necessary to the nurture of the offspring: but in marriage the divine wisdom has provided a consolation as constant as the trials of humanity, ordained it the duty of filial piety to requite the cares of parental affection, and made children for the support of old age.

The authority of a divine institution affords an effectual antidote to the ignorant insinuations against marriage and against women, which originated in the licentiousness of the Epicurean philosophy; were renewed in the heresies of the primitive Church, were enforced by the papists, and have not wanted advocates in the pride of modern infidelity, and the humours of its twin-sister, modern fanaticism. These unmanly sentiments will make no impression, they will not fail of immediate refutation, in minds persuaded that marriage proceeded not from the weakness of man, but from the wise and merciful providence of God, ever consulting the benefit of mankind. It will also inspire the heart with new gratitude, to contemplate the divine goodness in constituting the happiness of wedded life, and making the best provision for the religious education of children, and the care of his providence in preserving the purity

a

Ingoßorxous. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. ii. s. 23.

The sentiments of the Philosophers, Heretics, and Romanists, are collected by Gerhard, s. 51, 52. The nineteenth century has produced the assertion, that "chastity is a monkish and evangelical superstition, a greater foe to natural temperance even than unintellectual sensuality: it strikes at the root of all domestic happiness, and consigns more than half of the human race to misery, that some few may monopolize according to law. A system could not well have been devised more studiously hostile to human happiness than marriage."

of his institution from the fraud and frailty of men, and blessing it in so many instances into the most perfect friendship and unity which man can enjoy upon the earth. It will call forth the spirit of prayer and supplication, that the continual dew of his blessing may be poured upon the state and upon all who enter it, that, as they enter it in the faith of its divine institution, they may discharge its duties in conformity with his will, and in humble hope of the benefits which it was designed to produce, seeing their children christianly and virtuously brought up, and continuing in holy love unto their lives' end. Even in the unhappy cases in which the marriage has been contracted without thought, in which the duties of the married state have been neglected, and its appropriate happiness has failed, even here, the necessary permanence of the union, which rests on the sole authority of the divine institution, will contribute to reconcile interests which cannot be separated, and mitigate evils which cannot be avoided; and men who are not entirely destitute of religious principle will fulfil, in compliance with the ordinance of God, what they would not attempt in conformity with the law of man".

The authority of reason and religion in sustaining the doctrine of the divine institution of marriage, and the beneficial influence of that doctrine, considered in itself, and in comparison with the unauthenticated position that marriage is a civil contract and nothing more, and the pernicious consequences which are inseparable from that position, may be

briefly recapitulated in the quaint but eloquent language of Bishop Jewel, in his treatise of the sacraments, in which he will not be suspected of maintaining the sacramental nature of marriage, while he affirms its divine institution and dignity.

"Of mariage I shall neede say the lesse, the matter is so known and common. This fellowship was first ordained by God himselfe in paradise. God himselfe said, It is not good that man should be himselfe alone: I will make him an helper meet for him. God, which fashioned man, and breathed in him the breath of life, and knoweth his very heart and raines, said, It is not good, it is not fit, that man should be himselfe alone. Although man were in paradise, although he were in the perfection of virtue, yet, saith God, he had need of a helper. Christ disdained not to be at a mariage; he honored it both by his presence and the working of a miracle. Saint Paul saith, Mariage is honourable in all men, and the bed undefiled. In all men, saith he, in the patriarchs, in the prophets, in the apostles, in martyrs, in bishops.

"If you marke these fewe words which I delivered, it will easily appeare, how reverend an accompt is to be made of that state of life. For if you regard the necessity thereof, God found it good to give man a wife; if the antiquity, it was ordained in the beginning of the world; if the place, in paradise; if the time, in the innocency of man. If you regard any thing the rather because of him that ordained it, God was the author of mariage, even God which made heaven and earth, and which is the

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you seek the allowance, Christ approved it by his birth in mariage and by his presence at mariage; if the dignity, it is honourable; if among whom, in all men, of all estates, of all callings; in prince, in subject, in minister, in people. It is honourable in prophets, honourable in apostles, in martyrs, in bishopsd."

d A Treatise of the Sacraments, gathered out of certaine Sermons which the Reverend Father in God, Bishop Jewel, preached at Salisbury: published in (the third part of) his Works, 1609, p. 283, 284.

CHAPTER II. ·

THE RELIGIOUS RATIFICATION OF MARRIAGE.

SECTION I.

Expedience and Antiquity of the Religious Ratification. THE establishment of the divine institution of marriage, and of the divine authority of the primary law of marriage, affords a safe and solid ground for the investigation of the nature and circumstances of marriage. It is prescribed in the divine law: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh". The terms of this law are plainly reciprocal: a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife or woman; and a woman shall leave her father and mother, and cleave unto her husband or man: and thus, leaving the nearest and dearest of their natural connexions, and cleaving unto each other in the new relation of husband and wife, they shall be indissolubly united in that union which is represented as the unity of one flesh. The nature of marriage, thus exhibited in the divine law, is the permanent union of one man with one woman; and this nature of marriage is distinctly recognized in the formularies of the national Church, in which the parties engage severally, that they will live together after God's ordinance, in the holy estate of matri

a Gen. ii. 24.