it, and would give it,) at last, as the knot of all, created man; then, to perpetuate his glory, he must perpetuate man: and to that purpose, non bonum, it was not good for man to be alone; as without man God could not have been glorified, so without woman man could not have been propagated.
But, as there is a place cited by S. Paul out of David, Psal. 68. 18.which hath some perplexity in it,Ep…. 4. 8. we cannot tell, whether Christ be said to have received gifts from men, or for men; or to have given gifts to men, (for so S. Paul hath it) so it is not easse for us to discern, whether God had a care to propagate man, that he might receive glory from man, or that he might give glory to man. When God had taken it into his purpose to people heaven again, depopulated in the fall of Angels, by the substitution of man in their places, when God had a purpose to spend as much time with man in heaven after, as he had done with himself before, (for our perpetuity after the Resurrection, shall no more have an end, then his Eternity before the Creation had a beginning:) And when God to prevent that time of the Resurrection, as it were to make sure of man before, would send down his own Son to assume our nature here; and, as not sure enough so, would take us up to him, and set us, in his Son, at his own right hand, whereas he never did, nor shall say to any of the Angels, Sit thou there: That God might not be frustrated of this great, and gracious, and glorious purpose of his, non bonum, it was not good that man should be alone; for without man God could not give this glory, and without woman there could be no propagation of man. And so, though it might have been Bonum homini, man might have done well enough alone; and Bonum hunc hominem, some men may doe better alone, yet God, who ever, for our example, prefers the publique before the private, because it conduced not to his generall end, of Having, and of Giving glory, saw, and said, Non bonum hominem, it was not good that man should be alone. And so we have done with the branches of our first part.
We are come now to our second generall part:2d Part. In which, as we saw in the former, that God studies man, and all things necessary for man, we shall also see, that wherein soever man is defective, his onelyonly supply, and reparation is from God, Faciam, I will doe it. Saul wanted counsell, he was in a perplexity, and he sought to the Witch of Endor, and not to God; and what is the issue? he Hears of his own, and of his son Ionathans death the next day. Asa wants health, and he seeks to the Physician, and not to God, and what is the issue? He dies. Doe not say, says S. Chrysost. Quaero necessaria, I desire nothing but that which is necessary for my birth, necessary for my place: Quod non dat Deus, non est necessarium: God hath made himself thy Steward, thy Bayliffe; and whatsoever God provides not for thee, is not necessary to thee. It was the poor way that Mahomet found out in his Alchoran, that in the next life all women should have eies of one bignesse, and a stature of one size; he could finde no means to avoid contention, but to make them all alike: But that is thy complexion, that is thy proportion which God hath given thee. It may be true that S. Hierome notes, who had so much conversation amongst women, that it did him harm, Mult as insognis pudicitiae, quamvis nulli virorum, sibi scimus ornari; I know, says he, as honest women as are in the world, that take a delight in making themselves handsomely ready, though for no other bodies sake but for their own.Cyprian. That may be; but, manus Deo inferunt, they take the pencil out of Gods hand, who goe about to mend any thing of his making. Quod nascitur Dei est, quod mutatur Diaboli, says the same Father; God made us according to his image, and shall he be put to say to any of us, Non imago mea, this picture was not taken by the life, not by me, but is a Copy of the present distemper of the time? All good remedies are of God; none but he would ever have conceived such an invention as the Ark, without that modell, for the reparation of the world; and he hath provided that means for the conservation of the world, mariage, Tertul.the association of one to one: Plures costae Adae, nec fatig at a manus Dei: Adam had more ribs then one, neither were Gods hands wearied with making one; and yet he made no more. For him who first exceeded that, Lamech, Gen. 4. 18.who had two wives, the first was Adah, and Adah signifies Coetum, congregationem; there is company enough, society enough in a wife: His other wife was but Zillah, and Zillah is but umbra, but a shadow, but a ghost, that will terrifie at last.
To proceed; Though God always provide remedies,Faciam. and supplies of defects, it is not always in the greatest measure, nor in the presentest manner, that we conceive to our selves. So much may be intimated even in this, that in this remedy of Gods provision, the woman, God proceeded not, as he did in the making of man; it is not Faciamus, with such a counsell, such a deliberation as was used in that case. When the Creation of all the substance of the whole world is expressed, it is Creavit Dit, Gods created, as though more Gods were employed; and in the making of him, who was the abridgement of all, of man, it is faciamus, let us make him, as though more persons were employed: it is not so in the woman, for though the first Translation of the Bible that ever were and the Translation of the Roman Church have it in the plurall, yet it is not so in the Originall; it is but faci…m. I presse no more upon this, but one lesson to our selves, That if God exercise us with temporall afflictions, narrownesse in our fortunes, infirmities in our constitutions, or with spirituall afflictions, ignorance in our understandings, scruples in our conscience, if God come not altogether in his faciamus, to powre down with both hands abundance of his worldly …reafures, or of his spirituall light and clearnesse, let us content our selves with one hand from him, with that manner and that measure that he gives, and that time and that leasure which he takes. And then one lesson also to the other sexe, That they will be content, even by this form and change of phrase, to be remembred,1 Tim. 2. 14. that they are the weaker vessell, and that Adam was not deceived but the woman was. For whether you will ease that with Theodorets exposition, Adam was not deceived first, but the woman was first deceived; Or with Chrys…st…ms exposition, Adam was not deceived by a Serpent, a creature loathsom, & unacceptable, but by a lovely person, with whom he was transported: Or with Oecumenius his exposition; Adam was not deceived, because there is no charge laid upon him in the Scriptures, no mention that he was deceived in them, as it is said, that Melchisedek had no Father nor Mother, because there is no record of his pedegree in the Scriptures: Or in Ambr…se his exposition; That Adam was not deceived in praevaricationem, not so deceived as that he deceived any body else: Take it any way,1 Tim. 2. 11. and it implies a weaknesse in the woman, and an occasion of soupling her to that just estimation of her self, That she will be …ntent to learn in sitence with all subjection… That as she is not a servant, but a Mother in the house, so she is but a Daughter, and not a Mother of the Chur…h.
This is presented more fully in the next,Adjutorium. that …he is but Adjutorium, but a Help: and no body values his staffe, as he does his legges…. It is not an ordinary disease now, to be …xori…s that needs no great disswasion. But if any one man in a congregation be obnoxious to any one infirmity, one note is not …ill spent: And let S. Hierome give this note, Sapi…ns judicio am…t, non affectu, Discretion is the weight of love in a wise mans hand, and not affection. S. Hier… cannot stay there; he addes thus much more, Nihil foedius, quàm uxorem amare … adulteram, There is not a more uncomely, a poorer thing, then to love a wife lik… a Mistresse. S. Augustine makes that comparison, That whensoever the Apostles preached, they were glad when their auditory liked their preaching, Non avidita…e consequendae laudis, sed charitate seminande virtutis; not that they affected the praise of the people, but that thereby they saw, that they had done more good upon the people. And in another place he makes that comparison, That a righteous man desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, & yet this righteous man dines, and sups, takes ordinary refections and ordinary recreations: So, for mariage, says he, in temperate men, officiosum, non libidinesum, it is to pay a debt, not to satisfie appetite; lest otherwise she prove in Ruinam, who was given in Adjutorium, and he be put to the first mans plea, Mulier quam dedisti, The woman whom thou gavest me, gave me my death.
So much then she should be, A Helper; for, for that she was made. She is not so, if she remember not those duties which are intimated in the stipulation and contract which she hath made. Call it Conjugium, and that is derived a Iuge, it is an equall patience in bearing the incommodities of this life. Call it Nuptias, and that is derived à Nube, a vaile, a covering; and that is an estranging, a withdrawing her self from all such conversation as may violate his peace, or her honour. Call it Matrimonium, and that is derived from a Mother, and that implies a religious education of her children. De latere sumpta, nor-discedat à latere, says A…g. Since she was taken out of his side, let her not depart from his side, but shew her self so much as she was made for, Adjutorium, a Helper.
But she must be no more; If she think her self more then a Helper, she is not so much. He is a miserable creature, whose Creator is his Wife. God did not stay to joyn her in Commission with Adam, so far as to give names to the creatures; much lesse to give essence; essence to the man, essence to her husband. When the wife thinks her husband owes her all his fortune, all his discretion, all his reputation, God help that man himself, for he hath given him no helper yet. I know there are some glasses stronger then some earthen vessels, and some earthen vessels stronger then some wooden dishes; some of the weaker sexe, stronger in fortune, and in counsell too, then they to whom God hath given them, but yet let them not impute that in the eye nor eare of the world, nor repeat it to their own hearts, with such a dignifying of themselves, as exceeds the quality of a Helper. S. Hierome shall be her Remembrancer, She was not taken out of the fo…t; to be troden upon, nor out of the head, to be an overseer of him; but out of his side, where she weakens him enough, and therefore should do all she can, to be a Helper.
To be so, so much, and no more, she must be as God made Eve, fimilis ei, meet and fit for her husband. She is fit for any if she have those vertues, which always make the person that hath them good; as chastity, sobriety, taciturnity, verity, and such; for, for such vertues as may be had, and yet the possessor not the better for them, as wit; learning, eloquence, musick, memory, cunning, and such, these make her never the fitter. There is a Harmony of dispositions, and that requires particular consideration upon emergent occasions; but the fitnesse that goes through all, is a sober continency; for without that, Matrimonium jurata fornicatio, Mariage is but a continuall fornication, sealed with an oath: And mariage was not instituted to prostitute the chastity of the woman to one man, but to preserve her chastity from the tentations of more men. Bathsheba was a little too fit for David, when he had tried her so far before; for there is no fitnesse where there is not continency. To end all, there is a Morall fitnesse, consisting in those morall vertues, of which we have spoke enough; And there is a Civill fitnesse, consisting in Discretion, and accommodating her self to him; And there is a Spirituall fitnesse, in the unanimity of Religion, that they be not of repugnant professions that way. Of which, since we are well assured in both these, who are to be joyned now, I am not sorry, if either the houre, or the present occasion call me from speaking any thing at all, because it is a subject too mis-interpretable, and unseasonable to admit an enlarging in at this time. At this time therefore, this be enough, for the explication and application of these words.