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"Twill blot your beauty as frosts bite the meads į
Confound your frame as whirlwinds shake fair buds ;
And in no fenfe is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-feeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is fo, none fo dry or thirsty
Will deign to fip or touch one drop of it."

It is better to dwell alone, on a corner of the houfe-top, than with a brawling woman in a wide houfe. Wives, fubmit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Let the wife fee that fhe reverence her husband. For the Lord God faid, I will make him an help meet for him.

5th. Hufbands, this fubject speaks to you. It fays, Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Bitterness toward a wife, is inhuman. Yea, it is inhumanity of the most monftrous kind. Every wound inflicted on your wife, is a wound inflicted on your own body. Cruelty to a wife, is cruelty to yourself; for you two are one flefh. Bitterness toward a wife is ungrateful, it implies ingratitude to your wife. When you first addreffed her on the fubject of marriage, fhe was coy. You protefted the fincerity of your paffion, and fhe believed you; but ftill fhe was timid and reluctant You employed others to advocate your cause; at length fhe confented; and confiding in your integrity, fhe com

mitted her body and foul, her property and accomplishments into your hands. Alas! Alas! your bitterness proves you dead to every feeling of gratitude, and utterly unworthy of fuch a treasure.—It implies ingratitude to your God. In compliance with your wishes, in answer to your prayers, Heaven has given you a lovely, an amiable woman, to be an help meet for you; and you, infenfible of the favour, trample it under your feet, and thus infult the goodness of the Divine Benefactor. Bitterness to a wife is impious. It is a violation of one of the plaineft laws of nature, and of fome of the cleareft precepts of the gofpel. Hear the apoftle of the Gentiles-"Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church-fo ought men to love their wives as their own bodies-he that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church-for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this caufe fhall a man leave his father and his mother, and fhall be joined unto his wife, and they two fhall be one flesh-this is a great mystery, but I fpeak concerning Chrift and the church-nevertheless let every one of you in particular fo love his wife even as himself."

But, my brethren, let us not forget that all our earthly connections will quickly be diffolved. Let us therefore

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improve them with a view to eternity. Let us work out our own falvation with fear and trembling."But this I fay, brethren, the time is fhort: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they poffeffed not; and they that use this world, as not abufing it; for the fafhion of this world paffeth away." And befide this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godlinefs; and to godliness brotherly kindnefs; and to brotherly kindnefs charity. For fo an entrance fhall be adminiftered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift ;-where you fhall neither marry, nor be given in marriage; but be as the Angels of God."

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