168 A WEDDING SERMON. [GeN. II. 22.
uncomfortable that take ns out of the way of our duty ; and God hath undertaken only to keep us in all our ways, but not out of our duty, Fs. xei. 11. The promises are not to foster men in their running after folly, but to encourage them in their several callings and state of life wherein God hath set them ; there we may abide with comfort, and expectation either of God's blessing or his support. We tempt God when we venture upon a state of life which he hath not called us to, and have not his warrant ; but when it is not good for us to be alone, and the Lord sends an helpmate for us, he will not forsake us.
4. We may with the more confidence apply ourselves to God, and depend on him for a blessing upon a ^wife of God's choosing, or a husband of God's choosing. We have access to the throne of grace with more hope, because we have given up ourselves to his direction : Prov. iii. 6, ' In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.' God will order things for the best, when we do not lead, but follow him, we still consult with God, and dare not undertake anything but what is agreeable to his will. And will God mislead us and direct us amiss, or turn us into a by-way or crooked path ? It is said, Ps. xxxvii. 23, 24, ' The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he (that is the Lord) delighteth in his way ; though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.' It is a blessed thing to be under God's conduct, to be led on or led off by so wise, and powerful, and all-sufficient a guide ; for such he delights to do them good, and taketh pleasure in his resolutions to prosper them. Sometimes they shall have a taste of the evils of the world, but they shall not be ruined by them. They may fall, but they shall not be dashed in pieces ; it is an allusion to a vessel that gets a knock, but is not broken by the fall.
5. It is an help to make us more ready to part with one another when God willeth it. All temporal things, we receive tliem from God, upon this condition, to yield them up to God again, when he calls for them. The law concerning all created enjoyments is, ' Tho Lord giveth, the Lord taketh,' Job i. 21. We make a snare for our- selves, and receive them not in a right notion, if we do not receive them as mortal and perishing comforts, whioh God may demand at pleasure, and so keep the soul loose, and in a posture of submission, if God should cross us and disappoint us in them. Thus must we use all outward comforts with that weanedness and moderation as to chil- dren, estates, and all temporal blessings, &c., that will become a sense of the frailty that is in ihem, and the wheeUngs and turnings of an uncertain world. It is the apostle's direction : 1 Cor. vii. 21), ' Tlie time is short, it remains that those that have wives be as though they had. none ;' — not as to be defective in our love to them and care over them ; no, there is rather to be an excess than a defect here : Prov. v. I'J, ' Be thou ravished always with her love ;' — but as to a preparation of heart to keep or lose, if God should see fit, to be con- tented to part with a dear yoke-fellow, or at least with an humble submission and acquiescence, when God s will is declared ; and some- what of this must be mingled with all our rejoicings, some thoughts of the vanity of the creature. Leavened bread was to be eaten with
Gen. II. 22.] a wedding sermon. 169
the thank-offerings in the feast of tabernacles, when the hams were full. 'Man at his best estate is vanity,' Ps. xxxix. 5. Now, to help us to do this, it is good to consider he that hath the right to give hath also the right of taking away ; and as you must not be oveijoyed with the receiving, so not be over-sad with parting.
APPLICATION.
Use 1. Let us seek God by earnest prayer when any such matter is in hand. Marriages, we say, are made in heaven before they are made on earth. Pagans, before the awe of religion was extinguished, would begin with their gods in any weighty enterprise. A Joveprin- cipiicm was an honest principle among the heathens. Laban con- sults with his teraphim ; Balak sendeth for Balaam to give him coun- sel ; heathens had their sybils, and oracles at Delphos. Ho far as any nation was touched with a sense of a divine power, they would never venture upon any weighty thing without asking the leave or the blessing of what they supposed to be God. So for God's children, it was their constant practice ; they durst not resolve upon any course till they had asked counsel of God. David always ran to the oracle of the ephod : ' Shall I go up to Hebron ?' Jacob in his journey would neither go to Laban nor come from him without a warrant. Jehosha- phat, when the business of Ramotli Gilead was afoot, doth not lead forth the captains of the army but he sends for the prophets of the Lord : 1 Kings xxii. 4, 5, ' Inquire, I pray thee, of the word of the Lord this day.' So Judges i. 1, ' Who shall go up and fight against the Canaanites?' It is a contempt of God, and a kind of laying him aside, when we dare undertake anything without his leave, counsel, and blessing; and these are the things we are to seek in prayer.