him.  As Christ wrought saluation in medio terrae, so God made the woman e medio viri, out of the very midst of man.  The species of the bone is exprest to be costa, a rib, a bone of the side, not of the head:  a woman is not domina, the ruler; nor of any anterior part; she is not praelata, preferred before the man; nor a bone of the foote; she is not serva, a handmaid; nor of any hinder part; she is not post-posita, set behind the man:  but a bone of the side, of a middle and indifferent part, to show that she is socia, a companion to the husband.  For qui junguntur lateribus, socii sunt, they that walke side to side and cheeke to cheeke, walke as companions.

    “Fifthly, I might adde, a bone from vnder the arme, to put the
    man in remembrance of protection and defense to the woman.

“Sixthly, a bone not far from his heart to put him in minde of dilection and loue to the woman.  Lastly, a bone from the left side, to put the woman in minde, that by reason of her frailty and infirmity she standeth in need of both the one and the other from her husband.

“To conclude my discourse, if these things be duely examined when man taketh a woman to wife, reparat latus suum, what doth he else but remember the maime that was sometimes made in his side, and desireth to repaire it? Repetit costam suam, he requireth and fetcheth back the rib that was taken from him,” &c. &c.—­From pp. 28, 30, of “Vitis Palatina, A sermon appointed to be preached at Whitehall, upon Tuesday after the marriage of the Ladie Elizabeth, her Grace, by the B. of London.  London:  printed for John Bill, 1614.”

The marriage actually took place on the 14th of February, 1612.  In the dedication to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I., the Bishop (Dr. John King) hints that he had delayed the publication till the full meaning of his text, which is Psalm xxviii. ver. 3, should have been accomplished by the birth of a son, an event which had been recently announced, and that, too, on the very day when this Psalm occurred in the course of the Church service.

The sermon is curious, and I may hereafter trouble you with some notices of these “Wedding Sermons,” which are evidently contemplated by the framers of our Liturgy, as the concluding homily of the office for matrimony is by the Rubric to be read “if there be no sermon.”  It is observable that the first Rubric especially directs that the woman shall stand on the man’s left hand.  Any notices on the subject from your correspondents would be acceptable.