Duties of husbands and wives - -Polygamy.

they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Dt. 7: 3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

Am. 3: 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

1 Cor. 7: 39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

2 Cor. 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

425. Mutual duties of husbands and wives.

Ep. 5: 21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the Saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 28 So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 33 Neverthelesss, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself: and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Tit. 2: 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

[See 197.]

426. Polygamy forbidden—its tendency.

Dt. 17: 15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the LORD thy God shall choose: 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

3

1 K. 11: 1 King Solomon loved many strange women. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

Mal. 2: 15 Did not he make one? Yet had he the residue

Divorce.

of the Spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Mat. 19: 9 I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery.

Mk. 10: 11 He saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

1 Tim. 3: 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife. 12 Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

427. Divorce discountenanced.

Gen. 2: 23 Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Mal. 2: 15 Did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith, that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

Mat. 19: 4 He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 8 He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say unto, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. [Mk. 10: 2-12.]

Lk. 16: 18 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery; and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery.

Appointed Use of required.

Rom. 7: 2 The woman which hath an husband, is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

1 Cor. 7: 10 Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.

MEANS OF GRACE.

428. Means and instruments of grace appointed.

Pr. 6: 23 The commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

Ec. 11: 6 In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

Mat. 20: 1 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.

Mk. 4: 14 The sower soweth the word.

Lk. 10: 2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.

Jn. 4: 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together.

1 Cor. 3: 8 He that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor. 9 For we are laborers together with God.

[See 47.]

429. Use of means required as indispensable.

Ezk. 33: 8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked

Preaching the principal - Use of encouraged.

from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand. - 36: 37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

Ac. 27: 31 Paul said to the centurion, and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.

Rom. 10: 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. [See 257.]

430. Preaching, the principal means of grace.

1 Cor. 1: 17 Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 18 The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. 21 After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Ep. 4: 11 He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers: 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

2 Tim. 4: 1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. [See 458.]

431. Use of means encouraged by promises and predictions.

Ps. 126: 5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall

Successfully used- Superiority of the true.

doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Pr. 11: 18 The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. 30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

Is. 66: 8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

Dan. 12: 3 They that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.

Mk. 1: 17 Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Lk. 1: 16 Many of the children of Israel shall he [John] turn to the Lord their God.

Jn. 17: 20 Neither pray I for these alone; but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.

Jam. 5: 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. [See 1, 258, 545.]

432. Means, successfully used.

Ac. 14: 1 It came to pass in Iconium, that they [Paul and Barnabas] went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude, both of the Jews, and also of the Greeks believed.

Gal. 4: 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.

1 Cor. 4: 15 Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Philemon 10 I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. [See 468, 545.]

433. Superiority of the true means of grace.

Jer. 23 28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. 29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Lk. 16: 31 He said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.