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nary Patience can bear; for Men and Women have commonly Patience but to a certain Degree, and if they are overloaded beyond their Strength, they can not deal with the Burden at all, but it perfectly masters and conquers them. It is true, Perfons endowed with an eminent Degree of Holinefs perform incredible Things in the way of Patience; to that Degree, that they learn, with St Paul, in whatsoever State they are, to be therewith content; and they can do all Things through Chrift ftrengthening them. But these are rare Perfons indeed; the far greater number of Mankind, nay, of People of an ordinary Measure of Goodnefs, are quite broke with an Excefs of Hardship and ill Ufage; and when their Patience is gone, they become an eafy prey to Temptations. 3. The great want to which fuch an abandoned State exposes poor Women, and the Helplesness of their Circumftances, often drives many of them upon ill Courses, who, if they had continued in the favour of their Husbands, and had been fupplied with the Neceffaries and Comforts of Life, as other honest Women are, would never have thought of fuch defperate Shifts as they do then take to, when expofed to extream Want, without either Money or Credit. And now, though the Woman, although ever fo Innocent at firft, is not to be juftified, if any ill Ufage drives her to vitious Courses; yet who can deny that the Unjust Hufband, who has abandoned her to all this Mifery, and confequently to all thefe Temptations, is the principal Caufe of her Sin, and as our Saviour fays in my Text, caufeth her to commit Adultery.

III. The Third Thing I obferved to you in the Words, was, that notwithstanding the Strictnefs

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of the Marriage-Bond, yet if the conjugal Fidelity, which is the Foundation of that Covenant, comes to be overthrown, the Marriage may be diffolved. This is gathered from our Saviour's Limitation of Divorces, to the Cafe of Conjugal Infidelity. This is a mighty Blot our Saviour has left upon this Sin, and though he has not pofitively Commanded, but only permitted, in this particular Cafe, the putting away of the Wife; this fufficiently fhews, that in his Efteem, it is one of the Heinoufeft of Crimes. For befides the Breach of Chastity, of which I had Occafion to Difcourfe at large from our Saviour's Doctrine upon the Seventh Commandment, there are so many other heinous Aggravations of this Sin, that it is no eafy Matter to reckon them up. It is a Breach of the greateft Truft, entered upon by the most folemn Covenant; it is the injuring a Man in the tendereft Part, that which of all worldly Things, is deareft to him by God's own appointment; it is the doing what in her lies to bring in a fpurious Brood into his Family; it is the Purloining from him all that goes to the Maintenance, Education, and Portioning of fuch Adulterous Brood; it is loading her felf, and her Husband, and all her Relations, with Infamy and Difgrace. In fhort, it is such a Complication of Crimes, that no Reparation can be made for it: And therefore it is no wonder our Saviour leaves Room for this one Expedient, partly by way of Punishment of the Guilty, partly out of Relief and Compaffion to the Innocent, partly for a Terrour to others, to fcare them from the like Crimes: He leaves Room for it, I fay; does not command, but permit it, that if the injuring Party can, by her Repentance and Amend

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ment, make Peace with the Injured, it may be in his Power to fhew Mercy as well as Juftice.

IV. The Fourth and last Thing I obferved in the Words, is, that it is unlawful to marry the Divorced Wife. This is Grounded on these last Words of the Text; And whosoever shall marry her that is Divorced, committeth Adultery. This at first may appear to be a harsh Saying; for if the Marriage is diffolved, why fhould not the Parties be free to marry again? But on the other Hand, the Reafon of the Cafe, as well as our Saviour's Authority, is on the other fide. For no Perfon can fuffer by this Doctrine, but by her own Fault; for our Saviour would have none Divorced but for her Infidelity to the Marriage Covenant. Whoever is feparated from her Hufband on any other Account, is not lawfully feparated, and therefore according to St Paul's Advice, let her be reconciled to her Hufband: She is by our Saviour's Doctrine his Wife. still, and therefore, whoever Marries her commits Adultery; and as it is in St Luke, the Husband, if in that Cafe he marries another, committeth Adultery. But if the Woman is Divorced for her, Adultery, there is no Reafon at all that the fhould be admitted again to another Marriage, during the Life of her Hufband; for that would be to encourage all Wives, who are difcontented with their Hufbands, to commit Adultery, and get Divorced, that they might have another Husband when they please. It is certainly much better that fuch Criminals fhould endure this Punishment, to be deprived of the benefit of Matrimony, than that a Door be left open to all wicked People, to creep out of it when they pleafe. And

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therefore, though the Marriage is diffolved as to the innocent Party, yet a Restraint is still left on the Guilty by the Laws of Chrift. There is fome difficulty indeed to apprehend how the Marrying fuch a one fhould be the Sin of Adultery; it may be prohibited among the Sins of Uncleanness; but how should it be properly Adultery, when perhaps the innocent Party is Married again; how the Marriage fhould be diffolved as to one of the Parties, and not as to the other, is not so easy to apprehend. But in anfwer to this Doubt, the Original Word μouw, which we tranflate to commit Adultery, as I told you before, is often used in a more general Senfe for all Sins of Uncleanness, and therefore may very well be applied in this place, to him who Marries a Perfon, that, by the Law of God, is debarred from Marriage.

Thus now I have gone through the feveral Parts of the Text; there are fome Things I would briefly infer from the Doctrine which has been delivered, for encreafing our esteem of the Chriftian Religion, and for exhorting to a more careful Practice of feveral of the Duties of it.

1. First then, it ought to encrease our venerable Efteem of Chriftianity, that it takes fuch a particular care, above all other Religions in the World, of regulating that brutish Paffion of Luft, and for the Procreation of Children in a way fo Sacred, by making the Chriftian Marriage a Covenant of perpetual Chastity and Friendfhip. It is plain to any wife confidering Man, how much the Christian Religion, in this refpect,

is

is preferable both to Paganism, Mahometism and Judaism. As for Paganifm, the Generality of those of that Religion, were fo far from contriving any Thing on this Subject that was Wife or Useful to Mankind, that their Religion is ftuffed with Fables of the Whoredoms and Adulteries of their very Gods; and by their Example, they encouraged themfelves in all manner of Lewdnefs: Not excepting the most unnatural Mixtures, fuch as the very Brute Creatures abhor. Some of the learned Greek Philofophers were fo Brutal in their Notions of thefe Things, that they recommended a promifcuous use of the Female Sex, and gave loofe reins to Mens Lufts: So that of a whole Country, they made a general Houfe of Debauchery, by this Means not only corrupting the Minds and Manners of Men, but hindering both the Procreation and good Education of Children. And indeed they had fo little Love to their Children, that it was a common Thing, moft unnaturally to expose them to Perish. The Jewish Religion, it is true, rectified a great many of thofe Abuses, yet gave great Indulgences to the irregular Appetites of Mankind; for it allowed them, becaufe of the hardness of their Hearts, both a plurality of Wives at one time, and the Power of putting away their Wives by a Bill of Divorce, for every trivial caufe, and fo does Mahometifm at this Day. But the Chriftian Religion goes to the Root of all thefe Evils, and digs them up. It forbids wandering Luft in the very Heart and Thoughts, fo far is it from approving the Practice of it. It fets up a facred lafting Friendship between Man and Wife, as much more becomVOL. II.

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