such infinite care has been taken to cause an exact observation of Marriage Is it a wonder that in the Republick of Lycurgus the haters of it should be excluded from publick sports Spectacles and entertainments Can one be surprised that in the Common-wealth of Plato Batchelors of 35 years were accounted infamous In a word it is miraculous that in all times and even amongst the barbarous Nations a particular deference has been payed to married men and that Marriage has been much more esteemed than Celibacy It is Sir the foundation of the world and the inexhaustable source of Families 'T is that which gives Citizens to Cities Inhabitants to Provinces and Subjects to Kingdoms 'T is that which affords Kings to People and People to Kings 'T is that which furnishâ— the Country with Labourers the Tribunals with Judges the Churches with Preachers and the Armies with Souldiers 'T is that which has producâ—â— Heroes on Earth and Gods in Heaven Poets have married Gods as well as Men. Saturne had his Cebelâ— and Jupiter his Juno both which have been Mothers of several of those false Divinities which Pagan antiquity formerly adored In a word 't is Marriage that gives life to Arts and Sciences That keeps up Traffick That maintains Societies and to which 〈◊〉 owing the greatest part of those wholâ— some Laws and prudent Disciplineâ— without which the world would bâ— but a Cavern of Thieves Can it bâ— too much esteemed after this And needs there any more to prove thaâ— nothing is better or more excellent if you except a real continence Yes Sir there is required more for one may make appear that it such in a manner yet more convincingly You will be satisfied of iâ— if you consider it with me First as the bond of the most perfect most sweet and most wholsome of all humane conjunctions And Secondly as the exercise of the most lawful most agreeable and most absolute authority of the world Nothing unquestionably is more perfect than this union in respect to its subject to its end and to its manner Marriage unites Man and Woman that is to say what there is of most excellent and most perfect in the corporeal nature what resembles in it self all the Beautys of this great Universe what alone is of more value than all the other Creatures together In sine what by the understanding and reason with which it is endowed to the exclusion of all other Creatures has merited the glorious name of the Image of God What do you imagine to be the first part of this subject It is a Celestial Soul It is an immortal Spirit an angelical and immaterial Substance It is a being that partakes in some sort of that of God himself Seneca goes yet further When he considers its excellency he will have it to be God himself who that as I may say is come to lodge within our bodies Quid aliudvoces animam nisi Sen. Ep. 32. Deum in humano corpore hospitem 'T is that makes St. Austin say That after God nothing is better than the Soul Anima post Deum nihil melius As to the Body which is the other part that Marriage unites in the Man and woman we may affirm that as miserable as it is in relation to its substance and to the various accidents to which it is subject it is notwithstanding the most perfect and most excellent work of Nature in respect of its composition which as the Psalmist so ellegantly asserts is all embroadery of its aim which is to serve as an organ to the Soul and to be as it were its Ornament Corpus est vestimentum animae says St. Chrysoslom The Body is the Garment of the Soul and in a word of its use which is to be imployed in the most noble most necessary and most important actions of life Behold then the first perfection of Maraiage viz. That it unites Bodies and Souls that it joynes together the two finest Creatures in the World That it is a composition that is most rare and precious in the essence of things This kind of Union is seen no where else nor in any other subject The Conjunction of the Stars is a Union purely corporeal the Copulation of Beasts is a Union purely carnal Fornication is a Union of Body without Soul And Friendship as strong as it may be betwixt two friends is notwithstanding but a Union of Souls without Body There is nothing but Marriage that truly unites Bodies and Souls togather Its second perfection consists in its end which according to nature is to multiply men according to grace is to encrease the number of the Elect and according to Nature and Grace to retain the Sexes in the bounds of Wisdom Modesty and Honesty in removing the disorders of debauchery What can be more worthy of God and Man than this End I say in the last place that the manner of this Union likewise makes up one of its beauties Marriage doth not only joyn the Bodies it also unites the Souls 'T is much I confess but there is still something incomparably greater It not only unites Bodies and Souls but O surprising wonder of two Bodies and two Souls it makes one and the same Person Man and Wife says Jesus Christ are no more two but one flesh Aristotle affirms of a real friendship that it is a soul which inhabits in two Bodies But the union of Marriage is still much more intimate They are no more two Bodies but one single Body no more two Souls but one single Soul They are no longer two Bodies tyed to one Soul No longer two Souls confounded in one Body 'T is a something I know not what which is not absolutely one or t'other but is more than both and cannot be expressed Possibly the Comick Poet thought of nothing less than to represent to us the wonder of this Union when he made the diverting peice of his Amphytrion It is notwithstanding what he doth after the most natural way imaginable in the Scene of the two Sosias He makes them to be of so perfect a resemblance that they look upon one another as one and the same person They are not at all distinguishable They are two in number yet but one in action and movement They always speak by I and not by We. They do not say thou art there and I am here but I am there I am here Plautus expresses it in his Language with an emphasis we cannot render in ours What you would persuade me no body ever heard says Amphytrion to Sosia that one man should be at the same time in two different places Nemo unquam homo antehac Vidit Plnut Amphyt Act 2. Sc. 1. nec potest sieritempore uno Homo idem duobus locis ut simul sit By what inconceiveable art could it be that thou wast at the same moment here and in the House Quo id maliâ—m pacto potest Fieri nunc uti tu hic sis Domi id dici volo
You may well be astonished at what I have told you replies Sosia but it is a manifest truth Sum profecto hic illic I am both here and there Nothing I confess is more Theatral than these ways of speaking but it must be granted also that nothing better explains the nature of this strict union that Marriage makes There are no words that can exactly represent it One ought for that end to compose a new Grammar One cannot speak of it but in making Solecisms and in confounding the plural with the singular and the singular with the plural They are no more two but one flesh says God himself of Man and Woman They are one in two persons They are but one person in two bodies Animae duae two Souls Animus unus one mind Idem Velle idem nolle and one will There happens nothing to one but what arrives to t'other The Husband and the Wife feel the same things They suffer the same evils They enjoy the same good things Grief and joy make the same impressions in each of them Morbo detinetur unus Detinentur duo Adversa premunt unum Sensus in utroque est utrumque risus utrumque lachrymae Prospera laetaque tenent unum tenent utrumque As the Phylopher so well expresses in Seneca The same distempers and misfortunes reach both If one laugh so doth the other their tears are the same c. This is too strong for a simple friendship Such a one as this never appeared Or if such a one has been found one must necessarily suppose it to be more than a union of Spirits You know that another was practised frequently enough amongst the Pagans which might much contribute to the making of such friends but which is so scandalous to nature that you must be contented to read it in the first Chapter of St. Paul to the Romans without hearing it named But Sir if you would be perfectly convinced that there is nothing in nature more excellent than Marriage you are only to look upon it with relation to the great mysteries it represents The holy Spirit has made use of in a thousand places in our Divine Scriptures to testifie to us the tenderness of the Father under the Law and of the charity of the Son under the Gospel I will espouse thee to me for ever Hosea 2. I will espouse thee to me in justice in judgment in mercy and in compassion I will espouse thee with constancy and thou shalt call me thy Husband said God himself to his ancient Israel I have appropriated you 2. Cor. 11. Eph. 5.23.32 said also St. Paul to the new People to one single Husband to present you as a chast Virgin to Jesus Christ Besides the Church is called the Body of Christ and the Spouse of the Lamb the Song of Songs is nothing else but the Epithalamium of this Divine Marriage Thus God was Married with the Jewish Church Jesus Christ is also Married with the Christian Church 'T is thus the Sacred Authors represent to us that intimate union of the Faithful with the Divinity and Flesh of Christ 'T is thus they insinuate to us that profoundness of love we find in his heart 'T is thus they instruâ—â— us how dear we are to him and it as we ought to make our interests of his so he never fails to make ours his own The ancient Doctors have carried yet further the perfection of Marriage when they considered it as the natural Image of the Hypostatick union of the two Natures in Christ One must acknowledge in effect that nothing discovers to us better the bottom of this adorable mystery As we have seen of one Man and one Woman Marriage makes but one and the same person they are no more two but one flesh From thence proceeds this reasoning of St. Paul that he who loves his Wife loves himself The Son of God being also united to our Flesh is become the Son of Man He doth not think it a point of usurpation to make himself equal to God and notwithstanding in uniting himself to us by the Incarnation he is become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone By the incomprehensible force of this union he has ceased to be simply God neither is 〈◊〉 become simply Man He has reunâ—â—ed 〈◊〉 one and the same person those two opposite Natures which make him to be our Emanuel God with us He is not only Man he is Man-God He is not only God he is God-Man but as in Marriage the union which is made as intimate as it is yet destroys not the substance of the two parties which compose it each preserving its own with its essential qualities So the Hypostatick union of the two Natures in Christ confounds them not The one is not absolv'd by the other The both subsist in him after a distinct and inexpressible manner without any alteration of their essential qualities Do not imagine with the Nestorians two persons there is but one Do not fancy to your self with the Eutichians a single Nature there are two In a word the Ancients affirm of Marriage that it is the Symbol of the union of regenerate Souls with God They are all in him and he in all them As he who joyns himself to a Wife becomes one and the same body with her So says St. Paul Cor. 6.16 17. John 17.21 He who is joyned to the Lord is made one and the same Spirit with him It is by the efficacy of this mystical union that Jesus Christ said of the whole body of his elect Gal. 2.20 That they are but one with him and with his Father That his Apostle says He lives no more but that it is Jesus Christ who lives in him And that the holy Spouse says That her well-beloved appertains to her Cant. 2.16 and she to her well-beloved It is the divine Love that is the efficient cause of this mystical union 'T is that which produces in us this holy metamorphosis 'T is that which transforms us into God himself Solus amor est quo convirtimur ad Deum transformamur in Deum ad hearemus Deo ut simus unus Spiritus cum eo Said a learned man T is love alone by which we are turn'd to God transform'd into God we stick to God that we may be one Spirit with him O Love that always burns and is never extinguished Inflame me all over with thy fire to the end that being consumed by the sweet fâ—â—â—es of thy affection I may be never â—â—â—ble of any other love said also the same holy Soul How much I beseech you ought one to determine in all these prospects for the perfection and excellency of Marriage All other Societies are transitory unfertile made up of nothing or of a pure temporal interest This of Marriage is only eternal Death it self that puts an end to all doth not always conclude this because it doth not only unite the Bodies It unites also
them Which made Virgil to observe Ah! hodiè laus est non ultima fingere vultum Alas None of the least Praises now adays is to dissemble So much is Vertue despised and Sincerity out of use in the world To enter into the bottom of the dispute I make a proposition directly contrary to that of my Adveriaries Marriage say they is not agreeable to man It is for his glory not to marry And I affirm that Marriage doth agree with Man It is necessary for him He cannot well forbear it The first part of this work very clearly proves the truth of my Proposition since God has instituted Marriage since our Saviour has confirm'd it since the Apostles have recommended it since all Nations of the World have practised it since it conveys to man such great advantages can one doubt of its agreement with him and if it is thus excellently good as I have maintain'd it all along can one assert that it is unworthy of man But let us see the Reasons upon which it's Adversaries rely in order to cry it down They all return to these three First It is repugnant to the Empire of Reason over the Senses and Passions Secondly It puts man in the rank of Beasts Lastly it hinders him from resembling the Angels One may reply to all this in few words What Logick is this Reason is in man what the King is in the State It ought to subject all to it self and to submit it self to nothing All the passions should condescend to it but it should never yield it self to any of them Therefore Marriage doth not agree with Man Therefore man ought not to marry Can there be more miserable arguing One grants the Principle Reason ought to govern the passions It ought to be the Mistress But where have these men learnt that Marriage is contrary to its Sovereignty One may from this principle infer conclusions absoluetly opposite to theirs Reason ought to govern the passions by consequence Marriage is necessary for Man Why because the Passions are much stronger in Celibacy than in Marriage because Marriage is it self a means to tame the Passions because Reason governs them consequently with more easiness But say they it ought to triumph over them It ought to captivate them Reason ought that I may so speak to swallow up the passions This is an evil Doctrine equally unknown in the School of God and that of Men. The passions are good in themselves They are become criminal only by the pollution of Sin which has disorder'd them Man must not be absolutely dispossess'd of them they are essential to him He cannot even live with integrity according to St. Austin without their assistance Affectus animi qui non habent recte non vivunt The Indolence of the Stoicks has been at all times condemned Man neither can nor ought ever to be without Passion The simple Question is to rectify it by reducing it into that happy Limit above or beneath which vertue cannot subsist Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines Hor. Serm. lib. 1. sat 1. Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum There are certain means and limits of things which bound right on either side One ought to place it under the just law of Reason without which it ceases to be legitimate For appetitus lege naturae subjectus est rationi as St. Ambrose says And without that St. Austin tells us that Passion is nothing but the motion of the Beast Affectio sine ratione motus est bestialis Now of all things that are able to father his Empire of Reason upon the passions I affirm that there is nothing more efficacious than Marriage St. Paul sees nothing fitter to dispose men to wisdom By consequence I have reason to say and my adversaries are in the wrong to deny it that Marriage is very worthy of man and absolutely necessary for him even according to their own principle As animal as the action of Marriage is it is notwithstanding very conformable to right Reason and the Nature of man One may say that man is a mixt animal He is neither all Flesh nor all Spirit he is a compositum of both He has a Body he has a Soul Each of these two parts of this Being applies it self to those objects which are suitable to it and agreeable to its Nature As the Soul is of a coelestial and immaterial Original its single prospect is to exalt it self above sensible things But the body which is terrestrial follows its natural destination All it's motions tend downward It proposes to it self nothing but the enjoyment of Creatures Man by his Soul has the honour to be the Image of God and the Companion of Angels But indeed by his Body he enters in some sort in communion of Nature and Society with Beasts He doth in this regard what they do The same accidents happen to him He has the same desires He is touched with the same Objects ans has no priviledge over them in this respect Those ancient Heroes who gave terror and admiration to the whole world by the force of their judgments and the excellency of their Genius have not fail'd to be subject to the concupiscible appetites as well as the vilest of animals After having equal'd themselves to the Gods in the superior part of their being they must resemble beasts by the insurmountable Law of the inferior part I confess that it is very mortifying for the King of Animals not to be distinguish'd herein from his Subjects and to encrease after the same manner and by the same ways as they But be not surprized at it This was necessary for the design of their common Creator He has of a sudden and without distinction of Sex form'd that innumerable multitude of Spirits which compose the Hierarchy of Angels and Devils because being incorruptible intelligences they were by consequence incapable of generation But God having been pleased to make all human-kind of one blood as the Apostle says and by way of generation it was necessary to give to Man an Organized body It was necessary to render him capable of multiplying It was expedient for him to make two Sexes In a word it was convenient to give them that natural desire of uniting together which makes the propagation of the kind but which is never lawful without Marriage Can one assert after this that it is unworthy of man with relation to this Union of Sexes As despicable as it is in it self is it not sufficient that it is the design of Nature and the very order of God who has commanded us to encrease and multiply in order to rase all the Scandal which the most scrupulous persons might receive from thence As I have already said it is as conformable to reason as agreeable to the nature of man Reason it self disposes men to it In general it approves of all that is design'd by Providence And in particular it suffers man to practise
lead the way to vice What advantage doth it bring to them unless it be to expose them to great temptations unless it be to deprive them of a very commodious assistant such as a Wife is unless it be to renounce the sweetest of Societies And this for I know not what difficulties they frame to themselves whereof one part is purely imaginary another is tyed to all the conditions of life and the rest is nothing in comparison of the real pleasures of Marriage What advantages likewise return from thence to the Republick People are oftener scandalised than improved thereby and very often are seen examples of them which more deserve our horrour than our imitation I speak of worldly Batchelors and of such as are withdrawn from the world and consecrated to the Almighty The most favourable judgment that one can make of the wisest Celebacy is that it is a virtue which doth neither good nor evil Now for this reason that it is without action one may say that it is a kind of vice for according to Cicero Virtutis laus omnis in actione consist it From whence comes this of Silius the Italian Actio si desit virtus est futile nomen Virtue 's a useless Name without practice Celibacy then has nothing but the name of Virtue It has neither the effect nor the truth of it It is a simple quality which is very often founded upon the temper and constitution of bodies or which is of less importance upon the maxims of a carnal prudence After all man was made for Society Non solum nobis nati sumus Cic. L. 2. We are not born for our selves only It is not good that man should be alone says God himself Est opus auxilio says Ovid. we have need of help Tristis cris si solus eris You 'l be sorrowful if your alone The testimony of a single person is of no account amongst Lawyers Vox unius vox nullius And as the Father of Philosophers says two are better than one both for council and action Duo simul viventes intelligere agere sunt potentiores quam unus Arist L. 8. Eth. The Divinity it self which is but one in essence is notwithstanding more than one in person And why has God created two Sexes in Nature if it was not to make us understand that one is necessary to the other and that they cannot subsist without being joyned together Are not all living creatures bent that way by a natural inclination Is it not this mutual love of males for females and females for males thet multiplies their Species and preserves the world Nec caeant pecudes si levis absit amor Ovid. If we beleive the Naturalists this desire extends to insensible things They tell us of divers Plants that can neither encrease nor fructifie without company as the Palm amongst others And can Man after this without violating in some measure the rights of Nature despise his union with Woman that is to say what she has of most compleat and charming T is true as the Ancients say that Man is of a nature absolutely Heroical that can innocently excuse himself from her But how ridiculous and unjust is he add they that despise Marriage the first and purest of Societies But Sir if you would know the real motives of Marriage you are only to consider Man with relation to the four bodies whereof he is composed I shall call the first The Body Natural The second The Body Politick The third The Body Domestick And the fourth The Body Ecclesiastick Mankind State Family and Church are these four Bodies With relation to mankind he is Man To the State he is Citizen To the Family he is Son And to the Church he is Faithful These four qualities put him equally under the obligigation of Marriage As Man he ought to labour for the propagation of mankind As Citizen for the preservation of the Common-wealth As Son he ows Successors to his Family and as Faithful he owes Elect ones to the Church Marriage is absolutely necessary to fulfill all these duties and to discharge all these engagements They ought to be explain'd to you more at length To begin with the first point It is certain that every Animal is oblig'd to interest himself in the conservation of his Species but particularly Man who is king of all T is for him that all the rest were made and without him the world would be but a frightfull Solitude For this reason God commanded him to increase and multiply immediately after his Creation And for the same reason he inspir'd him with the desire of it and gave him that eager inclination of Cooperating with another Sex wherewith all men as I have said are naturally transported It must be granted that there is nothing in nature either so violent or so necessary Without this love where 's that man that would converse with woman where 's the woman that would endure man But to the end that no abuse might be made thereof God has assigned it bounds he has fixed it between two persons he has confined it to the sacred laws of Marriage Be it as it will if it is mans duty to increase his Species it is no less his duty to marry since one cannot reasonably be done without the other Man may be considered in a double sence vel Physice vel Theologice In the Theological prospect nothing is more dispisable it 's true 't is a revolted Subject It is a sinful creature It is an object of Horror to Heaven and Earth It is a composition of crimes and miseries Man says the Prophet in this respect is nothing but Vanity If one should weigh him with nothing he would be found even lighter They are all says he elsewhere corrupted and become abominable by their works Psal 14.1 There is not one doth good But in the Physical and Natural sence what is more admirable than Man O God said the same David What is Man that thou shouldst remember him and the Son of Man that thou shouldst be so careful of him Thou hast made him but a little less than the Angels Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour Thou hast given him the Empire of all things here below In this respect the Philosopher regards him as the end of all Creatures Nos sumus quodam modo sinis omnium Arist St. Austin likewise instructs us that all things are comprised in him In homine est omnis creatura He considers him as the miracle of Nature Homo magnum est miraculum And our eloquent Cicero will have him to be of more worth than all other creatures together Homo caeteris animalibus longe praestat I add that this same Theology which lessens him so much when it considers him in the irregularities of Nature exalts him to the highest Heaven to the society of Angels to the glory of Eternity when it considers him in those Priviledges which Grace confers upon him
else but the Subsistence of the Church which is infinitely more excellent than the World and all its Societies This ought to be the chiefest end of all our Vows and all our Cares How ought a Christian do you think to endeavour the advancement of this Mystical Empire of Jesus Christ the exaltation of his Reign the Subsistence of his Church He may Sir acquit himself of this Duty in a double manner both by Passion and by Action First he must suffer he must mortify himself In the Second place it is necessary that he labour and put himself in action for her Now of all the Actions that may contribute to this end Marriage is without doubt the principal Since it is the natural and material cause of the faithful without which all moral causes would be absolutely useless When Moses built his Tabernacle the Men and Women contributed voluntarily and with great Zeal all that was necessary for its construction What scandal would it be for Christians not to do for the Truth what the Jews did for the Figure Those people dispossessed themselves with pleasure of the most precious things they had in order to enrich that ancient Tent of the Desart What should not we perform then for the glory of this Divine Tabernacle which God has planted and not Man But Sir the question here is neither of Gold nor Silver precious Stones or fine Linnen Purple or Scarlet The Tabernacle of the Church is not composed of dead and insensible things Brutal and Inanimate Stones enter not into its construction There must be living ones for that end There must be faithful Men. There must be reasonable creatures There must be Christians sanctified by the aspersion of the blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1 2.16 How glorious is it for a Father or Mother to contribute a great number of these living Stones for the Edification and Conservation of the Church Marriage is the only quarry from whence they must be had God allows of no other Indeed they are not in a condition proper to build this holy structure My Mother conceived me in sin and brought me forth in iniquity says David If we refer our selves even to the Satyrick Poet he will likewise instruct us in what the Scripture every where tells us that all Men are born with Sin Nam vitijs nemo sine nascitur Horat. Serm. L. 1. Sat. 3. But here Grace is added to Nature Marriage makes Men And of these men God makes his Elect. Insomuch that it is ever true to say in a certain sense that Marriage makes the Elect which are members of the Church since it is the Organon of Nature to bring them into the world and that Grace which regenerates them acts upon them only as upon works of this very Nature In this prospect it is scarce possible to express the excellency of Marriage and what strong engagements men are under to marry Philosophers say that a Being may destroy it self two ways by Substraction and by privation of means either in doing things contrary to its Subsistence or in omitting those things which are necessary to it Pharaoh destroyed the Church of Israel in the first manner And those who live unmarried now a days destroy the Christian Church in the second That barbarous King by causing all the Male Children of the Jews to be thrown into the Nile rendred their propagation fruitless and those who remain in the state of single men as far as they can make it impossible So that the Church is not beholding to them for its subsistence This Doctrine is even conformable to the expressions of Scripture which says that he who doth not prevent a mans death by furnishing him with means to live kills him If this Theology be true as we must not question it I can hardly conceive how all those obstinate and professed Batchelors should not be amazed thereat What greater misfortune could arrive to them than not only to have performed nothing for the Glory and Advantage of this undefiled Spoufe of our Saviour which cost him his life but also to have laboured for its destruction by not doing what is capable to preserve it Where is the State where is the Family where is the Society more worthy to subsist than the Church All the rest is supported only for her sake Columna est Orbis Ecclesia The World this unhappy World which so outragiously persecutes her would be destroyed without this daughter of Heaven It is preserved only to give place to the fulness of the Elect. So soon as they are all in the Essence of things adieu to the world Heavens What afflictions should not those old Batchelors undergo for not having contributed to its conformation But Sir one of those things which ought methinks to be most prevailing with you for Marriage is that you will infallibly marry at one time or other Sooner or later you will be inclined to it It is with Marriage as with new fashions At first they appear insupportable But by little and little the eyes are accustomed to them and at length one submits to them with others How many men likewise do we observe who after having long declamed against Marriage fail not to confine themselves under its laws Are you ignorant that those who speak of it as of a folly say that it must be done once in a mans life That Poet so knowing in the Art of Love whom I have already cited so often tells us with a grace that Venus never loses her rights and that all men are tributary to her Et Venus ex tota gente tributa petit Ovid. Ep. 4. Venus claims Tribute from all the amorous Race If you are not in Love whilst you are young you must necessarily love being old If not to day you must of Course to morrow Cras amet Catul. Privil Ven. qui nunquam amavit The same Ovid observes likewise what is very true that the later Love appears the more violent it is Venit amor graviùs quo scriùs Ep. 4. Would you Sir deferr your Marriage to age to a time wherein you 'll be unfit to marry to a time wherein passion is as it were unactive to a time wherein the blood is congealed in the Veins If Marriage is a sort of folly 't is certainly a double one in that decrepit age wherein a man is good for nothing but to bewail the dismal Wast of years wherein by the weakness of Nature he cannot walk without the support of a Stick wherein a defenceless impotence confines him to the Empire of a young wife Sponso Seni mulier juvencula imperat Wherein the Body being crack'd by the severe Efforts of age is no longer able to support its members to speak with another Poet. Vbi jam validis quassatum viribus aevi Corpus Lucret. L. 3. obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus Who makes a doubt that marriage in this case is not a real punishment If it be true then
the Souls Trajicit fati littora magnus amor Propert. lib. 1. Elez. 19 Sen. Agam. Act. 2. Amor jugalis vincit ac flectit retro It is likewise very fertile and the fruits which it produces are more precious than all the Gold of the Indies Thy Wife says the Prophet shall be in thy House as a Vine abounding in fruits Psal 128.3 and thy Children like Olive branches round about thy table In a word as I have already said nothing is more disintâ—â—esse than the love of a Wife She loves her Husband for the sake of himself and because she is easily persuaded that in his respect nothing ought to appear more aimable to her To know its whole extent and how far it goes you need only to read the Song of Songs in the Bible There you will perceive the Air and discover the secrets of a certain pleasure which charms the heart and transports the Soul in spight of it self It is filled with expressions so tender and figures so effecting that one must be harder than a Rock not to be wrought upon therewith I know very well that the principal design of the Holy Spirit that dictated to Solomon was to represent to us the flames of the Divine Love and the mystical union of Christ and his Church But we can never be able to frame to our selves the excellency thereof unless we suppose the same things in the conjugal union since the one is imploy'd therein as the lively Image of the other This being so it is impossible to express the sweetness and satisfaction of a happâ—â—◠〈◊〉 age This wise King spâ—â—â— to us of it in such magnificent tâ—â—ns and exposes to our eyes all its delights in so pleasant a manner that one is transported almost out of himself One talks of nothing there but of my Love my particular Friend my Dove my perfect one my Sister my Spouse of surfeiting with Love of Myrrhe of Aloes of Aromatick smells of passing the day with his well-beloved under the shade of Palm-Trees and amidst the flowers of Pomegranets and the night on the bosom and between the breasts of the fairest amongst Women All this t is true ought to exalt our minds above the objects of the senses and to put before our eyes the ineffable sweetness of our Communion with Jesus Christ the real Spouse of our souls But who doth not see yet further that man ought to find in the union of Marriage well near the same pleasures that the faithful discover in their union with God since the first is as it were the Plan and Model of the second and that the pleasures of the second cannot be real if tâ—â— pleasure of the first is not so In fine I add that nothing is 〈◊〉 wholsome than this union Marriage is of it self the undoubted way to Paradise If an infinite number of persons go astray and make it the way of Hell it is because they practise not its pure maxims and remove themselves from the ends which it proposes God has instituted it to be an excellent remedy for Man against incontinence and by consequence to contribute wonderfully to his Salvation by carrying him to Wisdom and Sanctity He likewise design'd it for him to be a perpetual means of increasing his vertues One has a Wife One has a Husband They must be loved They must be supported And in spite of their proper infirmities they must make it a continual joy to possess one another by a love of complaisance which appears in no other Society One has Children they must be instructed One must labour to make them good in their kinds They must have examples of goodness One must instill into their minds whâ—◠〈◊〉 principles In a word one 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—eavour to save them Can one afford them for their Salvation the cares which Nature and Grace require without taking some for ones own One has troubles One has displeasures One has tribulations Alas who has not O quam dura premit miseros conditio vitae Cornel. Gall. ileg. 2. O! how hard a state of life oppresses the miserable One must digest them in patience One must receive them with humility from the hand which dispences them One must recollect all the motions of real faith and hope to avoid being overwhelmd with their weight and to discern through all these miseries that hand of God who delivers when it is time and who by an adorable dispensation oftentimes makes of them in a Christian Marriage a source of Benediction and Grace as they are one of Salvation and Sanctification It is Sir with the virtue 〈◊〉 a Batchelour and that of a 〈◊〉 Man as with avarice and liberanâ—â—y This requires nothing but communication That has nothing for its aim but restriction One has the hand always open because it loves to diffuse it self and the other has it always shut because it has no pleasure in gifts The vertue of Celibacy with the men of this world is a dead virtue that is of no use nor profits any body Which made Tertullian say very eloquently Malo nullum bonum quam vanum Tertull lib. 1. de pud Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest It is an idle barren particular virtue and which terminates in the sole subject to which it is fastned In a word it is a virtue of a carnal temparament or prudence which has nothing of nobleness in it self and which if one examines it near will appear to be founded upon the motives of a soft delicacy The virtue of Marriage on the otherside is a living and fructifying virtue It is a productive virtue which tends only to multiplication It is a publick virtue It is a virtue of examâ—â—â—â— Ommibus pateâ— It is a virtue or choice and election It is a virtue of force and victory and is only so upon the account of the great difficulties it has to engage with Virtus dum patitur vincit as a Poet says Virtue whilst it suffers conquers Certamen aufer ne quidem virtus erit Without opposition and engaging their would be no virtue In a word it is a virtue of usefulness and profitable to all the world There is none perhaps but this to which one may justly apply these two verses of Sententious Horace Aeque pauperibus prodest locupletibus aeque Hor. Ep. l. 1. Ep 1. Aeque neglectum pueris senibusque nocebit 'T is equally advantagious to the poor and rich And the neglect of it brings equal damage to Boys and Old Men. After having shewn you the excellency of Marriage with relation to the advantage of its union it is not unfit to make it appear to you with relation to the authority it confers By nature we love to rule and to be superior The design of making themselves equal to God is what destroy'd our first Parents One finds nothing so sweet as the power of commanding others and of being obey'd The Sacred Author lets us know that