Eph. v. 21 — S3. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own hus- bands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the tvife, even as Christ is the head of the Church : and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and 'without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife lovelh himself. For no
man ever yet hated his oivnjlesh; but nourisheth and cherisk- eth it, even as the Lord the Church : for we are members of his bod //, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery : but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself ; and the tvife see that she reverence her husband.
AMONGST those who are attached to the pecu- liarities of the Gospel, it is often a subject of regret, that the great mass of nominal Christians are not ac- quainted with its 'principles. But I am inclined to think, that there is nearly the same occasion for regret, that many who profess, and actually have attained, somewhat of vital godliness, are but very imperfectly instructed in its duties. The sublimer parts of morality are really almost as little known as the deeper mysteries of our holy religion. Take, for instance, the conduct enjoined in the fourteenth chap- ter of the Epistle to the Romans : I doubt whether there be many who would have written such a piece of casuistry : and few, I fear, would have approved of it when written, if it had not come forth with the authority of a divine revelation. What a paradox would it appear to the generality, if I were to tell them, that the very same act, under different circum- stances, might be an acceptable service and a damn- ing sin ; and the whole difference consisting in its being done in the presence of one who approved of it, or of one who doubted its lawfulness ! Yet such is the Apostle's determination respecting the practice of things indifferent in themselves; and which become bounden duties, or fatal sins, according to the views which they have who do them. 1 could, if there were time, illustrate the sublimity of the Christian code, in reference to all our most acknowledged du- ties : but I shall confine myself to the subject more appropriate to the present occasion a. St. Paul, in this passage, places the duties of man and wife in a
a An extemporaneous Address at the Marriage of a Friend.