CHAP. of society, attest the government of God, and illustrate his character. The preservation of human society demonstrates the presence of God with us and those who live holily in wedlock find the proofs of that presence on many trying occasions. This state brings with it the exercise of numerous virtues. That you have determined therefore to comply with this divine appointment is a thing pleasing to God: and I pray him to bestow upon you and your wife all happiness in your union."-To another he expresses himself still more strongly: "I commend your choosing this state of life, and wish you every blessing in it. Married life appears to me a sort of philosophical discipline, training persons to honourable duties, worthy of the good and wise. Few unmarried people are affected as they ought to be towards the public good, and perceive what are really the most important objects in life."1 He is much pleased with Pythagoras's remark on the husband's receiving his bride from the altar, as if to remind him, that, like a suppliant who had taken refuge there, she had a religious claim to his protection, and that the Deity would avenge his infringement of his duties to her. Then, glancing at an union of which that of marriage is the scriptural emblem, he says, "And such, most strictly, is the character under which the church is led to her husband Christ, as a suppliant" whom he receives into the honourable relation of his spouse." Our daughters also," he affectionately and piously remarks, "will be (like suppliants at the altar,) the objects of divine care and protection. The generation of the righteous shall be blessed. 'Good awaits 1 Epist. ii. 403, 607. the children of the pious, of which others have no assurance. "At this very time, as we shall see, he had painful occasion to recur to such consolations. Again: "I am quite indignant at those misanthropic beings who think it a proof of wisdom to despise the female sex. Grant that that sex have their weaknesses: we also have our faults. .... If we have superior force, let us shew it in protecting, not in insulting them. Though many unfeeling spirits may neglect such duties, God shews in his providence a peculiar care of the feebler part of the species. Birds build their nests for their mates and their young and in like manner cities are fortified, and the labour of governing and defending them is undertaken, for the sake of women and children, rather than of men. As often then as you look upon a house or a city, reflect that both of them were erected for the mothers of our children. And, if God in his providence has made such provision for your wife, (now in her confinement,) that governments, magistrates, workmen, houses, cities, castles are all subservient to her benefit, do not think it burdensome to bear your part of the common duty, by attending assiduously upon her. Finally, since marriage presents an image of the love of the Son of God to his church, let the calls made upon you in domestic life remind you, that he has the same care for the church under all her weaknesses, which you now feel for your wife.-For my part, I have often thought of composing a history of heroic women; women who have endured great afflictions with piety and firmness. The trials 1 Ευσεβέων παίδεσσι τὰ λῶια, δυσσεβέων δ ̓ ἂv, is a verse in which he much delights.-Epist. vi. p. 130-1. A. D. 1560. 1547. CHAP. XII. Parents and children. of my own family have suggested this to me : for the temper of mind manifested by my dear daughter has been the great alleviation of the bitter grief occasioned me by her calamity. She has ever exhorted me to bear it with greater fortitude; for that it was her determination to submit to the will of God in all that he might see good to lay upon her.-May he succour both her, and you, and us all against our adversary the devil, and apply a healing balm to the poisonous bites of the old serpent. He often speaks beautifully, and with evident delight, of the affection of parents to their children; considering it as purposely calculated to give us an idea of the regard which God-" the Father of spirits"-bears to us. Thus he writes to one friend, "I doubt not that God will preserve the remnant of his church in these countries and in that hope you may indulge more heart-felt joy in the birth of your son. I rejoice at the event for your father's sake-and your father-in-law's sake-and your own sake; and that you may all, while you kiss the dear infant with parental tenderness, think of the love (σopy) which God bears towards us." And to another: "Withdraw your mind as much as possible from painful subjects of reflection, and refresh yourself with the sweets of domestic society: and, when you feel such affection to your children, think that God has impressed this upon us as an image of his own mind towards us." 2 Much wisdom, as well as tenderness and piety, seems to be displayed in a letter which he wrote to Jerome Camerarius,3 on an attachment formed by a daughter of the latter, which, 1 Epist. vi. p. 459, 460—abridged. Epist. ii. 351. vi. p. 143. 3 Brother of Joachim. though apparently not fixed on an unworthy object, was not agreeable to her father. He reminds him, that our trials are often aggravated by the irritation of our minds, and by our adopting harsh measures that, in the case of our children especially, something is to be remitted of what we might strictly insist upon, and some indulgence granted to their weakness. He had known, he says, many instances in which the happiness of families had been secured by mild proceedings, or destroyed by severe ones. He would have his friend therefore not offer undue violence to his daughter's inclinations: and he adds, " It is not merely my turn of mind which makes me give this advice: I am moved by this weighty consideration, that all our worldly concerns are trivial, compared with the right practice of devotion, and maintaining communion with God. Let us in all things so govern ourselves, that neither our own prayers, nor the prayers of those who are dear to us, may be hindered. Let me intreat you therefore to behave mildly to your daughter; that she may serve God with a quiet mind-which will also conduce to your own peace and comfort. I am a father, and know the heart of a father." 1 'Epist. iv. 675.--We may here observe, that the last fourteen letters in the second book of Melancthon's published epistles are addressed to a faithful and valued servant, whom he constantly calls, "Charissime Joannes". very dear John." They bear a strong testimony to the excellence of the servant and the kindness of the master. On the death of John, "Melancthon invited the academicians to his funeral, delivered an oration over his grave, and composed an epitaph" in Latin verse for his tombstone, in which he speaks of himself as having -" in a servant found a friend sincere And more than friend, a man of faith and prayer." See Cox's Life of Mel. c. iv. A. D. 1560. CHAP. XII. 3. On afflictions. Death of man. III. That piety of the writer's mind, which gives so religious a turn to all these subjects, will appear still more conspicuous where the afflictions and death of his friends are concerned. The death of the excellent Nicholas Hausman,' in the year 1538, seems to have deeply affected both Luther and Melancthon. "Dr. Martin," says Melancthon, " passed the whole of yesterday in tears. I know not what sort of a night has followed so sad a day. He bewails not our departed friend, but the church which has lost so invaluable a pastor.—But let us remember, Hausman is not dead, but is removed from all the troubles of life to immortality. And, though there is reason to grieve for the church, yet Christians must not sink under their grief, but raise and confirm their minds by means of prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ."-And still more strikingly, in another letter on the same event, he says: 66 Reflecting on the decease of Hausman, I feel as on the dismissal of friends home from a foreign land to our common native country. Their departure awakens all my own love for that country, and I desire to go with them to those better habitations-to rise to that eternal world of light, where we may enjoy God, at a distance from all sin, and error, and darkness.I beseech you therefore refrain your grief, and think of serving the church committed to your care. In battle, soldiers must not let their courage fail because they see their comrades fall around them: but rather succeed to their places. So let us not desert the post assigned us, but pray that God will vouchsafe to be with us."2 1 Vol. i. 131-2. 2 Epist. ii. 280-282. |