and Agility to f 1 K. 17.18,22,23 2 K. 4.32,34,35 8.5 Ps 104.29 30. Jo. 11.39,43,45 Acts 20.9,10,12 Ro. 4.19 8.11 Heb. 11.19,35 1 P. 3.18 Rev. 11.9,11 dead Bodies g Ez. 37.1 to 10. dry very dry Bones or h Mat. 3.9 L. 3.8 Stones who still and ever i Ro. 4.17 8.11 Eph. 2.1,5 qnickneth at least the spiritually dead and by a secret yet a certain and sometimes l Gen. 41.38 Num. 11.26 24 2,3,4 Judg. 3.10 1 S. 10.6,9,10,11 16.13,18 19 20,23,24 2 K. 2.15 2 Ch. 20.14 Neh. 9.30 Isa 11.2 48.16 Ez. 2.2 11.5 Dan. 4.8 Mat. 3.16 L. 4.18,21,22 Jo. 1.32,33 14.17 15.26 Acts 2.2 c. and 8.29 11.12 16.7 1 P. 4.14 1 Jo. 4.2 Rev. 1,10 4.2 a manifest Infusion m Eph. 1.23 Job 32.8 filleth all in all By the n 2 Co. 3.6 same Power I say are these Lines made lively and active and so justly in this sense called the o Ph. 2.16 L. 8.11 Word of Life It is said metaphorically and implicitly That the Word was made p Ps 118.22 Isa 28.16 Dan. 2.34,45 Mat. 21.42,44 L. 20.17,18 Acts 4.11 Eph. 2.20 1 P. 2.4,6,7 stone but expresly that it was made q Jo. 1.14 flesh and dwelt among us and that r 1 Jo. 1.1,2 we have seen With our eyes and our hands have handled of the Word of life Which Christ himself confirmed saying s Jo. 6.63 The words that I speak to you while now in my flesh they are spirit and they are life We hear himself likewise assuming to him the Metaphors of t Jo. 14.6 Way u Jo. 15.1,5 Vine x Jo. 10.7,9 Door y Jo. 6.35,41,51 Bread c. Now the same Word even Christ Jesus who made himself a Way Stone Vine c. yea Flesh to dwell among us for z Jo. 7.33 13.33 16.16 a little while was and is in the same sense and certainty made Letter and Scripture to remain with us a Mat. 28.20 unto the end We need seek no further for similitude then the naturall Bodies we bear about Which while united with soul or spirit cal'd b Gen. 2.7 6.17 7.15,22 Isa 42.5 Rev. 11.11 the Breath of life and sometime the c Job 27.3 spirit of God We see how able apt and agil they are especially some to d Jud. 20.16 1 S. 17.4,5 c. 2 S. 1.23 2.18 23.8 c. 1 Ch. 12.8 Lam. 4.19 Glory and Admiration But once e Job 34.14 Eccl. 12.7 severed how f Jos 5.1 1 S. 25.37 1 K. 10.5 senseless g Jud. 15.18,19 L. 8.53 Ja. 2.26 liveless h Gen. 3.19 18.27 Job 4.19 7.21 13.12 21.26 34.15 Ps 30.9 49.14 103.14 104.29 Eccl. 3.20 12.7 contemptible and i Jer. 9.22 16.4 25.33 Jo. 11.39 horrid Things are they And yet this Spirit of l Job 32.8 Prov. 18.14 20.27 25.28 Eccl. 3.21 Isa 26.9 57.16 Ez. 21.7 Zec. 12.1 Mal. 2.15 Ro. 8.16 1 Co. 2.11 ours as we may call it though the sole or chief Actor in us is 1 Co. 2.11 invisible to our carnall eye Also we measure and judge the strength or feebleness of our life by the fast or slow Beating as we term it of our Pulse the Motion of our animal Spirit Just thus is it with the written Word m Ez. 1.12,20 2 Co. 3.3 or Works and Spirit of God yet with this Difference That the Spirit of God unspeakably and inconceivably n Job 32.8 Isa 38.16 transcends the Spirit of Man in o 1 Co. 5.3,4 12.4,8 c. 2 Co. 11.4 12.18 Eph. 2.18 4.3,4 Ph. 1.27 Col. 2.5 Vnity and p Hab. 1.13 Jo. 4.24 Eph. 4.29,30 1 Jo. 3.3 Purity q Mic. 2.7 2 Co. 3.17 11.12 Liberty r 2 S. 14.19 2 K. 5.26 6.32 Acts 5.3 1 Co. 2.10,11,12,16 Gen. 44.15 Perspicacy s Jo. 6.63 Ro. 8.10 1 Co. 15.45 2 Co. 3.6 1 P. 3.18 Vivacity and t Jud. 16.28,29,30 2 K. 2.11 Job 32.18 Ps 39.3 Isa 6 6,7,8 E 7.3.14 37.1 Dan. 6.3 Mic. 3.8 M. 1.12 L. 1.17 2.40 4.14 21.15 24.32 Acts 2.4 4.20 6.10 8.39 18.5,25 20,22 23.9 Ro. 15.19 1 Co. 2.4 Eph. 3.16 2 Th. 2.8 Rev. 17.3 21.10 Isa 49.2 Vigour It also u Jo. 3.8 as the Wind bloweth where it lusteth and x Eccl. 11.5 None knoweth whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So then while this written VVord is but offered accepted and eyed as a dead Letter no mervail it be so much neglected and so little operative as it is And certainly till we feel some beating or motion of this Divine Pulse in or upon it we may sadly conclude our selves to be y Eph. 2.1,5 Jo 14.17 1 Co. 2.14 spiritually as dead as the Letter or z Jo. 11.39 Lazarus his Body For as our Spirit is the life of our Body so is the Spirit of Christ the a Job 32.8 Psalm 36.9 66.9 119.175 Isa 38.16 Jo. 14.17 Acts 17.24.25 Ro. 8. 2,10 1 Co. 2.4 Col 3.3 life both of our Spirit and of the Letter Much less may this written VVord avail any thing either to enliven enlighten or lead us whilst it lyeth by us unused neglected contemned as a Moth-eaten Clout not of so much account with many And therefore to the attaining of the spirituall-saving Knowledg here treated there belongs a serious studious and diligent search The b Heb. 2.10 Captain of our Salvation our most curious and faithfull c Num. 13.2,30 14.6,7,8,9 spy and discoverer of the holy Land sets us in the ready way d Jo. 5.39 Isa 8.20 2 P. 1.19 Search the Scriptures saith he which even yee Jewes yee Scribes and Pharisees account infallible impartiall Guides to your eternal life and felicity for they are they that testifie of me who alone am that most precious permanent Pearl and Possession worth Search and seeking after which they point at yea am their proper-inseparable Subject and Substance And for our Incitement and Example we see himself did e L. 4.16,17,21,22 customarily preach and practise out of them They were his own f Mat. 4.4,7,10 L. 4.4,8 chief-apparent Armour against Satan in any Assault and as they proved g Mat. 4.11 L. 4.13 successfull with him so he hath left them commended to our use and imitation To this end we often hear him and his Worthies the blessed Apostles and other Saints sometimes in a repugnant sometime in a perswasive way producing and alledging Scripture viz. h Mat. 2.5 L. 24.46 Thus i Mat. 4 7. Heb. 1.5 2.13 10.30 again l Ps 40.7 Mat. 21 13. L. 19.46 Jo. 8.17 Acts 23.5 Ro. 12.19 1 Co. 9 9. Gal. 4.22 27. it is written m M. 11.17
her Husbands Folly which yet consisted as appears by his y Verse 10,11 pertinent though perverse Reasoning not in weakness of brain but a wicked churlish and base Niggardise And since some will needs be so z Eccl. 7.16 Pr. 3.7 overwise and worthy a 1 Co. 4.6 above that which is Written let it not seem altogether unreasonable to reason a little with them in their own Dialect thus Were they so wise before they wedded they could not surely be ignorant That their Husband must be their b 1 Co. 11.3 Eph. 5. â—3 Head the c Gen. 20.16 Covering of their Eyes c. Why then would they make Choice of so crazy a Cranium that though he be call'd the Head yet they must be both the Brains and Cap. That instead of his Covering their Eyes they must cover his Eyes Head and all and lead him hood-winck'd abroad and about or rather coop him up at home Have d Ps 14.4 these workers of Iniquity no knowledge at all Might they not els perceive how eminently this Badge appears upon them to wit that they of all other Impudents do most e Ph. 3.19 glory in and f Jude 13. fome out their own shame If I say they be so wise a Word is enough They will know or learn what is either piously to be done or patiently endured Object 6. None but drunken disordered profane and as they call them desperate fellows beat their Wives Besides it is an horrible inhumane Thing to strike a Mans Wife What! beat his own Flesh why g Eph. 5.29 No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church This Objection proceedeth either from Persons strictly pious of a consciencious but as will appear erroneous and cruel pitty and tenderness or from another laxed sort of Christians the vulgar-open Prophane we heed not whose week-day converse can suit with carnall or worse Company and on the Lords day who but they with their Godly Pastor Or rather Athenians may we term them who affect and profess to know all Things new or old in plainer terms Polititians Temporizers or what ye will To both these shall be shaped suitable Answers to the one religious to the other rationall as God enableth And first to the worthier the former Answ 1. The first clause of the Objection cannot be wholly or altogether true And yet it must be granted to have too much of Truth in it the more the more sin and pitty For such men we beleeve are utterly without Warrant and of these it may be justly said h Ia. 1.20 The Wrath of Man worketh not the righteousness of God 2. As the Objectors will have much ado to prove their negative so in this case it is not easy nor indeed convenient to prove the Affirmative for this very reason if no more that Wise and Godly Men do or should go more privatly about this Work then the other are wont to doe that scandall may be prevented To the second clause may be answered 1. Correction properly taken is so far from betokening hatred that its plentifully i See p. 42. h. ult proved consistent with the choisest Affection yea the surest Argument of it And as the Word l Eph. 5.29 hated here relates to or reflects upon our own Flesh it may be somewhat enlarged and illustrated by that of Christ m Mat. 18.9 c. See Jo. 12.25 If thy right Eye or right hand offend thee pluck it out cut it off c. VVhich most do and likely may take in a spirituall sence of abandoning the Bosom and darling sin for els the cutting mangling and maiming of our sound Bodies were degrees of n Gen. 9.5,6 Ex. 20.13 Deu. 5.17 Mat. 5.21 19.18 M. 10.19 L. 18.20 Ro. 13.9 Murder which is directly forbidden Yet thus far I suppose we may take it literally as by any hardship or harsh discipline which may not endanger life to subdue our unruly Members Further As God o Ez. 11.19 36.26 takes the stony heart out of our Flesh which implyes a spirituall Anatomy or Incision and as we permit the Cutting away of proud or corrupt Flesh or a festerd Limb to prevent Infection and spreading so why may not the most pious tender hearted Husband deal in like sort with his perverse Wife viz. not touching or impairing the Quick the life to pare away as it were her Nails or noxious Excrescences as he would do the luxuriant Branches or exuberant Twigs of his choicest Fruit-Tree whereby to abate or allay the contagious Humours in her and where Lenitives fail to asswage the Rankness to apply Corrosives though with great Care and discretion It is said indeed p Col. 3.19 Husbands be not bitter against them but then see the q Verse 18. leading Condition they must not be boisterous and rebellious both against God and their Husbands If so what sweetness ought they to expect from either See again Eph. 5.29,30 2. That Christ himself ever did and doth as need requires actually and oft times extremely chastise his Church his Wife as well as cherish her and that in his Maritall or Conjugall Relation hath been amply declared p. 36. d. c. to which the Reader is referred Answ 2. Now to our fore-named Polititians c. We can returne no fitter Answer then refer them to rationall and civill Rules whereof they will disdain to be deemed ignorant viz. to the Common or Statute Laws of their own Nation Which in their prudent Care of preserving and cherishing the life naturall do thus provide in case of Extremity That the Wife may demand Surety for the Peace not good Behaviour against the Husband if he threaten to kill or outragiously to Beather c. Wherein is manifestly implyed and allowed a moderate Correction And hence let us reason thus If the Common Laws being so tender of the corporall life do yet admit a moderate correcting of a Mans Wife for Reformation of civil Manners and a temporall Quiet how can it but follow à fortiori that the spirituall and divine Law permits a proportionall Chastisement to conserve and cherish life eternall to deliver a soul r Pr. 23.14 from Hell and this by s 1 Co. 5.5 destruction to wit t 1 Co. 9.27 subjection for so I humbly conceive St. Paul intended of the Flesh thereby reducing it into a joint Frame of Regularity and Obedience with the spirit Object 7. This asserting of the Husbands punitive or corrective Power may prove not onely a loosing of the Rains to the reasonless Frenzy and rage of every rude Fellow but an In-let of too much Liberty even to loving Husbands Answ 1. What God hath expressly and plainly u Deu. 29.29 Ro. 1.16,17 16.25 Eph. 3.4,5 reveal'd neither needeth nor ought to be x See page 17. u. curted or y Ex. 24.3,4 Deu. 27.8 31.11,12
they are defensive it were Cruelty and Inhumanity to disarm them But oft times so unruly keen and rancorous are they as that in Davids and others Account they are Offensive c Pr. 14.3 Rods d Ps 64.3 Jer 9.8 Arrows e Ps 55.21 57.4 64.3 59.7 Pr. 12.18 Swords f Ps 140.3 Ro. 3.13 Ja. 3.8 Poison Jeremy who was troubled with g Jer. 44.15,16,20,25 VVomens Tongues as ill as Mens saith That the h Jer. 18.18 Tongue smiteth James calls it i Ja. 3.6 a Fire that sireth the Course of Nature and for a sound Reason it is enflamed saith he of Hell Satan is still blowing the Bellows Thus we see reproachfull VVords whose-ever they be are firy piercing and poisonous and we might in Satans own sence add l Am. 7.10 ponderous too Now we are exhorted m Ia. 4.7 to resist the Devill And how this By soothing him up in his VVords By letting him beard us and n 2 S. 20.9,10 Joab-like sheath his Sword in our Bowels crush and consume us Surely nay In short VVhich of themselves will not censure it most unseemly and sordid for a Man to vy words or scould it out with a VVoman referring the Victory to the last and loudest Syllable Yet it must needs be tryed thus when weight and worth of Argument fails him unless he be allowed a Casting Voice and Powin his hand to weild it 3. Customary Scoulding and Clamour which we account but the lowest Classis or Form of corrigible Offences is no Argument of weakness but of a stubborn and sinfull strength and by how much ofter it resisteth Admonition it is so much the more o 1 T. 2.12 rebellious and abhominable Shall any dare to think That ever the holy Spirit intended a Woman to be Tongue-free to rail rage swear blaspheme and defy p Isa 37.23 Heaven and her Husband to smite and wound whom where and when shee likes and fly out into all Exorbitances without Controll because forsooth shee is the weaker Vessell Surely there 's none awake or in his right Wits will say or think it For if the Conversation of q Ph. 3.20 Paul and r 1 Jo. 1.3 L. 17.21 other Saints be in Heaven where shall wee conclude such as this to be To Illustrate this Answer a little If there be no heed to be taken of Womens Words why is the prudent and pious Behaviour of s Ex. 1.19,20 35.25,26 Jos 2.4,5 c. Jud. 4.4,5,18 5. all 1 S. 1.16,17 25,24 c. 28.14.12 c 17.17,19 20 16. to 22. 2 K. 4.9 10,13,28 22.15,16 L. 1. 46. c. 2.36 c. many of them so carefully recorded in Scripture Are they prais-worthy and t Mat. 26.13 M. 14.9 renowned when good and not pernitious and worthily infamous when evill can their vertuous Acts and Expressions be exemplary their vicious Ones not pestilent and odious These or some of these Offences before mentioned may seem necessary or safe Inducements to correct or chasten Any over whose Body we have Command and of whose soul we take any Christian Care or Compassion at all for which they that will may see as good Warrant at least as for the good Abearing Did u Job 2.6,7,8 God let loose the malice and rage of Satan to torment and mangle the Body of that harmless Patient to the very brink of Death for but meer Triall and Triumph and doth he restrain the pious Love of a prudent Husband from x Am. 3.11 plucking a Brand out of the fire of Hell even the soul of his Wife who is a part of himself out of the Paws of Satan Shall it be necessary to marry y 1 Co. 7.9 rather then to burn corporally and temporally which burning it self is not without other Means of Cure and is it unnecessary unlawfull with a little corporall violence to prevent a spirituall eternall Burning which is incureable All this still inforceth no Mans Faith Let Men beleeve not as they list but as they z Eph. 2.8 Ja. 1.17 may The Measure We are now come to the cloze viz. in what Measure this Correction if any is to be inflicted Herein we find no express Rules or Limits left us by our Master Christ other then the a Ex. 20.13 sixt morall Commandement Which we beleeve he would not have omitted if materiall or that he had not endued our Husband as all other superiors with plentifull Abilities or not given him generall Hints and directions enough how to carry himself becomming his Place and Power Howbeit even Humanity teacheth Moderation and Clemency and the civill State as before hath wholsomly provided Security in this kind for els every barbarous and brainous Fellow may pretend Discretion and Piety enough to cloak or colour his Cruelty if lawfull power should not interpose to examine and determine But chiefly Christ himself in his sacred Word sets us forth certaine common b Mic. 6.8 Pr. 3.3 Mat. 5.7 1 P. 3.8 Precepts and Motives thereunto and c Pr. 12.10 Mat. 15.32 18.33 M. 8.2,3 L. 6.36 9.55 10.33,34 Heb. 10.34 Examples thereof as also d Ps 26.9 27.12 71.4 59.2 Deprecation from Asperity and Cruelty with e Gen. 49.5,6 Ps 11.5 109.16 Hos 4.1 Ro. 1.31 Exprobration f Gen. 49.7 Ez. 24.9 Am. 1.11 Mat. 23.23 Ja. 2.13 Imprecation and Threatning for it The former sort whereof we may fitly and safely follow the latter justly fear and fly And ther 's no Christian but takes himself to bee stronglier tyed to good Behaviour by g Gen. 20.11 39.9 Deu. 10.12 2 Ch. 29.9 Neh. 5 9,15 Job 1.1 Ps 19.9,11 119 38 120,161 Pr. 3.7 16.6 Isa 8.13 Jer. 32.40 Acts 9.31 2 Co. 7.1 Heb. 12.28 filiall Fear of God whose h Gen. 16.13 2 Ch. 16.9 Job 10.14 14.16 23.10 31.4 33.11 34.21,22 Ps 11.4 32.8 44.21 90.8 119.168 139.12 Pr. 5.21 15.3 24.12 Jer. 23.24 Hos 14.8 Mal. 3.16,18 Mat. 6,4,6 Heb. 4.13 Eye he knowes is ever upon him and by i Deu. 10.12 Ps 119.14,16,24,32 35,47,70,97,111 162,167 Pr. 3.17 Ro. 7.22 mutuall Love to and from the divine Word and Law which is the l Deu. 6.6 c. Job 23.11 Ps 18 21. 37.23 73 24. 119.5,6,9,10,11,59,102,105,133,176 Pr. 3.1 Isa 48.17 L. 10,26 c. Acts 21.24 Rule of his life then by the terror of my m Ps 119. 61,87,141,161 Isa 8.12 51.12,13 Mat. 10,28 L. 12.5 humane Law or violence whatever Herein I am purposly concise because the Texts if turned to are better able to speak for themselves Lastly if it be safe to follow the n Lev. 26.16,18,21,24,28 Isa 59.18 Jer. 16.18 Ez. 39.23,24 L. 12.47,48 Copy it may for Proportion be fitted to the Wifes Affronts and Offences and for Continuance o Jo. 5.14 while