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separate rites and manners of worshippings but an invincible necessity of conscience and a curious infallible truth; and if she be deceived alone, she hath no excuse, if with him, she hath much pity, and some degrees of warranty under the protection of humility, and duty, and dear affections. And she will find that it is part of her privilege and right to partake of the mysteries and blessings of her husband's religion. "A woman," said Romulus, "by the holy laws hath right to partake of her husband's goods, and her husband's sacrifices and holy things." Where there is a schism in one bed, there is a nursery of temptations, and love is persecuted and in perpetual danger to be destroyed; there dwell jealousies, and divided interests, and differing opinions, and continual disputes, and we cannot love them so well whom we believe to be less beloved of God, and it is ill uniting with a person concerning whom my persuasion tells me that he is like to live in hell to eternal ages.

2. The next line of the woman's duty is compliance, which St. Peter calls "the hidden man of the heart, the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit," and to it he opposes the outward and pompous ornament of the body, concerning which as there can be no particular measure set down to all persons, but the proportions were to be measured by the customs of wise people, the quality of the woman, and the desires of the man; yet it is to be limited by Christian modesty, and the usages of the more excellent and severe matrons. Menander in the comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house because she stained her yellow hair, which was then the beauty. A wise woman should not paint. A studious gallantry in clothes cannot make a wise man love his wife the better. Said the comedy: "Such gayeties are fit for tragedies, but not for the uses of life;" decor occultus et tecta venustas, that's the Christian woman's fineness; "the hidden man of the heart," sweetness of manners, humble comportment, fair interpretation of all addresses, ready compliance, high opinion of him and mean of herself, "to partake secretly, and in her heart, of all his joys and sorrows," to believe him comely and fair though the sun hath drawn a cypress over him; for as marriages are not to be contracted by the hands and eye, but with reason and the hearts, so are these judgments to be made by the mind, not by the sight; and diamonds cannot make the woman virtuous, nor him to value her who sees her

put them off then, when charity and modesty are her brightest ornaments.

Indeed, the outward ornament is fit to take fools, but they are not worth the taking; but she that hath a wise husband must entice him to an eternal dearness by the veil of modesty and the grave robes of chastity, the ornament of meekness and the jewels of faith and charity; she must have no fucus but blushings, her brightness must be purity, and she must shine round about with sweetness and friendship, and she shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies. If not, her grave shall be full of rottenness and dishonor, and her memory shall be worse after she is dead. After she is dead; for that will be the end of all merry meetings; and I choose this to be the last advice to both:

3. "Remember the days of darkness, for they are many;" the joys of the bridal-chamber are quickly passed, and the remaining portion of the state is a dull progress, without variety of joys, but not without the change of sorrows; but that portion that shall enter into the grave must be eternal. It is fit that I should infuse a bunch of myrrh into the festival goblet, and after the Egyptian manner serve up a dead man's bones at a feast: I will only show it and take it away again; it will make the wine bitter, but wholesome. But those married pairs that live as remembering that they must part again, and give an account how they treat themselves and each other, shall at the day of their death be admitted to glorious espousals, and when they shall live again be married to their Lord, and partake of His glories, with Abraham and Joseph, St. Peter and St. Paul, and all the married saints. "All those things that now please us shall pass from us, or we from them;" but those things that concern the other life are permanent as the numbers of eternity; and although at the resurrection there shall be no relation of husband and wife, and no marriage shall be celebrated but the marriage of the Lamb; yet then shall be remembered how men and women passed through this state which is a type of that, and from this sacramental union all holy pairs shall pass to the spiritual and eternal, where love shall be their portion, and joys shall crown their heads, and they shall lie in the bosom of Jesus and in the heart of God to eternal ages. Amen.

DIVINE GRACE AND HOLY OBEDIENCE

BY

ROBERT LEIGHTON

ROBERT LEIGHTON

1611-1684

Robert Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow, was born in London in 1611. He entered Edinburgh University in 1627 and received the degree of master of arts in 1631. On a visit to France he made the acquaintance of some Roman Catholic students and was so favorably impressed by the Christian virtues and tolerant spirit they displayed that his whole attitude in later life towards other churches and denominations was influenced by it in the direction of charity. On his return to Scotland, in 1641, he was ordained minister at Newbattle, near Edinburgh. But he had little sympathy with his fierce, narrow, and militant colleagues in the ministry. He found them incapable of large thought and grew weary of associating with them. He resigned his charge after a tenure of eleven years, and in 1653 was elected principal of Edinburgh University. Earnest and spiritual, free from all selfish ambition, he labored unceasingly for the welfare of the students.

After the restoration of Charles II, Leighton, who had long ago separated himself from the Presbyterian party, was reluctantly induced to accept a bishopric. He chose Dunblane because it was small and poor. In 1670, on the resignation of Dr. Alexander Burnet, he was made Archbishop of Glasgow. Here, as in his former charge, he was beset by the same difficulties, the high-handed tyranny of his colleague, from which he was unable to obtain relief. He resigned in 1673. The remainder of his life was spent in retirement at Broadhurst, in Sussex. He died at London on June 25, 1684.

None of Leighton's works were published during his lifetime. All his writings are pervaded by a lofty and evangelical spirit of which his sermon on Divine Grace and Holy Obedience is an excellent example.

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DIVINE GRACE AND HOLY OBEDIENCE

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O desire ease and happiness, under a general representation of it, is a thing of more easy and general persuasion; there is somewhat in nature to help the argument. But to find beauty in, and be taken with, the very way of holiness that leads to it, is more rare, and depends on a higher principle. Self-love inclines a man to desire the rest of love, but to love and desire the labor of love is love of a higher and purer strain. To delight and be cheerful in obedience argues much love as the spring of it. That is the thing the holy psalmist doth so plentifully express in this psalm, and he is still desiring more of that sweet and lively affection that might make him yet more abundant in action. Thus here, "I will run," etc.,1 he presents his desire and his purpose together, q.d., The more of this grace Thou bestowest on me, the more service shall I be able to do Thee.

This is the top of his ambition, while others are seeking to enlarge their barns, their lands or estates, or their titles; and kings to enlarge their territories or authority, to encroach on neighboring kingdoms, or be more absolute in their own; instead of all such enlargements this is David's great desire, an "enlarged heart to run the way of God's commandments."

And these other (how big soever they sound) are poor, narrow desires: this one is larger and higher than them all, and gives evidence of a heart already large. But as it is miserable in those desires, so it is happy in this, that much would still have more.

Let others seek more money, or more honor. Oh! the blessed choice of that soul that is still seeking more love to God, more affection, and more ability to do Him service; that counts all days and hours for lost which are not employed to "I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart" (Psalm cxix. 32).

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