Ruths recompence: or a commentarie vpon the booke of Ruth wherein is shewed her happy calling out of her owne country and people, into the fellowship and society of the Lords inheritance: her vertuous life and holy carriage amongst them: and then, her reward in Gods mercy, being by an honourable marriage made a mother in Israel: deliuered in seuerall sermons, the briefe summe whereof is now published for the benefit of the Church of God. By Richard Bernard ...

Verse 9. And he said, Who art thou? And shee answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid; spread there∣fore thy skirt ouer thine handmaid, for thou art a neere kinsman.

THis is Boaz his questioning with Ruth, her answer, with a request to him, and the reason thereof.

And he said, Who art thou?] Boaz comming to himselfe, moderateth his feare, and containeth himself from vnchaste touching, and demandeth what she was. Wee may note, first, that though feare possesse wise and godly men vpon a sudden, yet they moderate it, and are not wholly ouer come there∣with: for Boaz heere cryeth not out to seruants for helpe, neither speaketh to her, as one amazed, neither falleth he into a rage with her, that shee should be occasion of such feare: for howsoeuer the feare suddenly seazed vpon him being fast in sleepe before, yet was it not childish, nor woman∣ish, he soone shooke it off, as a man of courage, hauing confidence in God. He mastered his na∣turall feare: and so should wee, and not bee ouer∣swayed therewith, as women and children be. Se∣condly, That raging lust should not seaze suddenly vpon honest hearts, and such as feare God. Boaz was with her alone, yet doth he not in a filthy af∣fection seeke to dishonest her, as Iudah did Tha∣mar,

being inflamed with lust at the sight of her; he did it on the day time, he asked not what shee was, as Boaz doth here, lust would not affoord him that leasure. This continencie is praise wor∣thy in old Boaz, as it was before in young Ioseph: a vertue as in these commended, so commanded by God, and much praised in some Heathen, who may rise vp in iudgement against our wanton Youth, and some lecherous old men, whom God doth hate.

And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid.] Thus Ruth calleth her selfe shewing her humility, as before in chap. 2. 13. and here, by professing what a one shee would be vnto him, humble and seruiceable, as an handmaiden, if shee might ob∣taine her sute. So said Abigail, when Dauid sent to her, to take her to wife; and so humble and seruiceable was Sarah: for shee called Abraham Lord, and in what he commanded, she readily o∣beyed. And so should good and vertuous wiues doe still, when husbands command but what is honest and iust: not that wiues should be coun∣ted in condition as seruants: for as that is more then they will grant, so is it more then husbands of right ought to expect from them that be their yoke-fellowes: but what maid-seruants and hand∣maidens doe of feare, and seruile dutie, wiues should do of loue with chearefulnes such offices, as they ought to performe vnto their husbands, who haue authoritie to command. Therefore let wiues learne to obey, as God commandeth them to doe in all things, and that with reuerence, as

vnto the Lord, and as it is sit in the Lord, as the Apostle teacheth. And doubtlesse there would be more such, then we find in these dayes, if they might haue Abrahams to their husbands, louing, wise in instructing them, and giuing them ho∣nour as the weaker vessels. Note farther, how this worthy woman doth humble and debase her selfe: for the Godly think lowly and meanely of them∣selues; as did Abigail, also Dauid, that worthy Centurion, who said, That hee was not worthy that Christ should come vnder his roofe. Abra∣ham likewise did call himselfe dust and ashes; Saint Paul did greatly humble and vilifie him∣selfe: for the godly are not selfe-louing, they see and know what they be by nature; they are not like the Angel of the Church of Laodicea, which thought highly of himselfe, and that he wanted nothing, when yet he was poore, and blind, and naked, and miserable. They know, if they haue any thing, that the same is from God, that the more they haue, whether gifts of body, or mind, or of the world, or the graces of the soule spiritu∣all and heauenly, the more they be indebted, and the more they are to answer for. These things considered, make them lowly in their owne eies, and to behaue themselues so vnto others, as all that feare God ought to doe, and should goe one before another in giuing of honour; and not in taking it, as the world now doth.

Spread therefore thy skirt ouer thine handmaid.] In this phrase of speech shee modestly claimeth marriage of him: for some do write, that it was a

custom when they were contracted, that the man did throw ouer the woman, the lap or wing of his garment, in token that he took her into his pro∣tection. The word is taken from Fowles, which couer vnder their wings their yong from danger. By which, husbands are to learne, that they either are, or should be a protection to their wiues; for the wo∣man bestoweth her selfe vpon the man, forsaking for his loue, father and mother, to bee vnder his couert as his wife; she is then as himselfe, and he is to loue her as being become one flesh; and as the head, he is to care for her aswell as to rule and gouerne her. And therefore let husbands shew themselues to be such: & this shal they do, if they doe giue their wiues countenance, and do grace them with all their credit; if they vpon all iust occasions stand for them, defend their persons, honestie and credit against others; if they loue, cherish, and nourish them, as their owne bodies, affoording them all honest contentment, then are they good protectors. And if husbands be the wiues protection, and that they looke to haue them so, let them depend vpon their hus∣bands, let them keepe close to them, and by a lo∣uing obedience procure protection thus from them: from which some husbands are so farre, as some wish them dead, and so in heart are mur∣therers, some expose them to all miserie by their vnthriftinesse; some runne from them, and leaue them to the wide world; some offer them, or at least bawd-like, are willing to haue them giue their bodies vnto the lusts of others, that they

may liue thereby; others there bee which mur∣ther them, to bee rid of them. All these are false and faithlesse husbands, breaking promise to their wiues made to them before God and his Church, cursed caitifes, running headlong to de∣struction, without honesty, loue, or naturall kind∣nesse to their owne posteritie.

For thou art a neere kinsman.] Here is the rea∣son of her request grounded vpon Gods Law, as she had learned by her mother in law. This is her onely reason which she vseth to Boaz, for that he was a good and a godly man, with whom the strongest argument to preuaile, is the Word of God: for the Word hath authoritie in godly mens hearts; it bindeth their consciences, and forceth them to yeeld, it commandeth them more, then all other reasons besides. And therefore in ha∣uing to doe with such, gather arguments soundly from the Word of God; for these will worke vpon good mens hearts, and in vsing such reasons aright, the Lord, and not man, may bee said to speake vnto them: which course, though world∣lings mocke at, yet such as feare the Lord, will weigh and consider of, for that they doe desire to square and frame their whole life after the Word and Law of God.

Notes

• Gen. 19.
• 2. Sam. 25. 41.
• Gen. 18. 6.
• Ephes. 5. 22, 33
• Col. 3. 18.
• 1. Sam. 24. 14.
• Gen. 18.
• 1. Tim. ••. 13. 1. Cor. 15. 9.
• Reuel. 3.
• Gen. 20. 16.
• Deut. 25.