she esteems nothing more worthy of her tears than to have been unmarried and incapable of marrying I am perswaded that the Batchelors had the same desire for Marriage as the Maidens had and that both Sexes were under an equal passion for this condition of life We may infeâ— it from the prodigious multiplication oâ— the family of Jacob in Egypt When iâ— went down there it was composed but of seventy persons in all and when they departed from thence four hundred and thirty years after they were six hundred thousand Men without computing Women and Children Exod. 12.37 who in all appearance amounted to twice or thrice the number as it is easy to imagine Prodigious and scarce to be believed but in supposing what is true and that no People ever so much loved or practised Marriage as this ancient People and that they confin'd themselves under it's pleasing chains almost as soon as they distinguish'd reason This People Sir was the People of God whom he tenderly loved a People whom he lookt upon as his most valuable Treasure A People for whom he multiplied every day the wonders of his Providence and Wisdom In a word a People who ought by consequence to serve for an Example to all other People upon the Subject of Marriage which was in the midst of them and so much recommended and blest of God What do you suppose David calls the greatest of the blessings of God upon earth It is neither Riches nor Honours nor even a Crown He passes beyond all this without haesitation The happiness which he engages to him that fears God is to have a fruitful Bed and a numerous Posterity Would you know Sir those two men of all those whom the Scripture speaks of that I esteem to have been the most happy of the world Do not imagine that it is either a David or a Solomon or an Hezekiah They are Ibzan and Abdon If you ask me the reason Judges 12.9.14 you may read it in the Book of the Judges of Israel in whose number are they There you will find concerning the first that he had thirty Sons and thirty Daughters And of the second that he had forty Sons and thirty Grand-Children whom he saw all together on horse-back What can be a greater happiness to a Father What can be more observable in the life of a man It is likewise true that the sacred Author in speaking to us of those two famous Captains contents himself to report this single circumstance of them which in my opinion goes beyond all the great deeds of Caesar and Alexander You may apprehend it as you please but to me it seems that such a geniture contains somewhat very noble in it and that one cannot be observed in the History of Men through a siner place It must be granted that these Men well understood the Art of immortalizing their Families What Sir will not so great an Example encourage you to look after the Subsistence of yours would you suffer it to perish with your Name for want of marrying will you always entertain a repugnance for Marriage will you never divest your self of those false Ideas you have conceiv'd thereof will you always be ingenious to frame to your self in order to remove your self from it such punishments as do not exist which I shall make appear in the sequel and will you never be convinced of those real delights which I have shewn to be in that state and which ought to attract the whole world It is the only advantage that is wanting to your happiness But assure your self that without this all the rest is of no value As well provided as you are with the goods of Fortune and Morals can you fail to please your self in Hymen and to partake of pleasures a thousand times more affecting than those which can be found in the happiest Celibacy How much satisfaction shall you give to those illustrious persons to whom you owe all things with your being what glory shall you not obtain by adding to their comfort what they desire with the utmost zeal can you decently refuse them this mark of your acknowledgment must they go down to the grave without seeing a young Sprig shoot forth from you that may assure them their Name and Blood will not perish with you will you give them cause to make this sad complaint of you Tecum una tota est nostra Sepulta domus Catull. ad Mal. 69. Grisly Grave is buried our whole house Spare them this heaviness and your self this confusion Do not render your self guilty of your own annihilation Become jealous of your glory Determine your self at last to this generous action whereof one might truly say with reâ—ard to your family â—ota domus laeta est paterque materque The whole family rejoyces Hearken to the Precept of a wise man Ne maneas sine nuptiis ne sine nomine pereas Phociâ— Live not unmarry'd lest you dy without a name An ancient Author of Paganism it is Musonius examining the Motives of Marriage finds none more pressing than those I have offered After having much enlarged upon this matter and in a wise and eloquent way he at length concludes his discourse with these words Quisquis igitur homines nuptiis privat is abolet familiam Muson apud Stobaeum Serm. 186. civitatem totum genus humanam quod absque generatione non potest permanere ut neque justa legitima generatio sine nuptijs Since then without a continual Series of Generations Families Common-wealths and all humane Kind would be absolutely annihilated and that Marriage is the sole lawful cause of these Generations according to the remark of this learned man judge of the obligation you are under to marry The heavenly voice seems to call you to it Resist no longer its Vocation But to the end that you may know all the Engagements you are under to pay obedience to it make some reflections if you please upon the quality of the faithful which you have taken into the bosom of the Church This Sir is the greatest motive which ought to determine you for Marriage It even recollects in it self all the rest What do you take the Church to be It is according to St. Paul the City of the living God Jerusalem from on high Heb. 12.22.23 the Mother of us all The Assembly of the first-born whose names are written in the Heavens 1 Tim. 5. â—5 The Pillar and Support of Truth The house of God The Common-wealth of Israel according to the Spirit The divine Family whereof God is the Father Jesus Christ the eldest Son and the Elect the younger ones if one may be allowed to speak so Tell me I beseech you if in all these regards there is any thing more precious in the world than the Church Tell me likewise if there is any thing to whose Subsistence men are more obliged to contribute What are all our Interests in comparison of that If
Vlyssis did his Penelope â—nd if Wives were as faithful to their Husbands as Penelope was to her Vlissis t is certain that we shoâ—ld not see a hundreth part of those disgraces that we do They are owing to the want of this common wisdom of Men and Women at least generally speaking From this principle arise those evil humours and cruel jealousies which cause to them both such smart vexations But it is not only in this that Incontinence is fatal to the World It is likewise in this respect viz. That it aims at nothing but its ruine in averting Men from Marriage which is the true principle of its preservation Would you know the difference between Marriage and Fornication Marriage proposes nothing to itself but the propagation of Mankind whereas the other aims at its destruction Adulter non prolem sed voluptatem quaerit Marriage glories in the production of Children Fornication is ashamed of it and tends only to obstruct their generation What horrors what infamies are practis'd for that end 'T is easie to conceive them But it would be indecent to express them So that the world receives from this vice a prejudice proportioned to all those great advantages which it draws from Marriage whereof I have discoursed in my first Part. Will you not confess after all â—his that it is the greatest of all crimes and that Cicero could not have â—it better when he said that all evils â—ut together were not equal to this Si unum in locum collata sint omnia mala â—um turpitudinis malo non erunt comparanda As to what remains I distinguish not between Fornication Adultery â—nd keeping of Concubines Yet I know one might observe difference for all Concubine keeping is a Fornication â—ut all Fornication and Adultery is not keeping of Concubines Howâ—ver all this is but one and the same â—pecies of Sin It is one in it self and â—s only diversifived by the State of â—hose who commit it But why do you so severely prohibit â—ou'll say perhaps a thing that Moâ—es himself permitted to the Jews and â—hich was practised by the Patriarchs â—nd the ancient Kings of Israel Abraham and Jacob had many Wives and â—arious Concubines Solomon had even â—o the number of a thousand and Polygamy keeping of Concubines and Letters ef Divorce have been of use and are at this time amongst divers People of the earth This objection is natural to the matter I treat of and it immediately seems so favourable to the inclinations of the flesh that it is no wonder it falls into the minds of all men and that Fornicators make use of it to flatter themselves in their irregularity It is long since that these sort of Persons and several ancient Heriticks have prevailed thereby to authorise their evil conduct and pernicious sentiments upon the subject of intemperance To which I answer first that God from the beginning of the World established Marriage between two Persons only Man says he shall leave his Father and Mother and joyn himself Gen. 2.24 not to several Wives but to one Wife Not to Harlots and Concubines but to his wife not to the wife of his Neighbour but to his own they shall be adds the Creator not three four five and six but they shall be two in one flesh Could he Condemn more expressly Fornication and Adultery Polygamy and keeping of Concubines Secondly The example of the Patriarchs and Kings of Israel makes no consequence against a Law so express as that is because according to several Fathers of the Church if they did not confine themselves to it it was through a very particular and mysterious permission of God Not to say that as good Men as they were they were still men capable of sinning like the rest David himself assures us that there is not one just person and Solomon says that the most perfect falls seven times a day Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit No Man is wise at all times It must be confessed that herein they were seduced by their temper and that the force of custom and example of Idolatrous Nations in the midst of which they lived contributed much thereto But at the same time we ought to be persuaded that God bestowed on them the Grace of Repentance and to admire the ways of his eternal Wisdâ—m which has often times made use of the proper sins of its oâ—n Ser ants to make us apprehend exceeding miseries Which made St. Ambross say that the very faults of the Patriarchs were advantagious to us Instruunt Patriarchae non solum docentes sed etiam errantes In effect St. Paul discovers to the Gallatians a great mystery in the Concubinary Union of Abraham and Hagar and in the birth of Ismael his Son Are not we acquainted likewise that the very incestious Fornication of Judah with Thamer his Daughter in Law has served Providence to make thereof one of the Characters of the humiliation of â—esus Christ who according to the flesh was derived from Phaâ—iz one of those Children that sprung from this unlawful copulation And it is in this consideration that a holy Man has ventured to call even the Sin of Adam happy because without it we had been deprived of this Great Redeemer who makes all the glory of our Nature and all the comfort of our Souls O! felix culpa Greg. quae talâ—m meruisti habere Redemptorâ—m Moreover the faults of the ancient Patriarchs ought to advantage us by way of precaution Besides we live under a dispensation infinitely more than that of the Patriarchs and Jews Moses for the hardness of their hearts allowed them divers things that Jesus Christ has prohibited us But do not we know that the Church was in its Infancy under the Law and that it is in its Manhood under the Gospel It would be shameful for us to be no wiser than they and to practice in this perfect age of grace where we are arrived the same actions they practised under the imperfect age of the Law If your Justice doth not exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 5. ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven said the Master to his Disciples That which is in some sort supportable by the Law of the Jews and also by the Law of the Mahometans can never be so by the Law of Christians They have engagements to a purity of manners which other men have not Ter. in Heaut Aliis silicet tibi non licet The blindness of Pagans and Infidels excuses a part of their crime They may say with one of their Poets Sed partem nostri criminis error habet Ovid. Trist L. 3. El. 5. Part of my crime was caused by mistake But nothing can excuse us Christians and we should be so much the more faulty to live with the same remission as we have a perfect knowledge of the will of God of vertues and vices of what is necessary to be done and what to be avoided
you ask me the true reason that ought to make us desire the propagation of Mankind the duration of States and the Conservation of Families It is nothing 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 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 1 Pet. 1 2.16 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 whfch 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 Scriptute 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 Spouse 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 solly 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 Catul. Privil Ven. Cras amet 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 seriùs Ep. 4. Would you Sir deferr your Marriage 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 solly '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 Lucret. L.
the nature of Man and conformable to all sort of right and equity If a man may promise to himself the protection of Heaven in any attempt surely he may in this To reply in order to those objections which are made against those propositions I have establish'd one must immediately distinguish them into these three heads to which in my esteem they easily be reduced First they object against the Conduct and ill Temper of Wives whereof they make a most severe censure Secondly they say of Marriage that it is of it self unworthy of Man and that nothing less agrees with the perfection of his Being And in the third place they speak of its Consequences and Obligations as of an insupportable burden I hope to make appear that in all these respects the cause of my Adversaries is most deplorable and that there is not only injustice but even madness in the desence of it It is then by the consideration of Women that men begin to be disgusted at Marriage What disobliging things do they not assert of them with what Calumnies and Aspersions do they tear their reputation and their vertue If one should believe them there would not be a Vice in Morality but ought to be imputed to them Nor a Misfortune in the world whereof they are not the occasion Inconstancy say they is one of the principal characters of a woman Virg. Aeneid 4. Varium et mutabile semper Foemina Nothing is more volatile She never stays long in the same Scituation It very often happens that what she loved yesterday she hates to day The least thing which intervenes in her mind makes â—er forget her promise and violate her Faith When you think your self to be â—ost in her favour you are most in disâ—race Afrer having sigh'd many years â—or the conquest of her heart one single â—oment apprehends its loss How maâ—y sad examples have we seen of this â—costant humour of the Sex How can â—ne confide in them after all this Seâ—eca asks wherein wisdom consists Quid â—st sapientia He answers Semâ—er idem velle Ep. 20. atque idem nolâ— It is says he to continue â—rm in his resolutions Are women of â—is constitution Our Slanderers add that the woman is â—orn with a spirit of Contradiction â—hey make a cruel Commentary upon â—is text of a Poet. â—olunt ubi velis ubi nolis cupiunt ultró Terent. When you are willing they are â—y when you fall off then they pursue 〈◊〉 with strong desire The wife say they is only fit to make the husband miserable She is eternally repugnant to his opinions If a man proposes Peace it must be under the condition of surrendring his arms She always insists upon her own terms Which made an Authour say that of all things uneasy to subdue Woman is the chief Inter omnes alias res maxime inexpugnabilis est mulier Euripid ap Stob. And altho' she is not born to rule Mulieri non imperare concediâ— Natura Pub. Max. yet man must submit to her He must dispossess himself of his Authority or else there iâ— no repose no Union no Concord buâ— a perpetual trouble and an immortaâ— war What more miserable Fate can 〈◊〉 man have than to pass his life in so severe a Slavery These morose and whimsical men who can say nothing of women but what 's injurious still place iâ— the rank of their evil Qualities Malice Dissimulation a desire of Revenge and a difficulty of restraining their Tongues which makes them often tell what theâ— know and what they know not In a word say they there are no sorts of miseries and vexations but woman is capable of occasioning to man as likewise there are no crimes but she is able to commit Dux malorum foemina scelarum artifex Woman the Leader of Evils and the Inventor of wickedness Judge after all this if the wise man had not reason to prefer the Society of Lions and Dragons to that of an evil woman and if there is any thing more judicious than those words of Terence Verbum unum cave de nuptijs In Andr. But one word with you have a care of a conjugal Noose I ask pardon of the Ladies for having heap'd together so many outrages against them and all those invectives wherewith they are defamed It was not without extream violence to my self As much as I love to speak well of them so much pain is it to me to suffer them to be calumniated but let them not be concerned at my Liberty I hope iâ— will be advantagious to them The design I have to protect their persecuted innocence engaged me to it in an indispensable manner 'T was necessary to know whereof they were accused in order to justify them Behold then the principal heads of this great process which the disaffected of all Ages have entred against them Let us see whether they are well grounded therein or rather let us observe for who sees it not that they maintain therein the worst cause in the world and that there is not a single person of them but in the tribunal of an impartial justice ought to be condemn'd to make reparation of honour to a Sex whose vertue every one ought to venerate and not to assault its reputation A man may immediately justify the Women by way of recrimination If they deserve to have defects imputed to them are the Men exempt from them if they have evil Qualities are the men possessed of none but good ones it will but ill become me 't is true to abandon the party of my own Sex I know that in the order of nature it has considerable prerogatives over the other and that it is of a much more excellent kind Masculinum neutraliter dignius est foemiâ—ino says the Father of Philosophy But if a man is never so little just he must grant that all these priviledges singly refer themselves to the intellect and knowledge of the mind The Siences 't is true are above their reach They admit themselves in this respect be much inferiour to men And confess that they are born for other things Not but that this rare Genius who deserved to be called by a famous Author the Tenth Muse Opusc Annae Mariae Schurman P. 26. and who in our age has proved the glory of her sex has justified in a very convincing manner by a discourse expresly made that Fathers and Mothers are guilty of an extream injustice for allotting them the Spindle and the Needle when they are by nature as well fitted for Arts and Disciplines as Men if they were push'd on Be it as it will the essential perfection of a reasonable creature doth nor consist in humane Sciences Oftentimes they are more injurious than profitable Inflat Scientia says St. Paul Scientia mundi docet vanitatem Bern Cant. Sciantia carnis voluptatem says St. Bernard And it is perhaps for this reason that Tertullian alledges by way of Paradox Scire