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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bring_v	great_a	sin_n	5,468	5	4.7344	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33544	The dignity and duty of a married state in a sermon preach'd at the celebration of a marriage in the English Episcopal Church at Amsterdam / by John Cockburn.	Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.	1697 (1697)	Wing C4806; ESTC R29616	11,220	20

unreasonable and dangerous that they appointed a Fine both for them who married not at all and for them who were late or long a marrying How honourable Marriage was is evident from the Solemnities every where used at the entring into it for this was and is a publick Declaration that it was an honourable State and that they were worthy of Honour who enter'd into it Hence came the Saying That every one had Three Days of chief Honour the Day of one's Birth the Day of Marriage and the Day of Death or Burying 2. But Secondly Christians have a better Precedent for honouring Marriage than the Example of Men and Nations We have the Example of Christ the Eternal Son of God whose Example outweighs the Authority and Practice of all others in the World Indeed he Himself did not marry nor could He because a marriage with any single Person on Earth could not suit with his Dignity nor the end of his Coming to the World But he would be born of a Woman join'd in lawful Wedlock and He gave the first Manifestation of his Glory at a marriage in Cana of Galilee where he turned Water into Wine not for the simple Ostentation of his own Power but also to contribute to that innocent Joy which was suitable to that Occasion This He would not have done if marriage was either unlawful or trivial and not worthy of all Honour And as his shewing Himself thus first at a Marriage was not Accidental or Occasional but Choice so he chose to do it that he might set forth the Honourableness of this State foreseeing that some false Spirits would arise to discredit and disparage marriage And certainly whoever speak against it whoever represent it as unlawful or as mean and unbecoming a good or wise Man or the aim or study of Perfection I say whoever do so do thereby shew that they are not of God For 3. Thirdly Marriage is a Divine Institution God is the Author of it 'T was no Invention of Man nor were they led into it by Policy Necessity or Experience as into many other common Customs but God himself from the Beginning did ordain it He at the first made Man male and female and joined them together that the two might become one Fl●sh for an Example to others that should follow He commanded and ordained them to multiply and bring forth their Kind but only in the State of Wedlock and by the Imitation of that Example which he had set them in the first Man and Woman If therefore all Divine Ordinances and Institutions should be honoured for God's sake so should marriage nor can any speak dishonourably of it without blaspheming God and reflecting on either his Authority or Wisdom 4. Fourthly The time when marriage was instituted adds to the Honour of it This was before the Fall in the State of Innocence while Man was in his Uprightness as he came from the Hands of God which proves Marriage to be suitable to the greatest Perfection and Purity of this present Life It came not as a Remedy to After-Corruption 't was not prescribed to avoid greater Inconveniencies but the Wisdom of God saw it agreeable to a Paradise to the purest and most perfect Condition of humane Life Therefore they talk falsly who make this State inconsistent with Religion and they are weak and ignorant Persons who pretend that it is a clog or hindrance to their Virtue and Devotion yea even to the Perfection of them Indeed we read of some who when they were called to the Divine Feast excused themselves because they were married I have married a Wife and cannot come but this was only a Pretext to cover their Aversion and Unwillingness for if they had valued the mercy of the Call and been willing to embrace it their marriage needed not to have hindred them they would have come and brought their Wives with them Turn over the History of all the Celibates from the beginning can any be shewed more just and upright than Noah more constant in his Faith and Obedience than Abraham more holy and devout than Job and yet they as all the other Scripture Worthies were married and some of them but very indifferently too Indeed there are Temptations and Incumbrances in a married State and so there are in a single Life God may be served in the one as well as the other and who excuse themselves on the account of either do but declare that they have not a real mind to it Finally Marriage ought to be held most honourable for the important End of it and the good Effects which were intended by it and which will follow those who seek and study them aright When God had finished the Creation He viewed all his Works and saw them all very good Now Woman was included in these Works therefore she also was found good and consequently marriage is very good and useful for the Woman was created for that end As all God's Works are good so are all his Ordinances and Institutions and particularly this of Marriage Therefore Prov. 18. 22. saith Solomon Whosever findeth a Wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favour of the Lord meaning as he explains himself in other places a prudent virtuous Wife one that deserves that Honour and answers the Character suitable to it God by ordaining marriage intended the Good both of private Persons and the Publick because it was most agreeable to our Nature and did naturally tend to further the Happiness of all in this present Life Indeed marriage is a Yoke which once taken on cannot be put off till Death or that which is worse than Death I mean the heinous Sin and Guilt of one or other of the Parties but it is a profitable Yoke and it may be made easie too if Persons have the Understanding to use it aright I. First Marriage bringeth great Advantage to private Persons by securing them of a constant intimate and familiar Friend Society and Friendship are the Life of Life Nothing is more agreeable to our Nature nothing more desirable It is as natural for Man to crave them as for the Sparks to fly upward Hence Aristotle observed that what delighted in solitariness must be either above or below a Man that is either a God or a Beast A God because Self-sufficient or a Beast without Sense or Understanding and so unable to communicate it self as insensible of the Benefit of mutual Communication But as most Beasts except the Savage Kind even love to herd together so if this Philsopher had had that Light of Revelation which we are bless'd with he would have found that the Godhead is not solitary though Unity be one of its Essential Attributes Our Religion shews us Three Persons in the Godhead which are one in Nature and intimately united both in their Counsels and in the Execution of them which makes the Felicity of the Godhead equal to the Perfection of its Nature both of them Incomprehensible and Infinite The