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
sin What is more ordinary and of more general use more extensive and more constant than the sport of love Vitium commune omnium est Gerent in Adelph 'T is the common vice of all Men. Certainly say they this cannot past for a sin and if it be one it is at most but a venial sin which of its nature is not damnable In a word they are so desperate to say that the worst which can happen to them is that if they are damned it is with company O madness worthy of Hell Is it not very amazing that persons of this opinion should dare to call themselves Christians and that they should be impudent enough to dishonour every day by their presence the Sanctuaries and Alters of the God of Holiness Methinks there needs but a little good sence if they had no other helps to convince these detestable incontinents of the most prodigious blindness that ever was Shall custom be able to change the nature of things and to make that become a good which is of it self an evil If we were in the Persian Climate should we be under an obligation to adore the Sun under pretence that it is the mode and Religion of the Country Must we of necessity ruine our selves because others do the same we may 't is true be sometimes deceived in the Judgment we make of things we may take that for a virtue which is but a vice at bottom Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis umbra Vice deceives with the borrowed shape of virtue Juv. Sat. 14. But when we are once persuaded that what we do is a sin and we don't cease to commit it under pretence that it is publick and of common use nothing can ever excuse us We are worthy of the utmost punishments What shall we say then of those wretches who upon this foundation abandon themselves to the dissolution of Lust That is to say to what Cicero himself as much Pagan as he was looks upon as the greatest of all evils Nihil est malum nisi quod turpe aut vitiosum est There is nothing ill but what is base and vicious Cicer. Tuscul We shall observe in the sequel a little more particularly the vanity of all these illusions and the enormity of the crime of all these kinds of Libertines But before we leave them be pleased to remark Sir that this filthy debauchery which is the subject thereof is a many-headed Monster and a spring which divides it self into several rivolets To speak properly the men of the world acknowledge no other incontinence than that of the Body which is accomplished by the union of Sexes But the Gospel whose morality is infinitely more holy than that of men establishes four others besides that which it likewise affirms to be very criminal to wit that of the heart that of the eyes that of the mouth and that of the hand The incontinence of the heart is nothing else but the Concupisence of Women and a violent desire of being joyned with them through the sole principle of a sensual pleasure Naturally we find a satisfaction in the thoughts of a handsome Woman and we revolve agreeably in our minds the remembrance of what we have seen aimable in them When that blind Boy whom Paganism yet more blind has made a God has once pierâ—â—d the heart with one of his invenomâ—d Arrows he produces there immediately all the motions of his immodest mother Then it is Man becomes Frantick and void of sense All his conduct is but a pure extravagance He is no more himself but the object 's that inflames him It is a shadow that pursues him every where His continual thought day and night His watchings and his dreams are full of it his imagination represents to him continually the Image of her whom he adores Her idea is always present with him and he imbraces it with the same pleasure as if he held her effectually in his Arms. Hanc specto teneoque sinu pro conjuge vera Ovid in Leodamia Her I behold and as my real Wife embrace This infemous love so captivates all the sences and all the faculties that the principal end the Soul proposes to it self is to satisfie the passion Need one be amazed after this that Actantius assures us with St. Paul that nothing is so disagreeable to God as an impure mind and a lustful Soul Nihil est tam invisum Deo quam mens incesta animus impurus There is nothing so hateful to God as an incestuous and impure mind You will admire perhaps that I give to the eyes a particular fornication But Sir without doubt you have not forgot what Jesus Christ says That a Man who looks upon a Woman with an eye of Concupisence has committed adultery with her in his heart Mat. 5. You know likewise that St John speaks of the lust of the eyes And you are not ignorant that nothing is more common in the world than this sort of wantonness I dare even affirm that the eyes corrupt the heart and the one would be innocent if the others were not faulty In effect the eyes are the Gates or Windows of the Soul It is by them that objects enter into it and these objects exite therein the motions of Concupisence from whence comes this common Axiom Objecta movent sensum 'T is for this Quintilian regards the eyes as the path which leads Vice into the Soul Vitijs nostris in animo per oculos via est Quintil. Declan 1. That St. Austin says a lascivious eye is the messenger of an immodest heart Impudicus oculus impudici cordis est nuncius and that the Athenian Oraters would have us judge of the manners of men by their eyes Oculi morum indices The eyes are the interpreters of the inclinations and manners One cannot sufficiently aggravate the disorders of the sight By that was sin admitted into the world and by sin death and by death the end of all men The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was fair to see says the Scripture Eve beheld it She desir'd it She eat of it She sinn'd One may say that a fine Woman is this prohibited fruit But where is he that is not pleas'd to look upon it The best of men cannot refrain They do it oftentimes without any design to offend God They propose nothing to themselves if you will but to admire the excellency of the Workman in considering so curious a work But the Devil more ingenious than they makes use of this sight to kindle in their hearts the fire of concupisence Si nescis oculi sunt in amore duces Propert. L. 2. El. 12. If you know it not the eyes are the first guides to love They come at last to desire this fruit Their flesh is tickled with hopes of possession They unhappily destroy themselves by this means Vt vidi Virg. Eclocg 8. ut perii ut me malus abstulit error Alas
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