honour unto the wife '.' Wilt thou "keep her in sickness and in health ?" which in St. Paul's phrase is to nourish. Lastly', "Forsaking all other, wilt thou keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live ?" And has not God himself given a commandment against adultery?

The only difference existing between the wife's duty and the husband's is, that the wife promises to obey and serve her husband, which is expressly ordered by God himself. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord *." "Therefore as the church is sub

4

1

1 Pet. iii. 7.

2

' Eph. v. 29.

The wife is in perpetuâ tutela.

* Yet so as at the same time ye be subject unto the Lord, we r Kupio. In the parallel passage, Col. iii. 18, this reading is more plain-"As it is fit in the Lord;” ὡς ἀνῆκεν ἐν Κυρίῳ. Religion should be the measure of obedience and subjection, "intra limites disciplinæ," as Tertullian expresses it: but Clemens of Alexandria has the best Commentary on the passage : Πάντα μὲν τῷ ἀνδρὶ πειθομένη, ὡς μηδὲν, ἄκοντος ἐκείνου, πράξαι ποτέ, πλην ὅσα εἰς ἀρετὴν καὶ σοφίαν διαφέρειν νομίζεται. In all things let the wife be subject to the husband, so as to do nothing against his will,

ject unto Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in every thing'." St. Paul also directs the aged women to teach the younger to be "obedient to their own husbands 2." And St. Peter says, "Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands "" After the promise of the parties is declared in the presence of the of the congregation, the priest demands, "Who giveth this woman to be married to this man ?" The father or friend then steps forward, and commits the woman into the hand of the minister, which signifies that the father resigns her up to God, and that it is God who, by his priest, gives her in marriage, and who provides a wife for the man, as he did at first for Adam. In the Scriptures we repeatedly read of giving a daughter to wife. "And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man." Again, "Then will we give our daughters unto

those things only excepted, which are accounted contrary to virtue and wisdom.

you, and we will take your daughters to us '." Instances repeatedly occur in the Scriptures, of giving daughters to wife. The priest, after having received the bride from her father, delivers her to her husband, and then directs them to join their hands, and to give their troth to each other. The joining of hands signifies making a covenant; the necessity of which is founded upon Scripture. We read thus in exemplification, that it was a covenant, " And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, coming to meet him and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? and Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand : and he took him up to him into the chariot'." And the custom was always used in all ages by Heathens, Jews, and Christians3, upon the occasion of any covenant being made, therefore it was deemed necessary that it

:

1 Gen. xxxiv. 16.

3 Vide Wheatly.

22 Kings x. 15.

should be used in marriage. Next follows the mutual stipulation, by which they each put themselves in the power and possession of the other. For St. Paul assures us that the wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife '." They then promise to love and to cherish each other according to God's holy ordinance, and thereto do they plight their troth. St. Paul, as we before observed, expressly declared that a husband should love and cherish his wife, and a wife should love and cherish her husband.

The man next places the ring upon the book, which the priest returns to him, that he may place it upon the finger of his wife, at the same time the man gives his assurance, that the ring is a visible pledge that he takes her to be his wedded wife, and that he worships her, or rather honours her with his body, and invests her with the right of sharing his goods. The reason why the ring was

11 Cor. vii. 4.

chosen was, because anciently the ring was a seal or signet, by which all orders were duly executed. Thus in Genesis we read, "What pledge shall I give thee? and she said, Thy signet." So again in Esther, Haman said, “I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman "." The delivery of the ring betokened that the person to whom it was given, was admitted into the highest friendship and trust. For when Pharaoh set Joseph over all the land of Egypt, "he took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand "," from which general custom it was adopted as a ceremony in marriage, to denote that the wife, in consideration of her being espoused to the man, was admitted as a sharer in her husband's counsels, and a joint partner in his honour and estate. But among the ancients

1 Gen. xxxviii. 18. 3 Gen. xli. 42.

2 Esther iii. 9, 10.

* Vide Wheatly.